Terrible Admission

I have a terrible admission to make. I OFTEN forget if a Fam is along with his/her person. Then s/he disappears from the scene. Eventually, (end of 4 single spaced pages yesterday) I remember. Yesteray I wrote: WHERE IS ZEM? ADD ZEM!

But, you know, it is often easier to keep the Fam out of the scene and send them somewhere else.

The first thing I consider is: Would the Fam add to this scene (and I know many of my fans would think a Fam would always add to a scene, but that is NOT the truth). But sometimes the Fam must be inserted and that is tricky.

The next thing is: Would the Fam him/herself, want to be in this place at this time. In this particular instance, since hero Jace doesn't want to be there, Zem doesn't either, and unlike Jace, he has the option of flying away. :)

And though, of course, I feel a little guilty when I forget them, I don't feel AS guilty as the first time it happened, like OMG, HOW DID I FORGET THAT! (Well, Drina WAS my cat Diva who ran the household).

I do recall the first time, it was in Heart Choice, when hero Straif and heroine Mitchella were in the glider on the way to the Clovers for a party. There they were travelling along and no DRINA! (who loves to be admired) So I backtracked and inserted:

Drina kept Straif company. She watched him lay out the flower-bed, made comments, chased and ate moths and napped in the sunshine. She was happy until her collar arrived with "one puny diamond and heavy spells," then went to her room to sulk.......

"The glider has arrived," the Residence said. "Mitchella waits in the front. The FamCat refuses to visit Commoners in an ugly collar."

Since this is exactly what Drina would have done, it worked!

Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.
Robin

The Turquoise House's Cat

First, a disclaimer, this is from the book Why Paint Cats, a WONDERFUL SPOOF of a book, and this is it's amazon link.

Since I first saw the picture, I was charmed. So I used the wallpaper in the secret garden's house (BalmHeal Residence) in Heart Fate and referred to it in Heart Secret.

As you may or may not know, the cat is painted but coming to life in the Turquoise House's HouseHeart (secret brain chamber).

I hope you enjoy this.
Robin

Recent Books

I haven't put these books on the pic bar at the top of the blog, because that takes a LOT of work, shrinking all the others, which are large files.... And I think they show different facets of my writing. In any event:

Heart Secret: Romance, Long Book, "Heavier" than the others (Private Investigator/Healer) and with a kitten Familiar Companion and a raccoon Familiar Companion (my first!), as well as feral intelligent animals as Baker St. Irregulars.

Enchanted Ever After: Long Book, Romance-Light, this is the story of a human woman becoming a magical being. Merman hero. Brownies instead of Fams, until my new waterwoman heads for the Mississippi River.

Feral Magic: $2.99 E-Novella, intentionally sexy, shapeshifter hero, heroine who can talk with cats, set in Denver and the mountains.

Thanks for letting me ramble.
Robin

Holiday Greetings!

Not so much a creature of habit than I've never found a graphic or wishes that I like better. So here it is again! :)

From Fra Giovanni to Friend, 1513

I salute you.

There is nothing I can give you which you have not, but there is much that what I cannot give, you can take:

No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today; take Heaven.

No Peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant; take Peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow, behind it, yet within our reach, is Joy; take Joy.

There is radiance and glory in the darkness , to see it we only have to look -- so look!

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it is all that's needed; take courage.

And with courage, know that we are all pilgrims together wending through an unknown country, home.

And so at this time I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.


Love to all, Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again
Robin

Pinterest and Covers

Pinterest and Covers, I've been working on Pinterest, and I finally have all my books up. Some books don't have any art, not because I don't have any in my files, but because I've lifted them off the web and don't want to pin unless I had permission...a lot of the scenery/settings are my own photographs.

This leads me to covers. I put up Echoes In The Dark (what I wanted to call Singer for the World), and it irritated me all over again. The heroine, Jikata, is supposed to be sophisticated, voluptuous, exotic, and I get this stick-girl figure on the cover. You can't even see her face. Not at all like the Japanese-American/Asian beauties I sent my editor, had been looking at, or that awesome Mariah Carey ad a while back. Not even like the character I made in City of Heroes.

I think this is my least favorite cover, and since I had to squeeze two books into one (or, more accurately, four heroines -- since I had the twins in Keepers of the Flame -- into two books), and I didn't get the title I wanted, I never felt as good about Echoes in the Dark as I think I should be.

My second least favorite is, as many dislike it, Heart Journey. I am not a big fan of yellow-green (I have a friend who can't abide teal, I don't know why, because teal is a perfectly lovely color). I'll let you all figure out why you might not like Heart Journey, but I'm just not fond of Raz's face (again not like my City of Heroes pics).

And covers really do affect me, as an author. If I don't like the cover, it doesn't go out to contests, I don't promote the book as much. I like the story of Heart Journey, I worked as hard on it as any other book. I really liked the older-woman younger-man set up. I loved Verde Valley and the twist about the maps. I liked what happened to Del near the ending. And Raz and Del are secondary characters in Heart Fortune and I STILL like them. It's too bad that my feeling about that book is marred by the cover.

And, yes, I LOVE Heart Fortune's cover, and Feral Magic's.

How do you all feel?
Robin

Feral Magic On Amazon!

Feral Magic has hit amazon.com at $2.99 for the enovella. Uploaded yesterday so it should be available at bn for nook shortly!

I consider this a first in a series of NOVELLAs. I have about six more ideas. How soon I get the rest out depends on reader response and request. :)

Here's the blurb and the cover!


A blue moon rises, bringing with it magic and danger to a sleeping Denver.

Brandy Svensson mourns her lost soldier fiancee and struggles to move on. Her own near-death experience has brought her an odd "gift" – she has a telepathic connection with cats. She's coping with life’s changes until the night she finds a lost jaguar cub, just the start of the greatest changes of all...

Dak, a warrior Pantherman, is alarmed when his baby nephew, the Chief of the klatch, vanishes. Dak must find the infant before his enemies do...or be branded a murderer and risk igniting warfare among the clans.


When the cub turns into a human baby, shock and confusion flood Brandy. And when a full-grown jaguar arrives to claim him, then transforms into a man, fascination sweeps through her. Dak's protective instincts are triggered by this lovely woman, and the certainty that he's followed by a killer.

Drawn together in their fight to protect the baby, Brandy and Dak confront the enemy and the final choice threatens. Will the feral magic they've discovered together save or doom them?

ENCHANTED EVER AFTER IS OUT!

ENCHANTED EVER AFTER IS OUT!

I had a great time writing this book, I hope you love visiting Mystic Circle, too.

Magic just around the corner…

Kiri Palger knew the difference between reality—new house, hard work, and not too many friends—and fantasy—the fun she had playing an online game. And when the chance to work for the best gaming company in the world came up, how could she not apply?

Suddenly she had new friends, interesting neighbors and a handsome guy lurking nearby. Then the game began to awaken a new potential within her. Talents she never expected…and an evil she'd never imagined.

Now her nice, safe life was not the same—and once she took up the mantle of her powers, it never would be again….

Mourning

I was not personally affected by the terrible tragedy in Connecticut, but I don't think anyone who blogs should pass such an event by without an acknowledgement.

I weep. I mourn. I imagine how the families feel and know my imaginings can't reach the depth of their grief.

Other than that, I am speechless.

Blessings upon us all.
Robin

If you were an eformat Enchanted books winner

If you were an eformat Enchanted books winner at my chat last Wednesday, please contact me so I can email you the pdfs.

Thank you,
Robin

Chat with Prizes Tonight!

Here's the ad for moi!

AND THERE WILL BE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Rita Award Winning Author of fantasy, futuristic romance, Robin D Owens joins us to discuss her latest release, ENCHANTED EVER AFTER. Door prize: one lucky winner will receive a print set of ENCHANTED NO MORE and ENCHANTED AGAIN. Two other lucky winners will receive the same set in eFormat (pdf)! Moderated by Sandi.

When? Tonight (Wed) night at 9:00 PM Eastern time

Where? http://client0.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=102122 or go to www.romrevtoday.com and click on RRT CHAT. Once the login screen loads, just type your name and choose Mo's room from the chat room menu ;)

Hope to see you there for an ENCHANTED evening!

Every Work is Different

I am struggling more with Heart Fortune than I have for a Celta novel for a long time. Usually by this time, I have every scene in mind for the end of the book, and all I need to do is write them. For Heart Fortune, I DO know the end scenes, but I still need to work on the middle.

I am only panicking a little (lie). I've decided to write the last part of the book and work backwards. I've done this before with Heart Dance (thus the cover up), and for Protector of the Flight. So I know it can be done.

This is, of course, one of the moments where I chant the mantra "trust yourself."

Many thanks for listening,
Robin

Heroes

City of Heroes is gone. I copied most, but not all of my characters, ditto with screenshots of them. I keep thinking I can go on and make a new heroine to see how she might look and act, or how buff I should make my hero. No go.

Here's the place I kept coming back to in the last days:

This is the memorial to Cyrus Thompson. He was a retired hero in danger in one of the missions and you always arrived just in time to see him die, too late to save him.

I LOVE THE SENTIMENT OF THE PLAQUE:

Cyrus Oliver Thompson

Heroes May Die,
But Heroism Never Shall

I kept getting kicked off of Virtue server with my main character, Risha, so I went over to the one I made who looked the most like me, FantasyWriter, on Triumph server, so I would last to the end. And I, we, did.

FantasyWriter is dancing as the game froze and died, the last shot:

That is her pet clockwork behind her.

And this is the full screen of those I was with.

Most of us danced under the statue of Atlas, the girl in pigtails was spamming Heals at us (the green circles), and some were holding torches, especially on the steps of City Hall in Atlas Park. The torches are to keep the faith that somehow the game will live on, or the community will be renewed.

Merry meet and merry part and may the wonderful community meet again.
Robin

Work Today: Enovella Blurb

All right, I AM working on the enovella. I have finished my heavy edits, my friend Rose Beetem and I have finished the copy edits. I have a new title. I have a cover. I know the price for the enovella will be $2.99.

I'm not allowed, quite, to plug this yet, and I don't know the pub date for sure. It WILL have an excerpt of Enchanted Ever After in the back.

Today I (and people from both of my critique groups) wrote the "back cover copy" or blurb. And though I can't post the blurb yet, either, I am proud of it.

I am very proud that it took me only a day. I can recall when writing a blurb would be 3-5 days of hair-pulling, much cursing and mumbling while pacing.

I have experience now, I usually know my story well by the time I get to this point, and I have an outline I follow that I got from a Romance Writers of America seminar a few years ago. This saves my sanity.

Along, as always, with my critique buddies.

Robin

Juggling Projects

Juggling Projects (4)

I am not good at this. Today I

1) took the first chapter of the new proposal to critique

2) while there I consulted with a wonderful self-pubbed friend, Cate Rowan, on covers for the two Regency historicals I plan on self-pubbing under Robin Owens (with an Author's Note there are NO animals in them, I know, shocking).

3) I got back the final edits for the December enovella and was told to look at another passage if I still wanted to shorten the front (I do).

4) I looked at my most recent writing on Heart Fortune...lining things up in my head and hoping the subconscious works on it tonight.

I suppose that's a whine, and I should be blessed, but with all these projects in the air I am petrified I will screw up not one, but ALL of them up and no one will ever buy my work again and I will starve...I guess you figured out I had a cold? Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I guess I'll go eat wurmz....

Have a wonderful weekend, really, leave me to my foolishly grumpy self...there's ice cream in the fridge, it calls to me.

Robin