A New York State of Mind...or Am I California Dreaming?

Like all things there must be an update. Here, ladies and gentleman is an update on all things BELLA MORTE.

This is the beautimous official cover for book one of the series. It conjures something wonderfully epic and wonderful and all things challenging for the heroine to face.

With the symbol for Hekate Press located just inside the O or Morte I am proud to say I am the first author contracted there. And I highly recommend anyone with with a short story, novella, novel, or epic series to submit there. The people there are wonderful to work with and this is the kind of quality cover art can only come when a succinct synopsis on the part of the author is only matched by their ability to get out of the way and trust in the artist to do their job properly.

I also have a release date. April 2014. The physical launch party will

take place in Louisville, KY at the Ramada Inn off of Plantside Drive the weekend of April 11th-13th at Conglomeration. I will be in full costume as Justice Xavier as the mystic warrior, bella morte herself. There will be cake music from the Civil Wars (on CD, not in person), gift baskets, and of course the books to be autographed by me.

Also of note. BELLA MORTE the television series treatment has been passed along to agents/producers. So while this means nothing definite in the grand scheme of things it is still more than some are lucky enough to have.

Book 2, BELLA MORTE: DEVIL'S BACKBONE is meeting to 30K mark and hopefully I will crest it today. That being said I hope the holiday season found you all well and that it didn't stress you out too badly.

Until then keep Bella in mind when purusing the virtually bookshelves for something to read, it will be available in print and ebook.

:)

As the Wheel Turns

Sometimes luck and good fortune are just on your side. And while I'll admit, I've busted my ass for everything I've gotten over this past three years I haven't done it alone.

If you read yesterday's post on my Letters to Daniel blog you'll see where I have done a gratitude post. But like I said sometimes you just have to a sprinkling of good fortune and I seemed to be covered in the stuff right now.

So I'm blessed in the sense I'm writing the 8 book series of my dreams with a house where I'm going to get a kick ass cover. (Hekate Press is now accepting submissions by the way.) I'm 59 pages/15K into the second book and loving every second of it.

But the acting interest? I hustled for that stuff. But good fortune smiled on me in that they liked it. And finally I have someone passing my treatment and accolades onto agent/producers. Indeed I am covered in the glitter of good fortune and preparation meeting opportunity.

Not that other people haven't just as hard, if not harder roads, but I've traveled a pretty hard road myself. And this is all very, very sweet indeed.

Until next time...

Chariots of Fire!

Everybody on the book front. I crossed the finish line! 70,261 words to be exact. I had to wait all this time because all of energy went into that book, leaving little left over for a blog post about how everything else around it is going on.

On the television series front there is increasing interest from the acting community from the likes of Jon Lindstrom and Sonya Eddy (Kevin and Epiphany of General Hospital fame) and serious interest from Cady McClain (Dixie of Tad and Dixie from All My Children) and Steve Burton (Jason Quartermaine/Jason Morgan of General Hospital & Dylan McAvoy of Y&R) have also expressed interest.

Rich Ridings of Highlander and a brilliant British stage, film, and television actor thought my work was strong enough to submit to the BBC Writer's Room.

And Hekate Press has offered to publish all eight books in the Bella Morte series. Busily at work on Bella Morte: Devil's Backbone.

Well folks, until next time...

Dorian Lord is My Hero

Today I'm choosing to talk about the indomitable Robin Strasser aka the powerful and unapologetic Dorian Lord of One Life to Live fame. It is quite easy for me to see her as the the deeply  misunderstood, at turns vulnerable, but always villainous Queen Eleanor of Ke'lan.

I'm talking about her because she is the first actress or actor to say YES I wish to play this role. And she gave me another name, Emmy winner Susan Gammie, one of the best costume designers in the business. And since this is a costume drama one of those would definitely be needed. I passed on the treatment and the pilot to her and have my fingers crossed in a huge way.

Robin Strasser is no stranger to controversy as she has a strong will and strong mind and will express her opinion. Most recently this has been

via Twitter. And this is how I found her. I loved the evil yet vulnerable Dorian. She has done some wicked, wicked things, but when it comes to family she is always there for them and protective if not downright manipulative in the name of that love.

She likes her men younger and has gotten to play opposite the gorgeous Tuc Watkins and the ever popular Nathan Fillion of Castle, Serenity, and Firefly fame.

With each passing day things seem to look better and better for my like series and book (which currently stands at 52,095 words. And may get more on the day yet as I strive to hit 70K.

So while nothing is a fate accompli in this world until the ink is dry on the contract I have to say I think my Ma-Maw is up there looking out for me. Now just to find my Justice Xavier, my Bella Morte,the title character of the series and so many other character to pass it along to the right people.

Today I say, Dorian Lord, for all her faults is my hero today, or should I say the outspoken Robin Strasser is who, like so many others is cheering me on. I feel truly blessed today.

Until next time...

Nearing the Home Stretch

So here we are again. Only this time I'm on the verge of crossing the great 50K divide. 70K, which once seemed so far away seems completely doable and possible. Plus maybe a little extra if need be.

But as it is I stand on this side of 50K. 48K+. I stand here thinking, wow, how did I freaking do this? The beginning was so damn hard. And the realization that this was going to be something special for me (writing wise) as my mentor said, it just kind of snuck up on me real easy like. Then gobsmacked me right in the kisser.

I want to say at this point I am still not at 70K. I have great respect for that number and that even though I want to dive immediately into the second book I

have no real clue as to what it will be about, where it will open or how it will end. I'm still trying to figure BELLA MORTE: BEGINNINGS ending out. I'm a panster by nature which makes all of my series interesting in that you ask yourself a very important question. Am I ready for my favorite characters to die? So far I have written romance. And suppose with all the love stories unfolding in Bella Morte you could call it paranormal romance. I think it's more urban fantasy but that's just my opinion. But from what I understand urban fantasy isn't selling. Steampunk is. So I'll call Bella Morte paranormal romance.

So as the 50K divide doesn't look so intimidating I will say, certain things seem to worth tying up and others will be left hanging wide open, first of all, the fragile reunion of father and daughter will be tested in a big way, the birth of the widowed Elizabeth Wilson's child is on the way, and a healing ritual has gotten to be blown up in a huge way. Not to mention the big reveal by the Queen Eleanor of Ke'lan to her young son Henri who is turning out to be much more devious than his mother ever dreamed of being.

20K+ to go. I think sometimes I'm not going to make, yet at others I think I've got a lot to get to in a small space. Does every writer experience this onset of madness?

Until next time...

Going the Distance

So I'm passed the halfway point and have my beer goggles on. The next hurdle is 50K and I'm hoping to reach it by Saturday. Ambitious, I know, right? Especially for me. I feel running out of juice. Or worse. Out of story. Although to be honest, this time around I don't feel myself running out of story.

The excitement I feel is that if I can just make it to 50K it truly will be all downhill from here.

Writing an epic seemed impossible at the beginning. But I suppose it's like the old adage, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Now, before I go puffing my chest out and thumping it with my fists I suppose I should remind myself of a few things first.

I have to make it to 50K first without the story petering out. And that folks remains a very perilous task indeed. For someone who's only made past 50K to the 60K mark one other time 70K remains a long ways away.

Which makes the next 8,909K so important. If I can make it there I know the next 20K is doable. I have done 20K. Honestly I can do 20K in my sleep. The problem is either surpassing it by much or getting stuck at 15K. Which is a problem I don't have to focus on too much right now.

I bought myself a reward at 35K. So today is divided into two halves. From now until 5PM EST. 1500 words. Fix dinner. Eat dinner. Relax until new episode of Big Bang goes off then 1500 words and no bed until I crank them out. Tomorrow it might be more difficult as my PR person at Jitterbug has FB Party planned for the launch of another book of mine.

As for news on the Bella Morte front. My mentor and friend has made quite the generous gesture that I can't share with the public at large. Suffice it to say. I am touched beyond words and it has generated quite the bit of excitement on this end. They know who they are and that I couldn't be more motivated towards that 70K mark.

Until next time...

It's All Downhill From Here...I Think

I didn't put this picture in the last post. My apologies to the character and to the reading public at large. I just wanted to say I've officially crested the halfway mark in BELLA MORTE: BEGINNINGS. 36,097 words of last night. That magical place in the marathon where you look back and go, hooray! I've done how much? You throw confetti and celebrate. And then as it went down when I ran my first (and up to this point the only) marathon I saw the bus full of half-marathoners go by and split off to their finish line. And I thought, oh fuck what have I gotten myself into?

This is what I've gotten myself into. An epic saga the likes my earlier self could never have written. And that folks is a fact.

And right now I have things to celebrate with. I have purchased the rockin' The Civil Wars audio CD. Even though I am writing some kind of UF or paranormal romance it is the appalachain sounding rock infused flavor of this band I discovered on Pandora that informs the heroine of Justice Xavier. A sword wielding, dagger slashing, gun toting bad ass torn between destiny and her hearts desire for revenge.

What makes things fantastic about this journey is that I have several Angels out there mentoring me and shining light on my path. One of whom gave me a huge blessing last night. I won't mention their name, should they be over innundated with similar requests. But I wanted to say thank you. Because even though the road is long and even though the blessing is no guarantee it could mean greater things on the horizon.

This blessing requires a great deal of patience on my part. Although it's not like I wouldn't have anything to do in the mean time. There are edits coming on CORNBREAD from MuseItUp. Edits coming from Hekate for two other series. 7 other books to write in the Bella Morte series. Cons and festivals to attend. Promotion to do. Contests to wait to hear back on.

Bella is my favorite heroine so far. Tough, yet tender. Full of rage, yet vulnerable. She's taken awhile to fully realize but I tore the first draft down to its roots and have started the arduous task of building her up again. Thank you, Bertena. Thank you, Delilah. Thank you, Lea. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Dave. And thank you, Julie. You all know why I am so grateful. And one day all of you will too.