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Archive for October, 2006



Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
A bunch of totally unrelated things…

It’s probably not wise to start off one’s morning listening to Marilyn Manson. Still, it does lend a theme to the day, LOL, especially the instrumental stuff he wrote for the Matrix soundtrack.

So I’ve decided I’m a really fortunate person to know so many interesting people. I asked a group of them to pony up opinions about weapons my heroine in Enclave would carry and they went above and beyond the call of duty in giving me ideas and helping me with issues of portability, carrying, stopping power for big bad undead creatures, etc. Thank you everyone who gave your time and brainpower to this!

My daughter never wants to wear anything more than shoes. On the one hand, go her for being a shoe fanatic like her momma. On the other hand, this makes her father nervous and he wonders if this is a pattern, LOL!

I realized the other day that Virginia Swift had a new Sally Alder mystery out that I hadn’t even seen. I quickly remedied that and picked it up this weekend. I love Sally and Laramie is a great town as character but I just didn’t find myself connecting to this book in the way I have with the other books in the series. I had the mystery figured out pretty early on, which is unusual when I read Swift. Anyway, everyone has an off book from time to time and I still love all the characters but um, more Hawk and Sally please. I think their relationship and the dynamics of it are so rich for exploration but she doesn’t give them enough attention. I wanted so much more, especially in this particular book but it was barely touched on and certainly not explained enough. Gimme more, Virginia!!

I’m nearly finished with the partial revision of Enclave. I think I’ll just keep plugging away on the entire thing though. That is until I start getting edits. I know I’ll be seeing Taking Chase soon and Sword and Crown 2nd round edits should be coming my way next week or the week after too.

Monday, October 2nd, 2006
Hard Assed Heroines

Recently, there’s been some talk about the idea that “women aren’t women” anymore in romances due to the popularity of the kickass heroine. And well, as it’s women who buy romance and women who write it overwhelming - I beg to differ. Women ARE strong. I’m not saying they have to carry surface to air missles or anything, strength comes in a wide variety of flavors. So yeah, I don’t like whiny heroines, in fact I won’t read them or the authors who write them. They’re not my cup of tea at all.

On a related note, the heroine in Enclave is hard assed. By that I mean, she’s a vampire. And vampires are predators. So she kills and doesn’t feel remorse, it’s her job. She’s not kicking kittens or killing innocents or anything, but she’s not fluffy or sweet. This is sort of risky I know because a) she’s a vampire and I know people think vampires are over and b) there’s this hesitance about reading heroines who aren’t nice. And Maya isn’t nice. She’s strong and courageous and loyal and vicious.

I just can’t find myself in a place yet where I write my characters down. It’s who she’s meant to be, you know? There are obviously limits based on what romance is and what the market is seeking, there are things even if she wanted to do, I won’t write them into my books.

At the same time, I just want her to be this way. She IS dark and complicated. Why do heroes get all the fun in that department?

Sunday, October 1st, 2006
Hee!

So yesterday on my way to dinner I stopped at the Federal Way Borders (a very romance friendly store) and looked for Touch of Fae. Which wasn’t there. But what was there were two copies of Giving Chase! I haven’t gotten my author copies yet so this was the first time I’d seen it! So I signed one and bought the other and hey, I learned that earlier in the day the store had FOUR of them. So yay to the other two folks who bought their copies that day.

Giving Chase!