It's that time of year!  And I have to admit, I am firmly convinced that the entire world has literally gone mad.  Not as in fan zany, frothing at the mouth for a victory and sitting nervously wondering if the 100.00 bet on a team is going to be lost or gained.

I'm talking plain old, out of their mind, flipping NUTS.

You see... I despise basketball.  I always have. (Probably why the basketball player I dated in high school and I didn't work. Oh wait...no, I delivered flowers to his other girlfriend that Valentines.  Ahem! Moving on.)

Why?  I can't stand the squeaky shoes.  Down the court: squeak...squeak...squeak... Up the court: squeak...squeak...squeak.  Position for a shot: squeak-squeak.  Dodge to pass around the defender:  Squeeeeak-squeak.

Drives me out of my mind!  I can't even turn the volume down because I can hear the damn noises in my head. So I've issued the edict to my demidemons, if they want to play basketball it will be when they are able to provide their own transportation to practice and games, and sorry, this is one event Mom will not stand on the sidelines and cheer for.  They seem to be okay with this.  It's not as bad as the edict that they have to wait until at least junior high to play football.

My March usually involves finding a bracket though and filling it out.  I know nothing about the teams, but those little blanks are awfully fun to fill in.  I even made it to the final four one year just randomly assigning winners based on, oh, the color of their uniform, how many vowels were in their team name, the mascot, the state... my then-husband, who was a basketball addict, was livid I outranked his carefully analyzed and chosen rankings.

But once that bracket is filled out I'm off and running on something else.  This year I'm having my own March Maddess going on, that's wholly related to writing and much more enjoyable on my end.

I have massive deadlines that, as a deadline addict myself, I'm thoroughly excited about meeting.  My agent and I are getting ready to unleash a new project to several editors, and I'm over-the-moon excited about it.


The next Black Opal book is finished and gearing up for release.  Which means during the month of March I'll have fun things hitting my email.  Did someone say new cover art?  Squee! I can tell you now that this book lays the foundation for one hero's story that you've been waiting on.  You'll have to watch the blog and so forth to find out who though!




I have a contract in the works--more new cover art!!!  And that will launch what I hope will be another three books in a new series.






Last, but in no way least (in fact this makes me very giddy and should be at the top of the list) I have not one, but TWO Templar books coming out in March:


Immortal Protector, a companion novella, March 12th
Immortal Trust, book III, March 26th.



And that's my March madness--full of writing, full of nail-biting, full of sitting on the edge of my chair for entirely different reasons.  And I'm celebrating all this in various ways throughout the month as well.  Starting with this blog hop and a 10.00 Amazon gift card.

But to be eligible to win this secondary prize, there's two things you have to do:

1.  Comment below and tell me your thoughts on Hoops and Squeaks.
2.  Pop over to my Claire Ashgrove Facebook page and hit the like button.

To be Entered in the March Madness Blog Hop Grand Prize -- fill out the little rafflecopter stuff below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 For official rules, check out the Host Site

Be sure and check out the other participating authors:

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Black Opals , Blog Hop , Claire Ashgrove , giveaway , Immortal Protector , Immortal Trust , March Madness , New Release , SnS Review , The Curse of the Templar , Tori St.Claire