Carolyn's Blog

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Cover Deliciousness!

I got the final cover for Scandal yesterday: feast your eyes, peeps!

Cover Blurb

The earl of Banallt is no stranger to scandal. But when he meets Sophie Evans, the young wife of a fellow libertine, even he is shocked by his reaction. This unconventional and intelligent woman proves to be far more than an amusing distraction-- she threatens to drive him to distraction. Unlike the women who usually fall at Banallt's feet, and into his bed, Sophie refuses to be seduced. And soon Banallt desires her more than ever-- and for more than an illicit affair.

Years later, the widowed Sophie is free, and Banallt is determined to win the woman he still loves. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe his declaration of love and chivalrous offer of marriage-- her heart has already been broken by her scoundrel of a husband. And yet, Sophie is tempted to indulge in the torrid affair she's always fantasized about. Caught between her logical mind and her long-denied desire, Sophie must thwart Banallt's seduction-- or risk being consumed by the one man she should avoid at all costs...

Berkley Books, February 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22551-6

Labels: Book Covers, Scandal

(7) comments

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Catching up

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

(3) comments

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Quickie Update

I'm sitting here at Starbucks doing day job work. Right now files are transferring and I can't do anything until that's done. So here I am!

I've finished the copyedits for Scandal. I just have to make copies of the MS then get it into the mail. Now I'm starting in on the revisions for His Wicked Witch

All done with the day job stuff... Bye!

Labels: copyediting, His Wicked Witch, Revisions, Scandal

(1) comments

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Cause for Glee plus a Secret Marriage

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

(0) comments

Monday, June 16, 2008

Having A Quickie

Just a quickee post before I fall into bed. I hit my minimum plus a bit. Yes! And my Berkley editor sent me the initial cover for Scandal and boy is it gorgeous. There's one little tweak to do and then hopefully I'll have a cover to show off. It's hot. It's better than a clinch. It's totally my hero and heroine.

All done! Good night all.

What? What did you think I meant by that post title?

Labels: Book Covers, Scandal, The List

(0) comments

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Freak Out! Get a Bookmark, too.

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

(0) comments

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Friday!!!

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

(2) comments

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Today was, well, a day.

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

(0) comments

Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy 2008!

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

(2) comments

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Well, now what?

Now that Scandal is done and off to editor-land, I don't know what to do with myself. OK, I have a few ideas:

• Christmas shopping


• Update my website


• Reading




1. My Sword Hand is Singing (will finish tonight, awesome so far)


2. The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose


3. Plain Truth, by Jodi Picault


4. A bunch of Lee Child


5. The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon


6. The Immortals series (I've got them all, I hope I can find them!)


7. What Came Before he Shot her, Elizabeth George


8. And lots more




• Sleeping


• Spending time with my family

But first I have to calm down. I'm totally still hyped up.

In two weeks, on to my bad boy Xia.

Labels: reading, relaxing, Scandal

(2) comments

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

YesSSSSS!!

Photo by
Amodiovalerio Verde

Scandal is done. Since I cried at several chapters, I'm happy.

Labels: editing, Scandal

(3) comments

Monday, December 10, 2007

Down to the Wire

Today I hit 95,066 words so I'm golden tonight. I'm up to chapter 23 in the final read through. I fixed my two trouble spots and it rocks completely. Put a bit more on the line in a couple chapters tonight. Tomorrow, I'm pushing on.

Tonight, I'm going to bed.

I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?

What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.

OK, off to bed.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing

(0) comments

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Making Progress!

Today I got through all my action items for Scandal. Yay! By the time I was ready to print out the MS for a final read through I was up to 94K. I'm doing the read through now, and it's going pretty well so far. Nothing major. So far.

I'm posting early because I promised my son months ago that we'd see the Golden Compass when it came out. The movie's out now. We're just waiting for my sister to get here, since she gets off early enough on Saturdays that she can come with us. Then we're off to the movie.

At the moment, I'm really tired. Don't know why but I am.

Labels: editing, polishing, Scandal

(0) comments

Friday, December 07, 2007

Closing in

I think I'm just about done with Scandal. No fork quite yet, but I finished having it read to me. I have a list of action items, going through the MS for phrases I think I've repeated or overused, some continuity etc. There's only 8 things on the list. I'll get through that in the mornning, then print it off and start reading.

At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.

OK, off to sleep.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing

(0) comments

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Catching up

Looks like my (very) brief post from yesterday got munched. Oh. Well. It went like this: Working on Scandal. Back to it.

That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.

The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

keeping up

Working on finishing up Scandal. That's pretty much it. Back to it.

Labels: Scandal

(0) comments

Sunday, December 02, 2007

No Drama, Please.

You know, I wish there was a button somewhere that said No Drama Here. If there were, I'd have pushed it several times today. I don't have time for drama. How the hell can I finish a book with all this freaking drama exploding around me?

Deep breath, Carolyn

I'm ignoring it.

My son's brain is going to melt from all the TV he's watching. No drama from him at least.

Labels: No Drama Here, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Typing Typing Typing

Keep those doggies typing
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!


That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.

What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.

Random Pics from this morning:

The first Snowbells of the Winter

Leaves Frozen In the Birdbath

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing

(0) comments

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Can you say -- well never mind, it's not polite

Right. I have the joy of a cold. But I'm feeling better than I did yesterday or this morning. At least I can breathe through my nose.

The Great Title Search is coming down the to wire. I think my agent and I have sent close to a hundred suggestions. No exaggeration. They would like to put flames or fire on the cover somehow, which actually sounds pretty cool, so they want a title that suggests fire. They'd also like an active title, so we need a verb of some sort. This is actually much, much harder than it seems. They need a title by tomorrow. That would be Friday, November 30. Ack!!

Don't think I got much work done on Scandal today. Rats. I will be busting my butt this weekend.

Labels: Book Covers, Book Titles, Scandal, writing

(2) comments

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Early Exhaustion

I'm exhausted so I'm doing an early post. That allows me to build up a good level of anxiety before I start working as well as fall straight into bed when I'm done for the night. Which may be early. At lunch time I started writing the new chapter and it went OK. Then on the drive home I thought of this totally better setting that for it. Yay! I'm going to go do that.

Labels: Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Monday, November 26, 2007

Frantic x 2

Working on Scandal, of course. I reordered some chapters and have blocked out a new one, which I was hoping to write tonight, but re-setting the chapters took longer than I hoped.

My editor at Grand Central Publishing loved Magellan's Witch. I'm confirmed for an August 2008 release, which means they're fast tracking everything. They need a new title by the end of this week and some minor revisions ASAP. Urk. I can do it though. The revisions aren't big, I can probably get through them in a day. But that will have to wait for the weekend. I hear the cover will be on the sexy side, photographic as opposed to artwork which sounds pretty cool to me.

If you have a title suggestion, send it on. I have a contest going (which you would know already if you were a newsletter subscriber hint hint) If you send a suggestion, you're in the contest.

Off to bed.

Labels: Book Titles, Magellan's Witch, Scandal

(0) comments

Sunday, November 25, 2007

where does the time go?

I actually have the answer. Time flies because it's a hurry to join all your lost socks. They put on a great party, you see. And whenever time seems like it's slowing down? That's what happens when someone discards all their onesie-socks. The time-space continuum flexes when the missing socks are returned to the poor fool. Inevitably some other schmuck gets stuck in one of the creases. For him, or her, time inexplicably slows. This is most noticeable at the dentist's office or fifteen minutes before it's time to go home from someplace boring. Mostly we don't notice. But it happens, I assure you.

What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.

Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.

And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.

Labels: editing, Navy SEALs, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

The draft is complete

I finally pounded out my replacement chapter and despite the original's deletion ended up almost 1200 words ahead. Not to mention at 80K words. Which is within spitting distance of done. Tomorrow, more editing -- or, technically, later today, more editing. No fork yet, but maybe some soft trumpets?

Well, whatever, I'm going to bed on a happier note than I expected.

Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing

(0) comments

Saturday, November 24, 2007

A Whole New Chapter

Literally, I'm afraid. It's the next to last chapter of Scandal and I knew there were some issues because my outline contained the words This is a mess. Fix it. So yeah. The fix was to start completely over. Sigh. Had to happen. It's going slow, because, like, has anything about Scandal EVER gone quickly? Answer: No.

So, yeah. I'm procrastinating like heck. But it's getting done. Slowly.

Back to it.

Labels: polishing, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Friday, November 23, 2007

Friday. Now it seems like you came TOO soon!

Well, golly. I've been working away at Scandal. It's going sloooooww. So, now it seems like Friday came too soon because I could use another few days before the weekend and back to work. Anyway, got to work. Hopefully I'll post again later in the evening or something.

Labels: Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Monday, November 19, 2007

Snail's Pace

I wrote a lot tonight, but then I got to an older chapter and had to cut a bunch so my net word gain is only a couple hundred. But, the old stuff has to make way for the new. Tired. Looking forward to some time off, during which I will probably ignore my family as much as I possibly can so I can write.

Edited to add: I forgot, today I was sitting staring into the ether and suddenly I was channeling Patti O'Shea because my heroine for the next book started talking to me. OK, like I don't know how it happens with Patti, but I know the character wasn't really talking to me, despite my being more than happy to listen, but there she was in my head and I knew all kinds of stuff about her that I didn't before. She will be referred to as FH which stands for Female Heroine until somebody coughs up a name. She kind of kicks ass.

Storywise, Scandal is done, so I don't have any notebooking to do. Just writing, freaking writing, which I did a lot of tonight notwithstanding the low word count. I think I have two maybe three chapters to get through before I can even think of some one reading it raw.

OK, off to bed.

Labels: Next Book, Scandal, writing

(2) comments

Sunday, November 18, 2007

The weekend's ended. Rats.

Today was a very busy day. I slept later than I wanted to but given my typical sleep deficit, it's probably a good thing. The Darling Child spent the night at his uncle's house (that would be Uncle Geography for readers of this blog) so I worked all morning but wasn't as productive as I hoped. Then I had to go shopping and then make cookies because today was the DC's end of League Play party, and I said I'd make cookies. Then I had to call the uncle to bring the DC home, and off to the party. And, the party was pretty fun, there were parents this year who like to talk about literature! One of the parents had met Michael Chabon. Whoa. Golly, I love talking about books so for once I wasn't standing around feeling like a dork. The kids had a good time, they ran around outside and when it was too dark to see they came in all sweaty and hot and ready for cake.

When we came home I got some good work done, though.

Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.

What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Saturday, November 17, 2007

In Which Things Get a Little Better

Tonight, I wrote my ending chapter. It needs a little work, but it's there where yesterday there was nothing. I also made back the word count I lost from cutting the two sucky chapters yesterday. Yay for me. I have one or two more chapters that I know need some work. I hope to get that done tomorrow. And then I'll have a crappy draft. But, as every writer knows, crap can be fixed.

In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:

Uncle: Hey, I hear you really like France.
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: I hear one city in particular is your favorite.
Son: What?
Uncle: Yeah, it's the capital of France. Paris.
Son: (whispering to self) I gotta talk to my mom.

I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.

The conversation should have gone like this:

Uncle: Never have sex. But if you do, use a condom. You know what a condom is, right?
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: Do you know how to use one?
Son: Umm.
Uncle: [Manly talk that women never hear, but that conveys respect for women and mastery over the use of birth control.]
Son: Thank you. But I'm going to listen to my mom and never have sex.

Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.

Labels: editing, Geography, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

The Nerve! Honestly.

Now, as some of you may already know, I have a lot of fun with my MySpace Page. I've met some great people, readers, artists, photographers, musicians and even a writer or two. Sometimes I find myself with two copies of a book and I've sent off the extra to one of my MySpace friends. So it's been just really fun. I don't mind friending writers, sometimes I'm kind of giddy. Barry Eisler friended me!! So, you know, yay! and all that.

But when a writer leaves me a comment that is an nothing more than an ad for their new release? That's spam. That's despicable. That's no different from those stupid, spammy here's a new ringtone for you (that probably hits some server in China all ready with malware, just for me!) comments.

I have no problem with getting MySpace email from writers announcing releases. Hey, that's why I friended them. I often click on bulletins announcing releases. But I don't want your spam comment. If you want to sell something, go use your own site. Don't try inserting an ad on MY MySpace page. I'm so glad I turned on comment moderation, because that spam comment never made it to my page. I denied it. And I'll deny any one else who tries it too.

If you're a writer, please, don't do that. I'll un-friend you and hate you, too.

OK, back to work on Scandal.

Labels: bad marketing, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Friday, November 16, 2007

Bad Poetry Day (no, there's no meter)

Panic, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
You turn my stomach into a rock
When I'm cutting pages.
(Don't worry, that clunk is just the sound of bad writing when it hits the worm hole to the bad writing universe behind my monitor)
You're the ice that runs down my spine
When I play whack a chapter.
(Once yesterday, twice today!
Whack!
Whack! Whack!
At the gym!)
That squiffy feeling in my elbows?
That's you, Panic.
All that writing that came from nowhere
And might even be halfway decent?¹
That's from you too.

But I still don't love you.

^1. If you're not, you're going into the same black hole you came out of. And yeah, that's a threat and a promise. Try not to Panic about it.

Labels: Bad Poetry, Scandal, worm holes, writing freaking writing

(0) comments

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Forecast:: Same as Yesterday

I cut 15 pages tonight.

Had to. It was boring.

Labels: panic, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Progress Report -- Panic with a Chance of Hysteria

Things are developing as I edit like crazy. Trying to combine a read-through with regular editing. At least I get a lot done during soccer practice. It's not been cold at all lately, so I'm OK sitting in the back seat with the laptop. Very few distractions.

Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Labels: Book Titles, editing, Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing

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Friday, November 09, 2007

Picture This

I wish a had a picture but I don't. I had to do some day job stuff tonight. But at home, there's no bandwidth, so I have to drive to a Starbucks, buy some tea and use their internet. So, picture this:

Carolyn arrives at Starbucks with two laptops and two mobile phones. One for work, one for me. I get my tea and sit down and begin to set up the command center. The work laptop is on the table, eventually VPN'ed to work and connected to the first server I need to work on. My work phone (a smart phone that does REAL email) is next to it waiting for the go ahead call. My laptop is on a chair and I am typing away on Chapter 19 while I wait for the phone to ring... I got some good work done on chapter 19 actually. A small but huge bit of work that brings things together nicely.

The work phone rings. It's a go. I kick off SQL job number one and then transfer a file from one server to another. During the file transfer, I go back to working on Chapter 19. When the transfer is done, I disconnect from the COLO facility and connect to my work domain and then connect to the next server. I kick off that SQL job and while I wait for that to finish I fish out my phone, call the pizza place and order a Margarita for my son's dinner. Then I go back to work on chapter 19. When the job is done, I grab the work phone, call the work guy and tell him to check while I back up my Chapter 19 and start to shut down my laptop. All is hunky dory so I can also disconnect the work laptop, pack up and go pick up the pizza.

Come home, feed the child, shoot the breeze with said child, and wonder if I should ask him about the girl who keeps texting him and who he texts back. Too controlling, I decide. They're just friends he says. I've been told by parents of other boys that I must understand this is not necessarily the exact truth. Uh-oh. We've had The Talk but now I need my brother to have The Talk with him, too. Just to make sure.

Oh, and part of the reason for this post is to demonstrate that writing time can be found anywhere. I did some important work there, and I was only there 45 minutes. So no whining about time for writing. If you're a writer, you find the time. More likely, the time finds you, because that's what you're looking for. Those moments when you can write. If you don't look for them and use them, you may never finish your book.

In 45 minutes I drank some green tea, worked at day job stuff, ordered dinner for the child, and made important progress in chapter 19.

Just saying.

Apparently, I can't get over the Whiner from Grad School. Honestly. (TWFGS couldn't find time to write because she couldn't write during lunchtime at work because it was too noisy, and outside at work was too distracting and the car was too whatever, and she had schoolwork and a boyfriend and SO much reading to do. Right. Oh, please. But I'm sure none of you are that way. Right?)

Labels: Scandal, writing, writing time

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Thursday, November 08, 2007

heading into the weekend

With Scandal, I feel like I'm sliding into editing which is always more fun than the writing. I have a chapter to redo tonight, so we'll see what happens to the word count. I'm at about 75,500, so I'm not too worried. I'm only worried about crap and getting it fixed.

I got some preliminary cover copy for Magellan's Witch. Wow! Sounds a like a great story! They want to change the title, to which I say, Thank goodness! I was never all that wild about MW, but it worked OK enough. Only now I need to come up with some title ideas, some that lend themselves to a series Ishouldbesolucky. I have no ideas whatever. Zero. My head's in Scandal. Anybody got any suggestions? Which Witch is out. So is The Little Witch Who Couldn't. So are The Fiend Who Loved Her, Fiends and Lovers, Big Bad Boys Who Aren't Human, No Fluffy Bunnies Here. . . I'm a wealth of unhelpfulness to myself. Somebody save me.

Labels: Book Titles, Magellan's Witch, Scandal

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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

My Cup of Tea

My son's school did this fund-raising thing that involves holding parents up at guilt-point and forcing them to buy stuff that costs too much for what you get. (sarcasm alert) But the kids get prizes!! -- that are broken five minutes later or else unusable straight from the plastic bag (which is NOT a toy, by the way) and (sarcasm over) now I have to report on one of my purchases. It's a visual report, too. Grin.

I bought this coffee mug, see, but the surface is a chalkboard. So if the cheap chalk that comes with it was any good, you could write stuff on it over and over. Like this:




Yeah, it's kind of hard to read, but I wrote I am not a rat -- Banallt on one side and Yes, you are -- Sophie on the other because that's the essence of my hero and heroine in Scandal. Or you could write other stuff. Which I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of fun.

In writing news, even though the above qualifies as writing news, Scandal is going almost all right. I've fought my way through several chapters, reordered several more and am reasonably pleased with the result. I wrote two new ones, which was good because I deleted a bunch of crap, too. Now I'm closing in on the ending. I'm hoping that by next week sometime I'll have a crappy but complete draft and a month to tear it apart and put it back together. It's funny how I always have an ending in mind but it keeps slipping away; like a wave, it's there, and then it's gone and I keep trying to pin it in place and I just can't. Then somewhere around 60 or 70 thousand words I realize that the ending of my story is actually in the "middle" (those are air quotes, by the way) and all the time I've been spending stressing over the fact the my middle is moving further and further away from the actual middle just means the "middle" is actually more like the end. Which is what happened with Scandal two days ago. My outline had an ending blocked out, a good thing because it gave me a direction, but the book would have to be 175,000 words in order to get there. And then I realized I'd already written everything but the end, which was just at a different place than I thought. And it's a gosh-darned relief, too.

Back to work.

Labels: endings, plotting or the lack thereof, Scandal, writing

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Reporting In Grumpily

I admit it. I'm grumpy right now. First off, my web host, which hosts two domains of mine, including this one, moved their operations to a new facility. I knew when I heard about it that it would not go smoothly. And it didn't. My writing site was down from Saturday night to some time this morning. There was a brief period when it was up, but mostly, not. My other domain is still down. I'm peeved, but if this site were still down, I'd be transferring to a new host right now, actually, probably I'd be done by now. That's the beauty of separating your domain registration from your web host. I can repoint my name servers any time and be up and running in a new home in about the time it would take me to ftp the files. Anyway, I've been steaming about since Saturday. No fun.

Sigh.

Scandal is torture right now. I'm fixing crap and panicking, too. Oh joy. Not. At the gym this morning, I think I worked out the ending. Back to it.

Labels: kvetching, Scandal, writing freaking writing

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Friday, November 02, 2007

friday..... at last. But you were late damn you!

Today: Friday aka, the day before the day before Sunday.

Me: Exhausted.

Scandal: Still needs massive editing and lacks an ending.

Tomorrow: Busy. Soccer and writing. That's it.

Sunday: More of the same.

Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Boo! Goaaaan Creaakkkk Eeek! mwahahaha

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Well, I took my son over to my brother's house -- where we live, we have exactly 3 neighbors.... There's no Trick or Treating here. So off we went. I admired a few costumes (they were cute and/or scary) said Hi to friends and family and then I took the laptop into the living room and started working on Scandal. I had to fix my outline so that it's useful as I try to find the right home for everything. When I'd finally done that, I wrote a new chapter and it came out pretty good, I think.

Then home, at which point my son complained about having any portion of his 5.6 pounds of candy confiscated. I was going to put in picture, but it's taking too long and I have to get up early.

So, anyone who thinks they can't find time to write, hey, if you're rude and anti-social of course you can. And let me add that I did this work while a truly wretched series of remakes of halloween songs was looping on the sound system. I plugged in Aretha and managed to mostly drown it out while ignoring the kids and various trick or treaters. You take your time where you can.

Labels: halloween, Scandal, writing

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Eve of All Hallow's Eve...

I've always wanted to write that. And today is my big chance!

All righty. Got that out of my system. I'm exhausted. It's been a long day and for some reason I didn't sleep all that well last night. Sigh.. I worked on Scandal at the gym and right as I was in the midst of a huge reorg of material involving musical chapters and parts flying all over, my 45 minutes was up. I actually sat on the bike a few more minutes, dripping sweat all over the pages as I worked, but then realized I'd need twenty more at least to get through that so hosed down the bike and went to stretch out and do push ups and sits up before I showered. Sigh. Hopefully I can make some sense of it tonight.

I got a delightful email today from someone who read The Spare in Dutch! That was exciting. I'm so glad she emailed to let me know. Wish I knew what the cover looked like...

OK, off to work on Scandal and go to bed early I think, on this, the Eve of All Hallow's Eve.

Boo.

Labels: editing, flying chapters, Scandal

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Marching onward

For good or ill, I'm on to Scandal now. I'm pushing through the read-through I was able to do only sporadically for the last 3 weeks or so. I have little memory of how things hang together with what I've read so far, but what I've read today isn't awful. I know I have a chapter to write. So, back to it.

Labels: Scandal, writing, writing fast

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Saturday, October 27, 2007

All Revised Out

I think I'm done with revisions to Magellan's Witch. I got through it today without anything major. I'll put in the paper changes tomorrow and send it off. I need to get back to work on Scandal. Yikes.

Got pumpkins today. Carving tomorrow.

To bed now.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revisions, Scandal

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Today I -- Wait Wait! Let me Revise that...

Maybe I should say no more? Still revising Magellan's Witch. Not because it totally sucked, but because I'm only up to Chapter 19 of making everything conform to the actual revisions. Weekdays I don't get so much done, plus revisions require that I be at the computer, so there's really no sneaking it in during the odd seconds of time here and there. I've been doing that with Scandal, though. This morning at the gym, for example. I'm kind of hoping to do a paper read through of MW this weekend. And then MW has to be off my plate entirely. I have to freaking finish Scandal!

What else? Um, who the heck knows?

Labels: Magellan's Witch, Revising, Scandal

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Gym Elf!

Things are crazy right now. I'm working on revisions to Magellan's Witch while trying not to get too behind on Scandal. Yikes! Crazy. I'm going to have to skip my RWA chapter meeting this Saturday. Rats. Too late to get my money back. But I need those Saturday hours for writing.

Today, I went to the gym after work, with my binder of Scandal (How many people do you know who have a binder full of Scandal? I'd like to know!) and as I was pedaling away, even though I should have been doing resistance work, who did I see but the Gym Elf. Sigh. The Gym Elf, in case you don't know, is a gentleman of pulchritudinous attributes. Not sure if you can say that about a guy, but I just did so I guess you can. I used to see him all the time when I was working on the Dark Elf story, and he was my inspiration for the hero. Which is why I took to calling him the Gym Elf. Any way, it was nice to have a sighting.

OK, off to bed.

Labels: Gym Elf, Magellan's Witch, Revisions, Scandal

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Collision Course

So, the darling child did not properly plan completing his homework and some projects that were due. The result is that over the last two days, chaos has reigned in the Jewel household. Mostly he's been good about not wasting time with hysterics about the unfairness of his teachers and how his poor planning is not his fault. Mostly because I looked him in the eye and warned him, in a very stern voice, that he didn't have that kind of time to waste and I didn't have the patience to listen to it. Tomorrow should be the last day of panicked work for him.

In the meantime, I managed, just barely, to keep my minimum words per day on Scandal, only today, my revisions came for Magellan's Witch. The changes center around two basic elements and I'm about 1/8th of the way through, I think. So, I think I'm going to print out Scandal so I can work on that during the odd downtimes and then work on MW at night. Arghh! Only tomorrow is Chocolate Mousse night after soccer practice...

Oh, also, I have to write a book review, I'll explain how that came about later, and also read a book for a blurb. Someone actually wants me to do that. Weird. I almost asked my agent if there was some mistake. But apparently not.

Labels: Magellan's Witch, On being busy, Revisions, Scandal

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Sunday, October 07, 2007

Today, my life is just about perfect

Last night I took my son, the Darling Child, to a French restaurant. He has to write a review for his French class. He did try escargot. He had a soccer game in the morning and then went over to a friend's house and jumped on a trampoline for 4 hours. And when I picked him up, we got a ride in a Porche. I want one.

Anyway, at the restaurant he was actually fading fast by the time we were having dessert. Today's soccer game isn't until 4:00 pm which means we both got to sleep in this morning. Yay! I didn't even open my eyes until 9:00 am.

When he got up he made me crepes, also a project for his French class. They were very good. Yummy. With only a few reminders, he even cleaned up afterward. Then he started on his science project. He's making a model of a cell. He's using clay and we ended up wrapping the clay in a paper bag and running over it with the car a couple of times to get it nice and flat. Which was just funny. Now it's out drying in the sun and he's working on his French reports. We went outside to check on the model, and in the sun, the temperature was perfect. Not too hot, perfectly warm after the slightly chilly inside. He threw the frisbee for the dog. In between all that, I've been able to get some writing done.

So here's the thing. I've had a wonderful morning. Perfect. Having children is a lot of work and sometimes it's just frustrating or even scary. But days like today make life perfect. Because in return for all the hard times and days when you want to put them in the closet or trade them in for a Porche you get days like this.

Scandal is still going well. I'm in edit mode. After I go shopping, and probably after the DC's soccer game, I think I'm going to work on smoothing out the ending. Right now, the parts where my hero and heroine are coming to terms with their sexual compatibility is fragmented and needs to be brought in line with everything else.

Labels: children, cooking, on being happy, Scandal

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Still nervous....

The writing went well tonight, too. Hit my minimum, and now I'm going to bed so I can maybe catch up on my sleep. The dog is asleep on the chair, curled up behind me and the big fluffy cat is on my lap. Kind of nice, but I'm having to sit with a very straight back so as not to disturb any one.

That's it. Kind of boring. Except for my impending sense of doom about the writing. Freaking a bit about deadlines. Urk.

In other news, my website redesign is going along quite well! Can't wait until it's in place.

Labels: Scandal, writing freaking writing

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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

World's most boring post title removed from this space

Moving right along. I went to the gym while my son was at soccer practice, then home etc. I exceeded my minimum tonight because last night I kept waking up to find myself dreaming about Scandal and that resulted in a proper ending for last night's chapter and a new chapter today. Mulled it over during the mental downtime of the day and then while I was waiting for practice to be over notebooked it a bit which meant I was prepared to write tonight.

I'm still kind of freaked that Scandal seems to be going well at the moment. I have to decide now if I go over earlier chapters and get them conformed to its new emotional tenor. I'm trying to avoid saying gravitas again, but I think that's the right word. I think that's the right thing to do because that way when I get to the back chapters I'll know exactly where they're headed and will have undoubtedly (Patti O'Shea, close your eyes now!!) ripped out, reordered and rewritten a good deal of the front two thirds.

Oh, boy. Ripping to shreds. I can hardly wait.

Labels: editing, ripping to shreds, Scandal

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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

I'm getting nervous

Scandal is going well and that's making me nervous. I wrote more than my minimum tonight but had to delete half an older chapter, so I'm only ahead a couple hundred words tonight. I have a bit over 60,000 words and that's typically critical mass. Now there's much more editing and a lot less first draft writing.

I've nailed down the gravitas of the book which is good. It means I can start editing with that in mind. I imagine over the next month, I'll be moaning and groaning about the pain of it all, but right now, I'm feeling OK about things and that makes me nervous. Tonight's chapter went especially well.

In cooking news, my son is going to be making chocolate mousse for family and his French class. And then crepes and ratatouille for us. My brother who has been a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant sent us instructions and gotchas that included warnings like if the chocolate isn't cool enough, it will seize up... I have no idea what that means. Turn into a lump in the pan? He advised us to