Jordan Summers

I’m just throwing this out there since I’ve been out of the country. Has anyone seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans or Mall Cop or Benjamin Buttons or Inkheart or Slumdog Millionaire? I need to hear some opinions. I want the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I must be strange because throughout my life I’ve ALWAYS believed I could do whatever I set my mind to. (If I decided I wanted to fly in space, I knew I could make it happen. It never occurred to me that I couldn’t. NEVER.) I didn’t realize the way I thought was odd until recently. I thought everyone was like that.

Take getting published. When I decided to take my writing seriously in 2000/2001, I had no doubt I’d get published. I’d heard it was hard. I listened to a lot of horror stories. Knew the odds. And then blissfully ignored them because in my mind the odds never applied to me. I know how incredibly naive that sounds–and it is, but it’s worked for me my whole life. When I was pursuing music, I queried record companies. Everyone told me that’s not how the business worked, including my ex who had a record deal at the time, but I got a call from one of those companies inviting me out to Nashville to sing. I also received a lot of lovely handwritten letters from presidents of record companies passing on my songs, but encouraging me to continue writing. When I decided to take acting lessons (to get over stage-fright), I was told the odds were enormous to land a job. Any job. And I absolutely believed what the other actors were telling me. They’d been in the trenches. They knew. I also believed without a doubt that I would beat those odds. I was flying. I didn’t need the money. So therefore there was no desperation on my part. I was just out to have a good time ‘pretending and playing’. I got two commercials within six months of my first acting class. They’re embarrassing reminders of my younger naive self. But the important point is I had jobs. I didn’t pursue acting–even though I found it a lot of fun–because it was never my intention to be an actor.

Are you seeing a pattern yet? I’ve kind of waltzed through life like that, which is good and bad. It’s good because like I mentioned above, it never occurs to me that I can’t do something. It’s bad because it makes me extremely impatient and hard on myself when things don’t happen as fast as I’d like. I know a lot of people (including me) get frustrated by this business. Half the time it feels like you’re banging your head against a brick wall laced with razors. But next time you’re ready to throw in the towel, try a little naive belief. You’ll be amazed how far it’ll take you.

(Note: Although I believed I could do all these things I did work hard at each one while pursuing them.)

What do you believe?

Today is my sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday, T! Hope whatever you wish comes true. May you have many, many more.

I’ve been receiving quite a few ‘Google Alerts’ lately. The last few have contained some lovely reviews of my book. Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to read it…even the ones who didn’t like it. As I floated from review to review, it became apparent that a lot of readers have started to make guesses about where I’m going to take the Dead World series. Some people have guessed that Red’s and Morgan’s relationship will be explored, others believe I’ll go further in depth with the ‘pack’ relations. All good guesses, but I’ll let you in on a little secret–the only book I had charted out in the beginning was RED. From that story things have grown organically. This is and has always been the story of one woman’s journey of self-discovery. That same self-discovery continues through SCARLET with some not so pleasant surprises arriving at the beginning. The events that take place at the beginning of SCARLET change my hero and heroine, test their relationship. These same events are the bomb that propel them through their final journey in CRIMSON.

I get really nervous (probably because I’ve been doing edits) when readers think/expect/hope a book turns out a certain way. Like any author, I want to live up to reader expectations. At the same time, I realize that’s impossible. There are too many expectations. I can’t possibly meet them all. So I do what I’ve always done, I write the book for me and hope that other people enjoy it, too. For those of you expecting certain aspects, I hope I don’t disappoint you.

Peace, Love and Brownies.

Dh is almost done editing the travel videos. Should have something for you all very soon. I’ll do write-ups with the short vids to fill in the missing spaces.

I managed to finish the Scarlet read on Sunday. Yesterday I typed up a cheat sheet for the publisher to go along with the pages I returned. Hopefully I didn’t make any typos and it makes everything easier. Today I’m starting work on the vampire novella. I’ve been reading more of the novellas from the first book. It’s definitely going to be tough. Not the writing, but getting it to fit. I may have too much story. I’ll have to see once I get into it. I do believe I can get the rough draft finished before I receive Crimson edits in a couple of weeks. If I do, then it’s looking like I’m free to do whatever as of March. YAY! (picture me dancing around the room)

The read through is moving steadily forward. I’ve read a hundred pages. Should be able to finish the book by Wednesday at the latest if I don’t work over the weekend. Once it’s done, that’s it. Scarlet will be on its way to the printers. YAY!!! Then it’s vampire novella here I come. Looking forward to writing this story. I’m setting it in Paris. It’s my ‘dark’ tribute to a fabulous city. Right now, dh is working on the videos. Visuals are getting closer.

Now onto something that’s been bugging me.

I’m freakishly fanatic about paranormal shows. Ghost Hunter, I’m all over it. A Haunting, used to scare the crap out of me…til it went wonky. Paranormal State, love/hate relationship. The latter I keep watching hoping it will get better, but it never does. Until I watched that show, I never knew how many demons ‘haunted’ people. I mean seriously I would think some of them have something better to do than hang out in Pennsylvania. It’s kind of like the rural folk who claim to be abducted by aliens. You never really see anything happen. There’s never any real proof. It’s so frustrating and yet still I watch. What’s wrong with me? Don’t answer that. *g*

Are there any shows that fall into that category with you?

Sorry I haven’t been around gang, but I’m swamped. I just sent my urban fantasy in to my agent. The tweaking of the manuscript went on and on and on and on. I’ve made it almost halfway through Scarlet. I decided it would be ‘easier’ to make sure the changes had been incorporated into the manuscript before I started reading. (Note to established and new authors: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR HARD COPY WITH THE CHANGES YOU MADE.) That way I wouldn’t have to worry and I’d be able to read for story/pleasure. It’s just taking longer than I’d anticipated. I’ve also only managed to write a few scenes for my vampire novella. As soon as I finish this read through, I’m going to start on it because I’ve been told by my editor that I can expect to receive copyedits for CRIMSON by mid-February.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I watched the end of the swearing in with so many mixed emotions. Elation and fear, hope and anxiety. I then listened to his acceptance speech with tears in my eyes. The man can sure deliver a speech that makes you sit up and take notice. I don’t even know why I was crying. This day is historic on so many levels. I can barely begin to comprehend the far reaching ramifications.

I’m not a particularly religious person, especially when it comes to organized religion. But if words have power, then THIS PRAYER is one of the post powerful ever written. May it come to pass.

Dh figured out it would be easier to put video up on my site than to pull pictures from the videos he shot. So he’s in the process of putting the videos together. It won’t be long. I know I keep saying that, but it’s true.

Today is my niece’s 15th birthday. Man, do I remember that year vividly. So much drama. *g* Happy Birthday, B.

I received my first/last pass pages for Scarlet today. I’m not really sure what they mean by first pass, when it actually means it’s the last time you can look at them to see if you catch any mistakes. The book looks so much shorter now that it’s been formatted. It’s not a super long book at (84K), but it looks even shorter than that. Sigh. Oh well. There’s a LOT of stuff that goes down in Scarlet. One very big surprise at the beginning that I hope readers don’t see coming. *wg* I have until Feb. 2nd to get it done. I’ll begin reading tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t take me too long…says the turtle reader.

I was talking with a dear friend today about proposals. She always does proposals in the middle of fulfilling her contracts. I’ve really never done that. I have always been so focused on getting the books done and not overworking myself that I let that aspect of writing slip away. But the truth is putting out proposals regularly is vital to maintaining a writing career, especially when you’re at the beginning stages like I am. It doesn’t matter that RED was my thirteenth published novel and that SCARLET will be number fourteen and CRIMSON will be number fifteen. That’s baby steps in this business. Haven’t even taken the training wheels off yet. I’ve let my fear of being overwhelmed by work get in the way of moving steadily forward. This year might be a good time to break that bad habit. *g*

If you’re a writer, what habit is holding your career back? If you’re a reader, time to tell me your reading peeves. What will bring you out of a story in an instant? What presses your buttons? I want to know so that I can press them.

So last night dh started reading the UF. He didn’t finish it because he got home late from work. Anyhow, he said there are a few places I can ‘tighten’ the manuscript up, so the UF won’t be heading to my agent’s office today. Sigh. Given the chaotic nature of the business at present writers (including me) cannot afford to send in work that’s anything less than stellar. Not that they could before, but the wiggle room is definitely gone. If you’re wondering why I’m giving my dh’s opinion so much credence, it’s because he’s a FANTASTIC writer. He’s written several scripts and books. One of his scripts was picked up by BBC twice, but they eventually let the project drop because it was too edgy for TV at the time. He approaches writing from a very different direction than I do, so he catches a lot of things I don’t see. So, I’ll be paying attention to what he has to say. This means I’ll be working on the partial over the weekend and submitting it on Monday. Yes, I know that most of N.Y. is off for MLK’s holiday, but it’ll be there when they return.

No big plans for the weekend. Hope to get some of my RITA entries read and maybe see a movie. Anyone have big plans?

I finished going through my UF last night. Dh is set to read it when he gets home tonight. If that goes well, it’ll be sent to my agent tomorrow. Hopefully she’ll like it. It’ll be nice to have it off my plate. Today I’m typing in the scenes I wrote for the vampire novella and charting out the rest of the story. It became very clear last night as I finished my fifty page 10,050 word UF proposal that I won’t have a lot of wiggle room on the vamp story. I’ll have to make it tight. REALLY TIGHT to hit the 12K cutoff. The good thing is I’ll write the story until it’s finished, then edit it down. There’s a lot of action in the story due to the nature of the set up. I’ve created a very emotionally wounded heroine. She’s not a tough chick in the Buffy sense. She’s more hardened than anything thanks to her job. Anyway, I plan to workout, then work on it. I’m currently sitting with my nose pressed to the window, waiting for the postman. I have books to mail to Chey and they won’t fit in the outbox slot. Grr…

Plan to get some of the photos downloaded this weekend, so I can continue the write up about Munich and move onto Salzburg. The pictures will help frame my stories. Sorry it’s taking so long.

Last night I received my RITA books. Very exciting. A few are books I’d planned to pick up so that was a nice surprise. I have until March 9th to get them read and the score sheets returned. After the winners have been announced, I’ll run a giveaway of the copies I received.

Other than that, just trying to figure out why my recorder has stopped taping the Mentalist. I’ve managed to miss two episodes so far and I’m not happy about it. They looked like important links to the story ARC. I’ll have to find them somewhere… They say you can watch full episodes on the site, but it’s a lie. Sigh.

Over at the Whatever blog, Scalzi got some awesome news. He’s been asked to be a creative consultant on the new Stargate Universe show. How cool is that?