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!

I want to show off my new cover, so I hope this works!

Yay! It worked!! Although wordpress does keep trying to put a slash at the end of all my links. Weird.

So, this is my cover. I had initially wanted somthing just black, and red and maybe white, maybe abstract, something super plain, but I just LOVE this!

It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Here’s a blurb to whet your appetitite:

When Little Red Riding Hood headed into the forest on the way to her Grandmother’s house, she met the big bad wolf and almost met a very untimely end.

When Scarlet Hood gets lost on the way to her Grandmother’s house, she gets way more than she ever expected in the form of her sexy savior, Tyler Carver.

Tyler may be the big bad wolf, but Scarlet discovers that when it comes to pleasure, he’s actually very, very good.

I think I have good news, but I’m not ready to share it quite yet.

I heard from my cover artist for Little Red. I’ve heard great things about her (and her covers are beautiful), so I’m really excited. Naturally I’ll share as soon as I have something.

I’m up to 15 pages for my BIAW which is a far cry from the 80 I’m supposed to have by Saturday.

Thanks to everyone who shared my author day with me! I had fun and can’t wait to do it again.

And last, I’ve picked names from a hat and the following people are winners!
For the Blog contest (read the excerpt & answer the question) - Karen
For the “Post Something at my Author Day” contest - Jenny
And for my super secret contest (where I put all the remaining names in a hat and drew again) - Megan
.
I’ve got yummy smelling girly stuff for all of you, so please send me your address (emma@emmasinclair.com).

I fogot to blog yesterday.

How deep in synopsis hell am I if I’m forgetting to blog? Pretty damn deep, I’ll tell you.

But no matter what, this crap is going in the mail tomorrow. I can bury the sucky snyopsii behind the (hopefully) better full and partial, right?

And my query letter is really good (if I do say so myself).

So, I’m pretty sure I can somewhat easily (yet still painful) fix the syn for Book 1, but I’m afraid the Book 2 syn is destined for suck-a-tude. It’s hard because only a third of the book is written (and I think a good chunk of that is going to have to be re-written).

Anyway, regardless, the whole kit and kaboodle is leaving my house tomorrow. The hubster is picking up the full and the partial at Kinko’s (no way would my little printer handle 400+ pages) and I’ve just got the 2 syns to finish.

Tomorrow I will be free!!!!

Well except for the fact that my Dad is visiting and I made an 80 page goal for a BIAW next week, and now I guess I actually have to finish the books I’m synopsizing.

Damn it.

OK, one final note about Reno.

The workshops were probably the most least fun/helpful thing of the whole conference. I went to 2 really good workshops where I learned a lot. Suzanne’s Emotion workshop was great, as was Writing Hot with Jennifer Dunne.

The Emotion workshop was about different layers of emotion and “giving” your characters layers of emotion. I’m not as eloquent as Suzanne but her example was the last page of the first chapter of The Beast Within and there’s a zillion things going on there in just a few paragraphs.

Although this was the one workshop I left feeling like I’ll never be able to write that well!!!

As for Writing Hot, Jennifer went through the top 10 female fantasies and gave examples of how to use them in different heat levels of romance, from sweeter to erotica. It was very interesting!

Other than that, the workshops I went to were mostly fun. When Bad Covers Happen To Good People with Jenny Crusie, Susan Wiggs, Sandra Hill and others was fun. And I could have spend several more hours listening to Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jayne Ann Krentz talk during the Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood.

Honestly, I thought it was much better to spend some time chatting with other writers. I already had the handouts and it’s easy to get workshop tapes, it’s not always so easy to spend down time with other writers.

As for the next few weeks, I’m bogged down in the sucky part of writing. Deadlines, edits, reviews, stress. Blech.

I like the part where I can just write.

I guess since this is my blog, one could make the arguement that I’m always talking about me. But, anyway…

I’m having a tiny little conteset.

In my current WIP, there’s a scene that involves the heroine reading descriptions of porn (they’re in a seedy hotel room).

What do I need from you? Your porno names!!!

We played this game on the WCP Torrid Readers Group a few weeks ago. You take the name of your first pet and your mother’s maiden name (I’ll also accept street names, though I think technically that’s your stripper name).

The winners (I’ll use a few of them and The Hubster will have final pick) will be acknowledged in the dedication section of this book. (If it sells — It’s destined for WCP Torrid as a sequel to A Walk on the Wild Side, which comes out in November — have I mentioned that yet?).

If you’re uncomfortable posting your stripper name in the comments feel free to email me, though if you’re uncomfortable, you probably don’t want it in print!

I wrote some yesterday - finally - and I’m feeling so much better because I’ve realized that I’m not going to have any problems adding those 20 pages!! In fact, I think I’m down to only needing 12 more - and that’s not a problem at all.

Yay me!

So, I’ll spend my day writing and then hopefully can finish this bad boy up completely (except for the one final run through that I’ll leave until after Nationals!) by the middle of next week at the latest. Unfortunately, what with the BIL & his fiance staying with us this weekend & my 1st anniversary on Sunday, I don’t think I’ll be getting much done.

So, the rest of next week I’ll work on the first 15 pages-ish of the WIP for the Blaze contest and then hopefully get that off before Reno.

There’s a BIAW I’d like to do the 17-23 (I made a deal with myself that I’d do every single GB BIAW this year) so hopefully I can do another short to kind of relax myself before Reno.

There’s also a pitch workshop on eHQ that week and I guess I’ll need to work pitching in there somewhere.

I’d also like to get 2 synops written for the next 2 books that come after my werewolf. That way if anyone asks, I’ll have something to talk about in Reno besides. “Yeah, a girl vamp and something happens to her.”

I also have to finish judging a contest and pack and prepare everything for Reno.

I expect kicks in the pants from everyone who comes here please!

Yep, as the title of this post suggests (okay, it doesn’t suggest, it outright says) I am completely, totally, out of the zone.

I’m am buried so far deep in the editing cave that I’m starting to feel like I’ll never make my way out. I managed 3 pages yesterday in my quest for 20 more (and a page of that was adding extra spaces at the beginning of each chapter)!

The problem is that I managed to cross off about half my list in those 20 pages. Assuming the rest of the list takes that much I’ll still be 14 pages short of the 360 I need!

CRAP!!!

But if you’ve made it through the complaining, I do have a question. I’m going to use my WIP as an example, but I know this happens in a lot of books (I just can’t think that much).

My H had a fiance. She left him when she found out his “secret.” Her desertion has an effect on him, obviously, but through the course of the story, he gets over it and realizes she was a bitch.

Now, as a reader, would you prefer for the H&h to hash things out in the open, or do you mind that the H comes to conclusions through Inner Monolougue (so that the reader learns the whole story of the disappearing fiance)?

This is something that stops me when I’m reading and I had the same problem in my last ms. Let me know what you think.

Reading closely doesn’t necessarily mean sitting close to the computer screen. After getting through my edits yesterday I could barely sit up straight.

But, I finished my read through, gotta compose my Errata (I already did so on paper, now I have to type it up) and then this bad boy is ready to go!! Next step, reviewers.

In good news, I awoke to my new N this morning!! The hardest part about putting the sucker on was opening the packaging. I wish I had the digital camera so I could take a picture of the N packaging but the Hubsters got it with him in CT.

First, it was in one of thos impossible to get into bubble wrap bags, in a box padded with foam, wrapped in a bubble wrap bag. It was a N, a laptop N. It could’ve fit in a small envelope.

But it’s back and I can type normally again. Good since I’ve got to start writing again now.

I was planning an introspective post for this morning, but well, N excitement won out so check back tomorrow for the other stuff.

Also, check out Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs because I don’t want to be the only one procrastinating! Let me know what you think!