I was a bit quiet on the net/blog/twitter front for a couple of weeks before I went away. The reasons were twofold. I had an injured man to fuss over (always an excuse to pamper and tease the Real Life Hero ;-) and work wise I was in a phase of planning ahead. That means new ideas, proposals, and mapping out my work schedule for the next year or so.
To help me keep organised I have a whiteboard where I list projects with their deadlines, and I also have a wipe clean year chart where I block off chunks of time for the individual projects. Things will change as I go along (hence the *wipe clean* board and year planner ;-) but I need to have a long range plan to help me decide which order I need to work on things. It can always be shuffled as needs be.
For the next two weeks I am mostly editing, and in between times I hope to finish up a short novel that has been on hold for a long while. We are away in Northumberland for a few days later in the month and I hope to get a few things tidied away before that, because once I get back I'll be writing on new projects.
When we came back from our brief trip to the coast I had various bits of good news in my mailbox. Yay! First up a message from my editor at Spice informed me I had no revisions to do on THE HARLOT. Wooohoo! I was astonished! She said she was "bowled over" by the novel, which is just about the best response a writer could wish for. I've been grinning like a fool here, and I'm hopeful that readers will enjoy the story as much as my editor did.
I also came back to confirmation of a new contract to write three more Spice Briefs for publication in 2012. There was also news of a short story sale (more on that soon) and a royalty payment (cos of course being paid for all this hard work is always cause for celebration. ;-)
I hope to be able to share the cover from THE HARLOT soon, meanwhile here is the cover copy:
It is a Dark Era, one when a lusty lass will do what she must to survive. Even if it means bartering flesh for a palmful of coins…
Forced to watch her mother burned at the stake and separated from her siblings in the aftermath, Jessie Taskill is similarly gifted, ripe with a powerful magic that must stay hidden. Until one night when she's accused by a rival, and Jessie finds herself behind prison walls with a roguish priest unlike any man of the cloth she has known.
In reality, Gregor Ramsay is as far from holy as the devil himself, but his promise of freedom in return for her services may be her salvation. Locked into a dubious agreement, Jessie resents his plan to have her seduce and ruin his lifelong enemy. But toying with Gregor’s lust for her is enjoyable, and she agrees to be his pawn while secretly intending to use him just as he is using her.…
