Patti O'Shea's Blog

If you missed the chat at Writerspace last night, there’s another chance to chat with me tonight at Coffee Time Romance. I’ll be joined by Susan Grant and Robin Owens and we’ll be talking about our new books. The chat starts at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific and I know we’d love to see lots of people there!

Yesterday, I was working on my synopsis for the futuristic proposal. It’s getting there. I have a little bit to do on the overview of the three books and then I need to do the detailed synopsis of the first book’s plot and that’ll be done. Of course, I still have to actually write some of the story. This just strikes me as hugely bizarre and wrong that I’m working on the synopsis before the story. That’s not the way I usually do things.

But I never spend a great deal of time worrying about stuff like this. An experienced and wise writer told me after I sold my first book that the process will change and don’t fight it. It’s been the best piece of writing advice I’ve received because the process seems to change for me on every book. So I’ll do the synopsis first then write the pages and hope it all works out.

One of my big problems with the synopsis was solved yesterday when Z finally talked to me. Z is the hero in the third book and both he and his heroine have been very uncooperative. (Which reminds me, his heroine changed her name on me. Again! She’s still Jas, but now her last name is Landreaux. Gah! Let’s hope this one’s it.) So I’m trying to fill in some info about their characters, but I don’t know much about them. Then Z started sharing. I didn’t believe it was him at first, not really. I mean he’s quiet! So I kind of cut him off and talked to Wyatt from Eternal Nights. (Yes, I talk to my characters just like they’re real people.) He was of some help, but not hugely, so I asked Flare. He knew things that made me confident that this really was Zach talking to me so I went back and listened to him.

I thought the internal conflict/need to change would be his because of his job–he’s a sniper on a Spec Ops team. It’s not. Jas is the one who’s going to need to change. Z gave me an earful. He was not happy about his heroine. He called her “brain dead.” Um, I said, she’s an expert on laser technology, she’s not brain dead. Then I got a long explanation on why he called her that. The crux of it is that she’s so focused on successfully completing her projects (like the laser thing), that she never lifts her head up to see the big picture, to look at how her work affects the world.

Z as it turns out is very much a big picture guy and quite Zen. Or at least very contemplative/meditative. He told me straight out that if I expect him to fall for Jas she was going to need to change–a lot. That she had to think about the consequences of her actions, not mindlessly move forward. He’s in the war, behind enemy lines, he sees these weapons firsthand, what they can do to people. He wants her to understand what she’s doing too.

It’s not that he’s opposed to new weapons, he was adamant about that. Z said he’s a soldier and he wants this latest damn war over too, but that doesn’t mean that the scientists and engineers can go through life brain dead.

He was quite passionate about this. I’m thinking still waters run deep and it would be interesting to see how stirred up he gets about other things.

This was all completely unexpected, BTW. I had zero idea about who Zach was before yesterday. Now I know part of him. And I know his head’s screwed on straight–to quote both him and Flare. It has to be, Z assured me, or he couldn’t do his job.

So did I bore y’all to death today? This is what it’s like inside my head sometimes. Conversations with imaginary people, sometimes arguments with them, name changes, etc, and in the middle of all this, I’m trying to write. TBH, though, I wouldn’t trade the noise in my head for anything. I like the characters–even when one or more is being a PITA.

Last week, as I was thinking about the futuristic proposal I’m putting together, I realized that if three members of Wyatt’s team were going to be heroes, the odds were darn good I’d need to know the names of the guys who weren’t going to be heroes. Someone was going to talk about them or talk to them or something, right?

That’s when the Troll showed up. You can guess that the team calls him Troll for the obvious reasons–the man is drop-dead gorgeous, easily the best looking man on the team. His background is multi-ethnic and he’s quiet. Not as quiet as Z, but still pretty close-mouthed.

I have to finish this proposal this week. I absolutely can’t count on more time than that before my revisions come. I’ve got half a million other things to do too, including a chat a Writerspace tonight and another chat at Coffee Time Romance tomorrow. I do not have time to talk to the Troll or to find out about him. Heck, I don’t know Z well enough or his heroine and if I’m talking to anyone, it should be those two.

But damn the Troll is every bit as intriguing as Z and besides, since I’m not doing his story, talking to him would be just for fun. Talking to Z or Jas is work. That makes all the difference in the world.

Join me tonight at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific time at Writerspace as I chat about Eternal Nights. Other Love Spell and Leisure authors will also be there, although I’m not sure who.

I received a great review for Eternal Nights yesterday. It’s from Keely Skillman at SingleTitle.com. She gave EN five stars and said:

Eternal Nights by Patti O’Shea is a spine tingling adventure through an un-chartered jungle where learning to love is the most important lesson.

The supporting characters are developed to an emotional level not often seen in romances let alone a complicated science fiction suspense romance like this one; this adds an astoundingly rich depth to the feel and flow of the book.

I have to admit that I am very impressed with Ms. O’Shea’s talent on many levels; enough so that I will be keeping an eye peeled for anything penned by this spinner of spellbinding tales.

How cool is this??? Read the full review at SingleTitles.com.

I also had a great reader review show up on Amazon for Eternal Nights too! I know, I shouldn’t be visiting my books over there. That only leads to pain and frustration, but I can’t seem to help myself. I’ve cut out visiting most message boards–the two remaining are both very author friendly–and I don’t search my name or book titles anymore, but checking Amazon and BN.com are still daily events for me.

I’ve got two chats coming up and a couple of book signings. I’ll post more about them here later. Enough that I think I’m going to add an appearances page to my website temporarily. I’m going to work on that as soon as I finish this blog post, then I need to get to work on my synopsis for the three books set on J9.

It’s really been a busy weekend so far, although I don’t seem to have a lot to show for it. I went to my chapter meeting yesterday and it was a lot of fun! We talked about the conference and it was interesting to hear other people’s perspectives, especially the first timers. My first conference was in 2000 when RWA met in Washington DC, but it was interesting to discover that the memories that are still vivid for me are the same types of things that these women mentioned.

When I arrived home, my MobilePro 790 was there. The box was marked “Fragile,” but the post office didn’t let that stop them from mutilating it. The mail carrier recommended opening it very carefully, and if there was any damage, to bring the entire thing to the PO.

I have to admit I was hoping for the best, but fearing the worst as I opened the box, but luckily the eBay seller had wrapped things up really well and there was a lot of packing and cushioning. Everything looks good and I’ve done a few tests to see if it was running okay, but I’ll put it through more tests before I let the postal service off the hook.

I think I’m going to like this machine for writing much better than the Dana. The keyboard is a little squished to me, but it’s got the feel of a laptop keyboard so I think I’ll get used to it, and while the screen is small, it’s full color and familiar. The other thing I think I’m going to really like is how light it is! My God, it’s amazing! I mean, I know they said it weighed 1.7 pounds, but I didn’t realize it would be that light! Makes me wonder how heavy this laptop is.

This morning, I started laundry before I started coffee. I know, shock! But I wanted to get it over and done with early. I also have a ton of email to get through today since I didn’t look at them yesterday.

Oh! Mr. Congeniality, one of the most annoying people I work with, had a job interview on Friday. If it’s for a position where I don’t have to deal with him anymore, I’m so hoping he gets it! As bad as the atmosphere is at the day job–and since I work for an airline in bankruptcy, it’s really terrible–Mr. Congeniality is the one that makes it hard for me to go to work every day. If he’s gone, then I’m happy and bouncy all day long and if he’s there, it’s all I can do to drag myself into the building. I know, I shouldn’t give away my energy like that, but I haven’t figured out how to stop it yet. Please join me in thinking positive thoughts that MC gets a job that keeps him far away from me!

I think that’s it for today. Have a fabulous Sunday y’all!

This morning I decided to bite the bullet and join the Amazon Connect program. It was one of those “all the other authors are doing it” things and I’m certainly not going to be as chatty over there as some writers are because it really irritates me when I’m looking at a book and have to scroll past plog entry after plog entry. I find that so annoying! I think one blog entry there will hold me for months and months and months. The thing won’t go live until my books are verified by my publisher so no need to rush right over there.

Today, my local writing chapter meets and I’m going to the meeting. I’ve got a little time yet to dawdle this morning, though, and I plan to use it. I don’t know why I’m so slow to get moving in the mornings, but I am.

After the meeting, I need to run to a couple of stores. At one, I need to exchange one shower rod for another. I want to go with the curved one rather than straight. When I was in Atlanta, the hotel had one and it was way cool. I also need to buy another curtain panel and valance for the kitchen windows. That’s what the lady from the blind company recommended when she was out because she said it needed more fullness. That, of course, was something I bought at a different store than the shower rod.

I’m still thrilled every time I think about having grass in my front yard. It’s so cool to have something other than dirt and weeds after all this time! For pictures, check out the link to House Gallery 10 from yesterday’s blog or click on Patti’s House Pics in the links to the right.

There isn’t much else to say since I posted all my exciting stuff yesterday. I’ve got to learn to pace myself! I need to get going, though, too and start getting ready.

First, here’s the pin that I received when Through a Crimson Veil was named Best Paranormal Romance in the Booksellers Best Awards.

The picture didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped it would. There’s a little pair of glasses on the right and the bookmark says “Booksellers Best.”

Now on to the yard. The lawn guys finished putting in the sod today. Yea! Much of the backyard was seeded instead of sodded to save money, but the front yard looks beautiful. Check out House Gallery 10 to see the pictures.

My PITA next door neighbors were at it again. Sigh. These would be the same people who trimmed some bushes in their yard and threw the refuse in mine. They were bitching and moaning about the yard guys. And we didn’t go all the way to the property line on their side of my house and now the woman thinks those four or five feet are hers. Good grief. In one of the departments I’ve worked in, the joke when someone was being a dink was that they needed to get laid. (Forgive the crudeness.) I’m thinking there’s one couple on my block who’s been celibate for way too long.

Anyhow, I’m trying to not let them ruin the experience of owning my first house. They’re making it darn difficult, though.

So blinds are taken care of, yard is in, now if I could only get my dad to finish a few projects inside the house for me.

Y’all be thrilled to know that the character formerly known as Carly and I have reached an agreement on what her name is. She really made me work for it, but her name is: Jasmine Quinell. She goes by Jas.

I started work on the synopsis for the J9 books yesterday. It’s an interesting situation trying to do three books in one proposal–and that’s how I’m shooting to do it as opposed to the way I put together the packages for my other multi-book ideas where each had a separate synopsis. The reason why I want to do this one as a single unit is because of the major plot arc that goes across all three books. My thought is to follow the arc and through the synopsis and detail each book when I reach its point in the timeline.

The other thing that’s interesting is trying to get a handle on six characters at the same time. Flare, who’ll be the hero in book 1, has been talking right along, but then I spent time with him for Eternal Nights so he’s familiar. Sasha, his heroine, not talking so much. Last night, Nadia, the heroine in book 2 started sharing info, but her hero? Well, Digger is damn quiet. The characters in book 3, Z and Carly are complete enigmas right now except that she’s piped up to say that her name ISN’T Carly. But do you think the character formerly known as Carly will tell me what her name really is??? Of course not. Despite all this, I think I’m making some progress, though, I’m not quite sure why I believe that.

Still no titles, working or otherwise.

The sod guys came yesterday and they did a lot of work. It amazed me. Um, keep in mind that I basically turned this entire landscaping project over to my dad and I didn’t realize that he’d decided to have my yard redone so that the water would run farther away from the house. He really didn’t like that lake that formed in my backyard even though it wasn’t close to the house at all. He also had them pull out a couple of dead evergreen trees and knock down the hill on the north side of my house. That was a steep dropoff!

No actual sod is down yet, but they’re supposed to do that today. I’ll take pictures because I know y’all can’t wait to see my yard with actual grass as opposed to dirt and/or weeds. Actually, I’m curious to see my yard with grass down too now that it’s been resculpted, but I’m not looking forward to having to water that sod. I’m already praying rain.

And my spell check is working again on Blogger! Yea! I wonder if it has anything to do with accidentally clearing all my cookies off the computer yesterday evening?

When I got back from Atlanta, I mentioned that one of the women in my chapter had this really cool gadget. Half-PDA, half-laptop, it combined the best of both worlds and looked perfect for writing. I learned the name, it’s an NEC MobilePro and it weighs less than 2 pounds, but it has a nearly full-size keyboard. Now how much better would this be to drag around than the laptop? So with her guidance–she’s been following the MobilePro on eBay for a while–I bid on one. It even has wifi access so if I can find a hotspot, I can connect and the thing comes on immediately so no waiting for boot up. I hope it’s as slick to work on as it appears to be. It shipped last night, so hopefully, it’ll arrive quickly.

Then after I got home from work yesterday, the woman from the blind store came over. I went with the double honeycomb blinds for my bedroom, computer room and the scrapbook room. I did blackout for my bedroom because I like it dark when I sleep and regular for the other two rooms.

I wasn’t sure I was going to do the scrapbook room, but it wasn’t that much more money (relatively speaking) and I figured at least this way I would have all my windows done and I wouldn’t have to worry about it again.

She also helped me with the hardware for the windows. My dad really can’t put that up for me and I asked what they’d charge for labor to do that. She’s going to check and get back to me, but unless it’s outrageous, I’m going to have them do it. Again, I just want it done and the way I’m keeping the curtain rods up now isn’t real sturdy.

It’ll be about 4 weeks till I have the blinds. I didn’t think that was too bad. I picked some real neutral colors to go in my three not neutral rooms.

Anyway, the woman was very nice and very helpful. I’m so hopeless when it comes to things like this, so it was great to work with someone who was willing to guide me through this and offer suggestions about the mounting and stuff.

Today, the lawn guy is coming to start putting in the sod. I guess I should have titled this my expensive WEEK instead of day. :-/

No writing work done yesterday. Sigh. I brought my folder full of information for my proposal into the kitchen to work on while I waited, but I never got to it and the appointment for the window things lasted three hours, so I was too tired afterward to look at anything. I just ate dinner, opened the deluge of email and watched a little ball. I need to get some serious work done on this proposal today. I wonder if I can. My dad is going to supervise the lawn guys so I should be clear there, but….

My wasp woes continue. I’d checked my windows when I returned from Atlanta, but since they were all clear after a week away, I figured I’d zapped the wasp with insecticide and that all was right with my world. Yesterday, however, I felt compelled to make another check. Imagine my dismay when I opened my bedroom window and grass fell. Again. Sigh.

So I went and got the wasp killer and sprayed the hell out of the top of the window. Then I moved to my next bedroom window and opened it. She flew into the top corner of the window. I fired. (I was still armed with wasp spray). That wasn’t enough to deter her, she came back again. I fired again. I don’t know if I hit her or not, but I hope so. I also sprayed the top of that window. And of course, I now have streaks of wasp spray running down the glass. I’ve mentioned before if my choice is messy windows or wasps, I’ll take the messy windows, but today the lady from the blind company is coming out and my bedroom windows are one of the two I want to get covered. Sigh.

BTW, the unbelievable part about the wasp is that this is not the same wasp I shot at before I left for National. That one was big, but not as long as this one. This current wasp has to be 2 inches counting the stinger hanging off the back end. Ick! I just hope I hit it with the spray, but I’m beginning to feel besieged.

I made some more notes yesterday for my futuristic series during lunch, but when I got home, I started writing. I won’t keep any of these pages, I’m pretty sure about that, but I feel like I know the characters better after I write them. Of course, Sasha was the one I needed to know better and it was Flare’s POV I was in. :-/ Maybe I won’t keep what I wrote here, but I think I know how Flare and Sasha meet again and it’s a bit more dramatic than what I was thinking originally.

BTW, I love Flare to bits! He’s so tough on the outside and so wounded on the inside, although wounded differently than my guys ususally are–with the possible exception of Conor. The part I think is going to be so interesting is that Sasha inadvertantly caused some of the pain herself without realizing it. That adds a layer between them that I wasn’t expecting.

I think that’s all I have. Of course, there will be blind and wasp reports tomorrow. Although, TBH, I’d just as soon forgo the wasp part of the deal. :-/

I managed to procrastinate yesterday until it was time to go to bed so I’ll really have to put in some time tonight to make up for it. The thing I think that’s causing me trouble is the alien technology for book 1. It makes it kind of a psychological deal instead of straightforward action and I don’t know how to write something like that. I wanted to think about alternatives last night, but I fell asleep too fast.

It’s going to be a busy week for me too. The sod guy is coming out on Thursday/Friday to put that in. No, I still don’t have a yard, but I will shortly. I was hoping to wait till fall because we’ve had such a dry summer, but my dad arranaged everything for me and this is what he set up.

I also have a woman from a blind store coming out on Wednesday. (I almost said the blind lady was coming out, but then I figured that it might confuse everyone as to what I was talking about.) I’m only looking to put up honeycomb blinds in two rooms right now, but the temporary stuff needs to go soon and my bedroom needs something on the windows. Of course, the computer room is still loaded with boxes and I’m going to have to shift those things so she can get to the window to measure it. Gee, more work that isn’t related to my writing. Does it ever stop?

In a weird side note kind of thing, I visit Webshots almost every day. I get bored easily with my screen background and XP doesn’t offer a lot of options. I also have the quote of the day on my page because they usually have some good ones. The thing that’s weird is the daily horoscope they post. Nearly every day it seems directed right at me.

Now, while I find astrology to be eerily accurate to a large degree in an overview of my personality kind of way, I’ve never felt the same way about the daily horoscopes. Those always seem to be coming from left field. Not the one on Webshots, not for me. It’s actually getting freaky the way it seems to be talking to me.

Oh! For the first time ever, Writerspace didn’t have me listed for the Leisure and Love Spell author chat! Even on my first book they had me listed. I couldn’t believe they forgot me! I sent the woman who did it last October a note to let her know I’d be there, but I don’t know if she still handles the chats and she didn’t reply to my email. There’s always one more thing for me to obsess over.