I managed to break away from endless days of edits, workshops and contest judging to finally do a bit of reading. Of course the book in question was one I couldn’t wait, yet dreaded reading. It was with great trepidation that I picked up JR Ward’s latest Lover Mine, from The Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Those who know me are well aware that I have a love/hate relationship with the Brothers. I love their world. I love their banter. I love the supporting characters.  However something seems to go awry when one of them takes center stage. By the end of the book I’m left with a “uh, you weren’t as cool as I thought,” feeling. Yeah, even don’t get me started on Phury.

Which was why I was almost afraid to read John Matthew’s story. He has been the one character that has always drawn me back to the series, sometimes against my will. What would I do if he fell into the pit of “I’m not worthy,” like the others did and couldn’t crawl out? Well, he does, but not to the point of the other brothers.

Lover Mine follows Lover Avenged where the evil and vile Lash has kidnapped Xhex in retaliation for her killing his symphath lover. His need for revenge turns into a twisted obsession when he recognizes Xhex as an adversary worthy of all his attentions.  John Matthew has given up hope that Xhex will ever be found again and takes his rage out on every lesser his comes across. After Xhex manages to free herself, she and John wade through a quagmire of uncertainty, despair, fear, love, revenge and self- loathing as they race to put an end to the harbinger of their torment.

You can breathe a sigh of relief that John stays true to his honorable and devoted nature. He is truly a male of worth and even when his self confidence goes into the crapper, he still manages to find a reason to keep going.  

Now Xhex on the other hand was interesting. She was still a badass warrior as always, but Ward kind of girlie’d her up a bit, which struck me as odd. If this was the first I had read about her, I wouldn’t have noticed it, but to me, Xhex always seemed like the anti-girl, a guy with female parts.  It wasn’t a bad thing to soften her, but it wasn’t necessarily good either, just another “huh” moment. Yes, she went through a traumatic experience which could change her character, but Xhex’s whole life was traumatic, why girl up now? Also her symphath nature seemed to be on the fritz, and she didn’t notice many of John’s emotions. He’s mute, he communicates mostly by facial expressions, I could have picked up on his thoughts no problem.  But given what has happened to my favorite characters in the past, I am grateful that these are the only anomalies.

At the end of the book I was left with two big questions. All throughout the series it has been hinted that John is some sort of reincarnation of Darius, and while there were flashback scenes, that storyline was never resolved. Was there a reason for this? Also, there is a secondary storyline at a bed and breakfast in South Caroline that has nothing, and I mean nothing, zip, zero, nothing to do with the rest of the book. Feel free to skip those chapters, you will not miss anything. I believe this is a set up for a future story, but trust me, skip ‘em.

Okay BDB fans, who’s next? Blay, Quinn, Payne? Would all three form a ménage? (I think that would be an interesting trio) Will Layla finally get her true love?

 I actually find myself eagerly looking forward to the next installment.

I’m here. Really. I’m alive and gasping for air as I briefly lift my head from my works in progress. Yes, I said works. What have I been doing these last few weeks? Writing, writing and more writing. Or I should say rewriting, rewriting and more rewriting. Mixed in with that is my usual June madness of end of school activities, birthdays, dance recitals, and online workshops. Yes, caffeine has been my friend.

As I was busy finishing my superhero novel, I received a request for my Scottish ghost story. Since the editor had critiqued the portion she read, I thought one last read through, using her suggestions, would be a good idea before I sent it off. Now, the last time I looked at this ms was back in November when I first started submitting it. At the time, I thought it was perfect to send out.

Good lord, what had I put on paper?

Needless to say, a complete reworking of the first few pages ensued, followed by more tweaking of the rest of the book. I can’t believe how I forget the endings on some of my words. Why would I do that? Well, I know why. Because I read the story like it’s a movie in my head. I don’t see word endings, or even prepositions when I read, hence why I sometimes leave them out of my writing. Not a good excuse, but that is the reason. And yes, I do struggle with missed words a lot.

What I’ve also discovered is that I write in what I call Willy Wonka speak. If you are into Sci-Fi that would be Yoda-talk, meaning I write backwards.

 For example: Concern etched his feature as he looked down at her.

I could have also written this as: He looked down at her with concerned etched on his features.

Why do I do that? Well, one, I don’t want to start every sentence with ‘he’, and two, that is how I talk. Its natural for me to think in this pattern. I don’t find one way more ‘right’ than the other, because in my head I see him looking at her in concern. The only words on the page could be ‘concern’, ‘look’, ‘down’ and ‘he’, and I would still picture the same image.

But, there are some people out there where order is a huge issue, so I am diligently cleaning up my manuscript before doing the exact same thing with my superheroes. This is just another part of writing. Learning, applying, learning, applying.

Just like I do with the rest of life’s lessons.

Between my day job, workshops and writing, I feel like I never stop. And that’s not about to end any time soon.

I’ve just completed a platform building workshop offered by Ann Charles and Jacquie Rodgers over at 1st Turning Point. I should now be an expert at marketing myself and my books. Keep in mind should be are the operative words. Actually, I learned a lot, so much that my mind is still wrapping around the information.

In June I will be participating in another workshop on website design. Yea! I hope to expand this site into something a little more exciting.

On the writing front, I pitched my superheroes to an editor on the spur of the moment. The object was to receive feedback on the pitch in preparation for Nationals. Low and behold, she requested the full! Another yea! Followed quickly by a, ooo- must get book finished.

For the next few weeks my nose will be permanently pointed at a monitor as I polish up my wip. This is a good thing. A test. Do I have the metal to pull off a pressing deadline? Oh yeah.

I stayed up until 2 a.m. last night finishing Kresley Cole’s latest, Pleasure of a Dark Prince, part of the Immortals After Dark Series.

I love this series. The heroines are strong, independent, with just the right amount of snark, and the heroes are completely drool worthy. On this, I was not disappointed.

The story follows Lykae prince, Garreth MacRieve as he chases after the mate that fate has chosen for him, the Valkyrie Lucia.  Unfortunately for Garreth, Lucia’s powers as the most powerful archer-ever, are tied to her remaining chaste, and every five hundred years she is charged with returning Satan back to his prison, otherwise the world with fall under an evil that will destroy everything.

POADP begins at about the same time as A Hunger Like No Other, and covers the time period of all the other books. Do you need to read all of them to follow the story line? No, but I recommend it anyway just for enjoyment reasons. The two that tie directly into this one are AHLNO and Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night.

The only complaint I would have is the middle section. I understand that this is where Garreth and Lucia finally spend some real quality, get-to-know-each-other time together, but it goes on for a long time. The beginning clips along, the end motors as well, but the middle meanders as slowly as the Amazon River they’re sailing down. Page-wise it’s not really a huge chunk of the manuscript, it just feels like it.

The sexy parts are smokin’ hot, the violence only slightly gratuitous, and there’s danger around every bend. Lucia may be limited in her options, but she is never weak. I love it when it’s outside sources that keep the couple apart and not petty misunderstandings. They want to be together, and we want that for them too.

Lachlain from AHLNO and Conrad Wroth from Dark Needs at Night’s Edge were tied from my favorite Immortal hero, but that title now belongs to Garreth. He is a fantastic mix of honor, savagry, passion and confused male that had me reading almost the entire novel in one straight shot. Good thing it was a Friday night and was totally worth the late hours.

Hey all,

Today I am guest blogging at Once Written, Twice Shy about being a shy writer who happens to write sexy, leave nothing to the imagination, sex scenes.

Thanks Rebecca for letting me participate!

www.shywriters.blogspot.com

Welcome back to day two of the Write at Sea workshop on board Carnival Cruises Fun Ship Paradise.

After a night of revelry followed by endless tossing and turning as I ruminated on the new beginning of my story, I arrive at the Break into Fiction workshop ready for the next step- What happens after the first twist point.

My new start is rife with conflict. My subplot and secondary plot that I was flirting with weeks ago will fold in beautifully. But now I’m stuck on the details, or rather the tests. I need obstacles, things for my couple to do, and more importantly, create events that will lead them up to the next twist point.

Dianna’s favorite suggestions is “kill somebody.” Great, but I can’t kill off

Encenada

everybody. So I’m staring at the wall again. The ticking time bomb that is my brain has been activated

Think, think, think, think, think- BOOM!

I’ve fractured off again.

This is when a second person comes in really handy. As I start to rattle off where I’ve got the story going, Mary is plucking the threads out of my jumbled sentences and narrowing my focus. Now the secondary storyline has more importance than earlier. Fantastic! Thank you subconscious. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my subconscious?

At the end of the day I am mentally drained, but I now have a strong, fully plotted story that is fit for my shape shifter and his mate. The process was painful, but you know the saying, “If it was easy, everyone could do it.”

My next step now? Take the templates and go through the first story in the series. Do I see more internal bloodshed and frustrated tears? Yes. So why do it?

Because I don’t want to be a writer. I want to be a published author. And that requires more that just putting words on paper.

Ahoy matey! Welcome to my adventures on the Carnival Fun Ship Paradise.

I’ve just returned from a weekend at sea attending the Break into Fiction workshop taught by the fantastic team of Mary Buckham and Dianna Love, or as we lovingly referred to them as, The Punisher and the Evil Queen.

My voyage began with a few hours of me time relaxing by the pool with a book in one hand and the drink special of the day in the other. If I had only know about the arduous metamorphosis that awaited me the next day, I would have relished that time a lot more.

My roommate was the lovely Susan from Canada. Although she wrote YA and I paranormal, and we came from different backgrounds and were born in different decades, we had similar life experiences which gave us plenty to talk about.

There were sixteen of us on this maiden excursion of Write at Sea. Most of us wrote romance and there were several of my GSRWA mates in attendance. We had a few thriller and suspense writers as well. The class was geared towards commercial fiction, so there was plenty of opportunity for everyone to learn.

The project I brought to the workshop was the second installment in my superhero series, or as it’s called in my world, The Shape shifter and the Nurse. The reason I chose this novel over the first in the series was because I’m pretty much married to Max and Crystal’s storyline. In the second I knew who the H/H were, the first chapter, and a vague idea of the villain, or villains. After that I was opened to all ideas. I had the first chapter written. It had danger in it, angst, sexual tension and snappy dialogue. I thought I was off to a fantastic start.

Then I talked to Mary and the torture began.

She pointed out that while the concept and characters were good, there wasn’t enough conflict in the beginning to sustain throughout the book. They needed to collide sooner. I needed more.

Ah! Well crap. Now, I needed something new. Something spectacular. What followed next was thirty minutes of me staring at the wall, swaying to the rhythm of the rocking ship. My pre-cruise fear of not being able to come up with ideas quickly came to fruition as I sat and sat. Then I discovered that my brain is a ticking time bomb.

Think, think, think, think, think- BOOM!

Two ideas pop into my head, and each had three or four possible outcomes that splintered into several directions. My desk is now covered in creativity carnage.

Being suddenly smacked with multiple ideas is both a blessing and a curse. I have something to work with. Yay! But where do I place the focus? More staring at the wall. Unless I find a direction, I cannot go forward in the process.

So I do what anyone else does when they hit a wall whilst on a cruise ship. I went to the pool.

Laying out under the sunny rays off the coast of Mexico I let my mind wander. Tropical drink near by, I close my eyes as the pool band launches into a reggae version of Hugh Lewis’s The Heart of Rock N’ Roll.

She needs to witness something. Something bad. Of course. A murder? No. Drug runners? Been done to death. Human trafficking? Hard sell. Terrorism? Even harder sell.

My front starts to burn, so I flip over, mind still working.

Ooo, that could work. It’s different and definitely plausible. I can work with this.

I pop up in my lounge chair. “Susan, I’ve got a plan.”

She blinks at me in surprise over the top of her book. “Wow. You were brainstorming. I thought you were asleep. Good for you.”

“Thanks.”

Even through dinner, a comedy show and an Indian kid howling his way through Bohemian Rhapsody, my concept is percolating, growing, solidifying. My brain is working so much, I’m up at 5:30 in the morning writing on the Lido deck.

I feel like a fighter knocked down in the first round, struggling to their feet. I’m hurt, disorientated, but the will to fight flows through me. This will be a stronger story. A better story, A story that will sell.

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and I am just now waking up. This weekend was a whirlwind and  the are no signs of it slowing down.

On Friday I attended the new author panel and book signing of my colleagues Rose Lerner, Gayle Ann Williams, Marie-Claude Bourque and Amy Rench at the Redmond Borders. It was a fun evening listening to their stories. However, my favorite part of the night was realizing that we were sitting in the erotica section. Perusing the erotica shelves with other romance novelists is highly entertaining, and led to an ideal of holding a workshop for men entitled “What Women Really Want.”

Saturday afternoon was spent working on the Emerald City Writer’s Conference. I am assistant registration chair this year and I was learning the ropes from Carol the reg. chair. Organization is the key when handling 250 attendees and their preferences for meals, editor/agent appointments, and other affiliations. Alyssa Day and Brenda Novak will be speaking and it is shaping up to be a great conference.

Later on I went to work at my sister’s where I am the bookkeeper for her event planning business. While entering in time sheets and receipts, we dished on the latest episodes of Vampire Diaries and Glee. I love those shows.

The night ended with a plotting party that quickly turned into a wine tasting party with Gwen, Christa, Danielle, Vivenne, Marianne and Natalie. There was lots of laughter, food, storytelling, and oh-yeah, wine drinking.  Learning and listening to everyone’s life and writing experiences had me laughing my ass off. While not a whole lot of actual plotting was done, it went a long way to getting a feel for where everyones’ personalities and writing styles lay. It is so difficult to offer advice or an opinion to someone you have just met. Knowing where they are coming from makes a world of difference to me.

Up next is the Writer’s at Sea cruise. Three days with Mary Buckham and Dianna Love on a Carnival cruise along the Mexican coast. The plan is to work hard and play hard. My hope is that by the end of the weekend I’ll come away with the entire second book of my superhero series plotted. I know it is possible despite the allure of sunshine and rum at the Serenity pool.

As far as my writing, I finished the second draft of the first superhero novel. Progress is being made amongst all of the fun.

Today started out grey and nasty. It’s Seattle and to be expected. However later in the day the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and the roads dried out enough that motorcyclists took to the streets.

On the eleven mile drive home, I passed at least twenty different types of bikes. From the big bad Harleys to the nimble Yamahas. I even passed a guy on his dirt bike. If it was on two wheels with a motor, it was on the highway.

I have no idea what it is, but I cannot take my eyes off a man on a bike. I don’t know the difference between a Fat Bob or a Soft Tail, but I get excited when I hear the roar of the engine and see the sunlight glinting off the handlebars.

There’s a mystique about the man in the seat, and I will say man because 99.9% of the time it is a man. Who is he, where’s he going, where’s he been? It’s like Grease 2 when Michelle Pfeiffer and gang sang “Who’s that Guy?”

Everybody wants you when they don’t know who you are. If you’re a man of mystery, it really takes you far.

Maybe it’s like a belly dancer who wears a veil. It’s titillation, excitement. Under that helmet it could be anyone. Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, Ewan McGregor in, well, real life. He’s balancing a thin line between exhilaration and total dismemberment. Freedom and a lifetime in a wheelchair. Insanity and total clarity. A fantasy for my fertile writer’s mind.

So ride on my brothers. Be safe. And if you see a curly hair girl staring at you from her little SUV, give her a wave and a smile.

I want a devil in skin tight leather. And he’s gonna be wild as the wind. And one fine night, I’ll be holding on tight. To my cooool rider.

I loved that movie. I should dig it out.

I spent three hours today trying to find the right explosive to blow open the door on a bank vault. At the end of the day I still couldn’t figure it out. On the news they talk about how easy it is to find out how to make a bomb on the internet and I couldn’t do it. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Oh there was lots of information about explosives in general, this one is powerful, this one not so powerful, and a whole lot of mathematical formulas. But nothing that said this type blows up this material best. That was what I needed.

I tried looking up bank robberies to see what was used in the past. Apparently almost all bank robberies are carried out by either kidnapping the manager or the old note to the teller routine. While it was all very interesting,  I couldn’t find how to blow open the door.

So in the end I described the bomb as a bunch of cylinders taped together attached to colorful wires. The scene is from my heroine’s point of view, andshe’s not a bomb expert, so she wouldn’t know exactly what she was looking at either.

I guess you can’t learn everything from the internet. If you know differently, please let me know.