Vacation Over

So I’m sad to report that tomorrow morning, my bright and shiny face will be returning to the dayjob after a little over a week off. It was really nice to have the time to mentally unwind and get some writing in. I sort of slacked mid-month and have just crossed 30k in my Nano. No success for me! Still, 30k is not bad and it gives me a jump start. I’m going to try and hit 33k today (if possible) and maybe another 2k tomorrow night. If I hit 35k for the month, I’ll be pleased with myself.

And I am sooo not ready for Christmas. I say that even as I drag out the ornaments and decorations. Thing is, my book comes out 4 days after Christmas. 29 days from today! AAAAAH! My brain is a little caught up in that. Will it do well? Has anyone looked at my book trailer? Should I blog more often? What’s my print run? How can I promote? Blah blah blah.

Reviews are also starting to trickle in. I got a lovely one at this site and got a mention on another site. Since this is the first book that is hitting, I get a weird, vicarious little thrill whenever my book is mentioned – for so long, I have kind of felt like my book has existed in a vacuum. Anyhow, I hope the thrill doesn’t go away anytime soon (though I suspect it might the first time I see a really bad review, and I’m sure there will be one).

That’s all I’ve got! I’d offer a snippet of the new book that I’m working on but…it’s really, really rough (my first drafts are mockable) and I’m currently at the OMG-I-HATE-IT on the sliding scale of book writing. Maybe next weekend! My goal is to finish as much of Book 3 as I can before Release Day, because I’m pretty sure my brain is going to be fried in all of January, and the book is due March 1.

Hope everyone else had a lovely holiday. Onward to the next one!

Dumbass goals.

So, back when I was a kid, I thought the year 2000 was going to be monumental. It would also be the year I turned 24.

I figured by that time, I would be ‘on the shelf’ (this method of thinking could have come from devouring historical romances since the ripe old age of 12, when every heroine in anything published in the 1980s was somewhere between the ages of 15 and 20). 24 was far too old for any guy to want to date beyond that, and it seemed like a good cutoff date for matrimony. (I was a weird kid. And a dumbass.)

If I did not get married by the age of 24, I decided, I’d be doomed to spinsterhood forever. Just me, old age, and a couple dozen cats. Naturally, the year 2000 came and went and I was not married. Alas. Life was surely over.

Then I met a guy in the next year, and when I was 27, we married. I was 3 years late on my ridiculous goal. So much for that.

Sometime in 2002, I started writing. And I told myself, age 30 is the perfect goal for publishing. If I don’t have a published novel by the time I am 30, I’m going to give up. I think everyone that is writing has set themselves a dumbass goal, right? The ‘If I don’t hit it by this date, it’s never going to happen and I’m going to give up’ date, right?

You can see where this is going. At age 29, I got my first agent and had written (by then) something around 9 manuscripts. No sale, no book in hand. My 30th birthday passed. I have to admit that I was a little crushed. Who wouldn’t be? There was no contract in sight, my book was languishing on someone’s desk in NY, and life was bleak. I’d missed my own personal goal, and that hurt.

But then, not 5 months later, I got the call. And 3 years (and one month) later, my book is going to hit the shelves.

It’s been on my mind today, these arbitrary goals. Because I made them, just by picking dates out of my head. 24 seems like a marriageable age. 30 seems like a reasonable age for a published author.

But these are dumbass goals. And if I’d simply been patient, I’d have seen that both would happen in their due process. Important things cannot be rushed, especially when they’re not in your control.

So that’s the moral of the story. Don’t set yourself dumbass goals. Or if you do, wait 3 years. Cool stuff never happens on schedule.

Ava Gray’s release, A Quiz at Odd Shots, and Ilona Andrews

First, let’s start with the obvious. Have you read this yet?

No? Because I did and it was pretty darn awesome, let me tell you. If you’re a SF/UF reader, you might have heard of Ann Aguirre, but if you read only romance (like I seem to do lately) this might have slipped past your notice. I read it a few months ago (thanks Ann!) and it was really awesome. Very fast paced, with a hard-edged, tough heroine and a sexy, roguish hero. She’s a con man and he’s an assassin, and no one gets watered down throughout the story, which was pretty awesome, IMO. Seriously – if you like a different kind of story, and if you like romantic suspense type books with just a dash of paranormal, check this out. I really do think you’ll like it.

Speaking of awesome, have you seen Ilona Andrews’s post today? No? Go read it. She says some wonderful, brilliant things that hit very close to home for me. If you’ve read my journal for any length of time, you know that I’m a little sensitive/easily irritated when people romance bash, and they romance bash all the time. It’s saddest when it comes from other authors, because for the most part? Romance writers might be terribly critical of other romance writers, but as a whole no one really denigrates other genres simply for existing. Not the case with other genres and romance. Anyhoo, I love Ilona for posting this, and I’m happy she spoke up and said what I was thinking (though in a less cuss-filled, more polite sort of way).

Oh, and it’s my day at Odd Shots and I’ve added a quiz – are you Psy? Are you Changeling? And did you buy the newest Nalini Singh release? Hop to it!

These things make up a Tuesday

1) Remember way back when I experimented with the Jalapeno Cheese Cup O Noodles? Today, I had Instant Potato Leek Cup of Soup. You know the type – add water and pray. Luckily, it did not turn out vile! I have high hopes for tomorrow – Spicy Thai Noodle in a Cup.

2) I am going through a re-read phase. Currently re-reading DEMON MOON by mah boo Meljean Brook. Will probably bust out my Kresley Cole series next. I have the Larissa Ione trilogy, but I’m not sure I’m ready to make the leap into uncharted territory!

3) I bought a cowl-turtleneck sweater last week. In black. I don’t really wear colors other than black. Ask anyone. So yeah. I take it home and hang it up…right next to the exact same cowl-turtleneck from last year. In black.

Clearly I shall have to stagger my wardrobe a bit more.

4) I took down my zombie & bookmarks post. Here’s the thing. I kind of hate those “OMG LOOK HOW AWESOME I AM” sorts of posts, and that felt like one. So I deleted it. If you want bookmarks, just, you know, drop me an email. I really don’t bite, though I might bitch about the price of stamps.

5) I am still editing the YA. Expect boring nonsense on this blog until then. But really, all the cool publishing stuff is over with for now, at least until I get author copies! Then expect all kinds of crazy babbling again.

6) Has anyone thought about Christmas yet? It is depressing and yet RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER. Sigh.

Sliding into the home stretch

We’re getting close to pub day! Only 70 days to go or so!

Still so far away, but given that I’ve been waiting since early 2007, it feels so very close. Cover art is all done. Galleys are done. Whoever is going to order my book for their retailers has probably already ordered by now. Promo is being planned. ARCs are out in the world. The final pieces are sliding in to place.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

To distract myself, I’m working on edits (again) for my spec project. And I possibly might have come up with an awesome scene for Succubus #3 last night when I was drifting off to bed. And now can’t wait to write it. Which is fun. I love it when writing is fun, don’t you?

Speaking of writing, Nano is still on my radar, but I’m probably going to be going at it unofficial-style. Haven’t decided. We’ll see what the schedule looks like in 11 days.

Guest Review

I am a huge (HUUUGE) Meljean Brook fangirl. Huge.  In fact, I just spent all weekend re-reading DEMON BOUND and reading part of DEMON FORGED again.

So when Jane Litte of Dear Author invited me to do a guest review, how could I refuse? I couldn’t.  And here it is:

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/10/05/guest-review-demon-forged-by-meljean-brook/

PSST – if you are wanting to try this series, Meljean is giving away 20 copies over on the Borders True Romance blog. Go comment!

http://bordersblog.com/trueromance/2009/10/05/guest-author-meljean-brook/

This book is so good it will make you crap your pants. Theoretical crapping, anyway.

Nanowrimo!

The Nano boards just opened up again yesterday! Is anyone planning on participating? I’ll be either working on Book 3 of my series or a spec project just for me.

Anyone else planning how to spend their November?

Yay!

Lots of goodies today!

The new Left4Dead downloadable content is available today! My husband called me to tell me that he’s already got it loaded up on the Xbox and ready to go. So excited!!

Also, today is release day for Ilona Andrews! Her new series (that I got an early peek at) is ON THE EDGE and it’s really awesome. I might have blogged about it over at The Odd Shots because I couldn’t help myself.  You should buy it. Because I said so.

That pretty much was enough to make my day awesome. How about you guys?

Brain Soup

No Left 4 Dead update yet. I have a sad. Rumor is it will be available on the 29th. Sniff.

Ilona is running a contest — winner gets to be on her beta-team or win a signed set of free books: http://ilona-andrews.livejournal.com/367027.html

It’s my day over at Odd Shots and I squee over Kresley Cole: http://www.theoddshots.com/2009/09/a-day-in-the-life/

Survivor tonight. Woot! Russell the Troll is my reason to watch at the moment, I’m afraid.

Still editing. Still not loving it. Oh, I love the book. But I’m tired of fixing it. And fixing word reps and character placement is a LOT easier than fixing the theme of the book (which is what I’m currently doing). It’s hard, yo. Nobody said this job was easy, right?

I am reading the new Lisa Kleypas (Tempt Me At Twilight). I just love Lisa’s writing style. Her books are like a warm, fuzzy hug of love from Romancelandia.

I am going to attempt to make Stuffed Bell Peppers this weekend. This will either be epic or tragic. Possibly both!

It occurs to me that I don’t have much to talk about lately. Here’s my life in a nutshell: Work is busy and boring. Husband I are boring by nature. The exciting world of publishing is boring at the minute, since all we are doing now is waiting for books to come out. Some people have review copies. I don’t know who. Not me! My Amazon ranking sucks, so I sate my authorbeast needs by obsessively checking the ranks of my friends. I’m editing a spec project or three for my agent.

But none of that makes a good post, you know?

I should be able to share my cover art soon. I’ve only been teasing that for about 5 months, right? What’s a few more weeks…

Ugh

My floor here at work has the worst coffee ever. Worst. Bleh.

(And yet, I still drink it. Smart? Not so much.)