On Writing

  • ·

    A Jinx review …

    6 Comments

    jinx.jpgSo it’s time for the Jinx reviews to start trickling in. Here’s what Romantic Times magazine had to say about the book in the September issue, courtesy reviewer Susan Mobley:

    This addition to Estep’s superhero series is packed with action, humor, romance, a touch of sorrow and just plain fun. The main characters are a delight, especially the hero, and the familiar faces from previous stories will have those who haven’t read them wanting to dig them up. 

    Summary: Life with superheroes is not all it’s made out to be, especially if your superpower is luck, and not always the good kind. Bella Bulluci is worried that her luck will jinx the opening of a museum exhibit, Whimsical Wonders, that she is in charge of.

    And, of course, something goes wrong. Someone attempts to steal the star sapphire that’s the centerpiece of the exhibit, and Bella is kidnapped — or perhaps rescued — by the mysterious Debonair, a teleporting art thief. As Bella gets to know him, she discovers his true identity and enlists his aid in trapping the thieves who, being ubervillains, will once again attempt to steal the sapphire. (Berkley SENSATION, Sep., 320 pp., $7.99) HOT. 4 stars.

    Thanks for the great review, Susan! I’ve also gotten links to some other reviews, which I need to post here on the blog. I’ll try to get to it soon. In the meantime, I’m doing the happy dance over this one. 

  • · ·

    ‘Tis done … for now …

    4 Comments

    In between reading and watching the Olympics this weekend, I actually got some book stuff done and finished my second draft of Assassin 2.

    And it’s a really good second draft. Much better than my normal craptastic second draft. Around 100,000 words, and it probably only needs some minor polishing and tweaking before I send it to my agent for her perusal.

    After the long, painful, writing quagmire Assassin 1 has been, this book went really quickly. (I started it around the first of July.) It was one of the easiest books I’ve written in a while. Wheezley claims it’s because I already built the world/characters in Assassin 1. He might be right. I also think it’s because I got all excited and fired up after the revisions I did for Assassin 1 and wanted to keep going.

    And because I’m completely anal and always like to go ahead and write the second book in a series, even if the first one hasn’t sold yet. Seriously, folks. I’m that deepy disturbed. 😎

    Anyway, I’m going to play hooky the rest of the week. Read. Watch the Olympics. And do some lighter stuff like clean off my desk and update the Web site a bit. In the meantime, I thought I’d share the first few paragraphs from Assassin 2. Hope you enjoy!

    “Freeze! Nobody move! This is a robbery!”

    Wow. Three cliches in a row. Somebody was seriously lacking in the imagination department.

    But the shouted cliches scared someone, who squeaked out a small scream. I sighed. Screams were always bad for business. Which meant I couldn’t ingore the trouble that had just walked into my restaurant — or deal with it the quick, violent way I would have preferred to. A silverstone knife through the heart is enough to stop most trouble in its tracks. Permanently.

    So I pulled my gray gaze up from the oversized paperback copy of “The Odyssey” that I’d been reading to see what all the fuss was about.

    Like it? Loathe it? Share in the comments.

  • ·

    Best intentions …

    4 Comments

    Somehow, despite my vow to whittle down my TBR pile, it remains at around 15 books. My own fault, really, since I took some books to the used bookstore to trade in and came home with three more. Sigh.

    Although in my defense two of the books are really short — The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore and one of the Atlantis books by Alyssa Day. They’re both under 300 pages.

    Ah, well. I’m planning on doing some reading this weekend, as well as working on Assassin 2 — in between watching the Olympics, of course. 😎

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