Jennifer Lyon

Archive for the 'Peek Inside The Lair' Category

Thursday, November 18th, 2010
I Clean When…

Yesterday, I was enjoying a leisurely lunch…

Okay, that’s a lie. I was trying to cram in lunch before having to run to the vets office to buy more meds for Sadie Money Pit. I was eating cottage cheese and wheat thins mostly because it’s quick and easy. Sadie was outside playing with one of her toys, and I was trying to listen to some news when I glanced at the wheat thin box and saw something that looks like this:

An ant! It was only one ant,  not a trail…but EWWWW! I jumped up and looked in the pantry.  There were a few more random ants.

Crap.  I guess it’s time to clean the pantry. I spent some quality time doing that, taking a break just long enough to run to the vets and make sure they are flush in cash, then back to more cleaning.

My life is so glamorous. And given the meds I’m giving  Sadie to get rid of any lasting parasites she’s hosting, I suspect it’s only going to get more glamorous in the next few days.  Sigh.

I swear, if the ants come back, I’m going to lose it.

Anyone else battling ants? Any tips? And do you all clean your pantry just because? Or only when desperate?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010
The Photo Shoot

So yesterday was the photo shoot. First, I’d like to thank my friend and photographer Michele Cwiertny! She really made the shoot easy! Michele is a very talented writer and photographer (plus being young, pretty and smart).  I wanted to grab a picture of her from another site but forgot to ask her permission.  So I’ll do that when I show you all some of the shots once they are all fixed up.

Michele said she got around 90 shots to choose from.  Amazing!  I had no idea she took that many.  Hmm…wonder if she has any she can use for blackmail?

We went to a park with hiking trails and a bit of wilderness. I climbed over a hip-high wood fence and trudged through a foot-deep bunch of dead leaves (I got a pedicure for this???) and finally found a good spot by a massive old oak tree. Michele started shooting, and I looked up…

A FREAKING HIVE OF BEES IS IN THE TREE!!!

Holy Cauldrons! We hi-tailed it out of there! I think I leaped over that fence! In heels! Michele missed that shot, LOL!

The rest of the shoot included wild bunnies, a brief panic about possible poison oak,  a curious walker with his dog and lots of laughter. Then we went to lunch.  Over all it was a great day!

If Michele sends me any amusing but not too horrible outtakes, I’ll post them :-)

Oh and NIGHT MAGIC is now on Amazon! No cover or info yet, but it’s there!

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Random Stuff

I was showing my youngest son one of the pictures of Bailey on my blog yesterday. He looked at me and said, “Is your whole blog about Bailey?”

“Umm, no, see right her on top I talked about my next book.”

He did his cop look (trust me, he has a cop look) “That little paragraph?”

I went for the no fail mom look. “What’s your point?”

He laughed and left the house.   Gotta work on my no-fail mom look. Boys…what was I thinking?

So onto other things (not Bailey! I get the point!), I finished all the books I had to read for the Rita contest and got to read a book just for fun! First I read ECSTASY UNVEILED by Larissa Ione. She does write some really hot demons! I liked it alot!

Then I totally switched gears and read  THE PREGNANT PROPOSITION by Sandra Paul (Silhouette Special Edition). I laughed through that book! It’s a true romance and I really enjoyed it.

Reading just for fun really rocks!

Getting a slow start on Key’s story, but that’s normal for me. I like it so far.

And my editor liked the revisions on NIGHT MAGIC (Phoenix’s story).  She has a few things for my to clean up and some line edits, bit it’s a big relief for me! I have say, her revisions really hit the mark. I like this version much better than the first version. It was a heck of a lot of work, but my editor was dead on.

That’s my random stuff for today, what’s yours?

Monday, December 14th, 2009
The Speech Witch

Jen_-_workshop_004 Guess who? This is me giving the dreaded speech on world-building.  It was pouring rain that day, but people braved the wet roads and showed up. Amazing!

And now it’s over!

Kate Carlisle was taking the pictures but she was so far to my left it was hard for her to get a good shot.

Of course, my friends said I did well and that’s why they are my friends :-) I’m very sure I could have done better.

Want to see me BEFORE I went on stage? I was trying to focus and mentally prepare and while Kate was tormenting me with the camera…

Jen_-_workshop_002

Jen the Witch, right???? But in my defense Kate was sitting there aiming the camera and WAITING for the chance to show me at my witchy best!

She got it, LOLOL!

On the other hand, Kate and Maureen Child both braved the rains to come out and support me.  And more friends helped me prepare the speech including Marianne Donley and Laura Wright.  Thanks guys!

Okay that was my weekend, how was yours?

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
I Blame Silver…

Kreativ_blogger_awardSilver, on her Penumbra Blog nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award.

I’m honored!

And worried…I’m much more interesting in fiction than in real life.

According to the rules of the award, I’m to share seven things about myself that you witches may not know and then to nominate seven other bloggers for the award.  WARNING: This is long and boring.

1) I was once mistaken for a hooker. Hey, it could happen to anyone! Okay, yeah, it usually happens to me. I was 16 and working at a hotel gift shop across from Disneyland. I remember what I was wearing–a summer dress that went down to my knees, had a pretty high neck and  wide straps over my  shoulders. They dress was way more feminine than sexy. I was walking back from lunch when two men approached me from behind and made suggestions. I was so terrified I ran in the hotel and told the bellmen. The bellmen were NOT amused and chased the guy–don’t know what happened after that.

2) I once thought I’d be really good as a Wedding Planner….then I realized I would kill the crazy brides and their mothers.  I scrapped that idea.

3) My 7th grade science teacher said I was too much of a day dreamer to ever amount to anything.  Ha! Now I get paid to day dream!

4) A real hero saved me from a knife attack. This isn’t actually funny–I came home from work and there was a male neighbor outside my apartment door talking to a stranger. I stopped to say hi, but the neighbor was abrupt like I was interrupting. That was odd but my nylons were killing me,  so I went in the house, locked the door and went to change.  A minute or two later there was a huge thump on the front door. I was tangled in my nylons,  and by the time I got to the door, no one was there. Turns out, the neighbor was stabbed by the stranger–he survived. Somehow he got across the courtyard to another neighbor’s house. And he had known something was off about the guy and wanted me to go in the house (I was young, probably 18).  I do wish I had done more, realized what was going on somehow stopped the neighbor from getting stabbed. It still bothers me.

5) My husband swears I’m a crazy magnet. I’ve had people at book signing describe  how they once killed someone, or how they just got out of prison and want to write their stories, or various kinds of jaw dropping things. Seriously people will CONFESS to me. I don’t know what it is. Most people are great and I enjoy myself, but every now and again, I’m thinking “restraining order.”

6) Right after 9/11, I was stuck on my book ( I think it was the second Samantha Shaw book). I had the bright idea of going to the police station and asking if there was any way I could schedule a time to talk to a community relations officer or get a tour. Also, I just wanted to go into the police station to see what it looked like and felt like.  Everyone was a little touchy around this time, so the receptionist called out a lieutenant. Right about then, I was starting to realize I didn’t think this out. The Lieutenant  took me into his office and verified my ID, then took me on a tour. He was super nice, showed me everything, including the locked weapons room, and introduced me to the two VIPs walking around. Everyone was incredibly nice and helpful. I think it’s because they were bored. My husband thinks it’s because I was…and I am embarrassed to admit this…wearing shorts. I can’t believe I didn’t change clothes before going!

7)   I once sent an email to my sister talking about my editor…only I sent the email to my editor NOT my sister. Fortunately, I was saying nice things. My editor thought it was unbelievably funny.

I know I’m forgetting to nominate 7 more people, but seriously, no one is going to read this blog to the end!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009
When Is It THE END?

witch-waterI finished my book yesterday (unless I decide to add, change, delete, tweak or rewrite something else) and here’s what I’m wondering…

When is it THE END?

I debated on the ending for this book. I haven’t put in an epilogue type of scene, I just ended when the story was over. It might seem abrupt. I really debated over this for a couple weeks.

Then I figured I’ll see what my editor says.

Sure, I could put in a feel good ending, but the story is pretty much over.  My gut tells me to leave them wanting more :-)

What do you guys think?

And on a semi-related subject–there were a few times while writing this book that I didn’t think I’d ever get to the end.  Writing a book to the end–it takes a special kind of stubbornness (my family says I have stubbornness to spare!). It takes a willingness to stay with the characters when:

1) You’ve seen them so much of them they no longer seem all that interesting.

2) When their faults seem to outweigh their strengths.

3) When the conflict seems stale and the plot sucks.

4) When it feels like no amount of magic can save the book.

But of course, there’s a lot more work to be done–editorial revisions, line edits, copy edits…but I’m not going to think about that right now!

So back to endings…when/where is the best place to end the book? Do you like the ending right where the actions stops and you know things are going to be Happily Ever After, or do you like a glimpse of the Happily Ever After?

Monday, February 9th, 2009
Review for BLOOD MAGIC

It’s week four of our five week Cyber Launch Party! This week, the prize is a box of paranormal books. The winner will be drawn from all this week’s comments and announced on the weekend.

 Sometimes, I have to get series and actually promote BLOOD MAGIC! Here’s a review I wanted to share with you all:

ByVicky Gilpin, reviewer – Fresh Fiction

Axel Locke is a witch hunter with a curse that can only be softened by sex or the blood of a witch, causing him to lose his soul and become a rogue witch hunter. Darcy MacAlister works in the family’s funeral home and has fought the stigma of being “strange” for years; her own personality has contributed to the label far more than her family’s vocation ever has.

So often, recent publications in the paranormal romance field follow such a contrived pattern that the reader could just read any formulaic romance with the main characters as different paranormal creatures each time and be just as fulfilled, or not, as the case may be. Jennifer Lyon’s BLOOD MAGIC is an excellent reminder that the field still has fresh, uncharted and exciting avenues to explore. Instead of one-dimensional characters who never get more complex than any one-line description can convey, the characters in BLOOD MAGIC are multi-layered, detailed and, most importantly, interesting.

This novel has a carefully woven backstory of intrigue and magic: a rift occurred between the “good” witches and those sworn to protect them, the hunters of “evil” witches, causing a curse to fall upon the witch hunters and leaving both sides suspicious of the other. They no longer work in harmony because the witches fear that the witch hunters are rogues, and the witch hunters fear the witches are curse-bearers. When a witch hunter’s little sister gains a Death Mark in retaliation for his father’s bad acts, he has to fight the desires of the curse and find a witch willing to help him heal her. When Darcy MacAlister is recruited…kidnapped…in order to save Axel Locke’s sister, Hannah, from the Death Mark, there is only one problem: She was adopted and has no concept about her abilities.

While trying to work together, find the truth about her origins, dissuade the curse, unearth forgotten magical teachings and stay safe from the sides trying to hurt them and their friends, Axel and Darcy must also analyze their feelings toward each other and confront the possibility that they may be pawns in some much larger game.

For a thrilling adventure sizzling with passion, intrigue and complexity, pick up BLOOD MAGIC and prepare to be absorbed by a work that far exceeds many current publications in the field.

Okay here’s my question: Do you think paranormal has become formulaic? Or do you think it’s stiff fresh and surprising?

JenniferLyon.com