Doh!

I apparently mis-spoke last week when I said that the book had had a good run. It seems that the book isn't done yet.

The New York Times Best Seller List Came out yesteray and Seduced by Moonlight was #12.

So this makes it six weeks in the top 20, four in the top 10, five in the top 15.

Lets keep it rolling!

Hey everyone. I'm just going to drop a quick note about last night's Wolf Howl.

One word : Amazing.

The reading was amazing, the talking around the campfire was amazing, and the wolves.... Oh, the wolves were freaking amazing!

I said it last night, before Laurell started signing books. "Hearing the wolves howl is the reason we chose the Wild Canid Research and Survival Center as one of our charities. I want my daughter and her children and their children to have the opportunity to experience what we did tonight."

If you were there, you know what I mean. If you missed it... We may be doing another one again in the fall.

Got to run and get breakfast,

No, not another damn sex scene. NOOOOO! I like sex. I like writing about sex, but damnit we're almost done. I'm beginning to see every scene that isn't directly related to the main mystery as a barrier to the end of the book. I don't want to explore interpersonal relationships. I don't want to do another therepy session. I am done for this book. I just want out. Out means over. Bad guy dead. Murders avenged. Fini. But the rules for the arduer though changed by this point in the book, are still the rules. I can't break my own logic rules, or the entire integrity of the world goes crashing down, but damnit, I am tired. I begining to run out of different ways to do sex this book. We've done rough, more than once. We've down most of the positions that make sense when you're starting out a sex life, and at least one that doesn't. We've used the extra strength. We've used the idea of furry in new and interesting ways. We've done the vampire bit. We've done it this book. Now I am left with a sex scene that isn't in the outline, and that I didn't see coming, and I just simply don't know what to do with it. It's with someone we haven't been with this book, so that's good. But what's left? I've been threatening to have a shirt made up, PLOT CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF SEX SCENE, INCUBUS DREAMS by Laurell K. Hamilton. It was funnier a hundred pages ago.

I cut sixty-two pages out of the book not long ago, which dropped me back down to under nine hundred pages. I will hit nine hundred pages again either tomorrow or by Thursday. At this rate INCUBUS will be longer than any book I've ever written. Shit. Longer than OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY.

While I'm making confession, may I just say I was wrong about Olaf and Edward being in this book. Mea freaking culpa. They would be wasted here, and Edward is not a character you waste. Next Anita book he and Olaf will be on stage early and often, but this book it's just not necessary. Yeah, it looses me some cool scenes, but that's just the way it is. I told Darla when I was sure that Edward and Olaf are not going to be in this book after I told everyboyd he would be, that I'd put it up on the blog, and let everybody know. Well here it is. Sorry, not my choice, not my decision, just that the book changed on me, as they often do. That'll teach me to tell people too much before I'm more than a few hundred pages in. It's one of the reasons I normally don't do hinting, because I've lost track of the number of books that I think such and such character is going to be in, and then in the end, they aren't. So there it is. I've got less than ten chapters between me and the end of the book and there is no reason, or time for Edward to show up. I'm disappointed to, by the way.

But next book is a plot tailor made for Edward. Without him, no book. So that one I'm sure of. Without Edward to help at the end of INCUBUS DREAMS though, it's going to be rough. Anita will make it, but damn, we need more help in the vampire killing department than we have. Larry is still on his honeymoon, so no help there. Maybe we could enlist Manny, no, what if we get him killed? Anita and I are both beginning to wonder if her being the lone ranger of the undead world is such a good idea afterall. Maybe we need another vamp executioner in town, so we can divide up the duties more. Maybe. All I know is she's had a rough hundred or so pages, and we were looking forward to her getting home to Micah and Nathaniel for this nice little scene. Something homey and comforting. But instead we've got to feed the arduer. No sweet domesticity, just fucking. I can't even say it's love making, because she's put the arduer off for longer than she's ever been able to. Someone killing vamps and answering officer down calls just made her not think about sex at all, fancy that. Now she's home, and it's catching up with her. It's like someone with low blood sugar finally getting a meal, you don't get to enjoy the food, because you just need it so badly.

Okay, we'll find a way to enjoy the sex. I mean it is sex, and one of my rules is, it's got to be fun. But if I could figure a way around this scene, then we could be so periously close to the end. I'm still trying to figure a way out of it. Or around it, or over it. At this point I'd rather see her talk to Micah and Nathaniel than anything else. Which lets you know just how much sex we've been having this time round.

Cool!

The New York Times Best Seller List Came out yesteray and Seduced by Moonlight was #17.

It's been a good run. Five weeks in the top 20, four of which were in the top 10.

Thanks to everyone who has helped support the book. We couldn't have done it without you.

Hey, everybody. Jonathon and I are both sick with colds. You forget how really miserable they can be. I'm up trying to do a few pages just to keep the momentum rolling. I've found that for myself even a day with no pages can really hurt when the book is near the end. So I'll struggle through a few. Even a page is better than nothing. Yesterday I managed eleven pages, after a week of two and five pages. I was very pleased.

You know how I say don't rewrite as you go through your first draft, I still hold to that, but I found myself hoist on my own advice. Anita goes into the vampire lair with a police tactical team. As I'm trying to write the scene I hit three things in a row that I wasn't sure of. I was almost sure, but not a hundred percent. But they were things that could have impact on the way I wrote the scene. For instance do we have flashlights or nightvision goggles. Right now we've got those flashlights that attache to the gun barrel, because the night goggles cost upwards of twenty thousand dollars a piece. Most police forces do not have the money to equip eight men with them. If when I'm finished with this book and I talk to my experts and they tell me that, well, actually, night visiton afterall, I'll have to rewrite it, but if I'd tried to start interviewing people before the book was finished, the scene wouldn't even be finished. So I literally wrote, NOTES; FLASHLIGHTS OR NIGHT GOGGLES. I have almost a dozen questions that I will be asking my expert, but until I wrote the entire scene I didn't know what I needed to ask about. That's one of the reasons I say do the first draft first, because for me, I don't always know how things are going to happen until the scene is written. Notes don't count, too often in the actual writing I find the scene turning in a totally different direction. Sometimes I go back later and rewrite the scene as I orignally intended, but most often, the new version is what stays. It's fresher, more real, more true to something in the book.

Right now, I'm going to try and get a few pages of the aftermath scene. I was hoping we could skip this chapter, but it works better if Anita has her say to the police and everybody, rather than a few paragraphs of backflash later. I may try it both ways, but I think there's just too much stuff to squeeze down into paragraphs. Pages, I think. I would love for this book to be shorter, but length is like heighth, you don't get to choose. Gotta go.

Well the water from the cleft rock phase has passed, and I'm back to the doldrums. Why? Because I forgot my own advice. Remember when I say don't research extensively before you've got a finished manuscript. Well, I forgot that. I mean this is my seventeenth book, or so. I have the disipline to do a little research than get back into the book. I won't loose momentum this late in the book. I'm on a roll. Famous last words.

Admittedly I needed some of the gun research. It's always good to see what's new, and as Anita has started doing more hardcore gun work, ammo is a problem. It used to be, I believed we'd never need more than one extra clip but it's been a hard year, or two for Anita. So I looked at ways to carry more ammo. All good stuff to know, but then I ended up spending way too much time looking at gun stuff. I realized I need to talk to some of my experts now that I know exactly what questions I need to ask. I even thought about making appointments for doing just that. But, the book is not finished. I could spend a week on the gun and tacticle research alone. But not until the book is done. Never until the book is done, because you'll destroy your momentum. As I've done.

I'll be okay, but that I could go from twenty pages a day to none, just because I stopped and got distracted by more research than I needed at that moment, shows how hazardous it can be. Yes, I will have to go out and see some of the new gun products before the final draft of this book is put to bed. Yes, I will need to talk to my experts before then, but now, now all it is, is loosing my way. Going, ooh, shiny.

Don't let yourself get distracted, or it could mean the difference between finishing that first novel and never finishing it. A cautionary tale for all you out there trying to do this magic trick for the first time.

I know there are professional writers who do research as they write. I do some research before I sit down to write, but once the writing starts, only checking quick facts is allowed. If it's not quick, it has to wait. Which means that in the chapter I got stuck in, I had to put the cap-lock on and just say, EQUIPMENT SCENE HERE. I'm going to have to handle as much of the guns and accesories as I can, before I can truly decide what Anita is using. We've really needed more shotguns in her arsenal for a while. I just haven't had the time to do the hands-on. Well, when the first draft is complete, and before it comes back from New York for the first looksie, I'll go do that hands-on, or as much as possible. Some weaponary I either don't have, or don't want access to. I mean the grenade launcher that is about the size of a compact shotgun is way cool, but I don't think I really want to shoot one off. I'll have to think about that one, but then I doubt we'll be using it this book. It sounds more the kind of thing Edward gives Anita, or has himself, that she's just amazed at. I was.

See, see, the extra research I did, isn't useless. It may all turn out to be very useful, but it stopped me dead in the water on this book, and that's got to be the highest priority right now. So, I've left my blank space, and when it's all done, I'll do my extra research and fill in the blanks. I don't leave many blanks anymore, but there's nothing wrong with them either. Maybe someday I'll just accept that it's the way I work, and not keep trying to believe I don't have to do it that way this time. Yeah, actually, I do. It's the way that works for me.

I was listening to Evanescence, and rolling along. Now, I'm back to THE MUSIC MAN, the new one with Matthew Broderick. Because, I'm picking my way again. I have faith that it'll pick up, but until it does, I'll listen to a musical and cheer myself along. At least I'm not back to Christmas music. Bye for now.

Quadruple Woo Hoo!!

We're number Eight again! We're number Eight again!

The New York Times Best Seller List Came out yesteray and Seduced by Moonlight was still #8!

Four Weeks and still in the top 10!

Hyper Cool!

Ooooh, gun porn. I've been looking at the Heckler and Koch web sight. Oooh. Pretty. I actually started because I couldn't find my notes on Anita's shotgun. My files on guns and such is still missing since the move. I think it must be in that box with the dog mugs and missing video tapes, because none of them have shown up in the three years we've lived here. I must assume they are lost for good. So I am starting to look around at guns again. I was going to go gun shopping for Anita after I finish this book, anyway. Since there are many fine compact handguns that will fit her and my hand, out there. Many more than ten years ago, when I first went shopping. I also have spent a good deal of the afternoon trying to figure out how the heck she could carry this much fire power, and be able to move easily. Does the term Malice clip mean anything to you guys? If not, I won't try to explain, just let's say it's nifty, and helps you customize your carry-gear. We are about to have Anita go into the big bad vampire's lair at night, because they have at least one hostage, and they've let us know that. Yes, it's a trap, but like all the best traps, even knowing that, you can't not do it. So we're loading up for bear, or vampire as the case may be, but I'm trying to figure out how to carry the H and K MP5, Ithaca 37 sawed-off, and a Mossberg 590A1 Bantam, without getting tangled and bumping into eachother. Will we need that much firepower? Maybe. And any time the answer is maybe, I want the firepower. But I also want to be able to move without clattering, so we're still working on if it's actually feasible to carry it all, or if I need to whittle it down to only two big guns. Gotta go, I want the equipment question settled today so we go brave the bad guy's lair tomorrow in my working day. Anita is trapped in one of those nights that seems to have no end, which happens in the middle of murder chases, especially when they turn into hostage situations. Bye for now.

Hey everybody. It's me. Incubus Dreams is over nine hundred pages now, and not done. But I'm not worried about it because I did 20 pages or more for the last four days. 29 pages yesterday. Whoohoo! I always know that the book is barreling to a close when I hit a string of days like that. This is my favorite part of the book, when the only thing that prevents me from writing more than twenty plus pages is just physically I can't do it anymore that day. When my body just whimpers no more, it's time to stop for the day. Gotta go. More pages to write.

Ok, I'm recovered enough to talk about the B&N signing on Saturday.

It was good to see everyone who couldn't make it to the library event in early Feburary. We really thought the signing went well, we were done by 7pm and Laurell's arm was not hurting too much. We were able to get a good supper at a reasonable hour. All becasue we started the event at 2pm.

It was all in all a really fun event. I got to see one of my cousins that I hadn't seen in a while and caught up with her and her husband. It turns out that she has started wrestling in the local circut, which is really cool.

I've got to go and work on several other projects that are looming.

Triple Woo Hoo!!

We're number Eight! We're number Eight!

The New York Times Best Seller List Came out yesteray and Seduced by Moonlight was #8!

Three Weeks and still in the top 10!

Super Cool!

Hey everybody, it's me. Incubus Dreams is finally in the end game, which means I am writing as hard as I can. Making notes, trying to make sure all the clues work, that the red herrings are as scarlet as possible. The end game is both one of the most fun parts of any book and the scariest for me, because here is where I find out whether the plot, the mystery, the personal interactions, work, or don't work. This is the moment when you find out if that scene on page 111 (Just made up number don't have time to check what page numbers I'm really concerned about) worked or whether it was a trip down the rabbit hole. Rabbit holes were first described to me by two fine writers Emma Bull and Will Shetterly, check out their stuff. I maybe using rabbit hole in a slightly different way than they did, but to me, it's a thread of plot or character that distracts you and takes you where you don't want to be, or don't need to be. It takes you to a part of Wonderland that you don't need to visit, maybe ever, but certainly not in this book. I'm off now to see if I'm chasing rabbits, or if the hounds are truly in full cry. bye for now.

Double Woo Hoo!!

We're number Five! We're number Five!

The New York Times Best Seller List Came out yesteray and Seduced by Moonlight was #5!

Two Weeks and still in the top 5!

Cool!