I'm being promoted alongside Stephen King. . .

No, seriously, I am.

My latest erotica ebook, MARKET FOR LOVE, (published under my nom de plume Jamaica Layne) is currently featured on the front page of Readerwise right next to the ebook version of Stephen King's latest release, Duma Key.

The print version of MARKET FOR LOVE isn't due out until September from Virgin Books, and I frankly didn't expect the ebook version to sell many copies until the print version came out later this year and created more buzz. But the reverse is happening, it seems.

I never, ever thought I'd in my entire lifetime see anything I wrote featured alongside something Stephen King wrote. (And trust me, I had nothing to do with this happening; I only happened to discover it this afternoon when I Googled "Jamaica Layne").

I'm going to go have a heart attack now.

Peace.

One more post for today. . .

I am so devastated that Heath Ledger died yesterday. What a waste. This is such a tragedy. Heath Ledger was one of the most talented young actors working today (if not THE most talented). We were only beginning to see what he could do and poof----gone.

Why couldn't one of the annoying celebrities like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan be the ones who drop dead naked in their apartments? Offing themselves would be a public service at this point. After all, it would free up thousands of hours of valuable airtime for newcasters to spend on things that matter to the world. Like, say, war and poverty and political corruption.

Peace.

First royalty check of the year is, well, royal

I received my first royalty check of 2008----the advance for MARKET FOR LOVE, my forthcoming book under my nom de plume "Jamaica Layne." (This title is already out in ebook version from New Concepts Publishing for those of you who can't wait for the print version; you can also buy it in electronic form from Fictionwise).

Since the print version of the book will be published by Virgin Books (the publishing arm of Virgin Corporation, which is best known for their record label and their airlines; Virgin Books was also recently merged with the massive Random House conglomerate), and Virgin Corp is based in London, my advance check was drawn in British pounds. Which is nice, since the pound is currently worth twice as much as the US dollar right now---in effect I get twice the royalties. The bad news is, it will take my bank 4-6 weeks to process the check, since it's drawn in foreign currency from a foreign bank. So it will still be quite a while before I actually see that cash.

Still, I guess it's a nice problem to have. And it's fitting that my first royalties for the year are in a currency governed by the Royal Bank of England.

God Save The Queen.

Peace.

Hillary Clinton Is In My Dreams

Last night I had a dream that I ran into Hillary Clinton in the Chicago Loop. She asked me for directions to the closest discount outlet mall. I directed her to Filene's Basement on State Street.

Weird.

(In case you care, I'm voting for Obama.)

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008, everyone! Now that things have settled down a bit, I'll be posting here a lot more often. I have lots of good news to share.

First off, after more than 10 years of plugging away at this professional writing thing, I have Finally Quit The Day Job and will be dedicating my life to writing full-time (not to mention being home with my infant son full-time). Although I enjoyed my day job (I worked as a health policy analyst), the place I worked wasn't exactly working-mother-friendly (an understatement, natch), so I took it as my cue to finally quit slaving away for somebody else and start dedicating all my waking work hours to my own writing. Yay.

That said, I've established the following New Year's resolutions. I'm not usually one for making resolutions, but since writing is now my official "day job", I've centered all of my resolutions for 2008 around that. Here we go:

1) Start each day with a List of Deliverables. My hubby and I are very task-oriented, and this is something we came up with together. When I had my very demanding day job in health policy, I did a To-Do List each workday and checked off things as I went along through the day. It helped me get my work done. I'm planning to do that with my new "day job" too, although instead of saying things like "Finish Reading New Congressional Medicare Policy" and "Draft Article On Rotator Cuff Repairs", it will say things like "Edit Chapter 12", "Call Agent About Contract", "Breastfeed Elliott", and "Dust The Living Room."

2) Write 2000 words per day. This one, I've really gotta stick to, since I have multiple editors demanding I deliver multiple books for them this year. One of my editors is expecting a book from me in mid-February, and since I've only written 12,000 words on that book so far, I've really gotta hustle to finish a 70,000-word novel in six weeks. Plus, the fact that I actually have to find a way to (gasp) earn a living writing books probably demands I be very prolific.

3) Bump Up My Cheap Marketing Ploys. I'm already hard at work on this one. So far, I've set up a Myspace page for my nom de plume Jamaica Layne (the pseudonym I write my erotica under: hint, please "friend" me by visiting www.myspace.com/jamaicalayne), and sent out my first mass e-newsletter of the year. I've still got a lot more to do, like re-design my website (http://www.jillelainehughes.com/; I know, I know, it hasn't been updated since before Elliott was born), and build a website for my alter ego, Jamaica Layne. If I get really adventurous (and my baby son allows), I might even go to a couple romance-novel conventions dressed up as Jamaica Layne this year, too.

4) Get a big-time play production. I define "big time" as being either a) in NYC with name actors or b) at a regional Equity theater like the Goodman or the Guthrie. I know this one is a bit of a stretch, but at least one of my New Year's resolutions needs to be unrealistic.

That's all for now, folks. I need to get back to writing, since I only wrote 1286 words in the new book today. Only 714 to go before I can go to sleep.

Peace.