Time Flies

Apparently October is FRIDAY! I'm not ready for that, there's too much to do in September let alone in October. I have birthday gifts to buy and cakes to make and conferences to attend. The first of which is ALBACON.

I'm really looking forward to that. And not just because there are going to be Star Trek Micro-Panels! Please note my inner geek emerging. :)

It's going to be an informative weekend and lots of fun. Have you registered?

TGIF!

This has been a long long week. In addition to the puppy, I think I had a bad reaction to my flu shot this year. Not that I've ever had a bad reaction before, and have been getting them for years, but there you have it. I hear they added in the H1N1 vaccine to the regular mix. Not sure that was it, but it's what I'm going with since it was the only outside variable.

Things checked off my ToDo list: Finished synopsis AND the partial. Reading it through one last time Saturday and then emailing it off. Very excited about that, no matter what happens. And within the next several weeks, I plan on finishing the story and working on a couple other shorts and unfinished stuff.

October is jammed packed with conferences. I say jammed, does 2 count? ALBACON in the beginning of October, then New Jersey Romance Writers at the end. I'm really excited about ALBACON, it's the first conference where I'm on a workshop panel. We'll be discussing history, research, and writing with someone else. I think it'll be fantastic!

(PST: Registration for both is still open!)

Tuesday Comings and Goings

Never did post on Scandalous Victorians...have now remedied that.

And have my new puppy! Oh, she's adorable. Confused and scared, it was her first night here, but she's too cute for words.

Monday Musings: Exhaustion

Spent the weekend writing, writing, writing. Managed 6 chapters and half the synopsis. (Also did laundry, exercised, vacuumed, went to Michael's because I had a 50% off coupon that expired Saturday, and watched Amazing Wedding Cakes.)

Probably could have done the whole synopsis if I didn't want TV but the brain needed rest.

Desperately.

Picking up my puppy today! I'm really excited and can't wait. So no writing tonight, but tomorrow I'm reading over all 12 completed chapters, finishing the synopsis, and Wednesday morning sending it out.

Why, you ask, am I not finishing the whole thing? Because this editor knows it's not done, and has asked for a partial anyway. I love this editor. :) So she'll get 24K of 95K words and a lovely synopsis and then I'll sit and wait while she reads it.

Yes, and finish the story. Must finish this story...and the Egyptian Contemporary one. And the other one...what was that? I had another story half finished that got shoved to the side because of these. Man, my brain is fried.

Christmas party?

It's September you say? What's your point?


I'm thinking of having a December give away this year. Every week (day???) give away a prize to one random person (*must comment to be entered, restrictions may apply depending on what I give away and where I have to mail it, but one never knows).


Who wants to join me? It's all very vague as of now, I thought it up oh, 2 hours ago. But I'm thinking a short guest post about whatever you want and a give away to one random commenter. Book, chocolate, gift card, whatever.


I wonder if I get enough authors to join in, if I should have a big give away at the end of the month. The question is, what constitutes big? Yes, this requires more thought. Hence the starting in September. But the question stands:


Who wants to join me??? If you're interested, drop me a line!

Zombie love anyone?

Never thought you'd read those words, did you. Welcome to the new writing world, where anything goes. I'm not mocking, and not cause I'm in this particular anthology. Or not just. We are in an age where the confines of that pesky box are no longer.

• Want to write your time travel Civil War romance? Go right ahead.


• Or a forward time travel (traveling forward in time rather than backwards) from Ireland to Texas? Go for it!
• Zombies, werewolves, vampires, oh my! I don't have statistics, but I recently read that paranormal is the largest romance sub genre. Yup. I so believe that.


• Menage? M/M? F/F? There's a market, a huge one, and it's no longer under Anonymous, or in Penthouse, or anything else you don't want it to be. Talk about a large romance sub genre!
• (When I say sub genre I mean under the romance umbrella, since that's pretty all encompassing.)

With the explosion of e-publishing, stories the 'regular' print publishers refused to look at are now getting attention. They're not only being picked up but they're selling well. So why not Quirk Press's Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (needed more zombies and less plot holes) or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (haven't read it, so can't comment)?

Don't believe me? I just read a post on this very thing. (Granted I wrote this blog on Tuesday and read the post on Wednesday but the timing was perfect!)

Hungry for your Love is the zombie romance anthology from Ravenous Romance and St. Martin's Press. St. Martin's Press bought the print distribution rights to Ravenous's zombie e-book. Tells you something, huh: zombies (and that outside the box thing) are everywhere.


My story, Zombified, admittedly has the zombies cast as the bad guys, there's an excerpt on my site, just follow the link. Don't believe you'll like it? Want to see what else is out there? Contact the other authors for the first couple pages of their story-or the e-book is available from ravenous for $4.99. Trust me, it's well worth it.

Wednesday Review: Mockingjay

I devoured Hunger Games and loved it. No, I don't like Katniss, (and neither do several coworkers who read and loved the series that's how good it is) but the world, the supporting characters, the plot were fabulous. I read Catching Fire in a night. While it didn't have the same intensity as Hunger Games, it read wonderfully.

Mockingjay didn't do it for me. It took me weeks to read it, and I should have known my own hesitation was not because I lacked time (there's always time to read a much anticipated book) but because I feared Suzanne Collins would disappoint me with her finale to this series.

She did. I won't go into details, but everything I loved about Hunger Games and Catching Fire were taken, tossed, shaken, stirred, and replaced here. Characterization went down the drain. If she wanted to show what she ultimately did, maybe having 4 instead of 3 books was the way to go. It seemed as if she skimped on what I as a reader loved most about the first two books and then delved into other things just enough to make you think she was going in one direction only to have her redirect just when things were getting interesting.

I'm all about the red herring but sheesh, follow through! And don't finish the entire series in 20-30 pages when the majority of the book could have been dumped.

And then there's characterization. WHAT HAPPENED? To say I was disappointed is a huge understatement. But I won't spoil anything here. Sufficient to say, I'm deeply saddened by what she did to core characters.