• 921 and counting …

    7 Comments

    Finished Then You Hide by Roxanne St. Claire. This is the second book in her Bullet Catchers romantic suspense trilogy (and fifth BC book overall) about the search for three sisters who were given up for adoption 30 years ago.

    In this one, potential BC and sharpshooter Wade Cordell is sent to the Caribbean to track down Vanessa Porter, who is one of three sisters the BCs are looking for in order to find a bone marrow match for their dying, imprisoned mother. Wade thinks the job — getting Vanessa to come back to the States and have a bone marrow test — will be easy. Until he meets Vanessa and realizes what a dynamo she is. Vanessa is searching for her best friend, who abruptly resigned from his job and claims to be enjoying life in the tropics. But Vanessa is suspicious and rightly so, since people she know keep ending up dead …

    I have to say that Vanessa is one of my favorite BC heroines thus far. She’s smart, tough, and doesn’t take crap from anyone — not even Wade. She’s a driven, selfmade woman who loves her job and is totally committed to it. I also liked the fact that Vanessa was the one who had commitment issues and more casual attitudes about sex than Wade. The role reversal was a nice chance of pace.

    I would say that this book leans more toward the suspense end of the scale than romance. In addition to Vanessa’s search for her friend, we also get several scenes about the overall mystery — who framed Eileen Stafford for murder and fathered her children. But I enjoyed the emphasis on the mysteries, and the villian in regards to Vanessa’s arc was completely surprising. St. Claire throws in a nice twist there.

    Overall, a good continuation of the overall plot of the trilogy and a nice, main mystery to try to puzzle out. I’m looking forward to finishing the next book. Thumbs up.

    Up next: Now You Die by Roxanne St. Claire.

    Books in my TBR pile: About 20.

    What about you guys? What are you reading in the new year? Share in the comments.

  • 920 and counting …

    Finished First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire. This is the fourth novel in her Bullet Catchers romantic suspense series and the first in a BC trilogy that came out in 2008.

    In this one, hunky Australian BC Adrian Fletcher is sent to track down Dr. Miranda Lang, who may be the daughter of Eileen Stafford, a woman wrongly convicted of murder. Eileen gave up her baby some 30 years ago and is now dying in jail from leukemia. A bone marrow transplant is her only hope, hence the search for her daughter.

    But Miranda has her own problems. She’s written a book on the Mayan doomsday prophecy, and someone is trying to silence her – permanently. Good thing Adrian’s around to offer his professional help. Too bad he’s lying to Miranda about his motives and is on the verge of falling for her …

    This book is a little different than the other BC titles in that it’s part of a trilogy within the series, and the plot cuts back and forth between Miranda and Adrian and former BC Jack Culver, who’s trying to prove Eileen’s innocence. But I enjoyed the two overall plots and thought that they were nicely balanced.

    St. Claire brings her usual dose of sass and suspense to this book, as Miranda and Adrian fall for each other and try to track down who wants to hurt Miranda and why at the same time. I thought the romance was well done in this one, although the suspense part of the plot (and the bad guy) wasn’t quite as good as in previous BC books, especially Thrill Me to Death.

    But overall, another solid entry in the series and the start of a promising trilogy. Thumbs up.

    Up next: Then You Hide by Roxanne St. Claire.

    Books in my TBR pile: About 20.

  • · ·

    Timeline of a book …

    2 Comments

    So there’s a little more than a year to go to the February 2010 release of the first Assassin book (the wait is killing me too!). A lot of people wonder why it takes soooo loooong for books to be published, so I thought I’d share a rough timeline of the major events that have happened since I first got the idea for the book until you guys can go to the store and buy it next year. Here goes:

    Sometime around 2003 and 2004 (I think): I have an idea to write an epic fantasy novel about an assassin. I start writing said book, realize it’s crap, and start again. I start two or three more drafts, none of which are very good. Eventually, I put the idea aside to work on other stuff.

    October 2007: I’ve finished everything I need to do on Hot Mama (the second Bigtime book) and have a break in my writing schedule. I’m itching to write a new series, and I remember that half-finished, craptastic, epic assassin fantasy I started. I decide to change it to a modern-day setting and make it an urban fantasy. I send that proposal and several others to my agent. She thinks the Assassin proposal is the best and suggests that I focus on that one (which is good because that’s the one I really wanted to write).

    December 2007: I finish the first Assassin book and send it to my agent to read.

    December-April 2008: The agent reads Assassin and suggests some revisions, which I do. We go back and forth a couple of times with suggestions/revisions/etc. Other people also read the book and offer feedback.

    May 2008: The agent sends Assassin to an editor. I try to work on other things while I wait for news (waiting is definitely the hardest part of this whole process for me).

    June 2008: The editor gets back to my agent and says that she loves the first half of Assassin, but thinks that the back half needs to be totally scrapped, which is a major, major revision. The editor calls me, and we talk about the book and the series. Her suggestions are spot-on and help me look at the book/series in a whole new way. Basically, I throw away the last 50,000 words of the book and take the story in a completely different direction.

    This is really the major turning point of this whole process. Without this conversation, I doubt the book would have turned out as well as it did. But more important than that, the editor’s suggestions made me focus on what I do well and made writing fun again. Her ideas made the book into a fun, sexy, action-adventure Jennifer Estep book, instead of me trying to write a more angsty-type of book (which I don’t do very well).

    Mid-July 2008: I finish the revisions. My agent reads and loves the revisions and sends the book back to the editor. I start writing the second Assassin book to keep myself from obsessing (too much).

    August-September 2008: The editor who suggested the revisions loves the new take on the book and makes an offer for three books. My agent also gets another offer on the Assassin series. At this point, there are lots of e-mails and phone calls going back and forth between me and my agent, and my agent and the interested editors discussing the various deal points, etc.

    September 2008: We go with the first editor who suggested the revisions.

    November 2008: My editor tells me that there will be three Assassin books out in 2010 — February, June, and October. Which I think is pretty cool since the first book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

    Coming up in 2009: I’ll get cover art at some point, do a final round of revisions, do copy edits, and read through the page proofs for Assassin. In late December/early January, some reviews will start coming in. And then in February 2010 — about seven years after I first had the idea — you guys can actually read the book.

    So that’s a brief recap of the history of the Assassin series. So yeah, it’s a long wait, but I really think it will be worth it. I guess we’ll find out this time next year! 😎

  • · ·

    Assassin sneak peak …

    I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, but I’ve been updating the Web site a bit. One of the things that I’ve done is post the first chapter of the Assassin book online. You can read it here.

    Warning: The Assassin book is an urban fantasy, and it’s a lot darker and grittier than my Bigtime series. There’s lots of violence and swearing. My main character is an assassin, after all, and she does kill people. (She wouldn’t be much of an assassin if she didn’t kill people, now would she?).

    But if you’re looking for a strong, sassy female character in an action-packed story, you’re in the right place. Happy reading! :ww:

  • · ·

    Resolutions …

    4 Comments

    I had a happy new year’s post, but it looks my computer has eaten it. So anyway, hope you guys had a great start to the new year. Mine involved football, napping, and working on Assassin 3, so it was all good. 😎

    So it’s also time to write down my annual resolutions and goals for 2009. Here goes:

    WRITING GOALS

    1) Finish writing Assassin 3.

    2) Write rough drafts of Assassin 4 and 5.

    3) Revise Spy and Spy 2.

    4) Write my urban fantasy western idea that I’ve been thinking about for a while now.

    5) Pick one of my young adult ideas and write the darn book.

    6) Write a heist book (think the new series Leverage on TNT, which I totally love).

    READING GOALS

    1) Read 75 books this year.

    2) Catch up on all the series that I’ve fallen behind in (like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files).

    3) Read buzzy new releases in a more timely fashion so I know what the heck people are talking about.

    PROFESSIONAL GOALS

    1) Sell more books

    2) Sell books in a new series or in a new genre (like young adult)

    3) Network and promote more (even though my next book won’t come out until 2010).

    PERSONAL GOALS

    1) Make more time for my friends and family.

    2) Relax and take things in stride.

    3) Stop being so scheduled and regimented.

    4) Have more fun.

    5) Try new things.

    Can you tell that I like goals? 😉

    I doubt I’ll keep all of these, but they give me something to shoot for. And admittedly, some of them are completely out of my control, like selling more books. Don’t know if that will happen or not, given the craptastic economy. Editors are being very selective these days. But I’m going to keep writing the best books I can. So we’ll see what happens.

    What are some of your goals for 2009? Share in the comments. :ww: