Next stop!

Blog tour continues over at Stina’s blog. Today we’re talking succubus mythology and vampires.

More blog tour goodness

Here’s the next stop on the blog tour: Kerri O’Connell. Today’s topic is mythology and world-building.

BTW – if you’ve left me a question on one of the other blogs, I haven’t had a chance to answer yet! But I will! Just be patient with me. It’s a little hectic right now. Be sure and comment to enter the Holly Root contest, though!

Blog Tour continues…

Over at Jen Hayley’s site.

(And I wrote 1500 words last night! Woot! Go me!)

Two steps forward, one step back

(Side note – the other day I quoted a Lady Gaga song in my blog post and have gotten all kinds of weird hits from fans looking for info on Lady Gaga. Sorry people! This here’s a writing blog. And now I’m wondering if this title will bring forth legions of Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat fans.)

I intended to get 10k this three-day weekend on my book. Yeah. That’s not going to happen. I wrote 1500 on Friday, and got stuck. Wrote another 1000 last night and got really, really stuck. A one line, flyaway summary in my synopsis had turned into a monster that was going to require about 15k of building into the story – 15k that I hadn’t allowed in my outline or even knew where to begin. Oy. I was feeling a little desperate, and I kept writing but it wasn’t…well, good.

Cue my husband, my hero. He said, “I can help with your plot.” So I rambled at him about my plot and tried to summarize. And he immediately came back with the perfect plot fix.

Husbands are good like that.

So this morning I’m reading back through the last 100 pages of the manuscript and tweaking what I have to make it line up with the new vision. Instead of setting up a big, elaborate hunt for a missing character, I’m setting a trap for the character instead. No Scooby-Doo-ish mystery, and I can skip that 15k of bloat that I was worried about.

Today is going to be a good day. Even if I don’t make up the wordcount, I’ve already saved myself 15k, more or less.

Oh, and one more thing – I have not heard back from either winner of my contest here on my blog! Sadness! Don’t you want signed copies? Sniff. I’ll give you guys two more days to respond, and if I don’t hear anything by 12:01 AM on Tuesday, I’ll re-draw.

The blog tour continues!

(Just a reminder, the rules of the contest are here on Gretchen McNeil’s blog)

Today’s stop is over at Dorothy Winsor’s journal, where we discuss the long wait between offer and the book landing on the shelf.

Winners & Blog Tour Continues

Hi all,

Sorry I’m late to posting! Yesterday was, in short, not fun. Thank you, Day Job!

Here are the winners of the signed copies. I did not count anyone that commented after 12 noon yesterday (luckily everyone commented before!). Everyone that commented on my Jill Myles journal was assigned 1-69, and the LJ comments were 70-87.

#1 — True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 87 Result: 39 =
Calila says:
December 22, 2009 at 1:29 am (Edit)

Congrats! I can’t wait to read it!

#2 — True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 87 Result: 65 =
Rebecca says:
December 25, 2009 at 11:54 pm (Edit)

Fantastic cover! I’d love to read it. Please enter me.

So! Rebecca and Calila, please send me an email with your address information, and I’ll send out the books this weekend. Email me at jillmyles AT gmail dot com.

Also, check out the Blog Tour as it continues here at Shelli’s blog. She’s got a great overview of what’s scheduled.

Release Day Blog Tour!

Hi Everyone! It’s here! It’s finally here! The book AND the blog tour!

What is the blog tour all about, you ask? Well, hop on over to Gretchen McNeil’s blog and hear all about it. Twenty brief interviews! Twenty days of madness! Twenty chances to enter!

What you need to know: It’s all about me. And my books! And writing in general. Actually, mostly about writing.
What you want to know: You can win a query letter critique from my agent, Holly Root.

Check Gretchen’s post for all the details first!

Then, the Official Blog Tour starts over here at Amy Bai’s journal…

Tomorrow…

Is the big day (at least, it’s exciting for me).

I’m…so tired I could fall over. Seriously. Next time I have a book release, remind me not to have it in December or January. Or BOTH.

Just a quick reminder that you have a few hours left to enter both my Goodreads contest and my blog contest to win a free copy!

I was also over at Dear Author today for the First Sale letter, and Mandi at Smexy Books reviewed Gentlemen Prefer Succubi.

There’s a little something cool launching tomorrow, brought to you by a group of the most supportive people ever…so stay tuned.

ETA – AAAAH! My counter says 2 hours until my book releases.

No writing tonight. My eyes are crossing. Hopefully tomorrow.

Another quickie update

Starting to get over the hump! Just write through it. Just write through it.

Might get a bit more today, but I’m at a good stopping point. Next scene should be easy-peasy to do. Here’s a teeny tiny snippet from My Fair Succubi to get you through the day. It’s very rough draft, so please be kind.

The set-up: Jackie & a friend (Ethan) are cleaning up someone’s trashed house. Ethan is…well, he’s the male equivalent of a nun. A monk, if you will. Raised behind monastery walls and all that. He’s…innocent. I lovingly refer to him as my Napoleon Dynamite.

Snippet!
#

“Thank you, Ethan,” I said, dumping my backpack of clothing on the corner of the couch and glancing around the room. “I really appreciate it, and I’m sure Remy would too if she were here.”

He said nothing, but I caught the gleam of his eyes again as he grabbed the garbage bag and began to stuff it full of shredded paper. “You are welcome, succubus.”

Oh brother. Again with the ’succubus’ thing. “Can you please just call me Jackie, for once and for all? Jeez.”

“Calling you by your first name would imply an improper relationship,” he said in a stiff voice. “And I have no wish to imply such a thing.”

Well, at least he was honest about it. “Can you call me by something else? A pet name of some sort?”

He straightened and looked at me with a perfectly grave expression. “Like…Fluffy?”

#

Writing and kites

I haven’t written in about three weeks, maybe longer. As soon as December 1st hit, my brain kind of exploded,  my schedule at work exploded, and with Christmas coming…I’ve been a mess.

But Christmas is over! And I think I’m over the worst of some of the other stuff (though I still anticipate next week to be brutal) so it’s time to poke at Book 3 again. Just a little poking – I left off at a nice rounded spot, so it was hard to get back into the story. I know where I’m going, it’s just a matter of picking up the threads again.

I always mentally picture writing a book as kite flying. And each plot-line itself is another kite I’m launching into the air. If I keep on top of it, and I pay attention, I can keep multiple kites up in the air at once, no problem. And it’s great fun and I look like a kite-flying badass. But when I stop paying attention, one kite crashes to the ground, then another, and another. And when I open my document after sitting on it for a few weeks…I have no clue what I was working with. Heh. So I’m slowly launching my kites back into the air again, but it’s going to take a few days and a few writing sessions to get them all flying again. Baby steps.