Hi, I’m Nicola, and I used to write fanfic. I love good fanfic — it’s the modern version of folk tales about your favorite heroes. And yes, not all fanfic is good fanfic, but when you can find a superb writer (like the immensely talented Cincoflex), you just wallow happily in the product and thank God that they decided to write it all down.

So, yeah, fanfic. Now, the fun part about fanfic is that someone else has created the universe, so all you really have to do is write about the continuing adventures of Your Favorite Character, which takes a lot of the strain off of you as a writer. You don’t have to worry about world-building, exploring the background of various characters, or explaining what the hell your MC is doing in X location because most of that will already be known by the fans.

But. If you dust off one of your own favorite fanfics, notice that it’s already 10K words, and decide to see if you can’t file off the serial numbers and make it an original story, you wind up running into all kinds of issues like, well, who is your MC? What are their motivations? What’s their world like? How did they get into this particular pickle? How are they going to get out of it, in detail? And it’s all got to deviate from the borrowed universe so that it’s, you know, original.

Luckily, answering all these questions significantly expands the story. And this really is a fun story. So while I’m still working on Intersection, I may also have a short holiday story out in the two weeks or so. Whee!

Well, I say “rubble” — to be honest I ate at a friend’s house so all I had to clean up were the two pans I used to roast Brussels sprouts. But this year’s holiday did feel a little rough — for one thing Ramón had a horrendous cold and stayed home so as not to infect anyone else, and he’s been coughing and sneezing on and off since Thursday. For another, I have been feeling ridiculously irritable, and not for any obvious reason apart from the fact that my own nose is a little stuffy (but that’s normal — I live with five cats. My nose is ALWAYS stuffy). Shark Week won’t happen for another 20 days or so, Fertile Day doesn’t happen until Tuesday, so whatever is going on doesn’t seem to be hormonally driven. But man, the J Crew has been getting on my nerves at every turn. By now I’m kinda used to them following me from room to room (I am never without a cat unless I manually turf them out of the room and close the door), but the constant demands for attention feel like someone is rubbing my nerves with salt-covered barbed wire. And 2016’s sadistic pleasure in taking away yet more awesome people (Ron Glass? Seriously, 2016? What the fuck is wrong with you?) is not helping my mood at all.

I dunno. Maybe I just need to get out of here for awhile or something. A drive might soothe my nerves.

Apropos of nothing apart from the fact that it’s Small Business Saturday and I need to do required promo, I’m running a Black Friday sale at my Etsy store until Wednesday, and at this point I may extend it to Friday for shits and giggles. So if you like nifty handmade OOAK jewelry (e.g. at right is Viserion, a dragonstone cabochon wrapped in antique brass and a tiger’s eye bead), go over and check it out, and make sure to use promo code BLACKFRIDAY40PERCENT at checkout to get 40% off your entire order. Such a deal!

Okay. If you are still mourning/angry/frightened/upset at the events of last week, and you enjoy smart science fiction, language, and philosophy, drop what you’re doing and go see Arrival. It is thought-provoking, insanely intelligent, entertaining as hell, and should be considered up there with 2001 and Contact in smart SF cinema.I’d read the short story by Ted Chiang so there weren’t any real surprises for me, but as my friend Bill observed they added some very well-judged scenes to clarify certain things, as well as a realistic subplot to increase the tension.

Moreover, it is better than Valium in calming your nerves and helping you center yourself. Yeah, I know, I just said that they added a tension-increasing subplot. You’re still going to walk out of there feeling calmer and ready to take on what needs to be taken on. Seriously, go see it.

In the meantime, Ramón and I are going to see Doctor Strange in a couple of hours because we haven’t had a Date Night since September and gosh darn it, we deserve one. Luckily people have warned me that the 3D version can get kinda urpy at times if you’re prone to motion sickness (which I am), so we’re going to the regular version. And while I am not the aficionado of the Batch that many of my friends are, I do appreciate his aesthetics and am looking forward to him sounding like Greg House’s son for two hours.

The weather seems to have noticed that it’s actually December, not September, and the temps dropped today to a nice, moderate mid-60s here in the clavicle of Texas, with a possibility of getting down to the 30s tonight and tomorrow night (we actually have a freeze watch. Hosanna!). Of course, next week will be back in the high 60s/low 70s, so you can expect me to be making my world-famous Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts for Thanksgiving while dressed in a t-shirt and capris, but I’m kinda hoping this means that we can officially keep the A/C off for the rest of the year.

In writing news I’m plowing away on Intersection. If you’ve been following me on NaNoWriMo you will notice that I am grievously behind in my word count, but I have full faith that I can make that up and then some over the weekend, since 1) I write fast and 2) I just found out that SyFy is coming out with a new series about corporate-run nation-states. Between that and Westworld (Jeffrey Wright, I do adore you so), I may as well start paddling and climb on that wave if I can.

In other news, still appalled at what’s happening in DC/New York, still working with local Dems, still hanging in there and believing in you and everyone else in this awesome land of ours. Still mourning a bit, as well, which for me translates into cleaning. My kitchen is a thing of beauty at the moment, so I’ve got that going for me. Oh, and the sign at right is what’s currently on display at my local Starbucks. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Texas is solid red. There are lots and lots of blue spots all over the state, and they’re growing.

WARNING: If you are uncomfortable with the discussion of menstruation, moderately gory stuff, or politics, I would suggest that you veer off now because this is going into the weeds big time.

Okay. So Shark Week starts yesterday, as it does, and I roll right along with it thanks to the blessing that is the super tampon (my moon flow laughs at regular poons). Woke up this morning, took care of business, then got stuck into housecleaning and writing.

Mid-morning it was time to switch things out so I do, not really thinking about anything, and continue about my business. In retrospect I did kinda notice that things were a tad uncomfortable, but since I have the Knees from Hell I’m really good at ignoring anything that doesn’t actually make me curl up in a fetal position and cry.

After lunch, it’s time for another switch. I reach up, find the string, give it a gentle tug…

…and pull out two tampons. I swear to Cthulhu I have no idea how that happened. The moderate discomfort now makes perfect sense, but I’m sitting there wondering how the hell I could have gone in to replace a tampon and somehow forget to take it out before inserting a new one.

Oh, and I volunteered to work at my county Democratic Party office. So yeah, that was my day. How’s your Thursday rolling along?

In case you thought a writer’s life consisted of leisurely breakfasts, a day spent poring over a hot laptop interspersed with a lunch at some nifty bistro with witty friends, then an elegant dinner with cocktailsHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry, couldn’t help it. I don’t think even Dorothy Parker had a life like that. As for me–well, let me back up a bit. As I think I mentioned here, I was diagnosed with a sinus infection on Monday (which explains my complete lack of energy for the previous four days), and I received a Z-pack for my troubles. As the antibiotics kicked in I started feeling much better (except for the unfortunate side effect of antibiotics which required me to stay close to a bathroom yesterday — yes, I’m taking probiotics as well, it’s improved) and started in on my plan to get this pit of a house cleaned slowly but thoroughly by doing a solid hour of housecleaning every day in addition to regular chores (laundry, vacuuming, etc).

Today I unloaded the dishwasher and put away all the clean dishes, washed out four pieces of recyclables and put those in the recycling bin, replaced two burnt out light bulbs, put away a bunch of stuff, folded and put away two loads of laundry, and was planning on vacuuming and dusting the living room until the cats intervened by 1) crapping on the downstairs bathroom rug, and 2) two of them puking on the living room rug. JJ (shown at left) managed to get into the regular cat food that he’s not supposed to eat, then vomited it all up on our newly washed throw blanket and all the way down the back of our living room futon onto the carpet. This required me to wipe down the futon frame, spot-clean the stained part of the futon, pick up bits of half-digested cat food from the carpet, then run the carpet cleaner over it whilst swearing like a sailor. Luckily, Jaz just overate a bit and left a delicate pile of hork that I could pick up with some kitchen roll and spot-clean with a cloth. Throw blanket and bathroom rug are now in the next pile of stuff to be washed.

Oh, and I still have to make dinner (spaghetti with salad), then clean the kitchen afterwards. And wash, fold, and put away approximately four more loads of laundry so that I can clean the guest room and wash that bedding tomorrow. Oh, and pay bills, can’t forget that. I’ll get some writing time sandwiched in there, but Lord, it would help if I had clones.

Yeah, this is for the SF romance series. They’re already giving me dialogue and scenes, bless their hearts, such as the deathless line, “Lilith, you are the closest thing I have to a child. I do NOT want to hear about your orgasms.”

These books are going to rock SO hard.

Heya. If you’re looking for the Mid Week Tease post, click on that link to go for it. For everyone else, MAN, I had a fantastic time up in Canada this weekend.

Allow me to backtrack a bit and explain. Evernight Publishing decided to hold a writers’ retreat for its authors at a resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and since it’s only an hour from Toronto it was decided that I’d fly into Pearson and stay with my sister from another mister L.D. Blakeley, ride down with her to the resort for the weekend, then come back with her and leave for Dallas on Monday.

Flying up to Toronto on Wednesday was made even more pleasurable when I was able to snag an upgrade to Business. L.D and her delightful husband picked me up at the airport and we headed back to their condo for an evening of the new HBO series Westworld (“What do you mean, you haven’t watched Westworld yet? And you write science fiction!” L.D. exclaimed. This will have a bearing on what happened later in the weekend) and dinner at a really cool local pub.

The next day we set off for Niagara-on-the-Lake and the White Oaks resort and spa, which turned out to be right across the street from an outlet mall with a really great food court, so yes, shopping may have been committed. Ahem. 😀 We quickly met up with with the other Evernight authors who had arrived early and had dinner at the hotel (which, by the way, had amazing food, gorgeous rooms, and a really nice vibe. Seriously, if you have a chance to go here take it, you will not regret it).

The next day started off with a trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls with L.D. and Sandra Bunino to take in the majesty of nature. They wanted to walk down to Clifton Street, whereupon my body politely informed me no (I’d been averaging between 7 and 8K steps/day for the last three days after spending the preceding month on my ass finishing the book, so yeah, my legs and back needed a break). While they got their steps in I grabbed a comfortable seat in front of Queen Victoria Place and spent a pleasant half hour people watching and enjoying some honest-to-God fall weather since it was still in the high 80’s/low 90’s in Dallas, which is just wrong for October. Yes, even in Texas.

By the time we wrapped up the outing with a stop at the outlet mall’s food court for lunch and met up with Pam Mangol, pretty much everyone had arrived for the retreat. We then bopped back to the hotel to say hello and get some writing in before we all got together for pizza in the Hospitality Suite and a Facebook live broadcast where various authors were interviewed (including yours truly). Much pizza and wine were scoffed and much hilarity was had by all, and the adorable Sandra gave out some great gift bags so thank you for that, Ms. Bunino!

Saturday was a day of Starbucks runs, winery tours for those who were interested, actual butt-in-chair writing (I got 2K done on Do No Harm), and one hell of a epiphany for me. At dinner on Thursday Sandra had mentioned that SF erotic romance was really hot at the moment, particularly if it involved cyborgs. That and my watching of Westworld (and, er, shots of Louis Herthum naked, I AM SO SORRY ABOUT MY SMUTTY BRAIN LOUIS) triggered my mojito-sodden Muse to pop up behind my shoulder with an idea about an SF erotic romance book in a post-apocalyptic setting, involving warring corporate city-states, cyborg slaves, a technocratic ruling class, and a secret plan for human immortality. Oh, and lots of sexy romance.

Thing is, it started off as one book. By the end of the weekend it had grown into a four-book series with the possibility of more, and by the time I got home I’d already started collecting pictures of actors to play the various characters in my mind and writing down a little precis for each character. And yes, I’m still doing Olympic Cove and Two Thrones, but if Laurann Dohner can juggle multiple series I may as well do it, too. Still don’t have a series or even a book title, but I’m not even going to worry about it until January when I have Do No Harm, Behind the Iron Cross, and The Chevalier done and out there. That being said, if YOU can come up with a snappy book or series title, be my guest.

Saturday night we reconvened in the Hospitality Suite to meet the lovely owner and publisher of Evernight Publishing Stacey Espino who handed out yet more awesome gift bags, then we headed out to the courtyard for S’mores around a firepit and some good-natured verbal tormenting of a sweet young man named Michael who was there to set up the food and get the fire started, and wound up as the star of a projected erotic romance anthology called What The Bellboy Saw to be written by all the authors there. Well, this is what happens if you get a bunch of romance writers together and feed us wine and sugar. It can’t be helped.

It was also a fantastic chance to sit around and chat with people I’ve been talking to via social media for 3+ years but have never met in person. And the truly amazing thing is that there wasn’t one bad apple in the bunch. Everyone was open, friendly, and awesome to talk to, and I’d like to thank each and every one of those writers for making this weekend so very delightful (and for Stacey and Sandra for making the whole thing happen and being so generous with things like the S’Mores setup and dinner).

Sunday morning L.D and I got packed up, said goodbye to Sandra, stopped off for a cauldron of coffee for L.D. (as shown at right) and a chocolate croissant for me, then headed back to Toronto for a day of TV watching, laundry washing, Thai food eating, wine drinking, cat petting (L.D. has an adorable black cat named Floyd who deigned to let me pet him), and more plotting on the cyborg series. By the time I got back to Dallas the next day I was tired, very happy, and ready to finish off Do No Harm. So, yeah, it was all good.

And I still have a Disney cruise to come. Whee!