Cover - Rogue Wolf

I'm proud to present the cover for Rogue Wolf:

The cover for my first book! It's still hard to believe. :D

Rogue Wolf will be available in ebook format from Dreamspinner Press this Spring. Oh! And my name and official author bio now appear on the Dreamspinner author list as well. Awesome!

Tags: space opera, gay romance, novella, rogue wolf, cover.

Rogue Wolf's Final Stages

I have seen the final version of the cover and it is gorgeous! I'm so happy with it. It's so much what I wanted and damn, I think it's sexy! I'll share it here as soon as I can.

Now, I can't just spend my week fawning over Rogue Wolf's cover. I have a galley to review! :D

I'll update my blog with the release date once the fine folks at Dreamspinner let me know a finalized date. I feel like it's getting so close now! Nobody pinch me, I don't want to wake up. ;)

Tags: process, rogue wolf.

Continuing on the Road to Publication

A lot of exciting things have been happening in the last couple of months relating to Rogue Wolf!

So far, it still looks like my very first novella will be a spring release. I got the sketch for my cover, which is being done by the same artist that did the cover for one of my favorite m/m romance novels. I'm so excited to see the finished look, as the sketch alone is amazing! It's so close to what I'd pictured in my mind for my dream cover for this book, but honestly I think the layout of elements is even better than what I'd envisioned. The title font alone is perfection, and that's not even speaking for the rest of it!

I'm still working through a round of edits this week, which is rather interesting. Apparently I have a lot of leaps of logic, but nothing so crazy that I can't work through it now that it's been pointed out to me. Reading through the edits for the first time was kind of uncomfortable, but I'm glad they're not asking me to change any major plot or character elements. I didn't know what to expect at all when going into this outside of experiences I've read about from other authors, but the editing process so far isn't really painful at all.

I think I'd been in a little bit of shock and denial about Rogue Wolf's eventual publication even after signing the contract and getting things under way. Even after writing up my official author bio and approving the story's blurb... it didn't really start to hit home that this is one-hundred-percent happening until I got the edits.

WOW I still can't believe this is happening, but I'm so excited that it is! I can't wait for Trent and Vince's story to be available to anyone who wants to read it! :D

Tags: editing, process, space opera, novella, rogue wolf.

Finishing What I Start

My husband and mother often point out that one of my biggest flaws is my inability to finish most projects. Now, while I think half the time they do this out of some brand of frustration, I do know that they also want to use those little nudges to push me onward. They want to see me succeed. A little reverse psychology never hurt anyone, right? ;)

The older I get, the more frustrated I get with myself when I see that I'm not finishing my works in progress. It could be writing or knitting or crochet. Sometimes it's not even "craft" related exactly. Regardless, I have a problem with putting too many irons in the fire at a time and not seeing everything through to completion. But, what I'm happy to see, is that I've been getting better about this little problem over the past year or so. The fact that I now have a few publishing credits is a case in point!

What works for me is the back burner. It's okay to put stuff on the back burner so long as you are prepared to revisit said stuff and make a decision about whether or not it's a dish worth spicing up or something that needs to be tossed. And now it's time for me to put a couple of projects on the back burner and bring an old pot to the front of the figurative stove. This year I'm gearing up, as I said in a previous post, to finish my fantasy pirate m/m romance novel A Prince's Ransom. I started writing this story back in 2007 and I finally figured out how to get my main characters through a bad situation so they can get their happily ever after!

I knew I'd have to chop out some of the story I'd already written, which always makes me cringe, but luckily it's only about 1,300 words. It will be very worth it. Like pruning a plant so it can have a happier and healthier future.

Plotting is now my friend, and I wouldn't start writing any long fiction without a plot anymore! Because, while the back burner method is great... I just can't stand the idea of waiting three years for a plot epiphany every time I get stuck.

Tags: novel, a prince's ransom, process, writing, gay romance, fantasy.

Sirens and Demons oh my!

Siren's Charge, one of my short stories, is a good example of a piece that's gone through a long, difficult journey into being the story it is today. It was plucked from a longer work and groomed, extended and shaped until it told the tale it needed to tell. And now it is proudly on display in the current issue of Drops of Crimson!

I'm so happy to see this story published as I'd had many mixed opinions of it from critique groups and beta readers. Some felt it needed to go back to being the start of a longer work. Others thought it was fine as is. Still others had suggestions for significant changes to the flow of the story. But I got to a point where I was happy with Siren's Charge and figured I'd give it a shot at publication before retiring it for a few more years.

I'm glad I gave it a chance and I'm even more glad Drops of Crimson did too!

Tags: short story, submission, siren's charge, acceptance!, urban fantasy.

Work in Progress Wednesday #19

A WIP Wednesday! Oh my!

This week's baby steps back into a healthy writing habit have included getting Working Stiffs back out on submission, typing up handwritten plot notes for my current novel WIP (Miss Preston's Masquerade) and working on a new flash story to hopefully appear as part of #fridayflash this week. Definitely a more organizational type of week, but I think getting everything together in some semblance of order is important. It's like getting your utensils and pots and ingredients out before you cook.

I've also done some thinking on which projects I need to cull from the herd. After taking a look at notes from my critique group on In Your Dreams, I've decided to permanently shelve that story. That's not to say I'll never want to tell those characters' stories, but I need to wait until I can/will do it well. A lot more world-building is involved than I thought for that project and it's not something I'd like to work on right now. I also realized that without major plot revamping, a couple smaller project ideas will go nowhere, so they've been put on the very, very back burner for now.

As the year comes to a close I start to think about my writing goals for the next year. 2009 has been an insanely good year so far as my writing life goes, and I hope to improve upon that awesomeness in 2010! One goal I will be setting for the upcoming new year is to finish one of my unfinished novels. I had an epiphany about how to continue writing Demon Catharsis (m/m urban fantasy romance with angels and demons oh my!) and I've attempted to brainstorm on how to fix a horrid plot kink in A Prince's Ransom (m/m romance with pirates arrr!). Both stories and casts of characters are near and dear to my heart.

P.S. I am aware of the fact that the tag search function is currently completely broken on my website. I'm still looking for a solution to the problem. Hopefully, however, commenting works again. :)

For more info about the wonderful WIP Wednesday phenomenon please check out Kate Karyus Quinn's blog. Share your weekly progress!

Tags: in your dreams, submission, a prince's ransom, process, writing, wip wednesdays, working stiffs, miss preston's masquerade.

Nano Fail, Publishing Win

This is the first year I didn't throw everything I had into writing my NaNoWriMo novel. I actually learned a lot about the kinds of stories that I really enjoy writing while avoiding writing The Lost Prince. I tapped out at about 12k words on this project and I doubt I'll be picking it up again any time soon unless the plot is given a major overhaul. Why? At 12k words into the story... there was no more angst. Okay, sure, the characters had their little internal conflicts. But those conflicts were majorly watered down and... kinda boring. I know plenty of people love writing (and reading!) fluffy little romantic romps, but I'm apparently not one of them.

I love buckets of character angst and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

However, NaNo fail aside, I do have some big news to share! In the last four weeks I've received not one, but two acceptance letters! The first was from Library of the Living Dead Press saying they will be including Melissa's Letter in their Letters from the Dead anthology. And today I received the news that has made my year: Dreamspinner Press will be publishing Rogue Wolf!!

Both publications are tentatively scheduled for a Spring 2010 release, but I'll keep my blog and site updated with new info on both as it becomes available.

I'm so excited!! :D

Tags: submission, acceptance!, flash fiction, novella, rogue wolf.