Adventures in assuming the worst

A bit over five years ago, I was in my very first apartment in a new city all on my own. I worked weird shifts, didn't have friends in the area, and lacked a car, which was a very isolating and dark experience. This was made about a million times worse by my cruddy windows (single paned) that leaked cold air constantly, and a shower that somehow generated a frigid breeze no matter how hot I turned up the water. Loneliness is extra bitter when it's impossible to warm up.

I couldn't fix the windows, but I could fix the loneliness. So I got a cat.

Head not included.

When I went to pick out a kitty, there were a lot of very beautiful cats. There was a huge Maine Coon with a fan club cooing over his absurdly big body, a gorgeously exotic white cat, and a couple cages of kittens being all cute and stealing the show. And then there was Poe: a two year old black cat lurking in a corner doing nothing interesting at all.

I've got a soft spot for the loners, so I took her home with me. She turned out to be a dream cat. Super cuddly, gentle with her claws, very ladylike, and smart enough to open doors.

Also, I am WICKEDLY allergic to her. I never had a cat before, so I had no idea this would happen. But I couldn't take her back. She kneads on my arm, grooms my hair, and snuggles my chin while I go into some minor form of anaphylaxis. Worth it.

Poe is such an amazing cat that I ended up getting two more over the next couple of years (yes, I am also allergic to them) as well as a dog. But she will always be my first roommate, my first baby, and my bestest friend.

Top: Best friend and companion. Bottom: Baby manatee.

So when my roommate/baby/friend starts leaving puddles of pink-tinged pee all over the house, it's time for PANIC.

I am a compulsive internet searcher when it comes to ailments of any kind. I tell people that my general practitioner is Dr. Google and I'm only half-joking about it. The main problem with "visiting" Dr. Google is that you usually get two options about what could be wrong: 1.) something likely and reasonable, and 2.) horrible cancerous death. Being a writer, I will ALWAYS believe it's horrible cancerous death.

So in the case of bloody urine: 1.) urinary tract infection, requiring antibiotics, or 2.) kidney failure, requiring DEATH.

I was reeling. I wept all over my house for about an hour. You know, an "OH GOD MY CAT IS GOING TO DIE" drama kind of thing. Mind you, my cat was content and purring the whole time I was flipping out. BUT MAYBE SHE WAS PURRING BECAUSE SHE WAS DYING.

So I rushed her off to the vet and got their very first appointment for the morning booked. (I showed up a half hour early.)

Poe was quiet on the whole ride over, and when I let her out of the carrier, she immediately curled in my lap purring again (DEATH PURR). Never mind that Poe has always been a weirdo who likes car rides. Her silence could only mean HORRIBLE IMMINENT DEATH.

She flopped on her back, paws in the air, and let the vet probe her, which she probably thought meant I had taken her to a spa where nice ladies give belly massages. Meanwhile, I was CONVINCED that her lethargy meant she was going to DIE, and already drafting her eulogy in my head and swearing I would never love again.

I sobbed when they took her in back for a blood sample. Yeah. That's right. Sobbed. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

When they brought her out, I had already made my peace with the Great Cat in the Sky. But the smiling vet lady handed her back to me (still purring, despite her fashionable leg warmer bandages) and said that Poe looked like she was in great health, had a minor urinary tract infection, and that she probably peed a little blood because she's irritated. They gave me antibiotics and a $200 vet bill (!!!) and sent me on my way.

So... my cat's not dead.

She does, however, think I'm a total drama queen.

There's probably a lesson to be learned here. Something about spending less time with Dr. Google and more time selecting quality cat food that will prevent these health problems. (I'm shopping around.) Or something something life is precious something something rainbows unicorns something something.

I'll figure it out later. I need to rest for my headache, which is either a fatal case of dengue fever, oncoming leprosy, or from crying over a perfectly fine cat. (I bet it's dengue fever.)

Lovin' covers (#2)

I'm starting to keep an eye on covers as I go through my daily blogs (my feed reader has like 200 posts a day, yikes) and saving the ones that catch my eye. There's no rhyme or reason to my selections, really. They're just things that popped out at me.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

 I'm a big fan of covers focused around a single, iconic element with understated backgrounds. This one stands out because of the cold stare reflected in the blade of the knife, which adds extra interest without making it noisy. This is totes on my TBR because I hear good things about the plot and characterization. (Not to mention it's about a girl who's been killing people since she was eight-- score!) (Should I be worried  about how much that excites me?)

Le Baiser du Rasoir by Daniel Polansky

So... um... I'm not sure, but I think this is the French cover for Low Town. And I'm not sure what's going on in this cover, either, but for some reason I just think it's amazing. The colors are beautiful and moody, the text contrasts nicely, and the mysterious figure in the background isn't hurting anything.

It doesn't look anything like what I suspect is the American edition, but that's not a bad thing, because the American cover's pretty blah.

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

I love how claustrophobic this cover is. Almost half of it is black, and the dangling cover model looks like she must be very uncomfortable. Appropriate, given the dark themes of the book. It's strongly emotional without being exploitative. (Friend and librarian Jessi at the Elliott Review wrote a great review--check it out!)

Horizon by Sophie Littlefield

This cover really works for me, although I'm not a huge fan of the rest of the series. For one, it bugs me that Luna feels like they have to stamp their logo on everything. For another, Rebirth looked kind of cheap, and Aftertime was too ambiguous. But Horizon is great. The silhouette black on blue desert with the birds in the background is fab, I can actually read the title on this one, too, the barbed wire looks awesome with the stark background. It makes me think the other covers would have been better if they had been less blobby and put the character front and center.

Flight, Volume 4

Guh.

Okay, this is kind of cheating. It's a graphic novel anthology, not a novel-novel. But look at it. LOOK AT IT. Do I even need to add commentary?

We've had a lot of new announcements and covers come out in the last week or so, and it seems like they aren't quite as eye-catching as they have been lately. Maybe I've missed some releases or something.

What covers are you lovin?

A strange kind of love story

It's funny that I suck at writing romance and make faces when I try to watch romantic movies (Kate & Leopold practically sent me into barf attacks), because my husband and I are the most stupidly romantic people. Well, we are now, anyway--but it wasn't always like that.

I was eighteen when we met, and he was nineteen. I'd just started my First Real Job out of high school with a government office, where he was employed as a college student worker. There were instant sparks. We drew cute pictures and left them around the office for one another to discover. We flirted relentlessly by email, sent lots of cutesy steamy text messages, and finally agreed to hook up for a movie on my day off.

Then we went on our first date, and I realized that I had never stood next to this guy before. We'd always spoken with one of us sitting down.

And he was three inches shorter than me. 

HORROR OF HORRORS!

Nowadays, I can't believe I would have ever been upset about this, but let me try to provide context: I was a dumbass teenager. Period. My life experience was limited and my brain was full of The Stupid.

It's not like it's unusual for men to be shorter than me; I'm five foot nine in bare feet (which is almost 1.8 meters, for you people with a rational measurement system). Since I wore lots of boots at the time, I towered over most everyone.

But, you know, idiot teenager. Having a diminutive date was a dealbreaker.

Ugh. I'm so embarrassed to admit this.

Anyway, the date went downhill from there. Apparently the height thing was such a big deal that suddenly everything else this cute, sexy, charming, hilarious guy did became obnoxious to my judgmental brain.

So halfway through the movie, I walked out without telling him and went home.

Yeah, feel free to hate me. I hate me, too.

Needless to say, that was not the beginning of a bright and beautiful relationship. This amazing guy gave me the benefit of the doubt and tracked me down a few days later to make sure I was okay (oh god oh god I'm such a bitch) and I blew him off.

Stuff happened. A couple months passed. I stumbled around making lots of other bad dating decisions (but those are stories for another time), and when January rolled around, I was put on a different shift that meant I came face-to-face with Hunky Short Guy all the time.

Being the kind, forgiving soul that he is, he asked for another chance. One would hope I grew up during the time since our date, but I didn't. I took advantage of him. I was mean. I was rude. I made petty jabs at his height. But Hunky Short Guy (who looked a lot like Daniel Radcliffe, by the way) persisted for reasons which are entirely beyond me.

If you ask my husband why he put up with it now, he'll give you a pragmatic response, like, "I knew you were a good person. I was waiting to get to know you better." But he's full of shit, because I was not a good person.

He told me he loved me every day for about a solid month. I ignored it. I mean, at the time, I was convinced there was no way I could have a future with him.

Then something odd changed. We went to the pet store to get cat litter for the real one true love of my life at the time (kitty-face Poe), and he insisted on helping me save money by getting the bulk bag of cat litter. You know, those 200 lb bags that take a freaking forklift to move. He hauled it to the checkstand, and then out to his car in a cold, icy parking lot, even though the thing was bigger than he was. (He's very strong.)

I laughed at his determination to manhandle the Massive Cat Litter Bag, but his consistent compassion and gestures of love had made something tiny and warm spark in my ruthless heart.

And then, while he forced the giant bag in the petite trunk of his classic Prius, I realized I was in love with him. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. 

On the drive back to my apartment, I finally told him, "I love you."

He just winked at me and said, "I know."

Two years later, we were married.

I wore flats to the wedding.

Things have been pretty much constant nirvana in the three years since we tied the knot, although I do have manic depression, so I have ups and downs. But my husband has stuck with me through all of it.

There aren't enough nice adjectives in the world to describe him. I'll just leave it at "incredible."

I don't notice his height anymore, for the record, although I love the way our bodies fit together when we cuddle and it's kind of nice being the person who reaches the top shelf. He calls me an Amazon. I just call him stupid for putting up with me. (I guess some things never change.)

Happy anniversary, my love.

New paperbacks coming soon

The new paperbacks for Six Moon Summer and All Hallows' Moon are almost ready! It looks like these will be much cheaper than the last editions (seriously, 33% cheaper-- the old ones were $9, and these will be $6 through Amazon). 

They should be very affordable for my friends who prefer dead tree books to ereaders. :) And my mom. Who buys ALL of my books in every edition and now has an entire bookshelf just for stuff I've published. I hope you like these ones, Mommy.

Anyhoo, where the last editions were dark and gritty, these new covers are gorgeously colorful. They really pop. I can't wait to have them in my meaty paws.

QUICK TIP! Don't buy the ebook version of All Hallows' Moon right now if you haven't already done it. It's going to be free to download for Kindle on January 27th.

Also, in related news, I suck so badly at being a saleswoman that I've given up and started telling everyone not to buy my books. Snort.


I actually have the wraparound cover ready for Long Night Moon, too, but I'm not ready to reveal it yet. I had a little peek at it in another post, so here's another:

These should be available in February. And you know, if I had to pick a couple books to enjoy for Valentine's Day, these would be totally it. (Totally unbiased opinion here, of course.)

Anyway, I just had to share. I get stupid excited about paperbacks. :D

Click on the fakey temporary cover to add Long Night Moon to your TBR on Goodreads~

Fakey cover, take me away!

Vampire Diaries squeal alert!

"We kissed. Now it's weird." (credit)

EEEEEEK.
 

Okay, if you haven't been watching this season, I'm probably going to spoil you. So click away and find something to do that doesn't involve pouty vampire lips. ;)

 
First things first:

1. My local CW affiliate sucks big time. When Vampire Diaries returned from hiatus, we had image quality issues that made the episode jump around. Last week, they blacked out for ten whole minutes (right as Stefan drove Elena toward the bridge). And this week, they lost power halfway through! I'm going to buy the eps on iTunes and forget this stupid CW business completely. This is TORTURE.
2. On the other hand, I now own petulant Damon on my iPad, so life could be worse.
3. OMG ELIJAH OMG OMG.

The good.

  

Caroline is always good. Vampire Barbie is my favorite character, and I've loved her with Tyler. The way she stood by him through his first transformation was heartbreaking, losing him to Klaus was tragic, and seeing Tyler try to overcome the dark side for her is great. Although I wish there was less Papa Forbes involved. (More on that later.)
 
Also, how much am I loving Elena?

  

There's no denying that she's a flouncy Mary Sue who endangers her friends with spunky agency, but my favorite subplot this season has been the way she's taken charge of her human vulnerability, trained with Alaric (history teacher and vampire hunter), and started kicking ass in her own special way. 

  

It's been a slow, rewarding process without excessive training montages, so it really feels like she's earning the ability to stand up for herself. And Elena's training came to a head last night when she beat a guy with his own shotgun and knocked him out (squeal #1!). 

  

Evil Stefan noticed that she's becoming stronger, which seems to have given him prickly warm feelings in his deadened heart. Enough that we got Epic Broody face when Elena announced that she's been sucking face with Damon, and then some fisticuffs between brothers (squeal #2!).

Almost as good as hilarious sobbing Stefan.

Stefan is totally right, by the way. Elena is too good for both of them--Damon, who killed her brother and abused Caroline, and Stefan, who's basically an addict and murderer doomed to an eternity of regression. She sent Jeremy away to save him, but maybe she's the one that needs to be leaving Mystic Falls.

The bad.

Evil Stefan. Yawn. I loved his storyline when it involved tons of bromance with Klaus. The way it humanized the Big Bad was touching without weakening him. Since then, Klaus has become more of an irritant than a looming danger, and Stefan's getting downright obnoxious. There's no reason he's acting this way anymore. It's stupid.

Speaking of stupid: Alaric. He's dating someone who thinks it's a good idea to inject vampire blood in her patients? And why the heck does that make her less of a suspect in the murder of her ex-boyfriend? Dr. Fell is obviously evil. Plus, no matter what Elena says about moving on, Jenna died like two weeks ago in TV show time, and everybody has forgotten about her. Poor Jenna.

Finally, Caroline's dad. What is with the amnesia on this show? Am I the only one who remembers that he brutalized his daughter? Every time he said something to Tyler like, "I'm going to keep you away from my little girl," I had to snort. Seriously, Papa Forbes? Seriously?

In summary.

This show managed to thrill and frustrate me in equal parts. I need more Caroline and Tyler in my life (without her dad, thanks) and more of Elena shedding spunky agency for real agency. But I'm getting really tired of Klaus and Stefan butting heads like giraffes in heat.

Who cares, though? ELIJAH.  ♥ ♥ ♥

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the extended promo for next week's episode:

What was your favorite part of TVD this week?

I'm done!

I finished Long Night Moon!

Allow Dick van Dyke to summarize my feelings on the matter:

Thank you Dick.

That is all.

The Darkest Gate in progress

I'm still not done with Long Night Moon (wtf), even though I'm so close that I might as well be. There are just a couple missing spots now. Someone with an organized brain could probably dash off the end in an afternoon, but that someone is not me. I might as well start editing it at this point--that's how close I am.

I'll probably print off the first half of the book and start editing it this week. In the meantime, I'm working on The Darkest Gate. Here's a short peek:

If James were to list “signs of impending apocalypse” from least worrisome to most, he would rank mundane things at the bottom—scrambled eggs, golden retriever puppies, a topiary in the shape of a dinosaur—and move up from there to slightly more worrying indicators. Earthquakes. Locusts. Raining blood. Dead cows.

Finding nine missed calls from Elise might not have been at the top of the list, but it was close. Perhaps directly below “death of all firstborn children in the nation.”

from Chapter 5 of The Darkest Gate

When I decided to finally publish The Descent Series (I wrote the first three books almost three years ago), I thought it would be a quick, easy revision process. After all, I'm a very efficient writer. I usually hash out major plot problems before writing the rough draft, so editing involves smoothing things out and killing 10% of what I've written. It's straight forward.

What I didn't take into account is that my writing has changed drastically in three years. And, um, I used to suck.

The concepts in The Darkest Gate are cool, but I seem to have gone out of my way to progress the plot in the most passive way imaginable. Conflict and resolution are mostly achieved by sitting around talking. Maybe I was reading too much Twilight at the time. (Kidding. Kidding! Don't stab me.) The entire thing needs to be torn apart, restructured, and rewritten, which is hardly a few slashes of the red pen.

At least I have a cool cover.

The main issue is that I wrote without a real plot in mind, so the story meanders. But I'm not going to start the book over from scratch. I could rewrite everything I've ever written until the cows come home, and it might be different each time, but not necessarily better.

Even so, I now find myself waffling over every scene that remains. Can I write this better now? Should I? Or should I be satisfied with what was, at the time, the best I could write?

I'm a good chunk of the way through restoring this bad boy, so I'm going to tentatively say it will drop at the end of March 2012. And it's going to turn out totally sweet, despite the fact that Sara-in-2008 was a much less professional writer than Sara-in-2012.

There's still a little while until I finish editing, so here's the blurb to tide you over:

When Elise Kavanagh retired from demon hunting, she swore it would be permanent. But an attack from a powerful necromancer forced her back into the business, and now she's trying to balance her normal boyfriend and normal job with everything supernatural.

Mr. Black is a demon hunter gone rogue. He's enslaving angels and stealing ethereal artifacts in pursuit of forbidden immortality. An old grudge drives him to make his final stand in Elise's territory. Destroying her life and killing her friends isn't the goal, but it's a definite perk.

A demonic overlord offers to join against Mr. Black and protect Elise's loved ones. All she needs to do is ally with the demons she's sworn to kill, at the cost of her morals--and maybe her immortal soul. But once she crosses that line, there's no turning back.

Nothing is sacred when Heaven and Hell collide on Earth...

What do you think? Sound good?

Lovin' covers (#1)

I'm kind of a nutjob for covers. I know what they say about "never judge a book" and suchlike, but I can't help it! I love books, and I love beautiful art, so beautiful art based on books? Total win!

White Cat by Holly Black

Holly Black's series is getting new covers (again?). I don't know how representative these are of the book's content, but I love the gorgeous typography. It's different, creative, and eye-catching. This would make me stop and stare in a bookstore. (If I bought my books in bookstores, that is...)

Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

In the further adventures of I Like Typography, I have discovered that I have a weakness for titles that are rotated 45 degrees. Why? Who knows! The strong sans-serif font contrasts beautifully with the author's name and really gives the impression of falling.

I think this cover is better at first glance, though. The longer I stare at it, the more I see all the grunge brushes in the background, get irritated with the lazy Photoshopping of her hair, and start to dislike the murky magenta thing behind the title. The concept is better than the execution. Best not to think about it too much.

Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne

Did you know that I read tarot cards? Well... you do now.

The cover of Harbinger reminds me of the Eight of Swords, which features a tied and blindfolded figure. Although this is a little more peaceful, it still has a lovely air of menace. I feel like they didn't quite take this far enough -- they haven't done much to unify the stock photo elements, and the colors feel lazily done -- but the model is beautiful and I'm crazy about the concept. And that border looks like the box my old ouija board came in. Yeah, I also do ouija boards, don't ask.

(Fun fact about me: I am the Queen of Swords. It's the card I always draw for myself. And now that you've learned that useless tidbit...)

The Night Watchman Express by Alison DeLuca

My husband is a HUGE train buff. My house is filled with model trains, we've been to every railroad museum ever, and my son owns every Thomas the Tank Engine toy in existence. Three of them. Being surrounded by such train nuttery rubs off after awhile. My favorite type of engine is the one pictured in the cover above, which has a fantastic art deco aesthetic and was far too short lived in the world of trains.

The book originally had a kind of clip art cover (eek!), but this redesign is fab. And the book itself is quite good, too. But, to be fair, it's really hard to do steampunk wrong.

What covers are you loving this week?

This is the book that never ends...

Yes it goes on and on my friends...

I have been working on Long Night Moon (the third book in the Seasons of the Moon series) for about A MILLION YEARS now. Maybe more like a million and a half.

Okay, since November. Which is like two months. Deal with it.


The end of books are my specialty. I do kickass climaxes that are like KERPOW! BIFF! KERBLOOEY! SHABLAM! At least six times cooler than Batman.



But this one is just not coming together.

The problem is that I'm not quite sure how to execute the dramatic conclusion. I've been excited about this book ever since I wrote Six Moon Summer, so you would think I would know exactly how everything plays out. But no. I know generally what happens, and the fallout of that, but now how it occurs.

At first, I thought the problem was that I had written 90% of the book in a couple short weeks and needed a break. So I gave myself a break. I wrote a novelette in the meantime (which you can get for free!) and spent a lot of time snuggling the Helpful Baby.

Then I had an emergency appendectomy (sigh), which was kind of a mixed blessing/curse. Nobody likes having surgery, but suddenly I found myself with TWO WHOLE WEEKS of free time on my hands while I recovered! Writing books while hopped up on opiates can't be any tougher than writing with a bottle of wine, right?

WRONG.

I'm now over a week into my recovery and I STILL haven't finished this STUPID book.

(Not that I have high expectations or anything.)

I'm at the point where I've shifted focus to The Darkest Gate (sequel to Death's Hand), even though I'm literally 98% done with Long Night Moon. That book is mostly written, needing only heavy revision to be prepared for the masses, so it's lower on my priority list. But at this rate, it's going to be ready first.

Grump.

In the meantime, I'm preparing to announce the cover for Long Night Moon. It's very pretty. I think you guys will love it. Here's a little teaser:

I'll be showing it off very soon, so hang tight! It's going to be ready before the STUPID BOOK. Which I'm going to go back and try to finish AGAIN. (I've seriously written about three endings for this one. You have no idea how annoyed I'm getting.)

*rolls back sleeves*

Okay, Long Night Moon, you want a fight? I'll give you a fight! Grrarr!