Progress on Dark Realm-4

Slow, but steady progress on the Avon book, but I’m not worried about my unimpressive word count. I’ve reached that saggy old middle of the book. When I write the long ones, it can take a little time past that exciting opening to figure out what comes next. I have a hazy picture, but I guess this time I may want to actually jot down some plot points so I don’t meander. I have a lot of characters in this fourth book, several from the previous stories, and new interesting ones I’ve just introduced. Still have to figure out who they are and what they want.

Progress on Snow Bound

While I’m ruminating like a cow on a cud (okay, maybe not the best analogy, but I’m dieting so that’s where my head is), I’m building a new story. Something simple and sexy—two cowboys and a heroine in need of rescue—maybe for Ellora’s Cave. We’ll see. I’m tentatively calling it “Snow Bound” but I want a sexier title. Maybe you could offer me some suggestions?

Regarding yesterday’s contest–it’s still running. Post here or on yesterday’s blog–they both count!

Lockdown was completed 10/30 and shipped!

Progress so far for Dark Realm-4

Okay, so the title of this posting is really, really cheesy. I don’t care!

It’s going to be that kind of month—zany, cheesy, stressful, and tons of fun! If you’re a writer, aspiring or published, and you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is all about, click on the picture to find out.

What it means for me personally is that I will be spending the month of November with my head down, writing balls-to-the-walls. If you’re a writer-friend and want to join me in a “Word War” be sure to send me an email! We can egg each other on as we soar toward that 50,000-word goal!!

Current progress for Texas Men

As you can see from my progress bar, it’s been slow-going since I started. I think I have that licked. The first chapter gave me fits because it had to be pacey, had to be funny and descriptive, and I had to cut some stuff I wanted to add because I thought it was so cool, but it didn’t really help. Stop. Start. Stop. Back at it now!

Starting this weekend, I’ll be participating in a Book-in-a-Week challenge that will hopefully kick my ass into high gear. Then I’m housesitting for someone later in July. I’ll be away from my telephone so no one will be able to reach me. AND I don’t plan to use her Internet connection more than once a day. I may take my AlphaSmart and type like my hair’s on fire. I have to finish this book and a novella by the end of August, so I can’t dick around!

Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of me and some of my writer buddies flying around Lake Hamilton on a pontoon boat. It’s nice hanging with writers, dreaming up new things to write about.

Hope you’ve had a chance to get your copy of Sin’s Gift. If you buy it, let me know if you’d like me to write more in that series. I’m inclined to do so, but would like to hear your desires!

Revised and shipped Jane’s Wild Weekend to The Cave!

Before I get to the rest of the lesson…
Interesting day. I had a work crew in the front yard all day sinking a very large hole for a pool. Granted it was warm, in the upper ’80s, but did every one of them have to go shirtless? A couple had handsome faces, but the rest I never noticed. Niiiiice chests and arms. I was a teeny weeny distracted, but still managed to write the rest of the quickie for Ellora’s Cave and started on a short story for a try at one of Black Lace’s upcoming anthologies. Maybe I was inspired.

2) PREMISE or HIGH CONCEPT
A premise is your “germ” of an idea fleshed out a bit. Think of it as the back cover to your story. This is the blurb. It’s also a very helpful thing to have when preparing your query letter and synopsis, because you can plunk it right into both documents as a starting point.

Here’s a nifty way for you to start in building this thing!! Try these steps:

Line 1: A sentence to describe where the main character (who’s book is this really?) is at the start of the story.
Line 2: A sentence to describe the main-main character’s goal. (You may have a hero and heroine in your story—but only one really owns the book)
Line 3: A sentence to describe where the second main character (if you have one) is at the start of the story and his/or her goal.
Line 4: A sentence to describe the essence of their adventure.

The point is to give a snapshot of the conflicts between the characters–external and internal–and identify the genre/setting in as few words as possible.

Examples:
INTO THE DARKNESS
Escaping from a tragic past, the virginal beauty arrives in New Orleans and falls victim to a series of strange, unearthly attacks. But soon she will be powerful and magnificent in ways she could never have imagined. A ruggedly handsome Cajun policeman, Detective Rene Broussard has come to rescue Natalie in her time of greatest need. And when he inexplicably wakes in bed beside her, he doesn’t care that a dark and vengeful enemy has brought them to this moment. All that matters is the irresistible curve of her body, the heat of her passion…and the forbidden pleasures of the night.

SEDUCED BY DARKNESS
For nearly 800 years, Revenant Nicolas Mountfaucon has dedicated his life to ensuring an immortal monster never walks free. When a terrible storm unleashes the beast, Nicolas’ past rises to haunt him and he turns to the only person who can provide him solace, Born vampire Chessa Tomas, sure she will join the hunt for the evil creature. Only Chessa wants nothing to do with hunting the “Big Bad”—he’s Nic’s and the Ardeal coven’s problem, not hers. She shed her responsibilities as a Born, refusing her seat on the council because she doesn’t trust their leader. However, Nic isn’t easily dismissed—he appeals to the secret side her nature that needs to be dominated.

DEMON EYE
Mercenary warrior, Magnus, has no memory of his past after being pulled from the rubble of a conquered Saxon keep. For gold and the use of her body, he agrees to aid a female warrior, Sybell Moyaux, in her quest for revenge against the man who destroyed her family and stole her home. Sybell’s special gift enables her to see otherkin—and she knows Magnus is more than he appears, but she will risk all—first for revenge, then to save her sibling. With Sybell, Magnus will face the wrath of demons over a stolen treasure, a dragon, and his true nature to discover his destiny.

Almost done with Jane’s Wild Weekend!

This past Saturday (after the cemetary field trip), my sister and I taught a short class on developing pitches. I thought the information might be helpful to other writers, so I’m repeating it here with samples!

When I’m developing a project to pitch at an editor or agent, I find it helpful to put together two short descriptions. Let’s start with the logline. I’ll talk about developing the premise/high concept later!

1) LOGLINE

The logline should accurately convey the essence of your story as well as a sense of why the public should rush to buy your project. Think of the “one-sheets” (giant posters) that advertise movies, or the Readers Digest summations of movies and TV shows. Loglines are great when you’re pitching to an editor. A good one will catch her interest and make her want to look at more!

Examples:

NATIONAL TREASURE
Logline: An adventurer teams with a curator at the National Archives to stop a group of fortune hunters from stealing the Declaration of Independence, which may have a map to a hidden treasure encoded on it

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
Logline: A young boy’s call to a radio psychologist sets into motion a series of events which could unite his widowed father with a magazine writer. Only a couple of things stand in the way – the boy and his father live in Seattle and the writer is already engaged and lives in Baltimore.

Short Story for British Anthology

Obsessed for Zane

As you can see from the wordmeters above, I finished the project for Mammoth Books yesterday (yay!), and am getting ready to plow through the next project, a novella for Zane. Yes, the same folks who will be releasing Purple Panties in May, which includes a short story by yours truly. Amazingly, the book is already making #1 lists at Amazon last time I checked, and it won’t be out for months!

Still, today’s the day I stare at a blank page and try to dream the first scene of a new story. It’s a little frightening. I love and hate new starts. Trying to find that perfect first line can really get to me. I play with it, turn it sideways, brainstorm a dozen alternatives. When I get beyond frustrated, I force myself to push on past and write the rest of the opening scene. But I really do have a process, and I hate to break with it. First, I have to have the right title. Then I have to have that perfect first line. The rest flows naturally from that start.

The Zane book is already pretty intimidating. The Purple Panties short was actually my first non-romance piece, but it was only 5000 measly words. This one will be 35,000, and I know I’ll be sweating every one of them to get the emotional intensity I need. I can usually count on the romance developing between a hero and heroine to provide that spice. Not this time.

I’m sure I’ll fly through this week and look back and wonder what the heck I was worried about, but for now, I get to whine and angst. Poor little insecure author me.

* 7 pp – Complete next installment of MIK-7 (vampire erotica) by 5th
* 25 pp – Complete short story for the Mammoth Book project (vampire
romance from the MIK world) by the 15th
* 60 pp – Complete 1/2 of novella (crazy erotica) for Zane by the 26th

I completed my Texas anthology on the 18th of February, but have written maybe two pages since. After slamming for three weeks, my body needed time to recoup, and my imagination needed to get some serious veggie time.

Today’s supposed to be BIC (butt in chair) day for me, but I’m babysitting a sick three-year-old. That pretty much means I’ll have to slam again come Monday to catch up to my schedule.

Whoa…that makes me sound so organized, so disciplined. But I’m really not. I have this spreadsheet I borrowed from Monica Burns that tells you how many pages you need to write to complete a work by deadline, and that scares the crap out of me when I see the daily number creep up. I use fear as an incentive to sit my butt in a chair and write.

Fear is an excellent motivator for me. So is competition. Every now and then I’ll roam my favorite authors’ websites and look at their “deal news” and get green with envy and very dissatisfied with my own progress. A buddy of mine, Kimberly Kaye Terry, beats me up about that on occasion. But I just can’t help it. Besides, it does help keep me jazzed about writing, and keeps me from getting too complacent with what I have accomplished. A little competitive jealousy can’t be a bad thing if I use it rather than let it paralyze me, right?

So I have this list of three things to accomplish this month. As always happens, I have another project that’s calling my name, wanting me to jump straight to it, but here’s where the big girl panties get tugged so high I can clamp them under my armpits. First things, first. ~DD