Snippet from MY FAIR SUCCUBI

(to celebrate it being listed for pre-orders on Amazon and all)

So – spoilers ahoy. Don’t read below the cut if you’re not interested in a tease about a certain character that returns.

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(more…)

Look what’s on Amazon!

It’s book 3 – whee!

<3

Release date is December 28, 2010. That means you get 3 books in one year (well, theoretically). Coolbeans!

(I am still ridiculously in love with this book, even weeks after finishing it.)

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!

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.

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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.

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

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.)

Just the FAQs, ma’am

Hey everybody! It’s Friday – WOOOO!

I think the majority of my blog tours are over for the moment – and I have to say that while it was fun, I’m glad to be able to give myself a little mental R&R for a few days! At least when it comes to blogging.

I did see a few of the same questions pop up repeatedly, so I thought I’d answer a few of them here so you don’t have to fish for answers.

Q: When does book 2 come out?

A: It’s out now! Honest! It’s available on Amazon and at Borders and anywhere you can imagine! I’ve even heard it’s at Kroger. Heck, I have SEEN it at Kroger. And it’s a pretty, pretty cover.

Q: Who’s on the cover of the first book? The 2nd?

A:  Noah is on the cover of the first book – the hair’s longer than I pictured for him, but the model is so pretty that I can’t even be disappointed! Zane is on the second cover.

Q: This is a series, right?

A: Yes it is! Same characters, multiple books. Book 2 can be read without book 1, but it’s a lot like watching a TV episode and missing the pilot. You’ll catch on, but it might take a commercial break or two.

Q: When does book 3 come out?

A: Very very early 2011. I haven’t heard the official month yet, but probably January 2011.

Q: Why so long?

A: Because my publisher releases two books a year for their authors and both of mine came out back to back! (btw, I <3 my publisher for the back to back)

Q: Why does your journal suck so much lately?

A: I know. Sadface! The thing is…I’m crazily busy. December was ridiculous, and January is turning out to not be much better. I have a day job and we’ve been at crunch-time and will be until March 1st. And that is also conveniently when book 3 is due to my editor.

Here’s a peek into my writing process – I write the draft at night, after work. It comes out in a flurry of words that are usually crap words. Like, I don’t give snippets a lot because they are WOAH BAD. I read a sentence aloud to my husband the other day to ask his opinion, and this is how the conversation went:

Me, reading sentence: Blah blah blah blah blah sentence stuff that I can’t share because it is spoiler-iffic. So what do you think, honey?

Him: Erm.

Me: Erm?

Him: That’s not…the finished sentence, is it?

Me: Well, it’s staying in here for now. But this is a rough draft.

Him: But that’s an awful sentence. Like, really bad.

Me: I KNOW BUT IT’S ROUGH DRAFT.

Him: You’re going to rewrite it, right?

Me: I didn’t ask your opinion about the sentence. I want to know about the PLOT.

Him: Is your whole book written like that?

Me: You know what? Nevermind.

Him: Do you need my help writing it?

Me: … I’m done here.

Heh.  So, first draft is badbadbad. But I never turn in a first draft! I go back through the book immediately after I finish it and begin to do a second draft of things I couldn’t squeeze in to the first draft. Things like uh, plot points I forgot, personality for characters, etc. Then once that’s done, I print the entire thing out and edit it again.

The book is due March 1. I am um….still not done with the rough draft. Normally the rough draft ends at about 80k, and after all clean ups, it ends at about 87k or so – a nice, sensible size for a book.

Book 3 (Which I am now calling THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT SUCCUBI because I am weird like that) is currently 85k. And I still have at least 10k to go. Which I really need to write this weekend.

So – deadline crunch for Jill! The good news is that if you’re waiting on book 3, it’s going to be meaty and chock full of story, and longer than the last two books.  The bad news is that my brilliant journal will probably be less brilliant for the next few weeks while I try to squeeze all the brilliancy into my book.

So…I hope I hit everything pressing! If you have something else you want me to answer, leave a comment and it’ll give me fodder for additional posts.

Release Day 2.0!

Today is the release day for book 2, SUCCUBI LIKE IT HOT.

Here’s the back blurb:

Nobody said Sucking was easy.

With a flirtatious new figure, her dream job as an archaeologist, and two  gorgeous boyfriends to scratch her seductive Itch—an angel and a vampire—Jackie Brighton is totally getting the hang of life as a succubus.

 Then her need for sex spirals out of control, and she accidentally knocks the pizza guy unconscious with her touch. Great, she’s cursed. Unfortunately, neither of her jealous lovers is exactly talking to her right now.

 So after Jackie strikes a deal with a crafty demon, she and her best friend Remy take a cross-country road trip to deliver a cryptic message to the nation’s oldest succubus (who doesn’t look a day over eighteen.) Their journey gets weirder with every mile—demonic possession, a charming stalker, a deadly hotel room warning—but when they get to New Orleans, Jackie discovers a dangerous catch to her supernatural bargain. Someone wants her dead (again), but has she been sleeping with the enemy?

 Or do the forces of evil think they’re some kind of match for a vixen in a miniskirt?

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I’m really excited about this one, as I think it’s a smoother, faster-paced story than book 1 (and hey, I liked book 1 too). You should be able to buy a copy just about anywhere books are sold.

As for blog tours today, I’m over at Ilene Wong’s journal today! We’re talking more sex. What can I say? It’s a fun topic.

Productive weekend is productive!

I’m hard at work on Book 3 still (STILL!) and felt like I made some big progress this weekend, so that was nice. I’m in the midst of a big, important scene and my brain is starting to shut down, which means that it’s time to let it go for the evening. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the rest of the scene again when my brain is a little fresher and feels less like beef jerky.

Where is my little counter thingie? I haven’t used it in a few days. Here we go:

I’ve increased the word count for the book a little more because I do think it’s going to run longer. I’m at the point in the book where I bullet-point out each plot point/scene that is left and assign an approximate word count so I can see how much more I have to write. My conservative outline shows I still have 26k left, but that will probably run a little long. We’ll see!

Tiny snippet from tonight (ignore any punctuation foobars):

As if on cue, the far end of the rubble surged. Like a massive, bronzed pillar, Ethan arose from the garbage, all hulking shoulders and messy dark hair. His shirt had torn and clung to his waist in mere strips, leaving his heaving torso bare.

Clinging to his leg like a damsel in some sort of Conan movie was my friend, Remy.

“Remy,” I yelled, circling around the ruins to run back to her side. I dropped to my knees near her, relieved at the sight of her alive and in one piece. “Are you okay?”

She stared at me, uncomprehending, then stared up at Ethan in a daze. “Big.”

I touched her cheek, turning her face to me. “We were so worried about you!”

She blinked, then looked up at Ethan again, and caressed his muscular leg. “So…biiiiiig.” Her voice trailed off in a breathy sigh.

Erm. Now was not the time.

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…