Mary Hughes

Stacking Hats--How to Survive Crunch Times

2012-05-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

TODO:

WisRWA conference June 1-3--Board Meeting and two pitch sessions. NOTE: Must finish second draft of Alphas Don't Wear Bows and write pitch before May 31.
Black Diamond Jinn--get up on Barnes and Noble. Schedule ads. Pull excerpts. Send out review copies? Need to research that.
Biting Oz--final ARC returned, have approved excerpt and final Word file but not final books. Need to schedule posting of approved blurb and excerpts, not too early. Pull secondary excerpts. Parties scheduled, but need to prepare. Oh well, that's August. Must remember to blog on compilation of awesome editor Christa's brilliant edits. Waiting for final cover--remember to post on blog when received! Contact ad sites to determine lead times. Thank goodness Samhain takes care of sending out to reviewers.
Newsletter! Almost forgot that. Not until August though, so there's a little time yet.
Publish short story Oz Bites on Amazon and B&N. Hope it's faster and easier with experience. That's not until July.
Camp NaNo--June. What would I do without Mrs pushing me to get fresh stuff written? Get bogged down in promo, probably. Writing Rocky's story (already started, is that allowed?), Biting Love Book 7. Must do preplanning. What? When???
WisRWA--new task! Asked to moderate one of the workshops. Can I do that??

If you're an introvert like me, the above might look overwhelming. That's okay, normal, natural and nothing to be afraid of. It's because of a couple things.

1) Your stimulus-to-reaction brain path goes through an extra loop. You do more work for each and every task than an extrovert does!

2) If you're highly sensitive, which a lot of introverts are, you simply notice more. You have more inputs to deal with! So you look at the task list above and you see all the people in the crowds for the workshop and will you have to moderate questions, and and AND.

What's the secret of getting through this without freaking? I used a technique at my concert Saturday which worked wonders. I gave myself an hour of me-time before getting dressed in my concert blacks. And then I limited my field of input and concentrated ONLY on the task at hand.

That's right. Give yourself permission for me-time before (and after). And give yourself permission to filter out the world while you're doing something hard.

So today, I'm focusing completely on a few tasks. I'm working on this blog and another due next week at The Book Binge as part of a June Read-a-Thon (is that on my website News page?). After that I'll finish responding to emails and pull a Jinn excerpt for Blackraven Erotic Cafe for an Author Spotlight.

But no matter what, after lunch I'm working on Alphas. Nothing centers me like writing a good book :)

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella) Excerpt #2

2012-05-17T07:46:00.000-05:00

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Have sex, avert doom, save the world.

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella)

The Mayan Doom is real. Government witch Amaia Jones has the spreadsheet to prove it.

Amaia is a desk-bound research wizard, living uncomfortably in the shadow of her famous Venus-magic parents, when she discovers the world is ending. Tonight. But her bulldog of a boss not only refuses to believe her, he won’t give her the secret to calling the one force powerful enough to help—the jinn. Amaia turns to her mental guardian angel, Rafe, the darkly handsome presence who has comforted her since her parents died.

Rafe has a secret of his own. He’s a black diamond jinn, one of the deadliest and most powerful of his kind. He’s detected a ruthless enemy using blood sacrifice and stoking Y12 public panic in order to summon the nightmare gods. Rafe needs to get into the human realm to stop the Doom. But when Amaia finally calls him, she’s threatened by his scorching sensuality.

Amaia’s guardian angel is a stunning jinni and suddenly her job is way more complicated. Jinn are known for taking their pound of flesh in exchange for magical help, but the only flesh Rafe wants is hers, taut with delight. Venus magic is the very thing that drove a wedge between Amaia’s parents, but her alternatives are rapidly dwindling. With four hours to go on humanity’s darkest night, the only alternative to surrendering her flesh may be surrendering her life.

This title contains explicit sexual language and may not be suitable for all readers.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella):

Rafe

Today was Rafe’s birthday. His human birthday, his three thousand nine hundredth…and some-odd. He’d lost track of the years but marked each anyway.

Trying to remember his humanity. There was a losing battle.

Around him swirled millions of stars, diamonds sparkling in the black velvet of space’s infinite night. The glittering dance of spangled dust and gas was a ballet that had lured many a jinni to stare upon its beauty forever.

Rafe had promised himself he’d never be one of them. That he’d never lose himself in the stars, never forget Earth’s people.

That he’d never be like his father.

But it was so long ago. The centuries had taken their toll. He stopped visiting except once each earth year, but even then the visit was rote, memory’s husk of an increasingly barren promise.

Until she was born.

She was so…human. Toddling into trouble, into scrapes and bruises, but always dusting herself off, laughing, and toddling on. Later she was running headlong into trouble but still always laughing, dusting off, moving.

Today he was strangely eager. Eager to scale down, to bend his eye toward the small dull rock of his birth.

To see her.

He shifted focus. Well, imagine that. She was in trouble again.

The whole planet is in trouble. The voice shimmered from the depths of space, like a cell phone that had the stars as relay towers. Destruction threatens your home.

“Jibril.” Rafe bowed low at the voice. As old and vast as Rafe was, Jibril was greater by far. He’d sacrificed himself to save humanity and had passed to a plane so high he could no longer descend to the physical. Even maintaining his presence here on the ethereal was hard for him, like fitting a lion in a shoebox.

But Jibril was right. Humanity vibrated a sick, washed-out brown on the ethereal. Rafe frowned. “What’s wrong with them?”

I’m not sure. From here I can only see the sickness. The result.

“The cause must be on the physical plane. I’ll have to descend.”

How will you do that? A physical cause usually has a specific location. Unless you’re called by a physical being, you could end up anywhere.

“Then I’ll just have to make sure I’m called, won’t I?”

Bonus! Mayan Calendar extends beyond 2012? Read the stunning Mayan discovery at Cosmic Log.

3T Writing Tidbit

2012-05-15T02:17:00.011-05:00

I've been published since 2009 but I've been writing for a lot longer. Over the years I've accumulated various items of wisdom from all over. Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit will showcase these items one at a time in no particular order.

Question: I've finished the first draft of my novel--how do I know when it's ready to send out?

One of my early finds on the Internet is Holly Lisle. I resonated with her answers and she was the first person I found who answered all the questions I had. Here's Holly's take on how to revise a novel.

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella) Excerpt!

2012-05-10T09:16:00.000-05:00

Have sex, avert doom, save the world.

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella)

The Mayan Doom is real. Government witch Amaia Jones has the spreadsheet to prove it.

This title contains explicit sexual language and may not be suitable for all readers.

Note: The following excerpt includes strong language.

December 21, 2012

7:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

“The Mayan Doom is real, Chief. I have proof!” I shoved the stack of papers under my boss’s nose, spreadsheet on top. Not because I’m a dick (just the opposite, in fact—unless you counted Mervyn’s opinion that my lady parts clanked when I walked) but because I was trying to save the world and Chief Wizard Arnie Wenkermann was as nearsighted as a myopic bull dog and twice as stubborn.

“Damn it, Jones!” The Chief jerked back. “Your job is to reassure the public, not fan the nonsense higher.”

His ex-drill sergeant bark nearly blew me away, but I stood firm. “It’s not nonsense. The world is ending tonight. Look.” I shook the papers.

My boss clamped his eyes shut. “Numbers mean nothing to me.”

“Fine.” I pulled out a page. “See the pretty graph?”

He cracked an eye at the plummeting black arrow, squinched it shut again. “That can’t be right. The adepts would’ve noticed it. The ones who bothered showing up for work, anyway.”

“Adepts?” I snorted. “Part-time school kids?”

“You’re barely out of school yourself.” He upped my snort with a Chiefly sneer. “Class of 2012.”

“I’ve had six months in the real world,” I said, stung. “And Mervyn…I mean Wizard Analyst Johnson will back me up. Chief, we’ve already gone beyond what a team of adepts can handle. Look at my numbers and you’ll see—”

“Wizard Jones.” The title was a slap. “It’s just numbers. You’re overreacting.”

“Really Chief, I’m not.” Didn’t he understand that, as a government witch, this was the part of the job that I knew cold? In case it was his myopia and not his stubbornness blinding him, I traced the line with a finger, starting at business-as-usual and plunging to screaming end-of-world oh-shit. “We’ll be past the help of full wizards in a couple of hours. Ground zero in four. We must attack this immediately.”

“Jones, I have enough shit to shovel in the final hours before Y12. I don’t need a newbie witch gone Chicken Little.”

I held my temper, barely. Thank you, mandatory unfunded anger management classes. “Fine. It’s almost too late to chart a neutralization spell anyway, much less set it up. So give me the secret.”

“Secret? What secret?” He slit both eyes, cutting-narrow. Yeah, he knew what secret but wouldn’t say it first. “What are you suggesting?”

No less than counter-doom, but the world was mere hours from getting fucked without a fondle and I was dying anyway. With the cancer eating my lungs and my life, I was down to months, so this was my last chance to make a real difference. No time to hold back. I took a long, shallow breath. “I want to call a jinni.”

“A jinni—! No way.” He went red, paper white, and back to red. “No fucking—”

“Chief Wenkermann, please. We can try other things first, but we have to be prepared to take extreme action. The end of the world—”

“No.” He grabbed my graph, ripped it in two and tossed it behind him. I guess he’d flunked his anger management. “The Mayan calendar is ending, not the world. Even a desk-bound research wizard like you should know better than to panic just because an arbitrary cycle is ending.”

The desk-bound comment pinched but I pushed it aside. “Arbitrary, except John Q. Public doesn’t think so. Something’s shoving mass gullibility darkside, stoking fear and paving the way for the ultimate destruction. The nightmare gods will be loose, Chief. It’ll be Armageddon.”

He popped at the A-word. “For fuck’s sake, Jones. No end-of-world scare has come true, not the 2011 rapture or Y2K or the Disasters of ’88 or Comet Kohoutek in ’73. Y12 is just more of same. The public loves its disaster drama but doesn’t know shit about karmic physics.”

“Hey, Y2K was a real problem that came out okay because smart, dedicated people—both wizards and not—worked years at it. This is a real problem too—and we have less than four hours before all hell breaks loose. I’m not saying a jinni would be my first choice, but we have to be prepared.” I straightened to my full five-two. Even desk jockeys were sometimes combatants in war. “Chief Wenkermann, as a Research Wizard for the National Center for Behavioral Physics, with all the rights that entails, I officially request the secret of calling the jinn.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not, Jones.”

“Why not? I’ve met all the requirements. I filed a form S-1519J. I have clearance and as a full witch I’m more than capable—”

“I said no!” He speared a hand through the thin strands atop his shiny dome. “Do I need to spell it out? You’re a full witch, ten times as strong as adepts which makes you some hot shit, yeah. Except jinn are a thousandtimes as powerful, which makes them scary dangerous.”

“But—”

“Shut up and listen. Not only are jinn damned dangerous, they don’t give away jack shit for free. To pay the karmic balance that jinni’ll take a pound of your flesh. The harder the task the more he’ll carve. End of the world?” He made a loud, rude sound. “End of your world, because you’ll be the one to die.”

Dying already, so that didn’t scare me. But I wanted to save everyone else the grief. I wedged my original spreadsheet under his nose. “Armageddon is coming, Chief. Humanity has exercised its free will and united behind a single idea—fear. We think the world will end so it will. The nightmare gods set free, the world plunged into chaos, terror darkening each and every human mind and soul.”

He snatched the spreadsheet and ripped it too. “For the last time, Jones, it won’t come to that. That’s what we’ve been working on, what you’resupposed to be working on—Project Y12 Serenity, remember? Which has been entirely successful, so your numbers are wrong. They must be wrong. For fuck’s sake, do you think I’d send the teams home if we were in danger?”

“Nobody’s chanting Serenity on seven?” My cheeks iced. We’d had round-the-clock Serenity chanting on the seventh floor since the first squeak of Doom. If Chants, Rites and Rituals had stopped production…no wonder the graph was plummeting.

“Listen up, Jones. The problem’s solved. Damned good thing too. The overtime was eating my budget alive. Which reminds me—it’s quarter to eight and you’re not salaried. Go home.”

“I can’t. Those numbers clearly show—”

“Shut it.”

“Just give me the secret—”

“No. And in case you have a problem with English, nein, non, nyet, fucking N-O!” He spun and stalked away.

“Oh, you’re no better than the Mayan kings,” I shouted, snatching up the torn halves of my proof. “Stupid knowledge hoarder.”

He spun at his office door, every inch the sergeant, so much that I expected him to bark “down and give me twenty”. He gave me the civilian equivalent. “Go home!” He slammed into his office hard enough to rattle the window.

“Wenkermann!” I balled up the ruined pages and tossed them into a recycling bucket ten feet away, hitting it dead center. “Don’t you dare shut me out. This is serious. The Mayan Doom—”

The door slapped open. “I said no. Since you have trouble with that word, let me use another one. Suspend. As in, if I hear another word about any Mayan Doom, you’re suspended.”

I stopped breathing. “You can’t—”

“You want me to use another word? Like fired?”

Air exploded from my lungs along with every Joule of body heat. “I don’t—”

“Then don’t. Listen to me, Jones. You are not, under any circumstances, to call a jinni. You are not to ask anyone for the secret. In fact if I even hear a whisper of you and jinn in the same sentence you are fired. Is that clear?”

“Yes.” All too.

He raised his voice to carry to the rest of the cubicle farm, where the handful of wizards too junior to escape the holiday ghost town were heads-down pretending to work. “Calling a jinni is fucking dangerous, people. I hear anybody in my office has tried, they’re fired. You—” he poked a stiff finger at me “—have too much time on your hands if you think anything is happening at midnight besides the Maya starting a new calendar.”

“And the Ball dropping,” I said automatically.

“What?” He bit the word off. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Should have kept my mouth shut. But having started I bulled on. “At midnight. You said nothing’s happening but a new Mayan calendar, but the Times Square Ball is dropping too. That’s why the public has glommed onto Midnight EST as The Time. Why it’s vital to nip this in the next four hours. Once midnight passes we’re safe but—”

“Rein it in, Jones! You are over-the-top catastrophizing. Obviously you need some real work to keep you busy. I’m assigning you to the karmic math project, effective immediately. One helper. And listen up—any work outside normal hours will not be paid.”

“Chief, no. Not FKME.” Should definitely have kept the old trap door shut.

Project FKME, full title Project to Facilitate Karmic Mathematics Education, was originally designed to help adults understand karmic math. It had turned into the mindless job of taking spreadsheets and kerchunking out stupidly simple graphs. Insert a UC after the F and you’ll get the picture of what we all thought of FKME. “I have way too much to do. You can’t—”

“Fight me on this, Jones, and I’ll take away the helper. Dismissed.” Bang.

***Check back next Thursday for another excerpt!

Biting Oz, Black Diamond Jinn Update

2012-05-08T08:26:00.000-05:00

Biting Oz is through final line edits! One more edit pass until the final book. I'm expecting a first draft cover any day. (For those of you interested in the editing process, I've included a brief outline of the stages below.)

Some tidbits to whet your appetite. This book has what my brilliant editor calls "one of the best sex scenes I've ever read". It also contains "entr'actes" from the hero Glynn's perspective, and a scene featuring the first-ever meeting of the V-spouses of Meiers Corners and Nearby Surrounds. The topic--vampire/human aging. The last two are in response to reader letters and questions, so please keep your feedback coming!

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot Fantasy/SF Novella) is through beta reading and a few steps away from putting up on Smashwords and Amazon. I'm excited that a good friend has kindly given me a chapter of her latest book to include in the back.

A few tidbits. My cherished beta reader picked out several T-shirt phrases in the book, so you know there's snappy dialog. She also identified the book as SF/Fantasy--this isn't a paranormal romance. Don't worry--there's a hero and heroine and happy ending. But it's a different sort of story from Meiers Corners. I'll post an excerpt soon so you can get an idea of what I mean!

Ebook First Publisher editing sequence (from the author's perspective):
1. I write the book. 2. I read through the book for continuity and to make sure the plot hangs together. 3. I submit the book. 4. My editor may have changes she wants done before she'll buy it. 5. I make the changes and do step 2. 6. My editor buys the book. (This step is different for each publisher. Some buy on an outline, some require a multi-editor approval.) 7. She makes her first edit pass and returns the manuscript to me to fix. 8. I fix or explain and send back. 9. She makes her second edit pass with finer detail changes. 10. I fix and return. 11. A line editor goes through the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and returns it to my editor who adds how she wants me to fix things. (The editorial process differs by publisher as well. For some it will be several editors, for some a single editor steps through the whole process.) 12. I fix the line edits. If there are any questions at this point my editor and I might make another short pass between us to address them. 13. The book goes to the publisher who puts together an Advance Reading Copy. 14. I read the ARC for typos. No tweaking allowed at this point! 15. The book is rendered in a wide variety of ebook formats and sent to sales outlets across the globe. 16. Yay! 17. Several months before the print version comes out I get galleys. 18. I read the galleys for typos. 19. The paperback book is printed and goes to sales outlets around the world.

May 1T Giveaway!

2012-05-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the First Tuesday giveaway! Each first Tuesday of the month I'm offering a contest where I choose one winner (who hasn't won in the past twelve months) by random number from all comments on that post. The winner will receive his or her choice of one Biting Love ebook *or* a $5 gift certificate from Amazon or Samhain!

If you're a 18+ and an adult, and if you consent to having your name listed on the rotating 12-month winner list, just comment on this post to enter! Void where prohibited. Please note, the Biting Love books contain explicit sex and violence. If you win please consider that when making your prize selection. Winner chosen at the end of the month and posted as part of next month's contest.

And April's winner is--Tiana! Congratulations, Tiana! I'll be contacting you at your entry email to get your choice of prize, or you can write me at mary@maryhughesbooks.com.

What's wrong with backstory?

2012-04-24T02:37:00.000-05:00

Judging contests like RWA's RITA and Golden Heart is a great way to figure out what's really behind all those pesky writing rules. For example, we all know "show don't tell" but the fact is sometimes telling is exactly what you need, like when you're fast-forwarding.

Backstory is another of those elusive concepts. Sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesn't. But when and why?

Sometimes things in your storyworld differ from the reader's normal world. When an item goes against expectation and makes a difference for the current action, you actually should include a brief explanation.

Backstory doesn't work when you invite the reader into your world--but you make her memorize its entire history first. If you did well in history and love memorizing dates, well, know that I'm giving you The Look.

The point is, immerse your reader in your world and give them secure footing. But an interesting story is the most important thing. Wait with the history lesson for a few chapters.

Spring! And a young man's fancy turns to GIVEAWAYS

2012-04-19T08:45:00.001-05:00

What do you enjoy most about spring? Join me at Guilty Pleasures' Love In Bloom event. Prizes!

3T Writing Tidbit

2012-04-17T02:09:00.004-05:00

I've been published since 2009 but I've been writing for a lot longer. Over the years I've accumulated various items of wisdom from all over. Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit will showcase these items one at a time in no particular order.

Show the moment of the heroine's (hero's) change.

This has a lot of implications.

Show not tell--basically, can you a) put her up on a movie screen? or b) sit in her skin and feel what she's going through?

The moment--meaning a specific instant in time, although the whole book should lead to it.

Change--the heroine may return to Kansas but she's at least changed inside.

New Novella

2012-04-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

My new stand-alone novella, Black Diamond Jinn, has a cover! Kudos to Valerie Tibbs for another amazing piece of art.

I expect to release Jinn in late May. More info to come!

April 1T Giveaway!

2012-04-03T03:51:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the First Tuesday giveaway! Each first Tuesday of the month I'm offering a contest where I choose one winner (who hasn't won in the past twelve months) by random number from all comments on that post. The winner will receive his or her choice of one Biting Love ebook *or* a $5 gift certificate from Amazon or Samhain!

If you're a 18+ and an adult, and if you consent to having your name listed on the rotating 12-month winner list, just comment on this post to enter! Void where prohibited. Please note, the Biting Love books contain explicit sex and violence. If you win please consider that when making your prize selection. Winner chosen at the end of the month and posted as part of next month's contest.

And March's winner is--joye! Congratulations, joye! Please email me at mary@maryhughesbooks.com to claim your prize.

Introvert Shocker

2012-03-27T06:35:00.000-05:00

You and nine people are in an elevator. How many of them are introverts? One? Two...and a half?

Would you believe five or six? Apparently the statistics we've all been fed are shockingly out of date. The truth is, almost fifty-one percent of the US population is introverted.

Well, okay, but that fifty-one percent is hiding in corners, right?

Um, no. In this USA Today article from 2006, 4/10 top execs are introverts. Remember, introverts aren't antisocial but simply need thinking space.

Speaking of thinking space, check out this 2012 NY Times article on a new rapidly scarce-ifying resource--not oil, not water, but uninterrupted think time!

3T Writing Tidbit

2012-03-20T02:38:00.000-05:00

I've been published since 2009 but I've been writing for a lot longer. Over the years I've accumulated various items of wisdom from all over. Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit will showcase these items one at a time in no particular order.

Make ever character introduction count.

I've gleaned information from Janet Evanovich's How I Write and Jack M. Bickham's Writing Novels That Sell (among others). They have specific recommendations so I'll just boil it down to--make it memorable, make it distinctive.

Example: June had blonde hair, was five-nine, athletic and shapely vs. John's jaw dropped when the golden goddess danced into the room like it was her personal Garden.

Vivid Images--For Writers

2012-03-13T10:32:00.000-05:00

Strong verbs and vivid nouns are the canvas and oil that authors use to paint living images for readers.

But what about images for writers? When we learn our craft, where's the impact? Is our writing ever blah because our idea of craft is eh?

Here are a few phrases I use to jumpstart my romance writing. Hope you'll find them electric as well.

For a basic hero/heroine scene-- "You're driving me nuts!" Note, this works in romcom, in bedroom situations, and more :)

Set up an expectation--then twist it.

Show don't tell--You're making a movie of it, not a movie of you talking about it.

A Pearl for Your Fantasy II

2012-03-10T12:34:00.001-06:00

Why is A Pearl for Your Fantasy one of my all-time highest read posts? Some ideas at the Samhain blog. This is my first non-release blog at the Samhain Publishing site--hope to see some of you there!

http://www.samhainpublishing.com/2012/03/a-pearl-for-your-fantasy-ii/

Hugs!
Mary

March 1T Giveaway!

2012-03-06T03:51:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the First Tuesday giveaway! Each first Tuesday of the month I'm offering a contest where I choose one winner (who hasn't won in the past twelve months) by random number from all comments on that post. The winner will receive his or her choice of one Biting Love ebook *or* a $5 gift certificate from Amazon or Samhain!

If you're a 18+ and an adult, and if you consent to having your name listed on the rotating 12-month winner list, just comment on this post to enter! Void where prohibited. Please note, the Biting Love books contain explicit sex and violence. If you win please consider that when making your prize selection. Winner chosen at the end of the month and posted as part of next month's contest.

And February's Winner--Nancy G! Nancy please email me (mary @maryhughesbooks . com) for your prize!

Party Extravaganza at Pub Weekly

2012-03-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

Paranormal bash today with party prizes from Sherrilyn Kenyon, Anya Bast, Jim Butcher, Nalini Singh and more!!

Nixie's band is doing the music :) and my prize is all 4 Biting Love books -- Come share the fun and invite friends! Barbara Vey's Fifth Anniversary Bash--Paranormal Bash

Better yet--it's continuing all week! Through March 10.

Writing Tips Are Not for Writing

2012-02-28T08:24:00.000-06:00

I read a lot of writing books, blogs, and suggestions. I write a tidbit on the third Tuesday of the month.

But do I use the writing tips all the time?

Well, no. Here's the thing. If I worried about each of the many things I learned every time I sat down at the keyboard, I'd never get any words on the screen. I can't see how anyone would. So if I'm writing, I just write whatever carbon comes out, however bland and boring. I can compress the diamond later.

So when do I use them?

Character and plotting tips are great for planning--before I sit down, or when I'm stuck. If the words aren't flowing it might be because I don't understand my hero or heroine's journey. Or I'm unclear about what opposition the antagonist offers them.

I use the craft tips on the edit passes, and not even all of them then. I bring them out when the story or prose just isn’t working. When I've stumbled over the paragraph or yawned through the scene.

In other words, I use writing tips and help to fix what's wrong, not all the time. How about you?

3T Writing Tidbit

2012-02-21T01:12:00.007-06:00

I've been published since 2009 but I've been writing for a lot longer. Over the years I've accumulated various items of wisdom from all over. Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit will showcase these items one at a time in no particular order.

Watch out for arbitrary categories.

Example: I was a fourth-level wizard.

As opposed to what? Is one good and four bad? Are the levels 1-100? Some categories are ingrained into our culture--red usually means stop--but if you build your own world have specific reasons for rankings (that make sense).

Biting Oz is a go!

2012-02-14T11:18:00.000-06:00

The title goddess has spoken! Biting Love Book Five is officially Biting Oz. Rumors put the release date in the third quarter.

You've all been so patient, thank you! I'm currently writing three books (tentatively Beauty Bites, Alphas Don't Wear Bows, and an unnamed shifter story) but I have just enough time to self-publish one of my earlier manuscripts, if you'd like.

It's your choice! Below are the three manuscripts I'm thinking of self-pubbing. I'll put out a poll and you can tell me which of the stories (or just keep working on the new stuff, woman! :) you want.

Hot Chips and Sand

Vickie's just trying to land a contract but instead she lands up a captive in the Middle East. Her escape is foiled when she runs into a bigger problem--a guy with a chest the size of the Arabian peninsula who grabs and kisses her to hide her from the bad guys, then takes her on a wild roof-top escape. Finally back in the U.S. she's hauled onto another project for brilliant, egocentric computer businessman Sir Humphrey Hawkesclyffe. Just what she needs, a white-haired, wing-tipped English lord lording it over her.

Dual citizen Cliff Hawkesclyffe is taking care of business in the Middle East when the gorgeous redhead bursts into his seedy boarding-house room. He rescues her but that's not his only gallant reaction. He wants her and decides contracting her team is the way to get closer. But someone is trying to steal Cliff's proprietary security technology, and it may be his own employees--or even the client himself.

Action, humor, romance and sex. This is not a paranormal title.

Mystic Streams

History professor Mircelle Baker is maid of honor at her fashionable cousin's wedding because her introspective nature ensures she won't outshine bride--and because Miri is the perfect buffer between her cousin and the groom's brother, tall black-haired loner Colin. He's an enigma, a mystic who claims he can see the future, but Miri doesn't believe in his powers until he predicts she will die--and then saves her from her killer. Attracted, intrigued, and wanting to help heal the rift between Colin and her cousin, Miri tries to figure him out. As a history prof that means digging into his history, and she stumbles on the horror of his past.

Colin Faulkner hasn't been close to a woman since his gift nearly killed one. Miri insinuates herself into his life, his heart and his deadly past. Colin's parents were murdered and the murders were never solved. And now Miri is stirring up sleeping snakes...and this time Colin may not be able to save either of them.

Paranormal action/mystery romance. Sexual tension, not explicit.

Tegan Rising: Makai and Associates Book 1

Tegan Madigan is a young computer programmer just at the outset if a rewarding professional life--when her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Traditional treatment hasn't worked and her mother, her only family, is dying. So when Tegan's best friend Johnny recommends an enigmatic businessman named Nicholas Makai, she goes. Though the offices of Makai and Associates are normal, airy and bright--Makai himself is anything but. Huge but concealing it, dark, and with a hard black stare that freezes her like a gorgon's, Tegan wonders if she's made a horrible mistake.

Until Makai gives Tegan the serum that saves her mother's life. But when Tegan offers money in payment, Makai asks for something far more personal--a favor. Tegan must help an old woman. But that job turns into a mystery and race to save the old woman's life. And even when it's over, Tegan may not be free of the mysterious Makai.

Women's fiction. This is a series of interlocking short stories, a serial novel. Written and immersed in the 90's, Tegan's stories are a funny, poignant, and magical picture of an awkward young career woman given the terrible gift of growth in her personal life.

Your vote counts--Biting Me Softly up for 2011 Sammies!

2012-02-09T12:50:00.000-06:00

Favorite print cover, best print book! Vote here through Survey Monkey.

Mary Hughes February 1T Giveaway!

2012-02-07T03:50:00.002-06:00

Welcome to my First Tuesday giveaway! Each first Tuesday of the month I'm offering a contest where I choose one winner (who hasn't won in the past twelve months) by random number from all comments on that post. The winner will receive his or her choice of one Biting Love ebook *or* a $5 gift certificate from Amazon or Samhain!

If you're a 18+ and an adult, and if you consent to having your name listed on the rotating 12-month winner list, just comment on this post to enter! Void where prohibited. Please note, the Biting Love books contain explicit sex and violence. If you win please consider that when making your prize selection. Winner chosen at the end of the month and posted as part of next month's contest.

Thank you to everyone who commented last month. I love hearing from all of you! And the winner of January's contest is: Rho! Rho, congratulations! Please email me at mary @ maryhughesbooks.com for with your selection of prize.

Crafting a Sentence: Information versus Impact

2012-01-31T09:08:00.000-06:00

Part of voice is how you craft a sentence. For example, Julian would say "One can impart the information in a variety of ways" while Nixie would say "You can spin the 411".

It's information versus impact. You, the author, has to impart certain information. But the impact is how you say it.

A hero can be described as "hard and powerful as a cannon shot". But to me that's a bit bland. I might say "cannon-shot powerful". The second phrase loses information, the word "hard". But that's implied with cannon shot so I'm willing to lose it. The plus to me is that "cannon-shot powerful" gains impact. Short, punchy. It hits the eye/brain in a way "powerful as..." doesn't. As a verby sort of person, I also like the implied motion.

Movement and punch aren't the only kind of impact, of course. You might make a lyrical impact with (for example only) "Powerful as a cannon's blast amid bombs bursting in the cool night air". You might choose an emotional impact with "The soaring cannon shot of freedom" (both with better word choice, of course :).

Have fun creating your own impact!

Biting Love News Update

2012-01-24T09:14:00.001-06:00

The Biting Love Series is now renumbered! The Bite of Silence, novella with Twyla and Nikos, has been added to the series as Book 3 and Biting Me Softly, Logan and Liese's story, is Book 4.

In other news, the title for Biting Love Book 5 is getting closer to being a reality. The Title Goddess has actually gone back to another incarnation, and though I can't say what the title will probably be, it involves "Oz" and "Biting." :)

More Biting Love news! Biting Love books are now on Kindlegraph! Bonus--there's a great handwriting font so you're not subjected to my chicken scratching.

Followers know I've got two new books up through first drafts--another Biting Love and a wolf shifter/witch romantic comedy--and am now working on a third first draft. I'm very excited about this third book, a serious shifter novel about two wolves who, in the first 19,000 words, are sparking off each other like crazy. This draft is going slower because I'm also working up Prokofiev's First Symphony. For those of you who don't know the flute, the range of the instrument is middle C to the C three octaves above (C to shining C, heh). Well, Prokofiev decided he didn't care what the range of the instrument was and wrote all these C#s and Ds above the highest C. And not slow easy C#s and Ds. No, these are eighth notes at half-note=158. (Take my word for it--blindingly fast. Brain-numbing fast. Eek fast.) Needless to say, it's taking a big chunk of time and energy getting the part under my fingers. Thank you Mr. P. But the draft is still shaping up!

3T Writing Tidbit

2012-01-17T01:19:00.012-06:00

I've been published since 2009 but I've been writing for a lot longer. Over the years I've accumulated various items of wisdom from all over. Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit will showcase these items one at a time in no particular order.

Look for concept words and replace them with specific actions and feelings.

Example: Loyalty.

The dog was loyal vs. the dog lay warming his sick master's feet, gazing at his full food bowl but not moving.

Mary Hughes

Stacking Hats--How to Survive Crunch Times

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella) Excerpt #2

** Rafe **

3T Writing Tidbit

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella) Excerpt!

Biting Oz, Black Diamond Jinn Update

May 1T Giveaway!

What's wrong with backstory?

Spring! And a young man's fancy turns to GIVEAWAYS

3T Writing Tidbit

New Novella

April 1T Giveaway!

Introvert Shocker

3T Writing Tidbit

Vivid Images--For Writers

A Pearl for Your Fantasy II

March 1T Giveaway!

Party Extravaganza at Pub Weekly

Paranormal bash today with party prizes from Sherrilyn Kenyon, Anya Bast, Jim Butcher, Nalini Singh and more!!

Nixie's band is doing the music :) and my prize is all 4 Biting Love books -- Come share the fun and invite friends! Barbara Vey's Fifth Anniversary Bash--Paranormal Bash

Better yet--it's continuing all week! Through March 10.

Writing Tips Are Not for Writing

3T Writing Tidbit

Biting Oz is a go!

Your vote counts--Biting Me Softly up for 2011 Sammies!

Mary Hughes February 1T Giveaway!

Crafting a Sentence: Information versus Impact

Biting Love News Update

3T Writing Tidbit

Rafe