Author: Jonathon

More weretigers today. Nathaniel and Jason are finally introed on screen. Enjoying the book. We have at least one more chapter, maybe two, before we’ll have our next victim, and a fresh crime scene for Anita to see. It’s late, or feels late. I’m going to bed. Be well everyone.

Today I did weretigers in a big way on paper for the first time. I was digging out all my books on big cats. BIG CATS, KINGDOM OF MIGHT and WILD CATS OF THE WORLD. I have one other book that has better scientific knowledge, but only black and white photos, and few of those. Today I needed color photos of tigers, these two books have them. But I needed more, and what did I find in my stack of clipped pictures from magazines, photo books, and calendars? A tiger calendar, never opened from 2001. Why did I buy a tiger calendar years ago when I wasn’t planning on doing tigers? No idea. But I’ve learned over the years that if I have a real desire to buy something research like that makes no sense to me, to just buy it. Because, one; it won’t be there later when you need it. Two, because I usually need that book, or picture at the oddest times, but when the need hits it’s the difference between looking something up and making my page count for the day, or having to run out to the book store, library, etc . . . Running out for a quick research trip is never quick. The page count is usually screwed for the day.
How did my subconscious know that I’d need a tiger calendar, when I was five years away from needing it? I don’t know, but I’ve spent years listening to that part of my mind that most people don’t even know is there. Sort of like lifting weights, the more you do it the more you can lift. Well, the more I listen to that quiet voice, the more it talks to me. So I had pictures of tigers today when I needed them. I got fourteen pages done. Very cool. I’m finally done looking at police files, and talking about the actual crime. I still haven’t had that dinner break with Nathaniel and Jason, but they’re coming on stage soon. Not only do they have a purpose to the plot, but the whole weretiger thing would be a disaster without them. Or potentially disastrous. So it all seems to work together nicely. Again, keeping them off stage this long, over fifty pages in, was the right choice, even though it didn’t feel like it was at the time. Too tired to post this tonight, I’ll reread it tomorrow with fresher eyes.

Was reminded today why most, if not all, violent crime units, rotate people out between two and five years. Some sooner. I remember why I wasn’t sure I wanted to do an Edward novellite. A novellite is a stripped down novel. You strip Edward free of Donna and Becca and Peter, and what do you have? A very dark story. All I do is write about this kind of crime, and I feel over due for a rotation to something a little kinder, a little gentler. Don’t any preternatural citizens ever commit larceny?

Edward has a perverse streak. No surprise, I guess. When I was planning OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY, book nine, I thought it would be set in Arizona or some place close to it. Edward had other ideas. He wanted it to be New Mexico, which I’d never visited. I argued, he won, and the moment I got off the plane and saw the landscape, I knew he was right. He did live here. I won’t even say what state I was putting this book in, but today when I went to the store to get some more detailed maps, well, books on Arizona kept getting my attention. The last time I tried to set an Edward book in Arizona, and he refused, this time I try for somewhere else, and it looks like he’s hinting for Arizona. Though, heaven knows, maybe he’ll pick some other place entirely. At least I’ve driven through Arizona.

Laurell made a big post yesterday and pushed the post with the link down low.
so here it is again click and print
cheers.

Ah, the arduer. This is an Edward novellite, but that doesn’t mean the arduer is gone completely. Anita is getting some control over it, but she still needs to feed. I know that there is a group of fans that want Anita and Edward to get together in a more than just friends way. Not going to happen. It would be like dating family. Not to mention that we just don’t think of him that way, nor he us. So, what to do with that whole arduer thing? Well, Micah just had his book so he can’t come, though he’d be logical. We’ve got him tied up in St. Louis with testimony in a child custody case for a lycanthrope that’s in danger of loosing their kids. Which means we take who? I actually did the beginning of a chapter with Richard going, but no dice. He just wasn’t buying. Nathaniel was more than willing to come, but since Anita can only feed on him every other day, well, we need more food. So, right now, Jason is also along. I was getting bogged down with Jason and Nathaniel’s introduction. The novellite wasn’t about them. It was about Edward. I came down to lunch complaining about it. Jonathan said a very smart thing, “It’s an Edward novellite, so keep it focused on Edward.” I said, “But I have to introduce Nathaniel and Jason. You always have to write each book, as much as possible, as if a new reader will pick it up and won’t know anyone.” I was beginning to wonder if the novellite was really going to work, when I remembered something from an earlier Anita book. I can’t even remember the scene but I was trying to do a bridge scene, just a bit to connect two points, and I just couldn’t get it to work. So I skipped it and put in a note to myself to transition it later. I skipped ahead and wrote the next part of the book. Well, guess what, I didn’t need the bridge scene. The two scenes stood nicely on their own and next to each other. I’ve found that if a book is going well, then I hit a scene and it isn’t going well, that there’s something wrong with that scene. Sometimes, you don’t need the scene. So I stopped trying to introduce Nathaniel and Jason, and just skipped it. I put Anita and Edward at the latest crime scene talking about the case. Edward complains that she’s brought her boyfriends, and they talk about the fact that he’s heard a rumor about her needing to feed on sex because of Jean-Claude. People talk to Edward who won’t talk to the police, just like they do Anita, actually. Not only did the scene work, but I got twelve pages done before three o’clock. That was yesterday. Today, we still haven’t seen Nathaniel and Jason on stage, but we’ve had another Edward and Anita scene. We’re looking at the files on the other victims. Again, this novellite is about the mystery. It’s about Edward calling for her help with the case. We’ll be interacting with the local police next in a more major way. I think we’ll even go to see the local master of the city without the boys. There is no reason to take Nathaniel and Jason to the vamps, especially not when we’re carrying a badge. Anita can explain taking an assistant on out of town zombie raisings, but it’s a lot harder to explain on a murder investigation. Nathaniel and Jason are getting to see a lot of the hotel room. They’ll get their time on stage, and we will feed, there will be sex, but the majority of the novellite has to be about Edward and the mystery. I guess the character who the novellite is mostly about will dictate the flavor of the book. Interesting.

click here and print it out
Then take it to your local comic shop and ask them to order it for you.

MISTRAL’S KISS was still on Jon’s desk today, so I had to wait for him to hand it back for me to edit it a little more before it goes off to New York. I’m waiting to go back to the next Anita novel until after I have MISTRAL off, because once I go back to Anita fifteen, I want to immerse myself in it, as much as possible. So I had a chance to sit at the computer and run some ideas up the flag pole and see if anyone saluted. I had three ideas for novellites. One turned out not to be a novel, not a novellite. I’ll have to wait on that one. Richard’s novellite just isn’t ready. That left Edward’s idea. Well, I have nine pages, and a complete first chapter. Very cool. I also have the beginnings of chapter two. All the notes I made earlier won’t even come into play until chapter four. So, it’s a novellite. A novellite that will probably be titled, Edward. How cool is that? Though, since the arduer is still not completely controlled Anita does have to take some of the other guys with her. I know some of you are actually wanting Anita and Edward to date, but so not happening. It would be like dating family. So, Nathaniel and Jason are on the plane with Anita. Yes, Jason, too, because Nathaniel can only feed Anita every other day, or he gets weak. Somehow helping Edward never turns out to be a one day event. So Jason gets to come, too. So far, it’s fun. We’ll see how it goes. Frankly, taking either Jason or Nathaniel into an Edward plot makes me nervous. But it’s hard to travel at the drop of hat with a vampire, that whole daylight problem. So it had to be a lycanthrope. Strangely, with all the men in Anita’s bed, we still don’t have a lycanthrope lover that can take care of himself except for Micah and Richard. Richard won’t go on an Edward adventure, so disapproving. Micah had his book, so I didn’t want it to be him. Funny, sometimes I think we have way too many men, then we hit a plot, or problem, where we don’t have enough people to keep everyone safe. Funny how that works.

MISTRAL’S KISS is printing as I write this. I’ll be handing it off to Jon to read over. He’ll start it tomorrow. Goal is to finish this round of edits, and put the book in the mail to New York so they get it on Monday. Then the ball is in their court. Though heaven knows it will be back on my side of the net before I’m ready for it. Or so it always seems.

I think the idea with wings is an Edward idea. I’ve just sat on the couch and made pages of notes about the opening of the story. We’ll see if it actually is ready to go, or if it’s just a false start. One of the up sides to the novellites is that they’re not under contract so if one of them doesn’t work out I can just put it aside until it’s soup, or even go onto the next idea. I guess I do that last with the big Anita books. Ideas will suddenly come alive and bump whatever idea I thought was next in line. Anyway, it would be fun to just be out of town with Edward and Anita, and a short list of people. Out of New Mexico, too, so less back story or personal stuff for both of them. Interesting. We’ll see where it goes. The idea is too fragile to discuss too much, new and unsteady on it’s legs. We’ll see if it can get it’s legs up underneath it and run.