Blog Tour of DOOM part deux

Today I’m over at Angela Brown’s blog talkin’ about rejection and what to do with it.

Hopefully, you’ll take my all-caps message to heart. ^_^

IWW: The blog before the blog!

Quick post before my regular post tomorrow. I’m on the Bold Strokes Blog today! Come visit and read about my shower scenes.

IWW: Characters of color

When I was writing The Pyramid Waltz, I didn’t want to fall into a trap where my characters of color are concerned. (Try saying that five times fast.)

We’re not here to empower you.

I didn’t want Starbride to be the wise brown person only there to enlighten her paler counterparts. I wanted her to be her own person, with her own quirks and faults and strengths. Many of my lovely beta readers have told me that she’s very human. I take that as high praise since I was hoping to stay far away from stereotypes.

I think some of blond Barbies might be darker than these two, tho. Seriously, Mattel, what’s up with that?

Anyway! I got lots of birthday Barbies, so guess what? Now Evil Barbie and Good Barbie can have allies! Can you say, epic fight scenes?

I think a black hole of awesome just opened up

Two kens, glamorous evil side, sensible shoes good side, and one panda. Who will win?!?!?

One thing never changes, though. This:

Welcome to the bondage club, half-naked Ken.

Still equals this:

Welcome to the bondage club, plastic swiss cheese.

Some things never change. The Barbies of color are just glad they’re not A) The ones in the ropes B) The mythical spiritual healers or C) The plucky/macho soldiers who never make it through the film.

We love you, Michelle Rodriguez.

p.s. Is anyone else doing extreme writing this summer? I’m in both Camp Nanowrimo and the Clarion West Write-a-thon. Who’s with me!?!?! C’mon. Being insane is fuuuun. ^_^

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Thank goodness it’s June.

*snort* I’m 35. Suuure.

I swear…

…I am working on a Barbie post.

In the meantime,

Edits are away to my publisher. Now to decide what the hell I’m gonna do until The Pyramid Waltz comes out in September!

Network: I’ve missed talking to my blog buddies as much as I want, and I haven’t been able to click any #FF links on twitter or to take any blog recommendations. Now I can! I’m looking forward to meeting more internet friends. I’m soooo much more awkward in person. I tend to smile really wide in overcompensation. ^_^

Book release party: I’ve got to plan one. Got to figure out how many people might come, book a venue, and then…no clue. Bake some cheese sticks?

Keep writing: Not only do I have to jot down some ideas for what I’m hoping will turn into a series from The Pyramid Waltz, I also want to write some new stuff, just to keep my brain elastic. Maybe something about giant sharks. Or pirates. Or giant shark pirates. Heh. I almost typed pilates. Giant shark pilates might be fun, too.

On a totally unrelated note and since in my day-to-day life I keep flipping from topic to topic here, I heard Huey Lewis and the News’s “Heart of Rock in Roll” in the car, and when he’s singing about LA, I know what he really says, but it sounds like:

“Neon signs and the pretty pretty girls
All dressed so skeptically.”

You’d need sensible walking shoes, in case you have to disprove something in the wilderness. You’d need heavy trousers for wading through weeds. You’d need all sorts of gear for your skeptical tasks, like cameras, meteorological sensors, tape measures and other tools, and an EMF detector in case you’re investigating ghosts. A girl dressed skeptically has to be prepared to disprove anything. ^_^ I didn’t know they were all Scullys in LA.

Everyone else got any news?

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

So much editing! Deadlines fast approaching!! Writing well in hand but pressure leading to heart attack!!!

And breathe.

I’m going off on those OMG deadline tangents a lot lately. Luckily, I’ve got them pretty condensed and can go straight into the breathing much sooner than I could before.

And breathe a little more.

Before I pass out, I have some fabupendous news. (I thought about going for stupenabulous, but that’s more like stupid fabulous. Well…that could work.)

Okay, stupid fabulous, stupendous news. I’m on amazon again! But for my book this time which guarantees I will never ever go away.

NEVER.

The Pyramid Waltz!

Squeeee! It’s very exciting. Go ahead and hit that preorder button, don’t be shy! ^_^ I’m sure the cover art will be up as soon as publication time gets closer. (It’s not until September.)

So, who’s coming to my book launch party in Austin? You’re all invited!

Edits almost done and the return of the return of the blurgh

The blurgh laid me low again yesterday, this time with a fever. Some days I’m fine, some nearly fine and well, yesterday, full on blurgh. It’s like my sinuses are just feeling me out, deciding how much they can get away with. In defiance, I worked from bed yesterday. You may take my balance, blurgh, but you will never take my mouse-hand!

Going well in edit-land. I’m putting in some plot points now that we’re quite wrapped up earlier. Then I smooth the rough edges and put in description where I need it most. I always do description last. I find it keeps me from over describing and using the same descriptive phrases more than once.

Who’s with me? What do you do last in your editing process? (Besides general clean-up and tightening, I mean. Everyone does those on each go through, or so I imagine.) And with this cooky world-wide weather, how is everyone else feeling? Does the whole world have the blurgh?

If you’re looking for IWW, it’s below this one

You know you are. ^_^ I’m very happy that everyone’s liking them.

Guess who's engaged to whom

I’m going full steam on edits right now as well as freaking out that I’ll have to do author appearances and beg people to review my book before the year is out. You may think I’m funny, but I’m really a hollow shell of a person held together with caffeine and candy.

What have you dreaded lately? I’d love to hear a few stories of when you were sure you would fail but instead came through with flying colors. Go ahead, after-school-special me.

The trollest of them all

You guys, what bliss!

I almost had NOTHING to blog about today. My next IWW post won’t be ready until next week, but I felt the need to say something, as I do every Wednesday. I’m hip deep in edits and thought I would have to redirect you to more interesting things when lo, I get an email from Letty herself!

Quoth the Letty:

“You are the reason I joined another group…I doubt you REALLY HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT UNLESS IT IS SELF PUBLISHED.
You need to get an honest opinion of your writing. You already have mine.”

Oh, you darling flirt. What acts of charitable kindness did I do to deserve you? I despaired, oh Letty, and down you dropped like a troll-scented angel from Topic Heaven. (Which was next door to Hot Topic in the mall.)

Look how kind you are, trying to assuage my guilt for helping you get tossed from your group by hinting that you left of your own accord. And that you joined a group because of me!!! Did they remind you of me somehow, and you couldn’t stay away?

You’re still a teensy bit confused about the book, though. It’s coming September 18th from Bold Strokes Books. (I never just want to throw the link up, but since you asked so nicely…) And thank you for your honest opinion about my writing. I clearly remember you saying how much you loved it. You’re such a dear.

Ah, now I feel better. A topic and a lovely conversation with my dear Letty. Anyone else have a wonderful yet unexpected email today?

IWW: The Love Triangle

Action movies take three to tango, a wild dance of hero/villain/captive culminating in some serious high-wire fighting over pits of rabid crocodiles.

Am I right?

The villain has more style, loves a shiny, jagged knife (because she wants that shit up close and personal), and has a pet that’s cooler than yours. Not a dog or a cat, something more…MORE. Like a baby panda.

Also, she builds her lair beneath an active volcano

Nailed it.

The hero’s in black ops, which I assumed meant she wore lots of black. She’s ex-CIA, ex-military, ex-coast guard, and an ex-librarian because I like to read. She uses a gun because killing from a distance is somehow humane.

Doesn't need to see the light die in your eyes

But because we’re hard fucking core, we can’t use weapons to hurt each other. That shit’s for babies who don’t KUNG FU.

Ditch gun!

Lose knife!

Battle royale under an exploding volcano…full of crocodiles (not pictured, but trust me, they’re down there)!

Body slam with pithy comment!

Mind if I drop in?

Flying kick with lamer comment! (The villain is always cleverer than the hero. See: Schwarzenegger, Arnold.)

Sorry, I've got to take out the trash!

After several death defying jumps over lava crocs, the hero wins, saves the captive and either kills the villain or leads her away in cuffs.

Let's get this panda back where he belongs!

Scene.

But…I’m disturbed. My three-way tango? Not so much. You see this?

Sigh

That’s not a tango-er, that’s a helpless muppet. It’s more like a love…line, than a triangle. All the conflict, all the passion is between the hero and the villain. This thing hanging behind them could be a giant plastic pear for all the ways it drives the plot.

The villain may have tried to seduce him. The hero may have realized that she wanted to live/retire/random epiphany because of him, but in the end, he’s a tool, in more ways than one. He’s a plot device, not a character, as replaceable as they come.

Let's get this panda untaped from this pear

And in the movies, that was always a woman.

What the shit? I didn’t want to be hanging in the villain’s lair under the volcano. I wanted to be swinging by my whip and cutting fools with my light saber. I wanted to kick ass on my own time, my own way. I’d already started on the path to writing strong female leads, and Barbie was going to help.

Did you ever put yourself in movies or television? Which role did you covet? (It’s all right if you wanted to be rescued. ^_^)

We have liftoff!

Well, we have a date for liftoff. My novel, The Pyramid Waltz is being published on:

September 18, 2012!

Woooooooo hooooooo! It might seem a long way off, but it’s really just around the corner. I’ve got so much to do, most of it mental preparation. I’ve got to get ready to talk to scads of people I don’t know. On the internet, it’s easy. In person, it can be a lot harder. I can be pretty funny, but I usually make jokes around what other people are saying, making them laugh. If people won’t talk to me, well, there’s not much I can do. I think I must be meeting lots of introverts lately. When no one can think of anything to say, damn it’s awkward.

Does anyone have any tips about getting people to come out of their shells? I’ve got a lot of talking to do. ^_^

Right now, let’s celebrate. I don’t drink champagne, so this will have to do:
(Find this recipe here.)

What are you up to this week, friends? Got any big deadlines looming on the horizon?