Lynn Raye Harris

more cat pictures

So I’m working on revisions again. *sigh* Thank GOD for the Presents and Modern Heat authors at conference who told me this is normal and not to feel like a big dummy! The encouragement I found in those ladies has really made a difference in my confidence this time around.

But that’s not the diversion. The diversion is my very first newspaper interview. Today, a reporter and photographer came to my house. I was terrified — until I met them. The interview took two hours, and we laughed and talked and had a good time. I have every confidence this interview will put a positive face on romance writing. I don’t know when it will be available but as soon as it is, I will post the link.

It’s interesting to talk about novel writing with people who don’t write novels. And yet, the reporter is a writer because she’s a journalist. A different type of writing, but still writing. So we were able to understand one another very well. For instance, we both cringe when someone reads our work while we’re in the same room. Don’t know why, but I’d rather be in another room if you want to read my story. I guess I don’t want to see puzzlement on your face. Or worse, disappointment. She felt the same way about her stories. I found that comforting.

The photographer had a trunk full of equipment he brought inside and set up, complete with this huge umbrella thing that helped with lighting. I felt like a movie star! Thankfully, I’d changed out of the writer’s uniform of pajamas and into something more attractive. I even took a shower and put on makeup. Definitely not the way I usually write. In fact, she asked me what my routine was. Here it is: wake up around 6:30, kiss husband goodbye around 7:15, pour coffee, go to office and write. In pajamas. With hair scraped back in a bun. Shower around 2 or so — sooner if stuck in a scene. I always shower so the hubby doesn’t think I sat around all day in my pajamas — even though I do. I figure if the man goes to work and lets me stay home and indulge myself this way, the least I can do is appear presentable when he gets home.

Unless I’m on deadline and then all bets are off.

If you’ve ever been interviewed, how did it go? Were you scared? Did you think of something later that you should have said? So far, I haven’t, but who knows how I’ll feel tomorrow.

Conference is over, all the happy writers are back in their caves, and new stories must be written. Or old stories must be revised. Last year, after Dallas, I left National feeling very inspired. And it must have worked because I finished my novel and it became a Golden Heart finalist.

This year, I also felt inspired. I came home very run down and sick (that was me with the tissues last week), and then I had company (who left this morning) and I’ve been unable to get to work until today.

So, I’m sitting down this morning with my coffee and the whole day free to get back to work. And I’m so jazzed about it! I have ideas I can’t wait to explore. I’m somewhat intimidated by all I have to do, but I’m also excited and inspired.

I never got to blog from SF, though I intended to. But the best of intentions just don’t stack up against the never-ending things one has to do. Meetings, workshops (uh, I think I made it to 3…), chatting with friends, dancing at publisher parties, rehearsals, spontaneous gatherings in the hotel bar, etc. I didn’t sleep much, and I paid for it in spades when I got sick. My body was too run down to fight off the cold germs. I haven’t had a cold in over two years — which must be why this one hit particularly hard. Still, I’ll do it all again in DC next year.

August is notorious for beginnings (back to school) so do you feel fresh and new, or do you want it to still be summer play time? Are you inspired or intimidated this morning?

Determination and caffeine got me through this round of revisions. Oh, and a hubby who didn’t mind going to get the takeout every night this week. And who actually did a load of laundry last night. And now, since in another hour I will have been awake 24 straight, I think I better go to bed. I’m too old for all-nighters….

more cat

Still revising, y’all. Someone throw me a rope before I drown…..

Hope to be back Wednesday or Thursday.

I think I must be a maniac. I’ve started another book. I’ve barely recovered from the last one, and yet an idea cropped up. I’ve written about 1500 words, so not much at all, but enough to get the idea simmering.

It’s hard waiting to hear back on the book I just sent, but I’ll distract myself with a new one. I think. I just have this antsy, can’t sit still feeling. I can’t putter around the house, catch up on the laundry, breathe, go grocery shopping, or any of the things I’ve neglected. No, must start another story. I have delusions of grandeur that I’m like Nora’s soul sister or something, but yeah, right. *g*

Must calm down, must put on the wisdom cap and know I’ll be waiting a while. Must think straight, must decide what is best to write at the moment. Must not neglect San Francisco preparations in crazy hazy desire to write new story….

What do you do when you’ve finished writing a book? Start another one right away? Or take a break and enjoy life a little bit first? How do you get off the treadmill?

Hmm, after several months of non-stop work, I find myself bookless. Bookless as in I don’t have a book to write. What shall I do? Work on the lawn? Do the laundry? Clean the house?

Um, NO! I’m going to catch up on my reading and WRITE another book!! Like most writers, I don’t lack for ideas. I have several. I could write the next book in my romantic suspense series, or I have another idea for a Presents novel. Probably, it’ll be the Presents I get to work on.

Why? Because I had SO much fun writing the last one and I want to do it again! Writing that book was like coming home. Crazy, but true. I’m a little bereft at being done with Alejandro and Rebecca’s story. (Though maybe I’m not done at all — revisions, you know.)

I’ll probably also finish the proposal to the next RS — just because I love the story and want that blueprint available.

Writers: what do you do when you finish writing a book? Immediately start a new one? Revise the old one (I should mention there were two drafts of TSMR to this point)? Take a break and play? Cry and miss the characters? Want to blow them up? (That was me with HOT PURSUIT.)

Today, check out my guest post about my writing journey over at the I Heart Presents site. I talk about what it’s like working with an editor.

And, in related news, I typed The End to THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE last night. I’m so thrilled! Now, must think a bit on it, and then off it goes.

THE SPANISH MAGNATE’S REVENGE is almost done. I’ve been buried in the ending. I always get this way — grumble, groan, moan along the way, and then I hit somewhere before the black moment and the ball starts rolling so fast I can barely keep up. I write as much in the last few days as I did in the first few weeks. It’s crazy, but apparently that’s my process.

I owe emails. I owe blogs. I owe time to family and friends. I cannot escape the grip of this story. But it’s almost done. Soon, I’ll emerge from the cocoon and wonder what’s happened around me.

Hope you writers are getting much done!!! Does this happen to you, btw? Is there a certain point where the story takes you over so completely that eating and sleeping and showering are extreme impositions?

Aside from hot alpha males with attitude and heroines who whip them into shape? Travel. Exotic locations.

Finally, all that time in Europe is paying dividends! (Although it paid plenty of dividends when I lived and traveled there — priceless experience.) But now, I get to revisit those places I loved while I create the world of my Harlequin Presents story.

I didn’t stay in the Gritti Palace (pictured) in Venice, but it’s the inspiration for one of my hero’s hotels. The Gritti Palace starts around 500 Euros a night. Can you imagine?

There was a time, when I lived there, when that would have cost about $350. Today, it’s nearly $800. I don’t think I’ll be staying there anytime soon.

But I can imagine it! I can view the pictures and see my hotel come to life. I can imagine the luxury of that place, the service, the gorgeous views from that terrace. I’m doing armchair traveling to write this story and I LOVE IT! Why didn’t I do this sooner?

I always wanted to write for Presents. But I stubbornly kept putting it off. Until the Instant Seduction contest. I can’t thank HM&B enough for having the contest. I’d still be saying someday, and I wouldn’t be armchair traveling through my old guidebooks and getting inspired by pictures of sumptuous rooms and table settings.

What do you write and why do you love it? Do you love to armchair travel? What’s the best vacation you ever had? The coolest place you ever lived?

**Best Vacation: Venice
**Coolest Place I lived: Toss up between Europe and Hawaii

If it’s summer break, I’m not having any of it. I’m working. I have a book to finish, and it’s rolling along pretty good — so far.

I totally love it when a book starts to write itself. I love sitting down at the keyboard and knowing the only impediment will be how fast my fingers can keep up with what my mind creates. That’s not to say it’s all easy. No indeed. I still have those stretches where one set of ideas reaches a conclusion (at the end of a scene or chapter, maybe) and I need to figure out which direction to go for the next set.

Yes, I know, if I were a plotter who outlined extensively, I’d know where I was going. But chugging along is part of the process for me. I really love that enjoyment of discovery along the way. It’s like getting on a train and going for a trip to a place you’ve never been. If I bought a video of the trip before I went, and then watched it through, it wouldn’t be as exciting for me.

I love this part of being a writer. What I don’t love is the pain of self-doubt, the misery of waiting for responses to submissions, the sheer terror of going to the mailbox. I could do without those bits, thank you.

Right now, I’m on the downhill slide. My goal is to be done before 1 July. Then I have a trip to New Orleans over the 4th, back home for shopping for National, then the National conference at the end of the month. Once I get home again and recover from that, it’ll be September. Whew, this is a busy summer! Where’s the break?

How about you? Any big plans this summer? Any writing plans?