Vixenwriter

Progress with Fated

Favorite snippet:

“Oh honey, I know where you are right now.” Grace looked over at Nina who nodded back at her. “When I met Nina and she was such an insufferable cow, it was horrible. I knew Cade cared about her and I could see how much she cared about him. It sucked.”

“I was pregnant and you just pranced into my house all tiny and cute. Who wouldn’t hate you?” Nina snorted and Grace laughed.

“I am tiny and cute, aren’t I?”

As some folks may be aware, Amazon has been informing those small publishers who sell POD books through their service they must use Amazon’s POD service, BookSurge.

From the Wall Street Journal: Amazon.com Inc., flexing its muscles as a major book retailer, notified publishers who print books on demand that they will have to use its on-demand printing facilities if they want their books directly sold on Amazon’s Web site.

You can read more about it here, here at slashdot and

Here at Publisher’s Weekly: Over the last year, BookSurge has been trying to cut into the market share of pod leader Lightning Source and is using the selling clout of Amazon to generate more business. “I feel like the flea between two giant elephants,” said the head of one pod publisher about the upcoming battle between Lightning Source and BookSurge/Amazon. He said although the deal with BookSurge will be more expensive, he has no choice but to make the move since most of his authors expect their titles to be for sale on Amazon. He added that his company will also continue to use Lightning Source for printing as well. Amazon’s BookSurge mandate extends to traditional publishers as well as to online pod houses.

I’m waiting to see how this shakes out. I have a great deal of concern obviously as Samhain and EC are both publishers who use POD technology. Samhain I know is working on it and informed authors via the author loop on Friday of the situation. I know via the articles above that Whiskey Creek books have had their buy buttons disabled already but my checks of my books at Amazon have so far shown my books still available including pre-orders. I’m hoping we can hear answers soo so that anxious authors can at least know what the future holds and start to prepare one way or the other.

Fated

Wheee! Posting my Sven progress on Fated made me think about story pacing and how the level of backstory and detail is dependent upon overall story length. For instance in a novella, you have less space for character development and detail so it’s important to use guidepost scenes to do the work. In category, you have more room but still not as much as when you’re looking at 90 - 100K.

It occured to me last night as I was writing that I’m at the stage where I keep note of this stuff mentally and I sort of have these little alarms in my head - okay by this point I need to have laid the groundwork for the dark moment, by this stage I need to have the main storyline well developed - that sort of thing. I know my ending will be X long so I keep that in mind as I hit the middle. I don’t keep notes really although I do outline for the books I sell on partial and proposal. But over the last years, I’ve developed a mix of plotting and pantsing. I write as loose a synopsis as I can - essentially hit the highlights of the bones of the story and then fill in the colors and lines as I go. This enables me to have the freedom I love when writing to let the story take over, but also keeps me to timelines and schedules and *most of the time* helps keep me from wandering off track.

Now I am a huge believer in the idea that there is NO one true way. Every author has what works for her and she might tinker with it over time and even across certain books. My way works for me. Another author might do it more efficiently and better, but each of us has our own process.

And now, off to do laundry and hope the sleet outside does not make its mind to go into full snow. Yes I said snow. Yes, it’s March 29. Gah!! And then I shall finish up this scene in Fated later on tonight.

Cascadia Wolves: Fated as of last night! Wheeeeeee!

Favorite lines:

“Whatever. You can’t live off that one forever. You’re like the queen of the Pack now so stop whining. Anyway, you snuck off four or five times to call home. And by the way, calling home does not include hanging out having ice cream on the other side of the pool area. If you’re going to skive off, at least hide it better.”

No booktalk today. I’ve been writing and editing and revising so much I haven’t had the time to read. Well okay I started to read something and officially gave up on it last night because it’s just that I wanted the bad guy to succeed in killing the heroine. Not a good sign.

I’m a very blessed person. I am. I have so much to be thankful for and while I get cranky over stupid stuff, it’s never far from my mind just who much I have in my life to celebrate.

Yesterday the UPS truck pulled up to my door and my totally handsome UPS delivery guy brought six boxes to my doorstep. Two of those boxes contained postcards I recently had made for the Vegas release and also for Undercover. Another one contained new business cards - all this designed for me by Frauke who is wonderful and fabulous.

Two more contained my author copies of What Happens in Vegas which I carefully opened and then stood there, just staring at the books within. They’re a good weight. I love the cover very much. I flipped through, loving the little scene break icons (nifty little vegas styled card icons) and then i read my acknowledgements and I started to cry.

This book sold at a time when I was really low. I was really beginning to wonder if I’d ever break into New York and it got me through in a way I can’t even think about right now without crying. I’m not used to not being confident about my work. I was raised to believe if you worked your hardest at something you’d succeed. The publishing industry doesn’t always work that way. It certainly takes hard work, but it’s not enough. Waiting is really hard and it can kill your confidence.

So when I picked it up and held it, I did so knowing that the sweet feeling belonged to more than just me. It belongs to my husband. Ray. He’s my best friend and my number one fan. He has supported my work without fail. It belongs to my agent and friend Laura Bradford who has been there for me, flogging the hell out of my books to editors for going on two years now. When she called me to tell me about my Berkley deal she didn’t miss a beat when I started to cry. She’s awesome and I love her. It belongs to my parents who raised me to know everything is possible (and my mom who harasses people in bookstores to buy my books!). It belongs to my readers who have supported me continuously across publishers - Renee and Tracy who’ve beta read for me countless times. It goes to a lot of people because none of us does this alone. Ann Leveille at Ellora’s Cave and Angie James at Samhain who’ve been such fabulous editors they’ve both helped me become a better writer with each book. Megan Hart and Anya Bast who’ve been my homegirls for a number of years now who have read my stuff and critted it and who have just been the kinds of people I can trust to never bullshit me.

Anyway, I’m being sort of schmoopy but I never, ever want to be that person. You know the one who tells everyone she’s the master of her genre or the best mother in the world or whatever. Because I’m not here solely on my own merits. I’m here because of the support and efforts of those people around me.

Thank you, all of you, for helping me make my dreams come true.

First off - Sven!

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

I got a grand on this last night and I’m happy given how freaking dog tired I was by the time I was able to start work on it.

Favorite lines from yesterday:

Beth turned around in the seat. “Oh you’re awake now!” she said when she caught Megan with her eyes open.

Damn. The woman was diabolical.

I’m building my playlist and thanks to Megan, Five Finger Death Punch seems to be be the dominating force so far.

Fated is complicated. Yes, this is about fated mates but what if you’re not ready? What if one of you is and the other isn’t so much? What are you willing to give up? Because love isn’t always easy. it’s not always simple. And sometimes, if you don’t realize what’s important to you, you might lose it.

Angie has a great entry up at Romancing the Blog about epublishing so you should check it out. As always, she’s got a lot of smart things to say. I thought in particular the last two paragraphs were the best.

But authors should also expect more from themselves. This may be an unpopular thing to say, but first realizing that maybe not every book is meant to be published. Some books are a learning experience and will eventually be shoved under the metaphorical bed. That’s okay. It means you keep working to learn your craft, write the next book, and keep submitting. Choose your publishers carefully, read your contracts even more carefully. Authors should also expect professional behavior of themselves—online, in public and with their publisher and editor, treating epublishing obligations exactly the same as they would obligations to a NY publisher. Representing themselves and the industry they’re helping grow in a way that shows pride in themselves, their work and their company.

Amen. Writing is a business. If you do it as a hobby that’s one thing but if you do it and intend it to be a career, you have to run it like that. Which means sometimes you have to rein in your excitement and say no when you get an offer. Because as I said a while back, not all publishers are equal. And not every author is the right fit with every publisher either. It’s about what you want and what they can provide and then you work your way toward each other.

But when a publisher doesn’t answer their emails over and over for years at a time. When royalty payments are late regularly. When your book comes out without any edits or with a cover you’ve never seen. When you get punished for asking questions - these are all bad signs. Period. I know people keep saying they’re not, but you can’t convince me it’s actually normal business practice to pay people late on a regular basis. It isn’t. It’s a BAD business practice and a sign of poor leadership. And when an epublishing business can’t respond to email from its authors, that’s a bad sign. You can look the other way but eventually things are likely to go south. Because communication is a basic part of business.

In the end, what we have is our gut. (and not the muffin top type, LOL) But listening to our common sense and making it louder than the excitement we feel when we get an offer.

So as it happens, April 4th I’ve got a new chapter in the Witches Knot universe coming out from Ellora’s Cave. I’m pretty excited because I’ve wanted to do Minx and Connor’s book since I wrote Vengeance Due in 2006! Anyway, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for my Witches Knot books because they’re where I started and they’ve given me so much enjoyment and creative energy over the years.

Anyway, I thought for Titilating Tuesday, an excerpt from CfoD would be fun…

Adult content behind the jump - 18 and over only please…

Read the rest of this entry ?

Okay so I may not have written a whole lot of NEW words this week but I’ve gotten a heck of a lot of writing work done in the last seven days.

I finished the revisions on Undercover and got them back to my editor
I reworked a manuscript and synopsis and got it to my agent for a pitch
I edited and finished up Sensual Magic and I’ll mail it to my editor tomorrow

NOW - I can work on Cascadia Wolves: Fated!

My kids are still jacked up on a sugar high from all the chocolate and all my good intentions this last week diet wise have gone out the window in a flurry of mint chocolate chip ice cream. But my husband is home, my kids are going back to school tomorrow, my April 1 deadline has been met and I’m rolling! Wheeee!

My husband is home! Yayayay! He’s been away for the last week on a business trip and between all the writing work I’ve needed to do, running three kids around and sleeping like ten kinds of awful when he’s not here - I was just TIRED yesterday afternoon. But he’s home and I missed him and we had pancakes and did the nice, Saturday morning family thing.

I did update my website with excerpts for Taking Care of Business and Undercover should anyone be interested in checking those out and also, I put up a page for my next Cascadia Wolves book, Fated. Yes, Unexpected is now Fated because as the very clever Angie pointed out, Unexpected sounds a lot like Undercover and we didn’t want readers to confuse the two. Anyway, there’s a loose blurb up now.

AND…I’m told the author copies of What Happens in Vegas are on their way! Which means I’m going to be doing some contests soon so keep an eye out. I didn’t want to start a contest until the books were actually here though, LOL. I can’t wait to see them. Anya has hers already and she said they were very pretty so I can’t wait.

That’s about it. I need to deal with laundry and get some writing work done. It’s sunny today so I’d like to get out and plant some of the seeds the kids and I picked up last week as well.

Enjoy your Saturday afternoon!