Monday was a good day. I wrote four pages in two hours. And four pages of pretty good stuff, too! Unfortunately, the rest of the week has not been as productive. Real life sometimes gets in the way and writing time becomes sacrificed.

Tonight, however, I returned to DIAMOND HEAT, my baseball story for next Valentine's Day. Don't ask how I'm tying baseball and Valentine's Day...I haven't figured that part out yet. Don't bother me with details!

Seriously though, I spent time tonight cleaning up various plot points. When I write, I tend to "throw up" on the paper... or computer screen to be more exact. What is in my head comes out my fingers and forms a story. Since I tend to discover the characters as I go along, sometimes I write things in the beginning that just don't fit with events later on. That's what happened with DIAMOND HEAT.

In fact, I'd written myself quite a nice little puzzle. Baseball is at the heart of the story, and the book opens with an important away game. Except that I wrote the party that night as if the game had been at home. Blast! Now I either had to move the party or the game. And I didn't want to move either. I liked both in the places where they were.

For two weeks now, I've been ignoring that little problem. Don't stop the story for little fixes...keep writing and fix later. That's always my philosophy. Well, later came tonight. I couldn't get the problem out of my head and realized I was never going to move this story along until I fixed it.

And just in case you're wondering...the game is now at home. And so is the party at night. Whew! Believe it or not, it has just taken me the better part of an hour to rewrite the two paragraphs that dealt with that fact. But it is done now and maybe I can continue....

Take care,
Diana

Steven Covey wrote a book called "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People." Among the Habits, there is one he calls "Sharpening the Saw." People who consider themselves successful make a habit of taking time off. They indulge in a hobby, a vacation, a good book....anything that takes their mind off work and lets them rest and re-energize. Doesn't matter what your profession or what job you do, it is his opinion we all need to take time out on occasion to 'sharpen the saw."

Why do I start this entry with that seeming sidestep? Because I have not written one word for an entire week. Not. One. Word. I've written two full-length novels, two short stories and one novella-length work in a year's time. Although I am faced with a deadline for two more contracted works, this week I just couldn't think. And then I remembered Steven Covey.

So I stopped beating myself up about the fact that I couldn't seem to concentrate and took it as a sign that I needed a bit of a break. I've crocheted several hotpads, cleaned SEVERAL rooms of this house, and read FOUR books! I haven't read four books in a week in AGES!!!!

The result is, today I feel more relaxed and calm than I have in quite some time. Tomorrow I have a two-hour time set aside to write...and I shall be ready. Fresh from a week of doing 'nothing,' I will dig in and get DIAMOND HEAT rolling. Nothing like coming off a break and into a hot love scene!

BTW, I'd recommend Steven Covey's book to anyone who hasn't yet read it. Some great things to remember in there...lessons to live by!

Take care,
Diana

WOW! Not only was the weather absolutely wonderful today, but I received great news from Ellora's Cave! They've had an opening in their release schedule and asked if they could move up the publication date for TABLE FOR FOUR! Of course, I said yes!

I did put up an extra-hot excerpt on my newsletter site...if you're not a member, be sure to sign up so you can get all the news first. And of course, so you can read the excerpts! This particular one is in the last message.

Warning: the book deals with spouse-swapping and, of course, themes of BDSM. This is not tame!

If you'd like to read the excerpt, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dianahunter/ . Enjoy!

Diana

All right. I give. Apparently I can only write one story at a time. I've a great idea I want to work on, but am partway through DIAMOND HEAT and those characters keep butting into my thoughts when I'm trying to get down ideas for the so-far-nameless story. ERRRGGG!!!

Still, any experience where one learns something is a good one. So now I know. One story at a time.

I wrote only two pages tonight, but have more fully fleshed out the characters of Casey and Colleen. Hmmmm.... a baseball pitcher named Casey? Better go find my copy of "Casey at the Bat!"

Take care,
Diana

The weather here turned springlike today...the temperature reached 70 for the first time since September. Needless to say, I've written little. Been too busy enjoying the sunshine and warm breeze. But night falls and the temperature plummets...and so I find myself turning to the keyboard refreshed and ready to write.

Two stories now vie for attention...DIAMOND HEAT, a part of Ellora's Cave Valentine's anthology for 2005, and HER MASTER'S VOICE, a full-length work tentatively scheduled for release this fall. After dinner, I shall choose one and begin work.

Mmmmm....the air holds the promise of lazy summer days....is there anything more sublime than springtime?

YaY!! It's in! TABLE FOR FOUR is now complete and off to the proofreaders! Target publication date is June, 2004 ...just a scant two months from now. Talk about getting it in under the wire!

I took today off and went to the mall to celebrate. Didn't buy anything for myself, although the family did some long-needed shopping. That's all right. It just felt good to see the outside world again. Tomorrow is early enough to start thinking about the next book.

And yes, I have ideas. Shall begin chronicles of The Next Book shortly!

Take care,
Diana

As my son would say, "Holy Moly Mackeral Cow!" What a day! I spent the entire day on the Ellora's Cave reader's list..and what fun it was! I chose "Redemption" as a theme and the excerpts I posted all came from authors who had written some very hot scenes! Many thanks to Kate Hill, Cheyenne McCray, Sarah McCarty,
Shelby Reed, Cricket Starr, and of course, yours truly!

Yes, I did! I posted an excerpt and the blurb for TABLE FOR FOUR. If you haven't been to the newsletter site, check it out (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dianahunter ). I think you'll see this book is worth waiting for.

And yes, I think it's finished! In between posts today, I finished it off. Tomorrow morning I'll give the last two chapters a final read to make sure I haven't left any loose ends and then send it off to my editor with crossed fingers.

Thanks to all who stopped by the list today...I had a great time!

Take care,
Diana

Almost done!!!! A few more pages, a little tweaking here and there and TABLE FOR FOUR is finished!

Hurray!!!

Sorry I haven't written much the past few days...have been spending my time with the final edits for TABLE FOR FOUR. The final scenes are clicking into place and I think you will be very satisfied with the results. Weaving in the loose ends is always a fun job...making connections people don't expect to see. And because TFF has not just ONE hero and heroine, but TWO of each, weaving in those threads becomes a doubly difficult job.

I've decided writing vanilla sex is much more difficult than writing D/s sex. Not only are the positions more fun in D/s-BDSM, but the conflicting emotions of both the sub/slave and the Dom/Master are much more interesting to explore. The vanilla world is a mystery to me, in spite of the fact that most of my adult life has been living the more 'normal' lifestyle. I think I'll stick with the 'kink' side of life!

Remember to play safe, sane and consensual!
Diana

TABLE FOR FOUR is now in final edits...or what I hope will be final edits!

What does that mean? It means I read the entire novel again, from the very beginning: fixing, tweaking, adding a bit here, refining a bit there; always checking to be sure I haven't left any plot holes or major mistakes (already once in this novel I gave the one couple two different last names ... oops!).

But I'd like this novel to be longer. In order to be a print book as well as an ebook, I have to hit 54,000 words. I'm at 44+K. My editor has given me a week to see if the characters cooperate and want more time together. Remember the mantra: moresexmoresexmoresex!

But of course, plot and character development MUST go along with that. Sex for sex's sake is only porn. Any sex I add at this point will be germane to the plot of the book. So I've read it through (I'm taking a break; I actually have one more chapter to read) and tweaking, then deciding if another chapter is needed or not.

Don't worry; I'm not going to make it longer just because I want to hit a particular word count. I do have to remain true to the characters and what they want/need. It's a balancing act between what the story needs...and what I want it to be.

Back to work....take care!
Diana

Edits are going well for TABLE for FOUR. When I first sit down to write, the words come tumbling out and I just type. My own sense of good grammar doesn't let me ignore blatant mistakes, but often I will stop the flow of writing to struggle with a sentence that won't let go of my mind. It's as if I CAN'T move on until that sentence is at least closer to what I want to say.

That first time through, getting to know the characters is crucial. I don't work with outlines; mostly because I have too much fun finding out where the characters are going to go. If I already know the end of the book, why would I want to write it? And no, I don't peek at the last page when I'm reading someone else's book, either! All the surprise is gone!

The character's name is the key to knowing the character. I've often struggled with writing a person and simply referring to her as "her/she" or him as "him/he" until the character is gracious enough to tell me his/her name. That's what happened with Adora in TABLE FOR FOUR. David and Lissa's story was humming along quite nicely until Richard and ...the blonde...walked in. I knew what she looked like, I knew what she did...but I spent two days hung up in the middle of that scene because I didn't know her name.

Where do I get my names? All over. I try to pick real names for the most part; the online sites for baby names are great. I also have two books of names at home. Leafing through them gives me ideas. For Adora, I actually had the meaning of the name first and wanted a name to match. When you read the book (it comes out this June), you'll see how her name fits her so well.

Till later,
Diana

This is a test! I am hoping this blogger program will work for the website...:)

Well, I've played with this a bit and it looks promising! Now all I need to do is link it to the site....and see if I can't find a way to put icons in?