For most of us with children, the “year” revolves around school, specifically  the end of school, i.e. summer vacation, or “The Wild Times,” and going back to school, also known as “Finally I can get something done.”

This fall, I’ve determined to concentrate of kick-starting my writing back into gear.  I’ve a book due under my alter ego Lyndi Alexander, and I’ve got more ideas percolating that I’ve put off until I get that done.

But in the meantime, I’ve reached out to connect with other writers and editors, again, picked up the blogs, and started carrying a notebook around so I’ll quit forgetting little ideas that come to me at odd times.

I’ve also recently signed two contracts for books–  Love Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (by Lyndi Alexander) at Hydra Publications and By Any Other Name, as Alana Lorens, at Hydra’s love story imprint, Stardust Romance. Both of these have been issued before, but I’ve got a new publisher, and one that does something most other small press doesn’t. Catch this from the head of Hydra Publications:

Update on how our KU push is going. The books being pushed this month are The Parrot Told Me, Dearly Departed, Shadowlith and Murder by Suicide, and all four made it onto the best seller list. Amazing when you consider 2 of the books are 4 years old. Last month …we crossed over 400,000 page reads. We are currently around 735,000 page reads and we are barely half way through the month. We will do one more book for sure in August, then in September, when we start reaping the extra income from last month, we will up it to 2 or 3 or more by Hydra. …We will be doing everyone’s books at some point. We will continue to ride the wave as long as we can.

Yeah. Marketing. From a small press. Radical, right? I’m so thrilled!

So what’s BY ANY OTHER NAME about?

Up-and-coming mommyblogger and single mom Marisol Herrera Slade receives an invitation to her high school reunion. She returns to her old hometown in western Pennsylvania, reluctant and yet compelled to see her high school sweetheart, Russell Asher, who dumped her for a shot at the homecoming queen and school golden girl some twenty years before.

Russell’s marriage to the golden girl, however, ended in a nasty divorce, and he has been excluded from his sons’ lives in a very painful manner. In his Internet wanderings, he’s come across a feminist blogger named Jerrika Jones who glorifies single motherhood, essentially putting a stamp of approval on what’s happened to him. He’s vowed to take this woman down if they ever should meet.

What he doesn’t know, when he thinks to rekindle what he had with Marisol at the reunion, is that Marisol and Jerrika are one and the same.

Sounds like trouble, right?

This is a shorter story at 35,000 words, and is decidedly in the “Sweet romance” category, fit for teens through maiden aunts. We hope to see it in print later this fall.

So bring on school days–there’s a lot of work to do!