Rinda Elliott

Still in critiques on the latest book.  I’m also going into work with my husband these days to help him out.  So, things will be sporadic here a little while longer.  Until then, there are sooooo many great books releasing this month!  See my post below and also check out Fangs, Fur and Fey and the League of Reluctant Adults!  Both links are in my sidebar on my Wordpress site. http://relliott4.wordpress.com

There are three FANTASTIC giveaways happening at the Deadline Dames.  Comment until tonight!  http://www.deadlinedames.com

Also, my critique partner, Rachel Vincent, has a LOT going on right now.  The release of Prey–my favorite in the Shifter’s series and the release of her first young adult novel, My Soul to Take, in a couple of weeks.  Until then, you can get a FREE teaser short story that introduces you to her YA heroine.  Click on the cover to go to Harlequin Teen and get your free download.  (It doesn’t list as free, but it is.  Making a stop at Rachel’s blog first will give you all the details on how to get it. http://www.urbanfantasy.blogspot.com )

PREY is the fourth book in Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series. Here’s the back cover copy:
SOMETIMES PLAYING CAT AND MOUSE IS NO GAME…

Scooper, a book reviewer and fellow blogger recently lost her book collection in a fire–right after taking in two little girls along with the two she already had.  I can’t imagine what a rough time she’s having.  A lot of authors are sending her copies of their books to replace her library.  I’m hoping to help spread the word. 

The story is here.

Come meet debut author Diana Rowland and read about her life as a cop and forensic photographer.  Plus, she’s giving away TWO copies of her new book Mark of the Demon! (Click here to try and win  or click the book cover to buy a copy.) It’s being called a hard-boiled police procedural and gritty urban fantasy.  Sounds really good!

So, I’ve been doing yet another draft on the book.  My critique partner went over a couple of chapters and felt I didn’t have the youthful voice down yet.  Once that clicked, I started over.  This book has now had three complete drafts.

Today, I polished the last three chapters–or what I thought were the last three.  Decided to rewrite the last chapter from scratch. Did that today, too.  I’m very, very tired right now. 

So, I have to polish that last chapter.  But I uploaded the other eighteen chapters to Rachel today.

I’ve worked on this story so much, I can no longer see it objectively.  I think it’s good.  Hope so.  Hope Rachel thinks so, too.  I’m so ready to have a second book out there circulating.   But as of right now… I’M SICK OF THIS STORY.  Need to set it aside for a little while.  Will do so while it’s being critiqued. Don’t worry. I’ll love it again.  I have this urge to read it all the way through after this last polish, but really, I’ll just find stuff and well, it’s better to wait on Rachel and let it sit.

So… what has been failing during my POLISH FOG?

Laundry. (Mom? Is anything clean?)

Clean bathrooms. (Took care of those this morning before the massive polish/rewrite phase. Was stunned. Book Fogless eyes see so much more.)

Job hunting. (Okay, been doing this at same time, but the process is so unbelievably frustrating.)

Fun. (Between working so hard and the job hunting, fun has been conspicuously absent.  Must remedy.)

I switched weeks with Rachel Vincent  since next week is a big release one for her.  So, I blogged at the Deadline Dames again today about my beginnings in publication.  Also, what it felt like the first time I saw actual art created for one of my characters.  Come share your stories on seeing your book covers for the first time!

http://www.deadlinedames.com

Sorry for the silence. That click on the WIP is taking all my attention right now. I really want this book finished and off to the agent.  Anxious to get her response.  (Plus, you all are anxious for me to  have a book out there, too… right? <g>)

So, in the meantime, visit my critique partner, Rachel Vincent.  She has two huge releases coming up and right now, she’s giving away a cool necklace–it’s the one worn by Faythe on the cover of Prey. 

AND YOU HAVE TO READ PREY.  Seriously. This is the one that ripped me to shreds yet made me love the world and the characters Rachel has built even more.

http://www.urbanfantasy.blogspot.com

Ever have one of those days when you get hit with a little too much?  Friday was my day.  I was feeling the pressure.  (Most of it not writing related, btw.)

Then my lovely critique partner called for a true “pick me up” session. 

Rachel and I may have started our relationship through a business perspective, but we’ve become friends and can both sense when it’s time to offer support.  Since we’re both writers, one understands a lot of the other’s angst–that helps. <G> 

And okay, she was also worried because she’d just confirmed something I already knew about my WIP.

I’ve struggled with this book.  The story is cool, the characters are cool–but they’re not coming across the way I feel them.   Just couldn’t seem to get that translation to paper the way I wanted it. 

Rachel swore up and down all I needed was “that” click.  That the story is great. 

Normally “that” click happens a little faster for me.  But I normally write from an adult perspective.  This story, this trilogy has to be from a younger perspective or it doesn’t work.  And I want it to work.  I love this story.

Well, she was right. I just needed the click.  And it happened.  Friday night of all times.  Seriously, it’s like the day was so difficult, I hit a wall.  I had a choice. Back down or scale it.  So I scaled.  I bought pizza for the family and shut myself in my office.  Cleaned it to remove all distractions and just focused on my story–what I wanted for this particular tale.

Ended up being the best thing ever.  I didn’t sleep much this weekend.  This polish is going fast now that I can see what I’d missed before.  I’m loving my book again.

Normally, I hate roller-coasters.  Sorry, just not my thing.  I loved them as a kid, but somewhere around nineteen, I developed a fear of heights. Too high and I get dizzy and my stomach crawls up in my throat.  So purposely going high, then falling?  Let’s just say the last person to talk me onto one, got a screaming ear full of cleverly placed four letter words the entire trip.  (Luckily it was late at night–only older teens and adults on it.)

Why am I talking about roller-coasters?

Being on submission is kind of like being on one–a long one– only the high parts are actually fun. 

That fizzy anticipation bubbles, puts a spring in my step and I dream of the possibilities.  Yes, I plan to write my butt off and turn this into a true career, but I’m still at the point where that dream centers around walking into a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelves.  Holding it in my hand.  I’ve done this with magazines I’ve been in in and yeah, that felt pretty cool, but somehow, I know the book will feel different in my hands.  Maybe because I’ve worked so hard for it. Carried around this dream more years than I care to admit.

I do have the days where I swoop so low, I can reach out and touch the ground.  But I’ve noticed lately a lot of those coincide w/personal, stressful days. The cool thing about this roller-coaster experience is… Even on the days when my mood could be considered nothing more than useless, I’ll have that little positive voice speak up as I crawl into bed. 

One that whispers, “Maybe tomorrow.”

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

I know, my blog lately feels like one big advertisement.  For one, I finished a book and am working on critiques for Rachel.  For another, summer has begun and I’m unexpectedly trying to figure out a job situation for myself.  I really miss the work at home option I had last year, but that work dried up.  Kiddos are also home and well, there’s just a lot going on.

But the big reason is:

SO MANY RELEASES!  I knew I was hooking up with a prolific group of writers last year when I became one of the deadline dames and I’m still pretty desperate to be one who is kicking out the books herself.  But until one of my lovelies gets picked up, how cool is it that I get to share? 

Yesterday was launch day for CRY MERCY by Toni Andrews!

I just want a normal life…even if I’m not entirely sure I’m human.

My name is Mercy Hollings and I’m a successful hypnotherapist in Balboa, California. The problem is, my good fortune is dependent on a dark secret. I can make people do whatever I want using telepathy, a power I call “the press.” And that ability has hurt some people I never wanted to hurt, so I try to keep it under wraps.

I also try to keep people at a distance…at least, I used to. Recently a group of fearless characters broke through my self-imposed walls and became my friends: Sukey, my receptionist-turned-P.I.; Tino, a Chicano gang leader; Hilda, a wealthy society widow; Grant, a retired millionaire—and Sam, my sexy-as-hell ex-boyfriend.

But with friends comes drama. Tino has inadvertently led me into the dark world of gang violence, and Sukey has pushed me into searching for my biological parents, the only people who can finally tell me who—or what—I really am.

Also, fellow Dame, Jackie Kessler, along with Caitlin Kittredge are celebrating release day today with

BLACK AND WHITE

Once best friends at an elite superhero training academy, Callie
Bradford–code name Iridium–and Joannie Greene–code name Jet–are now
mortal enemies. Jet is a by-the-book hero, using her Shadow power to protect
the citizens of New Chicago. Iridium, with her mastery of Light, runs the
city’s underworld. For years the two have played a dangerous game of cat and
mouse.

But now playtime’s over. A looming evil threatens both them and the world
they share. As Jet works with a “normal” man who has an extraordinary
ability to make her weak in the knees, Iridium teams with a mysterious
vigilante called Taser. Both Jet and Iridium are convinced that the other
woman is the key to a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.

And one of them is right.

They both sound fantastic!  I can’t wait to grab my copies!

Yes, I said I was taking a few days off.  But you all know me.   Plus, there is so much going on, especially with the Dames, I wanted to give everyone a heads up.  Check this!

The Deadline Dames  have Alyssa Day as our guest Dame for a Day Saturday!

Next week, Jackie Kessler’s  Black and White is released and we’re going to make our Readers on Deadline yummy, superhero flavored.  Got a FANTASTIC piece of inspiring art for the writing challenge.  ( AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS BOOK.)

Please don’t forget that we have an official Deadline Dames gift basket in the Brenda Novak auction for diabetes research. This is so important! I have family members with this disease, so I love this auction. Our basket is full of great books and Keri Arthur donated not only her entire Riley series, but Tim Tams from Australia.  She sent me some of these and whoa… loved them. Deadline to bid is this weekend.

You can still comment on three different posts and have a chance to win some great books.  My critique partner, Rachel Vincent’s  Prey is up for grabs and it’s not out yet!  Also the first two weather warden books from Rachel Caine and the debut book, Salt and Silver, by Anna Katherine.  You have until midnight, Saturday night!

And my very prolific friends have so many recent releases!  Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow, Cry Mercy by Toni Andrews  (Check out her virtual tour schedule!) and Magic in the Blood by Devon Monk.  We’ll be updating our headline page soon so you guys can keep up.  I’ve got these books right here next to me, begging to be read…

A couple of people have asked about the writer’s panel I was on with Gena Showalter  this month.  Here’s the recap!

Whew, right?

Book is done and off to CP.  I finished at 2:30 this morning.  Had actually gone to bed and couldn’t sleep and the house was all quiet, so I got up and knocked it out.  Like I’ve said before, I write better at night.

(And I did have a scary encounter with a brown recluse, so it’s kind of amazing I did finish.)

The funny thing about writing books for me is my own inability to judge them.  I alternate between thinking that a book is good only to think it’s shit the next day.  Unfortunately, I spend more time thinking the latter.  I was shocked when DOTT got all that excitement last year.  It’s not that I think DOTT is bad, I don’t.  In fact, I think it has a very cool, very original idea.  But I can always find parts that need work.

Yeah, I can be aserial tweak-er.

I’m getting better.

Right now, I like this book.  Hopefully my CP and agent will as well.  We’ll see.  It’s the first in a trilogy and already, the second and third books are whispering in my ears.  I may have to break my rule about writing the second in a series before it’s bought.

So, I’m taking off a few days to do summer things with the kids, clean and work on critiques for Rachel.  ;)

Put in major hours on the book Friday and Saturday. 14 hours on Saturday alone.  Thought it was a last polish only but as always, I found things to change. 

But I just probably freaked out my CP by uploading a BUNCH of chapters.  Have to finish polishing four today and this round is done.  I’m sure she’ll find something.  Nothing like fresh eyes on your work–especially when you’ve read and reread it so often, it starts to run together.  There’s a point when objectivity is impossible in your own work.

And apparently, I lost a chunk of email last week.  A couple have trickled in that are over a week old.  If you emailed me and I didn’t respond–that could be why. 

We have Dame for a Day, Anna Katherine, at the Deadline Dames  today.  She shares a wonderful piece on writing characters without spreadsheets and there’s a giveaway!  Comment to win a signed copy of Salt and Silver.

Excited.  Nervous. Hopeful. 

I just printed off my complete manuscript for a final polish. 

I’m rewriting some dialogue to be more snappy and filling out the final scene.  Then it’s off to my critique partner.

It’s the shortest book I’ve ever written, clocking in at around 55k–which is apparently good for a YA.  I was nervous about the length and well, because I’d dumped about 30k–that is so hard!– but I checked with a few YA authors and they’ve assured me this is an ok length for a book.  I’m so tempted to make it longer, but the story is told, you know?

It’s also taken me the longest to write, which makes little sense. 

Unless you consider it’s my first YA and I completely changed the main theme and setting during rewrites–which means I basically dumped a book a started over.  Doesn’t seem so bad if I look at it that way.