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I. Am. Done.
For the past three weeks I’ve been rabidly re-writing Raiju for my agent. I finally finished on Sunday evening and the book went dutifully back to her this morning. I’m hoping it will be hitting the publishers again within the next few weeks—assuming there are no major problems (fingers crossed).
Wish me luck—good, that is!
So anyway, with gas prices escalating, I’ve been doing most of my work out of the house and trying not to travel unless my life depends on it. To that end, I face a major challenge: how to keep the dogs quiet while I work. Since they associate television with “quiet time”, naturally I flip that on. But the channels I was giving them were doing nothing to entertain them. TMC, Food Network, CNN? Nada. Nothing. Every time I looked away from the computer I came face-to-face with a canine nose and a “Mom, play with me?” expression.
And then one day I hit on it, more by accident than anything else. That’s right: my dogs love the Cartoon Network.
Maybe it has to do with the “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?” music. Heaven knows, it kind of puts me in a surreal place of my childhood where there are no worries and no adult-related crap going on. Not to mention I really started to notice the programming after a while, which actually helps me as I’m constructing my young adult series. Somewhere along the line, though, I started to realize there were shows I actually {gasp} kind of dug.
So as a side effect of the gas crisis, I think I am now officially addicted to the Ultraman-inspired Ben-10.
Just kill me now.
Most people who know me will tell you I’m a very complicated person. I don’t fit easily into any kind of stereotype. I seem to contain bits and pieces of everyone. But, at the same time, I’m completely and utterly different from every other living person on the planet. I haven’t done a whole lot in my life. I’ve very quiet and private and contemplative. I enjoy work and friends. I like having fun, but I also value my alone time. I can be extremely bitchy (What woman isn’t?) but I will do anything to help a friend or family member, and that usually gets me in trouble. I’m not easy to get to know, and those who know me for years still can’t always figure out what I will do or say in any given situation.
I’m complex enough that there are times when even I don’t know me.
I don’t often talk about myself in private terms because I generally consider myself a very boring individual. But today I thought I would introduce you, dear readers, to my addiction.
That’s right. I am an addict.
It started using about two years ago. Since then, I always have an ear to the ground, waiting for the new shipment to come in locally so I can pick some up. It’s gotten to be something of an obsession. Oh, I could probably live without it. But I don’ t think I want to anymore. I’m really that far gone.
Yesterday I made my connection. I was both surprised and pleased when it came in. It’s seasonal, you see, a hybrid, and it simply doesn’t grow everywhere in the United States. There are some growers in eastern PA, but the majority of it has to brought in from the northern states—Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan.
I decided to tell you guys about my addiction with the hopes of bringing in more users, and to help support the suppliers.
So without further ado, may I introduce you to my addiction:
Hey, guys and ghouls, I’ll be signing books all day on October 18 at Pierce’s Book Shop in Brodheadsville, PA. So far the authors on the roster are:
Jacquelyn Sylvan, author of Surviving Serendipity
Other Authors TBA
The addy:
Pierce’s Book Shop
(570) 992-8787
Brodheadsville, PA
I hope you’ll come out and show your support for us! If you’re unsure of driving directions, please contact the owner, Russ Pierce, at the above phone number. Looking forward to seeing you!
Along with work on top of work this week, the new Firefox update has thoroughly screwed up my browser. It’s erased, changed or fubared everything I have set in preferences. After two days, I’m still trying to fix the seemingly random changes. Not to mention it has the speed capacity of a snail on Vicodin.
In other news, I received one of those giganormous Christmas catalogs in the mail yesterday. You know, the ones that you plop down in the bathroom and takes you up to four days just to page through. Not sure why this amuses me, but it does. Happy Early Commercial Holiday!
The last few days have been annoying, infuriating, irritating, frustrating, pestiferous, and a lot of other adjectives I doubt you want to hear. Suffice to say, nothing seems to be flying right and my Feng Shui isn’t a little off; it packed its bag, booked a TWA flight and flew to China without leaving a forwarding phone number.
Over the next few days I need to rewrite the book so it flows organically. That was my magic word. “Organic.”. I keep saying it to everyone who read it. “Does it read organically?” Right now, though, I feel like printing out the pages and flushing them down the loo. Maybe the toilet monkeys can read them and tell me if everything flows “organically”.
I am experiencing an overwhelming desire to take my favorite dragon katana off the wall and polish it until the dust is gone and I can see my own scowling, anti-social face in it.
Now would be a good time for the nitwittery stalkers to descend. Just let me get a gate erected around the house. A tall one, with intricate black wrought iron spikes. Not only will it keep the riffraff out of the yard, but it will hide the crazy chick taking the samurai sword to the trees in her backyard.
And how is your week going?
So it turns out Tropical Storm Fay left Cuba and is headed north to the Florida Keys. Feels like it too. I am not joking. I have had annoying, rat-biting pain in my arthritic knees all day. I think we’re in for a bit of storm, even this far east.
Stay safe, Florida.
I’m happy to say that the new Slayer novel, Armageddon, is trucking along after many, many delays. I’m hoping to be finished by end-year with the first draft.
The sad news is that the NYC publisher my agent and I were going back and forth with, trying to sell Raiju, has finally turned it down. This is what’s meant by having a tough skin. In fact, you need armor-plated skin. It seems the revised outline still did not meet the publisher’s needs. I had a funny feeling things were going to go that way.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the book, lately. The main issue with the book is that I wrote it as an action/adventure novel with elements of tokusatsu and daikaiju. It went out into the big wide world under the guidance of what I feel is a very good agent, but the feedback that came back was an assumption on the part of the editors that the book should be a romance, almost in the same way as Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Whilst the book does have a background romance, the point of the book is as an adventure, with the romantic element secondary, and since this book is about big monsters (not vampires and werewolves) the strong romantic angle doesn’t lend itself easily to the story. In other words, it’s like saying, “Let’s shoe-horn a big romantic plot into The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. In fact, let’s make it the fuel for the story.” While a romantic subplot would definitely work, especially in a remake (I can imagine, for instance, the character of Tom Nesbitt, young’d up for the X generation and probably played by Johnny Depp or Keanu Reeves, searching for his girlfriend in the chaos that has become New York City) it would feel a little out of place, as well. The story is about a monster, first and foremost, and how to stop it. The protagonist would not stop to obsess over his romantic life with the world falling down around him.
Anyway, these are the challenges I’m facing in the coming days. The book will need to be revised and re-submitted, so I’m afraid to say that you guys, who have been so patient and yet so enthusiastic about the book, will have to wait just a teensy bit longer.
In other fronts, I am brushing up the teen Slayer book, Blood Ties…and I think it rocks! Should I pitch it to my agent or a publisher? You decide!
I decided to have some fun this weekend and conceptualize the characters in Raiju just ’cause I could. I think I came up with a fun little promotional pic.
To the always mysterious “J.B.” for the fan letter yesterday. As always, I treasure the letters I receive. I’m hoping very soon to have a definite answer to the pressing YA question: “Will Raiju sell? And if so, where, when and how can I order a copy?” 
I hear good things are up ahead, and I hope the Slayer fans will continue to support my latest endeavor—even if there are no traditional vampires in it. There is, however, a very un-traditional vampire in it!
And to answer your question, J.B., I’m still hard at work on the Slayer manga. I have several new panels down, though I haven’t posted them at DevianArt, mostly because they are somewhat naughty and I don’t want my account closed down!
In related news, one of the details from the manga-in-process, below, was added to The Vampire Don’s favorite vampire art collection again.
I guess he really likes it!