this one Hotter than Hell, edited by Kim Harrison. My contribution is To Die for.
Hope you all enjoy this time with family and friends (and a chocolate Easter egg or two ) 
Writing wise, nothing much has happened. I haven’t started the edits on Riley 7 yet–I’m letting it sit for a week before I do that. It seems to work better if my muse can’t remember half of it (and my muse has a very short attention span lately, so really, even leaving it a day could actually work. lol). Ideally, I’d prefer to let it sit longer, but Bantam want it handed in ASAP, so a week it’ll have to be. In the meantime, I’ve been working on the ‘reward’ story–the one about the genetically designed soldier–and I have to say, I’m loving it. Vampires are evil–really, really evil–in this one. No redeeming qualities at all–which is totally different to my usual fair. The tone of the heroine is different, too. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to keep it up, which is why this book will remain a ‘reward’ book rather than a contracted one until I finish it (whenever that might be). I’m actually going to have to get me a map of Melbourne and work out what remains and what doesn’t, as this is set after a war that has destroyed infrastructure and left major cities empty of all except the unwanted (and our heroine is one of them). Not sure of the plot of this one yet, but it involves rescuing children, I think. Other than that, who knows where this is going to go–but that’s what I love about writing
to write those final pages, but I can now say that Riley 7 is finished! Yay! And I hit 380 pages precisely, so it was a pretty good guess last blog.
Of course, the story may be finished, but now the hard work actually begins, because the thing now has to be edited. Plus, there’s a heap of stuff that has to be threaded through the first half of the book, because the muse changed several major things about the bad guys in this over the final pages. But at least its done, and I still have enough time to edit without rushing–which is always a bonus
In other news, here’s the cover for the Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance, in which my short story Dreams will appear. Smashing, isn’t it?
I discovered yesterday that if I bore the hell out of the muse, the muse gets annoyed. And when the muse is annoyed, she writes. lol. I had an online committee meeting with RWAustralia yesterday, and normally they’re fun, but for some reason yesterday, it just seemed to be going on and on and on….sorry girls, it wasn’t you, it was the subject matter!…so after a while, I split screens and began reading over what I had written on Friday. The muse wasn’t impressed with this decision–she thought it was too hot to actually think–but given the other option was paying full attention to the arguing on the other screen, she gave up on the foot stomping and reluctantly buckled down to edit. And when the editing was over, she wrote. By the time the meeting had actually finished, I’d written five pages. I wrote another five after The Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance Australia, and have now finished one of the two major end scenes I had to go. So go bored muse!
I’ve now hit 372 pages completed, so this story is at least going to get close to 380 pages–which is better than I thought it might be. And I’m sure to add at least a couple of pages during the editing stages, because there’s always scenes that are rougher than I think and need some serious smoothing out. So, all is good. Or it will be, when I finish the final scene. But that one is going to be a doozy to write…
Riley 7 progress meter:
well, the fight with the sorcerer is over and sex has been had. Can’t tell you with whom, because that would be a major spoiler. Now I just have to write the scene where Riley and her brother have a heart to heart , and then the end scene– which is all about consequences–and we’ll be done. I’m beginning to think I might actually get this done by my fall-back deadline of Easter, but I’ve said things like that before, and the damn story has blown up in my face. And these final two scenes are probably going to be the hardest to write, because in many ways they’re setting things up for the next book. What happens at the end of this book really does play a major part in what happens in the next book. Hopefully, I’ll surprise everyone.
Riley 7 progress meter:
at least, that’s what it feels like. Still, trudging progress is better than no progress, so I’m not really complaining. The nine pages I wrote on Monday I rewrote yesterday, mainly because I had a plot deviation in there that really couldn’t stay. It just made things too difficult for the end of the fight scene. So, I rewrote and added three pages, and that was about it for my progress yesterday. I’m not sure that today is going to be any easier, though, because right now Riley is chained up on a table about to become a sorcerer’s next victim, so there’s not a whole lot she can do right now. She needs to be rescued, and I need to extend this scene for several pages and make her desperate before the rescue comes. I love writing fight scenes, but these kinds of scenes? Not so much. I’m always worried that its going to be as boring as hell, and that readers will just start skipping the pages to get to the more interesting stuff.
I’m becoming more and more sure this isn’t going to hit 400 pages. I only have the final half of the fight scene, a sex scene and a ‘fallout’ scene to write before the book is finished, so if I get to 370–380 pages, I’ll be lucky. Still, I may get to add a few pages in the rewrite, because I’ve got a heap of notes sitting in front of me about stuff that needs to be corrected or added to the earlier pages. It may help, it may not. As ever, we’ll see.
Riley 7 progress meter:
because she’s always coming up with new and interesting ways to avoid finishing the damn book.
Yesterday, it came up with the idea for a new book. Not just any book, but a completely different one to the three that are lined up, needing to be written, after I finish Riley 7. Yep, I need a new idea like I need a hole in the head, but that doesn’t seem to worry the muse. Worse bit is, she really wants to write this one. This is somewhat different to current series, though it is about the results of genetic engineering, and that features in the first three Riley books. This new one is about a genetically designed female soldier who refused to kill and was therefore rejected as a soldier. It’s set on a future earth half destroyed by war, and where humans now live in an uneasy peace with non-humans. I even have the prologue written (all fifteen lines of it) and I love it. But I can’t write it, because of all the other books. I’m thinking this needs to be my ‘only if you’re good’ book–that is, the muse can play with this one as soon as it meets current targets. And in this case, that means finishing the damn book!
Riley 7 progress meter:
to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeee… <g>.
Yep, I’m another year older today (and I wish I could say I was another year wiser, but that would be a lie. lol.) The day started off like any other–with me sweating my little heart out at the gym (and to celebrate the day, my lovely trainer kindly put up all my weights. Joy). But the three of us went to lunch at the local pub afterward, and the meal was delish, so that was a nice way to wreck the workout <g>.
Writing wise, the story–and the deviations–continue. I’d planned a very sexy scene in the lead up to the major fight, but that’s now converted into a chat with a ghost. But it works better, so I’m not about to argue with the muse. I’m 310 pages in now, so I’m slowly edging towards my goal. Oh, and for those who don’t read the first page, there’s now an excerpt of The Darkess Kiss available via my books page.
In other news, this pic came in from Tez Miller, and because her cat has brilliant reading taste, I thought I’d put it up
Riley 7 progress meter:
I’m getting there. I’ve had a couple of good writing days, and I’ve managed to creep up to 296 pages completed. And of course, the plot continues to deviate. I just finished adding a scene where Riley’s ability to see and talk to souls has mutated into something a whole lot scarier. I’m going to have to bump up the energy of the scene (give her more reactions to what happened) when I do the edits, but for now, I’m simply concentrating on getting the basics down and getting this finished. I’m still working up to the big final fight. I already know its not quite going to happen the way I planned–I’ve changed too many things in the lead up for the plot to work as I’d originally had it–but hopefully it’s still going to be awesome. As will the aftermath.
Because one of the questions Dia raised in Embraced by Darkness is going to get answered in book 7.
Riley 7 progress meter:
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