Three things make a Thursday

1) If you are waiting on a book from me, I’m sending a truckload of them out this weekend. I had the best intentions last week, but then the Texas snowpocalypse hit, and this week I’ve been pulling 10 hour days at the day job, and I can’t seem to get to the post office on time. So I promise they ARE coming. If you’re not sure I’ve sent it out yet, feel free to email me and I’ll let you know the status.

2) Several people have asked me about Book 3. It’s scheduled for very early next year! I’ve turned it in on time (go me!) so everything should be smooth-sailing (knock on wood!). A couple of people have asked what it’s about, too. Well, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.

I kid, I kid. I just like that joke. So…book 3 is when everything Jackie has been trying NOT to think about comes to a head. We meet more Serim, another angel, a nephilim, more vampires, and a certain character is quite prominent (coughZanecough). So if you wanted to choke me at the end of book 2…I think you will like book 3.

3) I am watching far more Olympics than I’d thought. And enjoying the new season of Survivor far more than I expected. Oh, Boston Rob, I know you will not make it much further (you’re too Alpha) but I adore you so. If you and eye-rolling Courtney make it to the end, my world will be complete.

Really done, I think

Edits are all loaded in, spell check is run, and chapter breaks are in (I always do chapter breaks last).

*headdesk*

I feel very boneless but happy. I like the book a lot more now that the revisions are in, and there’s one scene that I hold a little near and dear. The book is also 96k at the moment, though I expect my editor to trim it a little.  She’s very good at making me succinct (for which I am endlessly grateful!).

Whew!

I’m going to sit on it for a day or two, maybe, before turning it over to my editor. But…I’m done!

Chance to win my books

Sorry I’ve been quiet, guys — I’m knee deep in revisions…and also in snow! The Texas snowpocalypse has come as a bit of a surprise, and as a result, husband and I (and the POWER company) were not quite ready to have a foot+ of snow dumped on us. We had no power all day yesterday – it went off at 8 am and came on again just in time for Survivor.

So I’m running behind! And I forgot to point out that if you want to win a copy of my books, you can head over to Odd Shots and comment! I’m giving away around 10 copies, and if Book Depository can ship to you, you can enter!

I promised a snippet!

Here’s a quick scene from Book 3, because I promised! To set the scene, Jackie has escaped some up-to-no-good Serim in Yucatan, Mexico and is flying back to New City. Her companion is a new character (and one of my favorites), a nephilim Enforcer called Ethan (though his name might change).

Keep in mind that this is not final draft, and is subject to all kinds of tweaky things, and is a little rough.

#

Clearly Ethan was not familiar with flying coach.  The Serim he hung out with must have normally chartered their own planes, because my companion scowled at every person that came down the aisle as I tried to read the in-flight magazine.

“I do not like this,” he murmured as a large man entered the plane and moved to the back. “This is not a defensible position in the slightest.”
“Of course it is,” I said, not looking up from the newest issue of National Geographic that I’d found crammed into the seat-back in front of me. “We’re in an exit row.”
“My knees are touching the seat in front of me,” he whispered with something akin to horror. “How am I to leap to your defense if I am pinned in my seat?”
“Um, you don’t?”
He looked affronted at the thought, and his hands flexed suspiciously. I would have bet money that he was wishing he had his wooden bō in hand. He looked as if he wanted to whack a man in a business suit with it.
“Calm down,” I said, flipping pages in the magazine restlessly. “It’s a long flight and it’ll go a lot faster if you sleep.”
“I do not sleep.”
Right, I kept forgetting that. I was usually the only one that usually didn’t sleep around here. “Because your mother was a succubus, right?” At his stiff nod, the plane began to roll forward on the tarmack. Ethan’s hands clutched the seat arms so tightly that I thought he was going to rip it off, and I smacked his hand with the magazine. “Why don’t you tell me more about Enforcers?”
Anything to distract him before he got an air marshal on our cases.
Ethan gave me another frustrated look, though his hand relaxed a little on the seat. “We serve the Serim council with our lives. What more could you wish to know?”
Obviously Ethan was still working on his social skills. “How old are you, for starters?” I would have bet money that he wasn’t thousands of years old like Noah and the other Serim. He didn’t have that weary cast to his eyes that the others did.
“I am twenty-eight.”
Well, that wasn’t too bad. “Huh. I would have pegged you younger.” Like, twelve, if it wasn’t for the six-foot-six body, broad shoulders and hands the size of clubs. “So what other cool stuff do Enforcers get? Did you get super strength?”
“I am stronger than a succubus, yes.” He frowned at me as if I were asking him what color his underpants were.
“Dur. Everything is stronger than a succubus.” I leaned in close as the plane roared and tilted back, and we took to the air. “Did you get the curse?” I yelled over the thrust of the engines. “You know, the two day sex thing?”
He flinched and gave me an offended look – so did the lady across the aisle from us. Oops. But Ethan looked twice as scandalized as the old woman. “You should not ask me such things, Jackie Brighton.”
“Why not? I’m curious. Your boss wanted me to carry a bun in the oven, the least you can do is tell me about your kind. I didn’t even know you existed.”
He ignored me, jaw clenched, until the plane leveled out in altitude and the flight attendants got up, rolling the heavy carts down the aisle.  Ethan seemed to compose himself after that, and gave me a quick, dismissive glance. “We require good deeds.”
I had already pulled out my magazine and was flipping through it again. I glanced up as he spoke under his breath. “I’m sorry, did you say good deeds?”
He gave me another stiff nod. “Good deeds.”
“Like…a boy scout?”
He looked at me, chagrined and puzzled. “What is a boy scout?”
Good lord, where had they kept him for the past thirty years? “Never mind. So…good deeds, huh? Interesting. How big of a deed?”
He shrugged, still ill at ease with discussing the topic. “As big as it needs to be. Small deeds fuel me for a small time, larger deeds for a longer time.”
Interesting. “So…that’s why you’re helping me, right? This is a really big good deed?”
He gave me a warning look. “I am helping you because Noah Gideon asked me to assist you and I owed him a favor of his choosing. Just because I require good deeds to survive does not mean I am immune to the plight of others.”
Touché. I gave him a chagrined half-smile. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you sound like a junkie.  Or a douchebag. So you owe Noah a favor, huh? What for?”
Ethan’s eyes were carefully blank. “That is a private matter between Noah Gideon and myself.”

Obviously I’d steered the conversation off the tracks. Ethan had shut down – I wouldn’t get any more out of him. “Well, whatever your reason, I appreciate the gesture.” I patted his hand. When he flinched, I pulled back. “You okay?”

He nodded, his eyes still wide as he stared at the flight attendant as she rolled the cart down the aisle a few inches, then halted again. “I am not used to so many people so close.”
Yeah, about that… “Where did you say you grew up again?”
“In a sanctuary. Many of the Serim have hidden from the outside world, choosing to spurn its evil, licentious ways. I am a guard there. Or I was until Ariel called me to duty.” He did not seem pleased by it, either.
So Ethan had grown up in some sort of monastary. I wondered if that was where he’d met – and worked with – my boyfriend Noah. “So did a lot of people live in this sanctuary?”
“Just the Serim.”
“Just the Serim?” I raised an eyebrow. “You must have had a few chicks there at least once a month, right? To serve the curse?”
He gave me another stiff look. “The others went to town on regular excursions. I did not. My needs were served at home.”
Boy. Not all his needs, if I was missing my guess. Great. Just what I needed to rescue my ass. The forty-year old virgin.

#

Hope you enjoyed it!  (ETA – sorry about the formatting! It might look better over at my Livejournal.)

You know what’s funny?

Spam. My spam filter catches hilarious messages that are left on my website by random spammers. Classics such as “I appreciated the enticing prosperity of your message! Would that I can return soon to check for updates!”

And it’s signed by an enhancement-pill-that-rhymes-with-Niagara.

Hilarious.

Btw – I am still a bad blogger. You have been warned. I’m hoping that if I’m at the computer more this week  (as opposed to this weekend, when I mostly had a brain meltdown and did nothing but read), I’ll provide snippets of book 3.

More awake

Afternoon, all!

I’m feeling quite buoyant today – yesterday too. My husband commented on me humming to myself. I think it’s because the first draft is done! Some people have post-book depression. Not me! Post-book elation on this end. The world is suddenly golden once more, my free time starts to loom in the distance, and I begin to plot.

That’s right – I’m already thinking about the next project to work on. Writers (in general) aren’t happy unless they’re pecking at some sort of project. This is definitely true for me – when I’m not writing, I get cranky and irritable and impossible to live with. Writing soothes the savage, PMSing beast that apparently lives under my skin.

So, yeah. I’m thinking of the next project down the line. There goes that cart before the horse thing again…

I’ve been in the mood for some romantic fantasy and I find that it’s really difficult to locate on the shelves. What the hell, shelves? I’ve read everything Sharon Shinn and Marillier have written. I’ve crossed over and read a bunch of YA, too – Shannon Hale, Gail Carson Levine, etc, but I love the adult, super-romantic fantasy novels. I’m not talking a fantasy novel with a romance subplot. Not talking fantasy novels that have a male narrator. Girly, epic, girly girly romantic fantasy. Like Marillier’s HEART’S BLOOD. But, you know, not that book because I’ve already read it.

Suggestions? Am I out of luck?

Momentary mental break

Now that book 3 is done (for the most part), I’m taking a few days to let it bake before diving into the edits. In the meantime, I have some edits on a side project that I’m tinkering with, and some books to read.

And I was going to post more, but…I forgot what it was. Sad. Perhaps this is a sign I need to go to bed.

More tomorrow, when I’m (hopefully) coherent!

I…think I am done?

It feels weird to say that, but I think I’m done with the rough draft of book 3! WOOOOOOOHOOO!

This one was definitely the toughest to draft out of all 3 books. Right now it stands at 91,992. I expect it to grow in the next few weeks (especially if I add the sappy epilogue that I’m debating adding, because I love them – but still debating).

Hip hip hooray!

So close I can taste it!

Just crossed 90k in the rough draft.  Still have at least 3-5k to go. Longest first draft in forever. Sigh. But I’m almost there. ALMOST.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend. All I did was type.
(And I’m STILL NOT DONE. AAAAH.)

Hard parts are done!

I’ve slogged my way through the most difficult part of the book and am now on the downhill slide. It’s kind of like the epilogue, except it’s more like a really epic epilogue (which totally does not make sense, but will if you read the book, I promise), so I’m still looking at  a good 5k or so of wrap-up.

Then it is done! Or at least, the first draft is. And then we’re immediately jumping back in to the second draft and clean-ups. I’m feeling good, overall. The book is moving along, and a few pieces I was mentally fudging around with seem to have slipped into place as I write, which makes my brain hurt a lot less. My notes page on the book has gone down from two full pages of bullet points to  2/3rds of a page.

Not bad, not bad. Not the most exciting way to spend a Saturday night, but it’ll do.