Perhaps next week I’ll post an excerpt?

Until next time…

Lord, time flies when I get into these guys. The story is flowing like no other book has before. I admit, I’m TOTALLY into Gabriel and Antonio. Smart-mouthed, feisty, restless Italian Gabriel and suave, strong, sultry Spanish Antonio. Italian and Spanish–can you think of two more volatile guys to put together? I’ve written scenes for books #2 and #3 already while I’m getting book #1 down. They are consuming me. And I love it! Can’t wait till my writing partner gets a look at things.

Today I’m battling Mexican drug cartels and suppliers, ducking assassins, bombs and drinking pulque! And I have to get back to it or I’ll never get to the part where they hit the sheets in a heated tumble of lust and passion they can’t fight off. Nothing like almost dying a half dozen times in a day to make you appreciate life!

In other news, I now have a brand-spanking-new MacBook! His name is Admiral Crunchbyte (the boy-child’s idea; he’s an odd child, but we love him) and he is sleek, fast and sexy. Still getting used to the differences between Tiger and Leopar, but am having fun doing it :D

Details!

Oh man, I’ve put so much into this world that when I leave it, I forget things. Trouble is, cps and readers and editors don’t *grumbles*

Case and point, I run the new story idea by my main test reader/idea bouncer. She says “that’s great, but you can’t”. When I ask why, she proceeds to tell me that I’ve created the legend to prevent such an occurrence. I ask her if she’s sure and she says she’s pretty sure, yeah. Well damnation and hellfire! It was such a neat idea. Unfortunately, it’s crucial too, not just to this story but the next (I think). So I have to put everything on hold and rethink the frickin’ thing.

Worse! I had to REREAD the damn things! Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually like the elf stories. I’ve reread them all after publication and enjoyed them. I am not, however, currently in the mood to read them yet again. Because, you see, for me it’s not a pleasure read. I’m reading for details. I’m reading to see what rules I’ve made so that I don’t break them.

I wish to GOD that I’d had this handy dandy writing program Scrivener when I was writing the first 4 books. This program allows me to have each scene as a notecard that I can rearrange. Allows me to create “research” documents with notes about all these damn rules that I’ve made. *sigh*

I know, whine whine whine. Poor me. I’ll start to enjoy it soon, I know, but first I must bitch. I bitch about them all, trust me. Ask the cps :)

But we’ll work on all that later. This weekend, I have two–count ‘em TWO–Duran Duran concerts to go to. That should put me in a pleasant mood!

Actually, things are still great, I am going back over the first half though. They both seemed to think it would work better if I added a few things. For what it’s worth, I think they’re right, but don’t tell Payton that. I suspect he’s the type to throw it in my face and do the whole, “Haha I was right you were wrong” thing. And, I’m pretty sure both Si and Pay have been talking to Jet behind my back. I suspect that’s where this sudden “change” they want is coming from. I guess they figure they better get in good with her, so she’ll try to minimize the torturing I have planned for them. Pretty sad she’s not only got the reputation of “Great Character Protector” with us, her cp’s, but now the characters have figured it out. shakes head. That’s just wrong!

Seriously though, things are still going good and I’m still enjoying the story. Which is kind of scary, by this time I usually threatening to kill characters off. Brenda calls it my mid novel freak out. I suspect it’s normally just a case of DIP (deadline induced panic) disorder.

Anyway, back to the boys… Payton has plans for me for today. I’m apparently reworking one of his pov scenes, or so he says.

Until next time…

COMMANDMENT THE FIRST: Thou shalt not pretzel thy hero beyond the tolerance of his body during the mansex, let he suffer a dislocated hip or something.

Okay, your turn. What are the other “do”s and “don’t”s of sex scenes? And don’t be afraid to go over ten, FSM knows I have no idea how many commandments there really are.

What, you thought I was gonna give you all ‘em? Not! This is a group effort, people, get crackin’!

**sends manwhores with whips to keep the blog in line**

Well, all right, maybe there are better moments. Getting that acceptance letter for DE1 was pretty damn awesome. Seeing the book up on the Loose Id site the first time was great. That first month or so when readers were so very cool to a first time author by reading the darn thing. Getting the first reviews. The second book coming out. These were all better moments, to be perfectly honest. And they should be, I think. They’re better accomplishments. Working part time is really just a means to an end, that end being more time to write.

So… onward and upward. Here’s to growing with my craft with more time to do it *raises glass for a toast*

It’s still going great, although I must admit a bit slower. I found a rather wonderous place on the web with gay porn and have been soaking up the…um, research? Yeah, that’s it! It’s research! Really! Hmmm, I wonder if I can claim that on taxes? Sigh Probably not, Andre wouldn’t allow me to try and count sex toys last year, bet he’d shoot down the porn as research next year too…sometimes he is no fun at all. I tell you it really has been research! It’s put all sorts of plot ideas in my head. I have been visited by plot bunnies, and the little creeps are multiplying! Gay plot bunnies should not be able to multiply so quickly! There is an adoption process, damn it, but they aren’t following it. Apparently, I have freaky alien male rabbit baby-having bunnies…figures I’d get the weird ones, right?

So the boys are still playing nice, cooperating. I am having to fight myself not to go back and rework some of the beginning. I’m not gonna though. I’m going to trudge onward and finish the first draft. Maybe I can keep my inner editor at bay by throwing the freaky alien baby having bunnies at the witch.

I’m off to write angry sex.

Until next time…

- Cassie Edwards dropped by Signet (I think it was Signet); much polite discussion and a bit of sniping ensues here and there in the internet tubes

- weird things happen (and in some cases don’t actually happen quite as reported) at RT; much gossip, some discussion and occasional argument ensues

- various and sundry pubs have their grubby unders aired all over the webs; lots and lots of enormously entertaining yowling and scratching ensues; Ally lurks and enjoys

Which brings us to the Big Bang of recent romancebloglandia:
- Deb MacWhackJob (author, co-publisher and apparently Very High-Strung Person) is caught red-taloned gaming the Amazon review system, and worse, stalking a reader over a 3-star review. Most agree that this is way, way, WAY over the line. Some sock puppets dissenters try to make the reasonable folks feel bad. Reasonable folks bite back. Awesome webertainment the likes of which the world has never seen ensues. Ally’s daily word count drops in direct proportion.

Please, please tell me I’m not the only one wasting my time reading this stuff. Not the blog posts themselves; those can be very informative (thank you Dear Arther, Smart Bitches and Karen Scott!). The comments are what suck me in and keep me coming back to lurk in the background of the fracas. I can’t help it, I love to watch people snipe, argue and have bloody virtual fights O_O

Anyone else? Huh? Anyone?
**crickets**

First, I’ll announce the winner of my “Name That Bookstore” contest. Then I want to share a piece of fantastic news I received this week.

Name That Bookstore was a great success and I want to thank everyone who participated. I got a ton of great suggestions and choosing a winner was tough. But this morning I made myself sit down and make a choice.

The winning entry is

“Bean Readin’”

It was submitted by Zot.

I love this name first because it’s so whimsical and would make such a great sign. *g* It also incorporates both the books and coffee which is exactly what I was hoping for when I started the search for a name. So Zot, I’ll be contacting you in the next day or so to find out from which online book-seller you’d like your gift certificate.

Once again, thanks to everyone who submitted such great ideas.

And now for my news.

This week I learned that my contemporary m/m romance, Phoenix Rising, has been accepted for publication by MLR Press. WooHoo!

Phoenix will be my first novel-length publication and I am super excited. I don’t have a release date yet, but as soon as I know so will you.

Thanks to the incomparable Laura Baumbach and the other wonderful staff at MLR for this opportunity. I couldn’t be more thrilled that my first novel has found such a terrific home.