Shocked Face

I made a startling discovery the other day and I'm feeling kind of stupid that it took me this long to learn this.

I listen to podcasts or audio books on my commute home from work. For the past ten months, I'd been starting the podcast on my phone, turning the volume way up, and putting the phone in my cup holder so I could hear it. There's a stretch of rough road that's difficult to hear even with the volume high, but when I get off that stretch, it's too loud. Also, tinny sound. But I'd been living with all this.

Then, Tuesday, I had to make a stop on my way home from work and for some reason, the battery on my iPhone was way down when I reached my destination. Since I wasn't 100% sure of how to get from there to my house, I looked in the console for my charging cord. I have used my phone through my car's Sync system, but via Bluetooth. The only time I've ever hooked my phone in to my car with a cord was on long trips.

My podcast was running when I plugged the phone into the car and it went dead silent. I checked and pause hadn't come on. I touch my entertainment option, select iPhone, and my podcast came through my car's sound system!

I was shocked! Shocked, I tell you. I didn't realize I could do this!

For ten months, I'd been listening to crummy audio because it never occurred to me to try hooking my car and my phone via cord. I had tried to play my audio via Bluetooth and that hadn't worked, but corded connection? Duh!

I feel like this has opened a whole new world for me! And yes, I am hugely excited by this.

No Surprises, Please

Some people love surprises. Some people are spontaneous, willing to drop everything and switch directions on a whim. I am not one of these people and I never have been.

I'm planner, a worrier. I have contingencies for my contingencies. A rapid change of plans? Forget about it. I've worked for a major US airline since before 9/11, but even when security wasn't like it is now, I never just hopped on a plane on the spur of the moment. I never got bumped off of one flight and decided to go somewhere else instead. That's not how I roll.

So one morning while I was home—still in my pajamas and drinking coffee—the cell phone rings. It's my dad. He talked to the painter and he'd be over in 90 minutes to take a look around.

Panic!

First thing I did was jump in the shower. After I got out, I ran around trying to make the house look presentable. I'm taking rooms apart as I try to get rid of junk and it was mass chaos everywhere you looked.

But I've also got chaos exploding in my brain. My planned out day is now shot to hell and I'm mentally scrambling to reorganize some sort of schedule. This is absolutely the kind of thing that I hate—spontaneous events. Blech!

I don't even like good surprises. As a kid, I always hunted down my Christmas presents no matter where my parents hid them. I had to know what I was getting. It wasn't so much impatience as my need to never be taken by surprise. For real. I was usually okay with anything I got for the holiday, so it didn't matter to me what I found, I just needed to see it.

Is there any woman alive who thinks it's a good thing to get a phone call saying that someone is coming over in 90 minutes when it looks like the house has been ransacked? I didn't think so. :-) This was definitely in the bad surprise category.

Surprises

I think I've talked before about how my characters continually surprise me. No matter how well I think I know them, there always seems to be something I didn't anticipate or know about until later.

Examples:

Damon from Ravyn's Flight didn't tell me he had a traumatic experience in his military career--something he blames himself for--until I was halfway through the book. I had to go through and add all the foreshadowing later.

Ryne from In the Midnight Hour had a strong aversion to getting involved with humans. I knew that before I wrote one word in the story, but I didn't know why. I didn't even bother to ask why because I just figured the Gineal steered clear of them or something. A few weeks before I wrote the scene that revealed why she feels this way, she finally told me. My immediate response? I don't want to write this. I wasn't given a choice and Ryne was right. Without that semi-flashback scene, the information lacks the kind of punch the reader needs to feel to understand why she's so adamant.

I could come up with other examples from older books, but I had a new one arise in the Work In Progress (WIP).

Shona Blackwood is absolutely gorgeous. Super model gorgeous, but then all the Blackwoods are that attractive. The surprise for me came early in the story--Shona is awkward around men.

Totally shocked me.

I didn't realize it at first as I worked on the scene where she meets Logan. I just thought at the time that the awkwardness was something I was doing wrong. I did some cutting and reworking and then some more. I mulled. And then out of the blue, the information came. Her actions and reactions in the scene seem awkward because she's feeling awkward. I can't believe I didn't figure that one out quicker.

My excuse, I guess, would be that I didn't even consider that someone who looks like Shona would be a geek. She likes going out to clubs, she likes dancing with the guys who ask her to do so, but there are two things at work in the scene that made her uncomfortable.

The first is that she's attracted to Logan. The other guys were just dance partners. The second thing is that those dance partners didn't really require much in the way of conversation from her, certainly nothing more than some mindless small talk, but she's in a situation where she needs a little more to say.

Before I learned of her geekiness, I was having trouble relating to Shona. This made it much easier.

I like surprises like this. :-)

One last side note: Someone posted some links to blog posts that talk about the market and one of the things she said was something along the lines of "demons being the new vampire" and that editors are seeing too much of that.

I was like, whoa! When I first talked to my agent in 2004 about my idea of a hero and heroine who were both half demon, she said it would be a hard sell in romance, but that if I wanted to do it as fantasy, it would be easier. It was at that same conference that I discussed being part of the Crimson City series with one of my editors, and a few weeks later, when I discovered the story he wanted me to write was already taken, I pitched him my half demon idea. The rest is history. :-)

I just have to laugh about the whole thing--from hard to sell to a glut in less than 4 years. Amazing. And I feel slightly smug and very relieved to know I was on the cutting edge.

I better hurry up and get a proposal together for this other idea I have before it stops being unique.

Say What?

The last two mornings as I drove to work, I've been very cognizant of the bridges I drive over. I'm not scared, I don't hesitate, but I do think about it. Of course, it doesn't help that one of the electronic traffic alert signs announces that 35W is closed at a certain point. A reminder of what happened--as if we needed it.

I turned on coverage of the bridge collapse as soon as I got home from work yesterday and watched for hours. I'd intended to get all my email answered--I even spent nearly my whole lunch hour trying to get caught up--but I couldn't reply to anyone while I had the news on. I finally forced myself to turn on a baseball game and watch something happier, then I could get to email.

It was one of those nights where as soon as I thought I was done and could go to bed, something else that had to be handled would crop up. I didn't make it all the way through email, but I'm almost caught up.

Now for something completely different.

Do writers really believe that it's okay to do research from FICTIONAL sources???

I put my request for dragon information out on one of my writers' loops and half the people who replied (okay, it was only two, but still...) suggested I read fictional sources!!! =8-O

That stunned me. Absolutely, totally floored me. I thought it was basic, elementary knowledge that you never, ever used fictional work as the basis for any kind of research and yet these people suggested it as if everyone does it. What? Okay, some don't believe dragons are real and that everything about them is made up, but still this isn't right.

Do they not understand that 1) the author who wrote the fictional work might not have used reliable sources in her research or that she might not have researched at all? 2) that even if she did solid research that she might have changed things and/or made things up to fit her paranormal world? 3) that building off someone else's imagination is wrong?

If we'd done a research paper in school--yes, even on dragons--and tried to use a fictional novel as a source, we'd have received a failing grade. That doesn't change when you're an adult. Research should be from non-fictional sources ONLY and always verified with multiple sources.

I was so appalled that any writer at any point in their journey believes it's okay to use a novel for research. Gah!

Surprises In the Midnight Hour

Wow. Yesterday I had a huge, heavy box from Tor. The only thing I could think was that it was ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) of In the Midnight Hour, but I was sure I must be wrong because I know most houses don't send their authors many ARCs. I opened it up and it was ARCs! A boatload of them! I'm still amazed and trying to figure out what to do with so many. I started soliciting opinions, then I realized that I better email the publicity woman at my publisher and coordinate with her so that I don't mail them to the same places she does. I have a few review sites that I want to hit and I was reminded of bookstores, but I'm sure Tor mails to both as well.

It was like Christmas last night with this box of pretty ARCs and they had my back cover copy on them, which I thought was really good and doesn't give away one of the secrets. Although I'm sure more than one reviewer will give that away since it's revealed in chapter 2 and my understanding is if it happens in the first three chapters, it's fair game. Ah, well, I console myself with the fact that most people don't read reviews and will be surprised.

One of my favorite memories about this proposal is one of my writing buddies shrieking over email when she read the scene with the secret. I want my readers to (hopefully) have that same kind of experience and if reviewers give it away, it'll ruin that. Ah, well, there's really nothing I can do about that, but hope for the best. BTW, this is the one element that most editors couldn't wrap their mind around, so there you go.

PEARLs

Yesterday, the PEARL Award nominees were announced. For those of you unfamiliar with this award, it comes from readers of paranormal romance. I believe subscribers from five email loops and a MySpace group eligible to nominate. TBH, I'd kind of forgotten the announcement was coming--maybe because I didn't expect to receive a nomination. I was wrong.

Eternal Nights was nominated for Best Futuristic!!! Whoo hoo!!!

I think maybe the fact that it was so unexpected made it even more exciting that it would have been normally. :-) Even the way I found out was kind of unexpected. I was checking out the Dorchester forums and another author had posted that she, a second author and myself had finaled.

The announcement had been made on the loops and a bulletin had been sent out on MySpace, but I'm no mail or on digest on nearly all my loops and I get so many bulletins, that if it didn't come within about 15 minutes of when I'm on the site, it's probably off my home page. I almost never go in and look at the full list of bulletins. Heck, I confess, sometimes I don't even glance at the bulletins that are on my home page because I get so many from the same people.

So anyway, once I did have my hands on the list and after I had sent it to my EN editor, the publicity/promo woman and my agent, I just sat there and stared at it. And grinned. It was a fabulous surprise and almost made me forget the unbearably cold temps here in MN. Almost. ;-)

To check out the complete list of finalists, visit the ParaNormal Romance website.