WordPlay

Yes.  I am writing.  Instead of working on the planned blog (which I wrote most of in draft while waiting for an appointment today, so I did have good intentions), I did another scene in the current book.  That’s Dark Blade of my Nocturne Demon Blade series, if anyone’s keeping track.

I am not feeling particularly guilty.  More like…smug.

smug smug smug smug

To assuage my not-guilt over my not-blog, here is a picture of a puppy owning the Best Toy:

This is THE BEST TOY. Ever. For the moment.

…Monday

What fun to start the week with babbling good news. I think next week I’ll MAKE UP some good new so I can do it again!

This week, though, I don’t have to. I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be writing three more Nocturnes, and two of the online Nocturne Bites along the way.

The Nocturnes are the ones I’ve gotten the most requests for so far…remember Maks, the straightforward bodyguard who’s played a role in all three of the Sentinels books so far? Maks takes the tiger as his other form; he’s a quiet guy with an unusual background. Not quite tame, for all his reliability–and with reason. The first Sentinels book is Tiger Bound, and that’s where I get to play with Maks’ story. Oh, gleeful, evil, rubbing of hands together!

Ruger is the character who first started getting the requests–right from the start. Was I ever going to write a book for him? Well, in fact…yes! Ruger is the healer who also spends time as a Kodiak bear, and who (in Lion Heart), took the brunt of an Atrum Core ambush. In the wake of that, he’s still looking for himself. Could be he just needs a little help, hmm?

But before I dive into those two books, I’ll be writing a second Demon Blade book. You haven’t seen that first one yet–it’s been waiting for scheduling, and to some extent waiting for this cycle of decisions to come around, to see if we’d be working it as a series or as a one-off. Well, guess what! I get to do a series!

And then there’s a Demon Blade Bite and a Sentinels Bite.

And there’s ME.

VERY HAPPY!

Getting to write books I love, knowing my schedule is planned for these next months, hummm hummm humm! The muse wins!

BLOG PARTEEEE!

…Monday

Yes! It’s true! I have a genre auto-adjust function in my brain!

And it comes in REALLY handy. Because everything I write, I also read. (I mean…duh, right?) And without the auto-adjust, there might be some ugly genre gap issues.

Ug-LEE, I tell you.

Okay, not for mysteries–two of them so far for me. Easy to tell apart from the rest, and obvious what to expect.

The tie-in books…well, those are pretty much self-defined.

And the Bombshells. No question about that marketing. Kick-Ass Chick books. Jane Bond. Alias. Sums it up right there.

The confusing part?

The fantasies. The different flavors thereof.

SF/Fantasy vs Silhouette Nocturne category vs single title paranormal. All fantasy–but all entirely different.

With my first fantasy books–of the SF/F variety–I had a lot of freedom. Of course there were relationships in these books–our lives are made of relationships. But the books were structured around plot, and built primarily on worlds, magic, and character. I could and did hit from between 90K to 150K words.

The Silhouette Nocturnes are contemporary, relationship-driven category romance fantasies. World building and plot are vital–the pieces always have to be there!–but the book grows around the relationship. And the length is 70K words or less. That means the developing relationship takes priority over extensive world building and layered plot lines (and it means there are pages of Sentinel notes, history, and factoids that haven’t ever made it to print).

Single title paranormals–like those in the Reckoners series–are a blend of both worlds. They’ve got the world building, the relationship, the characters, the layering, and a whole cast of supporting characters. At 120k words, they’re crammed in tight!

But here’s where it gets tricky. Because the expectations formed by reading any one of these sibling genres won’t match the reading experience in the others. Picking up a fantasy won’t fulfill the yen for a relationship-driven story. Picking up a Nocturne won’t provide deep world building and multi-layered plots–and it’s not meant to. Picking up a paranormal single-title provides a great balance of both–but the specific focus of neither.

So picking up one of these genres and blaming it for not being like one of the others? Well, it feels odd to say this about fantasies, but…that’s not exactly realistic. Or, thank you (and here comes the opinionated part), fair.

In fact, the key to a happy read while genre-surfng turns out to be pretty basic. Know what you’re reading. Set expectations accordingly. Voila!

In which case it’s really handy to have an auto-adjust function.

posted on Wednesday

Not all that far into Sentinels: Wolf Hunt….

Jet has been trained by the Sentinels’ dark counterparts for one mission: To take down Nick Carter.  Everything she’s been told in preparation has come through that Atrum Core filter.  But Jet can think for herself, and she has the strength to do just that.

(Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed writing Jet?)

===============

Quite suddenly she bent over, laying her face against his–nuzzling him ever so slightly. Just as suddenly, she straightened again. “I think he lies,” she said. “He will do to my pack what suits him, no matter what I bring him.” A gentle lift of his head and a flick of her hand, and she removed the amulet thong. “No more do I heed him. You, I help. And my pack…I save on my own.”Instantly, breathing seemed natural again. And if his body shuddered with waves of flame and ice, he nonetheless had his growl back.

Oh, a Wild Thing snippet! I had such a good time with this one–short and fast, and since I had already written the first two Sentinel books before tackling this prequel (prequelette?), it was vast fun to write. I already knew all the gleeful little details!
=======================

Watch her, Nick Carter had told Mark Burton, and sent Mark into the night after Tayla Garrett—into the sporadically lit Phoenix park she patrolled this night. Watch her patrol, watch her stalk the night greenways—a little sideways jog to avoid a loose dog, so casual and then all her attention back on the night, on the people within the park and only Mark’s excellent warding keeping him from her scrutiny.

Watch her. As if Mark had been doing anything but watching Tayla Garrett since his recent reassignment had them crossing paths in Sentinel field activity. Not to mention in the Phoenix brevis regional office, in the hallways…in the damned security lot where she sometimes parked a scooter and sometimes parked a bike. But she’d made it clear enough she still—after all this time—preferred to keep her distance, and he’d reluctantly, achingly, respected her wishes. In spite of the restlessness, the aching, and the tendency to offer her name at intensely inappropriate moments in his personal life.

Not that he’d expected to see that particular date again, anyway.

She’d always done that to him. As an awkward fourteen-year-old, growing into impossibly long legs, learning to hide her natural speed from the world and to finesse her cheetah shift, while Mark, a much more mature and worldly eighteen year old, learned that he was indeed human-bound in shape, regardless of his parentage and obvious peripheral shifter skills—the physical prowess, the tracking skills, the prescience…

She runs the Phoenix city parks at night…

posted on Wednesday

And look! It’s another snippet!

Rounding out the first chapter of Sentinels: Wolf Hunt….

===============

A nudge of her long muzzle and refined nose brought Nick’s head down; she commenced to cleaning his face–his eyes, his strong cheeks, his ears. The submission of an alpha to a wolf-bitch of his choosing.

Or maybe that had just come from within, after all.

posted on Friday

It’s simple, really.  I know people try to make it complicated, but it’s not.

If you want the books–the high caliber submitted-chosen- edited-professional books–to exist in the first place, you’ve got to contribute to the writers who create them and the publishers who put them out there.

That means buying the books, not taking stolen freebies off the ‘net.

Oh, everyone’s got their reasons for taking.  Some are philosophical, some are tangled with the frustration of the floundering emarket as it tries to find good working business models, some are pure entitlement.  Some have no thought behind them at all, but just want.

The thing is, those reasons don’t matter.

The bottom line for me is the same.  You’re stealing from me.  You’re making it harder for me to buy food while I write the next book.  You’re enjoying (I hope) the fruits of my labor without offering anything in return.

The bottom line for you is the same, too.  You’re making it harder for this business to find its way through a world of changing technologies.  You’re narrowing what the publishers can afford to offer you.  You’re pushing authors out of the business and putting publishers closer to the edge.

Do you think  it doesn’t matter, in these days when publisher/retailer/device provider squabbles are big news?  When new authors/new series have no leeway to build an audience, but must perform out of the blocks?  When established series stutter and die, already tangled in distribution and warehousing issues?  You’re wrong.  It matters.

You matter.

You may not care.  You may say, “Hey, throw the ‘net open to whoever wants to put their work out there!  That’s the way it should be, and then we can read it all!”

But hey…are you paying attention?

Because I am.  And I’m more than just a writer, I’m a reader.  I’m as greedy as any thief, in my way.  I want more than any old book–I want good books!  I want to see my favorite authors survive and thrive and have the chance to write what their heart tells them to write.

Because you see, whether or not my own work is published, I’ll always write.  You can’t take that away from me.  But my opportunity to read the kind of amazing work that’s produced by stable publishers supporting the mature brilliance of a writer so driven that s/he’ll do this work with the discipline it takes to reliably turn out a book worth savoring?  That, you can mess with.  That, you have messed with.

Oh, yes.  You matter.

Please stop stealing my books.

The Friday Post

Look!  I’m a product!

Sort of.

And hey, not only am I a product, I have a monopoly on me. Oh, the shame!

I never expected it. Truly. I thought I could just write my books. And before the Internets, there was even some truth to that. But now, with the Internets in full swing and a beloved new book on the shelves, I’m doing things I haven’t considered before.

Never mind the postcards (which I adore making and then use for bookmarks my own self) or the book signings (which I now do rarely since the year of I don’t think so that included being denied the use of the bathroom and, at a different store, being searched.  You know,  in case I had shoplifted books while I was signing.)

No, this year it’s the RECKONERS  book trailer.  And now, it seems, I have a tag line.

Me!  Imagine!

It wasn’t something I planned. I’ve got a thing going over at Fresh Fiction (wavewave to Fresh Fiction)–a couple of contests and some ad banners. One of their suggestions was for an author brand banner. In another area, they asked for author info…including a tag line.

Author brand. Tag line.

Uh wuh?

So one afternoon while I was so very happily playing with graphic goodies to create that there banner, I ran head long into the notion of these things, and I thought, what’s my tag line, then?

And my muse said, “For paranormal romance, your tag line is this:

“Finding the Other; Facing the Other…Loving the Other”

And I said, “Are you sure? That came pretty fast.  I’ll think of something else. Something way better. Something way more clever.”

And then I didn’t.

So my muse said, “I told you so.”

At which point I threw my hands up and said, “If people laugh at us, it’s all your fault.”

So for what’s it’s worth, there it is.  (Hey, I dare you.  Tag line your work…see what you come up with!)  And if you laugh…talk to the muse. She has a monopoly on me, too!

Also:  Total Bonus Piccie of Miss Belle, Picturesque
(Cheysuli’s Silver Belle, CD RE PAX MXP4 MJP3 OFP EAC EJC CGC)

The Monday Post

This is the second Monday in the new home!

On this Monday, the office is in minimal working condition–no stereo yet, boxes on floor diminished but present, no pictures hung.  Internet access still relies on ArroyoNet, a remarkably stable WIRELESS WIZARD WIN! as long as a certain wireless phone at the broadcast end isn’t being used.

On this Monday, Duncan Horse is one step closer to his first ride in his new place–the modest north flat now clear of machinery and introduced on a nice walk-in-hand.  He has also observed his large donkey neighbors up the road with much indignant strutting of his studly stuff, to which the donkeys said, “Got it, you’re a horse, yada yada yada.”

There is still a lot of mud.  Much of it is now on Duncan.

On this particular Monday, I get to start the week knowing that over the weekend, I not only unpacked things, drove out new routes to old places from this totally opposite approach to the city, beat up on non-functioning new appliances (marginal success, sigh), spread shavings and straw over the aforementioned mud,  and cleared the garage of some freecycle items, but I slammed through a huge chunk of the second pass through Demon Blade (the next Nocturne novel) and wuh!  Finished it!

The last couple of previous books, I worked second pass on directly on the computer…logistics made it more viable.  But this one hit hardcopy early, and it went everywhere with me.  To doctor’s offices, where long waits ensured work time.  To the vet’s–yes, even to the doggy ER on New Year’s Eve while I was waiting for the vet to return with ConneryBeagle’s x-rays.  On the road between the old house and the new, every time we drove over to check on progress, plan out the fence line, or try, once more, to figure out where the little barn would fit.  If I went, the battered manuscript pages went, too.

It’s been a busy and well-traveled book, yes it has.  Me, my customized clipboard, my stack of papers, and my Energel pens.  Purple or green, please.

Tomorrow I start putting changes into the laptop, and then it’s time to make sure all the threads hold together and all the little rough spots are polished.  And then I get to call it a BOOK!

I am almost inspired to cackle with glee.

(Ha!  Maybe I even did it!  You’ll never know!)

What’re you cackling about this week, out there?

ConneryBeagle Crate Countdown: THREE DAYS!!!

PS: WordPress spellchecker suggestion for “ConneryBeagle” = “anaerobically.”

reposted from Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance Blog

Ooh, boy. Wolves. Best shapeshifter fun ever, right? And here I am with not one, but two of them!

And the best part about that (because it gets better, at least for the writing!) is, they’re coming from separate worlds.

Nick Carter is one of my Sentinels. He hails from Brevis Southwest–well, that’s putting it mildly. He pretty much runs Brevis Southwest, even though technically he doesn’t hold that position. But the fellow who does, the Brevis Consul, hasn’t been truly paying attention for a while now. He’d notice if he thought Nick was stepping into his shoes out of turn, of course…hoo boy, yes. Snort and bother, you can imagine.

This leaves Nick in a bit of a dicey situation–protecting his people without giving away the game. And all while there are darker things afoot. If you saw the first two Sentinel books, you already know that the field Sentinels have been tripping up over inexplicable little drop-outs in communication and loss of backup. In fact, one could say that I’ve made life very difficult for certain characters. (And, that because I’m evil, I enjoyed every moment of it.)

When it comes to shapeshifters, Sentinels make up Nick’s world–it’s what he knows. So maybe it’s understandable that when he meets Jet, he believes her to be one of his own. In most important ways, she in fact is. But in another, truly crucial way…she is nothing the same at all. She comes from a different world; different understandings. Different foundations behind her decisions, her reactions, and what drives her life. Different beings.

So here’s Nick–a man driven to excel, and driven to responsibility, and driven in so many ways to hide what he is. I won’t use the word “repressed.” I think that’s so ugly, don’t you? Besides, he’s not, really. Just ask Marlee Cerrosa, who works IT at the Tucson Brevis HQ and whose hair stands on end every time Nick walks into the room. (If you want to talk repressed, though, we could take a good look at Marlee…)

No, Nick’s just got priorities. Hiding who he is, that’s one of them. It has to be–if he didn’t make some effort to do it, the otherness of his nature would draw far too much attention. If he hadn’t learned to think of Brevis first–his people first–he wouldn’t have kept the region intact in spite of the constant nibble of damage coming from within the system.

Then again, there’s such a thing as going too far.

But ahhh…Jet. Jet doesn’t question who she is. She doesn’t try to hide it. She doesn’t second-guess her instincts. There’s so much about the situation she now faces that she doesn’t understand, but she doesn’t fret about what she doesn’t know or what she can’t change. Jet is a woman driven to survive–and so very well-equipped to do just that. And Jet is a woman who knows what–and who–she wants.

And the thing they have most in common? That would be each other. Whether they know it or not.

Okay, that was the best shapeshifter fun ever.

PS Also, please to notice, best dramatic paranormal guy cover pose double ever.