…and my inner control freak. (Er, not that there is an outer control freak, is there?)

And I usually don’t post these, but one search term that brought someone to my site was

fuck against wall: romance novels

Dear searcher, you might like these:

Just click on a cover! Although, okay — DEMON ANGEL was against a closet door, DEMON NIGHT was while standing in the middle of a room, and DEMON BOUND was against a tree. Still. They were upright.

…and here is another post that could have probably just been on Twitter.

…I’m at Odd Shots, talking about the music for the Guardian series.

And in case you missed it, I put up an excerpt for Demon Blood (it does include spoilers for Demon Forged, so if you haven’t read that yet, be warned.)

Here’s a snippet from the Burning Up novella (I am LOVING the steampunk, but it’s also why I’m not posting here often.):

Her heart pounding, Ivy held still as Mad Machen crossed the distance between them. His dark face lowered, stopping with his lips a breath from hers. He murmured, “Here in front of my men, or in my cabin. That is your choice.”

“Your cabin.” Frustration shook through her whisper. “And damn you to a kraken’s belly.”

His brows rose, and a surprised laugh broke from him before his mouth suddenly covered hers, his long fingers cupping her jaw. Not a hard kiss, and not tender—it was a statement, she realized, for the men watching them. A claim, pure and simple.

A claim that went on until Ivy had to employ all of her willpower to refrain from biting him.

He finally lifted his head, and turned to the boy. “Duckie, escort Ivy Blacksmith to my cabin. See that she wants for nothing.”

“Yes, sir.” The boy gathered her satchel from the captain, and looked expectantly to Ivy.

Plastering on a smile, she pulled at her trouser legs and curtsied to Mad Machen. His laugh followed her to the stairs—and Ivy decided she could make a statement, too. A brass finial shaped like an egg decorated the end of the banister. Ivy closed her gray hand around it. Metal shrieked as she crushed the finial between her fingers.

His laughter stopped.

She released the mangled brass, and called over her shoulder, “I await your mighty prick, sir!”

I’ve got a post up at Odd Shots featuring the trailers of several paranormal-ish movies that I’m looking forward to (once I get caught up with my writing.) I’m not online much, and I expect that this blog will be pretty quiet through the end of February, but I’ll always be at Odd Shots on Fridays.

So far, my 2010 release schedule looks like this (full descriptions below the cut):

DEMON BLOOD (excerpt added), July 2010
“Here There Be Monsters” in BURNING UP, August 2010
THE IRON DUKE, October 2010

I expect to revamp the site around March or April, and I should have more information regarding the Iron Seas series up then, along with excerpts. I hope everyone is having a fantastic New Year!

Click to see the full descriptions of the upcoming books…which I totally copied from the “Upcoming” page on this site, heh. Cut and paste blogging, you gotta love it.

As Nalini noted on her blog, and as was reported in PW today, we’re in a fallen-angel-themed anthology together (with two other amazing writers who haven’t announced it yet so I am ::zipped lips:: here), and it’ll probably be scheduled for 2011. So that’s awesome.

It’ll be a Guardian novella, set after Demon Blood, and although I have an idea who and what it’ll be about — no, you haven’t met them yet

(Unless I totally change my mind, and choose someone you have met. Because, you know, I’m all mercurial and arty and a diva like that.)

::flicks Flickering-Candle-on-a-Winter’s-Day hair, makes pouty-lips::

my advice is to skip to Demon Night* (and catch up on everything that happened in Demon Angel and Demon Moon here). There’s a couple of reasons for this, but the big ones are:

1) My pacing improved and the writing became more straightforward, IMO. I wrote Demon Night after receiving a lot of feedback on Demon Angel — and many readers who enjoyed that book still had some trouble following exactly what was going on. So I wrote Demon Night with that in mind.

2) Charlie, the heroine, is a newbie to the Guardian world. I know the worldbuilding can be complicated and dense, but Charlie’s outsider status means that everything is explained to her (and the reader) as the book goes along. Now, there’s still a LOT happening and a lot to take in, but compared to Demon Angel/Moon, I think the presentation of that information is easier to swallow, and there’s not as much reading-between-the-lines.

3) Demon Night opens up the second story arc in the series and follows a minor arc resolution in Demon Moon, so it’s a good jumping-on point.

*Don’t get me wrong, I love Demon Angel and Demon Moon. But I know some readers have had trouble getting into the series because of the writing in those books, and recent comments in various locations have made me realize that maybe it’s just easier to skip those two for now (and maybe they’ll be easier to take in after the reader already has some familiarity with the series and the characters).

Demon Forged received a Reviewers’ Choice nomination in Paranormal Fiction. Too awesome.

Congrats to my fellow Odd Shots authors, Ilona and Nalini, for their nominations. (Luckily, we aren’t in the same categories, or it’d be ALL OUT WAR! Tee hee.)

…the Demon Blood cover? I didn’t think I’d ever love any cover as much as Demon Forged, but Oh My God…holy WOW. The cover artist, Cliff Nielsen, is the same — and once again, I’m blown away. There are a few changes to the font that will be made, but otherwise, I think it’s perfect for Rosalia and the book.

Also, today is Friday! Come give a shout-out to your favorite cover artists at Odd Shots.

When I wrote my web page for the Guardian series, I set up the numbering to include the novellas as well as the novels, to make the series order clear. But I’ve been 1) deliberately writing the last three novellas so that they aren’t part of the main story arc and 2) have been reading a few comments online from readers starting with Demon Angel that they didn’t need to read Hot Spell first (and in fact, the storyline worked better for them if they went back and read Falling for Anthony after Demon Angel.)

So, here’s my question: Do you prefer the novellas to be included in the number ordering for a series, or just the single titles?

Because I’ll leave my Guardian page as it is — with Hot Spell first, then followed by Demon Angel, then Wild Thing — but I’d number the single titles, and not the novellas. Or, number them to indicate that the novellas come between stories. Like so:

Hot Spell (a Guardian novella)
Demon Angel (the Guardians, #1)
Wild Thing (the Guardians #1.5)
Demon Moon (the Guardians, #2)

With Demon Forged as Book #5. Whatever changes I made I’d also put in at Amazon, and so on.

Thoughts? What is more helpful to you, as a reader of a series?

…at AAR. Ms. Bishop, the reviewer, hadn’t read any of the Guardian series before Demon Forged, so the DIK surprised me (I know there is a LOT of backstory in this series) but I’ll take it

And it strikes me again how much freaking work reviews are. On Twitter, Robin (Janet of Dear Author) had called her fantastic review “epic,” and I have to laugh and hang my head a little, because I know these books are a lot of work to get through, let alone try to sum up. So, because I probably don’t say it enough, THANK YOU to every reader who hangs in there.

Also, for hanging in here with my sporadic blogging. The Cold Of The Century has knocked me sideways, and combined with just a lot of writing trying to get Demon Blood out, and then finish up my other work that is quickly coming due, I know this hasn’t been the most exciting blog in the world. In fact, it might be the least exciting thing (aside from the proverbial drying paint.)

What color would you say this shade is? Eggshell white? (Actually, it’s #FFFFFF)