http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=2080

Thanks for everyone who told me about their favorite covers. There were some great covers out there that I’d never seen before!

The Random Number Generator has declared the winner to be: #36, Diane, who said: “i love the cover for welcome to temptation by jennifer crusie with the cherry on it. but, i really love that book i have read it like half a dozen times. and i am a sucker for the black dagger brother hood covers by jr ward. those guys on her covers are just so HOT. the demonica series by larissa ione has a really cool medical symbol on it you can recognize anywhere which is neat.”

Please email  your mailing address to deadlinedames (at) yahoo (dot) com, and I’ll send you your signed copy of Speak of the Devil.

Related posts:

1. Another winner!
2. Story News!
3. Wanting It (& a giveaway)

http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=2075

by Dame Devon and Dame Jackie

Happy Sunday, everyone! We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the Book Party contest.

Devon’s winner is…

#33 -Axisor, who says: “This is an AWESOME way for DD readers to catch up with the works of the other contributing authors they haven’t read yet! (I can tell I just got home from my analytical job–can you?) This is great! Count me in for either or both.”

Jackie’s winner is…

#12: Lisa B., who wrote: “Congratulations to both of you ladies today! Count me in. I’m always up for a good contest.”

Congratulations, winners! **throws confetti** Please email us your postal addresses to deadlinedames (at) yahoo (dot) com, and we’ll send you the signed books.

And stick around — we promise there will be more Deadline Dames contests in the near future!

Related posts:

1. Winners!
2. Super Sunday Winners!
3. WINNERS!!

For the record, I’m not going on a signing tour in a couple weeks. I’m going home to Alaska to visit family and friends, and am stuffing a couple of book signings in on the way through.

But since I’ve been talking about the signings, many of you have hopefully suggested you would very much like me to come to your location and sign books. I, too, would like to go to your location and sign books. I think it would be tremendously awesome. I would, however, have to sell about 300% more books than I do in order to make it even vaguely feasible. It’s not a lack of promotion on the publisher’s part, or a writer having to do all the publicity leg work herself. It’s pure finances.

As a rule, when you buy one of my books new, I get about a dollar from that sale. That’s the money I live on, day to day. That’s what I pay bills and rent and student loans with. So in order to fly to New York on your average economy ticket, I’d have be certain of selling, oh, say, an additional 600 books at a signing in order to break even. And that’s not including food or hotel, so throw those in and even if you’re being very cautious with money you’re looking at needing to sell an additional thousand or twelve hundred books to not lose money on the prospect. And really, most people at book signings bring the books they’ve already bought to get them signed, so even if by some incredibly unlikely stroke of luck I had 1200 people show up to a signing (and I’m much more in the realm of “if 40 people show up it’s an unqualified success”), the odds of selling 1200 books would be infinitesimally small. So although I have a good solid readership (for which I am *extremely* grateful), there just simply aren’t enough dollars coming in to support a self-financed book tour.

Ah! you say, so get your publisher to send you on a tour!

Well, the finances for the publisher are basically the same. My sales numbers–which, like my readership, are good solid numbers–are not nearly that good. I’m not a bestseller in terms of moving a large enough quantity of any given novel in the first month of publication. Over my career thus far my books have had what the industry refers to as “legs”–in other words, I’m still selling a lot of copies of URBAN SHAMAN, even 4.5 years after it came out. Now, if I could get everybody who’s bought a copy of URBAN SHAMAN to buy my next book the month it came out, yeah, I’d probably all of a sudden get to have shiny words like “USA Today Bestseller” or possibly “New York Times Bestseller” in front of my name. And there’s a degree of self-perpetuation to that, so once you start reaching that status it may become worth it to the publisher to (probably) lose money on financing a tour themselves, in hopes of making it up in sales down the road.

I’d greatly love to reach that status, or be in a position where it’s financially feasible to take myself on a signing tour and go all over the place to meet people. But for the moment, I’m really only ever going to be able to manage signings at places that I’m going to anyway, and sadly there just aren’t that many of those places to begin with. :)

I asked people on Facebook to ask random questions for me to answer. Q&As behind the cut. :)

(x-posted from the essential kit)

I will be attending the Fairbanks booksigning on November 27th:

I will be attending the Seattle booksigning on December 2nd:

I'm likely to:

If I'm buying books, I hope:

I am glad there's a ticky box option even if I'm not going to either of the signings:

There will be a book signing event in Fairbanks, Alaska!

Where: The Fairbanks Barnes & Noble

When: 1-4pm on Friday, November 27th, 2009

What: I will definitely be signing, and my books will be for sale. I may do a reading or two, since I’ll be there a while.

Further details: The Fairbanks B&N is leaning toward mostly bringing in copies of WALKING DEAD to sell. I’m also encouraging them to stock up on first books in all of my series, but if you’re in the Fairbanks/North Pole/Nenana/etc region and would like books other than URBAN SHAMAN, WALKING DEAD, HEART OF STONE and THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, let me strongly encourage you to call then (907-452-6400) sooner rather than later to put an order in for the books you want. It’ll encourage them to have copies on hand, and they’ll be ordering books for the signing next week, so you’ll want to move briskly!

• Lilith Saintcrow (Flesh Circus, Orbit)
• Jay Lake (Green, Tom Doherty Associates)
• Thomas Harlan (Land of the Dead, Tor)
• David Levine (Space Magic, Wheatland Press)
• Brent Weeks (Beyond the Shadows, Orbit)
• Camille Alexa (Push of the Sky, Hadley Rille Books)
• Barb and J. C. Hendee (In Shade and Shadow, Roc)
• Brenda Cooper (Wings of Creation, Tor)
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Diving into the Wreck, Pyr)
• Dean Wesley Smith (numerous Star Trek novels)
• Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fall of Light, Ace)
• Mike Shepherd (Undaunted, Ace)
• A. M. Dellamonica (Indigo Springs, Tor)
• Timothy Zahn (Odd Girl Out, Tor)
• Alma Alexander (Cybermage, Harper Teen)
• Louise Marley (the Singers of Nevya series)
• Ru Emerson (the Bard's Tale series)
  ....and Pyr senior editor Lou Anders

http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=2071

Dame Lili

At my blog today I wrote about how deciding not to engage can save one’s life. Here, because I am feeling both introspective and ambitious, I want to talk about writing saving one’s life. Really, any art can save you, but writing’s what I know. So here goes.

I got my first intimation of the power of art while I was a teenager. I was dating a man seven years my senior, who had a taste for very young girls and using his fists on the same. Yes, I was stupid–but what fourteen-year-old isn’t? I had no means of measuring the threat this predator represented, and I had no other benchmark for affection other than abuse. As a matter of fact, the kid my own age I dated before that was so nice I got nervous and broke it off with him, because he didn’t hit me. It just didn’t feel right if someone wasn’t whaling on me.

So there I was, getting it from both ends, and I discovered alcohol. I’m sure I was drunk through most of my junior-high and high-school. I still pulled a respectable GPA–academics were, at that point, still a fun game for me and I have never lost my taste for learning. But I was desperate. There was literally nowhere I could turn. I had grown used to keeping secrets by then, and staying on top of this pile of things I couldn’t talk about was wearying, to say the least.

This was also the time I was reading (please don’t laugh) Uncanny X-Men. A LOT. Especially when Claremont was writing and Lee was drawing. The idea of being a mutant, with these fantastical powers and loneliness, was very appealing.

So I did what any redblooded junior writer would.

I started writing fanfic in spiral notebooks. Obsessively. I even cut back on the drinking so I had more time to write. It started out so innocently, a story about Wolverine and a mysterious assassin who seemed to heal just as fast as he did. Then there was the Colossus-Storm mix, because I thought Forge was a wimp and Ororo deserved someone nice. Then I started interjecting my own characters–Mary Sues and Gary Stus, to be sure, but they felt good at the time.

Things crept into my writing. Descriptions of punches I’d recorded in my diary, things I noticed about the world, snippets of conversation I’d heard. I cut back on the drinking even more to have more time to write. I wrote in the bathroom in the middle of the night, my heart in my mouth, sneaking out of my boyfriend’s parties to write on the porch, hiding my notebooks in my locker because my mother went through my diaries at home once or twice and administered a whuppin’ because of what she found.

The writing was always there. I could take almost anything because I was thinking, when I get by myself I’ll write about this. Fixing my attention on that was a disassociative trick to be sure, but it worked. It gave me a future to look forward to.

Eventually, the fanfic stories grew thin. I wanted other characters, I wanted other settings. I had this idea for a book…a fantasy book. And with my heart in my mouth, I tried writing it. Took me years. And I started not writing the X-Men stuff so much, and started writing other little slushy snippets of things. Here and there. Bit by bit.

I moved away from home and in with another boyfriend. That didn’t work out so well. I bounced around different homes, different relationships, writing all the while. An old friend died and I cried with my notebook in my lap, struggling to put the hurt into words so I could get some sort of handle on it–any handle would do, I just needed one.

I found it in the first few paragraphs of another novel–the infamous vampire novel, of course. Which, like the First Fantasy, will never see publication because it’s so sloppy and uneven. But my God, it felt good to write, and it felt good to bleed off some of the pressure of guilt and grief into the structure of a story.

I’ve gone through a marriage and a half since then, and the birth of two children. And several other life events. Writing has been there all the time–the friend that gives me strength to go on when I don’t think I can. The way of transforming the world to make it reasonable, or at least a little less scary.

A few Decembers ago I was in a bad car accident. (Twisty road, nighttime, a deer on its way home and me trying not to kill Bambi.) Hanging upside-down in the truck’s cab, one part of me was screaming in hysterical fear. The largest, Mommy-based part of me was calmly saying, first let’s get this seatbelt off and kick out a window.

Another part of me, the writer, was considering all of this and taking notes. So that’s what this feels like. Damn, it’s good material.

I was fairly calm, all things considered.

It all started with me and a notebook, the pen in my hand and my heart in my mouth, daring to do that most subversive of acts–tell my own story. To honestly and simply tell any story is an act of magic, an act of liberation. It is a lifering when you’re drowning, a way to scramble for higher ground when the water rises. It is sorcery, a way of remaking the world. I felt like a mutant when I was scribbling in those spiral-bound notebooks. Dangerous, lonely, and socially sneered-at–but with a secret power, a talent I could use for good or for evil, something I could do.

And each one of those words saved my life, over and over again. Each was a step up out of the abyss of believing myself worthless, a waste of skin and breath. Even today, each word, over and over, saves my life. It is a net when I’m falling, a rope when I’m drowning, a reminder to be calm when I’m in the middle of smashed metal and glass, smelling gasoline and being so scared I can barely breathe.

I once received a fan letter from a woman who rescues elderly cocker spaniels. She said that some of my books had given her hope, that sometimes when she was feeling down about the plight of these poor dogs abandoned by their owners she could read them and forget, or read them and get a little bit of hope. Just a tiny sprinkle.

I cried.

Because if writing can save my own life, and if it can give someone else a little bit of hope, then I consider it one of the greatest acts of magic I’m capable of. Getting paid for it is nice, sure–I have kids to feed, after all. But if something that saved my life can also give someone else a little bit of hope…that’s damn precious. If even one person feels the world is a better place because of this story I’ve told as well as I’m able, I consider my time on earth well-spent.

And that’s really all this writer asks for.

Related posts:

1. This Is No Bloodless Art
2. Is Writing the Right Thing?
3. Who Loves You, Baby

There will be a book signing event in Seattle!

Where: The University Book Store on University Way in Seattle, Washington

Where, in greater detail: This will be a Fireside Event, taking place downstairs on the far side of the cafe, rather than in the usual event area.

When: 7-8pm on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

What: I will definitely be signing, and my books will be for sale (cash registers close at 8, we may be permitted to hang out a bit longer afterward to finish signings & things).

I may do a reading. I may do a reading of the first chapter of DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, due out in June 2010. Let me suggest you turn up on time if you want to hear that. :)

Further details: Me doing a signing in Seattle means there will be, at least for a time, signed books available for ordering within the continental US. If you can’t make it to Seattle but would like me to sign books and have them sent to you, order the books through the University Book Store website, and make certain to put in the Comment Box that you would like signed books, and exactly how you want them signed.

This comes in response to some concerns raised on the forum. I do read a lot of forum entries, but I try to stay out of it mostly, because people should be able to express their opinions without me standing over their shoulder.

Some people are worried that if Kate and Curran get together, the tension that makes the series interesting for many readers will disappear. To that, I say, “Trust us.”

I will say that MAGIC BLEEDS is the most relationship-heavy book of the series. I know that there will be people who will wave their arms and lament on Amazon that their favorite series has been spoiled forever, turned into paranormal romance, taken into direction of LKH, and they will Never Buy Another Book Again. (I find it highly hilarious that every single recent book by Lisa Kleypas had at least one review that proclaimed that it was the worst book evah.) They would be wrong, but that’s totally fine. I’m okay with that. We have to write the best possible book we can, which is what we did. Not everyone will like it.

The Kate series moves forward with each book. The relationship between Kate and Curran has to go somewhere as well. Eventually all prospective couples reach the point of no return: that spot in the relationship when they have to decide if they are together or not. This is the book where Kate and Curran decide. Kate’s heritage bites her in the ass, his history comes to light, and they have to pick fight or flight.

This is not a minor plot point that could’ve been negotiated in a couple of pages and shoved aside. This was a major issue that had to have its own book. In essence, Gordon and I rebooted the series, as Reece very aptly put. At the end of it, some doors are closed and others opened. People within the series find themselves in new positions and have to deal with them. MAGIC BLEEDS ends with hope. It ties the plot issues raised in the previous three books and clears the field, so the characters can move on to new stories.

So what about the tension? I can tell you that everyone, from our editor to a prominent reviewer to betas, had come away from the book happy and excited for the next one. If you were hoping for perpetual Ranger/Morelli stand off a la Janet Evanovich, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. While I love that series, the romantic thread weaving through is basically repeated in each book. Yes, the books drip with tension, but by book five, I was growling, “Just pick one, God damn it.”

We’re not going that route. We made a very fantastic world, so we have to strive for realistic human relationships to balance out all of the outlandish details. It’s just not realistic for two consenting alpha adults to dance about each other for the duration of seven books and not do anything about it. They have to either break up or be together, and in MAGIC BLEEDS one of those will happen.

As to the plot itself, as I mentioned, Kate’s heritage comes to light and the effect on her life is catastrophic. She loses everything. It’s probably one of the grimmer books we’ve written, but so far all indications are that we have managed to deliver a satisfying, if a bit bloody, ending. So there you go. The grim, romantic, bloody reboot to the series. We hope you’ll like it.

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

We had to go and get glasses for the whole family today and I’m working late to make up.  Thought I’d share qa tiny snippet to make up for my snarling earlier.

Must keep it entertaining.

Oh and here is some Vitas for you. 

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

The empire strikes back

RSS feeds again

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Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

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Enveloped in postcards

Photos of the week

lj_photophile

http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=2053

Emilio Estevez, having way too much fun playing Billy the Kid.

I’m sitting here, working in my bunny slippers in my adorable, picturesque dollhouse-like cottage on the lake. For your information, in real-estate terms, “picturesque” is code for old and in need of lots of repairs. “Dollhouse-like” means tiny and devoid of closets.  “On the lake” means drafty.

The insulators are here, blowing stuff into my exterior walls (they did the attic two weeks ago) and I had failed to realize that my walls aren’t sealed. There’s a big section open to the outside wall under the kitchen sink and behind the counters, and another under the fuse box in the one microscopic closet.  Luckily, the insulators found these, because if they’d blown insulation into those sections of the wall, my house would have filled up like a snow globe.

The Cottage at Crystal Lake

They’re banging, shouting, drilling, hammering and running a giant industrial blower. The house is shaking and all of the paintings on the walls are hanging more crookedly by the second.

And I need to write.

November is National Novel Writing Month. My word count is 8423, which is fine for the organization’s stated goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, but a tad short for my personal goal, which is 75,000 words, the target length of the novel for which I am under contract.

On top of this I just got an email letting me know it’s time to brainstorm titles for the three books in my contract.  And I ABSOLUTELY HATE FIGURING OUT TITLES FOR BOOKS.  Finding one that everyone can agree upon is a huge challenge.  By “everyone,” I mean me, my editor, my editor’s boss, and a bunch of marketing people at the publisher.

Oh, and you thought authors always got to pick their own titles?  Not so much.

My first published novel, Witch’s Knight, was my original working title.

The second, Men in Chains, was not.  My title was Delinda’s Plan, but the publisher didn’t think it was evocative.  It’s not a terrible title, but it doesn’t have much to do with the plot.  It also leads readers to believe it’s a naughty book, which it isn’t (especially).

Beastmistress was my title.  It sounds like a naughty book, and it IS a naughty book.

Then, I came up with the BEST TITLE EVAR. It was Mercy Killing. I was absolutely sure the publisher would keep it.

I was wrong.  The book came out as Beg for Mercy. Not bad, but not what I wanted.

For the next two books in the Mercy series, the editors and I came up with a long, long list of phrases with the word “Mercy” in the titles and went back and forth until everyone agreed.  I think I picked Angel of Mercy and the editor picked Cry Mercy, but it was a group effort.

Anyway, the next three books set in Mercy’s world are going to be published by a different line, with the same publisher.  For various reasons, we have agreed that characters other than Mercy herself must be the protagonists of at least two of them.

So, here’s my dilemma:  Do I want to keep using the word Mercy in each title?  The answer is yes, I do. But, for two of them, the title cannot imply that the book is about Mercy the character.

I think I can get you enough information to help, without giving away huge spoilers about the books, which you are of course going to buy and read, right? (Nod your head yes.)

I have a pretty good idea (actually, supplied by my brother—Thanks, Bob. Oh, and happy birthday!) for the first book and several for the third book.  But the second book is giving me fits.

Book 1, which features Sukey doing stuff on her own, is (hopefully) Without Mercy.

Book 3, in which Mercy IS the protagonist, will probably be Have Mercy. Unless I can talk them into my original suggestion, and finally get to use Mercy Killing.

So, I need a title for Book 2.  It will have a romance plot in which, instead of redeeming a bad boy, a bad GIRL is redeemed.  That’s all I can really tell you, other than Mercy and her friends will all be in danger to various degrees, due to the pre-redemption antics of the bad girl in question.

I’m looking for suggestions.  AND, if your suggestion meets the approval of me, my editor and the senior editor for the line, I will NAME A CHARACTER IN THE SERIES AFTER YOU.  Or, you could give it as a gift, to a child or spouse, etc.

Remember, the title must contain the word Mercy, but not imply that Mercy is the central character.

Good luck!

Related posts:

1. An Orgasm by Any Other Name…
2. Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
3. NaNo NaNu

The other day I read this post – it was forwarded to me (twice!) by different authors – where an author proclaimed that her particular subgenre is vastly superior to all that other stuff out there.  And provided examples of what she considered to be superior examples of writing, which just made me roll my eyes.  This is not the first time I’ve seen this person engage in “I am vastly superior because I write X” type of silliness.  I took her book off the shelf and put it into the give away box.  I will not read another one.

I don’t like to be sneered at.  Nor do I like to see my friends’ work to be tarred with “You write crap” brush.

Posts like these make the author look in the worst possible light.  Yes, in private between friends, almost all authors may dismiss someone’s work as crap, because we’re human and we talk shop.  But to elevate one genre above all others on a holy altar, dismissing everything else as plebeian, is incredibly arrogant.  It’s rude to your colleagues who work hard and it’s rude to readers who read outside of your own sphere.  It makes you look pompous and insecure.

It also invites scrutiny from some bitch like me.  And if I were slightly more evil, I would take this author’s work and rip it a new asshole in public.  (There is a reason I did not buy the sequel.)  I’m not a “superior” writer working in a “superior” genre, but I’m technically proficient and vicious, and I could make it entertaining.  But I won’t do that, because it’s like asking someone what they make – Just Not Done.

The truth is, we all work hard.  We all write to the best of our ability.  A writer infuses a great deal of their emotions and effort into their books, be it Lonely Boss, Pregnant Mistress or the latest literary opus.  There may be a gap in ability or depth, but there is no denying the work that all of us put into our manuscripts.  There are people out there who will never slog their way through War and Peace or Lord of the Rings, but they want escape from their problems and if a Harlequin Presents or the latest action thriller or what have you fits the bill, who gave you the right to tell them they shouldn’t?

Readers may not respect our efforts, because they are not writers and they don’t know what it takes, just like most people don’t develop a healthy respect for waiters or customer service associates until they had been one.  But one could hope that at least your colleagues would have enough decency to respect your work and your genre and not engage in the “special snowflake” behavior.

So the next time you decide to claim that you, or your genre, is the shiniest jewel of the millennium, do take a few minutes to ponder what the reaction from your peers will be.

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=2033

Last month’s winner is Faust!  Let me know if you have a website we can link to and email your address to you so we can get out your copy of  Dame Jackie’s Road to Hell! Oh, and one of the Dames said you had her at Ghost Puke.

Related posts:

1. Readers on Deadline (ROD) #1
2. Readers On Deadline #7
3. Readers On Deadline #8

We get a lot of questions about what it’s like to write together.  My default answer is that it is like being married.  There is both compromise and conflict, you have to give in sometimes and other times you have to put your foot down.  But I guess every marriage or relationship is different.  We work well together because I think we compliment each other, covering or compensating for the others weaknesses. I honestly believe it is our differences that make us a good couple.

For instance, Ilona is terribly smart and well educated,  I on the other hand, am occasionally clever or witty.  In college she was an 18 year old Bio Chem prodigy.  I was a 24 year old Navy Vet taking History and English courses.  She is a math wiz while I have an encyclopedic knowledge of 80’s alternative music.  She loves Euro dance music and I have Jesus Christ Superstar (the 2000 version) on my iPod along with Roxy Music and XTC.

While we were outside yesterday, reading on the deck, I came across a passage in David Gemmell’s Midnight Falcon that seems to totally sum up the nature of our relationship.

“Of course we’ll get a good crowd,” said Norwin.  “It is a free day, and you have spent a fortune on fire breathers, acrobats, jugglers, and food. Of course people will come.  But they would have come anyway.  Palantes has brought an elephant.”

“An elephant?  Ah, what it must be to have unlimited funds.  Can you imagine how many people we could draw if we had an elephant?”

Norwin shook his head.  Then he smiled.  “You are a good sweet man, Persis, and I love you like a brother.  But you lack foresight.  How many times does one need to see an elephant before one is bored?  If we had such a beast, the crowd would come once.  After that we would be left with enormous feeding costs. Then there would be trainers and handlers and special housing for it.  Then, with debt collectors stalking us like rabid wolves, I would urge you to sell the creature.  You would say no because you had grown to like it.”

“True,” Persis agreed affably.  “But an elephant!”

That is pretty much the nature of our relationship in a nut shell.  As a matter of fact over the last decade or so we have had a very similar conversation about an orangutan.  Kid two and I totally want one, Ilona and kid One always shut us down.

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

Happy Hump Day - and really, what an odd saying that is, right? This week I should get my editor's notes on ETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESS (Mencheres and Kira's book). Already got her pre-revision revision letter last week and the good news is that revisions will be light. A case of "more detail here, more emotion there, make the ending more explosive" sort of thing. I also have my lovely critt partner's notes to implement at the same time, which, no shock, sound a lot like my editor's notes (they agree so often, it's scary). Then, once I finish implementing those notes, if I go by my normal routine, I'll throw the book at my other critt partner for her comments which I'll implement when I get copyedits. Then once I get galley pages, I'll want to change even more stuff (but can only tweak very minor things at that stage per my editor). If it was up to me, I'd never stop tinkering with a book!

But in the meantime, I'm also writing Cat and Bones #5. I'm at the beginning of the book, and that's always the scariest part for me. I can tell I'm at the more nervous stage of writing because strange things are starting to show up in my dreams. Take my dream the other night. In it, I was at my publisher's and my editor all the sudden told me that my height and weight would be added to all my copyright pages. There was even one of those big doctor's office scales in her office that I had to step on so my editor could record my weight right there. No, I didn't wake up screaming, but it was close ;-). If I were being Freudian, I'd say the dream meant that (a) I ate too much Halloween candy and I need to get back on my diet, and (b) my subconscious is dealing with my inner insecurity at this writing stage by metaphorically showing me another way I'd suffer public embarrassment, lol. Once I'm about a third into writing, I feel comfortable, but beginnings are tough. They usually end up getting replaced most of the time, too. I'm amazed that EKOD's beginning has made the cut. That might be a first for me.

By the end of writing a book, my dreams usually start overlapping with my writing process again, in even odder – and sometimes funnier - ways. When writing the end of DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE, for example, I had a dream in which I came up with the perfect way to end the book...by adding dragons. Yes, dragons. That's what my subconscious thought the ending of DFAEG needed. Sometimes, dreams/my subconscious are incredibly helpful when it comes to writing. And sometimes...they need to be ignored (those of you who've read DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE know that, indeed, there are no dragons ;).

November is also NaNo month. No, I'm not officially participating, but it's my goal to write 2K words a day, 5 days a week on Cat and Bones #5 (still untitled, as you can guess).  I'm comfortable at that pace. Some writers don't like to churn out that many words that fast, and other writers can blow away that progress while writing a better quality first draft than me. *shrug* Everyone's different. So, for those of you participating in NaNo, best of luck to you! And hey, the more writing you do, hopefully the less you'll get drawn into the stress and drama of the upcoming holidays. That's my goal, anyway ;-).

I'm also going to be updating my playlist for the C&B book. Maybe a little new writing music is what I need to get me past this nervous stage. Last time, you guys were awesome in giving me music recommendations. I ended up writing EKOD while listening to White Lies, Dashboard Confessional, Shinedown, Within Temptation, Breaking Benjamin, Stars Go Dim, Mew, and Kings of Leon – all from your recommendations (I added a little Melissa Etheridge, U2, Collective Soul, Snow Patrol, and Stevie Knicks all on my own ;).  So, based on those bands, got any new music recs more me? Who else am I missing? Any recommendations will be much appreciated!