So I’m getting to write werewolves again, and I love it. Werewolf heroines can get away with things a “normal” heroine couldn’t. Like, you know, leaving dead bodies behind them.

Wolf In Cheap Clothing gave me a taste of the fun of writing women who run with wolves, and it’s the closest thing I’ve done to a perfect story. Ever since I’ve wanted to do a full-length single title werewolf tale, but due to various obligations it didn’t work out. I did write Wolf In Shining Armor in the meantime, and I’m thrilled that these novellas are releasing in print through Pocket over the next year. But now I finally get to do the full-length adventure I wanted to do two years ago (yes, it’s been that long), and there will be another dead body along with the wisecracks and flaming hot sex, mwahaha.

Danette is the winner of Netherwood! Congrats, Danette!

I am desperately seeking the perfect title for Animal Attraction. My favorite so far is also my editor’s favorite, so fingers crossed there. But I’m continuing to look for good ideas. Titles, they are tough.

Off to find the thesaurus again…

I’m guest blogging over at fellow Wicked Writer Shelley Bradley’s blog! You can catch me there, giving away a copy of Satisfaction Guaranteed. Here’s Michele Lang, Shomi debut author! Comment to win a copy of Netherwood.

Electric Dreams

When I was a little girl, I used to get myself to sleep every night by
disappearing into another world. Robin Hood waited for me at the edge of a
dark, tangled forest, and I became one of his merry band every night, as the
mundane world drifted away.

I’ve been cruising around the blogosphere celebrating the release of
NETHERWOOD, and it’s breathtaking to connect with published authors,
writers, and readers in a single cyberforum. Together, we’ve explored the
inner world. All of us have dreams, fears, and fantasies.a world of desires
that lives inside our minds.

One thing a lot of writers seem to have in common is their propensity to
disappear into that world, a tendency to slip away into another universe. I
know I’ve lived on multiple levels of reality since I can remember - an
alternate world, like the one hidden in CS Lewis’s wardrobe, filled with
angels, lovers, and monsters.

Sometimes those creatures of the mind seem more real than daily life, with
its dirty dishes, pinkeye, and taxes. And their country beckons to me in
the morning now, when I peel myself out of bed at 6 a.m., already feeling
guilty for sleeping in that late…

NETHERWOOD features an inner world generated by technology, a place where an
entire civilization explores its fantasies together. Talia, the
protagonist, disappears into a dark forest of the mind — at first to hide
from her surface life, but ultimately she ventures into the Netherwood to
save her world and the people she loves.

I didn’t realize how much the Netherwood resembled the territory of my own
dreams until these blog discussions, held in a cyberworld we all visit,
pointed it out to me. Life follows art!

Thanks so much Charli for inviting me over to your place!

Thank you, Michele, for joining us, and congrats on your debut novel! Feel free to ask Michele about her book, and a name will be drawn from today’s comments to receive a copy of Netherwood!

Netherwood, Shomi title by fellow Write On Michele Lang, is out today! I have an early copy, which I haven’t finished reading yet due to general moving insanity and plumbing issues, but it starts off with a bang. If you are loving Shomi, don’t miss this one. If you haven’t tried one yet, what are you waiting for? The mix of action, adventure, science fiction and romance is a winning combination.

Edited to add: Michele will stop by tomorrow to talk about Netherwood, and will give away a copy!

My head is stuffed full of Animal Attraction, or whatever the final title ends up as. So, a limerick plot summary for poetry Monday!

A girl who grew up adopted
Finds out her life is co-opted
By shapeshifters furry
and love’s savage fury
Plus a shapeshifter battle (she stopped it).

I roughed out the synopsis for the suspense story I dreamed today, and having roughed it out made me realize just how solid it is, and how much I like it. It fits my core story to a T. My only real question is, how likely am I to consistently come up with more ideas like this? I’ve cooked up other suspense ideas, so it’s not a one-off. Which means if I write up a proposal or write it on spec in spare time and it sells, I could follow it up with another in the same vein.

If that seems like putting the cart before the horse, well, I’ve learned that long-term thinking is kind of the difference between selling books and building a career. Not that there’s anything wrong with one or the other, but since I want to build a career, I don’t want to get side-tracked with one-offs. I like action/suspense plots, though, and I think this contemporary suspense is a nice contrast to the paranormals I’m writing.

Now that I have the idea down, I’ll put it away until the werewolves have fought their way to happily ever after. But I like it, I really do. It’s juicy. It will not be St. Martin’s #5, because my editor and I already discussed that I’ll be doing another erotic paranormal after the werewolves, and this isn’t paranormal. But I’ll do something with it. If not this year, down the road.

Out of This World Lover, the anthology which contains Wolf In Cheap Clothing plus fabulous novellas from Shannon Stacey and Kate Rothwell aka Summer Devon, is now up for pre-order on Amazon! Woo! Can’t wait to see covers for these Pocket anthologies.

I’m putting together bookclub discussion questions for Satisfaction Guaranteed. Hmm. I thought it’d be easier after doing this for Wild Wild West, but it’s tough. If you were doing a bookclub discussion of Satisfaction Guaranteed, what topics would you want to cover? Suggestions welcome! Also, feel free to join the discussion in April at Jennifer Crusie’s Cherry Forums.