While talking, I realized that one of my characters is a plot killer.

So what is a plot killer? A plot killer is one character that sticks out like a piece for a jigsaw puzzle that's in the wrong box. You just can't make it fit no matter what you do. A plot killer has the best of all intentions and just can't be used for anything good. It's not their fault; it's yours.

I love Cassie, my plot killer. I need her. She's instrumental to the story, but the way I created her made her a detriment to the story. I need her and can't use her.

What do you do with a plot killer? Exterminate them? No. You're the writer, the creator. You change them if you can. Even if that means you're going to rewrite until your fingers fall off and you lose the will to live outside of coffee and Jolly Ranchers. A plot killer needs to be remolded into something useful or they will have to be eliminated.

How did I 'fix' Cassie? I changed her power. Her power was entirely too vague and yet too useless at the same time. I needed her to become useful and thus stripped her power from her and gave her another one. I changed certain aspects of her history and personality to make it fit a bit better. In the process, I removed my plot killer from Awakening and Legacy. Well, one of the plot killers from Legacy anyway.

If you recognize a plot killer in your story, it's going to be okay. You just have to be prepared for a lot of work and make sure that you take detailed notes on your character's new personality. Whether that's new 'powers' or a new backstory, write it down. Also, be honest with yourself. You created this mess, only you can clean it up. Don't be too proud to admit that you have a problem on your hands. The quicker you see the issue, the less clean up you're going to have to do.

1: My life is not as interesting as I thought it was. My Nano novel was based off of my own experience with my father's death and life following that tragedy. But as I started to write it down, I realized the details are very boring.

2: Coming off a very long hiatus is very hard. I wasn't disciplined anymore in my writing time or in my style and it's hard to get that groove back.

3: I miss my vampires. I honestly miss them very much. As I looked back over Awakening, I've been happy that I didn't publish it as it was because there's so much that needs to be changed.

4: Writing excites me again. I guess I was burning out. I haven't even read vampire books in about six months and I've been staying away from anything supernatural. Instead, I've been digging into general fiction and some mystery and fantasy. I've been knitting to relieve stress. I've been focusing on my pregnancy and the baby boy who's going to enter the world in March. But I've missed writing. I've missed being creative. It's time to get back to what I love doing.

I won't make my goal this year. It's simply too late for me to make up the numbers I need to make it happen. But I'm okay with that. You can't win every year right? Well, maybe you can...but I can't.

What better way to end this hiatus I've been stuck in than to jump into Nanowrimo?

This year's submission will be vampire-less again because I'm taking a break from Seven and the gang. I have to get my mojo back with them and I think I need more time apart. At least as far as writing about them full time is concerned.

I've been thinking about Nanowrimo this year and I'm doing a piece of fiction that's based on actual events. MY actual events. I've taken notes on this project for years and left them scattered haphazardly through my hard drive. Finally, I'm going to put them all together and write. Then I promised myself I would NOT have a Nano hangover like last year.

So, my question to you is this. Is this the year you finally do it? Is this the year you let yourself go and finally get those 50000 words? Or will you make excuses and wait till next year? The choice is up to you. Red pill or blue pill.

The Fang Marked Office has moved to Davenport, IA officially and now that I'm expecting a baby in March, I guess the exhaustion knocked me down far enough that I couldn't recover.

August should be much better for me. I'm planning on working on Prophecy and writing Resurrection. I just need to adjust to how tired I am lately and the new place I get to write in.

I think I'm going to take some time off, just a couple days or a week or something, and let myself write fun things. Short (ha!) stories that have no torture or blood or war or death in them. Character developing stories, stories that I could put on my website maybe. Just little snippets of action you missed between Forbidden and Awakening or Prophecy and Forbidden. Maybe even a short story from before Prophecy, in between Legacy and Prophecy. It's an interesting thought.

I already have one in my head that my fingers are itching to write. It's very funny and with that, I don't want to mess it up with bad delivery of the jokes or poor imagery or something like that. But that's the nice part about it being a short story. It's not long enough to be a big deal to edit if I make mistakes.

Today I'm off. There are no office hours today. I just woke up earlier than anticipated and had some time on my hands or I wouldn't even be writing anything today at all. But tomorrow...we'll see about that.

I submitted it to createspace this evening and we'll get word on whether or not it's approved in the next day or so. Keep your fingers crossed! Then I'll be able to add a cover to the photo album.

Muse-Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)

Adam Lambert-If I Had You

Linkin Park-Leave Out All The Rest

Daughtry-Life After You

Christina Aguilera-Not Myself Tonight

David Cook-Light On

Lady Gaga-Alejandro

Timbaland Feat Katy Perry-If We Ever Meet Again

Blue October-Into The Ocean

Daughtry-It's Not Over

Beyonce-Halo

Muse-Map Of The Problematique

Muse-New Born

Muse-Resistance

Muse-Uprising (Love Muse)

Nickelback-Savin' Me

Jason Derulo-In My Head

Blue October-Calling You

Adam Lambert-Whatya Want From Me

Daughtry-What I Meant To Say

Lady Gaga-Bad Romance

Adam Lambert-Mad World

Orgy-Blue Monday

Zeromancer-Send Me An Angel

P.O.D-Alive

Pillar-Fireproof

Nickelback-I'd Come For You

Muse-Falling Away With You

Nickelback-Someday

KJ52 Feat. Kutless-Are You Real

Not a lot of new stuff, but when you're inspired to actually do editing, anything helps. Have a good weekend!

Have you ever read a series where the writer didn't seem to know the characters from one book to the next? Or how about a series where the writer seemed to forget important details from one book to the next? Or, even worse, a series where characters seemed to pop in and out with no apparent plan or reason from one book to the next? Yeah, I've read them too. Don't they just drive you nuts?

My characters deserve more than that and I don't want to disappoint them. I also don't want to disappoint you as the reader. So I'm undertaking the Chronicles of Seven and Order Of The White Rose Series Bible. In longhand.

I realized as I've been editing Awakening that I don't do my characters justice by not remembering little parts of their personalities from one book to the next. Ulrich wouldn't act like he does at times in Awakening as it stands now. Those need to be fixed. Seven wouldn't do some of the things he does either. It's just not good enough.

So in the middle of the crazy edits, I'm taking the time to make it better. If that means I write page after page of character bios, then that's what I do. If that means I have to create mythology that I'll never actually use, then that's what I'm going to do. If that means hammering out a timeline from Legacy (the 1700's roughly) to Order (2012 or thereabouts) then that's what I'm going to endeavor to accomplish. It's a lot of work, but maybe it'll be the actual companion book someday.

We'll see what happens, but as of now, my hands hurt from writing so much in longhand.

Into The Ocean-Blue October

Map of The Problematic-Muse

Calling You-Blue October

Incomplete-The Backstreet Boys

Meet Me On The Equinox-Death Cab For Cutie

Animal I've Become-Three Days Grace

Freak On A Leash-Korn

Bitch-Meredith Brooks

Blue Monday-Orgy

If We Ever Meet Again-Timbaland Feat. Katy Perry

Down-Jay Sean Feat. Lil' Wayne

In My Head-Jason Derulo

Can't Get You Out Of My Head-Kylie Minogue

For Your Entertainment-Adam Lambert

Assassin-Muse

Dead Star-Muse

Just Like You-Three Days Grace

The Mummer's Dance-Loreena McKennit

New Born-Muse

Stranded-Plumb

Decode-Paramore

Leave Out All The Rest-Linkin Park

Need You Now-Lady Antebellum

Headstrong-Trapt

Bent-Matchbox 20

Whatya Want From Me-Adam Lambert

Battlefield-Jordin Sparks

Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)-Muse

Alive-P.O.D.

Further-Pillar

Shine-Pillar and Collective Soul

Send Me An Angel-Zeromancer and Petshop Boys

Sorry it's such a long list this time. I've been digging through a lot of music lately. Now back to the hectic edits...

Now here's why I'm disappointed: Awakening is only 344 pages right now. That's it. Prophecy and Forbidden were both over 400 pages. What the heck?!

Awakening is a springboard for the much bigger novel in Resurrection. Ultimately Resurrection is the hotter story, the more exciting and dramatic story. But without Awakening, you don't understand what's happening with Resurrection. Awakening is the stage and Resurrection is the play. Without the stage, we have no play.

I just thought the stage would be bigger.

When I look at most novels by authors I love, I see them getting larger or staying the same size throughout the duration of the author's career. Granted, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are averaging around 300 pages give or take. The Twilight Saga gets bigger and bigger as each novel progresses. Breaking Dawn was over 700 pages! Even the House Of Night novels are around 340 pages on average, with the last one hitting almost 400 pages.

To drop from over 400 pages to 344 pages for Awakening, it's depressing to me. I'm slightly depressed by this whole thing.

Granted, I have another round of edits to do in the next two weeks and it might get bigger. I'm hoping it gets bigger. There were two scenes I really wanted to add to the first round of edits that I just couldn't find room for in the story line in it's bare bones state. I think I can find a place for them though. I really want these two scenes in the novel since they are pivotal to the storyline.

We'll see what happens. I hope it gets bigger. I liked seeing over 400 pages when I got my proof copies. 344 pages just seems thin to me.

The good thing is that it's almost done. I have about eleven pages to finish editing (which I'm not doing right this second because I've already edited about fifty pages this morning alone). To my surprise, it's not a half bad book all in all.

The ending needs to be completely rewritten, but that's beside the point.

The reason I'm posting this in the middle of chaotic race to the finish line with this novel is that I want you to know it can be done. Even working full time and having a LOT of obligations outside of that, I'm getting it done. Is it going to be perfect? Hell no. But it's going to be better than it was three months ago.

Now I'm going back to the editing board. Or table. Or desk. Or whatever you want to think of it as. Hopefully once this is done, I'll have more time to post on here since I've been neglecting you all in my quest for perfection.

See you again soon! I hope.

I'm 50 pages in on 116 pages and I must say that I'm not horrible. I don't know that I'm all that wonderful, but I've definitely written worse (Legacy's first draft springs to mind as well as my last Nano novel's first draft). I'm impressed with the way the story actually flows from one thought to another and actually lends itself to the breakdown of chapters. Overall, it's not that bad.

But I'm not to the hard part yet. I'm getting there, but I haven't had to do that much to it. In the next ten pages, I'm going to have to fix large parts of the story line due to the changes I have in mind. It's going to get harder.

Still, it's a miracle that I'm on track as far as time is concerned. That part of the worry is over. It is entirely possible to get this thing edited, formatted, and ready for publication in two months.

After all the heartache and rewriting after the first draft was lost over and over and over again, it's finally finished. I just might make my deadline after all!

Since deciding to publish Awakening instead of Legacy in June, my life has gotten so much simpler. No longer am I concerned about the historic significance of the prequel. I have plenty of time to finish the prequel. Legacy will be just as good (if not better) than I'd hoped it would be.

The only thing biting me in the behind right now is that I haven't worked on Awakening for so long that I'm not sure what I've already told and what I haven't. It's very frustrating, especially when you're trying to get things done on time.

So here's my plan for the rest of this month and next:

-Finish the first draft of Awakening. That should be done in the next week or so as I was pretty much wrapping it up when I stopped working on it.

-Start editing right away.

-Flesh out the story and clean up any errors I let slide before.

-Figure out a new cover scheme and get to work on it.

-Format and edit again in late May.

-Get it to CreateSpace at the end of June and take a deep breath before starting on Resurrection.

It's a little daunting to think that Resurrection is supposed to come out in November and I haven't even started writing it yet. Hopefully I haven't bit off more than I can chew. But so far, everything is right on schedule for release. Get it now? I'm writing on schedule and the title is Write On Schedule...it was clever when I thought of it. I'm going to bed now...

With my new job at Wells Fargo, I simply haven't had the time to devote to Legacy like I was hoping I would. Plus, I need to do some more research and spend more time digging through the story itself. This will be the story about the first vampire civil war, it just needs more care in editing and research than I've been able to give it.

So, with that in mind, I will be releasing Awakening in June/July instead of Legacy.

After reviewing the first draft (which isn't finished by the way), I realized I'm closer to having Awakening finished and ready for publication than Legacy. Awakening is going to be a little easier to edit and format in the amount of time I have left.

On the continuity point, Awakening makes so much more sense as the next release than Legacy. To throw the prequel out in the middle of the storyline just doesn't make any sense at all. Forbidden ended on a cliffhanger. To throw Legacy, which doesn't continue the plot really at all, in the middle of that would be to lose the reader entirely.

So the release schedule is now going to go like this:

June/July-Awakening

November-Resurrection

June/July 2011-Legacy

November/December 2011-Scandal

June/July 2012-Fallout (title subject to change)

November/December 2012-Order (providing the world doesn't explode in 2012)

As always, these dates are subject to change and if they do change, the updates will be posted as quickly as I know of them. Thank you for your time and patience with my creative process.

Pillar-Further

Collective Soul-Shine

Kylie Minogue-Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Third Day-Come On Back To Me

Muse-Time Is Running Out

Lady Antebellum-Need You Now

Adam Lambert-Mad World

Nickelback-Savin' Me

P.O.D-Alive

Three Days Grace-Just Like You

Shinedown-If You Only Knew

Lady Gaga-Bad Romance

Muse-Uprising

Newsboys-Shine (not to be confused with Collective Soul)

Motley Crue-Home Sweet Home

Guns And Roses-November Rain

Black Sabbath-Iron Man

Ozzy Osbourne-No More Tears

Crazytown-Butterfly

Jason Derulo-In My Head

Have a good weekend!

My problem is that I don't know whether to write each battle out, which would be tedious and long and dry for the reader, or to just skip ahead and finish the stupid book already. I had this problem the first time around and I finally decided that I was going to skip ahead a little bit (this whole thing takes about a year in Legacy's time) and only point out the important stuff. But what's the important stuff?

I think the battle where the werewolves join the war is important. I think the battle with the remaining ambassadors and their soldiers is important. I also think the last battle when Seven is born is important. But that's not that much to be honest with you.

Sure, there are events interspersed between the battles that are vital to the storyline, but how do I move past the war part and put those other moments into the story?

*shakes head* I'm just having trouble and I think I'm overthinking the whole thing. I just need to write it and get it over with.

Fantasy In Death by J.D. Robb (released 2/23/10)

Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris (released 5/4/10)

Burned: A House Of Night Novel by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (released 4/27/10)

The Vampire Diaries: The Return Shadow Souls by L.J. Smith (released 3/16/10)

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong (released 4/6/10)

Black Bird Volume 4 by Kanoko Sakurakoji (released 5/4/10)

No Mercy by Sherrilyn Kenyon (released 8/3/10)

Infinity: The Chronicles Of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon (released 6/8/10)

Indulgence In Death by J.D. Robb (released 11/2/10)

and of course Legacy: The Chronicles of Seven Book 0 by K. Rhiannon Ward (released June, 2010) as well as Awakening: The Chronicles of Seven Book 3 by K. Rhiannon Ward (released November, 2010)

There's more, but it's just too much to name right now. Happy reading!

As a vampire writer, I don't have a real genre. With Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and The House Of Night novels by P.C. and Kristin Cast, the young adult genre is absolutely saturated with vampires. Most of the good vampire novels that don't have pornographic sex in them are found in the young adult section. I recommend all of the above as well as the L.J. Smith novels (Nightworld, Dark Visions, Vampire Diaries, and beyond) and Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy. While I write vampire novels that don't have explicit sex in them, I don't think I fall under the young adult catagory.

If you haven't been under a rock lately, you'll also probably know about a series on HBO called True Blood. Those are based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. She created her own genre of vampire mystery. They are also wonderful and worth the read. Especially for Eric Northman. One word: Yum. Since I don't have mystery as part of the plot of my stories, I don't fall under this genre either.

This leaves me with few options. I market my own novels as epic fantasy. Since vampires don't exist (as far as we all know anyway), they are pieces of fantasy. Since I throw in aspects of fantasy novels (magic swords, prophecies), my work fits in the category.

The most important part of the whole process for me is that I write what I write. It doesn't fit into a category, it can't be put in some little box and marketed that way. It makes things harder for me in the finding an agent part of my journey, but it doesn't change that this is what I write.

Don't let a genre define you as a writer either. Thanks NP for the kick in the pants to think about my work as something to be enjoyed instead of boxed in a nice little package.

At least it was. Until I got the wedding scene and completely spaced on it. Talk about frustrating.

I know that once I get past this scene, the action picks up. There's a lot of action until the end from here. Writing it will be like running downhill. Easy. But this scene, one that was so easy to write the first time around, is making my life difficult.

So why don't I just use the original scene in the other draft? Because I read it. Trust me, you don't want that one. There's not enough detail, not enough explanation...it's just not good. Trust me, I'm the writer. It stunk.

This happened with Prophecy as well. I got the end and wanted to add so much to it that didn't need to be there. It was hard writing that wedding scene too. But then I took it out. Can't do that with this one.

I'll get through it. I just need to focus and simply write. Just put it down on the page and if I need to fix it later, then I can fix it later.

The Calling-Wherever You Will Go

Hoobastank-Running Away

30 Seconds To Mars-The Kill

Trapt-Headstrong

Staind-So Far Away

Vertical Horizon-Best I Ever Had

Aucifer-C No Binetsu (This one is in Japanese and very VERY good. But you might not be able to find it)

Staind-Right Here Waiting

Matchbox 20-Bent

Muse-Undisclosed Desires

Aaliyah-Try Again

Kylie Minogue-Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Three Days Grace-Just Like You

Lenny Kravitz-Again

Linkin Park-Not Alone

Lady Gaga-Bad Romance

Jordin Sparks-Battlefield

Eminem-Lose Yourself

Crazy Town-Butterfly

Adam Lambert-Whatdya Want From Me and For Your Entertainment

When I was reading about the whole reading deprivation week and how it was supposed to allow the inner artist child to play, I was skeptical. What author wouldn't say that you couldn't read anything but their book for a week? Seriously?

So I tried to stop reading. (I didn't count my manga as reading because it's a Japanese comic book. That's not reading, that's enjoying art) I would force myself to put the book down when I started to get pulled away from my craft. I read at the plasma center (there's literally nothing else to do. I'm not kidding) and I read at the chiropractor's office. Then something funny happened.

I didn't want to read. I wanted to write. I wanted to write constantly. I'd tap out my creativity (you can do that right?) and I'd still feel this itch in my fingers to keep going. Just keep writing, anything at all.

I'd write at the chiropractor's office in my notebook with a pen. If I was out with someone and they went to the bathroom, that notebook came out and I'd scribble down notes for the next scene in my novel. I'd talk about my characters like they are living and breathing human beings walking around somewhere in the world. I'd forgo breakfast (and I'm on a cleanse right now, so that's not a good idea) just to get more writing done after the morning pages. My morning pages started turning into pages for my novel or character bios for Resurrection (which isn't coming out until next year). Insanity abounded.

I have to say that my skepticism about the reading deprivation week was unfounded. I didn't realize that I did this, but I would hide my creativity in the book I was reading, not the book I was writing. I'd let the characters I was reading about block me out. Now I let them speak to me in a different way.

Even if you're not doing the Artist's Way like I am, try not reading for a week. Seriously. You can only read when it's absolutely necessary (like the plasma center). You might be surprised at what comes out of your head.

What's with my sudden fixation on deadlines? I'm staring at one and I don't like it.

Since I'm in week four of the Artist's Way and had to suffer through my reading deprivation week (Have I stopped reading altogether? Absolutely not. I still read when I want to. But do I sit with my book and let myself get swept away? Sadly no.), I've noticed that I really have a lot of work left on Legacy and need to get my tush in gear to get it done on time. I've already pushed the deadline back once. I can't do that again.

Here's my plan for Legacy: finish the rewritten first draft by the end of March (Yes, I have that much of it left to write). Then in April, I'm not allowed to look at it. At the beginning of May, I'll start real time editing with Nathan. While I'm doing that, I'll comb through it on my own and add or take out things that need to be added or removed as well as rewording things that need help. By the end of May, it should be done. Then it's on to formatting and cover art, but that's on him. After the formatting is done, I'll go through it again and rework things that need to be reworked. The whole thing should be done by the end of June.

The plan after Legacy? Awakening is due in November. At least I have most of that written and just need to finish it. November shouldn't be a problem. It's releasing a book in the middle of Nano that I'm not excited about.

At least my deadlines are self imposed. I can't even imagine having someone else telling me how quickly things needed to be accomplished with my writing.

Let me explain. Three times a week, I go to the Chiropractor's office. I have to wait. Sometimes for a long time. I don't have an MP3 player, so I can't take my music with me. Sure, I can take a notebook or my computer and get some writing done, but it's not that easy to do in that little chair in the office. The only thing left to me is to read. I can't knit at this point in my treatment (it's either knit or write. I choose to write), so what else can I do?

Then there's the two days a week that I'm at the plasma donation center. One arm is stuck with a rather large needle, so typing is out of the question. Again, I can't listen to music. If I have to choose between watching TV (the workers at the plasma place have no sense of good television and therefore I am stuck watching stupid talk shows that rot my brain) and reading, I choose reading.

To make me stop reading for a week is impossible. It's simply not going to happen. I know I should have more respect for my creative recovery process than that, but I can still read and manage to write as well. Will I maybe cut down on my reading time? Sure. I can do that. But to stop reading altogether? *shakes head* I just can't do it. I might actually go crazy and hurt myself or someone else if I have to stop reading. That would mean I have to go to an insane asylum and that's not good.

So go ahead. Berate me and tell me how horrible of a person I am for not giving up my books for one week. I'm prepared for the verbal abuse.

Muse-Undisclosed Desires

Adam Lambert-Whadya (?) Want From Me

The Script-Breakeven

Pink-Sober

Adam Lambert-For Your Entertainment

One Republic-All The Right Moves

Linkin Park-Not Alone

Lady Gaga-Bad Romance

Finger Eleven-Paralyzer

Creed-Rain

Chad Kroeger-Hero (From the Spiderman Soundtrack)

Jay Sean feat. Lil' Wayne-Down

The Wallflowers-One Headlight

Owl City-Fireflies

Mathew West-Motions

Some of these songs are older, but they're still good. If you see something you like, go for it. Anything to get your writing groove on right? Have a safe weekend everyone!

Basically, I need to organize my life. Talk about scary.

When I started writing, I didn't have an active social life. I didn't go out with friends much and I had hours of free time to just do my writing. But things change, sometimes when we aren't looking for it. Now, I have a lot of people who depend on me and love to see me. That's hard to manage when you're wanting to sit at your computer and type out the scene that's plaguing your dreams.

So I'm accepting fate. I'm going to get a bigger dayplanner and schedule my time in more rigid increments. I have always been of the belief that rigid scheduling is the antithesis of creativity. But as I've been doing the Artist's Way with NP (love you NP!), I'm learning that sometimes the things you believe about yourself as an artist (or a writer in my case) aren't necessarily true. These beliefs can stifle your creative flow and actually block you up. I've been blocked up because I can't find the time to get my flow back.

I think it's a step in maturing myself as a writer since I'm moving in this direction. I'm scared and wondering if I'll be able to stick to this kind of thing when my life calms down, but I think I'll be able to handle it. And I think my writing time will be more productive for it.

Now the question is how far am I going to take this? Do I go nuts with the highlighters or do I just stick to the pen and paper and trust it? Hmmm...

So how do you get your brain up and running? How do you start writing when you just want to watch TV, go back to bed, walk your dog, etc.?

It's called a writing exercise.

This is different for everyone. Since I'm doing the Artist's Way with my good friend NP, I've been doing morning pages. I'm stream of consciousness writing in the morning until I've accumulated 3 pages. This morning I did this exercise on my computer instead of long hand because of the Ulnar nerve problem I suffer from. Since I can't hold a pen for very long, I'm typing my pages now. I found it works better for me since I can't get distracted by the pain and numbness in my hands.

Another writing exercise I do actually has no writing involved. I play Spider Solitaire while listening to my writing playlist and I let my right brain go. I chose Spider Solitaire because I can stop thinking about the game and let my mind go while playing it. That might not work for everyone. But it's like hooking up jumper cables to my brain and turning the car on. Suddenly I'm sitting in the scene with my characters and I'm off and running.

Whatever works for you, don't think that you have to just start writing as soon as you get up in the morning. Don't be afraid to find something you do that helps you get in the mood to write. Just as long as you write...who cares what you did to get to that point?

Wait a second. If I'm a writer, then writing the actual story should be easy right? Well, yes and no. But I'm not talking about writing one story in one book and leaving it at that. I'm talking about creating your own universe and remembering the rules you set into motion within that world.

The only way to make this understandable is to give away some of my own plot.

In my world, there are two different kinds of vampires. You can be a vampire if you're born that way and you can be sired into the world. I have to remember that siring a vampire is against the law. I have to remember that siring a vampire is tricky and not every vampire can do it. But the hardest part of my mythology to remember involved the werewolves.

See, in my universe, a werewolf can only be male. There may be an exception to that later on in the story, but for right now it's not possible. A werewolf can beget other werewolves if his wife has the werewolf gene in her bloodline (Ex. Her father was a werewolf or her grandfather was a werewolf or her mother carried the gene). Werewolves can change into wolves at any time and use the power of the wolf whenever they need it. But in the light of the full moon, they unwillingly turn into a half man, half wolf creature. They eat regular food and live in 'packs' together to protect their secret and their bloodlines.

It's hard to remember all those things when you go from one book to another. Then I get into the different kinds of shape shifters and it gets even more complicated. Plus the vampiric special abilities that make it possible for a vampire to walk in the daylight or turn into animals or whatever the case may be.

The only way I manage all of these things is to keep a notebook with every single rule laid out. And I have a continuity expert who keeps me on track. But I always remember one important thing when this gets difficult to do. If I mess up on my story just one time, the reader's illusion will be ruined. It's worth all the effort to make sure that the reader enjoys the story.

I've been looking at articles on the internet (there are some very interesting blogs out there as well) that talk about self publishing versus mass market publishing. Since I haven't published to the mass market yet, I thought I'd let you in on why I chose to do what I've done.

Self publishing isn't the easiest route to take. Trust me on that one. It takes a lot of time and causes a lot of frustration when you're formatting a manuscript for publication on your own. I never realized I'd have to work so hard to make text fit into margins. I had no idea what bleed was. I didn't realize I had to embed a font in a pdf to make it readable. The formatting alone is frustrating and time consuming.

Then there's your cover to consider. Do you want a generic cover or do you want something that really pops and has some bearing on your work? I chose the latter and that causes it's own set of problems. If you use an image that isn't your own, you have to worry about copyright. I am blessed to have a very artistic husband who can draw and knows his way around a digital camera. Once you have a cover image, there's formatting to consider. Again, you have to work with fonts for your title. All of this is an insane amount of work.

I learned with Prophecy that if I don't inspect every single page of the formatted manuscript, there are problems. If I could do Prophecy over again, I'd fix it all. I'm still thinking about that. With Forbidden, I did another edit while I was checking the formatting for errors and found places that needed to be combed through again and have additions put in. After all that work, Forbidden is the better novel as far as formatting is concerned.

Would I rather have done mass market publishing and let a publishing house take all this work on? You better believe it. I'd rather have an editor catching all my mistakes than having to do it myself. I'd rather have a team of creative people working on my cover than just my husband and myself. But if I'm going to be honest with myself, going through an agent and a publishing house takes years to accomplish. You're going to be rejected. That's just the way of life. At the time I decided to publish on my own, I wanted feedback and I wanted it now. Believe me, I got it.

Should you self publish? That's up to you. If you don't mind doing your own advertising and formatting your own manuscript, go for it. You'll have to put up your own money for a lot of things. All the work falls on you. If that's okay, go for self publishing.

But if it's not, write your query letter and be prepared for a long haul. I'm doing the round with agents this year to see if anyone wants my work right now. But I'm not going to stop self publishing until I have to. I might not have more than a local fan base right now, but I have one. I can actually say that I've sold copies of my novel and that even with the formatting errors, Prophecy was a hit locally. The feedback was instrumental in my decision to keep going with my writing.

If I hadn't self published, I wouldn't be where I am right now. For me, that says a lot. But I had to work for it. Do you want to do all the work for it? That's up to you.

Now it's back to business. I've been doing a lot of work on things in my personal life, which has made it easier for me to get back to my professional life and start writing again. But about a week and a half ago, I ran into a snag. I like to think of it as a character messing up my plot.

In Legacy, I'm setting up so many things that are going to come to pass in later novels and now that I know that, I'm trying to make the most of every single conversation and scene in Legacy so the reader isn't in the dark later on when I reveal things that are extremely important. As I write these scenes and conversations though, I find that some of the situations don't lend themselves to the plot itself. A character is messing up the flow of the story line and it's annoying.

So what do you do when this happens to you? I'm fortunate in that I have a continuity expert and plot partner to bounce ideas off of. When I mess up something, he catches it and reels me in. Then it's back to the drawing board, which means hitting the library. I had to do more research on the culture of Scotland in 1785 to understand what my character would really do. I had to think about the nature of the character himself and find the true motive behind his actions. Then I had to rewrite two pages to make it fit in with reality.

When you go back to the source and think about what a character would really do or what a situation would honestly call for, it's not as bad as you think it is. Also you want to remember one key thing: you can't kill off a character when it nullifies your entire plot. Sure, killing the character off makes the original problem go away, but then you're stuck when you need that character to come back. Or you can resurrect them, but no one will buy it.