Jordan’s talking about brand again. I’m sticking with my voice-is-brand theory. I write across subgenres in romance, but all my stories fit the brand that is my voice. Just in case that doesn’t seem clear enough, I’ll break it down. (Yes, I’m doing a 2nd blog entry because I’m avoiding working on my synopsis. Thanks for asking!)

1. All my stories have hot sex. They range from very sensual to full-on erotic depending on the characters and the situation, but when you read one of my stories you can count on me to not skimp on the good parts.

2. All my stories have humor. From straight romantic comedy to edgier tales with comic relief, you will at least get a giggle from me somewhere along the way.

3. All my stories have happy endings. Nothing upsets me more than to follow a bunch of characters through hundreds of pages of a book and then NOT get a happy ending. Rest assured, you will not experience that with any of my stories.

4. My characters always fall in love. Not necessary for a happy ending, but with me you get both. That’s romance, baby.

5. All my heroes are alpha heroes. Because.

6. Something always happens in the story. There’s nothing more annoying than a book where nothing happens. In all of my books something happens, even if it’s just characters having hot sex in humorous situations while falling in love on the way to happily ever after. None of this two guys sitting on a stage trying on a boot that doesn’t fit for two hours repeating themselves while waiting for another guy who never shows up business. (And if you can name that play, you deserve to win a copy of my next release.)

Okay, well, I guess I can’t stall anymore. That synopsis is staring at me.

I’m putting Djinn on the back burner for now. Other things are going to have to get done first. I have sample chapters to put together for project A, sample chapters and an outline for project B, the second half of MLH to write so that it’s done 3 months ahead of the publishing date, and Jane’s Addiction to shove out the door. Djinn isn’t date sensitive, but everything else is. So…time to do the project shuffle.

One trick for keeping my output at the highest level is to work on more than one thing at a time. I work on project A for so many words, find myself at a stop. I can then do the same number of words on project B. This only works to a point; when I hit that point with a story I concentrate on it and nothing else until it’s finished. But for the early stages of projects A and B it should help me move along.

The Gripping Beast is book one in a new series. I sent in the first half of book two yesterday, and unless my editor loathes and despises it, we’re looking at tentatively following up TGB around April, with book 3 (as yet untitled) around August or September. I’ll add The Sirens to the series page with more information as things solidify.

The long-awaited sequel to Love and Rockets is also in the works and I plan to get that done as soon as I finish Djinn. Hal’s Heroes Book Two (untitled) still needs to come together a little more but I expect by the time I get to that it will have gelled.

I’m sure it’s annoying from a reader perspective that all these other books came out before the sequel to L&R, but I had so many projects in a greater state of completion that they’re releasing first. I had intended to have L&R’s sequel out by now, but pregnancy and moving delayed things a bit. Anyway, that’s the news on the sequel front. And the plan is to keep the spacing on The Sirens series pretty close together.

All of a sudden it’s cold! Husband went to leave for work this morning and nearly slipped on ice outside our front door. Ice? Wasn’t it just a balmy fall yesterday? Seems winter is here already.

Time is racing on in every way. Morgan keeps growing and is staying awake longer and longer during the days, being more interactive and interested in exploring her world. I put a yoga mat on the floor next to my desk so she can scoot around while I keep an eye on her. Alex keeps using more complex sentences and expressing more sophisticated ideas. Her ability to communicate has leaped ahead, and she’s reading parts of her Dr. Seuss books by herself. “By selfs” is her new phrase for everything. “No help. I do it by selfs.”

Got a good start on Djinn yesterday, hoping for more good words today. But if not, bad words will do! There’s always rewrites. Happy Monday to everybody and if it’s icy where you are, step carefully.

I’m ready to get to work on my next story. It’ll keep my mind off TGB, for one thing. I find myself worrying about it on and off, whether I succeeded in toning the hero down enough to make him not such an uber-alpha readers will want to smack him, if I did a good enough job of keeping the fun in dysfunctional. And of course I realized after I sent it off that I missed another perfect opportunity for a Star Trek reference, which I have peppered throughout the story. I made a note to add it in during edits, bwahaha.

Anyway, no use thinking about it until the editorial feedback arrives. So the best thing to do is get busy on Djinn. Hope everybody out there is having a good Sunday and working their happy way through the leftovers.

Very fun discussion on RTB about erotic romance, a reader’s roundtable. Today’s part 2 of 2, and the fun factor in erotic romance came up. These books are fun! Yes, they are, which is why I love them. Yes, they do seem to harken back to the bodice ripper days when men were men and women had adventures instead of watching their stock portfolios and worrying about Very Serious Issues.

I’m not knocking those Serious Books, because they have their own audience and their own appeal, but I read and write romance for fun. And I loved the old bodice rippers and I frankly don’t understand why so many romance writers of today seem to feel the need to defend the genre against them, as if it were a dark embarassment to put behind them while they convince people that “romance isn’t like that!”

Romance is a huge genre, so no, not all romance is like that. There’s plenty of serious to go around for people who love that in their books. As for me, I love cheese. Which is why, in a bookstore, I will pick up and buy a book titled “Bimbos of the Death Sun” (which, by the way, is a fabulous read and so is the sequel “Zombies of the Gene Pool”) instead of a book about a family drama.

Anyway, check out the discussion! Because I don’t have anything serious to talk about over here. I’m still giggling about “heroes who chew the shrubbery in their angst”.

Another job. I finished up TGB, I fixed it as thoroughly as I could fix it (although editing will surely turn up more things I missed), and here I am, between edits, nothing due, and it’s time to think about the next job.

I have some sample chapters to send out now that I’ve cleared the decks, I’m brainstorming another project with some partners in crime, but aside from that, I need to settle on my next project. The order of things is open now because with two February releases already I’m not doing a Valentine’s story.

I am still working on finding a good excerpt that stands alone and isn’t too long for The Gripping Beast to put up on the book’s page. There’s one I really like, but it’s longish.

Happy Black Friday to all the brave shoppers out there. Drive carefully.