Stephanie Rowe | The Sharpest Edge

November 18, 2004

I'm now updating Things I'm Working On at my online blog. Check it out for the latest news! Stephanie's Blog!

July 5, 2004

Okay, is there any wonder why I'm skeptical about horoscopes? Nothing happened on June 25 related to my career or a financial windfall, or even that could in any way be twisted to apply. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. All day I waited for the big break that would signify incredible things for my career. Disappointment. I need to find a new astrology website. Anyone have any suggestions?

As as for Anite Blake, vampire hunter…I'm almost finished with the series. Only two more books. Laurell K. Hamilton rocks! I'm so impressed. When I grow up, I want to be as talented and creative as she is. Sigh. I owe my friend Guinevere big time for introducing me to her.

Guess what!?! Only four weeks until my next YA hits the shelves. I'm sooo excited!!!!

June 23, 2004

Ack! Bad, Stephanie, Bad! I'm supposed to be spending the day working on my galleys so I could get them in the mail tomorrow, but my friend Guinevere dropped off a few Laurell K. Hamilton books, so guess what I spent the entire day doing? Reading about Anita Blake, vampire killer. Anita is one tough chick. I wish I could be as tough as her. Wouldn't it be cool to know that if someone tried to grab you, that you could kill them without batting an eye? I'd love that kind of power. I might even stroll through bad areas trying to lure someone into attacking me just so I could feel the rush of power of knocking them aside. Or not. I might also stay home with a book and live vicariously through other people. Who really likes danger? Not me.

June 22, 2004

Guess what tonight is? Sex & the City night! I don't have HBO, so I've never been able to watch it (yeah, I know I could have rented it from the video store. Way too much effort). But now it's on TBS, so I watched it for the first time last week. And I'm hooked! Bring it on!!!

June 20, 2004

Ooo…I just checked out an astrology website and it says that Friday 6/25/04 will be a HUGE day for my career, with big financial implications. That's this Friday! Maybe I'll sell some more books? Or maybe I'll find a wallet with six hundred grand in it? Or maybe someone will offer me millions of dollars to be the next Cover Girl. Hmm..so many options. Which would I choose?

June 19, 2004

Galley boo-boo of the day: someone at the publisher changed Tourette's to Tourelle's. Who has Tourelle's syndrome, huh? Never heard of it. Off to make a big huge circle around Tourelle's to make sure that doesn't get into the final manuscript. If it does, you read it here first that it was supposed to be Tourette's.

June 18, 2004

Time for galleys! I received a bit fat box from my publisher on Friday, full of galleys for Unbecoming Behavior and cover flats. I love cover flats! It's one thing to get a .jpg of the cover, but it can't compare to holding the cover flat in your hand. I'd post a .jpg of it for you, but then wouldn't be the same thing as holding it in your hand, now would it? This is the biggest stack of biggest galleys I've received. First of all, it's my first 400 page book. Second, it's trade size, so there's only one page per page (does that make sense? Usually, there are two book pages per 8.5x11 sheet of paper-as if they'd held the book open and photocopied it). But these book pages are too big, so there's one page per page. Still confused? If I can snag my dh's camera, I'll take some pictures and show you. Does everyone know what galleys are? They are the last stop before the book is printed. It's the final looksee of the book, laid out exactly how it will appear in print. I get a copy and a copyeditor gets a copy, and we both read it for typos. It's the last chance for anyone to look at it before it goes to press, so if any mistakes/typo's are missed at this stage, they will be in the final book. Ack! The pressure!

June 4, 2004

Tax day today. Wondering how it can be tax day in June? Well, since I work for myself, the IRS makes me turn in my taxes four times a year so that I can't accumulate the interest on my earnings (since I don't get taxes taken out in my check). Is that fair? I think not. Too bad it doesn't matter what I think, huh? But that's okay. Mindless entering of receitps into an excel spreadsheet is a good break from being creative. We all need to let our brains veg sometimes, don't we?

June 3, 2004

Discovery of the year: BodyFlow. What's BodyFlow? I'm so glad you asked (you didn't ask? Well, too bad. I'm going to tell you anyway. ). It's a workout class that is a combination of yoga, pilates and Tai Chai. Now, I've never done any of those three. I'm weak. I'm inflexible. I'm uncoordinated. But I also have problems with my knees and my lower back and my hands and my neck. So I started taking BodyFlow as part of a New Stephanie regime....UNBELIEVABLE! Nothing hurts anymore. Nothing! I'm stronger. I'm more flexible. And I don't hurt! I can write for longer, I can exercise, I wake up in the morning without back pain (I haven't been able to sleep on my back for five years!). YAY! It's offered at many health clubs in the US and other countries, so go to www.bodyrainingsystems.com to see if it's offered near you. It will be the best thing you can do for your body. And I swear they aren't even paying me to write this. Not even a penny! I just want everyone to feel as good as I do! (I just got back from class and I'm so inspired!) See ya'll later!

June 2, 2004

Where did the month go? I can't believe it's been a month since the trip to San Francisco! I promised you pictures of the beach at sunset, and then I disappeared. Shame on me! But, better late than never, right? Here are a few of the pictures of the pooches on the California beach at sunset, courtesy of my dh's digital camera.

May 2, 2004

Road trip anyone? Okay fine, I admit it. I played hooky this week. I don't have any deadlines looming, my revisions are...ahem...a wee bit difficult (can anyone say "procrastination" or "avoidance") and I had this amazing offer from this really hot guy to spend four days in the car with two shedding dogs. How could I possibly turn that down? Research, don't you think?

Anyhoo, we hopped in my truck and headed down the West Coast to Palo Alto, California, where a big track meet was going on that my dh wanted to go watch. We hit no traffic, never got lost and got this really delish and cheap ice cream at K & R's restaurant somewhere along I-5 (I think it was in Northern California-oops! My dh just told me it was in Rice Hill, Oregon. What can I say? I've been the car for way many hours the last few days). Do you realize you can get six big scoops of ice cream on one cone for about $4 at K&R's? And it's awesome ice cream. I had this strawberry shake that absolutely didn't end up on my hips even though the only thing I did to burn it off was to manhandle my 85lb dog out of the front seat at least 150 times over the course of the trip. I have bucket seats in my car! There is no room for a dog up there!

So, the track meet was Friday night, but we had this really cool hotel room and I had Sex & the Single Vampire by Katie MacAlister with me that I really wanted to read and I didn't want to leave the poor pooches in the car while we went to the meet, so I sacrificed myself and stayed in the room with room service (crab cakes anyone? Yum!) and my book and the dogs while my dh sat on a hard bench for six and a half hours. I'm such a martyr, aren't I? Okay, fine, so the track meet would have been fun too, but the book sucked me in and I was lost for the night.

On the way home, I stopped at several bookstores and signed my books (the Flipsides were already sold out most places-yahoo!-so I mostly signed my teen book). We took a detour through the Redwood Forest...hello! Could those trees get any bigger? They were so cool. Oh, and then we stopped on the beach at sunset and played with the dogs and got some awesome pictures. Check back in a few days for the photos, which will be going up soon.

And now I'm back, and I have got to get back to work on my revisions. Toodles for now!

April 24, 2004

Well, my life has majorly changed in the last month, because I am now a full time author! No more getting up at four thirty in the morning to write before I head off to the day job. No more getting home at seven and trying to write something before I pass out on my keyboard! After working at my job for eight years, it was very difficult to make the decision to leave. I had good friends and there were so many more things I wanted to accomplish, but I wanted to dedicate myself to my writing. My writing was my dream and it was time to give it everything I had! So, with my knees trembling and my palms sweating, I gave my notice and embarked upon my new life.

Despite the fact that I don't have a steady paycheck and that it's a little scary to be self-employed, it was the best decision I ever made. I am so happy! My creative juices are flowing, my stress level has plummeted, and now I get to spend quality time with my dogs!

With all my free time, I've been working like a fiend (and having a total blast!). After writing five books in three months (ack!) to meet my deadlines, I had a chance to write some proposals for some new projects that I'm really excited about. I'll give you more details on those when things get a little further along (fingers crosssed!).

Last Friday night I had a meeting with the local teen readers group at a nearby Barnes and Nobles. I got to meet some teen readers and talk about books and what's hot in the teen world. It was so fun, and I had a great time meeting Rachel, Brooke & Brittney. I brought them a sneak peek of my August SMOOCH, Studying Boys, and it was fun to see their reactions!

Yesterday, my Harlequin editor called my agent with revisions for a proposal I've been working on, so that's my new project as of today. It's pretty major revisions, but they'll make the story much better, so I'm excited to get started on that. It hasn't been bought yet, so these revisions are very important!

Oh...and my editor is editing my October book Unbecoming Behavior this week, so I'll be getting those revisions in the next couple weeks. Ack! I hope they aren't too extensive! I'll keep you posted!

Off to work on revisions!

January 2004

What am I working on besides trying to stay sane? Three books with deadlines five weeks apart! My editor first contacted me in October, letting me know that she'd submitted my name for the March online read, which had to be from a pet's POV. (Hmm...could it have had anything to do with the fact we'd been trading animals stories for weeks?). I was so excited, but also nervous. How difficult would it be to write a twenty chapter book in which each chapter was only two pages long? Creating an entire story in that much space didn't sound easy.

I finally received the official offer in December, with a due date in late January. Now, normally, six weeks to write ten thousand words would seem easy, right? Not so much when it's unlike anything you've ever done before! A pet POV, two page chapters, an entire story in forty pages? It was probably the most difficult ten thousand words I'd ever written, but by the time I finished, I was in love with Ophelia, Superman and their owners. Of course, I still have to revise it. Hmm...who's practicing avoidance? You'll be able to check it out on eharlequin.com in March.

While Girl's Best Friend is percolating, I am working on writing the first draft of Shop 'Til Yule Drop, a romantic comedy anthology for Dorchester. The holiday season in NYC-frenzied and stressful, especially when your job and your personal life are falling apart! Poor Angie Miller! Good thing she has a best friend and a very sexy co-worker to help her focus. Except for the fact that she's had a crush on him for four years and he's already broken her heart once. As much as he makes her hormones snap to attention, there's no way she's going to give him another chance to hurt her-a goal that would be much easier if she didn't have to work late with him every night on their current project! To research the book, I stopped in NYC in December for some tourist activity. NYC at Christmastime is awesome!

Links
SMOOCH Young Adult Romance
Dorchester My publisher
CataRomance Everything category
Flipside Authors Home of the Flipside Authors
Romance and Friends My home on the web!
eHarlequin My publisher
Stephie Davis The other me--my alter ego and humorous teen fiction
Amazon.com A great place to buy books
Barnes and Noble Another great place to buy books
Chicklit Writers