So, how was ComiCon, you ask? If humanly possible, I'm going back next year for the whole thing and I'm bringing my son and nephew and one or both of my bothers.

My wonderful publisher, Hachette Book Group (Grand Central Publishing) came up with a badge for me so I could attend Friday and sign the copies of My Forbidden Desire they were giving away. I flew down and back on Friday, which is doable because it's only an hour flight from here.

Huge thank you to Nick Small of Hachette who came out to give me my badge, escort me to the booth and help get me set up and ready to sign. I'm also glad that was at 9:00 am before the con was officially open, because after that -- madhouse.

The signing was FUN and my gosh the books were just gone as fast as I could sign them. Everyone was so nice and friendly. It didn't hurt that a Twilight give away was about to start, too. Hachette Books, in case you didn't know, also publishes Stephanie Meyer.

Now, who doesn't love free books, right? But good golly, there were a lot of people who were excited to meet me (yes, me!) because they had read my books and loved them or who had orders from others to get my book. There were a number of people who read the back of the book and were pretty excited about reading it. PLUS! I remembered to bring bookmarks for My Wicked Enemy and My Forbidden Desire so everyone got bookmarks, too. The extras were gone pretty quickly, too. So, authors, if you sign at ComiCon, bring LOTS of bookmarks. If I'd brought a thousand of each, I think they would have disappeared. Frankly, I think if I'd brought thousands of each they'd have been picked up.

I love talking about books and Hachette had some of my favs out there, including Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper which I think is just a really excellent book so I couldn't help pimping that a bit.

After the signing, I took a bit to breathe and then I wandered around the exhibit hall, which let me let you is a lot of walking. There's a great mix of commercial/corporate stuff -- glitz! Glamor! Big displays!! and small presses, artists, comics... just really astounding. I wish I knew more about the comics biz because there were artists there drawing stuff and selling their artwork and I'm a doofus over artwork.

Then I decided to attend a few panels only I didn't have a schedule thingee and I'm ashamed to confess that I also didn't know who anyone who anyone was, so I just picked a few. I hit paydirt on my first one. Artist David Yardin gave a great talk on creating a comic book cover. Here's his portfolio

What I loved about his talk, aside from the gorgeous artwork, was his story about how he got into the business. It's instructive to writers, too. He's from Australia, which doesn't have the professional Comics industry the US does but he knew his work was pretty close to professional level. He was getting great feedback but he knew he needed to get himself to the next level. What he did was search out advice and (hugely paraphrasing here, and making observations David did not) since professionals get excited about talented people and want to help them, David did find just such a professional. He worked on his craft with this man (whose name I know I should have recognized but didn't, sorry). He studied hard. Really, really hard. And he internalized what he was being taught and applied that to his work. He said he spent hours and hours just drawing arms, for example.

What was clear is that David wasn't just passionate. He wanted to learn. Or more appropriately, even though he knew he was good, he knew he needed to be even better. And he made it happen. That's a lesson for writers too. Don't just complain about how hard it is to get published. Study your craft intensely and always be working to get better.

After that session I got in this astoundingly long line for someone named R. Rodriguez who I figured must be a big deal on account of the long line. (Ducking!!) Yeah. Director Robert Rodriguez who started out with his hit El Mariachi which he made for $8,000 in two weeks because he had to give the camera back in two weeks. Then he went on to make movies you might have heard of, like Spy Kids and Grindhouse and lots of others. He was really funny and told a lot of amusing stories.

I popped in on a couple more sessions and wandered around a lot. I tried to find Marjorie M. Liu's signing but my lack of a program guide and my general inability to tell right from left meant I wandered around aimlessly and with my luck probably passed her twice without seeing her.

There are lots of ComiCon attendees who dress up. I saw lots of Klingons, several Wonder Women, Spiderman, Jedi Knights, Storm Troopers and lots of others as well as costumes I was unable to identify. Some of the costumes, male and female, were uhm, ill advised, in my opinion but ultimately, it's all about having fun and everyone was having fun.

Labels: ComiCon, My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy

I guest blogged at Magical Musings. My post is Can Writing Be Taught And Why I Think That's the Wrong Question Check it out of articles about writing interest you.

The blog Nobody Asked Me had very nice things to say about My Wicked Enemy and My Forbidden Desire. Scroll down in her list of May Reading to find me. Among others things she opined:

My Forbidden Desire: It's edgy, irreverent and has ambiguous characters as the H/H. Can't wait for the next installment. My Grade = B+

MY WICKED ENEMY I'm looking for every Carolyn Jewel book I can find now. My Grade = B+

In other news, I'm working on The Next Paranormal and finishing the synopsis for what I hope will be The Next Historical

My son and a friend are out in the field digging holes. Very deep holes. Intense holes. They are working hard and don't know it. Too bad we don't actually need holes dug. The Border Collie is in heaven. She loves to dig holes, too. I believe they are sharing tips and advice.

I should be working. Will go do that now.

Labels: My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy, The Next Historical, The Next Paranormal

Check out my blog post at Fresh Fiction where I'm talking werewolf reproduction. Leave a comment there, make me look super popular, and have a chance to win a copy of My Wicked Enemy so you'll have a complete set after you rush out to get your copy of My Forbidden Desire.

This post is a kind of a companion post to Vampire Reproduction

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Labels: books, My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy, vampire reproduction, werewolf reproduction

Normally I would complain about a rainy weekend, but with water rationing being mentioned in the papers so often, I'm not complaining. In fact, I say, bring it on! More rain, weather gods. More rain. So, uh, yeah. It's been raining a lot.

I've been working on proposal chapters for books to follow My Wicked Enemy and My Forbidden Desire. It's hard work, but my agent and I have agreed that I am simply not a synopsis writer. I still have to do a really short one, but here's pretty much what happens to me when I try to write a synopsis for a book I haven't written:

I am totally at sea, with no idea whatever what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen because I don't know the characters because I haven't written them yet. I make up some total BS that lacks any real conflict and is just lame. Plus out of order. As I explained to my agent, it's like asking me to draw a picture of someone I've never seen. Result: total suckage.

I can write a synopsis for a book I've written. It's no fun, but I can do it.

So, here's what happened when I started writing proposal chapters:

My heroine turned out to be something completely different from what I had imagined. Her situation wasn't at all what I thought. I guess I need to be specific. In the synopsis, she is a graphic artist who is completely human. Her only magic is latent. My vague idea was that through her interaction with the hero, her magic would become patent. The hero was going to meet her through some witch friends of hers but he wouldn't like her because he's a classical music kind of guy and she's alternative rock. But something would happen to make his magic set off hers, and stuff would start to happen.

In the first paragraph of my chapter, she's sitting at her kitchen table convinced she's going insane. me: really? That's very interesting. I wonder why? She's having hallucinations. Me: Oh. What kind? Hallucinations about turning into some kind of creature. Me: Yeah, and she could be also have some of the mental powers that demons have.

In the second paragraph, this gets fleshed out and then guess what! She's worried about how her parents will be affected when the SFPD calls to tell her that their daughter has died. Because, it turns out, she has three siblings who died at the age of 25. Me: Really? That's very interesting, too. Obviously, she thinks she's going to die just like they did..

In chapter 2, my hero is hanging around outside because me: Why? Because he's an assassin and he's supposed to kill the demon (that would be my heroine, though he doesn't know it yet) he's tracked to this apartment building. Me: Ok, what else? The mage Christophe shows up. Me: ohmygod, there's the conflict for the whole dang book! Christophe has a deal with Nikodemus -- I'll work out the actual specifics but basically, that's the plot thread that will move things foward.

Then at little later, my heroine says this to my hero; "I'm like you" Me: Oh! Oh! That means more than what it seems like. It means she's an assassin like the hero and he's going to have to teach her to be one too! There's the basic conflict for the hero/heroine!

So there you have it. I could write synopses until I'm blue in the face, and I will never ever ever come up with what the book is about until I start writing. My heroine is still a graphic artist, and the hero is still a classical music kind of guy, and yes, her magic will be sparked off my his, but not in the lame boring way that was in the synopsis.

Shrug.

That's just how it works for me. There will be many more discoveries and revisions and these may disappear or take a back seat, but it's a place to start whereas my synopsis was not.

Labels: beginning projects, My Forbidden Desire, My Wicked Enemy, Synopsis

I just found out that My Wicked Enemy is Fresh Fiction's Fresh Pick for Friday October 24!

So if you're reading this on Friday, October 24, click on over and go oohh and ahhhh! If you say to yourself that you must now rush out and buy My Wicked Enemy you should way go do that. Or check it out from the library or something.

I'm told the picks are made by a group of readers and have nothing to do with advertising or anything. So, hey, they picked my book! That's pretty darn awesome.

Labels: Good news, My Wicked Enemy

Milestone: Today the WIP reached 50,000 words. Whew! And yes, the story has a shape now. It's now more than just some scenes that are vaguely related.

Confession: Today, in between writing, for some stupid reason I checked the Amazon reviews for My Wicked Enemy and found the usual for me: some hate :: some love. Not too much in between. Probably because those readers couldn't be bothered. One review mentioned another paranormal book as being much better than my horribly boring one.

So I went off and read some reviews on the book that is soooo much better than mine. And guess what? There was some hate :: some love for that one, too.

Hey! Isn't that interesting? It's not that I suck and Author A does not. (I have her book in my TBR and continue to look forward to reading it.) It's that people have different tastes. And just because my writing didn't work for Reader X doesn't meant it won't work for Reader Y.

Because you know, blue is not everyone's favorite color. It's not mine¹ and yet I don't go around telling all the blue-lovers that they are plainly fools, though they may well be for any number of reasons. Or not.

I felt better after that. A bit petty for the schadenfreude over at Author A's book reviews, but oh well. I'm over it now.

So, please go buy My Wicked Enemy read it and then say what you think over at Amazon or B&N or wherever because it's awesome that readers get to share what they think. As an opinionated person myself I am aware that I loathe Madame Bovary and yet also know a lot of fine people disagree with my opinion. And I'm okay with that.

And you know what, major thank you's to all the people who have written to me either at my website or MySpace and even Twitter to tell me how much they enjoyed the book. It's wonderful when someone takes the time to let an author know. Trust me, we get all excited and warm inside. Keep those letters coming! It makes me very happy.

1. Here's another confession for you. Although I like green my favorite color is gray. I think that means there's something wrong with me.

Geek note: The hex code for gray is

#666666

which can be shortened to #666. Kind of scary, huh?

Labels: Book Reviews, My Wicked Enemy, reading, The Next Historical, writing

Today, August 31, is the last day to enter my Wicked Cool contest.

I've added more prizes, like a book about monsters, some cool magnets, a graphic novel and other wicked cool stuff. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter and you're in the running.

I'll be choosing a winner tomorrow...

Labels: contest, My Wicked Enemy

My son had a soccer tournament in a city about an hour's drive away. I don't even play the games and I come away exhausted. Why is that? I did a bit of notebooking in between games or beforehand and got some (but not a lot) done when I got home Saturday.

Between games Saturday I went with another of the parents and our kids to find lunch, which we did. We also found a bookstore so I went in and they had My Wicked Enemy so I checked in with them and signed their stock and left some bookmarks. They said they sell a lot of Romance and were quite excited to hear about the SF chapter of RWA. They're a lovely independent in Benicia. I bought some of the coolest magnets ever for the Wicked Cool contest.

Today, they had an 8:00am game which means we had to leave home at 6:00am. On a Sunday. Sigh. They won their game which meant they were in the finals at 1:30. So we went off to have brunch and then do some shopping errands. I discovered that the Pleasanton Target had a lot of books, but only high profile authors (No My Wicked Enemy) which I was surprised to discover made for an extremely boring book section. I shouldn't have been surprised. They were all facing out (makes sense) but considering they had multiple titles by the same author, the selection was quite limited and, as mentioned, very uninspired. I'd just never seen that in person.

But down the mall was a very large Barnes and Noble and they had My Wicked Enemy so I signed their stock and left bookmarks. They were really nice and they moved my books to the front of the store! I hadn't brought any signed by author stickers since I wasn't expecting to go to any bookstores, and both stores were kind enough to use their stickers.

And, last thing, I think. On Saturday while we were in the bookstore the kids went down two stores to the Pet Food Express where they were having a pet adoption. My son has been looking for a kitten for quite a while, but he never saw one that he wanted. Saturday he found a kitten. He came back to find me and tell me he'd found the one so now we have Tiger who is a female kitten, already spayed, has her first shot and is negative for Feline luekemia. She's from a feral litter but has been with a foster family that's been handling her. Tiger is a pale tan cat. I'll try to get a pic when she's settled in a bit. She's very pretty.

Now off to do some writing before I crash for the night.

Labels: bookstores, My Wicked Enemy, signing

I'm pretty much packed except for all the important stuff I forgot. Now just last minute chores so things aren't gross when I get back on Sunday.

I'm close but no cigar to being done with revisions for His Wicked Witch. I'm taking a print out with me to RWA for a final read through for continuity and egregious errors. Note to self: turn on the printer.

Although My Wicked Enemy isn't quite officially out, I know it's shipping from Amazon and that it's available in stores now. So, w00t!! Go get your copy now!

One more RWA-related comment then I'm off to finish getting ready:

It's in San Francisco. In July. Of course it's cold!!

I'll be blogging and twittering at the conference so see you on line!

Labels: His Wicked Witch, My Wicked Enemy, Revisions, RWA Nationals

Quick update in case anybody missed me. (Well, there must be at least one of you, right? Mom? Fact: my mother doesn't read my blog. Oh well.)

Copyedits for Scandal got mailed off Monday the 21st.

I've been doing revisions for His Wicked Witch with the goal of being done before RWA. I think I'm on track. I've been on coughVacationcough since Thursday working on them. Funny, but the stuff my editor seemed to think was a big deal (comparatively) I dealt with by using the delete key or changing a sentence or two and the little throw away could you do this instead here? have been major whack a chapter, write a new one lots o work efforts. Good stuff though, I think.

My Wicked Enemy has started showing up in bookstores because I'm getting emails. I can't tell you how exciting that is! I love nice emails from readers!

Here's an excerpt from another review:

Carolyn Jewel takes readers on a dangerous journey with Carson, an untrained witch who finds strength through Nikodemus. Together they can stop the mage who threatens their existence and fills Carson with fear. My Wicked Enemy unfolds at a steady pace and offers up a host of characters that keep the deadly action flowing. The storyline is fresh, the characters are entertaining, and the romance is delightfully steamy.

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews

Back to work!

Labels: His Wicked Witch, My Wicked Enemy, RWA, Scandal

So I'm writing along tonight after moving a chapter to a new place and thinking it's boring, but then it wasn't after I fixed some stuff and took one conversation and gave all of Crosshaven's lines to Foye, and all of Foye's to Crosshaven. Me happy. I have nearly 30K words now. Which is not where I hoped to be by this time but reasonably OK.

In shiny new news, my author's copies came for My Wicked Enemy! There are indeed some special effects on the cover. The cover is matte which was a surprise because the ARC was glossy. But the matte finish looks totally awesome and serves as a good device to highlight the shiny bits. Oooh. And, the blub is there! I was afraid to post it before because, like what if she took it back or something? Here is is:

Jewel casts a wicked spell! Escape into a world of dark enchantments and fiendishly sexy immortals.

Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author

Pretty awesome, huh?

OK, off to bed for me.

Labels: blurbs, editing, My Wicked Enemy, writing scenes

I'm blogging early because I suspect I'll end up too tired later tonight. So, it's an early post.

In writing news, Scandal is being moved to February 09 from January which I am actually happy about. A February release is better. Holiday sticker shock is wearing off and there's Valentine's day. Romantic book for a romantic month. That totally works.

I have another review for My Wicked Enemy The reviewer picked a very intense scene as an opening excerpt-- No WAY am I showing it to anyone at work! -- but here's the review part:

Wow. This is powerful stuff and I don't like many paranormals. I may not understand every bit of it, for authors of paranormals tend to make up the rules as they go along (and why can't they list these rules and enlighten us?), but it held me captivated from the first page to the last. There are some pretty amazing characters in this story and I am hoping that we can read more of them in the future. Good going, Carolyn Jewel!

Donna Doyle, Romance Reviews Magazine

This will post in the August 2008 issue, so I can't give you a direct link yet. But that's a good review.

No, I am not performing stupid web tricks. My publisher sent the review to me.

In other writing news The List desperately needs a new name. There's no list in the story whatsoever. And speaking of new names, I changed some more names. My heroine's name is now Sabine. And my hero's late wife is named Camilla and before she didn't have any name at all. She was just, you know, dead.

Book Title, Book Title, Who's Gotta Book Title?

Not me. But the best title, the one I really like is The Philosopher's Daughter only that's never going to make it past marketing. But maybe I should just call it that because I like it.

What do you think?

Oh, and here's my current favorite line so far:

"If she's married, Foye," Crosshaven said, "I hope to God her husband is a neglectful ass and that she hates him soundly."

The reason it's my favorite so far, aside from being new and shiny cuz I wrote it today at lunchtime, is Crosshaven is talking to my hero, Foye, about the heroine, and Foye just happens to be married to her, which nobody knows. It's a secret marriage story!!

It's quite possible it won't be by the end, but it is right now, and speaking of which, I need to go write it.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, reviews, Scandal, The List

Romantic Times Review of My Wicked Enemy

Unless you're a Romantic Times subscriber, you won't be able to access the complete review with summary until you get your hands on the August issue. But here's the bit that counts:

Magic and its sensual pull lie at the heart of this super-sizzling paranormal adventure. The transformation of this heroine from victim to powerful witch is exciting and sexy. As heroes go, Nikodemus is tough to beat, and the secondary characters are dangerously fascinating. If you like your paranormal steamy, this is the book for you!
- - Jill M. Smith

And, I'm in very good company as a spotlighted author. If you're a subscriber, you can check this out. That's me!! Yippee!

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, reviews

Here it is, folks. What do you think?

Labels: Book Trailer, My Wicked Enemy, promotion

I figured I better blog now before things get away from me. It's been hectic over here at Jewel central. First off in a tour-de-force example of the Clumping Effect (which effect name I just now made up) I ended up with 3 count them 3 things all due today.

Thing 1: A summary of His Wicked Witch for my editor. And yes, a summary is so close to a synopsis, you might as well call it a very very short synopsis, AKA Hell on a Flaming Hot Ball of Wax.

Thing 2: A 3 part writing project for an author spotlight for Romantic Times. A 50 word description of my novel (AKA Torture on a stale bun) an excerpt (HINT: it's not from chapter 1) and a letter thingee from me. But Please! Look for me on their website in August. I'm pretty excited about it.

Thing 3: Vetting the draft of the book trailer for My Wicked Enemy

But I got them done and they came out pretty awesome I think.

Now I'm going to go make dinner, maybe snap some pics and then write. Gotta do the writing thing.

Labels: His Wicked Witch, My Wicked Enemy, promotion

OK, so I'm a bit giddy. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I've been judging a contest. The entries were long and I had to also judge the synopsis. Oh noes. They were pretty uniformly wretched or just WTF?? Until the last one which was fantastic wonderful sparkling -- publishable right now this minute. And boy, did the synopsis suck. If all I had to go on was the synopsis, I'd have pitched it so fast it would light on fire it was that bad. Which is why nobody ever buys on the basis of a synopsis. Because it's the writing that matters. One other one showed signs of brilliance, but the heroine was certifiably insane. Not charming insane, but lock her up with Norman Bates insane and never ever ever let her near anything sharp insane. There's a problem when your heroine reads like a lunatic. But now the judging is done and I got to read an entry that will be published!

In other news, I got my first review for My Wicked Enemy. It's so early yet that I wasn't expecting an actual review so I opened the email before I realized what it was. Normally, I delete these emails without reading them. I don't care to read reviews. It's a choice I've made. I get too depressed by criticism and not elated enough by praise.

But I was ambushed, as it were. I'm as sick and morbid as the next author, so of course I read it. How could I not once it was there in plain text? Here is is. I'll highlight the phrase that made me laugh and fix a minor error that will be corrected when this posts to the review site.

MY WICKED ENEMY -- Carolyn Jewel
Grand Central Forever
ISBN: 0-446-17823-3
August 2008
Paranormal Romance

San Francisco, California -- Present Day

When she learns how evil her guardian, Alvaro Magellan, is, Carson Phillips runs from him, taking a priceless talisman with her. After fleeing, Carson ends up in San Francisco and runs smack into the one man on earth who would like nothing better than to see her dead, Nikodemus, a man and demon determined to destroy all mages and witches before the fiends are completely taken over and destroyed.

When Magellan's witch literally falls into his hands, Nikodemus can't believe his luck. However, his plan to kill the witch quickly changes when he realizes Carson has no idea what she is or what Magellan has done to her. Magellan has blocked Carson's powers so that he can use them, but eventually this magical block will kill Carson. The pull of Carson's magic draws Nikodemus to her even though he knows he should resist. Witches and fiends are mortal enemies, but something about the helpless Carson makes Nikodemus want to protect her. However, Magellan is powerful and will stop at nothing to retrieve what is his.

MY WICKED ENEMY is a mile-a-minute thrill from the first. I found myself rapidly turning the pages to find out what happens next. Carson is a woman who has lived a lie her entire life, and once she realizes how she has been used and manipulated, trust doesn't come easily. Nikodemus is a Warlord, and his mission in life is to destroy as many witches and mages as he can. But Carson touches something inside him, and he will risk much to save her from Magellan and his evil plans. But can mortal enemies ever become more than just partners against a common enemy?

Author Carolyn Jewel has created a unique paranormal romance with characters who are bigger than life. The writing is smooth, and the plot is exciting. However, while I was engrossed in the novel and couldn't put it down, in the end I was left with some questions unanswered. I'm hoping that this is the first in a series about the fiends so that we can learn more about them. MY WICKED ENEMY is action packed, and the romance is outside the ordinary; actually, some of the sex scenes probably need a warning label. However, even with the somewhat different aspects of the sex scenes, they don't overshadow the story or take over the novel, though they are more prevalent in the latter half of the book. Secondary characters are many, each having an impact on the story, but not overshadowing the focus of the book, the conflicted relationship between Carson and Nikodemus.

MY WICKED ENEMY is sure to appeal to fans of the paranormal, and I don't hesitate to recommend the novel for an entertaining and unique read.

Terrie Figueroa
Romance Reviews Today

So, yes, I'm elated. But if I happen to fail to protect myself against a bad one, I will be more depressed then than I am elated now. Warning lable or not.

Labels: Book Reviews, contest judging, insane heroines, My Wicked Enemy

First off, I'm Goofy! yes, I know. Not news to those who know me. It was a tie between Goofy and Cinderella and Goofy won. Just as well as I actually have a Goofy toy on my desk.

Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Goofy Your alter ego is Goofy! You are fun and great to be around, and you are always willing to help others. You aren't worried about embarrassing yourself, so you are one who is more willing to try new things. Cinderella 100% Goofy 100% Ariel 81% The Beast 75% Peter Pan 69% Cruella De Ville 56% Snow White 44% Pinocchio 44% Donald Duck 38% Sleeping Beauty 31%

In other news, Amy Pierpont of my paranormal publisher Grand Central Publishing was over at Risky Regencies today and made mention of me. That was exciting!

Labels: Be Like Me, My Wicked Enemy

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

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

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

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'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

Today was another gorgeous day. It was almost cruel having to go outside at lunchtime because going back inside was torture. If this keeps up, I'll be putting away the sweaters much too soon.

Worked on Xia tonight. I think I'm just about at the last chapter before the end. But I have some earlier chapters to rewrite. I had a pretty cool idea about what to do with a major secondary character. Originally, I sent him off to Olso so that he would be far away and unable to interfere, which at that particular point in time he was doing. Take that you interfering character you! I'm sending you to Oslo! Then in the following chapters, while he was in flight apparently, I inserted another character because of some stuff I needed to happen. I used Iskander, the same poor guy I wrote out of earlier chapters (chances are you-all see where this is going... well, I didn't. Not until recently) and then suddenly realized a day or two ago that I needed to write him out again and substitute Kynan again. Only Kynan, for crying out loud, was in Oslo which is, as you may know, pretty far from San Francisco, Berkeley and Tiburon, where the story is set.

And yes, for a while I was trying to figure out how on earth Kynan would get from Oslo to Tiburon in time. Some times I am a complete idiot. It's a story. I make it up. If I mistakenly send someone to Oslo, even if it is First Class, I am at complete liberty to unsend him. No flue powder necessary.

At last, that brilliant idea occurred to me and voila. Kynan was never in Oslo. Instead he's somewhere else not so far away, misbehaving as it turns out. But now I have a chapter where he's sitting in Oslo, with some folks who are there, and I confess I was momentarily panicking because-- well, I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say I will be completely rewriting this chapter with heavy use of the Un-do Previous Plot button. The icon, in case you're interested, looks like the back of my head. I think that's where all my brains leak out.

I'm told my ARCs are ready for My Wicked Enemy which means people are going to be reading it. Holy crap!

Labels: ARCs, My Wicked Enemy, plotting or the lack thereof, Xia

My son is doing a history report on Genghis Kahn, and while reading about the great man, he suddenly came to me and said he wanted to make a bow and arrow. OK! So we googled How to Make a Mongolian bow and what do you know? Lots of hits and videos and the like. Unfortunately, a Mongolian bow requires the use fish glue (recipies available!) and yak horn. That last one, as you can imagine, was a show stopper for us. There are no yaks around here. So, he decided an English Long Bow would be an acceptable substitute. The preferred wood for an English Long Bow is yew.

Further research revealed that the Northern Coastal California yew is considered among the best bow-making yew in the world. Another excellent choice is cypress. As it happens, we live in Northern Coastal California. So I gave the Darling Boy a hacksaw and said go cut yourself a six foot branch off the yew tree down by the fence. And if that doesn't work then get a branch off one of the cypress trees by the sheep chute. We live in long bow heaven it seems. Who knew? Off he went with his size 9 1/2 feet and the hacksaw and he came back to the house with the perfect yew branch. One of the websites said to ask the tree's permission first. He says he did, but that it was on vacation at the time. Right now he's out sanding his yew stave.

update: I thought perhaps he'd chosen a limb that was too thick, but I was just looking at it, and now that he's shaved it some, darned if the thing isn't just springy enough to imagine Robin Hood bending it.

I've been through the first round of the page proofs for My Wicked Enemy. Now I'm off to check all the corrections. I'm hoping I'm able to get some time in with Xia.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, writing, Xia

Yesterday was my day off for attending my company's freezing cold off-site all-employees meeting (and yes, it was really, really cold!) Here's what I did: slept late, added MySpace friends, changed my MySpace profile, uploaded more photos to Flickr, went through my 2007 tax planner and added more itemized expenses, did crosswords, watched 6 episodes of Buffy with my son.

Here's what I did not do: read my page proofs for My Wicked Enemy, write, read RITA books.

Yes. I am a champion time fritterer. No one defeats me. Mwahahahahah!

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, MySpace, writing time

Not only that, but I have the day off. And Monday's a holiday. Yippee!

It's been an odd week though. I've been exhausted. I think it's because last weekend I didn't get to sleep in either day and couldn't catch up on the sleep deficit. I didn't make it to the gym a single day this week. I was just too tired to get up. I slept until 8:30 this morning. And I feel like I could go sleep some more.

My page proofs came for My Wicked Enemy. Not sure what to think. I've started reading and, well, what do other writers think of their stuff when they're reading it after having moved onto the next project. Is it a disaster? Better than you thought? What?

Anyway, besides reading the page proofs, this is mostly errands day. Getting my tax stuff together, etc and ready to send off to my CPA. No fun, but at least then it's done. Done. Done. Plus, the credit union seems to have rolled over a CD that I need for taxes. I put 50% of all my writing money into some account, usually a CD, so that I have the money for taxes. Got to track that one down.

Off to do -- stuff.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, writing time

I'm still in the middle of pulling an excess character out of the Work in Progress (WIP). I've done three chapters, and had to stop at the last one because it's late and this chapter will be the most work. Some interesting stuff happened and also, quite happily, I've solved the problem of the disappearing hero. Tip: when your hero is unconscious for a chapter and a half, this is bad. Especially when those are the chapters you were thinking would be hot. ::sigh:: A couple of years ago the spectacular Mary Balogh was on a list I was on and she said she'd been told never to have her hero and heroine apart for more than 5 pages. Probably in a longer work you could get away with a few more pages, but not many. I've found I have fewer boring passages when I try to follow that advice. So, 15 pages or so of an unconscious hero is bad. Very bad indeed.

Anyway, today was a boring day except for when I was watching Buffy and doing my character-ectomy some of which I did in the car at lunch time.


My editor emailed me to let me know the page proofs for My Wicked Enemy should be arriving tomorrow. I'm kind of excited to read it. This is Carolyn ignoring the unpleasant fretting in her head, hey it'll only cost me thousands of dollars to re-write the whole book! I have a day off Friday, and Monday is a holiday so, I have a 4 day weekend coming up. Yippee!


Still obsessed with Spike, though.

Labels: Buffy, My Wicked Enemy, Spike, writing, Xia

Right. Tired. Goes without saying. As you-all may know, I turned in Scandal in December -- early even. And my editor can't read it until March. Well, golly! Sigh.

My chapter with Kynan didn't go so well last night. I wrote it and all, but after the first paragraph in his Point of View (POV) it was clear that his wasn't the right POV. It should have been, but it wasn't. The feeling was boring and wrong practically from word one. So I gave up quickly and instead wrote it from the future-girlfriend's (FG) POV and that went better but it still didn't feel quite right. Better, but Not Quite Right, and the problem with POV is that you have to get it right or you're sunk.

My motto these days is to leave nothing around that can stink up the joint, so today during various mental downtimes of the day, I mulled over my situation. Eventually a refined approach popped into my head, which is that the FG needed a bit of danger, and that could be supplied by having her talking to the antagonist, Christophe, instead of Kynan. And since Kynan is still there, only now in stealth mode, I can put the scene back into his POV. Great!

While I was sitting in the car during soccer practice this afternoon I started rewriting the scene. Much better. Plus this switch solves another problem with the old version, which was, why would FG go off with Kynan? Well, she will now because Christophe will do something creepy like try to kill her or something, and Kynan will step in and whisk her away, and then they can go look for Xia.

Cue the creepy music though, because this was chapter 10 and in My Wicked Enemy chapter 10 was the chapter from Heck. I rewrote that dang chapter about a billion times. Am I facing a similar struggle here? Just what is it about Chapter 10's? Any theories?

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Point of View, Scandal, Xia

And yet, I am addicted to Buffy and want to marry either Spike or Angel. Don't know which for sure.

My Grand Central (Warner) editor emailed today to let me know the copyedited MS for My Wicked Enemy is on its way to me and they need it back the 23rd. That's the publishing biz. Wait wait wait wait wait (Hum the Jeopardy Theme....) ohMyGoshHowSoonCanThisBeDone? But I like it. I'm funny that way. 23rd should be no problem.


Xia's going more slowly than I like right now. Back to it.

Labels: Buffy, My Wicked Enemy, writing, Xia

For a lot of you, it's already 2008. Not yet here, but I'll be in bed before the year ends. Now that I've gotten the rant out of the way, I can reflect a bit. First off, I expected to be watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with my son, but his cousin ended up inviting him over, so I'm all alone tonight. With no further ado, here's my imitation of Samuel Pepys.

2007

Considering there was a period when I thought my writing career might be over, 2007 was good for me, writing-wise. Of course, in late 2006 I signed with my agent, Kristin Nelson, and boy. I'm in the right place. In 2007, she sold two more books for me one of which was Scandal. For anyone who thinks once you're published all your worries are over, let the history of this book put that myth in a well-deserved coffin. Nail it shut, people.

I sent Kristin 4 proposals, one of which, yes, was Scandal, then called The Rake, and before that called The Heir. She loved one of the 4, really liked My Wicked Enemy (which she quickly sold in at auction in a two-book deal) didn't know what to make of Shift (Me neither, but it will be cool when I turn my attention to it.) As for Scandal? That proposal almost sunk me with her. She told me if that's all she'd seen, she'd have rejected me out of hand. Ouch. And, she also told me, Just start over. So, okay. I did, and when she blogged about editors looking for historicals, I sent her the revised stuff and she sold it, too. A book that went through two really wretched drafts and one misbegotten rewrite hash of the first chapters. My rewrite went back to what I loved about Sophie and Banallt. The final result this time was, I really do think, pretty spectacular. And let me tell you, around November or so, I thought I'd never finish on deadline. Impossible. I turned it in early. Go figure.

So, as far as I'm concerned, writing-wise, the sale and completion of Scandal ranks as one of my biggest accomplishments of 2007.

Another, naturally, is finishing My Wicked Enemy and then revising the hell out of it in something short of three weeks to turn it into something totally neat.

Starting Xia's story is another.

Finishing my MA is English. That was huge. Yay!!

Have a wonderful 2008 everyone. Now, back to Xia, I haven't hit my minimum yet.

Labels: agents, My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing

Just a couple of things, actually. So far Ransom Seaborn is brilliant. I don't expect that to change. Wow.

I started blocking out Xia's story. The due date is May 1. Yikes!! After Christmas I'll start writing.

Did I mention that the official title of Magellan's Witch is My Wicked Enemy? I've sent an email to my contest winner. But if I don't hear back from him by end of December, I'll select an alternate winner.

Going to bed.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, My Wicked Enemy, reading, Xia