Vixenwriter

I got my cover for RELENTLESS, which comes out from Berkley Heat in May of 09 and takes place after Undercover, in the same world but it’s not a sequel (although you get a glimpse of Ash, Sera and Brandt it’s very brief)

I can’t say enough about how much I love this cover. It’s got a feel to me like those vintage French erotic postcards. I love how well it echoes off the cover for Undercover with the font choice and the pretty fillagree stuff too.

So today started off with a rejection which, oddly enough I wasn’t overly upset about. But then quickly after that I got a note that my editor had read Relentless and loved it (relieved slump) and then I got the cover.

Oh.
My.
God.

This cover is so incredible I’m seriously in love. I can’t wait until I can show it to you.

92,685 / 90,000 (103.0%)

RELENTLESS - FINAL

I have just finished Relentless. Happy sigh. It’s off to beta and when I get it back and read it over, it’ll be off to Berkley. Thank you soooo much to Anya Bast, Megan Hart and my third little crit birdie - you have helped so much! I’m relieved and happy and now I’m moving on to Outshined.

So to celebrate, how about a snippet from Undercover - coming December 2 from Berkley Heat

UNDERCOVER BY LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Penguin Group

Her entire life as she knew it had been upended in such a short time! But the truth was, she’d felt dead inside in so many ways. When she’d walked away, she expected Ash to follow. And when he didn’t and she saw he meant to go on, she’d been devastated to see the marriage every time she turned around.

For a time, she sought a replacement for him. Fucking rough men who didn’t know the difference between mastery and abuse. No one had topped her and she’d never been able to let go enough to submit. It was self abuse, she knew that as she looked back. But at the time, she wallowed and became another person. It wasn’t something she liked to dwell on overmuch because it was weak and she didn’t condone what happened. It filled her with shame but in the end, she’d risen above it and had found something better than an empty life. She’d found a calling.

Work became her salvation. She didn’t become the best at everything she tried. Instead, she worked to be the best she could be at those things she excelled at. Once she focused on languages and culture and martial arts, they took over her existence. The military became her everything and over time, she’d stopped dating and even seeing herself as a sexual being except for when the need hit every year or so. She’d engaged in brief relationships for sex only and when she’d been sated, she’d moved on. She’d been a finely honed tool in the war against the Imperialists.

And now she felt it all. So much rage, fear, pain and loss that she would have crumpled to knees and wept but the hope burning deep in her stomach saved her. Hope that no matter the outcome with these men, she’d found herself again, the part of her that was more than just a soldier.

First of all, I finished Relentless this morning! Yay! I’ll start editing it tomorrow. I’m super happy with it right now. We’ll see how I am once I do the entire read through though. Each book is like a mini lifetime. This book gave me some fits but I think it turned out really well and I’m beginning to realize sometimes it’s the hardest books to write that I end up liking the most.

And secondly, Megan Hart and I sold the follow up to Taking Care of Business to Black Lace! This one is called No Reservations and it follows Leah and Kate to Las Vegas with Brandon and Dix on their heels. It’ll be out in the UK in September of 09 and the US in November of 09.

Of Relentless.

This is the song today. ( have to say this is one of my favorite covers of all time)

All sorts of flotsam today! Firstly I hit nearly 68K in Relentless last night! Wheeee! And I cried pretty much the whole time as I wrote. Big, emotional stuff, even the sex scene made me cry. I’m really pleased with this transition.

68,000 / 90,000 (75.6%)

Secondly, I know there are some problems with Making Chase and folks trying to order it - apparently there was a problem in the system and they corrected it. It *should* be showing up soon and I’m told by tomorrow, end of day it’ll be available. So thanks to everyone who’s e-mailed me to ask about it. If you get impatient, you can always pop over to My Bookstore and more and order it directly from there.

Thirdly, the fantastic Samantha Hunter is guest blogging at Maverick Authors today! There’s a contest too. Go over and say hey.

44,517 / 90,000 (49.5%)

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