Kind of Last Minute--Whoops! Blogfest Alert.

I have been reminded that the Whoops! Blogfest is coming TOMORROW, brought to us by Laurel. Now for myself, I'm not entirely certain what, if any, whoops moments I have to share, so I haven't signed up yet-- but I'm going to think long and hard today and hopefully come up with something!

In the meantime, you should all go check it out and see if you've got some good Whoops! stuff to share!

It's About The Question, Not The Answer.

I've been trying to figure out translation for my Norse players for a while. In the historical portions of my book, I thought it would be nice to flavor it with some early Icelandic (for my purposes it will serve me just as well as Old Norse would). Anyway-- I realized today I've been asking the wrong questions. (And this is hilarious to me.) I kept searching for English to Icelandic translation sites-- of which there are precious, precious few. But what I should have been searching for was English to Old Norse.

A quick google search for "Old Norse dictionary" produces three different sources for my translation needs! Even a downloadable pdf with searchable text and special coding to allow for the easy search of characters that we don't use in English, like the þ and the ð without having to copy and paste them out of a wordpad cheat sheet or memorize the ctrl-alt shortcuts. (I happen to have a wordpad cheat sheet only because I am in the process of learning Icelandic--very slowly.)

The oddity is, trying to find a decent English-Icelandic dictionary is next to impossible, and it's a living language. But Old Norse? No sweat! This seems like an example of exactly what that linguist was talking about in the article I read a while back discussing endangered languages.

Computers are smart, but you still have to know what question to ask in order for them to find the answer you need. The only problem now is trying to find out how to make singulars plural-- which is definitely not something the Old Norse dictionaries I've found address. Every time I add an "s," it decides the word doesn't exist at all. It might be time to try and find an Old Norse specialist in Academia, and shoot them an email unless I can find an Icelandic substitute.

In other non-Norse news-- I have joined the ranks of the twitterverse. You can find me over yonder at: http://twitter.com/AmaliaTd

I'm also engaging in a bit of rebranding, as you'll see on Twitter. I figure it's time to let the story speak for itself.

In other non-book news: The movie Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? Guys, I have to say-- one of the things I really admire about Rick Riordan's books is how he updates the old myths and brings them into the modern world in accessible ways (I'm just starting book four today!). I'm sad to say that the powers-that-be responsible for this film did not take advantage of that excellence, and chose instead to strip all the modern updates back out again. I wouldn't have minded the liberties they took with the plot and the characters and the relationships themselves if they had just kept that one element which made these books awesome.

P.S. I'm so disappointed that I'm missing all this Olympics coverage-- the digital revolution left me without NBC because the rabbit ears don't pick it up anymore. Online coverage is NOT the same. Those of you with television coverage, watch some for me!

Revision Notes XI

I'm kind of compulsively tweaking my Query. Just when I thought I had knocked it out of the park, a new way to phrase my opening comes to mind...

At least my Synopsis is under control.

For My Next Trick!

For the first time in five years, I sat down and wrote a poem. And I didn't even feel the slightest bit silly while doing it.

I've spent a significant amount of time since finishing my revision of GENERATIONS researching agents when I should have been polishing my synopsis. (I just took a break mid-blogpost to go work on it--talk about distractable.) I still have a ton of blogs to visit from Sunday's Love At First Sight blogfest, too! I'm determined to get there though! These blogfests are one of my favorite parts of being a blogger!

I want to thank everyone who stopped by here and commented on my COST OF LIVING excerpt! I do want to get back to Thairon someday, and take another shot at revising and bringing the manuscript up to par with my current writing, but it isn't a priority-- yet.

Now I'm curious, though! How many of you, my fine readers, have a character you ADORE that you've placed on the shelf in exchange for something greater?  Will you ever dust them off again? Do you find them pestering you in the middle of the night to give them another chance? Share a little bit about one of the characters that you had to give up-- or at least shove into the back of your mind for a while-- in the comments! I can't believe I'm alone :)

Love at First Sight Blogfest!

Hosted by Courtney Reese, today is the Love At First Sight Blogfest! In honor of Valentine's day, of course! Follow the link over yonder to see the full list of participants, and enjoy yourselves!

This excerpt is from my novel Cost of Living, about everyone's favorite playboy billionaire CEO, Thairon Casid. It's been shelved, and honestly it is not up to par with my current stuff-- but I am absolutely in love with Mr. Casid. This scene isn't, strictly speaking, love at first sight, I guess.But it takes place following Thairon and Setta's first kiss, which was very publicly done on the red carpet, to keep her from having a panic attack. Maybe it's more like the realization of the complications of love at first sight?

It's important to note that Setta is the reincarnation of Thairon's college girlfriend, Gwen, who died in a car crash the night he had intended to propose. Now he's stumbled across Setta twenty years later-- there's a big age gap between them, and Setta has been resisting their involvement. Needless to say, their first kiss was not her idea.

“Do you think they broadcast our kiss?” Setta asked.

Thairon chuckled, tucking her head beneath his chin. “I would be surprised if they didn’t. I’m sorry, Setta. I didn’t mean to make it so public. I suppose, at least it will be unforgettable.” It would probably haunt them both until their dying day. He would have to ask Marcus if he could secure a copy of the footage, whoever had it. Someone must.

“It would’ve been unforgettable, anyway.” She pulled back and looked up at him. “You were serious about staying away from the internet and the news tomorrow, weren’t you?”

“Dead serious.” He could kiss her again, he thought, staring at her lips. Right now. Help her out of her dress. He would love to help her out of that dress. Her skin was so soft. He marveled at it.

She raised a hand to his face and he turned his head to kiss her palm. Somehow, he didn’t think that seducing her was the appropriate response at the moment. That wasn’t the kind of comfort she needed.

“You did it to me before, too.”

He stared down at her, with no idea of what she was talking about.
“What?”

“Kissed me in front of an audience. In the dorm, when I was Gwen. You walked me to my room after our first date, and then in front of a dozen other girls, you kissed me.”

He smiled at the memory. She had been so soft and warm and beautiful, then too. Standing in front of her door, with one hand on the knob, and about to slip right through his fingers and disappear. And he hadn’t been able to stop himself from pulling her back when she tried to turn away. Thinking about it wasn’t helping him control himself now, either.

He forced himself to look into her eyes, instead of staring at her mouth. “I couldn’t let you go.”

“I guess nothing’s really changed, then.” But she didn’t smile, and she dropped her hand.

He let go of her and stepped back. To prove a point. To show her that he could. But her hand caught his as it trailed down her arm and she brought it to her face, pressing it to her cheek. Her other hand gripped the front of his dress shirt, pulling him back. He was all too willing to let her, and when she stood on her toes to press her lips against his, he met with the sudden realization that this last week had been just as agonizing for her as it had been for him.

He kissed her until she went limp and he was holding her up more than she was standing on her own, stopping only to let them both breathe.

She clung to him, her face hidden in the curve of his shoulder, and he stroked her hair, and her back, watching their reflection in the mirror. He had to get her out of that dress before they kissed again, or else he was going to rip it from her body in pieces. “Marry me, Setta.”

She made a noise that was almost a laugh and looked up at him again. “I can’t, Thairon. Do any of this. Not yet.”

How had he forgotten? What the hell was he thinking? “No, of course.” Not yet wasn’t no. And maybe it was just the physical intimacy that frightened her, not the idea of marrying him. He hadn’t even considered what the implications were. All that emotion. All that emotion funneled right into her, on top of her own. He let her go and stepped back. “Take as long as you need.”

She dropped her eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry.”

“You should get out of that dress. I’ll have Marcus send it to be dry-cleaned.” He didn’t know what else to say. But if he didn’t say something, he was going to start kissing her again, and he wasn’t sure that either one of them would have the presence of mind to stop. He knew he wouldn’t. He didn’t want her to stop him, either. To salve his pride. And then what? She’d suffered enough already tonight, and things were only going to get more complicated tomorrow. “Get some sleep, Setta.”

He left the room before he lost his self control. A swim would help. He'd work off some of the energy he would much rather expend on her person, until he was too tired to imagine what he wanted to do with her.

Revision Notes X

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!

Revision Notes IX

I just cut a scene I loved.

Now I must fill the place in my heart where it was with a new scene, and hope that my book will forgive me for cruelly excising so many words.

Edit:
Only Five Chapters Left.