I'm Back At It

I thought the second time around I was immune. Ha! Fooled me.

What am I talking about? Querying – and constantly checking my e-mail – that's what!

I laugh at myself. How pathetic can I be? I mean, I just sent out the queries. I know how busy agents are. I know it will take several weeks before they get back to me (if they respond at all, that is). Yet, as soon as I hit "send", all reason flies out the door.

I know it's unrealistic to think every agent will love my story, but I hope it anyway. And I know it only takes one "yes", so am I wrong in wishing for more than one? Am I greedy? Or just normal?

I so much want this book to be the one for me. The one that starts the ball rolling. So I'll post my query here and you tell me – would you want to read it?

When Committee Member Jack VanAllen wakes up in a snow bank with no recollection of how he got there, he's a little concerned. Vampires don't black out and they don't forget anything. When he discovers the woman who resembles his late wife lying beside him in the midst of turning, he's outraged. Unauthorized turnings are punishable by death.

Sunshine Petersen's New Year's resolution did not include immortality, but that's what she gets whether she likes it or not. She could come to love her new life if it included Jack. If only she hadn't accused him of turning her. It was an honest mistake. How was she supposed to know the difference between a bite for feeding and a bite for turning? Unfortunately, she doesn't remember who turned her.

While Jack is almost certain he didn't turn Sunshine, his lack of memory, her resemblance to his late wife, and his growing attraction to her isn't helping his case any. Could he have turned her or is someone setting him up? Should he do the honorable thing and turn himself in, hoping for leniency or take Sunshine and run, ensuring the death penalty if he's caught?

MY SUNNY VAMPIRE is a paranormal romance of 98,000 words.

I welcome all honest opinions!

Men Who Resemble My Characters

I've got it bad right now. The hero of my current WIP ("Memories") is Jack VanAllen. I describe him vaguely in the book (I like to have my readers put their own spin on the likeness, you know?), but I know what he looks like.

Then on one Wake Me Up Wednesday blog from Renee Vincent, she posted pictures of Alex O'Loughlin. Oh my! There was Jack!

I kind of knew who the actor was. I knew he was on Hawaii Five-O (a series my husband was watching but I didn't have much interest in) and discovered he was on a short-lived vampire series I tried to watch (the vampire premise was interesting, but I didn't care for the show).

Now I'm in the middle of editing/revising and I can't get enough of Hawaii Five-O! All because of Alex, mind you. It's like seeing my character on screen. Unreal!

A minor character from my second book ("Sarah's Turn"), Sam Kincaid was definitely written with an actor in mind – Brandon Routh. Yeah, he made a nice Superman and all that, but caught my attention on an episode of "Chuck". Oh yeah – he was Sam! I had hoped to get Brandon's autograph while at Dragon*Con last year, but the cost was prohibitive (to my pocket book, anyway). One day Sam will be featured in his own book. I'm sure I'll have a fixation on Brandon when that occurs!

Normally, I don't flash on celebrities when I read a book. I form a picture of them in my head, but no one famous. So it was strange when it happened as I wrote a book. I had a sense of what Sam looked like, but nothing firm. Then I saw Brandon and BAM! There was my description. But Jack was different. I had already formed a likeness in my head and no one triggered it. At least I didn't think so. Maybe it was buried in my sub conscience. Who knows!

Do you picture famous people of characters you read (or create)? Is it normal for you, or does it only happen occasionally?

Editing and Reading

I'm finding editing to be a whole lot less stressful now that I set a goal for myself. It's a whole lot more fun, too.

I want to get the first edit of "Memories" done by the end of May (no later than, anyway). So I was back to the calculator. How many pages per day would that entail? Granted, I tend to add pages in my first round of editing (because my first draft is rough), so I would have to take that into account, too. Still, 10 pages per day seemed like a nice round number. Doable, too.

Now, after I've hit the 10 page mark (or the 70 pages per week – since there are some days when I'm just not able to get to my book), I will allow myself to do other things. Not chores (those usually have to come before writing/editing), but fun things. Like watching "Vampire Diaries" (I record those shows to watch when the husband isn't home) or reading.

Yesterday I had reached my page goal (and am only 5 pages short of my weekly goal – I still have today since my week runs Mon-Sun), which was a feat in itself. With a hair appointment in the morning (must hide those grey hairs), and mowing the yard in the afternoon (finally!), and meeting friends for dinner (of which we monopolized the table for 3½ hours), it's amazing I got any editing done at all. But I did (takes a bow) and decided to spend the rest of the night reading.

I started reading "The Vampire and the Virgin" by Kerrelyn Sparks on Thursday. Normally, it takes me a week to read a book (since I usually only read during my lunch hour). I finished it last night. I haven't finished a book that fast in soooo long. I loved getting lost in the story (and that's very easy for me to do with her books). Heck, I just love her books!

I hope one day someone will say that about my books.

The Joy of Writing

The words flowed today and I'm happy!

I had been struggling with my WIP. It wasn't because I wasn't enjoying the story. Far from it. It was more like I wanted to make sure I got it right before I went any further.

Some scenes I have embedded in my mind and the writing flows (like today). Other days the scene isn't quite cemented – I basically know what I want, but not how to get there. It can be fun and frustrating at the same time. Fun because I play different scenes in my head. Frustrating because I sometimes can't make up my mind which one is best!

Love scenes are ALWAYS the hardest for me to write. Action, action, and more action. I'm a dialogue person (which is strange considering I hate talking!). So you will see a lot of talking in my books, cause that's what people do when you have more than one in a room (well, except for those action love scenes).

But I'm getting close to the BLACK MOMENT, which can be fun to write. Of course, it means writing down all that emotion – which isn't easy for me, either. That's why I save all that for the edit, not the first draft.

The end is in sight. Not sure how I will get there, or how it will end, exactly (except for the HEA – all my books will have that) (And for those of you non-writers out there, that stands for "Happily Ever After"), but that's the whole fun of writing. I start the scene and the characters take me where it needs to go.

I think this book will be hard for me to end. I'm enjoying Jack and Sunny so much, I'll hate to say goodbye. But goodbye I will say. I just hope it's this month. That's my goal anyway.

Pitching (But Not a Baseball)

Today, on the Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal Blog, there was an article about pitches by CJ Lyons. It was very informative and she offered to give some feedback if we wished to post our pitch. I was going to pitch THE UNCOMMON ONE, but I’ve been pitching that, and decided, instead, to pitch my 3rd book (since my 2nd book is a sequel and I don’t plan on pitching it).

Can’t tell you how surprised I was to realize I had a high-concept thing going that was unique – and I didn’t even realize it! Here’s the original pitch I entered for my paranormal romance tentatively titled MEMORIES:

After waking from a night he doesn’t remember, a high-ranking vampire is implicated in an unauthorized turning of a woman who resembles his late wife.

CJ liked the premise and made some suggestions (like the word amnesia – how that could have slipped my mind… oh well). Anyway, after a little tweaking, here’s what I came up with:

A 259 year-old vampire with amnesia is implicated in the unauthorized turning of a woman who resembles his late wife.

So, which do you like? Does it sound intriguing? Does it sound original? Wasn’t sure if I should leave high-ranking in there (some people were intrigued with a concept of rank and hierarchy in vampires, when really my vampire is a Committee Member – wasn’t sure how to phrase that so I went with high-ranking, since he is, in a way).

As you can see from the side panel, I’m not very far in the story, but I think I like having the pitch first. It’s making me focus on what the story really is about, which is important when you haven’t plotted out the whole book (I seem to be a mix between a plotter and a pantser).

Have to say, though, that her comments really inspired me. Now it’s back to editing SARAH’S TURN. Hope to have that finished by the weekend so I can get back to MEMORIES.

Break Over

Woke up with ideas of how to start my third book. That made me happy, because these characters have been quiet for a while (like since May). Other characters have been chatting in my head. But I wasn’t ready to write their story yet. I needed a story to stand on its own (even though it is part of my series).

So when I woke up with a solution to a problem I was having with the female character, and she started talking, I rejoiced. She hadn’t talked to me before. Only the male character had. I can now start writing Jack and Sunny’s story. Ben and Victoria (those characters who were previously chatting) are on the back burner. And what about Sam and Janie you ask (since I’ve written some of that)? They are too close to John and Sarah (their story is mentioned in SARAH’S TURN) and I need to break away from them. Like I said, I need distance from the first two books and Jack and Sunny are that.

Yes, I have strange names to books, but I got tired of calling them by numbers. So I’m naming them by the characters until a firmer title forms in my head. Some people seem to have an easy time naming their books. Not me. I was almost finished with THE UNCOMMON ONE before that name firmed up in my head. SARAH’S TURN came a little easier, though (although it’s technically THE UNCOMMON ONE PART II).

I am trying to plot some of this book out. I thought I had back in April (when I used these characters for an assignment during the Aspiring Authors class I took during the RT Convention). But now that Sunny is talking, I realized what I had plotted out before won’t work. That’s okay. I think I’m basically a pantser at heart.

I really didn’t think I would start on the next project so soon. But the urge to write never goes away. I’m looking forward to seeing where Jack & Sunny take me.