Some Conference Highlights + Book Giveaway!

Congratulations to commenter kiwi1124, winner of my ECWC book haul! And thanks to everyone who entered.   Let’s start with the bad news: I didn’t win an e-reader. I think there were six or seven raffle baskets that had them, and I put tickets in every single one (I put 25 tickets in one!), but [...]

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Yay, my editor likes the new book-to-be!

So as I mentioned before, Bantam tentatively contracted with me for a third book. I mean, I guess they did, because there was a sale notice in Publisher’s Marketplace, but I fear to jinx myself if I say “Bantam bought another book” before I’ve actually signed a contract. (Publishing contracts move very slowly; at least [...]

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Brief dispatch from the writing trenches

Plugging away on a few revisions to Lydia & Will’s story, plus digging in to Nick & Kate’s; scrambling to find out as much about them as I can, because I’m not one of those writers who drafts comprehensive character biographies before starting on Chapter One.  I start writing, the characters start talking and doing [...]

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Progress Report: Starting the Next Book

Starting work on my third consecutive heroine with likability issues.  Because that seems to be the kind I write. Having already churned out Humorless & Judgmental, and followed it up with Unscrupulous & Unkind, I will now try my hand at Snobbish & Impractical.  Simmering on the back burner are Vain & Mercenary, and… actually, [...]

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Once More Into the Breach

My sighs of relief turn out to have been premature.  Agent Emmanuelle sent back her editorial notes on Will & Lydia’s book, and now it’s time for some heavy-duty rewrites.  (Darn it!  I knew there was too much card-playing and not enough plot!) So the blog goes dark again until I get this done.  Wish [...]

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One Trip to the Library Later…

Somewhere in here, I’m hoping hard, is the plot for my next book.  I know who the hero is, and the heroine is starting to take shape, and I have some ideas for the dynamic of their relationship, but beyond that it’s all a daunting blank. Plot = blood; Cecilia = turnip.

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Sherry Thomas, Are You Kidding Me?

I picked up Sherry Thomas’s latest, His at Night, and tore through it in three days.  (For me that’s fast.) It was a pretty rich book and I have a lot of thoughts on it, which I may or may not distill into something worth saying later, but for the moment this is the thought [...]

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Write What You Don’t Know

Some years back I took my daughter to a bookstore for an appearance by Ann Brashares, who was at the time promoting the third in her four-book Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.  Ann read an excerpt, and spoke a bit, and answered questions from the overflow audience.  And two things in particular have stayed [...]

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Biting My Nails All Over Again

Five days from now my second-book proposal is due.  It’s already part of my contract, based on a two-paragraph pitch.  But now I actually have to send three chapters and a synopsis for my editor to read. I’m nervous.  Is there enough plot?  Is my tormented Waterloo veteran distinguishable from the many other tormented war [...]

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The Revisions Passed Muster!

Woo-hoo!  My editor says they’re good to go!

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