Leibster Blog Award - for me!

So I was nominated by a blogger that actually keeps up better (mea culpa!), a fellow indie writer, J.I. Rogers (who writes dystopian with a quirk if you want to check it out - you should at least check out her blog because it's awesome. What the award appears to be is just a way for people who admire a blog to share the love. Can't help but love that. And, yes, I'll be tagging, too.

So, what do I do when I "win"?

First, I acknowledge the one who nominated me. Thanks, J.I. Rogers!

Then, I answer her eleven questions.

1. What do you feel is the best blog post you’ve written to date and why?

That's a tough one to answer because I have had some great posts, but mostly early on. However, I had a series of three on what it was like to be a genius and the downsides that has inspired more than one character in a book.  You can find part 1, part 2, and sidebar for "Having it Easy Ain't Easy" via these links. These thoughts became Dylan Chroz, for instance. 

2. If you had to choose one of your current projects to tell a group of strangers about, what would it be?

You keep asking me to choose between all of my beloved babies. I would probably talk about my novel that's coming out August 1. I had so much fun with my characters, dabbling with mythology, something I adored growing up, and, of course, playing with dragons is always fun.  That's The Taming of Dracul Morsus.

3. Who in your life (living or dead) provided you with the best inspiration?

There is absolutely no way I could pick one person and say, "Yep, that was the one that got me started or influenced me the most." But, I have to be fair and say that my second husband was a great writing buddy and my discussions with him have had a huge influence on my writing and have really impacted what I write, how I write, and who I write. 
 
4. What book would you recommend that everyone read?

If I'm depressed, nothing gets me out of it like Georgette Heyer. My all time favorite is These Old Shades, but I recommend The Corinthian the most (and have hooked several men on her).  

5. What is your favorite movie?

Ms. Rogers, I'm totally eclectic. What movies I love depends on my mood. BUT, most of my favorites have at least a modicum of humor in them. Oh well, since someone mentioned it the other day, let's go with Secondhand Lions, which I adored. 

6. Hypothetical: You’re a well-paid guinea-pig being abandoned on a remote tropical island for an extended period (several years). You have ample food supplies, shelter (even indoor plumbing), electricity, and a decent computer… but the internet is nonexistent, and you will have no human contact. One of the scientists takes pity on you and will leave you an external drive with movies, TV/Netflix series, games, and books on it, but the catch is it can only be one genre. Which genre would you choose?

Anime/manga - yay, something I can answer. I've become obsessed and I have a whole blog devoted to it.
7. Cat, dog, or other?

Cats. I love their independence and purring. They're in all of my books, often with pivotal roles and or telepathic snarkiness.

8. When you’re being creative, do you prefer quiet or some form of sound (music, audiobook…) in the background?

I can't write with music. That's the only time I need quiet. Every other time with any other task, music, audiobooks. whatever, I need the background noise.

9. What can move you more, images or words?

Maybe words, but my love of manga argues I love images, too. And I'm a softy and will get choked up over almost anything. 

10. If you could be assured of accomplishing one thing with your life, what would be your magnum opus?

My kids had happy lives where they were comfortable with who they were and didn't have to suffer. (I'm a dreamer, what can I say?)

11. What is your favorite color?

Purple. No contest. 

Nominate eleven bloggers. Hmm. I've been out of the loop and many of my old favorites have also been letting it slide. Let me see.

Natalie Whipple of Between Fact and Fiction   
Roy of Roy's World
David Kent of multiple blogs like Science Traveler, and White Hot Snow, and the Dake Page
Mary Woldering
GD Deckard and company of Writer's Co-op
AM Ryncroft
Jeannie B Richards

Eric Klein of Feature Friday Futures
Misha Burnett
Jane Jago and E.M. Swift-Hook of Working Title Blogspot
Amy Shannon


UPDATE: Woops, I should have come up with my own questions but I totally forgot, so, just use J.I.Rogers' questions because, despite my complaining, they were pretty good.

 And, hey,  while I have you here, have you preordered the fantastic upcoming book bundle, Rite to Reign for 99 cents. The book Mirren Hogan and I wrote is in there and so many more. You should check it out here!

 

Come to think of it, have you bought my upcoming book that releases August 1 practically everywhere but here it is on amazon and smashwords? Why the heck not? 

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So, some actual BLOG news for a change

First, let's talk blog. For those of you hardy souls still following this blog, you're probably wondering why I still have it. Well, it's because I haven't actually given up on it. And I'm going to prove it by getting back in gear and writing blog posts. I like writing blog posts and interacting with those that get on my blog and comment back. So, though it's been languishing for far longer than I like to think about, expect to see me talking about writing again, right here.

And, yeah, that will still involve new releases, but also chatting about works in progress and what I think makes good writing  and the like, just like always. Only, hopefully in the future, not identical to what I did in the past. You know what I mean. I won't be posting daily--got three blogs and a girl's gotta sleep--but I'll try to post something at least weekly.

For those who are still deeply interested in the writing itself, but don't like checking back on blogs and stuff, I'm starting a monthly newsletter. You can sign up on the right.

You'll get notifications of new releases and the single monthly newsletter and that's IT, but only to people who signed up, who actually want to know all that.

The newsletter will include some insight into my writing, why I love it, what I think about it and what I like or don't like, a handy reference for all my existing books and news about forthcoming events, and an original short story so my "fans" can get a first look on my stories. I want it to be fun and hope it will be because, though I hate "marketing" I love interacting with people and sharing things I hope they'll like.

If you're one of the people interested, sign up. I will not be using your email for any other purpose.

First Newsletter will go on next Friday, March 10.

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Change-a-Roo

Before I sally forth to address other plot and story related topics with regards to novel writing, I'd like to make an announcement. My largely neglected (mostly by myself) blog, Ask Me Anything, is getting reworked to address my current fascination with manga/anime which, after more than four nonstop months, is still going strong. As in I'm going to try to learn how to read Japanese which puts me, I think, a step beyond a dabbler. The new title is "The Unlikely Otaku" where otaku is a term to describe an obsessive fan of some form of media or another.

How does it affect this site? Well, in some ways it doesn't except that I won't be writing any more manga obsessed entries over here. Here, I'll be sticking to writing related topics. I will, at least for the time being, keep the manga widget, but it might eventually be replaced with books I recommend reading and why. Eventually.

I will also be, slowly over time, removing my manga entries from here and reposting them on The Unlikely Otaku without the comments (so if you said something insightful and still want it, you'll have to go comment again). The widget here will be duplicated over there and both will be updated as I transfer things over.

It's not particularly important, except to me, as I'm excited about making a venue for myself to continue to explore why I find this manga/anime worldl so fascinating. Some of it might bleed over here, but only if it has a direct bearing on my novels (and, yes, manga has had an impact on no less than four of my five completed novels).

The other impact is that, if someone has a question they just have to get addressed (that isn't writing or manga related), they'd best put it on Rocket Scientist, since this blog will now be fully focused on reading/writing and Unlikely Otaku is focused on manga/anime. Rocket Scientist I'm leaving to catch everything else, which isn't much at this moment.

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Your Patience Was Appreciated

Wow, I've been out of pocket far too long, folks. Sorry. I'm sorry not only because I haven't been writing my own blog posts, but because I haven't been as assiduous as I should have been about reading and commenting on all of yours. Sorry about that.

But the time I spent was well worth it from my viewpoint. Last week I was doing a great deal of overtime. At the same time, an opportunity to have a pitch for a book critiqued by an editor for a romance publisher turned into an opportunity to send that book to that publishing editor. Since it was still in early draft form, reworking (twice) the book took up most of the time I wasn't working (including some of the time I should have been sleeping). Fortunately (I think), this novel was one of the cleanest drafts of any book I've ever done, so, though I went through it twice, tightening language and clarifying information, the total # words didn't vary by even 50 words, so it stayed pretty tight. I was able to send it off as I'd hoped Friday morning. Since then, a friend who hadn't expected to enjoy it (she told me after the fact), read it and enjoyed it, caught up enough she could only find three errors. She was sorry to see it end. That's what I'm looking for.

So, why didn't I catch up this past weekend? Well because enforced sitting (due to tendonitis/tendinosis of my Achilles tendon) and an urge to make some inroads in the current novel I'm working on pushed me to make an attempt to "finish" it using the three day weekend and an additional vacation day (total four days off). Since I was an estimated 32500 words short of my expected goal, that didn't happen. However, I did manage to work through more than 20K words during that period of time, despite a toddler who sees me with a keyboard in my lap as an invitation to displace it with her own darling person. And maybe take a nap.

I'm really working my ensemble cast in this one (Tentatively titled "Cat's Paw"), with far more plot threads than I've ever done before. What fun! And, hey, a little science is even sneaking in!

So, though some of you might have felt neglected, I hope you will comfort yourselves that my time was well-spent. And, if I didn't get the draft completed, it isn't much longer now. So thanks for your patience.

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