Hi all! It is Monday and this is not Laurell. Sorry. She was going to post today, but life interfered. So rather than let another day slip away, I will write about things that are occuring.

We have the fan club Halloween card! They are adorable. But Josh always does good work for us. I also have the Anita charms in, but haven't had a chance to sit down and put together bracelets yet, or get them online. My skills with a camera leave much to be desired and I will have Jon retake those photos as well as the new auction items photos. See, I really cannot use a camera.

We are so happy with the Anita Blake charm, we are going to do the rest of the book titles as charms also. I am hoping to have those in for Christmas, but Valentine's Day looks like a better bet.

Laurell did not get to work today. Okay, she did. But not for long. Trinity had a minor accident at school, only her finger was injured. Just worrisome enough to warrant a trip to the doctor. We don't think it is broken, but may be sprained. The joys of childhood! Sure don't miss em.

Most of the day has been spent getting routine things done though. Mail to be sorted and gone through, new orders to ship out, new memberships to enter. Pretty typical day all things considered. Hopefully, Laurell will get a chance to post tomorrow. We just didn't want you to think we forgot!

Best to all! Darla

2:30 PM - Mysterious Galaxy 7051 Clairmont Mesa Blvd. Ste 302 San Diego ,CA 92111!
What can I say? Mysterious Galaxy was once again a wonderful place to end a tour. We were first there in 2001 for the Narcissus in Chains Tour and they were wonderful. Just like Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis, this is a store that combines mystery and Sci-Fi/Fantasy. The crowd was a reasonable 200 some odd people, and we were glad for the break. As a weekend signing, it got to start a lot sooner than all the others, and we were able to get to our hotel around 9:30pm ish instead of midnight, which is what was more common. It was the end of the tour, and I can't remember much beyond that. I spent a great deal of time saying how glad I was to meet everyone, but I was really looking forward to going home.

I can't remember much beyond that, but I'll try again later.

Other writers have asked me how I keep Anita's voice so real and alive from book to book?
My answer is the fact that I write the beginning of the next book at the end of the other, because at the end is when the voice, the world, the characters, are all at their most intense. This is the moment when every writer thinks they will never loose the feel for their charater. Never puzzle over how things work. It's all so clear. But it won't be months from now. Or years from now.
Months down the road, you'll be left staring at a blank sheet of paper, or a computer screen with nothing on it but a softly, blinking cursor. The writer will wonder how they did it the first time? The character will be cold. The world a distant memory. But not if you already have a beginning that is as alive as the last book, then you have somewhere to hang hat, somewhere to jump off at. I've explained what I do to a lot of writers, because they asked, and very few have taken it up as advice. Because at the end of a book most writers are tired of the characters, the world. No matter how much you love them all, you've been working as hard as you can for months, maybe years, the last thing you want to do is begin another book. You're tired. So tired. I sympathize, because I've been there, done that. But I also know how much more tired I'll be if I don't give myself a beginning to play with. Or maybe frustrated is the word, rather than tired.
So I've got my beginning, now what? Well, for me I need certain things. A gross of sticky notes in the colors I've chosen for this book. The sticky notes go on the wall above the computer. I put up bits of dialogue, plot, names, quotes, French phrases, anything and everything that seems needed, by the time I finish a book the wall will be covered with sticky notes, as far up as I can reach and as far over. I love my big desk, but I'm not tall enough to reach the corner of the wall, not comfortably. Oh, well.
I also put a flower, usually a rose, on the corner of my other desk. The much smaller desk where I do the long-hand writing, or organize notes, outline, anything and everything that isn't done on computer. Usually when I'm at the other desk something has gone wrong. A plot didn't work, a character is fighting me, something. So the rose is to cheer me up. For some reason I've been buying yellow roses for this book. Not my usal favorite color of rose. Again, I don't argue with my muse, if yellow roses is what works for this book, so be it.
Music to listen to next, a different album for each book. This book is being written, mostly, to Tori Amos's new CD, Scarlet's Walk. If I have a muse of music it is Ms. Amos. I've written more books to her albums than any other single artist or group.
I've gone through my writing notebooks and found all the notes that pretain to this book. For some reason this book was ready to go long before I was able to sit down to it, so I have entire hand-written scenes between Anita and Ronnie; Anita and Richard; Anita and Jean-Claude; Anita and Nathaniel; Anita and . . . well, you get the idea.
I've spent the last week organizing my notes, both on and off the computer, and going over my outline. My outline is very organic, and my characters are free to throw out huge protions of it, if they come up with a better idea, but I need a map. A hint, what direction I need to go.
Writing to me, especially at the beginning of my career was like building a bridge across a great chasm. I'd put up two or three boards and then I'd be able to see further along, and I could lay down a few more boards. I'd get across the chasm a few boards at a time. Trusting that I would reach the other side. An outline is like guide ropes to help you not to fall while you're laying your boards, but I still write much as I did at the start of the Anita series. I write because I want to read the book. If I outline too much, or know too much about the story, then it takes some of my enthusiasm away. Some of the thrill is gone for me, if I know everything in a book.
Gotta go make pages now. See you later.

Hi all! This is my first attempt at using this. . Not really sure why I am posting to this, I don't think my day is that interesting. But Laurell asked and so I do.

I guess I could tell you about the hunt for appropriate Christmas cards, or the hour I spent with the lawyer discussing legally things that I still don't understand.
My calls on the Center for the Book event and trying to figure out where and how things are going to be set up. My hunt on the FBI for Laurell. See I have a really boring day sometimes. Not too terribly different from anyone else's!

Okay, my job is ultra cool and lots of fun. I mean where else can you have dogs sprawled in your office. Laying at your feet, jumping in your lap or licking your arm for no reason. And where else do you get to read all kinds of fun and fascinating things. Or do research that is interesting? Don't tell me if there is a better job than this out there. This one suits me just fine. Okay, I have bent your ear,( or would it be eyes? ) enough. Thanks for dropping by and maybe Monday we will have some more Laurell posts!

New for today.

I'm going to try and back fill this blog with the tour blog. Don''t know yet how well it is going to work, but its an experiment.

Here's my two cents for the blog.

I've been monkeying around with the code and hopeing that it works and is easy to use and read. I have the task fo trying to make Technology not be evil for Laurell, and sometimes it works and sometimes it dosn't. Early on, I just tried to talk Laurell through the blog entry process over the intercom, and that failed. I was forgetting that she wasn't as computer savy as I am, and I was not beign clear on what she should be doing.

Mea Culpa. Mea Magni Culpa.

(I expect letters about my Latin Grammer, its been too many years since I've had to do latin grammer.)

But it reminds me that all the things that I think are easy aren't always, and that all the things that Laurell thinks are easy, aren't all that easy to me.

But i got it straightned out, and now the blog is rolling. Expect a peice or two from Laurell each week, and maybe something from Myself or Darla as filler.

Enjoy!

This is supposed to be a journal about the writing of the twelth Anita Blake novel. But, of course, it will be about other things, too. Journals always are. Journal comes from the same root word as journey. This journal will be about the journey from the blank computer screen to several hundred pages of finished book.
Of course, I'm cheating already, because the moment for Anita 12 to be blank screen was over a year ago, maybe more. I finished CERULEAN SINS, as in typed THE END, and opened up a new computer file. In that new file, full of nothing but blank whiteness like being lost in a blizzard, snow blind, I wrote words. The begining of the twelth book. Sometimes I keep the beginning almost intact, but often it is thrown away later, when the rest of the book is written.
I often rewrite the very beginning, last. Because a beginning is almost the most important part of a book. Why? Watch people in a book store. Watch how they browse. They open the book. They read the beginning. Sometimes they open to the middle and read, just to see if the beginning matches the rest of the book. The beginning of a book is like a promise to a reader. A promise that this is what the book is about, and that you won't bait and switch on them later. Your beginning sells your book, and, they say, that the end of your book sells the next one. Maybe.
I actually have to go make pages on the book now. Talk to everyone later.