New releases! And other notes.

I’m working as hard as I can to finish the work that’s been piling up: a novel, X-Men scripts, all these other little ideas that always hit me just when I don’t have time to work on them.  You know about that, right?  Inspiration hits when you’re least able to indulge (but, of course, you indulge anyway — because nothing is sweeter to a writer than a hot idea).

The slow work pace, however, has been mostly due to my own inability to just let go.  With some books, it’s easy to simply write — write, and save the editing for another day.  With others, you find yourself compelled to hold on — and tight.  Which does nothing for your productivity.

Still, there’s always someone around who can save you.  Another artist (who works part-time arranging flowers when she’s not singing opera) said to me the other day:  “Perfectionism leads to procrastination, which leads to paralysis.”  Which was exactly what I needed to hear, and broke me out of a funk of fussiness that had me circling around nothing more trivial than a single paragraph in my novel.

So, onward.  And while I strive to just write — and not worry about editing at the same time — there is some news to share about new releases.

First of all, the rights to a story recently reverted back to me; specifically, the prequel to my paranormal romance Dirk & Steele series.  Where the Heart Lives (previously published in the anthology, My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon) takes place in rural Indiana in the early 1900′s, and is about a girl cast out by her father, who finds more than she bargains for when she takes a job keeping house for the keeper of a local cemetery.

Interesting background story: I received an email last year from an older woman, an attorney in Indiana, who read the story and wondered if it was about her.  Because her name was also Steele.  And she had been raised in the same town where the story takes place: Cuzco, Indiana.  In fact, she was quite familiar with the cemetery I was writing about (which, until then, I thought was a figment of my imagination).

It also turned out we are distantly related, on my grandmother’s side of the family.

So, there.  Truth is stranger than fiction.  That, or I’m psychic.

You can purchase the story on Amazon (Kindle) or Smashwords (which will let you download Where the Heart Lives to a number of devices, including the Nook).  I hope you enjoy this brush with the past of Dirk & Steele — and if you like shape-shifters, and the Fae, and a touch of romance, then this might be for you even if you’re not familiar with the series.

What’s next?  This Tuesday sees the release of An Apple for the Creature, an anthology of short fiction edited by Charlaine Harris (a brand new Sookie Stackhouse story is included) and Toni L. P. Kelner.

Here’s the official description: What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms.

The collection includes stories by Ilona Andrews, Amber Benson, Mike Carey, Faith Hunter, and many more wonderful writers.

My contribution is called “Sympathy for the Bones”.  You can find the anthology at your nearest bookstore, or online at the usual places.

And finally, this is the week that the trade edition of my first Astonishing X-Men arc comes out.  Everyone calls it the “gay marriage” edition, but I like to think of it as the “love finds a way” story. This is also available online, via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local comic book store.

So, that’s it!  More later.  Hopefully by tonight I’ll have my work under control.

Wish me luck!