L.M. Pruitt's Blog, page 14

Food Friday--Interrupted

So, this was supposed to run over at Supernatural Bookworm today. I'm not quite sure what happened. Since it didn't show over there, here it is, in all it's glory.


Interview Questions for LM Pruitt


1.      Describe 'Taken' inthree words.
--Smart, sexy, and dangerous


2.     How many books have youwritten? If more than once, which is your favorite?
--Rightnow I have three books out—Shades of Gray, New Moon Rising and Taken, withShades of Desire coming out next month. Out of those completed four, I'd haveto say Taken is my favorite.


3.     When did you realize yourfirst wanted to be a writer?
--I'vealways written, usually fluffy, chick-lit type stuff. It wasn't until the lastcouple of years I seriously started writing, and only recently have I thoughtabout being able to write as a genuine career.


4.     Do you have strange habitsthat help with your writing?
--Iwouldn't say strange, really. I tend to have playlists for songs or types ofscenes. If I get stuck, I'll revert to handwriting/long hand for a bit to clearthe muck. Probably my strangest habit is reading my raw chapters—those I'vesent to my crit partner, Shea MacLeod—on my phone while at the bar. If it canhold my attention even while competing with vodka, I'm on the right track.


5.     What kind of research didyou do to 'Taken'?
--Quitea bit, actually. Some is standard for any book—location details, income and jobspecifications. For Taken, I also did research on human trafficking, theRussian Mafiya, New York state name changing procedures, handguns, Tasers, theAFCIS system—basically, a ton of stuff. About half I pulled from old schooltextbooks (I was a criminology major) and family members who are former lawenforcement. The rest? I'd like to thank Ask.com.


6.      What is your favourite part/scenefrom 'Taken'?
--Wow.This is genuinely tough. Since I only get to pick one, I'd say the chapterwhere the truth about Frankie and Jack—or the partial truth, anyway—comes tolight. It drives home the complexity and need in their relationship even whileamping up the mystery about their past. In other words, it appeals to both themind and the heart—and I don't get to write too many scenes like that.

Random Thursday! We're Full of Random Today!

Yes, I'm super awake and super excited! This is what happens when I actually get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep. I'm deadly awake.

Up first, the Taken blog tour continues over at Reviews by Molly , with another chance to win a copy of Taken and a very nice review (thanks, Molly!) Tomorrow I'll be over at Supernatural Bookworm, spilling my guts--in  a purely metaphorical sense, of course.

For those interested in making sure you have a copy of Taken, without having to worry about any entries into giveaways, head over to Red Hot Readers on Facebook. While you're there, you can check out a ton of other free e-books, including fellow Red Hot Publishing writer C.J. Ellisson and her bestselling Vampire Vacation series. This is an excellent place to stock up your Kindle or other e-reader, and the best part is all the books are free. Yes, FREE.

Today, I'll be working on Harvest Moon Rising, and if any of you want to amble over to my author page on Facebook, I'm asking a question that has a lot to do with the direction the book will go. I'm kind of hesitant to take it that way, but if I do, I have so much more drama and at least two potential new outcomes. Awesomeness!

I'm still at work on the super secret project (Winged), but I'm doing my best to get HMR back into full throttle.

Less than fifty days until I go on vacation! Cross your fingers I make it there.

Now--off to put my nose to the grindstone!

Writing Wednesday--Working on a Deadline

This post today is brought to you by exhaustion. That's right, I said it. I'm exhausted. You'll probably hear me whine about that fact until I go on vacation in March, just because I'll be working sixty hour weeks until then. Why, might you ask? The short answer is because there isn't anyone else to pick up the slack. I could go on a rant about how men in restaurants get treated differently than women, but to be honest, I recognized that particular glass ceiling is never going to be broken, and I'm too tired to even think about trying anymore. But I digress. As usual.

In an effort to keep on schedule with the super secret project, I'm pouring as much of myself into getting Jude, Cari, and Frankie at somewhat safe resting spots. This isn't to say I won't be putting out books featuring them in 2013, but my primary focus is going to be on Winged and the sequels. This is one series I honestly have plotted from start to finish (well, mostly finish...I'm still debating the series end, or rather how to end it), and I want to spend the year promoting it. So I'm pushing myself to get to a point where I could, potentially, close out every series in 2013.

What does this mean for you? It means you'll have a lot of books to read over the next 24 months. What does it mean for me? Writing on a pretty strict deadline. Actually, make that super strict. Brutal. Punishing might even be a good word for what I'm attempting to do to myself.

You might be asking why. I'll confess, I don't have a definite answer. Just a sense that this is how the next two years need to proceed. And there's also the benefit that the more I write, the better I get. It's just a plain and simple fact.

The downside to all this? I'm a little stressed and a little cranky. This isn't actually too far from my normal personality, so it might be better to say I'll be super stressed and really cranky. Luckily for you guys, I know how to play nice on the Internet.

But I pity the people I work with.

Today, I'm over at Hesperia Loves Books as the Taken blog tour continues. Swing by and see what's going on!

Tuesday Buildup--We Have a Cover!

This will be short, sweet, and to the point--in case you missed the special post on Saturday....we have a cover!


Awesome, yes? I totally agree.


Continuing on the Taken blog tour, I'm over at ReaderGirls today with an excerpt and a chance to win a copy of Taken. Swing on by and take a looksee!

Media Monday--I'm Drawing A Blank

This is not a clever title. This is me, after working 115 hours in two weeks, going..."My brain hurts. It hurts a lot. And I can't think of a damn thing to write about."

It's not that I haven't watched anything interesting lately. I watched the first two episodes of Game of Thrones on HBO the other day. I'm intrigued, but not sure how intrigued I actually am. It might have just been boredom in general that had it catching my interest.

I also watched Cowboys and Aliens, which was pretty good. Of course, I also have an intense love for Daniel Craig and I love redemption stories, which is what you can boil Cowboys and Aliens down to. Shark Night? Well, it made me reconsider buying an island for all of like five minutes, but other than that, nothing too long lasting. The Social Network cemented my love for David Fincher. Seriously, if any of my books ever get turned into movies, I want this guy at the helm. He's just that awesome.

While I was going over edits last night, I watched Happily N'Ever After, which is such a throwback to the super early way of new animated features that I felt a little nostalgic. And I admit, I giggled at the redneck dwarves. "Lock and load, Cletus!" Seriously, picture a dwarf saying that with a big, thick, hick accent, and try not to laugh. Try it. Go ahead. I'll wait.

I also watched Piranha 3D, which somehow manages to be campy fun and gross as hell all at the same time. My cats sat in front of the TV and watched the opening sequence where Richard Drefyss (spelling, I know) bites the big one--or rather, is bitten by the multiple big ones--so intently, I swear they were getting ready to review it. Then they realized how big and vicious those fish were and decided they had better things to do.

So, that was my weekend viewing lineup. Continuing on the Taken blog tour, I'm over at Book Savvy Babe today, so be sure to swing by and check it out.

Happy reading everyone!

Special Saturday!--We Have a Cover!

That's right--we have a cover for Shades of Desire, thanks again to the wonderful Kendra Egert. This woman rocks, and manages to put up with me despite my pickiness. And, personal bonus (for me)--the background is one of my shots of New Orleans! Take a look at it below:



I'm squeeing like crazy!

Food Friday--Old Fashioned Goodness

Friday! The blog tour for Taken continues--today, I'm over at The Bookish Snob with another excerpt. Head on over, take a look. But before you do...

In the great, wide world of what you might call "desserts", I tend to gravitate toward chocolate. Yes, I'm a total walking cliche. Whatever. But every now and then, I just get a taste for something else. Sometimes I don't even know what I want, I just want something different. The other day, I happened to be wandering around the grocery store and I saw something that I'm sure is there all the time, it just happened to be the first time I paid any attention to the box.

Lemon Bars.

Lemon Bars take me back to childhood and church events and cooking in the kitchen with my grandmother. My grandmother was a firm believer in learning how to cook at an early age. One of the earliest memories I have is learning to cook grilled cheese sandwiches. Actually, I went through an insanely long period as an adult where I couldn't stand grilled cheese because I spent so much eating grilled cheese as a child. But I digress. As usual.

My church, like most churches in the South (possibly everywhere, I'm not sure--somthing to investigate at a later date), had a habit of doing dinner on the grounds at various times throughout the year. Every family contributed with various dishes, the more the better, for obvous reasons. When I hit around...I'd say twelve, although I could be wrong, my grandmother told me I needed to make something of my own for church dinner. When I told her I had no clue what to make, she steered me in the direction of Lemon Bars.

My grandmother could be tricky like that. And the best part was she didn't even realize it most of the time.

She helped me the first time, of course. And it was fun, baking for the first time. The smells, the tastes, the inevitable mistakes--I'm pretty sure I made a total wreck of the kitchen not only the first time I cooked, but probably the next two to three times.

And let me tell you, when we went to church, and dinner was served, there was a great feling of pride and joy and just total WOW when my Lemon Bars were not only eaten, but devoured. It's a great feeling knowing people are njoying your food.

So, I'm making Lemon Bars today. I'll think of my grandmother and get a little teary-eyed and when I have one--okay, two--after dinner tonight, I'll be reminded of cooking in the kitchen with her and Sundays outside and the discovery of baking.

Lemon Bars rock. Clearly.

Random Thursday!

Thursday! Time for the weekly roundup of randomness!

First things first--if you've been following the Taken tour, you may have been wondering just where the heck the feature over on Jagged Edge was. I don't know why, and I don't ask questions, but it finally posted around 11 p.m. last night. So, before you head over to We Fancy Books , do a quick stop by JE and check out my time on the grill.

Next: I'm going to be nose to the grindstoning it for the next couple of days. Don't get me wrong, I plan to try and relax as well, considering the fact that I just worked 60 hours in 5 days, but at the same time, working that many hours has put me behind schedule. And since the powers that be get all snippy when i bring my laptop, I can't do any work while I'm working. I can read books and do the crossword but I can't use my laptop. Confused? Me too. But I just work here.

Also on the list: I've got less than sixty days until I go on vacation. Now is the time to get a guide book and a map and start studying like a mofo, because I'm almost guaranteed to get lost, but I should try and lower the odds a little bit.

And now, super big news: New Moon Rising was chosen as a Best Read of 2011 by the Paranormal Romance Guild! Crazy, right? Yes, I'm excited, too. If you want to vote, just click on the link below. Voting starts tomorrow and runs through the 20th.

www.paranormalromanceguild.com
Now--off to the writing cave!

Writing Wednesday: The Writing Playlist

What's up, everybody? It's that time of week again, where joy and glee and happiness occur--wait, that's tonight, when I have my night of drinking. Here on the blog today, we're talking writing playlists, or more specifically, the two I have going for my current WiPs.

Harvest Moon Rising, as one might expect, has a little bit more of a country feel. I've been throwing down to Sara Evans, Chris Young, LeAnn Rimes, Lady Antebellum, and a few others. It's funny, but if I try and write to something a little less country, the words don't quite flow the way they otherwise do. It might be because I associate southern Georgia, just a thirty minute drive from where I live, with country music. I know that I grew up on country, not "discovering" pop and R&B until I was into my teens. Yes, I know--deprived childhood.

On the other hand, Winged is sort of multi-genre-ish. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a theme going on, but it's sort of spread across genres. I've got some Adele, Sara Evans, Trisha Yearwood, 3 Doors Down, Bruno Mars, Matchbox 20, and Sugarland. The theme song, the huge, overarching song for not just Winged but for the entire series, is hands down Kelly Clarkson's Honestly, off her latest release, Stronger. Go give it a listen, and you'll see why. Or maybe not. I'll admit, I've been tight-lipped on the project, so you may have to use your imagination.

So, that's it for this Writing Wednesday. Be sure to check out Jagged Edge Reviews, where I've been set on the hotplate and thoroughly grilled. I'll admit, it was a smidgen uncomfortable.

Catch you on the flipside!

Tuesday Buildup--Shades of Desire Excerpt

Sorry, guys--I've in the middle of another 60 hour work week, the second in a row, and so I'm just a little lax on creativity. Hopefully you guys will forgive me and enjoy the excerpt below.

"It's alright,Jude. I want to help catch the bad man." Oh, if life were only so easy andsimple.I sighed, as resignedto this as I could be. We'd realized we couldn't just send Celia into themiddle of nowhere without some sort of adult supervision and I'd won by virtueof being the only person who'd ever astral projected before. Joy.We were in myprivate parlor, having deemed the room the most secure. Not from demons orvampires or anything evil. Just from the various people roaming through thehouse. I could have posted a guard outside the door, but all that would do wasattract a crowd. Which would have started gossip. Which we didn't really need.The only light inthe room came from the fire and I was grateful for the small glow. Somethingabout doing this little mission in complete darkness like Rian suggestedfreaked me out. A lot, not a little. Bad things happen in the dark. The eventsof a few months ago had firmly ingrained that little pearl of wisdom into mymind.We'd pushed thefurniture back to have enough room to cast a circle in the center of the room.After Elizabeth found Lies and told her the plan, Lies had swallowed her gum.Down the wrong pipe. So this excursion was already off to a kind of bad start.Everyone lookedtense. Theo popped his elbow repeatedly, something he did only when worried.Lies rocked onto her tiptoes and then back down while Rian drummed hisfingertips against his thigh. Elizabeth just stood there, eyes boring intoRian's. If anything went wrong, things were going to break that might not beable to be fixed.Sighing again, Itook Celia's hands between mine, rubbed them in what I hoped was a soothingmanner. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes. "Ready when you are."Just that fast,we were gone.We weren't in myparlor anymore. We weren't anywhere. Everything was black. Not dark, but black.No light. No sound. I held Celia's hand in a death grip, scared of losing her.Something told me if you lost someone in this blackness, you never found them.I concentrated ashard as possible on Jack. Duprees had grumbled about procedure but he'd let metake the letter out of the evidence bag. I'd ran my fingers over the softnessof the paper, the richness of texture I knew meant expensive, unique. Althoughdoing so made my stomach churn, I'd breathed in the scent of Deiadre's bloodfrom the paper. I'd gritted my teeth and let the strong iron smell soak into mymemory.It was that smellof not quite fresh but not quite old blood which led us to Jack.The blacknessfaded away, slowly at first, and then quicker as the room began to emerge, likefainting in reverse, the way light and color started at the edges and made itsway toward the center of vision. I blinked, little spots of color obscuringsome of my sight as my eyes adjusted. And then I had to press my free hand overmy mouth to keep from screaming.Thank God Celiacouldn't see this. Thank God.We stood in awine cellar. Which shouldn't have been scary. A very rough count put the numberof bottles at close to two hundred, maybe a little less. Like every wine cellarI'd ever seen in a movie, it was meticulously organized, even boasted a littlecorner with a table and a few chairs, I guess for private tasting parties.The racks weredivided into sections. But not by wine type. By person. And they each held asmall shelf with a set of pictures. Before and after. Before each woman wasdrained of blood. And after.I'd rather face ahomicidal maniac with a chain saw than whoever owned this wine cellar.I bent, scoopedCelia up and braced her weight on my hip. Turning my back on the rows of deadwomen, I started up the stairs, trying to move on the balls of my feet as muchas possible. Thankfully, there weren't any creaky steps and the door at the topstood slightly ajar.Anytime thingsstarted out this well, they tended to go downhill. It was just a given.The door openedinto the kitchen. The only odd thing about the room was it wasn't. Odd, I mean.After the basement, I'd expected chrome and stainless steel and marble.Instead, we found faded wood and laminate. And cows. There were cows on everyavailable surface, even a cow shaped cookie jar.Like I said, odd.Because it wasn't odd.A faint glow oflight came from down the short hallway and Celia and I moved toward it. Shehadn't moved since we'd shot into the black and if it wasn't for the faintwheeze of her exhales I'd have worried she'd stopped breathing. Elizabeth toldme Celia'd been born with asthma, but hadn't experienced an episode in years. Ihoped that little bit of luck held.The walls were painteda pale taupe color, with motel room art and staged family photos spaced alongthe length. Again, the sheer normality made everything odd. This was going tobe one of those cases where when the neighbors found out the truth, they'dswear he'd never hurt a fly. Or Jack had killed whoever lived here, thenrefitted the basement to his own exacting specifications.I wasn't surewhich one would be more horrible.