Mercy Thompson & Other Reader Goodness

I know, I haven't posted in a while, blah blah blah. I've been getting ready for school to go back, working, writing, and playing PC games. So there!

ANYways, I thought you Briggs fans might enjoy this article with the artist of her covers. It concerns the Mercy covers themselves and the gal who models for them. She's not a professional model, but an architectural draftsperson and part-time bartender. Pretty cool. Anyways, it's a neat read.

AND, the cover for Mercy #6 has been revealed!!! Here is River Marked, coming in Spring 2011. It's too far away!!! Luckily we'll have Masques and Wolfsbane coming in October and November of this year to tide us over.

In other book news, here's the back cover copy for Lisa Shearin's next Raine Benares book, coming out next year. It looks fantastic!

And now, for a contest link. The incomparable Meljean Brook is giving away 3 ARCs of her October steampunk romance release, The Iron Duke. Go enter before tomorrow night, and if you win, give it to me!!! ;) The novella that kicked off the series (and was really good) was in the Burning Up anthology and was titled "Here There Be Monsters."

Plotting Assist

I had all these ideas for SciFi book 2, but they kept swirling around in my brain, getting all tangled up in each other. Finally, I pulled out a plot points template that I'd made for myself a couple of years ago. It worked for me again (in getting my thoughts sorted out) so I thought I'd post about it here in case it helps anyone else.

It's just a word doc with a series of rectangles on it. Each rectangle is for one event or aspect of an event and it basically just helps me keep things ordered and flowing logically from one event to another. It's also a place to make notes about the character development, not just the action. Here's what's in each rectangle:

Brief description of event/scene/activity

• Prerequisite -
• Accomplishes -

A few examples are as follows:

Street kid tries to steal Professor's purse

• Prerequisite - Professor has put drinking glass for evidence in purse
• Accomplishes - Showcases Professor's discomfort around kids and how she tends to freeze around violence. Glass gets broken - evidence is gone and they're back to square one.

Brainstorming about bad guy's motives

• Prerequisite - All other avenues have led to dead-ends. The good guys are revisiting everything, trying to figure out what they're missing, or if there are different ways all the events could fit together.
• Accomplishes - Jump-starts the investigative process again. Secondary character (Clark) makes mental leap to motive based on similar experiences he had as an MP in the armed forces. We get some more insight into Clark's past and personality.

Vacation - The Abbreviated Review

I had a whole big post planned out for this, but my job keeps getting in the way. Boo! I figured that I'd better get at least a shortened version up here, otherwise I'd never get it done.

To summarize: A great time was had by all. I love my crazy family.

Most Memorable Moments:

• Playing the Cranium Game for oh, so many reasons. We found out that my dad has been conditioned by his job as a Contracts Manager so that any time he has to read anything aloud, he puts on his 'game face'. This means that he gives away no emotion other than a general aura of disgust/annoyance. Every time he read a clue aloud, we were all convinced that he was pissed at us. I also learned that my husband should always do the humming part of the humdinger clues.
• Crouching on the floor of my van holding a cut open water bottle so E4.3 could pee into it because we were stuck in a construction zone on the highway. This experience will definitely make it into a book someday because it was so funny/embarrassing once we could all look back on it without shuddering in remembered horror. btw, I had no idea her bladder could hold that much. Amazing.
• The ice cream cones that tried to eat us (they were delicious but HUGE)
• Watching the kids run from ride to ride at the amusement park because they were having so much fun. If it spun, dipped, went fast or slung them around, they wanted to ride it.
• Seeing all the baby animals at the zoo. I've never seen so many animal babies at one zoo before. They were super-cute and funny as they clumsily did their thing.
• Seeing, talking and playing with all our long-lost cousins on both sides of the family. It was so nice to see everyone. I wish we all lived closer so I could get to know them as individuals.

The other thing from the trip that will make it into a book sometime has to do with a store we saw. I so wish we'd gone inside so I could have seen what it was like on the inside. The sign to lure people in from the highway read "Pepper Spray, Fireworks, Sugar-Free Fudge". Now there's a combination. Then on the windows of the store in 6-ft tall letters were the words "GUNS!", "KNIVES!", "JELLY BELLIES!". We almost collapsed laughing. There's a story there. Gotta be.

Edits Continue

Since I posted last week, I've passed the halfway point for the edits in my SF novel (yay!), and started working on the synopsis (boo!). I'm sure that for-real authors can do a full edit of their novels in like a day or two. Yeah... I'm on week 5 maybe (I'm afraid to go back and count), but this is probably because I only work on it for about a half-hour each day... on the days I actually work on it. Must be more disciplined about this!

If you were reading the blog last year, you know how I feel about "The Synopsis", but it has to be done for those persnickety agents and publishers. Something about making sure the story holds together and that you're eloquent enough to condense and convey it. Grrrr. And here's a news flash - I'm not good at writing a synopsis. There's just so much STUFF, that it's hard to figure out what needs to be in, what can be left out and how to make it not sound like a train that's afraid to slow down.

Later this week, The Vacation. I promise.

Writing Progress Update & B&N Offer

Business first - writing info. Then tomorrow or next week I'll cover our recent vacation

(and its affect on my writing, because this is after all, a blog about writing and books).

Final Edits on the SciFi novel before sending it around to agents are going slowly. But I am working on it instead of just staring at it, so progress is being made. I planned to take the manuscript on vacation, but it got left at home along with the kids' bathing suits and our sweatshirts for the cooler evenings. I had to play games on the Nintendo DS instead (and the kids each got a new bathing suit). :( Tragic... I'm on Chapter 16 out of 35 with the edits, so almost halfway.

Big breakthrough with plotting for SciFi book #2. I'd been worrying about this one for a while, because while I knew how book #2 started out and a bit about the personal conflicts, I had not a single plan for the overall conflict of the story. No ending. No plot. Nothing. Then I got a massive brainstorm and it all started to become more clear. Of course, the first thing I did was start trying to punch holes in the idea - figure out where and how it couldn't possibly work. Instead of realizing that it couldn't be done, I found a place where I could seamlessly tie in an event from book #1. It was like they'd been meant for each other all along. That was promising and scary all at once, because things don't just fall into place like that for me. I'm all kinds of suspicious. I hope the idea works out in actuality, because it's a pretty good one. I've been working on writing all the bits and pieces of the idea down so that I don't forget it. Hopefully I'll sell book #1 and there will be a reason to write book #2. :)

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As for the B&N offer, they're running a Romance Sale until July 30th where you buy 2 and get a 3rd free on select (BIG selection) of romance titles. WHY are they not offering this for nook e-books?!?!?!?

Birthday Brouhaha

Outside water party. 28 kids. Assorted parents. 85 degree heat. Thunderstorms threatening to send everyone inside.

That was our Saturday. Luckily, the rain held off, the kids had fun, and we got to show off our finished landscaping. J7.0's joint birthday party with two of her friends was a big success. She also received a bunch of gifts that were completely baffling to her uncool parents. The pic to the left is a Liv doll. I'd never heard of them, but they're 4 dolls who are BFFs. They're also able to be posed in lots of crazy ways. This entertains my husband - when he's not freaked out because they're looking at him. ANYways, it took like 6 hours to get the stupid thing out of its packaging. It had all the security that airports only wish they had. Twist ties, rubber bands, clips, tape, string - this thing had it all. Eventually, we coaxed it to emerge into the big, open world.

J has obviously seen and played with these dolls before. The first thing she did was rip its hair off. I freaked out, first because hey, she ripped its hair off. Then I got a closer look at the doll and was like,"Mom?!". But anyone else who's seen my mom would know that my mom would never leave the house with hair that flat. The resemblance was uncanny other than that though.

Needless to say, after half an hour, we were missing one of the doll's earrings, the scarf was under the couch, and the wigs were stacked one on top of the other. It was a great look for the doll. Really.

I'm sure that this whole experience will be great fodder for my writing... when I can look back at it and not shudder in remembered horror. It was a successful event, but just a bit traumatizing all in all.

Happy Half Year

Half of 2010 is gone. Are you happy with what you've done with the year so far? Are you working to achieve something you'd promised yourself you'd do this year?

I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled with my progress towards my goal, but I can say I'm still working slowly but surely towards it. At this half-year point I'm re-evaluating my approach and trying to analyze what is and isn't working for me.

Have you set some goals for the rest of the year? Here are my writing goals:

• Finish editing SF novel
• Write synopsis for SF novel
• Begin submitting SF novel to agents
• Submit more completed short stories to magazines/contests
• Finish first few chapters of SF novel #2 so I've got that started in case #1 sells & pin down ending of SF #2 so I can write a proposal for it if needed
• Finish plotting dark fantasy novel
• Write another short story related to most recent UF short story (maybe - I'd rather work on writing a novel, but I'll work on this as the novels stump me)
  
• Revamp beginning of UF novel I began submitting last year

I think this list will keep me plenty busy this year. :)

Shame - The Great Motivator & Contest Link

I was catching up via email with a friend yesterday and had to confess that I'd slacked on my writing. Just admitting it made me feel like a loser, so in an effort to prove to myself that I was working towards my dream and not just lazing around dreaming about it, I actually *gasp* edited some of my novel last night.

Now, the editing probably wasn't very good, because that's one of my weak points, but I sat down and did it. A whole 13 pages. Yippee. One more chapter down - 33 to go. Oh, heavens, kill me now. Does that seem like a mountain to anyone else? An eternity? An endless road? If not, could you do it for me? ;)

As for the contest, a debut novel hit the shelves yesterday and I've had my eye on it. It's Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie and a copy is being given away over on OddShots. Read the interview with her and you'll be hooked. This is also your chance to name your come-to-life-to-protect-you-tattoos. This one's for you, Bex! It's an urban fantasy, but the heroine isn't a vampire or a werewolf. *alarm! alarm!* She's a Fury, ala Greek Mythology, and I think that's a totally cool idea. I so wish I'd come up with it myself.

Kids - Mildly Funny Things I Overheard

Yeah, I know. Kids say the darndest things, right? I swore to myself that I wouldn't turn my blog into an accounting of my kids and all the funny stuff they do. But the following snippets made me laugh, so I'll share. Then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled book goodness.

1. We were praying the other night before bed, and E4.2 asked God for new parents. I kid you not. My sister, C, witnessed it and almost snorted herself sick (when she wasn't pointing and laughing at us). Near as we can figure, this came about because we'd been talking that day about the fact that while I have my own parents, I also now have a mom and dad in-law who I didn't have when I was younger, so I got more parents, in a sense. She wants more too.
   
   
2. E4.2 was playing with her prince/princess/horse figurines, and the conversation she created between them at one point, went like this:
   Prince: "Okay. That's it for me."
   Random Princess: "What?!?!? But we just started playing! You can't quit now!"
   Prince: "Yes I can. You see..." *pause for dramatic effect* "I'm the bad guy!" *oh noes!*
   Random Princess who doesn't put up with silly little bad guys: "No you're not," *scoffing* "You're just wearing his costume." And they went back to playing, Prince included. The moral of this story is, you can't just dress like a bad guy. You have to be the bad guy.
   
   
3. At a b-day party for one of J6.11's friends, the birthday boy received some silly bands from his friend. (If you don't know what these demonic items are, go ask any kid from age 4 to 18. They'll look at you like you're an idiot, roll their eyes, and thrust their arm in your face so you can look at the twisted, obscurely colored bands encasing their arms. Enjoy.) After all the congratulations and jealous moaning were past, the gift giver pointed out their superior features in used-car salesman glory. "See! They're tie-dyed AND they glow in the dark!" While all the other kids were oohing and aahing, one kid looked down his nose a the gift-giver and said "Yeah, but do they have smells?" The gift-giver's face fell and he mumbled, "No." And the other kids had a new silly-band hero.

Say Wha-?

My husband and I always laugh at how differently we pronounce words in our heads when reading stuff. We've gone to my mom before to have her settle how to say something, only for her to start laughing at us because she uses a third pronunciation. On a side-note, isn't it weird how you can say something in your head and it seems perfectly normal, but somehow saying it out loud and introducing your tongue and mouth to the equation makes it sound NOT like what was in your head?

Lisa Shearin is helping all her readers out by posting a compendium of pronunciations for the Names, Places and random Words in her Raine Benares novels. It was compiled by Lisa and the audio book reader (voice-over actress) for her first several novels.

I was pronouncing Tamnais wrong. Way wrong. 'tam-NAY-is' was my interpretation. Apparently it's 'tom-NAHS'. So does that mean when they shorted it to Tam, it's not pronounced Tam but Tom? I like Tam better. ANYhoo, it was cool to see the list and compare.

Mmmm, book book book book

What Time Is It? No, it's not summertime on the High School Musical set (sorry, that's a HSM2 reference for those of you without squealy girl offspring or relations). It's almost the end of the month, which means 2 straight weeks of new book releases!!! Commence giddy dancing.

What am I looking forward to? Well, glad you asked. Aaaaaaand, heeeeeeere we go!

June 29th

• Fatal Circle by Linda Robertson - urban fantasy - book 3 in her series, and I've been eagerly awaiting this one. Great heroine who's destined to balance the paranormal forces of the world, but not a kick-butt confident one. She's worried about the responsibility and doing the right thing with the trust she's been given. Nice amount of emotion, balanced with action, and some intellectual dilemmas without clear-cut right and wrong paths.

• Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter - young adult - book four in the Gallagher Girls series and I really like these books. The spy stuff woven throughout typical teen girl drama is entertaining. And no angst. Thank you, Ms. Carter.

• The Brazen Bride by Stephanie Laurens - historical romance - kinda looking forward to this one, mainly because she's just a good writer. I admit that all her heroes are really starting to run together for me, though and the heroines aren't much more distinct. I'm also tired. Tired of the repetition. Of the same thing. Over and over again. And the fragments. Of sentences. At first, it was a unique writing style. Now it annoys me.

July 6th

• Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh - paranormal romance - More Psy/Changeling goodness. Cannot get enough, eva.

• Demon Blood by Meljean Brook - paranormal romance - Another writer whose work I can't get enough of. Nuff said.

Did I miss anything?

Out of Practice

Sat down to write the other day. Had an idea for a scene and thought to myself, oh, this will be quick. Yeah. It was quick in the same way my kids are able to occupy themselves for longer than 3.5 minutes - Epic Fail.

An hour later, I was angry, my scene was done (kinda), and my brain was cramping. Obviously taking several weeks off from writing hadn't done my brain any good. Bad Writer!

I have done a good bit of plotting though, so that ways on the Nice side of my list. Unfortunately, that's the only responsible writer type thing I've done lately. No editing, no editing, no editing. Sigh. I really need to edit. :(

Links and Contests!!

Dear Author is doing their usual ACE/ROC giveaway - there's even a new (gasp!) BOY urban fantasy series starting up in there!!! It looks good. The last Weather Warden series book by Rachel Caine is also up for grabs, as well as Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (but everyone on the planet should already have that one... and if you don't, consider yourself slapped silly.)

OMG The Hoff in a ninja movie (Dancing Ninja at that) and his character name is... WAIT FOR IT...

Ansel Ladouche.

My world is complete. Thanks to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for the heads-up

Completely unrelated to the Hoff, B&N is giving you a free $50 gift card to start filling your e-library if you purchase a nook "for a limited time". You may walk out of a B&N with your nook or order one on-line. Either way, now's a good time to pick one up. Not mention the free e-books they give you each week. And the cookies and 7-Layer bars from the cafe when you show them the coupon on your nook. I heart my nook.

Go forth and enjoy your day!

Edit Me

No writing progress so far this week, but I did get some editing done. Yay me.

I was naughty - I spent my time reading Ilona Andrew's new book, Magic Bleeds. It was completely worth the guilt. Loved it!

What have you guys been reading and what are you looking forward to?

Roller Coaster O' Writing

Inconsistent is an understatement when it comes to my writing habits lately. Last week I was a good little writer-monkey. No, that doesn't mean that I threw poo at my characters. I worked on my writing in one form or another every day last week. Whether it was new stuff, editing, plotting or research, I felt like I was moving forward.

This week?

Not at all. I need to go back and input my 2nd critique partner's suggestions for my SF novel, modify some scenes in the SF novel based on some other recent feedback, fix up a short story for a contest entry, and countless other things. I just can't seem to make myself DO it. Sigh.

Instead of whining about this, I think I'll go and actually work on some of those things... if I can make myself do it. I think I need a snack first. And maybe a drink. And I should go over that new recipe I'm going to try for dinner tonight to make sure I have everything. And I need to find some removable stickers to assign yard sale prices. Gotta get a birthday gift for a party this weekend too. Did I ever start that load of laundry this morning? Better go check that. And - Gah! This is how's been lately. I'm pathetic.

Send strong writing thoughts my way. I need them.

Magic Bleeds Contests

Yep - Gordon and Ilona Andrews are running a contest to win 1 of 10 signed copies of Magic Bleeds before you can buy it. Go hit the Magic Bleeds contest. You have until 10 am PST tomorrow I think.

What are you still doing here? Go.

If you're still here, you must want another chance. Lurv a la Mode is giving away another copy of Magic Bleeds and has a review here. This one's good until Sat. May 15 midnight.

Cherry-Picking Much? And Contests Links

I feel like I've been snatching bits and pieces of particulars for my novels from lots of different sources lately - things I liked from other books, friends, our recent vacation, family, random encounters with strangers, etc. In essence, I've been cherry-picking little things from here and there and hoping I can smash them into a usable whole.

In the past, I might have been inspired by something, but it would usually be something big. Recently it's just been tons of little things and I've been diligently writing them down in the hopes that they'll be useful later. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

BTW, don't forget to stop over at the Knight Agency blog if you're interested in walking away with their Gena Showalter Take-Home Tuesday book.

And, go check out excerpts and contest deets for Rob Thurman's upcoming release, Chimera.

TBR app for your iPhone/iTouch

For those of you who enjoy the romance reviews given by Smart Bitches and Dear Author, it's like Christmas in May! They've joined up to create an app for your iPhone/iTouch called TBR (To Be Read) because so many of us have a TBR stack or want to know what to add to it. What are the latest books out and what kinds of reviews are they getting? This app is designed for that. Oh, and it even includes free reads. Need I say more? I think not.

Go check out the TBR app here. Now, if only they could get it on the Android platform...

God of Fluffy Clouds?

I need opinions. I've been working on my religious system for the dark fantasy WIP (work in progress) and am in a quandary: DO I NEED A SKY DEITY?!?!?!?

I've got the following:

• Sun God
• Earth/Nature Deity
• Goddess of Seas

Now, the Sun God also covers Weather in his domain (or portfolio for you RPGers), so after that, what's left in the sky? Clouds, Air, and uh, yeah. Everything else (lightning, wind, rain, etc) could all be covered under Weather.

So my question for you guys is this:

Do I keep my Weather god, or ditch that and have a Sky deity instead? What are your thoughts on this?

(Keep in mind that we're not talking Zeus here where my deities are going to be tagging people with lightning bolts. They're not that demonstrative.)

Now weigh in!

Getting Back Into The Swing of Writing

Okay, so I took an unplanned hiatus from writing. My critique group has been reading through my SciFi novel, and in the meantime, I did nothing but write a small short story. Bleh. I was plotting some stuff in my head and somehow convinced myself that that was enough - I was still progressing.

Then I woke up and realized that it's definitely not enough. I wasn't progressing, because not a single new word had been written. Having it in my head wasn't good enough. So now I've gotten back to trying to write some everyday in between my other commitments, even if I'm not writing much or just writing down plot points or notes.

Anyways, my focus is a dark fantasy I've been considering for a while, but I think I might take the time to get the first chapter or two done on a second SciFi book to follow up the one I just finished. I have plans for a second book, and if I can get the first sold, they might be interested in a second, so it would be good to get a jumping off point written while I've still got their voices strong in my head.

Have you guys had to jerk yourselves back on track recently?