Happy Dance!

JANE'S SHADOW... soon to have another, slightly more official, title is done and with my editor.

Final Word Count: 84,000
First Word: IF
Last Word: FUTURE
Total Deaths: I lost count.
Total Pages: 320
Publication Date: November 24th, 2015

Let's dance!!!!

Did Alaska Kill Liana?

I've kept a fairly regular blogging schedule for years so this sudden dearth of posts must seem somewhat alarming. Especially with another release coming up next month. 

I don't want to be the author who only blogs when they have a new book out. I really don't. But the lack of blogging is going to continue until the first draft of JANE'S SHADOW is done and with my betas.

Here's the unadorned truth: I Am Terrified. 

It took me the better part of three years to write and rewrite THE DAY BEFORE. I wrote books between drafts. I ignored it and lazed around. I did whatever I wanted because there was no hard and fast deadline. Even when I had a deadline for Book 2 of the Heroes and Villains series my editor kindly (and wisely) accepted my email stating that the promised book was unprintable because it really was my postpartum therapy book.

Trust me, you don't want to read that. And you never will. But it meant I published nothing in 2014. 

In January I had a new print and a new ebook come out. In February a print edition. In March a print edition. In April THE DAY BEFORE comes out in ebook as my first ever novel. In May the print edition of THE DAY BEFORE comes out. In November of this year JANE'S SHADOW comes out.

Book 2 of the Jane Doe series.

Book 2 in a series that this time last year didn't exist.

Book 2 in a series that I thought would never get published.

Book 2 in a series with a very vague outline and no set-in-stone ending.

Guess what? 

Book 2 ain't written.

JANE'S SHADOW is exactly 28,119 words long right now, on its second draft, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.

In a perfect world I would cancel all appointments for the next month and devote every waking hour to this book. This is hardly a perfect world and my waking hours are devoted to my children more than anything. Which is why I'm awake into the witching hours struggling to fix the pacing for this book. I have cut more words at this point than are in the book. In fact, if things get bad, we might just have to publish the cut scenes (I kid!). 

I've never worked on a deadline like this. I'm not even sure I've had a set of circumstances with the kids at these ages and the non-writing demands on my time being like this before. So I'm freaking out. 

The blog is suffering for this, and I want to apologize to those of you who faithfully check in each morning for new content. It's not here. Hopefully this second draft malaise will end soon, the words will flow, the draft will be done, and everything will return to normal. That's the goal, it's just going to take a few weeks for me to hit the goal.

Thank you for your patience, I hope the book will make up for the lack of blog posts in the end. 

- Liana 

Another Day: Another Rat To Race

The days are getting shorter. I used to be able to judge the time by looking for the 5:30am sunrise. Now it's still dark at six when the alarm goes off.

The weather is getting colder. With the cold and the return to school comes colds, ear infections, and sick kids. One down, three to go!

The book is coming. My countdown clock to EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES started ticking last night... two months to go. Two months until you get to read it (plus lag time for Nook).


Sometimes publishing makes you feel like the rat in the maze, or, at the very least, the hamster on the treadmill. You go and work and plot and write and it seems to go nowhere for months, sometimes years. All this hard work that no one notices, and then suddenly PUBLICATION DAY!

After months of seeming to go nowhere, you burst into the electronic light of e-book stores everywhere. And it's over. The book is finally, truly, irrevocably done.

Until the next hamster wheel is pushed out. It's funny, but when you promise fans a series they expect, y'know, a SERIES of books. I have two weeks to finish up Book 3 if I want to stay on schedule. So it's back to the rat race of petered out subplots, switchbacks, red herrings, and confusion. Back to the land of lost plots.

Wish me luck, my lovely ones, rough drafts are in my future!
- Liana

The Day The Computer Died

I knew it was going to happen. My desktop was three years old and we'd already replaced a bad hard drive last fall, so when it started flickering off and on I knew there were problems. Sometimes Windows would shut down with no warning. Sometimes programs would simply vanish from the screen. Sometimes the entire computer would turn off with no warning.

I thought I had it covered. I backed up my most important files off site. Sure, I was still editing the short story for the anthology, but I figured the email would serve as a decent back up. And - really - even though I knew there were problems I didn't expect the computer to not turn on ever again. I thought I had a few weeks, months on the outside, long enough for hubby to get home from his teaching assignment so I could steal the external hard drive back.

The computer didn't last.

I went to turn it on the morning after emailing my short story to my editor to find it simply wouldn't start. It was frustrating, but not a huge issue, hubby was on his way home and I had no outstanding contracts.

Then the worst happened... my editor emailed me to say I'd sent the wrong file.

In a haze of exhaustion and relief over finally getting the edits done I sent the wrong file. It was embarrassing. It was stupid. I reamed myself for hours until I got home and turned on the decrepit Very Ancient Laptop to coax it into opening my files. Before it crashed I had time to realize the horrible truth: I hadn't saved the edited short story off-site.

I thought the email was enough. After all, the email with attachment would be saved forever in my Sent mail folder. But that doesn't work when you send the wrong document.

Embarrassment turned to horror. Horror turned to panic. The short story was overdue to my editor and I couldn't fix it easily. I had to find a computer that would read a .docx file (Very Ancient Laptop runs Vista...and that only with serious complications) and redo a major portion of my edits. Two new scenes and several chapters worth of heavy changes - a week's worth or work - had gone unsaved. 

Not having a few hundred dollars to throw down to do a hard drive recovery I rolled up my sleeves and started editing. Again. Because I was stupid and forgot the first rule of computers: SAVE YOU WORK IN MORE THAN ONE PLACE.

External hard drive, cloud, thumb drive, email... save your files in multiple places.

I finished the edits. My editor was wonderful, patient, and forgiving. She accepted the new draft without complaint and I was left with the horrible realization that I'm still missing key files. Like the excel worksheet with the list of agents I was querying for JANE DOE, my collection of recipes, all my photos taken since hubby left the country with the external hard drive, and all my banking information. All of it is trapped on the dead tower and to recover it will take money, time, and talent. I'm not sure I have all three. However, I know some super talented people who have been kind enough to walk me through the first steps to recovery.

And I bought a second external hard drive.

And I saved my edits to Drop Box.

And I emailed the right document this time. 

Let my nightmare serve as a horrible warning lest you repeat my fatal mistake: SAVE YOUR WORK. Save early. Save often. Save off-site.

Deadline #1

Am I dead yet? It's okay, you can tell me, I can take it.

Done!

And only twenty-four hours after my self-appointed deadline at that! Heroes and Villains Book 2 is complete at 36,000 words and now in the loving care of my betas. The ending is rushed, I know I need to fix that. Everything else I'm happy with.

Now I'm going offline because today to recover from the virus I caught. With a little luck and lots of orange juice I might be human enough to interact tomorrow.

Deadline Met!

Excuse me while I collapse into a babbling heap of brainless babbling. The edits for EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE are done and off to the editor.

People, never ever EVER schedule a deadline to coincide with your due date. Seriously. I can't remember the last time I've done something this crazy, and I've done some pretty crazy things over the years. But spending the last twelve hours doing a final read through checking for new typos while I time contractions and wondering if I'll have to finish the manuscript while I'm at the hospital? That's a new kind of crazy.

On the bright side, several of my regular readers, friends, and Tweeps have survived to the final round of editing. As have a few inside jokes that only I may appreciate. I should probably make blog buttons or t-shirts for the survivors: I Survived A Liana Brooks Novel!!!

As an added bonus, trying to figure out some tricky back story for EVFIL led me to start writing the full story of how the main characters met. With any luck, you may see this (currently untitled) project someday. I'm having a lot of fun playing with this superhero universe and I might just stay awhile.

Cover Art Reveal for EVFIL Coming Soon!

In the Dungeon

With an editor comes a deadline, and I'm working on one. EVFIL is due at the end of the week, so I hope you'll forgive the lack of updates while I make my book even better.

- Liana
Dungeon stock by JackyStock of DeviantArt - used with thanks!

Novel Stats...

Draft 9.3 is done! Sort of... I'm adding a few more scenes and then I need to smooth out the inevitable wrinkles, but by and large this edit is done. Here's a quick look at the novel stats:

Title: JANE DOE
Word Count: 82,000
Words Lost in this Edit: 7,000
First Word: Sam
Last Word: Corpse
Total Body Count: 8

I Am Here

Right over there... in the dungeon.

It's called a deadline, and it isn't pretty. This isn't a first draft deadline where it's a matter of throwing words at the page. This isn't even a revision deadline with beta-readers who can be pacified by snippets.

No, this is a submission deadline. The do or die scenario for custom-tailored novellas and short stories.

Don't think I'm neglecting you. I'm just trying to get the story polished and perfect in time. With some hard work, and a little bit of luck, maybe this story will see the sunshine. :o)

Image found HERE, used under Fair Use Laws.

Fear and the Obvious Ending

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
- Matthew 7:13-14 KJV

A while back I talked about being painted into a corner with the ending for JANE DOE. I hope you'll forgive the Bible verse, but this is what keeps running through my head as I try to write the ending for EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. A good ending leaves the characters with no choices, they have to follow the narrow path they've limited themselves to. Anything else feels contrived.

That, I fear, is where I've landed myself. The ending for EVFiL feels forced.


A few hundred words away from the ending I despair for this novella. It feels contrived. Forced. Like a bad B-movie with a $10 budget. Here's what's holding me back....

1- It's meant to be a romance/SFR novella but the principle female is off-screen half the time.

2- It's meant to be a romance but there are kids in there. I really can only recall a few romance novels with kids, and none by the publisher I'm hoping to get.

3- It's first person and I'm pretty sure my hunky hero *never* describes himself. I can fix that in edits, but I feel dumb for not having it in the first draft.

4 - Driving to the end fight with four kids in a minivan is a hilarious idea, but it makes zero logical sense. That means I have no ending.

5 - IT'S A ROUGH DRAFT.

I think that's my biggest problem right there.

I'm a perfectionist, a recovering one at any rate. You can't get past 25 as a true perfectionist. You either recover, or you kill yourself for how dumb you were at 19 when you thought you owned the world.

But that fear of getting it wrong is a real stumbling block.

Even knowing I can edit.

Even knowing this is a rough draft.

What if I screw up the ending? What then?

I'm ready to collapse in tears over this! Or maybe that's the pent up stress from the move... whatever it is, I need to move on. This is my vent and whinge post. Now I'm going to tack an ending on this sucker and edit the living tar out of it!