finished...

FInally, after three months and twenty-seven days (count 'em) SHADOWSONG is finished!!

For the moment. Until my agent says 'ew!' or I get editor's revisions or someone makes me change my mind about the whole snakylicious thing.

I love this manuscript so much more than I thought I would, a month and a half ago when I was writing act two and hating it. The solution was simple, in the end -- one of the villains just wasn't dangerous enough to warrant the kind of contortions the MCs were going through.

So I fixed it, and now it's kinda awesome :) if I may say so myself. When all else fails, make your villain more psychotic. Or add zombies. But we'll save that for another book.

What's it about, you say? Oh, well, since you ask. It's about a banshee gangster hunting for revenge on her mother's killer. Add a ravenous newly-infected vampire, a rusty mad metalfairy and a snake-shifting hero. Oh, my. This guy is one of my favourites.

I don't have a release date yet, but I'm anticipating Fall 2010.

RIght. {dusts hands} that's that done. Now for book #4, as yet untitled, unplotted and pretty much entirely un-thought-about :)

ze manuscript, she is finished

Yay! Three months and countless interruptions later, SHADOWSONG finally reaches THE END. I wrote 9,000 words in two days to finish it, which is a lot for me.

I've still got a few weeks before I need to give it in to my editor, so revisions are very much on the cards. But nothing serious. This story is on its way to being awesome, if I may say so myself. Most definitely on the Awesome Train. I love revenge stories. I love banshees. And I love the hero, who's just far too snaky for his own good :)

In the meantime, some party goodness. I'm doing (yes, another!) book giveaway at The Romantic Journey this week. Come along and pick your best urban fantasy/PR first lines.

There's an interview with me at author Christina Phillips' blog, where I harp on about call stories and light bulb moments and suchlike.

And, I'm at Bitten By Books on Wednesday 21 October, chatting about succubi and demons and other urban fantasy goodness:

And to bribe you all into turning up -- and because that's just the kind of generous soul I am -- I'm giving away a nice shiny prize. And it isn't a book. Though you might be able to read books on it. Get along and RSVP to find out what it is, and to get loads more entries to the contest.

And now, I get the day off :)

free readings!

Where have I been, since those fab conferences I posted such lovely pics about? The correct answer to that question, of course, is: writing.

And I have been, for the most part. I am a good girl. Working on my book #3, SHADOWSONG. Banshees and snakes. Oh. My.

I'm also a guest today with the fabulous Deadline Dames, talking about how, when you sell a book, everyone thinks you suddenly know something about writing that they don't. Boy, is everyone wrong.

It hasn't escaped my notice that today is the one month pre-anniversary (did I just make that up??) of my debut release. So, to celebrate, I'm offering a free short story as a download from my website! Yay! Free stuff!

It's called HELLCURSED, and it's about Jade, my succubus heroine from SHADOWFAE. Rest assured, you don't need to read it to understand the book. I am not one of those cruel authors who expects you to understand everything before you start :) and it is a story. With a beginning and an end. Not an excerpt. I promise.

Here's a little blurb:

It's 1863, and headstrong ex-convent girl Jade has renounced the church that tried to curb her independence.
Now, she travels the world seeking adventure and the pleasures of forbidden ritual.

But she's tricked by a treacherous sorcerer, and now she's forced into a darker kind of slavery.
She's a succubus, with a powerful demon lord her master for a thousand years.

At least, that's what he thinks.
Jade accepts no man's domination, least of all a demon's. She's determined to thwart her fate.

But she's yet to discover the true meaning of demon thrall...
 

So pop on over and check out HELLCURSED. It's dark. It's sexy. It's free. Hope you enjoy it.

why outlines are so great

I might have mentioned I've started a new WIP, the embryonic book #3 SHADOWSONG. Yes?

Well, I'm writing along, see, and I realise the conflict between my hero and a minor villain isn't strong enough. She's standing there twiddling her evil little fingers... well, she's floating, and they're long three-jointed fingers, actually, but... 

So she's forming her nefarious plan. And I decided her plan just wasn't... well... evil enough. Either to carry the scene or to make her interesting, beyond the floating and the spooky finger twiddling.

Oh, noes!! I'll have to change some of the plot! Whatever shall I do?

I figure out a few really, truly eeevil ideas that'll make it work. And, because I have an outline... well, it's actually a twenty-page mess of scenes and point of view switches and character motivations and story arcs, but for simplicity's sake, we'll call it an outline...

...because I have an outline, I can see at a glance exactly where those changes have to happen, and how they'll affect the rest of the story.

A few slashes of my red pen -- well, it's a pink pen, actually, and I ask you, how many people have a pink pen?? -- a few pink slashes, and I'm done. Easy peasy. No sweat. Fixed. Ta-da!!

Pantsers, you so don't know what you're missing. Bwahahaha.

So, writers, are you a plotter or a make-it-up-as-you-go-er? How would you approach a silly mistake an important dilemma such as the one above? Forget it, keep writing and go back to fix it later? Go back to first principles? Write the new scene anyway and worry about the consequences later?

Me, I love me them outlines :)

P.S. Drop by Vampire Wire later on today right now!! Marta is interviewing Doug Knipe from SciFiGuy, and he's giving away an ARC of SHADOWFAE!!!

I'd wait for the post so I can give you the proper link, but I have to go to bed sometime tonight :) Okay, so I didn't go to bed yet :) Here's the link to Doug's interview at Vampire Wire. Leave a comment, contribute to the excellence of book blogs and maybe win a copy of SHADOWFAE!!

This is the very first copy of my book on the open market -- complete with free typos!! -- so go on over and see if you can nab it for yourself!