Jordan Summers

I’ll post some thoughts tomorrow. I’m too tired to have any today. *g*

I’m out of here. Have a good week.

I’m trying to figure out what I need to take for RT and type in the edits that I finished last night. I’ve ran the errands that I needed. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything. I get so nervous before I leave for a conference. I have no idea why. I mean realistically I could sit in my room for the entire time and no one, but my friends would take issue with that. Yet here I am feeling anxious. And not in a ‘this is going to be fun’ kind of way. I think this stems from the fact that I spend so many hours in my house alone, writing my books. I used to be really good with social situations. Nowadays, not so much. It takes work to socialize and not come off inept or like a total bitch. I have no doubt I will enjoy myself at the Romantic Times Convention once I get there. It’s the forcing myself to get there part that’s hard. Have a nice week. I’ll report back Monday on what I learned.

Not exactly two topics that blend together, but they worked this weekend. Yesterday dh and I went on a luxury home tour after we picked up my vampire fangs for RT. The tour is happening all month here. The idea is that for three weeks you can tour some of the premier luxury homes in the area. We toured three magnificent condos and two houses. We liked all of the properties except one house. Retro seventies look anyone? I think not. Shudder. The tour definitely puts into perspective what you can get for $1 to 3 million.

Today we went to see Hot Fuzz. It’s by the creators of Shaun of the Dead. Basically in this flick, they did for cop movies what they’d done for zombie movies in Shaun of the Dead. If you liked the silliness of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead, then you’ll probably enjoy Hot Fuzz. It was good for a chuckle.

I’m down to editing the last scene in the urban fantasy. It should be finished by tomorrow unless I get a wild hair and tackle the whole thing tonight. After I type in the changes, I need to make a list of items that I intend to take to the Romantic Times Convention. Keep your fingers crossed that I can squeeze everything into one roller bag. I really don’t want to take the big suitcase.

I grabbed this link off Beth Ciotta’s blog. I found it very timely. JA describes exactly how I’ve been feeling over the last year with perfect clarity. It’s not that I’m not grateful for the good things coming my way. I am. I’ve worked damn hard for them and taken big risks professionally. I know how fortunate I’ve been overall, even with the publishing crap I’ve gone through over the past couple of years. It’s just the nature of the business. Either you can hang with that or you can’t. If you can’t, then it may be time to find a new profession/dream. Sometimes that’s the hardest decision of all.

I want to thank everyone for the lovely well-wishes that have been sent my way both publicly and privately. This sale is definitely a surprise. Not quite as big a one as the Tor sale was for me, but it’s right up there. I never expected to write for either one of these publishers because I never imagined that my work would fit at either house. That of course got me thinking about how constructive those thoughts are to building a career. The answer is–they’re not.

I submitted both manuscripts to Tor and Harlequin with the belief that they were long-shots at best. And they were. But so are submissions to any other publishing house. That’s just the nature of this crazy business. For some reason though, I put Harlequin and Tor into a special category. Made them even more unobtainable. The fact that I landed deals with both houses makes me wonder how many other times I’ve done the same thing without realizing it. :-/

Have you purposely dismissed an idea, a publishing house, an agent, etc. because you thought there wasn’t a snowballs chance in hell of developing it or getting them? Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate.

With all the good news comes a load of work. I found out yesterday that I will be receiving edits from Tor and Harlequin next month. I also have Ellora’s Cave edits coming up in June…or sooner. I guess what I’m saying is that I may be a little scarce for a while until I get these books turned around. Speaking of which, I’m off to do more edits on the urban fantasy. Have a great day. I’ll check back later.

I always feel like I’m going to jinx a deal when I announce it too early, but I’m about to tempt fate anyhow. *ggg* I found out last week that I sold Revenge of the Sky Goddess to Harlequin Blaze. If all goes well, it will be released in the Spring of next year.

I decided to donate two 50 page critiques to the Brenda Novak Auction. I usually give books to fundraisers, but this year I decided to do something a little different, since I haven’t been judging contests. I’m not claiming to be the best critique partner in the world. (Far from it.;) I do think that I do a decent job and would be able to help on your first fifty pages, if anyone out there is interested. The auction doesn’t start until May 1st (I believe.). There are a lot of AMAZING items up for bid. Something for everyone. I’m just letting you all know a little early, so that they can think about it. Maybe no one will want a critique from me. I can live with that. Sniffle. Cough. LOL!

Apparently a lot of people didn’t see the the update added to our previous post, so here’s the news again:

Due to the recent generosity of new judges volunteering and existing ones offering to do more, we were able to extend our allowed number of entries to 250 hooks. A big thank you goes out to our new/existing judges!

However, at this time we already have over 250 hooks in our system, so we still cannot accept more entries. What this does mean is that many of you who already sent your hooks in but would have been excluded can now participate in the contest.

Thanks again to our judges! There wouldn’t be a contest without them.

If you submitted an entry before 10:00 am Eastern time today, you should be in the contest! Numbers will be assigned to all 250 hooks and emailed to the authors in the next couple days.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Am I the only person who thinks the number thirteen is lucky? I’ve been trotting around the blogsphere today and the general theme seems to be superstition. Everyone has been saying the same thing, Friday the 13th is a bad date. (Cue scary music here.) I know a lot of hotels don’t have thirteenth floors. But really, if you went around the world, you’d find a lot more numbers are considered unlucky and we don’t skip those.

I don’t know. Maybe I just don’t get it. I’m not saying that I am not superstitious about certain things, but for the most part numbers are exempt. I just don’t see the mathematical point. Am I alone?

A quick reminder to let you know that the Fangs, Fur and Fey contest starts tomorrow. If you’re feeling frisky, throw your words into the hat. What do you have to lose? The answer would be NOTHING.

Tonight dh and I are going out with a couple of friends to see a classic movie. The theater is playing Singing in the Rain on the big screen. Before anyone pokes fun at us, keep in mind that I have LOVED Gene Kelly since I was five years old. I was convinced I’d grow up and marry the man. (No, I didn’t get the whole age and movie thing at the time. Though I doubt it would’ve mattered to me, if I had. *g*) I’ve seen this movie well over a dozen times and own it on DVD, but I’ve never seen it on the big screen. I’m really looking forward to tonight, even though I’m sure that I will cry at some point. *ggg*

I’ve been on a new (and I hate to call it this, when it doesn’t feel like it) ‘diet’ for the past month and change. My dh and I tried Atkin’s home delivery. It worked for a while, but didn’t seem like a long-term solution. Recently we heard about a company who was doing the Zone diet. They deliver fresh food daily to your house. The food is fantastic. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this healthy in my life. I’m not going to lie. It’s expensive. At least I think so, but I cannot believe the change it’s made to our health and mental well-being.

I’ve lost almost ten pounds. For the first time in my life, I’ve stopped thinking about food. For those of you who’ve never been on a diet, you probably don’t know what I mean by that statement. But it’s a HUGE deal to me. You have no idea what a relief it is NOT to think about food every minute of every day. It’s such an incredible relief. We plan to stay on it for as long as we can.