Back from GCLS

and I am exhausted. What a wonderfully stressful event! I met new friends, reconnected with old, drank and danced. Oh and I learned an awful lot, too. I'll try to post more later, but suffice it to say that I felt the con was a hit.

BTW to anyone that lost an eye on the dance floor...my bad ;-)

Interview: The L-Word Fan Site

Lynne Jamneck did an interview of yours truly for the L-word fan site. If this blog didn't already tell you too much about me here's a little bit more to help you fall asleep. I think Lynne did an excellent job. I'm told I'm a very hard person to interview.I can be a bit shy ;-).

The End

Just a quick update to say that I’ve typed the words THE END for both my short story and my novel. Which means…absolutely nothing.

Actually, I'm kidding. What it means is, I can shift completely into the editing mode. People who edit their work as they go are amazing. I learned a long time ago that I could get bogged down for three days on one sentence if I did that. So, when I say I wrote THE END on both pieces, I mean I now have a nearly illegible draft of something that I can chip away at until I find the good bits.

What fun!

Never Wake is available for pre-order!

Never Wake is available for pre-order at StarCrossed-- Shipping November 5th


Emma Webster is the victim of a brutal assault. Because of the resulting terror, she spends two years as a self-sentenced prisoner locked inside her condo, living a lonely but safe existence - at least she thought it was safe until the world outside her window goes silent.

Troy Nanson, a bicycle messenger, awakens in a hospital with an excruciating headache, but she has no memory of how she was injured or how long she has been there. When her calls for help go unanswered, Troy leaves her bed to search for hospital staff members, only to find them unconscious in the hospital lounge. They have pulses and are breathing, but she cannot rouse them. Are they comatose, drugged? In a trance-induced sleep? She calls 911, but no one answers. As she explores downtown Portland, Oregon, Troy's suspicions are confirmed - the rest of the world has fallen asleep, and nothing she does will wake them. Fear and desperation cause Troy's tenuous grip on reality to slip. She's ready to give up, but then she finds Emma.

Believing they are the only people awake in the entire world, these two women who are as different from each other as they could possibly be, come to depend on one another to find their way through the insanity that surrounds them. Their initial need for simple companionship turns into an attraction that they are just beginning to explore when Troy stumbles across evidence that results in some startling realizations.

There are at least two other people still awake in Portland, but one of them is a murderer. Can Troy and Emma find a way to outsmart the killer, or will they, too, become those who NEVER WAKE?

Simple Literary Will

One of my favorite novelists and comic book writers Neil Gaiman has done all of us writers, songwriters and photographers a real solid by having a lawyer friend of his draw up a literary will. Here's a link to Neil's Blog where you'll find the downloadable PDF.

Funky Weekend

I spent most of Saturday procrastinating and surfing the net. I wrote about 1200 words on a new piece. Although, I’m happy to be able to report that I wrote something, it wasn’t a project I have a deadline for, and was probably just more procrastination.

Sunday was a lot more productive. I woke up at the crack of ass--thanks to the time change--and could not get back to sleep. So I spent the first half of the morning doing more web surfing. I’m not going to get down on myself (how great would that be?) because I was able to complete another chapter and slap another 1900 words on my meter for this weekends. I’m only counting the words in a scene after I actually use them in a chapter so I’m sure I’m probably closer to 68000. My goal is to have the draft completed by Sunday the fifth.

1st daft of short story complete

The good news is, I completed a draft for my short story this morning. The bad news is, I’ll need to cut at least 500 words during the editing process. I really hate cutting. I usually save myself the aggravation by shooting low and adding if necessary. Adding is infinitely easier then deleting your words.

Quitting the day job

I keep a day job for two reasons. First, I need the health insurance (and the pay isn’t that shabby either), but the second reason might surprises some people. Too much time proved to be detrimental to my productivity. Writing can be a solitary and lonely life. I spent nearly two years writing full time and I found myself procrastinating and getting very little done. Now, there are people out there (very successful people) who are able to treat writing like a full time job and put in eight hours a day. I’m not one of them. Or at least I wasn’t three years ago. If I were financially able I would probably revisit writing full time, but for now I’m happy with things the way they are.

On a related note, I was speaking with author bud Renee Bess and she asked about my schedule. Normally, I write from 5-7 in the morning, which gives me thirty minutes to get ready for the day job. Since I’m currently on a deadline to have my manuscript to my editor by mid December, I’ve changed my schedule so that I’m getting an extra thirty minutes during the morning. I’m also writing from 7 to 9 at night. In a perfect world, the night shift would be for editing, but my trip to Massachusetts put me behind a few days so I’m playing catch-up.

Then vs. Than

After going through my huge stack of mail, I was pleased to find the newest issue of Writers Digest. I struggled for months with whether I should renew my subscription, boy am I glad I did. Let me just say that I have a few foibles that have haunted me since I began to write seriously.

For example, the difference between then and than has eluded me for years. I'm smart enough to go back and do a find before I send in my manuscripts, but I would much rather save myself the work and not make the mistake in the first place.

I’ve read several short explanations of how to determine which word to use, but none has stuck with me well enough to become natural in the heat of the write.

I opened my trusty Writers Digest this morning and I saw the following advice:

The word than is used to compare things (note the word compare has an a in it)

The word then is used to reference time (note the word time has an e in it)

That’s all I had to read. I’ve got it now. Of course I could muddy the waters by mentioning that then can be used to replace the phrase, “in that case,” but I’ve decided to never use that phrase in my writing ever again just so I won’t have to remember that part.

Friends and Family plan

Like most writers, I’m not independently wealthy. Hell, there are months when I struggle for middleclass. I’ve had to organize my life so that I can write in the mornings and evenings while still working a full time job.

Is it fun? Oh yeah, believe it or not, I love it.
What I don’t love is the fact that my mother and two of my friends have gotten mad at me for not calling them or answering my cell phone. The fact that I’ve had final edits on one book, and a proposal for another book due concurrently, is absolutely no excuse for not taking the time to chat.

So, much to my chagrin, I’ll have to add “friends and family time” to my efforts to organize my writing career. I just hope my mother will understand when at two minutes past the hour, I cut her off by yelling, “I have to go write that sex scene now,” just before I hang up the phone.