I'm about 5,000 words behind on NaNoWriMo,which meant that I cut the latest chapter of Fire in the Void a bit short. But at least I managed to post something. I'm actually cursing the timing a bit, because the events of this and the next chapter are pretty important in terms of character development, and I don't want to be distracted while trying to get them right. Which is why I should have freaking planned ahead a bit more. Ahem.

I've updated the ebook version of my novella Rain on the Mountain (about a jaguar shaman and a lady cop investigating a series of supernatural homicides). It's now available in multiple formats from Smashwords, so if you hate PDF, you now have several options to choose from. Even better, you can read 50% of the novella before deciding to buy!

So I've sent in my edits for my short story to appear in Bad-Ass Faeries II: Just Plain Bad. They were only about an hour's worth of work, but I spent far more time than that trying to come up with a new title (something more "Holmesian" to fit the story better) until giving up and begging Danielle for help. So now the story is called "A Clear-Cut Case," which fits the black humor of the tale.

I'd really like to write more about the two characters in it, Sorcha--an unseelie faeling--and Beth, her seelie companion. They were fun to write, and I think Sorcha has a lot more to say. But I'm holding off and seeing what reaction there is to them first. So after the book comes out, if anyone does like them--or want the very memory of their existence scrubbed from the earth--let me know.

The book is launching at Balticon, which is Memorial Day Weekend. I utterly adore Balticon. The people are great, the hotel and staff are wonderful (they act like they actually want our business, unlike other con hotels I've been to), the panels are fun, and you just can't beat the Short Film Festival. There's also a masquerade, but I've yet to make it due to scheduling conflicts. Perhaps this year!

The Importance of Being a Villain

I had a startling revelation in the shower the other morning (this is normal for me—the shower is where I do my best thinking at times). As some of you may know, I’m working on another Shadow Fae book, whether some weird follow-up (4th book in the trilogy!) or the start of a second series I haven’t yet decided. It had been given me some trouble, but I recently had a breakthrough, went back, erased a couple thousand words, and forged off in a new direction.

The revelation was that it had been giving me trouble because I didn’t have a good handle on the villain. Actually, I didn’t really even know villain’s identity, outside of some very vague ideas that turned out to be totally wrong. Then I realized that every time I’ve had trouble with a book—major trouble, not just stuck on a passage—it’s been because I didn’t understand the villain well enough.

I rewrote about 2/3rds of Winter’s Orphans after completing the first draft because I’d mistaken the villain for someone else. The Crow Queen gave me fits, until I realized that the other lords weren’t just minor antagonists, but the main villains who needed to get off their butts and start being evil for the story to progress. Sorceress Star stalled again and again, not because I didn’t know Melilandra was the main villain, but because I didn’t understand her well enough. Once I went back and wrote her story in flashback, everything became clear and the story breezed along.

Conversely, Tyrant Moon was a dream to write, because I understood both main villains, Balthazar and Blood on the Wind, extremely well before I ever started on the first chapter. Likewise with Dragon’s Son; by that time, Jahcgroth and Fellrant were both known quantities, so even though they don’t appear much in the actual book, their off-screen actions are critical.

Maybe it’s because I already know my protagonists well enough before I even sit down to write that they don’t give me that sort of trouble. But I suspect it’s because the villains often drive the action—they cause the problems that the heroes have to sort out. Either way, next time I sit down to write, I’ll know not to type out “chapter one” until I have just as good a handle on the villains as the heroes.

I've finished the first draft of my submission for Nothing But Red. I'm shaking from reaction, and I feel like I might throw up, but it's done. I don't know if it's any good, but it's done.

So I spent most of the day beating my head against the wall, trying to make the html version of the Exile's Burn ebook. I want to offer it at least in PDF and html, and I'm going to try to convert to Plucker, PalmDoc, iSilo, and anything I can either figure out or have someone else do for me. Anyway, you'd think html would be simple, except for trying to convert out of Word, which loads down html with all sorts of unnecessary crapola. Dreamweaver has a function to strip some of the junk out, but unfortunately it wants to bomb when it comes to large files. To make a long story short, I spent several hours yesterday and today trying to make the file a reasonable size, with only necessary coding. My progress was incremental, until it occurred to me to open the file in TextEdit and save it from there...and voila!!!

In other news, I submitted my BAFII story, tentatively titled "Desperate Feast."

Whoo! I just finished the first draft of my submission for Bad-Ass Faeries II. The story takes place in the world of Shadow Fae--in Pook's hometown of Gloachamuir, actually--but introduces two completely new characters. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

I uploaded the files to Lulu this afternoon, so in a couple of weeks I should have the proofs for the Exile's Burn print versions. Hopefully everything will look good, and I won't have to scramble to fix anything in time to have the books available in December (for those who want a print version, that is--the ebook will always be free).

I'm in the spotlight at Nights and Weekends Ezine this month. There's an interview where I ramble a lot, plus a new review of The Ghost Eater.

J.K. Rowling has posted her thoughts on finishing Harry Potter on her site. I can commiserate--when I typed "The End" on the final Lord of Wind and Fire book (Dragon's Son), I put my head down and sobbed for a good ten minutes. The story had lived with me for over 20 years, and now it was done, which was both wonderful and horribly bitter.

Now if only I had as much to show for those 20 years as Rowling does for her 17!

I've been working on my Untitled WIP, even though I should be working on the next chapter of Exile's Burn. But, since I'm finally making progress on the accursed thing, I hate to quit while I'm still in the zone of inspiration. It would be nice if I'd get a little inspiration on the title, but no luck yet.

It occurred to me a few days ago, when I was musing on the characters, that I've actually written a well-adjusted main character. Yes, I know, don't fall off your seats. The hero, Miah, had a very happy childhood with a supportive family, and is himself just a very centered person. He's been through some bad stuff before the start of the book (including seeing his mother and a few other relatives killed, then locked in a basement and forced to participate in fights with dogs for the amusement of their respective owners). And so he has his problems, but after his universe is at least partially restored to what he considers to be the natural order, he copes remarkably well. Not that he doesn't fly off the handle occasionally, but his energy is mostly focused on getting on with his life, not brooding about the past.

Never fear--Lin, the heroine and viewpoint character, has more than enough emotional problems to make up for Miah's relative balance. ;-)

The arm is coming along nicely. They removed the cast and pulled the pin out last week. Now I'm in a splint for the next couple of weeks, which is designed so I still have to type one-handed, but the end is in sight!

I finally finished the next chapter of Exile's Burn, after rewriting the beginning twice. I don't know what my problem was this month. Sigh.

And I got a wonderful new review for Prince of Ash!

I initially conceived the core idea for Prince of Ash in a hotel room in Tampa, in March, 2003. Tonight, I can finally announce that the book is available for purchase! Woo-hoo--I am stoked!

Not much progress made on the writing front lately, unless you count research. I suppose the good news is that I have a little better handle on the backstory of the heroine from my untitled WIP. Otherwise, this week has been completely unproductive. ::sigh::

Chapter 28 of Exile's Burn is now uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

I also have some new wallpaper up, featuring Pooka from Prince of Ash.

I finished the latest chapter of Exile's Burn, unless my husband has a major problem with it during the test read. :-) I just have to say that I did not see the end of this one coming! Iluka pulled a fast one on me, darn her. Now I have to figure out how to work this twist in along with everything else I have coming up.

In other news, I'll be working on galleys for the next couple of days, so I might be scarce online. :-)

My horror short story "Kali Yuga" has finally found a home at Pretty-Scary (a very cool site about women in horror, if you aren't familiar with it). When the undead reach a Hindu space station, it's up to one a member of the Untouchable caste to turn vampire hunter. If, that is, he can survive his apprenticeship to a man who claims to be a famous hunter from the past.

Way back when, there was some discussion in this lj as to whether or not a story about vampires on a space station could be even remotely original. Here's your chance to decide for yourself, and since the site lets you post reviews, you can even tell everyone if you think it's the most cliched thing ever written. Of course, I'd also appreciate reviews and ratings from anyone who likes it. ;-)

Because of the length, it's broken up into Chapter One and Two.

So, I realized Wednesday night that the deadline to submit "Nocturne" to the anthology was not the end of April, but rather today. So, I ended up writing approximately 20,000 words in two days, edited in one, and submitted it.

If it isn't accepted, I may end up expanding it--there were several things that I wanted to do, but couldn't due to space constraints. So we'll see.

Now back to the regularly-scheduled insanity. ;-)

So I've decided the title for my novella-in-progress is "Nocturne." Things are coming along slowly--I feel like I'm groping in the dark sometimes, but I'm getting a glimmer of where I'm headed.

In other news, I've decided to form a street team.

I made a breakthrough on a novella I'm working on--working title is "Chymistry," but that will definitely change at some point to something better (I hope). My original conception was okay, I suppose--entertaining, and maybe a little off the beaten path. An Iron Monkey/Robin Hood type story, featuring a highwayman and a former royal mistress. A bit of swashbuckling fun, maybe.

But something was missing, and I finally realized why this type of story matters, and what it implied for the story I wanted to tell.

I like to think that most of what I write is at least entertaining, and if that is what someone is looking for, then I hope they find it. But for me to get through the writing of it, I have to be saying something that matters, even if it doesn't matter to anyone but me. I want to talk about something that is bigger than the story it's in. So I talk about racism, and classism, and about the plight of the working poor, or about why good people condone terrible things, or whatever. And I ask questions, and sometimes I don't answer them, because I don't know the answer, or because sometimes the reader has to decide what the answer is for themselves.

It's a long tradition in sf/f, to recast the problems of our lives, or the things we worry about, or the things that make us angry, to put them in a new setting without the historical baggage of the real world and say...look at it this way.

Enough rambling. I've realized why Chymistry wasn't going anywhere, and maybe what I can do to fix it. It will me rewriting everything, but that's okay. I've never been afraid to rewrite. And it will be better, I hope, and more meaningful. And, possibly, more entertaining as well. :-)