Rafe finally moved in for the kill, so to speak, by sweeping my leg and pinning down to the floor. He’s straddling me with while pinning down both my hands. “So I’ve read all the tween books and watched all the John Hughes movies, and I fervently believe now is when you are suppose to declare your undying love to me.” Rafe declared as he shot me his wicked grin.
As I look up at this god I have been crushin on since I met him, I can’t help but give him a little grief for his chosen method of trying to determine my feelings. “I don’t know what books and cinema you have been using to conduct your research on a teenage girl’s psyche, but the heroine declaring her epic love after Chop Socky movie doesn’t seem real accurate.”
He leans down plants the sweetest kiss on my laughing mouth before he goes in for the kill. With his free hand he starts to tickle me as he taunts, “Tell me you love me, come on…I know you do… Just admit it and I will stop torturing you.” I squirm and squeal like someone has applied an electric current to my body. And my only coherent response is, “Stop it…Stop it…Stop it…STOP IT!” Rafe final relents and rolls me over so I am now on top of him and as he kisses his way up my neck and to my ear he whispers huskily in my ear, “Is ‘Stop it’ the new ‘I love you’ in human girl speak?”
I put a hand on each side of his darling face and look deep into his sparkling hazel eyes as I assure him, “No. ‘Shut Up!’ is the new password protected ‘I love you’ in Muse speak. So Shut the Flock Up!” Then, I proceed to kiss him breathless.
The rest of the evening was conversation and make-out session included a witty dialog of “Shut up…No you Shut up…No you shut up….I told you to shut up first…” I firmly believe that I have come up with the sneakiest way to express my feeling for Rafe while still keeping us under the radar—although Rafe still maintains that Stop it is the more romantic term of endearment.
Sorry everyone for the delay...I am juggling 2 jobs right now which is keeping me swamped--I am still plugging away though. I will start posting excerpts to the blog until I can get the whole draft to my editor. So start looking for those in the next week or so....
Last summer I took a road trip to Detroit to check out all the locations in Book 1. It was a blast although when I was taking pics in Calli's neighborhood...I definitely got some very odd looks....like who is this creeper taking pictures of my house.
So I am off to scout my new locations so I can add some final details to Book
2. Some of the action is going to take place in the old Mansions in Detroit-
http://experiencedetroit.com/greatestates.htm
-most of which are open for tours, so my road trip will be a little more safe than checking out abandoned factories and buildings. I also lost my phone last time, so I hoping no repeat performance of that disaster.
Wish me luck friends--definitely getting to be the home stretch for Book 2!
I entered Intrigue into Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest. 1st Round: 5,000 novels submitted; 2nd Round cuts to 1,000. I made it to the second round! Woot...Woot!!!! 3rd Round: is down to 250. I find out on March 20th....
Kinda has become my fav...
I got some form of The Plague on Wednesday night that is still knocking me out. However, being quarantined in my condo has inspired me to be Muse productive....at least on Saturday and Sunday. I found some new great Detroit websites (some of which make me sad for all the amazing history in Detroit in ruins). It was like going on a Detroit Internet scavenger hunt.
http://onlyndetroit.com/
http://detroiturbex.com/content/index.html
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_16229299
http://experiencedetroit.com/greatestates.htm
I also mapped out the final third of the book and tied most of the pieces together. Looks like I'm still on schedule for early May first draft and early June final draft. Of course, the first draft hassssss to be done by May 17th cause I'm going to Key West to recover for a week:)
Now, I'm off for a little Once Upon a Time break.............................
Here is just a short unedited preview from Soul Sacrifice: Book 2 of the Night Muse Trilogy
I was typing up a slightly snarky homecoming story when I heard a voice from behind me. "Ignoring then evading. Anything else in your Hell hath no fury like a Calliope in a Snit playbook?"
I just kept typing as I ground out, "I coulda went for jealousy, but you seem to be more than willing to hand me over to Apollo, so I spared Thrace any lingering hope he might have had for our relationship."
"Wise choice. Do you really think that comparing homecoming to the Westminster Dog Show is an appropriate metaphor?"
"It is clear you have not been to a DAI homecoming. It is the perfect metaphor, but not a printable metaphor, I guess."
"I will have to judge this for myself. Are you in need of an escort to these festivities?"
I looked up into his mischievous eyes and replied, "Do I need an escort? No, I do not. Would I like my boyfriend to come as my date? Yes."
He picked my hand up from the keyboard and brought it to his lips as he performed a low bow. "Calliope Edonides, will you be my date to homecoming?"
I grabbed the neck of his tee nestled under his oxford shirt and pulled him down for a kiss. "Took ya long enough." I didn't know if I was referring to the homecoming invitation or the kiss, but both had just made my day much, much better.
I am about 2/3 the way through my second installment of the The Night Muse Trilogy. I have added a couple new goddess to the mix: Eris and Enyo, but am curious to see if anyone has any favorites from Greek mythology that they would like to see make an appearance.
How the book really began was because of a persistent case of insomnia. I was crazy busy and walking in my door every night at 9-10pm. Generally, I use reading to tire my eyes out so I can get some rest, but it wasn't working. I always been the type of person that it takes a lot for my brain to shut down and nothing was working. So I decided to try getting down on paper the idea that was kicking around in my head. Now, I write reports, grants, and various other things for a living, so the last thing that I wanted to do at the end of the day was write some more! But it worked, I wrote 2 pages a night from about 10 to midnight and about 5 pages on the weekend. And slowly but surely, Intrigue: The Night Muse Trilogy was born.
I literally made every mistake a first-time writer could make. I bookended my story--I wrote the beginning, middle, and end. Then, it was time to connect them. Unfortunately, I chose to connect the middle to the end first. This meant that when I connected the beginning to the middle that any story detail that I changed in the beginning--I had to jump forward to make it match the ending parts--this added about a month to the process. I also learned that you had to make your lead character sympathetic and flawed. You want more of the outcast than the prom queen. I also learned that my pivotal moment in my story arc came to late. All these things had to be dealt with.
Then came the never ending process of editing. My first issue was that the average YA book is about 75,000 words. The first draft was 125,000. I edited the manuscript myself the first 2xs. I shortened the text to about 110,000 with the first 2 edits. Then, I talked my friend into editing for me. I thought she would have very little to edit. She was fantabulous and gave me back a bleeding red ink manuscript back. Apparently, writing form 10-Midnight makes me prone to typos and lack of question marks. I had at least 10 full edits before I felt comfortable with handing over the final draft of 96,000 words.
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