ANNOUNCEMENTS

VIRTUALLY HERS came out Oct. 2009. Get it at SAMHAIN Publishing. VIRTUALLY ONE coming soon.
VIRTUALLY HERS OUT IN PRINT AUG 2010.

I've also made available at Amazon BIG BAD WOLF a COS Commando book, an earlier manuscript about Killian Nicholas Langley. You can sample the first five chapters right here. EBOOK now available for KINDLE, NOOK, and at SMASHWORDS for $4.99.

I appreciate all your emails. If you'd like to buy Virtually His NEW, please contact me. Thank you.



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Big Bad Wolf Author's Note/CH. 1

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To read excerpts of VIRTUALLY HERS, scroll down & click on the links on the right.



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VIRTUALLY HERS UPDATE

VIRTUALLY HERS OUT IN PRINT AUG 2010! Discounted at Amazon!

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UPDATE: I SOLD THE SERIES TO SAMHAIN!

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Stop That Seductive Spy!

Mood today:



Shhh. Don't tell them but it's FUN (they are easily jinxed) watching the Braves again. I'm going to be at Atlanta next week and I hope they have a game in town because then I can finally see my favorite team play! It'll probably be sticky hot in Atlanta too, just right for a ball game ;-).

Now if only I can somehow get whatever water they are drinking in the dugout for my own creative burst...sigh. I need a good swing at the plate and get this prologue ball out of the field. Because I need to get back to Helen, you see. Because this is HER story too, you know. But does Muse listen? No... Muse wants Mr. Secret Trainer-Commando to take center stage.

This is going to be a really strange trilogy because this prologue is reshaping my whole planned focus. I have to embrace it because that's the way I write--seat of my pants, hold my breath, jump off the cliff, hope I fly. Sort of like this blogging thing everyday ;-).

Anyway, the Crossfire trilogy was an interesting learning experience. I wanted to see whether I could hold three stories together using a MacGuffin plot device. The idea was not to dump too much on the reader because I already have so much to tell and being limited to a certain number of pages, I have to choose which sub-plot on which to expand.

If you are a story-arc nerd and draw a diagram of the three books, you will find several ongoing plots:

1. the SEALs and their goal
2. the GEM/COS Command and their objective

-->1 and 2 working together

3. T and Alex
4. Jed (Stefan)

-->each of their "roles" within the covert objective and of course, their relationship with each other (esp. T and Alex). Ongoing arc of T and Alex because...hey, no room to tell everything! And what the hell does Jed do for fun anyway? ;-) And...and...and, has Jed slept with EVERY desirable female that crossed his path? ;-)

5. the different routes of human trafficking

-->different countries for each novel, different and same attitudes, cultural

6. Lily and the CIA

-->more a sidebar, besides the backstory of Lily's book, because I like to show that grayness in everything

7. the roles of the strategist, the leader and the sharpshooter.

8. the camaraderie of the SEALs

--> 7 and 8 are also sidebars, condiments, toppings, the things that make my heart sing. EXCEPT THAT A LOT OF IT GOT CUT IN ONE BOOK. Ahem.


9) The MacGuffin itself.

-->I could have written that sub-plot differently but it would have needed a lot more pages. As it stands, it became more personal from Book One, The Protector, to Book Three, Sleeping ***. I actually wanted to show Lily at the Summit and then you would have had a good peek of Jed in his magnificence :-) but I couldn't do it without an extra 3 chapters. And y'all know WHAT HAPPENED to almost 60 (three chapters) pages of words.... So instead, I used the MacGuffin as an emotional wave, building it and have it "crashed" over different characters through the book. Nice parallel with Reed's surfer-dude character, eh, even if I suddenly realized that myself? ;-P

Anyway, you see how fun it could be for me to break down my own stories and try to understand how my mind works. You understand I do this AFTER I wrote them, right? So, during the process itself, I was actually conducting the whole symphony with a blindfold. I hear the music but everything is from instinct.

So.

Now I'm trying to learn how to write a new kind of three-book series. There is no MacGuffin yet to move my plot along. The first book focused on the heroine because the hero was a mystery. The second book has decided to focus on the hero because...he is still a mystery. LOL. My original plan had been to have Hell unravel more of these interesting skeins, but so far...the hero is doing it for himself quite nicely, thank you verra much.

Oh, HELLLLLEN! I need you to wake up and start talking! Your darling man is taking over the story! He is the most seductive bastard I've ever met in my writing life and I mean it. He's just so damn tempting, showing me all the things that should be sub-plots and side-bars and trying to tease me into thinking that they are main courses. If this continues, it will be a 100,000 word prologue and what will my editor say to that?!

I need to drink the Braves' magic elixir and start hitting everything out of sight. That's my daily mantra these days. I need to start a winning streak.



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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I, for one, would never complain about a 100,000 word prologue. Keep it coming! While I know an editor's job is to trim the extraneous stuff to keep things moving, we readers want the story to last forever. And let me get this straight - you're complaining that your muse has you hurtling over the edge with your story almost writing itself (NOT that I'm minimizing your talent - it's damned difficult to write), albeit from his perspective rather than Helen's? We want to read it. Bring it on. Maybe if you get it out of your system you could post it for all of us to read, then get back to the stuff your editor wants you to write. . .
I love your style, I love the interplay between characters (in more ways than one)! Don't let your editor convince you to water down your plots or your character depth; too many of my favorite authors have started to do that, I suppose, to churn out more books. I won't name names, but I buy books I want to read again (and I have yours), but I borrow books I'm not sure about. (sorry so long.) Good luck!
Cecily

Kathleen Dante said...

What *would* your editor say about that? Personally, I'm hoping it would be something along the lines of "Four-book series, huh?" =)

Anonymous said...

OOOOOOH. I wouldn't mind in the least if there was a 100,000 words in your prologue. Sigh. Seductive Bastard Huh? Imagine him doing something that would embarrass him, and how the heroine would react. For some reason when I can't get the groove on, something along those lines always helps. Even if it doesn't make the story it brings the heroine into the picture and sometimes you can branch off from there
~Athena

Gennita said...

Thank you, Cecily ;-). I have to learn to write under a deadline (not good at this), which is not conducive to freeform writing! LOL. But a 100000 word prologue will definitely give my editor a heart attack!

Ah Lisa,
I can't write 100,000 then have a first chapter! Heehee, tempting as it is to do that. There's this little contract I signed ;-) that I must adhered to.... Anyway, will try to make everyone, including Muse, happy.

Kathleen,
You really think you're going to get all Jed all the time, don't you? LOL. I'm not going to tell you, girlfriend. Nope!

Athena,
That's the problem, sweetie. Heroine isn't showing up at ALL. This prologue is all about the hero and his bad youthful days. It can get out of control if I continue down this road and heroine WILL be mad because I'll be ignoring her!

Anonymous said...

Is there anything in your contract that says whatever your editor cuts out but you want in, you can post on a blog specially for these "Jenn cut-outs"?

Is there anywhere in your contract that says anything you write about your characters which, for whatever reason, you can't fit into the book, you can post on that blog?

Just wondering coz I really do want to read EVERYTHING you write about your characters! And I DEFINITELY want to read EVER REE THINGG about that 'seductive bastard'.

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