What I've been reading today

I've been reading a book I recently bought through Amazon.com called "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to edit yourself into print" second edition by Renni Browne and Dave King. It's full of great tips and information on improving your fiction writing, and what to look for when editing. I'm currently reading chapter three Point of View at the moment. I highly recommend this book to all fiction writers who want to improve their craft.

At the end of each chapter is a checklist you can use to go through your manuscript. Also at the end of each chapter is exercises you can use to get the hang of what that chapter addressed. There are plenty of examples in the text to help you understand the context of the chapter.

I'll be referring to this book often as I edit my drafts before submitting the books to a publisher. I want my submissions to be as polished as I can make them.

"Night Life Chronicles: Beyond Blue Ridge" Coming May 19, 2008

Can two people, separated by lies and secrets, find love together?

Wounded in the Vietnam War, Jonathan Gordan returns and finds his brother has disappeared after taking the last summer off from college. Hell bent on getting some answers, Jonathan finds himself deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the company of a lovely girl and her strange family.

Laurel Jackson is the alpha female in her pack of werewolves. Life is disrupted when a stranger shows up just as she’s come into season. Being unmated and pursued by almost every unattached male in the area, Laurel is drawn to the strange man. The only problems are that he doesn’t know werewolves exist and her main suitor decides to remove his competition before she chooses her mate.

Despite her secrets and lies, can Laurel find love and satisfaction in the arms of the human that has come into her life?

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and violence.

Contract for Beyond Blue Ridge signed!

I signed my contract for Night Life Chronicles: Beyond Blue Ridge today! I'll be getting into the mail Monday.

I'll update the blog as I know more. I also need to send out this month's newsletter with the good news.

Submitted "Pegasus Down" today

I submitted Pegasus Down today. Now the way starts to see if they want it or not. I'll post more as I can.

Submitted Beyond Blue Ridge - Contract offered!

Yesterday I submitted Beyond Blue Ridge and today I was offered a contract for it! I'm currently reading over it and waiting to hear back from the publisher. I'll be posting more as I can.

Harry Potter is waiting for me

Well, last night the last Harry Potter book came out, and this morning I got a call from the library telling me that my name came up for one of the first copies they received. All I have to do is find a way to get down to the library to get it. LOL Easier said than done. I don't have transportation, and most of the people I know are busy reading their copies from the Potter Party last night. I have until the 30th to pick it up before my name is dropped from the list and they contact the next person in line. The only sure ride I'll have won't be until Wednesday. Meanwhile, everyone will be bursting to talk about it, but won't be able to with me, since I haven't read it yet.

No A/C sucks in the summer!

I haven't done much writing or editing lately. Our central A/C unit went out on us, and it's been horribly hot in the house. I now have a small window unit in here and finally am getting cooled down enough to possibly get some work done. We have two more small units that are waiting to be installed. From what we can tell, the small unit is drawing a lot less power than the main one did. We're still doing some checking though on what it's pulling. With luck, our electric bill will go down some. I'll be calling someone I just heard about and see if he can come look at the main unit and find out what's wrong with it and how much it'll take to fix.

A Werewolf at War

What is it with my characters these days? A new character started telling me about his war days. A werewolf serving in a war. Could things be harder? From being busted during Basic training for going AWOL during the Full Moon, to being penned down by enemy gun fire while the moon slowly fills. Can he get away from his buddies and behind enemy lines before the wolf takes over? Better the wildness of the wolf kill the enemy than his allies.

I'll start on this new story after I finish Blue Ridge. Meanwhile, I'll take notes of events and characters in this new story.

I'm going to have to try to cut back on something, to give myself more writing/editing time.

First rejection

Midnight Hotel: A New Beginning was rejected by the publisher. They liked it, but found it confusing. If I want to submit it to them again, I'll have to do some major changes. Changes I'm not all that willing to do. If I make the requested changes, it will ruin the feel and style of the book. While I respect the publisher's opinion, I don't think I can remove one of the couples in the book or make the storyline less complicated. Not without sacrificing most of what the story is about. There are two main couples in this book, and their stories interweave in such a way I can't separate them. If I tried to make two stories out of it, I think that would be really confusing to the reader, because the couples interact with each other. They are friends and colleagues.

I'm trying to come up with cover art for it. I think I'm going to have to try the self-publishing through Lulu.com route. I'd have loved to have had an actual publisher in on the project since I have three trilogies already written, all in this same style. It has multiple couples and storylines interweaving around each other. I don't call it a written paranormal soap opera for nothing.

I'm currently working on a new story, with one couple and one fairly simple storyline. It takes place in the same world as Midnight Hotel, but years earlier. It involves some of the werewolves in my world.