Vixenwriter

I finished the big edits on Wolf, the book my agent is looking at right now (hi Laura!). I love this book, it needed some work and had been though some crit and rewrites and a general tightening but it’s something I’m very proud of right now. Anyway, she’s got it now and I hope she likes it.

Now I’m on to my edits for Sudden Desire and then back to Taking Chase, the follow up to Giving Chase for Samhain. This one is Shane’s story.

Then, well I don’t know just yet. Most likely back to Threat of Darkness because I love Jayce and Mei BUT, I got a great idea for a book when I was in Las Vegas that I need to plot out so I don’t know just yet.

Someone left a very nasty review for Triad at amazon. Sigh. I hate that! Everyone should love my books. It should be mandatory. It’s all about me! Me! ME! The thing is, when a book is about a “true mate” scenario, it seems pissy to complain that they know they’re in love soon into the book. And when it’s erotic romance that sex happens in the first 30 pages too. But bleah, I’ll just hug my copy of RT and stick out my tongue at the amazon person.

What is everyone reading these days? I have Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Match Me While You Can in my tbr pile. I love her books.

Lauren

Curious about the submissions process with Samhain? Angie James, the EIC (and my editor) has a very detailed entry about it over at Romance Divas. Check it out!

I’ve got a contest up to celebrate the release date for Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer on my contest page! Check it out! I’ve also put up an excerpt so if you’d like a sneak peek, take one, I won’t tell.

The Mavericks and I will be hosting a chat tonight at Novel Talk at 6 pm pacific/9 eastern. Come by to hang out and possibly win something. Oh and here’s a pic of us outside Studio 54 on St. Paddy’s day -

This was taken by a very drunk investment banker who insisted he looked like a “young Mel Gibson.” He had pretty eyes but that’s where the comparison ended. He was thrilled to find out what we wrote though, LOL. And he started tossing out euphamisms.

Drunk Investment Banker Guy = “So, do you say succulent nipples?”
LD – “No.”
MH – “laughs”
DIBG – “What about when they’re wet! Come on, when they’re wet!”
LD – “No. I’d never say that. I’d say baked chicken was succulent.”

Megan cracked me up, she even convinced DIBG and his even drunker friend to pose for a picture and DIBG (who was very nice by the way) grabbed his friend’s package and the other guy didn’t blink. Ah, good times. Later, really drunk friend was seen to be crawling into the mouth of a woman who’d approached him to dance a minute before. Megan was horrified and wondered about cold sores for the rest of the trip, LOL. And I realize that last sentence makes it sound like Megan was involved in the kissing, not so! We just watched, openmouthed. I won’t even talk about the guy in his sixties pawing the face of a woman in her early 20’s. Eww.

But I digress, I’m very random today so be warned. Okay, so I’m random every day.

That’s all for now, but I’m sure I’ll think of something else later.

Enforcer will be releasing from Ellora’s Cave on April 19! Anya Bast and I will be hosting the EC Chat board on the 18th all day so please come and join us.

I’ll be updating my website later today, putting up an excerpt and a new contest so check back!

I’ll also be chatting with the other Night Whisper Authors at Novel Talk at 6 pm pacific. We’ll be announcing the winner of our Scavenger Hunt so don’t miss it.

I just found out that Triad got a 4 1/2 star review from RT! I’m so thrilled!

The relevant bit is: “Dane may be new on the scene, but she’s already written a detailed story that’s quite compelling. The characters are strong and the plot stays on point.”

Whoo, excited and really relieved. I’m happy dancin!

I write sex. Yep. No mistaking what I do. Of course, I write more than just sex, I write books that have stories about other things sprinkled with a liberal dose of sex. And life should be like that. Good sex in books is like chocolate without calories.

Anyway, before I go off to my happy place thinking about oodles of chocolate and lots of sex (at the same time even!) – back to the subject.

Sex is a good thing. It’s healthy and wonderful. Of course that lies within a context. Being dominated in a consentual environment is really hot. Being dominated by a man who just wants to abuse his partner is not. The differences sometimes are slight but it’s my job as a writer, to make them clear.

My characters aren’t real, but even if they’re werewolves or Faeries, they should have some basis in reality. In A Touch of Fae, Em is a virgin when she meets Con. Not because she was afraid of sex, but because she’s an empath and can feel what people feel about her and it’s made her skittish. Anyway, when they have dirty/bad/wrong sex for the first time, he’s upset because she didn’t tell him she was a virgin and he was afraid he’d hurt her. He puts her in a bath to soak and they don’t have intercourse again right away because, hello! you get sore after that first time.

When/if my characters have kiddos, they aren’t furniture. Having kids means your sex life is tailored to their schedules and it means you have LOCKS on your doors!

Anal – oh I’m gonna skip the buttsecks comments. You know, let’s keep it real people, but not too real.

Anyway, I want to portray sex in my books as healthy and fun as well as hot. As something that connects my characters to each other. And hopefully I do that.

On a related note – apparently Sharon Stone approached some teenaged girl in a clothing store and when her mother walked away, she told the girl that having oral sex was much healthier for her than intercourse at her age. This was her idea of help. I think Sharon needs help. There are lines, people! Sheesh.

PPS – I’m dying from laughter because some of the Real World people have myspace pages. My stomach aches from snickering.

There’s this place, I call it writer’s limbo (well, publically I do. Privately I have other names for it) when your book is contracted and you’re just waiting for edits. Cause you can’t get your book released without them you know.

I hate writer’s limbo. It sucks. I’m there right now with FOUR books, LOL! I’m impatient. I want my books released. I finished two of them in October so I really want those out. I hate being dependent on other people’s schedules. And really, damn it, why can’t people figure out that it’s all about me!

Unfortunately, this business is all about other people’s schedules. Agents, editors, publishers, printers – you write and send your stuff off and then you wait. You hear back, turn something around and wait some more.

I’d like to say that I’ve learned patience from this. But I’d be lying. Parenting, now that’s taught me patience. But this just gives me a stomach ache. I do accept it however, cause that’s the way things go in this universe and control freaks like me just have to deal.

Because addiction can be cute and furry – Kittenwar! I’m warning you ahead of time, it’s impossible to resist just one more click.

More? Okay, how about this? Yeah, watch at your own risk and don’t drink anything while you do (well, it’s clear to me that Liza didn’t listen to this admonishment)

Another? How about Natalie Dee’s hilarious comics? This is her index page and the newest one of the day is up and the others are text linked below.

A post that got linked to death at Live Journal this week and deservedly so IMO – No More Mr. Nice Guy.

A trip to TVgasm is always nice, or Bitchtastic, don’t forget Best Week Ever!

I’m working on edits for a book I’m targeting at NY. It’s a werewolf book with a romantic suspense plot. This book has been with me for a while. I love this book. It did however, need to be tightened up.

It occurs to me as I’m working on it, just how much my writing has changed and you know, when people say that ebooks won’t get you anywhere I have to argue. What epublishing has done for me is make me a better writer. Period.

Each time I go through a round of edits, I get better at my craft. I either learn how to argue for myself in a coherent fashion or I learn how to make the words better and more comprehensible. Each new book I finish is cleaner and takes less tweaking than the last. My worlds are stronger, my POVs are stronger (and less jumpy), my sentences tighter and more active.

I’m a long way from perfect copy, but I’m a long way from the writer I was when I hit send on Triad, too. I had no idea then what this business was like. I had a story idea and I put it down on paper but the road from there to here has been filled with new experiences and so much learning.

This is sort of a ramble but happily, I still love my book and it’s better now for the excess tweaking and editing. Even better? I’m better now for the work. Not that I love editing, cause I don’t. Really, I don’t. But I see how necessary it is and I do it. And the end product is better for it.

Okay, so as I’m on my way to security to go to my gate, I see the airport has a Borders store. Hee! I head to go look to see if Triad is on the shelf right as Anya calls to tell me her gate is in a seperate security section so we have to say goodbye then (pout). She also tells me she’s checked out the Borders and no dice.

But I realize I’ve put my book in my suitcase and although I have a lot of editing to do, I need a book just in case so J and I go to check out their selection.

First of all, romance is way in the back in a corner. I see two books I’d say were “erotic romances” – a Jaid Black title on the top shelf and Kate’s Wolf Tales. So I pick out a Rachel Gibson (because I already have Wolf Tales) and head to check out.

When the clerk asks if I’ve found everything I say, “well everything but my book.” And she asks what I write and I tell her.

Turns out she used to work at the Borders in a mall we were in just days before (and neglected to see the darned place!) and that they did a bang up business for EC books. This makes me happy until she says…. Well, and since they decided to go print and make real books, it’s a great thing.

I mean, it is a great thing that EC books (and now Samhain) are in print. I love to hold my books in my hands. It’s wonderful and it certainly increases my ability to have a wider cross section of people read me.

But it’s comments like that that make me furious! For the record, I spend a lot of time and energy on my books. Whether they’re in ebooks or in print, they’re “real” thank you very much.