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!
I am finally finished with revisions on Undercover. They were pretty light but I wanted to be sure they were as good as possible so I was extremely careful with them. Whew. Now I’m on to a last polish of Sensual Magic, which is due to Harlequin April 1, that shouldn’t take more than a day or so, and finally I can get back to Unexpected. Yay!
I have to say, I got pretty sweaty when I read back over the sex scenes in Undercover. It’s hard when you’re writing something and then editing the first time. You’re very close to the book so you can’t really gauge. But reading it over again, some months later I was like, “wow!” I think this is the hottest book I’ve ever written but also, I was pleased to see the emotional depth in places too. I feel better about it and I already liked it before. Sweet relief.
I ordered some goodies for RT for our Love Shack reader party on Friday (don’t miss it folks!) This party will have goodie bags filled with excellent swag that’ll be exclusive to the party including books from the participating authors. I also ordered postcards for Undercover and Vegas and they turned out so pretty.
I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Frauke, the person behind the creation of this website (and also the hosting service for it, Janus Portal Hosting) and a great many other websites you you see around. As well as the person who designs my bookmarks, my RT ads and other various graphics like business cards etc. She is truly wonderful. I will give her a few elements and she always turns them into something wonderful. I’ve been a client of hers for several years now and I’m always just so awed by her talent. Plus she helps me with technical stuff when I just can’t figure it out. She always takes pity on me and with good humor. So thank you, Frauke - truly, you make my job so much easier and you do it with style.
Totally UNconnected to any of the above - did you know there was Fraggle Rock fic? I sat in a corner and rocked for a while once I found that out. And then I saw a guy in a furry suit with black leather assless chaps. Don’t ask where I found it. But, well just don’t ask. I think I may have bad dreams.
Now, I’m off to catch up on the stuff I let slide today to finish up with Undercover. Happy Hump Day!!!
In closing, to combat bad dreams - my dreamboat, let me show you him…
Sensual Magic
DONE!!!
Since day one of Sven until last night I’ve written 16K. In the midst of that I did a smallish revision on something and had the flu (and it appears to be back, gah!) but I’m thrilled to have gotten this far.
Okay so I’m going to let it sit for a few days while I do my revisions for Undercover and then I’ll do the second draft. After that, it’s on to Unexpected, the next Cascadia Wolves book.
I doubt I’ll be adding much word count on my revisions but once that’s over and I send Sensual Magic in, I’ll be ready to get back to the Wardens and their world of wolves so yay!
It’s Read an E-Book Week and there’s a week long celebration going on over at the Samhain Cafe! Many Sammy authors are hanging out and giving out prizes so get on over there to check it out. Angel is kicking butt this week pulling this together so I wanted to send her my kudos, as always, for a job well done.
I love ebooks and epublishing. It’s where I got my start. Ellora’s Cave gave me my first real break and then Samhain after that. I’ll always appreciate the freedom I’ve had to really stretch and become a better writer and to tell the stories I wanted to tell.
I figure what I’ll do is show up later with some excerpts and prizes - ebooks, natch. If you have any requests for certain books to be excerpted from, holler now.
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.
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.
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.
I’m over at the RRT Blog with an “Ask Five” spot! Come by and say hello.
Undercover is now off to beta readers. I’ll be on pins and needles until I begin to hear back. Eeep! Now it’s back to work on Taking Care of Business, which I hope to finish up this weekend.
Anyone doing anything exciting this weekend? Here at home it’s me, writing oh and Mt. Laundry too.
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!
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.
Jiggity Jigg…. Got home late Friday night after many days of driving. Or well, after many days of my husband driving and I sat, handed food and drinks to the kids, made them stop arguing and even did some reading here and there. The constant chaos of three kids is insane but I’m so used to it at this point, it’s crazier when there’s silence. The husband driving is one of those marital things - he always wants to drive, I couldn’t care less so I give in on it. I save the battles for stuff I care about. Anyway, I’m so glad to be home and not in a car.
This is us at the California Adventure park - we rode the Roaring Rapids ride twice and were totally soaked. Still, it was so hot it worked out nicely and we dried quickly. I can’t believe everyone is marginally looking toward the camera at once, no one is crying, hurting anyone else or doing anything non cameraworthy.
I am sick to death of eating in restaurants and living out of suitcases. How can three little people make such a huge pile of laundry? Good lord, I did laundry all day yesterday and then I got started on edits for To Do List, which were quite breezy and Angie made me laugh several times with her comments. I should finish those up today and get them gone so I can get back to finishing up dirty/bad/wrong for pitch later this month.
Monday, 70 Days of Sweat begins again, more on that in a moment…
Don’t forget to check the contest page of my website, I’ve got some good stuff going on right now!
Name:Lauren Dane
