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Okay, I tried to get up and put a blog up for you guys, because I couldn’t sleep. The blog below will eventually explain why, I couldn’t sleep. But when I went to blog, I couldn’t get blogger to work. Jon was still asleep, so I didn’t want to wake him, it’s one of the reasons we got a room big enough for a separate work area, so if I woke up at an odd hour I could work and not disturb. But Jon has taught me that there are always options with tech, so, I opened up a new e-mail and typed in the blog that way. I knew Jon would be able to cut and paste it into blogger later. Which is what has happened. All this to explain why the first sentence of the next paragraph begins with me talking about finally finding a screen to write on. Enjoy.
In desperation I?ve found a screen to write on. My frustration level is pretty high right now. I guess this blog is about the difference between fact and fiction. As I write this A LICK OF FROST is still on the New York Times List, and doing damn well, but there is never time in my schedule to truly revel in the success. I have to keep moving towards the next deadline. Sometimes it feels like I?m an officer in a war, in a theoretical way. I win my battle, victory! Then I get to the top of the hill I?ve just conquered, begin to collect my wounded, and see the enemy spread out below the other side of the damned hill. No time to rest. No time to gather reinforcements. There is only time to gather what men I have and prepare to either attack, or dig in and defend. I?m on the hill. I have the high ground. I?ll make the enemy come to me. This morning this is the analogy that works. It?s almost depressing, isn?t it?
Why so glum?
Because, Jon and I are off finishing up research for the next Anita book. Those that read the blog regularly know I delivered the book, BLOOD NOIR, just before we all went out on tour for A LICK OF FROST. Well, tour is over, and now it?s time to do that last research trip to finalize the lay of the land for Jason?s home town. Jason being the major/minor character that finally gets his major role in a book after ten years. Interesting. He has been waiting at least a decade for this book. But the book is done, right? I thought how hard could it be to come done here and get the streets and stuff? Harder than I thought.
Let?s just say if I put in all the things that have gone wrong with our hotel room in the book, the plot wouldn?t start for at least a day. Our room wasn?t ready, the hotel restaurant wasn?t open, the heat in our room didn?t work, and it?s cold here, and now, on a morning when we planned to sleep in, there is huge construction equipment just outside the window. Jon is sleeping through it, yea for him, but I am not. The damn pile-driver is trying to chop up a boulder. How can anyone sleep through that? Both Jon and Charles are heavy sleepers, and my first husband was, as well. Strangely, enough in the past when I used to go to science fiction conventions and I was a poor struggling writer so we all shared one room in a large group the guys in the group slept heavier than the girls, then, too. Is it a guy thing? How about it men? Any light sleeping men out there? Though, most of the couples I know are divided up between heavy and light. I think it?s nature?s way of making sure that one of us is on watch at any given time.
There were other things that went wrong, but mostly, the town just doesn?t look right. It doesn?t feel right. I haven?t seen anything to charm me. There?s an idea here, but it?s a different idea, a different book. I actually have the words moving liquid in my head, ?That last time I was in FILL IN BLANK, I never saw downtown. This downtown was so without charm, so the same, that I could have been in a dozen different cities across the country. Corporate America has made so much look the same, that if you didn?t have local bars you?d have no way to tell where the hell you were. The local bars weren?t because I drank, which I didn?t, but because sometimes they were the only differences, the only things that let me know I?d never truly been in this bland and charmless downtown mess.? But, truthfully, the mess and blandness is what has helped spark the idea. But it?s not the idea I?m here for. Weird. Oh, and for those of you who wonder how rough the first beginnings can be on a book, now you know.
So, today?s goal is to get the hell out of down town, and try to find the charm that Jason told me of. That part of town that he was excited to see. That part that had personality and difference, and made me feel like this trip was worth it.
That?s the goal today. To find some charm. To find where I thought I was supposed to be in the physical world.
And on a weirder note, Merry is also moving liquid in my head. I can feel the first scene of the next Merry book. I can see the darkened hospital room. I can see Doyle sitting by Merry?s bedside. I know that some of her female guards have taken the harm she suffered at the end of the last book very hard. Some of the fans on tour asked when we would see the female guards fight. It?s coming.
So, on one hand, I?m frustrated, and tired and grumpy. On the other hand, my head is moving from one idea to the other, and strangely, if I had to write something today, the thing most clear in my head is the opening for the next Merry book. But then first draft is usually more attractive to my muse and me then rewrite, and that last research trip is about rewriting, really. Though, that new idea keeps wiggling at me. We?ll see, today?s research maybe a two-fer.
Hopefully, breakfast will be good and help me be more cheerful.
Oh, and why have I avoided saying what town we?re in? Because, some of you guys try to find me when we travel. I find that a little disturbing, so mums the word. It?s not that I don?t find most of you guys charming and polite, but there is that small percentage of you that seems to be a little more zealous than is comfy. So, forgive me, but I?ll keep my clues to myself for now.
Breakfast did help. We have our destination for the day. I’m going to see if they can move us to a room farther away from the construction stuff. It’s all good. The heat is fixed, and it’s now not too hot, or too cold. Food was good. I’m awake so the noise of the heavy equipment isn’t that big a deal. I can always put on my headset. We’ll go out soon and find something charming. If not, then we’ll change towns. Edward did that to me in OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY. We landed in Albuquerque, but it was Santa Fe, that he lived in. Driving around with your imaginary friends as your guide can get a little odd, but when it works, damn, it works. Here’s hoping today, at some point, Jason looks out through my eyes, and it works.