Oh, the Waiting

We did it! Chloe Cole and I finished Three to Tango, packed it up and sent off the full MS.

I think I drove the poor girl around the bend with my, "wait, one more thing..." a dozen times. She finally got tired of telling me to "send it already!" and simply replied with one of those emoticon guys rolling his eyes with his arms crossed over his chest and his fingers tapping on his biceps. It was cute, and yeah, I was probably being a little obsessive about crossing our T's and dotting our I's. But hey, this was my first submission. Rock star that she is, she put up with my temporary panic at hitting that button, and I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved working with her. Can't wait to do it again!

I finally did hit that big scary button and immediately thought, "Oh no! What about..." That thought was followed by a rush of adrenaline, which was in turn chased by a wave of anticipation, because no matter what, we all want that email or phone call telling us those magic words. Once the excitement of sending ebbed and I could sit still again, I thought, "So, what now?"

Well, what better way to keep from driving myself crazy checking my email every ten minutes than to immerse myself in another project? My next story - a sweet M/M romance novella about two cowboys with reputations, and hearts, on the line - is officially underway. I spent a good couple weeks getting to know who my protags are and their situation. Got my outline set and now, I write. Last night I sat down and got a little over 1500 words into their affair. Only 19,000-ish to go.

Thumpa-Thumpa

The thumpa-thumpa was pounding hard and heavy tonight, driving the pace of my writa-writa. And gotta say, I was lovin' it.

So you might be asking yourself, what's thumpa-thumpa? Did you ever watch Queer as Folk, the US version? I don't remember which episode it was, but the boys were partying at Babylon and Emmett (I loved Em!) says, "Can you feel it? The gay thumpa-thumpa?" Of course, I don't remember it word for word. But the club music was the 'thumpa thumpa' that made the heart beat.

Tonight I was sitting in front of my computer with a file open for my current collaboration WIP. Not much was happening, so I changed my playlist. I don't write without music, in fact, I don't do much without music. My iTunes was on its eclectic shuffle, but I needed a change of tune, literally. I needed something to get the blood flowing, get the synapses firing... I turned off the shuffle and switched over to my "Dance Baby, Dance" playlist. Next thing I know I'm bouncing to the groove in my chair, images and words are flashing in my brain like the Friday night strobe lights at Babylon. I was one with the keyboard, typing at the speed of thought - with a big-ass smile on my face.

When I finally thumpa-thumpa'd myself out and the smoke machine haze dulled my mental laser light show, a cool 1,503 words had flowed out of my fingertips. Of course, its rough, free-flow thought, but tomorrow I'll slow the beat down and smooth out the edges.

Man, I just love it when things slip into a groove!