Vixenwriter

How is everyone today? It’s coooold! It started out at 50 and now it’s 38. They’re expecting snow tonight, more snow tomorrow including “thundersnow” Thunder snow? Jeebus! It’s usually so mild here but it’s been like, “TERROR WINTER!!!” Um, no thank you. I’ll take 50 and rainy please. My husband says it’s already snowing at his office.

I’m so so close to finishing my revision on Blood Moon. Like eight pages away. But a complicated sex scene snuck up on me as I was finishing last night. Oops. This couple is, well, they can’t keep their hands off each other but this last big scene is a menage of sorts. Well, not of sorts, it is a menage but anyway, you’ll see when you read it.

My two year old drew on her teeth with markers. Yes, she now looks like a prospector, complete with crazy hair. I wet it, put it up in a cute pony tail, she coos and pulls it down ten minutes later. I did hold her down and brush the ink away but her lips are still black. Mother of the year, people, I tell ya.

I heard the Pearl Jam cover of Love Reign O’er Me (The Who) and hooooley shite! I believe it’s my favorite cover ever and I need to buy it so I can listen to it until I hate it. Ed’s voice sounds so good. And I love Pearl Jam, I do, ask anyone who knows me. But their website sucks. Is there any info about the cover on it anywhere? No. They did a revamp of it last year and it’s a thousand times better than it was before, but it still sucks. You know, um, actual news is good, LOL.

Okay, I’ve babbled enough for now. I’ve put up excerpts of Chased and Sword and Crown at my messageboard if you want to go and check em out!

2006 has been an amazing year for me. Probably the best year of my entire life. 2005 was hard, lots of high highs and very low lows but 2006 I think was the year I finally hit my stride and met a lot of goals I had for myself.

January - I spent a lot of time recovering from the end of 2005, LOL. I got a new website design from the most incredible Frauke and Croco Designs. I sent out Giving Chase to Samhain, got a cover for Sleight of Hand.

February - Sleight of Hand released from Whispers - my first release of 2006 and my first novella! I hit the first major block in writing Threat of Darkness (way back then) and I worked on Tri Mates.

March - went to Las Vegas with Megan and Anya and had such a great time. Celebrated Megan’s book deal with Spice, Anya landed an agent and shortly thereafter I did too. It’s been a very good year for the Mavericks! Got the idea for GWAB.

April - Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer released from EC. Tri Mates is contracted. I sent in Thrice United to my editor as well. Got some pretty covers as well.

May - Offered contracts on Thrice Bound and Reluctant. Got edits on multiple books. Finished Sword and Crown

June - Giving Chase releases! Sudden Desire releases - both are new arenas for me - romantic suspense and a contemporary quickie - both did very well but Giving Chase did so well it renewed my confidence. Anya Bast sold two books to Berkley - Witch Fire comes out in June of 07! Taking Chase was contracted.

July - my hard drive died and I lost pictures of my children. Oh that sucked! I wrote and wrote and wrote.

August - Vengeance Due released. I took my first solo vacation with my husband in over a decade - to Las Vegas. Got the idea for Stripped. Dealt with the death of our hard drive, took a family vacation. My four year old turned 5, my 1 year old turned 2. My agent hooked me up with Jodi Lynn Copeland and Anya Bast to pitch a Vegas themed anthology and I start writing Stripped.

September - Reluctant releases. I get deep into writing and editing. My agent pitches the What Happens in Vegas anthology and Goddess With a Blade.

October - Threat of Darkness and I continue to be at odds. I pick it up and put it down several times. Finally, at month’s end, I figure out the problem and finish up in relative ease and get it to my editor. Did edits for Sword and Crown and Taking Chase.

November - Tri Mates releases and I find out Thrice United will also release. On the same day Taking Chase releases. November was a very, very busy month. I SOLD STRIPPED TO HARLEQUIN SPICE! I sold Ascension and Threat of Darkness to EC and I got started on Chased. All told, I wrote right about 90K words in the month of November between original wip, edits, etc. November was a month that was incredibly productive and also gave me so much to be thankful for. It fueled me and got me back on track.

December - Finished Chased, finished a revision of Enclave - crits, more revision, off to editor and agent. Nearly done with partial of The Others, started revision of the next book after Ascension that is currently without a title. Wonderful holidays with my friends and family. Three CAPA nominations.

All in all, I’ve got a whole hell of a lot to be thankful and grateful for. Yes, I have worked damned hard, but without my family, without my readers and my friends, without my editors and my agent who all believe in me and support me - I don’t know where I’d be, but not here, looking back at a year of wonderful moments and successes.

As a way to say thank you, I’m going to do a contest. All you need to do is comment on the blog. Between now and January 3 - I’ll take the commenters and toss em into the randomizer and pick three winners who’ll win one of their choice of my available titles - including paper. Good luck!

I just finished Chased about twenty minutes ago. While I had outlined it for my editor, I don’t normally do outlines because I like to let the story go where it wants to go. Still, I’m fortunate enough in my editor that I think she’ll like where I went with it and it’s not a huge departure from the basic idea/outline I’d written up anyway.

But what happened was this. I’m writing along and I’m following the outline but I’m realizing that Liv is way more complicated than I’d thought at first. She’s one thing on the outside but beneath the surface there’s something else. A lot of hurt. And I also realized early on, that Marc was kinkier than I’d thought and the sensuality level was higher than I’d planned.

So I’m continuing to write and the black moment that comes is different than I’d thought it would be. The resolution is the same but the big bad between them is something I hadn’t thought until I was writing it.

But I’m thrilled with the end product. This one is told in a different way than I normally tell my stories and you get more of Marc than I usually give my heroes. I’m putting it down until the weekend when I’ll read it fresh and see if I still love it then, LOL.

I do outlines and synopses when I have to and when they’re necessary like my NY pitches and when I’m trying to sell on partial but I love it when I can just let the story carry me away.

In Thrice United, you find out why Holly’s mother was on the run for Holly’s whole life toward the end of the book. But the truth is that I didn’t even know about that reason until I was writing that scene, LOL. I’d had an idea but it didn’t seem right or fit the story but as I was typing it just came to me. The same thing happened when I was writing Threat of Darkness with the big bad. I’d tried and tried and tried to outline it, hoping to figure out why I’d been blocked but it wasn’t until I started over and just let it all come that the big bad came to me.

Other times, outlining helps me keep the story from running away from me (Taking Chase for instance) or makes me focus when I’m scattered.

Anyway, I’m blathering because I’ve got that “I just finished a book” thing happening to my brain and I’m sort of drunk with it.

That’s taken from my front porch in about three seconds because it’s 15 degrees and I was cold! Not a lot of snow but just beneath it is ice. About three inches thick.

I know that folks from parts of the country who routinely see snow laugh at Seattleites when it snows here and everything simply stops. But we have steep hills and essentially no infrastructure for big snow storms like we had last night. And oh did we!

The problem wasn’t so much the snow as the three inch thick sheet of ice beneath it. I am so glad my husband worked from home yesterday because it took some people up to seven hours to get home from work last night. There was also a Seahawks game and apparently there are people STILL on the freeway trying to get home! They’ve closed the freeways on and off, people abandoned their cars and some people just slept in them at rest stops and park and rides!

Anyway, pretty much all schools in Western Washington are closed today so we’re all here, tucked up and warm. The kids are watching Ice Age and the wee monster is tormenting them. All is right with the world, LOL.

I get to keep my title for Threat of Darkness! Yay! This makes me very happy, I love that title. I’m 28 thousand words into Chased and starting something else in between that’s been stewing in my head for three months. But of course Chased is my priority (I promise Angie!). I lurve me some Marc Chase!

Okay, off to get a refill on my coffee!

I just got news from my editor at EC that they want to contract Threat of Darkness! Sadly, I may have to change the title but I’ve gotten less sentimental about my titles over time (after having to change them from time to time). This one is Jayce’s story and a menage.

No other info for now, I’ll know more as it goes on.

My poor husband is now the sickest person in the house as my daughter and I begin to feel better. I can breathe about 30% of the time and my throat doesn’t hurt nearly as much. I did throw the turkey in the oven yesterday, it seemed a waste not to. Shoved some garlic cloves into the skin and meat, basted it every 45 minutes to an hour. It turned out quite nice. I had plans to make potatoes au gratin with leeks but that was way more energy than I had so I’ll make them soon, perhaps with a roasted chicken.

Finished Born in Death, Valley of Silence and Cold as Ice in the last few days. I really liked the whole Nora trilogy. For me, it was far more paranormal than romance so I wasn’t as agitated by the balance tipped by story over romance. In fact I enjoyed it more that way. BID was, as always, a fabulous read. I’ve given up thinking that Nora is going to miss one day with this series and just accepted that she’s like the magic eraser (her and Elizabeth Lowell for different reasons) I think they’re magic, could be made through a compact with satan but they work perfectly so I don’t question what’s in them. I liked Black Ice better than Cold as Ice but they were both very enjoyable reads.

I’ve also gotten a lot of work done on Chased and I hit 23 thousand words earlier this afternoon. Uh, Marc has turned out to be kind of kinky. Yep. That first sex scene was fourteen pages long and took place in three different venues. This one is probably going to end up hotter than Giving Chase and Taking Chase but Marc has been a surprise to me and to Liv.