Vixenwriter

This song is the one I keep coming back to as I write today.

BTW, I just just 19K. Woot!

At Lust Bites with a new snippet of Stripped (extra spicy!) so head on over and say hello!

Book reading wise, I finished Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned: Happy Hour is so wrong, so very, very wrong that it’s right. It’s twisted and hilarious and sick and dark and also just great fun. Anyway, I haven’t read anything like it before and the combo of all that dark (read – scenes of zombies eating people, bodily fluids of all sorts) and all that hilarity and snark – works.

It’s alchemy in an insane, gonzo sense. Also? I usually hate it when men write female protags – they often get the inner dialog incorrect or it’s so stereotypical it makes me want to hit someone) but Mark Henry doesn’t write her down, doesn’t make her a bimbo and she’s genuine even if I’m not sure I’d want her to be my friend, I’m sure there’s a part of me in her and every other woman I’ve admired too.

Happy Hour is also not a romance, but I think if you’re looking for something unusal and you’re not squeamish, Happy Hour is a great book. I’m totally looking forward to Amanda’s next book!

Book writing wise: I hit 15K on Relentless last night! Wheee! I’d like to have a very productive weekend since I’ll be in Ohio next weekend for the Lori Foster Reader Get Together.

I said I’d give it a try, here’s the evidence. My very first book video and boy am I addicted…

Because I’ve gotten used to windows movie maker through doing video blogging, I thought I’d try to make a book video for a few of my upcoming books. The problem is, like video blogging, I look up and an hour has passed without my knowing it.

In truth, I’m not overly convinced book videos make a difference in book buying patterns. Shrug. Hell, lots of things I do I’m not sure if they make a difference. I don’t think I’d pay the kind of money I see being shelled out for a professional book video to be created. I’m not hating on people who do it, but for several grand I can think of other ways to spend my money (again, just my opinion here, do whatcha want for yourself).

However, I’m never opposed to learning how to do things for myself. I don’t think it can *hurt* to try book videos, most certainly. And I like doing the multi media stuff even if I’m not perfect at it. It’s fun even if it’s time porn in a major way.

I’ve got several books coming out in print the remainder of this year – Making Chase, Reading Between the Lines and Undercover (and Taking Care of Business in the UK) so why not give it a whirl?

Only now I’m laughing at what pops up when I put in certain search terms into the stock photo sites (blond female, military for instance comes up with all sorts of things so NOT on point with my book but it does make me giggle)

Finally the boys go back to school today and I can’t wait. I am SICK of the bickering, gah. Of course in just a few weeks I’ll get to hear it all day every day until September.

I’m at 13K on Relentless and I’m really happy with the direction it’s headed at this point. Oh and sexin happened. Heh.

Listening a YAZ and Basement Jaxx this morning.

I have stuff to say but I’m thinking on how to say it and if it should be said at all.

On a big thumbs up note – Cindy Eden’s When He Was Bad is out today!!

This is a two author antho!

Two of paranormal romance’s bestselling authors combine their extraordinary talents and set the pages on fire with an after-dark anthology featuring Alpha males so hot, so wild, and so bad, they may just be the best you’ve ever had…

“Miss Congeniality” by Shelly Laurenston:

It’s those damn stockings that get me every time. They have this sexy little line down the back and I can’t help but stare at her legs…constantly. And you’d think she’d be all over me like every other female in the Seattle area. I’m young, good looking, and one day I’ll be Alpha Male of my family’s Pack. But Professor Irene Conridge acts like I don’t even exist. How is that possible? Now she’s got enemies coming out of the woodwork and I have to protect her. Why? Because that’s the kind of man I am. Yes, I am that amazing. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that while I work to secure her safety, she’ll be hanging out at my house. That’s hours…days even that I’ve got Irene Conridge right where I want her.

“Wicked Ways” by Cynthia Eden:

I’m too dangerous for her. I know it, but I can’t get my sexy new neighbor out of my head. When I hear her scream one night, the absolute last thing I expect to see is Miranda Shaw–star of my hottest fantasies–being attacked by a vampire. Now the undead jerk is after her, and I’m the only thing standing between the beautiful lady and a killer who just won’t stop. Well, too bad for him, because that vamp has just made the worst mistake of his afterlife–he’s tangled with a shifter. And Miranda, well, she’s so busy watching out for him that she won’t see me closing in on her–not until it’s too late–and I’m about to show her just how wild I can get…

10,500 / 90,000 (11.7%)

RELENTLESS!

Whoo! Hit 10K last night and the story and my characters are opening up for me. Originally I’d envisioned a certain kind of push and pull between H/H but as I write, that’s not how it’s working. Certainly they’re from two different worlds, but I can’t make them not like each other so I’m not going to force it. The meta story is the same, the conflicts are the same, but their chemistry is a bit different.

IMO, you can’t outline chemistry. It’s organic on the page and it develops as you write. At least for me. I know other folks write with very detailed, broken down by scene outlines. I wouldn’t outline at all if I didn’t have to to sell to NY and on proposal because I tend to like to let the story unfold on its own. However, an outline is helpful when you’re starting something you sold on a few pages of an idea in November, LOL.

Don’t get me wrong, selling on proposal and synopsis is awesome. It means editors trust me and my record enough to complete a book, a good book, to buy on spec. I appreciate having come this far. And I’m fortunate to have editors who haven’t complained when I veer a bit off from the original synopsis when I turn in the final. Now, if I was really veering off, like it had been proposed as a post apoc love story between one man and one woman and I turned in a contemporary menage romance, that’s gonna be a problem! But so far, *knocks wood* it’s been smallish things – almost always because as I write, my characters real motivations come to me and I write to reflect that.

Yesterday I caught an oh so annoying and yet all to common Livejournal entry wherein an author spent a screen complaining about romance and gee, I hope she felt loads smarter by the end. And I also hope to never have to pretend I don’t think she’s an asshat at some conference when she shows up in two years, after she realizes how many romance readers love to cross over genres.

But a poster at one of the board I’ve been frequenting for many years now, linked this most fabulous letter/essay by Richard K. Morgan (amazing author – one of my favorite of all time) wherein he takes to task SFF authors for doing the same thing to each other that this author and sub genres of romance do.

I guess in the end what I’m saying is that it’s about growing up. Not growing up in the sense of writing or reading “grown up” literature (whatever that actually is), or pretending — on some Eastercon panel or messageboard somewhere — to cast off a specious immaturity of prior literary taste in favour of more weighty and worthwhile prose. No, I’m talking about growing up in the sense of seeing both the genre and the wider world in the way they are instead of the way we’d like them to be. I’m talking about making conscious choices in what we write, and then taking responsibility for those choices, instead of railing against some crudely confected other that’s spoiling everything for us. This is, above all, about getting a sense of perspective on what we do for a living, about accepting our genre as a whole, the way the crime guys accept theirs; accepting it has facets and seeing them that way, instead of constantly turning them into factions; accepting that just because you don’t get off on a particular strain of SF&F, doesn’t mean other people don’t, can’t or shouldn’t. This is about accepting, as Iain Banks once said, that when all is said and done, we are all a part of the entertainment industry.

I’ve got my lighter out now. Word.

It’s a totally gorgeous day. My husband is home installing our new computer (WHEEE!) and my kids are reasonably well behaved. Nice huh? Add to that a swanky new excerpt brochure Frauke designed for me and already some good words added to RELENTLESS and I’m a happy camper.

Pumpkin muffins are the devil. Why are they so good? Our local grocery store has a bakery inside and their pumpkin muffins are sin and I love them. They’re the size of a softball though and I’m quite sure they’re a zillion calories but I can’t make myself care (She says washing it all down with diet coke). I wouldn’t even go to that part of the store (also where the cupcakes live and we know my position on cupcakes) but to access the fruit and veg it’s the natural path unless I go to the front of the store and back around, which makes my loop all wrong. It’s a plan of course, to make my ass even bigger by the corporation that owns Top Foods. Hmpf. Damn them and their delicious baked treats.

Okay, back to writing. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!

I finished copyedits on Undercover. Whew. And I still like the book even if I really don’t want to look at it again for at least six months. It’s always iffy when you look at a book after you’ve looked at it what seems like a zillion times so it’s a relief I’m happy with it still.

I finished Jeri Smith-Ready’s Wicked Game last night. It’s been a while since I’ve been this totally gonzo about a book. I just really loved it. It’s smart, the writing is clever, tight, sexy in the right places, tense in others, scary here and there and totally original.

Ciara is a smart but not perfect heroine. A grifter (oh how I love twisted characters) trying to go straight for a host of believable and layered reasons. Her job at this funky radio station makes sense. The way she acts with the vampires makes sense. The way she interacts with Shane her sort of boyfriend/vampire makes sense. I liked her a lot because she was accessible in a really wonderful way.

The mystery/suspense element was well done. The worldbuilding was clever and believable and the romantic sub-plot handled well and in proportion to the story. On top of all this? Jeri is a really, genuinely nice person, which is all too rarel.

Wicked Game is a really good book and if you haven’t grabbed it yet you really should. You won’t be sorry at all.

And lastly, my husband is home from his business trip so yay! A long weekend without copy edits or a super close book deadline, a new book opening up in front of me to write, time with my family – it’s all good.

I’m slightly grumpy today. Most likely related to being filled with girly parts.

Good news abounds however! My friend Sam is getting married and she’s so lovely I’m thrilled for her. I continue to be entranced by Wicked Game. I am nearly done with copy edits for Undercover. I have a sneak peek of an Ann Aguirre story in my inbox (well two actually) and Megan Hart has faboooo news at her blog.

All lovely things.