Why I Write Straight from my Shameless, Outrageous, Warped Imagination
by Ashlyn Chase

I just read an article about how comedy writers should not use too much humor and how they should temper it, i.e. curb the urge to let the heroine crawl out the bathroom window. Huh? What’s wrong with that? Hey, I’ve done it myself (and I’m not just talking fiction!).

Fine. Some people aren’t comfortable letting their slips show. Isn’t that what editors are for? To reel us in when necessary? I don’t care if my Freudian slips show and it seems to be okay with my editors. Even more okay with fans. I can hardly believe that I actually have fans or that my work generates great reviews and reader mail! Maybe others are warped too, I don’t know.

What I do know is this. 1) Our world can use a few good belly-laughs and a lot of love. 2) I enjoy writing when I’m having fun with it and the more fun I have the less I care what people think. And 3) Readers can tell when words come from a place of passion and truth. My passion is making people laugh.

And truth? You might think that’s an odd word to describe a fiction writer’s goal, especially one who writes Vampire and Shapeshifter comedies. Here’s the thing…a wonderful quote I read ages ago said it best. “You must be fearless to be a writer.” I wish I could remember the fearless female’s name, but I can’t. The idea being that each writer has some sort of truth to tell, regardless of the manner in which they tell it. It takes guts to tell your own truth with your own voice. If you try to write “safe” you run the risk of boring your audience, and boredom is death to an author.

We all have words to live by. Whether positive or negative, some of these words hit a chord and stick. I’ve found some wonderful mentors along the way who’ve imparted words of wisdom I’ll never forget. My number one wise woman was my mother. She often said to me, “Nothing ventured; Nothing gained.” Yup. She was right. Well, except when great things just fall into one’s lap with absolutely no effort, but how often does that happen? It even takes faith, foresight, and effort to buy a lottery ticket.

She also said people would be jealous of me all my life. Wow, that was a trip to lay on a teenager! But she was right about that too. And you can’t let jealousy stop you. Some people will be jealous of the time you spend writing. Tough noogies. Some will be jealous that you can do something they can’t. Yay you. Who knows…some people might even be jealous that you once had the guts to climb out a bathroom window to avoid a lounge lizard who thought he could charm your pants off. So what? Be fearless enough to write about it. Whatever your gift, embrace it. Be passionate about it. Write whatever you really love and take no prisoners!

For those of you following the Girls Who Bite project (and those of you waiting to hear about who gets accepted)—I wrapped up the book and shipped it to Cleis. I included one or two too many stories in the collection, but will let the editor there do that cut. And until I hear final approval of who remains in the lineup, I’m keeping mum.

I know I hate it when I’m waiting on an acceptance, but now I’m on the other side of the fence. And I get it. Needless to say, I had many, many wonderful stories I had to leave out. Some didn’t follow the guidelines (especially that Happy For Now or Happy Ever After thing), and some were a little too gruesome for a romantic-leaning collection. Some were wonderfully written but with a similar theme to another story I included.

As soon as I hear anything, I will start sending out acceptances and rejections.

In the meantime, I have one more book to wrap up this week. Almost there…

NaNo Day 29:
Viking-2—3185 words
TW—0 words 😥

Today’s the last day you’ll see that annoying little note at the top of the post. The one where I brag or whine about my page count for the previous day. I’m finished with NaNo for 2010—which means, I finished the book. The Viking one, that is.

I wrapped it up early yesterday afternoon after spending a week polishing the pages I had. I only had the last chapter to write after I finished the edits. Sixteen frigging pages today for a total of 406 pages of sexy goodness. And since I was thoroughly sick of it by the time I wrote “The End”—I shipped it to my Berkley editor. Hopefully, by the time she sends it back for her rounds of editing, I’ll recover my enthusiasm.

That doesn’t mean I get to rest. I still have two more deadlined books to complete this week. Last evening, I threw myself straight back into edit mode, but on the Girls Who Bite book. Someone else’s words—a lot of someone elses. I should wrap that one up tonight, and again, I’ll ship it to my Cleis editor. Oh yeah, I have to write the foreword for the book.

I think I better brew a cup of coffee because it’s going to be a long day. Oh! And how cool is this? Last night, Breaking Leather was #1 on MBaM, and Four Sworn made a return appearance at #8! Woohoo!

NaNo Day 28:
Viking-2—1836 words
TW—0 words 😥

The militant not the meek shall inherit the earth. ~Mother Jones

Okay, so that saying’s completely random. Not sure why it struck me as something I wanted to post here. Maybe it’s because I’ve been singlemindedly heading toward this trifecta of deadlines, unwavering in my intent. I’m close. I know the most important of the three will be off my desk late Tuesday. I’m praying the second will be gone Wednesday. But I’m thinking I may need one more day to finish the last one. So one day late on one deadline. Not too bad, huh?

Not that I’m bowing to the pressure. Everyone around me knows to leave me alone. I snap and snarl. My eyes are so bloodshot I look as though I’ve been on a week-long pub crawl.

When the smoke clears, I hope I can recover my bright, bubbly self. And I’ll have to diet for weeks. I’ve been living off coffee, english toffee cappuccino mix and Dove dark chocolate. Since I’ve been wearing only pajama bottoms and sweats, I won’t know the true verdict until I try on my jeans.

Yesterday, I completed another four chapter editing blitz of the Viking book. I read another eight Girls Who Bite stories, corresponded with an author regarding changes to her amazing short, but didn’t touch the TW novella. I just didn’t have the energy left, so I cut off working at six and headed over to spend some time gossipping with the red-headed hellion. If I think my life’s hell, she can always do one better. So I returned feeling smug. Thanks so much dd for putting my teeny-tiny stressors into perspective!

What has you stressed out?

NaNo Day 27:
Viking-2—1777 words
TW—1364 words

Almost there. Almost there. Almost there. I feel like the little engine that could. Three days left and I can see the end in sight, but I have to keep glued to this chair. Can’t let up a second.

This week was a bit of a mixed bag. I took two days off to visit with relatives who came in from Iowa. We went shopping (I bought some beautiful baroque, champagne-colored pearl earrings—that took care of my jewelry fix). But those two days cost me dearly. I had to write for 13 hours straight yesterday. Will do the same today. I will not miss my deadlines!

So, summing up, this last week, I:
* Added 34 pages to Viking-2. I completed heavy edits for chapters 1-16.
* Added 20 pages to TW, and completed heavy edits for chapters 1-2.
* Read around 20 stories for Girls Who Bite, and assigned them to the Reject/Maybe/Yes! folders.
* Completed final line edits for True Heart (coming January 4th!).

By Wednesday of this week, I have to:
* Finish edits of chapters 17-23 of Viking-2.
* Finish writing chapters 5-7 of TW and complete editing too!
* Finish reading all GWB stories, revise those I’m keeping, and plunk them into the manuscript.

Let’s hope I can keep up the pace, because I HATE to be late. Y’all have a terrific week. Think of me. Almost there. Almost there…

My cowboys would never have a bad date. However, my heroines aren’t exactly perfect. One heroine in particular had a very rough time getting ready for a date with a cowboy who’s way out of her league…

Night Watch

Schoolteacher Amy Keating never planned to be a voyeur, but one innocent glance into deputy Logan Ross’s bedroom window has her hooked. Now she’s into a world of sexual play she never knew existed…

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next afternoon, Amy was on her knees sliding out the shallow plastic box from beneath the bed, eager for a little dress-up. She’d already spent the day cleaning the house. Now she wanted to do everything she could to give herself a little boost in self-confidence before her date with Logan.

She’d pulled a dress from her closet, still wrapped in plastic from the store. The short, navy sheath with tiny sprigs of pale gray and pink flowers had been bought on a whim and never worn. Too short for school, and with no man around to inspire in her the courage to actually wear it in public, it had stayed at the back of her closet. But not tonight. A pair of silver sandals, also never worn, would complete the ensemble.

The choice of dress and shoes had been the easy part. She hoped what was stored in the bin would solve the rest of her problem. She pulled the black thong panties and corset from the bin, and bit her lip, wondering if the corset was too much.

It was another gift from her happily married sister whose answer to all dating woes was the right underwear.
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NaNo Day 25:
Viking-2—0 words
TW—0 words 😥

Like a lot of you, I have company underfoot from out of town and children crawling all over me because school’s out. Today, the adults are going shopping! Yeah, I got talked into it. Thankfully, they aren’t keen on going to the malls. We’ll head into Hot Springs and troll the long downtown strip. It’s always fun. I’ll see if I can find anything to tick off my Christmas list.

Yesterday and today will be busts so far as word count toward NaNo and wrapping up the Viking book, but I have the weekend ahead of me. I won’t crawl out of my mole hole (what everyone refers to as my office) until next week.

In the meantime, I have a question for you to ponder…

If you lived on a farm, which chores above all chores,
would you definitely not want to do?