Richard Armitage - Passionate Kisses

Cajun heartburn

Crazy year and it's only March 1. Finished two, no three, big projects on my plate. ENEMY LOVER, my next Nocturne, is approved by my editor. No release date yet. I turned in my Nocturne Bite and just mailed out yesterday a proposal for Nocturne. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I'm still sighing over Rafe and Emily, the couple I wrote about in the proposal. Rafe is a hot Cajun and loves those spices. I'm listening to hot Cajun music now. Professor Longhair, Beau Soleil (they rock!) and thinking of New Orleans, magick, music and good times. Rafe rides a Harley, wears black leather and oozes charm. He adores a pinch of Cajun spice with his dinner.

Me? I had horrid stomach problems this week that flatlined me, forcing me to take a day off work as I drove all over, trying to find a pharmacy that had the prescription meds my MD wanted me to take. If it got worse, she advised me to go to the ER because it could have been very serious.

Wanting to avoid the ER, I tried to find the meds. Found them, took them and promptly proceeded to hurl again, as I had for the past 24 hours, which is what happens when I have a bad case of acid reflux or I watch too much American Idol.

I'm better now. Sticking to the Cajun music, and letting only my characters in books taste those hot Cajun spices. Werewolves don't get heartburn. Only their authors do.

On being professional

This is one of the children I'm going to visit next week. Because that's my job, seeing starving children, talking with their grieving parents and bringing home the grim reality of Third World poverty to people in the US so they can donate money so we can buy food and medicine and support programs that keep them alive and make them better.

Perfectly logical. And Perfectly heartbreaking at times.

Two weeks ago I was seeing malnourished children.

Next week I'll be doing the same. I'm feeling a tad exhausted right now.

But this is my job and if I'm to do it to the best of my ability, it's what I must do. I have to get up close and personal with the worst of the worst, the most heart wrenching, the ugly side of poverty. It's called being a professional. My own personal feelings can't interfere with what I have to do to get the job done. Even though I might be tempted to cry because no child should have to suffer like this, and part of me is closing my eyes and saying, "Not another one, how many more? How many more must I visit and how many more will die before I get there? How much more of this can I take, going on 15 years of doing this?"

I do what I must to get the job done.

The same is true for writing romance. I'm in a gray place right now, hovering between exhaustion and uncertainty and wanting to chuck it all away and run away to a nice place like Tahiti. Or Brooklyn. I hear Brooklyn is cold this time of year so I'd have to buy a space heater.

I'm dealing with rewriting a rejected book and a proposal rejection, two realities in the publishing world. Part of me feels like pushing it all aside and walking away. Running away to Brooklyn and abandoning the laptop, manuscript, the haunting images of starving children chasing me back to the US, the deadlines.

But instead, I stayed up last night very late, writing, rewriting, writing some more, when all I wanted was sleep as I have to work at the day job today. I'll have little chance to get work done next week, so I did what had to be done. Some people think writing romance is very glamorous. Maybe they imagine that we're all like Mary Fisher in the move SHE DEVIL, wearing our pink outfits sitting at our pink laptops, gushing about terms like "love buttons" while sipping mineral water. Some days it's fun and zany and terrific. Others it's damn hard work. It's a business, and you do what you must to get the job done.

It's called being a professional. Life interferes, deadlines are extended, editors are gracious and understanding, but in the end, you as author are the one who must deliver.

At the day job, I deliver the heartbreaking truth of starvation.
At the part-time job of romance author, I deliver the manuscript on deadline.

That's it in a nutshell. No excuses. I can whine all I want, but it won't get the job done. So the answer is just do it.

Like the school official's wife now popular on You Tube who admonished a kid for calling her house asking why there wasn't a snow day, I tell myself the same thing. ""Get over it, kid, and go to school!"

If a romance author quits because she's exhausted from working two jobs, the time and effort and frustration and it's just not worth it anymore, and no one is around to see her quit or no one cares, does it matter?

Happy Thanksgiving from Nicolas and Damian

What do werewolves eat for Thanksgiving?

Anything they want.... grrrrooowwwlllll

THE EMPATH, Nicolas's story, is now in stores! My first Silhouette Nocturne. If you like werewolves, check it out.

A break

sniff, sniff. Dh made me all weepy. He just bought me a very sweet anniversary gift.



We're leaving Tenneseee right now. Wow, I love love love it up here. I want to move. The people are sooooo sweet and friendly, and the scenery is gorgeous. We drove into North Carolina. I like N.C. but TN, that's where I want to go.



Maybe. Some Day.



Two glasses of Pinot Noir before a flight really help to destress. I dread returning. Rainey has cancer and I know we'll have to put her down soon. Work is crazy. Being in the mountains, and nothing but peace, quiet and relaxation.... I'm shocked at how productive I was. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and go with my gut. I started a new story, one I haven't sold yet and may never, and I wrote 14,000 words. It's gripping, emotional and I love it. I wrote for ME, not my editor(s), agent, or readers. Just for moi. It was wonderful. And I really really love these characters. There's such depth to this story.



When I get home, I'll get back on deadline, back to the day job, back to reality and a dog that is dying. But this week, we relaxed. We needed this. I researched areas that are going into this book, long hikes up to see waterfalls, quiet inns, colorful fall leaves. And I have the guts of a story that I can't let go of. Maybe I'll have to... because I can't sell it, but for this week, it was just what I needed.



In the meantime, DH and I went to a gorge in NC yesterday. We walked along the train tracks and this was our conversation:



Me: "Wow, this is so pretty, so quiet, I wonder if they ever use these tracks anymore?"

DH: "Yeah, they do. Look at the wear on them. They use them a lot."

Me: "Sure, right."

Nearby: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Me: "Oh &*#&@#"

DH: "I told you the train uses these tracks. Maybe you should get off them now before you get run over..."

Blogging

“When we got to Guillermo it was too late. His body could not fight anymore. Guillermo fought until the last second and kept saying that he did not want to leave his little brother. The last word from Guillermo’s mouth was his little brother’s name. Guillermo was holding a teddy bear until the moment he died. What we experienced in the last minutes of his life is something that I hope we will never have to go through again. Tears rolled down his face at the end. All we have now is an empty bed and his memories.” Missionary I know talking about the death of a six-year-old child from starvation

I wrote about this today and it’s pretty damn depressing, but at least I can try to make a difference. I have a photo of this kid on my desk to remind me what’s really important in life to me. When a child perishes every 5 seconds in the world from hunger, it puts everything into perspective for me.

In other news, I’m turning to the dark side; my writing. I have serious deadlines to meet and I’m a serious deadline person. So I’m not blogging for a while, except for my monthly post on Unusual Historicals. I will be posting an excerpt of my December Nocturne on my website as soon as I get through these deadlines.

On a lighter note, a reader emailed me yesterday that she found The Falcon & the Dove for $3 at half.com. Yay! So if you’re searching for that book, don’t give up. The book is due to go back to print, but I haven’t a date yet. I love used bookstores. And I don’t care if that’s politically incorrect for an author, I just love ‘em. When a reader who wants to read a book can finally find it and not have to pay a ridiculous price, I say here’s to the UBS!

What’s important to me:

The work I do in the Third World.
My writing.
Reading.
DH
And rum runners.

‘Nuff said.