Sarggeflüster

I’m back from the Romantic Times convention and will be doing a longer post about that this week — had a great time and hung out with tons of awesome people. Right now I’m working hard on the (tricky) second draft of DEMON PRINCESS: REIGN CHECK and won’t be up for air from that for a couple of days, but I am happy with how it’s turning out. Ahh!!

Just thought I’d share the German cover for Stakes & Stilettos that just went up on amazon.de. The translated title is “Sarggeflüster,” which means Coffin Whisper. Kind of a mega goth title to go with the totally cute vamp chick lit cover art! Sarah doesn’t have any time in this book to go shopping or stroll through graveyards — she’s more focused on trying not to kill or be killed — but I think it’s completely adorable. I loves it. The release date on this is November ’09.

Edit: Scratch that. Sarah does go shopping at the mall in this one for some retail therapy. It’s all about priorities, people.

RT Convention

Tomorrow I’m off to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Orlando, Florida. Since it’s cold and rainy here in Southern Ontario at the moment, I am looking very much forward to it. I’m running around today getting last minute chores done.

I’m going to be Twittering while I’m there, probably exclusively (meaning I won’t do a longer blog post until I’m back). Feel free to follow my Floridian adventures at www.twitter.com/michellerowen

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and character figuring out on my YA and I’m now ready to start my second draft. Which means it’s coming with me and I’ll be spending a good chunk of time in the room working on it. Probably. I would normally take this week off and not do any writing, but I really need to get this book done so I can start on my other one that’s due in three months. It’s cool. I can handle it.

Okay, I have more to do and things to pack so adios for now!

TGIF

I’m on the Fictionistas blog today for an interview with author Gwen Hayes and I’m giving away a signed copy of Stakes & Stilettos! Check it out…

–

I finished the read-through of Reign Check yesterday and must say that I’ve learned something very important about my creative process, and it is this:

If, while I’m writing the first draft, a book seems brilliant and fabulous, it probably isn’t and will need tons of revisions. Whereas, if the first draft is a slog and every page seems a chore, the first draft will be really good.

I swear, the first half of this book wrote itself and was so much fun. The second half was tiring, draining and painful. Therefore, the second half is good and the first half needs mucho worko.

Why? Because I think writing character angst and internal monologues are more fun to write than to read. And action and danger are more fun to read than write. It’s a theory.

Luckily I know where I went wrong and how to fix it. However, this means Mr. Laptop is coming with me to Orlando next week.

Which brings me to my next subject…

–

I’m going to be in Orlando next week!! Woo hoo!

That’s all I have to say about that right now.

–

Inspiration this week…. an oldie but a goody… Josh Holloway has been the inspiration for two of my heroes (Rogan in Countdown and Jacob in Hot Spell, my Harlequin Blaze, out in November). And he’s also the inspiration for the bad guy in Reign Check. Multi-purpose hotness!

Crafty readers!!

I have to share this fabulous collage a reader, Beth Schultz, did for me for Bitten & Smitten. Basically, I found out she 1) enjoys the Immortality Bites series, and 2) is wicked amazing at this sort of thing, as seen on her Stamp Insanity blog, so I totally begged her to do one for me. And to my surprise she agreed! She wanted to know my favorite scene in B&S, and it’s the one at the end on the bridge w/ Sarah and Thierry, so she has some dialogue from that part. Cool!

It’s very delicate with dozens of pasted down cut-outs and sparkle and layering. Looks fab. I’m going to frame it. Thanks so much, Beth!

(click to see large version)

Cat & Muse + schedule

Sarah Dearly, the fledgling vampire protagonist of my Immortality Bites series is being interviewed today on Jackie Kessler‘s Cat and Muse. Check it out here!

–

Okay, here’s my writing schedule for the next little while, not that you care, but I’m writing it down anyhow.

Now – Wednesday: I’m working on a spec manuscript for an idea that has been simmering for several months and is ready to boil over. It’s a non-fantasy YA romance and I’m pretty much in love with it, it’s all sparkly and shiny at this point 16 pages in. I want to write about 80 pages and send it to my darling agent to see if he approves or not. We shall see!!

April 15-30: 2nd draft of REIGN CHECK. I feel like this manuscript is pretty clean right now so I’m hoping it doesn’t need too much work. Depending on how much work it needs, I might have to work on it while I’m in Orlando next week for the RT Convention. The deadline for this one isn’t till July 1st, but I plan to hand it in early so it doesn’t overlap the writing on my next book. I’m not much of a multi-tasker.

May 1-August 1: I’m working full-time on the second book in my Eden Riley series. I expect my editorial revisions to come through very soon for the first book so I’ll be all demoned out by August 1st, which is my deadline for the second book. I do have a tentative pub date on both these books, though. LIVING IN EDEN will likely be out May 2010 and EDEN’S DEMON (the working title) OCTOBER 2010.

Seems like a lot of time to get the book(s) done, but actually it’s pretty tight. I hope everything goes smoothly. *crosses fingers*

FINISHED! and Inspiration Friday

I have officially completed the first draft of DEMON PRINCESS: REIGN CHECK. Hooray!

Just shy of my 65K goal, but with the changes and descriptive parts I know I’ll be adding to the next draft, I anticipate a final word count of about 70K for this book.

I’m happy with it. Not sure about the ending, though. There’s a lot of set up in this book for following books I’ve planned in the series (which I haven’t been contracted for yet) and I’m not sure it reads as stand-alone as I’d like it to. I’ll keep an eye on that in the next draft. While I want to set things up and leave breadcrumbs for the future, it should read as a complete book unto itself. That is the goal.

But it was a (mostly) fun write with demons and faeries and dragons and talking cockroaches, love triangles, teenaged angst. There are themes of friendship, truth, duty, and strangely, slavery and capital punishment. Heee-larious stuff!!

Must admit, one actor seemed to play a large part of my inspiration in this book. I can’t help my love for Rpattz. I think my friends are planning an intervention for me really soon.

Progress report

Not much to say today. I’m immersed in my YA world right now and the finish line is looming not too far ahead. I hope to finish by Thursday and then take the rest of the weekend off to recoop, then launch immediately into the second draft. I like what I’m getting. The second half is a bit more work-intensive that I thought it would be. The first half was fun. Usually it’s the other way around. I hope it reads well when all is said and done!!

Inspiration Friday

Supernatural was a really good one last night with a mix of everything I love about the show — from brother angst to ROFL comedy (“What’s Dean slash Sam?” almost killed me — kudos to the show for a major wink to the fangirls) to conflicted Castiel to show mythos. Bring it on, I say.

Therefore my Inspiration this week for all things paranormal is Dean Winchester as played by Jensen Ackles. Great season, great acting, great humor. It’s just terribly unfortunate that he’s so ugly, right? Poor guy.

I’ve been a bit ill the last couple of weeks for a couple different bleechh reasons so my page count hasn’t been where I’d like it to be, but I plan on doing some major work this weekend. I need to brainstorm a bit today before I continue on and just get a couple pesky ducks in their neat little rows. I’m also revising a new proposal because I’m always living at least two years in the future as far as my writing goes.

DP1 now available for Pre-Order!

Demon Princess: Reign or Shine is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com with a ship date of September 29th!! Woo hoo!! This book is being released SIMULTANEOUSLY as a hardcover and paperback versions because that’s how my princess rolls, yo. I suggest getting both versions, of course, but maybe that’s just me. Here’s a link to both pre-order pages:

Demon Princess hardcover!!

Demon Princess paperback!!

Reign Check, the second book in the series that’ll be out next Spring, is coming along swimmingly. I’m having a lot of fun with this one. Possibly too much fun. It’s not easy being a demon princess! *evil laugh* Plus I have a love triangle going on in this one, and if you know me, I luurvve the love triangles. Guy-guy-girl ones. Don’t like the girl-girl-guy ones so much. It’s way more fun having two guys fight over the heroine than the other way around, I think, especially since I write very heroine-centric books.

Recently I was writing a new proposal and decided to change it from a trilogy to a stand-alone. How did I do it? I removed the love triangle. Makes things much simpler, which is fine in some cases, but it’s a great deal of fun to write to have that extra level of romantic angst going on.

Anyhow, I’m on the last third of this book and plan to finish the first draft by April 12th. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to the story. We’ve just entered the Underworld and much political intrigue and scheming is afoot.

Winners from the Partypalooza!

 

Wow, what a party! And, boy, do I have a virtual hangover today! Thank you so much to everyone who attended my release party here on the blog. Hope you had a good time with all the vampires in attendance, even the party crashers.

I plan on having another virtual bash to celebrate the release of Tall, Dark & Fangsome — it’ll be a wrap party too since it’s the last book in the series. *sobs* That’s August 25th for anyone keeping track. Less than five months away!!

 

Now… on to the WINNERS…………

 

***Winners of the $10 Amazon.com Gift Certificates***

Beth

CassieB4

Sandra C

 

***Winners of the signed (and sketched) copies of Stakes & Stilettos***

MelissaAnn

Susanne

 

Please send an email to michelle@michellerowen.com to claim your prize!!

 

Thanks again everyone. You all rock! And if you pick up a copy of Stakes & Stilettos, I sincerely hope that you enjoy it.

And if you’d like a chance to win the Immortality Bites books 1-4, check out Megan Crane’s blog. She’s giving them away this week to celebrate my new release. How awesome is she??

–Michelle xoxo