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    ‘Tis done … for now …

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    I finished up the Assassin revisions last night. Huzzah! The new, shiny book has been e-mailed to my agent for her perusal. I’m sure she’ll have some more suggestions for me on how to tweak it, but for now, it’s done.

    This is probably the hardest book I’ve ever written. I’ve been wanting to write a book about an assassin for about seven years now. Over the years, I’ve taken a couple different stabs at it. The book started out as an epic fantasy. But I’m not really good writing about swords and horses and castles. So I put that aside and started a new epic fantasy. Again, it sucked. And I finally realized I needed to write something set in a more modern, contemporary world. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea for Karma Girl and started writing that.

    But in between writing the Bigtime books, I wanted to start a new series, so I sent a bunch of proposals to my agent. She picked the Assassin one and basically said, “Write this one. Now.”

    So I wrote it and sent it to her. She wanted me to revise it. So I did. Other people read it. We got some more feedback on the book. And now, I’ve revised it again. We’re talking major revision here. This time, I gutted the last half of the book. Yep, I threw away about 50,000 words and rewrote the back half. Characters, scenes, story arcs, all of it changed. But the book is much, much better because of it.

    And I did all this in three weeks. I’ve pretty much been working on the revisions nonstop, three, fours hours every night, half of the weekends. But now, it’s done, and I’m taking a few days off from writing — before I start plotting out Assassin 2.

    But you know what? Rewriting the last half of the book was probably some of the easiest work I’ve ever done. Makes me think I’ve finally found my groove with this series. After seven years, it’s about time, ain’t it? 😎

  • Summer body count …

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    I managed to finish my Assassin revisions and read back through the manuscript this weekend. Huzzah!

    I think the changes that were suggested have made the book much, much stronger. Now, I sort of know what I’m doing with it and where the story’s going. But more importantly, it feels more like a Jennifer Estep book now, even though it’s quite a bit darker than the Bigtime books.

    Now, I just need to make my edits this week and send the whole thing off to my agent — and then I can start my next project. That one has a working title of Charm Queen. Think a Western with magic.

    While I was going back through the Assassin book, I started thinking about Entertainment Weekly. In previous summers EW has had a summer movie body count, in which staff writers go through each summer movie and count the number of people who die. By the end of the summer, the total is in the thousands.

    So I thought I’d do my own body count for the Assassin book. Gin (my main character) kills 16 people during the course of the book: 2 at an insane asylum, 2 at the orchestra, 1 at a restaurant, 3 at her friend’s apartment, 4 at the house of a police detective, 1 in a subdivision, and 3 at a rock quarry.

    Whew! She’s a busy girl, my Gin. But that’s what happens when you get framed for murder and are on the run for your life. 😈

    For those of you who are curious, the Assassin book has a working title of Gin on the Rocks. Now, I’ve got to start thinking about the sequel — and how to up the body count. Because sequels should always be better than the original book, don’t you think? 😎

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    The end is near …

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    So I’ve been working on revisions for my Assassin book. I’ve just finished up the big battle scene at the end, and now I’m working on the wrapup chapters.

    In other words, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m really going to push myself and try to finish the revisions by the end of the weekend. That way, I can read through it next week and start editing/polishing.

    So I’ll basically be in the dark interior of the computer room all weekend. Not very exciting or glamorous, but hey, at least the air conditioning’s back on now. 😎

    What about you guys? Anybody got big plans for the weekend?

  • 880 and counting …

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    Finished Playing Easy to Get, an anthology featuring novellas by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jaid Black, and Kresley Cole. I won this one a few weeks ago during a contest over at The Good, the Bad, and the Unread.

    Kenyon’s story is about Allison, who wins a book contest and gets whisked away to an island where she gets to pretend to be her favorite romance heroine for a week. Also on the island is Vince, an ex-Mob hitman. But when Vince’s employers track him down, Allison finds herself on the run with the sexy Vince.

    Black’s story features Sofia, who travels to Alaska to bury her brother. Sofia gets kidnapped and taken to a lost Viking world underground, where she’s sold as a bride to a warrior named Johen. Cole’s tale is the first in her Immortals After Dark series. This one features the Valkyrie Myst and the vampire Wroth who fight, feud, and eventually fall in love.

    I entered the contest because I wanted to try Cole’s Immortals series. I’ve heard lots of folks in blogland raving about her books and wanted to see what the fuss was about. I found her mix of Valkyries, vampires, fey, and more really interesting. Myst was a strong character, along with her sisters, which I appreciated. I also liked the fact they could be transfixed by shiny objects. Something I can relate to. 😎

    I liked Wroth okay, until he used a magical chain to control Myst. “Taming someone” is not my favorite story device, especially when Wroth thought about commanding Myst to never go into battle again and forget all about her sisters. Not cool. But he had his reasons, and he eventually came around and redeemed himself. And Cole hooked me with her world, so I’ll be reading the next book in the series.

    You can always count on Kenyon for a fun, action-packed read, and she delivers another one in this anthology. I liked the fact Allison kept her head and was really cool when facing down the Mob guys at the end of the story.

    Then, there’s Black’s story. Oh my. I did not like this one at all. The writing was fine, but I could not get past the plot. Maybe it’s me. I don’t like stories where women are completely, utterly powerless, and Sofia was exactly that in this story.

    Basically, because of their gods’ decree, the Vikings believe women aboveground will eventually die out one day, so they kidnap them, take them underground, and sell them off naked to the highest bidder to strengthen their race against the coming blight. The women are flatly told they can never home and that there’s no chance of escape. That’s bad enough.

    But the Vikings claim to love women, to prize and cherish them above everything else. If they respected/loved women so much, why would they kidnap them in the first place and take them away from everything and everyone they love? That didn’t make sense to me. Also, another woman slips Sofia an aphrodisiac before she goes on the auction block to make her more receptive to Johen’s, ahem, advances. To break Sofia into her new life, as it were. Ugh. Other folks out there might like this novella, but it was not a good story for me. I think I was just the wrong reader for it because of the powerless angle. That’s something that really bugs me as a reader.

    But then again, I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who are bugged by superheroes and the campy books I write. So live and let live.

    I’m splitting my decision for this book. Thumbs up to Kenyon and Cole; thumbs down to Black.

    Up next: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas.

    Books in my TBR pile: 17.

  • The good, the bad, and the not-so-sweaty …

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    The air conditioner has been fixed! Huzzah!

    Turns out a capacitor or some sort of box thingy on the outside unit had gotten fried by the heat this weekend. Took the AC guy about 10 minutes to fix it.

    Cost to fix: $131.

    Having cool air circulating through my hot box of a house once again: priceless. 😎