Teicha Hill Mailhes's Blog (11)

I feel like the stores putting up Christmas decorations before Halloween is over, but nonetheless I'm wrapping up my first year as a writer.

I will end 2012 with two self-published short stories. One I will publish with Smashwords and one I will re-publish with Booktango.

I've learned a lot this year (not an exhaustive list):

• Bad reviews hurt.
• There's not enough money in writing interracial romance to quit my day job.
• I hate…

As A Reader

On Sunday evenings, I load my Nook with short stories for my daily commute. I search using key phrases for what I like. Often times, I get what I expected. But some times, I get what I didn't want. Neither the tags nor the blurb led me to a story I wanted to read. This can be very frustrating as it means that my nightly writing time is comprised by having to search for additional reading material for my 45 minute train ride to…

My latest novella, Music For Her Soul, will be released by Amira Press on August 10, 2012! I am very excited by this piece because I had the opportunity to work with a group of readers prior to submission and I have a work that does my heart proud. 

Blurb: Single mom Lena Spencer is…

My interracial historical romance, Betrothed, is in the hands of the editor and I'm anxiously awaiting the mock up from the cover artist. 

This novella was sparked by an idea after researching my own family lines that cast a light on race relations in the antebellum south that was very different…

This weekend, I was supposed to outline a new novella and start working on two holiday themed short stories. Instead, I transcribed an 1865 labor contract between my Hathorn family and their former owners, also the Hathorn family (in…

This week, I've been busy working on my latest novella and getting plans finalized for summer break with the family. The one thing that goes when I get super busy is reading. I have a back log of books that I want to read because I'm anxious to discover the pictures painted by the words of an author.

My language is a common prostitute that I turn into a virgin. ~ Karl Kraus

One of my favorite quotes. It describes the job of a writer - to speak…

Today is the day! Calendar Girl was officially released by Amira Press at 7:00 AM CST. Yes, I was watching the clock tick over on my computer when the website was updated.

While I have interviews scheduled over the next few weeks to talk about the book and my writing, I wanted to take a few moments right now to mark this occasion – my first published work!

I tell my kids that nothing should stop you from dreaming dreams. I’m glad I finally took my own advice, even if it took me…

I've been working on a new I/R romance novella and the hero is still nameless. When I started this work a few weeks ago, his name was Caleb Wagner. As I worked through the piece and started writing, I realized that was not his name at all. It didn't ring true coming out of the heroine's mouth. I searched for a list of 1977 baby names and latched on to Stephen for a while and then switched to Joshua. None of these is right and I'm at a loss at what to do now.

I think I'm going to have…

Stop by A Naughty Reader's Boudoir for an interview with me about why I write what I write and an excerpt from In The Moment, an interracial romance set in Texas.

This story was penned under the name Vallory Vance. I have always wanted a pen name and hopefully in about a hundred years people will feel so smart because they know that Vallory Vance's real name was Teicha Hill Mailhes. I call it the…

My first book is being published under the pen name of Vallory Vance.  It is sensual romance novella that leans more to the spicy side. To promote this line of writing, I have started a FB page and Blog to promote it.  This experience has been a bit overwhelming, but I've decided that I should only concentrate on one thing per night - Facebook post, blog post, tweet and then get back to writing.  I am working on edits for both the romance novella and the mystery novella.

To find more…

Currently, I am writing articles for a local news' website.  I seem to be completing about two a week for them.  My first publication date isn't for another month.  They are fun to write and it helps with my research methodologies.  The first article took about three hours to complete from research to finished product not including edits.  The last one I completed only took an hour.  So I'm getting better.

I completed a new short story for Yahoo! Voices this weekend.…