Vixenwriter

Hey everyone, mid-week point which is all sort of off because it’s a short week and etc. I did finish up my grocery shopping at long last so my refrigerator is bursting at the seams and I totally cheated and had a slice of pie last night because, well, it’s cherry pie!

Speaking of loving things and being happy, don’t you wish people could be more often? Have you noticed how certain people seem to thrive on negative things, they never talk about things they love or look forward to? It’s all about things they hate and in truth? I feel sorry for that kind of person. The kind of person who can look at a catalog of things and only see what they wouldn’t like and then they focus on that. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good, “holy crap, what the hell is she wearing?” moment, but I try to eschew the tendency to dwell there. Wheee, eschew (I really am easily amused I’m sorry to say)

Today I saw Anya Bast’s blurb for The Darkest Kiss, her Heat title coming up next year and folks, this book is so fabulous!

What else? Oh! I got 2K more done on Battlefront - a murder is coming! I’ve also nearly finished chapter three in Once Bitten - Nathan’s book. Really productive right now. Which is good so I don’t tend to obsess on stuff I can’t control or start worrying about said stuff I can’t control.

I’d do a wednesday writerly entry but it’s not happenin today, LOL. All right, I have a million things to do and my kids have yet another short day so I have less time to do them! Y’all have a lovely Thanksgiving (for those in the US)!!

I love this image. I have a thing about pin up models/art from the 40s through the early 1960s - I love the representation of femininity and sex. It’s not demeaning or nasty, it’s a celebration.

I had an entry to write and then I read this really, truly sad story and so meh, I’ll leave you with this image instead.

Something smutty to help with the Monday Blues…

18 and over only behind the jump

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It’s not that hard. Pay people for their work.

Putting down something I’ve written and being tingly and flushed. I mean, wow. Writing sex is an interesting process. Sometimes a scene just flows from you, it connects to something deep inside you and as you write it, you’re really connected and involved. Those scenes I think tend to really jump off the page.

But not every scene is like that in a book. Sometimes the scenes it takes longest to write are the ones I read back on later and they make me sweaty! Other times the scene is one I like (or it wouldn’t be there) but while it serves a purpose in the story, it doesn’t particularly move me one way or the other.

Anyway, last night I re-read Battlefront - this is something I do with any project I sell on partial and then pick up later to write. I have to get back into the book and just having written several books and novellas back to back, I needed to find my way into the story again.

The partial ends on an emotional point. A breakthrough emotionally for Sera after an argument she has with Ash. They’ve been apart for ten years, it’s complicated and I’ll talk more about that later. Anyway, they have sex. And the book has BDSM elements. If you’ve read my BDSM writing you’ll know I like to get to the stuff in between people’s heads and emotions rather than just have a few whacks on the ass and call it a day. So essentially, this scene is about walls coming down and true power exchange. And i’m so happy I can look back at it months later and love the scene!

Now, to start writing! And Brandt has just come in so wheeee!

I love my daughter very much but this morning I want to toss her into the back yard and let her annoy the neighbors with her whining. Good lord.

I need to finish my Thanksgiving food shopping. My children have informed me that I’m the only one who likes mashed potatoes so I’m going to do a new potato dish this year I think. Ah, my husband saw this and said, “they’re outvoted, I like mashed potatoes” and wandered off again.

I need coffee. I need to finish edits. I need to deal with laundry and I need to get working on Battlefront.

Oy and now the middle monster is tantruming because he didn’t get to choose the cartoon. Sigh.

I’m over at the 70 Days of Sweat Blog today talking about perserverence.

Speaking of perserverence, I have edits to finish…

I finished Cascadia Wolves: Standoff last night. And now my brain has eaten all my every day words. I spent part of my morning as I ordered my children around, pointing at stuff and making “I’m totally serious!” noises. Not that they took me serious or anything, but we all have appearances to keep up.

I’m happy, so very happy with this book. Made me cry when I finished it and it had a sort of rough start but once I hit that sweet spot it really just finished itself with me riding along and typing as fast as I could. I’ll leave it until next week and we’ll see how I feel when I pick it up again.

Now I have edits on Celebration for the Dead and second round on Wolf Unbound and then it’s on to Battlefront! I have it all printed out and waiting for me to pick it up and re-immerse myself in Sera, Ash and Brandt’s world.

All the while listening to Songs of Faith and Devotion over and over. Next week it’ll be something else, but for now, the dark emotion of the songs really gets to me. I don’t think I’m going to have happy and light music in my playlist for a while, LOL.

I had something else I was going to say but my brain ate it. So it probably wasn’t important. Probably. BTW, Jill Shalvis owns my heart right now. I love her writing. I keep wanting to stop what I’m doing to sneak some reading time in.

So I was having a discussion with, who else, Megan, and we were talking about promotion and the pressure to promote and how some authors have taken that pressure and just gone crazy with it and it’s backfiring onto all of us.

Promotion is a wily beast with sharp teeth who lives in some mythical place and you can only find the keys to get out of its lair on like the third Tuesday of the fourth month on a full moon when the planets are aligned just so. When you first start out the key is in figuring out what works and what’s a waste of time. It’s not the same for everyone I don’t think, because people have different approaches to their career.

But I will say right now, unless you’re Nora Roberts, promotion on some level is important (and she does signings and she gets out there too, because even Nora Roberts has to sell books). I know, I know there are authors out there who’ll say, “all you need to do is write a great book.” I disagree. Because on any given day many “great books” are released but how do people know your great book is out? In truth, your spectacular book isn’t going to fall from the sky with fanfare and set off some internal alarm to let readers know. And it’s really not going to happen for newbies and mid listers who are really thinking about position in the market.

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50K on Standoff! Yay!

Also, in yay news - Witches Knot: Thrice United is now available in print from Ellora’s Cave’s new print store!

To celebrate the recent release of Feral Fascination, the anthology containing Reluctant, in print, several of the anthology authors will be at the EC Reader Chat tomorrow afternoon so pop over to say hello, read fun excerpts and have a good time!

I’m caught up in writing today so I don’t have much else to say! Oh, other than if you write a disgruntled letter to the RWR and pretend to be just a reader but you’re really an author in competition with the books you’re complaining about? Naughty. And not the fun kind of naughty either.

But on to the good kind of naughty - I hear it’s Gerard’s birthday. My goodness, I think someone needs some birthday spankings!

oh and

after looking at those it feels more like it’s my birthday!