I don’t have much to report this week. After a few revisions, and one writer like breakdown that thankfully was much improved by my awesome critique partner, I got my short, Dinner with the In-Laws, into the editor for an anthology request. No word yet as to if it will get picked up, but either way I have future plans for it that will need to stew for a little while.

I’ve been working on Wandering this week, but rather sporadically. By that, I don’t mean I’m not putting in the time, but that I haven’t started working on page one and moved forwards. I’ve been shifting through, taking care of some of the low hanging editing-fruit. I will get to the page by page revision, but every time I find something I can improve, I’m improving it, no matter what page it’s on.

 My muse, however, has been off in her own world, torturing me with ideas for all kinds of stories. When she’s not trying to push me to expand my short, DWTIL, she’s giving me revelations about WIPS I haven’t been working on for months. Including two ménages, a MMF that is temporarily titled All for My Baby and another contemporary MFM ménage that’s my version of Bonnie and Clyde…and Clyde :D. I don’t want to get into writing either of these works this month (since I have Nano next month, and there is no way they could be done on time. Both ideas are novel long. I don’t want to take the risk that I’d lose momentum by taking a break for a month) but my muse is really torturing me, so I might have to break down and write some, at least quick notes, on some of these works.

This may change my priorities for Nano. Madison and Hunter might be shelved a little longer. But I’m going to try and get to as many of these stories as I can. I have some vacation days to burn at the EDJ and I plan to use them to take a full time writer’s vacation, and make it my job to write.

And even though having an out of control Muse may seem like a problem, I much prefer it over the alternative. No ideas at all.

Got an awesome review from Jo at Joyfully Reviewed for Midnight Mirage. Here's a little snippet...

I was touched at how they [Lincoln and Gabe] took the time to learn just who Mallory was and to help her. I could understand Mallory’s hesitation in believing that Lincoln and Gabe really did want her over all of the women they could have. When the morning came, I wondered if the three of them being together really was in the cards. Seeing the all three of them work out just what they wanted and how it would be had me hoping that this was just the first day of a wonderful lifetime for them. Midnight Mirage takes an erotic night of passion and turns it into a lifetime of loving in the harsh world of rock and roll.

I'm so glad she enjoyed it. Thank you so much Jo and Joyfully. You just made a writer's week!!

Sorry I’m a little late with this post, but I’ve been having some mysterious internet issues at home. Not sure where they’re coming from, but they seem to be fixed now (hopefully).

This week I got distracted again (seeing a theme yet, I certainly am :D). This week was what I call a good distraction. A quick story that just needed to be told. Last Thursday I received notification that an anthology deadline was lengthened due to not receiving the types of stories they were looking for. Once I received the email I immediately knew I wanted to write a story for this anthology, and I only had until the new deadline to do it. This is pretty typical of my muse. She usually gets an idea when there’s just enough time left to write it, but the same was true for Naughty List, and that worked out all right, so I can’t fight her.

This inspiration was a quick short story, so it won’t distract me for very long (which is why it’s a good distraction) but allowed me to stick a toe in a pool I’d been interested in for some time. Femdoms.

Here’s a little snippet to let you know what I mean.

Her breasts tightened in her bra. Her stiff nipples abraded against the lace. She was on fire, turned on and ready to blow, just with the look of Andrew tied up and waiting for her dominance. Nothing was sexier than a round tight bottom waiting for her punishment.

I have some ideas of how to expand this short story into a longer tale, so I’ll be working on that soon. And the fun of this story, is that I can be dark with the domination, spanking, and bondage (which I love to do) but I also get to be funny in a way my muse doesn’t usually let me.  To give you a hint at this comedy all I have to do is tell you the title of the story (which may change), Dinner with the In-Laws. Let your imagination run wild, mine definitely did.

Now this does mean that Wandering revisions have been pushed back slightly, to make room for this short, so they will stretch into October.  That’s okay, because it will allow for a light October month, leading into Nanowrimo (November is my favorite month :D) which as of right now I plan to use to write my shifter story. Yes, Madison and Hunter are still prowling in the back of my mind. Don’t worry their coming back soon.

That is if I don’t get distracted by something else…

WIP Wednesday

This week hasn’t been as productive as some, because I’m waiting to hear about my submission of Heart’s Ultimatum. Whenever I have a submission out I have a horrible time concentrating on anything besides refreshing my inbox.

I know, as a professional writer, I should be better at ignoring the submission out and moving on to the next thing. I hope I’m getting better but I’m still not very good at it. If you’re a writer, and you can ignore waiting to hear about a submission, you’re a rock star in my mind. I can’t do it. It doesn’t help, that I love Heart’s Ultimatum so much, and really hope that someone else will too.

However I have made some progress on my two writing fronts at the moment. As soon as I wrote, on WIP last Wednesday, that I was going to give my shifter story time to simmer and focus on something else, my hero Hunter opened right up and started talking. I think it was in part because I’d been so focused on finding out his secrets that I couldn’t really think, and a little because I was scared of how dark Hunter is. But the majority of it was Hunter. The more I learn about him, the more I understand, that it’s only when I’m ready to walk away he’ll reveal the truth. Poor Madison is going to have her hands full with this guy.

I’m still a little fuzzy on the story, and I feel like something might be missing, but I’ve started to write a little. Usually writing is how I discover the truth of the story. Knowing the characters, and how they will react in every situation is very important, but it isn’t until I get them reacting that I can figure out what happens next. Here’s my favorite piece from what I’ve written so far. This part talks about Madison’s connection to her human foster family, and the connection, or lack thereof, she had to the pack before she left.

*Remember this is very rough and subject to edits and possible deletion.

“Mady,” Sharron called from the doorway, walking quickly over to her and embracing mother and child in a large hug. Sharron showed affection so easily, hugging, kissing, patting, holding. After seven years Madison still found it amazing. Her own mother had never been so affectionate. Compassion was never praised in the pack, over deadly instinct or fighting prowess. There’s a reason wolves aren’t known for their cuddly qualities

I’ve also made some progress on Wandering, which I still plan to have done and submitted by the end of the month no matter how much Madison and Hunter try to distract me. I’ve cleaned up all the sheets (I had some pages hand written on with changes, due to a failed zip drive that Naughty List was the only work to survive, thankfully). I’ve compiled everything, and I’m finishing up the character profiles on my two main characters. Even though I wrote this work almost two years ago, I didn’t do character profiles back then, and given that I’m looking at this work with new eyes I thought they might be helpful.

 I plan to get started on in depth revisions today. Hopefully they’ll go quick, since this work has been revised many times, but I’m feeling the need to add a little more, for character depth, so we’ll see where ends up. It’s amazing to me, as I read it how much I’ve grown and changed as a writer in the last two years. Yet I still love these characters, and still love this story. I want to see if find the home and audience it deserves. Hopefully, with a little elbow grease, I’ll be able to do that now.

Writing of course. What did you think I was talking about. :D

I'm guest blogging over at Romance Writers Behaving Badly, talking about how writing wouldn't be any fun, if it wasn't so hard. Stop on by and take a look.

http://romancewritersbehavingbadly.blogspot.com/2011/09/if-it-wasnt-hard-it-wouldnt-be-any-fun.html

Sorry I didn’t check in last week for WIP Wednesday. I had a bit of a personal emergency. I hit a pot hole on a main highway and ended up bending the front passage rim. Not only did I end up with a flat tire, and thankfully was able to relay on the kindness of a coworker to come help me, but I had the whole upheaval of fixing the rim and trying to find another car to use until that was complete. It wasn’t a life or death situation, but took a lot of time and stress to deal with.

The big news this week, Heart’s Ultimatum is officially submitted. After very thorough read through, I sent it off to the publisher Saturday afternoon. WhooHoo!

But with any submission, this now leaves me with a gaping hole of what to do next. I always have a million ideas running around in my head. I just have to capture one and hold it down long enough to get all the specifics. An idea is far from a story, or even a book. A lot more needs to be determined before that can happen.

Right now the idea most on my mind is a shifter idea I’ve been contemplating that’s a twist on a secret baby storyline. I’ve got my heroine, Madison, fleshed out, and even her daughter Brianna is pretty three dimensional, but I’m having trouble capturing the hero, Hunter. As much as I roll him around in my mind I can’t seem to get a firm grasp on him. I feel more like I’ve grabbed the edge of his jacket, or maybe just an ass cheek :D

Until I have a better idea how he’ll react in the situations my heroine and her secret baby will throw at him, I can’t start writing. It’s an extremely frustrating part of the process for me, feeling the flickers in the back of my mind, but not able to grab onto them. It’s kind of like trying to remember a dream from the night before. I know I need a break to let it settle, once I stop thinking about it, the idea will probably just come to me.

Until everything is cleared up on my shifter story, I’m going to take another pass at Wandering off the Path and see if I can get that submitted to a few more publishers. I really love this story, but after completing and submitting four other works, I’m afraid it might need a lot of work. I was a much less experienced author then, and I’ve learned a lot since those days. But I love this story so much and had many critique partners really enjoy it too.  I think the story deserves another round of edits. If I can’t get it picked up this time, I might have to reevaluate if the work is salvageable.  So my goal for September is to do one more complete revision, taking into account an editors notes, and see if I can get this one set up for the 2012 schedule. While still stewing my shifter idea.

Should be a action packed month :D