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I’ve had my covers for a while now, but wanted to wait to show them off. I’m impatient, though, and I couldn’t wait any longer to share. I’m showcasing them one at a time. The appearances on my blog are the grand premiere. 
Without any further chatter from me, I present Eternal Nights!
After a week off from work, I head back tomorrow. We’re required to use our vacation or lose it by our company anniversary date now and I have another week to use up before May 9th, so there is another stay-cation in my near future. This time, though, I wasn’t on deadline and I had plans to get things done around my house. How did I do?
Not so great actually.
I discovered that I need a To Do List. It’s too easy for me to get distracted otherwise. I, um, never did write one up for this week although I should have when I realized how easy it was to go oooh, shiny.
The week wasn’t a total dearth of progress, however.
I got rid of my rusted out shower caddy and bought (and assembled) a new one. I also got a new shower head with both a stationary head and a hand-held head so that it will be easier to clean.
I had my first four books scanned because my electronic files weren’t up to date and I did finish going through one of them and fixing what I saw. It goes to my mom next for another read through with the thought that if I missed something she’ll catch it. Hopefully.
The list does look pretty sad, doesn’t it?
What was kind of interesting about going through the first book I ever published was seeing how I’ve changed as a writer. And because I hadn’t read Ravyn in such a long time, I’d forgotten a ton of stuff. I realized, too, that it would be a drastically different book if I was writing it today as opposed to what I wrote back then.
It was also really, really, really, really hard not to edit as I went along.
I made the decision to not revise my backlist stories, that I’d consider them O’Shea Classic, but wow, I wanted to. A lot in some places.
I did revise a few sentences back to the way I originally wrote them because they’d been changed to things I didn’t care for a whole lot. The run-on sentence that made me grit my teeth? Gone. The added word that changed the meaning of my sentence? Gone.
Another sentence had words cut from it that didn’t exactly change the meaning, but did kind of change the shading of it. Those were added back. Also added was Alex’s correct rank. The fact that he was a lieutenant colonel and not a full colonel was cut, too. Oh, and I added in a mention of the pyramid, because it plays such a prominent role in Eternal Nights. The small fixes were actually pretty fun and it was a revelation to realize I could change a few things.
I snuck in a reread of Eternal Nights this week. While I do reread my stories when they first come out (or when I get ARCs), it’s rare for me to reread an older book unless I need a specific bit of information from it. I had to scan through both EN and Ravyn’s Flight real quickly before writing The Troll Bridge for The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance because I wasn’t 100% sure of a couple of things, but it sure wasn’t a reread. I was looking for specific facts I needed to verify.
This week, though, I read almost everything. Probably because it has been such a long time since I last picked up this book. And as a thank you for this, Cam showed up and started talking. (Cam is Ravyn and Damon’s son. In EN, he’s around 2 years old, but when he arrived, he was all grown up.)
It isn’t a good time for another character to talk–my head is actually jam-packed right now as is the schedule I have in my head–but that didn’t stop him. He’s grown up now and in Special Forces like his father was.
This isn’t the first time Cam’s talked. He’s shown up a few other times and I always kind of had in the back of my mind that after I wrote the stories for Wyatt’s team, I’d do Cam’s story. Heaven knows my mom has been pushing me to write Cam. When I started EN, her first question was if the hero was Cam and she asked again when I told her about my time travel story (that hero is Troll Maglaya). I guess telling her I had an idea for Cam way back when was a mistake.
Anyway, Cam’s back. On Thursday morning, I had a nice scene in my head of a conversation between him and Damon. I’m really tempted to write it out real quick–it’s not a long scene–and post it on my website as an extra. The problem with that is that I’m on deadline for January 15th, and I don’t know if I can afford to fragment my attention like that. It’s hard for me to bounce around, and once I’m deep into a story, I like to stay there.
And on top of that, I have a few proposals I’d really like to work on after I finish my Nocturne Bites and turn it in. This is where my jam-packed head comes into play. I have so many characters from so many stories right now that it’s like standing room only. They’re not all talking at the same time, but it doesn’t take much to get them started. All I really need to do is think about them, and boom! They pipe up. Of course, if I wanted to write them, they wouldn’t be this helpful. They only do this to frustrate me, which is why I’m a proponent of torturing characters.
When I wrote Blood Feud for The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2, I just had enough information to tell Isobel and Seere’s story, and while I could see the potential for this world, I didn’t really feel any driving desire to write more for this couple or any other couple. Things are different for the short story I’m writing for The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance.
The biggest thing is that I keep getting information on how to make Lia and Troll’s story a full-length novel and it’s hard for me to shorthand it. I feel as if I’m skipping stuff I’d really like to take time to explore. I can’t. I only have 6,500 to 12,000 words and I just can’t do it. I also had to jettison the suspense/action part of the story because there isn’t enough space, and while I could add a little in, it would be at the end which would make it feel tacked on. I reluctantly released that string.
I think my problem stems from the fact that Lia and Troll are part of my Jarved Nine world (Ravyn’s Flight, Eternal Nights) and I’ve been in love with Troll since I met him. Troll, BTW, is a member of Wyatt’s team from EN. He’s a reformed player and just sexy as all get out. I don’t know if I can do him justice in the length and I sure can’t convey the sincerity of his conversation.
Another issue is that Troll and Lia just met in this story. With Blood Feud, my hero and heroine had a past together and it was merely a matter of rekindling their feelings. Much easier than establishing a relationship between a h/h who didn’t hook up until 10 pages into a story that will be less than 50 pages. If I was doing a full-length story, I’d have it take place over a few weeks, I’d give them time to fall in love and then Lia’s decision to stay in the future would make sense. This is much more difficult to convey in a short where the h/h have been together the grand total of maybe ten hours. Love is out and I have to go for staying to see where the relationship might lead and the potential for a happy ending down the road.
And then there’s the other characters from the first two J9 books. Several of them have put in an appearance and I want to spend more time with them, too. That’s not all. Troll and Lia’s story takes place after Flare’s story, and Gravedigger’s, and Z Man’s and their heroines are there as well.
Despite all this, I’m somehow managing to get where I need to go with the short story. It’s just hard to remember the “short” part sometimes.
I love collecting quotes like the ones I posted yesterday. It doesn’t matter if it’s from a philosopher or a bumper sticker slogan, if something about it catches my attention, I save it. Of course, a lot of my quotes have been emailed to myself and are buried deep within the thousands of notes on my laptop, but they’re there.
I collect trivial information the same way, but I think a lot of writers do this. I’ll hear something or read something and think, wow, I have to remember that. The most bizarre topics can grab my interest–like the time I was flipping through channels and ended up watching an entire hour about container ships. I mean, how many people are going to find themselves riveted by this?
One of the guys at work called me Cliff Clavin after the Cheers character because, he said, I know everything. That was a nice ego boo, but far from true. The thing is that I know a little bit about a lot of things, but I know a lot about nothing. Chalk that up to eclectic interests, the U of MN’s School of Journalism which wanted me to have credits all over the school for that major, and being a writer who researches incredibly small details. I’ve got all kinds of minute facts swimming around in my head. Just don’t ask me what I did last week. 
And one last totally off-topic thing. I stumbled across a fabulous review yesterday for Eternal Nights. The reviewer said, among other things that “Eternal Nights by Patti O’Shea is one of the best romance novels I’ve read in a very long time” and a bunch of other nice stuff. You can check out the entire review at Nights and Weekends.
I found out yesterday that Eternal Nights won the 2007 Winter Rose Award for Best Paranormal Romance! Whoo hoo!!! This was fabulous news and the timing was perfect because I really needed a boost. The complete list of winners is up at the Yellow Rose website.
Both the runners I ordered arrived. The one in front of the computer room looks fabulous, but it needs a quick vacuum. It just came yesterday and I was in the middle of the fight scene from hell. The runner I ordered for the laundry room isn’t quite what was pictured online and I’m not sure I like it. I don’t think it looks hideous or anything, but it’s just not quite what I was looking for. It’s too big a hassle to return it and it wasn’t much money, so I’m keeping it. Maybe once I get over the difference between the image and the actual product, I’ll like it.
Um, sorry about the freak out yesterday for those who read it before I edited it out. I do have an overactive imagination and I’d gotten myself into a state. I usually love the imagination because it allows me to write and to entertain myself in situations where other people are bored, but it also has its drawbacks–like full-blown hypochondria at times.
I received a phone call yesterday at work. I answered thinking it was probably my dad. Once he’s on a streak, he’ll call about the most mundane things. It wasn’t him, though. It was the lovely coordinator of the HOLT Medallion calling to tell me that Eternal Nights finaled for Best Paranormal Romance!! Since I was at work, I couldn’t snoopy dance and one of the engineers on the other side of the wall was on a conference call so I couldn’t whoop either, but I was hugely excited. A mental happy dog dance is just as good as the real thing and less embarrassing when others are around.
This was by far the highlight of my day and tops second place by a mile. Maybe ten miles. When I got home, my spinner was there! Okay, you’re going what spinner is this? I bought it for my deck. It’s 3D and has some cool optical effects going on. If it ever warms up (and I’m beginning to wonder because I’ve worn my scarf more in APRIL than I did in January), I’m going to hang on the corner of my house so I can watch it turn from either the deck or my great room. I picked one up with hummingbirds for my mom’s Mother’s Day gift. She’s very hard to buy for, so who knows if she’ll like it or not? Certainly not me. But I thought since she likes birds, maybe she’d like it. Anyway, it’s too cold to go out on my deck to hang it, darn it, but I want to see it twirling in the sun.
I’m off from the EDJ for the next week. Wish me luck on huge page production because I need it! This fight scene is just kicking my ass–which is what Creed should be doing to the monster, not to me, damn it.
I’m still working on this darn fight scene. I swear, it’s like pulling teeth to get any words down and this is a perfectly miserable writing experience. It has me questioning, though, whether Creed really is angry, and if he isn’t, is there some other emotion that’s going to make him do what he’s going to do? I don’t know. This might possibly be the worst fight scene I’ve ever written. I know I’ve said that before, but this time I really mean it. :-/ Of course, at this point, I’d be happy just to have it finished so I could fix it.
I was asked by the organizer of a local readers’ group to come in and talk to them. They’re reading Eternal Nights for April. She offered their May meeting as an alternate and I said I could do that. April is going to be nothing except writing, writing and more writing on the WIP. Anyway, after I finish this book, I’ll have to reread EN, so that my knowledge of the book is as fresh as theirs.
You know, at least in my case, I think I’m never going to forget details in my books and then a reader will come up to me and say something, or will email me and ask a question, and I’ll think, I didn’t write that, did I? And yeah, I did. It’s kind of embarrassing not to remember your own stories, but on the other hand, by the time a book is out, I’ve probably written at least one more and done proposals for a few others.
One of the most interesting questions that I received–and I got it at least half a dozen times, maybe more–had to do with Elliot’s computer in The Power of Two. Everyone wanted to know what really happened to it. One of my readers was even another writer and she’s like, I know you offered three ideas of what might have happened to it, but what choice did you make? And I’m like, I don’t know. I write by listening to the characters and they weren’t there when it happened. It took me totally off guard that so many people were interested in this computer. Not only that they were interested, but that they were interested to the point of asking me what had happened.
So yeah, I need to reread EN before I meet with this group in May because I’ll have a hard enough time answering questions as it is.
I found out yesterday that Eternal Nights was nominated for a 2006 Single Titles Reviewers’ Choice Award! Yea! That was a great surprise!
Second announcement. The Crimson team drew the winner of the Super-Deluxe Crimson City Action Pack Contest and the winner was Kevin T. from NC. Congrats to Kevin and thank you to everyone who entered!
Now on to my topic of the day. Last Saturday, I watched (and reviewed) Sliding Doors, a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow. This morning, I’ve been thinking about it and wondering what if? about my own life. Nothing as small as missing a train, of course. There’s no way to consider how different your life would be on something as minuscule as that. I’ve been thinking more about what if I’d made other decisions at certain turning points in my life.
What if that ad agency in Chicago had called before I accepted the job at NWA? There’s no doubt I’d be making a lot more money now, probably a ton of it, and I’d be living in Chicago instead of Minneapolis, but I don’t think I’d be writing. Advertising is a fast-paced and demanding profession. There’d be no energy left at the end of the day to tell stories. Would I be wearing suits to work? Would I be a creative director, meeting with clients and interacting with movers and shakers in industry? Would I miss writing or would I find a different type of fulfillment?
I can’t imagine myself as a high-powered executive too easily, but while I wouldn’t be writing in this situation (at least I don’t think I would be), I’d still have the stories in my head. I’d live near my cousins and be able to go to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play whenever I wanted.
Or what if I’d stayed at the University of Minnesota at Morris instead of transferring down to the U of MN in Minneapolis? Would I be married to a farmer and living in some small town in the outstate area? Actually, the thought of wrangling children and volunteering for the PTA boggles my imagination. It was easier to picture the ad executive thing. Maybe, since I’m having trouble visualizing this scenario, it’s unlikely it would have happened even if I had stayed.
What if while at the U of MN Morris I’d understood my computer science programming class? I’d started out as a computer minor, but after one quarter of being completely at sea, I dropped that idea. What if I’d pursued it instead?
What if I’d gotten more involved in extracurricular activities in high school? What if I’d realized how stupid the cliques were when I was a teenager? What if I’d quit NWA before my four month probation was up? I almost did that because I hated the job I had then so much. What if I hadn’t broken my leg–twice– when I was in grade school? What if I’d gone to college in Colorado like I’d thought about when I was fifteen?
Anyway, it goes on and on. I don’t think there’s a person who, if they looked at their life, couldn’t come up with their own list of what ifs. I think it’s kind of fun to imagine how different we might be if only for a moment or two.
But I also believe that everything happens for a reason and that we’re where we’re supposed to be when we’re supposed to be there. I can also look back at my life and pick out the decisions that made writing an almost inevitable part of my life. I was interested in so many creative areas–not just writing–but it was as if the door was shut on them one by one. Or in some cases, my personality shut the door.
An example is art. I always wanted to draw. Always. And I have very little talent this way–or do I? What if I’d continued to draw and worked at it as hard as I worked at improving my writing? Would I still be a bad artist? Or would I have achieved some level of competence? I’ll never know because I didn’t feel passionately enough about drawing to accept being less than perfect while I learned. I wanted to sit down and create exactly what I wanted to create without putting in the work.
But it was never like that with writing. I worked and worked and worked at it even though it never really seemed like work, if that makes sense. I think it’s because it is my passion. I could accept not producing perfect stories because I knew I’d continue to improve and I could fix them later.
I don’t know, but this whole thing about destiny and fate is interesting to think about. There’s a great quote from Jawaharlal Nehru:
Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Last night, I realized something. Of all the things the Book From Hell has done to me, the worst is how it’s shaken my confidence. I used to trust myself and my characters when they showed me where I should start the next chapter. Even if it didn’t seem abundantly clear that the scene I saw propelled the story along on multiple fronts, I wrote it anyway and darned if it didn’t do more than I thought it would.
But here I am, thinking about the next scene and questioning if I shouldn’t figure something else out. That’s when I realized just how much my confidence in my writing and my process has been shaken by this book. And not only am I second guessing this next scene, I’m second guessing everything I’ve written in this story. Should I gut it again? Do I have enough conflict? Is there any sexual tension between the h/h? On and on and on it goes.
All writers are insecure (and neurotic), it’s just a matter of degree, but I’ve never been like this before about the actual story. Sure, I’ve questioned the writing, if it was good enough, strong enough, etc. But not the story.
I hate this.
Somehow, I have to lose this logical, nitpicking, self-doubt side and just immerse myself in the characters and their story like I usually do. I’m just not sure how to go about it. This is new territory and no one handed me a map when I wandered into it. :-/ And even if they had, what worked for one writer might not necessarily work for another.
There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
~Red Smith
Yeah. What he said. BTW, I found this at The Web’s Most Humongous Collection of Writing Quotes. There were plenty of other good ones as well.
I’ve decided not to go to my chapter meeting this morning. I have too much writing to do and I won’t get much done today if I go.
And now for something completely different. Eternal Nights finished 4th in the Judge a Book By Its Cover Contest. It’s a contest where the cover art is judged by booksellers. The Paranormal winners are here.
Patti O'Shea's passions are writing, airplanes and traveling. Fortunately, she's been able to enjoy all three. Find out more about Patti.
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