Tag: reading

One more sleep until Smolder and welcome spring!

Happy Spring Equinox and Blessed Ostara! Smolder, the latest Anita Blake novel comes out tomorrow! I can’t wait to share it with you all, but it’s extra special this year of 2023, because this is the 30th anniversary of the Anita Blake series. We’re starting the celebration with two events. March 21st St. Louis HiPointe theater live and in person with a virtual streaming of that both version require a ticket. It’s hosted by Left Bank books. Everyone’s been lovely and agreed to mask for me, I got long covid and to keep me safe and writing more books for all of you, I’ve asked everyone to mask. Thanks again. March 22nd for all of you that couldn’t make it to St. Louis there is a Barnes & Noble ticketed virtual event where William MCCaskey, my co-editor from Fantastic Hope will be asking your questions live online! You also get a signed copy of Smolder, but to get your questions answered and your signed copy you need to get your ticket to the event ASAP.

The College Professor and Dr. Seuss

The cover of Green Eggs and Ham

Once when I still believed I’d get my doctorate in English literature, and write on school breaks, one of my favorite teachers had an epiphany in our upper level lit class.

 

One fine spring day, a literature prof named, Dr. Lalka declared that he would not read children’s literature to his soon to be born baby. He would read them only Literature, serious Literature like Shakespeare and Chaucer, Keats and Shelley. Children’s books he doubly declared, damaged a child’s brain and ruined their chance to love real Literature.  

 

The eight students sitting around his table all looked at each other. He called them his little Cherubs, and they called him, Doc. They were the pride and joy of his students. The best, the brightest of them all. Those eight shining stars stared at each other and then with shared smiles began to recite, GREEN EGGS AND HAM by Dr. Seuss. His little cherubs spoke very word from beginning to end, leaving out nothing, remembering it all though it had been many years since they had read it.

 

That college professor named, Doc began to blush, pink at the beginning then red and redder and reddest of all until he had to bend down his head and recover himself. When once more he could speak, he said, that perhaps there was more to these children’s books than he had first thought and maybe among all the Shakespeare and Chaucer he might sneak a few stories with less thee’s and thou’s and more Sneetches and Loraxes.  

 

His little cherubs rejoiced in that college classroom, knowing they’d saved Doc’s baby from the doom of being forced to grow up far, far too soon.

 

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! Happy World Reading Day to everyone! Hope you’ve had a lovely one.

Listening to the Silence

   It’s 11:00 in the morning and I have no writing done. I’m on deadline and I have no writing done. This is usually my cue to beat myself up emotionally which feeds all sorts of issues which if fed enough will trigger the chorus line of personal demons that I think most of us have in our heads. Once that chorus begins to chant their negative messages and dance their little dance not only is writing unlikely to happen today, but my day will be wrecked. I will be wrecked emotionally and it just goes downhill from there.
   Often when I’m behind in my morning routine for work I try to hit the writing hard and make up for lost time, sometimes that works, but not when my head has already started going dark. On days like that I’ve learned that I need to do one of two things, maybe both, get on the treadmill and walk off the black mood, and/or mediate. I light a candle and try to focus not on the stressful morning, or all the things that are feeding the bad day, but on listening to that still, small voice that we all have inside us. The voice of our good angels, our totems, our spirit guides, that little slice of God/Goddess that is there to help us if we take the time to listen. It’s hard when most days are so rushed, but I’ve learned that if I can take even a few moments to stand outside in the sun, or hug a tree, or do anything that helps me be still and truly listen, that there will be comfort, or wisdom, or I’ll think of something I didn’t think of before that helps. Think about how powerful that is, that inside each of us is a spark of the Divine that will guide us, teach us, steady us, and it is always there, if we enter the silence and listen for it. (For all you atheists out there, you have it too, maybe you call it consciences, or inner knowing, but it’s there.)
   I came away from meditation with this thought, “That there has to be chaos before there can be order. Sometimes you need that bad relationship in order to learn the lessons needed to have that wonderful relationship next time. Sometimes you lose an opportunity, because a better one is waiting for you. You make a mistake that turns out to be exactly what you needed to solve a major problem in your life/job/family/romance. A frustrating morning can lead to a life lesson that helps you find your way to a better afternoon, and to happier days in general.”
If I can hold onto this lesson, I’ve already put it in my journal, and I’m typing it here, then perhaps I won’t let the negative things drowned out the positive things, which I have a tendency to do.
   I meditated and then I allowed myself to sit in the big, comfy leather chair in my office, cuddle with one of my dogs, sip tea and read from the book I’d almost finished. It reminded me that life isn’t all about the rushing around and accomplishing goals, it’s also about working hard so you can have the time to enjoy the things that make you happy. Now, I feel ready to start on that second bottle of water of the day, and get back to working on the story that is due. I have hope that I’ll get through the majority of it today, which is a lot better attitude than I had before I took a few minutes to be still and listen.

Serpentine Tour – Blog One

Serpentine, my latest novel hits the shelves on August 7th! I can’t wait for you to finally get to read it. There were so many times that I’d write something fun, or surprising and I’d want to Tweet it, or blog about it, but I knew that was a nope. Why? Because it was usually something that would give away the mystery, or character development, or the big reveal. When a certain character finally came on stage it was everything I could do not to Tweet it, or do a quick video for Instagram, but I knew that if I could have behaved myself on Twitter, I’d totally have spilled the beans on a video. So I stayed offline and behaved myself, because I wanted you to be able to read it yourself for the first time, not have me do spoilers months, or even a year ahead of time. But now, the tour for Serpentine is about to begin, and I still won’t be able to talk about spoilers, because not everyone will have read the book yet. Arrgghhh!

So now I have to decide, do I let you and I talk about Serpentine as if we’ve all read the book, or do I police us so we don’t spoil things for those who haven’t finished the book yet? I wish we could all sit down with a cup of coffee, or tea, and just talk about the book, but I can’t talk to each one of you personally, so how do we do it? I’m also doing interviews in print and recorded, some of which have a few spoilers in them. Not like who/what done it, but character interactions and some reveals about plot, so as those come out then we should be able to talk more freely at the signings and tour events. But the first event in Huntington Beach Barnes & Noble (Tomorrow night at 7-10 pm more info in the link) that has to be spoiler free; right? Right? Come on, right? Yes, right, because most people will not have read Serpentine all the way through yet. We have to behave ourselves and let everyone catch up, but I think as the tour continues we might all finally be on the same page. Or not, we’ll see. I’m thinking that maybe you can give your opinion in the comments below. Let me know who’s having time to finish the book so I can gauge whether it would be fair to talk about spoilers at the tour events.

Piles of Snakes

If you are phobic of snakes, please skip this blog. Trust me, you don’t want to see any of this. Now that I’ve warned all of you who suffer from ophidiophobia, here’s a recent video from Florida. Thanks to Ken Harris for bringing it to our attention. None of what you are about to see is my fault, even if my next novel Serpentine has a lot of snake Lycanthropes in it, and a few do change into a wriggling mass of snakes, and the book is set in Florida, this is still not my fault.

Video shows den of snakes slithering from tree in Oviedo

It would be disturbing if it was a tree in my own yard, but I had a Crocodile Dundee moment. “That’s not a pile of snakes, this is a pile of snakes.”

If you’re Scared of Snakes, Don’t Watch This

Edits, Travel, and the Injury at the End

I finished the edits on the next Anita Blake novel, Serpentine at the beginning of March. Jonathon, my husband, and I were already on a romantic vacation, but he helped me take time out to finish the edits that I hadn’t managed before we had to leave for our getaway. At the end I went old school: writing the changes long hand on sticky notes and handed them to Jonathon for him to type into the manuscript edits. I hadn’t written that much long hand in years, but it felt right. I’d already written the book, the edits were small things, or a scene here and there that needed changed for plot or character development. I took out one side plot that had started off as a red herring, but turned out to lead nowhere, so it had to go. I even had to cut a great new character that I hope we get to see later in another book. Larry Kirkland was a character that was actually in one of the rough drafts of the first Anita Blake novel, Guilty Pleasures, but he wouldn’t actually get on stage until book three, The Circus of the Damned. One of my favorite things about writing a series is that characters and plot lines that have to be edited out of one book can still see life later on. Interestingly, Anita, Micah, and Nathaniel try to have a romantic trip in the book, but both her work and Micah’s interfere with it. I wrote that months before Jonathon and I would be on our own trip and my work would cost us the first few days of relaxation, as if my muse knew it was coming. Of course, Anita’s work was a missing person and murder, and Micah’s work was a type of lycanthropy that we’d never seen before. My edits seem so tame in comparison.

I proceeded to take the longest purposeful break from writing that I’ve ever taken. Jonathon and I finished our trip without more work interfering. Then I got to spend our daughter’s spring break with her. My sister and her wife were able to fly into the country and visit with us. I spent all my “vacation” traveling. I’d finally get on the first plane towards home, but in the all out run to make it, I fell.

I was running full out, I was even thinking, “Wow, I can really run now. I’m so glad I can move like this, yay gym!” And then I wiped out. I did a good job of it, because kind strangers came to stand over me, making that face you make when someone hurts themselves in front of you. Thanks to the kind man who offered me a hand up, because I could not have gotten up without help. I wasn’t even sure that I’d be able to stand at all, until I tried. I was finally able to limp to my plane like Igor from the Frankenstein movies, but I was just happy to make my plane. I enjoyed my travels, but I was so ready to go home. I made my plane discovering that I was bleeding from the skin I’d lost, but I was able to walk better as I moved more. I still hurt, but I got to my seat. The flight attendant got me bandages, alcohol wipes, and eventually ice bags to put on my knee. Thanks for the care and attention Delta. Thanks also to my seat mate, Charles, who was a gentleman in the best sense of the word, putting my bag overhead for me when he saw I was hurt and helping the flight attendant pass me things to do some first aid. He also kept my mind off how much I was hurting by having an intelligent and calm discussion about our different paths of faith.

The skin is growing back from the scrapes, but I’ve either scraped my meniscus, or got a micro tear in it, which means no gym or martial arts for awhile. The page proofs of Serpentine have come back for one last chance to read over and catch any small things. It hurts to even sit at my desk for too long without propping my leg up. Sigh.

I’m looking forward to finishing the page proofs and getting back to the gym and dojo, and onto writing the next story.

Today is the Emotional Day


This morning I woke up anxious and unsettled and couldn’t figure out why, then I realized, “Oh, this is the emotional day after I finish a book.” I was so mentally and creatively done when I finished the last book recently that I actually had two days of energy and DOING things before the adrenaline drop happened. Usually it’s instantaneous, or within a few hours. So this cycle of predictable post-book-isms has been a little off schedule, but when each day, or mood hits, I’ll ask my husband, Jonathon, or our domestic partners is this normal? Do I always do this after I finish a book? They will all nod and assure me this is the pattern. Jonathon and I have been together for seventeen years and will soon count our sixteenth wedding anniversary, so he knows the drill. Our domestic partners, Genevieve and Spike, have only seen me through three books, but even they know the pattern now. Apparently I am that predictable to everyone else, but to me it remains more mysterious.  
I couldn’t think why I was lying in a nice warm bed, cuddled with my sweetie and anxious, until I realized what part of my pattern was happening. Today I will be anxious, sometimes overly emotional, so I know to ride through the anxiety and not let the emotional issues get out of hand. This will pass, I just need to hunker down, hold tight, and allow it to happen. Fighting it, or beating myself up because I’m allowing myself to get all weepy, or angry, or scared, or whatever emotion is happening is not helpful. It just makes me feel worse, so today I need to be gentle with myself and with those around me, and just keep moving. Its a good day to do exercise I enjoy, a very good day for stretching and gentle yoga, or playing with the dogs and cat, or just sitting quietly with them.  
I wrote the above a few days ago, and today I’m reminded that if I don’t go straight back into writing something new that the emotional roller coaster isn’t just one day. It continues sporadically over several days. No wonder I’m a workaholic, this feels awful, but I’m still not ready to sit down and write. I will be brave and let my writing process have its way with me, until I am sure what comes next. 

Creative Emptiness


I’ve been running on empty so long, I don’t know how to refill my tank.  Usually when I don’t write for even a few days my dreams turn to violent nightmares and my inner demons and ghosts drive me back to my computer to put it on the page.  This time, my inner world is quiet.  I feel more peaceful and relaxed than I have in years.  I realize now that I never recovered creatively, mentally, emotionally, or even physically from researching and writing, Crimson Death which came out in 2016.  I tried to write a Merry Gentry book afterwards, but hundreds of pages in, it fell apart.  I thought, well maybe I’m not ready to write Merry yet, so I set it aside.  It was the most pages accumulated on any book I’d written where I abondoned it in place.  (I will get back to it, but with a different plot.  Trust me the darkness of what I’d written – no, just no.  Merry, Doyle, Frost, and the babies deserve better than that.) So, I turned to Anita, because she’s always written faster for me than Merry.  I had and have dozens of Anita ideas, but even there it was slower than normal.  I finally had to admit that I was drained, and that some books take longer recover periods than others, and Crimson Death was one of those.  I think it didn’t help that the last Merry book, A Shiver of Light, had left me, and my fans feeling pretty traumatized, too.  The Anita Blake novel, Dead Ice, was next written and published, but it, thankfully, wasn’t as hard on all of us.  Crimson Death wasn’t traumatic in the same way as A Shiver of Light, but it was almost three times as long as a typical novel.  That is a lot of pages to write in a deadline space meant for a book a third of its size.  And as my usual I didn’t allow myself time to rest between books, though honestly if I’m to do two books a year, there is no time to rest between, even if I’m doing one book a year if its the page count of two books or more, then again, there’s no time to rest if I’m to meet my deadlines.  Which leads me to why the book I just turned into New York will be out in 2018, so both my new editor and myself have more time.  Time, the one thing that we cannot create more of, and the thing that so many of us give away the most freely.  Its been so long since I had this kind of time to rest and regain myself between writing projects that I don’t know what to do.  I don’t remember what I used to do to refill my creative tank.  Right now my muse and I want to hibernate for awhile.  I feel like I could sleep for days, and yet I’m already restless and fighting not to grow anxious. 

I’m feel like a castaway that’s washed up on an island after fighting through a storm of waves and tides.  I’m wanting to sit under the shade of the palm trees, but currently feel like I’m still crawling my way out of the surf and skinning my hands and knees on the sand and seashells, as I try not to be swept back out to sea.  Eventually, I’ll have to swim back out and find my ship of words again.  I’ll need to find my star and use it to steer towards a new horizon, a new story, a new novel, a new world perhaps, but for now I just want to find a place to rest and let myself be happy that I made it to shore.  

Witches, Wizards & the Writer’s Craft

Happy Mabon! We welcome autumn in with a revival of the guest blog post. We’re starting off with a wonderful and informative blog from my friend and fellow writer Michelle Belanger. Enjoy the magic of the day and of the words below.

-Laurell

Continue reading Witches, Wizards & the Writer’s Craft