Congrats to my Halloween WINNERS!

Congratulation to the winners of my October contest (selected by Rafflecopter and Random.org):

Carol J. Megge, for winning the watercolor print of my heroine, "Aribella Lupari"--designed by the Tracy Hetzel, of Long Blue Straw Illustrations exclusively for my latest book DESPITE THE FANGS.
talented

And to Joely Bogan who won an e-copy of DESPITE THE FANGS for her very own, thanks to her comments in following the Snarkology Halloween Blog Hop!



Sad you didn't win? 
Don't fret...I've got a whole lotta fun planned to celebrate my upcoming holiday release, PIPER'S PIPING. 

Stay tuned by subscribing to my blog, and by following my Facebook Author Page here--I'm a big fan of giveaways, and those that are in my Newton Nation VIP Club--(enter your email to the right of this page to belong) are the lucky bunch that get freebies from me every quarter!

Ok...off to the first day of NaNoWriMo! If you haven't signed up, it's not too late! Sign up here, and then check out my tips for NaNo here and my YouTube videos here.

Writing my Happily Ever After...
Dylan

Creating a Paranormal Hero

Q: What do you get when you cross Josh Groban with Godsmack's lead singer, Sully Erna?

My concert t-shirt and CD from two of my fav singers.

Answer: The hero for my novella, ANY WITCH WAY, due out later this year from The Wild Rose Press. 

I am a visual writer, so I post pictures of my hero/heroine for inspiration. I also write to music, and this novella came to fruition after I'd attended two very different concerts--both with singers that fascinate my muse: Josh Groban and Sully Erna.

There's something about Josh Groban, the young singer with the voice like audible velvet, that screams 'tortured hero' to me. It's the combination of his liquid chocolate eyes, with that puppy-dog like slant at the outer edge, his shaggy hair, and that full-lipped smile--he has the look of fallen innocence.

And then there's Godsmack's lead singer, Sully Erna. Just the name, Sully, evokes an image of the reformed bad boy hero. And when you look at his music videos, Sully is like sin walking. And I mean that in a thigh-shaking-ly good way. With his tattoos, bedroom eyes and rock-mussed hair, combined with his incredible voice and song lyrics--Sully represents the mysterious and evocative.

Combine fallen innocence with the mysterious and evocative and you have:

Yummmm.

I recently did my best to meld Sully/Groban into one paragraph for my publisher's graphic artist--a daunting task when all that artist will see to create your cover is those few sentences. I'm waiting with baited breath for my  novella's cover art to be returned from the graphic artist.

Maybe he or she is Godsmack/Groban fan as well??

Keeping my fingers crossed...as I
Happily My Ever After,
Dylan

Curious to see just how varied my musical tastes really are? Check out my Rockin' Date Night Post for a list of concerts I've attended, and rock concert rules. 

Godsmack's videos are here. My fav is "I Stand Alone" because the song rocks...and The Rock is in it! 

Click through Josh Groban's website to see him sing. No, really. He's amazing. 

My desk during November (ahh, NaNoWriMo!)

The Anatomy of a Writer's Desk During NaNoWriMo

From left to right:

1. Bulletin board with two calendars--one marking the days of November, the other tracking my word count each day towards the 50,000 end of month goal. I star the dates I make at least 1,667 words a day (so far looking at 8 of 14 days but overall still on track--the days I'm prolific make up for the days I stare at my computer for ten minutes at a time, wondering what the hell I'm doing). Kind of reminds me of the stickers I used to give my little one when she didn't pee the bed at night. I get REALLY EXCITED to put the star on my calendar at the end of my writing day. Pathetic, but true.
2. Then you'll see the edges of some inspirational quotes--probably not coincidental that they're covered up by other shiz. The middle of NaNoWriMo is a dicey time for inspirational quotes. Mostly, I'm just looking for ways to bolt my a** to the chair.
3. Ahh, my newest writer's tool: the Character Board. I have an annoying lack of a short-term memory, and have found myself on other novels changing character's eye color, mannerisms and (as in the case of my first novel, Despite the Ghosts) the gender of the cat. Luckily, I've caught the mistakes in edits before production, but this is my hope I can remain consistent.
4. On my desk is where the chaos...erm, the magic happens!! My general plot notebook for my new series (I'm writing Book 1 of the Lipsticks and Lucifer series for NaNoWriMo this year) is open on the left, followed by a rather fantastic list of "Vivid Verbs" given to me by one of my Beta Readers, and finally taped together under my wireless mouse is my plot diagram. Although, as my four-year-old likes to remind me, it's my "scribble-scrabbles."
5. Under all of this shiz--I think you might be able to see the ripped edge of an envelope just under my desk lamp--are the bills I'm late paying this month. They've been buried here for over a week. Thank God I decided to post a picture of my desk. Freaking ridiculous. 
6. In the background is an antique desk calendar. It shows the day as the 22nd. It's not, of course. I haven't changed that thing in months. But it's fun to look at, and so is the ink well and ink pen holder right next to it. Maybe after NaNo is over, I'll learn calligraphy. But I doubt it.
7. And finally, the lower quadrant of the photo shows you how decrepit I've become as a writer. I have to use one of those wrist-thingys by my keyboard. My carpal-tunnel is KILLING ME!! 

So, that's what National Novel Writing Month looks like in my house. I cannot wait until November ends, and my 50,000 words on "Makeovers and Minions" is complete.

Writing my way through to...

Happily My Ever After,

Dylan

Care to share the status of your writer's desk? Feel free to post below!

Mmmm...the Smell of New Books!

My shipment of books arrived from my publisher today--just in time for the busy round of author events and speaking engagements lined up for the fall!

Look....aren't they pretty??
I swear, there is nothing better than the smell of a box of new books.

Unless it is a box of your OWN books.

"Despite the Ghosts" has been out for two years now, and every time my publisher sends me a box of my novels--the covers so crisp and unblemished, the virginal pages--I get a thrill of excitement. It is still hard to believe, some days, that I wrote and got a contract for, the book.

But...I have not been resting on my laurels. Or laurel--only one book published, after all. While my blog went eerily silent the past few months, I've been working like a beast.

1. I've finished my second novel (title TBD, but it's a paranormal romance about female werewolf with a bad attitude and a Unibrow complex that gets rooked into a dangerous mission to track down this hottie's son and loses her heart in the process), and have sent it to my A-list of agents for consideration.

2. I am in the final stages of edits for my YA paranormal novel--preparing to send it out to my fabulous Beta Readers for edits and feedback.

3. And I resurrected a dark paranormal novella titled, "Any Witch Way." Not surprisingly, it features a witch, a cursed MBA student and the Wiccan holiday of Samhain (our Halloween, and the pagan New Year). That novella's query letter got me a full manuscript read at my publisher, and is currently in for consideration for next year's publishing schedule. (Yay!)

4. Started my brand new project--a three-book paranormal suspense series titled "Lipsticks and Lucifer." Intrigued? I hope so! The first novel of three I have planned is called, "Makeovers and Minions," and I'm thus far 13,000 words into it with an expected length of around 100,000. Think Stephanie Plum meets Mary Kay and they hunt demons--albeit not very effectively--and you've got the basis for my heroine, Haven Nieves. (Is that not the most killer heroine's name, or what?!?)

So....forgive my lapse in blogging. It's not 'cuz I don't LOVE you all! I promise to get here more often in the next few weeks and keep you updated on my four exciting projects above.

Lighting up the keyboard for my Happily Ever After....

Dylan


Curious to see how I do on the four projects above? Think I'll get a contract by year end...or end up with a face full of rejection letters? Only one way to find out! Hit "Follow Happily (my) Ever After" hyperlink above on the right and stay tuned!