A scatterbrained post with winners and heroes I hate (mine.)

Yesterday was one of those days when, although you work a lot, you don’t feel like you’ve gotten much done. I did take a couple of hours to catch up on a few TV shows, which was nice (except for the episode of CSI that I quit halfway through because I was bored.)

Part of that feeling comes from not having written any words (or at least, words that will stick.) I’m in the process of writing both the next Guardian novel proposal and the Iron Seas proposal (the steampunk pirates series). The steampunk is further along, just because I’ve been picking at it in bits and pieces for a long time now, but I’m focusing on the next Guardian one first. I know where it will start, how the relationship opens, where I want it to go … but I hate the hero with a burning passion at this moment.

It’s a good thing, actually — over the course of the story, I’m going to make him someone I can respect as a hero, and so I know he’ll have to work his ass off to convince me he’s worth it (not to mention the heroine.) The extra good thing is: the reason I hate him is also what will make his character worth writing; he’s got a long way to go, but I really, really want to get him there.

But that hate makes me struggle a bit, because a part of me just wants to write a car dropping on his head or an arrow going through his eye, instead of moving forward as I need to. And I’ve never started a hero off in such a bad place, so it’s new and I’m tiptoeing just a tiny bit as I go in. It changes the relationship dynamic (what I’m used to writing) so much that it’s a little intimidating (but at the same time, something I’m looking forward to, because I’d hate to feel like I was in a rut.)

Anyway.

Thanks to the power of random.org, we have a winner for the Kate Daniels series and an ugly tote bag from Powell’s bookstore!

#23 – …is Leslie who already has the books. So…

#8 … was my comment.

#18 – Maija P! w00t!

But don’t go away! I’m giving away another book, namely BEYOND HEAVING BOSOMS, by the Smart Bitches. This copy is signed by Candy Tan. And you’ll get a Powell’s tote, too.

Just leave a comment telling us what you’re reading now or next, and you’ll be entered to win. I’ll close the contest … sometime soon. Sunday seems like a good day.

I had intended to read THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and CLOCKWORK HEART this week, but I’m going to start working on Dan Simmons’s THE TERROR instead, because I can kind of call it research.