I've been writing madly. The weekend required the machete. Today required the weed whacker. I fixed chapters 21 and 22. Tomorrow I go in after chapter 23, which is either in the wrong place or a mess. I'm not sure which. I have 79.2K words. Close enough to 80K to feel relatively less panic stricken. I still have no last chapter, but then until I finished fixing stuff, I won't know for sure what's right for the last chapter.

I've heard some preliminary feedback from one of the big Chains (starts with a B) on My Wicked Enemy enough to turn my head. So, all good there!

Also in the good news department (bear with me, it doesn't start out that way) last night as I was falling asleep after wrestling with chapter 21, I realized the chapter needed to end a different way. Then, this morning I hauled myself out of bed at 4:25 am, etc, and stopped for gas on my way to the gym. It was then 4:50 am. E.G. Cold and Dark. I did not have my purse with me. This makes it hard to pay for gas. I got home at 5:03 am, changed my shoes and did 30 minutes of driveway torture instead of biking at the gym and writing out my fixes to chapter 21. During said torture, I finally got a glimmer of an idea for the historical due in November. Yay!

At lunch, I worked on it, finished when I got home and then fixed 22.

So, I'm in a pretty okay mood.

Off to bed. Chapter 23 awaits me. I have the machete if needed. Tremble in fear, Chapter 23.

Labels: historical project, My Wicked Enemy, writing freaking writing, Xia

Yesterday was a very good day. And today, why, it's Friday, so that's 2 good days in a row. Yowza! Today, I worked and worked on Chapter 16 and at the end, I was only up 400 words. Rats. I'm doing the book trailer plunge with this release, and that revealed a wee problem unrelated to the money I'm spending on it.

Of course I had to write a synopsis in order to sell My Wicked Enemy but other than the protagonists' first names, that synopsis bears no resemblance whatever to the book I actually turned in. I knew that would happen. The whole time during the sale process for this book I knew the synopsis I had to slave over like a dog was written in disappearing ink. I told my agent, when she asked about stupid stuff I put in it, I don't know! I have to write the book first! None of that stuff is going to actually happen. And yet, I had to provide a synopsis anyway, of some other book from some other universe. They gave me money anyway. Carolyn good faker.

So the problem is the book trailer people want a synopsis. And I only have a fake one. And a book trailer based on a fake synopsis? Bad. Bad indeed. But the next book is due May 1. I did not have time to spend 3-4 days bleeding out my eyeballs to write a synopsis. I paid those dues already, Bub! I am not agonizing over this while I pay them. Oh, no never. That's just sick and twisted. So I whipped something together, mostly resisted the urge to edit and sent if off with the last round of edits copy of the book.

Which is most of the reason I'm only up 400 words. That means 1600 words tomorrow.

off to bed.

Labels: Book Trailer, Faking It, Synopsis, writing, writing freaking writing

I'm writing like mad. Things are going OK with Xia. Doing a combo-read through and edit. So far no disasters. The machete has stayed in the closet. I need a title for the book though. A few ideas have occurred, mostly lame ones. My Wicked Lover, A Wicked Kiss. Good gosh, I need ideas and have none. Help!!!

In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley on Scandal which I was panicking about since I'm in the home stretch of finishing Which Wicked Witch Kidding!! and was having nightmares about revisions coming at the same time I'm in the last days of finishing the Work In Progress. (WIP). And, yay! She loves Scandal and has no revisions for me.

I got a wonderful cover blurb for My Wicked Enemy from author Lara Adrian who writes the awesome Midnight Breed vampire series. I don't know if it's okay to share the blurb here, but if I find out it is, I will share.

My bookmarks came for My Wicked Enemy. If you want one, and really, how could you live without one? send me an email with your name and mailing address in it.

Back to work.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing freaking writing, Xia

Back from visiting my brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. We had a great time, even though I did, sadly, lose my camera somewhere in the SB mountains. Rats. So I do not have any great photos of breathtaking views, although we saw many such views and I'm sure at least some of my pictures were great.

Other than that, I cut a chapter of Xia. Sigh And got up to about chapter 8 or 9 I think on a read through. Which considering that I was doing family visiting stuff, isn't too bad. Most of that got done in the car on the way there or the way back.

Had to give the Fudgester a bath when I got home. He'd rolled in something v. smelly. Of the not so recently dead variety. He has forgiven me, I think.

I'm in full freak out mode and tired. Back to work.

Labels: cutting room floor, editing, writing freaking writing, Xia

I would make writing easier, that's what I'd do.

I have a chapter that needs some TLC, so I am fixing it in between finding something, anything! to distract me from actually doing it. Only I am doing it. It hurts. It's agony and then something interesting starts to happen on the page and I conveniently forget all about the mess further down. Fixing fixing fixing.

Tomorrow, my bothers, my sister, me and all the kids are going to visit our other brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. Her mother and brother are here from Denmark, so we'll get to meet them. Hopefully, we won't horrify them too badly. Apparently it's snowing in Denmark and in SB, it's Spring. They're enjoying that. I'm not packed yet, but then I'm waiting for laundry to finish. Speaking of which...

Ahh. I have on my jammies now, still slightly warm from the dryer. I am now partially packed.

Back to work. Then I'm going to print off the MS so I can work in the car on the way down. I am not a primary driver in this escape to the South, I will be in the navigator's seat.

Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia

Xia is still going well enough. As long as we're all pretending that writing is something that ever goes well enough. It's very hard work, and today I did hard work cleaning up crap. So, although I am down about 150 words to 72.6 something, I am able to see a silver lining to being in the red, word-count wise. Namely, that I have reduced the craposity and increased the goodosity. Aren't we lucky I'm a wordsmith? Oblige me and do not answer that question.

But I'm starting to freak about not being further along. More words. I need more words.

With that, I'm off to bed. Because more words requires enough sleep which I did not get last night.

Labels: panic, writing freaking writing, Xia

FreakAngels


21 Steps

Labels: Neat stuff

Watching Jill Bolte Taylor give this speech. It's a profound 20 minutes. Really.

If you don't have a broadband connection, right click on the video and select low bandwidth. Ignore the bit about How to Give A Speech I know why that's the title for the post this links to, but it's really something far more, well, I guess I'm back to profound.

If you watched it, what did you think?

Labels: Jill Bolte Taylor, Thinking, Video

I'm blogging early because I've been a writing slug today. Which means I will be writing late tonight and that means if I leave the blogging for last, I'll be too tired or else I'll blog anyway and be too tired tomorrow. Take your pick as to which is worse.

Yesterday I had to get new tires on the car. Oy. Money flying out the wallet. So sad. Today I had a flat tire. Sigh. The bright side is I discovered this while I was at home. So I called AAA to make them come and change it -- got my money's worth for the membership at least. The tow truck was so big he almost took out one of the posts down at the gate. The plan was to put on the spare (duh) and then my dad would take the flat NEW tire to the car place tomorrow allowing me to go to work in the morning as per usual and stop off afterward to do the switcheroo. This plan confused the AAA man who was otherwise pleasant and jocular. He tried to put the tire in the back of my car anyway. Then he wanted to put the tire in my dad's car. But, as I said, "My dad's truck is full of horse manure right now, so just leave the tire there (me, pointing) and we'll move it later." Seeing as how he didn't want to go near a truck full of horse manure, he allowed that our plan was okay after all. He moved the tire to the side of the driveway and managed to get his behemoth truck turned around and all the way down the drive without taking out the gate.

That was our big excitement today. AAA man scared by truck full of horse manure.

I have 70K plus words for Xia. I'm working up to the planned 3-way with Kynan, Xia and Alexandrine which I'm quite interested to know how that works out. There's only one way for me to know; write it. Rats.

Off to work.

Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia

Today I was at a Microsoft product launch in San Francisco. I now have some idea of what SQL Server 2008 has to offer (a lot it seems) and some expensive software; Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 -- latest release candidate (kind of like an ARC), and Windows Vista SP1. All free.

Why give away very, very expensive software? (SQL Server is typically $10-19,000, depending on how you license it. Can be cheaper, but not a wise choice in the Enterprise.) Well, because the kind of people who go to such events are typically the very people who will show their comrades in geekdom the cool stuff they can do. And they will tell their friends they have Vista. Probably a very good investment. It will lead to more sales down the road.

So, writers do have giveaways. But do they do enough, and do they (we) give away the right stuff? I have all these ARCs. Should I be giving them away to readers or reviewers?

All righty, I'm tired because I had to go to SFO and back today. But, then, I was right down the street from the Marriot where RWA will be, and I can tell you, it's going to be totally awesome there. I remember in NYC, downtown Manhattan was SHUT DOWN over the weekend. DEAD. This will not be the case in San Francisco. That city is hopping with fun stuff to do within easy walking distance.

I managed to get Xia back to 69K even thought I deleted a lot tonight.

off to bed.

Who wants an ARC and what are you willing to do for one? Email me. Or leave a comment.

Labels: free stuff, RWA Nationals, Xia

I made back the 1000 words I cut yesterday. I rejiggered chapters 12-15 which were all in the wrong order and started writing the new bits. Alexandrine is turning out to be quite the interesting woman. First off, which I may have mentioned, it turns out she's a former teen drug addict. Second, she has no problem whatever taking action to get what she wants. And she wants Xia. Today at lunch time, she got in the shower with him.

I'm trying to think of a Romance in which the sexually assertive one is the woman. I know there are some. But not so many. Most of those women are Evil Exes or just Evil. That's always bugged me, so I'm happy to be writing a heroine who takes charge of herself without de-alphabetizing the hero, too. (Xia loves it, by the way.) Especially since all my heroines start out their lives as total wimps. This is my writing challenge.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of The Ritual scene which, I am happy to report, does not end at all the way Xia and Alexandrine hope.

Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia

That was me today. Rowr! Chapters 12 and 13 completely turned upside down and backwards. I made a trash file for the first time with this puppy. As Xia would say, Boo hoo, you effing witch. You did what had to be done. So f*ck that. or something a lot like that anyway. He's out somewhere up to no good, or I'd ask him.

Still, I'm only in the hole a thousand words. More R&S tomorrow though.

To bed for me.

Labels: editing, ripping to shreds, Xia

I dislike this time change. 'Nuff said.

Today I futzed around with Xia all freaking day and then I ran into two confusing chapters and had to figure out what to do with them. I think I did. I reworked so much stuff my head is spinning. I have 69K which is OK, I guess. I was hoping for more but fixing crap involves the liberal use of the delete key. I'm up to chapter 13 in the fix-fest. Right now I'm re-doing a chapter from Xia's POV because at the moment, there are far too few chapters from his point of view.

What else? Nothing. I still have no title, wicked or otherwise, for this book.

Sorry this post is so dull.

Labels: writing freaking writing, Xia

Persuasion. Jane Austen, ::Sigh:: The joy and wonder of Regency-era Britain, in the hands of a master.

So, how the effing Eff do you explain this?



Are those people at Kindle on crack? What the heck are they smoking over there?
Kindle Employee #1: Like, hey, Jane Austen lived a long time ago, right?
KE#2: Right!
KE#1: And those Impressionist painters, they painted a long time ago, too, right?
KE#2: Righty-oh!
KE3#: (Looking over shoulder of KE#1) Hey, Persuasion!! Isn't Captain Wentworth a dream? I just love me some sexy Royal Navy Officers.
KE#1: Who's Captain Wentworth?
KE#2: Royal Navy?
KE#1: The guy in this picture is wearing a straw hat! Awesome! All done.


This is just sacrilege.

Labels: Book Covers, Rant

Tomorrow is Friday. Yippee!! Xia is still coming along. I have 66K words now. A goodly amount. Can I be at 70K by the end of the weekend?

My agent has been nicely nudging my historical editor for revisions on Scandal. They better come soon given the May 1 deadline for Xia. I'm told they are. Also, my Berkley editor sent me a cover (not mine!) by the guy she'd like to use to do the cover for Scandal. He's a wonderful artist. That was pretty exciting, actually.

I now have my artwork-only jpg for My Wicked Enemy which I need for bookmarks and I have my preliminary order in. I'm on the fence about a book trailer. Does anybody know if they make a difference? Readers, do you like them? Do you care? Does anyone have hard figures on what the ROI might be?

It has occurred to me that it would be nice to have a title for Xia. Probably with the word Wicked in it. I have no ideas right now. Wicked Tired?


Off to bed.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing, Xia

Last night, this morning at the gym and during various downtimes of the day, I've been mulling over this particular scene that Just Wasn't Working the way it needed to. It involves Xia giving Alexandrine a substance that affects people with magic. Originally, he did it to prove to her she has magic. But the new! Alexandrine already knows that. Obviously, that original scene needed a re-write. While notebooking at the gym, I settled on her taking the pill by accident. I recognized the idea was a wee bit lame, but I thought if I meditated on it some more, I'd see my way to the solution. I am not at my best at 5:00 a.m.

So I sat down to do the work this evening and I was in there with the machete getting things conformed etc and at last I get to the substance scene at the end of chapter 6. How is she going to take this pill?

She's not. It turns out, as I was writing, that, as a former teen runaway (which was previously established) she had issues with drugs and does not take any drugs ever anymore. Color me surprised! But this revelation ended up being a major development in their relationship. Oh! Oh! I get it! Neat-o.

But now I had a chapter 7 of substance-induced events that needed a new home. And I knew the perfect place for it. Between chapters 13 and 14. The beginning of 14 got spliced onto the top of chapter 7 which was renumbered as Chapter 13 (with 8-13 becoming 7-12) Are you following me here? and then about-to-be 13 and 14 were temporarily combined so I could look for the best chapter ending. Found it. Chopped it. And Voila as they say in France. Chapters 7 and 14 were spliced and split and became 13 and 14. It's a bit messy yet but tomorrow I will smooth that out into a scene that has my heroine who is afraid of backsliding on drugs facing the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of taking a drug that humans with magic routinely abuse... See? Much more at stake.

It's like that game Twister. Only with words and paragraphs and my characters and story instead of people.

This sounds like a horror show, I know. I suspect it is, but that's how it's been for all my books so far. I have an advanced case of esprit d'escalier only since these great ideas have to do with a novel which takes a while to put together, I can actually go back with the perfect bon mot and nobody will ever know I didn't think of it until way late.

I have to do this kind of slice and dice very quickly because I often need to have 3 or 4 chapters all in my head as I reassemble and sort out the bits and put the left overs in the right places, and I don't want to forget who's going where. If I go too slow or think too much every thing just goes to heck. It's scary because in the middle every thing's a bit fat mess, and I get in there and muck about and then it's all better. Usually. To be honest, sometimes it's not and I have to start over. But this one feels good.

Labels: editing, Pantsing, writing freaking writing, writing process, Xia

Xia seems to be going pretty well so far. I've been chipping away at my Stuff To Do list. I have a problem with avoidance behavior. Sigh. At least I know I have a problem, right? Today, I requested the vacation time for Comic Con in San Diego -- Looks like I'll be signing My Wicked Enemy there (don't know what day yet). I'm planning to fly there and back on the same day. Hope that works. I also threw in the vacation time for RWA. So that's done. I also emailed my editor about getting the artwork for my cover so I can do bookmarks and maybe a book trailer. But I haven't done any of the BIG stuff on the list and I just don't want to talk about it. I'm procrastinating, thank you very much.

Now I need to figure out where to send my ARCs. I know where one is going. That leaves 13 others. Some to on-line reviewers, but which ones?

I also need promotion ideas. I can't afford any of the cool ones I'd like to do and I lack the talent for a DIY. Not to mention lacking the time. The issue for me is I've never heard any one say the things writers commonly do are known to work. Does MySpace actually sell books? Dunno. Do contests sell books? Dunno. I have minimal and anecdotal evidence that bookmarks work. Book trailers? Dunno.

What makes me buy a book? There are 2 big reasons:

1. I love the author


2. People are talking about the book

That's pretty much it.

If I'm browsing in a bookstore:

1. I know the author


2. People are talking about the book


3. The cover art or title is interesting which makes me read the back blurb, and that sounds neat

Nothing on either of those two lists is anything I can do something about.
I'm wretched at promotion. But mostly I'm impacted for time. Ok, I guess I can do something about letting people know what my books are about. MySpace may actually be good for that.

Off to work on Xia some more.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, promotion, Xia

I forgot to mention that a few days ago I read the funniest newspaper article ever.
New Threat To our Way Of life: Giant Pythons. You HAVE to read this.

First off, it's by Steve Rubenstein, who's been writing for the San Francisco Chronicle for ages. I missed the byline when I started reading about pythons on the loose and pretty soon I was just laughing so hard I hurt. Steve Rubenstein is sneaky funny. Everything is straight and then wham!

On the off chance that some editor reads this, can't you call up Steve and find out if he's got a novel or something? I'd line up to read a novel by him. Or just a collection of his stories.

Labels: giant snakes, humor, pythons, Steve Rubenstien

I've been reading through Xia and conforming things to the new! and improved Alexandrine. I've had to rip out some stuff, but I've replaced it with even better stuff, so I'm happy. The story is complexifying in ways that I like. A lot. For a while I was worried that Kynan was taking over, but he's not. Xia is a totally hottie bad boy. I'm up to Chapter 7 and I'm not depressed yet. That is A Good Thing.

Another thing is I read Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dream Chaser this weekend. Boy, did I love this one! Xypher was a fabo hero and there were some very sweet moments. That's another Good Thing, unless you feel inclined to point out that I should have been writing.

My son went fishing with my bother and his kids today, and I went grocery shopping and then came home and futzed around with MySpace and you know, important stuff. Had to pay bills, too. And fight Jake the Cat for space on my chair. Just when I was about to look at Xia, my sister-in-law called to say they were on their way back from fishing and since my son also had soccer tryouts again today, I had to go do that. Perhaps mostly A Bad Thing here.

But at soccer tryouts, I sat in the car and worked on Xia. Afterward it was so spectacularly beautiful out, I took the boys (my son and a tryout-mate I was giving a ride home) to get frozen yogurt. On the way home from that my son's friend asked my son if he'd finished the math homework. Dead silence. Uh oh. Shall I mention this is a project the teacher gave them two weeks to complete? So, a Good Thing for me, yet a Bad Thing for my son, which factors out to A Thing In Between.

Then I fed the Darling Child leftovers and made cookies and I didn't eat a single one! This is a massively Good Thing.

Also, I learned from looking at an ad my publisher sent me that My Wicked Enemy will be out at the same time as Sherrilyn Kenyon's Ash book. This is me, hyperventilating about Ash. Squeeee!!! Ash is going to fall in love and show us all his massive, um... uh oh this is going in a bad direction ... love making skills! Good save Carolyn!. But let us all hope that everyone decides to throw in My Wicked Enemy while they're getting Kenyon's book.

Now I'm going back to work on Xia.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, procrastination, Xia