Whoo-hoo!  After many months of waiting and trying desperately to be patient, I just got two contracts for my new series in the Cobblestone Press Wicked line: ICE BLACK and ICE RED. These books were formerly titled ICY HOT 1 & 2 or ARCTIC HEAT. Got the lovely new title suggestions from my writer friend, Fiona Jayde (thanks, Fi!).

These books are shifter stories that take place in an arctic research facility and involve some sexual discovery. Both are menages, the 2nd includes BDSM elements. Yes, I know, very new and very hot for me!

(HINT: if you join my newsletter group, you can read the first chapter to both of these stories. I had included them in past newsletters, and you should still be able to access them once you join)

I am so super excited to have these two books contracted. Now I can start thinking about working on the third in the series. I didn’t want to spend time on the next book unless I knew I had contracted the other two.

I’m glad to say the folks at Cobblestone Press seemed thrilled with what I’ve done.

Can’t wait to get the process rolling. I’m DYING for some new cover art. And I know CP will give me some GREAT cover art. YES!

Will give more details as I find them out. I have no clue where CP is in the scheduling of things. I’m hoping I don’t have to wait too long.

Now, more than ever, I need to get cracking on the stories I’m in the middle of. Funny how a new contract (or TWO in my case) will rev up your creativity and really get you ready to write. YES!

I woke up yesterday and noticed that the leaves are starting turn outside. Just a bit of yellow here and a tiny bit of red there. I love and hate autumn.

Love it, because the colors are beautiful. And we have a spectacular view where I live. When we get to peak colors, there is nothing more gorgeous. Hate it, because there won’t be anymore leaves on the trees and it all goes so quickly. Within a few weeks, the world goes from a riot of colors to nothing but bare branches.

For the first month or two, the bare branches are okay. I can see things I couldn’t see during the summer - houses tucked behind a row of maples or roads twisting through the mountains, up and up and up. Things are exposed. Different.

But usually by December or January, I am wishing for the cloak of green.

Right now, though, I will look forward to the coming fall season. I’ll hope for some of those sunny days with the bright blue skies that seem almost too blue to be real. I want time to slow down. I want to be able to take it all in and remember how beautiful it can be, before the dead of winter sets in.

Sometimes I wonder if my tendency to watch real crime shows comes from my writer self or from some other place. I don’t like “CSI” or “Cold Case” or “Law & Order.” But I do like shows about real crimes - “48 Hours: Hard Evidence,” “American Justice,” or “Cold Case Files.” I also really get into medical mystery shows and the show about drug addicts, “Intervention.”

What in the hell is wrong with me?

Most of the time these shows are horridly disturbing. You hear about the worst of the worst. Awful things. Tragic stories and screwed up lives. But, yet, I always go back for more.

It’s been this way as long as I can remember. I used to snag “Reader’s Digest” out of my mom’s room when I was 9 or 10, reading the true life stories about bear attacks, survivors of explosions, plane crash victims, shark attacks. I couldn’t get enough.

And when I try to self-analyze, the only thing I can come up with is that I find it fascinating to delve into the human psyche to find out why. Why did the killer do these horrible things? Why did one person survive being lost in the woods for a week, but not someone else? What makes people do the things they do?

But these shows always have the element of the awful in them.

You’d think I’d also watch shows like “A Baby Story” or “A Wedding Story” or any number of ‘happy’ real tv shows out there. I’m a romance writer, for heaven’s sake!

But I like my romance to be fictional. The perfect story. With people I like and want to read about. Fantasy romance.

Yeah, I’m a freak.

I was doing the old IM thing with my writing buddy, Dee Carney, yesterday. We chat about everything under the sun, but many times we do some on the fly brainstorming. Helping each other out when we get stuck. Encouraging each other to finish our latest projects.

Yesterday, I was telling Dee about an idea I’d had over a year ago for a book. A fun, fantasy romance. Cute, fun, but sexy. And as I was describing the idea to her, the brainstorming took off. And she encouraged me to drop my Iniquity book and pick this one up, because clearly the ideas and enthusiasm were rolling.

So, that’s what I did. I opened up a text file and went to town. By the end of the day, I had 3700 words!

The goal is for this to be rather short. Around 15K. I suppose it could end up longer, but right now, that seems to be where it’s heading.

Funny how some ideas, some books just flow out. Like water. With barely any effort. The secondary characters appear as I write the story. Taking shape, coming to life. It’s like I’m watching the movie and taking notes. So interesting how the creative mind works.

This also reminds me that just because I don’t feel “ready” to write a story doesn’t necessarily mean I *can’t* write it. There is a subconscious thing that takes place with an idea. You mull over it for a long time. Looking at it from many angles. Adding little bits and pieces in your head as you go. But from inside, it looks like that - bits and pieces. Disjointed. Unfinished.

But then, when you choose to write (or are prompted by a wonderful friend!), you realize the story is there, ready to be born. It just needed some paper.

I’m hoping this is one of those books that just flies out of my head. At the pace I’m going, it will be done in a week. And that would just be amazing.

There’s a lot of stuff that runs through my mind when I’m writing a book. First and foremost, I think I focus on the plot. If you don’t have a good story to follow, no one will care about anything else.

But as I was tweaking my full-length book last night, I began to think about characters. What makes them interesting. What makes them real. What makes them likeable or unlikeable. What makes them ‘too stupid to live’ (TSTL).

From a couple of beta readers, there was some character tweaking I had to do. Funny part was, it seemed that all I needed to do was soften up a few places .At least, I hope that’s all I needed to do. Wasn’t like I had to completely rewrite a character or scrap the whole book.

(although I must admit, there was a time on Monday when I just thought to myself: this is too much work to save!)

Anyway, it just made me start thinking about characters and how there needs to be focus on so many things in a book: the writing, the story, the characters, the believability of everything. To get the balance right is difficult.

Thank God when I have a new idea, the idea keeps me going. The excitement in putting that down on paper. If I thought about this careful balance of parts, I’d probably never type another word again.

OMG, I *love* Supernatural. I think you already knew that from my previous Hottie of the Week, Jensen Ackles. Le sigh.

But this season is going to ROCK. This is the best show on television that no one’s watching. It gets decent numbers for the CW, I think. But it should be up there with LOST. It’s unfortunate that such a great show is relegated to such a small network which is better known for teen fare.

I love the people who write this show. It’s not just the plots that are fun, but the dialogue. The dialogue and characters is what makes this show a gem.

So, last night was the season premiere. And it just blew me away. Everything about the show was changed, and I can hardly wait to tag along for the ride. If you’re not watching this show, get thee to Netflix and rent the first three seasons. Catch up while you can! You won’t be disappointed.

Two hot brothers tracking down supernatural nasties. What’s not to love?

Last night I got ‘back in the saddle’ so to speak. Just a few days after finishing my full-length book, I knew I needed to pick a project and dive in. Get my mind on something else. Move forward with more submissions. Forget about beta readers, agent requests, etc.

I opened up my file for my shifter story called SHAKE YOUR MONEYMAKER. I had 6000 words already. Good place to start. And dang if that story isn’t pretty damn good!

I don’t remember it being that fabulous. But there was some good stuff in there. I reworked a little bit of it because the plot had shifted some. But then I added on a good 1500 words last night.

It felt good.

The hardest thing was that I had to leap right into a hot-and-heavy sex scene. But it worked! Smoking hot, I tell you. How nice that my characters obeyed and did what they were told. In a couple different positions.

One thing I think some epubs want is sex much sooner in the story than maybe I would think necessary. Which is sometimes hard for me. I really enjoy building sexual tension between characters. But I knew if I focused too much on the story and not enough on the romance/sex part, my options for submission would be limited.

You have to think that way when you’re writing to fit a particular publisher’s tastes.

So I let go a little bit and just went for it.

It’s a fun little story about a shifter bank robber in the Arizona town of Iniquity and the unexpected sexy customer he finds inside. Whee!

I would love to just plow through this baby in the next week or so. My goal is 25K. Anything between 20K and 25K would be great. If I do 1500 words a day, it should take 11 days to finish up. Let’s hope I can keep up that pace.

I am someone who will purposefully pick a book or a movie knowing it will make me cry. Sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority on this.

So many times I read blog posts or comments about wanting a happy ending, refusing to read an author who doesn’t give one, or avoiding films because the ending is not going to be all roses and chocolates for the characters.

To me, that is so boring. Sorry!

If every book I picked up and every movie I watched had a happy ending guarantee, where would be the surprises? Where would be the emotional highs and lows? Where would be the true humanity behind the characters?

Last night I watched a Japanese animated film from about 20 years ago called “Grave of the Fireflies.” It was an absolutely touching film about a 14-year-old boy and his 4-year-old sister, alone in Japan during World War II trying to survive. His mother is dead. His father’s gone in the Navy. And he has no relatives willing to take him in.

A real heartbreaker. But oh the joy of the human spirit I found in this film. The dedication of one boy to his young sibling…the only true family he has left. And what he tries to do to keep his sister alive…

I’ve never been so emotionally touched watching an animated film.

It was that real to me.

Happy endings are wonderful. Of course I enjoy them! Of course I want to have them most of the time. But sometimes I liked to be slapped in the face with reality. I think because it makes me analyze my own life that much more closely. It puts me in touch with feelings I don’t have access to most of the time. With great sorrow can also come great joy.  And those moments of great joy aren’t as sweet when the ending is guaranteed to be happy.

What about you? Will you watch a film or read a book that doesn’t promise that happy ending?

Miracle of miracles…my full-length book is DONE!  My stomach is a mass of nervous energy right now. I have emailed it off to my beta readers and am hoping to get some feedback soon to see how I did.

I’ve never felt so positive about a book I’ve written before. I’m sure it has some things I need to fix…every book does. But I had a different feeling when I finished this book than others I’ve written.

This time, I thought more about the character relationships and what would make for some really good conflict and angst. Gotta torture those characters pretty darn good before you get to that pay off.

So, wish me luck. I can manage some criticism, as long as I know I’m going down the right path. I can fix whatever it is that might be broken.

Now if I could just get over this book and move on to something new!

**A bit spoilery. You’ve been warned.**

I’m a big fan of LOST and the first couple of years of ALIAS. In other words, I like what JJ Abrams has been up to in tv land over the last few years. (wasn’t so hot on the “Cloverfield” thing, though)

So, last night, I was pumped up to watch his latest endeavor, FRINGE.

Things I liked:

1) Anna Torv - she’s like the poor man’s Cate Blanchett. She’s utterly watchable and the camera loves her face. I think she did a pretty good job with the American accent and playing a sympathetic leading lady.

2) Joshua Jackson - I never watched Dawson’s Creek, so I don’t bring any feelings or bias from that show. I absolutely LOVED him. Sympathetic nice guy with secrets and a strange father-son relationship to explore. He managed to show his attraction for Anna Torv’s character in a very subtle believable way. There’s a gold mine of sexual tension in that man…don’t let me down writers!  Oh, and he had some of the best lines of the night.

3) Crazy science dad - Loved his character. An oddball with a strange sense of what’s right and wrong. Can’t wait to see him develop over the season.

4) Pow of an ending - they got me with the boyfriend, John’s, involvement in all of this ‘pattern’ stuff. But they got me even more when they wheeled his dead body away and Ms. Terminator Arm talked about questioning him…hello reanimation! Can hardly wait to see what they do with this…

Things I didn’t like so much:

1) I will admit it, sometimes I can get confused in the plot. Some movies I’ve had to rewatch a few times before I got all the complexities of the plots. And this show was no exception. Two things I didn’t get–what was John’s relationship to the twin and why did that make him ‘bad’ and want to kill the guy?  and how was the invisible skin thing related to what happened in the plane? oh, one more thing…why did the other brother release whatever he released on the plane????  I didn’t get that. The plane mystery seemed left as a loose end that never got tied up…but I don’t get why. If someone wants to explain these plot points to me, I’d be most grateful.

2) A few shoddy storytelling moments that didn’t work for me…the strange idea that only the son could have access to his father. Um, if you’re locked up for being a nutjob and for crimes of some kind, I would think law enforcement could have access to you at any time. The other one was how easy it was for the son to sign out the dad from the mental ward. Maybe I misunderstood why the dad was in the asylum in the first place. Oh, and the lab that was shuttered for 17 years became usable in a shocking amount of time.

3) The ease with which they managed to move a severely ill man. Oh, and then they were able to stop wearing all the gowns and stop following hospital safety precautions for some unknown reason.

I’m guessing these complaints can be explained as necessary in order to move the story forward fast enough. But I think it might have been more interesting if the crazy science dad didn’t have his whole lab in place within a matter of moments. They still could have done the experiments and the cure without having to be in the exact same lab he used to work out of with all the same exact equipment. They could’ve create some adrenaline laced scene of them ’stealing’ John from the hospital and getting him to the lab.

But I’m okay with these mistakes, because I was still entertained and still surprised several times by the story. I’m not sure if all writers are this way, but I get bored very quickly with procedural shows like L & O and CSI and Cold Case. The storytelling pattern is repeated over and over and over until I can guess the bad guy the minute the show starts. Some tv viewers find that to be a good thing. They like to have their expectations met the same way each and every week.

I like shows that have unpredictable storylines that follow less of a pattern. I like serialized shows like LOST, 24, even Ugly Betty, which don’t wrap up neatly each and every week. And FRINGE seems to fit in there.

Looking forward to seeing how this show shapes up over the coming season.