Photos

Photos from the workshop.

More re: workshop

Dean and Kris talk about the Marketing Workshop in their blogs, if you're interested.

And we're home

It went something like this:

Sunday, 4 May 2008

Beach today! Walked with Brenda, whom I hadn’t met in a previous workshop. There’s huge chunks of driftwood everywhere—giant trees, some imbedded in the sand. It looks like an alien landscape. I imagine it was what a shipwreck looked like. It gave me so much energy, and Brenda and I had a fabulous conversation.

Monday, 5 May 2008

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Okay, it’s 2 p.m. I have two assignments to finish—both are close to completion, although one I’ll review again a bit later—before dinner at 5 p.m. with Karen and Brenda, and our next meeting at 7 p.m. So I’m going to work on a short story, too. I also have a story to submit now that the magazine’s reading period has opened back up. Not sure if a walk on the beach or some floor/band work is in my future; I really want to get the story done.

Oh, and note to self: Bring a hat next time. The wind and greater moisture in the air is giving me an unattractive explosion of frizz.

Rejection from Abyss & Apex for “Seeds of Hope,” which they said “was very well-received here, but…”

Tuesday, 6 May 2008

My friend Chris York just made a three-book deal with Berkley Prime Crime! WaHOO! Go Chris!

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Meltdown.

Thursday, 8 May 2008

Better.

Friday, 9 May 2008

Mistakes happen. You learn from them, then get over them and move forward.

Went for a glorious beach walk today with Leslie; we also ran into Matt who walked the rest of the way with us. We saw baby seals and a bald eagle! It was just sitting out there on a log near the seals on a spit of land, and then it flew low over the water looking for fish, and then it perched again. And I didn’t have my camera. ::pounds head on desk::

Anyway, it was a beautiful day, cool and sunny, and I wish I’d had more time to spend down there.

Saturday, 10 May 2008

So Dean’s talking about his process and his blocks, which are much like mine, and he tells us his crazy plan for overcoming the problem, and I think “Holy crap, that’s exactly what I need to do,” and then there was this big sneaker wave of fear crashing over me as I then thought stupid things like “But I can’t” and “What if I fail?”

A better question is, “What if I succeed?”

A better response is, “When I succeed…”

Sunday, 11 May 2008

On the plane home. Um. Wow. After the Master Class (March 2002), this is by far the most valuable, most amazing, and most life- and career-changing workshops I’ve taken with Kris & Dean. (And I counted: including novel workshops, I’ve now taken 9.) I…I… Yeah, it’s going to take me a little while to process all this.

On Saturday, I think, Kris asked how we slept the night before and we all said “Awful.” She laughed and explained: They’d had us in critical brain up ‘til Friday, and Friday night our brains frantically downloaded all the new information into our subconscious before we lost anything. Devious. Effective, but devious.

So now I have to find a balance of recovery (tonight’s plan: wine, TV, and Ken. Not necessarily in that order) and getting back to work with new ideas, fresh energy, and an astonishing amount of new information to put into practice. Although this was a business workshop (about marketing, editors, the publishing industry and how it’s changed, and, um, a gazillion other things), I’ve come away with three new novel ideas in proposal form. One of which caused Kris to swear and say, twice, that she wished she’d come up with the idea. Bwahaha.

Plane descending. Must turn off laptop before it adversely affects that.

Oh, wait, one more thing. New sticky on Afalwen desktop:

It's okay to be afraid.

It's not okay to let the fear stop me.

On the coast again

So I’m happily and safely here on the Oregon Coast again, this time for a workshop on marketing and agents and synopses and all that fun stuff. We’ll be doing this for a week. You won’t hear much from me this week, though, because not only am I having trouble getting decent wireless in my room (I’m in kitschy cabin #5, and there will be pictures), but also because Kris & Dean have laid down the law:

First rule of Workshop: You don’t blog about Workshop.

I’m still frantically trying to finish one of the assignments we were given ahead of time, and I also need to hammer out a short story today… An editor I’ve worked with before is doing a sequel to an anthology I was in, and asked for stories on the theme ASAP to include in the proposal to the publisher. I don’t know if turning in the story tonight will be too late (I got her e-mail either late Thursday night or Friday morning, and she hasn’t responded to my query), but I figure, better to go ahead and write the story.

It’s 1 p.m. now. Dinner (optional, but I’ll be there) is at 5 p.m.; the workshop starts at 7 p.m. I have an assigment, a story, and a walk to the beach to add in there…

Later…Assignment done. Dinner greatly enjoyed. More work to do now. Kthnxbai.

Goodness and busy-ness

Another Sunday, another Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf writing afternoon. My last one until June! since I’ll be out of town three out of four Sundays in May, and Albra’s having her annual garden tea on the only Sunday I’ll be in town.

It’s been a busy few days… Thursday we had dinner with Morgana & Brian because our mutual friend Lev was in town (staying with M&B), and ended up staying rather late, watching the final ep of the Torchwood season (again for us, first time for M&B) and generally just enjoying good company.

Friday we headed up to Santa Barbara early to miss the weekend traffic. We wandered up and down State Street and had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Greek place (nummy lemon chicken souvlaki!) before heading to the tattoo artist’s…only to find out I’d had my appointment time wrong by an hour. So we shared a chocolate shake at Coldstone Creamery, then strolled down to the beach, heading back via the Moreton Bay Fig Tree, the largest in North America. (The sapling was brought from Australia by a sailor in the 1870s and given to a girl… There’s a great romance story in there!)

Then I got my tattoo! Or, rather, I finished my 30th birthday tattoo! It was a different experience this time…different and in some ways the same. It was less of a major emotional/spiritual thing, and more of a peaceful thing. No stress, no great thought, just experience. The moment. I’m not explaining this well at all, but so be it!

Saturday we gathered up Morgana and went to Mission Park in Ventura, where Lev was playing concertina for his Morris Dance side. (A group of Morris Dancers is a side. A side of Morris Dancers. Don’t say I never taught you anything.) There were sides from all over, including one from England! We bought presents for my sister and Ken’s mom. We tried to follow Lev et al. to Channel Islands for their next performance, but we never managed to figure out where they were, so we headed off to Camarillo for their Celtic Fair. Our SCA group was doing a demo, so we ended up helping with that for a bit, and Ken and I shared a grape shave ice and I bought a silver spiral ring that’s actually appropriate for my 7th-C Welsh persona.

(Oh, and I’d like to put this out into the universe: I’ve misplaced my grandmother’s silver-and-diamond ring and my silver spiral ring from Avebury. Please think positive thoughts for me to find them!)

Anyway, then we went to the Victoria Pub because the dancers were there. We had dinner there, and I indulged in a cider and some vinegar-soaked chips for the first time in forever. Oh, Thomasina had joined us by then (we’d run into her at the Celtic Fair), so it was all quite pleasant. Then we came home and I took a much-needed shower because it had been bloody hot all day and I was a mess of sunscreen and sweat.

Tonight we’re going out to dinner with M&B&Lev, and having lemon cake and fresh strawberries afterwards, and I am greatly looking forward to it.

So now I’ve got to hit the ground running this week, because I have a ton to do before I leave for the Marketing Workshop in Oregon on Friday:

• finish a short story with Teresa
  
• finish three synopses for the workshop (I’ve read two of the three books and started the first synopsis)
  
• get as much done as Ghosted as I can
  
• pack for the workshop (printer, lap desk, and jacket already shipped)
  
• get a massage
  
• get my hair done
  
• work out with my trainer 2x
  
• lots of miscellaneous little fiddly stuff, like answering e-mail and cleaning off my desk and dealing with various SCA bits and bobs and mailing my sister’s present and buying contact solution and…
  

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Currently Reading: Mélusine, Sarah Monette
Lately Listened To: Ghosted playlist
Recently Watched: Lost; Battlestar Galactica

Cover goodness!

Endorphins!

Endorphins!

Sorry, I just got my tattoo worked on, so I'm buzzing. (Actually, since it was an hour's drive home, I'm starting to come down, but not entirely.) I finally got the phases of the moon around my right ankle, hanging down like charms from the Celtic knotwork band I had done for my 30th birthday. One of the reasons it took me so long to get them done is I didn't know how I wanted them connected to the band. The tattoo artist (Pat Fish of Lucky Fish Tattoo—she's fabulous!) suggested dots. I was curious to see how that would look, so she drew them on. Ohhhh! She meant gradiated dots, getting bigger as they go down. Perfect! And the spiral she put in the new moon (in the front) is just perfect.

Damn. Now I want more.  ::scurries off to start plotting and planning::

Pictures will be taken and posted once the redness has gone down.

Sleep good

Busy but lovely weekend! Saturday I slept in, then made sausage/cheese balls in preparation for a neighborhood ladies’ party. About 20 minutes before I was to leave, Ken arrived home, triumphant, from his trip! Hurrah!

Then Morgana and I trotted off down the street to the Smash & Get Smashed annual party, which involved making much strawberry jam (we got there late enough that the cooking was in full swing and we were not needed. Phew.) and drinking many strawberry daiquiris. They’re an interesting group of people.

But eventually I was itching to get home to my beloved, whom I found asleep, although he was mumbling about getting up so he could actually sleep that night. We had little food in the house and even less enthusiasm about cooking (I guess I hit my daily cooking limit with those sausage/cheese balls—although they have only three ingredients, and my rule is that three ingredients or less is not cooking, so there goes that excuse), so I ordered a pizza. That got him out of bed.   ;-)

So we ate pizza and watched the penultimate episode of Torchwood, sat in the hot tub, watched the final episode of Torchwood (holy season finales, Batman!), and then finally headed off to bed.

Today I wandered off to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf where I was again without companions, but, despite some serious writing avoidance that included making a playlist for Ghosted, I managed to get just shy of 2K hammered out. Now I’m sort of stuck again, so I have to sit down again and work through it.

After that, Ken and I went for a walk on the beach so he could ceremoniously dump Atlantic water into the Pacific (he did the opposite in FL), and then we stocked up on groceries, at which point he decided he wanted to celebrate his successful ride with cow, so we went to Outback. Where I perversely had grilled shrimp.

And now it’s much later, and we watched more TV and I’m all depressed (thanks, Ron Moore! Sheez.), but I also sat down and broke my 2K for the day, so I can go to sleep at least knowing I hit my goal and can hit the ground running tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy week, and I have a lot to accomplish…

Right. Sleep….

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Currently Reading: The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot (for the workshop)
Lately Listened To: Ghosted playlist
Recently Watched: Doctor Who; Battlestar Galactica

Novels I Have Writ

So, I wasn’t going to participate in this meme because I really didn’t have the time, but I kept thinking about it, and finally decided it would be an interesting retrospective. I didn’t expect to have a major revelation about my writing when I finished….

Completed novels are regularly numbered; unfinished novels are in roman numerals. All are listed in a rough chronological order.

i. Although I’d “started” novels before junior high, they never went farther than 3 or 4 pages, so I count my first novel as the one I wrote in 7th grade (1978-1979). I got about 100 handwritten pages, so even though I didn’t finish it, that was a pretty damn good attempt. It was an appalling pastiche of Narnia (the heroes went through a magic mirror to another land) and LOTR with a sprinkling of Deryni, and thankfully it no longer exists. (I don’t even remember the title.) But it was fun, and it made me want to be a writer.

ii. and iii. Partial novels set in the Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica universes (anywhere from 1979 through 1982). Blatant Mary Sue fanfic (the BG one included myself and two of my best friends as pretty much us; the SW character was loosely disguised), but both had some interesting elements. Neither survives (also thankfully).

1. Sorcerer’s Successor, completed the summer between 11th and 12th grade (1983), involving a girl with the worst sense of direction ever, a prince stuck in the shape of a panther, and a very, very pale villain. During the writing, I had my first “I had no idea that was going to happen” epiphany while writing; plus I remember being so totally in each scene as I worked. I miss that. Anyway, a best-selling romance writer was my mentor at the time, and she wrote a letter for me to include when I submitted the novel, basically vouching for me (although I don’t think I admitted my age in my own cover letter). I sent it to three publishers and received three very nice rejection letters saying they liked my writing but the book needed too much work for them to commit to it. See, I was getting nice rejection letters even then. Beats the form letters any day. I believe I do have a hard copy (it was written on my first computer, an Apple IIe), and I occasionally wonder if it could be reworked as a YA, but probably not.

2. Fantasy. Probably begun my senior year of high school (1983–1984), it became my college project because I was in the Honors Program they’d just created. It was mostly abandoned when I went to law school (1988–1989), then left law school and got married and became a reporter. But while I was a reporter, I convinced the newspaper to send me to a writer’s conference in Vermont (1990), where I met my first agent. Let’s call her B, because that initial has nothing to do with her. I told B about Fantasy and sent her the first chapters or whatnot, telling her I was in the process of rewriting the entire thing from scratch. She asked for the full ms. I spent over a year writing it. (How did I not know it shouldn’t take that long?) She loved it and offered representation. Unfortunately, her boss didn’t think it was strong enough to stand on its own (which I’m sure it wasn’t) and told her to market it as a paranormal romance (as this was in the first wave of paranormals, late 80s/early 90s). Problem was, despite a male and female protagonist, there wasn’t a whiff of romance in the book (and, indeed, my planned sequel involved them hooking up with other people). According to B, everyone who read it liked my writing, but didn’t think the book fit their romance line. Well, duh.

iv. Somewhere in there (1991–1993), my husband at the time came up with a nifty idea for a ST:TNG novel. (We were big ST buffs and were already reading the novels.) He helped with plotting; I started writing See No Evil, Hear No Evil. I went to the same conference again, and again closed down the bar each night with a couple of friends, including another agent, L. L had sold ST stuff before, whereas B wasn’t at all interested in seeing it—not to mention B hadn’t really helped my career. I sent the partial of the ST:TNG book to L and she loved my writing, so I switched agents. Then a ST:TNG novel was published that had an almost identical theme, killing my project. I did revise the idea and submit it, along with another one, to the ST editor a couple of years ago after the Work-for-Hire Workshop, but now the entire publishing program is gone. Oh well!

3. What Beck’ning Ghost (1991–1994) was an actual paranormal romance with a ghost for a hero, a psychometric heroine, a scarred and somewhat crazy villain, a big ol’ gothicky castle in the Adirondacks…in short, a book of my heart. I love it. Everyone who’s read it loves it. (Seriously. People who critiqued it in 1994 wistfully ask after it, even now.) I sent to L, she pitched it heavily, and everyone said, “We love this author. We love her writing. We love this book. The paranormal romance market is dead and we can’t buy it.” Sigh. The only problem is that the book is kind of time sensitive, in that the mystery hinges on something that happened 40 years before the present day. I keep having to re-tweak the past dates and details, and the farther forward I pull the past events, the less they make sense. My plan right now is to wait ‘til I have another agent, and toss this in the pile with the “completed and future projects” list for an opinion as to whether it’s worth tweaking and submitted again. Or something.

4. House of Passion (1992-1993). Egads, I almost forgot about this one! I’d been copy editing for a swinger’s magazine publisher who’d branched out into erotic novels, and the manuscripts were so appallingly bad that I figured I’d knock out one of my own. By the time I did, though, the publisher’s sales were so bad that they’d dropped the project. In hindsight, I should’ve tossed it over to my Black Lace editor when I had the chance. It’s about 20K too short, but it had its moments. It may get hauled out someday if the right market comes along.

v. Jewel Tones. Since the paranormal romance market was gone, I turned my attentions back to my first love, traditional fantasy. Jewel Tones was written in response to two fantasy tropes that I could no longer abide. (a) The Lackey/McCaffrey “young downtrodden girl discovers she has powers and is swept off to learn to be the greatest [princess/sorceress/dragon rider/insert fabby job here] ev-ar.” (Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this—stories like these are largely responsible for getting me through my own adolescence—but as an adult, I wanted to read about what happened after that. And ya gotta write what ya wanna read.) (b) Bad history research. Most fantasy at that time seemed to be written by people who read only other fantasy, not any history. I’d joined the SCA by this time, so I had a better handle on clothing, history, etc. I was sorely sick of generic taverns serving generic ale and generic stew, of men wearing “tunics and trewes” and women wearing “gowns”. So I started a novel in a world similar to Renaissance Italy about a master jeweler who’d been a young protégé and was now at the top of her talent and she was bored and didn’t care and wanted to hang out and party all the time. When her world is turned completely upside down, she has to regroup, figure out what’s really important, and take on greater responsibility than she’d ever imagined. During the writing of this book, I got heavily involved with the SCA, fell in love with someone other than my husband, got divorced, moved in with other person (now my husband—10 years in June!), had my job go crazy so I was working 50+ hours/week, and then finally moved to Wales (1998). I then returned my attention to the novel, but made the mistake of reading the latest Guy Gavriel Kay at the same time, so I fell into a pit of despair at not being able to write like him. My writing style was also undergoing a dramatic change (actually in conjunction with what was selling), so what I was writing sounded little like the beginning of the book. It’s been tabled for now; I finally tossed everything I’d written but kept the notes, and when I start from scratch, it will be a vastly superior book. When I get it on the list of Books to Write remains to be seen.

5. Waking the Witch (2000–2001). Started as something of a novel dare when we lived in Wales. Elevator pitch: “Four teenage boys confess to the rape and murder of a woman who died 100 years ago.” A paranormal romance (hey, they’re back!) involving another psychometric heroine who’s got some serious anger/trust issues towards men, a sweet and patient sheriff hero, a vengeful ghost, and all sorts of redemption and healing. Also around this time, it became clear that L was no longer working in my best interests as my agent, and indeed she had decided to get out of the business, so we mutually agreed to part ways. WtW is making the rounds of publishers and agents, and has garnered some lovely negative responses.

6. Blackwood House (2003). Another gothicky paranormal, involving a gorgeous Scottish restorer of historic homes, a heroine betrayed too many times by men, the heroine’s pregnant and slightly loopy younger sister, a crumbling Victorian on the cliffs near Santa Barbara, and the ghost of a woman betrayed by love. I wrote it for Silhouette, when their sweet line had a subline called Shadows. I pitched the idea, they loved it, and then it took me forever to write it because I am sooo not a sweet writer. I kept having to delete all sorts of cool subplots for length, plus I struggled with reasons why the hero and heroine shouldn’t just keep kissing…all the way to the bedroom (or the sofa, or the bathroom counter…) Ultimately it was rejected, which didn’t surprise me one whit. It’s also on the “someday maybe I’ll start this one over” list, although one fabulous and detailed rejection for Waking the Witch essentially said “vengeful ghosts are so yesterday,” so Blackwood House may never fly.

7. I’m not sure if I started An Ever-Turning Wheel before or after Blackwood House. (And I’m too lazy to dig through old journals to find out.) This is a paranormal romance that’s not erotic because I set up a pretty major conflict: a custody battle. Granted, the child—and her father, the hero—are Fae, and the mom was put under a geas to love and care for the child when the child accidentally fell through to modern-day Wales, but… You know what they say about never working with animals or children? Animals are much easier to write about! (For me, that should be obvious!) This novel is “done” and has been through a Novel Workshop, but that proved to me that it needs a big framing story set in Faerie, and I hate editing, so even though queries were sent out, I technically don’t have a “completed manuscript” to submit. I keep putting it on my “do after X novel is written” list, and then another project leaps ahead of it.

8. A Little Night Music (2003–2004). “Hey, Sarah, wouldn’t it be fun to write a novel together?” And thus the first iteration of ALNM was born, an erotic romance in which we could throw all of our fantasies and desires about our favorite rock stars. It’s a tough job, but somebody had to do it. We wrote it with Harlequin Blaze in mind, and they didn’t want it. We set it aside because it was too short for other markets (a big problem when you write a manuscript targeted at a category line.) But, see below…

9. Cat Scratch Fever (2005). You’ve probably already heard the story. Teresa and I submitted a short story to one of Black Lace’s Wicked Words anthology, and the editor said, “I’ve never worked with coauthors before, but you write so well together and this is a great story. Have you ever considered writing a novel? I’ve got a hole in my schedule.” We frantically hammered out the first 10K and a synopsis, got a contract, and wrote the rest of the novel (60K) in two months. While I was working full-time with a 3-hour total commute. (Much of my halfof the book was written in the back seat of the carpool.) CSF is an erotica set at a big-cat sanctuary and has been praised for its “cleverly unfolding mystery” element. Dude. We wrote a mystery novel! Who knew?

8 redux. So now Virgin Books had a new editor and a new erotic line, Cheek. I suggested to Sarah that we send ALNM. The editor asked for some reasonably detailed changes, so we rewrote the beginning and the synopsis, and got the contract. We thought we’d be able to use chunks of the later material, but in the end we rewrote almost the entire manuscript (2006).

vi. I was considering Angelika (2007) for Black Lace, but stalled at about 25K. Teresa and I have since come up with a nifty rewrite, but right now it’s not in the To Do List. The book also involves a Victorian mansion and a ghost, but the ghost isn’t vengeful and the book is definitely erotic.

vii. Designed for Love (2007), a contemporary erotic romance, also stalled, but at about 41K (wow, I hadn’t realized I’d gotten that far!). Sarah and I considered it as our next project, but her heart wasn’t in it (which is fair: it’s not easy to come into someone else’s manuscript project when it’s more than half finished). I’m finding that I don’t enjoy writing contemporary erotic romance on my own—I prefer doing it with a coauthor or writing something with paranormal and/or suspense elements. So we’ll see when this burps back up the chain to be finished. Oh, it’s about a woman who designs erotic rooms and a man who thinks the “trappings” aren’t necessary for good sex, and the next thing you know, they have a bet going to see if she can prove him wrong.

10. Out of the Frying Pan, Sophie Mouette’s second novel, was completed last year and has garnered some interest from one publisher (they requested a partial) plus a glowing rejection from another. This one’s “Emma Holly meets Jennifer Crusie in Rachel Ray’s kitchen,” with a zany cast of secondary characters. Everyone we’ve told about it wants to hear more about the dog….

viii. Ghosted. My current WIP. An urban fantasy about a former Hollywood party girl who survived a near-death experience to discover she can see ghosts. Only ghosts are for the most part nice, so when someone starts exorcising them, she has to figure out who and stop the person before all of her friends are ripped away from her. Oh, and with the ghosts’ help, she gives ghost tours around Hollywood, culminating in an Art Deco hotel she’s renovating.

ix. After Teresa and I finish various individual projects, we plan to write Caressing the Tiger, a paranormal erotic romance set in Victorian England, featuring a shapeshifting Indian demigodess/tiger and a English animal tamer fighting a dark-arts practitioner who’s using Indian animals in his black rites. We wrote the synopsis and first 2K as a novella submission, but it’s really a novel.

Wow. That…that was unexpected. I’ve completed more novels than I realized. I thought I was at 6 or 7! The number of partials is a little embarrassing until I discount anything written before adulthood; the ST novel, which had no future; and current and future projects. That leaves the unfinished at 3, which isn’t that bad. I’ve been laboring under the belief that I can’t finish a novel on my own any more (that I can write successfully only with coauthors), and that number sort of blows that theory out of the water. My brain is so stupid sometimes. :-)

Of course, my other revelation is that I have an obvious obsession with old houses, ghosts, and psychic/witchy heroines. I mean, I knew I did, but I didn’t realize how many novels contained them!

Yay Ken!

I'm thrilled to report that early this morning, Ken successfully completed his first 50CC—that's coast to coast on the bike in 50 hours or less!

He left Monday morning (along with a fellow LDR [long-distance rider]), and it happened so quickly I didn't even have time to mention he was gone! He should be back sometime Saturday; he's taking a little longer to come back so he can hit some specific sites for another ride on the way.

If you want to send him your congrats, his e-mail is ken.meese @ mac.com (remove the spaces)!

Dirrrrrty

I have the privilege of being part of a delicious anthology called Dirty Girls, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. The anthology guidelines called for “HOT HOT stories, as in, the hottest one you've ever written. … I want stories that blow my mind and take me to new places…”

I cracked my knuckles and dove in. Now there was a challenge.

What I ended up writing was “Party Favor,” one of the kinkiest things I’ve ever written. It’s a loose sequel to “On Tour,” which appeared in Sex on the Move. In “On Tour,” my unnamed narrator is offered a chance to be with the rock god of her dreams…only under his—and his wife’s—kinky terms.

I was already pushing some personal boundaries when I wrote “On Tour.” I’ve made no attempt to hide my fascination and lust for rockers, including one in particular.

And there’s the slippery slope. Erotica writers are the ones who constantly get the question, “Have you done everything you’ve written about?” The unspoken but obvious question is “Have you fantasized about everything you write about?” The belief is that if you write about it, you must want it (if you’re not writing from experience, that is).

I’m pretty sure Stephen King doesn’t want to experience everything he’s written, but I bet he doesn’t get asked the same questions, either.

So even though the rocker in the stories is a guitarist fronting his own band and his wife is an amalgamation of women, writing “On Tour” was hard for me, because I wondered with every word whether I’d be judged. Whether assumptions would be made about my personal desires, my personal fantasies.

Still, I wrote it, I had Ken review it for typos, and I mailed it, and I sold it. And somewhere between that and publication, I stopped caring what people thought. I write fiction; it’s my job to make things up. I make things up. Writing “Party Favor” was easy after that.

The premise of “Party Favor” was one I’d had in my head for years, but I’d never written it as a story until the Dirty Girls guidelines hit my desk. It was a natural progression from “On Tour,” and there’s a part of me that wants to put those story together with others and write a whole novel about the unnamed narrator and her adventures with the kinky rock star of her dreams and his even kinkier wife. (But that’s a subject for another post.)

The question is, do you think “Party Favor” fits the guidelines of “HOT HOT stories, as in, the hottest one you've ever written”? Rachel, the editor, did, but it’s reader response I really crave…

For more about Dirty Girls, check out the book’s blog, and if you go down to the April 8 entry, you’ll be able to follow links to the rest of the Blog Tour.

And hey, can I just say? I only just got my comp copy and haven’t had time to do more than skim the stories, but I think my hair caught on fire at least once. These stories sizzle, baybee!

Thursday 13: Thirteen Random Favorites

1. Cookie: Carr’s Ginger Lemon Cremes

2. Architectural style: Victorian Gothic or castle folly

3. Color: Purple

4. Shape: Spiral

5. Sound: Laughter

6. Designer: Gallery Serpentine or Gypsy Moon

7. Artist: Anne Sudworth or Thomas Canty or Waterhouse

8. City: Anywhere Styx is playing

9. State: Ecstasy

10. Drug: Love

11. Perfumery: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

12. Big cat: Cheetah

13. Flaw: Procrastination (it’s taken me all day to finish this!)

new website unveiled!

I'm delighted to announce that my new and improved website is now live! You can view it here.

What's new? Well, my webgoddess Hope moved everything over to Wordpress and we added a different Home page, which will be updated about once a month. The News page will be the place to go for announcements about new releases, sales, signings/appearances, and reviews.

Even better, you can now add comments to the news items!

There's some new info in the News, and please also check out the Bibliography for some new publications. I've added links to several interviews on the Biography page, too.

If you find any broken links, typos, or other errors, please e-mail me at cyvarwydd@mac.com. If you want to say something nice about the website, please e-mail me at cyvarwydd@mac.com! I'll pass all notes on to the amazing and wonderful Hope as well.

Please stop by if you can. There's virtual champagne for everyone!

The answer is...me!

Can I have a do-over?

Some Star Trek fans think that all the odd numbered movies are the bad ones and the even-numbered movies are the good ones. I’m beginning to suspect something similar is going on with my birthdays, only the other way around. What is it with my even-numbered birthdays? And when did this start? Thirty was pretty good, although a little weird since I’d recently gotten together with Ken and our first SCA event after that was on my birthday and a friend of mine won Crown, but somewhere after that…?

Friday night, our garage was burglarized. The fuckers came into our backyard and through the side door into the garage sometime after Ken finished loading the car with SCA stuff for Saturday’s event, and stole one of the remotes. They then sat somewhere nearby and played with the remote on and off through the evening to see if anyone would react. Our tenant did hear the garage door go up and down at one point, and she went down to investigate, saw the door was closed, and assumed we’d just come home from somewhere. (We have a detached garage with an apartment above it.) Then, around 12:30 a.m., she was still awake and in her living room right above the doors when she heard it again, and stomped around putting on her coat and going down the stairs to discover the door was open. She’d scared them off. She got us, and we called the cops, and were basically up until 3 a.m. dealing with the shit.

They made off with a bike bag full of Ken’s heated gear and some bike tools; the organizer that goes in my trunk (Ken had taken it out to pack the car), which contained the GPS cradle/plug for my Palm; and several electric drills/screwdrivers and their charging stands.

On the plus side, nobody was hurt, they didn’t steal anything that was irreplaceable (that we’ve noticed, anyway), and if our tenant hadn’t been home, we wouldn’t’ve found out until the next morning.

Bastards. Karma will get ‘em in the end, but it sucks that we won’t be able to watch.

Anyway. We got little sleep because we were carpooling to the event with Thomasina and we had to pick her up. The event itself was quite fun. It was great to see our friends, and I foisted cake on everyone, and everyone patiently put up with me being a great swirling sucking mass of “the world revolves around me.” After all, I am the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything now!  :-)

I spent my birthday money from my parents on a purple and white felted hat made by our friend Collette (there are no actual hats at that link, but go see her stunning glassware and stained glass! We have soooo many of the glasses!), and there will be pictures once Ken takes one of me that I don’t hate. I’m extremely tempted to sew six big pearls on the top… The feast was wonderful (there was pasta! and succulent roast chicken! and tasty salad!), too.

On the other hand, I managed not to step in any giant ground squirrel holes, but instead twisted my foot in a hole in the cement floor of the feast pavilion. No, the other ankle. I was approaching the table, and managed to catch myself on Ken, but my food all sloshed to the side of my plate and I proceeded to shower the table, the floor, and Ken with peas.

On the plus side, it’s not really that bad. It’s mostly the outside of my foot that hurts, and I was able to work out with my trainer today without any problems.

Given our state of exhaustion, we decided to stay home and have a quiet day Sunday. We went out to dinner with Morgana and Brian to Café Bariloche, a Latin American restaurant in Ventura. They love the place, but we’d never managed to actually get there before. Oh. My. Gods. I had shrimp (giant tiger prawns) in a basic lemon and garlic sauce, but the sauce was thick and clung to the shrimp, and I wanted to lick my plate it was so good. The rice was nicely seasoned. The vegetable had been sautéed in a bit too much oil, though, and I’m not greatly fond of string beans, so I decided, it was my birthday, dammit, and I didn’t have to eat my vegetables.

For dessert, M&B recommended the crème brûlée, and since we were all pretty full, we ordered one to share. If I’d thought my meal was good… They put dark chocolate in the crème brûlée, and when they caramelized the top it made the chocolate bits get soft, and it was so good I wanted private time with it.

Unfortunately, Monday morning we had to get up hideously early for our tax appointment, and then I my annual gyn exam in the afternoon… On the plus side, my hoohoo looks quite healthy and we’re getting a boatload of money back on our taxes. (Most of it will go to paying off our home equity loan, but I think we may also splurge on the sofa we want for the media room.)

I dunno. After all that, do I get a do-over? There was some really fabulous stuff in there, and all told, it could’ve been a lot worse.

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Today I got my page proofs for “Some Old Lover’s Ghost,” which is spiffy. They’re due this weekend, but I’ll probably read them tomorrow. I also received rejections from Clarkesworld for “Matchmaker” and ASIM for “The Rising”; both are back in circulation, poof! A couple of other rejections came through recently as well, but I’ve already turned the stories around, so there, neener neener.

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I’ve scheduled my tattoo! April 25th. Yay!

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The otter cam continues to delight me to no end, except at night when it’s dark and I can’t see the otters. On the other hand, that means I can actually get some work done.

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I have lots more I could ramble about, but it’s getting late and I’m still trying to catch up on sleep from the weekend. More tomorrow!

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Currently Reading: The Chase, Clive Cussler (for the workshop)
Lately Listened To: Fellini Days, Fish
Recently Watched: Medium

Ghostly goodness!

Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories is now available to order at amazon.com and will be released in May! It contains my story "Some Old Lover's Ghost," which I had a blast writing. I'm really chuffed to be writing and selling fantasy again (along with romance and erotica).

Long day

Well, phooey. The humorous fairy tale story was rejected. The main editor said the setting made my story stand out from the rest and my “opening line was simply awesome.” However, he basically had an issue with the conflict, which is fair enough, but the conflict is original to the fairy tale and I’m not sure how to get around that. OTOH, the other editor said it was in her top three stories and sent me a separate e-mail saying how much she enjoyed it, and that she hopes I’ll submit to their next anthology. So hey, it didn’t fit there, but it’s a really fun story and will be out in the mail to Realms of Fantasy on Monday.

Also a rejection from Spacesuits & Sixguns for “The Queen’s Gardener.” Drat it, people, don’t you know it’s my birthday weekend?! ::gg:: I have to check my spreadsheet to see where I’ll send that story next.

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Other than that, I’m just bloody exhausted. Got up, went to the chiropractor, came home, went grocery shopping and other errand-ing with Ken, came home, at lunch, poked at e-mail, went to Costco* with Ken. All before my first cup of tea. Oh, and as we were getting ready to leave for Costco, Ken put on a new pair of shoes he bought yesterday, and they were so slick on the bottom that he fell down the stairs. :-( Banged up his elbow and smacked his back, although he says he doesn’t think there’s any major damage. Scared the crap out of me, though!

The first thing we did on the way to Costco was stop at the sporting goods store and return the shoes.  :-S

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A friend e-mailed me privately asking about my tattoo, and I realized I hadn’t rambled about it here yet, so now I shall!

For my 30th birthday I got a Celtic knotwork band around my right ankle. I planned it for two years and while I didn’t design the band per se, I spent a lot of time finding the one I wanted. It has eight connectors, and I always planned to have the phases of the moon hanging down from it like charms…only I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what I wanted the connectors to look like.

I finally decided to go ahead and get the moons done, and decide on the connectors later…but then I needed to find a tattoo artist I was comfortable with. I need someone I trust, someone I click with, because getting work done is not only physical for me, but emotional and spiritual. I’d been looking at Pat Fish’s website for some time, and on our way up to Black Oak Lodge last month, I stopped in and met her, and put down a deposit. (Check out her website—she does amazing Celtic work!)

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Currently Reading: Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
Lately Listened To: Holidays in Eden, Marillion
Recently Watched: Battlestar Galactica!

*Which means there is cake! White cake with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting for whomever comes to King’s Hunt!

Almost here...

On Monday, I finally finished and mailed a fantasy short story that I’d been working on for a bit—a humorous take on a fairy tale for an anthology looking for the same. Yesterday I got word that the story’s made the first cut—hoorah!

This also meant that now I can get back to work on Ghosted with my full concentration. Plus Teresa and I have a collab story to write, and she’s already sent me the beginning, but I want to get my head back into the novel before I play with the story. It’s too easy to use stories as an excuse not to work on the novel! And I really do love this novel.

I’ve been spending a little time tweaking my new website, which to you all won’t look appreciably different from my old website, except maybe for the home page. But it’s so much easier to work with (for me to add updates and change things), and I’m excited about it going live soon. My webgoddess has once again done an amazing job!

Today brought a nice present in the mail: a royalty statement from Virgin. Several Wicked Words anthologies have been sold to Germany (including Sex at the Sports Club, which includes the first story Teresa and I wrote for them and which garnered the invitation to write a novel), so I get a percentage of that, plus a bit of royalty money for both novels. With the exchange rate, it’s an even nicer chunk of change—but lest you think I’m suddenly rolling in it, let me say that it’s not enough to cover the Marketing Workshop in May. But it certainly helps.

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I also got a birthday card and check from my parents. Whee! Birthdaybirthdaybirthday! April is Happy Birthday Month!

Although I had a big party for my 40th birthday, it was somewhat lost in a haze of pain and painkillers and muscle relaxants (I spent my actual birthday in the ER). Last year’s birthday was deliberately quiet (although hiring the personal trainer was the best present I’ve ever given myself). So this year I’m feeling a bit obnoxious and all about me. :-) Saturday is King’s Hunt, and we’ll be taking a cake for everyone to share. (“Cake or death?” If I ask you, will you understand?) Sunday, my actual birthday, we’re planning on doing a charity bike ride and visiting the big cat sanctuary, and maybe dinner with Morgana & Brian if we’re all not too exhausted. The next day we’ll be right back to reality with a tax appt, and the following day I have my yearly gyn exam (healthy is good!)…

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Currently Reading: Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
Lately Listened To: workout playlist
Recently Watched: Without a Trace; CSI

Thursday 13: Thirteen Things to Do This Month

in no particular order

1. Finish Ghosted.

2. Celebrate my birthday!

3. Write cathedral story with Teresa.

4. Prep for Marketing Workshop (read three assigned books and write proposals for them).

5. Work out 2x/week with trainer and more times on my own!

6. Taxes. Woo.

7. Schedule my birthday tattoo and hopefully get the tattoo (the latter may end up in May, alas).

8. Have my annual gyn appt and mammogram. Healthy is Good.

9. Go to two SCA events and hang out with friends.

10. Attend LARA meeting.

11. Write with fellow author friends in coffee shop 2x, have tea with same 1x.

12. Be very grateful I can’t come up with anything else for this list!

13. Enjoy life!

Owie. But, otters!

Oh ow. Ow ow owie ow. I worked out with my trainer for the first time in about two months yesterday, and today I can barely walk, I hurt so much! It’s my own fault, really; I haven’t been going to the gym nearly as much as I should, even discounting the traveling and cold and hives and so forth. I’ve been reasonable about cardio—Ken and I walked on the beach recently, and we often walk to the P.O. and library. Strength training? Not so much.

I don’t know how I’m going to actually work out with her again tomorrow, seeing as right now I need help getting out of a chair…

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Otter cam! I found an otter cam that’s a widget for my Google home page! I'm not getting any work done, but Ken is amused by my squeals of delight and running commentary. ("Look! Two otters!")

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Currently Reading: Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
Lately Listened To: Ghost of a Rose, Blackmore’s Night
Recently Watched: CSI: NY; Ghost Hunters

Fun With Photoshop

Because my first thought on seeing the original picture really was that he should holding his copy of A Little Night Music. I am deeply indebted to my friend Lev for his Photoshop wizardry in bringing my little fantasy to life. (Original photo of Lawrence by Tommy Shaw.)