Thursday, October 21, 2010

Another one bites the dust...


Lost Wages of Sin

Erotic Paranormal Romance



This is now complete! I've sent it to my CPs and will begin piecing together blurbs and synopses to send off.

Definitely the first in a series, that will be at least eight books long. I'm so freaking stoked.

I'll blog updates on what becomes of it now.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Small victories

Well, I'm over the 50k mark. I have still a chapter and an epilogue to write. At the very least, I made my word-count goal. I'm hoping I'll have that complete by tonight, but tomorrow is a tad more realistic.

I haven't given any thought to blurbs or synopses in months. Granted, I'm not going to send it anywhere until my crit partners have looked at it. I'm also going to let my husband read it, which is a huge step for me. While he knows the nature of my writing, I've never been brave enough to let him read it. He keeps asking about it, though, because he knows how excited I get toward the end of a project and he seems interested about the premise.

Anyway, right now I'm aiming for Samhain, though I think I'll submit to Liquid Silver and Ellora's Cave (this just for kicks...it has plenty of descriptive sex, but not enough to get in-house, I think).

More later.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

I haven't finished a WIP in a while, but I'm now within 3k of my 50k goal on Lost Wages of Sin. I have roughly a chapter and a half left to complete before I send it off to my CP's and start seriously thinking about where to submit it.

Lost Wages of Sin


I'm so excited!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Vampires and Demons and Shifters, Oh My!

A part of me likes to believe I was into the whole "vampire" thing long before it became popular. A friend of mine sent me the first three books of the Sookie Stackhouse series before anyone had heard the term “True Blood,” and I devoured them before patiently waiting for the next one’s release. I had never really been one to purchase romance novels before then, and actually hadn’t imagined legitimate, royalty-paying publications printing the sort of raw, explicit, sexy material I enjoy reading. I first encountered erotica through the art of fan-fiction, and naively believed the realm of explicit fiction solely reserved for the Internet. It makes sense now, of course, years and many, many, many books later that the phrase “sex sells” applies to all media. Of course, I knew about romance novels, but I hadn’t thought the sexual encounters would be anything more than clever allusions to the act itself. And while this has been the case with a handful of authors, this misconception was at the blame of my own obliviousness until I started reading.

I’ve been a huge vampire buff for about ten years now, therefore I began devouring every vampire romance I could get my hands on. After Sookie Stackhouse, it was Lynsay Sands, Christine Feehan, Amanda Ashley, and Sherrilyn Kenyon. I’d spend hours in a bookstore, buying more novels than I could read. Even today, I have a healthy collection of books I haven’t cracked open. I tell myself I’ll get there eventually, but the stack keeps growing by the year. Point being, I loved a good paranormal. I’d read werewolves and demons on occasion, but vampires were my poison. It was actually around the time Twilight took the world by storm that my interest in the paranormal at last began to wane.

I’m not talking in terms of writing. I’ve written paranormal romance for so long that writing anything else seems strange and unpredictable to me. My world might change from project to project, but some staples remain the same. Yet over the past year, my reading library has expanded from strictly paranormal to mostly contemporary, with perhaps a paranormal title thrown in there out of habit. I likewise have entertained more contemporary ideas (one I’m very excited about) and even more I will likely never get around to writing. Still, when it comes to the sort of stories that motivate me in terms of creativity, it has monsters…more than likely vampires.

My current project is no exception. The main world-focus contains angels and demons, which is something I’ve never touched, but my hero is a vampire. This world will likely be expanded in further series, as I’ve fallen in love with the premise and have enough side-characters that their story, including Lucifer’s, will need to be told down the line. I plan to include shifters and other paranormal aspects the more it grows, but vampires have always been my first paranormal love, and paranormal heroes have always been my writing preference. There’s just something about a larger-than-life hero that gets my engine going.

Still, while my creativity seems to be led by the paranormal, I keep selecting contemporary romances for my bookshelf. I’ve published two to date, and have another in the works, and I do feel a sort of accomplishment upon drafting a new non-paranormal. I hope to expand my personal writings in that direction, as well.

At any rate, I definitely won’t be short for ideas anytime soon.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Writing report, contests, et al

First of all, my short story, Falling, has survived the first round of voting at ARe. If you get a chance, please drop by to cast your vote in round 2.

Secondly, I'm getting very close to completing one of my WIPs. I'm pretty excited about this one, as it's unlike anything I've ever written before and likely the first in a series. I've never written a series, or really aspired to write a series, thus I'm excited and nervous all at once. I hope to have it sent to my CP within a couple weeks and then will begin the submission process. Right now, I have my sights set on Samhain, though I'm really attracted to Noble Romance, as well. I want a place where paranormal romances perform well.

This story, tentatively titled "Lost Wages of Sin," is the story of Ava and Dante, and, as I said, likely the first in a series. It involves angels, demons, Heaven, Hell, vampires, rituals, and will eventually involve werewolves and other mystical creatures. I obviously have an affinity for vamps, but I've never broached anything like this in my paranormal writing. I'll post more updates as the story wraps to a close, as well as blog on its reception once I submit it.

It's been a crazy few days on the home front. Hope everyone's had a good weekend.

Friday, October 1, 2010

VOTING HAS COMMENCED!

My short story, Falling, is a finalist at ARe! Voting for your favorite stories commences October 1, 2010. Please swing by and cast your vote