What has Jeannie been up to?

I’ve experienced a sudden productivity spike, which I attribute to a couple of things. First of all, the day job is picking up. This means I can’t lollygag all day. So with less time to write, I write more.

Second, I’m still riding the adrenaline high from the new contract for two novels and two shorts. See how smoothly I worked that in?

1) I hit “The End” on a 10K-ish short for Undone just this Saturday. I’m really happy how it turned out. And I wrote a whole story and not a single swordfight. 🙂

2) I started author amendments on Butterfly Swords and I’ve decided that my fight scenes rock. There. I said it.

3) My friend Bria Quinlan introduced me to Tweetdeck and now I’m starting to see Twitter in a whole new light. I also glance up every time that little cricket noise indiciates someone, somewhere has said something.

4) I’m completely addicted to placing bids on the Brenda Novak Online auction for diabetes. The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood basket is still available, by the way. Hidden among the goodies is a 3 chapter critique from myself, Cynthia Justlin, and Amanda Brice — the Power of Three. We all critiqued for each other prior to entering the Golden Heart in ’09 and we all finaled. I myself have won a critique from Pulitzer Prize nominee, Harvey Stanbrough. I’m really, really nervous at the thought of sending him 15 pages. What to send? Hopping zombie paranormal? Tang Dynasty romance? Or the woman’s fiction I’m urging my Little Sis to co-write with me?

5) Oh — about the previous item. I’m exploiting Little Sis’ pregnancy hormones to get her to start the women’s fiction historical we’ve always been talking about for years. Mwahahahaha!

6) Promotion — I got my first newsletter out to the 14 people on my list. Hello happy 14! I really hope a couple more people will join. Do it now and you can receive the coolest souvenir charm ever. See Special Promotion

7) More promotional items — I came up with another idea for a giveaway. Official Tang Dyansty of Jeannie Lin maps! I always dreamed of having a book with a fantasy map at the front….but since there isn’t one, I thought it might be fun to make a nice one on parchment paper for giveaways and such. Here’s what I have so far on the draft. What do you think?

By the way, the icons on the map — I’m very proud of the technique I’ve devised to create those. I still have to hand write in the major sites from the stories — Changan, Luoyang, Longyou, Yumen Guan, the Bamboo Sea, and Qinghai.