Mommyhood, Artemis Style...

So I've joined the world of mommyhood, in my own strange little way. We've been nursing a very young kitten the last two weeks. When I say 'young' I mean he was about 8 days old when the farm's handyman found him in the bed of his pick-up truck. This after he'd driven fifty miles through thunderstorms, high winds and hail... yeah, the kitten's a tough one all right. Like any good 80's born girls, we immediately name him Mad Max Rockatansky.

My sister, code name Fenris, had Max for the first few days. Fenris has already raised one cat from just a few days old to adult, and I'm terrified of breaking tiny living things with my Ox-like strength, so she took the first shift. Then Fenris's own baby, Walelu, decided she needed more attention, and got sick in an effort to displace Max from his throne of adorableness. So yours truly has taken over motherhood of the kitten road warrior. Even now he's snoozing on my lap, wedged sideways under the computer so that I have to obsessively wiggle it every two minutes 'just to be sure' he can breath okay... yeah, I'd be one of 'those' moms... the kind who goes in at 2 am and pokes the baby just to see it squirm... But it's been fun. And I am utterly in love with the little guy of course. He's impossible not to adore. Here are some pictures, just to prove it.


See, I wasn't lying. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Notice the notebook in the background of the one picture, pen sticking out of it. I'm writing... just slowly... around all the cuteness...










Between feeding and everything else that goes with little tiny taters like Mad Max Rockatansky, I've been working on short stories and editing Thornbriar. It's been really hard to resist jumping right to writing a query letter... but I've been a very good girl, and only just started loosely structuring a letter at the end of last week. I've also been working on a couple of WIPs, and have been feeling like I'm getting some good things done with my writing. That said, I'll feel better once I'm querying again. I always feel like I'm stuck in an epic fantasy novel, preparing for a quest whenever I set out to query. But I get antsy until I'm actually on the query road. I'm happiest in the thick of it, rejections and all.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

I know, super original title there. But I do mean it. Happy New Year everyone! I'll try and put a real post tomorrow. My big plan for New Year's Day is to write all day long! You know, I've always been told that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you'll do the whole year long, so I can't think of anything better to do than write! Besides, I've got to get the lead out of these battling WIPs and get someone finished so I can start editing them!

What about you all? Anyone have any amazing plans for New Year's Day?

Still Kicking...

So this will be a totally random, possibly maniacal post as I'm still drinking coffee (which has yet to enter my bloodstream) but I just wanted to get something down so I got a post up before the turn of the next century. Starting off...

OMG The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney!!! Squeeee on so many levels you'd need an elevator to get to them all. But seriously, without spoilers, this is a book about friends, justice, right, wrong, being strong (sorry about the rhyme... lack of coffee) changing what you want changed in the world, paying life forward, loving yourself even with your mistakes. I could just drone on but I don't want to turn you off, I want to to run out and get The Mockingbirds. I want you to read it, give it to all the teenage girls you know, all the women you know, EVERYONE you know. I really can't say enough good things about the book. It's a great story, written in a great voice, with about a bazillion good messages within it.

Onward now, to queries... I sent one out... just one, but to an agent I really think a lot of... I wanted to keep it as low stress as possible, so I went with just one for the time being. I'm working on a few others but I'm going to play it by ear, since life beyond writing has been a roller coaster recently.

WIPs! I signed up for NaNo... and although I am so far behind that it's ridiculous, I loved the experience. It's been nice just to have an ongoing record of my progress. My record hasn't been spot-on because I write longhand and I have to guesstimate word count, but I'm not doing it to compete, so it's fine.

Aaaand right in the middle of NaNo, I was completely blindsided by a companion novel to Evernow. Yeah, that's right, a girl showed up. Names were thrown. Threats were made. A story is now in progress. *sigh* And yet, I love this. Every. Single. Moment. Of. It. I love the occasionally dominatrix relationship of having stories show up and Lady Heather my butt into a new project. Call me weird, but I'm happy :)

I'm doing it again...

I'm doing it again... posting multiple times after not having posted in a coon's age... I can't help it. I'm sitting here engulfed by this paradox of dysmorphic emotions with no one to talk to about any of them. I feel very professional at the moment. I feel as though AGMG is just a breath better than EVERNOW. I'm meeting writing goals. I'm managing the 'business type' side of writing - aiming for and hitting word count, editing within a certain time frame, strategizing for why this ms is marketable - and I'm already planning out my next big project. I have outlines for the next WIPs I intend to invest most of my time in.

I've chosen two:

GENESIS

Miakoda Auster has never been normal, and she's never wanted to be normal, which is good, considering that she has a history of doing things like killing rabbits with her bare hands as a kindergartner. Then at fifteen she's diagnosed with Adolescent Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis. If that wasn't bad enough, the drugs they put her on to try and help the arthritis wreak havoc with her body and health. As soon as she turns eighteen, Koda leaves her parents, all the drugs, and the awful heat of North Carolina behind, and heads for the brisk sea air of Skagway Alaska, where her older brother Graham lives as a fisherman. And that's when things start to get weird even by Koda's standards. Despite her quick temper, and generally ill-sorted attitude, she finds friendship with Iliamna, the new girl at the Scholl Hole were Koda works as a meat carver. But Iliamna isn't what she seems to be, and Koda soon learns that she had a destiny far different from the one she's now facing. A destiny stolen from her by the Rheumatoid Arthritis that's deforming her joints and causing her constant pain. Koda is a Genesis. A werewolf created by spontaneous mutation. One of only three known spontaneous wolfen, Koda doesn't belong to any of the existing five Lines. Instead, she has the ability to create an entirely new Line. Founding a new bloodline is a goal coveted by all wolfen. But Koda can never shift her shape. She can never take on her wolf form because her crippled joints can't withstand the forces of shifting, and the doctors have warned that a pregnancy might well kill her. But that won't stop the wolfens of rival Lines from battling over her, or claiming her for their own against her will. Caught up in a war she wants no part of, dealing with her own emotions over discovering what she is and facing the fact that she can never fully embrace her wolf side, despite her desire to do so, Koda must rely on Iliamna and the other members of the Eventide Pack, the only wolfens who care about her for more than her ability to found a new Line. But the arrival of a new wolfen, an ancient wolfen who has never before aligned with any Pack, threatens everything and soon Koda finds herself facing all the complications of werewolf love on top of her growing troubles.


ROOK THIEF

Etienne Ryan is happy just to get every day things done, like opening her toothpaste and taking care of her beloved silver oak tree. Rheumatoid Arthritis makes that almost impossible sometimes. Luckily, her older friend Trey won't let her wallow in her troubles. With her sharp tongue and tough attitude, Trey constantly pushes Ed to do what she can, when she can, to keep trying even when she feels hopeless. Trey is used to pushing Ed. Since Ed's father was killed in a tragic fire a year ago, Trey's been looking out for Ed, helping her with her father's bookstore, the Dreaming Hole. Billy Conrad looks out for Ed too. It was Billy who pulled Ed from the burning house, saving her from the fire that killed her father. But Billy is a little overprotective. Of course, considering that it was Ed's best friend, Liam, who set fire to her house, Billy's protectiveness is hard to argue with. When a new boy named Oren begins trying to win Ed's friendship though, things get a little complicated. Although he's secretive, keeping his scarred face hidden by hooded sweatshirts, Ed is quickly drawn to Oren and his unique perspectives. As their friendship deepens, Billy's concerns over Ed's safety grow too, and the tension between him and Oren soon becomes an all out war. And then there are the letters that Ed keeps getting from Liam. In them, he warns her that he isn't her enemy, the Rook Thief is. Sorting through it all, Ed begins to suspect that Billy might not be her hero after all, Liam might not have set the fire as everyone thinks, and the fact that Oren's scars resemble those on her silver oak, which was burned in the fire that killed her father, might not be just a strange coincidence... and all three of the guys fighting over her might be something other than human. But who is the Rook Thief? And who can Ed really trust?




I started working on Genesis because Koda showed up in my head and refused to stop driving me nuts until I addressed her situation. But I had already begun working on Rook Thief. So now I'm writing on both of them. Well... I was writing on both of them. At this precise moment, I'm not writing on anything due to the 'possibly fractured' finger which makes it impossible to hold a pen, but you get my meaning. That both stories involve girls with RA is coincidence. I often give my main characters something challenging with their joints because it's a subject close to my heart. I know, unfortunately, what it's like to have to ask someone to do something like tear open a packet of sugar for you because you don't have the strength to manage it. But Rook Thief was the first WIP I started where my mc had RA. Then later, Koda showed up with her own obvious complications. Several people have suggested that I shelve Genesis because werewolves have 'been done'. I HAVE always sworn that I wouldn't join the werewolf ranks (although I admit to being Team Jacob...:) but Koda isn't the sort of girl you can just say 'no' to... so here I am, writing a werewolf book...

Am I bananas? Should I ditch the furry dramarama and focus on Rook Thief? Should I keep at them both? Is there even room for another werewolf book? How different would a 'different take' on the werewolf thing have to be for you to take a gander? Do you just gag thinking about werewolf stuff? I'm all excitable because I already love the characters within Genesis, but it might well be a star-crossed love considering the glut of furry heroes and heroines in the marketplace...

Please, discuss! What WIP are you working on, even knowing that it might be a labor of love rather than a best seller?

Biker Queens and Pipe Dreams...

So it's been a while but I've been away due to good things... well, mostly. I did manage to 'possibly fracture' one of the knuckle joints on my right hand that was already being supported by a ring splint. With ten fingers, you'd think I could manage to hit one that didn't already have one foot in the grave, but not so. The docs don't think it's fractured, but because my rheumatism was already active and engaged in an episode, the x-rays were a blur of inflammation, so now I'm on orders not to use the finger... I'll let you know how that goes... considering it's on my right hand and I can't even get a fork into my mouth with my left hand, not without getting some new piercings in the process...

But I digress... Before I went all dramarama with my knuckle, I finished writing, and subsequently transcribing Amarok and the Gone Missing Girl!!! At 81,500 words it was right on my projected target, which pleases me greatly. I worry sometimes, that should I ever get 'The Call' something an agent would want to discuss is my obsession with writing longhand because it simply isn't as easy to try and estimate word count and such when you're not working on a computer. But I made several estimations on my own writing and now that I've finished the transcription process, I can see that I was correct. Woot for me. I'm more confident in my own processes now. I can't wait to get AGMG out to my beta readers and see what they think. Since the mc, Ansel, is a guy and it's written in first person, I'm eager to find out if I've done a good job at capturing a guy's point of view and convincingly portrayed him... I'm already working on queries in hopes that I'll have a decent one roughed out by the time my betas finish their slicing and dicing. Am I strange for being so excited over feedback and editing? I can't wait to get started!

Another thing that's kept me off the computer is visiting friends and right in the middle of that I decided to enter a Ms. Shenendoah Harley-Davidson pageant... Alright, close your mouths, I know it's a strange announcement, but it wasn't as dramatic as it sounds. Really, it was a LOAD OF FUN! Why, might you ask, did a forward-thinking woman, who is stoutly against the objectification of women, enter something like a Ms. Harley pageant? Um, because it was fun! I am not one for beauty pageants, and that sort of thing. But if the women involved in them are involved knowingly and enjoy themselves, well, that's their right. It's all a very grey area for me. I don't think girls should be forced to think that they need to meet certain standards to be considered beautiful. But at the same time, I don't think that there's anything wrong with 'acting like a girl' if you're comfortable doing so. It all depends on the girl.

In the case of this Harley-Davidson pageant, it's a local event, run by great people, with an emphasis on HAVING FUN. The audience has always been greatly supportive, the girls participating much appreciated and cheered on for their participation. I've attended several times to cheer on friends, and this year I thought, what the heck, I'm going for it! Did I win? Nope. Didn't even make the top five. Did I love it? YOU BET. The thing is, the people involved with this event are all about strong, able-bodied women who are beautiful because of who they are. We had bigger girls, smaller girls, young girls just out of high school and one who just turned forty. There were secretaries and Reservists who were on leave with their units. Moms, and single ladies, a few ladies who were into ladies, and had no interest in men at all. It was a glorious gamut of gorgeous women and the focus of it all was to love yourself, no matter what. A lesson that all girls need to take to heart.

So now I'm off to finish another read through of AGMG before putting in an order at Lulu for my betas. And since I'm off today, I'll probably be obsessively checking my email because I've still got two fulls of EVERNOW out with prospective agents. Funny how you can want something in your inbox (offer to rep, offer to rep!) and want an empty inbox (hey, no rejections yet, they could still be considering!) at the same time. Keeps the pipe dream alive. Of course, you just never know when that smoke might turn into something tangible...

I'll leave you with a picture from the Harley pageant, so you can see a sampling of the ladies I had so much fun hanging with. And let me say we all had fun TOGETHER. We're talking, shoe-borrowing, doing each other's hair, tucking straps in, troubleshooting, not concerned in the slightest with who actually 'won' sort of fun.No cat fighting it this group! Just ladies supporting ladies in having a good time! This picture doesn't show everyone. It proved impossible to get everybody in one shot, at least for my peeps in the audience. They are all great women!