No tattoos

Or why my Marine Special Forces don't have tattoos despite my love of them on a man.

When I searched tattoos on special forces I found a military forum (you have to sign in to access it) that very specifically said:

There is a lot of misconceptions out there about this subject -mainly due to movies and television shows. Having a "Unit identifying Tattoo" is frowned upon and greatly discouraged at all levels of Special Operations....especially in SEAL and SF units. SEAL's and SF guys have tattoos -I see more and more tattoos on younger guys in the units -BUT not "Unit Identifying Tattoos".

Which makes a whole lot of sense! What if they're captures while undercover? If the guy has a tattoo then that cover is totally blown. No hiding the fact that you're special forces then.

Monday Musings

Contemporary thriller? Historical paranormal?

Those are the questions I have this week as I attempt to construct a new story. Trilogy really. Shorts, 25,000-30,000 words.The questions is...thriller or paranormal...contemporary or historical?

Writing. Eviless. Work.

July

It's another month and I finally have story ideas! I was afraid (read terrified) that the stories I wanted to do were so far off the beaten trail they'd never be publishe (like that 1920s story I love and adore that's really difficult to sell!)

But a couple weeks of not doing any writing and I think I have a few ideas. Two are for sequels to Shadow State, which I'm in the process of self-publishing now that I have the rights back. One is a vague concept for In the Shadows (see reason above) and one is for a fun sexy contemporary.

This summer I want to plot out all of these stories so that when I'm ready to sit and write them, I can with as little trouble (read writer's block) as possible.

What are you working on?

Thursday Progress

Or why I need to settle down and plot a story!

Because it's what I do. I write. I am a writer. I need to do this in order to continue living. It may not seem as important as breathing, but that's only because breathing is an involuntary function that takes no real concentration or effort and writing takes both.

But the last couple of weeks have been hard. Life has bludgeoned me. Time has slipped away. I have a couple great ideas, one a contemporary I'm super excited to write. Plus I want to read over my two short stories I just got back the rights to.

Thursday Progress

I have no progress to report. Some ideas tossed around, some new concepts that have great promise, but nothing solid.

What's everyone else working in?

Cliches

Biggest cliche pet peeves:



*The Big Misunderstanding (kisses another and instead of talking hero/heroine walks out) otherwise known as TBM
*Marrying because she's pregnant by his brother/BFF/cousin/father/etc
*Amnesia
*Evil other woman/man who are utter cardboard
*TSTL virginal heroine
*The Will Stipulation (oh how I despise that one!)
*Plain Jane who is gorgeous with a little makeup
*Making the mother/father the root of all the hero/heroine's issues
*The secret child (especially in an historical where she's pregnant by the hero, TBM occurs and she's married off to a kindly older man who never has sex with her and then conveniently dies)
*I didn't realize I had sex and thought it was a dream even though I'm a virgin (actually added this one thanks to a reivew I read last week)




Cliches I actually do enjoy:


*Marriage of convenience
*Office romances that doesn't involve the boss and assistant
*Starts off antagonistic but ends very passionately
*Gothic
*Evil relative if the evilness isn't cardboard
*Revenge
*Betrayal

What about you? Favs? Wall bangers? Ones you can tolerate?

Thursday I'm hosting Jean Hart Stewart as she talks about her book For Love is New.

Thursday Progress

Some days writing is harder than others. Those days it's better to walk away than continually bang your head against the keyboard.

Lately, life has not been that way. OK, to clarify, WRITING has not been that way. Writing has been flowing rather smoothly. Dark Inheritance is going along very well, I adore the plot and the characters, but mostly right at this moment I'm loving the way it's all flowing! Not just meshing together, not just the way it's all coming out, but the pace of it.

These are the days I love writing, the ones I brag about, the ones I'll look fondly back on in another couple of months and wonder what happened.

And this Friday, my guest will be Wendi Zwaduk who's talking about how to act naturally and her new release, Careless Whisper.

Traditional Regency

How traditional is too traditional? I'm plotting out a Regency romance, not paranormal, not erotica, not even a romantic suspense. I know what I like to read, and while my high school years saw me reading many a traditional Regency book, I'm into darker, more sexual stories now.

But I want to keep an aspect of the books I loved growing up in this story. So I'm making a list of what aspects I want in this story.

• Heavy internal characterization. I want to know what both the hero and heroine are thinking and feeling.
• Parties, balls, soirees, dances, the ton
• Match-making mommas :)
• Scheming heroines who need to marry for security
• Heroes who need to marry to secure their title and produce an heir
• The inevitable falling in love

Hmm, I guess there's nothing that's more traditional than not, is there. Only elements that mix to make a good story.

Red herrings

In my latest ms, the dark regency story, tentatively titled Dark Inheritance, I use many a red herring. Okay, anyone who knows my thought process knows the more red herrings tossed in the better! But I thought today I'd talk about what the hell a red herring is.

The answer I've always known and the one supported by a History Channel program I love: Worst Jobs in History.

In the 1997 edition of Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson firmly asserts that “Escaping criminals in the 17th century would drag strong-smelling red herring across a trail to make pursuing blood-hounds lose the scent”. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and many dictionaries, say that red herrings were used to confuse the hounds chasing a fox.

Then, in finding a resource I could use to quote in this blog, I found this (same site):

The OED’s current entry for the figurative sense of red herring points to a reference in Nicholas Cox’s The Gentleman’s Recreation of around 1697 (Mr Ross says it was actually in a treatise by Gerland Langbaine on horsemanship that was bound into the third edition of this work without attribution) that appeared to suggest that hounds were trained to follow a scent by trailing a red herring on the ground.

This was a misunderstanding, as Langbaine included it in a section on training horses so that they became accustomed to following the hounds amid the noise and bustle of a fox hunt. He suggested a dead cat or fox should be dragged as a training-scent for the hounds, so that the horses could follow them.

If you had no acceptably ripe dead animals handy, he added, you could as a last resort use a red herring. Neither the original misunderstanding of the text or the correction suggests why red herrings might be thought of as laying a false scent to draw hounds off a trail, quite the reverse.

Eh, it all boils down to the same thing: to throw off the scent. To confuse the issue.

How Dark is Too Dark?

I believe (tho am not sure) that urban fantasy is considered very dark. Some paranormals, too. This is neither urban fantasy nor paranormal, but an historical. So my question is: How dark is too dark?

Where's the line? What's considred too much?

On the other hand, what do you want to see? How deeply do you want the angst to run? How horrible do you want the world to be?

My Buffy comic kingdom

For a romantic arc!

As a romance writer I didn't think it'd be this difficult to plot a romantic arc between two people who will make a damned fine couple if I do say so myself. If only they'd fall in love! I mean come on, people! Be nice to each other, smile that little sexy smile, show a little interest.

I decided to plot through each act then do each chapter in the hopes this new book would go faster. I am stuck, not with the plot, with the romantic arc. As in why oh why can't I figure out Grayson and Juliette and why they are two stubborn people?

Pft.

I'm doing something wrong here, I know it. I just can't think what it could be. I even took 2 of this gorgeous 3 day weekend and DIDN'T think about the story. I hate to start a new story, this is the one I really want to write. Alas.

Thursday Progress

New unplanned story project in the works. Not sure how this is going to go, it came out of nowhere but who was I to refuse? Refuse a cool, exciting new story project? Not I. I embrace the insanity wholeheartedly. With alcohol and caffeine. Yup. It's the only way.


And chocolate. Back off my stash!


So, new story proposal came about Monday afternoon (3 days ago). New story chapter 1 deadline is this coming Monday (3 days from now). I can do this. I just have to brush up on my angst (check) social networking (harder but I'll pencil in a very light check) and classics (have book will travel check) and I'll be set.


And to think, I had my next project all planned out. Even had 6 whole chapters outlined! Researched! Characterized! (And anyone who knows me knows that naming characters is the hardest part of the plan.) The whole verse planned out. AH well. I'll get to it eventually.

The joys & pitfalls of writing

If you're a writer you already know this. If you're not but know a writer you've probably tuned out over some of the venting that comes with being friends with a writer. I try to limit that kind of interaction with non-writing friends. They don't get it. Or think I'm crazy. Probably both. In the end, we're all ok with that, and let it slide. I am crazy, but then so are they.

I love writing - plotting, characterization, breaking the story, fixing the holes. What I don't love, and what is obvious to even non-writers is being stuck. Last night I spent several hours doing nothing but playing Sid Meier's Pirates. I love that game. it's highly addicting and even though I have stories to write, edit, polish, and send off, I spent the night attacking ships and plundering towns.

Because I was stuck. Trapped. Couldn't write a thing and didn't really want to. I needed a break. Not a crash, like what happened immediately after Christmas when I spent 4 days watching 14 Richard Sharpe movies. Sean Bean...yum...

Today's a new day but I still don't feel like writing. It's gray and cold out with snow predicted. I should at least open a file. And probably will. After breakfast. Usually once I putter a bit around the house things start to flow again. So laundry here I come. Then Gareth & Arabella in Book 3: Desert & Destiny.

Dark Desire of the Druids I: Murder & Magick available now from Ravenous Romance

What to do

It's all going so fast! Friday I managed 5,883 words, pretty damn close to my 6K mark! Yesterday-nada. But I needed the break. Today is Wanton Woman. Going to finish that one up now that I know where it's headed. There was something I couldn't figure out with that story, the plot, but now it's all good. So finishing that, relaxing because it's finally sunny though it's going to be cold! Yesterday it rained all day but was 63...today it's sunny and 46. Go figure.

Ideas

It's not hard for me to come up with new ideas for stories. It's hard fashioning the stories into something cohesive and workable. Sure I can say that I want Hero to meet Heroine in the Caribbean in 1670 on the run from a lunatic who wants her fortune but therein lies the problem.

Research is only the 1st issue. Clothes, speech, travel time, accommodations, etc. It's a nightmare. Interesting, but it's so easy to get bogged down in details.

Word usage is the 2nd. Can't use lunatic, really; it was around but madman would be better. Can't use moron - wasn't invented until the early 20th century. Plus they were much more proper in their use, polite even (and especially) when they were being rude.

Plot aside, it's hard to wrap everything up in a neat and tidy package with no holes, loose ends, or dangling ribbons.

Confessions of...

I've come to the conclusion I'm a research junkie.

I'm not the only one out there, I know who you are! I read your blogs and your books; I know you jump from century to country to idea to plot with very little in between. And it's fun!

I'm the same way. I love coming up with new ideas, researching the locale, the people, the class and history. I love plotting and weaving angst with romance, sex with action. I love the thrill of the story, the adrenaline of the newness. Oh, sure, I love writing it, too, but it's this initial-ness that's so exciting.

What about you?