Vixenwriter

So last night I’m upstairs working on edits and my husband is putting the wee monster to sleep when I hear the alarm on the front door go off and then nothing. I rush down and the door is standing wide open and he’s nowhere in sight. I step outside and he’s not out there. I don’t see wee monster and I call my dude’s name and nothing. It’s really, and I mean like 20 degrees really, cold and I hear a noise as he comes jogging back holding the crushed remains of two of the kids’ pumpkins.

Turns out some little dipshits who need an ass kicking strolled up to our porch and walked away with two pumpkins. But my husband heard them and put a sleeping M down and ran after him. They dropped the pumpkins and ran their little asses off. My husband was worried that he’d left the door open and broke off after three blocks and came home.

Seriously? Who steals a pumpkin from a 2 year old? It’s too late to carve another, even if the pumpkin patch wasn’t picked clean so we’re all sharing our pumpkins but there’s a bit of sadness over it.

Still, we’ve got two darth vaders and a ladybug fairy and a whole bunch of candy so we’ll have a good time anyway. It’s freezing though! I’ll have to bundle the boys up under their costumes because, “moooom! If I wear a coat, no one will see my costume.” Eye roll.

I finished up second round edits on Sword and Crown last night and some last bit comma and clarification stuff on Taking Chase so I’m back to Threat of Darkness tonight, yay!

Speaking of Threat of Darkness, I’ve put up a very sneaky peek of it, Wolf Unbound and Sword and Crown at my messageboard. If you’re not a member, why not?

Another early review of Tri Mates! Holly at Two Lips Reviews gives Tri Mates 4 1/2 lips and says in part: Tri Mates is another wonderful book in the Cascadia Wolves series by Lauren Dane. The intrigue gives these books a whole new dimension. There were so many twists and turns in the plot that I never knew what was coming next. Nick is such a charming playboy that you can’t help but love. Gabe is a much quieter Alpha male, yet he is intriguing in ways Nick is not. Tracy is just a kick butt woman who loves to let her men have control in bed, but only in bed. She is funny, loyal, loving and forgiving. They make a fascinating set and you’re left wanting more of their story. I literally can’t decide if the next in the series should continue their story or move on to the next couple. Of course, I’m waiting impatiently for Cade’s story who is Alpha of Cascadia pack…. Lauren Dane is on my auto buy list and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thanks, Holly!!

Is here for those interested. I’m always fascinated by lists of great novels and people’s reaction to them.

I agree with a lot of the list

1984 and Animal Farm - yes, brilliant, insightful, subtle and intelligent. I love Orwell’s voice and sense of storytelling.

Gibson’s Neuromancer - yes! I love his to the bones style of writing. He says in one paragraph what other notable cyberpunk authors make me hear in eight. It’s the right kind of economy for a genre that is best told that way.

The Painted Bird is a book that sticks with me to this day. It’s uncomfortable and ugly and terrifying and manages to give a vision and a voice to what people are capable of - good and bad.

Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck is probably in my top five most favorite authors of all time and Grapes of Wrath is a book I’ve read many times and loved it more with each reading.

Ellison’s Invisible Man - wow. Revolutionary, brilliant, I loved it.

Slaughterhouse Five - no one writes serious but with a sense of whimsy like Vonnegut. What a marvelously subversive book this one is.

Phillip Roth is on the list a few times, some of the titles blew me away like Portnoy’s Complaint while others I wasn’t that wowed by.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved - I remember reading this book the first time and just sitting there after I’d closed it. So much metaphor, rich, ripe, terrifying. After I became a mother I read it again and it had even more meaning to me. I like books that challenge your perspective and make you wonder just what you’d do if faced with a series of impossible circumstances (Sophie’s Choice did the same).

My fangirlish devotion to Atwood isn’t a secret but if I had to pick my favorite of all her titles, The Blind Assasin would be third on my list after Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye.

Also, I love EM Forster and A Passage to India is up there but I’d have to say I think Howard’s End is a better book.

Other books on the list I read and thought, “what’s the fuss about?” I won’t go into specifics.

What do you all think? I noticed a distinct lack of science fiction on the list and there’s simply no way I’d put Gone With The Wind on any best novel list ever (okay so I lied about not naming names). I think the list definitely hit the highlights though.

Censorship is wrong. (and I don’t refer to official censorship by the government but media censorship) Period. Please explain to me how they can show movie trailers like Saw III where people are tortured and hanging from hooks and they can’t show a movie trailer from a documentary? Feh! I don’t care what anyone’s personal feelings are about this movie, that’s not the important part. What is important is letting people decide for themselves, not letting the networks decide for us.

NBC is refusing to air the trailer for the Dixie Chicks’ documentary, “Shut Up and Sing” saying it “cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.” The CW Television Network claimed it does “not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

So wait, it’s NBC’s job to censor all programming that disparages George Bush? That explains their news programs then.

You can view this dangerous trailer here (in case it’s not clear, I’m being sarcastic by calling it dangerous. Ideas are not dangerous. Perspectives are not dangerous)

Woot!

I finished my second round edits on Taking Chase and got those back and now I’ll get to Threat of Darkness which I hope to make a huge dent in this weekend to push through and finish the middle.

Battlestar Galactica domestic date night is here. I love the time with my husband, just the two of us, eating popcorn and snuggling. It’s so important to try and make time as a couple and when you’re living such busy lives it’s easy to lose sight of that.

I’ll put this rant here at the end - I really can’t wait for election day because the ads in my district have hit a new low and I swear if one of the candidates (and I won’t even waste my time saying her name, although it’s perfect for her personality and demeanor) comes to my door I’ll turn the hose on her. Talk about the issues, I don’t want to hear about your opponent’s campaign platform when she was a college freshman 21 years ago (unless she was burning crosses or something). If all you’ve got is that, you really shouldn’t be re-elected. I don’t make a big secret of my politics but I’ll tell you what, don’t demonize my profession in an ad about your opponent and expect a nice reception when you come to my door. Feh!

The cake was really good if I do say so myself.

I’m going to be a featured author next month at TRS Blue - yay! I tell you, this was all unimaginable to me two years ago (okay, not the cake part). What a cool life I have.

27 grand on Threat of Darkness, I’m kicking out about 2 grand a night, I’d like to do a lot more this weekend. I’m getting ready to have a big battle scene that will put me into the last half of the middle so that’ll be good I think.

My two year old has decided she doesn’t like clothes but she walks in my very high heels as well as I do. There’s no doubting who her mom is (on the shoe thing, I’m too old to prance around nekkid during the daylight hours). Right now she’s in a pull up, my shoes, my purse on her shoulder and one of my bracelets on (shiny!) This isn’t something I’ve encouraged, she just gravitates to shiny stuff and shoes. It’s interesting to me how this gender stuff is. But they all liked barbie naked.

I had a long post but it got eaten. This does not make me happy.

However, I did get the first review for Tri Mates, which does make me happy indeed. Melissa at Joyfully Reviewed makes it an October Recommended Read and says in part: *WARNING* Do not sit down to read this book without a fan and cold drink. With Tri Mates, Lauren Dane delivers an erotically charged romance that is packed with action. Tracy, Nick and Gabe are perfect together and with the appearance of favorite characters from the other books in the Cascadia Wolves series, Tri Mates was a book that I was truly sad to flip the last page. Tri Mates proves that no matter if it is contemporary romance or paranormal romance, Ms. Dane is an author whose books should be on every romance lover’s auto-buy list!

Well! That’s a lovely way to start the day isn’t it?

And then I got a gander at TJ Michaels’ first three chapters of her next Samahin book -cue “and you didn’t”. It’s so good! Her worldbuilding is really excellent. I can’t wait to read more.

I’m making cake. With chocolate chips. My house smells like cake heaven. Which is ruined by “can we have a piece?” every twenty five seconds. It doesn’t matter how many times I say, “It’s not done yet. And then it’ll need to cool.” because no one listens to mom unless she’s having a quiet conversation with dad about something she doesn’t want them to hear.

It’s that day again over at my messageboard. I’ve put up a few excerpts this morning.

It’s a pretty day, rain squalls early and now the sun is out and it’s windy. It’s release day at Samhain. There’s a little bit of all kinds over there today with some really excellent authors.

I’m going to be over at Novelspotters today at 1 pm pacific/4 eastern so come by and say hello. I’ll be posting an excerpt or two from Taking Chase, which releases in less than a month now!

AAR is having a poll right now for favorite mainstream sexy titles, erotic romance and ebooks. Apparently she’s not getting enough of the ebook answers so hey - go vote if you’re so inclined. There are a lot of really great ebooks out there to vote for.

Danielle Steel apparently has her own perfume coming out. Sigh. Smart Bitches has a post about it. Go read.

There are several interesting entries all over the blogsphere about author websites.

Here’s what I like - If I can find what I’m looking for! It’s simple but overlooked a lot. I like a website that isn’t cluttered but has a sense of the author’s voice. Jenny Crusie , Alison Kent , Sasha White does this even though she has the dreaded white text on black but her site is not blinding but readable, sexy and sassy much like she is.

Another thing these sites have in common? You can find things! I can find backlists, coming soon titles and other little bits of interest. I love that. They’re also updated regularly.

Don’t make me click around for fifteen minutes trying to find your available titles, please. Don’t make me wander around looking for contact info. Just spend the 8 dollars to get your own domain and another 15 to get a simple website rather than the free sites that have urls that are 48 characters long and don’t contain your name until after three backslashes. If I can’t find you easily, chances are I won’t bother. Make it easy for me to find you. Your website doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars to be effective and pop up ads in the middle of your page make me cranky (along with blog ads, but that’s another entry). There are some amazing web designers out there (Croco Designs is my personal favorite but there are others) who won’t charge an arm and a leg for a really pretty and well designed site.

I’m picky about websites. Don’t play music unless you’re a band or unless I can turn it on instead of having to turn it off. Don’t offer sparkles and other annoying cursor effects, it’s too hard to navigate (and I know of one big name author who does this with a fairy that spews sparkles for a cursor and it drives me nuts). Please if you’re going to have that blinding black with white text, make the text big enough to read in a font that’s easily read (see Sasha White’s website for a perfect example of how to do it right). Some intricate gothic font in 8 point text with a blinding white on a black background makes me squint and then makes me find another site to read.

The point is to help the reader find your books and buy them. If they’re unfamiliar with you, give them a sense of who you are. I know a lot of folks are busy and think they don’t need to bother with a website or even to update the darned thing at least once every month or so. But frankly, readers are savvy, they want to know what’s going on.

What are your favorite websites?

Man is this fall moving fast. It’s already nearly Halloween and then my oldest son turns 9 shortly thereafter. And then Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year and then I’ll mess up the dates on everything for three months.

Let’s see - yesterday I had lunch with the fabulous Lacy Danes. We had a Frauke love fest (she’s so wonderful!) and talked writing and publishing and a whole variety of stuff and I really enjoyed the afternoon. On my way home I grabbed three sweaters, all on sale. I love sales.

I registered for RT today! Whee! I really can’t wait, this is my first one and I’m really excited to meet other authors and readers I’ve known online all this time. And of course hanging out with Megan and (hopefully) Anya will be the best part. There are a lot of great looking programs I want to go to but unfortunately many of them seem to happen at the same time, grr. Ah well, I need something to do in between trying to pretend I’m not all squee over my favorite authors walking down the halls around me.

I’m chatting at 5 pacific/8 eastern at Writerspace at the monthly EC author chat. Come on by and say hello!

Okay so that’s a lot of exclamation points. It’s a good thing Angie doesn’t edit my blog or she’d kick my ass for that.

Reviews are always a roll of the dice and I admit I’ve been very lucky that I’ve only had a few bad ones, but RT reviews always have me holding my breath. Today I’m doing the review dance of joy because the ever so lovely Anya Bast informs me Enforcer got 4 1/2 stars (that nifty first class delivery which I should get)

Here’s what Gail says:

“The first book in the Cascadia Wolves series starts out with a bang, and the action never lets up. An intricate world of werewolf tradition and pack hierarchy sets the scene for the well-developed characters. The very steamy sexual scenes, including a threesome, are well done and integral to the story.”

I’m trying to understand people’s hostility toward something they don’t ever have to look at, see, visit or read. For instance, at one of the boards I frequent, there are several posters violently, even nastily proclaiming author blogs to be the greatest evil humanity has seen since the A bomb. This spiced with lots of, “I hope they all go away” and other such comments.

Why? I mean, if you don’t like to read them - don’t. See, problem solved.

It’s not that blogs cause authors to not update their websites regularly. That’s just bad business sense and many authors are guilty of this. Drawing a connection between blogs and websites is nonsensical.

And seeing someone who says she wants to be an author complaining about agent/editor blogs just makes me shake my head. Again, let me refer you back to the “if you don’t like to read them - don’t” line above. But to continue on and complain that you have to read them to get to what they’re buying? Get over yourself and write your gorram book for heaven’s sake! No one makes you read a blog. Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop fecking reading blogs so you won’t be so offended by, uh, reading blogs.

Blogs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. That’s why I have a website and a messageboard (where I can thank my lucky stars that my readers are such wonderful people). You reach out in a variety of ways and build community in different ways at different places. Through this blog I’ve met a lot of great folks and it’s not something I’d trade. But it’s not a substitute for my website (and I personally hate blogs that are all promo that I could just get at the website). Anyway, my point is, they’re just another avenue to interact with or learn about something. It’s not like anyone is kneecapping you if you don’t read them.

I know, I get cranky too and I want to bitch about stuff that I could just easily cut out of my life and I don’t. Like this board where these jacked up cranky assed women post. But I love the moderator and several of the regulars. It’s just this cranky mafia makes the place so unpleasant. See, now I’m bitching about things I don’t have to see. Sigh.