I love it when a plan comes together

I’ve been hanging around Anne Stuart and Jenny Crusie a lot lately, and have been reading their blogs with great interest, and I love how they do that 12 days of whatever book they’re writing. I’m also amazed that they can do it. My problem is that, usually, if I’m writing about writing a book, I’m not actually writing the book. If the book is working, all I can think of is getting words down on the page before they all disappear, like soap bubbles. I think about it so much that when I’m driving I miss exits, and when I’m cooking I burn whatever’s on the stove. Because I’m just not there.

Such is the case right now. I’m only taking the time to write this because my husband is working on my work computer(the computer I write on is completely separate from this one. Not only that, its working systems are completely obsolete so my kids would never play on it. Yeah, okay, they’re now adults and sneer at my computer, but old habits die hard–especially the habit of creating a book in Word Perfect 6.2). So I thought this would be the perfect time to talk a bit about end stage manuscripts. At least mine.

I’m not what you’d call a scheduled writer. I’m more what we lovingly call a “binge-and-purge_ writer. I spend days wandering the house staring at nothing, and then spit out at least a chapterin about 2 hours. I just did that yesterday. I spent 60% of my time on a book in the first five chapters. It’s like pulling teeth for me. I liken it to a rollercoaster, when you’re heading up that long, long hill, with the tracks making that click-click noise, and you think you’re never going to get there and then suddenly…..woosh!!! Well, woosh happens to me just about when it reaches critical deadline time. One of my cousins put it most beautifully. “Eileen,” she said. “You’re just no damn good ’til the two-minute warning.” She has a point.

So here I was(right before Rick had to fix my computer), with about 3/4 of the second book in the Daughters of Myth series(I can’t remember the title–because the Silhouette title committee came up with it), about Queen Mab’s second daughter Sorcha who has to convince a very angry mortal that he’s in possession of one of the great ruling stones of faerie, and that she needs it back before all heck breaks loose. And he’s just a guy trying to escape the notoriety of a family that made its name photographing fairie–and then, allegedly, catching one. And the bad guys have found them, and since the bad guys are fairies, they can do terrible things like infect dreams with terrible violence, and I’m at the 3/4 point, and I know kinda what has to happen to get to the end of the book, but not exactly, and I’m trying to write with my eyes closed, as if, if I don’t look, it’ll all work out, and suddenly, why suddenly—–woooosh!

I know exactly how Sorcha proves herself, and how Harry redeems himself, and how little Lilly, his neice who has Down Syndrome, which makes her one of the world of faerie’s Cherished Ones, is saved from the evil fairies. It came to me on a flaming pie, as John Lennon used to say, and that’s how all the best stuff always comes to me. And, even after over thirty books, it’s still a surprise.

So Rick’s finished now, and I’m going to head back to my office to send Sorcha and Harry after the great Dearann Stone, with Cian on their tails, since he wants the stone to help his clan gain all the power in the world of faerie–which would also rob the earth of any more springs–and Darragh from the first book playing his part, and….

well, we’ll all just have to wait to see how it turns out. The good news is that I know. Whew! What a relief. I just love it when a plan comes together.

eileenkathleen, the evil twins