The Day

I haven't done much writing today, yesterday was quite draining with preparing for the party, digging out the car (driver's windshield wiper broke in someway I can't figure out), finding a place to park, then the annual Christmas.

It was good, but as I expected, overall poignant.

One of our group moved back from Washington state a few years ago, set up her business here, then travelled fairs and conventions and found out that she has more business back there. So she bought a property in Ritzville, Washington and had planned to be gone by now. The snow delayed her, too, and she was at brunch this morning so I went for a last goodbye.

I do have a couple of draft blogs, but I guess I felt like "talking" to you. Anyway, I am going to have to force myself to the keyboard today.

May next year be better than this year (I fervently hope so), and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Robin

Daily Writing

Sorry to be late, but the muse has graced me this morning and I've written about 2100 words. More to come after a break and a bath.

The sun is shining through my office window for the first time in two days, and that's a blessing, too. I anticipate digging my car out of the Church parking lot.

Freehold Christmas (Christmas with friends) is today, and at my friends' within walking distance. Pretty sure it won't be called off. I am almost ready. Since we will all be missing our friend with brain cancer, I'm sure it will be a very poignant occasion. I wasn't at the brunch at the nursing home last week because of my family holiday, so I need to comfort and be comforted by the village.

Wishing you a very good writing day.
Robin

Center of the Universe

Dear Universe,

I am really, really sorry that I made the Celtan winter so bad in my manuscript. I really didn't need to be reminded how bad winter weather can be in a city.

Can it please stop snowing now?

Love Robin


You, and/or your characters who want to be sympathetic should not consider themselves the center of the universe (even if you want them to grow, because that's a huge growth and most readers won't stick around unless they know you and trust you). Characters can be center of THEIR universe, yes, but not the whole shebang. This is, of course, ok for villains. Or villainesses as the case may be.

Or Cats.

May your characters amuse you today.
Robin

It's Your Job -- Clarity

I was reading a contest entry and was confused with the set-up. When I realized what was going on, I also understood that had I picked up on the last names of the characters, I wouldn't have been so confused about the relationships. However, in this particular instance, I think that the writer needs to be more up front with STATING the relationships. Being subtle can cause confusion. It's your job to ensure the reader is clear and if that means stating something -- "My niece So-and-So." -- even if it is slightly awkward -- better awkward than confused.

That said, I've been making my current heroine somewhat inarticulate and clumsy with words. Hopefully in the internals the reader gets what she wants to say, even if she expresses herself badly. But it's my job that the reader understands what is going on.

May you be clear today.
Robin

Setting the Mood

Mood and atmosphere are integral to writing. You want your reader to be right with you. And sometimes it's hard.

I needed to transition to a love scene, which, of course, means setting a sexy mood. I'd have heated glances, and strokes, and then the conversation would veer away. This happened several times, and I finally just cut the dialogue and stuck the couple in the back of a dark vehicle on the way to her place.

I could have worked the conversation and seen where that would have gotten me, what the characters might want to say, but I'm not the mood for meadering today and the writer won over the characters.

Sometimes you have to put your foot down on the brain wandering thing. Besides, this would tie up several chapters. People really didn't need to know more about the styles of Celtan gliders. Much more important to get my hero and heroine in bed.

May you direct your characters today well.
Robin

Originality

I don't consider my work incredibly original. I take bits and pieces of other ideas and use them, and if pressed, I can sometimes track the original idea to the author who inspired me. So the uniqueness I have is in mixing ideas.

So when people compliment me on my originality, I just believe that they haven't widely read in the fantasy genre.

What I do like to take pride in is my cats behaving like cats. They're more intelligent, but since this is the future I can get away with that. They've evolved as we have.

And with Tinne's story, I'm going to take another shot at a dog.

May you explore your own uniqueness today.
Robin

Excerpt and Quiche

I made quiche for the family Christmas brunch. Actually I made two, but one turned out to be a doomed one that was removed early, cooked again, and finally must have been dumped when I put it on top of the car then drove off. Anyway, I've never been able to figure out why quiche is considered a girly food.

Here's an excerpt from my contemporary paranormal romance Novella, The Road of Adventure in the anthology What Dreams May Come -- it takes place in a grocery store: Jake is the hero shopping for an afternoon date with Shauna, the heroine, and Boris is a ghost cat... HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Boris abandoned his seat to press his nose against the freezer door. Then his whole head went through the glass. It gave Jake the creeps. Probably unsanitary, too.

When Boris’s voice came, it was oddly muffled. “Shauna likes this stuff.”

Jake jerked open the door. “What?”

Boris extended a paw to tap a frozen crust.

“Quiche,” Jake grumbled. “Should have known. This will never work out.” Not that any affair lasted longer than a couple of months after the sex got average, and a guy shouldn’t really expect more. Hadn't wanted more. Now he did, with Shauna.

He recalled the look in Shauna’s eyes when she stared at him, wide and soft and interested. He got the fancy quiche and studied it. It had eggs, cheese and bacon. How bad could it be? Looking at the instructions, he realized all he had to do was heat the oven and put it in, just like pizza only a little longer. He tossed it in the basket.

“Careful,” said Boris. “The crust can crumble and break.”

“Huh.” Jake guessed so. He took the quiche out of the cart, set it back on the shelf, and got a new one he placed carefully on the pizza.

Back on his seat, Boris scowled. “There is no Cat food in the basket.”

May you enjoy reading your own writing today.
Robin

Happy Holidays

I did a google image search on "Happy Holidays" and came up with this image. At the moment it expresses what I feel about the Season.



May your writing express your spiritual beliefs today.
Robin

Characters and Families

I'll be spending today with my family and friends-who-are-family. It will be a full day. I'm not going to say much about my family. I think I wrote a blog once and deleted it because it got a little snarky. ;)

Anyway I once saw a cartoon that showed an auditorium and a banner that said "Welcome Children of Functional Families" and there was only one guy amongst many, many empty seats.

I do know that parents usually do the best they can -- as writers do -- and most people are complex and quirky and mixing in a family environment can be interesting.


I recently had an email requesting a family tree for the heart books and I actually wrote one down, then lost it, then found it, so we'll see if it makes it into Heart Quest....

So, may you enjoy your characters and your characters' families today, too.
Robin

Venus Envy

VENUS ENVY by Shannon McKelden
(TOR Books, December 26, 2006)

Take one hunky firefighter, one stubborn "Cinderella," and one very reluctant fairy godmother and what do you get?

Rachel Greer wants no part of Venus's scheme to land Mr. March as her Prince Charming, but Venus is determined to do just that. She's only a few love-life fixes short of returning to her former goddess status, and she's not letting one mulish mortal stand in her way.

It appears the only way Rachel can get rid of the very un-Disney-like fairy godmother is to play along. So she follows Venus's plan to interview Luke Stanton's ex-girlfriends...which Venus believes will cure Rachel's relationship fears, but which Rachel knows will only prove her point that men are never what they appear to be.

But, when Venus's plan appears to work, and Rachel and Luke fall in love, does Rachel dare set aside her fears about happily ever? Or will betrayal send her back into relationship seclusion...this time forever?

And what happens when a goddess-turned-fairy godmother breaks the most important rule--protecting herself from human emotions?

May magic grace your writing today.
Robin

Maundering All Over The Place -- Internals

This book is full of internals -- where the character thinks about what they are doing, why they are doing it and angsts over decisions -- many of which I'll leave to my critique buddies to say "Cut, I GET IT already." Internals work best in a line or two mixed with action or dialogue.

These are several paragraphs, perhaps pages. So that's probably too much. I think the reason for these long internals is that I'm still learning about the characters so I need to lay everything out to the nth degree, then I hope to cut. That might be the reason for many long internals in books.

Reiterated internals can be because the writer has written in spurts and doesn't see the whole, or doesn't recognize the repeated internals because her/his eye skims over them. Another reason for first readers.

So may your internals be just enough and not too much today.
Robin

Snowed In -- Isolation Stories/Characters

No one in Denver is going anywhere. I have about 8-12 inches (eyeballing) of snow in my back yard and since my garage door has been broken for about 2 years (I've given up on my brothers' promise to come and fix it), my car will have to be dug out. But it will start. It's a Saab. I feel sorry for the birds and feral animals I feed, the dishes, probably with some food in them, are buried. I think one is by the door which has a drift against it.

Anyway, isolating your characters can be an excellent study. I know romance writers like this for forcing two opposing types to work together, my first introduction to Linda Howard was when old lovers got caught in a building and the electricity went out for a day. I've read lovers caught in ski cabins, on an island, isolated by a hurricane.

Then, of course there's mysteries -- Ten Little Indians/Moustrap springs to mind. I'm sure psychological thrillers use this too, though since I read only a few of them, I haven't run across one lately.

Character under pressure is fascinating for me and for many readers. So consider stories with isolation.

And don't worry about me, I have about 8 eggs, 5 pounds of cheese, orange juice, milk, a stack of frozen hamburgers, 3/4 loaf of bread, and a turkey. That's the fridge. The cupboards are a little fuller. My mentor says if she has a lot of rice on hand she always feels safe. I am out of sugar so my tea drinking will go down, but I found a jar of crystallized honey which I might try to use instead.

I'm listening to holiday music (including new age solstice music HAPPY SOLSTICE), and going down my computer music alphabetically this month Kitaro, Leonard Cohen, Llewellyn, music from Lord of the Rings, Loreena McKennitt and Magic Sound Fabric today.

Still gray but the wind has gone and I don't see that it's snowing from my office window. Guess we'll start digging out this afternoon.

Happy Solstice! And may your characters feel isolated or insecure today.
Robin

Outer Validation -- Again

All right, last night (or rather early this morning) I went and read the amazon reviews of Heart Quest which are very good indeed. I think only my fans posted. ;)

Now you all know that outer validation cannot be depended upon in the long run, but right now, for me, it is very good to hear. So I think of it as a crutch I'm using while I have sore feet at the end of a long run.

I can use it to vanquish the negative critic for a while, and tell myself that the current writing is also Good.

But it is only a crutch and acknowledging that helps keep things in perspective. And, like, did I make any sense at all?

May you enjoy any feedback you get today.
Robin

Word Choice -- Connotation

Even in rough drafts and using **, I hesitate regading word choice. I've used a word too often or the work has a water theme and I try for a water word instead of a fire (desire flooded her, not desire swept through her like wildfire).

At critique a couple of years ago, none of us had the reaction that the writer wanted to a scene emotionally, the meeting between the hero of the previous book and his black-sheep brother, the hero of this book. Both men were supposed to be sympathetic, of course. We talked all about this, and it finally came down to one word. "Smirk."

She had a different connotation of the word "smirk," than all the rest of us.

Judging a contest a while back I read something about "the cobalt sky." Well, a couple of previous sentences had indicated that it was a gray, wintry day, snowing even. So I looked "cobalt" up because I always think of it as a vivid blue. It can mean blue or gray, however, I believe that most people think of "cobalt" as that blue.

Naturally, having to look the word up in the dictionary pulled me out of the story, and it also made me wonder about trusting the writer. Would (s)he use other words I thought I knew the meaning of but (s)he meant something else? Would I get the meaning?

So word choice is an important technique: to be clear, to be evocative, to get the response you want from the reader.

May you find all the right words for your writing today.
Robin

Goals

Saturday at critique group we went around the table and stated our goals. It was a wrenching experience. Committing to something aloud to your group at the end of a hard year – and somehow it was a hard year for all of us – can be difficult. We have one member who has an editor panting for a book (s)he's revised so often (s)he hates it. We have another who was previously published and has changed genres. We have one who is multi-published and keeping his/her schedule stressed him/her out until (s)he is behind deadline for the first time in his/her life. I have the 3 proposals to Luna, so it's hard to judge what a realistic goal for next year is. That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it.

We talked about rejection and success and failure and writing. We philosophized about needing alone time or being part of whatever's going on (at least three of the group are wild extroverts, I know, odd).

We spent a LONG time talking, defining, philosophizing. Being intimate.

One member who just finished Life Coach training was a great help. We defined things many ways. Someone is going to write at least 30 minutes a day for 6 days a week. Someone else will bring pages (however many of whatever (s)he wants, even journaling) to critique group. Someone will learn to manage his/her time better. Someone will finish a book and hope Castro doesn't die so (s)he doesn't have to rewrite. Someone will submit proposals. I will write 3 pages EVERY day and get my trilogy featuring a single h/h urban fantasy romance proposal together and out.
It was a good session, and left me hopeful.

May you define your goals today.
Robin

The More You Write....

I awoke this morning with my mind full of ideas -- how to tweak a couple of scenes and three new ones.

Which proves the adage that if you set a writing schedule, ideas will come and facing a blank page is easier. And fulfilling another premise: the more you write, the more ideas will come.

As usual this is standard advice that bears repeating not only for you but for myself, as the negative critic is always working hard in the shadows of my mind and in the night I doubt. And during dry spells. So the best way to stop dry spells is to write everyday, no matter what quality you think it is (ok, crap).

May many ideas teem in your head today.
Robin

Hooks, for you, for your Reader

I ended my writing yesterday on a hook. An, ooooh, chills, sort of hook. So it will be easy to go back to that particular scene. I hope. And when I write something like that, I hope it will also be an excellent chapter end.

Since I write out of sequence, I'm never quite sure of my chapter ends until I put my scenes and transitions together. Even then my hooks might not stay because I put all my chapters together in a master document in the rough draft phase and tinker with the amount of pages and the best place to break a chapter.

But what I finished with would make an excellent break. Sometimes they come naturally (the best). Sometimes they're planned. And sometimes you have to work to force them and hope it doesn't show.

May you lay your hooks well today.
Robin

Characters and Happy Childhoods

I was thinking about this, and don't know if I've blogged about it. But, of course, having an unhappy childhood is wonderful for motivating your characters in different ways.

Naturally I thought of my own books and it's rare that my heroes or heroines have happy childhoods, which is a rather depressing pattern.

T'Ash – whole family died, on the streets, Danith – parents died, orphanage
Ruis - abused by uncle, Ailim – good
Holm – good, Lark – domineering father
Straif – whole family died as a teen, Mitchella – good
Ilex – father died, cold mother, Trif – good
Saille – abusive grandmother, Dufleur – cold parents
Alexa – foster homes, Bastien – emotionally abusive father
Marian – emotionally abusive mother, Jacquar – parents died, on streets, then loving adoptive parents

Calli – cold father, Marrec – family died, fostered

Another pattern. Sigh, and, of course, only Trif had a completely good childhood, girlhood, and adulthood. Bad odds if you're a character of mine.

May you understand your characters' childhoods today.
Robin

Choreography Defines Scenes

This can be true. I'd planned a scene -- my heroine rolling out of the hero's bed and wondering how to leave quietly but gracefully. Then, of course, I remembered they'd made love on a couch and fallen asleep there, entwined.

End of that idea...or I could have had them make love again, this time on the bed, but she was wary of that bed...

In any event the scene went a whole lot different than the original sketchy plans. Still not sure about it, but it's done.

So consider your choreography, particularly if you end on a hook. Make sure it's consistent.

May your choreography be clear today.
Robin

Story Time v. Real Time

I don't think I've spoken about this before, but there is story time and real time, and I'm writing this most particularly from a romance slant. Story time is the entire book, which can take months, but can also just take hours.

So a person/persons can change in a rapid amount of hours. Events will do that, realizations of flaws, determination on a new path, discovery of self, (character arcs) will do that. This can, of course, happen in real life, but unlike Fiction may not stick.

People in short story time romances often fall in love over a couple of days, and, naturally it sticks. But this is Fiction.

And there's a difference in story time v. real time. When I was writing Heart Thief, my writing buddy said, "It's time for a love scene."

I protested. "It's only been two days."

She replied. "It's been half the book." And that's story time.

There is a rhythm,a beat to a book, as well as pacing, and the time had come for the main characters to express their growning attraction. They had grown enough for it, the set up was there, and to miss the beat would throw the book off.

Since I'm still suffering from the cold her (and another very tender event I can't bear to talk about right now), I don't know that I've made sense. As always, if you want more clarity, just comment.

May you make all your plot beats today.
Robin

The Village Is Grieving

I belong to a couple of "villages," very close friends. One is my writing friends, RMFW people.

The other is older by many years, the DASFA (Denver Area Science Fiction Assn) group as a basis with most of us doing improv and always doing Sunday Brunch. One member, Richard, is dying of brain cancer.

It has been a huge shock to the whole village. The epicenter of the village is Rose and she has known Richard since high school, and his beloved spouse for longer, so the center is hit. This village has one child who is eight. She is Richard's daughter.

The village has rallied in support, and we all have been going through the stages of grief -- denial, bargaining, acceptance. We meet together weekly and for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we have a loop set up to share.

But it is hard for all of us. I try to see Richard once a week. We support Richard and his family and each other.

So my moods are going to be up and down on the blog.

Blessings. And may happiness grace you.
Robin

Jeanne Stein

Jeanne Stein is one of those talented writers who was first published by a small press, then picked up by a large NY publisher.

I bought The Becoming (and enjoyed it) when it came out from ImaJinn, and now it's out in mass market paperback.

And this is pretty much an apology because I won't be at her signing tonight. The cold lingers.

Anyway, check her and The Becoming out!

May you have energy to spare today.
Robin

Writing Day

The cold isn't too bad. I'm going to take it easy today. I don't have the luxury of completely pampering myself, so I will sit here in the office and work some. I got 3 chapters revised (with new scenes), and 1 finished yesterday and didn't push hard.

I've got my oj, my vitimin C and just ate toast and egg (though my timing was off with the toast being done before the egg).

I'll try and get at least 2 more chapters done. I'm coming up on a big love scene (all the foreplay is there ;) ) so I might end just before that.

In Heart Thief, I did some cutting back and forth during a time when my hero and heroine were in danger. It worked well then, and I've used it since. I really like to keep things in "real time" chronologically -- and there's TIME again -- so while she is at one ball, he is talking to Tinne Holly at another...and I cut back and forth. We'll see if it works.

Most authors show, say, a heroine getting in danger, then "back up" to see a hero realizing the heroine is missing, and the search gets on. I can do this, but personally I don't like to. In my writing. I usually have no problem with it in my reading.

And since I seem to have made sense in this blog, the writing shouldn't be too bad either.

But back to a good book and some snoozing.

May you do well with whatever technique you attempt today.
Robin

I hate dreaming about Nora Roberts

Dreaming about Nora always makes me feel inadequate, and I invariably do something stupid (I have in real life, too, though I did have the good sense to compliment her on the Three Fates once).

Anyway, I'm sure that phenomenal lady is on my mind because the day job is no more and I'm working hard on the writing, and she's been putting in 8 hours a day for years. I can barely manage 4 and I'm wiped (or 2500 words). Actually 2500 words is my current goal a day. Just doable (though when I'm not stressed and on a roll I can do more and occasionally double that. I'm working up to that). Any higher goal and I'd just hide under the covers and sleep.

Nora's also on my mind because I'm putting together another bag for her literacy auction and this one will be dynamite (my last one didn't go over so hot -- nearly late and my books and stuff associated with them like jade chopsticks, fairy pins, etc.) I already have 3 signed Circle books coming from Turn The Page, a Celtic dragon bag to put them in a couple of Celtic bookmarks and crosses, AND a numbered print of a golden dragon I bought at Mile Hi Con. I'll put the Summoning books in with other bits -- cast pencil sharpener in the shape of Tower Bridge etc.

And WalMart says they'll deliver Protector of the Flight to me today. HUH?!!! Since they charged me tax, I guess they might have a warehouse in Colorado. I'll tell you what's up with that.

Other reasons for anxiety dreams: I think I'm coming down with a cold (naturally I can't afford one) and I've been dosing myself with Vitimin C, and the tea I bought at an International Market place and Whole Foods taste mediocre in the extreme. Bleh. I'm pretty sure it's the tea and not me.

And I'm loitering on this blog because it's one of those "sew up the scenes" day and I probably won't make my goal, OTOH, I might have 4 chapters more all made up and tidy by the time of the RMFW Holiday Party.

Catie, wish you were here, or I was there.

May today be better than anticipated.
Robin

“Come Moonrise” by Lucy Monroe featured in UNLEASHED
(Berkley, December 5, 2006)

Ty MacAnlup has seen the tragedy that a mating between a werewolf and a human can bring and he wants no part of it, no matter how much his body and heart ache for a taste of Frankie's softness. Frankie has loved Ty for years and while she doesn't know he's a werewolf, or even that such things exist...she does know that to her, he's always been more than a mere man. Ty's hidden beast wreaks havoc with his determination to stay away from Frankie when they are trapped together in a small cabin in the snow bound wilderness.


Excerpt:

May the best of your writing skills be unleashed today.
Robin

Request About Phrase Usage

Feel free to be anon, but I'd like to know how often you reference time in your conversation or writing. "The here and now. In a couple of hours. Currently." Any phrase that has the passage of time or the past or future in it. Particulary in your fiction, writers.

May your day pass wonderfully.
Robin

Short and Sweet

Believe in yourself and your writing. Put your butt in the chair and do it.

May you have a productive day,
Robin

Reply and more info to Series Notes -- Celta

It looks like I need to take a glance at my Families research and change T'Elder dying. I think I mention him in Heart Thief (he's the one who makes gliders, I belive), and since Heart Dance takes place during Alder, I've already written a scene with him there.

So it looks as if T'Spindle will be biting the dust, but I'll double check.

About Solstice -- I'm missing Solstice between Heart Quest and Heart Dance. Heart Quest ends just at Halloween, which is not October but Elder. Elder gets a full month before Birch (approx. our November). Heart Dance takes place approximately mid-January. It's a hard winter for Druida that year.

In fact, I mentioned New Year's (Birch Full Twin Moons) several times, but not Solstice. I'll have to think on this.

You all should pick up on my set up for Heart Fate when you read bits in Heart Dance. They are there, in fact, I think I already subconsiously started setting up for Antenn Moss-Clover-Blackthorn's story in Heart Dance, if we ever reach that far).

So Solstice is missing, but I think the winter set in fast and hard and bad, so it was cold and maybe not as cheery as usual with a society shaken from events in Heart Quest.

May you have an interesting time of deciding your characters' fates today.
Robin

Music and Mothers and Life

My emusic account renewed yesterday. It isn't much -- $9.95 for 40 tracks a month, but I wonder about keeping it in my budget and it always stays.

I have a load of music on my desktop (13 gig), mostly new age stuff (chants, chimes and bells) and I listen to it all day long. In my bedroom, I have a 50 disk player (need to change the disks).

I have folders with only music for Celta books (including all the soundtracks for the Heart Books, such as they are), and music for the Exotic Summoning series. Right now I'm listening to Miles Beyond by Suzanne Teng and Mystic Journey. I pick a few folders, set the random, and away I go.

Is there such a thing as too much music? Yes. Sometimes you (I) need silence, too. And I have subliminal stuff which has a cover of rain or brooks or wind...I've found that subliminals help when the negative critic is too loud or panic at deadlines squeeze the heart.

Music, though, can help me reach the zone where the words flow.

**Phone** Time to go. My Mom wants to meet me and give me embroidery thread she picked up in China (I used to embroider all the time and have decided to mend moth holes with thread and if the colors run, all the more interesting) and do some sort of outdoor holiday market in the most upscale part of Denver. At 11. I have real trouble "Just Saying No" to my mother, but she sounded so apologetic...and I zinged her a couple of times when she was nagging my niece at my nephew's birthday party...so I guess it's an unstated apology on both our parts...She makes up little stories, my mother, about her cat, stuffed animals, etc. I get whatever talent I have from her.

May music or mothers enhance your life and writing today.
Robin

Series Notes -- Celta

I have various notes. I decided earlier this year that for set up of Tinne's story, Heart Fate, (next to be started/written), I needed to know exactly who died in the council chamber in Heart Thief.

EXCERPT FROM HEART THIEF:
(Ruis Elder is recovering from burns in the star ship Nuada's Sword, Shade was his protogee, Samba, his familiar cat is with Ruis)

The tang of citrus juice exploded with exquisite sweetness in his mouth. He drank until sated. He opened his eyes to the arched metallic silver ceiling of sick bay.
"Lady and Lord, Shade! The firebombspell! The FirstFamilies Council!" He tried to jackknife up, but his muscles only twitched.

Shade is dead. Boy went mad. Used your Nullness to get into CouncilChamber. Set off nasty spell. Holm Holly killed Shade.

Ruis remembered his shock and grief at seeing Shade dead on the CouncilChamber floor, lips peeled back from his teeth in a mad grimace. "The FirstFamily nobles?" His lips stiffened as emotions filtered back. He didn't want to remember the hideous pain of stopping the firebombspell with his body.

Many burned. Five die. One HeartMate died, T'Rowan, D'Rowan not burned bad, but she's HeartMate, will die soon.

"Six," his stomach roiled. "Six of fifty. More than ten percent. D'Vine, the old prophetess?" Though he had visions of her body flaming and crisping before him, a tendril of hope—

END OF EXCERPT

So, using this (and this is exactly copied from my file, above and below)

Those Who Died:

D'Vine (head of household)
T'Rowan (and D'Rowan dies later as HeartMate)
T'Elder (head of household)
D'Furze
D'Yew

So far in the series, two of the deaths were very important. D'Vine, who was a secondary character and made way for the new secodary character, young Vinni T'Vine.

T'Elder was the villain in Heart Thief.

The consequences of one more death will be revealed as very, very important in Heart Fate...

Late today, so I just pulled up something interesting, I hope.
AND I hope you had (will have) a wonderful writing session without consulting notes...
Robin

Audio Books & Subliminal Motivation

I believe in subliminal tapes. They work for me. That said, I fell asleep last night while re-listening (for about the 10th time) to The Three Fates by Nora Roberts, the final tape. It's one of my favorite books, and I have it in audio and paperback.

This would not be a problem, except I forgot to set the system to turn off at a certain time. The tape replayed through the night. I'd wake up, hear a bit, doze, wake up hear another bit (or the same one), doze some more. I finally woke up to hear the climax, then decided to turn it off and get some good sleep. Before I fully came awake, dawn broke.

So, I like falling to sleep to audio books. It's like the universe is reading to me. But the same tape, over and over? It will be interesting to see what effect that has on my writing (or revising, more like).

May you not be repetitious today.
Robin

INFERNO

OK, I'm feeling racy today, and this sounds REALLY interesting.



INFERNO by Vivi Anna
(Kensington, December 2006)

Vivi Anna's gorgeous, leather-clad heroine, Kat, is back in another wildly erotic adventure set in a future world where passion has no rules — and no limits ...

Kat needs to find a scientist rumored to have created an antidote to a deadly virus, but he's hiding out in the violent underground city of Inferno. Her one-time lover Hades will take Kat where she needs to go, but only if she promises to be his, body and soul.

Excerpt:

Review: Combine two star-crossed lovers, a deadly virus, a passel of Dark Dwellers, and an underground nemesis bent on destruction and you get one heck of an adventure. This follow-up to Hell Kat will have you cheering for the good guys all over again — and laughing out loud while you do it! A fun, sexy romp that leaves you crying out for more. – 4 stars, Romantic Times

ABOUT VIVI ANNA
A BAD GIRL at heart, Vivi Anna likes to burn up the pages with her original unique brand of fantasy fiction. Whether it's in ancient Egypt, or in an apocalyptic future, Vivi always writes fast paced action-adventure with strong independent women that can kick some butt, and dark delicious heroes to kill for.