Category Archives: Onyx Proposal

Okay — NOW It’s Going Well
avatar

Posted on by

Hot damn — a couple of the weird little pictures from yesterday’s brainstorming session just clicked in a very big way, and words are flying.

I’m finding Dia’s stalker fascinating — he’s a product of his times, his education, and his passions, and he has some weird damned quirks … but they aren’t weird for him. For him, they make perfect sense.

Brig I already loved. When he walked into Midnight Rain, I knew I wanted to see more of him. He’s from Montana, one of my all-time favorite states … and I didn’t know that before. He’s developed a little quirk of his own since the last book he was in.

And Dia. She’s modeled on an EMT-turned-RN I worked with in Cheraw, SC, back when I was house supervisor — she’s not a straight steal, but she’s got all the characteristics about Jola that I admired most.

Back to work, then — this is going strange places, and I must follow if I can.

Back to Scratch
avatar

Posted on by

Finished talking to Robin. The proposal I sent won’t do — while it’s a solid proposal, she pointed out places where it was too romance-y and not sufficiently suspense-y or weird. Not enough me, in her words.

She liked Brig Hafferty (from MIDNIGHT RAIN) coming back, and she liked my beleaguered EMT/paramedic main character, and some of the early plot elements I introduced, but the whole boats/ ocean/ treasure/ pirates thing is out. Instead, I’ll be incorporating the elements she thought worked well from the early part of the failed proposal, and the supernatural element (the steamy bathroom mirror thing) from the second proposal I was working on, to get to a third and decidedly creepy story entirely different from both of them.

Doing the idea generation for this outline using Inspiration, my nonverbal clustering technique, and if all else fails, a deck of Universal Waite tarot cards to work my way through this next phase.

Manuscript Crawl
avatar

Posted on by

I’m working on the intro pages for the Onyx proposal right now. First scene was easy, involving as it did betrayal, murder, explosions, and sharks. If it starts with a boat and ends with a boom, my writing flows like water.

Second scene, however, intros two of the three main characters and one critical minor character, and I’m trying to get to know them during what boils down to a tense stalker/stalkee chase scene. They’re still strangers to me right now, and in the midst of all the fuss, I’m having a hard time figuring them out. And the stalker is driving me nuts. The temptation to name the weaselly bastard Devon Darling keeps twitching across my fingertips as I type. That doesn’t seem like a great stalker name, but it fits him, dammit.

Proposal, and Proposal
avatar

Posted on by
6

Last spell-check and correction completed, proposal on its way to Robin, and I’m starting a second one now, in case Claire doesn’t like the first one. Got the idea for this next one while looking at a fogged-over bathroom mirror.

Still Working
avatar

Posted on by
2

I’ve added over two thousand words to this thing today. And I thought I was just going to be polishing. It’s over 6000 words now.

But it’s better. And I came up with a kick-ass new ending just this second that finishes the thing with a great twist. Hope Robin and Claire love it as much as I do.

Nearly Done with Step A
avatar

Posted on by
8

I have the finished version of the outline for the latest Onyx proposal just about in the can. Finally had a really good writing day un-plagued by migraines. So I’ll print this off and have Matt go over it over the weekend, and do a mop-up run through it Monday before I send it off. But I think I’ve managed to compress the million variables I had to successfully hit into a mere twenty pages.

If Claire likes the outline, I’ll do the first stack of pages so that my publisher can get a look at them and get a feel for what I want to do so that we can go to contract.

I like this. It has treasure, the tropics, a couple of hot guys, a ghost, and deadly danger. I think this one’s a keeper.

Onyx Proposal Progresses
avatar

Posted on by
3

Am coming up with some good plot twists and nice villains and red-herring villains for the proposal. The headaches aren’t helping with the workload, and I’m stressed about getting this done and in on time (which doesn’t help with the headaches), but I am making progress.