Xandra Gregory

The Passion of a Thousand Burning Suns

Kicking Off the Covers

Xandra | March 12, 2010

Anyone who’s a parent knows that it’s almost impossible for the kids not to show up in the middle of the night and burrow in next to you at least some time in their young lives.  Mine are notorious for midnight flights, and it never ceases to wake me up as soon as I hear [...]

Broke the Streak ::hangs head::

Xandra | March 8, 2010

But I swear I had a great excuse.  I had a :gasp!: computer issue (easily solvable, I love linux and the community that supports it *in instantaneous realtime, no matter how late it is!*).  Computer, easily surmountable.  Two sick kids with tummy bugs…not so much.  There is no support community or quick fix for that [...]

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Xandra | February 26, 2010

This week I submitted the sequel to Jolly Rogered.
I’ve been submitting manuscripts since 1998.  Granted, I write slow, and many of my submissions have been to traditional publishing (and via snailmail, to boot), so it’s not as if glaciers move much slower than the process. Every time I do this, I get a little thrill [...]

Eaten Alive

Xandra | February 19, 2010

A very wise, multi-pubbed chapter member once stood up in front of our local RWA chapter and said, in a quiet voice, “Promo will eat you alive.”
It almost went unheard amidst the exciting chatter about what it was like to get “the call,” work with an editor, decide whether to hire a publicist, and to [...]

Jolly Rogered Receives Top Pick From Night Owl Romance!

Xandra | February 16, 2010

I was overjoyed to receive the news that Jolly Rogered received a 4.5-star, Top Pick review from Vallerianna over at Night Owl Romance! It made me squee to see that someone else loved Nigel as much as I do.
It’s easy for a writer to become obsessed about finding reviews–it can really kill your [...]

Seven Different Kinds of Snow

Xandra | February 12, 2010

In the past seven days, we’ve had about eight inches of snow dumped on us.   No, we’re not nearly as bad as the eastern seaboard and their “Snowmageddon” (or is it “Snowpocalypse”?), but we’ve had our share.   And I’ve done my share in shoveling it, molding it, sliding around on it, and driving in it.  [...]

This Is How We Roll

Xandra | February 2, 2010

I’ve blogged before about Harlequin’s decision to include a vanity arm in order to monetize the slush pile.  Suffice it to say that any situation where you pay for the privilege of only getting half the money from the sale of something you’ve created and paid all the money to create is only even remotely [...]

Making Progress Versus Making a Mess

Xandra | January 29, 2010

I confess that I am one of those people that literally loathes schedules. My mother is sort of a martinet when it comes to scheduling, and bless her heart for it, ran my household with an iron alarm clock while I was growing up. As a result, I decided to reinvent the wheel [...]

Savvy?

Xandra | January 29, 2010

Yeah, you knew the pic was coming with a title like that.  But Jack Sparrow has a point, yanno?  Any pirate worth his salt has to be able to taste which way the wind is blowing.  The same goes for writers.
The minute you press “Publish” on your first blog post, or the minute you [...]

Vox Humana, Vox Scriptor

Xandra | January 22, 2010

Random pages on Wikipedia are dangerous things.  My latest random visit took me to the entry on the Vox Humana (I was actually trying to remember the latin quote “Vox populi, vox Dei” – the voice of the people is the voice of God, but I digress).  Turns out the Vox Humana is actually a [...]