WARNING: SUPER LONG POST. CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MAY INDUCE WRITERLY PROCRASTINATION

The Sunday before last, I posted a list of silver screen icons my mom and grandmom used to drool over. This week, I’ve got an even better list of hunks. Only these hotties aren’t of the flesh and blood variety. In fact, they came from an illustrator’s imagination.

Set aside a few minutes and revisit some great movie moments featuring ten of my favorite animated heroes. In case you’re wondering, it took nearly an hour and a half to find this stuff, but it was a labor of love. So here’s my list in descending order:
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So, Amie asked me to stop by and talk about the inspiration for my latest release, Guardian’s Keep. Seems like a simple enough topic, doesn’t it? I have to get the basic inspiration for my books from somewhere, right? …..I do. I know I do, but for some reason it isn’t easy for me to pin down where.

Guardian’s Keep is the second in my Unbound miniseries for Silhouette Nocturne. The first book featured a hellhound hero—that idea was inspired by thumbing through a book that had pictures of demon dogs. One of the images spoke to me. He/it wasn’t a hellhound, but hellhound sounded a lot better than Black Dog of Ireland—at least to me.

Unbound and Guardian’s Keep are set in the same world, one where Norse mythology is real. I wish I could say where I even got this idea. I think it’s from reading in this same book about a witch named Lusse who at times lead the Wild Hunt (title of my third book to come out in June). Lusse became the villain of Unbound, and somehow the world became Norse. From there things just continued to unwind—in a good way I hope.

That’s the thing about inspiration, at least for me. I think people who don’t create something as complicated as a book from scratch assume it hits you in lightning bolt fashion, and sure some piece of the idea may. But, for me at least, it is much more like pulling on a piece of yarn and slowly watching the ball unwind. At times you get a really long piece to pull free and at times you hit a snag and think the whole thing is done, but never (for me) has the entire ball just landed in my lap, kerplunk.

So, when I try to think about my inspiration for Guardian’s Keep, I hesitate to say what it was. I wanted a sexy alpha hero who was protective. I wanted to pull in more of the Norse world and there was one particular character from Norse myth who to me was just screaming to have another version of his story told (Fenrir) and I wanted a place that was scary and full of atmosphere (Lyngvi). All of those pieces were in my head somewhere, mixed up and confused and slowly bit by bit I pulled them free.

How about you? Are ideas something you build slowly over time, or do they spring forth from your mind fully formed like Athena from Zeus?

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Lori’s Site/ Guardian’s Keep at BN.com

I am a last-minute person.  A couple of my friends are too *coughcececough*.

If I have all the time in the world I will not get it done. But when I am on an uber-deadline, I can crank out whatever it is that needs to be done. Don’t get me wrong, there will be a total freak-out moment here and there in the under pressure world, but it’s like I need that adrenaline boost to motivate my brain.

I will say, writing then selling a book, as I don’t have a contract, makes it so much harder. Sure I can set my own goals, but if I fall short I am the only one affected by it. I don’t have an editor breathing down my neck–I might have a CP doing so but luckily she DOES have a contract and I can easily distract her with ideas for her new book–not that I would ever do that, not me.

It’s funny though, this is only true in my writing world. In everything else, I have to get it done as soon as I know. I have to know when something is happening, make plans have exact dates as soon as I can. It drives folks around me crazy–especially my mother who is last with/for/to EVERYthing. Some of my reasons for the immediate job-complete check is because of her, a competitive nature of showing her it can be done.

I don’t know why it’s not the same for writing. Maybe because she is not a writer, though creative in her own life, there is no competition with her. And again that whole last-minute adrenaline rush that actually helps with the writing that I seem to need more and more. 

Am I alone here? Are you a do it now kinda person or a wait til the last minute? Or are you a mix of both? 

One thing I haven’t done for 2008 was….post my WRITING goals.  Now goals are a tricky thing, especially when it comes to publishing.  There’s so much we have little or no control over–whether an agent will like a proposal, whether or even when an editor will BUY a proposal, but still, I think goals are a good thing.  They give us something to strive for and I even advocate making at least one seemingly impossible goal.

So here we go:

Work on NAS(ty) project. (100 pages)

Work on project with Vee (200 pages?)

Write Screwed (Will’s story - 360 pages? Feb-May)

Finish Forbidden (300 pages to go!)

Sell at least two novellas (200 pages)

Write at least two propopsals (100 pages each — one will be John’s story)

So my goal is to write around 1260 pages.  Stay tuned!

As for my impossible goal?   Try to pick up a second house.

What about you?  What WRITING goals are you working toward this year?

I guess ya’ll noticed that Tanya isn’t blogging today. From now on, Thursdays will be her regular day. Lest you think we’re going to leave you hanging on Sunday’s….we’re NOT!!

See about a week ago I came up with one of my um notorious “Great Ideas”–I say notorious because I’m sorta famous for coming up with them and then not getting them executed. Anyway this one took off like the proverbial Bullet Train and I have my SFC Sisters to thank for that.

Ladies, take a bow!

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If you’re a fan of popular review sites, reader’s sites, agent listings, publisher’s requirements, or if you’ve just been paying attention to your rejections (cough, cough), it’s usually not difficult to tell what’s in vogue.

The business has been swamped with vampires.  Readers are tiring of the “usual” creatures of the night (and how strange does THAT sound, lol).  Erotica is hot, but the fans are grumbling that they want more than just sex.  Navy Seals, Black Ops, billionaires, and shieks are still viable, but even these are sometimes met with a long-suffering sigh.  Regular contemporary romance is becoming very hard to push to publishers, sweet romance is almost passé, and the state of humorous fiction/romance is not one bit funny.

Let’s make a jump of about five years into the future.
Whether you’re an author or a reader…
What do you anticipate being hot at that time?
What do you think will be extinct by then?
And what would you put on the endangered species list right now?

They say all good things must come to an end. I guess it happens.

This, dear readers, will be my last post here at SFC. It was a difficult decision, but one I had to make. I have some serious writing goals for 2008 because, frankly, I have to get off my arse and write. I seriously want to do five manuscripts this next year. And the only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I focus 100 percent of my free time on the writing (well okay, some of that free time goes to the kid, too). Plus, I just don’t feel like my topics here are very blog-worthy anyway. 

I hope you’ll come visit me every now and then over at Ye Olde Inkwell, my own blog. Hopefully you’ll POP in to say hello and see what I’m up to. :) And hopefully I’ll have some serious writing news to talk about in the coming months.

Fare thee well, dear readers.

There’s been lots of posts recently looking back on reading accomplishments for 2007. Well, let me tell you, when I looked in my reading rearview I was surprised at the new landscape I’d entered without noticing!

While I haven’t a clue as to how many books I’ve read. I did notice one pattern that has emerged far more strongly than in any year previous: there were many (many, many) books started, but few finished. I’d honestly say about half. And I suspect my reading as a whole was down last year too. (But it was a trade off because I watched waay more DVDs and spent more time with friends.)

As for Romances, they represented a paltry 1/3 of what I read in 2007, instead the majority of my reading was fiction, mainstream, suspense/thriller, mystery, horror, YA, etc. Which also meant that 90% of the authors I read were new-to-me. (Yay!)

Of the romances I did read, most were either comfort/re-reads, or from my favorite genre– Historical Romance. I did try (and enjoy) several contemporary romances, but imho most of them, while marketed as contemporary romance, were actually Woman’s Fiction. With very few notable exceptions I stayed away from the ‘hot’ subgenres of romance– erotic and paranormal.

Conversely, because I side-stepped most of the paranormal/erotic glut of the past years, I do find my interest piqued by a couple of upcoming releases. I’m also really interested in some good sci-fi romances (if you have an recommends, I’d appreciate it!) Having said that, I think that my reading will probably continue in the same vein this year as last, with romance (while being my favorite genre) not being the genre I read the most of. (yes, yes, that *was* a dangling preposition. Geesh.)

I don’t necessarily look at this turn of events as bad, it just means when I do pick up a romance, when it works, it’s going to really work because I’ll appreciate that magic, that can only be found in romances, more, while avoided the inevitable ennui that accompanies over-indulgence in any one thing.

What about you guys? How did your reading break down for 2007? And what do you expect it to be this year?

It is the new year. Time for a new start. New ideas. New goals. 2007 is done and but a memory. I accomplished several things. Maybe not as many as I have liked, but the list I set I did. (I really need to start thinking grander, maybe even unattainable so when I do hit those goal I can say HOLY SHIT look at me.)

My goals were admirable, I am no sloughing slog. What were they, hmmm, let’s see . . .

Finish a book . . . Check

Sell another book . . . Check

Go to a book signing . . . triple check (did three)

Sending stuff out . . . check and then some.
I got about ten rejections, while on the surface this seems icky, it means I was sending tons of stuff out

But as I said, it’s the new year. Time to celebrate last years checks and make a whole slew of new checkable goals. I will sit myself down, probably later this week, I am tired right now, and make a new list. So . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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