Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 67

Happiness is Three Finished Books

They’re done. They’re done. They’re done.

I’d write more, but I’m doing the Snoopy Dance right now.

What made you dance with happiness this week?

Down to the Finish Line

Lavender and Pink are done, and we’ll finish Vermillion this weekend. You know that old saying that books aren’t finished, they’re abandoned? I think these three are actually finished, but if they weren’t, we’d be abandoning them to get rid of them. When you’re done, you’re done, even if the books aren’t. But I’m pretty sure these are.

Here, have some taglines and short blurbs:

TAGLINES:
Lavender’s Blue: Would it kill you to go home and see your mother?

Rest in Pink: Some Facebook blocks are permanent.

One in Vermillion: That red in the ledger isn’t ink.

50 WORD BLURBS:

LAVENDER’S BLUE
The last place Liz Danger wants to be is back in her old home town, the best place Vince Cooper has found to be a cop. One traffic stop later, Liz and Vince would be exploring new passion if her return wasn’t bringing up so many dangerous old ones.

REST IN PINK
Liz Danger is looking at her boss’s copy edits, watching over a little girl, and seeing as much of Vince Cooper as possible, until she and Vince find themselves staring down real danger: arson, murder, and the suspicion that a month of one-night stands might just be a relationship.

ONE IN VERMILLION
Liz Danger and Vince Cooper are dealing with book deadlines, greedy politicians, embezzlement, broken hearts (not theirs), vandalism, determined exes, shady real estate, lying parents, murder, and a relationship they don’t want but can’t give up. It’s time to finally save a town . . . and their future.

This is a Good Book Thursday, October 13, 2022

I didn’t read any books this week because some people here were inconsiderate enough to keep mentioning Shetland, so I thought I’d watch one episode, just one, you know, to see what it was about. And then when I got to the last episode in Season 7, I realized that I missing the last four episodes because they hadn’t aired yet, and the rest were only going to be available one episode a week, so I have to watch TV twentieth century style now, and I am not used to this, I want all of the episodes NOW.

Anyway, because of some of you enablers I’ve been in Scotland on a screen all week instead of someplace else on a page. So recommend some good books fast, because I’m about to try Vera. And Derry Girls. And Only Murders in the Building. Still haven’t seen Fleabag. TELL ME ABOUT A GOOD BOOK, FAST.

Working Wednesday, October 12, 2022

We’re at the tag end of the trilogy, Bob’s doing a final edit on Vermillion and I’m going to try to get through paper edits of Lavender and Pink. Seeing the book on paper instead of a screen really is reading a different book, and god knows I need to see these as different books. I have read them way too many times. In the meantime Bob is working on the end of Vermillion which, while it is flawed and needs his rewrite, will not include rescuing a seven-year-old kid by dropping her out of a two story building onto a giant red teddy bear. I appreciate his innovative approach to endings, but just no. I think it’s because there hasn’t been enough violence in the books, which he complains about (along with my penchant for putting two spaces after a period and the disturbing lack of zombie pirates in the story). For example:

So what did you work on this week?

Me? I worked with this guy:

Fat Bear Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Today is the last day of Fat Bear Week.. Although the competition was briefly roiled by a cheating scandal–this is why we can’t have nice things–the folks at Katmal National Park were on that like brown on bears and all should be well today.

So let’s just sit and think about THAT for the moment.

Happiness is a Good Kid

I spent three hours on the phone with my daughter talking about absolutely nothing. No business (we’re partners), no plans, just refinishing furniture and swapping memories and funny stories. A mega-chat. My kid is the best. And so are her kids. Her husband’s a sweetheart, too. But my kid? Nobody I’d rather talk to.

How did absolutely nothing or a lot of something make you happy this week?

This is a Good Book Thursday, October 6, 2022

I’m reading the last book in a trilogy I love, and I’m having troubles with it. It makes me wonder if by the time you get to a third book, the juice isn’t gone. I’m still completely wrapped up in these characters, but this book does so much explaining, so much description, so much introspection, that I’m skimming big blocks of text to get to the action, which is really well motivated. I want to find out what happens, but there’s all this static stuff in the way. And of course, I’m just finishing up a trilogy with Bob, so now I’m paranoid about third books. I think our situation is the opposite: the first book is the longest because there’s so much set-up, and then they get shorter. But at the same time, the first one’s plot is the simplest, and then they get more complex. So I dunno. Thoughts?

Oh, and what did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, October 5, 2022

We had firm plans to have the trilogy finished by October, and we’ve only got one scene to go in the last book now. Okay, maybe two, but we’re done with the first drafts/discovery drafts, and Lavender is pretty much done with rewrites, Pink very close. Bob’s on the road with his dog and his jeep, both of them happy as clams, and I’m trying to catch up on the house (never going to happen) and possibly research some of the books I’ve got started while finishing up the trilogy. I’m working.

So what did you do this week?

Argh Author: Jeanne Estridge’s The Demon’s Secret Baby

Our own Jeanne Estridge has a new book out October 4th: The Demon’s Secret Baby!

Passion, revenge and a night destined to overturn the power structure of Hell…

Samael, Demon of Pride and Devil’s Advocate, rarely leaves Hell. He has everything he desires there—except his ex-wife. Their divorce was inevitable for both their sakes, but eons later he still burns for her—and Lilith still loathes him. Now an Aboveworld assignment forces them together for three weeks. His powers of persuasion are legendary. If he can’t have her for eternity, twenty-one nights will have to do.

Over the past ten thousand years, Lilith has clawed her way to the top of Satan’s Operations staff. Aboveworld assignments are her get-out-of- Hell-free card, allowing her to escape her history as the dust wench who married into Hell’s elite and then got dumped. Her next assignment is as assistant to the Demon of Pride himself in her favorite stomping-ground, the Big Apple. She’ll never get a better chance to even the score.

Sam’s determined to seduce his beloved. Lilith’s out for revenge. Sparks fly, and a moment of weakness yields consequences that could upend the universe.

Bio:
Jeanne Oates Estridge is the award-winning author of the Touched by a Demon books, a series of paranormal romantic comedies set in a Hell that’s a cross between Dante’s Inferno and your average American corporation. (This may or may not have something to do with the years she spent working in IT for Fortune 1000 companies.) When she’s not imagining a business whose divisions include, Sloth, Greed and Lust, among others, Jeanne loves to hike and to photograph birds and wildflowers. She lives in a 99-year-old house with her husband and a pair of teenage grandkids.

Jeanne Estridge
Visit me at www.jeanneestridge.com
Author of the Touched by a Demon novels
The Demon’s Secret Baby , available on Amazon  October 4

Happiness is a New Binge

I don’t watch a lot of TV, not because I don’t love TV, I do, but because I’m all caught up in other things right now, mostly books. I do prefer books. But every now and then I trip over a TV series I didn’t know anything about that’s really good, that makes me think about the stories it tells and the characters it builds over the long haul. I didn’t find Leverage until it was over. I found Person of Interest midway through the second to last season. The Art of Crime purely by accident. And this week it happened again, a British detective series (come on, nobody does mystery like the Brits) that had one of those unlikely partnerships that evolved over three short seasons into something really lovely, not a romance but a real partnership between two people who value each other, all the while telling nicely twisted mysteries. This week McDonald & Dodds made me happy.

How did you tune into happiness this week?