Please welcome Tory Michaels, author of Blood Rage and Blood Mage Rising

my friend Tory Michaels is taking time out of her VERY FULL schedule to answer a question I have always wondered about her. how does she manage to write with such an active home life?

Hi there, and thanks for having me here today, Alison. I appreciate you offering me a shelter for a stop on the ever-busy world of blogging and everything else.  I love your question and greatly appreciate it. The short (and supposedly) easy answer to that is I cut back on my sleep. I really do.

Now here’s the long answer: Most week days I’m up between 4 and 5.  Supposedly I do this to get extra writing time. In actuality, for about the first 20-30 minutes, I’m trying to wake up, read blogs, and suck down coffee, all sans children. A great deal of time is spent in my daily life trying to avoid crying children.

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely adore my girls and boy. They’re hilarious and as the girls grow past the “baby” stage into the rambunctious “little girl/toddler” phase, they’re incredible. They’re just very………needy. If Mommy’s around, she’s the best toy in place. It’s fine if I sit on the floor and stare into space. Then they ignore me. I try to get up and sit at the computer? Oh lord, chaos reigns. Hence my 4a get-up time.

Another quick secret: I got the two books out close together because they were both written before I got an acceptance on Rage, and Rising was almost ready to submit at that point as well. I’ve since struggled with getting anything else done. However, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve got the first draft of the third book down, with definite plot ideas for the 4^th (and final) in the Dream-Walker War series. I know what needs to be done.

Sorry – as you can tell, I ramble! Anyway, when I’m working on something, I have 3 primary writing times: 4:45 – 5:30, 7:15 – 8, and 12:30 – 1:30p (when I first get up, after dropping the kids off, and my lunch hour). If I’m in “the zone” (usually the 1^st quarter and last quarter of the book), I can write between 800 & 2500 words in each of those zones. Otherwise (or if it’s an infernal sex scene), it varies. If you’re curious, you can check out my daily progress to see how Prophecy shaped up at my StoryToolz history HERE. I need to write more because I’d love to get more books out there for y’all to read!

My evenings, most of the time, are reserved for hubby and TV because, for some reason, hubby likes spending time with me without me having a laptop on my lap, so we talk. Only time I can weasel out of that (presumably for writing time) is if I’m right at the end and in “the zone” and he knows it would be pointless to make me stay anyway.

Weekends, if I’m lucky, I’ll write during their naps, and word production varies greatly. Saturdays and writing almost NEVER get along. Sundays, sometimes better. But weekdays are my prime.

Hope I haven’t bored you and thank you again for having me, Alison! Hope to see you around!

YAY! Thanks for sharing! you are my heroine!

if you haven't read her first two books, you should! 

Blood Rage

The Dream-Walker War, Book 1

For eighty years since the Great Awakening, humans and non-humans have lived in relative peace together. The peace is threatened when three bodies turn up less than a mile from the Bureau of Non-Human Affairs in Tampa, all bearing the signature of vampires who once terrorized Europe.

The Bureau’s chief liaison to the vampires, Dara MacKechnie, learns that the Tampa victims are not alone when her ex-lover, and head of the vampire’s Great Council, Anthony Caldwell comes calling.

The pair discovers the lie that separated them two centuries ago only banked their passion, not extinguished it. Dara must decide whether she can trust Anthony with her heart a second time as they

Blood-Mage Rising

The Dream-Walker War, Book 2

In the eighty years since the Great Awakening, humans and non-humans have lived side by side, relatively at peace.  In an attack that leaves his wife dead, Jordan MacNaught is caught up in the start of a war meant to turn the other races against the vampires. He knows beyond a doubt the vampires of yesteryear are not involved in the attacks. They're all dead, except for him.

     Jordan asks for Chris Javert's help in hunting those who murdered his wife. She's no stranger to hunting vampires. After all, she nearly destroyed Jordan when she ended the reign of his Aristocrats in Europe two hundred years 

Tory is graciously giving away a 25 dollar gift card and a digital copy of both of her books.
check it out!

the swag!