Except for some twitters, here and there, I’ve been striving to stay offline for the past several days.  I’ve got a story due, I’m wrestling with it—wildly, even in my sleep—and there’s time for little else.  There are, however, some new interviews with me on the web: at Lucienne Diver’s blog (my wonderful agent, and author of the excellent novel, Vamped)—a video clip of me discussing Darkness Calls at the Barnes & Noble website (click on the overview button, if it doesn’t pop up immediately)—and finally, another interview, a podcast, this time at The Dragon Page.

All of you, be safe this weekend! 

I love my freedom.  I love my America. 
~Jessi Lane Adams

The problem with having a new release (or two, in my case) is that it’s hard to concentrate on other things.  I’m working on a short story this week, and trying to soak in the spirit of Rilke, Rumi, and Borges - clearing my mind of other projects that have been vying for my time.  Poetry cleans the palate of my mind.  Everyone needs a reset button. Sometimes just waking up and seeing a brand new day in front of you is enough. 

Holly Lisle sent out her newsletter the other day, and there was this gem, something I’ve been trying to do as well (and finding it quite useful):

I’m doing a consistent 250-500 words five nights a week.  If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ve discovered that my usual novel pace is around 1500 words per day, and that I have on more occasions than I care to remember run at 3000 words per day---the sort of speed that makes a whole lot of writers think “I could never do that.”

Thing is, you don’t have to.

I’m already over 20,000 words just doing my casual amble.  And I’m having a wonderful time with the writing.

I realized late last week that writing THIS way, with consistent small word counts, is the perfect way for folks who have never finished a book before to discover that they can.

And because I’m in this for the very long haul (I estimate DTD will run around 250,000 words in first draft and may expand to 300,000 words) I’m going to be the ideal pace rabbit for writers who need a bit of a boost to sit down and write regularly, but who look at the real grind of regular high word counts and the high pressure that goes with them and shudder.

It’s like Bill Murray in What About Bob?:  “Baby step to four o’clock. Baby step to four o’clock.”

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to baby step my way to four o’clock, as well—and discover what kinds of words the day will bring. 

I’ve got two books coming out tomorrow.  One is the novella, “The Robber Bride”, which will be released in the anthology, Huntress.  And the other is the second book in my Hunter Kiss series, Darkness Calls.  Both are vastly different stories, but I hope you like them. 

Darkness Calls, I’ll admit, is my baby.  Today the fourth and final installment of Grant’s letter comes out.  I’ll post all the links as soon as I have them, but you can see it here at the Penguin website.

In the meantime, here’s another excerpt from the novel.

***

One night while staying in a cheap motel in Lubbock, Texas, I saw a news report on what to do if you ever got stuffed inside the trunk of a car.

People were all fired up at the time. Some big case in a town thirty miles south had started it. Four vehicles found inside a lake, girls trapped within every one of them. According to the papers, the teens had still been alive when the waters started coming in.
The security expert interviewed for the report was a pudgy white man with silver hair, a flat nose, and jowls that trembled every time he used a vowel. Break out the taillights, he rumbled. Find the release lever. Better yet, be vigilant. Don’t get caught. Fight like hell.

Fine advice. Problem was, people froze. Got taken off balance. Behaved in unanticipated ways. Something I should have remembered.

Maybe if I had, I would not have been thinking of those murdered girls—four years later— and feeling ridiculously, impossibly, irritated. Mostly at myself. Rocking and rolling in a small dark space with my arms and legs bound in crushing knots, a strip of duct tape over my mouth.

I was not in the trunk of a car. I was inside a box. A box that had once been a coffin, but with all the bells and whistles stripped off. Just plain wood. No silk. No other body but mine. I was hot, and the air was bad. My nose felt stuffy.

The coffin was sliding around the back of a windowless white van that I glimpsed just before being passed inside like a loaf of bread. I was a strong girl—stronger than most men—but I lost my chance to fight in the first two seconds of the attack. My fault. I had forgotten my own rule: Expect the unexpected. Worse, the men were professionals, and I had not dealt with many of those. Calm, fast, with an exact knowledge of what I was. No guns, no knives, no attempts to hit me over the head. No sedation. Just brute force, and nothing else.

I thought about that as I lay in the coffin. I thought about those four girls in Texas and how it had been the end of their world—the same end others faced every day, and that yet more would endure, in different and varied ways once the veil came down. I remembered the zombie who killed those girls, and the look on his face as I exorcised the demon living in his soul. I had made him a man again.

He was arrested twenty-four hours later, and after a speedy trial, given the death penalty for four murders he barely remembered committing. Quickest execution in Texas history. Up until the day he died, he claimed he was innocent. That someone had framed him.

I understood how he felt.

***

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Independent Bookstores
• Penguin
• Powell’s

Congrats to Heather for winning the soundtrack to DARKNESS CALLS!  Email me at for more details.

***

I’m a bit stumped at the moment—all the fault of one particular scene I’m trying to get through—but no doubt I’ll work out.  I’ve watered the flowers, walked down to get the mail, shared an early supper with the poodle, done the dishes—my usual procedure for working-things-out-at-the-back-of-my-mind.  Nothing happening yet, but I’m patient.  Really, really, patient. 

Right.  You want to know how I really feel? 

Wah!

(lil’ baby bird, who lives above the front door...)

Here are some of the questions that folks asked the other day:

Karen asks:  I’m currently reading The Iron Hunt - am really enjoying it! - and would be interested to know what prompted the switch from 1st-person present to 1st-person past tense (re. POV). I loved the novella, with the sort of dreamy-yet-intense voice. Was it more of a marketing decision for an ongoing UF series?

That’s kind of you.  The first draft of The Iron Hunt was written in first person present tense.  As was the second draft.  Both of which did not work at all.  Partly it was the story itself—I was trying to do too much—but also the tone created by the present tense didn’t work in the long form.  Not for me, anyway.  There are others who can pull off a full length novel in present tense, and do it beautifully (Ann Aguirre and Donna Jo Napoli, just to name two), but I’m not there yet—or I haven’t found the right story. 

I Heart Book Gossip asks:  How many D&S novels will be in the series? Also, are there any genres you would like to write about (contemporary, historical, or maybe a little urban fantasy)?

I’m not sure how many novels will be the series.  At least two, hopefully more.  As for other genres, nothing is off-limits.  I have ideas for YA novels, mysteries, historicals—but I think I’ve got the urban fantasy covered with the Hunter Kiss series (and the comic books, too). 

Kaitlyn asks:  I would love to get Dark Wolverine, but I’m clueless as to where I can find it, without driving an hour to downtown K-town (Knoxville) where there should be a comic book store somewhere.  Anyway, I have heard you mention the Amish several times in your blog. I used to get these large photography books when I was a kid that documented the Amish community in PA. Rereading your blog made me remember reading those books.  I was wondering if you have any recommendations about finding out more about the Amish than just the books from the library.

I have to drive forever, too, in order to reach the nearest comic book store!  You can buy comics online, though.  Here are some good sites:

http://www.mycomicshop.com/
http://www.midtowncomics.com/
http://www.tfaw.com/
http://www.metropoliscomics.com/

I live around a lot of Amish—in fact, they even built the new house I’m living in.  As for resources about them, there are some interesting blogs:

http://amishamerica.typepad.com/
http://blogs.ohioswallow.com/gaus/
http://amishcommunity.blogspot.com/

Mitch asks:  How many issues are you planning on doing with Dark Wolverine? Is it hard to write a character with a very influential background that was created by someone else? Are there any other comics you’d love to write for? What were some of your favorites growing up? Do you still read a lot of comics? Any chance of you writing a Transformer comic?  Do you have a time span for the release of the rest of the Dark Wolverine issues you collaborated on?

1.  At least six, probably more. 
2.  Not really, partially because I’m working with the character’s creator, Daniel Way.
3.  Yes. 
4.  I didn’t start reading comics until undergrad, but I loved the X-Men cartoon, and that’s what I started with. 
5.  Not as much anymore.
6.  Doubtful.
7.  So far I’m scheduled to be on the book for awhile, so just look for it each month from here on out.

Heather asks:  I was wondering if we were going to see books for Rictor, Max, Koni, and Eddie?

I love those guys, too, and you’ll definitely be seeing Eddie and Max’s books sooner, rather than later.  Koni and Rictor will be making appearances, of course, but I’m looking for just the right story to give them, and I haven’t found it yet.

DARK WOLVERINE #75 comes out today!  I’m very excited, enough so that I’m tempted to drive an hour-and-a-half to the nearest comic book store to pick up a copy.  That’s crazy, right? 

Anyway, here are three new interviews with me.  The first from Comic Vine, where I talk about Wolverine—the second from The Daily Planet, which covers everything from books to comics—and finally, an interview with TRRC Reading, discussing my Hunter Kiss series. 

Ask me some questions, guys, and I’ll answer them over the next couple days!  Or if you happen to read the comic, let me know what you think.  Either way, leave a comment, and you’ll be in the running for the DARKNESS CALLS soundtrack—a compilation of all the songs that show up in the book.  Here’s the list (click to enlarge):