Blog Hopping with Maria V. Snyder

 Author pal Maria V. Snyder invited me to take part in a blog hop. Each author thanks the person who invited them (thank you, Maria!) and then answers a few writing related questions, then passes the "hop" on to someone else.

Here is Maria's contribution (I love her books--she's one of the people who inspired me the most when I got serious about my own writing, so if you haven't read her yet, you might want to start!)

Maria's blog hop post

And here is mine...

Question One: What am I working on?
Answer:
Well, there's the Sekrit Project I can't talk about yet (soon, I promise), but mostly I am working on a new novel, which I am provisionally calling One Born Every Minute. It is a complete departure for me, since it is a humorous contemporary romance, rather than a paranormal romance or an urban fantasy. I love writing with humor (there's always at least a little bit, no matter what I write) and I'm having a ball writing something that is out and out funny.

Question Two: How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Answer:  My paranormal romance books (the Baba Yaga series) aren't quite as grim or sexy as a lot of the books out there now (not that I have anything against grim and sexy--it's just not what I write), and there is always a hint of humor. The Baba Yaga books are loosely based on a bunch of Russian fairy tales, which isn't exactly the norm either. Also, I have dragons disguised as dogs. Go ahead, find someone else who has THAT.

Question Three: Why do I write what I do?
Answer: I suppose that the simple answer is that I write the kind of books I love to read. I adore books about witches (especially ones that break the normal stereotypes) and I really like modern retellings of old fairy tales. (Check out Jim C. Hines Princess Books to see what I mean.) I like kickass female protagonists who mostly rescue themselves, with maybe just a little help from the good-looking guy who shows up. Not to mention dragons that turn into dogs. Or is it the other way around?
I also write what I do because that's what shows up in my head. I might say to myself, "Gee, I'd like to write a humorous romance next." But what shows up after that it pretty much out of my control.

Question Four: How does your writing process work?
I always love reading other authors' answers to this question, since no two authors I know work the same way. My friend Alex Bledsoe tend to get up very early, to write before his kids are awake. Maria said in her post that she works from 10 pm to 3 or 4 am--if I tried that, all you'd get would be drivel!

Every book is a little different (they all want to be written in their own particular way, believe it or not--some can be outlined in detail, others prefer to be mostly made up as I go along...it's very annoying). In general, I tend to start with an idea (what if there is a woman who is the only honest one in a family of thieves, who is forced to work with an uptight cop and pretend to be a thief?), then create the main characters, figure out the basics of the plot, then delve deeper into the protagonists, which usually introduces me to the secondary characters. I try to write up a "blurb" for the story (like the one you would find on the back of a book jacket), to sum things up, then write up detailed character studies and a basic outline before I start actually writing.

Once I'm into the story, I write almost every day, usually from about 6:30-7pm to about 9:30-10:30 pm. At which point I clean a bunch of litter boxes and stagger off to bed. When things are really rolling, I often do two stints on the weekend days. (No, I don't have a life. And your point?) I aim at producing at least 1,000 words a day, although on a good day I can get two or three times that much, and on a bad day, I'm happy to produce a page (about 300 words). In theory, I can write the first draft of a novel in about 3-4 months, then I send it out to a few folks, including my fabulous critique partner Lisa, and my equally fabulous agent Elaine. Revisions take about a month, not counting waiting-for-responses-time. Then, if the book is already sold, it goes off to my editor, then I do MORE revisions. Oh, the joy. Then I have a glass of wine.

And eventually, the finished book comes out, and I celebrate!

Next up on the blog hop, be sure to check out the lovely and talented Nancy Holzner, author of the Deadtown books (which I LOVE). Nancy has had a tough year, with the loss of her husband, and hasn't been blogging at all. Hopefully this little blog hop will be a easy way for her to hop back to it. (Yes, I did that. I'd say I'm sorry, but of course I'm not.) She'll be posting her piece of the puzzle sometime next week.

The New Desk Declaration

Most Americans spent this weekend celebrating the 4th of July, when the Declaration of Independence was signed (still love you Britain, with your Doctor Who and your Sherlock...friends?). I, on the other hand, spent most of my weekend declaring my independence from my old desk.

Don't get me wrong--it was a lovely desk, and served me well for years. But its configuration really didn't work for the way I am writing these days. Most of the actual writing is done on the laptop, sitting in my magic red recliner (which is much easier on my back and the tendonitis in my arms). The main desktop and office is now primarily used for the business side of writing: emailing, organizing projects, and keeping track of obligations.

Samhain practicing thinking writerly thoughts.

The high profile of the desk also made the room seem smaller and more crowded. So I commissioned a new desk from one of the woodworkers at The Artisans' Guild (the shop I run). Naturally, since I had planned to spend the long weekend relaxing and working on the novel in progress, I got a call on Thursday saying that the desk was ready. Most of Friday was spent installing the new desk (with Glen, who made it) and the rest of the weekend was used for reorganization and perfecting the space. It was well worth it!

Here is the old desk being dismantled. (Mystic looks like he is saying, "What the heck is going on?")

Here is the new one:
Naturally, Magic the Cat had to claim it right away. We witches call that the "butt blessing." (Okay, I just made that up.) Isn't the wood beautiful? It is hickory, to match the counter top on the other side of the room (between the dining room/office and the living room) Glen built for me a number of years ago. The desk is actually two separate tables, in case I decide I don't want to use the whole thing somewhere down the road.

Here's the desk, all set up, with the wall boards reorganized (multiple times), plus an emergency run to Office Max to get new organizer thingies for the desk.

I finally got back to the writing and copy edits on Sunday night, but I'm pretty happy with the end results of how I spent my weekend. The room seems so much more open and airy, and for the next five minutes, anyway, everything is organized and neat.

How did you spend your weekend? And what is your work area like?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Okay--it isn't technically summer, and three days isn't actually a vacation, but it is likely to be as close to one as I get this year, so here's what I did over the three-day Memorial Day weekend...

Saturday was Work Day. First I cleaned the house (including the upstairs cat room, which doesn't get much attention over the winter when it is cold up there). I always clean on Saturday mornings, but I did a deeper job than usual this time and managed to get some of those "clutter spots" cleared up too. I'm getting ready to start work on a new novel, and I do my best work when the house is clean and free of too much clutter (it is never perfect). Then I went to the locally-owned garden center and picked up the last of the plants for the garden, including tomatoes to replace the tomato plants that got walloped by a late frost (BOO), along with some herbs.

With my friend Ellen's help, I got the last of the garden in (except for the broom corn seeds and some flower seeds, which I still have to figure out placement for).

And I discovered about a gazillion pollywogs in my garden pond!

Sunday was another work day. I finished writing up a Mystery Proposal for a New and Different Project. (I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you.) I can't go into specifics until I find out if the proposal is accepted or not, but I can tell you that it is for something I have never done before, and I'm kind of excited by the possibility...

Then I went outside to rescue the front flower beds from the weeds. Here's the large bed on the right, after it got cleared out. (If you look closely, you can see my supervisor sitting in the window.)

 Here's the smaller bed on the left (which, ironically, actually has a lot more real plants in it, although a lot of that greenery is weeds, too). I ran out of steam, so that one is still waiting for me. Oh, the joy.

Here's a close-up of Angus, doing the tough job of keeping an eye on me while I work.

The rest of Sunday was spent making jewelry, since I wanted to get a bunch of new items in for the summer before I dive into the writing.

Freshwater pearls, mixed gemstones, fluorite with a chaorite dangle, sugalite, rose quartz & cloisonne

Fluorite chunks, aventurine, lapis, and lots of lapis earrings

It probably doesn't look like much, but that's about ten hours of work there. (A little bit of it got done Monday night.)

Monday was mostly a fun and relax day. I did take care of a few small tasks in the morning, but then I went over to my friend John's house and he cooked us up an amazing BBQ (he's a great cook--can I just say "bacon-wrapped onion rings"?) and we both ate WAY too much. The weather was just perfect; sunny and high 70's with a little breeze, and it felt wonderful to sit outside and enjoy it after the long, bitter winter. The we went inside to digest and watch Frozen, which he's seen  multiple times and I hadn't gotten around to yet. It really was a lovely as everyone had been telling me.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Yes, I worked my butt off for much of it, but a) many of the things I worked at were things I enjoy doing and b) I was able to tick some pretty major items off my "to do" list, which means I feel way less overwhelmed. I got to spend time with friends, and be outside. All in all, I have no complaints.

I hope you had a nice weekend too (whether or not it was a holiday where you live). Tell me, what did you do this weekend?

Four Books and a Novella

No, that's not the name of a RomCom movie about my life starring Hugh Grant (although that would be pretty cool).

Although if you WERE going to do a movie about my life this year, "Four Books and a Novella" would make a pretty good title, since it is starting to look like most of my time is going to be devoted to those five projects. And if you're thinking "Gee, that seems like a lot," you'd be right! (I'm not saying I'm sitting here hyperventilating just thinking about it, but um...anyone got a brown paper bag?)

Here's the thing: normally, I write two books a year. One nonfiction book for Llewellyn, and one novel. For many years, the nonfiction books were published at about the rate of one a year, and I had to do edits and publicity for them, and the fiction books made the rounds of agents (until I got one) and then editors as I was writing the next one. A lot of work, but just about manageable on top of the day job, making jewelry, chasing cats around, and all that jazz.

Then last year, I finally sold the fiction. (HUZZAH!) The first two books in my Baba Yaga series, plus a prequel novella. Which changed the scenario quite a bit. And because I had decided that once I sold a novel, I probably wouldn't do any more Llewellyn books, I then signed contracts not only for another one (Everyday Witchcraft, a follow up to my popular 3rd book, The Goddess is in the Details), but also for a small book that is one is a series they are putting out about the eight sabbats. (More about that some other time. And yes, I realize that there is something wrong with my plan here.) So I spent the last couple of months working on those, and not really thinking about the big picture, until it suddenly struck me a few weeks ago that I had THREE BOOKS AND A NOVELLA coming out this year.

Holy crap.

And then it occurred to me that since my next book for Llewellyn, The Witch's Broom , is coming out in April, that would be a great time to finally get around to putting out an eBook version of Circle, Coven & Grove (my first book, which went out of print last year). I have a secret plan for that in the works right now, which I will blog about when some other stuff is finalized I'm ready.

Which led me to the realization that I would then be putting out FOUR BOOKS AND A NOVELLA this year. All of them requiring editing, publicity, and such.

HOLY CRAP.

Well, I'm the one who wanted to be a writer, so I'm not complaining. Mostly, just a little...flabbergasted. I have a few writer friends who put out that many books in a year on a regular basis, but I am not that writer. And I think it is unlikely that this confluence of events will reoccur--I'm perfectly happy to stick to two books a year. But in the meanwhile, here's what we're looking at:

April 8th -- The Witch's Broom
 April 8th (give or take a few days) -- Circle, Coven & Grove (release as an eBook)
August (no exact date yet) --  Wickedly Magical (Baba Yaga novella, released in eBook form)
September 2nd -- Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga book 1)
December (no exact date yet) -- Wickedly Wonderful (Baba Yaga book 2)

So--four books and a novella. Fortunately, the edits are done for everything except the last book (although I still have the last copy edits read-through for Baba 1). Circle, Coven & Grove is written, of course, but I have to come up with a new cover and a new cover blurb, since those things belong to Llewellyn, the original publisher, as well as adding a new introduction. And I have major revisions to do on the current Llewellyn book, which will be out sometime next year.

Right now, I'm a somewhat muddled mix of Really Excited and A Tad Overwhelmed, with a smidge of Ridiculously Happy thrown in for good measure. I hope you're all just a little bit excited to be taking this ride with me, too.

Because here's the thing--the other thing--sharing this journey with all of you is part of what makes it so great. My friends, my readers, my fans (holy crap, I have fans!)...you guys are what makes the fun outweigh the freaked out. I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate you coming here (and Facebook, and Twitter, and such) and cheering me on. Obviously, such dedication deserves a reward. Right?

And I  have two in mind. The first is A REALLY BIG GIVEAWAY. I'm going to do a massive contest, starting this Friday, which will be a month and a day before the release of The Witch's Broom. Remember all that cool swag? Swag Blog Post I'm going to be giving away almost all of it. That's right--the remaining  mug and notebook, a bunch of broom refrigerator magnets, and some other stuff too. Why should I be the only one excited? So be sure to check back on Friday!

What's the second reward? I'm not telling...not yet.

So, you tell me: of all the releases coming out this year, which of the four books and a novella are YOU the most excited about?



   

New and Shiny!

As most of you know, this year I FINALLY got a fiction book contract (with Berkley Publishing for my paranormal romance series, The Baba Yaga). After seven years of working towards that goal, actually achieving it was fairly momentous. It also felt like a good time to make some changes. Seven is one of those magical numbers, for one thing. Plus, my writing career is shifting in a different direction. In the past, most of my public focus was on the nonfiction witchcraft books from Llewellyn. Now, the focus will be on both fiction and nonfiction.

So what does all this mean, you ask? (Of course I can hear you. I'm amazing that way.)

NEW WEBSITE!!!!!

Sorry. I'm a little excited.

My wonderful friend Robin created my old website for me, back when my first Llewellyn book came out (2007, or maybe before), and we've made a few changes in the meanwhile. But it was on a webhost that required all sorts of fancy code and such, which meant that I was always dependent on someone else to update it. Also, of course, it was based on the "old" author image of me, instead of the "new" one. (Shockingly, I still look the same. But you know what I mean.)

When Robin got busy with her new business (she runs a daycare...multi-talented woman that she is), my writing partner Lisa DiDio hooked me up with her web person, the fabulous Annette Beecher. Annette initially took over maintaining the old site, and when I decided I was ready for a new one, she built me one on WordPress. It ROCKS. Just you wait and see. The woman is a genius. (And very reasonably priced, to boot. Which is good, since I'm still paying for rat clean-up.)

Here is what the old site looked like, in case you don't remember (or, GASP, never visited it):

It was nice, but a little dark. It also had the address deborahblakehps. com (because deborahblake.com was already taken, dammit). HPS stands for high priestess, which made sense when I was only doing witchy books.

The new website will be www.deborahblakeauthor.com which is a little more general. Go take a look and tell me what you think.

I think it is beooootiful! Or as they would say on Firefly: SHINY!

What do you think?

Oh, and if you ever need anything done online, Annette has a business as a Virtual Assistant at http://www.jaromarbles.com/ -- I couldn't recommend her more highly. She was fast, easy to work with, really good, and not expensive!