Hi all,

I’ve been out of commission getting a book done and must now start another, but I’m happy!! Once again I printed out close to 400 pages of a story that existed only in my brain. I always think I’m never going to get that far, and then somehow I do. I tell you, I have that “OMG! I’m never going to fill 400 pages” panic every single time.

Today is half day at my children’s school, but I still get this morning to myself (once I drop them off). I’m looking forward to it. The last week I’ve just been writing like mad, so it’ll be nice to take a deep breath in my empty house.

Good news this week — BAD BOYS AHOY! has been nominated for the Single Titles Reviewer’s Choice award. I’m excited about that. And the fan mail for ASK FOR IT has been so cool, and very plentiful. Kensington has forwarded snail mail letters to me, other readers have written my business address, and others are emailing. This is the most fan mail I’ve received for any of my books, (which is why I’m mentioning it. I’m just and ). *g*

How are you? What are you up to?

I’m chatting today, too. I’ve seriously limited my chats to next to none, because I’m just too busy and tired. But today is a good day for one (though I didn’t know that at the time I booked it! *g*)

Copy of announcement:

Friday Afternoon Chat!

Author Chat with Sylvia Day : Friday 2:00 PM EST

When: Friday, August 18, 2006, 2 – 3pm

Where: http://romancedesigns.com/chatroom.cfm

What: Sylvia is one of our featured authors this month in The Romance Book Club. Come join us in talking to her about her latest release ASK FOR IT!

Prize!: Just log in and join us at http://romancedesigns.com/chatroom.cfm and one (1) lucky winner will receive a copy of BAD BOYS AHOY!

Well, I’ve been binge writing. It’s an interesting experience. I’ve never done NaNoWriMo or Book in a Week, so this is the first time I’ve ever sat down and just made myself write as much as possible every day. I’ve actually learned a lot by doing it:

1.) My average page count per day is 30 pages. I actually thought I could be up in the 50/a day range, but there’s no way.

2.) I’m not a morning writer. I’m too dependant on coffee. It seriously takes me a couple hours after I get out of bed before my brain works.

3.) There’s a reason I’m a pantser — I can only think creatively while writing, not before it. This time, I couldn’t write until I hit a wall and then switch to another ms so I decided to try something different. I pulled out a pen and paper, and attempted to get chapters and scenes together on paper. I drew a little diagram to explain how the three negative charaters (only one is a true villian, the other two are just annoying) have their influences wrapped up. You know what happened? Nothing. Nada. Zip. I stared at the paper, doodled on it, etc. and my brain was completely frozen. I tried it several times over several days and the same thing happened. I can only see the story when I’m deep inside it.

4.) Scenes I had tentatively planned back in the beginning and looked forward to writing didn’t come to fruition. In the end, there was no place for them to go. I miss them, and due to the nature of the book, I don’t think I’ll be able to use them anywhere else. That sucks, but it happens to every writer.

5.) I still get scared about sending my work to my editor. She called me yesterday to talk about the Susan Johnson anthology that I’ll be in that releases in July (PERFECT KISSES), and once again she was so excited about my books — about THE STRANGER I MARRIED and PASSION FOR THE GAME and just my writing in general. That freaks me out. I absolutely love that I have an editor who is totally enthusiastic about my work, but I’m also waiting for the day when I send her something that she doesn’t like. It’s going to happen. Until it does, I’m nervous every time a ms goes out in the mail, because that ms might be the one that doesn’t go over well.

I’m sure there’s more I learned, but since it’s morning and I’m still working on Cuppajoe #1, I’m not thinking of them. *g*

Shanna started kindergarten today and Jack started 2nd grade!

I put a never-before-seen excerpt of THE STRANGER I MARRIED up on Romantically Inclined, if you’d like to check it out!

…at Romantically Inclined, so that’s where I’ve been posting. Just FYI.

*g* Not mine. The wonderful Kate Duffy’s. She came up with a title for Christopher St. John’s story (which releases in June, and is the one I’m rushing up on deadline for now.)

Ready?

PASSION FOR THE GAME

OMG! It’s absolutely perfect for his story! I’d love to share cover copy with you, but it hasn’t been approved yet. However, I can tell you that Christopher meets his match, in every way. No ingenue for him. She’s just as wicked as he is.

Kate said, “You want to take a day and think about it?”

I said, “No way! I LOVE it!” *g*

***UPDATE***

Cover copy has been approved!

I’m on a killer page count schedule from now until next Monday, and with my blogging at Romantically Inclined I haven’t had the time to post here. There’s not much to say anyway. My days are pretty boring to talk about.

Yesterday:

e-Talk to my editor (Erika) about the cover conference for my book
Work off crit from my cp
Take care of Shanna (who had a stomach bug)
Write

See? Not interesting. *g* ((hugs))