Vixenwriter

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!

I have now turned the corner in Standoff and I’m entering the “end of the book” stage. I do have that vague, “god is this all just words put together in no coherent fashion” feeling in the back of my head as I ususally do at this part, but I’m flipping it off and I totally will call it a diva and shove it if I have to.

Also, in news that makes me giggly - So last night I got an email from the totally fabulous Rhian who’s sent me a link. She’s made a mini-movie and I’m in it. I watched it and laughed and laughed and laughed some more.

It’s violent in that summer movie at the lake is so if you’re very sensitive, don’t click the link. However, it’s totally cartoonish and also features Anya Bast and Megan Hart as well as Lila Dubois and Jill the Acadian.

Check it out!

Over 5K yesterday on Standoff and I’m so thrilled! Last night as I was writing a scene that really only came to me a few days ago, I hit that sweet spot where the words just fell from my fingertips. I’m pleased with what came out and I feel like I *truly* know Grace now where I only got glimpses of her before. I love that! This book has been a lot like Chased was as I wrote it. I feel like I started off with an idea of who Liv was but she really revealed herself to me midpoint and it was a revelation to us both.

Books ebb and flow. Sometimes they’re fast and relatively painless to write. Other times you have periods when you’re sure the book sucks swampwater. I feel with this book I’ve had a clear overview but the writing has been a series of small discoveries as I put it all together.

Each time I write something I learn more about myself, my process and really, about writing in general. There are times when you feel like it’s just not coming together but you keep working and working and suddenly, things move and clear up and wow, it’s not the way you’d originally imagined it at that level of detail but it’s just exactly what it should be.

Because this book is the last in a four book story arc, I’ve had to be careful and weave all the loose threads into the whole. This is an interesting challenge. First because I hadn’t imagined it would *be* a four book story arc when I wrote Enforcer. It just worked out that way when I wrote Tri Mates and suddenly I thought, hmm, this is a big story, wouldn’t it be fun if I actually, oh say, planned out the series in advance?

Anyway, I outlined Wolf Unbound and Standoff at the same time, closing the loop and ending the story and the series. We’ll see if I want to do this again when I finish Standoff, LOL, but right now I’m thinking I would in a heartbeat.

Speaking of Wolf Unbound - I got my cover a la Dawn Seewer yesterday

WHEE! I love it. I’ve not worked with Dawn before but once I opened that jpg I was a fan for life.

I’ve hit 50K in Sven and nearly the halfway point in Standoff so I’m a happy camper today!

Ah time flies. My oldest child turns ten today. Holy cow, how did that happen? He happily scarfed down four pancakes before scampering off to school with popsicles for his birthday treat thingy. Tonight it’ll be cake and ice cream and the meal of his choosing? Chicken nuggets, fries and mac and cheese. Sigh. Whatever, as long as I don’t have to eat it, everything is fine.

What else? Hmm, oh I finished edits and a revision and got back to Standoff last night and got 2500 words written.

I’m addicted to lolcats. I giggle to myself all day. I have issues. Clearly.

moarfunny pictures

Why is it penis enlargement spam is so gross? I mean, it’s all, overstatement with yucky verbage - lots of jamming and choking and all sorts of stuff women don’t really like. Seriously. Also, flooding the neighborhood with your, um, byproduct? Not sexy. Just sayin. I will say I’m endlessly amused with the spam emailer names. I may use some in a book someday.

OH! Feral Fixation - the anthology which has Reluctant (a prequel quickie featuring Layla Warden from the Cascadia Woves books) is now available in print from the Ellora’s Cave Print store. There are some great stories in this antho!

Because she mentioned Earth Wind and Fire this morning in her LJ entry and of course I had to go to Itunes and grab some. Right now I’m listening to my third go-round with Boogie Wonderland. I LOVE Earth Wind and Fire. My husband will curl his lip when he comes back from working out though, so I need to get my fill of it loud when he’s not here, LOL.

Dude, come on,15 band members, a full rhythm section, look at all the gold lame and lycra! I love them, so much. My dad got me hooked when I was a kid.

On to Sven -

Cascadia Wolves: Standoff

28,531 / 70,000 (40.8%)

This is from last night. I haven’t written today so I’ll give my full seven day Sven wrap up tomorrow as I do the bulk of my writing at night. But without today, I’m still up 10K for the last six days. I did just get edits for Wolf Unbound so I need to work on those and I’m told I’ll be getting edits on Celebration for the Dead by the 9th so those are coming soon too. Still, my edits on WU aren’t bad and I can finish those up in a day or so. I’ve thought on the one area I need to smooth out and have figured out what needs to happen so that’s good.

All in all, Sven has enabled me to keep focus on writing. I’ve been able to get some work done during the daytime lately, which gives me a break at night and I’m actually getting more SLEEP. Yay!

Last night’s book signing was very fun. First of all I got to meet Kate Davies and Stacia Wolf - both of whom are wonderful! Not an exceptionally busy signing for me but it was still fun to get out and Beth, the manager at that particular Waldenbooks is just fabulous. Stacia and Kate both took pictures (because I left the camera at home like a doofus) so I’m hoping they’ll take pity on me and send some my way so I can put them up here.

I grabbed their anthology The Perfect Gift and Kate’s Tease Me, Please Me and I can’t wait to read them! Sadly, they weren’t able to get Chased in but I’m hoping to do another signing next year so hopefully they’ll get it that time.

Cascadia Wolves: Standoff

26,000 / 70,000 (37.1%)

Wheee! 3K words yesterday and I’m really happy with what I did. I’ve cut most surfing on the web and where I used to not be able to write during the day, I’ve found lately I can work in at least a grand during the day around the wee monster’s schedule. THis is a new development but it enabled me to actually go to bed before midnight last night. Yay Sven! This challenge is helping me to flex my writerly muscles in using my time more wisely.

The bulk of yesterday was a funny but integral fight between Grace and Nina where they finally got each other. I love Nina, she wasn’t very nice the first part of the book so I had to sort of redeem her. And Grace isn’t as bold a character as Nina so the scene had to be done carefully but I do admit, I laughed out loud several times because Grace doesn’t let her bitch flag fly very often but she did with Nina. Anyway, it’s done and it works - I hope, LOL! And now on to labs and sexin and Councils of War, etc.

Got my edits on Wolf Unbound, which sort of works nicely as the two books are so closely tied in to the other.

Signing later today.

Got a very lovely recommended read from FAR for Fire and Rain! Yay and thank you, Contessa.

It’s freaking cold here but no frost this morning. Yay!

Gotta go and grab coffee. I’m in dire need.

First of all - last night I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse and the season opener of Nip/Tuck - Oded in spec ops gear and Julian, oh my Dr. Troy - so sullen, so selfish…

Okay, now to writing - I’m nearly 16K into Standoff and happy with where I’m heading. The heroine, Grace, is a doctor but she’s not mouthy and tough on the exterior like Nina or Tracy. So I have to rein in my dialog impulses and nix the snarky on the outside. She’s strong of course, she’s Cade’s mate and she’s taken a huge risk to come to him. He realizes that but she’s got some stuff to deal with. She’s a scientist so her happy place is in a lab or with data and not necessarily with a lot of other people. It’s always a challenge to write every character and make them unique, make them as real as you can without essentially copying your base character again and again.

Sometimes beginning a new book can be daunting, sometimes it’s the middle or the end that make me insane. The last two projects I worked on were hard to start but once I hit a certain point, once I know my characters and where they need to journey to, things begin to ease in my head.

I don’t necessarily mean it becomes easy to write that journey, but what I mean is I know the map and feel confident about the waypoints if not the scenic markers of the route.

I remember thinking that at some point, it would get easier after I did it a few times. In some ways, it does. I know more now about how to heighten tension with a few sentences here and there. I know how to edit better, I know things that make me a better writer in a technical sense. But at the same time, the knowing means I feel more pressure to use all those tools to the best of my ability to write a book.

Each day I learn and grow. Each day I fail and succeed. Hopefully, the success will outweigh the failure. But in the end, it’s what I do, how I do it and that I continue forward.

Went to the Emerald City conference this past weekend and it was lovely until the conference crud set in, sending me home early. I was thrilled to hang out with my agent, friend and all around rock star Laura Bradford for a few days. We hung out and chatted about books until well after midnight both nights. Had several fangirl moments (SUSAN ANDERSEN, people!) Christina Dodd gave an amazing speech and made me laugh. Julia Quinn was at my table on Saturday for lunch (JULIA QUINN!!). Had a lovely dinner with friends on Saturday night, the booksigning was fun although the person who was supposed to sit next to me didn’t show so I was sort of isolated in a back corner, LOL, but people came by to say hello including my husband who brought the kids to show them what momma did at work.

I got some pages done on Saturday morning, which is lovely. I need to get back to work today because yesterday I left the con early, came home, slept, woke up, and slept more.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Zooms in - so busy it’s not funny! Cripes!

How’s Sven for everyone? I’m meeting my daily goals and more thank goodness! I need to keep on keepin on though. I have a conference this weekend so I won’t get as much work done as I usually do. On the other hand, I’ll see loads of people I really like, including my very favorite agent in the whole wide world, Laura Bradford so wheee!

I’m from Southern California, as is my husband so we’ve got many friends and family in harm’s way right now. I’m sort of glued to the news and trying not to get too worried but it certainly helps me keep things in perspective. Everyone is okay so far, thank goodness and I’m just hoping the weather cools and the Santa Ana’s calm down so the firefighters can do their job (safely too!) and people can get back home. All the devastation is just terrible to see. But Laura tells me people are really pulling together right now and helping each other. It’s a shame it takes something like this to bring folks together but I’m glad to see it happening now when folks need each other so much.

Anyway, I have to flit off again! Have a good hump day!

Oh! And just because he makes me think of Cade Warden (who will soon be nekkid with his ladyfriend)