Read 'Em & Reap Blog Hog

I've been terrible about blogging lately. Sorry y'all. I'm hoping to make up for it today with an explosion of awesome! I met the lovely Lisa Medley at the RT convention in New Orleans last May, and it was inevitable that we would hit it off, because A) she also writes reapers, and B) she too is from Missouri. So when she asked me if I wanted to be part of a kick-ass blog hop featuring a dozen reaper writers, I was all the YES. That it would be taking place the week of Halloween was just a bonus.

So from now until the big day, come play with us, and you could win books and swag and even a $100 Amazon Gift Card! It's as easy as share/like/following the grim writers listed in the Rafflecopter below.

As for games... the first reaper reader to unscramble the following quote and post its author in the comments will have a character named after them in Death Wish, book 5 of my Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series. The character will be harvested by Lana and the gang at some point in the book. I promise to make it an interesting death. ; )

The scrambled quote: he never may is going he that know to can himself To immortal. but know that is He everyone is die, he dead.

Hint: Punctuation marks go with the words they follow, and the capitalized words are meant to be. Good luck!


If you're new to my Lana series, you can grab book 1, Graveyard Shift, for FREE on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, & Smashwords.

The Inferno has Evolved… 

Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that. She resides in Limbo City, the modern capital of the collective afterlives, where she likes to stick it to the man (the legendary Grim Reaper himself) by harvesting the bare minimum of souls required of her. She’d much rather be hanging out with Gabriel, her favorite archangel, at Purgatory Lounge. But when a shocking promotion falls in her lap, Lana learns something that could unravel the very fabric of Eternity. If the job isn’t completed, there could be some real hell to pay.

For more grim entertainment, check out the following authors and blogs!

An InLinkz Link-up

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Big Easy Blog Tour: Reblog

So, the writing process hop is really making the rounds! I posted this back in April, but I was tagged a second time by Lisa Medley, fellow reaper-writing Missourian. It is pretty neat to see how other writers "do it". (immature snorts go here) If you'd like to know more about Lisa, check out this interview she gave on my blog HERE.

 Lisa has always enjoyed reading about monsters in love and now she writes about them. Reapers. The grim kind.

She adores beasties of all sorts, fictional as well as real, and has a farm full of them in her Southwest Missouri home, including: one child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees, and a guinea pig.

She may or may not keep a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk at all times, including a machete. Just. In. Case. 



You can take a peek at Lisa's writing process HERE.


My process as seen last April... with a few alterations.

What am I working on?

I am juggling several projects, which I really don’t recommend. At least, not to the extent I’m doing right now. I’m finishing up edits for PSYCHOPOMP, the fourth novel in my Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series. And I'm working on a new YA trilogy for an agent I adore. I am also working on a few short stories for anthologies and magazines.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My Lana series, which is my baby, is technically urban fantasy. I love vampires and werewolves, but they’ve been done. A lot. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have anything new to offer in that arena. I still knew I wanted to stick with urban fantasy. It just sets my heart on fire. I really enjoy studying world religions and mythology, so I decided to take my writing in that direction. My series is set in a modern afterlife, where all the faiths are right and all the deities exist… and have to work together. So, while it’s an urban setting, it’s still not quite “of this world”, and I’m playing with less familiar supernatural beings than most urban fantasy readers are used to.

Why do I write what I do?

Aside from my love of urban fantasy, I thought it would be fun to put my mythology and religious research to good use. I’m also a big supporter of religious tolerance, and while the deities in my series don’t always get along, my readers are still learning things about different faiths that they might not have known before. Intolerance is a cousin of ignorance. We fear the things we don’t understand. While my primary goal is entertainment, I still like the notion that I might also be subliminally promoting tolerance and peace.

How does my writing process work?

Not very well. I wish that was a joke.

Ok. Seriously… I have a plot board. I’m a bit OCD and ADD, so I NEED the plot board to stay on track. I have oversized post-its that represent my chapters. The post-its are big enough to hold a 2-3 sentence description of what’s going down in that particular scene. I fill out the big events first and shuffle them around until they make some sort of sense. Then I fill in the chapters where foreshadowing needs to happen, where character bonding and development is crucial, ect. ect. ect. Until I have somewhere between 25 and 35 chapters.

Then the actual writing happens. Once again, ADD, so the plot board comes in handy. I do not write my books in order. I often have the last chapter written before the fourth or fifth. If I don’t feel like a lovey-dovey scene, I skip ahead to a fight scene. If I’m not feeling the dialog in one spot, I play with the scenery or narrative somewhere else. My muse has mood swings, so I just go with it. Eventually, I have a book written. Then I read through it and make sure everything is still in order. I do some shuffling again. I polish up a scene here or there. I rebalance the dialog/narrative ratio where it feels off.

Then I email the draft to an author friend or two, a couple beta readers, my husband. I print it out and deliver it to my former college comp professor who volunteers to edit my novels (this is why he has the honorary title of THE professor—he also teaches Shakespeare, and he introduced me to Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, so I trust his judgment and taste in literature). Then I’m bombarded by a plethora of plot holes, grammatical errors, and general typos… which I face palm my way through as I fix. A final read through and BING! It’s done. Yes, it sounds like an Easy-Bake Oven in my head. This has happened in a matter of three months… or a matter of three years. Once again, I wish that was a joke. I have become more consistent and persistent over the past few years, so I’m hoping that means it’s a skill I’m able to hone… and not just a sadistic muse I’m at the mercy of. 

So that's about it.  


P.S. I'm not tagging anyone in particular. If you haven't been tagged and would like to participate in the writing process hop, consider yourself invited! You can totally blame me. ♥

RT14 NOLA Round Up

We got back from New Orleans on Sunday, and we're still recovering...

The RT Booklovers Convention was a blast! Hands down, best week ever! I hardly know where to begin, so I'll just take it from the top...

Monday (May 11th), was a blur. I packed and unpacked half a dozen times before I finally decided that yes, I did need all eight pairs of shoes I'd picked out. Good thing we weren't flying. After my parents picked up our minion, Paul and I cranked up the music and popped open a bottle of wine as we finished organizing everything and going over our OCD checklists for the nth time. I swear, I need to find a little kitchen sink key-chain thingamabob, just so I can say I didn't forget it. 

After we played Jenga with our luggage Tuesday morning, we were off! I'll spare you all the exhilarating details of our 14 hour car ride. When we got to the hotel around 9pm, the plan was to go to bed early so we'd be nice and refreshed in the morning. Hahahaha That didn't happen. I think we saw 2:30am. There were just too many people to meet! Seriously. We made a lot of new friends last week. From all over the world. Also, we had our books shipped to the hotel for the book fair, and they were waiting for us. 

Backwoods Armageddon!

Paul's first book (my fifth), and this is the first time he got to hold a physical copy in his hands. I had to capture the moment. ♥

More squee-worthy photos...

 Charlaine Harris!!!! Ahhhh!!! I adore her. She was so very sweet and funny. 

I'm glad I got a picture with her, because I didn't have time to track her down later and get books signed. The lines were super cray this year.

With E. L. James at 3:30am. Yeah, not even my camera was sober at that hour. Shay, a lovely blogger with very soft hands (I'm a hand holder when I'm tanked, FYI) spotted James in the lounge and let me tag along to meet her. She was so nice! It must be something about RT. I didn't meet one unpleasant person all week.

Darynda Jones (2nd from the right--next to Chloe Neil!) was also another author I was really excited to meet in person. Her Charley Davidson series is fantastic! It's about reapers. How could it not be awesome? ; )

Kim Harrison!!! (on the left) I adore her too. Also, crazy lines at her tables. I did wait in one to get some books signed, but I skipped getting a picture taken with her, because I didn't want to get mauled by fans. I nabbed this picture at the humor panel she was on, moderated by Trent Hart (on the right). Really great info! Glad I took notes. Trent did a lot for RT this year, and we ran into each other in the elevator at one point. We had emailed a few times, but I didn't recognize him right off. He said my name, and I'm sure the look I gave him was of pure panic. I'm usually pretty good with names and faces. Convention tip: Look at the name badge! That's Tiffany Reisz under the center arrow. She writes steamy erotica, and I got to hang out with her in the lounge later that night, after visiting with Lucienne Diver, agent/author extraordinaire. If you're a fan of my Lana series and love mythology, you have to check out Lucienne's Latter-Day Olympians series! So much fun! 

Rachel busted out a deck of Cards Against Humanity, which is my new favorite game. It's so wrong and yet so right! This was my first time playing, and I won! We decided the grand prize would be the mystery box of cheesecake we found in our booth. lol

Next to Lucienne is Tristan Smith, a cover model who works with Jenn LeBlanc, to his left. In addition to being a great model, Tristan is an all around nice guy. He's raising money for a friend of his who was badly injured in an automobile accident. Find out how you can help HERE. 

I met Jenn LeBlanc last year at RT13 in Kansas City. She creates amazing covers, and she writes too! She moderated a fun cover design panel this year with Tristan.

 Speaking of cover models....

I went to the "Jade Lee Lampoons the Writing Life", where this guy (I believe they were calling him Scotty McHottie) posed as a were-dolphin for a mock cover shoot. I ♥ Jade Lee. She's so much fun! Pretty sure my husband still blames her for getting me hooked on Plants vs. Zombies though. lol

Alcoholic keepsakes. Remember: Write drunk. Edit sober. 

The book fair was cray. Over 700 authors. It was Paul's first official signing, so that was exciting too!

I sat next to a very charming man in a bow-tie, Joshua Roots. His work has been compared to Jim Butcher's. I just downloaded the first in his series today! 

Here are some balloon animals. The clown said I was special, so I got two! Not creepy at all...

Partay!!!

 Mardis Gras World!

The marketing panel I moderated was a huge success! Lisa Kessler talked about Facebook parties. Sierra Dean talked about the right ways to use Twitter. Paul Ross covered one-on-one sales, and I discussed putting together a charity/launch party on a budget. If you missed the panel and didn't get one of the goody bags with a handout, you can download it here:

I'm already putting together a panel proposal for next year. The ladies in charge get the ball rolling early. It's a huge event, so they really have to. 

There were so many more wonderful people! I know I'm missing some names I should be giving a shout-out to.... J. Hali Steel, Alexis Flemming, Bobbie Cole, Jenna Jacob... Mia Marshall, Gretchen Stull, Lisa Medley. Really, it was a blast getting to visit with you all!

I'll catch you lovelies in Dallas next year! In the meantime... Keep Calm and Read On! 

xoxo

Writing Process Blog Hop

Clare Davidson, a lovely YA author from the UK, tagged me in the writing process blog hop. Woot!

The internet is such a fun place. I’m always meeting new and amazing people from all over the world. I “met” Clare a little over a year ago, when she invited me to participate in a huge indie blog hop. Clare is really fantastic at bringing writers together and organizing fun and interactive blog tours. I always enjoy being a part of her online events. Her YA novels are pretty amazing too! You can find out more about Clare and her writing process here.

Now for the hop questions…

What am I working on?

I am juggling several projects, which I really don’t recommend. At least, not to the extent I’m doing right now. I’m finishing up edits and rewrites for PSYCHOPOMP, the fourth novel in my Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series. I am also trying to work on BACKWOODS ARMAGEDDON, a comical hillbilly apocalypse novel I’m coauthoring with my husband. I have several short stories I’m working on for magazines, and I’m polishing some synopses and outlines for two different series that I hope will attract the agent I’m stalking—er, I mean querying.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My Lana series, which is my baby, is technically urban fantasy. I love vampires and werewolves, but they’ve been done. A lot. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have anything new to offer in that arena. I still knew I wanted to stick with urban fantasy. It just sets my heart on fire. I really enjoy studying world religions and mythology, so I decided to take my writing in that direction. My series is set in a modern afterlife, where all the faiths are right and all the deities exist… and have to work together. So, while it’s an urban setting, it’s still not quite “of this world”, and I’m playing with less familiar supernatural beings than most urban fantasy readers are used to.

Why do I write what I do?

Aside from my love of urban fantasy, I thought it would be fun to put my mythology and religious research to good use. I’m also a big supporter of religious tolerance, and while the deities in my series don’t always get along, my readers are still learning things about different faiths that they might not have known before. Intolerance is a cousin of ignorance. We fear the things we don’t understand. While my primary goal is entertainment, I still like the notion that I might also be subliminally promoting tolerance and peace.

How does my writing process work?

Not very well. I wish that was a joke.

Ok. Seriously… I have a plot board. I’m a bit OCD and ADD, so I NEED the plot board to stay on track. I have oversized post-its that represent my chapters. The post-its are big enough to hold a 2-3 sentence description of what’s going down in that particular scene. I fill out the big events first and shuffle them around until they make some sort of sense. Then I fill in the chapters where foreshadowing needs to happen, where character bonding and development is crucial, ect. ect. ect. Until I have somewhere between 25 and 35 chapters.

Then the actual writing happens. Once again, ADD, so the plot board comes in handy. I do not write my books in order. I often have the last chapter written before the fourth or fifth. If I don’t feel like a lovey-dovey scene, I skip ahead to a fight scene. If I’m not feeling the dialog in one spot, I play with the scenery or narrative somewhere else. My muse has mood swings, so I just go with it. Eventually, I have a book written. Then I read through it and make sure everything is still in order. I do some shuffling again. I polish up a scene here or there. I rebalance the dialog/narrative ratio where it feels off.

Then I email the draft to an author friend or two, a couple beta readers, my husband. I print it out and deliver it to my former college comp professor who volunteers to edit my novels (this is why he has the honorary title of THE professor—he also teaches Shakespeare, and he introduced me to Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, so I trust his judgment and taste in literature). Then I’m bombarded by a plethora of plot holes, grammatical errors, and general typos… which I face palm my way through as I fix. A final read through and BING! It’s done. Yes, it sounds like an Easy-Bake Oven in my head. This has happened in a matter of three months… or a matter of three years. Once again, I wish that was a joke. I have become more consistent and persistent over the past few years, so I’m hoping that means it’s a skill I’m able to hone… and not just a sadistic muse I’m at the mercy of.

Want to hear how other authors do it? (Cue immature giggles here.) I’m tagging two awesome authors to share their secrets next week. These ladies rock! Check them out.  :  )

Monica La Porta is an Italian who landed in Seattle several years ago. Despite popular feelings about the Northwest weather, she finds the mist and the rain the perfect conditions to write. Being a strong advocate of universal acceptance and against violence in any form and shape, she is also glad to have landed precisely in Washington State. Stop by her blog to read about her miniatures, sculptures, paintings, and her beloved beagle, Nero. Sometimes, she also posts about her writing. http://monicalaporta.com/

Elisa Nuckle is a twenty-something fantasy and science fiction novelist. It's always been her dream to chase ideas down and put them into concrete words. Currently, she's undergoing enlightenment at University of Houston, and plans on getting an English major in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.  http://elisanuckle.com/