Ah Easter…a time when pagan bunnies frolic with marshmellow chicks and Cadbury comes out with their creme-filled eggs. You know the ones I’m talking about, those sugar orgasm-inducing chocolate-covered eggs that sinfully embrace your tongue, before melting in your mouth. Yeah, those eggs. Shudder…YUM! (Eyes cross here just thinking about it.) Betcha can’t eat just one.
We don’t have any big plans this weekend beyond work. We will probably hit the theaters to catch a couple of movies. (Benchwarmers and Scary Movie 4) Highbrow all the way. 
I also plan to finish Dark Need by Lynn Viehl. (I have ten pages to go. I’m saving them as a reward for getting my word count in today.;) Let me tell you gang this book ROCKS. It’s sexy, emotional, and meaty. If you love vampires, this latest offering from the Darkyn series is not to be missed. Yes, she’s a pal of mine, but that doesn’t influence my reading tastes. I’m not the type of person who’s prone to blowing smoke up peoples’ asses. I’ve spent the majority of my life apologizing for being too direct. :-/ So when I say this is a damn good book, I mean it. Pick it up and see for yourself, if you don’t believe me. I DARE YOU.
Archive for April, 2006
I’ve reached the point in book where I have to take another look at my notes and my original ideas for the story. We’ll call it the halfway point. *g* I think the story is now much richer than the one I started with. This is a good thing. Here’s the problem, I realized while studying my scribbles that one of the bad guys hasn’t been ’seen’ for a while. (I have two bad guys.) I wrote a scene containing said bad guy quite a while ago that I’d planned to plug into the book at some point. But where??? Needless to say (but I’m going to anyhow), this dilemma has put quite a damper on my writing day. 
Tis a lazy day at the Summers’ residence. I say lazy in the sense that nothing beyond work on my story is happening. I’m back from the gym–showered, shaved, and fed, so I’m ready to get to it. Found out yesterday that Atlantean’s Quest Bk. 2: Exodus sold out at EC. Yah! They currently have more copies on order. Got to love that, especially since I’d really like a copy myself. *g*
Plan to meet friends for dinner this weekend and hopefully get to the movies to see Benchwarmers and Scary Movie 4. I know they’ll be stupid, but I’m hoping they’re also funny. I have one more week and my local conference will be here. The two words that come to mind are ‘procrastination’ and ‘workshop’. :-O Guess what I’ll be doing next week? *ggg*
I just received an email from EC telling me that the time-travel anthology, Somewhere in Time I did with Julia Templeton has officially released. Currently, it’s only available on the EC site and at their Ebay store. And if you’re feeling really saucy you can grab this too while you’re there. 
Amazon should have Somewhere in Time within the next few weeks. The bookstores should also be able to order it about the same time Amazon gets it in. I will be doing a giveaway just as soon as I get my copies. Other than that, it’s just work and the gym on this end. If anything exciting happens, I’ll let you know. *g*
Triskelion Publishing has just been recognized by the Romance Writers of America. What does this mean? For Triskelion, it’ll mean more submissions than ever. For epub authors, it’ll mean one more fingerhold in the great wall of publishing. Other than that, not a whole lot. N.Y. publishing houses/editors won’t care one iota. If you don’t believe me, read this. Yes, I know it’s talking about the PRO portion of RWA, but it still applies. (They didn’t have PRO when I started.)
I thought that when I reached PAN (Published Author) level within the RWA that a whole new world would open up to me. One that showered me with publishing information that I couldn’t get anywhere else…like Publisher’s Marketplace. I know, I know that was naive thinking, but you can’t blame me for believing. PAN is built up to be a HUGE deal in RWA. You get ribbons and everything for it.
What I’ve learned is that although it’s nice to be recognized for selling a book or two or nine the process doesn’t change. You still have to write and submit. You don’t need PAN for that. What you need is to put your butt in a seat and get to work. It’s that simple and that hard. Right now, I need to take my own advice. Time to get back to work. Have a great weekend.
I managed to edit sixty pages yesterday. No idea how they’re sounding. I’m simply going to type them in and keep going. This book must be finished by the end of the month.
I registered for the RWA conference on Tuesday, so I guess I’ll be attending in July. I’m skipping the Romantic Times Conference this year and next, since it’s being held in Houston in 07.
The focus for the rest of this year and 2007 will be writing and attending the smaller conferences. I’ve thought about doing this for a while now. I think it’s much easier to network at smaller gatherings. The conferences are normally shorter and cheaper, even with the added airfare.
It’s all part of my plan to change my approach to writing. For the past year or so I’ve lived in conflict over what genres to write in and whether or not to be a writer for hire. (My definition of a writer for hire is anyone who writes and sells stories specifically aimed at a particular market. Example: Writing a menage story because readers are gobbling them up.) I know there are other definitions, but for now, that’s the one that applies to this blog entry.
I didn’t realize that an internal conflict existed until dh and I had a long talk about my career goals. I seem to flip back and forth between wanting to write outside the box and wanting to sell steadily/immediately. And before anyone asks, yes, you can do both. The keys are knowing that’s what you want to do and also realizing that it may take MUCH longer for those ‘outside the box’ stories to sell.
For the longest time, I’d refused to accept the latter, but that’s slowly changing. I’m beginning to look at the whole publishing game with ‘fresh’ eyes. Or maybe it’s just that I’m finally understanding myself and the way I work. Either way, I’ve started to relax a bit. Let things slide that before would drive me completely insane. What brought on this change (other than the talk with dh)? I remembered something that I’d forgotten. Years ago I worked in the recording industry in L.A. (I was flying full-time too.) My job was to make sure bands followed their recording budgets and to assure they had the recording equipment and studio time they needed. In the course of doing this I had to read a lot of recording contracts. They were just as bad, if not worse, than most publishing contracts. At the time, I remember thinking I’d never allow myself to get so desperate that I’d sign any old contract in order to have a deal. Most of these bands were treated so poorly that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Yet, even after witnessing their desperation firsthand, I found myself starting to slip into that dangerous mindset. Thank goodness I realized it and smacked myself in the forehead before it was too late.
Do I want to sell to NY again? Absolutely. Will I sell work just for the sake of selling? No, not anymore. I don’t NEED to be published that bad. I find that realization profoundly liberating.
I’ve taken a step back and given the big picture a good hard look. I have a better idea of what I want and what it’s going to take to get there. My spaghetti method days of writing are over.
Dh and I went to our first official private Pilates class last night. Muscles strained and quaked. Burning started in my hip and worked its way down my leg and that was just getting on the machine. *ggg* We could hardly walk when we left an hour later. It really makes me wonder what I’m doing at the gym three days a week. It was as if I’d NEVER worked out. Truly pathetic.
Today, I’m back to the neverending story. I guess I should be happy that at least it’s progressing. I think I’m going to head off to a coffee shop and work there. Not that I have to worry about being distracted by emails, since mine are currently malfunctioning. Sigh. So if you’ve written me and I haven’t gotten back to you there’s a very good possibility that I NEVER received your mail. Hopefully dh can fix the problem tonight.
My ‘To Do’ list is growing by leaps and bounds. I need to order copies of Exodus, now that the paperback is out. I want to join Novelist Inc. and can’t without a copy of that book. The Somewhere in Time paperback comes out at the end of this month. I am turning in the contracts for the Phantom Warriors this week. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get those back. I also plan to sign up for RWAOnline, Publisher’s Marketplace, and PASIC. I’m trying to change some of the lists I belong to and venture outside of romance a bit. I don’t plan on abandoning my roots, but I would like to expand my horizons.
Well I’d better get to it. Hope everyone is having a productive week. It looks like a lot of authors are going into hibernation mode in order to get some work done. I must do the same. Peace and Warm Brownies, J.
Can’t believe it’s April already. The year is flying by. Blink. My local RWA chapter is holding its conference this month. It should be terrific. We have a lot of big names coming. I’m speaking at it, too. I think I’m going to have to do a couple of dry runs to make sure that I’m ready. Can we say stage fright? I think we can. :-O
Yesterday, dh and I went to see Ice Age 2. It was cute like the original, just not quite as funny. I’d still recommend it if you liked the first movie.
Dropped by Wally world afterwards and grabbed the ‘Bump in the Night’ anthology with JD Robb, et al, ‘Dates from Hell’ anthology with Kim Harrison, et al, and Christine Feehan’s Dark Demon. I’m probably going to hold off reading the latter, since the reviews are so mixed. I need them to die down so that I’m not inadvertently influenced by others’ opinions. I was hoping to grab Angela Knight’s new book, but it wasn’t out. Someone obviously pulled an April Fool’s thing on me by saying it would be released on the first. *ggg*
Going back to Pilates tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t kick my butt too much.
The story that I’ve been working on is starting to take the strangest turn. When I first began writing this book, it barely had a romance. (This book is a real departure for me.) Now, all of a sudden, I’m coming up with ways to add a REALLY sexy undertone to the book that borders on erotic. I’m like WTF? Where is this coming from? Why didn’t I see this earlier? And should I really go with this or keep the book how I originally envisioned it? All good questions that I don’t have the answers to.
I plan to explore my options this week, since I intend for this book to be finished by the end of this month. I’d hoped to be further along, but what are you going to do? With that in mind, my blog will be a little neglected. I’ll still write at least three entries, but that’ll be about it. Must continue to concentrate on writing.
