Okay, sorry for the radio silence. Unlike every other urban fantasy author, I was actually home this last weekend. I was just kind of drained after turning in copy edits for Shadow Kiss. For those who follow the publishing cycle, you'll know that copy edits are pretty much the last stage that I have to do content or changes for, which means (drum roll) Shadow Kiss is officially done! It's off to be type-set and proofed, and I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. People have been writing me about ARCs for a while, but considering it only existed as a file on my computer as of last Friday, you can believe me when I say no ARCs exist. In fact, if this is like Frostbite, ARCs are going to be skipped entirely because I needed the extra time. Long story on how that process works. Also: I'm getting asked when the first chapter will be on the website. Answer: first chapters always go up a month before release, so look for that one in October.

Other news: my signing (aside from the convention) in the Bay Area has been booked. You can see me on October 4 at Borderlands Books in San Francisco at 3pm. This'll be right after Succubus Dreams' release, so come visit and alleviate my phobia about reading to an empty store!

In book news, I've gotten the back cover copy for Georgina #4, Succubus Heat, and it's so awesome, I can barely handle it. Unfortunately, I can't post it yet since it references #3, and no one's read that yet! I also got it confirmed today that the sequel to Storm Born will be called Thorn Queen, which joins the short list of titles accepted the first time I suggested them. Yay!

And finally, after weeks of watching celebrities like Joan Rivers and Ice-T stumble through surveyed questions, Celebrity Family Feud is finally going to show the episode that lolcatz and I attended in L.A. It's kind of weird too since we were the first one they actually taped, but we're the last one being shown of the season. For your reference, I've made a helpful diagram to show you where we sat:




We're in the first long row, right next to the aisle, and as you can see, we have our backs to the camera most of the time. But hey, who knows? If you can handle Margaret Cho and Christopher Knight's "witty" banter and so-so answers, you might catch a highly improbable shot of us. The sad thing is that we've noticed they don't show Al Roker's entrance on the show, which means you won't get to see him high-fiving me as he comes down the walk-way. Cross your fingers they'll run short on show content and slip that in. Tuesday the 29th, 8pm on NBC.

Have I used that title before? If I haven't, I'm kind of surprised. That's the kind of silly, cliched pun-construct that would draw me in.

Despite having only gotten 6 hours of sleep last night (thank you for waking me up, Qwest), I find my old friend insomnia plaguing me tonight. It's hard to tell if stress feeds insomnia or insomnia feeds stress. Regardless, I'm overtired and fretting about all sorts of things. Such as...

I'm worried about Succubus Dreams, which is due soon and has gotten kinked up by a couple of problems. My chief beta reader claims it might be the best succubus book yet, but I don't know if he can be trusted. I used to date him in college, so...you know. Admittedly, he's never led me astray before in book analysis, but he doesn't know what I do about how one of the subplots isn't going to unfold correctly. Fortunately, my agent's on board to sort through this, so I know we'll figure this out. I just wish we didn't have to figure it out by early December.

I'm also getting overwhelmed by unpacking the condo. The more boxes I unpack and empty, the more chaotic the place becomes. It's unclear if the condo can be ready in time for my housewarming party. I mean, it'll be ready, but it's a question of whether "ready" will involve everything having its own place or whether it'll mean boxes of junk just get shoved in my closet. I did, however, uncover my perfume collection, so some interesting types should come scrolling through here in the perfume field at the bottom. Sadly, I also spilled some while unpacking, so now my bathroom smells like Givenchy's Amirage d'Amour.

Other news. Much personal drama is also afoot. One piece is so absurd it doesn't warrant any further description here. The other is secret. Ha.

But hey, here's one thing that isn't keeping me awake. Eternal Lover is now available on Amazon. This is the anthology that features a Georgina novella called "City of Demons." Just think! 100 pages of new succubus adventures. It also, as of this posting, has no sales ranking, so you could be the first to order it! Act now! Christina, you know I'm talking to you...

Writing on Succubus Dreams is progressing beautifully, which is a huge relief to me after how stressful Frostbite was. I'm finding as my writing career goes on that I'm starting to panic about making my sequels good. The first books in both series have gotten really good reviews. But can I keep it up? That's the mystery. Succubus on Top's first review was pretty good but had a couple punches here and there. That's fine; I never expect everyone to like every book. What worries me is that I actually consider Top to be better than Blues. It's very much the same style, but I think it's a little "smarter." Not to say that Blues wasn't...but I worry readers/reviewers will be looking for fluffy, silly girl stuff. 'Cos while there's plenty of romance and swoony stuff...well, I can't do fluffy. So, we'll see.

Also, people are getting confused by my books and series. So, to clear things up, here's a list of them with what's out and what's not.

Georgina Kincaid Series (Succubus Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance)
#1 - Succubus Blues - Out
#2 - Succubus on Top - January 2008
#3 - Succubus Dreams - October 2008

Vampire Academy Series (Paranormal Young Adult)
#1 - Vampire Academy - Out
#2 - Frostbite - April 2008
#3 - Untitled - ~November 2008

Dark Swan Series (Shaman Urban Fantasy)
#1 - Storm Born - September 2008
#2 - Thorn Queen - ~2009

There you have it.

Oh, and once again, let me remind everyone: do not buy a condo while getting divorced and selling Michigan real estate. Seriously. I am not even joking.

So, I had two doctor's appointments today. One was for the skin cancer spot on my hand, and guess what? It appears to be cleared up. This is good news because contrary to the warnings, my hand didn't get all gross and scary during the treatment. I'd worried it wasn't working. After that happy appointment, I had my back and other ailments checked out. They seem okay too, but I have a couple of tests coming just to make sure.

Meanwhile, my time is spent writing Succubus Dreams and copy editing Frostbite. For those not familiar with industry lingo, copy editing is when a copy editor marks up grammar and style things. It's my job to approve or reject them. In my case, most of my marks pertain to ellipses. I don't know why...but I just love...using them... Unfortunately, Microsoft Word formats ellipses in a way Razorbill's typesetters don't like. So, the CE has marked every ellipsis in the manuscript, and I have to go through and click each one and say "Yes, yes, it's okay." How many times do I have to do this? Well, let's look at a sample page:


There's 304 more pages where that came from, kids.

But you're probably thinking, "Ellipses? You're reduced to writing about punctuation marks? Richelle, could you possibly be any more boring?" Well, okay, if you're going to have that attitude, see if this makes you guys happy:





Snazzy, huh?

P.S. - Contest results coming soon!

Remember what I said about shiny, new things? They just keep coming. Today I woke up and found the back cover description of Succubus Dreams in my inbox. It's good times. It needs a little more tweaking, but when it's perfect, I'll post it for the world to see.

Meanwhile, I found out that the Dark Swan books (Storm Born and its sequel) sold UK rights! Soon Eugenie's British self will join Georgina's on my bookshelf! I'm pretty excited because I loved what Bantam UK did to the Succubus Blues cover, so I can't wait to see Storm Born. Considering the Storm Born U.S. cover isn't out yet, I think I'll be waiting a while.

THEN, as if that news wasn't cool enough, I found out we also sold French rights to Succubus Blues! In the words of my editor, Ooo-la-la! Le Succubutte Bleus! Or something. Very, very exciting.

I'm actually getting a little uneasy about how awesome things are lately. Do you ever get that kind of paranoia? Like, things can't stay this good for long...the other shoe has to drop. I hate being negative like that and hope it will fade--and that nothing bad will actually happen. Because honestly? I like life being good.

People are always surprised whenever I mention the mysterious third series, Dark Swan. But yes, it's a real series! My third series, and the first book in it comes out in September 2008. It's called Storm Born, and at last we have the official back cover description:


Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants...

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...

Today's been a bad day for writing. Bad work with the manuscripts, bad work with the blog. I'm hoping to have something more interesting later, but for now, I give you this gem: Frostbite is now available on Amazon. Get your teen vampire action while it's hot!

More soon.