About Books

  • ·

    The great blue middle …

    2 Comments

    I spent most of my holiday weekend working on the second draft of Assassin 2. I wrote 8,869 words and now have about 82,000 total. I managed to move from chapter 13 all the way up to chapter 21. Only about 10 chapters to go. The end is almost in sight.

    Unfortunately, this is always the hardest part for me. The closer I get to the end, the more difficult it is to make myself sit down in front of the computer. Because I’ve been working on this for weeks now and I just want to finish. I want to do other things, like finish the book I’m reading, clean off my desk, and just mindlessly sit in front of the television for an hour without feeling guilty that I’m not doing book stuff.

    But I’ve still got those 10 chapters and 20,000 words to go. Ugh. I don’t like it, but I’ll make myself keep plugging along, even if it’s only for an hour at a time. Still, ugh. :hulk:

    What about you? When do you hit the wall in your writing?

  • ·

    Words of the week …

    3 Comments

    There was an interesting post over at Fangs, Fur, and Fey this week talking about authors who blog and how much of their work they share online. One person commented that she likes to see a sentence or two from daily writing. I thought this was a cool idea and thought I would share a paragraph I’ve written this week.

    This is from Assassin 2. I’m currently working on the second draft of the book, really getting into the story and adding all the description, etc. Anyway, here’s a paragraph about one of the bad guys, a defense lawyer. Enjoy!

    At first glance, Jonah McAllister looked like any other man in the room. Classic tuxedo, white shirt, diamond cufflinks, polished wingtips. His gunmetal gray hair was parted on the side, with a thick doowop that curled up, down, and around his forehead like a scoop of vanilla soft serve. Although he had to be pushing fifty, Jonah had the face of a much younger man — smooth, clean-shaven, free of wrinkles, even around the corners of his brown eyes. My guess? Botox and the finest Air elemental facials and skin treatments his retainers could buy. Still, for all his youthful vigor, Jonah McAllister radiated aw-shucks charm the way a snake-oil salesman might. Shake his hand, and you’d be wiping the grease off yours for the next ten minutes. And wondering where the hell your wallet went.

    If you guys like these sort of mini-excerpts, I might share more as I go deeper into the book. Let me know in the comments.

    Have a great weekend! :ww:

  • ·

    Summer fun …

    6 Comments

    Holy summer, Batman! :batman:

    Can you guys believe it’s almost Memorial Day? With the longer days and lack of good TV to watch (except for The Closer and Burn Notice, which I am eagerly awaiting), I tend to be more productive in the summer as far as writing goes.

    I thought I’d share some of the stuff I’d like to accomplish this summer — or at least by the end of September, when my time will once again be sucked up by the TV’s siren song. In no particular order:

    1) Write Assassin 2 (working on it right now — 62,000 words and counting)

    2) Write Assassin 3.

    3) Write Spy 3.

    4) Write Charm Queen (think urban fantasy with cowboys and magic)

    5) Write a romantic suspense or my long-percolating romantic comedy

    6) Whittle my TBR pile down to 10 books. So I can order some stuff I really, really want, like Fire and Ice by Anne Stuart and Ill Wind by Rachel Caine. And of course, the new one by J.R. Ward. :scooby: 

    What about you guys? Got big plans this summer? Share in the comments.

  • · ·

    For a good cause …

    Author Brenda Novak’s annual diabetes auction kicked off on May 1. The event runs through May 31.

    There’s lots of cool stuff to bid on again this year. Trips, editor and agent critiques, autographed books, etc. Just about everything book-related you could ever want — and then some. Even better, the money raised goes to a good cause — diabetes research.

    Yours truly has donated some items up for bid — an autographed copy of Karma Girl and a matching T-shirt; and an autographed copy of Hot Mama and a matching T-shirt. Plus bookmarks, of course. Because you can never have too many bookmarks. :cool: 

    You can find my stuff under the paranormal section for readers. Here’s a link (scroll down to view my stuff.)

    Happy bidding!