You know, when I started this writing thing, I had no idea about revisions. It’s just as well, or I might have done something desperately stupid just to avoid it. It’s not that I don’t like revisions, it’s just that…Jeez. On an 80K book, you will probably write five times that in revisions, between tweaks, false starts, other bridging, fixing structural issues, emailing your editor–you get the idea. Argh.

All of which leads me to: I’m within spitting distance of 70K for the YA on my pass between rough draft and first draft. (Definitions: the rough draft is the very first corpus of the book, the draft NOBODY SEES because it is messy and unfinished. Prettify and fix it up after a short break and you have a First Draft, which will be savaged by your beta and editors. *headdeak*)

The book will end up between 70-80 (closer to 80) and the only bad thing about this part of the process is obsessively reworking pretty much every freaking sentence. Which (can’t you tell?) I’m kind of avoiding for about ten minutes while I write this.

But enough of that. Here’s a cool Dante Valentine icon contest, for those of you with LJs. Enjoy!

All right, back to the salt mines…

Seriously, I must be living in some kind of time warp. I know this contest finished in May. I just have to hang my head and plead the Chihuahua of Real Life as a reason for not getting these up sooner.

But. Ahem.

The Valentine Coffee Mug Slogan Winner mugs are up! They’re live in Japhrimel’s Corner.

First place went to Denelle, with “Next Time You Wake Me Up Before Noon, It’s YOUR BLOOD Filling My Veins.” (smaller mug here)

Second place, rocking the vote almost as much, was Kyle’s “I’m A Necromance. I CAN Kill You Now And Ask Questions Later.” (smaller mug here)

Last but not least, Karen’s hilarious “Had To Go To Hell And Back To Find A Decent Man” got third place. (smaller mug here.)

Much thanks to the winners, who will get a free mug blazoned with their winning slogan. And muchas gracias to the Dark Siders too, who voted with such amazing force and in such sheer numbers.

Upcoming is a website revamp, and chances to win ARCs of The Devil’s Right Hand. Hint: it really helps if you’re subscribed to my newsletter, the Dark Side, since Dark Siders get first crack at all contests and special contests just for them. So stay tuned…

Happy Thursday! And now it’s time for an announcement.

I put out the call, and it was answered! I now present you, dear Readers, with the winners to the Valentine Slogan Contest!

I say “winners” plural because the vote was three-way, and it was very close.

First place goes to Denelle! With 27.71% of the vote going to:

Next Time You Wake Me Up Before Noon, It’s YOUR Blood Filling My Mug.

Second place goes to Kyle, with 24.2% of the vote captured by:

I’m A Necromance. I CAN Kill You Now And Ask Questions Later.

And finally, a strong showing by Karen, who received 21.02% of the vote with:

Had To Go To Hell And Back To Find A Decent Man.

Congratulations to the winners–and thanks to the over 500 Dark Siders who voted! I was amazed to get this kind of response.

Some of you sent in longer slogans that echoed the MasterCard commercials, which I loved but were a bit too long. And of course, my personal favorites were Sandy’s Necromance Is Still Romance and Denise’s Bounty Hunters: The Quicker Picker-Uppers, but I couldn’t vote.

I am working on designing the mugs right now, and will send out an announcement as soon as I have them. Each of the three winners will get a free mug with their winning slogan on it, and the mugs will afterward be available at Japhrimel’s Corner.

Thanks to everyone who participated, both by sending in a slogan and voting. I am still agog at the response this time!

Stay tuned for more contests, including (gasp!) contests to win The Devil’s Right Hand ARCs. And as always, thanks for reading. I couldn’t do this without my wonderful Readers.

Yes, you read that right.

I just got a big box of ARCs of the third book in the Valentine series. Of course I’ll be running giveaways through my newsletter.

My God. It’s actually real. They’re real books. With paper and everything.

Let the whooping and hollering commence.

Happy Monday, dear Readers!

I received a grand total of zilch for responses to the Valentine Slogan Contest. Which just means I’m going to extend it, since I can’t abide seeing a good contest go bad.

Here’s how it works. Your mission is to come up with a pithy saying for our favorite Necromance, suitable for slapping on a coffee mug. Send your submissions here, making sure to put “Valentine Slogan Contest” in the subject line. On May 1st, the contest will end, and Dark Siders will vote on the best slogan. The person who sent in the winning slogan gets a free coffee mug and credit for the mug, which will then be available in two sizes through Japhrimel’s Corner. Note that to vote, you’ll have to be subscribed to the Dark Side.

Stay tuned for more contests coming in May, including a Watcher giveaway and a drawing for signed, new-cover WFTD and DMR editions. I’ll announce the Watcher giveaway here on the blog, but in order to have a chance at the drawing you’ll need to be a Dark Sider. I know, it’s mean of me. But we’re spam-free, we have cookies, and one day we’ll do like Pinky and the Brain and take over the world.

Who could ask for more?

And a fine good morning to you.

Last night we watched Shane–the Alan Ladd version. As a Western dealing with the theme of emotional infidelity, I liked the book better. But then again, I would. I’d like to see a very dirty, gritty, Deadwood-esque Shane. I think that would be killer.

Anyway, I have good news but I can’t share it yet until I get permission. Yaay! I will just say I danced around in a circle squeeing my lungs out. It’s happy news. I can’t wait to be able to tell you.

Now, on to the next thing: the mighty podcast. I’ll be doing a podcast, probably some time in late March/early April. And what will this podcast entail?

Well, that’s up to you. Here’s how it works: you send your questions to me. I’ll answer as many as I can in an hour-long podcast, which subscribers to my newsletter The Dark Side will get a link to.

What I will answer: questions about writing, Danny Valentine, the Watchers, the Society, publishing, and general subjects.

What I won’t answer: Politics. Personal questions. And “how do I get an agent/publisher/contract” questions. I’ve been getting a lot of those lately.

So. Think of a question you’d like to ask me and send it to the above email address, and sometime in March we’ll have ourselves a little chat. Just me and you, dear Readers.

ALSO, don’t forget about the ongoing contests! So far the Japhrimel Slogan contest is getting the most response. I haven’t seen much art or fiction. *sad panda face* We’re getting near the deadline, so I’m hoping for a last-minute rush. Optimism strikes eternal.

Today is a lovely day, full of wind and sunshine. It’s a bit chilly, but spring is in the air and a bounce is in my step, for once. Off I go to make a dent in some copyedits, dear Reader. I hope you are having a wonderful week.

It’s after the first of the year, so I thought I’d remind everyone about the ongoing contests.

* The Japhrimel Slogan Contest This contest is all about Japhrimel. Send a witty slogan suitable for coffee mugs and bumper stickers here. (Be sure to put “Japhrimel Slogan Contest” in the subject line!) The five best ones will be voted on by the fantastic Dark Siders. The first-place winner will get a free coffee mug or bumper sticker with their slogan as well as have the resulting item in my CafePress shop named after them.

* The Valentine Art Contest Artists, this one’s for you! Send me a JPG of original artwork inspired by the Valentine series. Most entries will go in a Fan Art Gallery I’m about to stick onto my website. The winner of this contest will get a signed copy of Dead Man Rising and may even get a signed-by-me print of their submission, probably through CafePress as well. Send your art as an attachment here. Be sure to put “Valentine Art Contest” in the subject line or your entry will go into the rubbish bin. (Hint: There’s an upcoming Japhrimel-only art contest after the first of the year, artists!)

* The Watcher Short Fiction Contest The response to the Dead Man Rising Fiction Contest was so tremendous I’ve decided to do the same with the Watcher series. Send me a short piece of original fiction (12-14K words max) set in the Watcher’s world. The pieces will be judged by me and possibly my beta readers, depending on volume. The winner will receive signed copies of Fire Watcher and Cloud Watcher, and the three runners-up will be put in a PDF along with the winner and made available through my website. The entries must be sent here, with “Watcher Fiction Contest” in the subject line. Submissions must be double-spaced, with page numbers, with at least 12pt Courier or Times New Roman type. Submissions that don’t meet this criteria won’t be looked at. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pay attention to the subject line on your submission for all three contests! I am asking for these to keep my email inbox organized; submissions who don’t meet the subject line criteria will be trashed without being opened. I’m sorry, but due to the response volume, that’s the way it is.

These three contests will close January 31, 2007, so you have plenty of time during and after this crazy holiday season. I will announce winners February 15, 2007. Good luck!

You know you have wonderful geek friends when one sends you an email that starts “I’M IN UR SIETCH, BEIN UR KWISATZ HADERACH.” You further know you are a geek when you look at it and think, off the top of your head, “Huh. Spelled it right, too.”

I love my friends.

In other news, I am currently wondering if insomnia is a writer’s disease or just my particular curse. It was five o’clock this morning before I could sleep. Of course, the Market Spice Tea I took down at nine PM might have had something to do with it. I don’t have caffeine after about two PM because I do have such trouble sleeping. I thought black tea with wonderful spicy herbs might be fine. Maybe it wasn’t.

On to other news–contest news, as a matter of fact!

Congratulations to Kimberley Stouffer, who won the First Come First Served contest for a free signed copy of Dead Man Rising. Also congrats to Bridget, who was the first winner of the Valentine Trivia Contest. (For those of you who participated, no, Sargon Corvin isn’t Jace’s foster father. It was Santino’s Mob name.)

Those contests were sadly only for subscribers to The Dark Side, my newsletter. However, there are other contests going on that I can invite the world into now that the Dark Siders have heard about them first.

* The Japhrimel Slogan Contest This contest is all about Japhrimel. Send a witty slogan suitable for coffee mugs and bumper stickers here. (Be sure to put “Japhrimel Slogan Contest” in the subject line!) The five best ones will be voted on by the fantastic Dark Siders. The first-place winner will get a free coffee mug or bumper sticker with their slogan as well as have the resulting item in my CafePress shop named after them.

* The Valentine Art Contest Artists, this one’s for you! Send me a JPG of original artwork inspired by the Valentine series. Most entries will go in a Fan Art Gallery I’m about to stick onto my website. The winner of this contest will get a signed copy of Dead Man Rising and may even get a signed-by-me print of their submission, probably through CafePress as well. Send your art as an attachment here. Be sure to put “Valentine Art Contest” in the subject line or your entry will go into the rubbish bin. (Hint: There’s an upcoming Japhrimel-only art contest after the first of the year, artists!)

* The Watcher Short Fiction Contest The response to the Dead Man Rising Fiction Contest was so tremendous I’ve decided to do the same with the Watcher series. Send me a short piece of original fiction (12-14K words max) set in the Watcher’s world. The pieces will be judged by me and possibly my beta readers, depending on volume. The winner will receive signed copies of Fire Watcher and Cloud Watcher, and the three runners-up will be put in a PDF along with the winner and made available through my website. The entries must be sent here, with “Watcher Fiction Contest” in the subject line. Submissions must be double-spaced, with page numbers, with at least 12pt Courier or Times New Roman type. Submissions that don’t meet this criteria won’t be looked at. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pay attention to the subject line on your submission for all three contests! I am asking for these to keep my email inbox organized; submissions who don’t meet the subject line criteria will be trashed without being opened. I’m sorry, but due to the response volume, that’s the way it is.

These three contests will close January 31, 2007, so you have plenty of time during and after this crazy holiday season. I will announce winners February 15, 2007. Good luck!

We’re expecting snow today, which will be nice for the Little Prince and Princess. The DHM just called to tell me it’s snowing up north where he is. I of course cautioned him to leave early enough to get home safe. People around here go crazy when it snows. Not like Wyoming, where they just shrug and get out the shovels and chains. It happens so infrequently in this corner of the world that everyone gets a bit overexcited.

Stay warm today, everyone.

Today is All Saints, and the first day of NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck as I say goodbye to friends and family and try to churn out a 50K YA paranormal romance novel (tentatively titled Ghost Hunter) in thirty days. (You can check out my progress here.)

Last night was a blast. I mulled wine, had coffee and Bailey’s, fed little monsters who came to my door, and tried to keep the candles in the jack o’lanterns and regular lanterns going. Most of them didn’t work–the wind was up and howling here last night. It was a spooky night, and once the trick or treaters trickled away and the Princess and Little Prince (sugar-stuffed and exhausted) were in bed, I went out walking, saying goodbye to the old year and hello to the new. I saw a zombie with the ace of spades painted over his left eye and several drunken party-goers. The trees in the parks sang under the wind, and fallen leaves rattled, rattled, and whirled in circles whenever I crossed the street.

My favorite holiday. But then, you knew that.

On to news! I will be at the University Bookstore on November 3, from 7-9PM. It’s a dual signing with the wonderful Kat Richardson, so come out and see us! After this signing I’m saying goodbye to everyone and going back to the grind; I have the fifth Valentine book and NaNoWriMo to figure out and get out of my head. Plus, we’re coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas; I firmly intend to disappear after the last bit of turkey is consumed and not reappear until the New Year. I just wish I could disappear to Fiji or Hawaii or something. People go crazy during the holidays.

IN other news, Cloud Watcher is now on sale through ImaJinn! You can get 40% off the list price by ordering from them before November 30. I will, of course, be letting you know when the book hits Amazon. Here’s the blurb:

Anya Harris’s talents have made her a refugee, flying from city to city ahead of a tide of burning terror nobody else can see. She’s hoping Santiago City will be safe—but deep in her heart of hearts, she knows nowhere is safe enough for someone with her secrets. When the gray-eyed man with guns and a sword shows up, claiming to be sent to protect her, Anya has to believe him. After all, she has nowhere else to go.

Jack Gray is one of the oldest Watchers around, scarred by the battle between Circle Lightfall and the Crusade. He’s found his witch and nothing is going to get in the way of protecting her. But nothing is as simple as it looks. Anya’s talent makes her worth millions, if she’s delivered alive and broken to the corporate bidders. Jack’s the only one who can save her—but when she finds out who he really is, he might lose her for good…

This is one of my favorite Watcher books, not the least because I really like Jack Gray. Most Watchers I’m pretty ambivalent about, but I like him; and the fact that the DHM helped me with the physics in several places only makes it better.

As the end of November draws closer I’ll be doing Dead Man Rising giveaway contests (yes, I finally got my author’s copies) and a Japhrimel’s Corner contest. To get in on these contests you need to be signed up for my newsletter, the Dark Side. It’s fun, easy, and spam-free. (We’ll be taking over the world soon…)

Now, pardon me. I have two thousand words to get in today, and the sun isn’t getting any younger. Hope you had a ghoulish Halloween and that the sugar hangover (or any other hangover) isn’t too bad.

Okay, so I buckled down and got the work done. You can find the PDF download of the Dead Man Rising Fiction Contest winners by clicking here. (You need Adobe Acrobat to view the PDF, I believe.)

Enjoy!