A Peek Into My Brain

How on earth do some people find something to say on a blog every single day? Especially super busy, super stressed people? I can barely think of something every week lately.

When you don't read blogs for 3 weeks, they pile up. Duh. And when you read "I can't believe it's Wednesday" and get excited, then realize it's really Monday, you're just way behind, well, that's sad.

I don't find as many stinkbugs as Vicki, but I have found one every couple of days for the last few weeks. My question: It's been 20 degrees or colder since before Christmas. Where the hell are they coming from?

I miss Doctor Who. And Supernatural. But that's coming back this week, and I have to wait wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too long for Doctor Who. And Torchwood.

I'm loving this:

It heats water so blazing fast, I've used it for a few weeks and it still delights me every time. :)

Two hours later and that's all I've come up with. :( I'm so boring.

The Gab Wagon: Satisfied Relief

The Gab Wagon: Satisfied Relief: "I just finished a book! I know, this is a blog of writers, so no big deal, right? Happens all the time. But it hasn't happened for me in almost..."

Stupid HTML

I really hate when I screw up my HTML, and then forget to check it and let it stay screwed up.

This question makes a lot more sense with the strikethroughs, no?

I have a whole page on my own website dedicated to my obsessions passions. They include Harry Potter, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the New England Patriots (but we're not talking about them this week). What are your own obsessions passions?

Interview with Susan Gourley

I want to welcome Susan Gourley, fantasy and fantasy romance author!

Sue, you have two romance series (The Chronicles of Solonia and The Tigers of Salubria, under Susan Kelley) and a fantasy series (The Futhark Chronicles, under Susan Gourley). You're also a teacher and mother of four VERY active kids. How on earth do you do it all?

Well, the kids are a little older now. The youngest earned her driver's license a few weeks ago. That frees up lots of my time. I usually write in the evenings and on weekends. The first book of The Tigers of Salubria is available now, and the second one is coming out in March. Promotion is the biggest drain on my writing time but it has to be done.

The second book in The Futhark Chronicles came out January 1st. Tell us a little about it.

Beyond the Gate takes up the tale of Cage Stone and Sabelline Shelton moments after the first book, The Keepers of Sulbreth, ended. As the duo travels into the cave system where they must reset the magical seals keeping the demon invasion from Futhark, they discover their mission has been complicated by unexpected obstacles and the ignorance of the people who trained them. Cage will discover things about his past he would rather have never known, and Sabelline faces a decision that could save the world but destroy her. The kingdom of Futhark, in the meantime, is rocked by a civil war when the king is at his most vulnerable. Only Cage suspects it is all connected by an evil stalking Futhark beyond any they could have imagined.

I have a whole page on my own website dedicated to my obsessions passions. They include Harry Potter, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the New England Patriots (but we're not talking about them this week). What are your own obsessions passions?

I wouldn't think of mentioning the Pats. (Thank you!) I really don't obsess about things. Despite the large role of athletics in my family, I'm not a fan of professional sports. I like various shows, books, music, but I don't obsess over them. Even my hobbies are extremely varied. There are so many things I like, reading, writing, jigsaw puzzles, gardening, baking, hiking, and many more. I love what I'm doing when I'm doing and only wish for more hours in the day so I could do more.

You build really amazing worlds in your storytelling. How do they come about? Do you figure out details as you go, or develop the world before you start writing?

I'm actually doing a class on that later and I've blogged on it a number of times. I do general details before I start and add more as I need them. The most important thing in a fantasy world is to know how the magic works. The magic influences nearly everything else—government, commerce, medical care, weapons, society and class distinctions. Geography can also be a big factor. I always draw a map before I start even though I'm not much of an artist.

What's next for you?

I have another fantasy romance coming out from New Concepts Publishing in March and am working on the next one in that series. Beyond the Mountain, Book #3 in the Futhark series, is due out in early 2012. I also have a second fantasy series I'm determined to find a publisher for this year.

Thanks for having me, Natalie.

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I have no doubt you'll find that publisher, Sue! Keep those awesome books coming! :)

Sue's been doing a blog tour this month, so you can find out more about her here, here, here, here, and here! Check out yesterday's post for her website, Facebook, and Goodreads links.

Thanks for guesting, Sue!

Quick Hits

Tomorrow Susan Gourley will be interviewed here in relation to the second book in her fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles.

About Sue
I write fantasy using my real name, Susan Gourley, and romance under the pen name Susan Kelley. I've been writing for nearly ten years and have two romance series and so far one fantasy series published or being published. I read as much as I can across many genres, including YA, suspense, thrillers, and of course fantasy and romance. I love for fans to contact me at: my email address. Or connect to me on Facebook. Or on Goodreads.

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I went to an event yesterday called Chocolatefest 2011. My father-in-law's neighbor gave him free tickets that he passed along to us. It was a cool event, with TONS of chocolate stuff. Candy and pastries and, the most creative, chocolate braised pulled pork with cocoa-infused Carolina barbeque sauce served over white cheddar/jalapeno grits. I didn't try that one because of the jalapeno. :)

I felt a little guilty, because the tickets were $50. The event was not worth $155 (Number Two qualified for the kid's price of $5), though it was well worth free! :) But it was for charity. So I bought a lot of raffle tickets for the big lovely gift baskets (and won nothing).

I was pretty chocolated out by the end.

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This interminable hiatus (aka hellatus, as we Supernatural fans call it) is killing me. A few of my shows came back, then left, and other shows came back, and now they left again and the first few are back. These fits and starts... I really, really miss Supernatural. I dreamed about Sam and Dean last night. They were letting me hunt with them. I think they were just being nice because I was about to die.

We tried The Cape. I really liked some of the origin details that ground the story in reality, despite the superhero factor. His trainer is a circus guy who's a thief! I'm pretty intrigued by Orwell, and am happy to see Summer Glau again. I was also eager to see J. August Richards (Charles Gunn from Angel, but very disappointed that he's a bad guy. Kind of. He'd better get redeemed.

I deleted The Event, because I'm just not interested, unfortunately. Surprisingly, I started watching V again, though I didn't intend to. So far, okay. I'm sad that The Good Guys got canceled (and I didn't even realize it before it ended!) and that Human Target is on TV Guide's endangered list. But happy that Castle and Modern Family (and Glee?) got early renewals.

I swear, it feels like the season just started. Must be a factor of getting old. I am 40 now.

That's all for today! Make sure to check back tomorrow for Sue's interview!

Oh, Yeah, I Forgot About Those

Yesterday I posted about unfinished manuscripts. I totally forgot two more!

I started Stealing Pain and Taking Action last May during the retreat, along with Entanglement, because I wasn't sure which idea I wanted to most work on. Neither TA or SP was progressing that well.

I think I know what to do for Taking Action, which is potentially the first book in a series and features a computer geek heroine who works for a special investigations agency who recruits an actor to help her with a case she's really not supposed to be working.

Stealing Pain has a very different tone and is not at all going in the direction I'd originally intended. The premise deals with enhanced soldiers whose enhancements turned them into berserkers, who were then hunted by regular special ops. The heroine was a scientist involved in the original enhancing, the hero one of the clean-up soldiers, whose brother was enhanced. Hmmmm, this might be the next one I work on. I'm getting that tingle at the base of my brain...

We'll see, once I read through them, if they're redeemable! :)

History of Creation

A little while ago, I read a couple of blog posts where the author talked about the books she didn't sell or maybe even complete, and whether or not they were on her list to revisit someday. At the end of her posts, she asked the usual "what about you?" question. I didn't comment. I was too busy going "hot damn, a blog topic!" LOL

So here are the Books I'll Never Revisit and the Books I'll go Back to At Some Point:

Teaser

MJ Fredrick and I are teaming up for a month-long promotion in March, to celebrate our releases. Her Road Signs comes out March 14, while Fight or Flight will be available March 28. We'll have hunks, fun, and prizes, so stay tuned! :)

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Cover Art Copyright @ 2010 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited  |  Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books SA. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises

Freaking Eyeballs

In about 22 years of wearing contacts, I had never lost one down the drain. This is a more amazing statistic if you know I wear rigid gas permeable contacts. These are not gigantic and soft and sticky like soft contacts that cling to your fingers and anything they touch. These are smaller than your iris, hard, and bounce when they hit a hard surface. So I broke a couple, back when I was a teenager, and I lost one or two when they popped out unexpectedly (always when I was rubbing), but I never sent one down the drain.

Then, last year, I dropped one into the sink while I was cleaning it. I always stopper the drain, but you know how hard it is to catch something small in swirling water. It eluded me, sank to the bottom, wedged under the stopper, and kept going.

Goodbye 2010

And good riddance.

It's not that 2010 was a bad year for me. It just sucked for people I care about, and was not good enough for other people I care about, and that makes me mad at it, even if it was good for other people I care about and pretty decent for me.

I started going through my date book and recapping the good and bad, but it got long, so I'll list it instead of recapping.

Globetrotting Apocalyptic Year End

Last night we used one of our family Christmas presents, tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters. They're something I remember fondly from my childhood, though I've never actually seen them live until now. Seems like that's something worth having on your bucket list. Now I can cross it off mine! :)

Utterly Ridiculous

And yet so freakin' hot.

Aggravations

I had a mild migraine last night. I'm very grateful it was mild, of course, but the symptoms I did have are worse than the actual pain: vibrating lightning bolt obscuring my vision, head feeling like it's made out of lead crystal (heavy and hard), neck corded with the cables from the Golden Gate Bridge, and general malaise that lasts 24 hours.

THEN I was getting ready for bed, and my contact slipped out of the cleaning clip thingy into the sink. Of course, I always stopper the drain because I have hard contacts that bounce and are very small. Also of course, the stopper lifted on its own just after the contact fell, and bye bye contact.

This morning, in the shower, my brain started to formulate a couple of really awesome query letter paragraphs for Hummingbird. Ten minutes later, when I was dry enough to use the Alphasmart, they'd rearranged themselves into junk.

I had a plan for this afternoon, and determination to get everything on my to-do list done. Necessary errands and a little unexpected chauffeuring got in the way, so I only did half, and now I'm too wiped to do the rest. One of which was the 2010 year in review I told you I'd do.

I'm definitely ready to say goodbye to this decade.

Interview

Come see me at Susan Gourley's/Kelley's blog!

Intentions

Look! I'm blogging two days in a row! Could it be the start of a trend? :)

I had all these topics I wanted to write about yesterday, and wimped out. Do you think I can remember most of them today? Hell, no! I turned 40 last week! Sheesh.

It's kind of funny. Everyone's picking on me, as they are wont to do when someone hits a "milestone" birthday. But I don't feel older. Duh. One day doesn't make you suddenly ancient.

Random Update

Today, I was determined to catch up on blog reading between plays and during commercials for the football game. The problem is that I can’t just read recent posts. I have to read everything I’ve missed. Since it’s been a month, and some of the bloggers I read post every day, it’s taking a while. Like, three hours and I’m still on the fifth one. But it’s very cozy here on my bed with the football and the snuggy-that’s-so-much-softer-and-warmer-than-a-snuggy that was a present from Number Two.

Reading these pre-holiday posts just hit me hard with “I can’t believe the holidays are over.” They were great. I say “they” even though New Year’s hasn’t arrived yet, because my birthday was in there, and that’s a big holiday in our house. All birthdays are.

We had a very entertainment-oriented Christmas. I couldn’t wait to get home from the in-laws so I could spend my Amazon gift cards, watch my The A-Team DVD, and play Wii. We sang Glee Karaoke and tried out Rock Band 3 and the keyboard so far. There are about 5 other games to be tried out. Also, iTunes gift cards to be spent. The biggest gifts were Number Two’s phone (that she’s disappointingly blasé about) and Number One’s Fathead. She was very eager to get the 6-foot-five figure of Peyton Hillis on her wall. Oh, and my new espresso machine is excellent, too. I’ll work very hard not to break this one.

I had a great visit with my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, enjoyed having five days off work (though it went way too fast), and am very sad it’s all over.

I had Twitter open while I watched the game. Apparently, humongous amounts of snow are being dumped very close to me, but not actually here. That’s sad.

It’s now 8 hours after I started this post/reading blogs and I’m tired. Caught up! But tired. I’ll write more tomorrow!

In Perpetuity

I started a blog post yesterday with Never-Ending Things that Suck and Never-Ending Things That the Opposite of Suck. The second list only had two things on it, and they were stretching it. The first list had a couple of things I'd come up with to make it longer, but you know what it really comes down to?

Housecleaning. And it sucks.

Sunday, I spent 10 hours cleaning my house (minus two 5-minute breaks for dessert [I skipped lunch] and to check e-mail and a quick run to the store for a new shower curtain and printer ink). My husband and kids worked even harder than me, though they took 4 hours off for the football game. My body ached, my hands are still all roughed up, and we're out of cleaning products.

And within 12 hours there was more laundry to be done, dishes in the sink, cat litter on the floor, and a toilet bowl that needed scrubbing again.

It's enough to drive you insane. In fact, it's probably responsible for half the insanity in the western world.

Anyway.

I originally wrote the rest of this post about why I haven't been posting. How lame is that? You've heard it all before, so I'll spare you. Especially since...LOOKEE!

My cover art for Fight or Flight (coming March 28, 2011, from Carina Press)!

March still seems very far away, but maybe just a little bit closer. :)

Next week I'll analyze 2010 and see what kind of a year it shaped up to be. In the meantime, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it) and an excellent New Year.

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