Maggie's Newsletter

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow, it’s hard to believe another year has come and gone and a new one has arrived.  Time seems to speed by.

2010 was a banner year for me, and one I’ll never forget.  It was the year that saw the back to back release of my suspense trilogy, The Secrets of Shadow Falls. 

If that was enough, those releases were followed by the reissues of three of my vampire novels.

In addition, I had a couple of powerhouse anthology releases in 2010.

On more personal notes, here are some of the banner events of 2010 for us:

2010 was the year my dear grandmother and namesake, Margie, moved to the other side of the veil.  Gram decided to spend Christmas with my mom and grandpa this year.  She’s been waiting a long time, and had a beautiful life.  She is the conduit through which the writing gene flows down to me, and for that, and so much more, I will always be grateful.

My partner’s family suffered a loss this past year as well.  Tommy left far too young, and he was widely grieved and will be deeply missed.

2010 was also the year we lost our beloved Forest, the Savannah monitor, when, during an escape attempt (from his 90 gallon paradise) he managed to rip the screen apart and crawl inside the heat & light fixture.  Poor guy.  However, he wanted escape, and I believe, escape is what he got. 

In fact for all of those who’ve moved on during the past year, I know there is nothing but bliss. I’ve read that if we humans truly understood what that thing we call “Death” really is, we wouldn’t ever sentence anyone to the “death penalty.”  We’d send them to school instead.  Our loved ones haven’t really gone anywhere.  Just changed forms, and expanded beyond our current understanding.  And it’s all good.

A lot of wonderful things happened in 2010 too!

Of importance to me, this was my first full year of co-habitation with my partner, Lance.  (The 1 year mark was in October.)  Our home, Serenity, is filled with our blended energy now, and the place is more peaceful and calm than ever.  People feel it when they come here.  There’s an easy, relaxed vibe to our home.  It’s bursting with peace, love, and the muses seem to be pouring creative energy and inspiration down, an energy-waterfall that flows straight through every inch of the place.  When other writers or artists visit here, they always feel it, and leave with new ideas flooding their minds and hearts.  Our relationship is stronger, deeper and more fulfilling than ever.  We’re very happy. 

Too, this past year was the year my daughter Stacie became engaged to her beloved Chris, and the wedding plans began.  After several location scouting expeditions, we chose the gorgeous Hope Lake Lodge & Resort as our site.  The wedding takes place this coming August, and you’ll be getting to ride along, if you read here often.   

2010 was the year I began keeping a coral reef aquarium, a project that’s been giving us loads of pleasure and adding to the soothing energy of our home.  It’s one of two new hobbies I embraced this past year.

It was the year we added Captain Yellow Beard, our bearded dragon to the family.  He’s very happy here and we’re enjoying him non-stop.

And it was also the year I fell in love with filmmaking, and started making amateur videos of the dogs and for promotional videos for my books.  This is the second new hobby I began this year, and I intend to delve way more deeply into it in 2011.  I got new film editing software for Christmas and can hardly wait to put it to use.

It’s the year I got my iPad!  I adore that thing.

2010, too, was the year of the Ebook.  The new electronic formats are sweeping the industry with a clean new broom more high tech than the Nimbus 2000, and no one knows where the wave is going to carry us.  But man, what a ride!

There was more, so much more to 2010, but I have to say that it’s been 99% positive.  There has been a lot of fun, and a lot of productivity for me as well.  I’ve had a beautiful, wonderful year.

2011 will be even better!

2011 Plans & Intentions

The major events of the coming year for me are the releases of two books that are the culmination points of my long running Wings in the Night vampire series.  They are the stories “the twins,” J.W. and Brigit Poe (introduced in EDGE OF TWILIGHT) and fans have been clamoring for these stories for a long time now.  TWILIGHT PROPHECY, J.W. aka “I go by James now” Poe, comes out in May.  Brigit’s story, TWILIGHT FULFILLED will hit the stores in October.  I’m writing the latter now.  Nearly done.  I think you’ll like them.

In between those two, there will be another new vampire tale in the Harlequin Nocturne 2-in-1 Anthology VACATION WITH A VAMPIRE.  Maureen Child will be the other contributing author.

As I finish this book, I am also nearing the end of my contract, and so the future is not only uncertain, but excitingly wide open.  At this point, I’ve got about a thousand different notions of what I’d like to do next.  Okay, maybe a half dozen.  This is a fun and exciting time for me.  I feel like the first card of the Tarot: The Fool.  I’m a carefree, joyous, inspired, blank slate where anything is possible. 

And on with it we go.

One of the first big changes of 2011 is the shifting of my Facebook accounts.  We’ve neared the limit on our “friends” page, and so had no choice but to create a “Fan” page.  We’ve been posting for weeks about this, and now the time has come to begin deleting members of the friend page, to move all the readers to the same place--the Fan page.  The friend page will be private from now on.  If you were deleted from the page and didn’t know why, that’s why.  If you were deleted by accident, and are actually a personal friend or relative (of either Lance or I) please email me and let me know right away, and accept my humble apologies.  My eyes glaze over when sorting through 3000 names and faces. 

The new place to be for Maggie Shayne readers and fans, and most colleagues aside from personal friends, is www.facebook.com/MaggieShayneAuthor.  And I’m going to work hard to make it a really FUN place to be.  Be sure to like the page so you don’t miss out.  One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to find more ways to interact with you all, with fun, games, challenges, and prizes.  So stay tuned.

Oh, and if one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to get into shape (and whose wasn’t?) then be sure to join my Health & Fitness email discussion loop.  Just send a blank email to Maggies-Health-and-fitness-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to sign up.  We have a couple of hundred women sharing tips, support, information, encouragement, and friendship there.  And we’re losing weight like crazy!

As the year unfolds, I’ll have lots of news, videos, photos, excerpts, cover art, and other surprises in store.  It’s going to be a fabulous year!  I hope it is for each of you, as well.

Maggie