What's up with Me

"Write what you care about and understand. Writers should never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a salable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret to writing a good book is to write one that people like you will enjoy." -- Richard North Patterson

I got a Google Alert in my inbox yesterday ... Kimber Chin said nice things about "Don't Fence Me In" in her comments on a post at Romancing the Blog. It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Thanks, Kimber!

Yesterday was my "writing day" according to my new schedule. I worked on characters sheets for a new novel, specifically aimed at Harlequin American and well as a Pre-Plotting exercise I'd made up some time ago that helps me understand the "why" behind my H/H's motivation AND helps me brainstorm possible scenes. One of my favorite questions on it is:

What is one thing your heroine would never say? Do? Think? Now... Find places where she can say, do and think those things and list them here.

This novel may end up being my novel for NaNoWriMo this year. I should be ready to really hunker down and write the thing by November which -- frighteningly -- isn't THAT far away. I find myself returning to the idea of HQA because I love the fact that they encourage lots of strong, quirky secondary characters. That's the kind of book I enjoy writing AND reading.

I also spent some time with "Stiller Creek". A week or so ago, I'd mentioned that I wanted to submit this to HQA, but after a thorough read-through, it's clear that it simply won't work without a massive overhaul that would seriously affect the storyline. I have some violence and language which is unacceptable to HQA, but I'm not willing to change, not to mention the fact that the book opens at a murder scene.

So... I emailed my Samhain editor to see if she'd like a look, and she said yes. Today, in between LASR work (that's what's on my schedule today) I hope to get working on the synopsis and query.

And so are the days of my life.

:-)

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