The
Liar's
Diary

Patry Francis' novel debuts today! Patry is battling cancer and unable to get out and promote her book, so several hundred writers are doing it for her. You can click on the book to buy it at amazon.
You can check out her blog and her website to learn more about the book. Or take a look at this trailer:



So, do yourself a favor. Go get this book.

Working Under Pressure

I've had so much going on that I've really slacked off with the writing. Part of it is that I don't have anything really pressing. I still have nine months to write the next contracted book and it's already started so I'm not worried about that. I just heard that I'll be getting another contract in a few weeks and that book will be due in about a year.
Then I realized that I have edits coming in February for the August release. And I really want to get the current WIP finished by June so I can finish the next contracted book by August, because that will only leave me 5 months to write the book that I'm getting the contract for in a few weeks. Plus July and August will be busy with promoting the August release.
Yikes!
I better get busy.
In order to jump start the writing I signed up for Mary Castillo's Book In A Week challenge. Of course none of us will really write a whole book in a week, but we've all committed to a certain amount of pages or words. I'm lagging a little behind. OK, a LOT behind. But it's got me writing again. I'm a little worried that it's all crap. But, hey, I can edit crap.
I've always been the kind that works well under pressure. When I was doing production art (the old-fashioned way with an X-acto knife and a waxer), I was the one who always had to paste up the huge sale liner page while the delivery person was cooling his jets in the lobby. In high school, I usually spent the winter break in the library writing the paper that was due on January 2nd. Of course, I couldn't think of a better place to spend two weeks than in a huge building full of books.
I've tried to establish a more consistent schedule. I've made plans to write a little each day and clean a little each day so that it all gets done. But, it never happens. I'll write all day for several days, then spend an entire day cleaning the house. There must be something to that saying that leopards don't change their spots.

New Book Cover

I tried to post the cover on the sidebar, but for some reason Blogger stretched it out. I'll have to work on it later. But for now, I'll put it here. I think it evokes the feel of the story really well, and it fits with the other covers in the series.
Getting a new book cover is always fun. Of course getting the box of books from the publisher is even better!

Back to the drawing board

Yesterday, Erica Orloff blogged about POV and it got me to thinking about my current WIP. I've started it in third person. But I keep thinking that maybe I need to do first person. But there's information that needs to come from another person's POV, so then I'd have to do first and third. I don't really have a problem with that. James Patterson and other authors do it, so why not me? But most of the books in this genre are written in first person.

So, I've been stuck. Added to that -- I don't have a complete outline yet. And I LIKE outlines. So, as I was thinking about her post and about my WIP, I realized that I just don't know enough about where I'm going with this. It's a new genre for me. Well, a new sub-genre.

I love the premise and the story line so far. So much so, that I've been trying to skip some necessary steps in developing the story. So, I think I need to stop writing the WIP and do some thinking, write some notes, figure it out. Actually it's a relief to have an idea of where I've gone wrong.