I’ve got a workshop tomorrow. To prepare, today I’ve made three pounds of pasta salad, sliced 2 cantelopes, a honeydew mellon, a pineapple and half a watermelon. My fingers are pruny with fruit juice, but I think I’ve earned to right to rant for a little bit.

Lately, both in romance blogland, and just the romance industry in general, I kind of feel like I’m back in high school.

I hated high school.

I’m feeling like a bunch of people are getting all clique-ish. I’ll start by saying that I think a big part of this is my own neurosis/psychosis/etc, but it exists just the same.

Joining blog forces seems to be a big thing. Now, it makes sense, if there are more people, you don’t have to post as often so it cuts down on work load. Plus, if you have a group blog and your own blog, presumably you can increase readership somehow.

But (here’s where my neruosis comes in) what I see when I see a group blog is: Look, we’re all friends BUT you’re not.

I KNOW it’s insane, but still, it’s the same feeling I had in high school.

Also, a lot of romance writers are like those people who sat next to you in homeroom and never said two words to you until they needed to copy your geometry homework (yeah, like I did it?). I don’t appreciate my “friends” only popping in when they’ve got something to say about themselves. Hello? Take advantage much?

Then, there are the “All about Me” blogs.

Now obviously all blogs are about the person who writes them in some way (Duh). But come one, can’t you share the good with the bad? Reading some blogs, you’d think that these people are next in line for Sainthood. And they’re not even dead! I don’t care to read about all of your great reviews (that’s not true, I do, but only if I already like you. I don’t want review after review and nothing else). If you’re going to go to the trouble to have a blog so people get to know you, why not be yourself, Miss High School Cheerleading Captian!?!?!

Are you getting the point that I didn’t like high school?

And I’ve been sitting on this rant for awhile, but I’m cranky enough to pull it out now. I WILL NEVER NAME NAMES, but there were a lot of people I met in Reno that I didn’t like.

I mean, I was completely on my best behavior every second. Other people were not. I’m a good judge of character. I can tell when people are being fake and when they’re generally nice people. I’d imagine editors and agents (at least the ones that I met) are the same way.

There were a LOT of fake people there. (And don’t even get me started on the clique-ish-ness) of the National conference.

Is my crankiness jsut taking off in bizarre directions? Am I the only one who sees this? Does anyone want to cut a half a watermelon for me?

I have a lot of rants brewing in my brain.

But I’m hesitant to post them because I don’t want to be all complain-y.

And nothing really exciting is happening, so as a result, my posts have been boring.

Obviously this post is no different.

Plus, my brain is kind of all scrambled. There are too many thoughts rushing through and I can’t really make sense of any of them.

But, I will say this. I’ll be having a BIG month long contest (the entire month of October) on my website so make sure to check out my website on October 1 (or maybe 2nd - I’m busy on the 1st).

Also, I love Fall and Halloween, so look for the blog to have a temporary new look over the next couple of days and expect fun Fall and Halloween activities. So far I’m thinking of a recipie swap, some contests and a Halloween party.

So I’ll get more entertaining, I promise!

I got my second review. It’s from Just Erotic Romance Reviews. I think it takes about a month for their reviews to appear on the website (though it’s in their newsletter now). To join and have erotic romance reviews delivered to your inbox once a month, click here.

But anyway, here’s the jest of the review and I got 4 stars (it’s edited somewhat for space constraints).

It’s an unexpected treat that A Walk on the Wild Side is such a good erotic read considering the premise has been used in a variety of genres. Emma Sinclair does her characters justice with her quick dialogue and arousing descriptive thought processes. Shannon and Nick are written as entertaining and interesting from the first page….While Nick is arrogant and sexy and has the take charge mentality of an alpha male he fell short of the whole package in that he didn’t seem to respect Shannon. And a man that doesn’t respect the woman he claims to love is a character flaw that ruins a potentially ‘to die for’ man. There’s an underlying uncertainty about Nick and Shannon’s relationship that keeps the story intriguing. I loved the sex in A Walk on the Wild Side. Emma Sinclair didn’t just do stimulating description in her sexual acts she did great sexual thought processes and hot dialogue during sex…A Walk on the Wild Side is definitely worth the trip.

Wow!

I LOVE this review. Especially the part of her not loving Nick!

The last review was so gushy, it just didn’t feel right to me. Now, I’m not saying I want bad reviews here, and I had I got this one first, I probably would have been scared. The gushy one was most definately the one I wanted first, but I’m really happy with this review.

I’m glad she had something less than perfect to say about the book, yet still liked it!

But still, I got 4 stars!

I better get back to that “quick dialogue and arousing descripting thought processes…”

Finished the first draft of my novella last night!! Yay!! Managed 30 pages to get through the end!

I still want to know WHY I can’t do that every day, but that’s not what this post is about.

I had a lot of trouble figuring out where to end this sucker.

I had a (vague) outline. More of a list really of things I had to wrap up, things I had to explain, etc. And as I went through, it kept getting longer and longer and longer.

And I really couldn’t finish it entirely because I realized that if I went with the way I had planned my hero and heroine would have been brother and sister. Can anybody say “Ew.”

So, I’m back to the drawing board on a way to make my hero immortal.

My husband asked this question: Why does he have to be immortal.

Can’t they just be together for now and then leave the rest unsaid? I said No, but I want your opinions. I mean I suppose if I were writing straight erotica, the “happy for now” would be fine.

But I realized that the “happy for now” in some books, always translates into my mind as “happily ever after.” Doesn’t “happy for now” have to at least have the possibility of “happily ever after?” Your thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

But anyway, the 20 pages I thought that it was gonig to take to wrap up the book turned into 30 and it’s mostly dialogue so I think I need some layering, which is going to add even more pages (not that it matters- ah, the beauty of epubbing).

But (I use that word too much) The End has come, and for that I’m happy. I’ll probably spend the rest of the week editing (Aggghhh) what I wrote last week and hopefully get those babies subbed.

Hmmm, then do I go back to the stuff I should be working on, or write the sequels? Decisions…decisions…

How can one person go from getting so much done (last week) to a dead stop (now).

I think it’s a “last week of the month” thing.

Like, I’ve been putting all of the October stuff off, and now I have to do it all. That’s what it feels like, but really, it isn’t.

Actually, I’ve got a lot to do to get ready for my chapters workshop this Saturday (Kiss and Tell with Holly Jacobs, Susan Gable and Jamie Denton - I’m excited). I’m food girl which means I’m catering the workshop for 30ish people and I don’t want to have to make more than one trip to the grocery store (and Costoc, and Target, and the Dollar Store).

But still, I really shouldn’t have to worry about that until Wednesday (or Thursday if I trust myself to get everything I need on the first try). That gives me two (maybe three but probably 2) unturrupted days of writing!

So, why am I sitting here completely paralized and unable to write? Why do I think of a million other things I should be doing every time I open Word?

It was flowing so well last week, WHY can’t I get back into it?

Must be the lack of food on a stick…

We went to the renaissance festival yesterday!

It was Pirate Invasion Weekend! Apparently pirates and renaissance women dressed like whore’s because I’ve never seen so much cleavage in my life!!! The hubster liked the fair. I think my favorite was the woman in a chain mail halter and miniskirt.

But, as you know, the most important part of the fair is the food.

We had steak on a stake…

Chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick…

I had fried mac’n'chees on a stick while the hubster had a porkchop on a stick…

We saw jousting.

And posed as a lovely couple.

First, I have water. It came back at about 1:00 ish yesterday afternoon!

Excuse me while I toot my own horn here, but I am kicking total booty in the writing department this week!! Since Sunday - 96 pages! A short story and half of a novella. And I haven’t even started yet today!

It’s amazing how well the story flows when you’re actually excited about what you’re working on! I knew I’ve been struggling lately, but I didn’t realize how much until I started new stuff this week.

Part of it is the awsome motivation I’ve been getting from taking part in 2 (yes 2) BIAW’s this week (that’s a Book In A Week where basically you write until you fingers bleed for those that don’t know). I’m averaging over 19 pages/day.

But now, I have to go back to the other stuff. There’s still 3 unfinished WIP’s over there on the sidebar (ok 2 unfinished and 1 not started) that have to be done. How do I get myself invested in those characters again? How do I make it less painful? How do I average 19 pgs/day on those puppies?

I figured out that to finish (first drafts) of those 3 WIP’s on the Sidebar, if I averaged 19 pages/day, it would take me 40 days to finish all of them. Hmmm, that makes it sound not quite so bad. It’s actually possible that I could finish all of these before the new year (of course that doesn’t take into account editing time, or edits for books already sold) but seriously possible that I could be mostly finished with all of those before the new year.

Wow! That makes it sound not so bad!!

And finally, read this article (poached from the Smart Bitches) - Freaking hilarious!

So, I don’t really know what they’ve been doing around my apt complex, but for the past week or so they’ve beeen shutting off the hot water during the days to make repairs. Well, yesterday, apparently they got the hot water fixed, but broke the cold water in the process.

I’m going on over 24 hours without water. Yes, the last time I showered was Tuesday morning. No one wants to come near me. Trust me.

Yesterday I heard someone making noise out in the hallway. Thinking it may have been the management with some notice about the water, I rushed to the door. I have A step in my apartment leading from the entryway to the living room.

Some guy was delivering pizza flyers and I managed to fall down the stairs. My wrist hurts.

Last night I filled the bathtub with scalding water and let it cool for almost an hour before I was able to somewhat “bathe.”

At around dinner time last night the management said the water was projected to turn back on at midnight. When I called a few minutes ago they said “early afternoon.”

I’m cranky!

But in my dirty state I have managed to kick butt writing this week. 76 pages between Sunday and Wednesday. And you know, I have all that extra time since I can’t, you know, shower.

Emma, the stinky, signing off.

I think we all know that blurbing is very important to a book Possibly even more important to those of us that are ebook authors and have to write them ourselves.

You have to give just enough info to get me involved with the characters and their situation but not enough that I don’t have to read the book. I want to talk about the first. Giving me enough information.

And I’m going to talk to it in relation to a movie trailer (which is after all, just a move blurb).

Have you seen the ad for the Jodie Foster/Airplane movie?

It doesn’t give me enough information. It doesn’t tease me into wanting to see the movie, it teases me into wanting to know what in the hell the move is about.

What I can tell from the trailer: Jodie Foster built an airplane. She may or may not have a little girl that may or may not have dissapeared on this airplane’s maiden voyage.

1. Who leaves a small child alone on an airplane?
2. Is this a paranormal (is the plane haunted)? Psychological thriller (Jodie Foster is crazy)? Bad guys vs. Good guys? I don’t know.
3. Why do I care?

So, do books have an advantage over movies with a cover (though movies do have posters)? It kind of gives me two chances to know what the book is about. If ther’s a stilleto on the cover, I’m going to assume chick-lit. If I turn it over and the blurb screams historical, I’m probably not going to buy the book.

So, what are some must have in blurbs?

Talking like a pirate is fun. You get to say “Arrrr” all the time. Although I admit that anything more than that is a little difficult for me.

Anyway, my brain is focused on writing this week. I figured out a bit of a plan for the next few weeks/months.

The next two weeks are going to be completely focused on short stories/novellas (and major brainstorm last night, I was insisting on 60,000 words for Simon & Carmen’s story (see progress bar on sidebar) but then finally made myself see that that was a completely arbitrary number and I should just write the damn book instead of worrying so much about word count - the true beauty of ebooks).

Then, in October, my online chapter (RWAOL - you should join) does a month long writing marathon/contest thing-y. So October will be my month to concentrate on the remaining SPICE wannabes (the other progress bars on the side bars - the ones not moving)!

I’m so not a planner, but now that I have a plan, I feel much better. And it’s much easier when the plan only involves a few months, not, oh say, a whole career.

But now, back to writing…