So I was excited to add a new section to the website: deleted scenes. I had put a lot of effort into the first chapter of Stay With Me, only to decide to cut the whole chapter and start with Chapter 2, which is now the start of the story. Being able to post that work and give readers a little bit more background to the story sounded awesome!

I double-clicked on the [Original] version of my story, only to find that it was the exactly same as the final version. Bwuh? Where was my original first chapter?

I apparently deleted it for real–as in, irretrievably. Pretty bummed about that. However, I did post two smaller deleted scenes from my very first novel, Caught in the Devil’s Hand, which were saved successfully. Enjoy reading them!

I’m rather pleased with this cover. If you’re wondering what the box-like object is that the hero and heroine are “inside”, then you’ll need to read the book. ;) Read more

What follows is an excerpt from my fourth book, Stay With Me, in which Iain has an erotic dream about Emma. Contains sexual content. Read more

My fourth story, Stay With Me, has been approved for publication with Ellora’s Cave. My usual editor and I will soon start on edits. I’ll let everyone know the release date once I find out. Yay!

The holidays are upon us! D: Quick, run and hide! Parties to plan, presents to buy and wrap, cards to write and send, budgets to juggle… I’m probably going to spend much of this month (and who knows how long after) hoping for the good news that an agent is interested in representing me. In the meantime at least, I’m working on the next story in the series that the fourth story kicks off. The research is honestly a little painful sometimes, but once in a while, I or my trusty librarian savior come across a shining jewel of a fact that is so fascinating, relevant, and simple to use that I cheer with unbridled glee to discover it. Also, researching history can yield a dozen wonderful story ideas. Reality truly is the best muse.

How will you spend your holidays? With friends? With family? With a bottle of champagne and a drop-dead gorgeous man whose smile makes your knees weak? Let’s all hope that all us lovely ladies get a little of all three… or maybe a whole lot of that last part. ;)

Edits on the fourth story are mostly finished. A couple of spots need a second look, but only a couple. It’s now time for the query letter to a literary agent. To write a proper one, I picked up Katharine Sands’ Making the Perfect Pitch, which has a lot of great advice. Cross your fingers for me please!

The first takes a lot of discipline, practice, patience, time (if you’re like me), and devotion. The second requires an attention to detail, concentration (it shouldn’t need to be said, but there it is), and the ability to see “above” the words on the screen.

Does this detail add to characterization or to the plot? Or is it useless? (If the latter, trash it or change it.)

Is the whole manuscript in need of a diet? Too many adverbs, gestures, “looks”, etc that don’t add any meaning to the story, are too vague, or detract from the real meat of a scene (e.g. dialogue) need to be trimmed.

Does this paragraph show behavior and feelings, or does it tell? (If the latter, revise it to the former.)

Does this story contain the oomph, the panache, the zing that sends other stories to Bestsellers’ lists? Does it have any themes? Are they appropriate? Is there something to connect these themes?

Is the writing “rich”? Or is it like a blog? :-P~

Thus, having written out only some of the things that I re-write, then re-write again–then again and again until it’s polished–I hope you’ll all understand why I’m still working on edits for my fourth story.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A writer has this little smidgen of an idea, and decides to make a whole story about it. She fleshes out some important themes, creates characters and a plot that support each other and the themes, works out kinks and writes it all down, revising a few things along the way. Finally, after much sitting and pondering for hours and hours and HOURS, the rough draft is finished.

Next is revision–LOTS of revision. Perhaps a major theme will change or a character will completely disappear. If she’s lucky, the story remains somewhat the same. Discontinuities are found and fixed by editors and beta readers. Weak areas are bolstered or discarded for being un-fixable. Depending on her situation, the writer may then need to look for an agent. She needs the agent looking to promote books of the genre the author has written, and an agent that seems professional, well-connected, and has the tools and experience to guide the author through the process of finding a publishing contract that the author would kill for.

Compared to the rough draft, revision and agent-hunting feels far more stressful.

My job is so far working out fairly well. It’s nothing glamorous, but it’ll get me some income. Writing on my fourth book was stalled for a couple of weeks while I tried to get used to my work schedule and find some private time where I wasn’t surrounded by people. I’ve finally set up my desktop in my room and can come up here to close the door when I have time to write. I’m hoping to get the rough draft done by the end of next week.

Wish me luck!

Ugh… one thing I think all people who are lucky enough to have computers could do without is spam. Email spam, pop-up advertising, and yes, even spam in blog comments. Comment spam was sparse for the last couple of months, but for some reason, in the last week, I’ve had to mark a comment as spam and ban the IP address from which it was sent at least once a day, if not twice.

In other news, I have finally moved to a new house, though I’ve not settled in yet. Still many things to do. Also, the fourth book I’ve been working on for quite a while is very close to completion. A couple more weeks and I can get the thing into my editor’s hands.

I’ve got to say, I’m very pleased with it so far. I only hope that the final version is something readers would like, too. D: