News

Hey everybody. Christmas Eve. Ho, ho, ho. I know that Darla is going to begin posting the second chapter of SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT, the third Merry Gentry book tomorrow, as a sort of present. But I thought I’d either sweeten the pot, or drive you guys crazy. How about hints from the next Anita book, INCUBUS DREAMS? The book is going well, but it’s going to be a blasted long bugger. I just passed five hundred pages. Yea! Richard has had two big scenes on paper. One he behaved badly, and the second he surprised us with how hard he tried to help Anita. Ronnie has had two scenes, one medium and one big. Nathaniel has decided to dominate large sections of this book. Anita has been asking him to be less submissive, to ask for what he wants, and I’d encouraged that. Neither she, nor I, understood what that might mean. The Damian fans will be getting more than their usual money’s worth. I don’t think he’s had this much on screen time since BLUE MOON. We’ve introduced new vampires that will be continuing characters. We’ve introduced new werewolves, who will also be continuing characters. I’m estimating this book will be around a thousand manuscript pages. Longer than OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY which held the record at around nine hundred and something. We’ve still got at least three more murder scenes to do. Olaf’s call is still too come, though close. That call will be what prompts her to call Edward for help. So much of my outline (that is sticky noted above my desk) still remains to do. Other things on the outline are gone, earlier character choices have made some scenes mute. That always happens. I know how the mystery ends. I know who done it. But I have no idea how Richard and Anita will be doing by the end of this book. I’ve outlined some choices, you know, choose a, b, or c. The earlier choices have gotten rid of some scenes that I’d thought we’d see. Oh, well, what do I know, I’m just the writer. The question that keeps coming up so often it’s like a theme for this book, is this — Can you truly love anyone if you do not first love yourself? If you hate yourself, can you love anyone else? If you do not accept all of who you are, can you accept anyone else? Hard questions. It remains to be seen whether I get any answers, hard, or otherwise.
Well, I’ve got to get back to work. The new werewolf Graham is driving Anita back to Guilty Pleasures so she can pick up Nathaniel. Why isn’t she driving? Blood loss makes her dizzy. And a few other things that would indeed be spoilers. One of the new vamps is with her, as well. The people Jean-Claude chose to be her security for the night. The plan is to get back in time to see Nathaniel’s act, or at least the end of it. We’ve never seen him on stage. We’ve never seen him shapeshift. Tonight we will. Then after we’ve seen the show, we’ll get another murder scene to go to. Though Anita doesn’t know about the new murder yet. Busy, busy, busy.
Happy holidays to all of you. Be safe, be well. Remember that we’re more alike than different. Remember that we all hurt, and we all bleed. Everybody play nice.