Monday, October 24, 2011

A Name Chosen and an Angel Takes Flight



The poll has closed, and the majority has spoken: Cynful will remain the title of Book 2 of the Halle Shifters. Two hundred and twenty-five of you voted. A hundred and forty-five of you loved the original title. I've gotten feedback from two of my beta readers, and so far the criticisms have been minor. (Dusty cackled during his first read through, which is always a good sign.)

No matter what, Cynful will be out to my editor on October 31.

I was going through what books to work on next with Dusty, when he mentioned something to me about the Nephilim series I've been talking about since, oh, 2009. I have this whole nine-book, full-length series about these descendants of angels and fallen angels. Two factions with mystical powers battle it out, one believing that they are the protectors of humanity, the other that they should be its rulers. The first to receive his HEA I named Seth, and his lady is named Abby. I've got it completely outlined. In fact, I started it quite some time ago (around, say, 2009), but I wasn't happy with the direction it was taking and set it aside. Dusty asked, "Are you ever going to finish it?"

Yes. Yes, I am.

He TOTALLY wants me to write him. Like, now.

So I started re-writes on what I'd already done to Angel In My Arms, and so far I'm happy with the new direction it's taken. Robin of The Gray Court is stomping his foot at being put on the back burner, but I've promised him that his book will be the longest Gray Court book so far, so he's calming down a bit. I'm not putting a word meter up yet for Angel, though, because it would be confusing as hell right now. I'm adding, I'm subtracting, I'm decimating and rebuilding, and the word count is fluttering  like a circle skirt over a subway grate.

Kind of looks like angel wings, doesn't it?

Once that skirt settles down (or I step off the subway grate, whichever comes first), I'll start the traditional word count meter. Until then, patience, and know that I'm writing!

EDIT: I did put the word meter up after all. It occurred to me that I like to know where I stand even when doing re-writes, so get ready for the roller coaster.

7 comments:

Louise said...

Oooh, The Nephilim sounds interesting. And man, that pic is hawt! :D Can't wait for Cynful, and hello, where is my Jeff and Fen??? :D It will be fun to see Robin get his hob butt kicked by love. I have a feeling that book will have me laughing out loud as his antics usually do. :D

Dana Marie Bell said...

Jeff and Fen are coming March 13, 2012. And yup. That pic IS hawt. :D

Casi said...

I concur, the picture is hawt.

However, I have another question: Where and/or how do you get your word count bars into blogspot? Mine looks horrendous, and I'd like to fix that.

Thank you,
Casi

Dana Marie Bell said...

http://honorless.net/progressbar.htm

It's just a simple progress bar, no extra bells and whistles. I have to adjust it slightly to fit the narrower width of the three column template. Where it says "width: 30%" I change it to "width: 150px" and that works nicely. I also set the pixel height to 15, but I can do that in the boxes where you fill out your preferences rather than having to change that in the HTML.

Casi said...

Thank you. That was exactly what I needed.

Akira_kin said...

So excited about the multiple books that are in the works! Always a good thing to hear that an author you love is still pounding away at those keys! (in a manner of speaking)

Also I find it funny that two of my favorite authors kind of had a feature of marilyn monroe in their blogs this week.... is it a sign or something? Maybe just a nodd to a really beautiful lady?!

Dana Marie Bell said...

For me it was a truly beautiful lady, and her skirt does resemble angel wings. At least I think so. ;D

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