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EDJ Trip

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

The fifteenth floor of the hotel is sweltering. I have my window open, listening to the traffic of downtown St. Paul. It sounds strangely familiar, since we lived in an apartment here for over a year before Princess Monster was born, directly across the street from the fire/police station and across the freeway from a hospital.

Work has been crazy but fun as I get to catch up with people I haven’t seen in months, and some I’ve only talked to on the phone and never met face to face. Today I have a 3 hour meeting and then another 1 1/2 hour meeting in the afternoon. Sounds like fun, huh? Meanwhile, of course, I have tons of programming, reading, and documentation tasks I need to complete. I typically have to “go home” to get my “normal” work done. ;-)

I’ve been getting up at 4:00 a.m. so I can write. Yesterday I got 1264 words and finished a 713 word guest blog which will go up at Southern Fried Chicas Wednesday (huge thank you to Tanya for the invite!). Today I got 1315 words. Gregar is pleased but also pushing me harder. I was hoping to get 10K this week, and a total of 50K by the end of the month. I can make it, if I can keep up this pace.

Tonight I have dinner plans with several people from work so I have no idea how late we’ll be out. Getting up at the butt crack of dawn has only been possible because I’ve been going to bed well before 10:00. We’ll see if I can make it tomorrow morning. I meant to go to bed at 9:00 last night but HAD to finish The Duke of Shadows. Oh, dear, how I bawled. Even Passion didn’t make my blubber so much. THAT is the reason I haven’t been able to get my arms around RHP, because I want that kind of emotion and characterization in the story. Unfortunately, my character was named Emmaline too. So her name will be changing when I get back to those revisions.

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EDJ Trip

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I’m writing this blog entry from lovely St. Paul, MN where I’ll spend the week visiting the Evil Day Job home office. Some notes about the trip up here:

  1. Despite our lawn needing to be mowed, it was SNOWING when we left the house this morning.
  2. We left the house at 4:30 a.m. so we could eat breakfast together at the IHOP. It’s tradition.
  3. It was FRIGID on the plane. After a few minutes, the pilot came on the speaker and informed us the heater was broken, but he assured us the plane would warm once we were in the air. Oh, goody, it’s always comforting to hear that something is BROKEN on the AIRPLANE. Even something as little as a heater.
  4. A few minutes later, the pilot came on the speaker again and said that since it was so cold on the plane, they’d emptied the water reservoir to ensure it didn’t freeze. (Yes, it was that cold.) And so they couldn’t make coffee. I’ve been up since 4:00 a.m. and there’s no coffee??? *dies*
  5. The flight was uneventful (and warm once we were in the air). I’m reading Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran.
  6. After landing, we sat on the tarmac for 10-15 minutes or longer. I don’t know exactly. I did say I was reading. But Wanda definitely had to wait on me to hike out of Concourse C and find my baggage.
  7. Wanda and I spent an incredible day talking, shopping, drinking coffee, talking, eating, talking, talking books, talking…
  8. So far, I haven’t needed my jacket HERE although there is still snow on the ground in places. Okay, I did get a little chilly after dinner, but it was still bright and sunny.
  9. I’m heading to bed shortly because I plan on getting up around 4:00 a.m. tomorrow to write before getting read for work. Yes, I am insane but Gregar is adamant. My biggest worry is that Caribou Coffee doesn’t open until 6:00 a.m. and so I’ll have to drink hotel swill.
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Friday Snippet – The Shadowed Blood

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Week 1
Week2
Hot off the press again, but it took all evening to get through this. I couldn’t decide where to stop, and ended up doubling the length. It needs some work, but here’s the next installment.

Wrapped in the Shadow of Death, Gregar crouched in the waist-high grass, invisible to the two warriors standing not ten paces from him. In the distance, thousands of tents dotted the foothills with the thrice-crowned Mountain rearing up in the distance. This night, Vulkar

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Thursday Thirteen (TT#58)

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Thirteen Signs that I’m Losing my Mind
1. I’ve been talking to my characters.

2.And they answer back.

3. I’ve been drinking a couple of gallons of coffee a day. (Up at 4:30 this morning) *pops a Pepcid*

4. I had yet another story idea today. No, I didn’t do anything with it but crawl in the corner. *whimpers*

5. Still waiting to hear about a contest I entered Letters in. *gnaws nails to the bone*

6. I promised my editor to have Gregar’s book (The Road to Shanhasson) to her by early July for possible release in September. I currently have less than 30K. Ideally, first draft (80-100K) needs to be done by May 3st, so I can revise in June. *listens to Gregar, types faster* Gregar is KILLING ME, but what a lovely way to go…..

7. Beautiful Death edits and promo will be going on at the same time. (Releasing in June) *frantic*

8. I committed to writing another Keldari novella to bundle with the other two, likely 20-30K. This year! Oh, but I had this really killer idea already… Oddly, inspired by the hymn we were singing in church on Sunday: He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock…

9. I still have to finish expanding Letters and kick it out the door. *Conn revs his black Mustang impatiently*

10.I need to drag out RHP and decide whether the plan I spent months on for revisions will actually work. And then, you know, MAKE THOSE REVISIONS. *gulp* Another full length novel this year.

11. Take last year’s NaNoWriMo novel at 63.5K and do something productive with it. Like revisions and kick IT out the door too. Another full length novel…. *babbles*

12. Evil Day Job trip to MN next week!!!!! *Squee – I get to see WANDA!*

13. Oh, yeah, and where’s Charon’s book (that follows Beautiful Death)? *blubbers*

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It

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Insanity: Multiple Series

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I must admit to holding Laurell K. Hamilton as a sort of role model for a long time. Even after Narcissus in Chains (a major turning point in the Anita Blake series; fans know exactly what I’m talking about), I was still a big fan. Still am, truth be told, despite all the problems with her stories. She creates such fantastic characters! I adore Nathaniel, and Damien, and the Darkness, and Rhys… I can’t leave them, even though I’m sick of Anita Blake. The last Merry Gentry book was one of the best in latter years, too. I just “steamboat” a lot over words or situations that don’t add to the story. ;-)

One of the things I’ve long admired about LKH is her ability to write two fantastic, popular series at the same time. When she finishes up an Anita book, she always starts the next book in the series before getting too deep into Merry’s next book, and vice versa. Since I just finished up Beautiful Death again…

I didn’t exactly start the next book, but I did start a list of all the story threads I deliberately didn’t resolve yet. What is Hera going to do? Who’s going to rule Macedon? How soon can Hades take over? What battles will he have? What about… You get the idea, without me giving away too many spoilers, hopefully. I also made a lot of mythology and “explanation” type notes to the editor in the pre-pass I made a few weeks ago, all good information that might make sense to include on the website, so I started a very rough page that will likely change a lot over the next few days or weeks.

I know that Charon is the protagonist of the next book, and the first thing I need to research (before I can write him effectively) is post traumatic stress. He suffered a great deal of torture in Beautiful Death, and his sanity wasn’t the best beforehand. He’s going to be one tough hero to redeem, let me tell you. He’s Molly’s favorite character in the series (which she swears has nothing to do with the fact that I imagine him played by Vin Diesel *snort*) and I’m afraid I won’t live up to her expectations…

Oh, dear, now Gregar is stomping about muttering that he thought HE was her favorite character and that I should be afraid of HIM. Well, I am, my Shadowed Blood, but I have to get these notes finished before I can keep writing YOUR story…

Excuse me, I’m being dragged off to write more on The Road to Shanhasson now.

(Please don’t mention to him that I also have RHP and NSR and Letters to work on this year.)