Author Christine d’Abo

We had one wicked thunder and lightning storm here last night. Woke everyone in my house up and caused at least one child to freak out. So I’m a bit zonked this morning.

I managed to add another 1000 words or so to The Bond That Heals Us last night. Found a few rough patches that I’m smoothing over and hopefully it will come across okay. I’ll be sending it out to my readers soon so they’ll let me know if it sucks or not. My goal for this weekend is to try and get as much of the revisions done as possible (with any luck all of them). That way I can give it to hubby to read over to check my grammar and I’ll send it out to my buddies (love you girls!!).

On top of that, my oldest has a soccer tournament tomorrow morning from 9:00 - 12:00. We’ll all be going to cheer her on. I also have to pack to get ready to go on a business trip next week. Then it will be off for vacation as soon as I get back! I so need this break. I might even take a rest from writing for a week. We’ll have to see.

I also want to go and see the movie Invasion this weekend. It will  depend on if the babysitter can make it or not. Cross your fingers!

So, what are you up to??

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was creating an alien dictionary of words, terms and places to help keep me straight when I’m writing about my universe in my series. At the request of a few people, here are thirteen entries from my dictionary.

1. Eurus: Planet that holds the Human/Briel colony. This is the main location for The Bond That Ties Us and book two, The Bond That Heals Us

2. Raqulian: This is a new race of beings that I’m introducing in Bond That Heals. Their people are born into a particular cast, and with it comes special abilities. They can choose to turn away from their calling and join another cast, but they can never truely escape their birth right.

3. Stocolran Gel: This is a highly dangerous bio weapon that is very difficult to obtain. It’s very difficult to find someone to trade it, even on the black market.

4. shara: Raqualin for darling or sweetheart

5. Joural: The main diety on Raqual

6. ravak: Raqualin for attack dog, a vicious animal

7. lenact: Raqualin for a rat type creature

8. atura beast: kind of like a sabor toothed bear that lives on Raqual

9. Di machachta: Briel for something close to “holy fucking god”

10. Nalaa: Briel for nose

11. Shrish: Briel for ear lobe

12. Rotha: Briel for throat

13. friken: Raqualin for fuck

I started my round two of edits last night. I’ve managed to add around 2k already to my total, so I’m very happy about that. However…

As I was reading and making little changes here and there I came to a major plot point that moved the characters from one location to another. It was one of those major turning points that pushed the external plot to the next level. Except once I got the characters to where they were going, I kind of…sort of…forgot about the whole thing. Boom! Gone, never to be mentioned again. And this wasn’t the sort of thing you could just forget either. *sigh*

Tonight when I get going with my edits, I’ll need to layer the repercussions of that particular event in and tie it with the twist at the end. It shouldn’t be too bad, and in fact  I think I have a way for it to work. But let just say I’m no longer worried about my word count not reaching 70,000.

I’ve also officially started an alien dictionary for myself. I have all of these little words thrown in here and there that I’ve made up. And now I’ve done it for two alien languages. For consistency, I’ve had to write everything down so I don’t have to go searching for them in the body of the manuscript. The challenges of writing sci-fi.

And you thought I was done…

I treated myself last night to a writing free evening. My husband (who is very sick today ) and I watched a bunch of Stargate: SG1 episodes. I didn’t even feel the urge to get up and write, though I found myself analyzing the stories we were watching and seeing how they pulled elements together (love that show!!). It was the mental break I needed. A nice deep breath before I dive into the world of revisions.

For me, revisions are different from edits for my editor. I still feel there is a lot of the creative process going on here. Now that I know where my story is going (or gone as the case may be), I can go back and add, amplify or change elements that need to get me to that end point. I usually discover some cool things that I didn’t realize were there in the first place.

My goal for this round of writing is to add about 8k to the total word count, to add more sci-fi elements, enhance the setting, and make sure the erotic part of the story is working. That there isn’t too much or too little sex and that the characters change every time they have an encounter.

So Sven isn’t done with me yet.

Plus…I have this new story idea…which is way different from anything else I’ve ever written…and I think I’m going to start it once Heals is done…dark urban romance…I’ll keep you posted.

I did it!! I finished the first draft of The Bond That Heals Us today on my lunch hour, coming in at 63,552 words! I’m so exited that I was able to get this far this quickly. Thank you to the Seventy Days of Sweat challenge for motivating me to write my butt off.

Not that I’m done, done. I still have to go back and add at least 7k to the word count, smooth off the rough edges, and tie some of the plot elements together. I’ll be giving myself the next few weeks to do that and I hope to get this off to my editor by the first week of September.

*does the snoopy dance*

OMG I’m grinning like a fool here!! I just got this fantastic review on The Bond That Ties Us from Just Erotic Reviews. Thank you Francesca!

Update: I also got another awesome review, this one from Coffee Time Romance! You can check out the review here.

The Bond That Ties Us is a fascinating futuristic tale that I greatly enjoyed.  The underlying currents surrounding the threat to the colony keeps tension infused in the story.  The plot flows smoothly with plenty of action to keep both the sex and the relationship fresh and intriguing.  I found the alien customs and mores of the Briel people to be compelling and I would have loved to see their unusual conventions explored in more depth.  Kamran is the typical ambassador; he thinks with his head and is a balanced character.  Because of this, I loved seeing when he lost control with Haylie, allowing his biology and instincts to take over.  In many ways, Haylie is quite like Kamran; she has a goal in mind for her life, yet she listens to her desires, making her occasionally impulsive. She has an intuitive personality.  The sex, while spicy and imbued with passion, doesn’t underrate from the growing love story between Kamran and Haylie.  Sometimes too much sex can detract from my enjoyment but I didn’t feel that happened with The Bond That Ties Us. It had just enough sex to keep me absorbed in the plot.  While Kamran and Haylie have sex rather quickly in the timeline of the story, it was not out of place or awkward.  In fact, the sex helped make their growing bond more believable.  Those readers who are looking for in-depth plot and enticing romance with a futuristic tone will find The Bond That Ties Us an appealing read.  

Francesca Hayne
Just Erotic Romance Reviews

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend. It’s been beautiful, warm and sunny here in my part of the world. We had a wonderful time at my company picnic yesterday. In fact, I think we all got a bit too much sun. There was food, games, waterslides, and face painting. When we got home, we went for a swim and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I also received my edits for the Ellora’s Cave Quickie, Chasing Phoenix. I got through those today and have them sent off. I’m so excited that story is coming out soon! I’ll let you know as soon as I have a release date.

I did fairly well on the writing front this week considering all that is going on. Not only did I get my edits for Chasing Phoenix, and Sweet and Spicy Spells done, but I managed to write 10,000 words on The Bond That Heals Us. I would have managed more, but there was just so much going on. I hope I only have two chapters left to write and that will bring me to the end of draft one. I plan on finishing it this week come hell or high water. In fact, as soon as I’m done this post I’ll be off to do some writing. My oldest has a friend coming over for a sleep-over so that should help keep them busy while I write.

I realized I hadn’t posted any goals recently, so I’ll make this one official:

• Goal for the week - finish first draft of The Bond That Heals Us!

So how is your weekend? What do you have planned for this week? 

Don’t drink a Starbucks coffee after not having any caffeine for several months. Honestly, I feel like this right now:

This has been a bit of a crazy week for me. Both in the writing world and in my “Other” life. A few things came at me in the last few days that I wasn’t expecting and now  I have to make a bit of a big decision. More on that once I have more details…

I took yesterday off from working on The Bond That Heals Us, so I could get my revisions done on Sweet and Spicy Spells. That is now off to our editor and Renee and I just need to sit back and wait for round two.

So today I’ll be back working on finishing draft one of Heals. I’m at 54,500 words, so I’m really close to where I want to be. I might even creep over the 60k mark which means I’m ahead of schedule and will make editing a lot easier. I’m now mostly focusing on the externl plot, tying up the mystery side of the story and have to bring Sara and Davin back together as a couple. Then one final love scene and I’m done! After that I’ll have to print it out and do a read through with a pen. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow we are going to my company family picnic at a local amusement park. My girls have been looking forward to this all week and are really excited. I am too to be honest. I’ll try and take some pictures and post them.

What do you have planned for the week?

I’m supposed to be editing my half of Sweet and Spicy Spells right now. I’ve only gotten through the first chapter because I keep getting interrupted! *sigh* Here are thirteen things that have stopped my editing flow tonight.

1. Had to put daughter one to bed. Okay, this one really didn’t bug me, but it still killed the flow.

2. Lightning. I had to unplug computers, TVs and everything else electronic to make sure they didn’t go kaplooie.

3. Had to put daughter two to bed. Again, didn’t really bother me, but smoked the rhythm of the section I was working on.

4. Sister called. Now, I don’t talk to my sister very much, so this wasn’t bad either. Just can’t seem to get this chapter finished.

5. Cat jumped on my lap. Now I love my little furball, but she was sitting in such a way that I couldn’t type. And when I put her down she’d get right back up.

6. Contest ended. I was running a contest over on Jackie Frank’s blog today. I had to drawn and announce the winner of a copy of The Bond That Ties Us at 8pm.

7. Nature called. Enough said.

8. Husband playing on the computer. Now when he plays, it gives me time to write. But he has a program on that lets him talk to the other people he’s playing with. I really need to move my computer so I can focus.

9. Indigestion. We had homemade nachos tonight. I love them - they hate me. My tummy is upset now.

10. Email. Now that I’m distracted, I check my email and had to answer a few messages. Chapter two is still staring at me, waiting for me to get back to it.

11. Another call! This time it’s my parents. Love them, apparently more than editing chapter two…

12. Myself. Now that my drive is gone, I’m distracted thinking about other things. This may be going nowhere tonight.

13. Thursday Thirteen. Had to talk to you all! And now I have no more excuses. Back to work!