Lynn Raye Harris

I just finished the proposal for Book 3 and sent it to my agent. And now I’m at loose ends. Not entirely at loose ends, since I need to write the rest of the book, but loose enough for a couple of days while I think about what comes next. It’s an odd and happy feeling. Odd because I’ve been non-stop for awhile now. Happy because I have some time to breathe. I told the hubby last night that I could actually cook a real dinner for us now!

We’ve been having expedient things, like crock pot items, Lean Cuisines, and soup. I could make something — spaghetti and meatballs? Jambalaya? Meatloaf? The possibilities are endless.

I can also go to the store and buy groceries. I’ve been putting that off for a while. And then there are the dreaded taxes that still need to be done, and doctors appointments I need to make. There’s also that little matter of weight loss I was working on and got side-tracked with when I had to plant my butt in the chair day after day. It’s seriously time to get back onto the treadmill.

Oh, and television! I haven’t watched anything in forever, it seems. But I feel guilty, really, because I feel like I’m supposed to be working. And I know I will be again very soon, so I guess I should try and enjoy myself while I have a few moments.

Do you feel lost at the end of projects? When you finish a writing project, do you dive into the next one or take a break?

PS I’m participating in another eHarlequin guessing game! Guess the Bookshelf is going on right now! Pop over and see if you can figure out which bookshelves belongs to which author….(it’s kind of hard, I think!).

1. Synopsis writing. Seriously, it sucks.

2. Why? Because I don’t KNOW what happens yet, darn it!

3. Wrote a synopsis for new book. Hate it. Book will not even remotely resemble synopsis. I know this from two books written for an editor now. Thankfully, she didn’t freak out either time.

4. Writing a synopsis, even when I won’t follow it, crushes down on my enthusiasm for the story like Dorothy’s house on the wicked witch.

5. Must get over this and write story anyway.

6. Proposal nearly done, in spite of traumatic encounter with evil synopsisaurus.

Got any tricks for the synopsis? Any tricks for tricking yourself while writing it? Do you follow it once you’ve slaved over it? I used to try, but that only made things worse, so now I figure it’s kind of like Captain Barbossa and the pirate code — guidelines to be followed when convenient or expedient. Or to be tossed aside when something better comes along.

I got the news on Friday that my second book was accepted! CAVELLI’S LOST HEIR will be a Dec 09 release in the UK; US still to be determined. I’m so thrilled! The first book is the most special, of course, but to get past those sophomore fears and actually turn in something coherent and decent — and have my editor like it — is amazingly gratifying. I really thought I’d written the worst book ever when I sent that baby off. I’d been trying so hard and staring at it forever that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees anymore.

(Though part of me optimistically kept insisting that it was good. And, while writing it, I DID love it. It was after, when I thought that what I saw in my head and what I got on paper were two different things that I went a little nutty.)

Writers, this is a lesson. It really is true that you are often a poor judge of your work — or a harsh judge, perhaps. We are harder on ourselves than anyone else is. We’ll take praise, be happy over it, and brush it off while remembering every single word of a rejection or a contest judge’s negative comments. You simply must get past those and press on if you are to get anywhere in this business. (Remind me I said this when I get my first negative review.)

Now, I’m working on a proposal for Book 3, and hoping to get that done today or tomorrow and off to my agent. CAVELLI’S LOST HEIR had a princess as a secondary character who I just fell in love with. She is the heroine in the proposal, so hopefully I’ll get to tell her story. Naturally, she’s getting her very own prince — and he is delicious! Prince Nico Cavelli was a bad boy — but I think my new prince is even badder. I do love a bad boy, especially when he’s being reformed.

Do you like bad boys? Princes? What are your favorite kind of themes or plots when reading?

PS Soon, my new website should be launching! I’m so excited about it! Keep visiting me because I’ll start giving away goodies soon to celebrate. And thanks for sticking with me thus far.

1. So I finished the revisions, sent them off around 2AM, and collapsed in bed. Except sleep wouldn’t come. Sometime after 4, I fell asleep.

2. Got up to have lunch with a friend (though it was really breakfast for me). Spicy beef salad, yum.

3. Came home to answer Interview questions sent by my editor for UK M&B magazine.

4. Hope I don’t sound like an idiot since I’m a bit sleep deprived.

5. Uh, one of these questions is suspiciously like having to write a synopsis. I’ll do it anyway.

6. Proposal needs to be finished. What is the hero’s deep, driving problem? I don’t know yet!

7. Lunch with writer friends is fun. Especially when we get into a discussion about the words we can use to describe certain, ahem, things.

8. I hate euphemism after a while.

9. Looking forward to the weekend. Mother cooking dinner for us. This is always nice.

10. Soon, it’ll be time for yard work again. I don’t look forward to that. *sigh*

11. I LOVE my job. Even if I’m sleep deprived from time to time.

What’s on your mind?

Do you Google yourself? I do. I never know what I’ll find. I have Google alerts, but they don’t always work quite as thoroughly as a search will.

Imagine my surprise to find myself listed as a Simon and Schuster author! And I do mean ME, not the other Lynn Harrises out there. The page is cached, of course, because someone realized the mistake. But look at this link.

(My name was linked too, but that is long gone, sigh. Wish I knew what they’d attributed to me.)

Seriously, dear, dear Simon and Schuster, if you would like me to write a book or two (or three or four) for you, I’d be happy to entertain the idea! And then you could put the link back. Pretty please?

If you Google yourself, what’s the oddest or most surprising thing you’ve ever found?

Want to know what high concept is? Then read this post by agent Holly Root at Waxman Literary. I rather liked it. Now if only I could think of one.

I still haven’t read Twilight (will eventually) but I started Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark (pub 2001) and there it was — a glowing vampire. Apparently, glowing vampires didn’t start with Meyers. It takes more than a glowing vampire to make a high concept, of course, and Meyers managed it. I think, from the periphery, that Twilight is Wuthering Heights with vampires directed at teens. Will have to read to know for sure, of course.

What do you think about high concept? Does it come easy to you? Make sense? I’m still mulling it.

I don’t usually talk about books much here but I just read one that irritated me so bad I had to rant about it. I thought the Big M was history. What’s the Big M?

The Big Misunderstanding

Characters are kept apart by something that could be resolved with a conversation. Kept apart for a brief while over such a thing isn’t unbelievable — not all of us suddenly jump up and demand to know the truth. We might labor under a delusion for a little while because we’re still trying to figure it out in our heads and making sure we aren’t jumping to the wrong conclusions.

But a misunderstanding that goes on for an entire book? Something that could have been solved with a conversation instead of the pages and pages of angsting over the past? I was seriously surprised at this book.

And I wonder if maybe I just didn’t get it, if the fault is with me as a reader because the Big M didn’t work for me or I wasn’t able to see how deeply this misunderstanding would affect the characters’ ability to discuss the truth. I’m just not sure.

I must say, however, that I’ve read other books by this author that were just fab, so I’m not put off entirely. I was just a little disappointed in this one.

I’m pretty positive I’m going to write things that don’t resonate with all readers. Of course that bothers me because I am a perfectionist. Realistically, I know there will be those who dislike my work. I don’t look forward to that, but I know it’s going to happen.

What do you do when a book fails to meet expectations? Do you write the author off? Do you give him or her another try? What plots drive you crazy?

This post should be required reading for any and everyone setting out to write a novel for the first time. It WILL get better. But first, the long and winding road. Embrace it, live it, emerge a new writer.

But who knows for how long? Book 2 is sitting in my editor’s inbox. So I get to breathe for a few days — until I get back the revisions. *sigh* After my last book, I’m trying to prepare myself.

So what does a neurotic writer do with herself in the days between shipping off the book and waiting to hear back? She might catch up on household tasks. Might consider going grocery shopping and adding variety to the diet — chicken, chicken, and chicken gets a little tiring night after night.

She might read. She might start working on the next book because she hopes they will want another one. She might go shoe shopping. She might watch a movie or catch up on the hours and hours of DVR programs she has.

Truthfully, I feel like someone who has been going 100 miles an hour and suddenly comes to a full stop. I still feel the motion and still feel like I need to be moving. So, who knows what I’ll do? I sure don’t.

Except for lucky lunch. That’s a must. What do you do when you finish a project?

You still have time to guess the desks! And no one popped up with names for an Italian hero, so I’m still thinking about that. How about some eye candy for inspiration? He could be a prince, don’t you think? Works for me. DEFINITELY works for me….

Feeling inspired? Or just a bit warm?