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Pitch Slam and Twitter

Twitter is something I've avoided for a long time. I truly feel that society trying to carry on conversations with a hard character limit is bad. B-A-D. We should be encouraging people to be verbose and explain themselves!

That said, Twitter is a useful tool and I've taken the plunge. Find me there @PeggyLeeCarpenter. Truly original!

In other news, I've taken the plunge and have entered Pitch Slam. I've submitted to both the Pitch and the First 250 rounds and been a lucky lottery winner for feedback in both. Let me tell you, writing a 35 word pitch is HARD. Thankfully, I received awesome feedback and hope my pitch is better now! I'm awaiting my feedback for the first 250 words of my book. Follow #PitchSlam on Twitter!

Wednesday is the full round where selections are made to be shown to agents who are participating. It's my first contest and I'm excited and nervous. I'm super thankful for the feedback and it was well worth it even if I don't make the final round.

Siren's Call is out still with Avon. I'm using The Mad Baron's Doomed Daughter for Pitch Slam. Can I just say...I really love these two books. I look at them and see how much better I've gotten since I started seriously writing about three years ago. There's a long way to go to be great, but right now I am pretty darn happy with looking at my stuff as being good.

So, that is where I am at as October rolls towards the inevitable Halloween conclusion.

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Online v IRL

Despite my chosen hermit lifestyle, I enjoy being around people. It's fun to talk and listen to other people talk and then tell them goodbye and return to my air conditioned hermit cave. I especially like the talking part. I love to talk. Loud talking as I share stupid jokes and stories about how I was tormented as a child is a thing I love above all others.

Seriously, do not ask about the slide incident. I was so viciously wronged on that day I still have not forgiven family members. You know who you are. Wait, do ask, because I love to tell the story! It's hilarious. No, it's not.

Shawn, the beloved man who puts up with me, once told someone I have a book of grudges. He's correct. He can get furious and then get over it, but I remember always. I don't DO anything about these wrongs, but I do remember them! More stories to tell, after all. With much emotion and gnashing of teeth do I love to tell these stories.

In person.

Online, I do prefer to be quiet. I join groups on Facebook and follow people on Twitter and even have this blog. None of which I actually talk on much. I like to read what people say and occasionally read what other people say out loud to my husband. Especially funny tweets as he has only recently taken up FB reading with any regularity and still never visits his twitter page.

Considering my current hermit status in real life I think it would be a boon to switch these up. I would rather avoid people IRL as I so rarely come in contact with people outside the family. If I lived in a bigger town with more options for delivery of items I might never step foot outside. Then I could be funny and interesting and, well, louder online. Where I feel I should be louder because people should find me interesting so when I publish a book they want to see what that interesting person wrote!

Alas, I think I am a hopeless cause. Which is sad considering I met my husband on the internet. Back before that was a socially acceptable thing. It's a funny story. If we ever met I would love to tell it to you.

 

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A Duke to Remember

Pre-orders are up for the winning chapters of Avon FanLit. You can find it here: http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062458957/a-duke-to-remember

All of the winners are super talented. You should pre-order this and you should watch all of these ladies as great things are ahead for them, I am sure!

And stay tuned for some changes on the website!

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On minor discomfort and misbehaving characters

I spent the weekend thinking I should write, but a disgusting headache most of Saturday stole my will to do anything but whine and be sad for myself. So, I said I should at least do a blog post, but I couldn't be bothered as I was busy wishing I felt better.

Sunday came and I felt better, but was busy doing all the things I did not do on Saturday.

Today I am better. I've managed to write about 1000 words on the Mad Baron's Doomed Daughter. My characters are frustrating me and I have a feeling a lot of what I've written lately will require cutting. Surely this constant back and forth will resolve itself. In the meantime I will let them meander a bit knowing I can take a figurative red pen to them later. They are all like nervous dogs being tossed into a new pack.

I was looking over my first novel, written three years ago, and how sad. Sad. The whole series will be getting a rewrite. Which means I have about 400k words to redo. Although not this year. This year is already full, but next year I'd like to make time for that as well as new writing.

There also needs to be time made to work on the website. I want to do more with it, but every time I think of it there's something else to do. I should plan my time better. Even typing the words is to laugh. Myself and time management go way back. There's a bitter feud between us and there can be no winner.

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The Click Moment

At least, that's how I see it. Yesterday I finally reached the point in the story where two of the main characters made that first connection. It's going to be a rocky road for them over the next five books, but they've started the trip. This was not the first time they've been alone or even the first time they've talked, but it was the first time they managed to find a little chink in their own prisons so they could reach out. Disa is seriously fucked up from a lifetime of near solitude and decades of torture. Sorvjorn is less so, but he has plenty of demons of his own.

This is not a romance novel. There's no couple HEA at the end of book one. Instead it's a slow unfolding of a friendship that may or may not get to something else. I don't know yet. The characters are still too new to one another to know what will happen. I thrive on the unknown and chaos when writing so this doesn't bother me in the least. Still, the click moment. I love it and I am impatient to see what happens next.

 

“No,” Sorvjorn said as he forced his feet to stay in place. “No, don’t cry, Disa. Please.” He lost the battle of wills and shuffled closer, hands at his sides. “I don’t want to make you cry. I won’t touch you. Promise. I know you don’t want me touching you.” The words stabbed in his heart, but he couldn’t entirely blame her. He was too big, too different, to attract much attention from the prettier women. “Look, I’ll go get wood. You light that lantern, Disa. Get some light in here and close the window and I’ll bring back wood.”

Disa’s head lifted and he smiled at her. “The door doesn’t lock on the outside,” she said.

“So?” Sorvjorn asked, puzzled.

“So, how will you lock me in? What if I run off?”

“I’m not your jailer!” Sorvjorn said hotly. She recoiled from his anger and he winced. “Disa, I was worried about you. I am worried about you. But if…if you don’t want me here I’ll go get you wood and something to eat and then leave you.” He wouldn’t go back to Laelia who would lecture and interrogate him.

“I’m a freak,” Disa said. “Why would you want to be here? You could be anywhere. With anyone.” She shuffled to the window and pulled it closed after knocking snow from the sill. “I don’t understand.” In the dark she turned and stared at him. “You touched me.” It was half an accusation and Sorvjorn didn’t know how to respond. “No one touches me. Not even the ones who like to scare me and threaten me. No one touches me. But you did. I don’t know why.”

Sorvjorn watched as she tried to light the lantern on the counter. He added oil to the list of items to buy. “Disa,” he said when she gave up. “I don’t think you’re a freak. And it sounds selfish to say it, but part of why I like being by you is that you keep us calm.” Disa’s laugh was short and sharp. “Not just him,” Sorvjorn said. “Laelia forces him to be calm. She makes us two people and we aren’t. We’re one person and we don’t fight around you. I don’t know why.”

In his coat she looked small, but she wasn’t. He liked that she was almost as tall as him. He didn’t like how thin she was because it meant she wasn’t eating. “You need me.” He almost missed the words, intent on staring at her. She was pretty. What were a few scars? Or even more than a few? He wanted to kiss her.

“Uh, yea,” he managed. “I think so. Liked touching you. Like being useful.” They weren’t so different, he thought. “Won’t touch you though, Disa. Promise. Only, maybe someday, you might like to hold my hand. Would like that.” She didn’t say anything. “I’ll, uh, go get wood. Will you wait here for me?”

“I will,” Disa said and he smiled. He left her there in the freezing room and hurried to the market. He took a wrong turn twice, but was back in less than an hour.

 

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What am I working on?

My amazing beta reader/editor is working his way through Siren's Call. Right now he's about a third of the way through it. What happens when he's done? I am not sure. I'm glad to have his gracious assistance because my husband is not much of a historical romance fan. It does help that it takes place aboard a naval ship. He's a huge fan of sailing ships, as am I, and his knowledge is certainly within easier recall than mine. This was my first foray in to a romance structure. My other books have had romance elements, but never have I done a book with that as a core plot. It was tough, but I'm pleased enough with it. 

I am working on book one in the Mad Baron's Doomed Daughter series. I'm planning on doing six books, one for each of the dead gods' replacements. The setting is an alternate Earth where Ragnarok has occurred. It was fun to dive in to this as it's definitely darker than Siren's Call and I tend to get a little dark in my writing so keeping that tamped down in my romance novel took a little work. Although it has several dark elements. 

And, of course, I am still learning to fine tune the website. As I'd rather be writing a book than web content this is slow going. 

Once I finish this book I am not sure where I will jump next. Perhaps I'll seriously sit down and work seriously at editing and adjusting my post apocalypse series. Which needs a name. I also have ideas for several sequels to the romance book, plus another Angels book, plus the rest of the Mad Baron series. If only I had a couple extra brains!

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Here we go!

This blog is where I'll post longer thoughts and ideas. I'll also post a few excerpts from my existing and WIP projects. That's a lot of words to pull stuff from. Hopefully some of them are even good. 

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