899… License to Thrill!

Seriously! If you add the old blog with this one I’m on post 899–and, like, WOW! I’ve got a contest in mind–sort of a modest little contest for readers AND knitters, but I’m going to chat a little before I tell ya what it is, ’cause I’m mean like that. (I’m also hella sleep deprived–even my students are telling me I’m pale and sickly–which is teen-speak for, “Gee, Ms. Lane, you look like reconstituted shit in a can!”)

Anyway, today was… well… Senior Portraits/ Soccer Pictures/ Senior trips/ Soccer Pictures/ three game schedules splitting up/ giving rides and reading time/ feed the cats and feed the kids/ the dog must pee (again?)/ take a bath/ I love you too/ and really it’s already ten?

Yeah– that was our house, the last two days. *whew* The house itself looks like total shit, and since it was actually CLEAN last week, that’s sort of depressing. I mean, really– THAT didn’t last long! And Mate and I are feeling guilty– we could send Chicken to Australia (via a student loan we are still paying off) but we CAN’T send Big T to Europe (because his program features no low interest student loan) but he doesn’t understand– all he’s seeing is, “You love Chicken more!” and we’re like, “no, we were just less in debt then!”

Anyway, I do have a happy!

It seems that Dreamspinner Press is going to start an imprint–not another series or publishing house, just a label– of ‘Bittersweet Dreams’, in which a HEA is NOT guaranteed. In fact, it’s sort of like their own line of guaranteed weepers! I saw that and I was like, “Yippee!!! It’s a bona fide license to kill!” And since i saw it at lunch (before Mary, bless her, gave me a stern talking to about who I could not kill–and told me that Littlewitch would agree with her, if LW knew) I went into the staff room (where I RARELY talk about writing business because my work tools are such total and complete fuckwads about it) and I was very excited!

“Yay! My publisher has a new imprint with unhappy endings! It’s a like a license to kill!” (Yes–I’ve been using the line all day– Chicken loved it, why do you ask?)

Anyway, Mr. Trick looked at me very smugly. “Don’t you mean YOU gave yourself permission? Aren’t you SELF-published?”

And I answered straight back, “Not for a year now, didn’t you know that?”

And even though I’d stand Bitter Moon I and II against anything I’ve written for quality and complexity, it was still pretty nice to know that I had a year’s worth of being published by someone else to back up all of my independent work. It really does help to have someone else say, “Yeah, you’re good– we’ll back you!” It certainly gives me a little bit of swagger when i talk about my writing, and those of you who have been here a while and watch me waffle between insecurity, defensiveness and neurosis can certainly testify to the fact that a little bit of confidence was BADLY needed.

I think I’ve got a little–not enough to poke your eye out with my ego, should we meet in real life (I hope!), but enough to not take any shit from someone about my writing. Go me? Yup. WOOT!

Anyway, on that note… here’s the contest!

There are two prizes– a skein of mystery sock yarn (give me favorite colorways and a brand and I’ll go stash diving–and trust me, my stash is pretty luscious!)– and, (this is the one that’ll get people ALL excited) a chance to pick two characters that I will write a short Christmas fiction for. This is for the readers–and there are a few guidelines:

A. No resurrecting the dead or Alternate Universe (i.e., no Adrian, Cory, and Bracken, or Teague and Adrian). BUT there may be flashbacks (Adrian and Green for instance)

B. No Brian and Tate (because Talker’s sequel is placed near Christmas) or Jace and Quent (ditto).

C. No spoilers to Quickening or Living Promises (but I may give teasers).

D. No pushing, shoving, biting or kicking! (Okay– you all know what crappy luck I have with my contests– that last one is supposed to make you smile!)

To enter, simply post a comment to THIS blog post, and specify: A. Which prize you want, B. If you want the sock yarn, which color and which kind, and C. If you want the fiction prize, which couple (or menage) you want me to write the Christmas story for.

The fiction piece will be posted on Goodreads.com, on my page! (And sent to the winner personally, if they like, so they can read it first!)

Anyway, the posts will be picked via paper-in-a-hat, and Squish will draw one and zoomboy will draw the other, and the deadline is Friday, September 17th, 11 p.m. PDT.

(I covered everything, right Chris? Chris is my go-to-girl for contests–she’ll let me know if I blew it or not!)

Anyway… uhm, so that’s post 899… Happy 900 to me!