Rewards

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations. This is the fun part of a writing career. Soon, you'll get to hear the other side, as I whine and moan about how hard writing can be.

I forgot to mention yesterday how I plan to reward myself for the book deal. It's mandatory to buy new shoes to celebrate. Last time, I already knew I wanted the specific Infamous Red Stilettos and bought them that very day. This time around, I have more of a vague idea of a type of shoe I want, but I haven't narrowed it down to a specific item I must have this very minute. I'm going to celebrate with a new pair of dressy black high-heeled boots. Yes, I already own three pairs of black boots, but none of them fill that particular niche in my wardrobe. I have the high heeled, somewhat pointed toe ankle boots, but those are more casual and really only work with pants (I can't get into the ankle boots with a skirt concept -- makes my legs look too short). Then I have the flat-heeled riding boot style that come from the late 80s/early 90s, so they have the top that can fold over to create a Peter Pan style boot (not that I ever wear them that way). And my high-heeled tall black boots are from about 2000, so they have a square toe and chunky heel -- very motorcycle mama. They also weren't high quality to begin with (I refused to splurge during the square-toe, chunky-heel era), so they're starting to look not so nice. When I have time to shop again, I'll have to hit DSW and see what I can find.

Speaking of time ... the UPS man brought me a present today: the page proofs for Once Upon Stilettos. This is essentially the guts of the book, the way it will look when it's printed. I get to go over it, looking for any last-minute errors that need to be corrected before it goes in for the final printing. And yes, the typeface still has a longer bio than I do. I have about a week and a half to get that done.

This is actually good timing because it gives me a chance to reread both books before I get into book three. I don't think I'm in danger of having characters' eyes suddenly change color between books (I've actually read that in some series), but there have been enough drafts and rewrites that I don't always remember how things came out in the final version or which version of a scene I ended up going with. The whole creative process -- every scene or even idea -- is all jumbled up together in my head, along with the stuff that made it into the finished book. Plus, re-reading it is sure to get me totally back into that voice and with those characters.

Yesterday as I was taking a walk, I had scenes and bits of dialogue popping into my head already. I'm also working on some of my pre-writing stuff, like creating my soundtrack for this book, which means I'm listening to a lot of random music to see if anything jumps out at me as fitting the mood, emotions, characters or story for this book. The book takes place around Christmas time, so I may have to dip into Christmas music, too. I'd normally find that annoying at this time of year, but I'm in a choir, so we're already practicing Christmas music. The problem is, lately the kind of Christmas music I've been into is early music and English choral music, which doesn't fit the mood of the book (though if I could find a way to work in John Rutter's "What Sweeter Music," I would).

Now I have a few other deadlines for the day, plus a lot of errands to run, so I guess I'd better get to work!