I'm such a little me-too lately...my mom bought me this book of vampire stories and today I've already tried my hand at it...people that know me would totally spot this as mine, though...

It's not finished, but should I bother?

For the sake of this story, you can call me Jane Wayne. It’s not my name, but it has been in the squad since I started working Vice; the guys think it’s funny to see a woman who hustles more than they do and they think I’m a cowboy, so...instant nickname. I should only have to live with it for twenty years or so and by then the sound of perps making sucking sounds and kissing noises at me will have faded. I hope so.

Till then, there are guys I fucking love to lock up...the ones that call me mami and make obscene suggestions that I can’t tell if they want me to understand. Not that this is a racial thing; the assholes looking for a souvenir other than a t-shirt from the fancy hotels can be way worse because no matter what sicko shit they like they still look at me like “Don’t you know who I am?” If it’s true that a stiff prick has no conscience, I don’t think it has a pedigree either. I think they’re all the same. I used to like men once, before this job.

Not that I found myself loving anyone on my special detail. Dressed like a hooker, on the first genuinely “chilly” Phoenix October night, my love for humanity on absolute negative digits...this wasn’t an ordinary sting taken on to placate the city fathers. We were looking for somebody special.
The kind of sick bastard who tore up women’s veins like cheap hamburger, and weirdly enough, drained them. Exsanguinated, according to the cutter’s report. The more I read I longed for the protection of my uniform and my Glock. Maybe I am a cowboy, trapped in Miss Kitty’s body.

“This is my corner.” The hooker standing next to me said. She was younger than she seemed, little more than a girl, and she’d be far more beautiful without the crap on her face.I had to laugh at myself for thinking of that, like I could solve anybody’s problems, even mine.

“I’m not moving in on you,” I explained, flashing my badge discreetly.

Ed Gein: If I read nothing but Pulitzer winners, could I write one of those too?

erika, only one line in there made me blink the wrong way - I can't get a mental image of tearing up cheap hamgburger. Stale string cheese, yes; soft beef jerky, definitely. But tearing up hamburger - I can't picture it.

I wondered about it, too, but not enough to have another thought on tap!

The road I wrote about in my drabble had a three-car accident with injuries this morning. Too many cars on a two-lane road.

connie, we've got some of those in NorCal, as well - those haunting and haunted bits that have got developed beyond capacity, and the roads crowd up. There's quite a few up toward Santa Rosa, and Napa.

Lord give me strength.

Received this morning: A phone call from Jenn, my agent. She got an email from Ruth's assistant, Toni:

"Hi Jenn, I'm preparing the deal memo for "Cruel Sister"; when may we expect the manuscript? If Deborah can deliver it this fall, we can publish in fall 2006."

What the HELL? They haven't made any offer. We have no clue what in hell they're talking about. They keep me dangling for seven months - they got the proposal in early January - and now they're imposing deadlines?

I mean, okay, a book deal is a book deal, even if it's going to be a wrench to drag my head and heart away from the Kinkaid Chronicles and back into the Haunted Ballads, but WTF?

Jenn has no clue either. She hasn't received any offer. She's got a phone call in to Toni, to find out what the hell they're talking about.

God, Deb. WTF is right. Seems like they skipped an important step there...

Amy, the part that just leaves me with my jaw dangling?

"Can we have it by...."

Um - hello? Next time, wanna kiss me first?

Oh, and remember the Words to Music anthology I wrote "Long Black Veil" for, last year? The Johnny Cash-themed ghost story? The editor's agent is sitting down to talk to BenBella. I understand they're really a good little speciality house.

Wow, Deb, that's just strange. Any word yet on what's going on in their heads?

In mememe news, I got a plot bunny today that I'm pretty happy about. It involves the redemption of Portia, the villain of Lucy's story, something I'd been meaning to get around to for the sake of tying up loose ends, but I didn't have any notion what to do with her. Today I finally got an idea, or at least the seed of one that I'm pretty sure has enough potential to grow into a novel.

The reason I'm so happy about this is that one of my 5-year goals is to have three novels completed and ready to market before we give Annabel a brother or sister. Even if having another kid puts my writing on hold, or at least slow motion, for awhile, with three completed books I'll have plenty to market and feel like I've got some forward momentum in the meantime.

The first is the wip, of course, which I'm on pace to finish this year. Then I'm going to go back and redo Lucy's story AGAIN, because I think now that I've been away from it for nearly a year I know how to rework it. Originally I meant to do my navy story or start my Peninsular War paranormal after that, but I think the navy story is going to be at least a trilogy, and one that will involve at TON of research, and the paranormal needs to cook in the subconscious for a few years. So having a Portia story feels really good--it'll give me three loosely linked stories to work with, which definitely has its points from a marketing perspective.