Jordan Summers

I joined Jo’s Uber-Challenge in Jan. with the best of intentions. My plan was to work on layering in description. For those of you familiar with my blog, you know that I hate writing AND reading description. *g*

So far it’s Feb., and I haven’t managed to read a thing on description. What have I been doing? Other than submitting a full and a partial, I’ve been reworking the same short story over and over and over again. I’m now on the final read through and I mean FINAL. I plan to send it to my agent tomorrow. I hope this isn’t an indication of how the year is going to go. ;-P

Today is Valentine’s Day. Cupids come out to frolic. Love is in the air…or is that smog? I can never tell the difference. *g*

When I was in high school, I spent many a restless night wondering if I’d receive a gift on Valentine’s Day. It only happened once…in my senior year.

I remember feeling so left out as the girls with steady boyfriends paraded their boxes of chocolate and bouquets of roses down the halls. If you were lucky, they shared a piece of chocolate, but that rarely happened. The ‘Valentine’s parade’ was a not so subtle reminder for those of us in the unattached camp that we were somehow lacking. And sadly, we believed them. I cannot tell you how much emphasis I used to put on this day.

Sometime in my twenties that all changed. I had a steady boyfriend, who did all the typical Valentine’s Day displays of affection. I realized he did this because it was expected, NOT because he wanted to. I’m not saying he didn’t care about me. He did. But it always struck me that he considered Valentine’s the one day he could do something romantic, so that he didn’t have to bother the rest of the year. It was as if that one day made up for the other 364. That’s when I realized that Valentine’s Day didn’t hold the punch it used to with me.

Now I admit that I’m lucky. My dh is a very romantic man. He doesn’t save the romance for one day a year. Instead, he surprises me. His gifts are always thoughtful. Sometimes it scares me how well he knows me. I realize that not everyone is so fortunate, but I hope that whoever’s in your life, lets you know that they appreciate you more than once a year.

I’m looking for a demon. Make that two. No, I don’t want to ‘meet’ one. Not unless me and Scooby can pull their mask off in the end and discover Mr. Wiggins. *g*

Why demons? Well, why not? They happen to play a large part in the story I’m currently writing. While perusing my bookshelf, I noticed that I only have one book on the subject. It’s called ‘A Field Guide to Demons’ by Carol and Dinah Mack. How can this be, when I have twelve books on vampires and werewolves? We won’t even get into the books on aliens, cryptozoology, ghosts, curses, folklore, paranormal phenomena, superstition, and fortune telling. And that’s just the paranormal sections. *ggg* I can imagine what someone, who doesn’t know what I do for a living, would think if they casually browsed my bookcases. LOL!

What strange research books are on your shelves?

I’m doing a flyby because I am out of deep thoughts. I’m sure several of you are breathing a sigh of relief with that confession. *ggg*

Yesterday, I was surfing Amazon for books on ’showing vs telling’. Needless to say, I couldn’t find anything. I did find a couple of books that caught my interest though. Has anyone read ‘Plot and Structure’ by James Scott Bell or ‘Description’ by Monica Wood? If you have, what did you think about the books? I’m thinking about getting them, but I’d like to hear a few personal opinions first. I wasn’t looking for books on plotting, but the reviews for Bell’s book caught my attention. As for Wood’s book, I need all the help I can get with description, but the reviews are mixed. Some say it’s too literary to be of any use, while others say it helped them tremendously. Oh, and if you know of any ’show vs. tell’ books, I’d love to hear about them too. Any help you all can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Dh and I sat down over a bottle of wine last night and had a long talk about my writing ‘career’. We do this ever so often, normally when I’m freaking out or unsure which way to move. *ggg* Last night it was the latter.

The conversation was going well until he asked me what I wanted to do. Now this seems like such a simple question, but I sat there for a good ten minutes unable to come up with a coherent answer.

He then asked me what I wanted to do when I started in writing. This was easier to answer, although it threw a wrench into my thoughts. When I first started writing back in high school, I thought I’d write the type of books that I read. Those books happened to be historical and time-travel. They leaned toward the old bodice rippers, since that’s what was published back then. I wrote fairly spicy, since the authors I read were on the spicy side. I did not however write erotic romance.

A funny thing happened on the road to publication. I found EC. At the time, it was a simple epub that wanted hotter romances. I didn’t know if I could write what they were after. It took me a year to decide. I knew I wrote spicy, but not quite that spicy. The more I learned about the company, the more I thought it might be a good place for me to explore various genres, while I learned my craft. I had no idea they’d suddenly takeoff.

I found myself on the cutting edge of a ‘new’ genre, feeling like a bit of a fraud. How could someone still in the learning stage have a book in the bookstores? I am beyond grateful that people have enjoyed my work. Seriously. At the same time, I cringe inwardly and think if I would’ve just waited a few more years those books would be so much better.

Along with skills, came the discovery of the different genres. I’m still exploring. One thing I’m realizing as time passes is that some of the things I’m interested in writing are not romances. They might have a bit of a romance in them, but that’s definitely not the focus of the story. I am torn about this. I don’t want to disappoint my readership. At the same time, I don’t want to disappoint myself.

This brings me back to the original question in this post, “What do you want?” Do I want to be a writer that writes to sell or do I want to write specific stories? I’m still not sure of the answer, but it may entail starting over.

I’m curious, what you would do if you had to start over? (ie your career, schooling, etc.) To make it more interesting, let’s say you could keep the knowledge you’ve acquired over your lifetime. Would you do everything the same? What would you change if you could?

For me, the biggest thing I’d change is finishing college. I didn’t, and I always wish that I had. I would also have studied writing more indepth before attempting my first book. Lastly, I would’ve read more out of genre books. I think that would’ve made me a better writer. I know it would leave me with less to catch up on. Goodness knows it feels like I spend all my time these days playing catch up.

Now it’s your turn to tell me what, if anything, you’d change.

Sasha has landed another book deal with Berkley. Way to go! May the deals keep coming and coming.

I’ve never been someone with an extremely large comfort zone and it’s even less the case now that I’m writing from home. I get anxious in situations that in the past I wouldn’t have batted an eye at being in. The funny thing is I doubt most people would realize it, if they were standing next to me.

My dh tells me I need to get out of the house more (other than the three days a week that I workout at the gym). I’m just not sure if filling my days with activities is going to help. (And no, I don’t think it would hurt.) I really don’t like the lifestyle I seem to be adopting with age.

For those of you who write or work from home, have you ever experienced anything like this? If so, how did you get over it?

I went to the bookstore yesterday and today. Yes, I’m living dangerously. (wg) Because I’m a book addict and can’t admit I need an intervention, I grabbed a few things while I was there. I picked up Pamela Britton’s ‘In the Groove’ (decided to give her a try because I enjoyed her story in Red Hot Santa), Gena Showalter’s ‘Jewel of Atlantis’ (couldn’t resist Atlantis;), Jaid Black’s ‘Playing Easy To Get’, Fiona Brand’s ‘High Stakes Bride’ (she’s one of my favs), Suzanne McMinn’s ‘Deep Blue’, and a book on world religions.

I’ve also been receiving the books you all recommended over the last couple of weeks. I’m currently reading ‘Ice Station’ by Matt Reilly. Monsters have already appeared and several people have died, so I’m digging it. *ggg*

I’ve shown you mine. Now it’s your turn. What are you reading?

Sylvia has an interesting entry at her blog about Amazon’s Plog. I think anyone who’s considering signing up should read it carefully before doing so. Amazon has ‘added’ a paragraph that could affect a writer severely. No wonder they’re encouraging writers to talk about the behind the scenes workings of their books and to post alternative endings. :-/