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.

Susan, good on Portia - she ran the risk of being a one-dimensional bitch but I tend to think she could be the most interesting of that group of women.

And in re the publisher, it looks as though we'll have the Cruel Sister deal wrapped up tomorrow, but of course, I've now had my chain jerked so often on this that the latest - which is just blink-making - leaves me snarling.

This has to be the least enthusiastic I've ever personally felt about a proposed book deal. Feh. Don't wanna. Wanna write more Kinkaid Chronicles.

But if they're going to buy the damned thing, I'll find another 55,000 words and I'll give them a damned good book, and then I can move the hell along.

she ran the risk of being a one-dimensional bitch but I tend to think she could be the most interesting of that group of women.

Interesting. I think Anna's the most interesting of the bunch (probably a good attitude to have while in the middle of writing her story!), but in the first book she doesn't have a lot of depth--she's pretty, she's smart, she's rich, because she's always had it easy she's a little spoiled, but she's kindhearted. It's only after I threw a bunch of adversity at her that I saw just how tough she was and how much hidden depth there was under that blithe surface.

deb. I'd hate to think of all that nifty Elizabethan research going to waste.

Toying with the timetable in my head, it occurs to me that Portia's story may well be at least in part a Hundred Days story.

t checks guild laws It appears I'm contractually obligated to include the Duchess of Richmond's ball at the 3/4 point of my story.