I guess that’s really a no-brainer. As much as I love a good spin cycle, starting off on the journey of discovery with a group of characters has to be one of the greatest thrills in life. Sure, there will be rough spots along the way as the story unfolds, but that’s just part of the process.

Right now I’m playing with that all important opening scene, trying to set the right tone in order to draw the reader into the story. I can see it all so clearly—the hero setting off on his journey, one that will bring him pain and hopefully joy. For now, the heroine remains blissfully unaware that change is coming her way that will turn her world upside down.

I’m also considering which secondary characters will be necessary for the story. I tend to write large ensemble casts, and I often bring back characters from earlier books in the series. Even so, each book has its own requirements. This one may have some feisty, little old ladies—just what a big, tough Paladin needs to keep him on his toes, right? But a few familiar faces will be crucial to the story development.

I love getting to know my characters through the unfolding of their story. I always know some things about them going in—like this hero drinks tea, not coffee—but I don’t really KNOW them until I’m well into the book. Sometimes that means taking a few unexpected left turns while writing the book. Luckily, I like surprises.

So, I’m off to start another load in my shiny, new washer. But while I’m adding detergent and pushing all those cool buttons, my mind will be elsewhere—following my hero and seeing where the adventure takes us both.

(It’s her shoes. That’s what did it. ;-)

With a little help from two of my most troublesome best friends, the monster child Calvin & the much smarter but imaginary Hobbes, I’ll share with you all something every writer-supporter should know–

THE TOP TEN MOST IMPORTANT THINGS for

The Care and  Feeding of Writers:

10. An editor, an agent, and a critique partner who can deal with a frantic author
9.  A daily nap with a tiger named Hobbes to snuggle with

8.  Wireless internet to waste time while procrastinating writing the next scene

7.  A BlackBerry to check email at a cafe to procrastinate some more

6.  Butterscotch martinis when brainstorming

5.  Starbucks lattes while writing

4.  Do not interrupt for any reason unless it involves blood or the fire department

3.  Stay. Away. From. The. Computer.

2.  Buy her lastest book. And several copies to hand out to friends.

1.  Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

Interestingly enough, these two stories have a lot in common–at least on the surface. The heroines are both half-breeds. In Keri Arthur’s book, the heroine is half vampire and half werewolf. Jeaniene Frost’s heroine is half human and half vampire. Both work for agencies who police renegade vamps and other nonhuman species. Both women have loved and lost someone.

Despite the similarities, these two authors have taken a common mythology–vampires–and made it uniquely their own. The world building in both cases is rich and dynamic, pulling the readers in and holding them hostage until the last page is turned. Amazing, simply amazing. One of the many things I love about paranormal romances and urban fantasies is all the creative energy writers put into building the worlds that serve as the backdrop for the stories.

I love vampire stories–always have and don’t see that changing anytime soon. I’m sure this fascination with all things fangy is in large part due to the alpha male heroes and equally kickass heroines that populate the stories. But as a writer, I also love to see what each author does to make their characters come alive on the page, if that’s not an oxymoron considering we’re talking about the undead here. Think of all the vampire stories you’ve read and how different they all are.

That’s one reason I’d never written a vampire story myself. I’d yet to come up with a new twist on the old themes, something that would make my vamp world different from all the others. I think I finally did that with the short story I have coming out in August in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRE ROMANCE. Writing a short story was a new experience in and of itself, but the real challenge was creating my own vampire world and making it distinctive. I think I succeeded, but only time will tell.

Wow how time zips by. Shadow Magic is here!

 For fun, here’s an excerpt.

Excerpt from SHADOW MAGIC by Cheyenne McCray
© Copyright Cheyenne McCray, 2008.
All Rights Reserved, St. Martin’s Press

Paybacks are a bitch.

And Hannah Wentworth would see to it that Ceithlenn, a dark goddess from Underworld, paid. Big time.

Banshee, Hannah’s falcon familiar, made a soft cry and gripped her shirt tighter in his talons, reminding her of where she was and why she had come to this secluded pond deep in the forest.

Those . . . feelings she’d been having.

Ever since she’d been forced to leave San Francisco, Hannah’s instincts had told her things were about to get worse. Impossibly more dangerous.

Whatever was coming, Hannah wasn’t about to face it blind or unaware. She would find out what she could, or die trying.

Hannah knelt on the damp grass beside the pond and dropped the pack she held. She dug through the leather bag until she found her scrying mirror then drew it out and settled it on the grass in front of her.

Smells of moss and rich wet earth mingled with the scents of evergreens and wildflowers as she focused on the mirror. A breeze ruffled Banshee’s feathers, and stirred her dark hair and the shock of blond that swept down one side of her face. A night bird began its evening song, and Hannah thought she heard Fae voices joining in.

Her grandmother had given her the scrying instrument after Hannah left her socialite mother to live with her father. The strength of Hannah’s innate talent for alomancy, using the mirror and sea salt crystals to scry, had astonished the high priestess of her D’Anu Coven, and Hannah’s power over this form of divination as well as her connection to the Dragon Elementals grew greater as time passed.

The ornate ebony wood frame was a fashioned of two Dragons, each biting the tail of the other so that it was a never ending circle. Hannah rubbed her thumb over one of the intricate carvings. Ebony was the most powerful magical wood and was associated with all of the Elements—Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and aided her in her communication with the Dragons.

They were her totem and always had been. Even her falcon familiar was the living embodiment of Dragons in her world.

Hannah tried not to grind her teeth at the thought that she and her Coven sisters had been forced to flee their homes in San Francisco for Otherworld, just days ago.

No time for that now. Deep breath. We are going to figure out how to toast that goddess-bitch.

She gripped the soft grass in her fingers as she looked over the mirror. Only Hannah could “see” in the black glass within the ebony frame when she scried.

Hannah pulled a vial of salt crystals from her pack and tugged out the cork before setting the cork aside. She leaned forward so that she looked directly over the mirror, her hair swinging forward at the sides of her face. The mirror didn’t show hers or Banshee’s reflections.

She concentrated with everything she had, pushing out all other thoughts to still her mind and prepare herself for the vision to come. Silently, she asked for the aid of the Dragon Elementals and the great Druid Ancestors, and she called on Banshee’s powers to strengthen her own.

The falcon’s magic joined hers as it flowed through her body.

Come on . . .

Her heart rate picked up as it always did before she scried something monumental. The world closed in on her until all that remained was her, Banshee and the mirror. The forest’s sounds and smells vanished and it was as if she floated outside her body.

Time slowed. She tilted the vial and studied the patterns of the salt crystals in the air as they spilled out of the vial and onto the mirror. The vial slipped from her fingers, dropped onto the grass, and rolled away as she braced her hands to either side of the mirror and analyzed those patterns, too.

The pounding of her heart grew even more rapid until it felt as if her entire body throbbed.

Images appeared in the mirror and she tumbled, tumbled into the vision, all five senses, body and mind and soul, as if the events she visioned were truly happening. As if she were truly there.

Her heart nearly stopped beating.

Rain pounded down so hard it soaked her to her skin, chilling her, and she had difficulty seeing. But through the downpour she made out humans fleeing from a San Francisco tourist pier. Their terror flooded Hannah so deeply she felt it in her bones. Blood and death and the acrid odor of fear mixed with the rotten fish stench.

Fomorii demons.

Magic sparked at her fingertips as she caught sight of malformed shapes attacking humans. A scream rose in her throat.

You can check out another excerpt at CheyenneMcCray.com and you can find Shadow Magic in all stores and also on Amazon.com. 

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt!

Chey

Coffee? Check. Comfy chair? Check. Idea firmly in mind? Check. Settle in, dear Reader.

Here’s what I want to say in a nutshell: It is perfectly okay to write dreck.

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What’s the guilty secret you ask? Okay, I’ll share—GARGOYLES. I don’t know if anyone else watched this dark, wonderfully intelligent cartoon series, but I loved it. Tragic dark heroes, condemned to live as stone, betrayed and cursed. What’s not to love???

In a completely different vein, I ordered a DVD of another old favorite for my brother for his birthday. Have you ever seen EVIL ROY SLADE, starring John Astin? OMG, it is a hoot of a western parody filled with bad one-liners, puns, and some just plain funny jokes. For example: The school marm is trying to educate Evil Roy (who was raised by wolves, I think). She asks him, “If you have six apples and your neighbor takes three, what do you have?” His answer: “A dead neighbor and all six apples.” A groaner, I know, but I did warn you he was evil.

I love the movie SOLDIER with Kurt Russell. Granted, I love almost any movie with Kurt Russell, but this one really appeals to the romance writer in me. Talk about your tortured alpha hero. All he knows is duty and the obligation of a soldier to fight, but he learns so much more. I love dark heroes who are the big bad, but that children instinctively trust.

Finally, I just added the DVD of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to my collection. I had it in VHS, but worried about only having a copy in the old technology. The movie came out in the early 1950’s starring Michael Renny and Patricia Neal. By today’s standards, the special effects are more than a bit hokey, but the message still rings true today.

So there’s my confession for the day. Anyone else have some guilty favorites they want to ‘fess up to? I still have room on my shelf for a few more.

There are a couple of blogs with a lot of negative comments, the negative comments mostly by people who weren’t at the convention. I’ll give you some blog posts by people who were at the convention and have pictures *and* videos to share!

Barbara Vey’s Publishers Weekly blog

MURDERATI

Gennita Low’s  A Low Profile

Even Redheads Get the Blues

The Rebels of Romance

Judi’s Journey

NakedAuthors.com

Fangs, Fur, and Fey 

You get wonderful, funny insights on what went on at the convention and the pics and vids are too much fun.

And you get to see the ray of sunshine, Michelle Rowen, and me when we got to meet up.

Enjoy! 

Cheyenne

The trouble with each Friday post isn’t finding something to write about, it’s more choosing among the plethora of things to say about writing.

This week, for example, there’s three things I’m thinking about, each of which deserves a big long post of its own. However, I’m in an abundant mood (and all my brain cycles are taken up with finishing the rough draft of the YA, which is two scenes away from being a Whole Corpse Ready For Surgery) so I’ll just touch on each of them. Besides, everyone’s at RT this weekend anyway, so bite-size pieces are probably better.

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The effect of DJ blogging has been twofold. Fans of the series are enjoying the extra glimpse into the lives of their favorite Paladins during the long wait between books. But almost more importantly, it’s been an excercise in character development for me. I’ve had to learn to think of my characters beyond the pages of the books, reminding myself that their lives go on, they grow, they have experiences. Time passes between the inciting incidents that generate the books in the series, and my characters need to reflect those ongoing lives.

DJ has even interviewed characters from other peoples books–a demon, a vamp, and the ghost from a haunted bordello. Again, those interviews were great fun to do. But entertainment value aside, as my friends and I wrote those interviews, we all saw our characters through new eyes and gained new perspective.

The icing on the cake for me came this last week when the nice ladies over at Simply Romance Reviews invited DJ to guest blog. He and three of my other guys showed up bright and early last Friday and carried on very entertaining conversations with each other and the people who left comments for them. It was fun watching the boys hassle each other, again revealing new sides to their characters.

Am I recommending that everyone set up an official blog for their characters. No, I don’t think that’s necessary. However, putting on my reader hat here for a minute, I personally love the character interviews I’ve read done by such authors as Suzanne Brockmann, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and JR Ward. But whether or not you decide to publish such interviews to share with readers, I do think taking the time to write out conversations for continuing characters set in different environments can be a great learning tool.