It’s been a busy few weeks for me. I’ve been writing new stories, refreshing old ones, and getting a whole set of releases ready.
Killing Game comes out this weekend and it will be nice to see my very first original novel back on the market. It’s had a revamp since it first came out and I’ve improved it in places. I loved exploring Cain, and it’s truly his story, showing his darkness and at the same time giving readers a real feel for his fight for redemption and his desire to cleanse himself so he can be with Lily. I have always loved hit men, and even wanted to be one as a child (although my inability to kill things would have eventually done my dream in. I’d make a great Buddhist)
I’ve been working on getting my historical pirate romance twosome, The Merciless and The Merciless: Vengeance, ready for re-release later in the autumn. Final edits have been done on paper because I was sorely lacking a laptop at the time and I always spot more errors when I read off paper. I just need to suffer through the laborious task of transferring all the corrections into the word document and then I’m done with those two books and they’ll be ready for release.
Since getting my new laptop, I’ve been writing again. First up was The Night, which I now have the rough first draft of penned. It’s a fantasy romance set in my Tri-Kingdom series and is only a short at 16000 words, but it still packs a punch and is a great introduction to this new world of mine. It’s completely fantasy, a whole new world with little resemblance to our own. There’s a myriad of characters to explore, including elementals, vampires, werewolves, sky pirates, sea pirates, witches, wizards, faeries, elves and the reigning empires monarchies, to name but a few. It’s going to be very colourful and involving, and I’m very excited about writing more in this series as I really get to let go.
Okay, I do get to let go when I’m writing my Vampires Realm series too, but not to this extent. There are rules in the VR world that clearly can’t be broken as it’s set in our world. With the Tri-Kingdom series, I have free rein to do as I want.
Which neatly brings me onto the Vampires Realm series…
I’m writing a new story for it, a short that my fellow author Maria urged me into writing because she really wanted Venturi and Prophecy to get together. When I offered up a mention of maybe writing a story involving Prophecy, Venturi AND Valentine, she was relentless in convincing me to go ahead with it. So, I’m now writing a ProVenTine story (nifty shipper word, huh? PROphecy VENturi valentine in case you were wondering… does sound like a Roman general though).
The short story in question is being written as I speak, or type if you like, and I’ve clocked up 9000 words of it in just a day and a bit. Not bad, if I do say so myself. It’s very hot, extremely burn-your-hands hot. It has the potential to burst into flames on my laptop! I hope it doesn’t since I’ve only just got the bugger and would like to keep it in one piece.
It’s entitled Spellbound and has jumped the queue somewhat, leaping over Reunion and In Heat: Mating Call to be written first. I don’t mind as it means I get to release it earlier, which is always exciting. I had scheduled it in for a Jan 2008 date, but I might be able to get it out for Halloween. I’ve decided that I like being able to write on the fly, shifting my schedule around to suit. I’ve got release dates reserved as I know I’ll always have something ready for them, but it’s pot-luck which story it is. Stories seem to flow better if I write what I’m in the mood to write and throw the schedule out of the window!
In terms of the heat level for Spellbound, think In Heat and then add some. I’m really exploring the power of a threesome here, and of course a vampiric threesome is always going to be hotter than your average one. I may even bring in a little bondage, magical of course, since it’s Prophecy involved. Interestingly I’m writing it strictly from her POV. I just started out that way and it seems to fit the story nicely.
Next on the cards once this has been written is In Heat: Mating Call, the sequel to my bestseller In Heat (sold 800 copies to date, not bad for roughly 8 weeks on the market, and spent 3 weeks at number 1 in Erotica on Fictionwise). The sequel introduces another character, this time a rival for Erik. The dreams return and are hotter than ever since there’s now another man involved, Prince Kristian of Denmark – a white tiger shapeshifter. I’ve got it all plotted out and scene plans written. I should be able to start writing it next week, once I’ve read over In Heat for a refresher on the characters and have finished writing Spellbound.
I’ve got a couple of covers to make. I’ve done the roughs for In Heat: Mating Call and have ideas in my head for Spellbound and Cabin Fever (a winter 2007 release). I just need to get around to making them. None of them are going to be turned into paperbacks, so I won’t need to fork out too much hard cash to get them made.
Wow, that’s a big update!
I’m really proud of In Heat for selling so well. I can’t wait to get cracking on the sequel, and while I have an inkling that I may well write a third story for Prince Kristian, I’m not going to make any promises. I do like the stories, but I’m not sure whether or not they should become a series. I’ll see how I feel. There’s a lot of stories that I can write along these lines but I don’t want to end up writing same-old same-old stuff. I know most HQN novels are just rehashes of the same plot with the odd difference, but I don’t want to go there just to make money.
