Vixenwriter

So I’d recently had a discussion with my wonderful EC editor about whether or not I’d be writing another book about the Charvez women and I was undecided. I like the meta world I’ve created and I like the characters but I didn’t have a story in mind like I did for A Touch of Fae.

So I’m sitting in the mom box, waiting for my oldest to get out of school and it hits me totally out of the blue. I picked up my notebook and started working it all out and I believe I’ve got the rough idea for the third book in the series. I have no idea for a title as of yet but this one will be a menage story MMF - two vampires and a witch, a Charvez who doesn’t know she’s a Charvez.

More as I go along, I just started working it all out today, building up the characters. Holly is the witch and the vamps are much younger than Aidan - Rhett and Lucas. This one is set in Seattle but they’ll be making a trip to New Orleans at some point in the book and we’ll get to revisit Lee, Aidan and Alex again, hopefully even Em and Con.

No word yet on my BDSM book. Still editing Wolf but I’m nearly done with the final edits. I have to really thank my crit partners for all of their help and the folks at my Yahoo loop who’ve read my WIP and have given me feedback and cheered me on.

I’m going to be on a panel for Ellora’s Cave authors at a conference in June. If you’re a writer, want to be one or like to be around them, you should come! Seattle in June, me, what more could you possibly want?

So I’m going through another round of edits for Wolf. I’m expanding here and contracting there. I feel like it’s done and then I think, “oh, no it needs more here” or “that’s just totally extraneous” I’m back at the stage where I’m in love with all of the wolves in the story, Andreas is definitely an Alpha male as well as an Alpha wolf, however, Kari is strong. I like that she’s such a strong woman.

Of course this is all about the work of writing. Editing can be tedious and yet, you have to do it. I spend time thinking about writing all day. I read what other people write to see how they pursue their craft. I wish it could be all fun, all of the time, but it’s way more fun and fulfilling than my old job. The great fortune of having a profession being something you love is such a wonderful gift.

Okay, so if you have problems with sci fi geekiness, you should turn away now…

So Friday night I had the choice between writing/working on the dreaded synopsis or watching the first two episodes of the new Battlestar Gallactica series on the Sci Fi channel. I chose BG. And I’m not sorry.

I was very impressed last year when I saw the mini series and hoped that they’d continue it and when they announced the series it made this fangirl’s heart go all aflutter.

My verdict: They spent a lot of cash and you can tell. Excellent sets, good quality film, wonderfully inventive scripts - I’m quite happy with the twists they’ve put on the new cast (Starbuck being a woman, Boomer being a cylon, cylons who look like humans, etc). I’m happy that there’s actually something on television that I want to watch these days.

Oh and I have a crush on the actress who plays the cylon who tortures Gaius, the way she delivers her lines, so dry and funny. Balthar is really sexy too but still selfish and dastardly.

I just wanted to plug a few things that I’ve read lately and loved. If you like smut, whether you call it erotic romance or not, give Shiloh Walker’s newest Hunter’s book a read. The entire series is interesting and fun to read and extremely sexy on what Tracy has led me to start calling the “batteries needed scale”

One can never lose reading Anya Bast (I’m lucky enough to be getting an advanced look at Blood of An Angel which is really good) but as it’s not out yet, give her latest release, Ordinary Charm a try, you won’t be sorry. Oh and while you’re at it, check out her other Embraced series books, Blood of the Raven and Blood of the Rose.

I’ve recently re-read Lora Leigh’s Men of August series. Very hot, a lot of emotional stuff, she can really write men with a great deal of emotional depth.

I’ve also read a lot of Elizabeth Lowell. She can write a man that you want to kick the crap out of but who redeems himself at the end, plus her research is excellent. Tell me No Lies is a favorite as is Amber Beach.

Triad is still going through the editing process and A Touch of Fae is now officially on the schedule and set for a September release. I’m also doing the dreaded synopsis for Wolf and want to finish Enclave too. Oh and get an agent. Nothing like a heaping plateful of things to do!

Gah, I hate them. They suck. First I start writing and the sheer ridiculousness of the fact that I write books about werewolves (or vampires, or witches, or whatever) hits me. After I stop laughing I try to outline it and not say too much but then say enough. I want to hit the high notes but I don’t want to put in stuff that doesn’t matter. I want to be succinct and also descriptive enough to suck an editor into my world and want to see more.

In short, it makes me want to poke myself in the eye with a stick.

So I’m writing a contemporary story, one of second chances and suddenly it veers off and becomes a story about polyamory.

I love writing about poly as much as I love writing about BDSM. They both come with a wealth of emotional issues that I can really sink my teeth into. I can really delve into characters and conflict as well as general interaction. My goal is always to show the emotional portrait of BDSM and being poly.

It’s more than being spanked or tied up, it’s about what the emotional decision is to submit to someone. It’s more than having a sexual relationship with more than one person, it’s about the relationship of each person in the poly grouping.

It’s one of my favorite things about writing about sex - there’s so much meat (no pun intended) to sexuality, it’s so unique and complex.

I need to write a bio for the EC author’s page. It’s difficult to come off sounding smart but not arrogant, clever but not trying too hard, etc.

I find these little things to be more complicated sometimes than the actual writing.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laurendaneromantica/

Go on and check it out, I promise you’ll be happy you did…

This morning I climbed out of my warm bed and fought the freezing cold that resulted in icy roads and dozens of accidents in my neck of the woods. The kids were bickering and the baby was cranky. My knee is sore because I fell yesterday helping to push a car (don’t ask) and I hobble downstairs, irritable and annoyed and my husband tells me to check the email.

Big smile! There’s an email from my editor telling me they’ve accepted A Touch of Fae!! Ah yes, I’m suddenly not so cold, not so irritable and the kids come off as amusing instead of infuriating.

I don’t have much more info than the fact that they’ve accepted it. I mailed my signed contract, they will put it on a schedule once they get it and I’ll of course, talk about it here.

I’m so glad that Em and Conchobar will be getting their chance.