OK, not exactly an era. It’s only been four years. But yesterday a put a “the end” on a rough draft of the Dark Elves VI: Awakening manuscript. This is the last book in the planned arc that I began with my first published book, Dark Elves I: Taken.

I have to laugh. That last sentence above makes it sound like I had it planned from the start. I didn’t. If I had, believe me a few things would have happened differently in books 1 and 2. Maybe not those stories but definitely some background details. But that’s water under the bridge. No, I didn’t really have much of an idea where I was going with the series until book 3. Due to certain events that happen in that story–and if you’ve read it, I’m sure you know what I’m referring to–I kind of had to bring things full circle. I believe books 4-6 do that. Through the series, I’ve taken my elves from dark secrecy into more of the light. Not completely day, mind you, but they’re a bit more… exposed shall we say. Read the rest of this entry »

The League welcomes Toni Andrews  as a stop along her Cry Mercy Tour

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Cry Mercy.

Information for where to send self addressed stamped envelopes are at: http://toniandrews.com/CryMercyTour.htm

Other links to find Toni:

Cry Mercy Trailer: http://tinyurl.com/75vl4s

Toni’s web site: http://toniandrews.com/

Toni’s Blog: http://tinyurl.com/ToniBlog

Toni’s TV show: http://toniandrews.com/SoManyBooks.htm

Book Rx, Toni’s “Book Doctor” service: http://toniandrews.com/BookRx.htm

Links to purchase Cry Mercy:

Mira Books (discounted while they last!) http://tinyurl.com/oe8tkd

Amazon Link:  http://tinyurl.com/CryMercy

Amazon UK Link: http://tinyurl.com/prh6ej

Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/pxrx9f

Indigo Books (Canada): http://tinyurl.com/qcycaf

Rendezvous Romance (Australia) http://tinyurl.com/r4g56z

And why failure isn’t what it appears to be.

Warning: Rambling story ahead…

I’ve been writing for almost 14 years (24 years if you count that one time in first grade when I decided I could write a better Care Bear book…but I digress). I wrote (bad) paranormal fiction in high school and a little into my early twenties, but it wasn’t until I met some amazing women at the LUNA forum in eharlequin that I considered picking up the pen and writing again.That was four years ago and I haven’t looked back since. Read the rest of this entry »

I just saw “Editing Letter” which Dawn shared and said was posted by Nikita (that evil artist!)

Is that what’s in store for me? Oh no! I’m still in my bathrobe when the mail arrives.

I’ve been fairly quiet here, so I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing. My first mass market paperback hasn’t hit the editor’s desk yet. (Ash chews fingernails.) It’s going through my critique partner’s loving red pen slashes. Yes, loving. She catches every misplaced quotation mark and repeated word. When I see her tomorrow for our weekly chop session, I’m going to kiss her feet. I’d better email her ahead of time and ask her to shower first.

I’m especially grateful right now because my agent asked to see what I had so she could give me an opinion on a scene I was thinking of cutting completely and replacing with something very different. Only about one third has critiqued and repaired so far.

“Aw, it’s not that bad. I’m sure she’ll forgive a missed comma or two,” I thought. So I sent it. Then I continued on to self-edit before showing the next two chapters to Diana (my critique partner.)

Horrors! For some reason, I had forgotten how awful my words were before Diana spotted the bad ones and brainstormed better ones with me. I wanted to put my head in my hands and cry. I wanted to reach through cyperspace and drag that ms. back from my agent’s laptop–even if she had printed out the pages and they were literally sitting atop her lap!

If I don’t hear from her with some kind of positive encouragement, I’ll assume she’s off shredding my contract!  Oh, the humanity!!!

Oh, why do I do this to myself? Nobody’s perfect, right? Nobody! Even those who seem to think they are fail the perfection test for that thought alone (as well as being insufferable bores.)

Oy. There’s no way around it. I’m not perfect and I imagine my agent knows that. I hope she’ll be so captivated with the story she won’t notice I used the word ‘actually’ three times in one paragraph. Maybe she doesn’t care if the word him was supposed to be her and the whole meaning of the sentence changed. LOL (Oh no! I’m toast.)

Fortunately, my deadline was extended to July 31st so the WHOLE thing can benefit from my critique partner’s loving suggestions before those editing letters start flying through the mail.

Positive footnote: I plotted book two in the three book series.  (Well, at least that’s off my plate!)

Ash

Toni Andrews will be guest blogging on June 12 about her upcoming release, Cry Mercy.

I suck at it.

No, okay, that’s not entirely true. I know people who are way worse at it than I am. But that doesn’t mean that I’m still bad at it. Oh, I go through my good periods but it ends up like exercising and dieting. I’m good for awhile, then I get bored with it and muck it up.

Is usually for good reasons. Recently, it’s because I’ve volunteered for too much. It’s all good, though. Aside from the writing and the web work that I’ve been doing for over a year now, I’ve recently taken on the running of two websites. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in the middle of a fun project this week. I have a book I’m polishing up for submission right now. When I saw this link from Nikita, I laughed so hard. Yes, this is editing. Of course, I’ve never broke out in song during edits, but hey, whatever works! Enjoy!