The Year in Review

Totally stolt this idea from Erica B., who I’m hating a little less these days, but not by much. She did a review of the fabulous clothes she made in 2009, and picked her faves. This year I had one full length novel out, Try a Little Tenderness. Beginning next year I want to initiate my plan of having two novellas and one full length out per year. I already have one novella scheduled for 2010, Fly Boy which will be in Parker’s What White Boys Fight For anthology. I hope the novella Pussycat Death Squad will be out in 2009, and with any luck I’ll finish Dark Star, which is a full-length. I haven’t told you about a book I’m also working on with Lisa G. Riley which will be a total surprise: a interracial, historical, shape-shifter story. We want to enter that in Samhain’s contest which is due in March. So, here’s my schedule. Pussycat, due to Loose-Id in January. Samhain contest story due in March. Fly Boy due to Parker in April. Finish Dark Star by fall and hope to have it on someone’s winter schedule. And don’t forget the mass-market release of Rock Star. I hope to get a chance to do some edits on that before the release, but that’s all up to the publisher. I have no control over that, at all. 

In other words ladies and gentlemen, in 2009, I’m bringing it. E-books are the only segment of publishing that’s doing well right now, so this is probably my best shot. To make it in e-publishing you have to produce. It’s the ultimate publish or peril industry. So here’s the deal, I bring it, you buy it and it’s all good. 

I think Goapele is one of the most gorgeous women on the planet. She’s very much my idea of what Tonya, heroine of Dark Star looks like. Those of you who’ve read Rock Star know that Tonya is Callie’s best friend. Tonya will be paired up with Nate Randolph, who has a cameo in Try a Little Tenderness. (In case you’re wondering, I literally keep track of these folk with sticky notes on my wall. I used to keep them in my head, but at the moment it’s full of Green Eggs and Ham, and Captain Underpants. And yes, it’s driving my obsessive-compulsive neat-freak of a husband insane.) Tonya is probably the most complex character I’ve ever written. She’s dealing with a major book launch, the return of a long-lost love, family issues out the yazoo, and did I mention being kidnapped as part of the hunt for an international terrorist? (Okay, terrorist facilitator, the Rooster wants to make that point plain. He’s not a killer, he just helps others kill. It’s a fine point, but an important one.)

Tonya’s a challenge, but I think she’s endlessly fascinating, and worthy of a hero like Nate. Koss will always be my favorite hero because he’s so much like my husband, but Nate runs a close second.