New Toy

I should not be allowed out without supervision. Things like this happen when I am:


For size comparison, it's laying across the back of my black leather jacket. So, small for sword, but perfectly sized for me. (or kiddo, when she's old enough)

This beauty is thanks to the amazing crew at Badger Blades. In fact, between hubby and I, we own nine of their blades. (That's nine we can remember, sitting here off the top of our heads. If I actually went and looked in the back room, it might be more) Suffice to say, hubby has a spot of honor on their website.

Yarr Matey

Spent the weekend at the local Renaissance Festival, and yes, we are some of those crazy people that go in costume. This year, I decided I was a pirate. And through some miracle, we got kiddo in a dress. The pics were taken with a cell phone, so they're a bit grainy, but I liked them.





And lookit this. I'm so doomed when she's a few years older. Can somebody please put a book on my child's head so she stops growing up?

The Blinking Cursor of Doom

I sit here and I stare at it, and I swear, it's mocking me.

It's strange how I have faced extensive rewrites (book 2 was scrapped at 68,000 words and started fresh), major copy edits, NaNoWriMo on multiple occasions, and yet nothing is quite so daunting as a blank page, and that one little lonely black line. Sitting there. Blinking at me.

I think it's the unknown. The sheer overwhelming possibility of it all. Will it be a poem? A witty blog post? A dissertation on the feminist imagery on boxes of athlete's foot ointment? It could be anything!

What if it wants to be a novella, and I force it to be a dirty limerick? Or what do I do if my iambic pentameter novel-length epic poem turns into commercial jingle parodies? There are just so many ways this could go wrong.

It's not so bad, once you get the first line down. Even the first word. Then the page isn't blank anymore, and it's not staring at you all expectant like. You get the first few marks on the page, and it's tamed, ready to be molded into whatever shape you have.

But right now, what I have is a blank page, and a blinking cursor of doom. So I sit, and the cursor blinks at me, and buried under the sheer enormity of what might be, nothing is.

Wow, that sounded really deep.

I feel like I should find a video of college guys lighting farts on fire or something, just to counter it all.

Announcement

Okay, now that I've teased you all for almost a week...

I am extremely pleased and excited to announce that I am now represented by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown Ltd. She's amazing, and enthusiastic, and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next!

Now, some of you might be saying, "Wait, didn't you already have an agent?" And yes I did. It was with great sadness that he and I decided to part ways. There was no drama, nobody did anything wrong, it was just one of those things that sometimes happens.

So now, we move forward! Boldly going or something.

Fan Art!

Just wanted to share with y'all my very first fan art! These were drawn by one very talented fan who has followed me on Twitter for a long time (and turns out, is a really awesome guy!)



I totally admit, I asked him to draw the chibi Axel.

Changing Times

A quick update today just to let folks know that there's some changes going on in my writing life. I'll talk about it more when I can, when things are finalized, but for the moment, if I seem a wee bit distracted, that's why.

Don't worry, it's not bad news about the JJD series. Wouldn't want to scare y'all like that. It's other stuff, the writing stuff you don't see that all goes on behind the scenes. Secret ninja publishing stuff. Or something.

I will let you guys know when things settle, and we will all be able to do the dance of joy together.



Also, things learned this week: It is physically impossible for me to type my new book title without screwing it up. I wonder what that means.

And the title is...

...wait for it... You know you wanna wait for it...

You're all going to kill me, aren't you?

Okay, the title of book 3 (for now anyway) is... Drum roll... Are you rolling the drum? Yeah, thought so. DRUM ROLL!

A WOLF AT THE DOOR!

You will find no actual wolves in this book, however. It's a totally metaphorical wolf. That may or may not have a blond mohawk. Just sayin'.

Thanks to a really awesome Purgy for coming up with the title for me. It worked great!