My editor, Anne Sowards, had this news to share about Dead Sexy... [I'd told her that I'd noticed DS was #9 on the B&N contemporary paranormal romance bestseller list on-line]....
"Thanks for passing it on! DEAD SEXY is also doing nicely at the B&N physical stores--it debuted at #7 on their romance trade bestseller list, and moved to #8 the second week. It's #11 on Bookscan's Romance trade bestseller list."
While at Como Zoo yesterday, Mason and I spotted a new license plate. This one is Nova Scotia (Canada)! Cool beans!
Mason really wants to see a license plate from Antarctica now. I'll bet you didn't even know they had them there...
Oh, and if you're keeping track, we still haven't seen West Virginia yet.
Note the large amount of copy I got in this review of Many Bloody Returns. You can't even tell whether or not he liked my piece.
from Don D'Ammassa's Critical Mass...
Many Bloody Returns edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, Ace, 9/07, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-441-01522-1
"Theme anthologies continue to get more and more specific. This one is a collection of vampire stories, but they all take place at birthday celebrations. What’s next? Left handed vampires with dolphin tattoos who knit for a hobby? Anyway, I only read a story or two a day to avoid overload, and on balance it's a pretty good collection if you're not already terminally overdosed on the undead. And while I'm including this under Horror fiction, most of the stories are anything but, ranging from mystery to humor to puzzle story to mild romance. The opening story by Charlaine Harris features her recurring character, Sookie Stackhouse, the waitress who gets involved with good and evil vampires in each of her novels. This time she meets and unmasks a Dracula impostor in a brief, well written but pretty minor story. It does have one good line. “If experience has taught me anything, it’s to dispose instantly of bloodstained clothing.” Christopher Golden follows with a far more substantial piece, and a different variety of vampire, a coming of age story like you’ve never read before. Bill Crider contributes a humorous take on the teenaged undead in “I Was a Teenage Vampire”, followed by Kelley Armstrong’s “Twilight”, which was a bit too long for its story.
Jim Butcher has a very long Harry Dresden story, in which his quest to find a missing vampire on his birthday turns into a mystery and near disaster. I thought this one was better than some of the Dresden novels, avoiding some of the formulaic aspects of that series. P.N. Elrod provides a pretty good short adventure of her popular vampire hero, Jack Fleming, and Rachel Caine draws on her new Morganville Vampire series for her contribution. Jeanne Stein, author of a couple of vampire novels, has one of the better stories with "The Witch and the Wicked", wherein a witch caters a vampire birthday party, incinerates the host, and ends up with his consciousness inhabiting her body. Tanya Huff also has an above average story, "Blood Wrapped", featuring her undead romance novelist.
Carolyn Haines adds a well written, tragic, but relatively slight story, and Tate Hallaway follows up with a romantic interlude. Elaine Viets' "Vampire Hours" is an interesting, semi-mystery involving murder and a nicely nasty bit of revenge. Last up is co-editor Kelner's "How Stella Got Her Grave Back", the best title in the collection. It opens with a nice image, a vampire visiting her grave on her birthday. There's a good deal of humor in this one; vampires are apparently fond of practical jokes. It's a clever story, but about as far from horrific as you can get and still have vampires. 5/9/07
An interesting article in the New York Times today about Wiccans. Check out "Wiccan's Keep the Faith with Religion Under Wraps."
Arrgh! I'm getting such mean, snarky reviews on Amazon.com. If anyone out there loved (or even liked) my newest book PLEASE post a nicer (notice you don't have to be nice, just nic_er_) review.
Pretty please. With sugar on top?
Having turned in book three of the Garnet Lacey series, I’m starting to think about what’s the next writing project. Of course, I’m planning on proposing a fourth book in the series, but I’m also wondering about whether or not I should consider what to do if my editor says she’s not interested because the vampire romance genre is in a slump (I don’t KNOW that it is, by the way, but anecdotal evidences suggests it might be.)
One thought is to transform Garnet Lacey into more of a paranormal romance/urban fantasy and less of a strictly vampire thing. It could be quite easily done given that Garnet is a witch. There could be any number of adventures involving the more occult aspects of her life. Book three has a hint of that when Garnet meets someone who may or may not be a werewolf.
The other thought is to consider abandoning Garnet completely in favor of another paranormal/urban fantasy heroine. I have any number of ideas, of course. I started a couple things that I’ve never pursued that I liked – one is about a detective in the Metahuman Special Unit (MSU). I envisioned this as a kind of police procedural, ala CSI, except with paranormal elements. The other is the one I’ve talked about on the Wyrdsmiths blog about an apocalyptic chick-lit, in which our heroine is told by a hottie angel that she is supposed to be the second coming.
I think this week I’ll write up a couple of proposals: the continuation of Garnet and one of these other two.
It feels weird not to be writing... and even weird to be in between contracts.
In case you missed this over at Riding With the Top Down yesterday, here's it is x-posted here:
What do you do AFTER boy meets girl – or, in my case, after vampire meets witch? The classic set-up of the romance is the first blush, the excitement of falling in love -- so what do you do for a sequel?
That was the question that faced me – and, well, continues to haunt me as I write subsequent books – when starting Dead Sexy (Berkley, May 2007) the follow-up to Tall, Dark & Dead (Berkley, May 2006).
I’ve been in a relationship with the same person for twenty odd years, so, intuitively, I think I sense the romance in the long-term, but how do you write about it – so that it’s interesting? I mean getting him to learn to pick up his dirty socks can be a real challenge, but it doesn’t necessarily make for scintillating reading, you know?
Luckily, the guy in my novels is a thousand year-old vampire, so nothing having to do with Sebastian is typical. Plus, Garnet, our heroine, has a lot of, shall we say, baggage. In other words, before she can even consider settling in with Sebastian, Garnet has to deal with her own crap. In the first book, Garnet had witch-hunters after her, and in Dead Sexy, she’s got an FBI agent hot on her trail. Plus, there’s all that unfinished business with her ex-....
...you get the idea. Even though all these events keep my hero and heroine nearly too occupied to deal with each other, I snuck into the book some of what I consider “real-life” milestones for any relationship. In Dead Sexy, for instance, Garnet and Sebastian have their first fight. It breaks them up a little – hopefully, enough to keep the reader in suspense – and it gives Garnet some time to finally figure out if Sebastian is the one for her.
Garnet is a modern woman, in that she’s in no particular hurry to commit. I think, in some ways, this makes her slightly more difficult for some readers to identify with, but I chose to make Garnet a touch leery about jumping headfirst into a relationship because, well, Sebastian’s not exactly human. And, as odd as this might sound, I wanted my paranormal romance to have a touch of realism, in that the heroine has to consider and weigh all the consequences of a serious, long-term relationship with someone who drinks blood to survive.
For me, that’s one of the appeals of reading and writing urban fantasy. I like to puzzle out the real-life problems of dealing with a fantasy lover. What would it really be like to be married to someone who never ages? If your boyfriend is thirty times older than you are, does he get your references to the Brady Bunch or Schoolhouse Rock? Can people from two fundamentally different eras really breech that gap to fall in love – and, more importantly, stay together?
What about you? How has your favorite author dealt with the question of how to keep a continuing romance hot and spicy and interesting?
If you're a woman who reads non-fiction please consider taking this survey: http://www.womenandbooks2007.com/.
I'll be guest blogging at the romance blog Riding With the Top Down tomorrow (Wednesday, May 9). Please feel free to pop in and read and/or comment.
Also, if I remember... I plan to take part in the Berkley authors chat. Here are the details: This Thursday (May 10) is the 2nd Thursday of the month and we hope you'll join us then for the monthly Berkley Jove author chat in the Writerspace Readers Chat room to discuss your May release. http://www.writerspace.com/chat/readers. It begins at 9 PM Eastern and is an hour long. Hope to see you there!
MomCulture spoiled me. When Mason and I got a flyer in the mail from the McPhail Center for Music about the Bakken Trio (violin, cello, and piano) who were going to be giving a free, (supposedly) informal concert over the lunch hour in the fourth floor rehearsal space, I thought: hey cool, this would be another music thing Mason and I could enjoy. When I showed him the flyer, he hopped up and down and said, “A cello! I finally get to see a cello!” We were psyched. On the big day (last Friday), I packed up our activity books, some snacks, and a boy who could hardly wait to see the mythical cello up close and personal.
I totally forgot how most people experience classical music.
I need to preface what happened at McPhail by saying that Friday had started out somewhat poorly, and it was quickly becoming a day of being “hushed.” We foolishly brought along our pennywhistle to our local (coffee shop in this case) and had settled in for reading some Thomas the Tank Engine and hooting along whenever the engines whistled at each other. Not surprisingly, we were hushed.
I have always hated being hushed.
I understand that people were trying to work. And as the supposedly responsible adult in charge I did, in fact, quite promptly take Mason’s whistle from him and explain that we were being too noisy and other people were trying to do their own things, which we had rudely interrupted. However, internally I twinged. I have always been an enthusiastic participant in life, and thus have spent much of my life being hushed. I think, too, that many people are unfairly hushed. There are times, of course, when exuberance isn’t called for, but those times are, in my opinion, fairly rare. And, I’m so very sorry that my happiness interrupted your dull, drab and lifeless existence. Excuse me while I chortle noisily and go on enjoying myself without you.
That being said, we were being loud and people were trying to work. In deference to them (and, really, that whole golden rule thing,) we took our fun selves elsewhere.
On the drive home, I notice a woman walking three dogs. They were barking, running, and generally being happy dogs. She looked absolutely miserable. And, I thought to myself, “How often do I pass people on the streets that are actually smiling to themselves?” Watching over the rest of the day, the answer was: almost never.
Fast forward to noon. Mason and I had to rush off from a very pleasant, if disorganized (as eating out with a nearly-four year old often is) lunch with our friend Rosanne. Still in a somewhat frazzled mood we arrive with plenty of time to spare at the McPhail. Remembering the lessons of last time, we parked in a hotel lot across the street and hustled to the rehearsal space to get a good seat. When we got off the elevator on the fourth floor, there was a crowd of “the walker set” as Eleanor would call them -- retirees all looking for some culture.
I started to get nervous that Mason and I would be the only people under the age of sixty-five at the event. A couple of other moms with kids in tow showed up. Mason insisted we head for the front row – which was a row, btw, none of the nice cafeteria style set up they’d provided before – and we settled in to wait with our dot-to-dot books.
Then the show started. Mason perked up to watch the performers get ready. When the music started he exalted, “Ima, look! Her hands are dancing on the strings!”
We were instantly and profoundly hushed.
Worse, soon after, I became complicit in hushing Mason.
Normally, Mason is very attentive, but after being disallowed his opportunity to express his joy – in my opinion – he disassociated. He got antsy, fussy, and started to ask me in a loud voice when we could go home. We stuck it out for a while. I encouraged him to dance, but he soon felt conspicuous since all the eyes in the room weren’t smiling, but glaring at me as if to say, “Can’t you control your little monster? How DARE he enjoy the music as if it were common music!”
I nearly cried. We left the hall, and while I was tying my shoe out in the lobby Mason perked up and said, “We can still hear it out here!” I thought he might like to say and enjoy the music from the other side of the closed door, at least, but he decided he’d rather go.
At least the experience doesn’t seem to have dampened his interest in music entirely, thank the Goddess. Mason says he still wants to try again when the harp and flute players are there next month. I’m a little leery, if only because I’m angry that in order for Mason to go to these sorts of events he has sell his soul. If we’re not going to spend the whole time getting hushed and glared at, I’m going to have to teach him something I don’t believe, which is that music has to be enjoyed while sitting still and being quiet.
I ended up having a long passionate discussion about this with Sean M. Murphy on the phone later on Friday, and though I’ve mellowed a little bit on my stance that art should be one hundred percent participatory, I still think that it’s a bloody, ugly shame that music (at least of the variety that involves cellos) has become something so DEAD that it’s not okay to shout and dance while experiencing it. I get that grown-ups like to close their eyes and become the music, but many grown-ups, in my most humble opinion, are kids who have forgotten how to dance.
This is one of the biggest crime our culture inflicts on children: learn to sit still and be quiet. I think in many ways, it is the root of some of the deep unhappiness that poisons modern Americans. I mean, is it any wonder people are depressed when you can’t even shout with joy when the spirit moves you?
Mason and I are going to have to find a happy medium, I know. He’s going to go to school next year and this will be the first hard lesson of his life, the whole learning to sit still thing. It has its benefits, I know.
But sometimes, man, you just gotta dance.
This from astrology.com:
Can you feel it? Change is all around you. When optimistic Jupiter in Sagittarius, strong Saturn in Leo and independent Uranus in Pisces have a three-way conversation, one thing is for sure: You won’t be bored! Plenty of support is available, so utilize this time to make decisions that are the most beneficial for you.
First, a retrograde Jupiter backs into the trine with Saturn on May 6, giving you the opportunity to loop back to your support systems. Jupiter is urging you to expand your horizons while Saturn wants to make sure you're realistic. This is a great combo, and you are likely to be quite clear about what you want. The people who were helpful to you last March during the first Jupiter-Saturn trine probably have more to share with you. These levelheaded folks offer good advice and assistance for you to make these necessary changes.
Also in the mix is expansive Jupiter forming a square -- for the second time in this series (the first was January 22) -- to freedom-loving Uranus. This is an aspect that is exact on May 10, but throughout the month you'll feel the restlessness that occurs when these two big planets connect. To make the most of this important aspect, be open to unforeseen changes in plans. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
While Jupiter is retrograde -- a period that will last until August 6 -- take the time to make sure your projects and plans are still what you want. The great news is that all of the help you need is available; so ask for what you want. This is not the time to shoulder everything by yourself.
As I've posted here before, Mason is very into classic music right now. He got interested in it kind of by accident. He also went through a TV phase (sadly, he seems completely out of that one -- and, okay, it's only sad because we can't easily distract him by suggesting he watch TV anymore.)
Anyway, during his TV phase, I introduced him to Fantasia (the original) which we had a VCR tape of. He's been fascinated ever since. My "teaching" style as a parent tends to be very opportunistic. Mason is into music right now, so I find music related things for us to do. MomCulture had a day at the opera program that we went to, and Mason loved that. They had jazz duo performance at the McPhail center, and we went to that. I signed us up to be on the mailing list and got a notice in the mail earlier this week about the Bakken Trio (a violinist, cellist and pianist) who will be doing an informal show at the McPhail today over lunch. We're going. It's Mason's first "grown up" concert.
There are several things that a nascent writer hears over and over: write what you know; show don’t tell; and write every day. I think we can argue about the validity of the first two, but I’ve found that the last one actually stuck with me… even now, several published books later.
Stephen King in his book On Writing talks about how if you sit down at the same time every day, your Muse knows where to look for you. I think he’s right. The habit of writing, though often hard to establish, is worth the effort.
When I wrote my first novel (still unpublished) I set myself a goal, very arbitrarily, of 425 words a day. Some days, with a full time job, a family, and whatnot – it was hard to make that paragraph. Still, if I did it, I was that much closer to THE END. And, more often than not, if I started 425, I’d end up with 600 or 1,000.
Unlike some, I didn’t tell myself WHEN I needed to write those words each day, just that I needed to write them. For me, I found that if I could be flexible, I would find the time to write. I would write during lunch, during downtime on the job, after dinner, late at night, early in the morning, or scribble notes on a napkin while out somewhere. As long as I wrote 425 words at some point during the day, I considered myself meeting my goal.
I have always found – and continue to find – that the more I wrote, the easier it was to write the next day. If something interrupted me, say, like life, the next time I picked up the proverbial pen, it was a lot harder to start.
Even so, I have always taken the weekends off. This is a strange personal quirk of mine, but for me, treating writing like a job was what I needed to commit to the career. So, I take weekends off (except during crunch time.) But, what that means for me is that Monday writing is always the hardest.
If I take time off after having finished a big project (say, like a novel,) which I often do… starting up again is a pain. It’s like I’ve forgotten basic sentence structure. Or my writing muscles have atrophied. So, even after all this time, I try to write at least something on my fiction projects every day.
Do you?
Having just finished the latest Garnet book (#3), I had my first official night off from writing last night. What did I do? I did everything a newly “freed” writer should do: I watched some network TV (can I confess something? I’m a total “House” junkie,) and then read another chapter or two in a good book (currently: John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War.)
I also wrote.
I know. I'm so ashamed. It's like an addiction. It was the strangest thing. I totally didn’t intend to, but, you see, there’s been this very oddball paranormal romance short story (novel?) bubbling up inside me wanting to come out. The problem is, of course, it’s not a Garnet story. Not only is it not a Garnet story, it’s probably completely un-sellable. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s the story of a chick-litty type heroine who is told by a very hunky angel of God that she is the next messiah. It’s so _wrong_ on so many levels. Of course, I’m enjoying it. Nothing may ever come from it, but that’s okay. I think sometimes it’s good for the soul to have a writing project that’s completely doomed – something you do for the love of it, rather than thinking too hard about whether or not it will ever sell.
Certainly, that’s how alternate me sold her first novel. I wrote something just for myself. Something that turned ME on, and, though I wrote it with a professional eye, I was fairly convinced it was far too controversial and at the same time too frivolous, (see my description of current project for example) to every catch the interest of an editor or an agent. As it turned out, it did both. Who’d’a thunk it?
Tonight, however, I’m determined NOT to write. I really want to read and sleep – both things I desperately need to catch up on.
I’m sure I can go one night without writing.
Yeah, watch me not write.
So, today is the big day for Dead Sexy... it hits the streets today. I just happened to be at the Mall of America today and noticed that they had my latest on the shelves. Whoot! The best part of being a writer, IMHO, is moments like these... when you walk into a bookstore and there is YOUR very own name on the spine of a book. The thrill, for me at least, never deminishes.
Even though I'm sick as a dog. I woke up yesterday morning with a sticky throat. Mason caught a cold a couple of days ago, and usually these things pass on to Shawn. But, I think because I'd been staying up well past midnight for the last several days putting polishing touches on Garnet Lacey Book 3 (which was due today at the publisher, and I'm happy to say I got it in one WHOLE day early. A new record for me, I think), I was more susceptible. Last night I hardly slept for draining. And today Mason and I had to take Shawn to the airport. She's off on a work conference in Arizona for four days... so I get to experience life as a "single" parent for nearly a week (while sick). Bleah.
Oh, and Mason wants to report that he saw another new license plate: BRITISH COLUMBIA. Still no West Virginia, though.
Check out this five question/answer interview with me over at http://nenscl.blogspot.com/.
Today we saw a foreign plate. I think it was probably British (given that there was also one of those GB stickers on the car), but the point is, Mason pulled in a plate from ANOTHER FRICKIN' COUNTRY.
We also c
hecked out all the Canadian provences yesterday, and *in our neighborhood* was parked a Quebec plate. Keep in mind that I live in Saint Paul, that's Minnesota, people. Most of these plates have been spotted in the ten minute drive from our house to the Minnesota Historical Society.
As I told Shawn, now we just have to have him start wishing to find piles of money.
First, I came across this site which has a fairly comprehensive list of SF/F authors that blog. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/002815.html.
Second, next Monday (April 30), I will be answering five questions about myself an my newest release Dead Sexy (Book 2 of the Garnet Lacey series) on DCL.
And lastly, just a reminder, I'll be guest blogging at Riding With The Top Down on Wednesday, May 9.
Wiccans allowed to display the pentacle on military graves! Check out this New York Times article.
