edits are bye-bye...

well, not quite, but all I have to do is a final read-through, then I can attach them to an email and send them off to my editor. As I said in an earlier post, there wasn't anything major in this lot of edits--which is a huge relief, given Destiny and Embraced had more than their fair share. I didn't want to go three bad books in a row. This time around it was more clarification stuff--you know, I'd written something but didn't follow it through logically. Plus there was the usual spelling goofs. In one case, I switched spelling of the bad guys race mid-way through the book and hadn't noticed. And yes, I did edit the damn thing before I sent it off. Several times, in fact. Just goes to prove, we authors are blind when it comes to our own work--thank heaven for tough editors. :)

There's no other writing news, thanks to the fact the Darkest Kiss edits have been taking up all of my writing time. But I've still managed to keep some fun 'online' time to myself, and have set up a small Cafe Press site. It's only a basic site at the moment, and there's only two Riley designs available there, but if it proves to be popular, I'll roll it over to a premium site so there's more choices. (I actually want a large mug in both designs, so I may just take up the premium option anyway). I'm also in the process of shifting over my website to the new design. Justin from Stonecreek Media has come up with a wonderful template--it's along the same lines as what I have now, but much, much fancier. It may take me a week or so to shift the content over, but I'll let you all know when that happens. I'll be shifting the blog, too, which not only means that this site will no longer be active, but my blog will finally fully match my site.

Back to writing tomorrow--yay!

edits ahoy...

I received my edits for Riley 6 today. Anne always sends me an email first--I think so its not so much of a shock when I see the full printed version attached to the manuscript, which is always filled with little red squiggles everywhere. Squiggles that are a bonus to the edit letter. lol. It's actually not as bad as I thought it might be. Most of the comments relate to stuff I simply hadn't fully thought through, and can be easily corrected. The remainder will require some rewriting, but not a whole lot. Overall, I did pretty good on this one. :) Now I just have to wait for the manuscript to arrive on my doorstep, and get down to work.

I did manage to get some writing done on Riley 7 today. Only three pages, but overall I'm very happy with that. I did some fine-tuning--the bad-vampire she's following in the first chapter somehow morphed into a zombie, so I had to go back and fix that. And then she suddenly had a gun, so I had to go back and add that. But I also got a couple of plot ideas jotted down, and the story is finally starting to form in my head. I also got some brilliant ideas about the romantic entanglements in this one. Can't say any more, because that would spoil things, but the muse is rubbing her hands with glee and that's always a good sign. I'm back writing Mercy tomorrow. I'm not sure how long I'll keep switching between the two, but for the moment it seems to be working, so I'm not complaining. :)

still recovering....

the week of not sleeping properly at RT and on the planes has finally caught up with me. I don't think I've slept this much in my entire life! I'm even having afternoon naps, which is something I've never been able to do.

Of course, between all the napping, I've had to do a whole heap of work. The first pass proofs for Embraced by Darkness came in while I was at RT, so I've had to move my butt to get those read and back over in time. And of course, there were more mistake than normal in this one--I think someone was trying to see how awake I was ;)

Right now, I'm working on the total rewrite of Destiny. I've got two weeks to do this one, which means that Riley 6 is on the back burner for a while. Which is a pain, considering I'd only just sorted out several problems I was having with its direction. That's the problem with plotting beforehand--the muse feels restricted to the plot, and it takes forever to work out where it's going wrong. But it's sorted now, and I think it's going to work in lovely with what I have planned for the next couple of books. (Yes, I'm a pantzer, but I'be always known where the emotional plot was going, and what would happen in the end. Let's just say that Riley's trials are far from over just yet!)

I should be able to get some RT pics up soon. My camera's battery went dead, and I haven't had a chance to recharge until now, meaning I haven't been able to grab any of the pics I took. It's charging now, so start looking for some pics tomorrow :)

well, it seems...

I was just a little hasty with my aim of hitting 90 pages yesterday. I'd kinda forgotten I was sitting at 75 pages, not 85. So I wrote 6 pages, which isn't bad overall, but no where near the 15 needed to hit 90. Ah well. The scene I was writing yesterday was pretty cool, though--and not what I'd originally intended to write at all. In this scene, Riley's been called in to rescue the friend of a new character (you meet him briefly in Embraced by Darkness). I'd originally intended it to be a short, sharp fight scene that ends when the vampire runs, but instead it has become somewhat more complicated. It turned out the friend lives not in an ordinary apartment block, but rather a 'vampire commune'. Now, it's been a stated rule in my books that vampires don't live together, but rules are made to be broken, and this is one of those times. It's been fun to write this scene, and hopefully it'll end up being rather creepy. And of course, having all those vampires around gives Riley a good reason not to chase down our would-be killer and knock his pointy little teeth out. :)

I won't be writing much for the next couple of days, though. The line edits for Embraced by Darkness came in yesterday, and the due date to get them back to Bantam was actually yesterday. I'm like, well, I work fast, but not that fast. Anyway, it'll be bum glued to seat for the next couple of days in an effort to get these edits done.