24,850 / 80,000 (31.1%)

Snippet: Gabe talking to Felicity about his father.
“I’m not sure how, but I have more gray in my hair than he has in his.” He threaded his fingers through the hair at his temples.
“I think men with gray look distinguished.”
“Is that a kind way of saying old?”
Felicity laughed. “No. There’s something innately sexy about a man with just a hint of gray.”
“Really,” Gabe said with a lift of one eyebrow, his voice husky.
“Oh yes,” she breathed.
Their eyes caught and held. A hint of desire blazed in his and she knew hers held more than a suggestion.
“Good to know.”

The perfect song for Seeing Red… well, because it has those words in it and the tone is exactly what I imagine for the serial killer. Such fun!

Other songs I listen to while writing this are:

While on the hunt for the killer-

• Fake It - Seether
• FMLYHM - Seether
• Rise Above This - Seether
• 6 Gun Quota- Seether
• Remedy - Seether
• Welcome To The Jungle- Guns N Roses

The serial killer-

• The Red- Chevelle
• I Hate Everything About You- Three Days Grace
• No Jesus Christ- Seether
• Animal I Have Become- Three Days Grace

THIS ONE–

No video– but music.

Felicity and Gabe-

• You Won’t Ever Be Lonely- Andy Griggs
• I Melt- Rascal Flatts
• The One Thing- INXS
• Don’t Change- INXS

No video, but here’s the song.

In a few pages Felicity and Gabe will share their first kiss! Hee!

I’m sorry everyone for being so scarce. The only excuses I have are (1) I’m working a lot, (2) I’m writing a lot, and (3) Felicity and Gabe have now officially overtaken my mind. Once I finish my work day (and even during) they overwhelm my thoughts. Damn them. They have no patience. Well, dudes, I’m 1/4 of the way done so take a pill already. Sheesh! And Shelby Reed and Jennifer have agreed to kick some bootie if I don’t keep going with this story at a productive pace. (I’ll be blogging about this more at a later date- This being FEAR).

Oh! And I finally came up with a title. No more calling it the serial killer book or the SK book or Felicity and Gabe’s book or F & G’s book. Nope, the working title is now Seeing Red.

So, without further ado, here’s a snippet from Seeing Red.

When they reached the squad room, Gabe veered to the left and Felicity headed straight. Jennifer looked up and grinned.

“How was it being in close proximity with Gabe the Babe all day?”

Felicity couldn’t help it, she laughed out loud. “Gabe the Babe?”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Like you hadn’t noticed.”

“Only a blind woman wouldn’t notice. I’ve been mentally calling him Dr. Hottie, but I like yours so much better. ” She laughed again. “Gabe The Babe, indeed.”

I’ve never received one as I’m not published, and I imagine they hurt like nothing else, but what do you do when you get one? Do you go and try to defend your writing? Trying to get the reviewer to understand where you are coming from? Do you respond and thank them for their review? Do you just ignore it?

I personally think option #2 (thanking the reviewer) is the classy way to handle things. You could ignore it and that would be acceptable as well. But option #1? SO WRONG. Everyone has a right to their opinion even if it reflects negatively on your work–your writing–that you spent long hours sweating and slaving over a keyboard to create. Why is this wrong? It makes you look stupid for one, unprofessional for another, and readers/reviewers generally have a field day with this sort of behavior. Getting a reputation for being defensive of your work will stay with you for a long, long time…if it ever goes away. I’ve seen it happen more than once. It isn’t pretty.

I was thinking about it and this is the only fair comparison I can think of. It would be like getting a rejection from a publisher and then corresponding back and trying to defend your book to them, because in essence isn’t the publisher in their own way giving you a review of the book? Maybe not as thorough but it’s a review nonetheless. If you were to argue your points to the editors/publishers/agents, just how long do you think you’d last in this business? Not very would be my guess.

In the same manner, if you argue your point to reviewers/readers, just how long do you think they’ll buy your books, thus keeping you in this business? Same answer–not very long would be my guess.

What are your thoughts?

“I have nothing but respect for people who write books, whether they write literary fiction, genre fiction, nonfiction, whatever. If you’ve finished a book, even a bad book, then you’ve achieved something that’s akin to finishing basic training, or perhaps running a gauntlet. After a certain level of competence, publishing is luck, and success, especially financial success, is even more luck. There are many writers who are better than I am who are not selling as many books as I am, on the other hand, there are many whom ( I think) don’t write as well as I do, who are selling many, many more books than I am. The yardstick you have to go by, in my opinion anyway, is are they doing the work? The more books I write, the more reverence I have for people who write books.”  Christopher Moore.

more cat pictures

The season where the TV shows are new. Le sigh. Now we’ll have summer repeats and boredom. But, I suppose this will give me an opportunity to watch those new shows that looked good but were on at the same time as my favorites. I’ll miss House, Lost, Eli Stone (which IS coming back! Yay!), and some others but those are the ones I’ll miss the most.

Tonight American Idol ends… well, the finale is on. There is tomorrow but not much happens then. I shall miss it even though the order in which the contestants got voted off this year was screwy. But that’s neither here nor there. Do you watch American Idol? Which David do you want to win? I want this one to win…

The dude can sing. He is awesome. But you know what? If he doesn’t win, I won’t be sad because then he can do an album HIS way rather than the absolute American Idol way. He’s going to tickle my fancy just as much as Daughtry. I can already tell.

Who’s your pick? What shows are you going to miss this summer? Do you know of any shows coming on that will are supposed to be good?

more cat pictures

I met my agent today, the Lovely Laura Bradford… and lovely she is! What a wonderful person. Not just because she believes in me even when I don’t believe in myself, but because she whole-heartedly believes in each and every one of her clients to an extent I didn’t realize until today. I won’t go into detail but it was wonderful to be able to meet her in person and get to really know her and how she feels about me, my writing, the industry, and hear examples of how I’m not the only one struggling. I feel like I’ve found a home with her at this agency, and with her other clients. We all get along so well and support one another and not a fake support either… it’s genuine heart-felt support and I love it.

I didn’t get any writing done today because I worked in the a.m., then putzed before getting ready to meet Laura, and then drove to Green Bay to chat it up with her loveliness for over an hour. Arranging to meet Laura while she was in Wisconsin at the WisRWA conference was the wisest decision I’ve made in a long, long time.

I won’t be able to attend the Lori Foster event this year as my oldest son is graduating (Gah! I’m getting old) and won’t be attending any other conferences this year either, so this was my only chance. Next year I’ll be at Lori Foster’s event in Ohio again. I LOVE it there. It’s a relaxed setting and so fun. Laura will be there this year as well as a ton of the Bradford Bunchers. Next year will be a blast!

more cat pictures

On Saturday the Lovely Laura Bradford will be here for the WisRWA conference… you know what that means! I GET TO MEET HER!   Wooooo hoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!