She’s back…

“Guess who’s back
Back again
Shady’s back
Tell a friend
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back
guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back…”

*hums the rest of Eminem’s Without Me*

I’m not even going to comment on how long it’s been since I’ve blogged here. Bottom line is, way too fucking long. Last year was stressful and busy as all hell, and while this year has had its stresses, my biggest problem has been getting my fibro pain under control. My doc upped my pain prevention meds and also wrote me a script for breakthrough pain medication — so yay on that front!

Writing-wise, I’m currently working on The Shadow Unveiled, the sequel to The Twilight Deception. It picks up immediately where the first novella left off, and involves a lot more emotion as Jackson and Arielle’s relationship deepens. It’s wicked fun to write.

In other good news, I have a R&R from Total E-Bound for one of my erotic shorts. It needs a bit more sexing up, but that shouldn’t be too big a deal as I can see a couple places to add scenes that will deepen the overall story. I wouldn’t do it if it were going to be gratuitous; that’s one of my biggest peeves in erotic fiction.

Oh, and I’ve also changed the layout of the site with help from my dear husband. If you’re reading this via RSS, check out the main page at http://www.nonnymorgan.com

Vampires, Novels, and Updates, Oh My!

… sigh. I can’t seem to keep this blog updated to save my life.

As usual, quite a lot has happened since my last post. I’ve been going through a real rough time writing-wise over the past few months. Some of you who’ve been reading The Novelty Girls know that I’ve been having serious issues getting back into writing after taking a couple months off due to real life rearing its ugly mug. I’d end up with my Inner Dickwad running my head in circles every time I tried to work on something.

It didn’t help that I had a lot of trouble getting into what I was working on, either. It’s not surprising with A Touch Necromantic, as I need to do some more development work on it before I can make any headway. I’ve got a lot of characters and conflicts I don’t know much about, as it begins in a different part of the world from Passion.

With Stronger … well … *sigh* That’s a bit harder. The original version flowed so well, but this has been like pulling teeth. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve broken it off to work on something else way too many times over the past year, or if it’s because there’s a problem somewhere in the last several chapters I’m not recognizing.

Bottom line is, I’m having trouble with both of my main projects. This is not good when you’re trying to get back into writing after a long absence.

One night, I sat down and talked to Morgan about it. (I love it that my husband is a writer, too. He understands and often has some damn good insight.) He suggested that if I was having trouble, then maybe I should look at writing something for fun. Something that’s for me more than anything else. But I couldn’t come up with anything that I’ve got on the backburner that really fit the bill for that. The Reaper’s Price is close, but I have some amount of difficulty with erotic fiction these days.

And then it hit me. Arielle and Jackson. More than any other character I’ve ever written, Arielle’s voice flows for me. I love writing her and spending time in her little nook of that world. But I’d been planning on expanding the novella into something longer come fall, when it was closer to the date my contract would come due. (Cobblestone’s contracts are one year in length and renewable by mutual agreement of both parties.)

Life specializes in irony.

Within an hour of that discussion, I received an e-mail from Deanna and Sable at Cobblestone Press. Because they knew I was not happy there, they will be releasing me from my contract effective the end of June. Cobblestone is a great publisher that has a lot of potential to be a serious force in the industry, but … well, to put it simply, we weren’t compatible. Happens in all sorts of relationships. That being said, their actions here have shown a lot of consideration, and I deeply appreciate that.

Where does this leave me?

Hard at work on Twilight: The Novel. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep The Twilight Deception as the title for the novel, or if I’m going to find something else. Anyone got any thoughts there? LOL.

I’ve added almost 4k of new material thus far, and that should go up as I start to get into some amount of a writing routine. I’m a bit sketchy on where the novel is going; I’ve got the rough outline, but I need some more specifics. And probably to complicate things, also; otherwise, this is going to be an awfully short book!

Wish me luck!

I am alive…

Really. I promise.

*sigh*

It’s been a very hectic month and a half. Every time I turn around, something else has gone wrong. We keep having car trouble (Stitches the Shitmobile can’t decide whether or not it wants to be dead or alive), one of our kittens has a bad infection and is being treated with antibiotics for it, and sundry other things have managed to sneak up and clock me one over the head.

Needless to say, I haven’t been getting much in the way of writing done. My World of Warcraft characters, however, have been gaining levels at a fairly decent clip.

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, though. I’ve been making some good progress on Stronger than the Night the past week or so, mostly thanks to getting back with my group of writing buddies. I’d had a nasty falling-out with one person due to several miscommunications compounded by external stress, which left the whole group splintered. Thankfully, said person and I talked recently and seem to have worked things out. *crosses fingers*

I really ought be working on the sequel to A Passion Draconic, but seeing as how Stronger is already in progress and most of the way completed… it makes more sense to give it priority. (I think.)

Whee!

It’s been a hectic weekend. First off, it’s looking like we need to replace our car sooner than we’d anticipated, so my plans to go to RWA Nationals this year are more than a bit moot, unless Morgan should manage to get a significantly better job in the next couple months (given his recent health, not very likely). Needless to say, I’m pretty bummed about that.

We went to Boskone, a local science fiction and fantasy convention, with a couple friends. Unfortunately, due to a fubar on Boston’s part (parts of the subway line we needed to take were shut down for this weekend only), we didn’t get to the con until 4pm on Saturday, so I missed quite a bit of the panels I’d wanted to see. Still a lot of fun, though, and I got to meet up with some people I hadn’t seen in a year or more.

I might be going to Lunacon next month. Smudge and Pen are going and offered to split a room with me and the male. Morgan has had to take a lot of time off work, so he wouldn’t be able to, but Pen lives close enough that we can probably carpool. It’d be a lot of fun–and hey, it’s in New York, which is one place I haven’t been to yet. Not that I’d do much besides hang around folks at the con, but still!

In other news, I’ve received a few awesome reviews these past couple days. Cocktail Reviews, a new review blog, gave The Twilight Deception five champagne flutes (their second highest rating!) and Wasting the Dawn four flutes. A couple quotes:

“What an utterly fantastic read. I haven’t read a book that has affected me in this way for a while.” — Wilga Hill Boomerang on Twilight.

“Ms. Drake has an exceptional voice and a unique ‘thing’ that just shines from the page.” — White Russian on Wasting.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd…

About a month or so ago, I sent a query to Mrs. Giggles for The Twilight Deception. I happened to check the website today, not so much because I wanted to check, but because I love her site… and she’d posted the review.

She rated it an 83.

For Mrs. Giggles, this is high praise, indeed. I’m still bouncing off the walls. A long-ish quote: “Elisabeth Drake has an interesting alternate world in this story. Vampires and witches are nothing new, but the otherworldly vampires here are not the usual vampires and their ability to pass themselves off as humans even in broad daylight allows some interesting possibilities. The author also knows how to tell a story in an entertaining manner - this short story has excellent build-up and ends most satisfactorily despite the book being only 75 pages long. I don’t feel that the story is rushed to a conclusion.”

I’d hoped she would like it, but… this is Mrs. Giggles. She is known for char-broiling manuscripts. While I’ve had several picky people crit/beta read my work, much less editors, I’m not going to assume that someone won’t think it’s crap anyway. ^_^

So, yeah, bouncing off walls. Whee!

Coming Soon… (Okay. Really soon.)

If you remember me talking about the erotic short story I was working on for Forbidden Publications… this is the cover. Dayna designed it for me; isn’t it cool?

A bit about the story:

Five years after Irina’s death in a tragic accident, Gareth and Rhiannon still grieve for the loss of the woman they both loved. Every year, they stand vigil upon the anniversary of her death.

But when a freak occurrence brings Irina back from the grave for one night only, all three must face their regrets and unspoken passions–before darkness claims her forever.

It’s coming out January 29th (Monday!) along with the rest of the books in FP’s Valentine’s Day collection:

Sela Carsen: The Virgin Courtesan (historical; sensual)
Stacy Dawn: Apple of His Eye (contemporary; mainstream (aka nonerotic)
CJ England: Angel Eyes and Demon Lies (paranormal; carnal)
Dayna Hart: Wings of Love (fantasy; mainstream)
Loribelle Hunt: Be Mine (contemporary; sensual)
Crystal Jordan: Twice in a Blue Moon (paranormal; carnal)
Jennifer Leeland: Naughty Notions (contemporary; carnal)
JT Schultz: Cupid’s Target (paranormal; sensual)
Shelli Stevens: Cabin Fever (contemporary; carnal)