As I was sitting here writing what follows, I got a call from a committee member for the Daphne du Maurier contest telling me that Hard Evidence is a finalist in the Single Title category. I'm so thrilled!
Yep, it's definitely my year to be a finalist — the RITAs, the AAN journalism awards and now this.
The Daphne awards are given by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA — a national chapter focused solely on suspense and mystery. If you want to know how to kill someone with poison, the Kiss of Death chapter is the one to join. Extreme Exposure garnered an honorable mention in last year's Daphnes, which was very exciting. The awards ceremony is preceded by the Death By Chocolate gala. We're talking a chocolate buffet that defies the imagination.
I'm so glad that Julian and Tessa are earning some honors! I love them dearly. Speaking of Julian, he figures quite prominently in what I wrote this weekend (and now we pick up where I was before the phone rang).
This is how I envisioned Julian. Is it any wonder I can't get over him?
I'm still on a writer's high, and I don't want the world to ruin it.
I spent this past weekend writing, and by "writing," I mean actually writing. I finished the action sequence I'd been stuck in for a whole bloody month. Less than 1,000 words, it had me in knots. And then it was like someone had pulled the cork from the bottle.
And this, of course, is Marc Hunter. Are y'all sick of this photo yet?
I wrote 25 pages, including the last chapter, and I'm fairly certain that most of it is stuff I'll keep. Which means that I'm so close to being done with Unlawful Contact that I can taste it. I need to edit the last chapter, which I'll do this coming weekend. Then I need to write the epilogue.
I edit heavily as I write, so once I'm done, I give the manuscript a few cover-to-cover reads, tweaking maniacally, and then I'm done. I mail it to my editor in New York — and usually I fall into a "post-partum" depression that lasts until someone gets me good and drunk, or until I'm pregnant with my next book. Because I'm very fertile, that usually happens within a couple of months.
That next book is going to be Untamed, the sequel to Surrender.
But I digress.
I wrote all weekend. In fact, I didn't want to stop. I wrote until almost 3 a.m. this morning, then went to bed and slept until 5:30. Then I had to get up, shower and drive 45 minutes to the office, where I worked a full 8.5 hours. I will admit that some portion of that 8.5 hours was spent watching SNL's "Dick in a Box" sketch on YouTube, however most of it was spent doing editor things.
On another note, I will be in Portland, Ore., for the AAN convention and awards from Thursday morning, June 14, through Saturday evening, June 16. I know I'm going to be seeing Aimee and Linda T. I hope to see Ronlyn, too, and perhaps Debbie O.
Sorry to have fallen behind in posting. But this time it's because I was actually writing the book!