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With the three-day weekend I was able to squeeze in about five hours of writing time yesterday (luxury!!) and managed to get chapter 14 finished. It was a great chapter to write, too � full of highly emotional scenes and the first love scene of the novel, so I really wanted to take my time with it and do the scenes justice.

Chapter 15 leads us into what I've been thinking of as the pre-climactic scene of the novel, the beginning of the end, the start of the final conflict, so I'm really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now (even if the characters have got no idea what's coming at them.) There should only be four or five chapters left at this point, so working hard to make every single one count � maybe I'll actually get this dratted thing finished before the year is out after all, hm? :P

I did a lot of thinking about the crafting of the love scene in this chapter � I think I put more thought into this one than in any that I've written so far, because in this case everything about the scene, the way the characters relate to each other, the positions they choose, the emotional and physical connection that's established between them, are all pivotal to the heart of the story itself. It got me thinking about how, when I wrote love scenes in SotG and Branded Ann, I mostly just wrote them as I "felt" them� I wasn't deliberately trying to infuse the scenes with a deeper meaning, but was just writing what seemed organic to the characters at that point in the story. Still, I think if I were to go back and read through them I could probably find a lot of telling characterization and relationship development in those scenes too. It only makes sense � sex is always a definitive moment between two people, whether the encounter is casual or laden with meaning. Anyway, point being, I think I learned a lot from Kade and Erinda in the last few pages. Can't wait to see this through with them to the end! :)

The internet seems to hold the general opinion that responding to reviews of one's own work is in poor taste, and I definitely understand where that comes from. But what if the response you desperately want to give is a resounding "Ohmigosh, THANK YOU!?" Because I was peeking at my books on Amazon the other day, which I haven't done in ages, and found a whole stack of the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful and thoughtful reviews for both of my books that it was very difficult to restrain myself from posting thank-yous to the reviewers. I can only hope that maybe they'll find their way to my blog at some point and perhaps see this post, and know how very much I appreciate not just the fact that they read my stories, but that they then cared enough about them to take the time to post such insightful comments.

Believe it or not, I especially appreciate those who offer up criticism of elements they didn't like or that didn't jive well for them. I actually enjoy readers' critiques. While it doesn't always mean I'll agree with their opinions overall, it still often helps me identify holes in my writing that I might have the opportunity to plug up in a future installment of the series, or things I will pay more attention to the next time I'm pulling a plot together. The things that make you, as the reader, scratch your head and go, "Come on, really?" are the things I want to know about, so I can hopefully make those points stronger in the future. *grin*

Equally, of course, I love hearing what did work for readers; what specific themes or characters or situations they especially enjoyed, what they'd like more of in future books. Usually it's right in line with the things I enjoyed most about writing the story, but sometimes readers really surprise me with these thoughtful analyses of elements that had never even occurred to me � and I love that! I also love, love, love to see how readers get so attached to the characters, which of course is one of the things I most hope to achieve in each of my stories. I get so close to the characters myself as I'm working with them, and so seeing how they then turn around and can affect readers as keenly as they did me is really gratifying. I feel like a proud mama, hehe!

I find myself wishing that Amazon reviews were considered more "legit" (and I did sneak a few of them into the SotG trailer, even) because in my opinion, who should have more credibility than the folks who are actually reading the books � the folks who read purely for pleasure and review books for the benefit of other readers and not necessarily for the author or publisher?

Anyway, I also find that when I'm in a writing slump—when my daily work and personal life are closing in around me and I've got no time, much less inspiration, to drag out a manuscript and plug away at it—that just one review like these suddenly makes me want to whip out my netbook and WRITE ALL THE THINGS. You guys make me feel like I might actually be okay at this writing stuff, and for that I send you the biggest hugs in the world� and hop back to my computer to get you some more of that story.

So very excited about Sirens, which is coming up October 6 � 9 in Vail, Colorado. My proposal for a round table on queer monsters was accepted, so come join us on Friday at 2 PM for a thoughtful discussion of LGBT vampires, werewolves, witches and more!

I believe I'll also be able to sign books at Afternoon Tea on Friday and Saturday, and I've already got a long list of books I want to read before the conference so I'm ready for all the panels, keynote speeches and discussions! I don't know how I'll ever choose between some of the concurrent sessions, though, as there are so many that I really want to attend. Seriously, just check out this programming schedule!

If you want to come, you'd better register soon, though. The registration deadline is September 7th, and after that you can still get tickets at the door but they'll be a lot more expensive.

Can't wait for October to get here!!

I feel somewhat accomplished today because I submitted a new short story to BSB for their upcoming lesbian paranormal anthology. It's a ghost story, which was not at all what I was planning on writing for this project, but it's somehow the thing that decided to write itself when I sat down at the computer�

I haven't decided yet whether I'm in love with the story or not, but that's because I always want to make short stories into something bigger than they're supposed to be. I want to add too much detail, too much back story, and when I'm limited to a few thousand words I start feeling like the plot is rushing itself a little. In this particular case, one of the characters is insisting that she would be great in a novel. A lesbian Peruvian mummy ghost novel, my friends � and what's more, based on a real archeological discovery. Yeah. So as I was trying to write this little non-mummy short story for her, she was all the time trying to get me to agree that her Peruvian tale would be far more exciting.

Anyway, after a good amount of wrestling with the challenges of fitting her into a much smaller tale for the time being, I finally got the short story done only to realize that the deadline for submitting said stories was the 21st of this month, not the 31st. Luckily Rad is the nicest person on the planet, and so very graciously agreed to let me send my story over late. *hangs head in shame* I am just hoping that she likes it, that it fits in all right with the other submissions for the anthology, and that it's hopefully not too similar to any of the other submissions, but I guess we'll see. Funny how I always, always feel more nervous about my short story submissions than I do about my full length novels. :P

If BSB does approve my story for inclusion in the anthology, the book will be out sometime in Spring of 2012, so that's pretty exciting.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about reposting on the site an older short story that I wrote when I was in college. It's long been one of my favorite little pieces, and since it's already out there on the internet on a couple of other sites it's not eligible for publication with BSB, so I figure I should probably make it available for free here too in case anybody wants a snippet of very very very early Merry Shannon stuff. *grins*

First, though, I think I should probably dust off the old version and brighten it up a bit in edits� ^~

As always it feels like the summer is just flying by. I don't know what it is about this season � maybe it's because I love it so much, but every year it feels like summer gets shorter and shorter. :P

We've had a lot of projects going on lately that have been pulling my attention away from writing, but I have finally managed to finish off Chapter Thirteen. I'd gotten stuck for a little while in between scenes � I knew exactly what needed to happen but oddly I think a part of me was hesitant to write it because I wasn't fully confident I could pull it off with the same energy that the rest of the story has. The scene felt like it was dragging its way out of me in a sort of lackluster fashion, but taking a break and coming back to it has been a huge help. I think maybe it was my own feelings that were somewhat lackluster, not the story itself, and I needed to come at it from a fresh perspective in order to get it where I needed it to be.

As usual I read a bunch of books in between and drew inspiration from them. Went back through what I have written so far and did a bunch of editing. By the time I arrived at the spot where I was stuck, the story started to flow for me again, yay!

Anyway, we've hit 75,000 words now. About 70% through the manuscript at this point. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to set the book aside again for the next few days, because there's a paranormal anthology I've been invited to write for and therefore, a short story that I need to get done. I think I've mentioned before that I really, really struggle to write short stories. I inevitably hate them when I'm finished, and it takes multiple readings much, much later to convince myself that they really are all right.

But, short stories are important and valuable media for a writer. They get your work into the hands of those who might not otherwise pick up your books just off the bat, and hopefully they intrigue those readers enough to go out and give your full-length stuff a try. Not to mention that, since they're particularly challenging for me, I really *ought* to be making myself write them more often, just for the "workout." So, short story it is. I have the first couple of pages of a ghost story written, and ten days before the submission deadline, so I have to get crackin'!

Also wanted to mention again that I will be leading a round table discussion of Queer Monsters at this year's upcoming Sirens Conference. The conference is being held in Vail, Colorado in early October, with such distinguished featured guests as Laini Taylor, Nnedi Okorafor, and Justine Larbalestier. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope to see some of you there as well! Just take a look at some of their accepted programing so far� I'm going to have a really hard time deciding which sessions to attend!!

Shasta decorated the house yesterday for Pride by planting flowers and putting our flag out:

Looking forward to the weekend!! :)

Sorry for all the quiet � my wife and I spent a week in Hawaii on our honeymoon/first wedding anniversary vacation, and we only just got back last Thursday. Our trip was fantastic � we went skydiving, and shark cage diving, and parasailing; we went to a luau and on a bike/hike tour through the jungle; we snorkeled in Hanauma Bay and took a dinner cruise. So much adventure (and romance, hee�) We have now been together for four years, though it doesn't seem like it could possibly have been that long. Certainly not long enough, that's for sure. ^~

This weekend was spent unpacking and recuperating, and processing all our photos into a pretty photobook via Snapfish. Now I'm back at work and (rather reluctantly) getting back into the swing of normal life again. We're hoping to finish tiling the bathroom this weekend (at last, at last!!) and plans are in full motion for our next big project� getting pregnant. :P So life is resuming its regular crammed-full pace and I'll be back to blogging regularly very soon.

I haven't touched the PotH manuscript since we got back, other than a few little tweaks here and there, but I'll be diving back in this week with more updates. However, I am very excited to announce that my proposal for a roundtable discussion at the upcoming Sirens Conference in Vail was accepted!! I'll be leading a discussion of queerness in monster fantasy, with a special focus on the concept of the lesbian vampire. Very much looking forward to it, and reading through Bold Strokes' paranormal line as a part of preparation. Will likely need to craft an additional reading list, too, because the conference focuses on women in fantasy literature and there are oh-so-many amazing writers and books to be discussed in the genre!

So if you're going to be in Colorado in October you should definitely come to the conference, which promises to be really exciting!!

In other news, I'm thinking about submitting a paranormal short story for an upcoming BSB anthology. I'm just not quite sure what exactly I would write about � kicking around a few ideas � or whether I'll be able to get something like that done before the deadline, in the midst of work on PotH. Also, I always feel a wee bit intimidated when I start thinking about writing a short story, because they're not really my forté. I have such a hard time crafting something within such limited space. Too long-winded for my own good, I guess. ^~

And what a wonderful year it's been, too. I still feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

� I Daz. :P This image has been lurking around in my imagination for a while now. I like the idea of something like this for the next book cover. I had the hardest time describing what I wanted for SotG's cover (in fact, Rad suggested the cover pose because I was at a complete loss for what to ask the artist for � thank heavens for her help!! I love the SotG pose.) They say a picture's worth a thousand words, anyway, and so I present to you the very first peek at Kade and Erinda. :) I plan many many more renders of these characters as I'm working through the story� it's really inspirational to stop and create a scene I'm looking forward to writing.

Finished chapter twelve tonight. A little alarmed, because halfway through this chapter the book suddenly veered into a very coming-out/self-acceptance/okay-to-be-gay direction that I was not expecting at all. I've reread the sections several times, and in the context of the story it all fits smoothly. But I worry how these scenes will be recieved by readers.

I'm writing for a queer readership, primarily. And the story is a little too adult in nature to be YA, wherein a little coming out is generally more well-recieved. The self discovery that takes place for Kade is completely organic and true to the setting, but I don't want to be "preaching to the choir," so to speak, when it comes to the book's readers.

In essence, Kade comes from a conservative religious background in which queerness is never discussed. It's not even mentioned as an existing "problem" in their society, so she's made to feel like something of a unicorn � a one-of-a-kind freak. Not only that, but she's accused of possibly also 'corrupting' her best friend along with her, as if her natural inclinations are symptoms of some dreadful contagious disease. (Raise your hand, anyone, if you've ever encountered homophobia of this type? That's what I thought.)

So there has to be a point at which she discovers that she's not alone, which would, of course, rock her world for a while as she tries to digest what that means about everything she's ever believed up to this point and the choices she's made in her life thus far.

With all the applause out there for books wherein homophobia does not exist, and one's sexual identity brokers no need for explanation, the irony is that I'm actually worried about offending my gay audience in describing a gay character's struggle to overcome her own homophobic world view in the context of what she knows to be true about herself. Am I perpetuating homophobia by writing about it this way? Or is it just a realistic depiction of the struggles a sheltered young person might go through as they figure out who they are? I'm hoping for the latter, but a bit concerned that it's going to raise the hackles of some readers.

As I explained in a previous entry, when it comes to romance I personally prefer the fantasy happy ending to too much 'realism.' I wonder if queer readers feel the same way about homophobia, preferring the fantasy of worldwide acceptance (which will hopefully one day no longer be a fantasy at all) to the more realistic depiction of its impact and the barriers it creates for people who love one another. I've read many complaints from readers who say they're tired of the coming out story, tired of writers who are constantly depicting queerness as a struggle. They want to read about the worlds they would much rather live in � worlds in which their lives are no more remarkable than anyone else's. I don't disagree, and yet somehow these books I'm writing for Ithyria are consistently revisiting issues of homophobia. In SotG these issues were sort of flirted with, but not in any serious sense. Now it looks like in PotH the gloves are coming off and it's being tackled head-on. Once upon a time, none of this would have even mattered, because I've always just written stories more for myself than for any particular audience. Writing for a publisher, though, and having my work revised in order to be more suited to its audience, has made me a lot more sensitive to the POV of the reader.

I still feel, in re-reading the chapter, that it just fits. That the scenes belong. So I suppose I'll wait and see what an editor has to say in revisions. But if anyone out there in the blogosphere feels like chiming in with their opinion, I'm all ears� I'm genuinely interested in finding out what kinds of stories you prefer to read.