Happy BDSM Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Fifty Shades of Grey releases today and I'm not going to see it.  I'm staying home with the dogs and working on Redemption, a new Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini, while DH works on the trains at the local park. Yeah, our lives are soooo fifty shades of exciting, LOL. 

And tonight to celebrate VD day (that sounds terrible, VD day. Veneral Disease day?) we are grilling steaks instead of paying too much for eating dinner out. A bottle of white wine is chilling in the fridge and we are going to have a fire in the fire pit. And relax, toast each other and our marriage (20 years this year!). No whips, bondage or floggers for us. But he DID purchase a VD gift for tonight... drum roll...

A toasting fork. For marshmallows! It's pictured above. Yeah, I love that man of mine. He knows what I need. LOL! Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

Excerpt from OBSESSION

If all goes well, SEDUCTION will be published this week. Finally! In the meantime, I'm finishing OBSESSION, the next Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini (January 2015).

Here's a preview:
Obsession
copyright 2014 by Bonnie Vanak

          He parked a lean hip against the tree’s trunk and folded his muscular arms. In his red flannel shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to display tanned forearms, and faded jeans and scuffed Western boots, he looked like an ordinary cowboy. But there was nothing ordinary about this Lupine.

           Curls the color of blackest night spilled down to his collar. His strong jaw was covered by a close-trimmed beard, and the same beard framed a mouth far too sensual for a man. But there was nothing sensual about the sharp, angular features of his face nor the darkness of those brown eyes.

            Those eyes seemed ageless, and ancient pain lurked in their depths.

            Jessica studied the acres of green pasture, the gleaming buildings, and thought about the expensive motor cars parked in the garage. “It must be nice to be wealthy,” she mused.

            “There are worse things than having no money,” he said quietly.

            “Easy to say when you have plenty of it.”

            “I’d trade all the money in the world to regain what I’ve lost.”

            He looked dark and dangerous and yet he had an air of vulnerability.

            “What did you lose?”

            Raphael shook his head. “Another time, little one. Perhaps one night I will share that information.”

            “You don’t believe in sharing during the day?”

            His gaze became hooded. “With you, I would much rather share…things… at night.”

            Jessica felt her entire body flare with heat. Every time he gazed at her with those bedroom eyes, she felt a jolt of sensual awareness.

Her Lupine nature, with all its raging hormones and sexual need, howled for release.

But his seductive gaze wasn’t centered on her face now. He stared at her curls.

“What’s wrong? Never seen a redhead before?”

“Not of that color. I have met some red wolf Lupines, but their coloring is darker.”

Raphael approached her. Before she could squeak a protest, he wrapped a strand of her hair around his index finger. “It is like living flame that does not burn. But do you burn, Jessica? Burn with the desire all our kind possesses?”

   Dry-mouthed, she struggled for a comeback. Think, think! No way could she allow this silver-tongued devil wolf best her.

   “Right now I burn with a tremendous desire.” Jessica tugged her hair away from his loose grasp. “A desire for you to stop touching me.”

He arched a brow. “That is not touching you, little one. When I touch you, you will know it, and be unable to resist.”

Seting goals for 2010?

New year, new decade in just two days and have I set any goals?

Nope. Partly because I'm too exhausted trying to finish the old ones, and the temporary ones I set for myself this month. That and the fact I've battled insomnia and nightmares the past two weeks have left me feeling like a well-wrung dish rag.

Then today, while driving I was listening to an NPR interview with Gretchen Rubin, the author of the yearlong experiment and new book, The Happiness Project. She has a good blog post on setting and keeping resolutions. She keeps a resolution chart as outlined on her blog. There's a blank template at the end of the blog:

Here's the link to the resolution blog post:


Here's an interesting blog on empowering creativity that she mentions.


Here's a website designed by a guy to keep track of his goals, a free tool you
can use. You have to sign up, but it's free.

I confess I found Gretchen's blog mainly because she has a post on tips on feeling more energetic. Then I found a post on tips for getting more sleep. Ah, if only there were tips on how to deal with a sick Shih Tzu who yarks all over the carpet and has raging diarrhea on your lunch hour while you're trying to gulp down a ham and cheese sandwich and rush back to work without being late.

I'm in between writing projects now until after the first of the year, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to write a vampire short story for "fun." I've made progress, but I couldn't figure out why I'm so sluggish. Then I made a list of all the projects I've had released this year:

The total comes to FIVE.

The Lady and the Libertine. MM paperback, my last Egyptian historical with Dorchester.
Darkness of the Wolf. Short story released by Nocturne.
Seducing the Vampire, short free e-read released by Nocturne.
Immortal Wolf. MM paperback released by Nocturne.
Holiday with a Vampire III. Novella.

Two full-length paperbacks, three short stories, PLUS working nearly FT all year, travel to Haiti, Nicaragua, and being a wife, plus caretaker to two Shih Tzu dogs who required trips to the vet nearly every other week for the past three months, and other assorted personal issues, and travel.

Most people don't realize that writing a book isn't merely writing. For midlisters like myself, there's promotional work, website updates (I haven't updated mine in a long time) blogging, and other time-consuming, yet important tasks. Then with writing a book come the revisions, the edits, the page proofs and the various sundry tasks, such as helping select a cover and in the case of the Nocturnes, writing a "Dear Reader" letter.

I know authors who have been on deadline for books and received galleys that were due the same day as their other deadlined books. It's a crazy business. We love it, but it's crazy all the same.

I'm very late on establishing any goals. I'm not even certain WHAT kind of goals I want to establish. Personal goals, there are a couple, but writing? Right now my goal is to finish the vampire short story by this weekend. That means writing about 5,000 words.

I did a storyboard, my first, for this project. I wrote a short synopsis. I know what the key plot points, conflict and story arcs are. I just have to buckle down and write it.

That's my goal for 2010. Finish this last project and rest, and then revive for what will hopefully be a more satisfying, less frenetic year.

BTW, the Nocturne authors are launching a new website in January. It's got a dynamic new look, and new features that include doing searches for subgenres of Nocturnes, for example, werewolves. You can look at the author's listing and see if it's part of a series. My Draicon werewolf books are all listed.

Good luck with your goals and Happy New Year!

RWA: workshops and writing on deadline

Tuesday, I'm flying to DC for RWA's National conference. I've lined up my schedule and there are two workshops I'm going to try hard to make.

The first is Sat 8:30 A.M. Two Mills & Boon editors talk on avoiding pitfalls of romance novel plotting. Any time you can take a workshop given by an editor, I say go for it.

The second is Jennie Crusie - Turning Points - explore ways to do this; tighten and focus plots and scenes.Sat 11-12 am.

Note the theme of the craft workshops I'm targeting? Plotting, which I always am looking to strengthen.

RWA is the best conference for tremendous craft workshops. My schedule is pretty full Thursday and Friday, so I was very happy to see these two workshops on my only fairly free day.

This weekend, DH and I are over at Fort Myers Beach for some quiet time alone. I'm going to try to make a dent in the Nocturne Bite due in three weeks. See, I"ll take the laptop to DC next week, but trying to write on deadline at a conference is like trying to herd cats. There's just too much going on.

Here's my advice for writing on deadline at a conference.

1. Take laptop to the bar or coffee shop and look absorbed. When others see you, you tell them, "I'm on deadline." As they walk off with expressions of understanding and respect, commence rewriting that email to hubby, "Did you remember to give the dog his heartworm pill?"

2. Write in your room. Consume mass quantities of food and drink and mourn the fact you're missing Linda Howard's speech. Order another Irish coffee as a comfort.

3. Tote laptop to nearest Starbucks and encounter hordes of other authors also on deadline, who are looking busy and typing emails to hubbies asking if they remembered to clean out the cat's litterbox and make sure that little Johnny doesn't paint his sister's hair neon green with the new watercolor set.

Most of all, remember to try to make time for those workshops. They're the best thing going at RWA.

Writing, RWA, etc.

Here's a trip down memory lane. RWA National in Dallas, 2004. Pamela Clare finaled in the Daphne awards for her first RS, Extreme Exposure.

That was a great conference. Below is a photo of some of the RBL Romantica gals who went to Dallas. It was my first time meeting them, and it was great.


My last RWA conference was Atlanta, 2006. I got to see Jennifer Ashley win her RITA (yay) and meet my HQ editor for the first time, before my first Nocturne was even published.

This year, I'll be in DC. And I think RWA will be different for me. Lots different.

I'm seriously thinking of not doing the booksigning.

I'm waiting another week or two to see how it goes with the family health issues, which take priority right now. But I'm feeling kinda strong about this. DC for me will be more of a "me" conference.

I want to see old friends I seldom ever see, and I want to play tourist. A friend is coming down and we're going to sightsee. I've never been to DC before and I figure this is my only time to do everything.

So for me, this will be more of a "behind the scenes" RWA. I might attend a workshop or two that gets my interest, but there'll be no "networking" or career pumping for me. RWA is the place to network, and this year I have little interest in promoting my career.


Why?


Because this year, I've decided to focus on something much more important to me than promoting my career or aiming to get new contracts or climbing the romance author ladder.

I'm focusing on my writing.


Writing is one of the few things you can control in publishing. You can't control distribution (ask me about this, lol, I can tell you) or if readers will buy your books or maintaining momentum or creating buzz or sales or even control release dates and scheduling. Or if your books will be pirated and available as free downloads, stripping you as the author of funds needed to promote your books or even to pay the grocery bill. (Pamela has a great post on this subject, click here to read it.)



But you can control your writing.



I came to a tough decision earlier this year when I realized something had to give. It wasn't going to be me, either. One of the genres I was writing had to go, at least temporarily. And trust me, seeing my books out on the internet as free downloads helped me come to this decision. I asked myself, "Why am I working so hard just so people can rip me off?"



So I dropped the Egyptian historicals. It wasn't easy for me to do, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did. The pressure and the strain to produce one 90,000 historical a year, along with the Nocturnes, and working a demanding day job AND traveling to Haiti, Nicaragua, etc, and having a life! was too much.



The Nocturnes are fun and different for me. And now I'm writing another Bite, a 15,000 word or less short story that's released in ebook format only (though my first Bite, Broken Souls, was released in trade paperback in April in the Midnight Cravings anthology).



When I wrote Broken Souls, I knew I could do better. I'm not very good at writing short stories; they're a huge challenge.



So when I set out to write the next Bite, Darkness of the Wolf, I resolved to do better. I took my time, revised, revised, revised.



I just turned in edits for that Bite, which is out in August. And I was delighted to see the edits my editor requested were few. I had a real good feeling when I turned in Darkness that it was a stronger story than Broken Souls. I think I was right.



It was a better story because I took the time to write it, putting in as much effort as I would to a full length Nocturne, and I read some articles about writing a short story, and asked friends for advice on how they write short stories.



I learned more. This is a fluid business. I firmly believe writers should always be learning, otherwise, your writing grows stale. There's always new ways/methods out there to explore.



So this year, I'm exploring.



I also made the tough decision to push my next deadline way back. It wasn't easy, but the family health issues came first. I knew it would be near impossible with a very tight deadline to produce the kind of book I want to write, the kind of book that makes me go "ah!" with what's happening now.



Right now, I'm writing another Bite, due in August. It's called Courage of the Wolf. I started it last week and so far I really like it. I brainstormed an idea to give it a new twist and now I'm experiencing a feeling that makes everything worthwhile.



I'm getting excited about writing romance again.



It's a wonderful feeling. I want to write this story, not because it's a contracted work or I'll make oodles of money (I won't, lol) but because it's galvanizing me as a writer. I'm writing as I once did, as I should. There'll be a learning process along the way, and mistakes will be made that will require revisions or edits, but that's okay.



I'm loving this again. And to me, that's more important than anything else in the business right now.

Writing and more Haiti pix

This is a village market we passed on the way to Baie d'Orange last week. I love the outlandish, huge hats the women wear to shade their bodies as they sit and sell their wares in the hot sun.

If you ever want to take a step back in time, Haiti is a great place to go, as some villages, time seems to have stood still. They sell goods in open air markets like they did decades ago.

I have 5,000 words on The Savage Wolf, the Bite that's due next. I actually started writing it while in Haiti. Didn't write it in the Toyota, hard to type while bouncing over the goat path roadways, but I wrote in snatches in the hotel rooms and during breaks.

One of my goals this year as a writer, not an author, is to learn to write tighter, and improve my skills in writing shorts and novellas. They're tougher for me because you have to write so tight. It's more challenging for me to write a 15,000 word Bite than a full-length Nocturne.

Learning to let go of a story

I posted this yesterday over at The Chatelaines blog.



I want to learn how to let go of a story.

The novella that is due, uh, like NOW, is still on my desk. I must mail it out. It's finished. But I can't let go. I keep editing and editing, worrying over it, trying to make it perfect. One last sentence deleted, another rewritten.

The 20,000 word story has taken me as long to write as the 70,000 word Nocturne. And I can't figure out why.

Oh, I really like the characters, the plot. But I find myself filled with doubts, those horrid creatures that easily kill creativity. Maybe THIS word will make it stronger, more emotional, more blah blah blah blah.

Enough. Already.

It always amuses me when people, after finding out I'm an author, casually remark, "Oh, I've always wanted to write a book in my spare time."

I feel like telling them, "Oh, I've always wanted to dig my brains out of my head with a dull fork in my spare time."

Maybe for some writers, it's easy. They can sit down, whip out a story like it's a delicate souffle, and everything is delicious, creamy, rich. People sigh over it and weep.

With me, it's more like baking a Thanksgiving turkey for a critical family dinner. I keep basting, checking, basting, worrying, basting, and then when it's done, I carve into it and POW!


It busts open like that dried, wrinkled mess Chevy Chase cut into on Christmas Vacation.


Or not. Sometimes it's a delicious golden brown and juicy, and melts in your mouth.


It's not easy letting go of the work. Whether it's to give to a friend to read, or an editor, or enter into a contest, or wait for a review, there's a part of you that dreads the reaction. Will they like it? Will they want to read more?


Or would they rather be coated in honey and staked to an anthill?


I can honestly say I don't know one writer, though I'd love to meet one! who hasn't experienced some kind of self-doubt. Years ago at my chapter's conference, the keynote speaker, a NY Times best-seller I admired, admitted she gets nervous when turning in a story to her editor. She too, worries about anyone liking it.


Wow.


I have a lot of respect for those who can brave the waters of extreme criticism, and submit their work to be read by a panel in front of a crowded audience.


Last week my chapter, Florida Romance Writers, held our conference. I didn't go. I was on deadline, and this is a bad time of year for me as I usually travel for the day job. (Next week I'll be in Haiti.)

The conference was on a cruise, organized by the amazing Aleka Navis, and they hosted an event that's become popular at our conferences.

It's called Floridian Idol. You submit a few pages for a panel of agents and editors to read aloud and tell the audience exactly what they think of your writing.


Yoikes.


Sarah from the Smart Bitches blog attended our conference, and participated in this. Here's her thoughts on what it was like:


"So having the product of those less--than-turgid muscles critiqued is like having the gym’s most sculpted personal trainer watching you work out. In a word: Eeeep. So mad props to the writers who participated – I know firsthand what you went through. The experience was supremely fidget-inducing."

That sums it up. Fidget-inducing. It was fidget-inducing for me two years ago when I attended Floridian Idol, and I didn't even submit my work. I cringed at some of the comments. The panel was bluntly honest, and their opinions priceless. Seldom can you get instant feedback from publishing professionals. But still... ouch.


And yet, not all of them agreed on everything. Which goes to show the one truism of publishing every writer should keep chanting to himself/herself.


Not everyone will love, or hate, what you write. Because writing is NOT a science.


For all the craft books you can read, all the workshops you can attend, all the techniques and skill you can employ in your story, in the end, what one person will dismiss, another may love.

One editor might gush over your story as if it's that rare, delicate souffle.


Another might look at it and say, "Eeeeww. Yuck."


So how can you tell if it's any good? How can you tell when it's time to let go, and send it off into the world like a child toddling off to the first day of school?


For me, it's when I realize I'm clinging, like a parent reluctant to release her child to the big, bad, and wonderful world. But deep in my heart, I know I've done all I can, and it's time.


So I print, I read again, slide it into an envelope and mail.


Good-byes are never easy for me. Even when it's a story.

Real life heroes, writing, Emily Bryan

A lot of subjects today!

First, how about that US Airways jet landing in the Hudson, and that amazing pilot? Three cheers for him! DH, who has his private pilot's license, bets that he'll just say he was doing his job, as he was a trained professional. He was, and much more. I get teary-eyed each time I watch that footage. We sure could use that kind of good news these days, with all the bad news in the media lately.

My story for the Nocturne novella is almost there! Almost! I have that kind of feeling I get when I really like a story, and I'm totally excited about it. Hope to finish soon. It feels great to be writing again! Yay!

The day job's been challenging this week, but life's a challenge. I'll be in Haiti soon, and that will be an interesting trip.

Tomorrow join me here when Emily Bryan, author of VEXING THE VISCOUNT, visits!

On being an author

Today is the day, America. Go vote!

DH and I early voted. Saved time. Our polling place is a nursing home. Yup, a nursing home.

Good news: DEADLY TOUCH, my next Nocturne, has a release date of next fall! Woo hoo! This is Raphael's story, the Cajun, Harley-riding immortal werewolf. The title will change. I'll post the new title when I have it.

Recently I was talking with some friends about work. life and writing. It's not easy holding down a day job and being an author. It's not just the writing. There's promoting the book, keeping up with a website, dealing with copy edits, galleys, changes, proposals, etc.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.


For all the angst this crazy business can cause; from deadline stress to rejections to last minute changes and anxiety over worrying if a book will have good sales, there is one critical factor that always stands out.

When I walk into a bookstore and scan the romance aisle, and see my new release, it has my name on it.

My name. It's my book. It's something I created, sweated over, imagined, dreamed. For better or worse in the public's eyes, it's mine.

And no one can ever take that away.

That's why I get excited when I meet an author with a debut book. I know what it's like to obtain that dream, see the vision become reality.

There's nothing else like it. And maybe, never will be again.

For all of you who are newly published, enjoy every wonderful moment of the ride.

For those of you who are still aspiring, keep trying. This business is talent, skill, and style, but 80 percent of it is sheer luck.

The moment you see your name on that book cover for the first time is one you will never forget.

No one can ever take that away from you.

Great post on writing by PB writer

We went out for Indian food last night, great time and today I'm paying for it...why did I have to drink so much red wine? Soaked in the hot tub a bit and I'm trying to find some energy to write this proposal.

I have to go to the day job tomorrow, and tomorrow starts my marathon "I will write this book in two months" quest. I already set my cell phone ringer to "Mission Impossible."

Then I came across this terrific, inspiring post by PB Writer, who blogged on the realities of the writing life, and everything from how spending too much time on the internet in the wrong places can be a drain on your creative energy to the "rules" in writing.

One of my favorite parts:

"The more I learn about writing, the more knowledge I acquire, which translates into the practical energy I need when I try something new, or different, or risky. A small but significant drain on practical energy are running into the rule-makers.

These are people who have such a rigid attitude about some aspect of writing or the biz that they immediately instill doubt in you, especially if you're already doing something different.

Very often our writing instincts will throw up a warning flag about this sort of thing. If someone offers you an idea to try with your writing, you'll probably feel curious or interested. If someone tells you how you should be writing, you'll likely feel defensive or a sense of doubt.

To my knowledge no one has ever been named the absolute authority on writing. Until God appoints a paragon to this position, no one can tell you how you should be writing (including me.)

Another threat to your practical energy is when you compare yourself to other writers. You read a great book, but instead of enjoying it you compare your latest work to it and feel inadequate. Or, you see another writer you don't think is as talented as you are, but they're more successful than you've been. It all comes down to envy, the most efficient vampire in all of Publishing.

It's human nature to envy what we can't or don't have. It's why I've always wanted to be a tall blond -- because I've always envied my older sister, who is. In some cases, it drives us to achieve more with what we do. But in writers, envy is never a good thing. It poisons the joy you take in your work, and the satisfaction you feel for what you do accomplish. Nothing is ever good enough because someone else has more than you do.

I can't get rid of all the industry awards, the bestseller lists, or the blog traffic counters, so I'll give you the next best thing: narrow the field down to one. If you really want to compete with someone and have a chance at beating them, go look in the mirror. There's your competition looking back at you. That's the only writer you should be trying to beat. And when you do, you both win"

Click here to read the entire post. It's long but very much worth it and includes links to some great workshops she's hosted this week by other authors.

Thanks PB Writer!

I am a real person

Blogger finally allowed me to blog again, seeing I'm a real person and not some spam robot.

I'm so relieved this week is over. It's been challenging, personal family stuff going on, stress, etc. But my ARC's for Enemy Lover are DONE, and DH turned on the hot tub for me so guess where I will be later?

I've been going a million miles an hour since last weekend, when I rushed to get The Lady & the Libertine into the mail to my editor. It's time to fill the well a little.

One trick I have learned about writing, when you're working a day job and other stuff pops up that stresses you out, and you find you just cannot write, is to shift gears. Being flexible comes in very handy, but for me, it's a necessity. I could not concentrate to write the proposal I needed to write, so I did promo stuff that isn't writing ... I formatted ARC's and printed them out.

Today it's reading for a little while, catching up on other stuff, and then later today I'll start to write again.

I'll be thinking of Linnea Sinclair tonight, hoping she wins another RITA.

Stay tuned Monday when I'll have a special interview with Emily Bryan, author of the very sensual PLEASURING THE PIRATE.

Nurturing your creativity

"If I have a poem to write, I need to write that poem, whether it will sell or not. I need to create what needs to be created. I cannot plan a career to unfold in a sensible direction dictated by cash flow and marketing strategies. Those things are fine, but too much attention to them can stifle the child within, who gets scared and angered when continually put off...

Since my artist is a child, the natural child within, I must make some concessions to its sense of timing. Some concessions does not mean total irresponsibility. What it means is letting the artist have quality time, knowing that if I let it do what it wants to it will cooperate with me in doing what I need to do...

As an artist, I must be very careful to surround myself with people who nurture my artist, not people who try to overly domesticate it for my own good.... As an artist, I do not need to be rich, but I do need to be richly supported. I cannot allow my emotional and intellectual life to stagnate or the work will show it. My life will show it. My temperament will show it. If I don't create, I get crabby...

Creativity is oxygen for our souls. Cutting off our creativity makes us savage. We react like we are being choked.. Creativity is a spiritual practice. It is not something that can be perfected, finished, and set aside. It is my experience that we reach plateaus of creative attainment only to have a certain restlessness set in." Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way


Being an author can sometimes stifle your creativity after you become published. There is the temptation to write what sells and sacrifice the creative side. You can get so caught up with the quest to sell one book, market it so sales are good so you can get another contract, that you fail to nurture the creativity that urged you to first write.

It's important to nurture the creative spirit, the spark inside you that wants to express something that may not be practical in terms of the market or sales or in a goal to get published. Like Julia Cameron said, you don't do this to the extent of being irresponsible. But it IS a good idea to nurture your artist within, and write just for the sake of exercising creativity.

There are all manner of obstacles that can block creativity. I know some readers, and some authors, say that you can learn from a negative review. Yeah, well, maybe. But if you read a negative review of your book and start corraling your inner artist based on what the reviewer said, you end up hurting the work. You stifle your creativity, and that can be extremely damaging.

The trick is finding balance. Does this mean if you have a successful career as an author, you forgo what you're writing now that is selling to write only books that nurture your inner artist? No, of course not. But it does mean that if you are prompted to write something that you are dying to write, to create, you indulge your muse. Locking it all up damns the flow of creativity and can make you become frustrated.

This is why I say that everything you write shouldn't be targeted merely for publication. You need to give your creativity the oxygen it needs to breathe, and even if the result is something that won't advance your career or your chances of publication.

Nurture the artist within and you will rediscover the joy of creating again.

Naked writing

I did some naked writing this weekend and it felt great.

Naked writing isn’t writing in the buff. It’s what I call writing without the covering of purpose; either a book contract or a plotted manuscript or any idea of where the hell it is going. Naked writing is a little bit stream of consciousness that erupts from your mind. You grab a pen or the alpha smart and just let go. It’s just you and the keyboard and nothing between you, like air and your naked skin.

Naked writing is freeing. It comes without the constraints of editor’s comments, revisions, criticism from a critique partner, or the doubts raised from a bad review or low contest scores, or even reader expectations. Naked writing is you and writing at its purest. It’s taking an idea and running with it, writing without worrying about following a path, and writing whatever inspires you.

The naked writing I did was after we’d visited a river I love. I got an idea for a new paranormal while we cruised the river. I saw danger lurking among the red mangroves, envisioned the hero with his sullen, embittered wariness, and the heroine filled with desperate hope. I saw a little blue heron fishing among the shallow, murky riverbank and it became not a bird, but a spy, an invader, a threat.

I just wrote and wrote for the pure pleasure. It was the first time in a long time I’ve done any naked writing. I have two looming deadlines and the writing wasn’t for those. I’m not contracted for any more Nocturnes, so there was no purpose in this writing. I probably will never sell it. I wasn’t thinking story ideas for a new proposal or to sell another book. I was writing for the sheer joy of creating, and letting my imagination fly.

I was getting naked with my writing.

Being a writer is great, but it does have its straitjacket moments. Susan Elizabeth Phillips says, “Protect the work.” One aspect I see of protecting the work is pushing aside all the layers that can come between you and the essential spark that is your creativity. Like too much clothing in a Florida summer, they can smother us. That’s when we need to toss everything off, and just get naked with our writing.

Try it next time. You might just find how fun and freeing running naked can be if you let your imagination fly as you write.