Dec
15

Mental Stuttering

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I sent the draft for the sequel to Brush of Darkness to my new editor today. It’s amazing what a relief it is to finally know that it is DONE. Of course, I also sorta want to throw up. How’s that for shit? As happy as I am on the one hand, there’s still that pitter-patter of doubt that continues to run in my mind. What if she hates it? What if it sucks? What if she wants me to rewrite 80% of the thing? What if, what if, what if. And “done” is an operative word here. The story is finished, but it’s not quite there yet as far as polishing goes. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to tweak the story in places so that it makes sense – the one caveat to being a panster is that I occasionally stutter-start into part of a plot that… Read more
Dec
13

Monday Morning Updates

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I found a black leaf yesterday (with red veins). It’s apropos of nothing except that I thought it would make an awesome writing prompt – Blood Leaves, anyone? Anyway, I spent all of the weekend working on the rough draft revisions of Book 2 – and I’m actually taking a vacation day from the real job today to implement them in the Word doc. I’m really not fond of having to do that, but it is what it is and sometimes time needs to be shuffled. (And deadlines wait for no one.) Good things that happened last week: Awesome Christmas cards from my DG fangirl peeps! (Including a brilliant hedgehog card which I will have to scan in later.) I also found out that BoD has been picked up by Target and Walmart. Doesn’t mean the book will be sold in every store across the country – I don’t know… Read more
Dec
9

No Going Home Again

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I’ve mentioned before that I never really liked fanfic. I understand why people write it – sometimes it’s to explore part of a story that the author didn’t get to. Sometimes it’s for pervy (read: slash) related reasons. Sometimes it’s characters from a game or a show as opposed to a book and there’s such a love and longing for more about those characters that the writer has to just get it out. Sometimes it’s just arrogance or masturbatory vanity – the idea that fanfic could be written better than what the original author had done. All sorts of reasons, really. I’ve never been fond of it because in my mind it’s not canon (even if it’s well written and not just some self-inserted fangirly thing). Maybe an odd thing to think about for fictional characters, but if the author didn’t write it, then it didn’t happen. End of story. There’s something… Read more
Dec
7

Trolling for Suggestions

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Next month I’ll be starting up my blog tour (which is what authors do these days to help stir up interest in their book – it’s sort of the cyber-equivalent of doing an actual book tour.) So, blog tour it is – and at the moment I’ll admit I’m a tad overwhelmed. Lots of emails coming in from different parties (many of which have been orchestrated by the publicity guru over at Fine Print  and my awesomesauce agent.) It’s definitely beginning to make my head spin. What it means, however, is a lot of extra work. (See, these are things they don’t tell you about when you’re trying to get pubbed. LOL.) Many of these blog stops may do reviews or giveaways, but many also have interviews (some of which are probably the standard sorts of questions, although a few have thrown me for a loop). However, I’ve also got… Read more
Dec
6

Memories Made of Tin

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When I was little I remember going to my grandmother’s house (particularly around the holiday – she always had this little ghetto tree made of silver tinsel next to her TV. She would sit and smoke and watch Days of Our Lives. Undoubtedly bored, my brother and I would wander off and try to find something else to do.) She lived in this huge monstrosity with three floors and an attic and a basement and a yard that seemed to stretch out for miles. The foyer had a deep purple carpet and crystal pane windows on the front door that would leave prismatic rainbows all over the floor. It always felt very somber to me, but I still liked it (almost like a church, I guess.). My grandfather had an office in there too at one point – I seem to remember there were gnomes pushing wheelbarrows on some of… Read more