Isabel Roman's Blog, page 65

Excerpt Monday Got zombie?

Got Hungry for your Love ? You should! Halloween approaches, and in the true spirit (if not tradition) of the holiday, everyone should have a zombie romance anthology. :)

Excerpt from Zombified :

Three shrunken voodoo heads, a single gold doubloon, an ancient German Luger, and one and a half wooden legs later, they gave up. The rest of the house was as dusty as the entryway, so they opened the shutters, unpacked their camping gear and set up camp before the unused fireplace.

Before Rebecca knew what was happening, Griffin's lips were on hers and they'd made love in an abandoned mansion in the middle of Martinique. It was the most pleasurable day she could remember spending in a long while.

"No pirate treasure," she sighed, propping her head on one hand and looking at him.

"No, but lots of dust."

Rebecca frowned at his frown and traced the line of his jaw. "What do you expect?" she asked. "The place has been closed up for years."

She swept her arm out to encompass the end tables, coffee table, piano, and old style chairs—some wicker, some old enough to be certifiable antiques. Not that she had any real notion of what a certifiable antique looked like.

"Dust is created by human skin," he mumbled. Shaking his head, he grasped her hips and pulled her atop him. "Are you sure you want to stay here for the night? Or do you want to drive back?"

"Na," she kissed his lips. "Let's just stay here. We haven't explored a fraction of the place. Plus," her lips trailed along his jaw, and Rebecca wondered when she'd become so fascinated with a man's jaw line. "Plus we'll just have to drive back out tomorrow. What's the point?"

"Definitely not an ordinary woman," he said against her mouth. "Most I know would rather head back to the hotel than stay here. In the middle of nowhere."

"Hey," she smiled, "at least we have electricity."

4 stars from Romantic Times
4 cups of coffee from Coffee Time
4.5 hearts from Night Owl Romance

Vampires

I thought of this short story trilogy about a month ago, but other than plan it out, think it through, and figure out where the characters are going (and who they are!) haven't done much else but write half of chapter one.
Originally, I wanted to make it a novel trilogy, but the more I thought about the story I wanted to tell, the more I realized it was best in parts. Three couples, three plot arcs, one overall plot linking it all together.
Now, in between Dark Inheritance, Egyptian, a couple short story ideas I have, I plan on squeezing this into my increasingly overcrowded writing time. *Deep breath* Okay nothing like a plan!
Course the plan should always include time-outs for rest between stories. And possibly a moratorium on new plot bunnies until the old ones are finished! Not that much writing will get done with the conference, but there'll probably be more evil plot bunnies hopping around. *le sigh*

Workshops

Tomorrow starts the conference and while I don't really know what workshops I'm going to, (mostly because I haven't looked) I do know I'm going to the published author round table stuff. (Very coherent there, wasn't that. Yes. Yes I am a writer!)

Looking forward to hearing what other authors have to say about the state of the publishing world, and the agents and editors take on that as well. Not that it means much, there's always the break out whatever or the out of the box whoever, but it's nice to hear these things. Makes me feel as if I'm keeping up on important stuff.

Red herrings

In my latest ms, the dark regency story, tentatively titled Dark Inheritance, I use many a red herring. Okay, anyone who knows my thought process knows the more red herrings tossed in the better! But I thought today I'd talk about what the hell a red herring is.

The answer I've always known and the one supported by a History Channel program I love: Worst Jobs in History .

In the 1997 edition of Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson firmly asserts that "Escaping criminals in the 17th century would drag strong-smelling red herring across a trail to make pursuing blood-hounds lose the scent". Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and many dictionaries, say that red herrings were used to confuse the hounds chasing a fox.

Then, in finding a resource I could use to quote in this blog, I found this (same site ):

The OED's current entry for the figurative sense of red herring points to a reference in Nicholas Cox's The Gentleman's Recreation of around 1697 (Mr Ross says it was actually in a treatise by Gerland Langbaine on horsemanship that was bound into the third edition of this work without attribution) that appeared to suggest that hounds were trained to follow a scent by trailing a red herring on the ground.

This was a misunderstanding, as Langbaine included it in a section on training horses so that they became accustomed to following the hounds amid the noise and bustle of a fox hunt. He suggested a dead cat or fox should be dragged as a training-scent for the hounds, so that the horses could follow them.

If you had no acceptably ripe dead animals handy, he added, you could as a last resort use a red herring. Neither the original misunderstanding of the text or the correction suggests why red herrings might be thought of as laying a false scent to draw hounds off a trail, quite the reverse.

Eh, it all boils down to the same thing: to throw off the scent. To confuse the issue.

Conferences

The end of this week is another conference I'm going to. No speaking at workshops, but I'm looking forward to the published author events and the keynote speakers. Especially the networking, getting to know online friends, having drinks...and possibly more drinks!

I can't stress this enough: conferences, despite the cost, are worth going to. You learn about writing, marketing, meet people, and talk about books. Yours, your favorite authors, the one you just finished, everything.

What are you waiting for? Have you signed up for a writer's conference yet?

October the busiest month

I used to be certain December was, or the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years but now I'm convinced it's October. Or maybe just this one. Who knows, maybe it'll be October 1-January 1 for all I know (I sincerely hope not!)

2 conference, Disney, birthdays, holidays, AND writing? I'll never survive. Something's got to give and last night it was me.

Migraine, sinus pressure, you name it I had it. I even missed NCIS because of it all.

I'm such a big planner that I thought I had it all down. HA! Apparently I planned a little too much and I think it's catching up with me. I need to slow down, though who knows what'll give. I don't want to give up anything, but maybe I should cut back. On what, I don't know, everything seems to be a priority in my life.

My advice to you: take time for yourself, even if you're sitting on the couch dozing while watching Guys & Dolls...which I'm doing now before work.

Time Flies

Apparently October is FRIDAY! I'm not ready for that, there's too much to do in September let alone in October. I have birthday gifts to buy and cakes to make and conferences to attend. The first of which is ALBACON .

I'm really looking forward to that. And not just because there are going to be Star Trek Micro-Panels! Please note my inner geek emerging. :)
It's going to be an informative weekend and lots of fun. Have you registered?

TGIF!

This has been a long long week. In addition to the puppy, I think I had a bad reaction to my flu shot this year. Not that I've ever had a bad reaction before, and have been getting them for years, but there you have it. I hear they added in the H1N1 vaccine to the regular mix. Not sure that was it, but it's what I'm going with since it was the only outside variable.

Things checked off my ToDo list: Finished synopsis AND the partial. Reading it through one last time Saturday and then emailing i...

Tuesday Comings and Goings

Never did post on Scandalous Victorians...have now remedied that.

And have my new puppy! Oh, she's adorable. Confused and scared, it was her first night here, but she's too cute for words.

Monday Musings: Exhaustion

Spent the weekend writing, writing, writing. Managed 6 chapters and half the synopsis. (Also did laundry, exercised, vacuumed, went to Michael's because I had a 50% off coupon that expired Saturday, and watched Amazing Wedding Cakes .)

Probably could have done the whole synopsis if I didn't want TV but the brain needed rest.

Desperately.

Picking up my puppy today! I'm really excited and can't wait. So no writing tonight, but tomorrow I'm reading over all 12 completed chapters, finishing the synop...