Speak of the Devil blog tour

After considerable wrestling with the wily computer, I present to you, my dear reader, an interview with the lovely (darn it, another one) Shawna Romkey, author of the very recently published Speak of the Devil. I just love the book to pieces – I’ll admit that I may have some slight bias, since I did have the privilege of editing it, but I will remind you that tends to involve reading the book eight or more times (and I’m still not sick of it), so it must be darn good.

Ms. Romkey is, of course, another lamentably gorgeous author. sigh

Author Shawna Romkey

See what I mean? I really don’t know how I manage to get all the good-looking authors, though, because I’ve seen some authors out there who are definitely not pretty, so I guess I must just be lucky!

Speaking of pretty, here’s the cover of Shawna’s Speak of the Devil – and oooooh, is that cover model pretty!

Speak of the Devil Cover

Mmmmm-Mmm! And then I go and feel all awkward because that boy’s probably around the same age as my son. sigh

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for – the interview (previously scheduled to appear April 8th before the damned Internet started refusing to let me connect for more than ten seconds at a time)…

The Interview 

MR: Hi Shawna! Come on in! Sorry about the mud – just be glad we’re not on a back road or you’d sink up to your car doors in the stuff. What would you like to drink? I’ve got Irish Breakfast Tea, this weird Peppermint Ginseng, plain Peppermint, hot cocoa, mint hot cocoa, coffee? Oh, don’t mind Himself… He probably heard the kettle whistling. 

SR: Hot cocoa is great. Thanks!

MR: Your book, Speak of the Devil was released by Crescent Moon Press on March  15th. Now, I’ll admit to being a little biased about how awesome the book is, since I had the great pleasure of editing it and I still want to read it again and again, but if I’m stoked about its release, you must be completely ecstatic! How does it feel to have your book out there in the world?

SR: It’s exciting but kind of nerve wracking at the same time. I’m like a lot of writers and kind of shy when you get down to it. When I first bought my Kindle copy and started reading it I had a minor panic attack, like, “Oh my God. Anyone can just read this now!” It was kind of scary.

MR: You knew I was going to bug you about this… but a little birdy told me that Speak of the Devil has a sequel! Now, I know, no author really wants to say too much about a book before it’s finished, but for those of us eagerly awaiting that sequel already, could you give us a teeny-tiny little hint?

SR: I’m nearly ready to submit the second book to my publisher, so I know how it all goes down.  The Devil Made Me Do It is the next book in the series and is the middle child. This is the Empire Strikes Back, so to speak, but I say the demons strike back. Things don’t go well for our dynamic couple duo, and Lily is taken to a very dark place.

MR: You’re also very active in Indy books for the Kobo, aren’t you?

SR: I am. I run the website www.trindiebooks.com which promotes eBooks for Kobo. There are a lot of sites out there that promote to Kindle, but I believe other than Kobo.com itself, I was the first to start up a Kobo eBook promo site.

MR: You grew up in Missouri, didn’t you? How similar is the setting from Speak of the Devil to the area where you grew up? 

SR: Exactly similar. I base the setting on a lot of my old stomping grounds. Old schools, old neighborhoods, everything.

MR: You live in Nova Scotia, now – my grandmother came from Antigonish and I’ve been told it’s a lovely area. How did you come to move there? 

SR: It is very lovely and parts of Nova Scotia are very similar to Missouri. Just not the big ocean part. My husband is from here, so that’s how I got to know this part of the world.

MR: Here’s me being terrifically nosy, but I do *love* a good romance – how did you and your husband meet?

SR: Oh God. We actually met online, but not like a dating site or anything. We were both posting comments on the same website. Well I was writing posts and he was reading them. He started sending me messages, and I ignored him because I thought he might be a creepy stalker, but eventually he wore me down.

MR: You’ve met Himself, and of course Little Man has been trying to get “pretty lady” attention (yes, yes, you said hi already, silly boy), so you can see my own writing gets frequently interrupted! You’re a mom of two yourself, so I’m sure you can relate – how do you find time to write on top of all that *and* teaching?

SR: *waves to Little Man* Hi there!  Well it isn’t easy. With Speak of the Devil I had the good luck, which seemed like bad luck at the time, to get laid off. It was the year my son started kindergarten (or primary as they call it here in Nova Scotia), and I was home all day by myself. I figured I should put the time to good use and take advantage of the time I was given because I could have gone back to work any day. Now I’m back part time teaching, so I still have every other day where I’m home alone to get work done. If I do go back to teaching full time, I’ll still have summers.

MR: You’re also an active member in several romance writers’ groups – does having a group of authors you can talk to about writing on at least a semi-regular basis help keep you on track?

SR: I think having a writers group is imperative. I’m in the RWA Atlantic Canada chapter and we meet monthly and have education sessions, guest speakers and workshops. All of that helps, but also talking to other authors regularly, asking them to like, tag and share your book, doing reviews for each other, all of that is critical. I tried to publish my books by myself for 20 years and it never happened. Within 2 years of being in a group I got a contract. I had no idea how to submit and who to submit to, and these women did and know their stuff and aren’t afraid to share it.

MR: Have your friends and family been supportive of your writing?

SR: They have. I mean I’ve been doing it since I was 5 now, so they are just kind of used to it. They used to ask me about it more often but as the years went by and nothing ever happened with it, I got cranky about being asked, “So are you still writing?” I think they just kind of let me do my thing. And my writing isn’t for everyone. It’s YA paranormal, so it’s not the kind of thing my parents would be interested in or my aunts and uncles, so getting them to read and critique would be brutal for us all. But my sister loved the book and is very enthusiastic about it. My brother is a loser but I think he finally bought a copy to look at. :p

MR: I understand that you’ve had your work published before, even while you were in college. What was your impression of the publishing process this time around with Crescent Moon Press?

SR: Well what happened in college was just college handbooks and student projects. Nothing was really really published until this one.  This was all new to me, but very exciting. Filling out a cover art sheet and getting an editor assigned to me. All that was soooo exciting and all a bunch of firsts for me. The process was longer than I thought it would be, but CMP takes their time and gets it done. I’m very happy with the end result.

MR: I really do love the concept behind Speak of the Devil. You did an excellent job in developing the characters into people the reader really cares about, but I think your work really shines in that it makes the reader care about even the ‘villains’. During the writing process did you have to remind yourself that they’re people too, and have motivations that seem right to them, or did they develop that way naturally?

SR: That comes into play a LOT in the second book. With this first book, I didn’t want there to be definitive lines as to who is good and who is evil. I think in reality, evil people have some good things about them and good people have a dark side. I didn’t want them to be flat. Here’s goody goody #1 and here’s the guy twisting his evil mustache #2. In the second book, I wanted to explore that further and the devil actually becomes a character in the series. I’ve heard it sad said that villains are heroes in their own story. No one walks around all “bwahaha, I’m the bad guy!” If they’re doing something evil, they think they are justified to do so. With Lucifer I had a little too much fun trying to figure out what his justification was. I tried to do that in Speak of the Devil, too, give the angels a reason to fall.

MR: Your main character Lily’s love life isn’t exactly one I would wish on anyone – she has some real disasters and a lot of angst to deal with after her friends die. I understand that you went through some similar trauma in your teens, and I know several teens who are coping with similar losses. Do you have any advice to offer to help get them through?

SR: The week my book came out there were three news stories on US news about car accidents that had ended up killing close to 15 teens in total. It’s heart breaking. When you’re young you think you’ll live forever, but dead is dead. The loss doesn’t go away. It doesn’t just get better. It’s always there. I mean, even now, nearly thirty years later I’m still thinking about the car accident in high school that took my friends. I’m still writing about it. It still affects me. As far as advice, I don’t know. I guess I’d say, live your life. Make it worth it. I know they wouldn’t want me being depressed forever or doing anything stupid. They’d want me to be happy, so try to do that however you can. For them, if you have to.

MR:On the other hand, she certainly has some yummy “problems” to deal with! I love the dishy cover model for Speak of the Devil – how close is he to how you see Luc?

SR: I didn’t picture Luc’s biceps to be that big. He’s clearly been working out. I pictured Chord Overstreet from Glee, so shorter, blonder hair. But the cover is great. His face really works, and his crazy hair.

MR: You are definitely a social media maven – could you give us some links to find your books, and you, online?

SR: I have tons of links. They can all be found on my website, but here are a few:Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  | Pinterest  |  Goodreads | Amazon Print

MR: I’ve really enjoyed talking with you, Shawna! You’ve really worked hard to make this book shine, and I enjoyed editing it immensely. I already bought my paperback; it’s right there on the shelf! I hope that Speak of the Devil does well for you, and continues to do well as the series progresses and more people discover your books. 

SR: Thank you so much. I hope you get assigned a new book to edit soon, about a demon fighting girl who gets taken away by the biggest baddie of them all!

 

The Grave Winner cover reveal

Today I have the great pleasure of having Lindsey Loucks over to my virtual kitchen for an interview about the cover reveal for her fantastic book – The Grave Winner. I’ll admit to being very slightly biased, since I did edit The Grave Winner for Crescent Moon Press and I completely fell in love with the book. Ms. Loucks herself is enormously entertaining and a delight to work with. She really worked her tail feathers off to make sure that her book was polished up! Of course, like all of “my” authors, Ms. Loucks is entirely too pretty (why do I get all the pretty people? why can’t I get a homely cuss so I don’t feel quite so dowdy? *sniffle*)…

Author Lindsey Loucks

What a brat – she even has good hair! Sigh. Well, enough of my whining, right? She also happens to have a completely awesome cover for her book, The Grave Winner, which will be coming out on May 15th. I have to say that the artist really captured what I thought the main character would look like – absolutely a fantastic job, no questions!

The Grave Winner – Cover Art Revealed!

Fabulous, isn’t it? I love this cover!

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…  the interview!

MR: Hi Lindsey! Come on in! It’s finally nice out, but I don’t dare set out lawn chairs, they’d just sink. Mud season in Vermont. It’ll get worse before it gets better, of course. Would you like some tea? Nothing fancy, just Irish Breakfast Tea…. Or… What is this? Peppermint Ginseng? Yerk. Must be Himself’s. Ah. Plain Peppermint too… Coffee? Oh, don’t mind Himself. He wanders through whenever he hears the magic word–‘tea’.

LL: Hi Melissa! I would love some Irish Breakfast Tea. You have a gorgeous kitchen. Hi Himself! *waves*

MR: Okay, your cover reveal for The Grave Winner is today, and I’m pretty excited! I loved editing your book, and can’t wait to get my mitts on the final product. You must be much more excited than I am!

LL: I am excited and more than a little nervous! I’ve started losing sleep about the whole thing. But sleep is silly, anyway.

MR: I understand that you wrote The Grave Winner in 2010 – it’s been a long process. What did the process look like from your end?

LL: Yep, I started writing it in May 2010. I was working on a YA Sci-Fi (which needs a major rewrite) when the title The Grave Winner leaped inside my head. I had no idea why someone would win a grave, so I scratched my head and thought about it for a while. Then Leigh, my main character, started whispering to me and would. Not. Leave. Me. Alone! Surprising, huh?

So, I started writing her story. It took about six months to finish the first draft and then another year of editing before I felt confident enough in the story to test the query waters. Several requests and even more rejections later, I had three offers from small presses. Crescent Moon Press was the obvious choice for me because 1. they publish e-copies and print, 2. they have amazing covers, and 3. they used the most exclamation points in their offering email, which proved they were the most excited about my story. I haven’t regretted my decision to go with CMP at all. Plus, they have awesome editors! *points at me and grins*

MR: *Blushes* Do you have more books in the works? Like a sequel to The Grave Winner? Hint! Hint! Seriously – I can’t wait to see what else you’re doing!

LL: Well, after what Leigh went through, she stopped talking to me for a while. I can’t say I blame her. But there’s much more to tell, and she knows it, so she’s gradually speaking to me again. I’m about a third of the way through the typed version of the sequel, but there’s more of it scattered through my notebooks. I just have to piece it all together, but I wish I had more time to do it!

I’m also about a fourth of the way through a sexy ghost story in space. I love blending different genres!

MR: You have another book coming with another publisher, don’t you?

LL: I do! It’s called Salt in the Cupboard, which will release soon from Entangled Publishing. It’s actually only a novella, and I’m nearly finished with the editing stage.

When Leigh would only give me her middle finger, I saw an open call for romantic horror novellas on Entangled’s website. Since that’s right up my alley, I had to do it! That may be why Leigh started talking to me again. I think she was a little jealous I was talking to other characters!

MR: I have to say I’m really excited to see such a talented author’s work taking off like this, Lindsey. Of course, I’m also wildly jealous, but I’ll keep that mostly to myself! *grin* How long have you been writing, would you say?

LL: Since I was eight? That sounds about right. My parents bought me my very own desk, and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. Sitting down at it filled me with such excitement! Blank paper and pencils piled on top of it put me in a happiness coma. The desk is long gone but the urge to write isn’t.

MR: I’ve noticed that a lot of “my” authors started writing pretty young. About when did you decide to go from writing for fun and relaxation to working towards writing with getting a book published in mind?

LL: Not until I finished that YA Sci-Fi book that needs a major rewrite. I wrote it the summer before The Grave Winner. I knew very little about writing “rules” and I knew even less about publishing, but I thought that YA book was ready to be published yesterday. Looking back at that story reminds me that it really wasn’t. But it sure did teach me A LOT! One thing that it taught me was that I could do better, and if I did, signing a publishing contract would put me into another happiness coma. I had to try!

MR: Did you get a lot of encouragement and support for your writing from friends and family?

LL: Some of them, yes. Others, no. Some are more supportive now that it’s actually happening. One of my forever best friends gave me the courage to write that YA Sci-Fi book. She even suffered through reading the whole thing! If I didn’t write that book, I wouldn’t be here today. So I owe her a lot. Another of my forever best friends went to the graveyard with me so I could get the setting just right. I love these people.

Another person I know, upon hearing that I wanted to be a published author, said, “Good luck with that.” I’m not even kidding.

My BF couldn’t even get through the Sci-Fi book because the main character annoyed him to no end. He used to always tell me that I should write literary fiction or picture books or funny books or anything other than what I wanted to write. Now he just tells me, “You’re doing so good.”

MR: Oooh, speaking of which, this is my ‘Coming through, I’m a nosy person!’ moment – how did you and your significant other meet? I love these stories *so* much I can’t help asking.

LL: It’s a drama-filled soap opera that fueled the idea for a play I wrote in high school! Okay, this is how it went down. My best friend and I had an epic crush on my BF’s best friend. I put anonymous Valentine’s Day gifts on his front porch to declare my secret love. My friend would slip notes through the slits in his locker. He thought he had some kind of crazy stalkers, and it didn’t take him long to find out who it was. Yay. I was totally embarrassed, of course, but that didn’t stop us to continue tormenting him with the zeal of a Justin Bieber fan girl.

Through some weird turn of events, we were both invited to his birthday party. Smart move on his part. How do you stop stalking behavior? Befriend the stalkers! So my best friend and I were beyond excited, but we had to play it cool.

At the party, I sat next to a guy from out of town who I’d never met before. He was the drummer in my crush’s band, but that was all I knew. As we sat there, he kept showing me pictures of recent concerts he’d gone to and cracking me up with every bizarre thing that fell out of his mouth. He was strange in a just-like-me sort of way, and he had the prettiest green eyes I’d ever seen. And that smile…wow.

A new girl moved to town shortly after the party and stole my crush’s heart. I was super sad and more than a little confused about my feelings for the drummer boy on the couch. I’d just met him, but there was obviously something there. I hung up my stalker gear and decided to pursue that possibility like a mature high school student. We’ve been together for almost two decades. Oh, and I found out that he ate my anonymous Valentine’s Day gift I left for his best friend all those years ago!

MR: I just love the beginnings of a romance! I absolutely love Leigh’s love life in The Grave Winner, by the way. Of course, I love a lot about Leigh. I love her kickass attitude and her fashion sense and her taste in music, too! How much of Leigh’s character reflects your own likes and dislikes?

LL: There’s quite a bit of Leigh in me. We listen to the same music, we both like the gothic/punk look (though Leigh has the courage to take it much further than I do), and we love with all our hearts. The big difference between us is that Leigh says what’s on her mind and she’s not afraid to push people around when they need to be pushed. I don’t like conflict at all and will do most anything to avoid it.

MR: Leigh goes through some seriously creepy adventures. I have a few I’m pleading the fifth on, but do you have any of your own that you’d be willing to share?

LL: Well, take a look at the gorgeous cover. See that spider web? It’s there for a reason. I haaaaaate spiders with a passion, so naturally they had to crawl through this story.

MR: Leigh’s story plays out in a town she not-so-affectionately refers to as Krapper, Kansas. Other than being completely flat, Krapper sounds a good bit like small towns all over the place, including Hardwick, Vermont! How much of your own home town shines through into Leigh’s town?

LL: A great deal of it. The town where I grew up is Krapper, right down to the graveyard down the street from the video store. That store isn’t there anymore, though. Leigh’s house is structured just like the house I grew up in, minus the basement. I needed a traditional town where untraditional people, such as Leigh and her best friend Jo, would feel like outcasts. My home town was perfect for that.

MR: Hey, that’s another thing you share with Leigh – learning to play the electric guitar! Those are mine over on the wall. I’m trying to learn ‘rock’ guitar after teaching myself TAB so I could play Moonlight Sonata and such for Little Man. Yes, yes, I mentioned you. He says ‘hi’ and is trying to cadge a smooch from ‘pretty lady’, so don’t mind him too much. *grin* How far along have you gotten with learning to play the guitar?

LL: I will happily give Little Man a kiss! *smooch* That’s so awesome that you taught yourself TAB! I’m learning to play through a Playstation game called Rocksmith. *hangs head in shame* I haven’t played since last summer, though. Why can’t there be thirty-six hours in a day instead of a measly twenty-four?!

MR: We tend to be a pretty musical bunch around here. When I’m writing it can be pretty noisy in here because my writing playlist tends to be a bit wild – a driving beat keeps me typing fast! What kind of music did you listen to while you were writing The Grave Winner, or do you listen to music while you write?

LL: I envy those who can listen to music while they write since I love music, but I have to have absolute quiet. Even if my cat complains that his belly is empty, it takes me from my train of thought. My cat hasn’t learned that my writing time equals his nap time, not hungry time!

MR: I love the cover, by the way – that’s just like I imagined Leigh! What was your first reaction to the cover of The Grave Winner? Who’s the cover artist?

LL: When I saw the email from Crescent Moon Press with a subject line that said ‘Grave Winner cover art,’ I stopped breathing. What if I hated it? What if I liked it?  What if I loved it so much I started crying? I’d been waiting for that moment for a long time, after all. I was at work in the school library at the time, and I quickly glanced around to make sure no one would see me open it in case I did cry. Then I opened the email and gasped. There was Leigh, just like I’d imagined her, sitting on tree roots in a graveyard. It was absolutely perfect. I didn’t cry, probably because I repeated to myself over and over, “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.” I replied back in all capital letters how much I loved it.

The cover designer is Liliana Sanches, aka the Princess of Shadows. She’s a genius and a wizard. I sent her a gushing thank you through Facebook when I got home from work that day.

MR: When will The Grave Winner be available and where will we be able to find it online?

LL: Release day is May 15th. It will be available as an ebook and in print from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and probably other places that I don’t know about yet.

MR: Are you planning on paperbacks too? Will you be having book signings? Will there be signed copies available online too?

LL: It will be available in paperback! I’ll probably have book signings at some point. I should probably look into that. There will be signed copies floating around during contests and other fun book release events, like my blog tour which starts May 20^th.

MR: How can people keep up with developments? 

LL: My website is here. My blog is there, too. I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

MR: I’m so glad you took the time to stop by and have a chat with me, Lindsey! Really, I’m delighted to have played even the small part of editing The Grave Winner, and I can’t wait ’till it’s available for sale so I can “keep” Leigh nearby and go back to reading about her adventures when I need a Leigh fix! You did an excellent job of painting her character with words, and it has been a true pleasure to get to know you as well. I have to say that I’ve been delighted to brag to family, friends, colleagues and the unsuspecting blog browsing public that you’re one of “my” authors.

LL: That’s so sweet, Melissa! You played a huge part in making The Grave Winner all shiny and readable. Thank you so much for inviting me to your lovely virtual kitchen!

That was such a fun interview! I really do like doing interviews, so expect more of them folks! *grin* And, for being such good folks and reading this far I’ll even take pity on you all and give you The Grave Winner‘s blurb so you’ll have an idea of what I’m so excited about!

Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead — just like the prom queen did.

While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging.

She should have listened.

Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth.

With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

Submitting the Novel

On the Writing Front:

I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline rush or a hot flash. Some people get an adrenaline rush from base jumping, high diving, driving very fast, or running away from angry police officers. I’ve only done one of those, none of them today, and no, I’m not going to tell you which one. Today I submitted Smuggler’s Justice to Snow Books – the folks who brought us the Burton and Swinburne books that I adore. Just a few days ago I submitted Smuggler’s Justice to TOR UK during their open submission period. That’s three publishers to which I’ve submitted ‘my baby’. Considering I went straight to self-publishing for my first two books, I think that’s commendable bravery.

For me, it honestly takes less bravery to submit to a publisher than it does to submit to an agent. I have no idea why that would be. I’ve quite deliberately decided not to go to two writer’s conferences that I could, with some stretching, afford to go to simply because three-quarters of the point of these gatherings seems to be gaining the attention of an agent. I don’t know why, but agents terrify me. That, and they want, what, 15% of what little I might earn in royalties?  Nuh-uh. Money is my money… if I ever get any.

In other writing matters, I’ve been ogling male models on facebook (Milly is a bad influence!) and thinking of who might fit the bill for Eddie Williams in F.A.E.: Bitten , the first book in the F.A.E. series. Please note that I’m completely remiss in not looking for Mahrial DiSilva, but I’m fairly unrepentant. Eye candy is a good thing.  Of course, that led to an internal debate as to the suitability of David Faustino or Seth Green for Sophocles. My casting efforts are wavering! Terrible stuff.

I’ve sent off interview questions to the redoubtable Seumas Gallacher, and I’m waiting to hear back from him. In his defense, there were rather a lot of questions! I plan on posting that interview from my “virtual kitchen” as soon as possible. Seumas is a hoot!

On the Editing Front:

I’m still working on Denna Holm’s Soul of a Warrior. I’m loving the book, I just want to make sure I’ve got 99% of the typos along with the broad sweeps that way there are fewer passes back and forth – no sense harassing the author, right? She might be busy writing the next book… Seriously, Denna, I hope you’re writing the next book because I want it. I’m also working with the charming author of Pet Shop (still a working title, it may change) on somewhat more radical changes to expand the plot and the length of the book.

Other hobbies:

As if I didn’t have enough already, right? I’ve actually recorded a couple of songs to start putting together a CD of songs for Little Man to listen to at bedtime when I have to work. ‘What’ll I Do’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ are up on Soundcloud if anyone’s actually curious. I got Avid and a really good microphone and I have quite a list of songs (with lyrics all printed out) that Little Man loves. He’s a little freaked out by the ‘two Mommies’ effect of ‘Amazing Grace’, mind you, but so far he likes the music quite a bit.

On the home front:

Himself’s blood pressure is down quite nicely now, so I’m not constantly worried about that. Teenager is ‘enjoying being single’. Yeah, like I’m enjoying being fat. I think, like my lamentable circumference, he finds changing his status to be too much work. He did join that MeetMe thing, which posts on his facebook timeline – and therefore I get to see the girls he’s attempting to flirt with. Strange, but at least he’s doing something in the direction of not becoming the Forever Alone meme. Little Man is in terrible distress. Very Best Friend didn’t go to the farm with him on Wednesday, and didn’t come to school at all today. Why two days, and not even full days, of being separated from his Very Best Friend (who may or may not be his ‘Princess’ eventually) would be such an enormous deal I’m not sure – he manages the weekends all right, after all. Of course, she’s got the ‘flu, poor dear, so it may be that he heard someone say she’s sick and he’s worried about her.  Personally, I’m a bit worried because there’s a monster storm headed for New England and it’s supposed to be getting particularly nasty at just about the time I need to be commuting to work. sigh It’s a good thing I have good snow tires, but I’m still going to have to leave early.

Smuggler’s Justice

Yep. I posted it again. I like the way that red ‘winner’ shines so pretty. :c)

‘Smuggler’s Justice’ is finished and I’ve done the first round of editing on it. Since I wrote the first two chapters in first-person and then switched to third it really needed the work even before going into Beta reading. Right now Himself is Beta reading it. He’s not a big science fiction fan, but he does like political intrigue and political scandal, so I’m holding out hope that he’ll actually like it. That said, I am planning to seek out other Beta readers who are more familiar with commercial science fiction on the market to get a better idea of how the book stacks up.  In the meantime, the next 3 books in the series are organizing themselves into plot ideas I’ll need to churn through Snowflake Pro (which I have decided is possibly the best thing in the world for the outline-haters, like myself, among us).

Of course, I’m going to have to list my handicapped son’s chickens in my acknowledgements for their help with writing the book…  Yes, my little boy thinks that the sounds I make while typing are similar to the sounds of chickens pecking, and he happens to love the farm more that just about anything. He has a rich imagination (as you would expect from a deaf-blind child) and his imaginary friends include a flock of eleven (his favorite number) Rhode Island Red chickens the size of domestic turkeys. He insists that he asked his chickens to help me, and he’s been rooting for me all month long, so the chickens clearly must be thanked!

I’ve been looking at agent listings on WritersMarket.com and market listings as well and I’m really not altogether sure that’s even the route I want to take. I’ll admit that some of my hesitation is financial, but that’s playing second fiddle to my fear of rejection. When it comes to people judging my writing, I’m just as neurotic as any other author, maybe more so considering the great neurosis-free authors I’ve worked with as an editor. Who knows? Of course, despite my fear I’ve drawn up a list of possible agents and once the novel’s through Beta reading I’ll send off my queries if only to say that I didn’t chicken out! That said, I may decide to self-publish entirely in order to get ‘Smuggler’s Justice’ and the rest of the Smuggler’s series out there the way I want them out there without being concerned about print run quantities and the like. On the other hand, that puts all the hard work of finding a cover artist and the like in my lap! I enjoy art, and I’m fairly decent at painting and using Adobe Illustrator, but I’m pretty sure I’m not up to producing the cover I want on my own, and I’m not sure if I can find a cover artist locally who’ll be able to do so either. That means a fairly arduous search for Mister – or Miss – Artistically Right.

For hitting the 50,000 word mark I treated myself to a makeover and a couple of new hairpieces from wiggoddess.com, plus I’ve ordered another one that I liked the look of that she didn’t have in stock in my baby blonde – Clare’s store is down in Berlin, VT. She does all sorts of glamour photography too, so when I need my author photo I’m very likely going to have Clare do it.  It’s an investment because a photo shoot with her isn’t cheap, but I can use the right photo for my author picture on any number of books without ever having to acknowledge that I’m getting any older than that, so it’s all good in my opinion!

Yesterday we drove down to the Vermont Country Store’s store in Rockingham, VT. Of course, on the way there we got a flat tire and had to drive the rest of the way on the ‘doughnut’ spare tire and then all the way back on the back roads at 40mph or less, but considering that it was snowing and the roads were icy I don’t see that as a huge slow down.  While we were there I got lovely soaps (rose, hyacinth, and lavender), nail polish that’s supposed to thicken the nail (which I need because I have paper-thin nails), Tangee blush and lipstick, and two shades of Taboo lipstick. The last time I even saw Taboo lipstick I was eight, and it was the last dregs of my grandmother’s prized hot pink lipstick. After that she switched to something from Avon and was never as happy with it as she had been with her Taboo. I personally got two shades of red lipstick because I tend more towards the ‘vamp/seductress’ when it comes to lipstick than the ‘cheerleader’. The Tangee lipstick and blush changes color to suit your coloring, but I’m still not altogether sure about it since it seems to want to be hot pink on me, and I’m really not a fan of hot pink! Beyond all that I got my little boy a Squawking Chicken. He likes squeaky type toys, so it seemed to be a good fit and so far he seems to like it beyond insisting that it’s definitely not as nice as his imaginary chickens.  I have to admit it’s not as helpful with my writing!

When we got home I gave my son’s friend (his girlfriend’s best friend I think – or at least one of that ‘crowd’) a haircut which she seems to like quite a lot, so that’s nice. I tend to do all the haircutting around here. No, I don’t charge, so you licensed hair dressers don’t come after poor little me! My mother was a licensed beautician for 12 years (1961 – 1973), so I learned the basics from her. Yes, despite a great deal of animosity between the two of us I have to admit that she did teach me some things. I refuse, however, to ever give anyone a ‘shag’ haircut for any reason. The shuddering horror!

In other news, I’ve got a new book to edit for Crescent Moon Press – Wendy S. Russo’s ‘January Black’. I love it to bits after my initial read-through, and I have to say that Ms. Russo did an excellent job with both the subject matter and the prose itself, so I don’t think it’s going to be a terribly long and drawn-out process.  It’s quite a good story, and I’m really enjoying the themes Ms. Russo weaves into her work.

Some of the first books I edited for Crescent Moon Press are being released in December – the novellas ‘A Journey to Hope’ by Cindy Young-Turner, and ‘Sirocco’ by Diane M. Haynes are coming out December 3rd /4th (not sure of the exact dates on those), and the novel ‘A Minor Magic’ by Justin R Macumber is coming out on December 15th. Naturally I’ll be buying a copy of each for my own portfolio – and enjoyment! I’ve also heard that Shawna Romkey’s ‘Speak of the Devil‘ will be released in March 2013, and Lindsey Louck’s ‘Grave Winner‘ will be released in May 2013, but the covers haven’t been released yet nor do I have dates more exact than that.

All in all a very busy month, what with writing a 90,321 word book.  I’ve had some vehicular “fun” and lots of girly-girl stuff to do, and now I’ve got a new book to edit before I can go nuts with nothing to do. Oh! And I have jury duty December 5th. How that’s going to work out if I get the job I think I have a good chance of getting I don’t know.