OK, I am essentially ready to send out the proposal for The Rake. The chapters are darn good and the synopsis is as good as I am capable of making it. So, good! Then I turn to the next paranormal proposal. Shift? Dark Elf or this other thing Chris K said he'd be up for just the other day.... Which was interesting. I think he may have slyly asked me to write something else for him. Well, of course he knows I'm under option for another paranormal, which proposal would go to him, so why not mention something. Anway, it was just interesting. Be cool if I could pull it off.... Proposals, good. Contracts better. I want to be under contract like all the other grown up writers out there (insert whining voice)

Happy Halloween!

edited to add: P.S. I forgot to mention that I succumbed today and called the Ingram's hotline AND checked both the Amazon and BN rankings for A Darker Crimson. Writer's nuerosis is in full effect.

I think my Rake chapters are pretty solid, but I want another read through before they go off. I have this habit of acting too quickly, so even though I am feeling DONE I want to make sure that's true. So, anyway, it's doubtful I'll be ready tomorrow since it's Halloween and I will be out with my son, but hopefully by Wednesday. I did get some good work done today, mostly on the chapters.

Ok, given all the interesting reactions I've had to possession sex in A Darker Crimson, I've posted a page explaining what I did and why I changed it. And, I've also posted the original possession sex chapter.

What do you think? Should I have left in the sex? I guess you can't say until you buy A Darker Crimson and read the chapter as it ended up. So, what are you waiting for? Go buy my book!

Order from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble

Someone sent me a really interesting email asking about websites so I spent a long time answering. To the point where I got zero done today. I believe a writer needs a website that looks professional and works. Most writers are not capable of turning out a professional looking website on their own. It's way more complicated than making some graphics and sticking up some text. Plus, it's getting even more complicated - a writer needs a website and should have a blog, too. With an RSS feed I started this blog a little over four years ago and I headlined with the phrase "Here's a grand experiment" I removed that quite a while back. It's not an experiment anymore, now, it's dumb not to have a blog.

U.S. Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert put up a blog yesterday which got slashdotted (site seemed to hold up under the load...) but on the slashdot thread everyone complained about the lack of RSS feed. Now, I don't think slashdot is teeming with Republicans, but most people liked the blog. I'm not a republican, but I like it too. It feels very genuine. So, don't put up a blog without a feed. You will lose readers. It's much easier to add a blog to your feed and check in one place. You'll get traffic to the interesting posts. Still no feed on the Hastert blog, bad move.

I suspect before long a podcast of that chapter one needs to go up, too. I started putting one together, but I ran out of time to play. After school is over maybe... What else? I still think a wiki area is fun, but I haven't leveraged mine at all. One of those time things. Authors podcasting excerpts is the next thing. You heard it here. 37Signals is putting up some cool free tools. Backpackit which I've used. In fact it sent an important reminder to my cell phone just today. Writeboard looks pretty neat. That might have been cool for Crimson City collaboration. Probably Google or Yahoo will buy them out.

I have finished reading through A Darker Crimson and found more stuff that didn't get changed. Most of it's little-ish, but it's kind of disappointing. So, I really don't know what to think. On the one hand, I kept not going to sleep last night which is typically a sign that the story is solid enough, but I could see all these places were I could have done better. Shoot. The stuff I wrote the fastest seemed the best to me. Sigh.

In other news, I'm getting an increase in sign ups for my newsletter. Not that I have a huge list of people, I because I don't, but it's now less not-huge than it used to be. At the moment the number is pathetic, honestly. I'm also getting a lot of requests for bookmarks. Big spike in website hits starting the 26th.

So, turned off the light last night at about 1:30 or so and got up at 5am. Yes, I'm very tired. I need to go to bed.

It did it again. The washing machine just stopped. Filled with water and then nothing else. Now I have to stay up to make sure everyhing gets into the dryer.

Well, anyway, Marjorie Liu blogged the most romantic post ever on the crimson city blog. It's the post for Wed. Oct 26. ***Sgh*** I love that post.

The title says it all, I think. Thursdays are my long day. I'm tired. I have to stay up for the laundry. Didn't really get anything done writing-wise, I was reading student papers. Plus I was reading A Darker Crimson and I found a part that didn't get fixed the way it was supposed to. Shoot. Pg 104. Bad.

I'm almost done with the synopsis for The Rake. Woo-hoo! Plus, I had this interesting notion about the atmosphere for the next historical. The important part is I'm on track for sending out the proposal on the 31st.

Did an author-chat tonight and the issue of possession sex in A Darker Crimson came up. I think I'll post something to the web site about the possession sex scene and what happened to it and why.

Also, my advance copies of A Darker Crimson came today!

Fab progress made on the synopsis for The Rake. I've been having it read back to me. Very valuable. I'm this close to have a completed draft that doesn't totally suck. Tomorrow I meet with my prof about the chapters of which I now have no recollection. Sometime between now and the 31st I have to do some adjusting of the chapters. Fortunately, this weekend, my son doesn't have any soccer so I am going to be a bad mom. . .

For school, I'm reading Faulkner's Absolom! Absolom! Wow. Great book. The first Faulkner I ever picked up was the Sound and the Fury. I was I think sixteen or something and I thought he must have written that book in a blind raging drunk and sent it to an equally drunk editor. There was a kid in it, see, and everything just seemed so darn angry. Maybe someday I'll read it again and see what an idiot 16 yo I was.

Went to the gym - read Faulkner. No elf.

The thing about not feeling well when you're a parent is that you don't get to not do the parent stuff just because you're coming down with something hideous. And the thing about getting up at 5 a.m. is that it's hard to tell if you feel like crap becuase it's 5am and no sane person should be awake at five (unless you work someplace that sells espresso, then you better be up because there are hordes of caffeine deprived, sleep deprived not sure if they're hideoulsy sick people headed straight for the extra shots) or if maybe you're really not feeling well. I'm the latter.

Practice oral went well. Got good, even excellent, work done on my synopsis while sitting in the back of the car at soccer practice.

Ick. There was something else I was going to say, but now I forget what. Probably that little formula/process for cold fusion I've been meaning to write down.

Jude the Obscure has been read. Hmm. Not sure what I think. Is it to be placed squarely in the Madame Bovary hate column? Not quite but almost I think. I think that may be blasphemy. I am well aware that Hardy shocked his generation with Jude, but really, I must continue to stand by my opinion that Charlotte Bronte's Villette ranks as the most coherent and true reflection of what it meant to be a woman in the Victorian Age. Get a life Jude! And Sue, you freak, get some Prozac. Arabella you're a slut. Lastly, I bet Richard was good in bed. What a stud. (Richard, you should never have taken her back...)

OK, it's 7pm and if I have to read anything more that's good for my intellect, I'm going to scream. I'm going to put on my jammies and work on my synopsis for The Rake.

So, the Joyce is done. Poetry almost done. Jude the Obscure left. The building?

I slept until 10am this morning and it was heaven. Then into town to get Guinea Pig food, coffee and Halloween stuff. Home for a bit then off to soccer game. Then, when we got home horrors! For my son. The T.V. was dead. Like I care. Actually just then I did care because I was trying to finish Portrait... For I while I had to listen to "I am so bored...." but then it stopped and somehow the poor child managed to find a way to amuse himself.

Other householders agreed the dead TV is a tragedy, but I don't watch it ever, really, so to be honest, all I did was help move the dead one and hook up the even older one (Which did confirm the death of the previous one) Acutally, it is a bad thing in a way because analog TV's are soon to be unusable but it would be the height of stupidity to buy digitial when the red-tapers are still arguing over how and what. All I know is that digital TV will end up meaning more money paid by the consumer to huge corporations for less service than we have now. Think about it. Digital music has Corporations screaming that the sky is falling and consumers must be sued and their digital devices rendered nearly useless. Your cell phone is nearly useless because your provider disables all the cool features (like bluetooth that works) so they can implement a crippled version you have to pay for. What makes you think it will any different with digital TV? It won't be. But I don't watch TV so I don't care. If you do, start paying attention now.

As for writing, well, I have an exam Monday and Jude the Obscure is calling my name. I confess, during the drive to San Rafael and back and I mulled over The Rake and I do believe I have solved the issue to be presented in the synopsis. Panic seems to be good for me.

My cat, Jake is helping me write.

I had a vague feeling of panic when faced with the knowledge that my comprension and analysis of Joyce may suffer. A face in the night bright lights. A child, not mine, given a red card which reminded me of the odor of old coffee, a thick smell a smell of oil and beans and too much money paid. The parent next to me turned her outrage away.
-- What was that ref thinking?? The chair made a noise on the wet green grass of the field on which the children played.
-- Excuse me, sir? Hands lifted, Seth with a coach's hands, extended palms, questioning, in uncomprehension of the unfairness.

I sat thinking yes, that is unfair, the other started it. Must finish Joyce. Lights. Poor eyes. Sore head.

So, anyway, I'm not panicking about this oral exam at all.

Had to write a 500 word opinion essay thing (done) have to finish an interview (not done) write another article (not even started yet) read some poetry and Jude the Obscure. Plus make huge progress on the synopsis for The Rake. Buy guinea pig food. Find out location of tomorrow's soccer game, get gas. Halloween stuff with child. The Rake synosis. It must be done!

On no! It's 10:40pm and I just discovered the washing machine stopped for some unknown reason VERY early in the cycle, so now I'm going to be up waaayyy too late because my son's soccer stuff MUST be clean for his game tomorrow and my gym clothes need to be clean too. Crud. I'm practically cross-eyed, I'm so tired. I crash fast on my late night.

I'm paying for getting behind in my school reading. Now I'm frantically getting caught up. Much reading to do this weekend. Actually, to be more accurate, much thinking about all the reading I've been doing. This is my long day. I'm trying to wind down. It's only sort of working so far. Soccer Friday and Saturday. Holloween stuff to take care of Sunday, but if all continues to go tell reading wise, I should have time for the Rake synopsis Sunday so that darn query can get into the mail!

So, here was my Wednesday: Realize very late on Tuesday eve that I messed up my reminder for getting my all new Rake chapters to my prof. Print them off, get them into envelope and put with my stuff for work. Leave work at 9am hoping that I am remembering right that my prof is there Wed. mornings, otherwise I am sunk, she won't get my chapters in time (Yes, I know, I was at SSU Saturday AND Sunday...) She is. Yay. 494 (reading prof) grabs me because I missed the first practice oral in early Oct. Thats' because when I went to sign up, the sheet wasn't on her door and then I got to my little lapse which fortunately didn't last all that long. So Wed, we schedule my practice for Monday the 24th. The stupid work phone pages me because some server is freaking. Shut up you stupid server. Realize HORRORS! that I have not read the Joyce which is guaranteed to be hard. Order many, many books online so that I will not be panicking later when it IS time to read them. So, I'm finishing up Frankenstein and already starting the joyce (Artist as a Young Man) and finding I really like it. Jude the Obscure this weekend and I'm good for Monday.

Actual writing done Wed: None. Because I did too much the prev week. All I really need is a synopsis for The Rake. I think my opening chapters are good. I know where it's going mostly. That was Wednesday. Today I read during all the interstices of my day.

Still inefficient. I'm annoyed and irritated and just Sign.

Thanks, Carolyn, for your kind introduction and for allowing me to guest on your blog for the day. It was a pleasure to work with you! Y'all I sometimes inundated poor Carolyn with ideas, only to email her back and say, "never mind, it didn't work." Never, not once, did she scream--at least that I know about. ;-) I consider myself lucky to work with someone like her, and we did consult often.

Now before I rattle on forever, I'll talk about my book, number 3 in the Crimson City series.

Thoughts on Through a Crimson Veil

by

Patti O'Shea

Characters can be funny. Just when I think I know who they are, what the underlying theme of their story is, they throw me a curveball. I believed Through a Crimson Veil was about accepting and integrating all parts of one's personality, but while that's certainly a thread, the primary idea Mika and Conor decided to explore was a different question--what is strength? In the book, it's defined in different ways.

The demons of Orcus view strength solely in terms of their powers. Mika grew up in that world. She's from a weak branch of demon, and because she's half human, is considered to be less powerful than the average Mahsei. She believes that she's a weak demon, and is apologetic about it. Yet, she knows she's stronger than vampires or werewolves, and has no fear of these creatures.

Conor is also half human and half demon, but his demon genes come from one of the darkest of the breeds. He's a slayer, not just of vampires and werewolves, but of other demons as well, and he has powers that make him among the most dangerous of his kind. But he views other demons as weak, no matter their branch, because they're overly emotional and they let it control them during a fight. He knows that it's foolish, that only by staying coolheaded can a person win a battle.

But Crimson Veil goes beyond magical strength or even physical strength and looks at emotional strength as well. Mika grew up cocooned in the love of her family—both human and demon—and because of this, she's not afraid to make herself vulnerable. She admits things to Conor that only someone secure could share. These aren't things that slip out, Mika thinks about each of them before speaking—she consciously chooses to risk herself emotionally. But Conor for all his incredible, and deadly power is unable to do the same thing. To be fair, Conor didn't have an easy life. He has good reasons not to trust anyone, and to protect himself after how profoundly he's been hurt.

It's only when Conor learns to trust Mika completely, to reach out past his pain, that he figures out what strength really is. Mika too comes to realize that she is more than her powers. She appreciates that her ability to stand fast, to open her heart, is a different kind of strength, one that she's overlooked for much of her life. Human or demon doesn't matter. Neither does weak or dark. What's important is what's inside.

Of course, since they're in Crimson City, Mika and Conor aren't sitting around, figuring these things out. They're busy fighting assassins and evil demons, and struggling to stay alive as they make discoveries about themselves. I love writing action and adventure, but I also like the emotional growth that these intense moments spur. Sending characters into the fire reveals who they are--not only to the reader, but to the character himself--and when they emerge, they're always stronger than when they entered.

Review Excerpts for Through a Crimson Veil:

~"Paranormal adventure at its ultimate!" - RT BOOKclub Top Pick!

~"Vivid, spellbinding and impossible to put down." - Fresh Fiction

~"Patti O'Shea proves once again why her books are some of the most highly anticipated of the year." - A Romance Review

~"A thrilling and imaginative paranormal fantasy." - Paranormal Romance Writers

Through a Crimson Veil Excerpt

Patti's Web Site

Order from Barnes & Noble or Amazon

Patti O'Shea will be blogging here tomorrow. Her Crimson City installment Through A Crimson Veil is available now. Patti and I worked very closely together creating demons that worked in both stories. As I hope you know by now (If you don't, you're missing a great story! Go read it!) Patti's story features two half-demons with very different opinions about their heritage. She came up with some really cool ideas that I stole shamelessly for use in my book. So, welcome,Patti!

I didn't get as much done as I hoped I would. My son had this Aikido seminar this weekend and on Saturday, I found an outlet, plugged in the laptop and got a decent amount done while he did Aikido. Then today, the first two hours was outside and I got roped into writing an article about the seminar, which actually was pretty interesting, learning stuff about Aikido and why the instructor is famous etc. On Saturday, he gave the kids a half hour class just for them, and I know from doing other martial arts that this is really unusual. Since I watched that part, I know he was a fabulous instructor. So, I had to get my son a bit before the end of the first half because I promised I'd take him to a Univ. soccer game which started at 11:30. So I got zero work done Sunday morning.

The soccer game was fun, first off because Sonoma State won 6-0. This being No. Cal in October, it was 90 degrees (no fooling) and I wilt in the heat. I had my umbrella thank goodness, or I wouldn't have lasted. The other team had one player who should have been red-carded. He actually assaulted the goalie, several jabs and kicks, but the ref's back must have been to that melee. Then the other team got a yellow card for calling the spectators F---ing idiots. Shortly after that, another opposing player got red carded for calling the ref a f---ing ba---d. I saw the red card go up but didn't hear the words, but my son did and told me. So, lesson learned, it's OK to beat up the goalie but don't curse at the ref.

Anyway, after 2.5 hours sitting directly in 90 degree heat we went to get lunch and I neglected to tell my son he could go back for more Aikido. We went shopping so there's food tomorrow and then I came home and fell asleep. So, not much work done and now he's out of the shower and I promised to read to him. Maybe more later.

My son had soccer today, so not a lot of work done. I have a fairly solid draft of a Crimson City article for the Dorchester web site. I got asked to do that a couple days ago and it's due end of next week, and since I'm busy all Thurs, it needs to be done well before then since I'll be reading papers Tues and Weds. So that's mosly done. This weekend, no soccer games. But my son has an Aikido seminar Saturday and Sunday. I'll get a lot of work done there. It's at the Univ, so that's convenient to electricity. Sunday we'll cut out for a while to catch a Seawolves (Univ) soccer game. Busy weekend. Busy day. Didn't make it to the gym. Sigh. I'll have to do something this weekend to make up for that. Probably the elf was there.

Not much else to say. I'm tired.

It's Thursday, my long day. I need to wind down from teaching. My whole class is turning in such interesting stories. I'm having fun reading everything. Did some good brainstorming for the Rake, the story's coming together well. I need to get working on the synopsis again so it's ready to go with the chapters. Have some interesting stuff on my most recent short. It might not turn out so short. Anyway, I haven't been reading for school lately. Bad me. I need to get back to it.

Today in class, I passed out a page that had the first paragraph of several chapters from A Darker Crimson and I had the students read over each para and say who they thought the pov character was. Then we talked about what specifically made them think that. The only confusion was in the possession sex chapter in which, in fact, there are two characters sharing the same pov. When I was squishing the selections onto a single page printed front and back, I noticed right away that I often started with Name Verb and always used the POV character's name by the second sentence. Good or bad? I don't know.

Also, I saw the elf today and we spoke. An actual exchange of pleasantries. I did not ask him to be my personal cover model. But I was very distracted by the image of him and a broadsword. Fortunately, I was on the exercyle at the time and was already hot, sweaty and breathless so I don't think he knew. Probably I should not blog about such things.

Today I axed 5700 words of The Rake. Sure, I mourn the loss, but it was time for them to go. They were words that served no purpose, had no home, or whose allegiance was to the wrong plot. So, actually, I don't feel all that broken up about it. In fact, I feel kind of good. It's not total freedom from the tyranny of crappy writing, because, alas, I know I'll just do more of it. But it's good to know I fought the good fight.

RIP

Although, it's more accurate to say, Rest in The Trash Folder which would be

RITF

Yeah, they should do that. Because now they won't be hanging around my story making me depressed and neurotic. The little buggers. Well, OK, the big buggers. Unless I need them back. In which case, they're good little fragments of former crap.

My new best friend Patti O'Shea sent me the text of the Romantic Times review of A Darker Crimson. My issue is still a no show. It's a good review. Jewel makes a huge contribution to this dazzling series that just gets richer and more complex with each new chapter. Plus, the words gifted author are used in connection with me. I'm trying to enjoy the moment.

So, you should read A Darker Crimson, because it's good to support the arts. Plus, you should read the whole series because Liz Maverick's idea is so fabulous and Dorchester lined up talented authors, which I guess includes me.

See? I'm enjoying the moment.

Soccer practice tonight. You'll soon find me sitting in the back seat of my car typing away at the Rake which is finally starting to feel like something. My goal is to have the proposal off before Halloween.

P.S. No elf sightings in well over a week.

I believe the title says it all. I've broken free and am running rampant in the world.

Love, bites and kisses,

Tiberiu Korzha

Making progress on the rake. In fact, I can now go back to keeping track of word count. I don't seem to be going backward. I'm not fighting the changes that pop up, I'm just going with it and that seems to be working.

Read some stuff about writing today. Here's the thing, I've taken Rhetorical Theory, which is a grad school requirement for those who wish to teach one day. Just about all of my lit classes so far have included a huge dose of literary theory. I realize, of course, that none of this makes me an expert in the theory of teaching writing. Still, I've had to read a lot of the experts in the teaching of English. I found that each of the theorists seem to have little bits that seemed valid. As I read the theorists and read (and listen to) what writers have to say about writing, I can't help but be struck by the overwhelming number who think they have the answer and that what works for them must necessarily work for everyone else.

Many of these experts, teacher or writer, slyly imply that anyone who doesn't do it this way will be a failure. After all, Writer A has published 25 books! His process must be right. Or, professor B is an expert in learning and has taught thousands of English 101 students. Her textbook must have all the right tools, use them and you too may win a pulitzer prize, just like the authors whose excerpts appear in her text!

I'll be honest and say that I give more weight to the working writers (and I think there's still a huge flaw in most of their statements and advice). By and large, the professional teachers seem to have a vested interest in selling the textbook they wrote. I can still recall sitting in Rhetoric 587 and listening to my fellow students give their in depth reports on the textbook they'd studied. I kept thinking, but wait, I am a writer. I have sucessfully written and sold (at that time) four novels, and I know that none of this would work for me. None of the textbooks we reviewed relayed even a sentence about how writers ended up at the finished product (because, of course, it would not be the process being sold in the text). Ask a writer about writing and you're likely to hear something like this, "Writing is hard work. Most of the time the words do NOT flow and I spend most of my time fixing the crap I just wrote."

Sorry, but it doesn't matter if Writer A succeeds by heavily outlining before he writes a word. It's nice to know that, and it means that if inexperienced and not already multi-published Writer X hasn't written with an outline before, she ought to try it. But it doesn't mean that if the outline doesn't help that Writer X is doomed to failure as a writer.

Nope, if you don't outline, you're not doomed, particularly if you tried it and wasted more time trying to write the outline than you would have just writing and throwing away chapters that didn't work. Now, you might be doomed if, in fact, you happen to be a writer who needs to outline but doesn't. To succeed, A writer must learn if he's the kind that needs an outline. But what really dooms a writer to failure is not thinking about her writing and how to improve it.

I should be writing, but anyway, Harriet Klausner (The Best Reviews) has a really nice review of A Darker Crimson. No sign of my Nov. issue of RT. I believe there's been subscription snafu. The magazine is not to be found at any store where I live. Frown. So, anyway, off to work on writing. I'm glad it's Friday. Really, really glad. What a stupid week.

It's Thursday,school night, so I'm just now home. All wound up, of course. I've gotten some good work done on The Rake lately. Honest. The chapters are de-messifying and hanging together well now. I'm working on another short that is taking up a lot of my mental downtime. The other day, at a veeerrry boooorring and long meeting at which I had only to listen and pretend to look at a powerpoint presentation, I mentally checked out and did thought-work for the short. Interesting experience and, in my opinion, a good use of an otherwise hideously dull and mind-sapping stretch of time. I found myself quite irritated if some point caught my attention and took me out of my mental exercise. I wrote two whole scenes in my head. And then I went home and did them for real, AFTER I worked hard on the Rake.

Ok, I'm getting stern with myself. Am tearing The Rake to bits. Got some good work done. I'm doing what I've done before which is work all around an issue instead of on it. Sigh.

Edited to add: At the gym today instead of reading Milton I had my chapters, such as they are, and my notebook, and I went through and catalogued each chapter, noted POV etc, and got some good ideas about reordering and what new stuff needs to go in. Also, had a fab idea about what will happen. So, that was a productive, sweaty 45 min.

Elf sightings: 0 (Darn)