It's a Writing Thing

Just in from Mme. Editrix - the final covers for Blood Bargain(Nov 08) and for the mass market reprint for Matters of the Blood (Sept 08).

( images below )

Now, with bonus promo postcard (she's distributing these at Romantic Times.

( one more pic )

Uhm, I might have been a wee bit optimistic when I thought I could finish the book by Saturday. I did pretty good throughout the week, but didn't make it to the point I could actually take a day to go play. Which sucked, because spending the day with beledibabe would have been grand.

However, I really think that it was for the best in the long run. I'd also highly underestimated how many more words I really needed to write. I was shooting for about 72-73K.

I started Friday evening when I got home, worked through about 1:00 a.m. and managed to sketch out the rest of the book and finish a few chapters.

Got up Saturday at 6:30 and worked all day.

Got up today, worked on a couple of chapters and then decided I need to relax a bit before I attacked this again.

Started up again around 4:00 and just finished for the day. I'm nearly there. Five chapters to flesh out and I'm done).

Word count for the day: 3883
Word count from Friday-Sunday: 19780
Updated total: 76078.

I'm treating myself by watching Buffy, Season 1 episodes.

I'm writing...I'm writing... (say this in the singsongy "we're walking" tone).

Got up this a.m. later than I expected. Gray clouds obscured the sunrise, so my body didn't quite twig to the fact that it was morning yet.

Spent the last three hours on Blood Bargain, with a short detour to chat with the parents. I *finally* caught a break on something that had been nagging me in the book, so yay for that.

I expect to write for a wee bit more, then birki_lib and I have a phone date to nail down our hotel details for The Trip*. Afterwards, I'm heading to pick up L and CS as today is Dan's memorial service. It's in Mt. Ranier, MD, a location I'm not familiar with, but I've updated the GPS and am ready with a printed Google map, too. (yes, I'm a Virgo. Why do you ask?)

In other news, I've got my panel assignment for Malice Domestic. I'm moderating a panel entitled "Touch of Woo-Woo: Paranormal Mysteries". Joining me will be Lorna Barrett, Lillian Stewart Carl, Casey Daniels, Carole Nelson Douglas and Elena Santangelo. The panel is at 10:30 Saturday a.m. (April 26).

I got my flyer for World Fantasy this week. It's in Calgary, Alberta and I'm aching to go, but sadly, I doubt that I can afford two West Coast Canada trips the same year. I'm really bummed, because the topic this year is Mystery in Fantasy, which is what I write. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a windfall. ::g::

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

* a.k.a. the Vancouver 50th birthday/family fun/research trip in September

So at some point a few weeks ago, I got the bright idea to join a water aerobics class (something I used to do regularly when I lived in San Antonio). I conned, er, convinced my co-worker J to come with. Tonight was our first night.

We''d signed up at the local Y, which offers a punch card - 16 classes, any combo. The intention was to do the intro water aerobics to start with: shallow end, etc. Then to see if we liked it or whatever.  A new session was scheduled to begin tonight. Notice the operative word: was...

We got there and found out that the instructor was still out. So we did the deep water aerobics. 1 hour plus. It felt great! That said, every single muscle in my body aches and I'm sooooo tired. I will definitely sleep well tonight.

I think that J and I will probably check out the less advanced class for now, and work our way up to deep water.

On another note, Jaye Wells has declared March as "Adopt A Vampire Novel" month and it's going strong. There are giveaways and will there will be guest bloggers, including yours truly on March 14.  Be sure to stop by!

I heard that Gary Gygax died today. Sad news for all fannish folks that started as gamers. I remember learning D&D in college (it was fairly new and yes, I'm that old) and having the *best* time making stuff up. Somewhere along there I think I realized that I was totally a whore for fiction. Maybe that's where the writing thing gelled. Who knows. In any case, because of him and others like him, I got to play with other fen.

Off to have a bite and then watch an episode of SG-1 (I'm up to season 6!) before sacking out.

Fascinating thread going on right now at fangs_fur_fey. Melissa Marr (melissa_writing) asked if we'd post 3-6 song titles that give readers a taste/tone of one of our works. I found it to be a fascinating exercise and posted re: my upcoming book, Blood Bargain

Take a look at the various contributions.

In other news: as nestra said, I'm loving me some Ianto Jones v2.0. I now need a good Ianto icon with the slogan: "not just the tea boy".

Time for this writer to get to bed.

Matters of the Blood is back up at Fictionwise (e-book format) and since it's been refreshed, they see it as a "new" book - so for a very limited time, it's 15% off. It's multiformat, so you can download any one of a variety of formats, including Sony Reader, PDF, Palm doc, Kindle compatible, etc. If you want to buy a regular trade paperback copy, it's still avaiable at fine bookstores everywhere.


I've just joined fangs_fur_fey, so if you read that comm (and you should!) - sometime this week, you'll see my intro (posted by comm owner Melissa Marr). It's a comm for Urban Fantasy authors, and includes such fabulous people as jackiekessler, jeanne_stein, stacia_kane and the0phrastus (Chris Howard). Stacia's a fellow Juno author (her first book with Juno, Personal Demons, will be out in April), as is Chris. His book, Seaborn, will be out later this year.

The trip to NJ went quite well, despite the usual delays in getting there. Friday night dinner at the fab Italian place near starrcat's house, then Saturday with the girls and a Sunday Marriott burger on the way out. Got home early evening and was able to watch SGA, Friday Night Lights and Ugly Betty.

This weekend = finishing up the next section of Blood Bargain and yay, holiday!!

INSTABOOK REC 1: A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette (truepenny) and Elizabeth Bear (matociquala). I got my copy just before my trip so I took it with. I finished it as we landed in Newark (thanks to the delays, I had several hours). I am insta-fangrrl of this book. You Must Read NOW. (read runpunkrun's review here) - she's so right. Bear called it best ACTW review ever.

INSTABOOK REC 2: Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman (mroctober). It's on the preliminary ballot for the Andre Norton award and deservedly so.

fangrrl squee: < 2 days until TORCHWOOD!

ETA: are you reading Shadow Unit? If not, why not?

You know how you can fall in love with a character? (I mean in the meta way, not the I-want-to-have-your-babies way).

Today, while working on Blood Bargain, I had an epiphany. I'd been struggling with part of the book, trying to trim down the exposition and just make stuff happen, dammit - as my internal editor was beating the proverbial stick against my head. When all of a sudden, I'm in the middle of merging two scenes together, and the magic was happening and I realized why: one character.

Not my protagonist, Keira Kelly, whom I adore in so many ways, but dude, face it, she's got issues. Not Adam Walker, hot vampire lover. Hot, but wow, his issues beat the crap out of Keira's, hands down. And face it, without their issues and angst, there would be no story, because half the fun is giving them hell so then there can be a great payoff.

Not Bea, who is a fabulous friend, but due to circumstances in this book is much more peripheral.

Who does that leave - yeah, Tucker - Keira's brother, friend and confidante. I've come to realize that Tucker is the Duck McDonald of Rio Seco (if Duck had an infectious grin and sarcastic sense of humor). Tucker's angsty issues are long since resolved. He's settled in himself and knows who he is and what he wants. Thus, a perfect sidekick/shoulder-to-lean-on for Keira. Plus, he's also quite easy on the eyes, and for whatever reason, makes the writing go easier.

It's really odd sometimes when creating a world, creating characters that some of them just seem to take on a life of their own - that is, become more prominent than intended. In the original drafts of Matters of the Blood, Tucker was kind of an afterthought. I wanted Keira to have a family member around that she honestly liked, not just tolerated. Somehow, his tiny role turned out to be a lot more substantial. So much so, that I knew he had to stay in Rio Seco and not go back to the clan.

Once again, Tucker is bailing me (and Keira) out of some tangly stuff. Good thing he's around, eh?

On a side and rather amusing note: After I finished up my day's writing yesterday (Sunday), I started up Witness, which I haven't seen in years. I had a total fangrrl squee moment when it started - not over Harrison Ford, but dudes, Jan Rubes is in it as Eli, the old Amish farmer. I squeed aloud and yelled, "Mort!" at the screen. Six degrees of Benton Fraser, anyone?

In any case, I enjoyed watching the movie again.

I've treated myself to some new audiobooks for post-writing enjoyment today. I just bought Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (read by the author) and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (also read by the author).

I've noticed that I seem to enjoy audiobooks more if it's something I've already read and enjoyed. I'm looking forward to listening to both of these.

Hope you are ALL having a fabulous holiday. I'm definitely enjoying the time off from work and am happy with my writing progress, so yay, holiday!!

So, hey, Internets - I'm still here, believe it or not.

( What I've been up to )

Oh, before I forget, I finally posted my World Fantasy pics on a mini-Web gallery.

Geez, has it really been more than a month? What the heck happened to the time? Le sigh.

Oh well!

Wishing everyone a Happy Hanukwanzamasolstice!!

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay free.

Wow, the last thing I posted anything of substance (besides, yay, SGA Season 5!) was nearly two weeks ago. Time flies and all that!

October has been quieter at work, but busier on the writing biz side. I had signing practically every weekend, with a conference thrown in for fun. Dying to Write 2 was absolutely fabulous! Organized in part by beledibabe, the panels were fascinating an instructive, useful to aspiring published writers and to the already published. I attended 4 sessions about everything from short story writing to how to motivate your writing (by the wonderful stevekelner). The lunchtime keynote speech by Laura Lippman was both inspiring and motivating in itself, Steve's panel (directly after lunch) took Laura's wonderful advice (dream it to be it) and expanded on the reasoning behind it. (If you're a writer and haven't yet bought/read Steve's book, Motivate Your Writing, please do so. Getting to hear him speak was the icing. :) I also got to have lunch with my publisher, John Betancourt. He was there presenting a panel on editing yourself, which I skipped, because I wanted to go to Steve's panel. Got to see the paperback of Dances With Werewolves, just out from Juno.

Sunday, I signed at the Borders Express at National Airport. The day manager, Saul, was fabulous and the store did a bang up job, posting signs, creating displays and setting up a lovely table for me (with a comfy chair!) right in front of a set of elevators. I sold a few books, talked to a great many people and enjoyed it immensely.

Wednesday a.m., I'm off to World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY. where I'll get to rub elbows with some fabulous folks, including Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner, allaboutm_e, Jeff Mariotte, Chris Golden, Jeanne Stein, my wonderful editor Paula Guran, and editor-in-chief Sean Wallace (a.k.a. oldcharliebrown). I'm hoping to get to meet Lois McMaster Bujold and am still a-squee about paneling with Paul Cornell. :) There's a ton of other authors on the member list that I hope to run into, including suricattus, truepenny and matociquala - I'm thinking there may not be enough hours in the weekend!!

Of geekish things, I just got my copy of Leopard and hope to install it on Nameless (the laptop) tonight. I think that the Priscilla (iMac) install may have to wait until I get back. I still have LOADS of packing to do tonight and tomorrow since I have to be at the airport by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. I'm so not ready in that respect.

Okay, now all of a sudden, it's 1:00 p.m. - seriously, where is all this time going?

(1) Driving to/from work in the fall means one can't bloody see well at all when one is driving towards the east in the a.m. and west in the p.m.
(1b) The average 4-door sedan is exactly the right height for sun glare to hit me directly in the eyes.

(2) Going to work when you're still feeling under the weather but know that another day off will mean insanity can sometimes be okay.
(2b) However, staying a full 9 hour day can result in overtiredness and not breathing well.

(3) People can bloody well amaze you.
(3b) A client, who was a bit of a burden over the past couple of weeks sent a brilliant email to me and my boss (the CEO) today praising their new Web site and our work.

(4) Soup is the nectar of the gods.
(4b) Navy bean soup from Perfect Pita is the perfect lunch when one has no appetite.

(5) Frozen hamburger patties and onion sandwich buns can be the perfect dinner.
(5b) There is no 5b.

(6) I am so not a patient woman. (Is it 9/28 yet?)
(6b) I have been slightly spoiled for SGA Season 4, and am comfortable with the level of spoilers I've seen. Mostly photo posts on Joe M's blog and a specific piece of dialogue in ep 1. Other than that, I prefer to remain unknowing and anticipating.

(7) Major networks can be asses.
(7b) Because of a work-related trip, I am going to *miss* the 10/5 episode of SGA. Because of the NBC/Universal break from iTunes, I can no longer blithely buy a Season Pass to my favorite SciFi shows. I repeat: asshats. I will DVR the show, however, iTunes allowed me to rewatch episodes weeks and weeks later, without worrying about hard drive space (I have a 500 GB hard drive just for iTunes). With DVR, I'm going to have to delete episodes of shows to catch others. Stupid NBC.

(8) Fan mail is really, really, REALLY cool.
(8b) Fan mail from other authors, whom you've never met: brilliant. (I got 2 fan emails this week, one from a reader, one from another romance writer).

(9) Callum Keith Rennie is really HOT.
(9b) Ditto.
ETA:
(9c) So is Rodney McKay.
(9d) For that matter...
NOTE: above links may contain large picspam

(10) Torchwood continues to rock.
(10b) Even in the U.S.

In conclusion:
Home is a very good place and I am so glad I'm in my jammies now.

Thanks to those of you who sent Get Well Soon Wishes!!