Excerpt for Hot for the Holidays

I know it's a long way to Christmas, but I posted an excerpt for my story in the Hot for the Holidays anthology due out in October. Enjoy!

http://www.allysonjames.com/alittlenightmagicexcerpt.html

And here are my pretty awards

Last night at RWA, I won two Prism awards (for best paranormal romances) and came in second in a third category.

1. Dragon Master, by Allyson James, Best of the Best!
2. Dragon Master, by Allyson James, First Place, Fantasy
3. Immortals: The Redeeming, by Jennifer Ashley Second Place, Dark Para.

Behold my pretty Prisms. Can you tell I'm proud?? (That's my Rita behind them.) Smug mode.

Dragon Master Wins!!!

I just saw via Twitter that The Dragon Master won First Place in the PRISM at RWA National. Woo!! And I'm not there, so I couldn't scream in person. Life (or at least, my life).

Screaming now. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, Immortals: The Redeeming (by me as Jennifer Ashley) took second in dark fantasy. Not as good as first, but I'm not complaining all that much! :-)

Moving on...

I managed to replace the hard drive on the laptop (it was under warranty, TG), so...I was able to finish the edits/revisions on Calder and turn that back around to my editor at EC.

Now I'm working on revisions to Pride Mates, the sexy shapeshifter romance I'm doing for Dorchester as Jennifer Ashley. Yummy Irish guys who live in Austin and change to wildcats. Really.

I think the Stormwalker series is cursed....

I turned in the manuscript of Stormwalker this morning. Yesterday, as I was proofing and putting in corrections, my laptop CRASHED. Big time.

Second laptop in about five months.

The first one crashed while I was working on revisions of the novella that prequels the Stormwalker book. Both stories are set in the same world. Coincidence??

Or have I pissed off skinwalkers? (who are heavies in the stories). They say that talking about them lightly can bring their attention. Hmmmm.

On my laptop, the OS (Windows Vista) refuses to load. I've been able to run diagnostics through DOS, which indicates that a tiny portion of the hard drive has corrupted (or something--the tests fail at that point and won't continue). I can't even make it restore factory settings.

Big heavy sigh.

I need to start a new manuscript so must either get laptop repaired (it's under warranty; hope the problem is a covered one), or get new laptop. My dh says it's because I write so fast, I burn it out. Sweeetie.

At least I obsessively back up, and I lost only a few hours of work. I might have lost part of the novella I need to work on next, though, and notes for the sequel to Madness of Lord Ian. So my life goes...

I need smudge sticks, candles, crystals, prayer...