Hi all – getting ready to board the plane.

If you’d like more details about what I’m doing in Denver – check out my Cassie Ryan MySpace page! 

Cassie/Tina

I just got home and am already feeling like I got a lot done today – woo hoo!  And it’s only a little after eleven am.  That’s great because my To Do list for the rest of the day is long and varied!

I met my friend Isabella Clayton today for breakfast, and then went over to my favorite Starbucks to write for a few hours.  After retraining the newbie barrista on how to make my Chai Latte,  I actually got quite a bit of writing done.  I edited two chapters and wrote 1500 words more toward the next chapter on Triangle of Seduction.

I’m finally back into my daily routine after RT!  Woo Hoo!  (Yes, I realize that was several weeks ago, but for some reason, I just couldn’t return to my routine when I got back!)  And I’m back to being able to get up early–for some reason my body really liked that East Coast time…lol!

Anyway, just wanted to check in with the world before I head off to tackle my ever growing To Do list!

What does everyone else have planned for today?

Cassie/Tina

I just saw over on Smart Bitches Trashy Books that they picked up the worst covers of the year contest.

I knew Ceremony of Seduction had made their list–although I don’t think it’s a bad cover, but I am a tad biased…lol.  Anyway, their comments on mine weren’t too bad and hell, they get 12K hits a day, can we say great publicity?

Yeah, baby!

Cassie/Tina

I blogged over at my Cassie Ryan MySpace blog today on “Does Your Partner Know Your TRUE Sensuality Level?”

Come on by and check it out and drop me a comment or two.  I’d love to know what you’re thinking!

Cassie/Tina

I’ve been working on Triangle of Seduction and trying to finish this puppy up and send it off to my editor because the next book I want to write is already niggling at my brain.

When I started ToS, I had all the motivations of the characters worked out in my head as well as some general things I wanted to happen over the course of the story.  After all, this is the last book in the trilogy and certain things have to be tied up, and of course, I need some hot scenes and some fun twists and turns!

No problem, right?

Wrong.

This heroine is giving me fits!

I seem to always struggle when writing a volatile heroine.  Not kick ass heroines – those come pretty easily to me.  But volatile ones who throw things, have explosive tempers and react–well, NOT how I normally react to things.   In fact, when I was writing Fire Maiden, I had a similar issue.  I can definitely step inside a heroine like that–I’ve known several people with that hair trigger volatility who throw things and blow up and rage at the world–but it isn’t a very comfortable skin for me to wear.

Funny isn’t it, that it’s more comfortable for me to write a psychic serial killer or a killer vamp than a volatile heroine?  (I’m sure psychoanalysts everywhere are rubbing their hands together with glee…lol)

But what would life be without challenges?

So, I’m going to take the advice I gave another writer just a week ago and put my big girl panties on and get comfortable inside this heroine’s head.

If you can’t get comfortable inside your character and BECOME your character, you just can’t write them believably.  Which gives me a hell of a lot of respect for Stephen King and Dean Koontz and all those guys who write those really creepy characters.  It makes my skin crawl to WATCH (see my previous blog on 1408) or READ those types of characters–ick, think about whoever came up with Hannibal Lechter!  I suppose it really does help you work out some violent tendencies on paper that you would most likely never live out in real life, but there are some characters that you come back out of feeling very unclean and icky.  Which in a strange way is good–because they will be a great villain, and readers will identify with that ick factor.

Anyway, back to ToS.  The motivation I set out for my stubborn character at the beginning just isn’t flying, so I’m going to have to step back and do some rethinking about how to motivate her.  Hmmm.  That means rewriting several scenes, possibly entire chapters I’ve already done, but it can’t be helped.  I’ve banged my head against this wall for long enough.

So, my writing goal for today is to rethink this woman and start sketching out some changes I need to make to her before I delve back in.

Has anyone else ever struggled with this problem?

Cassie/Tina