what writers talk about when they gather late at night....

names redacted to protect the guilty! guilty I say!:

CGAG 1 (11:05:18 PM): penguins!
CGAG 2 (11:05:38 PM): How did you know about the penguins?
CGAG 2 (11:05:50 PM): ;-)
CGAG 1 (11:05:52 PM): everyone know about the penguins
CGAG 3 (11:06:09 PM): Penguins are, after all, the secret masters of the universe.
CGAG 4 (11:06:24 PM): Well, there you go.
CGAG 2 (11:06:27 PM): Oh yeah. Happy feet my a$$
CGAG 1 (11:06:48 PM): happy feet on your ass?
CGAG 2 (11:07:03 PM): Ooh, there's a thought. Not a good one, but .

Also, Hello Kitty underwear. It's just so very very wrong.

CGAG 6, aren't you glad you missed this meeting?

(CGAG, by the way, stands for Cross-Genre Abuse Group. It's been around for over a decade, more or less, and still has two of the original members involved.)


Close on 3,000 new words today. I'm just going with the goddamn flow, and worry about it all later...

EtA: And also? "I find that I do some of my best work under intense terror" needs to be an icon. Not show-specific, even, just...iconic.

A Contest! A Contest! to celebrate the upcoming release of FREE FALL

Contest The First: For Newcomers, Latecomers who Want Another Copy, and People Who Just Can't Resist the Lure of A Prize.

As many of you know, and others will hopefully soon learn, Wren Valere uses haiku to focus her will and direct her current-magic. It's not always good haiku, lord knows, but she likes the pattern of 5-7-5, and how it forces her to be direct without being so specific that she limits the magic.

So. In haiku form, tell me why you deserve a copy of the first book in this series, STAYING DEAD. Are you a first-time reader who wants a cheap jumpstart on the series? An established fan looking to replace the copy your mother took off with? A die-hard e-bayer convinced that someday my signature will actually be worth something? Here's your chance.

(and yes, you can use senryu instead, if that's how you roll.)

All responses will be screened. The best and the worst (as judged by the judges) will receive a signed copy of STAYING DEAD for their efforts.

fine print: This contest will run until 15 April. The second contest will start up on 16 April. Yes, you can enter both!


summer draws closer
surf and sand call out to us
you need a beach read!

a day in the life...

Things I Hate: writing the perfect damn ending to a chapter, and then looking at the outline and realizing it totally farks with what I planned to do next.
*headdesks*

So I went to the gym, instead.

And paid my estimated taxes for 1Q08.

And shopped for groceries.

And ate pretzels with caramel mustard dip.

And virtually line-edited a story for someone.

And waxed groomed and clipped the claws of one large cat


I suppose I should get back to that ending/starting problem again now, huh?