You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. ~ Jim Rohn

In other words, my friends: when you write, focus on the writing. Don't stop and check your email every five minutes. Don't stop to flip television channels for just the right movie to have on in the background. Don't stop to change the music you're listening to; or blog; or get a snack; or play footsie with the cat. Just write. Distractions murder words.

Via Funds for Writers:

JFK PROFILE IN COURAGE ESSAY CONTEST
http://www.jfkcontest.org/
---
NO ENTRY FEE
The annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest invites high school students from across the nation to write an original essay about an elected official who has demonstrated political courage. Winning essayists will receive awards totaling up to $8,500. The first-place winner will be invited to accept the award at the Profile in Courage Award Ceremony hosted each May by Caroline Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. To encourage student leadership and civic engagement, the nominating teacher of the first-place winner will receive a John F. Kennedy Public Service Grant for $500. The deadline for the contest is Saturday, January 10, 2009. Essays can be no more than 1,000 words. Citations and bibliography are not included in the word count.

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YALDAH MAGAZINE
http://www.yaldahmagazine.com
---
Yaldah Magazine, by Jewish girls For Jewish girls! seeks art work, photography, poetry, short stories, essays, true experience from Jewish girls ages 8-16. Writing should reflect Jewish themes and values. Send email queries to Leah Larson, Editor and Publisher yaldah@comcast.net For writers guidelines and sample issues visit the magazine's website.

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LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE
http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters/
---
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any
genre-- fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves. There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 - 12. Winners, announced in the spring of each year, receive cash awards at the national and state levels.

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INTERNSHIP - WISCONSIN ARTS BOARD
http://www.portalwisconsin.org/news.cfm?rid=44515
---
The Wisconsin Arts Board is accepting applications for internships. The internship program allows interns and volunteers to participate in a wide assortment of arts-related opportunities and to assist staff in a number of office and programmatic responsibilities. The Wisconsin Arts Board also encourages interns and volunteers to pursue areas of interest and to propose challenging and fulfilling projects to work on during the internship.

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GIRLS GONE GREAT SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY CONTEST
http://www.womantalklive.com/girlsgonegreat/WTL-GGG2009-ContestGuidelines.pdf
---
Tell us how you are a GIRL GONE GREAT and be eligible to wina $1,000 scholarship. For young women entering their junior or senior year of high school in the fall of 2008. Your essay should answer each of these questions:

1. How are you making a difference in your community?
2. Why is making a difference important to you?
3. How do your actions support your vision for the future?

Your essay should be 800 words or less, single-spaced in 12-point font. Submit a reference from a non-family member. Deadline October 31, 2008.

***

Found this via the Smart Bitches, and it is inspired:

Via Forest Rogers: "I care about the literary art, and I know exactly what the Ancients meant by 'the promptings of the Muse'. The stories which I consider to be my most successful came to me as if dictated... The true ghost story is akin to poetry: only in part is it a conscious construction, and when the Muse does not speak, you cannot write it." ~ "An Essay" by Robert Aickman 1914 - 1981

This is cool. A video review of NYX #1 from Shazap.com!

Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself.
Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of
yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored
territory. ~ Alan Alda

Lovely morning. Here's what I picked from the tree, not ten minutes ago. Shall eat breakfast like a woodland princess! And then throw myself back into the abyss o' words.

...the poodle is still asleep on my pillow, which is more than I can say for myself...

I've been up all night working, and shall now put my head down and steal some winks. Although, given that I just heard a bulldozer roll down the driveway, I may have to put that off for just a bit.

More later.

This, from Laurie R. King, who is lost in rewrites:

It’s ridiculous. I have a life on hold, appointments to make, friendships withering on the vine for lack of attention, bee people to see, antique airplane folk to question, and here I sit, head-down over the laptop.

I want to take a class in Japanese. I want to learn to cook Thai, correctly. I want to go to someplace with sand and watch waves come and go and come and go and come and go.

Life is what happens when you’re doing other things. Like writing a book.

Anyway, this too will pass and I will emerge, blinking and growling—oh, and Muttering, too.

Yes, I feel her pain. Except I'm still in the first draft.

Back to work now.

I won't quote a line from a Britney Spears song. But if I did, let's just say it would go something like, "Oops! I did it again."

As in, I discovered that a MUCH earlier section of the book was hindering my ability to write, and so I went back and started revising. Requiring many, many changes down the line. This is good, in that the story will be (hopefully) much improved. This is bad, because...well, I'm sure you can guess why.

In other news, Barbara Vey has found herself in the path of Gustav. To read her account and send her well-wishes as she struggles to get out of New Orleans, check out her blog. To any of you in that part of the country who will be affected, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

I took the dogs for a walk this morning, just as the sun was rising, and picked ripe peaches from the tree and ate them for breakfast while standing in the tall grass, listening to the birds sing. Tasted like inspiration. Let's hope it lasts.

For those who asked, I'm currently working on the sequel to THE IRON HUNT, which is coming out next year in July 2009. Also, if anyone lives in the Calgary area, I'll be up there at the end of October for the World Fantasy convention. I think I'll be signing books, but I don't know when or where. More details to follow.

Via John Picacio's blog, I saw a list of inspirational quotes from Picasso, this being my favorite: "Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." Oh, and this: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.”

I'm working, I'm working. But this time, unlike with other books, I'm also sleeping and eating, which slows me down, but does make my life much more pleasant.

Some book information: THE IRON HUNT is coming out on audio in November, and I appear to now have several more Dirk & Steele novels available on Kindle: SHADOW TOUCH, THE RED HEART OF JADE, and SOUL SONG (along with THE IRON HUNT, HOTTER THAN HELL, and HOLIDAYS ARE HELL).

Here's the music I've currently got shuffling as I write (click to enlarge):

Gorgeous morning! I bought a brush! My hair has been detangled! I took time to groom! Does that mean the book is done?

No!

Anyway, I'm just, you know, doing the mummy-dance, still entombed on my bed with the laptop glued to me and empty cans of diet coke everywhere, along with cats and a poodle and God-only-knows what else. The brush actually came in the mail from Amazon.com, because I'm pathetic and didn't want to take time to drive ten minutes to the drugstore to buy a brush -- because oh, that might interrupt my writing. Which, given that I took twice that long surfing the internet, doesn't make much sense.

But things get weird near a deadline. I get weird.

I'll be done soon, though, and then I'm taking a break. I would love some book recommendations! I read The Magicians and Mrs. Quent on the flight home from China, and adored it. It's like Jane Austen meets...magicians. Fantastic stuff. Also, Rosemary Clement-Moore has a new book out called Hell Week, which is a sequel to Prom Dates From Hell. Excellent series, which my cousin also loves. Here's what it's about:

College Freshman Maggie goes undercover to write an article about sorority rush for the newspaper, and gets more than she bargained for when she pledges a group of girls with supernaturally suspicious good luck. She has to use her wonky psychic abilities to solve the mystery and shut down the Sigma Alpha Xis before they make her stay on Greek Row permanent when Hell Week rolls around.

Hope you're all having a great day! By the way, if you would like to read the chat transcript from my visit to The Knight Agency site, you can find it here.

“Don't accept rides from strange men - and remember that all men are as strange as hell.”
~ Robin Morgan

Which is something I was thinking about today as I wrote. Darn heroes.

I am, officially, in the tattered stages of deadline hell. I lost my hair brush (I have brush elves), and so the rats have taken residence in my hair, and the cats have given up trying to groom me. Which is fine, because honestly, it's a pain having to fend them off.

Thank you for all the food tips. The one thing I can promise is that I'm not starving while I write. Which isn't saying much.

Here's a troubleshooting question for you Safari users. Quite by accident, I managed to "pull" the address bar right off the browser. So now I can't simply type in an address and go. I have to navigate by bookmarks, or do searches on Google for sites I would normally just dial in directly. I've gone to 'Preferences' and 'Customize Toolbar' and nothing seems to be bringing back my precious address bar. Tips? Is this an insanely simple thing to fix?

I've been listening to a lot of James Galway as I write. And there's my random statement of the day.

The book is due in a week. Other than taking care of the dogs and cats, and attempting to bathe regularly, everything else has been put aside. Except, so far, eating. Good food, good energy. I've got a freezer full of meat and frozen vegetables, and right now there's chicken cooking, mixed with zucchini, squash, and green things. When it's ready, I'll throw in some tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmesan, and then hunker down and go cave girl. Grrr. Argh.

Any good, easy, recipes for a tired starving artist on a deadline?

"It is with words as with sunbeams.
The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn."
--Robert Southey

It's still a little after five in the morning here, but that's an improvement, given that I slept most of the night through, and only had to take a three hour nap yesterday. Ah, jet-lag. Perhaps I shall miss thee. Or not.

Harvey did not pour the basement floor yesterday (he's waiting, I think, for the color additive to arrive...Sombero Buff, to be specific), but he did send some of his men to erect concrete walls around the last-minute add of the tornado room/storm shelter. Which, given the craaaazy weather we've had around here over the past year, will be a slight comfort to have.

Via http://www.fundsforwriters.com

SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE FICTION PRIZE
http://www.seventeen.com/fun-stuff/special/official-rules-fiction
---
NO ENTRY FEE
Submit between August 12, 2008 and December 31, 2008. All entries must include an original fiction short story of no more than 500 words. One grand-prize winner will receive a cash prize of $2,500 and a trip for two to have lunch with Meg Cabot in either New York City or Key West, Fla. Prize includes airfare and standard hotel accommodations (one room, double occupancy) for a one (1) night stay, a high-performance laptop powered by Intel (approximate retail value: $1,500) and will have their story published in a 2009 issue of Seventeen magazine. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada who are female and are ages 13 to 21 in their state or province of residence at time of entry. Void in Puerto Rico, Quebec Province and where prohibited by law.

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JUNIOR BASEBALL
http://www.juniorbaseball.com/moreinfo/writersguidelines.shtml
---
Addresses the needs and interests of the youth baseball player, parent, and coach. Covering the 7 to 17-year-old age range (with emphasis on the 10-14 year old experience), Junior Baseball is the magazine for the kids who play the game. The standard rate for text is 20¢ per published word for adult writers (18+).

Player's Story' - Written by the kids themselves. One player per issue will tell about his best day, worst game, a lesson learned, etc. Should include his opinion - what he thinks, as well as his description of the experience. Articles must be written by the child; the editors will correct grammar if necessary. (Approx. 500 words) Pays $50.

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SECOND ANNUAL ACTORS' THEATRE YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS CONTEST
http://www.sccat.org/contests.htm
---
$5 ENTRY FEE
Actors' Theatre continues its groundbreaking efforts to bring new playwrights and exciting, innovative theater to our area, by putting the quills in the hands of our youth! The winning plays will receive staged readings with age appropriate actors during the Young Writers' Festival Weekend, April 2009. Writers must be between the ages of 16 and 19 and plays must be postmarked by December 31, 2008. Three categories of plays will be considered:

** "Short shorts": Run-time of 5 minutes or less
** 10 minute plays: No more than 10 pages long
** One-act plays: Run-time of 30 minutes or less

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JIM HARRELL POETRY SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
http://www.montevallo.edu/english/ApplicationForms/JimHarrellPoetryScholarshipAward.pdf
---
To encourage the youth of Alabama to pursue literary exploration and excellence. First place $1,000 scholarship, second place $500 scholarship, five honorable mentions $100 scholarship each. Open to any high school senior in the State of Alabama who intends to enroll at the University of Montevallo. Submit one poem no more than 100 lines long. Deadline February 1, 2009.

Real life has has provided me with two improbable (and frightening) openings to several stories -- should I choose to use them. And, like some game show challenge, no doubt I will. What are they, you might wonder? Let's just say that both of them involve transportation, to varying degrees.

Harvey the Amish Man might be pouring concrete today -- if the weather holds. We're scheduled for rain and thunder, so I have a feeling the basement floors may have to wait until next week. The construction has been up in the woods, on the hill, absolutely out of sight (and hearing range, mostly). Which is very nice, but when I go up in the evenings or the mornings to see what's been done, it's like little elves have been running around doing magic-constructo-things: walls here, stone there. I receive occasional phone calls during the day asking a question, but for the most part -- at this point -- Harvey and his army of Amish men are making this a spectacularly easy experience.

More writing today. I haven't been able to keep track of the Olympics very well, which is frustrating. The NY Times has an interesting hub, though, if you haven't seen it yet.

It's five in the morning. Time to clean the kitty litter, shower, eat, walk the dogs -- and then get the day started. Until later, folks.

(PS: Yes, I howled when I discovered that the SciFi Channel had cancelled Stargate: Atlantis. I am, however, slightly comforted by a) the movies that are planned, and b) the new Stargate series...but not comforted enough to stop being ticked about losing my 22-episodes-a-year John Sheppard, Ronon Dax, Major Lorne, and Dr. McKay fix).

Just a reminder: I'll be chatting tomorrow at The Knight Agency site. Details can be found here.

I need to update the links at this blog, but two not yet listed that I love are Midori Snyder and Terri Windling's blogs. Check out these recommendations from Midori: Serendipity, an online magical realism fiction magazine; or Ron and Joe, which makes hilarious mouse pads (and other things).

In other news, this is what jet-lag has done to me:

I fall asleep at noon.
Wake up in the early evening.
Write until 4 AM, or thereabouts.
Sleep until 6 or 7 AM.
Begin cycle again.

Pick any warm fuzzy nocturnal creature, and that'll be me. All efforts to revert to a more normal schedule have failed, which was a bother until I remembered that I make my own hours. This is, believe it or not, something that I occasionally forget. I am, however, being smothered in cats. I think they're infecting me with sleepy-cat syndrome, which makes humans curl into tiny balls, hide their faces under the covers, and then wake up covered in felines. It's magic, I tell you. Better yet, my cats handle office matters while I'm unconscious.

The last time I left Shanghai I blogged about my encounter (so to speak) with the electronic bidet. Again, not my thing. But this time I did get a picture:



I'm sure to some of you this is old news, not worth the bat of an eye -- but honestly, I still don't get it. Yes, I find the historical and cultural differences between toilets and other bathroom habits fascinating (too much information, I'm sure), and this is no different from the dismay others feel at the prospect of "squatting" toilets -- something I've become accustomed to while traveling over the past ten years.

But a bidet -- in an airport bathroom? I know it's supposed to be sanitary, but being hosed down on a public toilet sounds horrifying.

***

The USA Basketball team plays Australia tonight. I saw their first match-up in that exhibition game before the Olympics, and it was wild. Not much else to blog about, though. I'm finishing a book. You all know what that means. And yes, it's ugly.

I'm home. Easiest flight ever. No one sat beside me on the long haul from Shanghai, which is heaven when I want to stretch out without feeling like I'm going to clock someone in the face with my elbow. Even Chicago was pleasant. The only wrinkle, actually, came in China. My dad was pulling into the airport parking garage, and one of the guards stopped us. He wanted to see my passport. Just mine. Other cars were driving past, unhindered, but he singled us out -- probably because I look like a foreigner. He wrote down my visa and passport number, along with my name, and then let us go. But it was weird, and slightly unpleasant.

Home, though, is home -- and I've been gone for a month. I took a nice long walk this morning, camera in hand, and snapped some pictures of the things I've been missing. Ate a pear and a peach direct from the tree, and enjoyed the sun and clean air. And while it's more than 80 degrees here, I must confess to wearing a sweatshirt, fuzzy socks, and a hat. I'm used to warmer temperatures plus humidity now, and I'm freezing.

Below, I've uploaded pictures of the pear tree, peaches, black walnuts, tomatoes, a lost little nest...and one very noble dog.

Yes, I'm ditching RWA a day early, and in a little while will be sitting on a fast airplane to China. And me, being an idiot, have not yet taken advantage of some helpful information a friend gave me, and so I will be livejournal-banned while overseas. Y'all know what that means!

HERE IS THE LINK TO MY OLD SHANGHAI BLOG.

If you want to stay updated on my rather short adventure in China, check that out.

I will also be posting more pictures about RWA, but in the meantime, here's some shots from last night's Berkley signing. I cut out early from the Dorchester dinner and the other parties, and managed to make it back to my hotel room at a very decent hour -- at which point I packed and packed. Most of what I brought to San Francisco, or bought here, will be shipped home. I like to travel light.

Below, pictures of Christine Feehan and myself -- followed by a shot of me, Nalini Singh, and Meljean Brook. Who, finally, after all these years, I finally got a chance to meet.





Be safe, everyone. I'll write more when I'm on the ground.

I have been a bad, bad, blogger. A lot has gone on this week, and I've got pictures. In the meantime, though, here's something interesting: The Today Show covered the signing at RWA, and there's a shot of my hands signing THE WILD ROAD!



My agent took us all to visit the Locus office today, which is inside a beautiful house owned by Charles N. Brown. We had a wonderful time -- and best yet, another Clarionite, Amelia, was there! Along with our other classmates, we spent six weeks living together in a sorority house in Michigan -- back in 2004 -- and it's been almost three years since we saw each other.



More later, folks.

Because dudes, San Francisco is COLD. Not that going to Bloomingdales was a chore, but I actually had to buy a sweater. And it's almost August.

But, I'm here. Lovingly ensconced inside my hotel. Warm in my covers. Enjoying my unobstructed view of concrete and listening to sirens. Ah, the city. Meanwhile, I've just heard that back home, the cats are sleeping in my clean clothes. Preparing them, I'm sure, for my return.

More tomorrow. Which, by the way, is the release date of THE WILD ROAD. Gargoyles + amnesiac women + murder + Rictor + Koni + the origins of Dirk & Steele!

Need to roll out of bed soon and get ready for the airport, but in the meantime, here is an interview I did with Comic Vine yesterday. NYX, like THE WILD ROAD (which comes out TOMORROW, yay!), will be released very soon, and will be found in your local comic book store, or online.