Pre-Release Madness Meets Deadline Hell

Sitting in for Elizabeth Lowell this week is the always-fabulous Yasmine Galenorn. Yasmine will be giving away copies of NIGHT HUNTRESS, her January release, to two of the commenters on this blog!

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First, thanks to the ladies of Running With Quills for having me back-I’ve always enjoyed my guest stints here. (Waves at everybody).

When I was trying to think of something to write about for today's blog, because I don't *just* like promoting--I always like to add a little something else in--I didn't expect to be writing this on four hours of sleep. After a 15+ hour workday. But I am. It's 6:00 in the morning on a Friday (yes, I'm writing this in advance--that happens sometimes), I've been up since 5:00, I went to sleep at 1:00 AM, and I've already answered a bunch of email, posted the blog entry I wrote last night before bed, and started work on an interview/blog exchange I'll be doing with another author later this month. After I get done with this, it's back to work on the current WiP (work in progress), because yes--I have hit the mother of them all that eventually faces almost all writers who write more than one book a year: pre-release promotion month is clashing with deadline hell. Now this has happened to me before, but it never fails to slam me against the wall.

Talk about titans of necessity waging a war for time! Pre-release month is frantic, lots of promotion to do, the nerves over "How will the book do?" and "What will readers think of it? " and "Am I going to make it through this one without looking like a total idiot?"

It's a month fraught with sleepless nights and nightmarish visions of remainder bins for the hardcover authors or (for those of us publishing in original mass-market paperback) stripped copies being sent back to the publisher. And it's also a month filled with hopes and anxiously bitten lips: "Will I make the lists this time?" "Will I get rave reviews?" and most importantly: "Will my readers really love the book I hope—and think—I wrote?"

Take all that lovely stress and mix it together with the anxiety of "New book is due in four weeks and I’ve got 150 pages left to write on it" and you have a the makings for Zombie month. During these months, writers tend to live on caffeine and very little sleep and sheer adrenaline. Fun? Not so much. Occupational hazard? Muchly.

But you know what? I love it. I love the adrenaline rush. I love the deadlines--I never worked my butt off so much before I became a career writer and faced serious deadlines. I never cared so much about my work before I got that first contract and realized, "This is it—make or break time. This is not a dress rehearsal."

I love the late nights and early hours and staring at the screen and hoping--praying that the words I'm typing will make sense in the morning. I love grabbing that second latte and turning the music up loud and charging into the work like a demon on crack. I love the feeling when the words start to flow and I'm suddenly there--in the world I'm writing about--and the story splashes across the page as if I'd thrown paint on a canvas and wow--a real painting appeared.

I love it all--the high from writing, the rough, the late nights, the words yammering in my brain, begging to be set free. And most of all, I love it when my readers write to me and say, "I loved it! I couldn’t put it down! When’s the next one come out?"

Anyway, so yes, I have a new release coming out on June 2nd, 2009: DEMON MISTRESS, book six in my Otherworld Series (aka the Sisters of the Moon Series). I’ve been using the tagline: Revenge of the Nerds meets Hellboy meets Cthulhu. Which is—admittedly--a bizarre combination, but it works.

The series surrounds the world of the D'Artigo Sisters--three half human, half-Fae, wild and sexy members of the OIA--the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Camille, a witch, Delilah, a werecat, and Menolly, an acrobat extraordinaire turned vampire, are sent Earthside to keep them out of trouble by their superiors, who consider the girls nothing but a bunch of bumbling half-breed T&A. But they don’t count on the fact that the sisters are a hell of a lot smarter--and more resourceful--than they give them credit for. The girls soon find themselves smack in the middle of Demon-Central when Shadow Wing, the leader of the Subterranean Realms, decides to attempt a coup on both Earth and Otherworld. From their home in a seedy suburb of Seattle, the sisters must use every ounce of erratic power they have to thwart the havoc about to unfold.

In DEMON MISTRESS, told from the view of Menolly, the vampire, (each book is from the viewpoint of a different sister--the series plays round robin), we find that life's getting stranger by the minute for the D'Artigo girls. First, Menolly and a friend--Iris--unearth a diary from one of the bartenders at the Wayfarer who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And when Menolly discovers a ghoul in the woods near the girls' home, they know there has to be a necromancer nearby--another sign that something’s wrong. But the blood really hits the fang when the sisters discover a secret society bent on winning Shadow Wing's favor. Now it's up to Menolly and her sisters to stop the chaos unleashed onto the city by the frat boys from hell, and to prevent the demon they summoned from devouring Delilah's soul...

Early reviews have been good, and I sure hope that my readers will agree:

"I've said it before, I'll say it again, if you like urban fantasy with some steamy romance and some kick-butt action, this is the series to read." Fran, Seattle Mystery Bookshop

"As always, (Galenorn) delivers intriguing characters, intricate plot layers and kick-butt action." Romantic Times-4 Stars

"This book pulls no punches; it's a boot to the head one moment and a full-mouthed kiss on the lips the next that leaves you begging for more. " Bitten By Books