Revisions! And an unrelated photo

I have finished revisions to book2, Uncovering Her Secrets. Correction, I have finished a round of revisions for book2. I have no idea if I'm close to the mark or not. I hope, but I do not know.

However, to celebrate, I'm going to run around in circles until I get dizzy and pass out.

Either that, or I'll just pass out. That's always fun too.

Look, a cross!

And then I have several pieces to tat for a sale...

And I have another couple stories battling in my head to escape.

But best of all... I CAN READ BOOKS AGAIN. I don't read while I'm writing or doing big story revisions. Afraid it will corrupt my brain.

Now if I could only figure out how to combine tatting, reading and sleeping at the same time, I'd be all set.

MOUNTAIN MAN GOTS A COVER!

UK cover for Mountain Man!

Warning: This will be a post where I run amok and make little sense, as opposed to my usual posts of stunning brilliance. . .Ahem.

MY FIRST COVER EVER.

And I love it.

It's beautiful.

Top Ten reasons I love this cover, in no particular order:

1. It's purple! Is this important? YES. Purple is the best color ever.
2. See those mountains? THOSE ARE THE RIGHT MOUNTAINS. They may or may not be from eastern Kentucky where the book is set, but it's definitely Allegheny territory--either the Smokies, the Appalachians, or whatever they're called in Pennsylvania that I'm too excited to research!
3. Hot couple. Ever seen a romance where the models did nothing for you? The heroine was frumpy, the hero had a sweater vest(*Cough* SORRY, AMY). So not happening here, at least for me and I'm totally right. If anyone disagrees, I'll be in the corner plugging my ears and singing How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? at the top of my lungs.
4. Heroine's got the right hair color. (I know it's not really that important but this little detail makes me happy!)
5. Hero's got the right hair color. (Same reason as above, but I love the Tall, Dark and Handsome and add it to the list of YAY!)
   
6. Who's the scruffy puppy! Okay, so this hottie has no beard and his hair isn't touching his collar, but he's got the sexy scruff. Who's a scruffy puppy? You are! Oh yes you are!
7. Hello sexy! Granted, it isn't quite as smoking hot as Amy Andrew's recent medical(which, by the way, is an awesome read and the reason I don't feel bad about mentioning the sweater vest debacle). I could not ask for more. *dreamysigh*
8. It's got my name. This is very important. Might actually be #1 on the list, but I didn't want to seem like I was all egotistical so I strategically located this bit at #8 and then made the text massive so no one misses it. Dash cunning? Or contradictorily subtle?
9. I get to squeal and run amok two more times before October because... there will be North American and Australian covers! 
10. Comparing to future cover-siblings. In the future, when other covers fail to make me so gleeful, I can chastise them and tell them they should try to do better like my ELDEST child(cover) did. 

Okay, I'm done running amok now. Only I can't decide whether to make the picture larger, or change my background to it, or maybe bathe it in soft light and infect my blog with some mood music. Nothing screams sexy or puts you in the mood for love more than banjo music, right?

It's been forever...

I know, I stink. It's been forever since I blogged. February to be precise! And after that epic awesome post, and now that I'm like... a professional writer or something, I have had a bit of blog stage fright. No real clue why. Not so much about the writing, but about the BEING PROFESSIONAL, which I suddenly assumed I needed all future blog posts to be.

Bye bye Snapshots from Ridiculousville.

Bye bye Tatting Project Photos.

Or not. There's just no way for me to do that. So, in the spirit of horrifying my inner professional perfectionist wacko, I will enlighten everyone to something they probably already know. But which was news to me.

I've been watching Dark Shadows uhh, a lot. And I realized that at the beginning, where the Moody Blues song plays and the chick is on the train and it's all... WOO LOOK, IT'S THE 70s... I loved that part. I think that song might pre-date me, but it is still awesome in a completely incomprehensible way. Even the crappy-crappy poem stuck randomly in the middle of it for no apparent reason(other than maybe they were stoned).

Knights in Black Satin?

I don't know if everyone has this problem, but songs I heard as a child and never really understood? I tend to still not understand them 30 years later.(She Bop is about WHAT?!) So, my epiphany came when I decided I needed to see the lyrics to that crazy poem and I hit Google up for it.

Almost White Satin?

I'm not sure what I thought the song was about, but in my mind, it involved KNIGHTS. And satin. So I was shocked when Google kept correcting me in that snarky blue Google way Did you mean Nights in White Satin?  

....maybe...

Knight in White Satin!

Though there are lyrics that lead me to still think it might be more suited to Knights than Nights. Never reaching the end? Of what? A quest, maybe? Well, if they wore armor instead of white satin, maybe they'd do better getting to the end.



Letters are written never meaning to send? I have no idea what this has to do with Nights in White Satin either. But I could see a Knight in White Satin having one of those. A just-in-case letter for the possibility that he'd die while flouncing about in white satin while on his impossible quest. A letter home to mom to let her know he's dead, but he looked very shiny up until the dragon killed him.

I'm still dismayed. I liked it better when it was Knights in White Satin :( And I'm fairly certain I'll never get that image out of my mind.

First sale!

My So You Think You Can Write submission sold to Harlequin Mills&Boon Medical Romance line this morning!

I had an uncertain inkling it was coming since Wednesday morning.

I was composing a post for the SubCare thread at the Harlequin forums--just a roll call post announcing what I had out where--and before I hit Submit on the post I got an email from the lovely Suzanne Clarke, who has been working with me through the revisions. The email said basically, I want to call you.

At that point, I had an out-of-sanity experience.

In my mind: Upon reading the email, I gracefully sail into the other room and mention in completely casual tones, "Oh, by the way, this wonderful editor wants to talk to me." La la la

What really happened: I jumped up and ran through the house, but before I got to the other room, I forgot how doors worked. So I slammed into the door a couple times before I realized that I had to, oh, I don't know... TURN THE KNOB. And then I blurted out "SHE WANTS TO TALK TO ME ON THE PHONE!" Message delivered(sort of), I barreled back to my computer like Animal from the Muppets. She who? Who needs coherent details?

Later, I missed the call. You know, like a sane person who can't figure out what phone to answer when she hears ringing. Or doesn't hear ringing, because the phone I took with me through the house(and back yard) was the wrong phone and too far from the phone base to ring.

Rescheduled call for next day, but germs conspired to thwart our plans that day. Germs are devious little monsters. I know these things. I write medical romance. (heee)

Today she called and I giggled through the whole conversation, I think. Fairly certain I sounded like an escaped mental patient. But she said wonderful things, some of which I kind of remember! After I squawked a few monosyllabic words, she told me the new title and scheduled release date.

From here on in, Mountain Man has been new-named: Craving Her Rough-Diamond Doc, and shall be born into paper and ink October 2013 :)

I have a few tweaky revisions to make yet, which I'm fixin to tackle(when my brain resumes functioning). After that, I'll be brainstorming next story so I can whip up a short outline to pitch(Did I mention: Two book contract? YAY!!).

Maggie(my dog) has no idea what's going on, but she's very excited that there's lots of giggling and happiness today. She keeps doing the Maggie-dance: this involves hopping, massive tail wagging, occasional barking for no apparent reason other than she wants to make noise too.

More projects

Tatting!

I'm in love with it. Have yet to set up on Etsy, but I'm thoroughly enjoying doing it. When I have more of a repertoire of designs to work with, I will go on with the store, but for now, I'm just sharing photos on account of having nothing else to say on the blog today :D

Size 10 Lizbeth black thread choker with peacock seed beads. Overall length 11.5", black ribbon will be attached to tie in the back.


Have been making oodles of these hearts(different colors + beads). Will add another photo with the beading when I get the next one done. This size 20 Lizbeth Spring Flowers thread was the final prototype as I settled on the design.

SYTYCW Interviews

My pal Maria Buscher decided to interview entrants into 2012's So You Think You Can Write -- Harlequin's writing competition. So if you're curious how other entrants have been getting on, stop by her blog.

My interview kicks off the series, talking about Mountain Man:MD and what I've learned from revising him(so far). But I'm sure the others will have useful advice :D

New interviews will go up on Thursdays. Stop by!

Next few interviewees:

• Fiona Marsden (Feb 7)
• Janie Couch (Loveylove day! Feb 14)
• Heather Gardner (Feb 21)
• (There will be more, just stopping the list here.)

Betraying Your Voice Is Bad

I also speel gud

With an eye toward revision and submission, I picked up a novella I wrote last summer. It was written about two months before I wrote my SYTYCW entry, and I didn't think that there would be much difference in the writing style.

Wrong.

I remember now that I'd read something... some piece of writing advice(like I do) and I'd decided to Improve My Writing by incorporating this advice into my style.

The result? I completely lost my voice.

I read the first couple chapters and it was like someone else wrote it.

Someone slow.

With a limited vocabulary and stunted imagination!

Maybe someone in a coma, or perhaps this is what it would be like if a zombie tried to write a novella. A novella about zombies.

Bad. So bad.

I'm sure my skill set has changed, improved since last summer. With the revision letters, I'm getting an idea of my problem areas and learning what I need to do to address. All that is good, but I've come to the conclusion that in trying so hard to WRITE RIGHT, I sabotaged myself.

Gearing up to rewrite it now, and actually excited to do so, but so dismayed at this feat of ridiculousness I perpetrated like... six months ago.

Lesson learned. If it ain't broke, stop messing with it! Work on craft, not on voice. I've got my voice, and I'm comfortable with it. I like it. Now I need to concentrate on effective storytelling.