Because what’s funnier than a haiku about the zombie apocalypse?

Hear them shambling -
Zombie apocalypse now!
Please don’t eat my brains.

It’s too bad that I have to wait until Spring 2009 for a good zombie apocalypse novel. Happy New Year! Find more Monday poetry here.

Found this last night, just when I needed a shot in the arm:
“Social workers, mechanics, soldiers, authors, artists, aliens and vampires, this wonderful collection of stories represents people from across social strata, not to mention time and space. Fiery passion, tender lovemaking, and characters that will worm their way into your hearts prove once again that Ellora’s Cave has quite a few extremely talented people writing for them. The authors that contributed the stories to SEASONS OF SEDUCTION VOLUME III have outdone themselves. Don’t miss one of the best anthologies of 2007, get your copy today!” - Romance Reviews Today Erotic

Edits are gone. Now to send the proposal after ‘em. Unfortunately, when I opened it yesterday it looked like drivel, which meant my brain was tired. So I closed it and read Manhunt by Janet Evanovich and laughed myself silly. Then I read about 20 pages of Shadow Music by Julie Garwood. Oh. My. I’m not very far in, but it’s so good. (The 20 pages I read were towards the end, because I had a sudden fear that it was Not A Romance. This is because of the cover and the tag “a novel” by the title. My fears were relieved. Shadow Music is a romance, and it has the flavor of Garwood’s other Scottish historicals.)

Now that I’ve read, laughed, and had a good night’s sleep, I will tackle the proposal again and if anything really does read like drivel I will edit the crap out of it and fix it.

Lots of changes ahead for 2008. This is my year of better life balance. I have lots of goals to achieve and part of my plan for getting there is taking better care of me. Eating right, getting enough sleep, making changes so that daily exercise can happen. Reading more. Time away from the computer to do things with kids. Refilling the well, so that I can keep on happily writing!

I produced a lot of work in 2007. Good work. I also grew a lot as a writer and learned a lot, very valuable lessons. I’m really looking forward to the coming year and to writing this next book. It has a phoenix in it. How freaking cool is that for starting the new year?

Still not quite done. I have two tweaks left and then I need to double-check that I didn’t miss anything and the changes I’ve already made are as brilliant and perfect as I thought they were when I did them. Snort.

Edits are hands-down the hardest part of writing a book for me. Changes that sound simple often aren’t, and there’s always a ripple effect. Change one thing over there, and now everything else has to be changed for consistency. So there’s always the tricky “did I remember to get all references to Blah” business.

But the really hard part is that you have to think analytically and creatively together, which pretty much sprains my brain. You have to see the analytical “this has to change to accomplish X” and then you need the creative, “Okay, we can get there by doing this”, and what tends to happen is the analytical squelches all the creative insight you need. It’s very hard to think both ways at once. Usually I do edits to the soundtrack for the story to get the creative juices flowing and I forgot to do that on this round because the holiday music is on. Must remember that trick next time.

Anyway. Almost there. In happy news, Love Romances nominated Ellora’s Cavemen Seasons of Seduction III in the Best of 2007: Best Erotic Anthology! So we’re nominated for best in two places. Yay.

Gotta turn in edits. Proposal on top of ‘em. The two sort of go together because things interlink. I’ll post some sort of New Year looking back/looking forward type thingie when these are off my desk.

I picked up the new Julie Garwood, Shadow Music, and will be doing a review when I’ve read it. I’m one who has been wildly excited about her return to historicals, and I’ve seen some very disappointed reader reactions online about this book. So I’ll discuss it here after I read it. I do wonder if readers expected her to write the way she did ten years ago, and if so, that may be coloring perceptions. I don’t expect that. Styles shift, writers grow, and there’s no going backwards. But I do expect a good read and I’m confident enough I’ll get it to pay the hardcover price tag.

Been busy writing today. Also herding small people, making breakfast, lunch, sorting laundry, and other business. I’ve made great progress on my to do list and also on organizing my goals and workflow for 2008. So. Deep thoughts as the New Year approaches: you really have to define your own success, and redefine it often.

I wrote a business plan for my fiction career five years ago, and in that plan I projected selling to Harlequin Blaze. You will note that hasn’t happened. But I ended up in the right place for me, and I achieved my goals, if not the way I imagined I would. So a degree of flexibility always has to be involved when you set goals. You can have a goal that could be met in multiple ways. When one way opens up, even if it’s not what you expected, it can be the perfect opportunity for you.

I keep revising and revisiting my business plan, and setting new goals, but still things change. Markets change, opportunities come up, priorities change. So every year it’s time for an overhaul. And usually around the six month mark I find myself revising my goal list again, to adjust course for the rest of the year.

One thing I’m making a priority this year is getting ahead. I need to be working on future proposals, future books, not just the ones that are due next. I didn’t allow nearly enough time in the schedule for that last year, and I’ve seen how painfully that can bite me in the butt. I started to move in that direction this fall, but it’s the kind of thing you have to keep at and slowly the results start to accumulate.

Lots of steps towards goals are like that; little changes, little daily or weekly efforts that eventually lead to big results.

I got the best Christmas present a writer can get yesterday. No, it wasn’t under the tree. It was one of those gifts that fall into your lap from time to time; the right chapter one for Wicked Love, which I have rewritten repeatedly and still failed to get right and now I see why. I finally got the first few pages right, but then I kept trying to go forward in the wrong time and place. I move about 60 miles in space and jump ahead in time, and voila, what really happens in chapter one is revealed. It happened when I took my Christmas nap. I guess if you’re a writer you get scenes instead of visions of sugarplums, but I’m grateful. Sometimes it really does pay to sleep on it!

I also woke up this morning with bits and pieces that fill in gaps in Wicked Hot which I can now sneak in before it goes back. Sometimes a day or two off is enough to let these things percolate up.

I hope everybody out there had a good Christmas, and for the writers, may the muse drop those little gifts into your head! For a readerly gift, visit PBW to read Worthy, Willing, and then foam at the mouth along with me waiting for the finale Wanted, which she hopes to have up for New Year’s.

Oh, and here’s a musical gift. It starts out one way, but hang in there. Must have sound for this.