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YES, I am full throttle into more deadlines again. Three books in three months. Or should I say, two books and a Christmas anthology in three months. I feel like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland… "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!" Speaking of Alice in Wonderland (it's on my mind now since the one with Johnny Depp recently came out) this quote by the Red Queen is relevant here too. "It takes all the running you can do, to stay in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" Gosh! Just typing that made me tired. So… my first thought to this quote was, what about changing direction instead?
Here's a great example of this. My sister Jackie (Yes,
she has the same name as Vincent's lifemate…<g>)
recently took golf lessons. Now she has taken golf lessons
before and has always been frustrated as no one really
seemed to be able to help her improve her game. During
her first lesson, the golf pro had her take a few test
shots to show her form and swing and before he could
say boo, she said "I know what you're going to
say. You're going to tell me to slow down my swing.
But I'll tell you right now that advice has never helped
me. I've tried and tried and tried but when I slow down
my swing, I get worse." The golf pro paused and
said "To make you slow down your swing would be
pointless as it goes against who you are. You are the
type of person that is normally late because you take
on too many responsibilities. You walk, talk and drive
fast so why would it be any different with your golf
swing? You have a strong, fast swing (more like a man's
swing) because you want that ball to go somewhere now,
not later. That's who you are. Now all we need to work
on is to make sure it goes in the right direction, consistently."
And with that, her game has improved substantially.
The point here is that all these 'pros' kept giving
her the same bad advice (you're a woman thus you should
be swinging slower… daintier) and never thought
outside that box. We can try as hard as we can but if
our approach is wrong then all that effort is pointless.
In the end we may need to change direction to get it
right.
How does this all relate back to me? Well, although
I would often find myself writing in long stints at
ridiculous hours, it took me (not to mention others
in my life) a while to really accept this. For many
years I attempted to fit my writing into the normal
9 to 5 schedule but I work best with tight deadlines.
It allows me to write in one long stream (barring eating
and sleeping, of course) and thus I keep the thread
of the story foremost in my mind. And because I have
multiple books due around the same time, it allows me
to work on multiple stories when necessary. This is
a good thing because if I get stuck on one story, I
can just switch to another until it becomes 'unstuck'.
This is a bad thing in every other part of my life (sorry
guys!) as it all takes a backseat to my writing. But
it's how I work best. When I try something different,
it just bogs me down.
Now for what I am currently working on… books 15 and 16 of the Argeneau series and a Christmas Anthology. I have decided to revisit Port Henry as Tiny and Mirabeau escorted Stephanie, Dani's younger sister, there. I am playing around with a couple of ideas so we'll have to wait and see what sticks. And for the other story, I'm thinking it will take place in St. Lucia. And… well, that's all I'm going to tell you about that. <WG>
Now for my upcoming releases.
The 13th installment in the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series called Born To Bite, which is Armand Argeneau's story is set to be released on August 31st. Armand's story also wraps up any loose ends left from Nicholas's story, The Renegade Hunter. And again I do apologize for the delay between the 12th and 13th installments. Had I known it was to be so long between books, I would have planned it differently.
And the 14th installment, Hungry For You, which is Alex Willan's story, will hit the shelves on November 30th. Yes, Sam's last sister gets a mate. --After being stared at then ignored by every other male Mortimer knew, Alex was annoyed to see yet another standing in front of her, staring at her forehead. Again. As a successful chef and restauranteur, she was trying to expand her business but the new location was riddled with problems. Alex desperately needed a good chef but could she trust her new restaurant to one of Mortimer's strange friends? I guess we'll see…
And that's all folks. Have a wonderful fall as I do believe the long-term forecast calls for sun and more sun with occasional bouts of… wait for it… SUN!
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