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Been cranking through my reading list while I'm working on the PotH manuscript, because I find reading is heavily inspirational to my own creative process. Finished Darkness Embraced: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel a couple days ago. I'm not even sure where to begin in describing this book. For the whole first half of the story I was wriggling in awe over the sheer imaginative power of the Rosso Lussuria world. The Elder trials, the power structure of the vampire clan, the vampires' special abilities, the lavish use of Italian, even the vivid description of the main character's losing battle with consumption in the opening pages were all full of AWESOME. I didn't much care for Renata (though she redeems herself in the end) but I really liked and identified with Epiphany. Then comes the part about the sword, which I won't describe because I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but suffice to say the sword is one of the best parts of the whole book and deserves a whole awesome award all to itself.

About halfwayish through the story, however, we are introduced to a new character, a Dracule, who engages in a relationship with the main character that left me with my head tilted farrrrrr to the side. *falls over laughing* Now, I consider myself a relatively open-minded person, and even so, this plot development had my eyebrows in my hairline for a chapter or two. Not necessarily in a bad way, mind you, but certainly in a challenging-to-my-poor-little-mortal-brain kind of way. Nonetheless, the subsequent conflict and development of Epiphany's relationship with Renata were exciting and satisfying, and the Dracule turned out to be entirely relevant and even necessary to the plot, so it never felt like a contrived excuse for kink, but rather an important element of conflict resolution.

I believe I enjoyed this book even more than Winter Pennington's Kassandra Lyall series, in fact, but that's because I'm a sucker for inventive fantasy. A dark, edgy, fun story that feels almost like a grim fairy tale� Hoping there will be more books in the Rosso Lussuria series (mostly because I want more Cuinn!!)

Recently finished Blood Hunt, the second book in L.L. Raand's Midnight Hunters series. *fans cheeks* Let me tell you, dear readers, that L.L. Raand (otherwise known as Radclyffe, Supreme BSB Boss of all Bosses) writes some very, very, very steamy stuff. WHEW. And her new paranormal werewolf series is chock full of heat.

Blood Hunt picks up where its prequel, The Midnight Hunt, ends. The conflict gets bigger in this book, this time expanding to include humans and vampires who are also plotting all kinds of evil plots. And when I say evil, I do mean evil. The things these bad guys are willing to do in order to promote their agendas of hate are just�. UGH. Thankfully we have the ultra-sexy werewolf Alpha Sylvan Drake to cheer on as she and her newly acquired mate hunt these awful people down. There's a also lot more vampire action in this new installment, and some really interesting compare/contrast can be done between the vampire and werewolf species � the way they think, the way their social hierarchies are run, and of course (probably most especially) the way they sex each other up. ^~

Favorite character thus far in the series (other than Sylvan, because seriously, how could anyone not have a major crush on her) is actually Sophia. Yes, I do have a thing for the shy, quiet types. :P Also have a thing for angst and sexual tension, which poor Sophia has got in spades. The young werewolf Gray earns some serious respect in this story too� that girl has got a spine of steel.

Great read, super fun, and I love the world and mythology in these stories. Here's hoping Rad decides to write like� twelve more of them. >D

And in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Chapter Eleven is finally done. The battle, bloody and gory though it was, is ended. I'm sure I'll be re-reading and tweaking the heck out of the prose in the very near future, but for now I'm pleased with it. Chapter twelve has got some really good scenes in it too, ones I'm looking forward to writing, so here's hoping it will flow a little more cooperatively than this one did.

Funny how the really troublesome sections always feel the most satisfying once they're finally conquered and done. :P

Now for a little sleep, perhaps?

So Chapter Eleven is giving me a little bit of attitude. I intended for the characters to ride right off into a big battle in this chapter. Instead, Kade and Erinda are insisting on a dramatic pre-battle interlude. No matter how I keep trying to nudge them out of the city gates and into the fray, they just keep pushing back, determined to have their moment together.

Characters. Pfft. They can be so much like kids sometimes. I am now a good five pages into this chapter and they have yet to get their butts on the battlefield like I'm asking them to. I don't know what that will mean for the rest of this chapter; it's possible I might not make it all the way through the battle scene and will have to do a chapter cut at some cliffhanger-y spot in the middle. Planning to work on that today if I have time. I'd really like to get this chapter done this week. I was originally aiming for two chapters a week, but this section has been so cantankerous that I haven't been able to get it to cooperate with my preferred timetable. It's looking like I'll only have one chapter's worth of progress to show for the week, I guess.

I did end up going to the store this week and buying another little netbook for my wife, because she'd appropriated my little pink one that I use for writing so she could hook it up to our TV and watch hulu & netflix in the evenings. This, of course, meant that I could only write if I wanted to be sequestered up in our little office with the bigger computer, and for some reason I have the hardest time getting any writing done up there. I write best either on the couch or in bed, and so when my netbook was being used for other purposes I couldn't do any writing in the evenings. :P So I finally just bought her one of her own, and now we can sit together cozily at night while she watches her shows and I can still crank out a paragraph or two. *grins* Also, I can take my netbook to work with me so I can work on the book during my lunch breaks. Much better arrangement. :P

Happy Friday, everyone!

So I devoured nevermore in about a day and a half, because, dear readers, it is even better than the first book (if such a thing is possible.)

First of all, how hot is the name "Valentine" for a vampire? Hmm? Second, the politics, culture and intrigue of nevermore had me hooked from like, page two. While I really enjoyed watching Valentine & Alexa's relationship and new paranormal identities develop in the first book, in this second one we get to watch them become real players in their new world, with all their new (sometimes creepy) friends. And oooh, the suspense! The drama! The epic and cunning power struggles between aforementioned creepy friends!

Also, I would like to move to Telassar and live there forever. Just sayin'. Anybody willing to make me, like, a Were-butterfly or something? >D

Cannot WAIT for the next book. (Though unfortunately I have to, because it's not coming out until August. Le sigh.)

Over the weekend I managed to finish chapter ten� a shorter chapter than many others, and I think that accounts for some of my pacing concerns through this part of the manuscript. Though the scenes certainly don't feel hurried when I'm writing them, these particular sections are densely packed with information and plot momentum. At least, it feels like it to me when I'm re-reading it, even though I know perfectly well that we've still got a whole lot of story to get through before we reach the end.

Still, sometimes it takes writing a few subsequent chapters and then going back to review it before I can really tell if the pacing is off or if it just felt a little unwieldy during the draft process, so I guess I'll go over it a couple more times and then move on. That's what a girl has beta readers and editors for, right? :)

In milestone news, however, I have officially cracked page 100 of the rough draft! Very excited by this. *grins* And, according to my updated word count I'm just a wee bit over halfway through the book at this point.

Up next is another big battle scene, probably one of the biggest of the entire story. I'm struggling a little with figuring out how to appropriately incorporate Kade's shaa'din powers as she develops them. I'm pretty sure that a lot of readers may end up rolling their eyes and going "Well, wasn't that just so convenient?" I've heard a few comments like that even from SotG readers, and I do understand that having it all wrapped up in a pretty bow is not particularly satisfying, especially if the challenges they're facing have been built up into this huge, ominous conflict. The reader expects a big, satisfying, OMG way out for the protagonists. The characters have to at least get beat up a little. There has to be the possibility that they could lose. Sometimes a real loss needs to take place in order to up the stakes enough.

The problem, of course, with a happy-ending romance novel, is that we pretty much all know that the good guys are going to win in the end. Even if they lose a few battles somewhere in the middle (The Empire Strikes Back, anyone?) they still have to come out of it alive for the story to keep going, so even then it can't be a complete and utter failure. And there's a level of disbelief on both sides of the equation that has to be kept in balance. If the battle's too difficult, the reader asks "what's the point of being a special magical holy warrior if your "powers" are essentially powerless?" But if it's too easy, then you get the "yeah, right, Mary Sue much?" response. *sigh* I'm a bit worried that, in order to demonstrate all the things Kade is able to do (and thereby justify the big climactic scenes at the end) I'm going to end up with a lot of "yeah, right" readers on the journey there.

Some of that I can tackle directly in the manuscript, by letting the characters themselves give the "yeah, right" response on behalf of the reader. I have a couple other options, too. I could throw in an extra character, one whose sole purpose is to get the reader good and attached to their lovableness so that when I kill them off it creates that sense of loss and upping the stakes. That feels like a bit of a cheap machination, though. I could (and in a couple of places, plan to) bring other characters to the very edge of death and yank them back at the last possible moment, after much angsting and drama, of course. But the yanking back, no matter how hard I make it on the heroes, will still always smack of convenience, won't it?

*sigh* I'm probably overthinking the whole thing. Most of my favorite tv/movie/book storylines of all time are chock full of overly-convenient plot twists, anyway, and that never stopped me from absorbing them eagerly. I think maybe I should just let the story tell itself the way it wants, and see what it looks like when it's all said and done�

*stares blearily at her computer screen* It is 9:30 AM, and I am not at work. I had to use sick time today, because the Muse kept me up until 5 AM working on the PotH manuscript. Chapter Nine is done, albeit in what I think is quite a rough draft because by the time I finished it my head was nodding so stubbornly I could barely keep my eyes open.

There will, I think, be more sexiness in this book than I'd realized. :P

Anyway, not only did the Muse force me to pull an all-nighter, but she also started feeding me a second line of novel plot � what I think is a YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy series, though still very murky and unformed as yet. I had to stop in the middle of PotH, pull up a new document and scribble down the thoughts I was getting before I could keep working on Chapter Nine.

I tried to sleep a little this morning, but between texting my boss and staff, resetting my alarm clock when it went off, and Shasta getting up to make it to an early morning appointment, it hasn't gone so well. Then I had to get up and put some food in my tummy so it would stop talking to me. Now I'm back in bed and so very tempted to read over what I wrote last night and begin cleaning it up, but I know my foggy brain's in no condition to be picking through anything with any semblance of accuracy.

Going to try and sleep some more now. I think maybe Shasta will come join me when she's done with her second appointment of the morning. She's not feeling particularly well either, and with it being a sort of gray and gloomy day out, I think it may be the perfect day for tea, cuddles, and long naps�

The final song in my PotH Playlist: Kate Earl's "Impossible." Another one that pretty much speaks for itself, I think. Will post a full recap of the playlist here soon for those who want the Reader's Digest version. :P

no matter how hard, no matter how tough

there is no turning back

no way you'll ever give up on me

no matter how dark, no matter how deep

the challenges may be

you're gonna find me right here

always right beside you

whatever curve life may throw

we're in it together

cause you and i are building our dream

they say impossible

they say it can't be done

can't break us down cause we're unstoppable

they say too difficult

that it could never work

they think that we've been trying for too long

but i know better

i know that we're about to show them all

no matter how sick, no matter how tired

frustrated i become

you never let me give into that

no matter who sees, no matter who thinks

that they can put you down

go on and hold your head high honey

circumstances for worse or better

are no excuse to forfeit our dreams

they say impossible

they say it can't be done

can't break us down cause we're unstoppable

they say too difficult

that it could never work

they think that we've been trying for too long

they can say what they want to

anyway it never matters what they think

they're still blind and we're still free

i know i know i know�

they say impossible

they say it can't be done

can't break us down cause we're unstoppable

they say too difficult

that it could never work

they think that we've been trying for too long

but i know better

but i know we'll prove them wrong

cause i know better

i know that we're about to show them all

Crawled into bed last night with the wife and my copy of on my nook, for some cozy bedtime reading.

Could not put the darned thing down. Finally forced myself to shove it away somewhere around midnight. Laid down, closed my eyes, and got not a wink of sleep the entire night; too many vampires and werewolves running around in my head, along with running editorial commentary on the brilliance of the book's structure and narraration. Finally gave up on sleep, dressed for work and headed off for my commute. I am now sitting at my desk one whole hour before I am regularly scheduled to be here� and I am so not a morning person.

Haven't finished the book yet, but I am in sheer awe of the structure of this novel, told from one character's first-person POV and then the other's. Two distinctly different voices, two distinctly different characters, cohesive story whole. Loving everything about their relationship, and all the scientific/medical explanation for vampirism and lycanthropy. Both inspirational and intimidating � I hope the stuff I write can be even half as amazing as this.

Seriously, ladies. Try to be a little less awesome, okay? :P

The Goddess Ithyris' song -- to Kade, to Erinda, to all Her children. Cover of John Hiatt's "Have A Little Faith In Me" by the incomparable Jewel.

When the road gets dark

And you can no longer see

Just let my love throw a spark, baby

Have a little faith in me

When the tears you cry

Are all you can believe

Just give these loving arms a try, baby

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

When your secret heart

Cannot speak so easily

Come here darling,

From a whisper start

To have a little faith in me

When your back's against the wall

Just turn around, you will see

I will catch you, I will catch your fall

Just have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Have a little faith in me

Well, I've been loving you for such a long, long time baby

Expecting nothing in return

Just for you to have a little faith in me

You see time, time is our friend for you and me

Cause for us there is no end

All you gotta do is have a little faith in me

I said I will hold you up, I will hold you up

Your strength gives me enough

So have a little faith in me

Hey baby, oh, baby

All you gotta do is have a little faith in me

All you gotta do is have a little faith in me

A little faith in me