Milestone: Third book sent off to publisher



Artwork done by Lorelei Bell in "paints"

Breathing in.... and exhaling. This is what it feels like to me. Freeing! Like I'm out on a lake somewhere fishing.

I've just delivered my 3rd book to my editor, Yolanda Campbell at Copperhill Media. That's right, Vampire Nocturne, the third book in the series, is in the hands of my publisher. Now you all get to wait, and wait, and wait...

I made the decision back a few months ago, that once I got this one done and out, I would take a little break. That's not to say that the fourth book won't be written. It's actually 90% done. I still have some scenes to work on and add to it. But I've other projects I'd like to work on during the next 3 months--through the summer. I'm hopeful to get my first self-published book, Spell of the Black Unicorn, into shape, and want to get it to Smashwords or whatever, by this fall and go Indie with it. I have no idea what I'm doing, really, or what to expect. I will be peddling this one of as a paranormal romance, since it seems to be more that than anything else. Back when I wrote it, I don't even know if the phrase even existed, or if it did I had no idea what it meant.

I'm working on a few shorter projects, as well. I have to get a short story done before the deadline, and I think it should be ready soon. I've got a few guests coming on my blog soon--this month, in fact. Heather McCorkle is taking her latest book tour (Puca tour), and will be on Lorelei's Muse on the 24th.

I also will have Jeremy Hawkins, a.k.a. Retro-Zombie. I have come to get to know him a little better, and I felt it was time to let everyone out there get to know more about him by doing an interview with him. This won't be a cookie-cutter interview, either. I felt I knew him well enough to ask things like "Cubs or White Sox?", "Chevy or Ford". And just how much does he love those zombies, folks? I wasn't afraid to ask! LOL! But he just put out a wicked looking book he published that combines pictures and interesting, somewhat skewed poetry. I will be having him over at the end of the month.

So, there you have it--my short term and long-term plans for the summer. I'm not exactly going fishing... but that would be fun, really, since I will be at my regular job 5 days a week and not looking forward to it one bit. But I've decided to adopt a new philosophy of enjoying my days off, when I get them. I won't be at the grindstone [the thing I call writing] as I have been the past couple of years. This year I'm going to get outside, do some walking (try to loose weight), and enjoy the summer months ahead. And I think my husband and I might do close-at-home vacation trips, since the price of gas is not going down.

Anyway, I hope you will join me, here, and get to know a couple of my friends. I'll still be working with Carole Gill over on Bloody Good Vampires, so, if you are into vampires and would like to check out something on the darker side, come on over.

News from Me

Hello, my pretties. How are you all today? I've been busy with my usual Saturday stuff, and now I'm back in my office, and I need to work. But first some news.

First off, if you are into vampires and love free things, I want to send you over to Carole Gill's Official Author page. She has the prequel, "Dreams of a Vampire", to her book "House on the Blackstone Moor" up for free over on smashwords, plus if you wish to win her book you only need to leave a comment there. Get all the information on her giveaways at the link above.

I had the opportunity to read Carole Gill's book "House on the Blackstone Moor, and found it refreshingly different in a sea of cookie-cutter vampire novels. Set in Gothic England, a tale of madness and how a young woman thinks she has escaped it, only to be swept up by even more evil than she had ever thought possible, and also, amazingly, finds love. I enjoyed the book very much!

If you did not know it, Carole and I have teamed up on a sister blog called Bloody Good Vampires.

If you have not stopped by as yet, do so. I have only just begun blogging there, but it is filled with great flash fiction and other tidbits on or about vampires. Everything vampires is our motto! We each will be doing what we call our "Tales from the Vampire Vault". This will be our flash fiction pieces, so do drop in to see what we dig up.

I have other news. I am just pages away from finishing my third novel's edits, and will be sending it off to publisher in a week's time. I've also settled on a title.

Are you ready?

Vampire Nocturne.
I chose the word "nocturne", because it basically encompasses the novel's over-all feel. NOCTURNE means "a romantic or dreamy musical composition/thought appropriate to night." It is my steam punk/vampire novel which has more of a romantic slant to it than the first two. I hope to get this to my publisher quickly so that they have plenty of time to work on line edtis, etc, and you will be reading it before Christmas!

Hope your weekend is great. Ta, for now. 

COFFEE KLATCH MONDAY ~ The Home Stretch

Well, I'm in the home stretch with book #3, the editing at my end.Yay!

Also, I have settled on a title. But I think I'll wait to reveal it for another time.

Meanwhile, I've decided I do want to go and see the new Johnny Depp movie "Dark Shadows". I'd like to see how the other cast members did their characters.

And I'm running a poll here again, this week, do stop over to my left sidebar and let me know if you are or are not going to go to the new Dark Shadows movie with Johnny Depp. I'd really like to see more people vote on this one. Doesn't matter your reasons. Mine is: Yes. I am Johnny Depp fan. I would like to see how/what they did with this movie, and how other actors played all the parts. It's really hard to determine the whole film from bits and pieces.

So, what are you up to today or this week? Anything new, anything going on in your lives you want to tell me about? You know I keep my eyes open for what you all are doing, and try to stop by at some point in the week.

See you out there in Blogger Land!

Inspiration Comes From All Angles

As you may all know I've just recently snagged the second season of Buffy and have been watching the shows every night, getting my fix. I enjoy the shows, like to remember them, or see ones that are new to me. But I definitely am getting some good pointers from Josh Whedon, the creator of the show. You can watched those special segments where there's an interview with Josh, and he explains something about why he did something in a particular show. He spoke about the Pivotal Moment when Angel lost his soul, and became evil again.

Pivotal moments are what make a story, and you want to know where to put them. I've often wondered if I put too many in, but a story needs a moment which feels of paramount importance. Something happens that maybe your characters can't return to the way things were before. They have to go forward.

This week, work on my third book continues. I knew that some back-tracking was in order. I had to create a Pivotal Moment, and reveal something early on. I usually like Sabrina to face two problems almost simultaneously. One is something that will involve her personally, and another one will draw her into a quagmire. In Beyond The Black Veil, Sabrina learns early on that her cousin, Lindee, is missing. The how is the interesting part, because while everyone else is thinking she's been abducted, Sabrina learns otherwise. Well, she's been abducted, but not by a human, but rather by a portal that sucks her into another world.

The second problem involves the two characters she meets right away when she pops in (for the second time), and a murdered woman is practically under her feet. Sabrina is sucked into this because she's a clairvoyant and speaks to the woman's ghost. She provides the clues to her murder, but as the story progresses and she tries to find Lindee, a whole lot of other things prevents her from going on with this, and before she knows it, she's too involved to not plunge on, only to be in a great deal of danger.

I love when a story comes together.

Have you been working on your Pivotal Moments in your book?

Happy June 1st!

I wanted to put up a bright picture of something June like, well, I like this photo of the lilacs.

I've been busy, but you knew this. I've just finished up with an interview with a starlett named Veronica Backhams and you can catch it here. Believe me this was an unusual interview given by someone who has never read a book in her life. (Supposed to be funny, ha ha)

I saw a car crash today. My first ever to witness it right in front of me. Sort of jarred me. Involved someone going through a red light, and the car in front of me went because he had the green. Again, look both ways even when you have a green light. I see people going through red lights all day long, turning in front of me--yeah! BIG BUS COMING! DUH!!!!

Those of you who have followed me know that I'm on my thrid book, second book is on its way to publisher's (yeay). I'm in the first draft of this thing. Began it while still working on second, and also having just sent first one off to Copperhill Media, back in August, I believe. I don't know why, but my brain doesn't stop working on something with my stories. While working on the second book I worked on ideas for the third one. Got scenes, dialogue and wrote them down. Didn't know where it would head. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of writer. I'm never without an idea, or if I am, the idea will hit me usually in the worst places--like while I'm driving, or taking a bath, or sleeping (and I wake up with it and have to write it down).

Today was no different. I was working on how my ending would go. Just mulling things around. Sort of letting it take shape. There's a type of "think outside the box" sort of way with how my plots come together. The "A-hah!" factor sort of splats me in the face. I let it settle a little, after, think on how it will work. I do not outline. Outlining is not fun. I'm a girl and girls just wanna have fun. Right? 'Kay.

Having finished the second book, and now onto the third in a series, there must be a moment in every writer who writes a series that goes: "Huh. Now what?" In the second book you have to introduce more characters, and more problems--or portential problems. And hold back all sorts of secrets. Secrets even you don't know about. You have your villains. Oh, villains who might not be the main one, but dirty, lying bastards, and nasty bitches because you need your heroine to shine. If you've done a good job in the second book, introducing those new characters who may, at a moment's notice come to your heroine's aid, this is good.

But in my third book Sabrina is no longer on Earth, but has been sucked into a whole new world where vampires rule and even the elves can't go and help her because they would loose thier powers, and I've made it so that Sabrina is the onlyone who can travel back and forth through the ley lines to and from this world--so no one else can help her.

So, I've set this up so that she is alone, she has to find her cousin who was sucked through this portal, and she has to find her before it's too late. . . but it might already be too late. Hmmm...

Snagged Second Season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Yesterday, my husband and I went to lunch at a place called Busters. The owner and his wife used to run a video rental place in a nearby town about a dozen years ago. Some of the videos he sold as well. Now as time has gone by and we've gone into the DVD age, that shop closed, and the hamburger place is sort of a hodgepodge of his DVD, poster/picture memorabilia around the dining area. DVD's, CD's as well as albums and pictures of the famous musicians (Like the Beatles, or the Stones, etc) on sale.

While waiting for our turkey burgers, Dennis and I looked around for something that caught my attention. I did find a DVD (special issue) of “Da Vinci Code”--and I'd never seen the movie but loved the book. He had no prices on these, and I knew he probably had each of these in special sections and prices for each.

In the meantime, our wonderful turkey burgers and fries came. While we sat and watched “Password” on the TV in front of us, Dennis spotted a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” DVD set. Turned out to be the second season. I really had been looking for a second hand DVD of any of the Buffy seasons. I knew that second season was one I had not seen recently. We bought it for $10. Nice. The “Da Vinci Code” was $5 but I wanted the Buffy shows most of all—something I'd coveted for years and years to own.

I was pretty sure I hadn't see this season, and that they would pretty much be new to me. I popped it in, and watched one show, because I wanted to get my fix. I was right, I'd not seen these shows, except perhaps in re-runs, and suddenly even those went off the FX station—which I can only get if I go on vacation. So the only way to see my Buffy shows are to own them. Thus, I've begun a collection. Finally I can watch Buffy and get my fix whenever I want. I watched 3 shows in total yesterday. I loved when they introduced Spike and Drusilla in the show.

Also, one bit of news on my writing; I sent off my copy of the second book to Copperhill Media today.

Also, I managed to add some more to book 3. I'm on page 183 now. But way shy of a full book! Well, I'll add more to these scenes, no doubt. Other scenes will come to me. It was nice to get into this book full tilt, working out the mystery as well as bringing in the dangers of the world she's in, and the ever present unstable condition of how Drakulya might react to anything Sabrina does.

I'm not worried about the length right now as this is only a first draft. I'll be adding more details about the clothes, and things surrounding them in this other world in the second drafts whenever I get to do it. First drafts usually take me a good year to flesh out (since I work full time and this summer I'm working 5 days a week for the first time). I believe I began the third book in August of last year, working it as an "in between" book, so to speak.

Steam Punk Me

After a day driving around in the slush around NIU, and dealing with the whole Students Are BACK-AHHHH! thing I'm home, wondering if there's a piece of chocolate that's large enough to just make me feel better. Probably not. I need a bubble bath, but all out of that. Need champagne--ooo, got that. But waiting for a better ocassion.

So, the whole 7 hours of driving my #2 bus from campus, downtown and doing the complete circle it does 14 times a day, I"ve been thinking about my third book. Yeah. The reason being is that the minor characters are now introducing themselves to me. Not only that, because I write fantasy and can do just about anything I want
I'm seeing some potential here. My character, Sabrina Strong, has accepted (grudgingly) that she is a sibyl and has responsibilities--not all, but the part about ridding the earth of certain dangers is okay, as long as she doesn't get blood on her new coat.

So, she is able to go into other worlds. The thing is she has gone to this other world to find her cousin who has been sucked through a portal. That's the mystery part. The other part was that this world also has one certain historical character--he was both historical and fictitious. Okay, I'll tell you. I've put Dracula, the Impaler in this, and he is a vampire. I wanted to hold this world at a point where modern technology has not yet happened. But by my own logic, if people from Earth keep on disappearing and are sucked into this world, the knowledge could also be there. Thus, I'm considering doing a bit of Steam Punk with this one.

I do know that there is one book I'd like to check out at B&N, but I can't think of the title and I know it came out maybe over the summer, I don't know. I remember the book's cover, and it seemed there was a lot of blue, a couple of people on the front. I'll have to go back to check it out, I hope to at some point. But if anyone out there has any good Steam punk titles to throw at me, I wouldn't mind taking them into consideration.

I already know I'm going to have a character who is considered an inventor by his siblings. He's young adult and just this past week he has been coming into focus more and more. His name is Joha. He is one of Dracula's sons. I know that we, as writers, all have someone we pattern a character after, in looks or personality. It's fun to do this. Joha has been always sort of dower, quiet. At first he played the guitar, but now I'm seeing him in a new light. He is quite the inventor.

So, as I sit here trying to get my brain back into place--some day they may discover that bus driving causes minor concussions and brain damage results. I'll use it as my excuse, anyway.

Now that I'm busy, I'm not able to post as much. A lot of my focus will be on the WIP's. I won't get around to everyone that I'd like and I hope you'll all forgive me. I'll do a little more on the weekends.

Tomorrow I will be posting a new Sumiko REads. I think these might interest those of you out there who like these incredibly imaginative fantasies.

Next week I hope to put up an interview of someone I've come to know on another writer's site, and he is not yet published, but he works very hard at it.