How sweet it is

Another great review of The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica, this one from The New York Journal of Books! (My story is "Devouring Heart," and there are fantastic stories from many other wonderful writers.)

When it rains, it pours…

…and you know how much I love dancing in the rain!

So after I turned off the alarm this morning, I dozed off again (I hadn’t slept well), and as I came out of that doze, I started thinking about the various projects I’m working on.

I have a mystery short story due at the end of the month, and I think I finally have an actual idea for it, so I do want to get that off my plate. Then I’ve got requested revisions from editors for OOTFP and WtW, and I’m waiting to hear from Teresa on the former… And I thought about how I did a push to get a bunch of short stories done a while back, and now maybe I should do a novel push, and get both of those edits done, and then get proposal packages written and submitted (with the accompanying editor research) for What Beck’ning Ghost (an older novel I want to send out into the world again; it does need some minor tweaks, but nobody’s going to ask to see more unless I start submitting it) and Seasoned With Danger (a new novel, two chapters and proposal already written).

That seemed like a good plan. And you know what they say about plans, don’t you?

“And then [Robbie Burns] must have turned his attention to the other animal mentioned in that line of poetry. If you think back to it, ‘The best laid plans of mice and men…’ Exactly which mice plans was he really honing in here on? The best laid ones go aglae, some of the worse laid ones are okay? Some of them get through? He was fucking off his trolley.” (Eddie Izzard)

Because this is what was in my In Box this morning:

• an e-mail from Teresa answering the questions about OOTFP, which means that bumped up to the top of the queue (next to the short story)
• a Custom Erotica Source assignment for a novella (wooh!)
• a short story request (“Thank you for sending story A to anthology X. Submissions for anthology Z are thin, by the way, if you’re interested…”)
• an e-mail asking if I would read from my nominated titles at the Lammy (Lambda Literary Awards) Finalists reading at Skylight Books in Hollywood on May 10. I have stories in Lesbian Cowboys and Where the Girls Are, both nominated in the Lesbian Erotica category. How cool is that?! Of course I said yes.  :-)  I hope I get to read “Queens Up” from Lesbian Cowboys, because it’s so much fun to read aloud. I’ll send an official announcement about that (time, address, etc.) once I know more.

So now the top priorities are (not necessarily in order)…

• the mystery story
• OOTFP
• researching/sketching out the CES assignment
• writing the CES assignment
• WtW (once OOTFP is back to Teresa)

You know what, though? I’m totally jazzed. Bring it on!

Sexy as sin

Although technically I haven’t “sold” a story until the check is in my hot little hands (or the payment is in my hot little Paypal account), I usually can’t contain myself by the time the countersigned contract arrives. So now I shall burble: I sold two stories to Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Orgasmic: Erotica for Women!

Look at that cover. Isn’t she sexy as sin?

Both of my stories were essentially written by request. I’d submitted one story, and then Rachel put out a call that she needed a pregnancy story and an anal story. Oddly enough, I already had the first couple pages of a pregnancy story (yes, I know, me?! That’s why they call it “making stuff up.”), so I finished it and fired it off to her, and then wrote an anal story, and she accepted both of those and rejected the initial story that I’d sent.

This amuses me to no end.

Anyway, the book is available for pre-order at many fine establishments (Amazon, Powells, B&N, etc.) and is due out August 1, 2010.

(Good Lord and Lady, but promo takes time. I’m posting this here, adding the stories to my website, downloading the cover, uploading the cover to Flickr, adding the cover to iPhoto, adding the cover to Facebook, adding the cover here, and e-mailing my web goddess to ask her to add a new bibliography section for my Kendra Wayne pseudonym. Phew! And to think I have writing to do, too!)

The long dark tea-time of the soul

Went to the LARA meeting today, where I saw many wonderful people and managed to win 3 books for $1. (A Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliasotti and two Jenny Crusie’s I don’t think I have. If I do, I’ll pass the extra copies along. Actually, I think I haven’t even read one of them. A travesty!)

Afterwards, Christine and I went out for lunch at Versailles, and I am now oozing garlic from every pore. Alas, poor vampires.

And now? Well, I should get some work done. And convince Ken to stop working in the garage so we can go grocery shopping. We’re out of milk, and half-and-half tastes weird in tea to me. But (a) he’s working in the garage, which means I might be able to park my car in there this year,* and (b) he already did put together the slow cooker meal for tonight (chicken thighs and canned artichoke hearts and a few other things. New recipe. Smells good so far).

Okey-doke. Onwards!

*To save money, he cancelled his storage shed and put all his work stuff in the garage before the garage was cleaned out to the extent that his work stuff—which involves pieces of room-sized machines—would fit along with my car and two motorcycles and a bunch of woodworking equipment.

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Currently Reading: The Little Sister, Sarah Waters

Lately Listened To: The Best of Both Worlds (Fish disc), Marillion

Recently Watched: Doctor Who