Vixenwriter

Sensual Magic

Not a bad week all told. It’s been fabulous and super busy but I haven’t been writing as fast as I normally do so I need to kick back up to 2,500 - 3,000 a day. I just got my revision letter for Undercover and the edits are fortunately light so it shouldn’t take overly long so once I finish up with Sensual Magic, I’ll get right to that and then on to Unexpected. It’ll be nice to re-visit the Wardens again! And then on to Fallen.

How’s everyone holding up? Checked in over at the Sven blog yet? (link to your right, just click on Sven and he’ll lead you to the light)

Wheee! Sweating away here and I’m close to the end. I haven’t even started my writing for the day so I’m hoping to break 20K or more by the time I shut down tonight. From day one of Sven to last night I’m up over 7K. A little slower than my normal speed but the flu kicked my butt. I’m hoping to get back up to 3K a day now that I’m not hacking up a lung a few times a day.

Which is good because I just learned yesterday that Outshined, a contemporary erotic romance, sold to Berkley Heat! I don’t know when it’ll be coming out at this point but it’s due mid-September so fingers crossed either late 09 or early 2010! I also got word that the proposal for Fallen, book II in my first Berkley sale, has been accepted. That one will be out at some point in 09 so I’m totally thrilled. Fallen is another futuristic set in the same world as Undercover although not with the same characters.

I’m so fortunate. I want to say thank you thank you thank you to my agent Laura Bradford who always kept me going when I felt as if I’d never sell a darned thing and also to my friends who have been so supportive to me - and most of all my readers who are just totally awesome.

It’s a darned good day!

Blerg, okay so I *think* I’m on the better side of this darned flu. Yesterday after I finished up a slight revision, I pretty much just laid in bed, sweated and watched reality television. I still don’t get the appeal but I did see several episodes of The Girls Next Door *LOVES*.

But yesterday was the first day of the next 70 Days of Sweat Challenge! I did squeeze in 2K this morning and I think they’re good words so yay for me! That makes up for yesterday and I’m hoping I can get more in tonight as well.

Here’s the welcome to the challenge post:

The main goal of this challenge is to write.

1) We’re looking for a total word count between 60-100k. This means between now and May 16, (77 days total, 7 ‘free’ days worked into the calendar), you will write 850-1500 words a day.

2) Check in here @ the blog every Sunday and Wednesday.

3) Daily inspiration here at the blog~you can stop in when time allows.
4) Time permitting, you can check out the blogs of your sponsors or fellow sweaters, links on the sidebar.

Sponsors this time around include: HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, Stephanie Tyler, Shiloh Walker, Lauren Dane, Diana Peterfreund, Jaci Burton, and Portia Da Costa. The sponsors will drop in on the blogs from various challengers over the next couple of months.

So start writing! But take a minute and check out the above sponsors.

BTW, 70 Days of Sweat will begin round three on March 1 and end in May, giving an extra week for RT for those who’ll be attending. It’s no secret just how much I love this challenge. I think it’s effective and a great way to give your writing focus in your life. You can head over to the Sven blog to sign up!

I’m an author sponsor again this round so I’ll poke at you and celebrate with you as well if you sign up. It’s not just me - Diana Peterfreund, HelenKay Dimon, Jaci Burton, Larissa Ione, Portia Da Costa, and Shiloh Walker are back for another round as well!

You should pop over to the Sven Blog to check in!

Despite the holidays happening in the midst of the challenge, Sven was really successful for me on multiple levels. First and most important - It helped me to keep writing as my main focus. It made me accountable to myself because I had to think about it every day. And while I tend to do that anyway, it helped me keep on task when I’d have preferred to play scrabulous or check my email or whatever. And because of that, I was ahead on my task list and word count which played nicely into my sale to Berkley when I could turn in a finished manuscript early (yay!).

Wordcount wise - it was huge for me as well. I stopped counting after I hit 120K but I finished multiple books, wrote a few proposals and did a lot of revising and editing. I even finished one book from start to finish (instead of from chapter four to the end if I sold on a partial). I just got caught up in the challenge and it worked out nicely. Some days I did next to no new words because of all the editing I did, but other days, I just sailed through and made up for the low count days.

I’m going to keep the Sven Challenge going for myself because I think it’s been a big help to me. I hope it was for you all too.

We don’t all write at the same speed. We get blocked. We have outside demands on our lives so some days, some weeks, etc, are more productive than others wordcount wise. The important thing is - did you put writing where it needed to be in your life?

I’m old school about this writing gig. People approach it differently but I believe in doing what works for you. When you were tired did you try to get at least a page done or did you fall in front of your television? That’s a choice you make. It’s a choice I make. But it’s a choice nonetheless. You can talk about being a writer, or you can be a writer - again, that’s a choice. You don’t have to write every day if you simply can’t fit it into your schedule. But if you don’t write regularly, into all the time you can, *you’re* making the choice not to.

It isn’t easy. When a story is kicking my ass and my kids are having trouble in school and I have a four foot high pile of laundry to deal with and I haven’t had a moment to myself in weeks and I’m TIRED - I don’t want to do anything. I want to watch television and veg. And sometimes I do, but 9 times out of 10 I make myself get back in that chair and 9 times out of 10 I’m glad I did.

First:

moar funny pictures

Angie sent me a link to something she created, which made me giggle. She took this pic of me, or someone at Samhain did, at the RT booksigning in April. Anyway, I made the one above of Megan and I last night because she and I sold a book. A book we came up with at RT while standing in line as a matter of fact. I comes out in October of 08, which is verrrrry fast and very exciting. I can’t say for who yet, there’s one last detail to get in place but we have a title and we have a pub date and an editor and it’s all very cool.

moar funny pictures

Also, did you know the amazingly fabulous Anya Bast has a shiny new website? She totally does and it’s gorgeous! Go and oooh and aaah over it! She’s also running a contest at the Maverick author blog to win some fab books so get on over there to check it out!

Speaking of contests… head on over to the Bradford Bunch Blog - I’m doing round two of the To Do List contest!

And last but not least at all - the pub date for Battlefront is December 08! I’m so thrilled! WHHEEE! It’s not going to be called Battlefront (and in all honesty, I didn’t expect it to be, I rarely get to keep my titles, LOL) so I’ll get you the final title soon along with the back cover copy that is so made of awesome I actually squeed with joy when I read it. Leis Pederson, my editor, is so shiny with the blurbage, I’m totally happy with it!

That’s about it for now. I haven’t done much reading this last week to be honest. But I did reac 80K in notBattlefront last night and I’m heading into the home stretch. Whooo.

I don’t know what the deal is but I have been so cold this fall and winter! I’m suddenly the woman you work with who wears like a coat in the office and has a space heater under her desk. My poor husband walks around in shorts and I’m wearing three layers and the heat is on full blast. Today it’s really, really cold and it’s not just me. We may even get snow mid-week and this morning as I took the middle monster to school we even had a bit of wet snow for a bit. The boys are whipped up about snow days but I’m so ready for them to be in school, LOL.

Last night I met my Sven goal and surpassed it by 2k! This morning I woke up having written 102K words since October 15. I’ve written several books (from partial and one from word zero) as well as partials and a metric ton of edits and revisions. I feel very productive and now that I face the end of this year and start of 08 with loads of deadlines, I’ll be needing those extra days for revisions and crit on Battlefront as well as edits on Standoff and Celebration for the Dead and FLE on Wolf Unbound. I’m totally in love with Sven.

Battlestar Galactica Razor was pretty darned good on Saturday night. I had some lovely red wine and we snacked on chocolates two little birdies sent me in congratulations for my Berkley sale. My kids actually stayed asleep and no one interrupted!

Okay back to work! Don’t forget to enter the Sexy Devil contest!!

First a shout out to Frauke at Croco Designs who has (as usual) gone above and beyond the call of duty to not only create a fabulous splash page for my Vegas anthology but who’s spent a huge amount of her time in moving my website from my old host to her fabulous new digs at Janus Portal. She’s a fabulous designer and I adore her work and her as a person!

Also, the fabulous Dreamforge Media is designing a new blog template for the Maverick Authors! I can’t wait to unveil it. All kinds of exciting stuff going on!

Also, yesterday, the new RT came in the mail. I already knew I’d gotten a fabulous review for Ascension but EC had a backpage ad with one of the anthologies I’m in - Feral Fascination as well as in the Spring books preview, the Vegas anthology got a mention! It was quite lovely to see. Also, some friends got some great reviews, which is also nice to see.

Cooking on Battlefront - and I made a Battlefront book page here so you can read the loose blurb for it and get an idea of what the book is about. I’m just shy of 50K now, over halfway finished with the book and now that I’m getting ready to transition, I’m feeling better about pacing. The middle of a book is always the hardest for me to write!

Tonight is Battlestar Galactica Razor with my dude! It’s a movie that gives you the story of what happened on the Pegasus when the Cylons attacked up until the start of this upcoming season. Yes, yes I am a sci fi freak and I’m proud of it! This movie is on my calendar I so love the series, LOL. Plus, it’s good date night fodder with my husband.

Monday I’ll work on Standoff, it’ll have been a week since I finished so it had some time to digest.

Um, that’s really about it. I’m going to gorge on Gordon Ramsay today on the BBC. I love him so much.

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.