Can't Wait for L.A. Cinderella? Me Neither.

CONTEST ENDED MAY 3, 2010

I know 2 blog posts in a week, it's a record. At least for this year, so I posted the other day about receiving this nice big box of books...

What are these books for? Well, they are for promotion and for me :) So, here's the deal. I'm going to send out one of my babies early. Yup, thought you had to wait until the end of May? I'll send it out next Monday. (That should give my mom plenty of time to read her copy so she can say she read it first)

What do you have to do? Simply comment on this post (don't have an account with the blogs, just comment anonymously and sign with a name) and I'll announce the randomly selected winner on Monday and that person will need to e-mail me or use my contact form on my website to send me their address so I can mail it out.

What's expected once you get it? It would be fabulous after you read it to review it on either a blog, twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Borders... I can go on, but I won't. This is the promotion part.

Revisions, Releases and Rewrites: Not exactly in that order

For two weeks in April, I made a mad dash to finish the rewrite of Fallen. On Friday I was up to 61K words, so progress happened and then I got my box of books. Oh, the shiny new books of L.A. Cinderella are so pretty that I just had to tell everyone I knew that I'd received them, including my agent and my editor. Which led to my agent poking my editor about Casanova and my editor poking back at me with revisions. So I now have a rising to the climax partially completed paranormal romance which is being shoved to the side while I tackle the revisions on my Hollywood sweetheart Casanova.

Oh and L.A. Cinderella will hit bookshelves at the end of May and I've commited to writing at least 5 or 6 blog posts and did I mention we are heading to England for 2 weeks in 2 weeks. Hold on because my head is spinning. But that's okay, this industry moves slow, but as soon as you get used to the pace, they start in on you fast :). With Casanova back on my plate, I'm the one in control of how fast I can get a clean copy back to my editor so she can submit it to the senior editor for consideration. So I might be MIA for a little bit, but I'll be popping up on some other blogs and will make sure to do the linky linky thing here.

Dear Casanova

I miss you. I know you were just another character in a book, but to me,  you were fun as hell to write. Don't tell the other characters, but the combination of player and alpha male was hawt. I almost wish you didn't find your happily ever after, so that I could write you some more. But all good things... *sigh*

I'm really looking forward to revising you more when I get the chance. I keep trying to figure out another character who could be like you, but you'll always have a special place in my heart. Just so you know, you are not allowed to take over Alex's book. I know you are going to be in it and you tend to be a scene stealer, so let your friend have his chance.

We'll spend some time together after my editor lets me know whether or not she wants to publish you. We'll always have copy edits.

XOXOXO

Bad Blogger

I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I'm trying to be better (at least in my head). Things that have been keeping me busy besides Plants vs. Zombies? Working on setting up Promo stuff for L.A. Cinderella. 2 more months to release. Crap, the time goes by fast. Ordered bookmarks and am trying to do ribbon bookmarks too. I'll try to post a pic when I receive my bookmarks in the mail. Writing or procrastinating writing on Fallen. I'm almost to the midpoint and the rest should all be downhill, right? Right? Please tell me I'm right? *cries softly*

Still waiting to hear Casanova Exposed's fate. It's been 4 weeks and a day. :) Not that I'm counting or anything. And letting the followup story stew in the back of my brain. I tried once to write my completely different genre and tone books at the same time. Once. It doesn't work for me. I'm a one story at a time type gal. At least for now, maybe once I get a few extra things off my plate, it will work great.

The one thing I think that's holding me back from writing the scene I'm on in Fallen is that it's a fight scene and unlike the previous ones, this one needs both POVs. As a newbie, you have it drilled into your head that you don't head hop unless you do a scene break. Well, see I've already broken this rule for love scenes. I tried to break during a love scene, but when I took out the breaks it flowed a whole heck of a lot better and didn't get any mention from my editor in L.A. Cinderella. I know not to bounce back and forth like a ping pong ball, but I'm afraid the only way to do this fight scene is to POV shift multiple times.

The problem: I have two people fighting for their lives. While they will both be focused on their own battles, they will be dimly aware of what is going on around them. One will get severely injured during the scene. So maybe I should think of it like a screen play (not omniscient). The camera will zoom back and then come in to tight focus on one of them then zoom back or pan to the other. To get this thing out I think I'm going to have to write it as it comes and then go back and fix it.

So what do you think? As a writer or as a reader, do shifts in POVs jar you too much to the point where you want to throw the book against the wall? Or do you enjoy getting a sense of what's going on from both sides of the story even during the same scene?

Dear Characters

Is it absolutely necessary to plant ideas in my head while driving listening to music on the way to dinner with the family? I know I haven't written about you for quite some time. You've been pushed aside for my Silhouette Special Editions, and now you have to wait for the rewrite of Fallen and potentially the follow up to Casanova Exposed. I'm sorry you have your beginning all figured out. I wrote it down for when I get to you. I'm also sorry that might be a while and you won't shut up. I promise to spend a day writing a synopsis/outline for the revised version of the story you've been feeding me. So please be quiet while I work on these other stories and get back in line.

Cover-ific OMG Squee!

Career-driven accountant Natalie Collins

wasn’t the type to wish for a Hollywood

hero to rescue her. She preferred life away

from celebrity glitz. Too bad the man who

drove her wild was an A-list actor.

With her understated beauty and brains,

Natalie was the one person Chase Booker

could trust. He could see the strong, sexy

woman beneath her shy exterior, and

she stirred a blinding passion in him that

made it easy to forget that they were from

different worlds. But when she was in his

arms, their worlds were dangerously close

to colliding....

Forgive my exuberance: Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited


Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and/or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Head Spinning Yet?

All right, I completed my judging obligations right on time. I went through a round of revisions on Casanova Exposed with my agent. She pointed out some really great things, well not so great things, but we fixed them. Hopefully we will be submitting sometime this week. Fingers crossed.

I'm mucking through this whole release process. Trying to figure out the review process. As in sending out the book for review when you don't have a book to send? I'm still not sure on that one, but I'll muddle through. I sent the first e-mail today, so we'll see.

So now I'm in a bit of a lull. I have to do some accounting work before I can get busy with my manuscripts again. Yes, I'm going to attempt it again. Write two different things at once. I haven't decided if it's better to do them both the same day or give each one a day. *shrugs* It's a work in process, kind of like when I was figuring out my plotting method that works for me. Notecards and storyboards aren't for me, but a quick synopsis seems to do the trick. Plus it's easier to write the synopsis first and then make adjustments after. Otherwise I start throwing everything in it including the kitchen sink. :) And nobody needs to know about the kitchen sink in the synopsis. Even though it may be pivotal to the plot, the kitchen sink should probably be glossed over. Hmmm... I think I pushed that metaphor a bit much.

Moving on... I broke my left shift key trying to clean the cat fur off from underneath. Occupational hazard. It still works, but it wobbles a bit and the windows key... well, it never got used anyway. Hope your writing is going well or reading or whatever you are into.