Monday Mornings

Aren't as horrible as they're made out to be. Why? I think all mornings are horrible. If I could sleep through them, I'd be that much happier. I much prefer staying up all night anyway. Always have. What's this have to do with writing? Everything. I can't get started yet on any writing.

My goals today are to finish editing Scars and sending it out to Ravenous well before Sunday's deadline. (Yippee!) And to begin Starlet, the next in my Wicked Seduction Series. Set in 1930s Hollywood, a movie star seduces a gambler/gangster. What happens when he wants more than one night?

Audiobook on now: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Meggie kind of annoys me, but it is a children's book, she is only 12, and it is her story. I'll give it more time, I'm only on chapter 5.

Reading now: The Wild One by Denise Eagan. I love her characters, very real and the story is very sensual.

Listening to now: Sharpe's Soundtrack which has music for all occasions: angst, battle, jolly marching, you name it.

WS: Scars & Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans

I'm not a big horror fan. Freddy gave me nightmares as a child and is the only still-scary horror creature today. Jason? Passe. Michael Myers? Only those original 2 were worth seeing and now not so much. Freddy, however, came in your dreams. You don't go to Crystal Lake, you don't live near an insane asylum where escapees aren't caught by the police. But you have to sleep.


But there's something about vampires & werewolves that has me reading and watching them over and over. Buffy & Angel. So so there. Read Twilight long before the movie. Adore L.A. Banks new werewolf series and even though vampires are kind of overcrowded at the moment, I still find myself drawn to them.


Tonight, I'm going to see Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans. The first rocked, the second not so much. But this prequel looks excellent. We'll see about 7:40 tonight when the movie starts.

In the mean time, I'm finishing up Wicked Seductions: Scars and plotting out Wicked Seductions: Starlet. Tomorrow: writing Starlet and more plotting, this time of Book 3 in my Dark Desire of the Druids Series: Desert & Destiny. Gareth from Raven's story, (Dark Desire of the Druids I: Murder & Magick) finally gets his own story. Set in London and Egypt, this is going to be a fun book. The research alone is extensive, and if I put everything I learned into this story, it'd be a dissertation. Still, I'm looking forward to plotting it chapter-by-chapter,

Scars (3rd in the Wicked Seduction series) and the short story

I have recently discovered I love writing short stories. Until August, when I sent in In the Shadows my Civil War Anthology submission to Wild Rose Press, I would have told you my shortest story was 75,000 words. Until August, my shortest story was actually 22,500 words (my beloved wolfie story now with an actual title, Shadow State contracted with Wild Rose Press).


Now? Thanks to Ravenous' 2500-6250 word count limit on their short stories (they call it a Ravenous Rendezvous...whatever) I'm in love with the short story. No, in no way does this mean I don't want to do longer stories, I love those too - there's much more to say in them, you can have more conflict, more angst. More sex. But in the short story, it's almost a race against the bad guy (word limit) to reach the ending first.

It's a poor explanation but I can't explain it any better. You have plot, sex, beginning-middle-end, and conflict. Lots and lots of conflict. It's fun, what can I say.

So today I'm working on my 1918 Rendezvous, Scars. A returning English WWI vet goes to the local pharmacy to buy the ointment needed for the scars he received on the battlefields of Flanders. What's the beautiful pharmacist to do but seduce the poor man?

And yes. I did my research. There were female pharmacists as far back at the 1860s in England. Not a lot, but they were there and voicing their opinions. I'll look for the link if anyone's interested.

Holidays and short stories

They're coming. Thanksgiving is this Thursday, next you know Christmas'll be here in like a week, and bam! New Years. Do people actually breathe during the season? I'm not sure I do, but that's not the point.

Holidays=holiday stories. Holiday stories=writing holiday stories. Writing holiday stories=what holiday can I write about? All, the squeaky cogs of the brain.

I already have 2 (possibly 3) Christmas stories coming out this year. But there are other holidays. New Years aside, there's Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, Easter, Flag day...you get the picture.

In one of the Christmas stories I submitted, there are 4 women and the men in their lives. No, this isn't Sex in the City by Isabel Roman. Nothing near that. More like Four Calling Birds. Which is what I named it, but Ravenous might change it, and they're more than welcomed to. So, my Four Calling Birds are only beginning their romantic holiday journey.

What's an author in the midst of holiday anxiety to do but propose further stories for her 4 couples? Propose 6 more holiday for her 4 couples, that's what.

We'll see if Ravenous accepts these proposals. In the mean time, I have other stories to write. Like the female pharmacist in 1918 London and her scared war hero home from Flanders. When he isolates himself from the world, only she can bring him back to the world. But what happens the morning after?