desiresdd17: (Default)


Welp ... here it is. Another Monday meaning a new week.

With the new week comes new challenges.

Finishing, editing, publishing. Repeat.

A I said in the last post, the middle part is become more of a PITA than the first and last. And here I thought finishing would be harder! Pssh

Actually, it was a little hard with my Valentine's Day short. Ry and Val didn't want to stop talking to me. Obviously, they can't wait for their stories to begin in the Immortals series, but due to the word cound restrictions, I had to cut them off. And then there's the thing I had with title. Er, um, I had no idea what to call it. I even talked it over with my husband. I wanted something cool with soul, demon, and vampire and... well, I ended up with My Demon, My Vampire.

*blinks*

The characters say that in the story and it kinda stuck so for now, that is the title. It ended up with 10, 032 I believe. And it did get me excited to write the series. I hope it makes people want to get into Immortals which I am starting this week. The first characters aren't Valios and Ryland, so we'll see how that goes.

See No Evil is with the editor and Hirah 2 is back on me. I've already started going through it and will give it a once over before putting it on Amazon.

My story with my co-author hit a temporary snag but we're back on track. It is at 47k so I hope to get it done soon. And I'm opening up Smoke again. WOOHOO. It will be nice to get Smoke done by March and hopefully send it somewhere to be published by winter.

With all that's going on in the world, I have to say I've been burying my head in fiction. Whether its writing or reading, I find being in my own head is the safest place to be. No, it doesn't mean I don't care, but I just choose to only say a couple of things then do what I can to fight for what I believe in. If I worried about every damn thing coming down the pike, I'd be crazier than I already am.

So, today's message? Do what you love. Enjoy it. Cherish it, because you never know if you might not be able to do it again. Writing is my escape. Its how I cope. Sure, I have my family and friends, but my fiction is what I use to temporarily forget about my problems and the world's. Its the best medicine out there!

Oh and my muse is John Kenney. I adore that picture! Look at that hair!

*  * * *

WIPS

Smoke MM
UTG 3
Tempo MM
DD Fanfic
desiresdd17: (Default)


Okay, so this is the 2nd update. It is the homestretch, but I didn't get the chance to come back over here until now. More fuckery happened on Tuesday, but I got through it. Lets just say, car trouble. Yep, time to get another car.

Anyway, with writing, I'm over 40K on Smoke.

Woot!

I do adore this story. It's humorous, angsty, sexy. Oh and the characters. They are writing themselves and I'm tagging along while they run rampant on this manuscript. In my last post I was pissed, but Santiago has helped me right the ship...

A little.

Santiago is still my guy, but this one above has taken over the focus. He is such an ass! He is the muse I am using for Myles. BTW, I love Boris Kodjoe! I've used him a couple of times and when I put his sexy face in with a particular character, it always seems to work.

Oh yes, back to Smoke. It's going great and I'm very sure the story will be about 70-80K. Yes, that's right. In this first 40, nothing much has happened except some fuckery as Santiago called it, that has taken a lot longer than expected. Also, all 3 men have POV's so their thoughts are all on paper. Some emotional men, they are, and yes, I love that too.

I do hope to be done in December so i can pass it on to some betas, but guaranteed I will have the 50k needed to win Nano in the next few days. Then I might give it a rest so I can finish See No Evil and Hirah.

Until next time!

* * * *

WIPS

Smoke at 40K, nowhere near done!
See No Evil at 26K
I shelved Hirah 3 for now because I'd like to finish See and book 2 isn't on the editor's desk yet.
I'm thinking of writing an Xmas short for two old characters. Not sure who, but stay tuned.
2 freebies as well as my fanfic.
desiresdd17: (Default)


Good morning folks. Oh and this is Angel Macho for those who are wondering

I couldn't really find the pic to fit my mood so I went with eye candy instead

Anyways, the title is plotting and why it doesn't always work...for ME

Yeah me. Many writers plot all the way to the end and most even stick to it but my first experience with plotting chapter by chapter has started out to be a bust. Yes, I have a general idea of what's happening and yeah, it did reel in some of the crazy ideas but the characters are running their mouths, longer than I expect and well, Kenina has showed her ass in this story and I like it a lot since her book is next in line.

My MC, Frankie is having doubts about cop work and my MC Kajika, is doubting their relationship. All this and a murderer is on the lose! Whew! Lots going on in here but not really following the plot I'd done about two months ago. Not that its a problem but hey, sometimes panstering works.

And in the meantime I've been researching. Going through CSI book as well as the weapons novel. I also ordered police procedure to clear up some of the insecurities about writing in this genre. What's also helping is reading a murder mystery. Its called Red Light by T Jefferson Parker. The book rocks and has helped me a lot to understand the duties of homicide.

So, all in all, this has been great so far., Yeah, the chapters aren't exactly following the plot I did but at least its not stagnant. I have the makings if a good story here and I'm loving it!

* * * *

Rawiya finished her part of the Nano. Her fluffy story was subbed and were awaiting the word.
A little under 10k for Michael on ILIR. Kenina is becoming a strong character.
Sub call to do for January for a press. Valentines day. Woot
Wretched is next for BL once ILIR is done.
Edits in December to end the year!
desiresdd17: (Default)


Greetings! Another post by me, triad writer talking about my muses. This week, i'm talking about Michael and his love for writing about demons.

Not sure where it started, maybe with Vertigo and then continuing on to his story, Demon Be Mine in the Only That Night Anthology.

Michael loves stories about the undead. Camps, shifters, demons preferably who have a sexy side, kill for the good, and fall in love. He loves the complicated plots, the excitement of putting together paranormal stories with some kind of message. We've read a few stories but we'd like to read more to get ourselves prepared for what we want to talk about. Something about a hero that's not squeaky clean like Superman but has powers, is devious, and sexy as all hell. We want to write that story or stories and damnit we want it now but I am a triad author which means 2 other muses ache for my attention too. *sigh*

But the thing I love about the Michael muse he's patient. He'll wait his turn. Unlike BL who is rebellious and Rawiya, well she's patient too but even she can be antsy when she wants. Michael will wait until I have the time to write those stories. We'll continue to take notes, read other books, and then when I have the time to get the details for the next paranormal, the Michael muse will be happy.

So what is this one about? Well, it's a continuation of the N'awlins Exotica Paranormal with Demon Be Mine in the same series. In Mon Amour, the character Ryder speaks about some kind of undead creature coming after his Sire. The thought is this same being killed his vampire maker and Ryder would like to find it to avenge his death. In Demon Be Mine, Valios is a soul catcher demon who mistakenly falls for an angel. There's more to his story with angel Calisto and I'll intersect that with the vampire stories to create a whole new series.

UGH! So much easier said than done but I'm looking forward to it. Just something about demons... I dunno... The man above Tangi will be one of them in this collection to come.

Oh I can't wait but there's more to do with N'awlins Exotica in the real world. The underworld will just have to wait along with Michael for their time to be written!

* * * *

Updates

For this week, I'm doing a lot of fanfic writing with edits. BL is doing Under the Gun to get ready to send in and then I'll be doing Wild Horses.

After that, I'll be releasing Guardian Angel under Michael, and working on the Wretched, the sequel to Guardian, and Something Like Jayden with Rawiya.

I have to start subbing again! GAH! I'm so used to doing my own thing but I hope my next 2 books will be worthy of a publisher.

Wish me luck!
desiresdd17: (Default)

Greetings!

I'm busy writing my last book for this year and then I'll end it with a short story for a fan...

Then edits... o.O

Lots of them. That will be the next blog...

*smirks*



So the title of this journal entry is defying the muse. What does that mean? Well, while writing I Like 'Em Pretty now book one in my new series I'm doing along with Masquerade, Michael wanted the focus of the book to be more on the murder. It's an m/m noir with romance, suspense, and a little hot sex. 

Yeah, he really wanted to concentrate on the main plot and the subplot be the romance. Instead, the characters wanted the focus on them. Now mind you, they aren;t even making love to like the end of the book so what do I mean? The actual courtship, Frankie's emotions, Kajika's emotions, and the intro to several characters that will make appearances throughout the collection. 

Not only that, BL's characters Bryant and Nathan show up too since they're down in Nola after tehir most recent book. Pretty cool huh? Yeah it's turning out to be rather long but i love that the couple and their journey to be together is the focus. Makes it more of an erotica romance much to Michael's chagrin. *giggles*

It's okay Michael. We're gonna write a book the way YOU want eventually. Still he can't argue that the book is going really well. At this point, looks like Wednesday will be the day we finish first draft!

For a snippet, check out the last Saturday Sips at Michael's

desiresdd17: (Default)



An episode of writing with the muse for you.

I know, I know you think it's nuts to say you and an imaginary person are busy writing but I and a lot of my fellow writers consider our muses regular people. I enjoy all the time I spend with my muses but Rawiya, who is supposed to be a lot like myself, I enjoy the most.

Right now, we're writing Sugar Daddy together, pretty much free form. I haven't wrote an outline, only because the basis of the story was already done in the short that came out in a book last year. What we're filling in is the details about our characters. Our young man in culinary school who loves old American films and rhythm & blues while my attorney or barrister as he is called is a seasoned man looking for that special someone.

The seasoned one is the protagonist. He's been living the life of a sheltered man because of his career but now he'd like to be happy and settle down with one man. Only one problem. His wife and friend who entered into the agreement with him claims to be in love and doesn't want to grant him a divorce. What will he have to do to get it? Will his potential lover be okay with the fact he's still married?

So many questions! A very sensitive subject that we're tackling here, reading other books dealing with the same subject matter as ell as articles about gay married men trapped in marriages. The ideas are flowing and hopefully that will continue.

Did I mention how much I love Rawiya? Oh yeah the why. *grins* My sweet muse is already thinking of how we can get them into bed and throw that curveball to get them out of it. Matthew, the young man, knows hardly nothing about his new friend except likes, dislikes, and occupation.  Knows nothing about the wife and hasn't seen a picture. His friend is chiding him about this currently. How will he take it? We don't know. That's the fun of writing with the muse. Usually the characters follow our lead but we shall see what happens.

I do love to write!


desiresdd17: (Default)


Damn Livejournal didn't allow me to login from any browser until I just tried a minute ago. SO NOT JOKING. Hey folks, get your shit together, huh?

Anyway, I've still been busy editing mostly, a little writing on the side, mostly fanfic and my free read I've decided to do for Xmas. I was down a couple of days too, not wanting to do a darn thing especially last Sunday.

Ironically, this happened after  had a great night with my husband. Them fuckin' hormones, I tell ya!

I just had a moment where you look back at your life and figure, damn, what have I accomplished? I also started to have doubts about my writing abilities. I had the moment where I said, I'm not good enough because I noticed other writers being in the top 100 on Amazon and getting rave reviews. I mean, I havent made it with the Amazon thing yet but I have sold books through All Romance, Bookstrand especially, the proof comes from my pubs. And I've had a few good reviews, even a few fan letters. 

All of us authors go through it. I've coached some of my fellow writers who are better than me through it and when I posted in one of the FB groups about my feelings, I got a wealth of support from a lot of them telling me how good I really am and that it will pass. What to do when I feel that way, etc. It was really great and that, along with some reading as well as stroking from BFF's helped tremendously. Now, Im back to feeling confident again and ready for the new year.

In looking back at 2011, I have accomplished a bunch.

I made my goal of 20 acceptances. I have 9 books coming out next year so far 4 from Rawiya alone. I'm stoked. It doesn't even count all the other stories that have yet to be subbed. I had 4 books come out this year, 8 short stories. Some don't even get that

Sales have been good on my other books and I see myself finally making more money from writing which is pretty cool. I'm making a name, building a brand, these things take time and truly a little luck is needed when you create the book that gets rave reviews and great Amazon sales. I know my time will come for Amazon when I write a book that catches on. 

So... as you can see, I feel better and glad LJ let me back in. Thanks to everyone who said nice things this past week and all my fans, the few I have. *giggle* For supporting me through my first full yr of writing. Its been a blast and will be even better in 2012.

Oh who is that guy up top? MMA fighter and model Adam Von Rothsfelder. My new muse and I think he should be my avatar since he's a fighter like I'm aiming to be!

Isnt he hot. *drools*
desiresdd17: (Default)


Good morning peeps...

Another day of my musings here on Taboos.

OOh, what is this up above? Its a screencap from one of my favorite all time videos...

When I saw it I was like this is perfect! WHY? Well one it has something to do with my post... two its the pic that inspired the African Sun epic and three, isn't it hot? Erm, it's my fave Duran, Roger in the Hungry Like the Wolf Video from like 1983! OOH yes so long ago... *swoon*

Oh yes, my point

While writing BOOK THREE of AS, I was  thinking, how the hell will I end this? Not the series, I already know what will happen there but the book itself. What can I say that will be approriate? How will I tie it all in and give the audience something to remember the book by, satisfy them, and make them look forward to the next one if its a series?

This, in my mind, is the HARDEST part of writing a book. Have you tied up all lose ends? Gah! So damn hard and I struggle with it all the time. Usually, I like to tie in the title. For book three, I didn't do that... erm yet, but rather I put in a last sentence as a prelude to book four.

What do I do to get to that ending? Well, read through the whole thing, have a conference with my characters to make sure all are satisfied, or in the case of AS, happy for now, and then I read over these last couple of paragraphs again to see if I can sum it up.

Well, in AS, I don't think I did it well yet but, I wrote the last one and when I edit it, NEXT YEAR, I'll probably have a better one.

The key is, its first draft which means, the ending on it now, most likely won't stick because I'll have something much more concrete. As everyone knows, I love revisions. THE QUEEN OF THEM. As long as I can go back in and make change then I'm okay with leaving the story for a bit and coming back to make changes.

So fans, what have I learned? Not to sweat the ending at first glance. Either me, the muses, or betas will say something and make the finish better before its actually subbed. Maybe now I can rest a little easier.

What does that have to do with the pic? I bet Miss, her name escapes me now, the model, is saying, "c'mon Roger, kiss me, don't leave me hanging." It makes you wonder what happens. You never want to leave your audience in the balance. Give them a good ending, one to remember and look forward to either your next "scene" or your next book!

* * * *

UPDATES!

WOOHOO!

I finished AS book three and this past weekend, I finished the free read, MI FAMILIA!

WOW, I am floored and very excited!

This only leaves me with taming Wild Horses since I have decided to redo Closely Guarded... I didn't get that far anyway. It will be my NANO novel. Woot!

Yes, I did it. I signed up for Nano again and while I'm finishing subcalls... I have 4, I'll be doing more research for Closely Guarded while I'm on vacation

Subcalls?

XOXO Halloween - Story, My Sexy Vampire 4k in
Val 2012 sub for pub 1  Captain of his Heart (Starting soon)
Val 2012 sub for Rebel My Lieutenant 2 (Starting soon)
XOXO Alt Tattoo Line with a fellow writer

I'm also doing the Xmas line for XOXO but I will be subbing Mi Familia for that. It will be edited, changed around and hopefully will be ready for an XMAS release with True Meaning 2

After Nano, I plan on just working on stories I haven't finished and need editing. Like Trois, Lessons in ink and Masquerade. No deadlines for me accept a small one in December... Very excited about that. I shall start 2012 with a clean slate and hopefully new contracts for next years work.

Thanks for listening!
desiresdd17: (Default)
Greetings people!

Welcome to another Monday of revelations!

WOOT

Today, I'm talking about editors and how they differ.

Last night, I was really excited to get BL's edits back for My Lieutenant.

Now, mind you, most of my edits have been done by only one. My mentor, Sascha Illyvich. However, my new editor at Rebel Ink wanted a different style and so I had to change it.

:)

What did that mean? Pretty much, I now know what all the editors want and how they want it. This is an issue when you work with different pubs but with 3 different voices, its something I'll have to get used to.

And Im okay with that. Why? Because in truth, there is no right or wrong way. Every editor wants to help you build the story up so it will be a pleasure to read.

My editor with XOXO embraced my "Sascha" style but corrected me on other things. Now, I know my Rebel editor and most likely my NNP editor will change the way i've written stories. As I grow into my craft, I know I'll learn a lot more.

I welcome this, bring it on. It will only make me better and more entertaining for all my readers, no  matter where I publish!

*****

Okay then, so how am I doing?

GOOD LORD!

I think I might've mentioned that I was doing a challenge this month for 40k in 30 days? Well friends, I'm over half way there! WOW.

On True Meaning 2, I now have 42k plus. Yes you heard me! LOL The target date to finish is 8/10. I believe I should be done a day early.

WOOT!

I been writing my ass off on this and the characters have captured me, yes they have not allowed me to write on anything else. My poor, poor African Sun hasn't seen the light of day for almost a month and my Taming WIP, which I tried to work on the other day, I couldn't do because True is a story about love, very little angst and since Taming is more of a mean streak story, I couldnt do anything to it.

So, when True Gets done, I will be working on shorts for XOXO and NNP then I'll be starting my new novella for a subcall to get finished b4 9/1. Taming, Mi Familia, Closely Guarded along with my vampire novella I'll be working on for Sept/Oct finishes. Mi Familia might be before that, we'll see what happens.

And my fanfiction muse has been ignored. I'll need to get back to her eventually.

Thanks for listening!
desiresdd17: (Default)
Good mornin' peeps...

This is BL, the muse speaking instead of the head. Why? We might be taking over... I don't know. *laughs*

Apparently we are and we're having a lot of fun with it too.

Okay, really, she wanted me to speak on her behalf since my story that turned out to be a series is at the forefront in her brain.

What does the writer do when the muses say...more please.

Oh and yes, this voice, which I may also say is the original muse, (
see my interview) has said a lot lately. more like, um Sharita, could you throw a dog a bone and allow me to write my story?

Its really hard to share one head with two other muses, but somehow, I managed to captivate her so much, she finally listened. What did I tell her?

0.o

Well, basically, we've been writing on my new story You Don't Ask, We Don't Tell. It was originally for a subcall to a anthology about gay males in uniform. Well, apparently my characters didn't like the idea of just one book and a generic cover. They wanted their own series since each one of the characters has a story.

How did it happen? Through research!

Cody McCayne who  is my main character said, oh I need those ten weeks in Basic Training (book one) along with more from me and my man, Dari Kirk. Then in book two (Untitled as of now) The story of the training facility, Company 9669 and how DST Morris Dirst and his second in command, Darios "DP" Bright got started. Then  book three (Another untitled) More about the other characters, the General, the recruiter, Justin Belevidere, along with officers, "Head" "Jag" and "RMD."

Wow, what a series... and to think if they hadn't spoken to me, I might have missed out on a prime opportunity to create a great collection on my own. You may ask, why a series? Well, IMO, it gives the writer the chance to display different facets of the same theme to the reader but in most cases, from the POV's of different characters.

All the characters in YDAWDT have their own stories and adventures to tell. It'll be a wild ride!

What about my alter egos?

Michael has African Sun, of course, thats seems to be never ending but he is on book 3. He also has 3 books in one for Vertigo which should be out later this year.

The Down Low in Nola series is back on Rawiya. at first, the head, thought it might be necessary to turn it over to Michael but the voices weren't correct and so all of us agreed Rawiya should continue it.

Whats the big difference from series and sequels? Series are continuous from the same story theme and characters but might have different settings and intro new ones while sequels are stories that may have the same characters but have a different theme going.

In the case of My lieutenant, it will have 1 or 2 books to follow because the characters want and need more story. So as they keep yapping, i'll give it to them!

What a great thing huh? Being a writer is already fun and even more so when the voices in your head continually bug you about their story.

The YDAWDT series will be a good one, I assure you. Well worth the wait. Look for it.

Out

*****

Okay then...here;s the head speaking now with today's update. Thx BL

So, I have a series instead of a novella size story that might belong to an antho.

Wonderful. *grins*

Here's whats going on now.

As BL said, You Dont Ask was the one I worked on a lot this week. 7k plus in and looking for more.

For the military subcall, I have another story I'm subbing. Its the full version  to my story I subbed for Rawiya to STARbooks called That Thing. The call ends July 15th so I'll be doing what I can to finish that.

AS 34K in and I havent wrote on it all week so of course, Sakina and gang have a lot to say.

Taming Wild Horses. 9k in

Sugar Daddy full version 5k in

True Meaning Two about 6-7k in. I think. I havent looked at that all week either.

Trois in Treble ready to finish this one. I just need to be given that chance to do so.

Closely Guarded about 5k in

Mi Familia 20K. About half way through, I think.

Lessons in Ink 10k in

Something New on the Menu revision

I have a couple of stories I'm sending out this week too. My Halloween story will go back out as well as a short for a charity subcall.

There are more for the rest of this month and i've already narrowed it down to what I want to do,

We shall see what happens.

Thanks for listening to me and my muse!

Updates 3/3

Mar. 3rd, 2011 10:37 pm
desiresdd17: (Default)
Rested...

That is what my muses feel now after we took the last couple of days to work on African Sun Edits.

Now, my lovely editor would like me to do the following:

Make the story, Only When I Lose Myself from the My Sexy Valentine anthology longer by about 5k and make Longing for a Normal State of Vertigo about 30K! WOW! I think that second one can be done but we shall see.

I don't like to draw out a story just for the sake if doing it so we shall see what my lovely characters give me. I am positive that my paranormal book, Vertigo can be stretched because the men had more story.

This on top of:

My Lieutenant
1 Sub by March 10th
2 Subs due by March 15th
1 March 30th
4 by April 1st (One of which has to be 15k-20K) EEEKkk

And I'm starting a new project with fellow M/M authors along with my blogs, my LJ here, and erm, my fanfiction site which must get  updated very soon. Not to mention, my LJ communities here which I love.

Wow, so much to do. Its only March! Shhhiitttt...LOL We shall see what comes out, in the mean time, stay tuned for all the updates!
desiresdd17: (Dave G2)
Well, at around midnight, Michael and I started penning, Binding Justice, our M/M erotica bondage romance that we would like to submit to our favorite publisher by 2/15.

Seemingly my main character, Sergeant Sire Jacobs, had a lot to say since I got 1200 words down right off the bat. I am completely thrilled.

I intend for it to be a little humorous as well as hot and sexy, that is what I want anyway. I know that Sire and his cohort on the story may have even more ideas to throw in my head. My characters always surprise me with curveballs.

As far as my other stories, Longing for A Normal State of Vertigo, Masquerade, and Only When I Lose Myself, I am looking to finish those as well along with a coupe of fanfictions that I am working on. I actually have 4 ff's that are in progress and for my readers community, i try keeping all updated at least once a month. One of them I do, weekly since it is an M/M crossover paranormal.

How the hell do I keep all my characters straight? They know who they are and they want their stories written. The guys from the above stories have already set in their heads what they want next. As a matter of fact, what;s even scarier is the ones from Masquerade would like me to go on and continue part two along with the first segment to make it a more complete book. I may take them up on that and if it does happen, Masquerade may not get done until April. ;P

So, that leaves me to concentrate on the Binding, Vertigo, and Lose which I could totally deal with. They are all going to the same publisher so that also makes it easier.

Oh and the novel, African Sun? Part 1& 2 are written, part 3 will not get started for another 2 weeks. I talked with my editor and he says if I can get the manuscript as clean as possible we can present to the senior editor/company owner before summer... YAY! That will be awesome...

Keep watching this space to find out more about my musings... ;P

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