Bound to Shadows, the book I’m currently working on, has an official release date–September 2009. Or August 29th, according to Amazon. So there’s not much of a wait between Deadly Desire and the next one, which is probably a good thing considering what I do in Deadly Desire. Let’s just say the reactions to it will be interesting. lol
I finally have the Deadly Desire ARC contest contest up on my website, so if you’re interested in getting your hands on it, tootle over to my contest page and enter. And there will be several more ARC’s on offer (as well as a ton of other fab prizes) when the Deadline Dames go live!
Speaking of Deadline Dames, fellow dame Jackie Kesslar has a new novella hitting the shelves tomorrow, so I’m pimping it for her here. :) It’s Hell is where the Heart is in the all new A Red Hot Valentine’s Day Anthology from Avon Red. Here’s the back cover blurb: Eternal damnation has its perks–especially for a voluptuous succubus who is about to receive a very special, very hot Valentine’s Day “gift” from her demon lover… As you can probably guess, this is a stand alone prequel to Jackie’s HELL ON EARTH series, and tells how Jezebel and Daunuan met all those millennia ago. Note that it is an erotic novella, with a major emphasis on “erotic.” So, as Jackie says, it’s not intended for anyone under 18, or those who don’t like their pages to be blisteringly hot.
2008 is a year I’m totally glad to see the back of, I can tell you. It’s been a tumultuous year for me personally, and that has fallen over into my writing–and is a major reason why I’m so far behind on this current book.I’ve discovered it’s very hard to concentrate on writing when the world around you is falling apart. But fate doesn’t always take you where you expect to go, and given that has been something of a theme in the Riley books, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when my own life does a sudden u-turn. All I can say is, thank God for the strong shoulders of friends and family.
But enough of that.
2009has rolled around, and the time for new years resolutions has come and gone. Did you make any resolutions this year? I didn’t. Oh, I have in years past, and pretty much failed at all of them, so this year I refused to set myself up for failure (had enough of that last year!). Pretty much the only things I want to achieve this year–finish books, lose more weight, get on with my life–are things that I’m already on the way to achieving (the books are contracted and have to be done regardless, the weight loss is a life style change that is ongoing, and I’ve already booked myself two holidays, so the plan to get on with my life is underway!). What about you? Whatever you resolutions might be, here’s hoping you all achieve them, and that 2009 is a great one for you
and who are these Deadlines Dames I speak of? We’re a group of nine urban fantasy writers who’ve gotten together and started a website/blog that will be online in January 2009. (I’ll post the address as soon as the Dames go live). The Dames are: Me, Toni Andrews, Jenna Black, Rinda Elliot, Jackie Kesslar, Karen Mahoney, Devon Monk, Lilith Saintcrow, and Rachel Vincent.
The fabbo Toni Andrews has made a couple of Christmas cards to introduce the dames. The first card features Toni, Jenna, Jackie, Devon and Rachel, and the second features Karen, Jenna, Rinda, Devon and me (Lilith couldn’t find a suitable piccie)
we finally got some of the wet stuff over the weekend. Not enough to be a drought breaker (we’d actually need months and months of continual rain to break the drought) but at least enough to freshen and save all the dying gardens. (where I’m currently living, we’re on stage 4 restrictions. It basically means no outside water use what so ever–which is why I’m trying to get water tanks connected. I want to keep my garden alive!)
Anyway, the reason I’m mentioning the rain is the fact that the rain actually ended up giving me a story start over the weekend, which just goes to prove we writers can get ideas from the weirdest things. Let me set the scene: I’m driving up Pretty Sally, which is basically part of the Great Dividing Range, a group of mountains that ring Melbourne. The rain is bucketing down, and the clouds are sitting so low over Pretty Sally that it feels like I’m driving through white sheets. Now, most sane people would be giving their full attention to the rather dangerous road conditions, but I think we’ve already established that writers are not sane people ;) So, of course, that little voice in the back of my mind (often called the muse, sometimes called the bitch), is like, how cool is this? We could write about this. It’d make a great scene….oh, ghosts would love this! No, ghosts are too obvious…maybe something else. Then, said little voice throws up one line…. I’ve always seen the reapers.
And I’m like, how cool is that for a first line? So, that is the official start for Dark Angels, the first of the Riley Jenson offshoot series, which will feature Risa as the heroine. I’ve now written a whole four paragraphs to go with that first line, and can’t wait to get into it. But I need to finish Bound to Shadows before I can do anything more–and I’ve got 155 pages to go. Damn. Not sure the muse can wait that long. She’s an impatient beast at times. lol
I really don’t know why I bother writing an outline (well, aside from the fact that my editor is now insisting that I do them). My muse loves the whole idea of an outline, gets very involved in writing them…then completely ignores them when it comes time to actually write the story. Well, not completely ignore–there are still some vague resemblances between the current story and its outline, even if its only character names. lol.
I have to say, I’m in total awe of writers who manage to do detailed story plotlines/outlines before they’ve actually written a word, and who then manage to stick to it when writing. Me, I tend to write several chapters first, then outline (because I have to more than I want to), then I proceed writing basically ignoring said outline. Still, I guess the actual process of having to actually think about the story does seem to clarify things in my mind, even if I later ignore that outline and go in a totally different direction. It also has the added benefit of giving the muse additional time think of even more wicked things to do to my characters. And at least I have something to fall back on if the muse suddenly refuses to play.
Which is a long winded way of saying Bound to Shadows ( Riley 8 ) is not going where it is supposed to go, and that my muse is having great fun piling even more crap on poor old Riley’s shoulders. Just as well they breed dhampires tough
