Apr
14

On Writing Rape…

Posted in craft, rape, writing | 3 Comments
Ugly, ugly subject. Unfortunately it’s necessary to the plot at the moment. I’d like to think I redeem it some because it’s not actually occurring. It’s more of a dream, and it happens at a point in the story where the reader would probably figure that out, even if the heroine hasn’t. The hero certainly does, anyway. But then, I have to wonder, does it need to be there at all? Is the act cheapened, in a way, *because* it’s a dream? Or really more of a nightmare. It’s a bit complicated to explain – it’s not quite a dream, not quite reality, but in either case it’s not actually happening except in her own mind. Although, does that lessen the impact for her? Should it? The hero isn’t a rapist, after all. In her heart of hearts, the heroine knows this as well, but still, I needed something to… Read more
Apr
7

What Price, Beauty?

Posted in hair, Hair Cuttery Sucks, Romantic Times, waxing, writing | 2 Comments
So I went to the hair dresser today. Haven’t got my hair cut since October, at which point Hair Cuttery immediately went on my shit list. I’m a simple gal. I like simple cuts. Simple as in – yeah – wash it and trim like 2 or 3 inches off it. *Maybe* a little layering*. The HC people, after leaving me hanging for an hour (and then saying my name had never got in the system), took three inches off the bottom and then took five or six for the “layer” effect. It was butchered. I nearly cried. I looked like a motherfucking poodle with two totally different lengths of hair. So, I’ve been trying to let it grow out. Went to a new place today. A local spa. I am happy. They fixed. They smoothed. They trimmed. Nothing crazy, just a little evening out. They waxed my brows. Yay.… Read more
Mar
31

Yoda shoes…

Posted in craft, sex, shoes, violence, writing | Leave a comment
Meh. I had a point to make here and then I got all rambley. Sue me. I was running around Facebook today and there’s a group there that is talking about how to balance out sex and violence in their books. Mostly it’s a lot of people just talking about what they do in their own writing or what they like or don’t like. It’s kind of funny really – there’s an awful lot of people that don’t like sex *or* violence. Or just writing it maybe. So then I have to wonder…is it really that they don’t like reading/writing it, or is it that they just don’t know how to? (Admittedly this is a group of mystery/suspense writers, so there may be a bit of a bias here) For myself, I think I can read or write either – in whatever amounts are required for the story. Note that… Read more
Mar
27

Ten Minutes

Posted in pitching, Romantic Times, writing | 1 Comment
It doesn’t seem like a lot of time, does it? Or maybe it’s too long – but in either case that’s all I’ve got to work with. I snagged my first choices of publishers and agents to pitch to at RT (a big surprise to me, honestly), and now it’s put up or shut up time. I get 10 minutes to convince a publisher or an agent that my work is worth reading. Actually – it’s more of a 5 minute pitch and 5 minutes of questions, but the end result is the same. The reality of it is that the pitch is nothing more than a foot in the door – it’s not a guarantee of anything other than a chance to not have the manuscript tossed on the slush pile. Still – I’d rather get my toe crushed than be standing around picking my nose. I debated it,… Read more
Mar
12

Frustration

Posted in craft, critiques, frustration, genre, grumpy as fuck, pov, writing | Leave a comment
I had a million other things I wanted to talk about today, or this week, even, but work has completely overwhelmed me. I’m barely keeping my head above water between the Exchange Migration and the ISO 20K draft work I’m doing. Throw in a kid with strep and a time change and we’ve got quite the party happening. I’m still writing – not always getting that 1000 done. Most of the time I still do, but there have been a few nights where I’ve let it go, just too mentally exhausted to even look at another computer screen. When I’m rereading the same sentence five or six times, I know it’s time to crash. So, in the meantime I decided to try editing up my first chapter again – it’s been awhile and I’m still writing the story (up to Chapter 17 now…maybe ten left? hard to say…) and sent… Read more