Katie Salidas One Day Book Blitz Tour

In honor of the release of Pandora’s Box, I’m letting Katie Salidas take over my blog for her One Day Book Blitz Tour…

When asked to write about a “day” in the life of a writer, I was stumped. I sat staring at the computer screen, watching the little cursor blink, mocking me as I wracked my brain, trying to recall what my “typical” day is like.

While writing is something I take very seriously and look at as my job, it almost never happens during the “day.” I can often be found bleary-eyed, late at night, clicking away at the keys of my laptop. Even us “Housewives” have day jobs. I’m a write-at-home-mom! The house doesn’t clean itself (oh God how I wish it did though), the laundry won’t fold itself … okay, you know where I’m going with this. Seriously though, daytime is when I work on the household stuff, do my critiquing group critiques and posts, and take care of business related things for Rising Sign Books.

As it is, the everyday minutia tends to take up the bulk of the daylight hours, leaving only the calm of the evening for me to “get a few words in.” Once my daughter is nestled all snug in her bed, that’s when the words spring out from my head.

So let’s start with that. I work nights. My shift starts promptly at 8pm. Until recently (we just found out we are expecting baby #2) I would crack open a can of redbull (the 12 oz one), open up my current manuscript, and get started. Now that baby #2 is on the way, that can of redbull has been exchanged for a more pregnancy-friendly beverage, water. And let me tell you, my writing production had gone way down since caffeine was removed from my diet. But, alas, we must soldier on!

8:30PM – While writing the start of a lusty scene between my two main characters, my email chimes. I’m a little OCD so I have to know what it is. (I know I should just leave my email closed… *sigh* I’ll never learn.) “Oooh Book Marketing tips. I need to know this!”

9:15PM – Email led to a quick pop over to facebook which led to a round of “poke wars” and three hundred updates. Whoops! I finally close both Thunderbird (email) and Firefox (internet) and realized I have only written one decent paragraph. Time to get back to work.

10:45PM – I need a synonym for ‘ethereal’ and a another bottle of water. After a quick stretch and run to the kitchen, I silently swear as I click open firefox. “only Thesaurus.com… no Facebook. No Twitter. No LinkedIn. No Myspace. No blogger…”

11:15PM - airy, celestial, spiritual, sublime, supernal, tenuous, unearthly, unworldly… See, I’m working. I wasn’t surfing the web. Promise.

11:30PM – Kiss Hubby goodnight. He reminds me to come to bed instead of falling asleep on the couch, no matter how late I finish work. (It’s a bit of a regular occurrence in our house) I swear I won’t fall asleep on the couch. “Scouts honor.”

12:00AM – Email chimes just as I finish up a rough draft on the lusty scene I’ve been working on. Perfect timing, an email from my critting buddy (many of them are up as late as me on a regular basis too). I’ll shoot over the pages I just wrote and see what they think.

12:30AM – Delete Delete Delete… Okay, bad Idea to send off something that rough. That scene was crap, but at least I heard it from a friend, right? Time to rewrite it and grab Redbull #2

12:35AM – Stare blankly at the ceiling, wondering if inspiration will strike. Oooh, was that my email again? Yay Facebook Updates! Oooh new Twitter followers. Awww, some poor man in Nigeria needs me to help him get his inheritance.

1:00AM –Maybe a change of location will help. It’s too late for a coffee shop but I’ve got a laptop I can at least get away from the desk. I hop over to the loveseat.

1:30AM – Back on track!! Words are flying from my fingers to the screen. Characters are falling madly in love. It’s getting hot and heavy in their bedroom… Boy, I use the word embrace a lot. I need a new word. Ut-oh… I silently swear as I click open Firefox. “only Thesaurus.com… no Facebook. No Twitter. No LinkedIn. No Myspace. No blogger…” I can be strong this time. I just know it.

2:30AM – How many versions of that farmer game are on Facebook now? Not that I was on Facebook… for that long. I mean, does the word snuggle sound too cute? What about nuzzle? Do vampires nuzzle? Hmmmm.

3:30AM – Things are really moving along. I’ve gotten 1k words into the rewrite on my love scene. Getting a little sleepy but I think I can hang until I get it finished.

7:00AM – Hubby wakes me up, looking very disappointed. I fell asleep on the couch again. Time to start another day. I promise I’ll sleep in my bed next time.

So there you have it, a typical day…er night… in my writing life. Thanks for reading, and if you want to check out my work, you can find me at http://www.katiesalidas.com/


Immortalis Carpe Noctem (Book 1)

Becoming a vampire is easy. Living with the condition... that's the hard part.

Bleeding to death after brutal mugging, twenty-five year old Alyssa is rescued by the most unlikely hero: the handsome and aloof vampire, Lysander.

His gift of immortal blood initiates Alyssa into a frightening, eternally dark world filled with: bloodlust, religious fanaticism, and thousand-year old vendettas.

With Lysander as her guide, Alyssa will have to learn what it takes to survive in the immortal world. She'll have to find the strength to accept her new reality and carpe noctem; or give in, and submit to final death.


Hunters & Prey (Book 2)

Becoming a vampire saved Alyssa from death, but the price was high: the loss of everything and everyone attached to her mortal life. She’s still learning to cope when a surprise confrontation with Santino Vitale, the Acta Sanctorum’s most fearsome hunter, sends her fleeing back to the world she once knew, and Fallon, the friend she’s missed more than anything.

Alyssa breaks vampire law by revealing her new, true self to her old friend, a fact which causes strong division in the group that should support her most: her clan.


Pandora’s Box (Book 3)

After a few months as a vampire, Alyssa thought she’d learned all she needed to know about the supernatural world. But her confidence is shattered by the delivery of a mysterious package – a Pandora’s Box.

Seemingly innocuous, the box is in reality an ancient prison, generated by a magic more powerful than anyone in her clan has ever known. But what manner of evil could need such force to contain it?

When the box is opened, the sinister creature within is released, and only supernatural blood will satiate its thirst. The clan soon learns how it feels when the hunter becomes the hunted.

Powerless against the ancient evil, the clan flees Las Vegas for Boston, with only a slim hope for salvation. Could Lysander’s old journals hold the key? And what if they don’t?

And how welcome will they be in a city run by a whole different kind of supernatural being?

Werewolves…

To purchase the Immortalis books (In print and ebook):

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

Amazon DE (Germany)

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords