Release news.

I have a release date for my Cerridwen Press book! No Accounting for Chase will arrive on August 23, 2007. Woohoo! I will of course post the cover and such when I have it, but that may take a while as the form just got turned in. Still, it's real. I can now send in my paperwork for PAN and PASIC recognition. I can make a "First Sale" announcement in the RWR. I'll get my shiny pink ribbon in Dallas.

That First Sale column always cracks me up. It usually reads, "This is Author's seventh completed manuscript," or something like that. Which-- *does quick math* counting novellas, I've got nine and a half completed. Right on schedule. ;)

Reader comments

I blame this post on Ciar Cullen's post a few days ago, but I've been thinking about it ever since. I keep meaning to blog about it and then I forget, go figure.

It's also come up in a few other places, so I'm curious about group consensus, or at the very least, a few responses from the ether.

If you were going to get reader feedback from someone about your book(s), would you mind if the feedback said nothing other than 'I loved it!' Would you rather have something more than that, like a reason why the reader loved it? Or is enthusiasm enough? Would you mind a critique if it came along with a compliment?

Would someone making weird comments that appeared not to have anything to do with the book you wrote bother you? Offend you?

And if anybody who swings by here *gets* lots of reader comments, how much are you paying your fans? ;) No, no, I'm kidding about that one. I know that readers don't always send notes to say they enjoy what they're reading. Someone in Ciar's comments said that they'd been inspired to start emailing authors more. I think I will too. I know I'd like to hear from readers that they enjoyed my work. It's only fair that I do the same.

So there's my challenge for those who happen by. Have you read a book you liked recently? Why not send a note to the author and let them know?

Monday Monday

I'm back! Did you miss me? ;)

First things first: Yes, I'm going to National. I've been running around leaving 'yay!' messages on other people's blogs. I am looking forward to meeting lots of people and having little parties and being incredibly, insanely busy. Someone over the weekend mentioned that prior to a first sale, National is all about the workshops and having "fun" at conference. Post first-sale, it's all about "holy crud, I have to be in how many places at the same time?" But I'll be there. Flag me down.

This weekend was my first meeting in my second term as chapter president, and of course, it was a big one. We had Sherrilyn Kenyon visiting. What an amazing, warm, fantastic woman. If you're not a fan, go buy her books and read, read read. We had a great turnout, people were wonderful, and the entire weekend was good.

Well. Except for the part where my car has decided that it doesn't want to start all the time. In awkward places. Like at the mall. Or the post office. But other than that, it was good!

Oh, and I did sign up for ice skating class. That starts next week. Wish me luck! The Engineer is interested enough that he might take classes too. The family that gets laughed at together, stays together, right? Right.

Really not dead.

Is anyone else having an extremely hectic and/or stressful time of things lately? Seems like the funk is going around.

I'm healthy again! That's a good thing. I'm also insanely busy, but I'm healthy. :)

I really will try to get back onto the blogging schedule this coming week. I've been quiet long enough, don't you think?

Still writing, still aiming high. I've decided that I can say a couple things about the Fox project, but I'm sure the lack of details will still frustrate a bit. That said, the project is paranormal themed and centers around a high school senior. I was asked to target the female teen market so that's what I tried to do. Hopefully I'll know whether my proposal is good enough to get anywhere soon.

I'm pondering taking ice skating lessons again. I used to compete, I'm much older and more out of shape than I was then, and I'm weighing this against my lack of a desire to be humiliated in front of ten-year-olds. :) Still, I had fun then. I may give it a shot, wounded pride or no.

Absence

I apologize for not posting here. I have not been feeling well. Hopefully that'll change next week.

Romance By The Blog

Goood morning, everyone. Up early because I have to take the Engineer to work so he can travel out of town. (And watch a basketball game after work. Cry him a river.)

I'm over at Romance By The Blog today talking about FanLit, like Eve did on Monday. Swing by and say hello, if you've got a sec!

I should say more than that, shouldn't I?

Hi! If you're here from Romance By The Blog, welcome to my little spot on the internet and thanks for stopping by! Say hi, kick a tire or two. Gently.

House cleaning

I'm over at The Novelty Girls today, blogging about how edits are like house cleaning. And how I kind of like it.

And I'm thinking about this because a) I actually cleaned some of my house, gasp and horror and b) because I have edits to do.

But mostly because I really do think they're sort of similiar. You have an established, already-constructed, somewhat-less-than-tidy house to clean. Cleaning it puts things back in order, eliminates or at least controls the mess, and makes you feel better for having it done, right? It does for me. It's the actual doing it that's a pain in the rear.

But it must be done, and edit I must, so I'm off.

Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher is a friend of mine, in a very vague sense. Okay, he's more like a friend of a friend. He's a fantasy and urban fantasy writer. He's got a television series starting on the Sci Fi channel on January 21st, which is a big, hairy deal.

And back in December he had a self-doubt day like all those of us who write and he posted a string of negative reviews of his books. It's here if you want to see the way a best-selling fantasy author gets slammed.

And all I can think is, hell, if someone like Jim, who has an unarguably successful career, can rack up nasty, negative reviews, what makes anyone else think they won't? And if he can keep going, then so can we.

So there.

(No, I didn't get a negative review. Just musing.)

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone's weekend was peaceful, or mostly peaceful at any rate.

We had our transition meeting this weekend. We being my local RWA chapter. This means that I'm now officially a chapter president again. Yes, with all my copious free time. Trust me, I asked to be at the bottom of the list. But I love my chapter so I'm happy to help out if I can. Must try to be a better president than I was two years ago. (Don't get me started about rotating presidents. The past president and I have taken the job the last four years in a row.)

I sold Finding Home to Cobblestone Press. Yay! That's the last of the completed books from last year, so I've got to write new stuff now. *gasp* I do have projects in the works though, so I'm still charging forward. And swinging into full gear on the Fox TV project. I hope to have something turned into them at the end of this week. Phew.

If you get a chance, stop by Romance By The Blog today. My fellow Fan Lit Grand Prize winner, Eve, is blogging over there today. And I'll be there Friday, so come back and see me too!

Mental (health) days

Yesterday, writing was like pulling teeth. It was haaard. I hate those days. I made myself do it and I got to my 1K quota exactly and let myself quit, but man. Fortunately those days don't happen often.

What did I do instead of happily writing? I debated Shakespeare. I am a Shakespeare geek. Seriously, sit me in a room full of people debating anything about the Bard's works, and you may never get me to leave. I'm very tempted to set up a blog just to talk about Shakespeare. Everyone has a passion, and he's mine.

Besides, it's good brain exercise, and who couldn't use more of that? :)

I have another run of chats and whatnot coming up with the Sweeter Romantic Notions gals in the next couple of months. We're determined to prove that non-erotic books will sell in the e-market too!

I do have proof now that sex sells. Not that I didn't know, but boy do I have it now. It's interesting and kind of painful all at once. But hey, when that's what the audience wants, that's what they get.

Oh! And. Diana Peterfreund's made a very interesting proposition over on Romancing the Blog. She's suggesting a modified Godwin's law to counteract all the romance-bashing out there. Go check it out. :)
Edited to add: Obviously I think it's a good idea. I'm not going to hit that point anymore because I don't want to be (more) obnoxious. Apologies.

Group blogging and such

I'm over at The Novelty Girls talking about word music today, and demonstrating more geekfulness.

Finally managed to get words down on the page, though at the current rate of writing I will not finish in time for my self-imposed deadline, so that needs to be stepped up.

Must write a lot of things. :) I'm still getting back into the swing of things, so I expect that'll be a running concern of mine for a while. I'll try not to post about it every day.

I thought about going back to the Monday Motivation thing, but it didn't seem to be very popular, so I suppose I'll have to think up some other sort of schedule. Eeew, schedules. But, better that than random rambling, right?

Happy New Year

Happy 2007! Did I say that already? No? Shame on me. Happy 2007!

Trying to get back into the swing of things. This is the danger of giving myself permission to relax. The momentum just all fizzles away. But, I'll get it back. Don't have much of a choice now, do I?

Here's hoping your year's started off well, and that you have much success, luck and happiness throughout the coming months.