“We are up way too late…”

Lots of writing news today… I mean, more than I can believe.

First of all– Get a load of this! Yeah– that’s Keeping Promise Rock in audiobook, and since I didn’t realize it was going to be released that way (either I’d forgotten, or I’d just never really looked close enough at anything coming my way to see a release date) coming home and finding the audio files in my inbox was just A-FREAKIN’-MAZING.

I can’t explain the giddiness of hearing someone else read the damned book to me. I don’t even LISTEN to audiobooks on a regular basis, but, yup, I’ve listened to big, sweeping swathes of this one.

At first, it was just so Mate and I could giggle like third graders whenever the narrator said ‘fuck’. Mate was like, “Yup… some people work in oils, some people sculpt in clay, but you, you work in profanity.” (For those of you who have seen ‘A Christmas Story’, that will be much funnier.)

Then, it was for me to get (unfairly) mad because the narrator’s voice–and the voices he did– do NOT sound like the voices in my head and it pissed me off.

But, eventually, after a couple of chapters, I made two realizations.

The first–and the one most audiobook listeners come to, from what I understand, is that NOBODY sounds like the voice in your head. This is a man, reading several different voices, several of them female. If Benny sounds like a grown man doing an impression of a teenaged girl, well, that’s because at this point, SHE IS. It’s not the guy’s fault he doesn’t have teenaged girl in his repertoire–he’s doing his best, dammit.

The second–and the one I was most surprised by–was that the guy really IS very good. Once I got over the ‘this is not the voice in my own head’ freak-out, I realized that the narrator was a total professional–his voice was engaging, cadenced, and if Benny was his weak-spot, well, he differentiated EVERY CHARACTER’S VOICE, and he did it well and with emotion, and that’s all you can ask. I was VERY pleased when all was said and done, and I think the professional doing the reading did an OUTSTANDING job.

And, well, it was someone READING MY BOOK OUT LOUD and DUDE!!!!! Can I just giggle and dance around the kitchen again? It was awesome.

Oh yes– and a reminder that Curious is out on Monday. WOOT!

And (I said this was big writing new day) I had another story accepted–this one is the one with the Beauty and the Beast cover. (I can’t wait to publish that cover on the blog and website when it gets closer to the release date… I’m SOOOOOOOOO excited about that cover–you’ll have to see it to know why!) The thing about Truth in the Dark, the Beauty and the Beast story, that I really love–and that a lot of you will really love–is that it’s first person fantasy. Truth in the Dark IS a faerie tale–a back-to-my-roots, flawed narrator, magic-around-every-corner sort of affair, and it’s being published by Dreamspinner and not by myself. Between this story and Litha’s Constant Whim, I feel like the publishing world is getting to see the real me–and I’m so relieved the real me is getting out there and might actually be marketable to boot.

And this is sort of writing non-news, but it’s still news.

I was offered (and am going to refuse a little later in the day) a contract for Vulnerable from a smaller press.

I know–I know! I’ve been BEGGING for a contract, for another press to come and publish this book for me, and I was SO excited when she sent me the acceptance letter and the contract. But…

But, it’s a very small press, and I’d have to give up some things in return for wider distribution and a chance to re-edit–things like control over my cover art–that I’m not comfortable giving up. It sounds silly, I know–all of the good things I’d be getting back, and I don’t want them because of cover art control?

But people love this book. Really love it. I just CAN’T give it to someone who’s going to put a half-naked hottie on the front, and not even let me say, “That’s NOT the spirit of the book.”

I’m going to hate writing this letter–you all know how superstitious I get about spitting in the face of the gods. And this woman has been nothing but kind and patient to me. But signing this contract right now would take Vulnerable OFF the shelves RIGHT when Litha’s Perfect Whim goes online–and if people like Whim, they’re going to want to read Vulnerable, and I can’t do it.

I feel like complete doo-doo, oh yes I do-do, and that’s the truth.

*sigh* So yes. Writing news–some of it has been on my mind all week, and I just decided to share. Thanks for listening!

Oh yes– about the title!

Mate and I went to see a movie last night. We saw Kick Ass! and it was a dark comic masterpiece–hilarious, and REALLY disturbing at once. Think The Breakfast Club goes Quentin Tarantino–there were moments that just sent chills up your spine and not in the cool way that sports movies do. Anyway, when we got back, I checked my e-mail out of sheer addiction, and, sure enough, there was another rat-pellet of ego-meth in my box. Elizabeth had sent me my contract for ‘Truth in the Dark’, and I was so tickled. I responded right away, and before I went to bed I saw another message from her.

It read, “We are up way too late.”

I had to giggle. Yup. It’s getting to be a way of life, isn’t it?