Vixenwriter

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Relentless - I’m at the halfway point.

I spent most of yesterday, from about 3 am on, dealing with a puking three year old. Man was she miserable and I hate when they’re so sick and you can’t help them other than to wipe faces and rub backs. Poor sweetie pie. She’s better now, thank goodness. On Wednesday my middle kiddo woke up at 4 am with this same thing. He was so sick he missed the kindergarten field trip to the zoo.

I’m still exhausted from next to no sleep. You know I got like tiny bits of mother sleep, not quite deep enough because I was attuned to her every sound. We had the barf bucket in bed with us even. So glamorous.

All I know is I’m hella relieved I’m not sick and it seems to have bypassed my oldest but my husband got his share, only he’s away from home so it’s worse for him.

I missed Battlestar Galactica last night. I’ll have to catch it on the web at Sci Fi. I actually have a good excuse, I was writing.

I’ve been over at Novelspot this week talking about my personal journey from two lines in the window until right now.  It’s funny, writing it all out over the week, bit by bit only makes me feel luckier about where I am and what I do.

If you’re interested it starts with:

Two Lines in the Window
Building My House Brick By Brick
With a Little Bit of Fairy Dust
But Sometimes Your Bag of Fairy Dust Gets Low
Patience Perseverance and Planning
Okay The House Is Built, what’s Next

Tomorrow I’ll finish up with a little primer on navigating the authorial waters but these entries above are my journey from there to here.

I’m not necessarily superstitious but I do like to have a few things lined up when I write. A title and a playlist are two very important ones. I’ve been sort of listening around to a lot of music while I wrote Relentless but I had no “theme song” as I usually do. No themed playlist, which has been driving me crazy.

But today I finally happened upon my theme song:

Depeche Mode - Stripped

Followed up with another song I played over and over during the most recent sex scene:

The other songs on my list that fill up the empty spaces:

I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
The Same Deep Water as You - The Cure
Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
Epic - Faith No More
Fragile - Sting
More than This - Roxy Music
The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin
As Is - Ani Di Franco

This week I’m doing the Behind the Scenes blog at Novelspot - come by and say hello!  . This is today’s entry

And I’m also at The Bradford Bunch today and Lust Bites tomorrow.

Today I’m listening to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (the album and the song) and I’m remembering the first time I really listened to it. I took the train from Seattle to Los Angeles and I had the cassette so I listened to it on my walkman. I listened to it over and over, hearing nuances I’d missed so many times before and that’s when I fell in love with Pink Floyd and most notably with Roger Waters’ brain and talent.

The album is not a casual listen, it’s one of those things I put on when I want to listen to music, not just have it in the background but as I have the LP and the cassette which long died, I bought it recently from iTunes and it came up and I stopped to just *listen* which doesn’t happen often in my life.

The first time my husband told me he loved me was on a Saturday night, we’d been to Mexico that same night in our friend’s car that threatened to blow up the whole ride up and back, LOL. Anyway, we were in his room, drinking coronas and this record was on. The song Wish You Were Here came on and we were alone for a few moments (imagine a house full of 18 year old boys, not much alone time) and he told me he loved me.

We traveled to Eastern Europe in college and a busker played this on a castle rampart in Budapest. We danced to it, in the middle of the day, under the vivid blue sky.

To this day I won’t exchange my heroes for ghosts.

It’s a cynical album. Here they’ve reached the heights they aspired to the whole of their lives and the negatives had set in. Infighting, jealousy, the band was falling apart and yet, I think this record is amazing, far more so than anything they created without Waters later on and frankly, even though I love Roger Waters, better than anything he’s created solo. The creative process fascinates me, the sorts of dynamics that drive people to make art together and how outside stresses can bleed in and yet make the product amazing.

Anyway, it’s just a gem of a piece and something I’d forgotten the intensity of and here it is playing as I write my futuristic.

Last night, Lacy Danes and I headed first to Wild Ginger for dinner and then to the Showbox to see Kate Nash.

Wild Ginger is probably one of my favorite restaurants ever. It being a Friday evening there were no reservations available but we sat in the bar and ate and since the bar is just as gorgeous as the rest of the place, that was just fine. The Kung Pao chicken was just amazing, not gloppy, fresh, crispy veg the chicken was so tender - it was seriously delish and I wish I had some right now! I then closed off the meal with coconut gelato. Now up until yesterday, pistachio was my favorite gelato flavor but I think coconut just might give it a run for the money.

Lacy and I talked writing and lives and kids, etc and had a lovely time. I don’t see her as often as I should, which is silly but she and I both are always so totally busy! Anyway, it was great to see her.

We then headed down toward Pike Place for the Showbox The Showbox is a great venue, small but frankly, I wish it was simply 21 and over so I could do without the arm stamps to get into the bar, etc. But it’s a lovely place. Big giant chandelier in the entry, etc. Opening band was meh but they tried hard.

Kate Nash was awesome. I love her. I love her songwriting and I love her voice. She just has a lovely stage presence and her band was awesome too. Wowzers on the drums last night too!

I love live music and I wish I got out to see it more often but the idiotic woman behind us who would NOT SHUT UP reminded me of why I stay in my house so much. Firstly, if all people who cared more about shouting out “KATE WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU KATE!” and “CAROLINE! CAROLINE’S A VICTIM” to show us how much indie cred than actually you know HEARING the music, were put in a camp deep below the surface of the earth, that would be awesome. Just sayin. I hate you, douchey woman who screamed Kate Nash’s name and CAROLINE through EVERY SONG, over the parts where Kate Nash who you profess to love so much was pretty much begging you, yes you douchey mcdumbass, to shut up. And when you called my friend a “slut” for looking up at you, you should be ashamed of yourself. Seriously. You should have been tased for that and then made to go up on stage and apologize to everyone in that club. I hate you douchey woman because you harshed my experience with your behavior and I had to listen to YOU instead of Kate Nash, who you know, I paid to see. Frankly, another thing that pissed me off was that I had to move so I wasn’t blocking the steps up to the bar (which is fine, I understand why) but this stupid cow was left to scream and hurl epithets at anyone who looked at her twice all night long. The bimbo was standing like right next to the bouncer for the bar for heaven’s sake. Gah! A pox on douchey CAROLINE woman. And seriously, if you can’t hold your liquor, don’t get drunk in public.

Anyway, Kate Nash was so good and so was the company that drunk douchey woman didn’t ruin my time, but seriously, universe, can we think about that camp please?

Heard back from our editor at Black Lace today and he said he really enjoyed TCOB. His comments made me quite happy and I’m looking forward to plotting out the next book with Megan next week!

Early tomorrow I’m off to Anya’s and then on Sunday we’re off to Megan’s! Then we have a photo shoot with the uber fabulous Scott Church on Monday the 14th. Later that evening a book signing at the Waldenbooks in the Lebanon Valley Mall from 6 - 8 pm so if you’re in the area, please do come by to say hello!

And then on Tuesday we’re off again to Pittsburgh for the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. I’m all atizzy with prep today. The washing machine is going. I’m nearly totally packed but there are always last minute things and I realized Wednesday that I’ll need to take along another small suitcase for extra promotion stuff because we have 68 people and not 50 sign up for our reader party. I’ll also be able to bring back books in it so I suppose that’s a good thing too.

I have not written as much as I wanted to this last week, which sucks. But I’m still good and hopefully I’ll come back as energized to work this time as I did last year.

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

Just wrote a very emotional scene last night but I think it came out well because I cried as I wrote so apparently it translated, or it did to me anyway.

Bookwise I haven’t read much although I did get an early look at Beth Kery’s Wicked Burn and I have to tell you all, this book is freaking amazing. Dark and sharp, totally sexy with an alpha hero who reminded me a lot of Linda Howard’s early heroes. Speaking of La Linda - I read Now You See Her last week and I have to reiterate how much I love her books. I LOVE HER. I’m reading The Ruins now which is uber creepy and I don’t think I’ll be taking it with me on this trip. I did get Karen Chance’s new one and also Meredith Duran’s Duke of Shadows so we’ll see which one I pick for the plane. I may actually do some plotting out of an idea I have as well. I don’t often have large blocks of time that are solely my own so I have a plethora of choices.

I had dinner last night with an old friend who is now back up in the Seattle area and it was such a nice time! I’ve missed her so much and it’s going to be lovely having her around on a regular basis. We went to Salty’s at Redondo Beach and I had salmon and she had the halibut and we halved it and it was sooooooooo good! Then the waiter brought us creme brulee and a slice of cake because it was a celerbration for both our birthdays (mine past hers to come in two weeks). A lovely time.

Then I watched No Country For Old Men with my husband and dude, that movie is a mindfuck. Amazing acting, but you certainly don’t walk away with a shiny, happy feeling at the end, LOL. And even with Prince Valiant hair, Javier Bardem is hot. Even as a sociopath he’s hot. I’m probably totally mental, but still.

I’m still at work on Fated - I’m nearing the halfway mark so I’m quite pleased with that.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday!

gah, so busy today!~ Since I’ll be gone for RT I’m trying to get everyone squared away and prepared so I’ve been dealing with laundry, ironing, cleaning and packing for myself all day. Man I can’t believe how much stuff we have.

Saw a Harriet Klausner review of Vegas where she called my character an exotic dancer and pretty much made it look like she was turning tricks on the side. That’s so the opposite of the storyline I’m appalled. Sigh. Ah well, such is life.

All right, back to work. Dinner and then more freaking laundry. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

Wheeee!

Fave snippet:

“Tell me what’s going on? She sounds upset. Put her on.”

“Believe me, you don’t want that. We’re on our way back right now,” Layla said and hung up.

What the hell?

“Something is up, Megan sounded pissed off in the background but I don’t know why.”

Adam laughed. “Well, let’s hazard a guess, shall we? You called her sister instead of her. Her sister who you have seen naked and had sex with. This has to be uncomfortable for her.”

So Amazon clarified its position yesterday with what I think is a workable situation. If I understand correctly, what they’re asking is that those publishers who don’t use BookSurge for POD simply provide stock to Amazon. This is not a bad thing and certainly I can see why they’d want it that way. I’m going to keep watching the situation but at this point, I’m not nearly as worried as I was on Friday.

I was reading something at Pub Rants earlier about career suicide and I have to say, I’m still amazed at what people do and say in public forums. You don’t have to be boring, or perfect, but you should realize this is a business like anything else and when you stand up and slag off your cover or your editor or your publisher - or your authors or your competition - people see it and people remember it. There are ways to say things, there are ways to approach problems and levels of alarm about certain issues. I’m not saying you should simply roll over when you are having a disagreement with someone about something, but I am saying there are ways to deal with those things that are more effective than others. And frankly, sometimes, the best thing to do is:

STFU and WRITE.

First off - Sven!

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

I got a grand on this last night and I’m happy given how freaking dog tired I was by the time I was able to start work on it.

Favorite lines from yesterday:

Beth turned around in the seat. “Oh you’re awake now!” she said when she caught Megan with her eyes open.

Damn. The woman was diabolical.

I’m building my playlist and thanks to Megan, Five Finger Death Punch seems to be be the dominating force so far.

Fated is complicated. Yes, this is about fated mates but what if you’re not ready? What if one of you is and the other isn’t so much? What are you willing to give up? Because love isn’t always easy. it’s not always simple. And sometimes, if you don’t realize what’s important to you, you might lose it.

Angie has a great entry up at Romancing the Blog about epublishing so you should check it out. As always, she’s got a lot of smart things to say. I thought in particular the last two paragraphs were the best.

But authors should also expect more from themselves. This may be an unpopular thing to say, but first realizing that maybe not every book is meant to be published. Some books are a learning experience and will eventually be shoved under the metaphorical bed. That’s okay. It means you keep working to learn your craft, write the next book, and keep submitting. Choose your publishers carefully, read your contracts even more carefully. Authors should also expect professional behavior of themselves—online, in public and with their publisher and editor, treating epublishing obligations exactly the same as they would obligations to a NY publisher. Representing themselves and the industry they’re helping grow in a way that shows pride in themselves, their work and their company.

Amen. Writing is a business. If you do it as a hobby that’s one thing but if you do it and intend it to be a career, you have to run it like that. Which means sometimes you have to rein in your excitement and say no when you get an offer. Because as I said a while back, not all publishers are equal. And not every author is the right fit with every publisher either. It’s about what you want and what they can provide and then you work your way toward each other.

But when a publisher doesn’t answer their emails over and over for years at a time. When royalty payments are late regularly. When your book comes out without any edits or with a cover you’ve never seen. When you get punished for asking questions - these are all bad signs. Period. I know people keep saying they’re not, but you can’t convince me it’s actually normal business practice to pay people late on a regular basis. It isn’t. It’s a BAD business practice and a sign of poor leadership. And when an epublishing business can’t respond to email from its authors, that’s a bad sign. You can look the other way but eventually things are likely to go south. Because communication is a basic part of business.

In the end, what we have is our gut. (and not the muffin top type, LOL) But listening to our common sense and making it louder than the excitement we feel when we get an offer.