Category: My Writing Life

For this song.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q6nKP10j4s”]

Yeah, the life of a writer.  Glamorous. Exciting. (In our heads maybe. <g>) 

I sent this to Dame Karen Mahoney one day as a joke, but why not share with my readers here?  Wanna see what a writer normally looks like after a hard day at the computer picking her own brain?

I LOVE waking up to an email from an editor.  I want many more days like this one, btw. 😉

Anyway, Trisha Telep sent along the final cover for the anthology I’ll be in next year.  The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance is now up for pre-order on Amazon. Yay!!!  Looks like the US pub date is May 2010. 

I’ve already got this cover in my sidebar, but how about we gaze upon its beauty again. 

The hardest part of having a love for a mythology and then writing fictional worlds using that mythology is not being able to read other books of fiction in the same vein.  I would hate to accidentally absorb an idea from a book while I’m working on my own. Yes, I’ve decided to go ahead and start working on book two of my Norse YA trilogy.  I’m having too much fun with the world and characters and frankly, I’m a little hesitant to start a third series until I get a chance to finish the first two I’ve started. <G>

But I WANT to read these books!!!!  The trailer is fantastic–very funny in places.  I have a feeling I’d love these, so I’m going to buy them once my trilogy is complete.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CGdsFN0zrQ”]

This picture was taken by my daughter.  She’s incredibly talented.

So, I’ve been a little skimpy on the posts here.  Sometimes, life throws you a few curve balls and in the last couple of years, my family has been hit with more than a fair amount.  In between hunting for the right job, waiting on book news and fighting the economy woes, it’s been all I can do to write.  So, I put most of my writing time into a book instead of the blog. I’m very proud of this new book–have a feeling it’s pretty good. 

My agent said I knocked it out of the park, so I’m thinking I have the right cheerleader on my side for this one. 

I haven’t talked about the basics of the new trilogy here much because I’m a little wary of sharing too much information before the book is purchased–and yes, I’m taking the positive thinking route and believing someone will love these stories as much as I do. 

I’d like nothing more than to immerse myself in the writing of both my series, but my family also needs financial support, so I’ve been searching for the right job.  It would be nice to support my family with my writing, but I wouldn’t mind finding something that uses my particular skills. Skills I’ve built marketing myself as a writer, writing skills, of course.  But I may also be moving and downsizing and well, there’s a lot going on here.   Lots of tough, private family stuff.  Recently, I came close on a job I think I would have enjoyed quite a bit, but it didn’t happen.  (My husband believes things happen for a reason, so we’ll see if his theory stands up here. <g>)

As a writer, I’ve always paid extra attention to humans and the problems they face. I’ve always found singular reactions to situations and difficulties fascinating and lately, instead of putting those observations down on paper, I’ve been sort of numbing my mind.  Or locking it up, you could say.  Watching a lot of the new fall TV shows, rewatching some old favorites like Firefly and Buffy.

Earlier today, I felt something click.  I’m happiest when I’m writing. Even if it’s the only stolen moment of the day I can find–usually late at night when my family is asleep.  I can accomplish a lot when I’m in the zone.  I wrote an entire book once just at night- 2k a night until it was done.

 So, I’m reestablishing my normal self-discipline–the will that had me writing all day every day until that last book was done, despite the difficulty my family was facing.  I believe I do have this one thing I’m pretty good at and I do have a few people who agree.  My critique partner, Rachel Vincent. My agent, Miriam Kriss.  My good friends CJ, Sarah, Carol, Kathy and Lou. OKRWA members and my family.  The Deadline Dames, of course.

I have a lot of support and lately, these wonderful people have been calling and showing up out of the blue to show they care.  I’m a pretty lucky lady, to tell you the truth. 🙂

I’d planned to do a big post on all the exciting releases this month, but something came up today.  However, fellow Deadline Dame, Jackie Kessler, already beat me to it.  She did a great job, so go here to check them out.

And don’t forget, tomorrow is the new Readers on Deadline for October at The Deadline Dames.

So, I missed the official premiere of Stargate Universe.  Watched it on Hulu today and I’m filled with a little giddy excitement over the start of what I hope is an ongoing adventure.  Life just doesn’t pop if I don’t have a good science fiction show.  Weird, I know. 

So, did you catch it?

I’ve had a couple of people looking for an old post here called The Cat, The Mouse and The Strawberry, so I thought I’d repost it for fun. 🙂

So, I was running late and had to get to the office.  (I’m now going in a couple of times a week.)  My son was running late for the bus and we’re racing about when the cat suddenly goes crazy in the kitchen.  He dashes behind the wine rack tray in the corner, rattling the bottles.

He comes out with a mouse in his jaw.  My son and I run to the back door and try to get Saber to take his prize outside.  Nope.  He lets it go.  It frantically scrams and the cat gives euphoric chase. 

Catch and release. 

Catch and release. 

Every time he catches it, my son and I encourage him to take it outside.  He just sets it down in front of him and stares at it. 

At this point, the tiny thing’s sides are heaving in terror and the rest of it is frozen. I feel so sorry for it.  So does my son.  He picks it up with a dustpan and puts it on the back porch.  We close the door, thinking it’ll run off.

Instead, it begins this pathetic death crawl back TOWARD THE HOUSE. 

I couldn’t stand it!  My son had to leave and I really needed to as well, but I simply could not put it out of its misery.  Not that I would have asked my son to either.  Jeez.  But I couldn’t just let it lie there in pain!  I try to get the cat to go back and end things, feeling like an accomplice to murder, but Saber merely stands in the doorway and watches this thing crawling.

Toward it. 

Jeez.  Again.

I have to go, so I decide to leave it a snack, hoping it’ll give the thing the energy to take off into the woods.  I place the snack near it, glad to see it looking at me.  Maybe it’s just scared.  That’s what I told myself so I could leave for work.

So, later that afternoon, I’m calling my daughter.  I always call her when she’s coming home and I’m not there.  I know she’s sixteen and capable and all that, but I just do.  She’s on her cell phone, going around to the back of the house and she suddenly goes, “Mom?  There’s a dead mouse on the porch.  Next to a big strawberry.  Why would the cat leave the mouse a strawberry?”

I tell her what happened.

“At least you tried to give it something good, Mom,” she says.

Later that night, I’m telling the story to my sister, Jana.  Her response?

“So, the last thing that crippled, pain-filled mouse saw as it died was a beautiful, lush, red strawberry just out of reach?”

Oh man.

I gave away an urban fantasy tote bag at the Deadline Dames last week and in the comments, readers talked about seeing the design on a T-shirt, etc.  It occurred to me that I haven’t pimped my store in forever!  This blog used to be called The Write Snark and I started it to go along with my Cafe Press store. 

Turns out I’m not all that snarky outside of designing T-shirts and once I got a literary agent and decided to pimp my Writer Rinda identity more, I changed the blog.  But the store–She’s Still Alive!  I haven’t made new designs in a little while, but here are some of my favorites. Still there. Still available on shirts, mugs, aprons–lots of cool items. 😉

One of the Deadline Dames, Karen Mahoney, announced fantastic book deal news yesterday and today is my day to post. I’m giving away a book tote to celebrate her news, so come comment for a chance to win!