Jordan Summers

I found out last night via a phone conversation, but now that Anna’s announced it on her blog, I figured it was okay to do the same here. Anna Genoese is leaving Tor…sort of. Read the full entry here.

It’s been a long and interesting day. I’m virtually brain dead. I have a Romancing the Blog entry due on Friday and I’m drawing a blank. If anyone can think of a good subject, that I might know something about or you’d like to see discussed, please drop me a note in the replies. Thank you. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. *g*

For anyone who has ever struggled with procrastination or any artistic endeavor (Hand shoots up. Oh, oh, pick me, pick me.), this is the book for you. I’ve just started reading it and wow, I half expect to come upon my name any page now. *g* The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is not the type of book that you want to zip through, even though it’s short enough to do so. This book requires thought and reflection. So if you’d like a deeper look at the ‘artist’ psyche, this is the book for you.

Have you bought Vicki Pettersson’s book, The Scent of Shadows yet? How about Vivi Anna’s Blood Secrets? If not, what are you waiting for? We’re talking dark comic/superhero characters mixed with urban fantasy and CSI vampires. It doesn’t get any better than that people.

I do apologize for not being around as much as usual. I have so many things going through my head right now that I can’t seem to focus on the blog or much of anything else for that matter. It hasn’t been bad thoughts (for the most part). I’ve mainly been pensive. Website designs, goals, writing, and career have been ongoing themes. I’m trying to decide how best to proceed, while inching my way through edits and more craft books.

I’ll admit it’s difficult. I feel like I’m straddling two worlds. This was particularly driven home at the RWA meeting the other day. It was great seeing friends and visiting, but I felt more out of place than ever. I know part of this is due to my lack of attendance. But an even larger portion is due to the change in my writing. It’s getting darker and far more violently graphic. A lot of my new work has elements of horror. I’m finding it more and more difficult to write ‘light’ romances. Hell, I’m finding it difficult to write romances at all.

Strangely, I have no idea why I’m slowly veering away from the genre that I love. It’s not like there isn’t romance in my new books. There is. It’s just not the focus of the story anymore. I’m in unfamiliar territory, which is something that always makes me uncomfortable. For those of you who’ve traversed this land, how did you get through it?

I’ve been having a lot of strange ‘thought jumps’ lately. On the one hand, this is great because I’ve been coming up with some damn good story ideas/situations. On the other, it’s a bit of a waste of time because I’m also going off on useless mental meanderings. Like today, dh and I were in the car, driving to our favorite fish and chips shop. We’d just left the house, when I blurted out an idea that had come to me earlier, then asked him if he thought it was stupid.

Now I should probably say right now that dh used to write scripts. Really GOOD scripts. Good enough to get picked up by the BBC. Yeah, that good. So I value his opinion, particularly when it comes to plotting and characterization. (Actually always, if we’re being perfectly honest. *grin*)

So anyhoo, we’re batting ideas and the story possibilities are getting better and better. We have one final wrinkle to tackle and the bones of the story will be there. Yah!

But I digress. During a break in the ‘what if’ session, my mind starts wandering back to Tokyo. I recalled several of the people that we encountered. I should probably mention here that I find exotic-looking people extremely attractive. I saw a few men in Tokyo that I thought were stunning. (There were several women that fell into that category.)

What I realized as I was thinking this was that there was only one that I was actually attracted to out of all the men that I encountered. This thought led me further back in my life and I realized that for the most part I may see someone who is visually stunning, but their physical beauty rarely leads to attraction.

That was a strange revelation for me. Up until that moment, I’d never considered them as two separate things. I figured if you found someone pretty or handsome that you were automatically attracted to them. And that may be the case for most people, but not for me. I guess I need something more to feel physical attraction. (Good thing I was bright enough to recognize that when I met my dh, even if I wasn’t able to articulate it until now.;)

What do you find attractive?