His Client - Release Date

I received a tentative release date for His Client - Jan 4th, 2011. Four months suddenly seems like forever away, but it's nice to finally have a date and it will give me something to look forward to after the holidays. No word yet on Bound Forever, but as I just turned in the book a week ago, it will probably be a bit before I get a date for that one.

I didn't get much writing done over the weekend, but I got a bunch of other 'stuff' done. Finalized artwork for a new Ava postcard - this one will feature From Afar on one side. Typed up notes for another short story for Oliver and Vincent, and did some research for Arsen and Henry's short story. I've already got notes for that one, so now I'm all set to actually write it. My goal is to have it posted on my website by the weekend, and I'll post a link here on the blog when it's all set. Still don't have a title for it, though. That's not unusal - titles so aren't my thing. Some authors are great at titles, but me...not so much. Hopefully sometime this week something good will occur to me. We'll see how it goes - it could end up with the oh-so-unique title of 'Arsen and Henry's Short Story'.

So that's it for me. In other news, if you want to throw your name in the virtual hat to win a copy of Shawn Lane's upcoming release Twice in a Lifetime, pop on over to Stumbling Over Chaos. Also, big congrats go out to Devon Rhodes on the release of The Swap, her first book with Amber Allure. Here's wishing her many sales and many happy readers :)

Story Behind the Story - Bound to Him

Stats – Received contract offer 9/26/08. Sent in book 2/18/09. Published 4/28/09.

No, it didn’t take me 5 months to write it. I’m not that slow. *g* I had other stuff on the writing plate that needed to get done before I could get to Oliver and Vincent’s sequel. I checked my notes and from what I can tell, it took me less than 2 months to write the book. In Ava-land, that’s really fast for a 30k book.

Little known fact – The original idea for the title was Bound by Love. Before I sent the blurb to my editor, I checked around and found another book with that same title on Samhain’s Coming Soon page. So I changed the title to Bound to Him. BTW, Bound by Love (by T.A. Chase) was a very good book – I quite enjoyed it, to the point where I wasn’t miffed that I had to change my title.

Extremely little known fact – Bound to Him was the first book I contracted before I wrote it. A few days after Bound by Deception released, I sent my editor two blurbs for future book ideas. One was Bound to Him, the other was Convincing Arthur. We decided to do Bound to Him next, and within a week, I got word that the publisher wanted to contract it. I never even sent in a formal submission or a synopsis or anything. I was super surprised and super geeked that Loose Id liked BBD so much they wanted the sequel based off the blurb alone.

How did I get the idea for the book? – I knew when I was writing Bound by Deception that Oliver and Vincent would need a sequel. I couldn’t leave them without Vincent telling Oliver he loved him. So the idea for the book came from the need to get Vincent to say those three all important words to Oliver. Vincent’s stubborn and arrogant and Oliver practically worshiped Vincent for years, so I needed to run both of them through the wringer in order to get their relationship to a good, solid place. …and it was fun running them through the wringer. I *heart* angst.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? Add a scene with Vincent sometime during the 3 weeks after Oliver broke up with him. In my head, Oliver is on Vincent’s mind constantly during those 3 weeks, and Vincent fully comes to accept that he’s gay and that he loves Oliver. But I didn’t have any good ideas for a scene, well at least an idea that wasn’t just Vincent ‘thinking’. So instead, I just picked up with Vincent after he and Oliver had the run-in outside the theatre, and added some paragraphs to cover what I skipped. Looking back, those are 3 critical weeks for Vincent, as far as character development goes. He does a lot of growing, emotionally speaking. I should have tried harder to get more than a glimpse of them onto the page.

Will there be a sequel – Yes. *g* Just finished Bound Forever on Monday. In fact, when I got the edits for Bound to Him, my editor asked if there would be a 3rd book. It took me over a year to get to it and then write it, but I finally gave the guys their final book and tied up all the loose ends in the series.

Misc stuff – In my very first concept for the book, Oliver ended up taking full advantage of Vincent’s offer to completely put himself in Oliver’s hands at the end of the book. But as I fleshed out the book, I realized Oliver wouldn’t do it. Well…that he wouldn’t go all the way. And I don’t think Vincent would have truly enjoyed it, no matter how good Oliver would have tried to make it for him. Both guys needed to ease their way into such a change in the dynamic of the bedroom. Therefore, I knew as I was writing Bound to Him that I would end up writing Bound Forever. And hopefully readers didn’t get miffed at me when Oliver pretty much said thanks but maybe later. ;)

That's the Story Behind the Story for Bound to Him. Any questions? Ask away! *g*

Another One Done

I buckled down this weekend and did it. I finished Bound Forever!! The book is officially in my editor's hands (or rather, in her inbox).

It’s my 7th Ava book and my 9th book overall. Seems kind of odd to think I’ve written so many books, especially since I've been a published author for not quite 2 years. Well, at least 9 seems like a lot to me (it's like nothing compared to some people I know...like Shawn Lane *g*). And the scary thing is I have more than 9 books on the ever-growing to-write list.

I’m very happy the book is done (I even did a little happy dance), but in a way, I’m also a bit sad. It’s the last book for Oliver and Vincent. I really adored writing about them, and Oliver is my favorite hero thus far. But I’m not done with them completely. I have a feeling Ollie and Vincent have some more free short stories in them. *g*

Speaking of short stories, next up on my to-do list is a one for Arsen and Henry from Object of His Desire. Over the next week or so, I plan to work on it. Then after that, it's on to Convincing Leopold. That one is due mid-November and I don't want to dilly-dally too long before starting it.

Happy Monday everyone! ...yeah, it's Monday and starting the work week bites, but today's a good Monday since I finished a book. :)

Convincing Leopold - Coming Soon

Earlier this week, I mentioned some upcoming news that I promised to share later this week. Well, later this week has arrived *g*

Convincing Leopold, the sequel to Convincing Arthur, has been contracted by Loose Id! Release date is TBD, as I haven't written the book yet. My deadline to finish the book is mid-November (yes, and that's my 10th-20th definition of 'mid'), so it won't release until early 2011.

A couple weeks ago, Arthur and Leopold snagged my attention. I had planned to start writing their sequel toward the end of 2010, but I changed my mind and moved them up the to-write list. I outlined the sequel, then wrote a synopsis and sent it off to Loose Id. While on vacation, the email stalking paid off and I got 'the email'. One of those really, really lovely ones that include a contract offer.

Last night and tonight I worked on the blurb, so I'll share it. It's not the final-final one, but it's what I'll turn in.

Mr. Leopold Thornton finally has the man he’s loved for a decade, yet he can’t believe his good fortune. A reformed rake and a conservative solicitor? Leopold tries to hold firm to his belief Arthur will someday love him, yet Arthur’s spending more time at the office, and the handsome new secretary doesn’t help matters. Desperate not to lose Arthur, Leopold does the only thing he can think of – use pleasure to keep him. After all, sex is all he can offer Arthur, isn’t it?

Mr. Arthur Barrington truly wants their relationship to work. Sinfully beautiful, without a single inhibition in the bedroom and devoted to him, Leopold’s the opposite of Arthur’s former staid lover. When they first arrived in London, everything was perfect. Yet lately, all Leopold wants is to have sex – in the study, in the carriage, and at his office, no less. Juggling demanding clients and a demanding lover leaves Arthur exhausted. Something’s got to give.

For Arthur, the choice is simple…once he realizes he needs to make it. What’s not simple is convincing Leopold he loves him. All of him and not just his body. For Leopold’s disappeared from London, and Arthur hasn’t a clue where to find him.

My thanks goes out to Eyre for the cookies at the top of the post - I snagged them from her blog. What can I say? She's got yummy cookies. :)

Well, now I'm off to finish up Bound Forever. Yeah...I'm gonna miss my mid-month deadline, but only by a couple days. After being gone on vacation last week, the EDJ has been...beyond hectic. Since I'm working on a pivotal chapter in the book, I felt Ollie and Vincent deserved my full attention. So I'm going to finish it this weekend. Promise. The guys will be well and truly smexed up by Monday and in my editor's hands.

Nearing the Finish Line

I'm home from vacation. Had a wonderful time at the beach house, spotted a couple almost-cookie worthy specimens, and got a ton of writing done on Bound Forever. In fact, I'm working on the last chapter. Well, it's really chapter 5. Since I outline books by chapter before I write them, I can bounce all over the place depending on which scenes I'm feeling at the moment. With this one, I started at the beginning, then jumped to the end and worked my way back. Thus leaving me with chapter 5 to finish.

I'm on track to finish Bound Forever by mid-August. I define 'mid' as the 10th-20th, so even though it's the 16th, I haven't passed my self-imposed deadline yet. Nifty how that works, huh? *g*

I also finished up the first round of edits on His Client. I'll send them off tomorrow - I like to let edits sit for a night, just in case something occurs to me as I'm laying in bed or taking a shower (my two prime times for random writing-related thoughts to flitter through my head).

I took Sunday afternoon off from writing and took the kidlet to the mall. She wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, and since she's so damn cute, I of course said yes. The kidlet's kitty seemed to like her purchases. Though it took a bit of doing to convince the kidlet that Kitteh (that's her new name - it was hubby's doing) would not like to wear the matching jammie shorts, even though there's a hole in them for her tail.

Gotta love Kitteh. She put up with being tucked into bed with the new comforter and pillow set. Even stayed there for a good ten minutes.

Personally though, I think Kitteh was just so happy that we sprung her out of kitty jail (she went to a kennel while we were on vacation), that she was willing to put up with anything. Even the kidlet's particular brand of over-affection.

In case anyone noticed, I moved the Story Behind the Story post for Bound to Him out until 8/26. I've got news I'm gonna post instead later this week. ...yeah, I'm a tease. *g* But if you've been following the last few posts, you just might be able to guess :)