I finished the rough draft of Call of the Blood on Sunday night. Ended up with a page count of 415. On Monday, I began the great and glorious process of creating a synopsis for the story. Took me three hours, but the dreaded thing is done. And yeah, I am most definitely planning on writing a synopsis post in the very near future. In the meantime though, I am trying to get through the first draft of my edits. I don’t anticipate any major scene changes in the story (that’s why I went ahead with the synopsis), but I’m trying to make certain I don’t have any glaring plotholes or character inconsistencies. I’m hoping that I’ll have this round of edits finished by the end of the weekend. After that, well, then I’d like to get some writing-related posts up.

I’ve noticed a pattern with my blog. Each time I finish a WIP, when I’m on my “break”–I try to get writing posts up. This time, I’ll aim for five writing posts.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some absolutely fabulous blog reading, check out Magical Musings.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard yet, Anna Genoese is leaving TOR.

That’s all the news I’ve got for now. I promise–when my brain feels less fried, I’ll be a blogging maniac!

Take care—ooh…I almost forgot. A movie that looks pretty awesome, 300, is coming out tomorrow. Anyone planning to catch a show?

Are you a writer who is looking for an agent? If so, then you might enjoy this article on some secret (and some not so secret) literary agents. And, yes, in the interest of full disclosure, one of the agents mentioned, Laura Bradford, is my agent–but I didn’t even realize she was listed until I’d read half of Chuck Sambuchino’s piece.

Other agent resources:

If you’re a member of the Romance Writers of America, the RWA website has an extensive listing of romance agents.

Or you can try checking out Agent Query–the site has great search options.

As always, before signing with an agent, make absolutely certain that you research him/her. The Preditors & Editors site is a great place to start said research.

Good luck on your agent hunt!

If you haven’t already checked out Romancenoveltv.com, then I highly recommend that you visit the site. They have some fabulous author interviews up (Mary Jo Putney, Nora Roberts, Rebecca York and many more). I really like this site b/c the videos are of a good, professional quality, and I enjoy the “behind the scenes” feel of the interviews.

Yay! I’ve got some good news to share. The Wizard’s Spell has been nominated for the 2006 ECataromance Reviewers’ Choice Award.

Here’s a link to the review for The Wizard’s Spell that I received from ECataromance.

What a great start to my week!

Normally, I don’t have an audience when I write. My son sleeps, and I type. The end. Well, today, things were a bit different. I thought my husband was napping on the couch during my writing session, but, later, during lunch, I learned differently.

Our lunch chat kinda went like this:

Nick: “Why do you make those faces?”

Me: “Uh…what?”

Nick: “When you were writing. You kept making faces. Sometimes you looked like you were mad or something.”

Me: “Uh…”

Nick: “And I think you were whispering. Did you know that you were doing that? Kinda creepy.”

Uh, no. I didn’t realize I was doing that. Just call me the queen of creepiness.

But Nick’s words did get me to thinking…

The face making I can explain/understand. Today, my characters were angry–they were being attacked and they were fighting back, furious. I made the faces because I was thinking–what does angry look like? So, I made an angry face. My eyes narrowed to slits. My teeth clenched. My lips thinned. My brows lowered, pulling into a frown. As I made these gestures, I wrote them, adding to my characters’ descriptions.

I do the same thing when I’m writing about characters who are happy, sad, scared, etc. I make the face (although I haven’t realized this is what I was doing until now) and I then describe what I’m doing.

As for the whispering, well, I caught myself doing that a few times this evening as I wrote. The words are in my head, and they’re coming a bit faster than I can type…so I think they might just slip out. Soft whispers that sort of slow down the text streaming through my mind. The slow down gives my fingers time to catch up. Hmm…I suppose it’s kind of like I’m dictating to myself.

So…has anyone else ever had an audience while writing? And if so, did said audience point out any unusual behavior that you were showing? (Come on, don’t let me be alone in this weirdness!)

And, for the record…I reached page 300 before I wrote this post. Now I’m off for galley work–and I’ll try not to whisper as I do that!