Nope! Here's a snippet of MY FAIR SUCCUBI instead. This one is for all you Noah fans. (You're out there, right? Right.)

The concrete was cold and dusty against my bare feet, and I tiptoed quietly, peering at each door as I passed it. Every cell looked identical to the one I'd been held in - the window had been knocked out and replaced with bars, and each one was locked with a biometric key. I peered into one or two but I hadn't seen Noah. It concerned me a little, but I forced myself to continue down, past each door, all the way to the end of the hall. And at the last door, I peered in and saw a faint shape bent over on the side of the cot, elbows resting on his knees. His head was down in a defeated pose, and his fists were clenched.

Poor sweet Noah. My heart fluttered at the sight of him, so defeated. It was probably killing him that he wasn't able to protect me. I felt a surge of affection and swiped the badge against the reader quickly. Like clockwork, the red light flashed to green and the lock unbolted.

Noah didn't get up.

"Noah?" I whispered. "Noah, are you all right?"

No response. His hand clenched, and then unclenched slowly, so I knew he was awake. Worry shot through me, momentarily overriding my lust. "Noah?"

"Leave me," he said in a harsh voice.

What on earth was he talking about? I stared at him through the door, puzzled, then moved inside, crossing the cold floor on bare feet. The heavy door slid shut behind me, locking into place again, and I clutched the badge close. "Noah, are you all right? I'm here to get you out of here. We have to escape."

He shook his head slowly, as if trying to deny my words.

This was getting ridiculous. I moved to his side and went to touch his shoulder. "Come on, Noah."

Before I could touch it, his hand whipped out and trapped mine by the wrist. The word burned into my flesh hurt like a bitch. Before I could complain, he moved forward a fraction, and leaned in close to my hand. Sniffed it.

Exhaled sharply.

"I smell two other men on you," he said, his voice a low growl.

What in the world? I tried to jerk my hand out of his. "Noah, I didn’t sleep with anyone. You’re jumping to conclusions."

He tilted his head back and regarded me. The expression on his face was raw with need. His eyes were so deep a blue that they glowed in the dark, and the set of his jaw was firm, unyielding.

"Tell me who I smell."

A command. Oh great, we were going to play this game? I tried to jerk my hand out of his even as I answered. "Ariel and Ethan, probably."

His eyes darkened, his expression barely controlled.

"Don't be an ass, Noah." Oh lord, even him being completely batshit crazy was turning me on. I could feel my panties growing damp, felt my sex begin to heat. “Nothing happened. Listen to what I’m saying.”

"Your scent. You took two others for your need?" He slowly raised to his feet with slow, precise motions, not releasing my wrist from its death-grip in his. His eyes were blue, glowing slits of anger. "They brought me a woman and I refused her. Refused because I wished to stay loyal to you." His voice was hoarse with anger, almost unhinged. It brimmed with barely restrained force. His eyes seemed to flash purple with hunger and need. He was beyond rational thought.

"Noah, don't do this," I began in a husky voice. Do it, do it, my body was screaming. My sex was slick with need, and my breath was coming in small, excited pants. We didn’t have time to stop and feed our needs. I couldn't wait to get him alone in private, though. My libido was off the charts at the moment.

He stared at me with those insanely dark eyes, and leaned in and gently bit at the flesh of my palm, as if tasting me.

My knees went weak. "Noah--"

"Kneel.”

Good times, people. Good times.

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.

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?"

#

I'll be honest - I'm a Nano fan. Sometimes I'm just not feeling it, but when you have a book to write and are lacking motivation? Nothing can get your ass moving faster than seeing the word counts that your friends are posting. I'm competitive, too, so I like to try and keep up. I don't mind if I'm not first, but I at least want to stay in the game.

Now here's the thing about Nano. You're going to see a lot of people groaning about Nano, especially people in publishing. But your Nano powers can be used for good, too! Not just evil.

Good = Getting motivated. Writing awesome word count. Plotting on a deadline. Writing 50k in one month on a solid project. FIRST DRAFTING.

Bad = Flinging shit on the page just to make wordcount. Working on a completely lame project. Not realizing that you are writing a first draft and then just querying it to everyone that has an email address.

And okay. I have done the 'write shit just to make wordcount' thing. And you know what? It is a really really bad habit to break if you are trying to improve your craft. It really is. So don't do it. So you write 3k less a day than your buddy. It's a good 3k instead of 3k of "He went to the cabinet. He got some Cheerios. Mmm, Cheerios. He liked Cheerios. They reminded him of Uncle Bob who used to go boating at Lake Tawakoni as a child. Mmm Cheerios." Don't bloat your novel. Seriously. You're not going to be happy with the results.

Also? Pick a project you're passionate about and one that *has* a solid plot. Because that 10k wall comes up a lot sooner than you'd anticipate, and then you're left holding a story that's disintegrating in your hands. And there's nothing worse than having to start over in week 2.

(And I've been there, done that on both)

Anyhoo, here's my word meter.

I'm on Nano as 'irysangel'  (the same as my Livejournal) so you can buddy me if you like. Or not, cause that's cool too (and Nano's site is horrible for tracking any number of buddies over eight). And in case you're wondering what I'm working on?

I'M CHEATING!

That's right. I'm totally cheating. But my deadline for book 3 is coming up ASAP and I'm going to get a head start on it. I already have 10k written in the book, and I need to write another 75k before March 1st. And I have two books coming out between now and then, so yeah. I'm totally cheating. Feel free to laugh and point, but I'm going at it unofficial-like, and I just won't validate at the end of the month. For me, the goal is to get 50k of usable words, and if that means swimming with the Nano fishes, I'm happy to do so.

Anyhoo, for Day 1, I'm happy with my wordcount. How about you guys? How is your wordcount coming? Share!