Guest blogger--R.F. Long

Note: regular blogging will resume Monday. Thanks everyone!

R.F. Long is a regular commenter on my livejournal, and an all-around great gal. So when she mentioned she had a new release coming up--The Scroll Thief, from Samahin Publishing--I invited her to pop on over and write me a guest post. Which she has done, admirably. Why not pay her back by buying her book? Check this out:

Love is the wiliest thief of all.

A Tale of Ithian

Malachy and his sister rely on his talents as a thief to survive the dangerous streets of Klathport, former capital of the once-great kingdom of Ithian. Stealing a few papers should have been a simple job. Instead, it nearly costs their lives and throws them into an improbable alliance with a shape-shifting official, a desert tribeswoman, and a healer of enchanting beauty.

Cerys is far more than a simple healer—and the roots of her mission go deeper into the past than anyone can know. She needs Malachy’s skills to recover a stolen scroll, one that can be used to rewrite history and, in the wrong hands, release the dark powers of the Demon Realm.

Her mission was supposed to atone for a dreadful, long-ago act. Instead, it unleashes a chain of events which sees them pursued through city and desert by the fearsome Dune Witch and a killer known only as His Lordship. Romance, tragedy, and adventure blend in a tale of a magical land on the brink of war, and five unlikely allies who, by putting their lives—and their hearts—on the line, have the opportunity to finally set things right.

But at a terrible cost.

Awesome, right? So go on! After you read the post, of course. Or, no, you can go buy it and come back later, that's okay too.


Fantasy World Building

I love it when a novel seizes your attention, when you just can’t put it down until you find out what happens next. Many factors contribute to this magic spell – plot, characters, conflict – but nothing will undermine it as quickly as world building which causes the reader to pause, to question and to scratch their head and go “huh?”
World building in “real world” novels is in many ways easier – it’s a matter of research and depiction, of filtering the appropriate information through the story without info-dumping it all on page one. There’s a shorthand to it that a large number of your audience will understand immediately.

But in fantasy novels its easy too, isn’t it? You just make it all up as you go along and hope for the best. You just have to know where to start.

Well, not really. I find that the world building that works for me relies strongly on consistent use of interlocking elements and determined questioning of the elements that make up the world. Just like plotting, an author has to sound like a four-year old, when it comes to every part of their fantasy world – Why? Why? Why?
When you’re creating a brand new fantasy world, or even offering a new slant on a very old one, it pays to consider the history and geography that have created the civilisations, the social, political and economic backgrounds which have brought about the current circumstances, the religious and magical developments which alter everyday life.

Do the different races live in harmony or are they divided? Are there social castes or a rich/poor divide? What sort of ruling class control each country? How would a hereditary royal court in a feudal society react to the rise of a militant theocracy in the neighbouring country? What if previously dormant magic was activated in a public manner, in a country in which magic is outlawed? What if someone could break a curse that has plagued them for centuries, by turning back time and destroying the culture which has developed since?

Many fantasies dwell in a pseudo medieval European world populated with fantastic creatures and magical beings, so beautifully defined and parodied in Diana Wynne-Jones “Guide to Fantasy-land”, which has led many modern writers to seek alternatives. This has led to a stunning diversification in the fantasy environments we encounter today – Lian Hearn’s Otori saga, for example, is set in a fantasy version of medieval Japan.

My novel, “The Scroll Thief”, draws on my honeymoon in Andalusia, the area of southern Spain which in the middle ages was the Moorish realm of Al-Andalus, known for magnificent architecture, sciences, medicine and poetry. We visited magnificent palaces and gardens, and when I came to describe the Realm of Ithian and its shabbier descendent of Klathport, I had the perfect starting point. The echoes of a war between such a place, ruled by the family of a Goddess incarnate and a more visceral, secular land to the north. And with that basic set up, the questions began – Why? Why? Why?

Of course in knowing when to start with world-building, a writer also has to know when to stop. No one likes an info-dump and too much world-building laid out by an over-eager writer, determined to introduce their reader to the fabulous new world they have woven. As much as you might research, develop, and no matter how rich the tapestry you might weave, not everything can make it into the story. Ultimately, many elements might never be used, not in this story, but they are there, backing up the rest, supporting the world built to house the characters and their conflicts, to allow the plot to play out. In the end, it’s time to let the world building stand on its own, and let the story take over.

A few things

Okay. First--and this is very exciting--Unholy Ghosts is available for pre-order on Amazon!!

Check it out!

Yes, as with Personal Demons, I will be doing fun contest-y things related to pre-ordering, listmaking, chat-topic-starting, etc. etc. And yes, if you do those things now you can enter them in the contest later. And yes, I will likely be doing the conest in the late summer/early fall--or whenever it is that I get ARCs--which means at least one if not more of you will be getting your hot little hands on a copy well in advance of the official release date.

Hee! Seriously, I am so excited.

I am also incredibly busy. I am halfway through the third Downside book at the moment and have set quite a lofty word goal for myself for this week; it's Princess's half-term week, which means I get to stay up a bit later to work.

So lofty is my goal, in fact....that I will not be here on Thursday. I just can't. I have set myself quite a task--30k words this week--and really need to get my butt in gear if I want to have this book finished by the end of the first week in March. Now, granted, my goal is actually 20k words on the Downside book and 10k on another project which Mr. Agent and I are very excited about and which I need to get out there quickly because, you know, we're moving in seven weeks (ACK!!) so after about the middle of March my working time is going to be severely curtailed.

So, sorry. I won't be blogging on Thursday. I may pop in with a quick little post if I have time but I probably won't.

And, sorry, this one is a bit short as well. I'd planned for it to be longer but I ended up getting caught up in something else for a little while and now it's almost nine PM and I have a LOT of work to do.

Sigh.

A novel in three acts: Act Three

So, here we have the final act. It's the easiest to write, but the hardest to write about; at least, I think so.

Again, before we go further, remember: this is my way, and the way of a few writers I know. It is NOT the way of every writer I know; it is not the only way; it is not an iron-clad rule or something which requires complicated flow charts (although the post Patrice Michelle linked to in comments for the last post, which was a post she wrote about, essentially, keeping a flow chart, is a great post and a great method for people who can work that way) or strict word-count deadlines (I'm using a 90k book as an example, and ending the acts at 30k, 60k, and roughly 90k, but you may vary by as much as 10k words or whatever and that's fine). No secret gun-toting Writing Police are going to show up at your home in the dead of night and arrest you for not doing this or not doing it properly or whatever.

These are just guidelines. It's the way I keep the story from getting away from me and the way I keep my pacing on-target. It's not something to obsess about. It's not something to force yourself to do. As Patrice said, if you're writing your first novel or your second or you're still feeling your way through this writing thing (which we all are to some extent, really, no matter how many books we've written), don't get all tangled up in this. You can always go back later and see how you've done and fiddle with it then.

Okay?

So. We've now written our first act, in which we laid out all of our clues and introduced our main characters, and we ended that act with a bang. We've written our second act, where we deepened our mysteries and conflicts, and added depth to our subplots. We also ended the second act with a bang; hopefully a hell of a big one, which turned everything around, but again, this depends on the book.

Our third act is about solving our problems. Whodunnit? What happens with our detective Jennifer's grandma in the home and her ex-lover? Does she end up with him again, or is she suddenly realizing she's got a thing for one of the cops or the drug dealer or whatever? What deadly jeopardy is Jennifer in--or about the be in--when the second act ends, and will she survive act 3? Will anyone? In comments to the last entry Patrice and I discussed how the information a character receives shouldn't come easily. It's not true for everything but for most of it; well, that's where your story actually comes from, right? The difficulties and complications of getting necessary information and/or aid? It wouldn't be a very interesting book if in Chapter Four Jennifer found an eyewitness who told her exactly what happened, and then they just went and caught the Bad Guy, right? (Unless you're going for courtroom drama, of course.)

Anyway. Patrice suggested that sometimes information is paid for in lives, or in giving up things which are important to the characters. And that's very true. So the question of whether everyone survives to act 3, and whether everyone will survive act 3, is a pretty big one. What is your MC going to lose in the climax? What will she gain? Is what she gains going to be worth it?

I digress. The point is, Act 3 is where everything comes together. All those subplots we started, and all those clues we planted, all those threads we expanded on? It's time to wrap them up.

And it's fun. The tricky thing about the third act, though, is making it fun and interesting for the reader as well. Oh, sure, they're going to be interested in your climax and the solution to the mystery or resolution of whatever the conflict is. (Personally, I adore those big Agatha Christie-esque "drawing room" scenes; I don't need a lot of action, I just want to read those slowly and savor them.)

But they're not very fashionable anymore, so usually what we end up with is a big action-filled climax, and I love those too. But you have to have raised the stakes high enough. And you have to keep enough tension going, enough conflict going, that it doesn't feel like you're ticking things off a list.

I generally up the pacing in the third act, which I think helps; shorter scenes. More active ones. A little less internal monologue. The reader feels the tension building, even if they're not conscious of it; they know something is coming, because the shorter scenes move the book along faster, and of course they're aware of how far into the book they've gotten, but it's pacing and increasing conflict which really works magic when we near the book's climax.

To me the third act is like knocking down dominos, for lack of a less-cliched image. I've set all these things up; I have loose threads waving in the breeze. Now I start grabbing them and tying them together.

In act 2 we had Jennifer place her grandmother in a nursing home, which happened to be run by the mother of one of the victims. Now is the moment when one of the nurses at the home can make a casual comment which rings a bell in Jennifer's head; perhaps Jennifer realizes the nurse had a heretofore unguessed motive to kill the first victim. And the second. (I feel guilty making a nurse the Bad Guy, btw; my mother is an emergency room nurse. Sorry, Mom. For the record nurses are AWESOME.) And of course, she had access to the drug which killed them both.

Now Jennifer has to figure out how to get out of the room and call the police. Perhaps the nurse twigs on to Jennifer's newfound knowledge? And insists that she take Jennifer's grandma to get a spongebath or something? And the director of the home, who of course has no idea, backs her up. Now Jennifer's grandma is a hostage, and Jennifer knows the nurse will kill her. Maybe the nurse thought Jennifer had figured it out before, and slipped something into Jennifer's drink.

This is all well and good; we have a climax. But we have other subplots which need to be tied up, and we need to do it before we get into our climax; not all of them, necessarily, and of course if we're writing a series we need to leave some open-ended questions, but some of them.

How you do this is up to you (hey, I warned you the third act was hard to write about.) For a 90k book, I generally start the real run-up to my climax at around 70k; in the above example, this would be when Jennifer arrives at the home. That way we're around 75k or so when she gets drugged and solves the mystery; it gives us some room to play. Your runup may be longer; my climaxes tend to be longer, involving as they do complex rituals and secrets and abandoned asylums full of zombies.

But if you've set up your first two acts properly, really, the third will essentially write itself. Honestly. You'll have some scenes and resolutions in mind; you'll have arranged events in such a way that logic will move you smoothly from one scene to another. And that is extremely important. The last thing you or anyone wants or needs is one of those blink-and-you-miss-it climaxes, or one where everything just falls into place and it ends up being more of an anticlimax than a climax. We've all read books like that, where we fly through 320 pages of excitement and then the hero shoots and kills the bad guy and that's it.

You don't want to do that. You want to make sure you planted enough seeds, and grew them, in the first two acts, that there's plenty of stuff to work with at the end. You want to try and tie at least one subplot directly into your climax; in PERSONAL DEMONS I had the msytery of Megan's past; it was a minor point throughout the book but without it the climax never could have happened, and it figured prominently therein. In our Jennifer example, without Grandma and her poor health we wouldn't have solved the murders. Perhaps Jennifer's ex is involved here somehow too? Maybe he calls her and she says something, an old private joke, which warns him she's in trouble so he can call the cops? However you do it, the key (IMO) to an interesting and fulfilling climax is to bring as many story threads as you can into it, and end them all with the biggest bang you can muster.

Here's the thing about structures like these. Whether you're using a three-act structure or a four-act structure or a twenty-two-act structure (NO, I've never heard of that and know nothing about it, ha) is that at some point, you have to stop setting your book up.

It has to stop. Your book cannot be 300 pages of setup, a climax, and an ending. Well, okay, if you want to look at it a certain way, that's what all books are, but you know what I mean and don't pretend you don't.

The longer your subplots are part of your story, the more interesting and surprising and satisfying their resolution will be for the reader. The more danger you put your MC in, the more exciting the climax will be for the reader.

A book where subplots and plots do not carry through all the way feels episodic; it's not a story, it's a selection of vignettes. This why I stop adding new subplots to the book after the first third (again, I may make an exception if a new character is introduced, but chances are that's actually more of a setup for the next book). Because at some point you have to work with what is already there. You have to deepen and expand what is already there. You have to sink into your story and work at it from the inside, rather than throwing more stuff at it from the outside.

And that's the other big thing (aside from pacing) this structure does for me. It forces me to work with what is already there. I can't write a deux ex machina, because I have to work with what is already there. I can't veer out of the story and suddenly decide to change the focus, because I have to work with what is already there.

It keeps my books focused. It keeps my mind focused. It keeps my pacing even and makes sure my middles aren't long saggy stretches of not-much-happening. It gives me discipline, and discpline is tremendously important for a writer.

So there you go. :-) Like I said, I think the third act is very difficult to write about, because what it essentially boils down to is 'finish the book'. Pick up the seeds and hints and clues you dropped and make sure they have a solid place to land. Make sure you keep the tension high. Make sure you use everything you can in the climax. Remember that if you've written your book logically, so your climax and resolution will also come out logically.

And then you have a book.

Questions? Thoughts?

Oh...sigh

And sigh again.

I wasn't going to talk about this, I really wasn't. Because I don't want to piss off or upset people. I certainly don't want to make readers, the lovely people who spend money on books, angry with me.

But I just...It's like the opinion is a pot of coffee, percolating in my chest, and it's going to explode. (Incidentally, I feel kind of weird thinking that nobody uses percolators anymore. My parents were never coffee drinkers, but my Grandpa was. And when he would come visit the smell of coffee and especially the sound of the percolator, that particular burble-sploosh noise, would wake me up in the mornings. I used to really like it; I was fascinated by the percolator and could never figure out quite how it worked, you know? All those childhood machines that seemed like magic to me, and none of them are in use anymore. The percolator, the 8-track tape, the flashlight that ran because of how fast you squeezed the trigger thingie...anyway. No time for this; this is going to be a little long anyway.)

So everybody knows about this Stephen King/Stephenie Meyer thing. Basically, Mr. King said in an interview that Ms. Meyer "can't write worth a darn."

And for reasons I cannot fathom, it's being treated like he said Hitler was a really good guy or something, or that in his spare time he enjoys molesting children.

Leaving aside the truth or lack thereof of his statement itself, and leaving aside the fact that although he claimed Meyer can't write worth a darn he did say he understood the appeal of the books...

So what?

There seem to be two schools of thought among the "Fry him! FRY HIM!" crowd. The first is that he's jealous of Meyer's success, which is, IMO, patently ridiculous. Stephen King is arguably the most successful writer the world has ever seen (and no, you cannot bring up the people who wrote the Bible or the Talmud of the Koran or whatever). No, I'm serious. Think about it for a minute. How long has the man been writing bestsellers? How many of his books or stories have been made into major films? Adapted for television? Turned into series? How many of those film adaptations have garnered Oscar nominations in any category?

Now think of one other author, living or dead, which that kind of success. ONGOING success. I suppose it's possible to argue that JK Rowling hits it, but King's written something like thirty books. JKR has not. Tolkein had massive, unprecedented success, but again, not as many books.

So the idea that Stephen King is jealous of Stephenie Meyer is silliness. I'm sorry but it is, and there's another reason why it is, and it ties into my whole feeling about this so I'll get to it in a minute.

First I want to address the other silliness surrounding this, which is the idea that writers shouldn't criticize other writers. Which is bullshit.

I'm not even going to discuss the fact that without writers criticizing other writers we would't have Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. We wouldn't have Virginia Woolf's comment about Ulysses: "The work of a greasy undergraduate scratching his pimples." We wouldn't have ANY of Dorothy Parker's fantastic reviews; we wouldn't have any of Florence King's; we wouldn't have a huge, varied, and wonderful library of critique and wit and style. Since fucking when is it not okay for writers to comment on and criticize the work of other writers? In what world has that *ever* been the case?

I would say that it stopped being okay when women got in on it, since it seems to largely be women playing the "Stephen King's just plain mean!" card, but that isn't right at all. Especially not after I just quoted or mentioned three women in the last paragraph, not one of whom behaved as though a critique of her work was tantamount to touching little kids in their Swimsuit Areas.

But I suspect womanhood has something to do with it, yes I do. And that something is, everyone playing the "professional courtesy" card (professional courtesy, what a bunch of crap. We're writers, not fucking insurance salesmen) seems to be female, and more importantly, seems to be upset not that one writer is commenting on another writer's work, but that the commenting writer has a protruding pee-pee and the one being commented on does not.

I know.

But seriously. King said some not-very-nice things about a few male writers in that article too, but nobody seems to be jumping up and down all over the internets to say how Mr. King is just jealous of Mr. Patterson. In fact, no one seems at all bothered by the fact that not only did King call Petterson "a terrible writer," he didn't even qualify that statement anywhere by saying he sees the appeal of Patterson's work, or that Patterson has very cleverly tapped into something in his audience's collective subconscious.

So...why? Why does it seem okay for King to criticize Patterson, but not Meyer? Why isn't anyone throwing "jealous" around? Why isn't anyone acting as though writers are supposed to keep their mouths shut when we see each other butchering the language, as though we're all the very best of good, clean pals and every Saturday night we sing Kumbaya in the park and roast hot dogs?

Yeah. I think a big part of it is that Meyer is a woman. And I think there is a very ugly assumption beneath this, which is that a woman cannot take criticism. And sadly, I think there is a segment of the female writing "society," for lack of a better term, which truly cannot take criticism, who flounce around saying things like "If you've never written a book you can't criticize" or "It's hard work to write a book and the author deserves something for that and it's mean to say her book isn't very good" or whatever other whiny little excuses these namby-pambies toss around to justify their own total and complete lack of professionalism.

We've seen these people online. We see them all the freaking time, in fact. They're the ones who stalk Amazon reviewers or decide to name transexual AIDS-riddled prostitutes after people who give them mediocre reviews (and let's keep in mind, btw, what sort of person thinks "transexual" is a worthy insult) or send nasty emails to reviewers or start blogs where they put up nasty cartoons or send hate mail or have hissy fits in comments or whatever the fuck it is, and thus make all female writers look as though we too have never progressed beyond the 9th grade.

This attitude seriously makes me ill. You know what, gang? I seriously doubt Stephenie Meyer gives a fuck what Stephen King says. And good, because she shouldn't. I love Stephen King. I think he's fantastic. And I would love to think he'd read my work and enjoyed it; that would be a huge thrill. But you know what? if he loved it, that's just one man's opinion. And if he hated it? That's still just one man's opinion.

And jealous? Why is this argument so rarely brought up when two men are involved? Why do we hardly ever see someone claiming, for example, that Steve Jobs is just jealous of Bill Gates? or that, I don't know, Javier Bardem is just jealous of Benicio del Toro? Not that I'm aware of these men making comments about each other, but really, can you imagine it? So why then, does this crap come up when women are involved? Stephen King is a grown man, people, and I don't know about you but I've never seen anything before that would lead me to believe he's the kind of man for whom jealousy of other writers is a problem. Have you?

Stephenie Meyer is a published author; she's written four enormous bestsellers. Let's give her a little credit, shall we? Let's assume she's mature enough to shrug this off and go on writing, and not behave as though she's crying in the bathrooms by the gym and she won't come out until Stephen writes her a note that says he's sorry and gee, golly, the dance is tonight and she was our ride and we're gonna get Stephen and pants him in the cafeteria?

We're all entitled to our opinions. (In fact, one could argue that Meyer is one of the few people Stephen King can actually criticize *without* looking like a bully; who else is big enough?) And in the grand scheme of things, this is such a non-issue it's not even funny.

I was going to tell you about a book I bought the other day, which I haven't finished, but which is so well-written my jaw keeps literally dropping open--but that will have to wait until next Monday, because this is so long already. Sigh.

A novel in three acts: Act Two

First, thanks to everyone who responded to this last week! Your questions and feedback were very much appreciated.

Patrice Michelle brought up an excellent point at Fangs Fur & Fey, though, and it was one I failed to stress adequately in my little disclaimery thing. Guys, this is NOT the only way to write books, and it is NOT something you should get hung up about. Seriously. It isn't. Even I, who loves doing this with my books, do not look at it as gospel.

From Patrice's comment:

For new writers, the goal is to just write the story and then once it's written, go back and look at advice like this to see if it can help you tighten and streamline your story to give it the most impact to readers.

And this is exactly true. Just as there is no magic bullet to finish your book, there is no one exact right way to write. If stuff like this bogs you down, don't do it. If it feels too tight, don't do it. You can, as she said, ignore this while writing and go back later once it's done and see how it works for you. But please don't ever think that because you handle things differently, you're not "doing it right." Whatever works for you? That's what's right. Period.

For me this is just a way of keeping track and making sure I'm pacing correctly. When I hit 30k words, have I put in all my basic clues? Have I laid the groundwork? Have I given myself plenty to work with and expand later? Are all the characters introduced who need to be, is the basic set-up of the world and story clear?

And there's a little more to that as well; simply being 1/3 done is a little achievement. Writing a novel is hard work. When you first start out it can seem daunting. But once you get through the first 30k, you know you can do it. You only have to do another 30k and you'll be in the end zone. And that's a good feeling.

So. Last week I mentioned pacing. Anyone who's spent any time reading about writing is familiar with the phrase "sagging middle." The sagging middle hits all of us at one point or another; it is, basically, the long stretch of book from, well, 30-60k words or so, where...not much happens. The story falters. The characters start spending too much time thinking or talking and not enough time doing.

This is also, to put it bluntly, where characters start acting stupid. This is where, in our eagerness to have *something* happen, we send our characters alone into dark alleys, or have them pick fights with each other, or any number of things. Bad things.

It is my firm belief that the main cause of the sagging middle is pacing, and that the main cause of pacing problems is failure to allow for structure. There are other reasons, of course; too much telling is a big one, too. But I'm assuming you all know the basic rules of writing (such as they are) and so are not writing a book that's nothing but a big long infodump.

We have pacing problems because we have inserted too much information into our first Act, and we have pacing problems because we have not given ourselves enough clues to work with.

It sounds like an oxymoron, I know. But let's go back to last week's example, Jennifer the detective with the elderly grandma and the just-ended relationship.

Our story started when a body was found. Let's say there was no obvious cause of death. Now, using the three-act structure, we can make a decision; do we want to find out the cause of death before the act ends, thus giving ourselves the second act to explore it? Or do we want to wait, maybe pile up at least one more body?

It's up to you and the story you're telling. But if you're not thinking in terms of using Act One for clues and Act Two for expansion, if you're not using that first act to thoroughly ground your characters and their world and introduce some issues for them to deal with, you may find yourself with no choice but to give us a cause of death, simply because something has to happen next. If you've gotten too deeply into your subplots in the first act you may not have room to add complications to them in the second act, either.

Here's the thing. If in the first 30k you have introduced plenty of characters and situations, the second act will essentially write itself, and I'll tell you why.

Because of logic.

Your entire second act is simply adding more complications and doing what would logically come next.

For example. At the end of Act One Jennifer finds another body. In the beginning of Act Two she learns cause of death. So what would Jennifer logically do next? She would start studying/researching that cause of death. Let's say it was an overdose; a particularly pure, new form of heroin. Okay. We learned a little about our first victim in the first act (because we were planting clues). So we know the victim was not an IV drug user; that's a dead end.

To gran a few examples from mid-air, Jennifer might now logically start talking to drug dealers or users. That could be a nice suspenseful scene, her interview with a tough local drug dealer. That could have enormous complications that might effect the main plot; it could draw some new people into the case, perhaps, or cause jennifer problems with the police.

And we have her grandma. The poor lady might have a stroke at the end of Act One and thus be in the hospital. The plot if to some degree resolved; Jennifer knows that her grandma can no longer safely stay with her. But that introduces new complications; Jennifer has to research homes and residences. Perhaps she decides to kill two birds with one stone, and go to the residence where the first murder victim's mother works? That might provide us with a nice way to tie those subplots together later, right?

So already we have some action for the second act; we're meeting drug dealers and having wary conversations with them--perhaps a flirtation, depending on what kind of book this is?--and we're getting involved more closely with a victim's family and trying to find a place for grandma and expanding conflict with the cops. When we add that to researching the second victim and trying to find connections between them--perhaps they went to the same college, and Jennifer can go there and discover they had a class together? we've got a good 15-20k or so worth of action.

Any time you get stuck in writing that second act, every time you feel the story flagging, you have only to stop and think back or look back at your first act. What seeds did you plant there that now need to grow a little? Maybe in the midst of all the turmoil with meeting scary drug dealers and putting her beloved grandma in a home, Jennifer's ex shows up and wants to get back together, there's a complication. Maybe the college connection falls through but it's there that Jennifer gets another idea for a possible motive, one she needs to explore. Your Bad Guy should show up again, for whatever reason; let Jennifer interact with him/her, however briefly. Let her feel close to or uncomfortable with the BG.

Your second act is all about expansion and information. Otherwise known as "the plot thickens." The second act is where a new clue or two turns up; the second act is where you might illustrate a connection between one of your subplots and the main plot.

And remember, nothing should be easy; we need conflict on every page! You don't want Jennifer to just meet someone who tells her who the Bad Guy is in exchange for money; you want them to tease her with the info, make her perform tasks, put her in danger. Information should be a reward or compensation, never (or very rarely) a given.

There are two other things I like to do/check with Second Acts. One, just as the first ended with a bang, so should the second. An even bigger bang (sometimes literally, heh heh; see below). I used Silence of the Lambs last week, so I'll mention it again here; Dr. Lecter's escape comes right around the end of the second act.

The other is, by the end of the second act, I like to leave the reader with no idea how things are going to work out, or who the bad guy is. I like to know, at the end of the second act, that all of my main threads are still loose but are closing in on each other; I like to be in a position where there's only one more big clue, or one more fact to be uncovered, before everything falls into place and we're ready for the climax. I like to think of someone reading to that point and thinking there are so many open holes there, there's no way they can all be resolved by the end.

Now, I write UFs with thriller-y, mystery plots; you may write romance, in which case the end of the second act is right about where you'll put your big sex scene and have it make everything even worse. (The end of the second act is a place I tend to put sex scenes as well and always have, and I'm not alone. I think most romances or UFs with romantic elements do the same; it's usually a bit past the halfway point, so anywhere from 50-60k words, but again, that's not set in stone and of course if you're writing a more heavily erotic story you may well have had sex all throughout.)

But the end-of-act-2 bang should put everything in jeopardy. It should leave the reader doubting they'll get a happy or even a decent ending. It should raise the stakes exponentially.

So, to sum up (and I realize this segment was a bit longer and wordier, sorry, but I think I covered everything I needed to):

*The second act should be about expansion and information.
*The second act is the logical next step of the first; I always think "What would they do next?"
*The second act is where you watch your first-act seeds grow. Don't forget them!
*The second act is where everything gets deeper and more complex. You can solve a msytery or two and that's fine, but you should bring some new ones in to replace it, or have the resolution of one question only bring up more questions.
*The second act is a good place for sex scenes ;-)
*Nothing should be easy; good information or realizations are worth paying for. Keep the conflict high, don't let that middle sag!
*The second act must end with a very big complication; just as the 1st-act-end raised the stakes or made the problem more personal or trapped the hero/ine into solving the mystery, so the second should make it clear there is no out, this is very dangerous, and they have no choice but to follow through. Thus setting us up for Act Three and the climax.

So, any questions? Anything that doesn't make sense, or needs expansion?

Yes! The new League! Yes! I am busy!

Yes, yes, those rumors you've been hearing? Totally true.

The NEW League of Reluctant Adults is here!

There's a TON of us now, seriously. A whole bunch. Go check it out. AND, there are FORUMS! Which I'm really happy about, because I love forums. Seriously. A lot of you know I spend a lot of time--waaaay more than I should--hanging around on Absolute Write. Because I just think forums are fun and nifty and all that stuff.

I even have my own subforum on the new Reluctant Forums; each of us has one, in fact.

This means I now have:

*a website (still under construction; there is a site up but it's horrible
*two blogs
*Twitter
*Facebook
*MySpace (grumble grumble. I hate MySpace. I will probably delete the MySpace page eventually; I never do anything with it.)
*Yahoo group

So is there anything *else* I'm supposed to have? Sigh.

So, remember the other day when I mentioned how January just sucked? Yeah. So far, February is TOTALLY KICKING ITS ASS ALL OVER THE PLACE. I've written over 10k words in the last two days. I have a new project that I'm falling-all-over-myself excited about. Seriously. The kind of shivery, gleeful excitement I felt when I started working on Unholy Ghosts. I started the thing yesterday; finished the third chapter tosay and wrote up a little synopsis/proposal, so we'll see what Mr. Agent Man thinks of it. I can only hope he likes it as much as me.

Also listed under "Ass-kicking" so far is the third Downside book. Oh yes. We crossed 30k; I have one little scene to twitch through and then all hell breaks loose, including getting to write a few scenes I've been anticipating with glee since I thought of them while writing the first book over a year ago(! I can't believe it's been that long! I finished the book in December 07, though, so...yeah, that long.) So, *very* excited there.

And of course I'll be back on Thursday to do Part 2 of our Novel in Three Acts. Part 2 is my favorite part, frankly; or rather, it's my favorite part to explain. So I'm looking forward to that. Last week I cross-posted the first part over at Fangs Fur &Fey, the livejournal group for published UF writers, and it got such a great response that I'm going to post the whole thing there as it goes up here. So if you're interested in getting in on that discussion, head on over and check it out!

It's kind of intimidating posting at Fangs Fur Fey. I've been a member there for over a year as well; a little over a year and a half, in fact, if memory serves. But there are so many members, some with multiple series and awards and all that Big Pro Writer stuff, that it's very difficult to think of myself as anyone who belongs there in any real way. I'm trying to get more involved there, as a way to give back and to try and boost my confidence level, so... We'll see how I do. :-)

...and I guess that's it. I thought I had something more to discuss but frankly my head is all over the place at the moment. That blasted miserable shiteating Mercury Retrograde has finally ended and I literally feel like I can breathe again (despite the cold. Or maybe because of it? Perhaps it's not Mercury redirecting, but Sudafed, that is to thank for my sudden sense of lightness. Hmm.) Hence the sudden big spurt of work and happiness and all of that. I'm sure part of it is that I was having a bit of tension with someone I consider a friend and we've resolved that, which is nice, and part of it is excitement over the upcoming scenes and the Shiny! New! Project! All I know is, for the first time in a while I feel pretty good, and I want to keep it that way.

How about you? Are you feeling better now that Mercury is behaving itself again?

A novel in three acts: Act One

So, first, sorry. I didn't post on Monday. It was a Bad Day. I've been having a lot of those lately, but Monday was particularly Bad and I honestly just couldn't get my head around anything well enough to blog. So, sorry about that.

Seriously, is this month over yet? It's been AWFUL. One of the worst months I've ever had; I feel bruised all over from the beating it's given me. Part of it might be the Mercury retrograde; part of it might just be that it's January and the weather is a neverending stream of miserable (and has been for two years.) Whatever it is, I just want to go crawl under the covers and hide.

But of course I cannot. :-) I have kids to raise and a novel, a short story, and a proposal to write. So, no hiding for me. And actually, although it's been a slow month, the novel is coming along and so is the proposal (haven't started the short yet) so I feel good about that; I'm 25k or so into the third Downside book, which I'm calling CITY OF GHOSTS for now (although I'm not sure how unique that is, so we'll see if I get to keep it. It might end up being something like UNDERGROUND GHOSTS or maybe GHOSTS UNBOUND. Don't know. Reminder to self: Google "City of ghosts" and see what you get.) Shame, really, as it's the perfect title for what I think is going to be a kickass book; I'm actually extremely pleased with it so far, which is nice. I have a couple more clues to drop in this first third and my subplots are simmering along nicely.

See, here's what I do. I separate the novel, in my head, into three parts; assuming a 90k book, which of course it won't be exactly--the final version of UNHOLY GHOSTS is about 98k; DOWNSIDE GHOSTS before edits is about 101k. So we'll see. Anyway.

It occurred to me that this particular way of structuring a book might interest some of you, so here's what I'm going to do. This Thursday and the next two I'm going to outline my basic method; feel free to ask questions at the end of each post and I'll answer them the following Thursday, and we'll do a little summary at the end.

So. Why would you want to do this? Why would you want to structure your books this way? What is the benefit of it?

I can only answer what the benefit is for me, and how it helps me organize my thoughts and work, and the ways in which I feel it's improved my writing. Honestly I think most of you probably do this anyway, either consciously or unconsciously.

I'm not an outliner or planner. I start my books with a couple of characters and a problem which needs solving. Occasionally I'll have a couple of ideas for Big Scenes in my head, but that's really it. An idea excites me and I start writing, period. If you are an outliner or planner, this may not be necessary for you or, again, you probably already do this. And as with any other writing advice I give, this is my way and only mine; it's not in any way a "You must do it this way" or "This is the best way". But I mentioned my little structure elsewhere and a few people really liked it, so I thought why not share it a little more widely.

Also keep in mind that if your projected word counts are shorter, you will of course need shorter thirds, and especially remember this is not set in stone. Every book is different. Every book will have its own needs. You do not have to do this the way I do in order to write well, not at all, not remotely.

So. Here is what this does for me:

**It improves pacing. Separating the book into three 30k chunks, and knowing basically what purpose each chunk has to serve, gives me a structure on which to hang my wild imaginings (hee). Also, because of the way each "Act" is set up, it draws the reader into the story at a predictable pace and keeps the flow of information steady.

**It gives me a much stronger first draft. You pantsers know exactly what I'm talking about here. By the time our book is finished we have so many clues we need to go back and add, so many changes that need to be made, it's like rewriting the book. But keeping the structure in mind makes it easier for me to fit in anything I might need; I know where the additional info needs to go or from where it needs to be removed.

**It means I'm not cramming to fit things in at the end, or left with too many loose ends.

**It eliminates the problem of the "sagging middle". I believe the sagging middle is a pacing/information problem; sagging middles occur when too much information is given in the beginning of a story. By structuring my books this way I make sure there's plenty of action throughout.

Assuming a book is 90k words, by the end of the first third--or 30k--I need to have all my basic information in place:

*Who the major players are. The bad guy needs to be introduced here, even if--as is usually the case--the reader is unaware that s/he is the bad guy. Hell, I'm not usually aware at this point who the bad guy is, especially given how much I enjoy my red herrings. So I usually set up two or three likely suspects here. I can always edit later to strengthen or remove the connections, once I figure out who the Baddie really is. We also need, of course, the main characters.

*The basic plot. What is the mystery or problem we're solving? A lot of people will tell you this should be in the first chapter, and they're not wrong. The sooner the better. But I'm also a fan of the Indiana Jones opening, whereby the first chapter is an intro to character and action that clears up events which occurred before the book's opening. So I feel that as long as we introduce the issue in those first three chapters, we're good.

*At least one subplot, hopefully two. They don't have to be delved too deeply into in the first 10k or so, but by the end of 30k they should be (and we're going to go into the structure of each act itself as well). But the basic stage needs to be set early, in this first act. For example, in PERSONAL DEMONS, Megan's interview with Brian. We also met our Ultimate Baddie in those first chapters and added our little subplot with the vision of the Yezer's house on the astral plane. And of course we met our romantic lead as well and (hopefully) had a nice little attraction/irritation vibe going fairly quickly, at least by the end of that 30k.

ALL THE BASIC CLUES NEED TO BE IN PLACE BY THE END OF THE FIRST ACT.

This doesn't mean at all that by the end of the first act the mystery would be solvable. Oh, no. Not at all. But everything that comes later has to build on what's already in those first 30k words. No deus ex machinas for us; we need to lay our groundwork.

For example, let's say we're writing a murder mystery. It can be set in any world, from "normal" to total fantasy.

For example, let's say we're writing a murder mystery. It can be set in any world, from "normal" to total fantasy.

So, in the first 10-15k words we want to introduce:

Our main character
Sidekicks, if any
The mystery itself
The bad guys
The world we're in
Our basic clues

Is the murderer out for revenge? Then we might want to mention, in that first section, how many people loved (or hated) the victim. Out for money? Then we mention how rich (or poor) the victim was. We might introduce some physical clues here; the bloody knife or gun, say. Or there may be no obvious cause of death, and we introduce the cause at the very end of this act (we may even wait until the second act, but if that's the case we should have a lot of other stuff going on.)

And in the second 15k or so we want to start exploring the word, pick up a few additional clues, and get to our first Major Complication (beyond the basic plot-laying one).

Every act ends with action and deepening conflict.

Well, technically, every sentence, ever scene, every page, needs to deepen conflict, of course. But for the sake of our structure we're going to focus on Major Conflict.

To go back to our murder mystery, let's say our MC is Jennifer, a private detective. The subject of one of jennifer's investigations turns up dead, and she decides to work with the police--or behind their backs, perhaps--to solve the crime for whatever reason.

It's a pretty basic plot and one I think we're all fairly familiar with.

So our first act is the dead body, the introduction of Jennifer and her frenemies on the force, the world, whatever. And we pick up info here and there, and perhaps we learn that Jennifer is debating whether to put her grandmother in a home, and Jennifer's just broken up with a lover, and Jennifer needs a new car, or whatever.

We'll probably have some excitement in those chapters, and some uncoverings. But it's right around the end of that first act that things go from bad to worse. Jennifer is attacked at her home. Or a witness is found dead. Or she's kidnapped. Or the police tell her in a very shady way to get the heck out of their investigation.

Whatever the plot is, the end of the first act is where you generally put:

*A major action scene
*A major complication

Preferably at the same time. That first 30k has to encourage the reader to keep going; you want the end of that act to be an "Oh crap" moment, you know what I mean? I tend to think of those, and of those major action scenes, as "beats", and each act should end with or right around a beat.

This isn't to say at all that you shouldn't be having those moments as you go, because of course you should. But the end of that first act is where everything rolls on its side; it's where the MC finds him or herself in jeopardy somehow or where someone else is put in jeopardy (like, for example, the kidnapping of Catherine Martin in Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs, to pull an example out of my--ahem--hat. The abduction, in fact, occurs on page 104 of my copy [I just went upstairs and grabbed it], which is 352 pages long, and is especially masterful there as just a few pages before Harris showed us the autopsy of a Buffalo Bill victim. Thus at the end of that book's "first act" we have a graphic representation of how different this killer is; we have a significant clue in the throat larvae; and we have the abduction--so we know exactly what is waiting for that girl.)

The end of the first act is where the stakes jump higher. It's not just an investigation anymore; this time it's personal, if you know what I mean. Something Bad Has Happened. It's going to happen again, unless we stop it. There's often--again, as in Silence--a time factor introduced here too. Either way, this is where everything that's come so far raises to a fever pitch, and the reader is (hopefully!) left breathlessly anticipating the second act, where everything gets deeper and more complicated.

Remember, none of this is set in stone. All stories are different. It's just a guideline.

So. Any questions? What do you think; is this a structure you use? Do you keep these things in mind as you work?

Late and Light

Yeah, I know. I don't know where my day has gone, but I've spent a good portion of it kicking ass on the third Downside book, so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

I have a couple of really exciting things to say today that do NOT involve me, though!

FIRST, my pal Stacey Jay, who write kick-ass, hilarious paranormal YA, has her first release today and OMGYOUMUSTBUYIT. YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME was listed by Publisher's Weekly as a "Spring Galley to Grab" for 2008; Kidliterate Reviews called it ""...a cross between Stephenie Meyer and Joss Whedon.....high school angst with more than a dash of otherworldly danger."

Megan Berry's social life is so dead. Literally.

Fifteen-year-old Megan is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people with a whole lot of issues.

And things are about to get even worse. Someone at school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies and it's up to Megan to stop the zombie apocalypse...

Now...Stacey is awesome, and is one of my incredible crit partners. So I got to read this one waaaay back in the beginning; I got to beg for more when it was done, and I've realy read the sequel, UNDEAD MUCH, which is even scarier, funnier, and awesomer (I'm making it a word!) than the first one, which is already chock-full of scary, funny awesomeness.

And I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that while it's all well and good to buy the book from Amazon, it's even better to head out to the bookstore near you and buy it there. Stimulate the economy and save our bookstores, okay? Because we need them, bad.

Run, don't walk. I promise you, you will enjoy the book.


And after you grab that one, I have another one! An adult one. An awesome, awesome, totally kickass urban fantasy; STREET MAGIC, the first book in Caitlin Kittredge's upcoming "Black London" series.

Again, I was lucky enough to read this one in ms format, and I am seriously jonesing for it to come out in print. Seriously. WANT. It is, I believe, the best UF I've read, and I mean no disrespect to any of my beloved UF-writing pals. Just that this book has something I hadn't, and haven't seen yet, and I seriously loved it.

And you can too! Because although STREET MAGIC won't be released for a while yet--June 2, sigh; I'll be back in the US before I get to hold that gorgeous cover in my hands--if you are a book blogger or a commercially published author, you can get yourself a digital pre-ARC ARC! How's that for cool?

From Caitlin's blog:

Here's some excellent news for book bloggers and authors who blog:

St. Martin's Press, who publishes both of my adult series at the moment, is offering a sneak peek of /Street Magic/, Book 1 of the Black London series, to the blogging community as a way to say thank you for their continued support of my work.

All I ask in return is a little bit of blogging action about the novel.

Here's the flap copy:

/Her name is Pete Caldecott. She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete's eyes--or so she thought. Now a detective, Pete is investigating the kidnapping of a young girl from the streets of London...a case that brings her face to face with Jack./

/Strung out on heroin, Jack is a shadow of his former self. But he's able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget's kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fae. Pete follows Jack into the fae underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget..and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago.../

If you're a book blogger or a commercially published author who blogs, and you're interested in reading an electronic, advance galley of /Street Magic/ (ARC's won't be printed for another couple of months), please leave a comment with a link to your blog and an email address where the galley can be sent.

NOTE: You need to leave a comment at Caitlin's blog, on this post here.


Seriously, you guys, I am not kidding. I loved STREET MAGIC. Passionately. And I loved YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME. Passionately. Go to the bookstore. Buy UNDEAD. Hell, place a pre-order at the desk for STREET MAGIC as well, so that on release day you can trot on down and get a copy; trust me, after reading the digital ARC you will totally want one.

And that's basically it. I had more to say today, but my bloggy thoughts have all been erased by the fact that, in addition to having her school uniform sweatshirt (it's the uniform here; a sweatshirt with the school color and the school crest on it) STOLEN while she was in PE last week--they make the kids change into PE clothes and leave their own clothes in the classroom (don't get me started on that alone), today she was not allowed to participate in PE at all. Why? BECAUSE DURING THE WEEK, WHILE SHE'S BEEN HOME SICK, SOMEONE HAS STOLEN HER PE KIT AS WELL.

AND, her PE kit, because of the freezing weather, contained two of MY long-sleeved undershirts. So, two of my own tops, which I wear fairly often, AND her special frigging gym shoes, AND a pair of socks, AND her new warm-up pants, were stolen. While the teaching assistants there--who, I have been informed, should not be expected to do a good or responsible job because "they don't get paid much"--apparently were not paying any attention at all.

So, I am ready to scream and hit people and things, basically.



But you should still go buy YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME! And contact Caitlin! And pre-order STREET MAGIC! AT THE BOOKSTORE!!! Because it's important, and you'll be glad you did.

And it just might help to alleciate some of my rage, if you do.

A little Bonus Post

I know! It's Wednesday! This is a Bonus Post!

Okay, well, let me get this out of the way first. Remember last week when I told y'all about the arrangement between Juno and Pocket regarding my book(s)?

Well...I wasn't entirely honest. Or rather, I was, but I was only telling you what you had already been told; the Amazon listing and S&S page were there, in public, for anyone in the world to see, and judging by the number of emails I received before I made the announcement, a hell of a lot of the world had already seen it.

But NOW I can tell you the best part, which is...it's not just me. Juno Books has in effect become an imprint of Pocket Books. This is the press release:

POCKET BOOKS IN CO-PUBLISHING AGREEMENT WITH JUNO BOOKS
TO PUBLISH CONTEMPORARY FANTASY FICTION

New York, New York (January 19, 2009) – Louise Burke, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Pocket Books, has announced a new co-publishing agreement with Juno Books, best known for contemporary fantasy novels that emphasize strong female protagonists in richly imagined contexts. Juno will become an imprint of Pocket Books, publishing one title per month with the first release, AMAZON INK by Lori Devoti, slated for June 2009.
Juno Books began its publishing program in Fall 2006 and quickly became noted in the fantasy fiction genre for such breakout successes as Carole Nelson Douglas and Stacia Kane and garnering critical acclaim for many of their titles.
“Pocket Books and Juno Books are a great fit,” said Louise Burke. “We’ve seen great growth in this category, are delighted to now have a dedicated line, and look forward to helping to cultivate a wider audience for Juno’s terrific roster of authors.”

Juno Books Editor Paula Guran said: "I'm tremendously excited about the opportunity to help take Juno to the next level through our association with Pocket Books. Both Juno and fantasy readers in general will gain immensely by sales and marketing reach of Pocket Books and Simon & Schuster, while still getting the best of our editorial sensibility."

Pocket Books Senior Editor Jennifer Heddle will work in concert with Juno Books Editor Paula Guran.

So. My Demons books and all Juno books will now be released by Pocket.

Does this make me a Pocket author? Well. Honestly? Not as far as I'm concerned. I signed my deal with Juno; it somehow feels to me as though to run around calling myself a Pocket author is a little grandiose; distasteful. I didn't make a deal with Pocket, I made a deal with Juno. While I am of course absolutely thrilled by this news, and thrilled to be working with Pocket and to have the opportunity, hopefully, to work more with Pocket in future, until I'm offered a contract that says "Simon & Schuster" at the top I'm not going to behave as though I personally dealt with Pocket since the beginning. Nor do I claim that I "write for" Pocket; to date I haven't actually written anything for Pocket. I've written two books for Juno, which Pocket has acquired (not sure what the sitch is for PD but I'm saying "two"; that's not an announcement of any kind). To me to run around saying I "write for" Pocket implies that they have offered me contracts themselves, on new work, and that they have asked for more, and that is not yet the case. Juno acquired me, and that's that. So we'll see what happens, and I'd absolutely love to be able in future to say I am in fact a Pocket author. But my own hatred of pretentiousness forbids it at the moment.

Anyway. I actually started this post because I was going to talk a little about the inauguration and how it's great that we're all so proud again but we should be proud every day simply by virtue of being good people, but I've decided it's too political--even though it's actually not at all political, it could be read as being political--and deep and it's not something I want to get into. So, you'll have to make do with this.

And I'll be back tomorrow. :-)

Cookbooks. And a recipe. And a few other things.

Yes, it's a recipe! I know, I haven't posted one of these in quite a while; I'm actually considering putting a page on my new website for them all, or would that be lame? What do you think?

Anyway. Most of the recipes I've posted have been my own inventions. This one isn't. It's taken from Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat", which is one of my absolute favorite cookbooks in the world ever. Certainly out of all the cookbooks I own, this one is my favorite that was written after about 1980.

Okay, I started to put this little rant in parentheses but decided it was too long to be parenthetical. I buy most of my cookbooks from used bookstores, or especially from antique/antiquarian bookstores, for one simple reason. Good recipes.

The thing is, most modern cookbooks aren't written for people who enjoy cooking or who cook on a regular basis. They're just not. They're written--so it seems to me--for people who enjoy reading and eating more than cooking; for those who enjoy "food porn"; for those who cook once a week, an elaborate Saturday or Sunday lunch or brunch.

I like those books, I do. I own a few and love to look through them. But they are not practical at all. I am a stay-home Mom, as you guys know. I cook dinner for four people at least five nights a week (usually six, but we do have the occasional Leftovers Night, or fish & chips craving, or whatever, so I'm saying five even though it's usually six or seven). When you cook dinner for four people, six nights a week, you do not have the time to spend on these ten-step recipes every night. Nor do you have the money for some of the ingredients in those books. Nor, especially, is there a snowball's chance in Hell that your four- and seven-year-old daughters are going to even consider eating anything served on a bed of crispy-fried frissee lettuce, with capers, and bearnaise sauce, and whatever else. Seriously. I love those cookbooks. But I cannot actually cook from them; I do not have the money or the equipment or time, and I need to cook food that my children will actually eat.

Older cookbooks were written for housewives who had to cook for their families and their picky children. The recipes in them are less expensive. They use more common ingredients; no hunting around for passionfruit or beef marrow. No dirtying dozens of pots and pans. And that's what I need.

I also feel that modern cookbooks are waaaay too full of salads and desserts. You know, I know how to make a salad, and I rarely make or eat dessert. I don't need those recipes, I need main courses. Actual food. Not thirty different salads that are really all the same; it's a freaking salad, you know?

And that's one reason I love Nigella's book. I love her, frankly. I love how the book reads more like a novel than a cookbook. (Funnily enough the few negative Amazon reviews are from people who don't like this; they just want recipes and pictures.) It's like a little wander through someone's culinary life, and it's a lot of fun. And while I admit some of the recipes don't appeal to me, some of them do, and are delicious (although I do wish she would stop putting chiles in everything as I cannot take spicy food with my delicate stomach.)

Anyway. This is for gooey chocolate puddings. And they are fantastic. I made them New Year's Eve. This is the kind of recipe I love because it looks really complex and sophisticated when you serve it; it's like a little chocolate cake still all melty in the center. And I could never figure out how that works, and now I know.

Preheat oven to 400F; turn it on at least half an hour before you want to cook the puddings so it will be nice and evenly hot.


4 1/2 oz high quality chocolate, chopped. (4 1/2 oz is 125g; see what measurement the chocolate bar uses. I'd make sure the chocolate is at least 70% cocoa solids. Also, I used "Mayan dark" chocolate, with spices, do you know the kind I mean? It has a little cinnamon and stuff. It was really good, but plain choc would be fine.)

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter (I only had salted and it was fine, so I wouldn't worry about that too much)

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

In a saucepan (or double-boiler, if you're fancy) melt the butter and chocolate together slowly, stirring fairly often.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and flour until just blended. It will be this weird sort of translucent yellowy goo. Slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture; set aside.

Butter four 1-cup ramekins (I used my special heart-shaped Le Creuset Xmas gift remekins! Oh joy! I felt *very* grown-up and special) and flour them. Pour the misture into the ramekins--mine were filled just over halfway--and set them on a baking sheet, in the middle of the oven, for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are firm and cracking slightly and the edges are set. I'd actually give them maybe a minute more; oven temps vary a little so keep an eye on them.

Serve immediately, with cream. I'm not usually a fan of simply pouring cream over things--I used single cream, which is like half-and-half I think, but you could use whipping cream too. It doesn't need to be whipped (though you can, I didn't), just pour some of it over after you've taken the first couple of bites.

The thing is, these are *very* gooey and *very* hot inside, and *very* chocolatey. So the cream is cool, and actually does provide a little relief from the strong chocolate flavor, so it adds a nice contrast. So I would definitely have the cream. I liked it much better with than without, and so did the hubs. Loooovely.

A few more things:

Friday night I was hanging out on Twitter, wishing AW was up (I've heard it's back now but haven't had time to go check yet), and I got into a fun little chat with Colleen Lindsay, who is probably one of the most--if not the most--successful new agents to, um, start agenting, in the past few years. She's with Fine Print, an excellent agency, and is the living embodiment of my "A new agent at an established agency is a good bet" dictum. Anyway. I thought Colleen was a nice, friendly sort, until she practically throttled me and pushed my face in a muddy puddle until I agreed to allow her to set up a Facebook page for me. I gave in.

So now I have a Facebook page. Which some of you already know because I Friended you. If I didn't friend you, it's because I did not know you were there, so please don't hesitate to friend me if you want.

I'm actually really enjoying Facebook so far. Much more adult than MySpace, which you all know I loathe. We'll see if it becomes a major timesuck; so far I've been doing okay.

A terrifying thing happened Saturday night. No, really. Hubs went to his Mum's on Friday to discuss some things with her. He came back Saturday; I picked him up at the train station at 7 pm. It was dark. It was pouring down rain. It was horrendously windy.

Unlike pretty much every other town in England, our train station is miles away. You have to take a separate highway to get to and from it. It's a four-lane highway, two lanes on each side, with a metal dividing rail between, and it is a very hilly, very wind-y road with lots of twists and turns. No lights, of course. That would make it safer and we can't have that.

So. We are headed Westbound, in the left-hand lane (which is the outside lane here, remember.) Toodly-doo, along we go, chatting, when we turn a corner, go about half a mile, and a car passes us going Eastbound.

Eastbound. In the Westbound lane. On a dark and windy night, on a twisty narrow road.

(Another fun feature of this road, as with so many roads in the Southwest, is there are no exits for miles. You get on, and you are not getting off for a while.)

So of course we take a second or two to wonder if we actually saw what we think we did. Another second or so to freak out because we could have all just been in a head-on collision at 70 mph. And we dial 999 to report it. We would have liked to have turned around and followed along with them (on the correct side of the road) blaring our horn or something to try and warn people, but again, it is impossible to exit or turn around anywhere on these roads. And that probably would not have been particularly safe either.

One really cool thing they do here is, if you call to report a crime or incident or whatever, they are legally required to update you on it. Which is a tremendous violation of privacy, but is still really cool. We arrived home, still freaking out, and waited.

Fifteen minutes later the phone rang. It was the police. There had been a massive car accident.

Luckily, she said no one was killed or even injured very seriously. And she said thanks to us they already had police etc. on the road, on the way, when the call came in. So we were at least able to help.

The driver was apparently very elderly.

Just awful. Very scary. And I believe it is entirely possible that had there been street lights the accident could have been prevented. Seriously, getting onto the highway here at night is like being in a submarine plunging into black water; the lights stop at the top of the exit ramps, and you're on your own. It's incredibly dangerous.

But the important thing is no one was killed.

See? I told you it was terrifying.


But on a brighter note...there's an Inauguration tomorrow! I love Inaguration Day. I always watch them--I always love to watch them. I don't care who's being inagurated, I just watch and take pride in the whole system. That we elect a President. That we swear that President in with great ceremony and pride. That we are solemn and joyful at the same time. It's fantastic. It makes me proud, and it usually makes me cry a little, and I just love it and I'm very excited. So who's going to be watching with me? (Assuming I get to watch of course; I don't know if CNN or Fox will be covering it, and those are the only news we have access to that might show the whole thing. So fingers crossed. I haven't missed watching an Inauguration in...oh, gosh...since Reagan's first, so this is a Big Deal to me.)

Oops, I forgot to title it

Wowee. LOTS of ground to cover today!

First of all. If you are a follower of Urban Fantasy Land (and if you aren't, why the hell not, because those girls are awesome; they love the genre, and they're fun and well-informed, and they're doing Reader's Choice Awards at the moment and you could win stuff) you already have some inkling of this, as they broke the news a couple of days ago. If you are a member of my Yahoo newsgroup you already know this, as I sent out a message yesterday (see? There are some benefits to belonging to the group!)

I can't tell you everything. I honestly don't know everything. What I do know is that DEMON INSIDE and any future books in the Megan Chase series will be distributed through Pocket Books (S&S) as part of a new arrangement with Juno Books.

So. DEMON INSIDE is up on Amazon! And I have my very own Author Page on the new Simon & Schuster website, which is here.

Both pages give the new release date as JULY 29, 2009. Mark your calendars! Place your pre-orders now! Riot and dance in the streets (you know you want to)!

But seriously. Here's what this hopefully means for you. It hopefully means that DI will have a much "harder" release date; there will be more copies on the shelves, on the release date and after. It will likely be easier to get and find. (And I certainly hope you think that's a good thing.)

What it means for me? I honestly don't know yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But wait! There's more!

Again, if you're a member of the Yahoo group you know this already, but yesterday I got the official word that I will be a Guest at Dragon*Con, September 4-7, Atlanta GA. (It is very weird to see my name on that list, especially right above Susan Kearney's, as she is a USA Today bestseller and I am just...well, me.) So, I will be signing books, participating in panel discussions, and generally jibber jabbering away at Dragon*Con! I am totally excited; D*C is awesome. Check out the rest of the site and see:

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.

...and I'm going to be part of it! Holy crap!! I'm already thinking of fun promo activities and stuff; a scavenger hunt, perhaps? Miss Caitlin Kittredge and I have some Nefarious Plans in the works as well...muahahahaha!

Now, this last bit of news hasn't been announced to the Yahoo loop, as I thought two big announcements were quite enough for one day. BUT, this is really, very exciting.

My Ellora's Cave novel Demon's Triad, co-written with the excellent Anna J. Evans, will be a print book, available for signing at the Romantic Times convention in April!!

Those of you who were here when the book had its ebook release last year will recall, this is our supersuperdirty X-rated book; the one almost too dark and wild for Ellora's Cave. I repeat that here not just because I'm kind of proud of that in a sick sort of way, but to warn you. The blurb says "This book is not for the faint of heart" and that is NOT a warning to take lightly. At least one reviewer was apparently not shown the blurb, which also explains that the book contains female/female sexual activity, male/male sexual activity, and non-gratuitous scenes of rape and incest, and gave the book a terrible review for it; who can blame her, really? If you're expecting a sweet romance, well, you will get that; it *is* a romance and one Anna and I were very proud of. But it is also a dark, violent, and graphic book, so if you're not interested in that or if it's simply not what you expected--especially considering most of my EC work leans toward snarky and humorous--you will want to give this one a wide berth, okay?

But I'm extremely excited and proud that it will see print, and I am extremely happy to say that Anna J. Evans, my darling co-writer, will also be at Romantic Times, so this is your chance to have the book signed by BOTH of us.


So. That was the fun stuff. Now we have a couple of serious things to talk about.

This week marks one year since the Cassie Edwards plagiarism scandal broke, on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books website. You guys know I love the Bitches; they're clever, they're funny, and they are always interesting, in addition to being--I think--two really lovely, kind, and caring people. I think it can be easy, when dealing with review sites, to tar them all with some sort of "Snarky reviews=Mean Girls" brush, and I think that's wrong. If you read the Bitches' site regularly, if you pay attention to the discussions there, you can see the deep respect that shines through even the snarkiest comment (though I don't think their reviews are particularly snarky anyway, personally); respect for themselves, respect for readers, and especially respect for writers. (The fact that they are both writers themselves may contibute to this; they have their own book coming out in April, a non-fiction book about romance novels, and I imagine it will be a must-have for anyone who likes or loathes romance.)

Anyway. A year ago one of the Bitches loaned a friend a few Cassie Edwards novels. The friend did not enjoy the novels, but more to the point, the friend noticed some distinct differences in the authorial voice at certain points in the text. The friend was, I believe, ill at the time or recuperating from a broken bone, and so, having time on her hands, she decided to Google a few of the oddest passages.

And discovered that they were stolen.

They were not Cassie Edwards' original work. They were entire passages lifted verbatim from research articles; from old novels (one of which was a Pulitzer Prize winner); from magazine articles and websites.

In short, Cassie Edwards was a plagiarist, and the Bitches posted the evidence of her CRIME, of her BREACH OF MORALS AND ETHICS AND HONOR, on their website.

And all hell broke loose. (The post I linked to above is tagged "Cassie Edwards"; clock the tag to view the whole saga. Astounding. I was especially interested to see a statement, purportedly from Edwards, which claimed that "...all romance authors who use research for historicals have to use reference books to do this." Um...yeah, I used a lot of reference books and materials in writing Black Dragon, my Cerridwen Press medieval. But funnily enough, I didn't realize I was supposed to lift entire passages verbatim; I actually went through the trouble of incorporating my research in (what I hope was) a smooth manner, and, you know, writing it myself in my own words, rather than simply copy-and-pasting it into dialogue and figuring my readers wouldn't know the difference. Silly me. I guess I was absent from Writer School the day they told me that, contrary to what I'd been taught my whole life, that was okay).

But this is the thing. This really isn't about Cassie Edwards. It's not. I've never read one of the woman's books; I don't know her or anything about her.

What I do know, and what this is about, is that plagiarism is wrong. It is a moral and ethical absolute: PLAGIARISM IS WRONG. YOU DO NOT STEAL THE WORK OF OTHERS AND TAKE CREDIT FOR IT.

And here's what I don't understand. The Bitches broke this story. They alerted the world that this egregious wrong was taking place. In doing so they drew attention to the actual writers of the stolen work, people whose words were earning money for Ms. Edwards, while they struggled. People who'd put years of effort into the work she so carelessly, irresponsibly, and coldly stole from them for her own gain.

In alerting us they made publishers and readers more aware of plagiarism; what it is, and what the consequences are. Not just to the thief, but to all of us. When our words--our self-expression, the contents of our minds and hearts, the basis of our very selves, the tools of our souls--are stolen, it is a vicious and terrible crime. It is the raping of the mind. It tells us, on the most basic level possible, that we are nothing but grist for the plagiarist's mill, nothing but a series of sentences for the plagiarist to steal.

Who among us has never had this happen? There's a reason why "copycat" is such a vivid playground epithet; the copycat is not original. The copycat is stealing your ideas and pretending they're his or her own. Who among us has never had anyone copy us? Has never had a co-worker take credit for one of our ideas? Or a boss? Has never told a joke or come up with a witty comeback, and heard someone else use it later, pretending it's their own? Who has not felt that impotent rage when it happens? The feeling that nothing is sacred, not your thoughts or words or self?

Plagiarism is disgusting. It is foul. It is wrong. It is a behavior that should not be tolerated, by anyone, for any purpose.

And yet...the Bitches are being threatened for it. As though they've done something wrong.

When someone breaks into your home and steals from you, and you catch them in the act, do you deserve to be blamed for their subsequent imprisonment? How about if you catch someone stealing from your neighbor's home; are you then to blame? What if you witness a murder or rape? Or any crime? Are you obligated to keep silent? Or are you obligated to tell, because the basis of our society is respect for ourselves, other people, and the law, and every incidence of turning a blind eye, of excusing such crimes, of pretending it doesn't matter, is in and of itself a crime, a show of incredible disrespect which takes us one step further away from civilization and toward an unfeeling, inhuman anarchy?

There are people actually sending threatening notes to the Smart Bitches--especially regarding their appearance at the Romantic Times convention--for doing what was and is RIGHT; for standing up for the abused, the stolen from, the ignored and the ill-treated. For standing up for the basic human right of all of us to own our own words, thoughts and feelings, and not have them ripped from us by someone else looking to benefit financially from the sweat of our brows and the fruit of our souls.

This is disgusting. It is wrong. It lessens the humanity and fairness and integrity of our society as a whole, and of the community of readers and writers.

Thank you, Smart Bitches, for standing up for writers; for treating what we do as something individual and valuable, and for recognizing our right to our own intellectual property.

I had more but I think that's long enough for one day, huh?

Ladies, do you match?

So, first, a HUGE thank-you to everyone who commented on my "Author Photo" entry. I admit I am totally shocked by your picks; I thought #4 was by far the worst of the bunch, that it made me look moon-faced and elderly. #3 was my favorite by far, followed by 2, then 1, then 4--which I really didn't like that much at all. So, quite a surprise, indeed. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do; I keep thinking if we do one more round of photos I might hit The One.

But I will say that after years of hating the way I photographed I was very surprised by how nicely most of the pictures we took came out. And that made me feel pretty good.


Something else that's been making me feel pretty good lately is my expanding collection of matching bra-and-panty sets. (Yeah, I'm talking about my underwear, so? We're all adults here.)

Soo, for years I haven't really owned anything remotely like a matching set. Well, I have, I just never really wore them together. I have a couple of velvet bras the hubs bought me when we were engaged; they came with matching velvet boy-shorts, which were adorable but tended to be too warm under clothes (in South Florida, remember) and also tended to slip cown or bunch unattractively. I also bought myself a few sets, but the panties always seem to get worn out so much faster than the bras, in large part because while panties are washed after one wearing, bras aren't. (Again, c'mon. I can't be the only woman in the world who'll wear the same bra for several days. If I'm doing something where I'm sweaty of course I change it immediately, but for day-to-day use...I dunno, am I disgusting for this? It's just bras aren't cheap and I don't have that many.)

Anyway. Yes, I don't have many bras. So there's this new store in Barnstaple called La Senza, and they have really nice, inexpensive stuff. So because I'm low on bras I bought a couple. And because they were half-price and the panties were too, I've ended up buying several sets over the last couple of months. With the result that I know own like six matching bra-and-panty sets.

And it's pretty neat, I have to say. It's kind of fun to have matching stuff. It makes me feel like a grown-up. And they're so pretty! I bought this one, for example, which isn't usually my style but is just so cute. Or this one. And several more that aren't on the website; a pinstripe set (I love pinstripes); a bright baby blue set, a red satin set with black tulle over it, a red set with black stripes...and all so inexpensive!!

So while I'm not always matching (I still have some older bras I love, that don't have matching panties) these days I seem to match more often than not. And so I'm wondering. Ladies, do you match? Was I weird for not matching before? Am I weird for matching now? Men, what do you think? I've heard that men could care less, is that true?

A few other things:

Urban Fantasy Land is having a "Best of 2008" poll, with some neat categories, so go on over and vote. I am actually nominated, which is cool as hell, in the "Best Demons/Zombies" category, but as I'm in the running against Mark Henry, Richelle Mead and Jackie Kessler, in addition to Justine Musk (my new Twitter friend, which just about stunned me out of my shoes), Jenna Black, and Kat Richardson, I haven't the proverbial snowball's chance. But you know, it really is an honor just to be nominated, so I'm content. Anyway, go on over and vote!! Link to the poll! Let's get some numbers over there!

And when I say "Go over and vote" I mean vote for whomever. Do not vote for me unless you really are crazy enough to think I deserve to win more than those other great writers. As has been mentioned all over the internet in the last few weeks, the Preditors & Editors poll has begun, and while (again) it is very exciting to see my name in it--although I don't know if I am this year, I haven't looked, but I know someone nominated me last year and I actually ended up ranking fairly high--it really doesn't mean anything at all save who has the most buddies with the most dummy email accounts. I love P&E; I think Dave does great work there.

But the poll...ugh. No offense, but you cannot tell me that award is fair, or that the winners always make sense. I hate polls like that, which are nothing more than popularity contests or seeing who can best game the system. When the top tens are consistenly filled with books, publishers, and authors of whom no one has ever heard, something isn't right.

Also. Our buddy Psynde has a new pet, a really cool fighting fish whom she has named Terrible, after one of my Unholy Ghosts characters (I let Psynde have a sneaky peeky at the ms). "Stunned" does not begin to describe my reaction, no shit. This is probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in my entire career; someone actually liked one of my characters so much they named a pet after him. That shit just doesn't happen to me.

Anyway, stop on over to Psynde's blog to take a look at Terrible in all his fishy glory and say hi to Psynde, and let's keep our fingers crossed that my horrendous luck with fish (every time I try to have one it dies within a few hours) doesn't extend to Terrible.

And I think that's it for today.

If you have a few minutes, come help me choose a picture

So apparently I need another one of those Author Photo thingies for my books and my website and all that stuff.

I've posted a few options over on the livejournal; want to come help me decide? I have a definite favorite but I thought I'd open it up to other opinions.

Come on over and ogle me! And comment!


You can use Open Id or just comment as anon and tell me who you are, if you want.

The coming year

Well.

So here we are, all in our places with bright shiny faces, ready for 2009, right? RIGHT! And 2009 is going to be a great year, really really really. I can feel it in my bones. No more whining about the Year That Ate My Happiness; we're all about the 09, now.

And what a way to start the year, because I have several announcements to make, and a bit about my schedule--which includes (gasp) appearances!

So. Here's an announcement, first of all; a pretty big one. The hubs and I have booked our tickets, and are moving back to the US in April. There are a number of reasons for this, which I won't go into, but suffice it to say we're very excited about going home. England is a beautiful place, and I will always be grateful that we--especially the girls--had the opportunity to live in another country, but we've been here for just over three years and it's time to go home.

However. This does mean that for essentially the entire month of April I am going to be unreachable. My BlackBerry contract runs out in March; I had really hoped to extend it another couple of months so I can still get my emails, but I can't guarantee it.

The good news about this, though, is that in April I *will* be at the Romantic Times convention in Orlando, and should be signing some books.

So. My schedule for the year is basically as follows (don't worry, I'll update throughout the year as well):

Jan-March. Regular schedule; I have to finish the third Downside book (which I hope to do by the end of Feb) and obviously we'll have some moving things to keep us busy, but I will keep everyone informed as we go along.

April: Moving. We'll be spending a few days in NYC, which I am incredibly excited about (I've never been there) as I already have plans to tour the Del Rey offices and have dinner and drinks with my fantastic editor, to meet up with my agent, all those fun things. Whee! And then we head down to Miami to visit our friends and family down there; we can't wait to see them all again.

Then I'm attending the RT convention in Orlando, April 22-26. As of now I'm not doing any panels or "official" events save the booksigning on Saturday the 25th. BUT, on Thursday morning, from 10:30 to 11:30, Team Seattle (of which I have been informed I am a "satellite" member, which tickles me to no end and makes me feel all warm and gooey and loved), including me and a few other technically non-Seattlites, are doing a Club RT event, with fun and a seriously kickass prize, so you will NOT want to miss that; come hang out and talk with us!

May: Traveling; hopfully visiting friends and family in TX.

Summer: Hopefully buying and settling into new house in time for girls to start school with everyone else. If anyone knows any realtors in or around the Alpharetta/Marietta/Cummings area north of Atlanta GA, please let me know. We aren't sure we'll be in the market for a house but we're hopeful. :-)

September: Dragon*Con! I will definitely be there; I have no idea as yet what if anything I will officially be doing there, but I will definitely be there, and it would be great to see any of you there too!

October-December: Don't know.


I am also currently in the process of building a new website, and I'm really excited about it. It's a long slow process, ugh; writing website content is horrible, really. All this stuff all about me and my books. It's weird. I always feel like I'm coming off as a lunatic.

It does mean, too, that I am going to be doing some new FAQs. So if you have any questions you'd like to see answered there, go ahead and ask them. I'm willing to pretend they're "Frequently asked" if you are; it will be our little secret. :-) And of course I'm trying to come up with other stuff, bits and pieces that might interest people about the books, that sort of thing. I also plan to have a couple of pages on the business of publishing and maybe a bit about writing as well; we'll see. And one thing I'm very excited about and I think will be way cool, but it's not ready to be discussed yet.

I'm building the website for now at staciakane.net (no, there's nothing up yet.) Once it's been launched I'll be directing the staciakane.com domain name there, so either address will get you to the same site.

The December Quinn site will not change, and I haven't yet decided if I'll link to it. Probably not, though.

I'm also considering building a blog into the actual site, but I'm not sure. Copying-and-pasting my posts from here to livejournal (or vice versa occasionally) isn't a big deal, but I don't know that I can keep up with comments posted in three separate places. Not sure what to do there, really. I may end up letting Blogger go dark. Again, that's up in the air at the moment, and I'm open to any thoughts.

We're making some changes at the League of Reluctant Adults, as well! More on that later but it will of course be a hoot, whatever we do.

Um...I think that's it for announcements for today. I will post the Big News as soon as I can, and I'm hoping to have release dates for the Chess Putnam books starting with Unholy Ghosts within the next few months. Which is to say, I hope the release dates are scheduled and I can announce them soon, not that the books will actually be released in the next few months. But that would be fun, wouldn't it? Sigh.

I believe that is it for the moment. Like I said I'll keep everything updated as we go along.

2008: Boy, am I glad that's over

***This is NOT my big news'n'announcement post, although there is an announcement IN this post. That post will probably--hopefully--be Thursday, so stay tuned.***


Yes, I'm a little late on this. Everyone else did their year-in-review posts last week. But you know, I've never been one to keep up with the Joneses.

2008 sucked.


Oh, sure. By all outward appearances, and by some measures, 2008 was awesome. Seriously awesome. Personal Demons was released, and the critical and reader reaction to it totally blew me away with its warmth and enthusiasm. Seriously, y'all, if no other good things had happened for me professionally in 2008, that would have made it one of the best years of my life, period.


But that wasn't all that happened for me professionally in '08. In March I signed with Mr. Kickass Agent. In July we got the first offer for Unholy Ghosts, and an extremely minor--but very exciting--bidding war of sorts began. NOT an auction, I'm not claiming that by any stretch, but we did have more than one editor in the game and that was intensely gratifying, even if it did leave me feeling lousy when I ended up not getting to work with some people with whom I would have seriously enjoyed working.

And then there's another good professional thing that I can't talk about yet, but am really looking forward to being able to discuss. (No, I haven't sold a new series or anything, keep your shirts on. Or, well, don't; I can't see you, so you wear whatever you like.)

So on that level, 2008 was The Year That Could; it rocked.

And a few other great things happened in '08. I got to spend a week or so with Caitlin Kittredge, which was undoubtedly a serious High Point for the year. Caitlin is so awesome and lovely and wonderful, and it was a delight to have her as a guest.

This is the year--sort of--that I lost 35 pounds. I say "sort of" because technically ten of those were lost in 2007, but the fact remains that 2008 was and is the year that I hit my ultimate goal weight of 108 pounds (I'm only 5'2, remember, and very small-boned and petite) and I have remained there for four months now, and I am quite proud of myself in addition to being thrilled at all the clothes that fit and flatter me again.

But for everything else? Man, 2008 blew.

I cannot remember the last time I was able to go outside without at least a cardigan. While it didn't rain for nine solid weeks this summer the way it did in 07, it was still far from sunny. This is the year I really, fully realized that I have no friends in this part of the world. This is the year my friends and family in the States needed me and I couldn't be there for them.

This is the year my husband and I spent the entire summer fighting like cats and dogs, only with more foul language. This is the year the raise he was supposed to get--the raise which his bosses promised would be "significant"--ended up being barely visible thanks to company-wide mandate. However insignificant it was, it was enough to kick us into a new tax bracket (so to speak), resulting in the monthly loss of an additional 20% of our income. 2008 was the year we ate a lot of soup; it was the year we couldn't buy new books or warmer clothes. It was the year we couldn't afford to take hubs' suits to the drycleaner often enough. 2008 was the year every one of life's little annoyances felt like heavy weights around my neck and drained the energy out of me; it was the year I found myself reduced to tears by a snippy Tesco clerk because I just couldn't take one more isolating incident, one more reminder that I was in a world whose rules I just couldn't grasp.

2008 was the year our couch broke and we couldn't afford a new one; I am writing this sitting on a stack of catalogs placed strategically beneath the cushion, in order to replace the broken springs. It was the year I realized there was no way I would ever please my mother-in-law, that she is determined to see me and everything I do in the most negative light possible, and that goes for everyone else I know in the area; 2008 was the year they essentially stopped speaking to me altogether.

In other words--and to stop the self-pity-party that is already well underway--aside from work, 2008 was miserable and scary and unhappy, and I am glad to see the rear end of it.

BUT!!

2009 is already gearing up to be great; I can feel it in my much-less-padded bones. So no more of this. I am looking ahead, and I am seeing some fricking amazing things coming, some of which I will tell you about very soon.


Meanwhile, here is my announcement, such as it is.

I have been the lucky recipient, over the last few months, of many emails and blog comments regarding the release date of the second Megan Chase book, DEMON INSIDE. (I say "lucky" and mean it; it's amazing to me that people actually care! Thank you, each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart.)

As some or most or all or none of you know, DEMON INSIDE was originally scheduled to be a Jan 2009 release. And as you may have noticed, it is not.

I am not yet at liberty to discuss the reasons behind the delay; hopefully all will be revealed very soon. What I can say is that the delay has nothing to do with me or the book; it is certainly not due to problems at or with Juno Books. There are business reasons behind it, but I promise they are good and positive ones, and I wouldn't lie to you, would I?

As soon as I am able to discuss it, I will, I swear.

As soon as I have a solid release date, I will tell you, I swear. You'll be the first to know.

Right now I'm hearing late summer 09, but that could very well change, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime I apologize very sincerely to each and every one of you for the delay. Please be assured that if there was any way to avoid it, we would have done so. I hate things being late and delayed, especially books, and I'm really sorry. I just hope that you'll be pleased--um, or at least care a little--when you hear the reasons behind it, and that you'll forgive me, and that you'll still be willing to read DEMON INSIDE when it does appear on the shelves.

And of course, that you'll enjoy it when it does.

And that's it. Stay tuned; no matter what I'm allowed to say by Thursday, there will definitely be some announcements made which will hopefully interest you.

Meanwhile, I'm going to raise a glass and breathe easily, and hope that 2009 holds better things, and that the small professional success I found in 2008 was not a fluke. :-)

Thank you all for spending the year with me. Here's to all of us!