writing

Lineage Excerpt

Want to read the first chapter of Lineage? Head right here: http://www.skyladawncameron.com/novels/lineage/excerpt

Warning: Violence and coarse language. Coming from a woman. So you know that's bound to offend delicate sensibilities. Don't tell my grandpa.

Also going to post an exclusive one on my fan page (www.facebook.com/SkylaDawnCameron) from later in the book. How about when Peri met Zara? :-)

Melissa said about Lineage: "Action packed with a new killer character, and a story that will keep you on your toes and guessing."

Coming February 21! It's off for typesetting right now.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to work the weekend. Trying to get the inbox down to zero. Wish me luck!

New Experiment (AKA Why I Will Be Quiet For Awhile)

Did you know Amish women in Ontario walk an average of 14K steps a day, according to one study?

To put in perspective, most people who work desk jobs walk like 3K - 4K.

While I'm not immediately running away to become an Amish ninja yet (this is my dream...and if you don't follow me on Twitter to know this, it's best if I don't get into explaining it), the fact is I sit too much.

I sit all day. I sit down with breakfast. I sit to work the day job. I sit to do extra stuff like edit. I sit to write. I sit when I relax with video games. I sit while having my other meals.

Yes, I get up and run. Yes, I take the dog for a walk. But that doesn't change the fact that I spend most of my day sitting, which the human body wasn't really designed for.

So yesterday I pulled a MacGyver.Read more

I Don't Even Know What I'm Writing Anymore

I've hit the climax for the book and it's just taken a sharp left turn and I haven't a bloody clue what I'm doing anymore. Zara revealed her endgame and it slapped me upside the head, Nate is just refusing to behave the way I want him too, and I am still not sure how I'm going to get to the epilogue without everyone dying horribly.

It's utterly terrifying.

Exhumed is either going to be amazingly awesome or a big, hot, unfixable mess. (Note: I am not fishing for compliments or reassurances. Irrational worry is part of my process and I plan for it with every book.)

Brilliance or suckage, but nothing in between. I'm determined nothing about this is going to be meh or blah or "just okay"--either it'll totally suck or totally rock.

Hopefully I'll know which during the second draft.

And while this has always been my end of book theme...

...my "I'm depressed so I'm going to watch Disney videos to make me more depressed, apparently" kick lately made this squeeze in.

See? Yeah, I don't even. Oh HAI bipolar book!

I probably won't blog for a few days while I'm off and being moody. May you and yours have a wonderful holiday. I'd like to have Exhumed done this week so I can start January by finishing IDW (finally), so I'll drop by and mention it's finally DONE and OMG I HATE IT and RELIEF and BLAH BLAH.

Yes, I Survived NaNo

Lineage finished with 28K written in November. Godless started with 14K. Then midway through the month, I switched to Exhumed and wrote 50K--19K of which was done in the final three days.

There will be a blog post, probably at the ELEW, about it at some point. About writing through pain, about being stupid and stubborn, about how I am utterly insane and, kids, you should NOT try this at home. But for now, I fall over DED.

Exhumed is well past the halfway mark. I am, by now, in the thick of things, emotionally drained and crying half the time, positive this book'll get me hate mail. This isn't a funny book. This isn't wild explosions and car chases and flashy guns--yes, all of those things are in there, and there is some humor (one of the current fave lines: "I wonder what my cleaning lady would think of the BDSM dungeon I was turning my bedroom into"). Plus three sex scenes in the first 40K--I both giveth and taketh away. But it's all the background to a much harder story.

So sharpen the pitchforks, chickadees. I'll be hiding next year when this one releases.

(From the book playlist.)

BTW, did you see Mel scooped the Lineage cover/teaser blurb? Go show her some love and say hi!

What Happened with NaNo

I began with the best of intentions.

1. Finish Lineage. I had 20K or so to go as of Nov 1.

2. Simultaneously write a book for NaNo, 5th and final on in this unpublished series.

I finished Lineage last Friday (and I wrote most of that 20K in three days, 7400 words on Friday OMFG but thank you Write or Die Desktop), which was much easier than trying to juggle two of them at once. And I want to switch over to Godless, but...

I really don't have a fucking clue what will happen.

I always was a pantser but I've moved towards...I don't want to say "plotter", but stories have a definite shape in my head ahead of time now and I know roughly the arcs, the big moments, etc. Every other book in that series, I've known beforehand, and now this final book--the big one--is where I have to tie everything together, and I haven't a motherfucking clue about anything, even directly ahead of me.

I think all the ingredients are there, they just need time to shape and bake a little longer in my head.

Plus...someone is talking to me again.

I'm doing some initial revisions on Lineage at the moment and it might be easier for me to just stay in that world rather than switch to Godless, especially with Zara yammering in my head. So...

Yeah. We're over halfway through November and I'm changing my major, Mom! Exhumed it is.

I wrote the first 3K words last night and I'll switch over my NaNo details later today. Fine, Zara. You win. Let's get in some trouble.

Favourite non-spoilerish line from last night's writing:

“You do NOT approach Zara Lain, attempt to procure her services as a killer-for-hire, and then punk out on your end of things. And continuing the conversation in this direction will, at best, result in me leaving here without having a business arrangement with you, and, at worst, result me in sending your head back in a box to your boss for insulting me."

Also! Royalties the other day. Yay! Thank you for buying my books. It looks like, however, that 80% of sales are through third party ebook sellers...which means most of you haven't read Thrall (Mundania exclusive Bloodlines ebook and paperback) and probably won't read Sunrise (Mundania exclusive Lineage ebook and paperback). So...I have to shift gears because I do write the books with all those extra stories in mind. Y'all are gonna be in for a HUGE surprise come Exhumed... *cackles*

Books 6, 7, & 8

Yes, yes, there are more books, and now I have to write two for the series a year through 2014.

It all started when book five (Oblivion) at last began to crystallize in my head. Writers probably know what I mean when I say a book has to simmer in the brain for awhile as we do things that don't look like writing--jogging/walking, doing the dishes, staring blankly out the window--so the story can shape. Sort of like working with dough. The ingredients are there but they're a bit of a mess, mushed together, and even if you've tried to shape it, you don't really know how big it will be, if it'll collapse when it's cooked, what the consistency will be, etc. I'd always been a big fuzzy on Oblivion except that I knew it was The Book Wherein I Deliver On Plot Threads Introduced Earlier and it initially did a lot of simmering when I was hacking and slashing on my old Xbox years ago.

Then I realized how it was going to end.

And more books took shape.

So I did what anyone would do...I pitched them to the boss man. He accepted. I'll answer some FAQs below.Read more

Sunrise Details

I debated a lot about what short story to include with Lineage. Ryann and Ellie, for example, are put through the ringer and much of their stuff takes place off screen, so there was a lot of potential there--and it's still something I'd like to revisit in the future if possible. But I had a Nate short in my head and a lot of readers (*cough*) wanted a Nate short, so that's what I went with. It ended up being a perfect lead-in for Exhumed.

I'm still not sure if I like the short story or not; it's written in present tense and while it was a conscious choice with good reasons behind it, I fucking hate pres-tense so I may go back and rewrite it in past and see if I like that any better.

Prepping for Exhumed, of course, it occurred to me that most readers buy ebooks from third party sellers and therefore haven't read Thrall and therefore will be in for quite a few surprises at the start of the fourth book. Just in case, I did pull a few relevant lines from Thrall and included them in Sunrise. I endeavor to always assume just basic knowledge of the previous book and not all the extra stuff, so hopefully nothing will be too confusing.

Awe-Struck Blog Tour Guest: Sharon Poppen

Please welcome my final guest for the Awe-Struck author blog tour, Sharon Poppen!

Hi Skyla, Thank you for inviting me to be a guest on your site this week. It’s always fun to find new avenues in attempting to reach new potential readers. Thank heaven for readers! I meet so many folks who say that they don’t have time to read or they only read non-fiction. Then, I often find that these same folks are glued to their TVs each evening to watch some TV drama or reality show. I think sometimes we’ve lost our ability to ‘picture’ things that we read or hear about. I remember, as a child, listening to the radio with my grandparents and picturing the Lone Ranger saving the day alongside his Indian sidekick Tonto. They shot silver bullets as they rode across the plains on their white and pinto horses, ‘Silver’ and ‘Scout’. Or, laughing when someone opened Fibber McGees’ closet and hearing the array of clattering items falling out of that overly stuffed closet. I guess I can thank those old radio days for stimulating and bring to life my creative imagination.
Now, on to some questions from the Awe-Struck authors, who have been along on this interesting wild blog tour. It has sure been fun reading the views of those authors and getting some excellent excerpts to draw us to their books.Read more

I Think Nate Won (+ Writing Update)

Bumping the poll off the top of the blog/book pages as the masses have spoken--I think we're getting a Nate story with Lineage. In fact, Krista tells me Nate should just be in every short story, even if it has nothing to do with that series. Well, I can get on board with that.

Thank you all who have voted! If you didn't get a chance, it's in the blog side bar--scroll down to the bottom.

Okay, public declaration of goal (which means I'll likely fail): if I write about 2K - 2.5K/day of Lineage, I'll be done by the end of the month...which means I COULD start Exhumed for NaNo in November. Will I do this? We shall see. I'm letting myself suck at Lineage a bit more now, remembering I can fix it later--you'd think I would know this by now, but sometimes I need reminding.

In other news, The Romance Studio dug Hunter. It's always a relief to hear people like the nun book. I know there was disappointment I didn't directly continue Zara's story, I know most don't love Ryann like they do Zara, and I know it's a different kind of book--which is why it thrills me so much when readers "get" it.

Soon we'll see if anyone digs Lineage.

Amends is late which you're probably tired of hearing at this point, but if I have writing time I tend to spend it on paying stuff when I'm real busy. I'm about halfway through the chapter, which is a non-fun flashback...dark, violent, and a bit depressing. I'll have it up shortly.

I am making headway in Lineage, though. Wrote a scene last night I adore. Peri, Zara, and Nic are pinned in Zara's parking garage behind some cars with about two dozen guns trained on them. Brief excerpt under the cut:Read more

All Wounds by Dina James

Yes, yes, I'm still catching up with stuff and things missed during my week off, but today I get to tell you about a fab book. All Wounds by Dina James is now available.

AW got its start a few years ago in The Eternal Kiss--a YA paranormal anthology. In a wonderfully unique angle, it's not about the things that go bump in the night so much as the person who heals the things who go bump in the night.

It's said that when opportunity knocks on your door, you have only one chance to take it.

No one said what you're supposed to do when it kicks it.

All Rebecca MacDonnell wants to do is get through high school with grades good enough to win a prestigious scholarship so that she can finally leave her miserable life behind. One evening, after a particularly bad day, she finds out that people other than her aging grandmother need her help, and desperately so.

Well, not "people," exactly. Vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, goblins, and other things thought only imaginary all need help sometime, and Rebecca was born with the unique ability to heal ethereal beings. She is about to turn seventeen, the age at which her talent will manifest in its entirety, and become a true Healer…if she lives through the event. A war between various ethereal factions is brewing, and Healers are a valuable commodity to any side. Those who wish to harness Rebecca’s manifesting healing powers for their own purposes must get to her before her seventeenth birthday.

Only two vampires and a rogue werewolf stand between Rebecca and those determined to make her serve them, and the fact that Rebecca has no clue what she's doing doesn't exactly help matters.

Neither does being seriously attracted to more than one of those just trying to protect her.

For a soon-to-be seventeen-year-old Healer-in-training, that's a lot to handle.

Especially on top of her homework.

What's not explicitly mentioned in the blurb though is BILLY. Billy is awesome. He's my one and only book boyfriend. (Hands off, Heather Petty!)

This book has been a long time coming and I'm thrilled for Dina. I'm honored to have worked on it with her and am so excited to be able to help in some small way share this with readers. Please check it out! It's available at Mundania in trade paperback and various ebook formats right here: http://mundania.com/book.php?title=All+Wounds Enter MP10 at checkout to get 10% off your order.

Dina will be going on a blog tour soon (as well as a few in person appearances on the west coast). Check out her appearances page for details: http://dinajames.com/gal_appearances.html She'll be visiting my blog on Friday, October 28. Please come back and join us! AND get a copy of All Wounds!