the league of reluctant adults

Over at On Literary Intent ! Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

(Cross posted at On Literary Intent ) When I’m stuck for blog topics, I often poll my friends to see what things they’d like to hear me babble about. Most often, one (or more) of them says “Hey, tell us more about the swords and stuff that you talk about in your books.” And I’ve been hesitant to do that, mostly because I don’t consider my knowledge on the subject that extensive. I know just as much as I need to know to make sure that I don’t look like an idiot in my writing. If I started claiming to be some expert, I'd be a big fat liar. However, that said… My hubby and I own a LOT of swords. A LOT. And most (99.99%) of them were made by the crew at a place called Badger Blades . I love these guys/gals, not just because they make awesome weaponry, but because they’re awesome people. We’ve known them a long time, long enough that they’ve seen my kiddo grow from infancy (where they spoiled her rotten) to almost-tween (gods help me) and they still spoil ...

((Cross posted at On Literary Intent )) Yes, I know I should probably be doing a Christmas post, given the proximity to that particular holiday, but I’m not gonna. No way, not gonna make me. ‘Cause honestly, Christmas is my least favorite holiday. I know, you probably think this is going to boil down to a “commercialism at Christmas” rant, but I swear it’s not. What it really amounts to is that I am a lousy gift-giver. No, I don’t have any trouble picking out presents for people. (well, most of the time) See, I’m smart enough to get a list and much like Rachel in Friends, STICK TO THE LIST. Shopping isn’t my problem. Where I find my downfall is that I’m supposed to WAIT to give these people these totally awesome gifts that I know they want! What kind of sick, sadistic holiday IS this? “Here, it’s wrapped up all shiny and ribbony, just waiting to be torn asunder and enjoyed! But not yet!” Seriously? I’m much more of an instant gratification kinda girl. For example: Hubby and...

((Cross-posted at On Literary Intent )) Anyone who has more than a passing acquaintance with me knows my one great phobia: zombies. Can’t explain why, but they freak me out like nothing else in this entire world. Yes, I know they’re fictional. No, it doesn’t help. And for some reason, even knowing that they scare the bejeezus outta me, I still feel the need to poke at that open wound. Hence, watching the AMC series, The Walking Dead. (It should be noted that I watch a lot of it with my eyes closed) In discussing this show with others, it has been brought up that they never use the word “zombie”. (they call them “walkers”) And of course, in my mind, this is because a “zombie” was never part of this world’s mythology, and therefore they don’t HAVE that word. I find this simple concept interesting, however, because it tends to illustrate one of my key theories* about the concept of a zombie apocalypse. (*key theory also translates to “things I will rant about for hours if you do...

I sit here and I stare at it, and I swear, it's mocking me. It's strange how I have faced extensive rewrites (book 2 was scrapped at 68,000 words and started fresh), major copy edits, NaNoWriMo on multiple occasions, and yet nothing is quite so daunting as a blank page, and that one little lonely black line. Sitting there. Blinking at me. I think it's the unknown. The sheer overwhelming possibility of it all. Will it be a poem? A witty blog post? A dissertation on the feminist imagery on boxes of athlete's foot ointment? It could be anything! What if it wants to be a novella, and I force it to be a dirty limerick? Or what do I do if my iambic pentameter novel-length epic poem turns into commercial jingle parodies? There are just so many ways this could go wrong. It's not so bad, once you get the first line down. Even the first word. Then the page isn't blank anymore, and it's not staring at you all expectant like. You get the first few marks on the...

This past week, I’ve been on vacation from the Real Job™, entertaining my #1 Beta who was visiting from out of town. In theory, she visits so we can get some face-to-face brainstorming time on whatever I happen to be working on, writing-wise. Naturally, like most well-thought-out plans, this results in us doing a lot of running around like headless chickens, and very little working. (But we DID get to see the new Harry Potter, and a very hot and sticky outdoor showing of Guys and Dolls, and I had a kickass book release party, details here ) Still, we did finally manage to do some brainstorming during the last twenty-four hours she was here, which means we will qualify the trip as a success. I now have four pages of rather garbled notes (but they make sense to me) on what may eventually become books 4 and 5 in the JJD series. Y’know, in case anyone ever wants them. So yesterday I put #1 Beta on the plane home, and I have today left as my last decompression day before my return to th...

((Cross-posted at On Literary Intent )) Since I announced that I’d finished Book 3 a few weeks ago and turned it over to my betas, I’ve had several questions that I thought deserved bigger answers than Twitter or Facebook would allow. So here we go. No, a beta reader is not an overly aggressive fish with a love of literature. Nor is it a person who divines the future by reading the entrails of said overly aggressive fish. (though a part of me now wants to put such a person in a book of some kind) And please realize that if you ask a dozen different writers what a beta reader is, you’re likely to get a dozen different answers. (And if you ask the Leaguers, not all of those answers will be safe for work.) So what follows is really just a small example of what my betas do for me. First, I have what I call my Alpha-Betas. This is a grand total of two people who read every word almost as soon as I set it on the paper (computer). Their purpose is to help me during the writing process. T...

((Cross posted at Literary Intent )) Fair warning, sappiness ahead. Batten down the hatches, pump out the bilges, roll up the trousers, all that stuff. As predicted a month ago (I must be psychic!), today is my eleventh wedding anniversary. Or, as I like to say, it's been eleven years and I still haven't killed him yet. Not for lack of trying, grant you. I mean, I did hit the man with a car. Twice. (And he still agreed to marry me anyway. What's that about?) You'd think, after the first time, that he'd have moved. In fact, if you peer farther into the past (my editor has given up teaching me the difference between farther and further, btw) we were best friends even longer than that. Six years before we were ever a couple, for a grand total of eighteen years. Wow, now I feel old. It's at times like these that I like to stop and think about how very different my life would have been without him. And I mean more than just the "well, I wouldn't hav...

First off, an obligatory reminder that the critique auctions are still going on. Team Claw has currently pulled ahead of Team Fang (I suspect foul play), so make sure you get your bids in! And now, the post! I'm currently sitting here at my desk, watching the gorgeous sunshine out over my deck. The nice lady on the weather channel says it's supposed to be up to 75 today, and my first thought is, "Hey, I should go outside! To write!" Hm. I'm not sure that going outside to SIT more is actually the point of this whole "it's beautiful, go outside" campaign they keep running on TV. That's the hazard of being a writer, especially when that writing is also coupled with having a Real Job(tm). There's a lot of sitting involved. On the average weekday, I'm sitting at my computer for 16 hours of it. Not only is this bad for the waistline (really, my jeans just shrunk in the dryer), but it's hard on various other parts of you. We all kno...

This is my very first post as a Leaguer, and it's to show off my brand new cover! THE ENEMY OF HIS ENEMY Jesse James Dawson is a Champion, putting his life on the line for those foolish enough to bargain with demons and fighting to save their souls. But even a Champion needs some downtime, so Jesse takes his annual camping trip to Colorado for some male bonding over friendly games of paintball. Unfortunately, the fun and war games are interrupted by a pack of creatures summoned up from the very depths of hell by an entity Jesse prayed he’d never see again. With the lives of his friends and a teenager’s soul on the line, Jesse’s only hope may lie with an even more dangerous enemy—his personal demon, Axel… A SHOT IN THE DARK will be available July 5th, just in time for summer vacation reading!