Anya Bast

I got my cover for Witch Blood. It is the most beautiful cover I have EVER had. It is beyond gorgeous and I so want to share, but I don’t know if I can yet, so I thought I’d tease a little instead. Oh! The best part of the cover (and so far I haven’t found anything about the cover I dislike) is that it says ‘National bestselling author of Witch Fire’ on the bottom. *insert big cheesy grin here*

So we were out of town for the weekend and then I had to work the day job Monday and Tuesday. That’s why I haven’t blogged. Actually, I did blog on Monday (like every Monday) over on The Bradford Bunch blog (link in sidebar). I posted a contest too, for those that are interested. Apparently the contest is really hard, though, because I’ve only received one entry so far. Whoops.

On my day job days, I’m wiped. There’s not a whole lot of extracurricular blogging going on. Today, of course, I’m writing. I need to have The Darkest Kiss finished up by the end of this month so I can use September to revise it. My revision process is usually pretty involved. I tend to write light on the first draft. On the subsequent drafts (during the revision process), I add anywhere from 5-7k. At the same time I chop things out, rearrange, ect and ect.

Did I mention the cover for Witch Blood is really cool? Hee. I’ll share it when I know for certain I can.

Now…writing.

I’m back from being out of town. Bet you didn’t even know I was gone, did you? 😉

62,320 / 85,000 (72.9%)

The Darkest Kiss — Progress. Deadline September 30th.
Pretty average for word count. I was very busy this week with lots of kid related things. Then we went out of town, of course, which cut down on my writing time. And there was some procrastination.  Although I DID write about 9k. That’s really not too bad when you think about it, but it is about 3k less than I’d planned for.

I’m almost 74% done, though! And I’m past the middle. A big woo hoo on that one. Now I’ve got momentum all the way to the end.

My all time favorite poet, Charles Simic, has been made U.S. Poet Laureate. Here is my favorite poem by Simic, Crazy About Her Shimp. Go read! You won’t be sorry.

Do people really read poetry anymore? Am the only one? Tell me, do you read poetry? What are some of your favorite poets and poems?

To sweeten the deal, I’ll make it a contest. Everyone who replies to this post will be eligible to win one of my EC books (from backlist). Share with me your poetry predilections. The contest will end whenever I want it to. *g* So post now!

Trying to get writing done today, but need to clean the house, go grocery shopping, ect. Oh, and load songs into my new iPod. *g*  I do have a children’s play list in my new iPod and on it is every song Elizabeth Mitchell ever produced. Kid’s music that adults can listen to too. If you have kids, you might want to give her a listen.

Domestically, I bought a floor sweeper I have to take back because it’s missing a piece. AND! I bought a speaker plug-in thingie for my new iPod (that lets you listen to music on the iPod as if on a stereo, instead via ear buds) and even though it says it’s compatible with the nano, IT. IS. NOT. Not in this dimension, anyway. Argh. So frustrating.  That’s going back too.

Been thinking a lot about my writing process today. I am not, actually, a plotter. I’m not a panster, either. Really I’m some combination of the two. I write out my synopses, but before I actually start the book I don’t know for certain how true I’ll stay to them. This is because I don’t know my characters until I start writing them, not really. No amount of character charts or character interviewing lets me know them as well as actually writing them. Once they start “acting” within the limits of the plot, making decisions, reacting to stimulus, do I actually start to truly understand them.  I know that sounds crazy, but there you have it.

Now, back to The Darkest Kiss.