Hey y’all. Busy weekend here getting ready for Christmas. Thought you’d like to see the Kindles I’ve promised, though:

I’ve taken the picture with a selection of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS goodies that I plan to include and the hats with the current entries. Remember, if you want to register for Kindle #1, leave a comment on this blog or email me at michellegflye@gmail.com. If you’d like to register for Kindle #2 (on the right), you have to blog or post about my giveaway on your Facebook page, then email me and let me know what you did. Chances are much better for Kindle #2 right now!

(Side note: Have you seen the new Nooks? Check it out here: Barnes & Noble Nook. I’m considering a Nook giveaway when my new book WINTER SOLSTICE is published by Lyrical Press, Inc. in 2011!)

Also, don’t forget I’m donating all royalties from December sales of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS to the National Wildlife Federation. If you’ve been considering buying my book, you can help me give a Christmas gift to the animals by purchasing SECRETS OF THE LOTUS from your favorite ebook retailer, including:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

A final request to the good people who have already read my book. Please consider reviewing it on one or more of the sites listed above. You never know who might decide to read it if you do!

Hope you’re all having a great holiday season and taking lots of breathing moments to appreciate your family, friends and loved ones.

As most of you know, I made a commitment to donate my November and December royalties to the National Wildlife Federation. I got my royalty statement today and am happy to say I saw a bit of a spike in my sales during November. However, it doesn’t take much to put a spike in my sales, so I actually only ended up with royalties of a little over $7 (I sold seven copies). I’m going to round this up to the nearest $25, so I’ll be donating $25 to the National Wildlife Federation this month. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS. I truly hope you enjoy it.

That said, I’d like to remind you that I’m also donating my royalties from December to the NWF. All you have to do to help the animals is buy a copy of SECRETS, available from your favorite ebook retailer. Also, don’t forget to enter to win one of my Kindles! I’ll be giving them away on December 22. If you’d like to register for Kindle #1, leave me a comment here on my blog or email me at michellegflye@gmail.com. If you’d like to register for Kindle #2, you have to blog or post something on your Facebook page about my giveaway with a link back to my blog: michellegflye.wordpress.com. Once you do it, shoot me an email or leave me a comment letting me know you did it so I can enter your name into my hat.

And if you read SECRETS, drop me a line and let me know what you thought! I’d love to hear from you and I take compliments very well.

By the way, I finished the first round of edits on WINTER SOLSTICE, so I’m getting closer to another published book. Yay!

HAT 1

HAT 2

For full details on how to get your name into one or both hats, check out this post: Day 10. As you can probably tell, although I took these pics on my Blackberry and they’re not the clearest, your chances are much better if you get in Hat 2!

Hey guys. Just a quick update today because I don’t have much to say. November’s over and I should be able to tell you in a few days how much I’ll be donating to the National Wildlife Federation for last month. There’s still time to help me donate more for December, though. Just buy my ebook SECRETS OF THE LOTUS from your favorite ebook retailer (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Lyrical Press, etc.) and all my royalties from December will be donated to the National Wildlife Federation.

As for the Kindles, I’m getting lots of entries! Remember, to enter for the first Kindle, all you have to do is leave me a comment on my blog or email me at michellegflye@gmail.com. To enter for the second Kindle, post about my giveaway on your blog or Facebook page and let me know you did it. Please include a link to my blog so your friends can enter, too! I’ll announce the winners here on December 22!

Good luck everybody and don’t forget to breathe this holiday season!

It’s been so much fun talking to new and old friends on my blog, I’ve made a decision. I’m going to give away TWO Kindles. To qualify for the second Kindle, however, you have to do some work. I want this thing to go viral and I need your help. If you blog about my Kindle Giveaway or mention it on Facebook (with a link back to my blog) and tell me about it, I’ll enter you in a SECOND hat for a SECOND Kindle. Obviously, more people will be in the first hat than the second one, so your chances of winning the second Kindle will be much greater. Both Kindles will be given away on December 22 by a random drawing done by my three-year-old. Since many of my fans are family and friends, everyone is eligible to win but no one will be given preferential treatment. My three-year-old can’t read and the names in the hat are all written on the backs of my business cards (thus everybody’s name is on a card of the same size!). If you have already posted about my Kindle Giveaway somewhere, please let me know so I can enter you in my second hat.

Also, please let people know that all my royalties from November and December will be donated to the National Wildlife Federation. To purchase a copy of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS, you can go to any of these links, and I’m sure it’s listed with many other ebook retailers:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

Finally, to celebrate the last day of NaNoWriMo, I must post one more of my winning badges!

I’m working hard on getting my flabby writer’s muscles back in shape. It’s really easy when your entire focus is on one goal to forget about others. I realized that this month. I wrote almost every single day this past month, but I maybe exercised three times in a week. Not a good balance, really.

So now, while I work on getting WINTER SOLSTICE into shape for publication next summer (yay!), I’m also working on getting me into shape. I walked three miles yesterday and today in preparation for my January 1 5K. For those who don’t know, five kilometers is roughly 3.1 miles. I figure I’ll start out walking it and start running when the walking gets boring.

On the bright side, November paid off. Yes, I’m going to use another one of my NaNo Winner badges now:

Ah yes! That’s the stuff! Don’t forget to register to win my Kindle by leaving me a comment or emailing me at michellegflye@gmail.com. My hat is far from full, so throw your name in. Also, if you’re into romances, buy my book and I’ll donate all my royalties from November and December to The National Wildlife Federation.

Enough said. Have a great day!

Yep. Missed a day. Sorry about that. But have a look at this:

I finished the marathon! Yay!

Well, I feel like I finished a marathon, anyway. I wrote 50,000 words of a novel (notice I did NOT say I wrote a 50,000 word novel) in 27 days. DUCKS IN A ROW now has 50,000 words and an outline of the rest, and I’m tired of it, so I’m putting it on the backburner. Plus, I’m eager to get to work on the edits of WINTER SOLSTICE so I can get it back to my editor.

I’ve been wondering why I finished this year. The last time I finished NaNoWriMo was 2005. I’ve tried several times since then, and though I have completed novels, it’s never been during the month of November. I think I know why. My writing has a sort of rhythm to it when it’s going well. It’s truly something I feel, like if I stop for a minute and feel the beating of my heart, the air going in and out of my lungs. At the beginning of November, I was ready to write. I wanted to create.

Now I’m ready to perfect. This month I’ll work on editing and rewriting. When I’m done with WINTER SOLSTICE, I’ll get started on ALWAYS FAITHFUL. Oh, and I’m going to run a 5K on January 1st. This is a big deal to me since I haven’t run anywhere or anything since I was a teenager. So I go from a virtual marathon to a literal run.

And of course, December 22 is a big day for me! I’m giving away that Kindle. My friend Andrew sent me this picture in an attempt to tip the scales in his favor:

Just kidding, Andrew. I know you’re not trying to get an unfair advantage, plus it’s a great example of the enormity of print books in our lives. Remember, to enter my Kindle giveaway, you only have to leave a comment on my blog or email me at michellegflye@gmail.com. And I’ll go ahead and tell you guys, I’m very protective of my computer. Because I know Andrew, I had no qualms about opening an attachment from him, but if you send me an email with an attachment and I don’t know you very well, I may not open it and post it on my blog. Sorry about that, but it’s the kind of person I am.

And of course I can’t let the post end without reminding you of my plans to donate all royalties from the sale of my book SECRETS OF THE LOTUS during November and December to the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund. If you want to know a little more about my book before you buy it, you can find the publisher’s blurb on any of these links, plus, on my Home Page you’ll find blurbs from three positive reviewers and my good friend Ellen Meister, who was kind enough to read and offer her (also positive) opinion about the book. Check out SECRETS OF THE LOTUS:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

Okay, I don’t want you guys to forget that I’m giving away a Kindle. Just leave me a comment or send me an email at michellegflye@gmail.com. Everybody is eligible: friends, family, people I’ve never heard of, fellow writers, whatever. I’m just trying to spread the joy of the ebook this holiday season.

That said, I want to focus on my other giveaway. It’s something we can all work on together. I’d love to give a great deal of money to the National Wildlife Federation this holiday season. I’ll be getting my November royalty statement from Lyrical Press in early December. They’re very good about getting it to me quickly. As soon as I know how much it is, I’ll post on here to let you know how much we’re giving to the animals.

Did you know the Gulf Oil Disaster of 2010 is still a problem for wildlife? National Wildlife Federation volunteers continue to locate and rescue oil-damaged wildlife in the area. They’re also studying the long-term effects of the disaster. Just because it was (finally) capped and is no longer in the news doesn’t mean it’s gone.

So my plan is to donate November and December’s royalties to the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund. I feel deeply that this is an area of national concern, and I hope you’ll join me in supporting them. You can do this on your own, of course, by clicking on the link above. Or you can purchase my book for $5.50 or less at one of these retailers and know my portion of the sale is going to a good cause:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

NaNo update: Almost 46,000 words at last count. The marathon is almost over.

Hey y’all! Just a quick check in to say Happy Thanksgiving and I hope it’s a wonderful one for all of you. I’ve gotten more entries, but my hat isn’t full yet! And if it gets full, I’ll get a bigger one! Remember to enter all you have to do is leave me a comment here on my blog or drop me a line at michellegflye@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Also, don’t forget all my royalties from SECRETS OF THE LOTUS will be donated to The National Wildlife Federation. Get yours now from your favorite ebook retailer. Here’s a list of suggestions to get you started:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

NaNo update: I’m over 44,000 words now!

Hey y’all! Getting more and more names in that hat! Yay! I’m so happy to hear from new people. I know I still need to provide you with a picture, but right now they’re just in a baseball cap. I’m looking for the perfect hat to bring you guys luck.

A little reminder that you can purchase SECRETS OF THE LOTUS at any of the following fine retailers (and probably some that aren’t listed), and I’ll donate my royalties from November and December to The National Wildlife Federation:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books on Board
Mobipocket
Fictionwise

NaNo update: I’m at 41,000+ words and going strong. Got a second wind last night and wrote more than 2,000!

In the spirit of the season today, take a breathing moment before tomorrow’s feasting begins. Look around and find something you’re grateful for and focus for a moment. And breathe.