Vicki Pettersson's Blog, page 19

Meet Nicole (& — psst — get her book on the cheap!)

Meeting awesome-sauce people is one of the things I love about my job. It's especially lovely to unexpectedly cyber-bump (I know that sounds naughty but it's not) into fellow scribblers who use their time and words to build up both the genre and other writers. I discovered firsthand that Nicole Peeler is one of those people when she paid me an unexpected, but much appreciated kindness (she probably did it on a whim, but it meant – and still means – a hell of a lot to me).

I tell you this because I know I like to buy products from people I like – whether it's watching a movie, going to a concert, or yeah, buying a book. (Not being an asshat goes a long in getting me to part ways with my money, but I guess I'm just easy that way).

All of this is a long way of saying that Nicole Peeler is good peeps, and if you haven't heard of her already, then here's your chance to key into a wonderful writer with a fantastically unique Urban Fantasy series, and who is a good person to boot. With her first book being offered up this month as a $2.99 download (more info below) you'd be silly not to pick her up asap.(And, seriously, aren't these the most amazing covers?)

So to my lovely readers, here's an equally lovely author whom I'm thrilled to introduce to you…please take a moment to say hi and chat with us in the comments!

Viva Las Vegas!

I like a lot of things about Vicki. She's got red hair, coupled with a wicked sense of smarts and humor. I'm also weirdly obsessed with long people, being that I'm only an inch or two away from midget-hood.

I also like tons of things about Vicki's books, including that they're set in Vegas, baby!

Besides height, I also have a weird obsession with Vegas. It's extra weird considering that I (a) don't gamble, (b) have never actually been to Vegas and (c) am not a fan of Celine Dion.

And yet, I love Vegas—although I suppose it's very much a theoretical Vegas, based on a half-baked mixture of conjecture, dreams, and movie images. In fact, my mental-Vegas looks rather suspiciously like this Killer's video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE

I imagine everyone's super out of this world (a la Vicki's version, no?), glamorous, and louche. And I want to play!

What do you think of when you think "Vegas"?

[image error]Nicole Peeler is a professor of English literature and creative writing at Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, PA. She also writes urban fantasy novels for Orbit Books. Her third novel, Tempest's Legacy, just hit shelves in January.

[image error]For those American readers interested in Nicole's fiction, Orbit Books is offering her first book, Tempest Rising, as this month's Orbital Drop, downloadable on multiple platforms for only $2.99. Click here for more details.

First Draft silence

Bloggage is sparse (okay, nonexistant!) as I'm deep in the coal mines of a first draft. This is the drudgery work, though I believe it's precisely this, the daily grind, that separates those who want to write from those who do write. Some writers have daily page goals, others have word counts. Others work in chunks, going where the energy is – which I think is really smart, though it's something my linear mind resists. My working pace is 2,000 words a day, which pushes me creatively, though it can be a bit daunting when factoring in Real Life. Still, it gets me comfortably from one place to another in the work, gaining me enough words to progress the story without adversely influencing the quality – which tends to happen when I try for more than that. Oddly, I also tend to clock fewer words if I presume I'm going to get more than 2K in a day. My mind literally balks. So 2K is my comfort zone.

Writers love to talk about this stuff, by the way. I know it comes off as most uncreative – You're thinking of word count instead of Story? – and makes us look less like starry-eyed dreamers than literary pack mules, but here's the magic in daily discipline: somewhere around 700 words in (and the first few hundred are the hardest; your brain – ie. a muscle – is cold and lazy – you'd rather read Op-Eds and design blogs and twitter feeds … or maybe that's just me) you finally warm up to the material. Just past that, and the characters begin to talk. Just after that, they slip away in a new direction, and where a few hours earlier you were pushing, pushing, pushing – now the story is pulling, pulling, pulling, and you're tripping over your own fingers to keep up.

So this is where I disappear to when radio silence commences from this side. This, and the car pool and the laundry room and, yeah, occasionally the bar. Sadly, I'm never as far along in the work as I wish (ideally this draft would have been done two weeks ago) but I have to trust the process enough to know that despite that, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Right now that's 85K in, and still clocking 2K a day. I tend to move more fluidly at the end despite doing this odd little mating dance with the climactic scene (C'mon, you know you wanna) so here's hoping that holds true to form, and I can start on the second draft soon. That, of course, has its own pacing … but that, of course, is another blog.

On Endings

Thanks to everyone for the 'grats on the new site, and for the mounting excitement re. the release of the final book of the Zodiac series, THE NEON GRAVEYARD (May 31). It hasn't gone unnoticed that more than one reader has expressed sadness at the end of the series, to which I say with all sincerity: that makes me so happy. It really does. I'd much rather you rue the successful ending of the series than rue its continuation, and I was more afraid of the latter happening if I continued driving Joanna so hard and fast on her journey through the Zodiac underworld. Start strong, end stronger – that's my motto (that I just made up. ).

The truth is, I've been watching Joanna closely for the last couple of books, knowing she was both getting fatigued and wondering when she'd get a breather (if not a happy ending), and the sixth book is in response to that. My hope is that after the events in THE NEON GRAVEYARD, you're going to feel like you've stumbled home at dawn after a long night out with great friends, and are more than ready to rest up for a new day. Because that's where I am with Joanna and co. We've had our fun (What? Fun is relative, right?), we've each gone home, and we're done talking for now.

Now if you want to know why Jo's done talking to me … well, you'll just have to read the book. [← Insert melodramatic and villainous authorial cackle here. ]

Off to scribble.

Diggin' mah digs.

Welcome to my new website! Isn't it kewl? I hate to gush so openly about something that is mine, mine, mine but as I can take absolutely no credit for it, I'm gushing anyway. The fine folks at www.austindesignworks.com* worked their tails off to give me an online home that I hope will be comfortable for both my readers and me. I needed a central and effective way to get all the latest information on my books to you, and you need a way to get the information you want in the fashion you want.

So you can now choose between RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, my forum *waving to the VPeeps* or my contact/comment page (which is new to me, so bear with me while I work out the kinks. I'm excited, though, because I think we've found a way for you to get your comments to me quickly and efficiently and for me to be able to respond in kind).

In any case, I couldn't be happier with the results. I get twitchy when I visit websites with too much going on, but let me know if there's a missing feature you'd like to see. The goal is to make this an interactive home base where you can feel free to pop in and out, or kick up your feet and lounge. I'm also now able to easily shoot off breaking announcements and news, as well as offer book excerpts, snippets, and giveaways, starting with the final book of the zodiac, The Neon Graveyard.

So mark it, post it, tweet it, store it – and have a look around, too. Cyber-cupcakes to the right. Champagne to the left. Oh, and I've dropped a couple of crumbs around the site about the new series I'm working on, too – which, of course, I'll be talking more about in this space later.

*I really can't say enough wonderful things about my web designer. If anyone out there is looking for a smart, friendly, efficient and affordable site/update, this is the place to go.