I’ve come to a conclusion recently and that is that I have much less confindence in my novel length work than I do in short stories/novellas.

I can whip out a short in a couple of days and feel GREAT about it. I’ve even taken to subbing them without my CP’s crit occasionally. I can read and do major edits in a matter of hours. But that’s the thing. They don’t really need major edits.

My long stuff does - oh, does it.

I’m not completely happy with any of the longer works I’ve written - and that includes the one that is out now (I probably shouldn’t admit that, huh).

It’s gone through edits (several times). Someone liked it enough to purchase it, yet I’m still convinced that there’s something wrong with it (though don’t ask me what as I couldn’t tell you).

I’ve got another long novel under consideration at a print pub. I don’t think that it’s the best that it could be. There too, I think there’s something wrong (though this one especially hard to fix as I’m not sure what the line is looking for). But I guess the fact that it’s still under consideration is something to be happy about.

And I’ve got another long work at one of my publishers. This is the one I’m really nervous about. My CP has read it and torn it apart. I’ve hopefully fixed it, but I have no confidence in it whatsoever. I think it’s good - kinda. But my confindence on this one is shot!! I cringe every time I open my email.

And at the moment I’m working on a long and a short. Well, mostly the short because I feel I’ll be better at that one. I need to build up my confidence for writing long - maybe I need to give that plotting thing a try.

Ugh.

I’m one of those writers that really needs to have the character names down before I can start writing. And if I don’t have it write, nothing quite “works” (I’m battling a character right now who has the wrong name but won’t tell me the right one).

Anyway, to try to solve the problem of “what should I name my character” I do what all writers do and visit babyname websites. Specifically, I visit BabyNames.com.

This site is the most horrible place in the universe. The site itself looks like it may be very helpful if you were having a baby, it’s got a bunch of crap that I don’t know what the hell it is. And the name part - where you can search by meaning and stuff is pretty helpful.

No, hell comes in the form of the babynames bulliten boards. And for some reason, I can’t stay away (please note, it’s not like I go there often, just when I’m searching for character names).

Apparently, these people sit and think up names all day. And then, they ask other people about them. And “what goes” with the other kids names. And then they take a perfectly ordinary name and spell it odd ways so that it looks like someone just pounded letters on the keyboard. XTLFUXK pronounced “Sarah.” (Note: if that were the case, there’d be a long discussion about whether or not Sarah should or should not have an H.)

I waste a whole lot of time at this place every time at this place every time I need a character name. And why are there so many people in the world who are perfectly okay with naming a child “FransicBoygen Dingle’Berry DakotaAshlyn Smith”

Oh, and I’m not the only one with this love hate relationsip. Check out: Baby’s Named a Bad Bad Thing. WARNING: Absolutely hilarious BUT a huge time waster.

My network seems to be back to it’s normal self this morning. I’d yell it to the world, but if it’s a mistake, I’d like to keep it quiet.

My mom visited this weekend, meaning I got nothing done. I tried to get caught up last night but could only manage to send so many emails (and really, I don’t think they sent until this morning).

While I’d like to spend today writing, I think most of it’s going to be spent organizing all of my Programming stuff for next year.

Have I mentioned that organization isn’t my strong suit?

Speaking of that. May I ask you fellow writers, how do you keep organizied. And part of what I mean by that is, How do you make sure that you don’t have 10 characters named Sally? How do you remember if you’ve already written that scene where they have a fight in the car?

I’ve got a lot of manuscripts under my belt now and they’re all starting to blur together in my mind. Combine that with the partially written books and scenes that got cut and scenes that were supposed to be, but never got in there, and my mind is a jumbled mess of what I did and didn’t do?

How do y’all help that?

As for reading…can you tell by reading a back cover blurb whether or not you’ve already read the book? Do you keep spreadsheets of books your read?

I’ve been known to read half to 3/4 of a book before realizing that I’ve already read it. (Speaking of reading, I got/read Suzanne’sThird Sight this weekend. Will blog about it tomorrow).

So tell me. How do you organize?

* First, I love all the Halloween memories but I don’t want to comment ’cause then that’ll mess up the “choose a number” way of picking a winner. Jen, that sounds like fun. Steph, your story brought a tear to my eye, it sounds so special! And of course any story involving candy is good - isn’t that why Halloween is such a great holdiay?

* SOLD - Part 5!! I just got offered a contract for Sping Break Fling, a short story to be included in Torrid’s Spring Fling Anthology to be released…yeah, I should check on that. (**Just checked, it’s April 2006). That brings my releases to: Nov, Jan, March, April and TBD (but probably summer). Geez, no wonder I’m tired.

* I’m actually been writing A LOT. I had a false start on a short story which wasted a week, but I’m not on Book 2 of a 3 book series of Novellas. With a little luck I’ll finish Book 2 before I head off to Hawaii and then I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get done there. I’m taking the laptop but have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of writing by hand as I sit on the beach and drink drinks with umbrellas in them.

* Attn: Fellow Gonnabeez! Don’t forget to check out this month’s Buzz. Not only because Jen always does a great job but because there’s an interview with me! It’s my first one and I tried to be entertaining.

* There’s still time to tell me about your favorite Halloween memory and win fun Halloween stuff! Click here.

I’m not a control freak.

A control freak is one who has to have control themselves so others can’t have it. I don’t like other people to have control, but I don’t want it either.

I prefer to just go with the flow.

It drives people crazy.

I think this is part of the reason I’m not such a great traveler. When you travel (via plane or train not always auto) you have to work on someone elses time table. I HATE that.

And when I’m on the plane, I have no control over what happens. But someone else does. I have to put my life, my trust, in someone elses hands, and I’m not so much good at that.

Like I said, I don’t need to be in control…as long as no one else is either.

How does this relate to writing you may ask? Go ahead…ask.

“How does this relate to writing?”

Well, it doesn’t really. But it does relate to promotion. Promotion is all about Someone Else. I have to get Someone Else interested in my book enough to review it. I have to come off as interesting enough to Someone Else to get scheduled for an interview. I have to ask Someone Else for permission to do this and that.

And now I’m part of an anthology. There are 10 women. I think the book is going to ROCK, but this also means sharing control with 10 other people, plus all of those Someone Elses.

It’s rough on me.

So, how do you deal with issues of control? Any other psychos like me (or I’ll understand if you don’t want to answer that)?

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 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…”

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?

I’ve realized doing edits on a few of my books now that I plagarize myself.

There are a few things that I’ve used in several books (and I know several unpublished mss). Yes, it could be said that most of what I use and plagarize of my own could be cliche, but I prefer to think I’m above using chilche’s (I’m not above it, I just prefer to think I am).

Anyway, I was writing yesterday and I wrote a passage that I thought was very similar to something I’d read before. Then, I realized that it wasn’t something I’d read before, it was something I wrote before!

So, I went back to read the short story in question and I found something else familiar. Yep, the same thing showed up in another short story.

So, how do you keep everything new? I mean, aren’t cliche’s cliche because they work?

The “thing” in question is the heroine seeing a particular body part of the hero’s and thinking “big hands/feet/etc, big…something else.”

Now tell me you women out there have never seen a man and thought that?!?!?!

So, if a lot of real women do it, is it bad that several of my heroines do so?

At what point does something become “natural” and become cliche?

And if I’m already repeating myself, how in the heck am I supposed to have a 30+ year career ahead of me?

So, I don’t want this blog to become all about me (well, I mean, it’s my blog so obviously it’s about me) but I don’t want it to be all promotions and crap because too much of that bores me.

BUT…I got my very first review. Click here to read it.

On Thursday when we got home from Norfolk there was a message waiting in my inbox. I clicked the link, went to the review and kind of skimmed. (The 5 angels at the top didn’t clue me in until later).

Me: I got my first review, and I think it’s good.

Hubster (unpacking stuff in the other room): What do you mean, “you think?”

Me: Well, it doesn’t say anything bad.

Hubster: Does it have a rating?

Me: Five

Hubster: Out of what?

Me: Five

Hubster: You got five out of five stars and you think it’s a good review?

Me: Actually they’re angels.

It still hasn’t hit me yet that I got my first (good) review. Now I’m just worried about the rest that are going to start trickling in.