May 1T Olio

photo credit: ucumari via photopin cc

What two words make me a happy author?

I'll give you a hint. One begins with a c and ends with ontract. The other is sing, sideways.

NEWS NEWS NEWS!

Signed Contract. I've signed a contract with Samhain Publishing for the first of a new series. Heart of the Wolf (previously Alphas Don't Wear Bows) features witch princess Sophia searching for her aunt but finding alpha wolf shifter Noah instead.

The Pull of the Moon series. I have to admit, my original idea was for a lighter, more safe-for-work version of the Biting Love stories. But. Life. Happened.

Editor Christa kindly informed me shifter novels need to be hot. Really hot. About the same time I joined up with Roxy & Jodi at Lust With A Laugh.

photo credit: Bruce McKay Yellow Snow Photography via photopin cc

So, not Biting Love. Think darker. And much, much sexier.

Prequel novella Masked Attraction, featuring wizard Daniel and wolf shifter Zoe, is coming as part of a Mo's Crew bundle in time for Halloween this year.

Look for Heart of the Wolf in 2015.

The Next Big Thing--What I'm Working On

I'm fortunate to have met a lot of wonderful authors during my publishing career but one of my biggest inspirations is the awesome Edie Ramer. So when she invited me to join a fun serial party, I jumped on it!

Edie's Next Big Thing, Miracle Pie, is here.

And here's mine! Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

What is your working title of your book?
Alphas Don't Wear Bows

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Hubby and me, while driving somewhere, trying to top each other for funny characters/story lines.

What genre does your book fall under?
Paranormal romance

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
That's a hard one. Noah is black haired and silver-eyed (at least to start) and Sophia has glossy bronze curls and star-shot blue eyes indicating her witch's power. Maybe someone could suggest actors and actresses for me.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Witch princess, alpha wolf, meddling magical aunt--what could possibly go wrong?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I'm going to try for an agent with this one.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Started it during one of the NaNoWriMo so 1 month. But filling out the end and editing added another month, and polishing it through SavvyAuthors' EditPalooza in January will add another.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Stephanie Plum meets Team Jacob with a shade or two of Grey.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Husband. Also WisRWA conference pitch where an editor told me she was looking for paranormals with more than one kind of magical being.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Sophia Blue embraced magic and all it entailed, until magic turned on her. Now she's studying to become a humanist minister. Noah Blackwood fought for control of the Blackwood pack before he was ready and now someone's trying to oust him--or worse. And he has some doozy secrets...including why a black raven familiar has been searching for him for years...

I invited four other awesome authors to join the party! Their Next Big Thing will be coming December 12. Visit them here:

• Renee Wildes at http://reneewildes1.wordpress.com/ and http://www.reneewildes.net/index.html
• Leigh Morgan at http://bardintraining.blogspot.com/ and http://www.bardintraining.com/
• Helen C. Johannes at http://helencjohannes.blogspot.com/ and http://www.helencjohannes.com/
• Lynn Crandall at http://thewritewaycafe.blogspot.com/ and http://lynn-crandall.com/

And after Edie tagged me, the lovely Valerie Clarizio also asked me to participate! Her Next Big Thing about a sexy man put in a fish out of water situation, is here.

Editing after NaNo

I've been experimenting with different ways to write a book the past couple years. Way back when I started a story by taking two interesting characters (like Nixie and Julian), sending them charging into each other (like the Large Hadron Collider) and seeing what happened. It makes for some great interaction but is tough on plots. So I got Scrivener and used Jim Butcher/Jack Bickham's scene/sequel building blocks and a story arc to construct plotted stories. Along the way I took a class on a really awesome way to conceptualize a whole story on a single sheet of paper: The Blob technique by Vickie Taylor. From Holly Lisle I learned never to send a novel out without printing it out first.

And there lies the rub.

Fast forward to last summer. NaNo Camp (thank you Mrs!) let me knock out most of the basis for the novel Alphas Don't Wear Bows. I put it aside to rest and worked on two other stories including Beauty Bites (Biting Love Book 6). Then I took Alpha up again and finished the first draft. After that I did a read-through for timeline and continuity. So I've visited this novel at least three times and felt pretty good about the story.

Then I printed it out. And started to edit. (Insert screaming author here.)

I don't know why, but I see things in paper form I don't see in electronic, no matter how many different fonts or page sizes I use on the computer. But here are two classes of problems I have with NaNo-written books that I don't see with my more organic products.

1) Continuity sucks. When I'm in regular creation mode, I read through yesterday's writing before starting today's. That gets me in the flow, reminds me of who the characters are and what they were doing (and I get some light word-flow editing in too). But to push NaNo wordage through, I was hitting the ground running, trusting to memory to get the characters and plot right. Worse, I might come up with a neat side plot one day...and totally forget about it the next. I came across a whole lot of half-finished ideas that would have been nice to follow up on, had I the time.

2) Wordy wordy wordy. Like, whole thickets of brambly words. When I'm pounding out word count for word count's sake, if I repeat something three different ways to get it right, that's a good thing. Coming at it with the idea of clean story-telling though, well, it's like building a wall with three or four of the almost-right kind of bricks--the only way to fix it is knock out that portion of the wall and rebuild. Very irritating.

So while I'm grateful for the freedom NaNo imposes on me to ignore the strict mental editor and just write, there are drawbacks. I love NaNo and will continue to do it! I just think I'm going to insert that daily reread/preread from now on.