Quicksilver

Quicksilver, a short story orginally published in the Mammoth Book Of Irish Romance is now available on Kindle and Nook. This is my first venture into self publishing and I'm thrilled with the results. Heres the link to smashwords,and to kindle,and Nook, I hope you enjoy. I'll have another short story, Time Trails up soon.

An exciting new venture

I'm excited to announce that I will be self publishing my back list to Kindle,Nook and all e-reader formats. The first story available is Quicksilver, a story based in Irish Mythology about a warrior and a mysterious woman he finds in the surf. Quicksilver was originally published in the Mammoth Book of Irish Romance which came out last year. Quicksilver will be available next week at any on line book store.

I adore this cover. The model is Scott Nova, who I met in LA at the RT convention this past April.

Once again Deadline Hell

Since I'm in deadline hell and have lots of new friends I thought I'd repost this from a few years back.

I was trying to explain to a friend the other day about deadline hell. What happens to writers when we have to slide into that dreaded place that consumes every bit of our time, imagination and energy. I realized that until you really live it, that most people do not really understand what it is. So hopefully this will explain it a bit and give you some hints on what you can do to help your favorite writer get through it.

Deadline hell is what occurs when you don’t hit your carefully planned out page count for each day that you have until your book is due. Best laid plans and all that, but quite frankly, life happens and it does get in our way. For me lately it’s been my dad’s cancer, which is now in remission, thank you. So said book that was due March 1 is now due June 1 and has to be turned in or else it will not make it to production on time for its February release. This also means that since I missed the first deadline I will not have a Cindy Holby release this year (only Colby Hodge’s Twist) andI SUCK AS A WRITER AND MY CAREER IS OVER.

Since I now have two extra months to write I can do it. Woohoo! WRONG. During April Dad is in hospital twice with complications, I am preparing for RT, I go to RT for eight days and it takes me a week to recover, catch up from RT. Two of those days were spent sleeping as I got no sleep at RT. So now its May 1, book is due June 1 and I’m about 4,000 words away from halfway. Which means I have to write around 250 pages in a month. Which is around ten pages a day if I write everyday which I won’t be able to do because life gets in the way. Can I do it? I better because if I don’t I SUCK AS A WRITER AND MY CAREER IS OVER.


So what happens then. I sit in front of my computer. I tell myself I will not play Freecell ever again for as long as I live. I play Freecell. I look at manuscript. I decide entire book is the great dedication to sucktitude. I put on writing inspired songs to get into the story. Since I am writing an angsty story I get depressed. I listen to them over and over again. I get all weepy. My bwff (best writing friend forever) tells me to quit listening to angsty songs and I reply with giant wail. “But I caaaaannnn’t. It’s the soundtrack to Atonement and I Lurve James MacAvoy and he diieeesss.” Btw dialog like this goes back and forth all day with my bwff posse. If you want to know who they are check out the dedications in my books. Finally I decide I am in right frame of mind to write.

But first I check my email. Why? Because writers are isolated. Email is our connection to our friends. What are our friends doing? Are they in writing hell too? Ohh, here’s a link to something. Maybe I should check that out. Finally I realize that I’ve wasted half a day on internet. Turn off internet and write. Go back to manuscript. Maybe it doesn’t suck. Hmmm, writing historical and I need to know what certain building on certain street looked like in eighteenth century. Sign back onto internet. Get distracted again by email, IM or something Brittany/Paris/TomKat has done. Oh, another email, someone I know has hit list/won award/got new multi comma contract and while I am happy for them it didn’t happen to me because I SUCK AS A WRITER AND MY CAREER IS OVER.

Why do writers obsess over things like that? Because we write in a vapor. Some writers have critique partners. I don’t. If the story takes a direction I’m not sure of I’ll send it out to a few of my friends for some feedback but for the most part it’s just us and the story.

So now its time to really get serious. What happens next in the story? Write write write. Hmmm, write some more. Shove kitten off desk. Try to ignore sad doggy eyes. Grab apple, yogurt, banana, hand full of chips for lunch. Grab some caffeine. Grab some more. Stay up late writing. Eyes cross, wrists aches, back and shoulders ache, butt hurts because this continues day after day after day. Husband pokes head in and asks about dinner. You look at him like he’s an idiot and wave him off. Husband carries in dinner, does laundry, vacuums, rubs back and tries to stay out of your way. (I am fortunate that my kids are grown and pretty much self sufficient and I also have an awesome husband) Week goes by, then another, then another and you realize story has come together and perhaps you aren’t the giant burrito of sucktitude (bwff term) that you once thought you were. But you are also very lonely, and you kind of look like crap since you have basically lived in front of your computer for a month. Since I am now working on my thirteenth book I’ve kind of been through this before so I know what to expect. You think that one day I would figure it out and stay out of deadline hell but I don’t because I SUCK AS A WRITER AND MY CAREER IS OVER.

So what can you, as a fan/friend of a deadline crazed writer do? I have my own little support group. I just got a text hug from one. Another is giving me rah rahs every night and I have realized how much I really appreciate it. I look forward to it. It keeps me inspired because I know these people believe in me and maybe I don’t SUCK AS A WRITER. So if you have a writer friend who is in deadline hell then drop them an email (believe me they will be checking) or a comment on their facebook page and say Yay, we believe in you and can’t wait for the next book. They will appreciate it more than you know. And it’s also great to know that you don’t really suck that you are just doing the best that you can.

Oh yeah, we procrastinate too. Why else would I be spending my time writing this instead of working on my story?

Note: My dad has been cancer free for three years and is doing great. And the current book keeping me in deadline hell is Ashes, my new YA series coming from SMP Griffin next year.

Hello its me!

Its been a while. Actually since last year since I posted. That's because of a horrible thing we authors like to call deadline hell. Its what happens when you have a book due and everything else in your life has to take a backseat to the writing. My deadline hell is especially bad this year. I'm contracted to write five books in twenty months and my son's marriage is right in the middle of it. Oh well, life does move on, even when there are books to be written.

The first bookI turned in, and yes I met my deadline, Woot! is Godsend. Godsend is the first book in my new Angels End series that I'm writing for Berkley. My editor there asked me to come up with a new and totally different series that was reminiscent of Little House On The Prairie and LyVyrle Spencer. She wanted an imaginary town set in the west that was populated with endearing characters. And my answer was Angels End, named so because of an Angel Statue left there by some travelers headed west, who suddenly realized that their great stone statue was too heavy to haul across the Rockies. Angels End has a saloon called the Heaven's Gate, operated by Ward Phillips, a man with a secret past who plays the piano and a diner called The Devil's Table, which is owned by a cranky ex cowboy named Dusty. There's also a general store, the assayers office as there are a lot of mines around, a stage office, and several ranchers. As the series moves on I will introduce more and more of the town.

In the first book, Godsend, I introduced the character of Jake Reece, who fancied himself in love with Leah Findley, the sheriff's widow. But that was until Cade Gentry showed up and put a wrench in the works. The town thinks Cade is the new preacher when he shows up wounded in the middle of a blizzard with a Bible in his pocket. Jake isn't happy when Leah falls for the new preacher and well....you have to wait until May of 2012 to find out what happens.

As its such a long way until the release, (over a year...sigh) I came up with the above to promote it until I get a cover. The picture is one I took many years ago of Maroon Bells in Colorado which I think is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

And now its back to the next deadline, which is June 15th! Send chocolate!