So I've been Gone A While...

 

Eep!  The last time I blogged was in December?  REALLY?  Wow, Time flies when you're in the magical Writer's Cave. :/

And make no mistake, I've definitely been writing.  Want proof?  In the past six months I’ve been busily typing my fingers to the bone in order to produce four projects that… *drum roll* have gotten PUBLISHED by Harlequin’s digital-first imprint, CARINA PRESS!

The first project I’m unveiling today is also the first in a paranormal sensual romance series.  It's already through developmental edits, line and copy edits, and the ink is dry on the contract. :)  Ladies and gentlemen, may I present NOBODY’S ANGEL, a 33K novella and opening salvo in the EARTH ANGELS series, scheduled to be released in January, 2013!

UNOFFICIAL BLURB:

When investigative journalist Kendall Glynn moved to San Francisco’s top-rated local TV news station, she’d thought her new workplace was all about reporting the news, not making it. Then their anchorman signed off permanently, attempting a violent murder-suicide while the city watched in horror. The one thing Kendall couldn’t help but notice – aside from the pen sticking out of his jugular – was a cataract-like whiteness veiling his eyes. While no expert, she’d bet her one and only Louis Vuitton purse that he was a man possessed.

He cloaks himself in shadows, hiding his face behind a mask in the hope he’ll be shielded from the eyes of heaven itself. Born under the curse his family has endured for countless generations, he scours the city for the kind of trouble that could make him as dead as the souls he crosses into the next life.

Trouble finds him in the form of a murderous spirit that isn’t what it appears, and in a woman who’s brave enough to not mind the mask… in or out of bed. The question is, can he find the evil lurking behind the spirit before it – and heaven’s judgment – finds them?

*****

NOBODY'S ANGEL is the first in a 4-part series, with a fifth "satellite" book planned.  The second full-length novel, SAVAGE ANGEL, has also been accepted by Carina Press and just yesterday I sent back the the line edits for that project.  Andrea Kerr, editor for both Harlequin and CP, is the editor for this series, and she is EXTRAORDINARY.  I love how she "gets" the world I've created, and she's as much a stickler when it comes to following this world's rules as I am.  I was pretty proud of how these projects turned out before the editing process, but now that they've been in Andrea's magical hands, I can hardly believe the result.  I can't wait for 2013 to share this series!

*****

To learn more about Nobody's Angel and my other current projects, check out my storyboards on Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/stacygailauthor/

A (Sort OF) Love Letter To The Editor Of A CLOCKWORK CHRISTMAS—Angela James

A CLOCKWORK CHRISTMAS
Releases December 5th!

Dear Angela,

Well, we made it.  It’s almost release-day for your special project—the steampunk Christmas anthology you and the Carina Press staff entitled A CLOCKWORK CHRISTMAS! 

 

In case you haven’t already noticed, I’m new to the scene of publishing.  Pfft, who am I kidding?  I’m so new I squeak.  I’ve had two other releases before my novella with you—A CRIME WAVE IN A CORSET—but since they both happened in the last ninety days or so, I’m still learning the ropes. *cough*GinormousUnderstatement*cough*

 

Angela!

One of those ropes had to do with Twitter.  I’d been told by one of my editors at Samhain Publishing that I needed to be on Twitter to be a presence online, so I dutifully made up an account on March 1^st of this year.  On March 6^th, someone retweeted your call for submissions for a holiday Steampunk project, and I immediately had an idea for a story.  I didn’t know anything about you or Carina Press; I just liked the subject.  I didn’t have a long time to get things together, since the deadline was May 15th, but when the characters Cornelia Peabody and Roderick Coddington pushed their way to the fore, I knew the story was going to be all right.  And when I had 15K written in the first week, I REALLY knew it was going to be all right. 

When a story pushes its bossy way out like that, it’s always a fun ride.

 

I was done with CRIME WAVE IN A CORSET by the time May rolled around.  I even had time to send it off to a beta reader for that all-important feedback.  Twice I read the manuscript aloud, until I felt the character of Cornelia so keenly I actually perfected her faint Irish lilt, and I could see impassioned fire hidden beneath the professorial veneer in Roderick’s vengeful eyes.

But as the deadline inched closer, I weenied out.  I just couldn’t make myself send it to you.

 

Did you know I teach figure skating?  As part of that job I was also a gold-level judge in ISI.  I’ve sat on countless competition panels, doing the job I had spent a lifetime perfecting, so that in turn, the people I judged could be made better (you see where I’m going with this?).  The thing about judging a group of ten to fifteen skaters is basic mathematics—three will see the podium.  The others won’t.  And someone will know that terrible pain of coming in dead last.  I know this sounds cold, so please don’t misunderstand.  It wasn’t that I hated them, or that it was anything personal, and you can bet in my heart of hearts I wanted everyone to come out a winner.  But in every competition I have ever judged, there are those whose efforts don't deserve to see the podium.   That doesn't mean they'll never see it.  There’s always another day, as they say, and that’s something I find myself reminding my broken-hearted students when they (inevitably) produce a bad performance.  There’s always another competition down the road, another shot at the podium.  As long as you keep entering, keep trying, there is no failure.

My Dirty Birdies! I'm the dork
in the glasses. :)

Eventually I realized how stupid I was being by not hitting the Send button.  On May 13^th, my birthday, I gave myself the present of courage and sent off CRIME WAVE IN A CORSET.  I did it with the hope that it would podium, but full of understanding if it didn’t.  After all, as you have been trained to be on a judges’ panel of a different type, it’s your job and your duty to make sure the world you love—the publishing world—gets the best efforts from its creative engine, the writers.  And hey, let's face that really big, ugly fact that no one likes to talk about--no matter how awesome it feels to get that podium spot, I don’t know of any writer who would want a project out there that isn’t worthy of an acceptance, if only because one bad novel can sever a thousand reader relationships. 

So this ends my (sort of) love letter to not just you, Angela, but to all editors who sit in their own kind of judge's seat, filled with the hope of being dazzled, and the determination to say no when they're not.  We writers certainly don’t podium on every attempt, but you remind us—there’s always tomorrow.

Speaking of which… it’s tomorrow.  Happy release day, Angela. :)   Love, Stacy

CRIME WAVE IN A CORSET  is available at:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/uU8dXX

Carina Press: http://bit.ly/udtEfX

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/sUOBOm

AReBooks: http://bit.ly/vjNOCb