First, a BIG thank you to everyone who’s bought Bared to You. It hit the Top 100 list on Amazon.com Sunday morning, which thrilled me! I’m grateful and I’ll be writing readers’ choice of a scene in Gideon’s POV as I promised. :)

In the last two weeks since I blogged here at MSW, I attended the RT Convention, did a radio interview, talked about erotic fiction on the news, and got excited about Bared to You. It’s been a wild ride.

But now it’s time to curl up in the cave again and wrap up a book. It’s not an easy thing for me to switch my brain into writing mode and once I achieve that switch, I have to be very careful not to shut it off by accident.

It’s a special place to me, that “zone.” Really, it’s like crack. There’s a unique high that comes from being totally immersed in a story. For me, there’s nothing like it. It ensures that I will always write, regardless of external circumstances. When I’m in that headspace, I don’t want to leave it. I forget what time it is. I forget to eat. Nothing else holds my interest. I’m impatient to get back to work. I can’t type fast enough.

I lost that transcendent feeling for a couple years. Writing became a chore. I wrote books because I had to, not because I wanted to. I was severely over-contracted and while I know there will be someone out there who thinks, “Wish I had that problem,” let me tell you–you can have it. I’m still writing books that were contracted five years ago.

I’ve come to put the utmost importance on writing books that I connect with. I’ll move deadlines and release dates, throw out tens of thousands of words (or the whole damned manuscript!), and otherwise force life and circumstances to accommodate my creative process. There are many external factors that contributed to Bared to You finding an audience that loves it enough to share it with everyone they know, but I put my emotional connection to the story at the top of the list. I poured everything I had into Gideon and Eva’s story, and I think readers can sense that depth of feeling.

So today I’ll drop my kids off at school, grab something nutritious to eat, and cut out all distractions. If I don’t find the “zone” quickly enough, I’ll download a novella from a favorite author to my Kindle and switch into reader-mode. It’s much easier for me to connect to writer-mode from reader-mode than it is from mommy-mode or promo-mode. Hopefully by noon, I’ll be plugged back into the story and loathe to leave it. Wish me luck!

The winners of the dysfunctional family/character contest I ran on my last blog was chosen by random.org are Silver James, Jenn. G., and Anne. And today is the last day to enter to win an ARC of A Hunger So Wild and a copy of Bared to You.

What are your plans for the week? And what are you reading now? Happy Monday!