…And the Burner Wasn’t On

I swear, sometimes I think I’m losing my mind.

Maybe It’s Just a Wee Bit OCD

I can’t remember if I turned the stove off this morning after making breakfast. I’m pretty sure I did. I almost remember turning it off, but that vivid, clear, distinct memory of turning the knob and hearing that satisfying little snap that tells me the burner’s off isn’t there. I am now going to have to drive the 40 miles home just to double-check because I’m not completely sure, and my paranoid imagination is off and running with one horrible possibility after another.

Of course, I can argue the finer points of the book I finished last night, including details of the scenes that made me want to slap the heroine for being such a wuss, the nuances of the dialogue, and the one unnecessary plot point that made me want to throw the book across the room in frustration. I can also tell you the moments that made me want to keep reading in more detail than they probably warrant.

And, like all writers, I can go on for hours about any and all of my stories, written or unwritten, including characters’ back stories, emotional turning points, setting, underlying themes, symbols, inspirations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I just can’t remember whether or not I turned the damn burner off.

BEAR Redux

Baby Sister called me last night and, among her verbal vicissitudes, told me that she didn’t “get” the BEAR storyline from my short synopsis.

“What?” I asked. “Why not? What didn’t you understand?”

I could almost hear her shrug. “I dunno. The names were weird, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and I didn’t really get what their relationship is…”

O-kay, I thought. The name thing is just Babs’s problem because both the hero and heroine’s names were pulled straight from my well-loved, duct-taped baby name book. I didn’t make those up like I did Tentuk, Andra, Pynimy, or Vix from the PADEIA series, and she has no problem keeping who’s-who straight so a little to her on that. The rest, though, is my problem. Not understanding what’s going on (Babs advice: read the back covers of books to see how it’s done… for which I must laugh rather hysterically as, aside from having read many, many back covers, I wrote all those snippets with that idea already in mind) doesn’t worry me as much as her not understanding the relationship. That, for a romance, is poor synopsis writing, so shame on me.

Now, just for Babs, let’s try this again:

BEAR (“Fall of Sanctuary” series, Book 1) - Braun is the leader of an elite police force tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and survival of everyone within Sanctuary, a fortressed city-state built to save those within from the Contagion that nearly wiped out the population. He approaches his duty with near religious conviction, believing the people within Sanctuary deserve nothing less even though it means that he must struggle to contain his desire for Aliza, his fiery second-in-command who deserves more than the love of a man unable to give entirely of himself.

Aliza doesn’t share Braun’s passion for preserving the way of life within Sanctuary. She believes freedom is an illusion within its walls, a belief only strengthened by the secrets of her past, but the threat outside is strong enough that she joined Braun’s forces to protect it despite her hatred of those who rule. But when Braun’s brother inexplicably escapes Sanctuary and then threatens to tear down the walls that protect them all from the Contagion, she and Braun must find the truth in the myths that shroud their society and learn to trust in the love they share.

So, Babs. Is that better?

Friday Feature: Garden Spells

 

Yet another book from my TBR pile (and from my stack of 2007 RWA National Conference books) bites the dust! Woo-hoo! This one was a quick read for me, highly enjoyable and sweet without being cloying.

The downside: I started to crave Earl Grey Lavender tea and rose candies like crazy.

The upside: An apple tree with personality, and a light, easy magic that permeates the story without overriding it.

Stories

Okay, I originally intended to title this post “Story Status” but as I’m talking about the status of multiple stories, I began to wonder if the correct title would be “Stories Status”, “Story Statuses” or “Stories Statuses”. That then led me to wonder about whether or not “statuses” was the correct plural form of status, which then led me off to a bit of online research, and by that time I figured to hell with it. ”Stories” it is.

I realized that, despite creating a blog intended to act as a bit of marketing light, I’ve talked about my manuscripts but never actually described the stories themselves. Rather silly of me. So, here’s a quick overview of my completed manuscripts:

BEAR (“Fall of Sanctuary” series, Book 1)- Braun is the leader of the Osirians, an elite military force assigned to protect Sanctuary and the immortal Blesseds who rule. Aliza, his second-in-command, chafes beneath that rule though her reasons for her fierce-burning hatred of the Blesseds are too painful to share. But when Braun’s brother defects to the Outside and threatens all of Sanctuary, Braun and Aliza must rely on each other and the love that grows between them as they search for the answers that will forever change their world.

TENTUK (“Padeia” trilogy, Book 1)- Andra is a single mother struggling to raise her young daughter in a society where women are not allowed to earn money or own property, so when Tentuk, heir to the Padeian throne, decides that her child should be educated as a lady of the Court, Andra refuses to give her up. And while the stern, guarded Tentuk is not use to people telling him no, he finds himself comprising with the fiery-tempered Andra, drawn by her passion and determination to live her life by her own rules. But the threat of civil war must force Tentuk to choose between the love he found and the empire he was born to rule.

PYNIMY (“Padeia” trilogy, Book 2)- For the past decade, Pynimy has had to disguise herself as a boy to receive an education. Now, with the law against women working long lifted and the opportunity to rediscover the woman she’s never been, she returns to the capital to try and exorcise the past that  first forced her into hiding and forever changed her name. But there are those who’d recognize the spirited child she’d been, including the charming political radical, Vix, who’s enchanted by the mysterious woman who looks somehow familiar, and the father she can never claim again.

CAROLINA NORTH – Wanting nothing more than to blend into her wallpaper kind of life, Carolina finds herself always fixing everyone’s problems. But when her flaky older sister, Lila, leaves her boyfriend–again–and moves in, Carolina finds herself unable to control the chaos. As the stress grows, so does the interest of Jake Peterson, junior partner of the law firm where she works, who’s intrigued by the woman he sees beneath the cracks of Carolina’s protective shell. Can she survive being the third wheel of bad blind date, a faux wedding, and a bird named Monkey without losing her sanity, or will Carolina North finally have to learn how to say “No”?

That’s it for the completed stuff.

How to Wake Up Early

Presenting NiRei’s tried-and-true, guaran-damn-teed method of waking up and staying up:

Step 1. Relax the night before by reading a book that begins with someone breaking into the heroine’s bedroom while she’s asleep. Then go to bed.

Step 2. Wake up at 3:50 am from a nightmare. In your sleep-fogged mind, convince yourself that there’s someone in the apartment despite the lack of evidence to support that theory.

Step 3. Spend the next few minutes beside the closed bedroom door, trying to work up the courage to venture out into the living room and check the doors and windows. Logic tells you no one’s out there; adrenaline argues otherwise.

Step 4. Startle so bad you bang your knee against the doorframe when you hear a car horn suddenly blare in one long, continuous blast.

Step 5. Curse loudly when you realize that said horn is coming from your car, which has been honking itself every time you turned the wheel while driving but has now apparently learned a new trick.

Step 6. Throw on your bathrobe. Race out of the apartment (making Step 3 moot) barefoot and frantic, past the cute radiologist from next door who’s come outside to see what the hell is going on.

Step 7. Silently acknowledge that you must look as attractive as a half-drowned possum even as you stumble on the stairs in front of said radiologist, curse some more, then run to the car, fumble with your keys, and finally lunge inside to jab the horn and silence it.

Step 8. Tape the horn down so it won’t go off again while explaining to an understandably irate neighbor from the other side of the complex that you were not, in fact, leaning on the horn. Thankfully, your half-tied bathrobe, bed-head hair, and sleep-deprived mutterings seem to convince her that there’s no need to call the authorities.

And it’s as easy as that! With the adrenaline still pumping through you and the fear that your car horn will start to go off again–thus convincing your neighbors that you must die a slow and painful death–sleep is nothing but a dream. (Sorry. Bad pun. I’m going to blame it on sleep-deprivation.)

Here’s to a happy Friday.

Writing Peripherals

I often wonder if it’d have been easier to write a book back in the “good ol’ days” where there’d have been much less free time but ostensibly much fewer distractions. When you’re in a room with pen and paper, I’d assume it’d be harder to procrastinate than when sitting at the computer. Even without the internet at your fingertips, there’s a plethora of programs to draw the attention of the truly devoted procrastinators.

Then again, there’s all sorts of trouble you can get into with just a pen, paper, and some good ideas, though what some may consider procrastination, others see as a necessary and integral part of the writing process. When I began the first book of my Padeia trilogy, TENTUK, for example, I was building a world with not only a unique social structure but a brand-spankin’ new religion. About midway through the story, I wrote that world’s creation myth. Considering that I was taking a class on Greek mythology, it’s not surprising that the tone and language is similar to some of those translated texts, but the myth itself is a blend of Greek, Egyptian, and Christian. (At least, it’s intended to be.)

Now, was the writing of the creation myth absolutely necessary to the story? Yes and no. Aspects of it came through in the writing. The government structure, for example, was underscored by the belief that it had been ordained as such by the gods themselves. This is mentioned once in an off-handed way by the title character, more to show his character and coming conflict than as a necessary world-building tool. I could have done without actually writing their myth in that instance.

I used the second half of that myth, specifically the creation of women, more extensively in the manuscript, and I’ve since mentioned it here and there in the second and third stories to help thread the stories together. Again, did I need to write the entire myth for this purpose? Probably not.

Do I still see the act of writing the myth as necessary for the books? Absolutely. Because in writing the myth, I better understood the mythos of my characters. I had a better understanding of the undercurrent within their society against which they needed to fight. While I doubt it’ll ever get published (if any part of the trilogy ever gets published that is), creating back stories, character charts, and plot graphs in some form or another are all part of the gig.

Not a Place to Stop for the Night

So, last night I was reading Madhouse by Rob Thurman. First I gotta say that I love, love, lovethis series. So much so that it’s taken me this long to read the book because, once sucked in, it’s near impossible to pull back out, which means I have to find long stretches of time in which to sit and read. Of course, once the Cal craving hits, it doesn’t much matter that it’s the beginning of the week and I don’t really have the time to spare, I’m picking up the book. Though I did manage to talk myself out of re-reading the series. Hurray for the modicum of self-control.

But while I read the last two books in one sitting each, I managed to set Madhouseaside for the night. Not because I wanted to read on, but because a damn stormfront that had me fighting fatigue and aching eyes. I knew I wouldn’t last past a few chapters but–silly me–I chose the wrong place to stop.

Well, the right one in that I knew from Thurman’s previous works that this section marked the beginning of an action-packed sequence that would capture me pretty much for good, but definitely bad in that I chose to stop at the beginning of a chapter where Cal and his brother Niko come across bloody bones hanging from the ceiling of an empty warehouse. Yep, I stopped there while lying in bed on a dark and stormy night right before I went to sleep.

Sometimes I’m not too bright.

I spent the rest of the night periodically waking up from various nightmares, all hazy recollections in the cool quiet of the bedroom, the light from the streetlamps outside filtering through the curtains. Cal Leandro’s world ain’t a pretty one, and Rob Thurman sucks you into it as surely as Charybdis. Yet despite the horror and the tension, she manages to thread humor through it, some dark, some bawdy, some even light-hearted, all carried by characters both flawed and beautifully three-dimensional. While not a series I’d recommend to those with weak stomachs, definitely one I’d be willing to give up a few hours sleep.

You’d Think I’d Have Learned By Now…

Two things that you think I’d have learned by now:

1.) Mothers can make you feel guilty about most anything. Even free books.

2.) If you decide to read a book before bedtime, don’t get so engrossed that you lose track of time until you hear your alarm go off at 6am. It makes for a very exhausting, fog-headed day. (Damn you, Babs, and you’re insistence that I read Stephanie Meyer’s The Host. Geez, can that lady tell a good story, or what?)

 Must. Stay. Awake.

Books, Books, and More Glorious Books!

Half of my books from the conference arrived today, and I practically bounced up the stairs to my apartment when I saw the stack of boxes sitting on my front stoop. I’d known that I’d ship the books I got at conference, but what I didn’t know was how anxious I’d be for them to get here. I almost felt like I’d left my laptop or a favorite necklace behind when I got home and didn’t have anything for my bookshelves. But patience, while a cruel mistress, teaches her virtues, and I happily unpacked all 41 of my new books.

Yep, that’s right—41 glorious, wonderful, and mostly signed-by-the-author books. And that’s only half of them. I shipped the first set of boxes midweek and the second set on Sunday, but I’m already so giddy with the headiness of the paperbacks stacked beside me that Lord knows what I’ll do when the last shipment comes in. Faint, maybe? *Grins*

Life is good.

This means, of course, that I’ll have to redo my TBR list. While I won’t do the challenge like I did before, I’ll readily admit that I’m pretty much set up for the next year, at least. Heck, I still have one or two books from the 2007 RWA National Conference that I haven’t read yet. No worries, though. All my pretties will get their turn, and I now have a bunch of historicals, paranormals, comedies, and suspense to keep them company. The hard part will end up being not reading them, so I can get some of my own work done. *Sigh* The difficult life of a wannabe writer. Don’t you just feel so sorry for me?