It’s freaking freezing here. It’s almost 11 and it’s 57 degrees a week before the fourth of July. I just had to close the window beside me, and I’m tough. I don’t button my coat until it’s ten degrees above zero (anyone remember the old song, “The Logger”? That’s me.) Not sure if we’re going to have much of a summer.
I went down to NJ to visit my Best Pal, Jenny Crusie, and we talked and cuddled dogs and went to Wonder Woman and shopped and talked and talked and talked. All of my close friends around here have moved, leaving me with only acquaintances and I tend to bemoan the fact, but you know, the quality of my friendships with people like Jenny is so high it’s a good trade-off.
Still fighting the epic battle of revising Brandon and Emma (I was a about three quarters done when I could go no further, and I’ve practically written a new book since then). The good news is, it’s going to be excellent once it’s done – I’m getting rid of all the fluff, even if I loved it, and I’ll put the best fluff here. I’ve got a number of goodies, like a deleted love scene from WARRIOR (one of the Kristina Douglas books) and some cool stuff from others that, much as I love it, just doesn’t fit. William Faulkner said “Kill your darlings” and I dutifully do so, but every now and then I like to revisit them.
There are some fabulous books out there – I listened to the Audie winner for best romance, DIRTY by Kylie Scott (excellent), WHITE HOT by Ilona Andrews (worth the wait), the latest Patricia Briggs, with a new Jay Crownover, the female Sherlock Holmes from Sherry Thomas, and so many other good things to read. I think there’s a new Meredith Duran coming out, plus tons of others. I’d love to hear recommendations if anyone has any.
New reissues (revised and cleaned up a bit but not necessarily updated – some of the stories belong in the time they were written). BREAK THE NIGHT 
is my Jack the Ripper story. It was a RITA finalist, and I was was surprised to see physical copies of the paperback are starting at $40 some dollars. Yikes. http://amzn.to/2sdPx64 This was my one book for Silhouette Shadows, the short-lived paranormal line that produced so many wonderful books. Maggie Shayne had vampires, someone else had werewolves, so I said “I’ll do Jack the Ripper!” thinking gaslight and lurking evil etc.
Unfortunately I had no idea how gross Saucy Jack was. I got several books about him, then was horrified to discover that there were pictures of the crime scenes, of mutilated bodies! He was really, really foul – he didn’t cut throats, he cut parts …
Anyway, my darling niece paper clipped those pages together for me so I wouldn’t have to see them while I read about him. I still had to wallow in the stuff in order to write the book, and in the end it was worth it, but next time I’ll do a little more research before I raise my hand and say “me, me, me!”
The book is all about reincarnation in modern day Venice, California – the hero and the heroine have shadowy memories, and they’re tied in with a new spate of killings. The hero, a freelance journalist on the edge, is horribly afraid he might be the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper himself.
For some reason the French love it – they reissued it three times. I went in and cleaned things up a bit, took out any clunky phrasing, added to the love scenes (of course), caught any mistakes (I think this was the one where the heroine’s eye color changed throughout the book). But it’s a good ‘un, part of the Greatest Hits collection (One More Valentine, Cinderman, Blue Sage, Night of the Phantom, and The Soldier, the Nun and the Baby).
And if you have a Kindle Fire, today is the day you can buy the House of Russell series (Never Kiss etc) for a special price. I need to dig out my Fire and see – I’m usually on the Paperwhite since you can read outdoors with it. But if you haven’t read them it might be a good way.
And one of my absolutely best books, NIGHTFALL, is on sale for the rest of the month for $1.99 at Amazon.http://tinyurl.com/y7exaoua
But you know, I don’t like selling books, I like talking. Go buy the new Ilona Andrews or something else – just read. It’s the most glorious thing in the world – sometimes it feels like the only safe place. At least, that’s the way it’s always been for me.
Cheers!
Today I read a blogpost by another writer, who referenced the Faulkner quote, “Kill your darlings.” She said that she tends to quote it as “Kill your puppies,” just to give nonwriters an idea of how very painful and disturbing the process can be.
I’m glad that BREAK THE NIGHT is out again. Amazing book!
Glad you’re re-issuing these older books. I have them all (every one of your books except one Maggie Brown) and re-visit them.
Suggestion. I stumbled upon two authors for my Kindle and bought some of their books before a trip and LOVED them. Kimberly Frost’s laugh out loud Southern Witch series (her hero reminds me of your bad boys) and Donna Augustine. I’ve read three of Donna’s series and they’re good. (Alchemy series was free on Kindle, Karma series was very cheap, The Wilds (my favorites) and a new one about Ollie Wit.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’m always looking for new books.
In an earlier post you thought that Banish Misfortune would be out in May but I can’t find it on Amazon Kindle. Do you have a new date for it?
So sorry I didn’t see this note until now. BANISH MISFORTUNE came out as Until The Snow Falls (or something like that) because no one could say Banish Misfortune (try it – it comes out Banish Mishfortune) and referring to it by the initials wasn’t an option.
Looking for Break the Night you have rewritten/polished. I did get this book with new cover on eBay but the copyright states 1993. The revised book should state 2017 for copyright, yes? One More Valentine is my favorite. Thank you for being you.