Jordan Summers

There have been some very interesting blog entries as of late around the web. They’ve run the gamut when it comes to writing and reading. My personal favorite was the interview with Nora Roberts in the RWR. That article has been quoted on a number of blogs. I believe mainly because Nora doesn’t put up with BS excuses of why you can’t write. I’ve never met the lady, but just from her attitude, I do believe we’d get along very well. (wg)

I have actually enjoyed reading the blogs as of late. (Always do, when I learn something new.) But once again, I find myself wasting hours of time that could be spent taking notes, writing or charting out scenes. Why am I bringing this up now? Because I have friends coming into town for a visit on the 15th of Sept. They’ll be here for ten days, which is terrific, but that’s ten days I won’t get any writing done. That means I have to get the writing in before they arrive. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

I have exactly one month to get a rough draft down on paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it does need to be there. Why the hurry? After our friends leave, my in-laws arrive a week later. They’ll be staying for a month, which means if I don’t get that rough draft done I probably won’t get to work on the book consistently until November. That doesn’t work for me. I’m not good with the start and stop method of writing a book. Seriously. I figure if I can at least get a rough draft done by the middle of next month I can allow the manuscript to sit while our friends are here for their visit. When they leave, I’ll have exactly a week to edit the book. This is a good thing. The book still might not be ready to send to my agent, but it’ll be a whole lot closer than if I wait until November to write it.

What does this all mean? INTERNET DIET ALERT. Yep, that’s right. I’m going to have to redefine the word ’scarce’. I will be checking in, but ONLY if I have a productive day. Otherwise, I’m not allowed to play on the computer and that means no blogging, no blog reading, no Luxor (whimper), and no IM. I will still pick up my email, but only a few times a day. It’s going to be painful, but it has to be done. What have you been putting off that you should’ve been working on?

I thought this post by Susan Gable was appropriate given our conversation a few days ago about lines closing.



The recent demise of yet another Harlequin line, this time the kick-butt
heroine line Bombshell, got me to thinking, which, as anyone who knows me
will tell you is always a dangerous thing. I heard from a number of readers
who were surprised by the closing, because they had friends who just “loved
that line!”

I’ve also heard things like this: “I can’t believe they closed that line.
I loved that line. I read those books every month at my library.”

Before I go any farther with this discussion, I have to offer up a
disclaimer. I love libraries. Especially as a child with a voracious
appetite for story, I borrowed armloads of books from my local library. I
love bargains, too. I shop like men hunt or play sports. It’s a victory
when I score a bargain. (New black cocktail dress, originally $79, marked
down to only $16. SCORE!) Used books are great bargains. Swapping books,
another great bargain. The new websites on-line, where you can “rent” a
book, in a system similar to NetFlix, are also an interesting bargain. Good
grief, even the airports these days have a program where you can buy a book,
read it, then sell it back to them. What a bargain!

But did you realize that those bargains could be putting your favorite line
or your favorite author out of business?

It’s a difficult, touchy subject for authors to discuss. We don’t want to
appear anti-used books (’cause we’re not — not entirely, anyway), or make
readers think we’re money-grubbers, always harping on them to buy our books.
We all know (believe me, we KNOW - most writers don’t make anywhere close to
as much money as people think we do) how tight money can be sometimes,
especially with the rising costs of gas and heating fuel, and food, and
taxes, and.well, you know. Everything.

We’ve been known ourselves to sometimes borrow and trade books, or buy used.
Or go to the library.

But publishing these days is a strictly-by-the-numbers business, which means
if the numbers don’t live up to the publisher’s expectations, a writer can
kiss her slot/line/future contracts good-bye.

“Where’s SoAndSo’s latest book? How come she hasn’t published another story
in that series that I love so much?” If you find yourself asking that
question, it could be that your favorite, SoAndSo, got cut loose because the
numbers of that last book in the series didn’t do as well as the one before
that. How did you get your hands on that last book? Did you buy it new,
contributing to the continuation of the series, or did you bargain read it?
Bargain reads don’t count towards our numbers.

Writers, especially those of us at the “lower echelons” of the publishing
world, need our readers more than ever. Without you, there would be no
point in what we do. (Well, okay, there’s a certain satisfaction in telling
yourself a story, but it’s the audience that makes it truly special. It’s a
shared dream.) But now, because of the numbers, we need your support even
more.

Our careers, our lines, even our publishers, live and die by the numbers.

So please, where and when you can, save a writer. Buy a new book. We’ll
all thank you for it. And that way, you’ll have more choices of books in
the future.

I’ve been thinking about my upcoming night at the observatory and wishing once again that we were much further along in space travel. I know much of these dreams are due to sci-fi TV shows, but wouldn’t it be cool to walk through a Stargate onto another habitable planet or fly in a ship the size of the ‘new’ Enterprise? Or even look through a telescope and spot aliens? (The latter would not be allowed to be like the aliens from the movies ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, ‘Stargate (the movie and TV show)’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Predator’ or ‘Aliens’. *ggg* There are rules to follow. Anyway, I think it would be pretty cool.

I finished typing in the changes to Saber-tooth. I’m going to read through it one more time and write a brief epilogue, then it’s off to my editor. It will be gone today. Yah!

I started reading 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles, et al. Vanessa recommended it to me. So far I’m really digging it, but it’s not for the squeamish. What’s everyone reading?

Today is my nephew’s birthday. I already mailed him a card, since he lives several states over. I hope he has a terrific day.

I’m still typing in the changes to Saber-tooth. You’d think I’d be finished by now. For some reason, I’m procrastinating big time on this manuscript. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to do that, since the urban fantasy is waiting. Ugh!!!

I did find out that Phantom Warriors: Bacchus will be released next month. YAH!!! I’m sure Saber-tooth wouldn’t be far behind it if I’d just get off my #$% and finish the edits.

I have to head to the grocery store in a little while (after I put my shoes on). Always exciting. I did find out something very cool yesterday that will give you an indication of how romantic my dh is. He’s booked a private night for us at a nearby observatory, so that we can look at the moon and stars. How cool is that? I’m telling you, I married a good man.

I managed to dive into the Saber-tooth edits. I don’t have much more to go, so I should finish them tonight even if I don’t get them all typed in. I also mailed off Nicole’s book, along with a package to my new agent. Yes, you read that right. I have a new agent. That’s part of the news I said I’d share with you all.

I decided to accept an offer from the L. Perkins Agency for representation. The agency specializes in horror, sci-fi and fantasy. My agent, Jenny Rappaport also handles some romance. As I mentioned before, the new stuff I’m writing isn’t exactly romance. There is a romance in each of the books, but that’s not the focus of the stories.

Change is always tough–and scary. I thought long and hard before making any moves, including accepting Jenny’s offer. Anyone who knows me well knows I do NOT like massive changes in my life. Yes, I know they help you grow and that they’re good for you, but I still don’t like them. Jenny made the transition easy. And for that, I’m truly grateful.

On the market front, I hear that Harlequin has officially announced the death of Bombshell. Sigh. Bummer. The rumor mill is now circling Luna like a ravenous pack of dogs. I REALLY hope the latter isn’t in any danger.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve put up a short excerpt and a blurb for Phantom Warriors: Bacchus on my ‘books’ page under shape-shifters. All you have to do is click on the cover. For the lazy people out there (you know who you are) click here. Check it out if you get the chance.

I’ve finished up the edits for Bacchus. I also wrote a blurb and found a couple of potential excerpts for the EC site. I will be putting up both on my site later. I got the requests in the posts, like I mentioned yesterday. Now all that’s left for me to do is edit Saber-tooth and mail Nicole’s book.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my career, the writing, etc. This has been an interesting time for me because of the upheaval happening behind the scenes. And I don’t mean upheaval in necessarily a bad way. I’ve been growing as a writer (forced to) and much of it is due to the fact that my critique partners are swamped with deadlines.

This has been a whopper learning experience for me because for the most part I’ve had to write my books without the input of the people I trust most. Now I’m not saying that I haven’t had help from people. I have and their assistance was greatly appreciated. Up until this time period, I’d never sent out work to publishers and agents that hadn’t been scoured by my critique partners first.

I consider the next couple of months to be the ultimate test. Why? Because I’ll learn whether I’m capable of standing on my own as a writer. Hence the title of this entry. I figure if someone wants to buy one of my books (or all three ;), then I’ll know that in a pinch I can go it alone. I will have finally reached a level of competence to stand on my own. Does this mean I’ll suddenly chuck my critique partners if I get three book deals? Hell no! But the lesson I learned from the exercise will remain.

For those of you with critique partners, would you feel comfortable submitting your work without them? Have you ever submitted your work without your critique partners looking at it first? If so, how did it turn out?

I’m trying to write a blurb for Bacchus and it’s taking me longer than it should. I’m not terrific at writing blurbs, but I’m decent. I’m also trying to find a good excerpt. That wouldn’t be a problem, but it needs to be PG13. Yikes! Now that’s a challenge. *ggg*

I managed to get the request into the mail, along with the books. So if you’re one of the winners of my contest and you sent me your address, then you should get the books by Sat. or Mon. at the latest. Hope you all like them.

I’m going to start edits for Saber-tooth today after I write a letter to AAA. (Don’t ask.) Then it’ll be back to my urban fantasy. YAH!!! I probably will be scarce once I dive into it head first. I need to finish plotting (I know the main plot. I’m talking about the twist.) a few things and working out details of my world. I can’t wait.

For those of you waiting for the books that you won, I have to apologize. I tried to download the postage today and the USPS site appears to be having issues. I will try again later, but I don’t know if they’ll make it out by today. If the site is not up and running normally by tomorrow, I’ll take the books to the post office.

I’m off to finish multiple edits. I’ll check back in on Thursday. Tomorrow, you can find my latest blog entry at Romancing the Blog. If you’re looking for the book cover, scroll down this page or click here.

Hey everyone, I knew it was going to be busy when I returned home. I just didn’t realize how busy. I’ve just about finished the edits for Bacchus. I have a short epilogue to add, then it’ll be out of here. I’m going to start Saber-tooth next. Fingers crossed it doesn’t take me as long as Bacchus did. I’ve also received a request for some of my work, so I have to get that package together, too.

Nicole, I still need your address so that I can mail you your book. You can email it to me at: jordan@jordansummers.com. I have everyone else’s address. Congrats again to the winners of the contest. I’ll mail the books tomorrow.

I have to come up with a Romancing the Blog entry for Wednesday, which means I have to write it by tomorrow at the latest. Any ideas? (Can you hear the panic in my voice yet?) My mom suggested an article on cover art…since the Bacchus cover was so inspiring. *g* Has that already been done? Sigh.

Other than all the things listed above and my ‘to do’ list, not much is happening. Snort.