Apparently January will be the Month of Rereading My Own Books. I got email from my editorial assistant yesterday saying he'd noticed they didn't have an art fact sheet for HOUSE OF CARDS, the second book of the Old Races Negotiator(?) series yet, and could I fill one out by today. (And, bless him, he said I could fill it out in a word document instead of through the system that I dislike. Yay!)

So, y'know, no problem. But I haven't read that book since September, and doing an AFS needs--well, I've got some ideas for the cover, but I'd like to see if there are specific images in the book to use, and just to get a feel again for the whole story thematically and all of that. (And with any luck I will enthuse myself about writing the third book in the series, in the process. :))

So today's going to be a day for doing work-that's-not-writing. My other editor emailed yesterday and said what did I think about having a map for THE QUEEN'S BASTARD (I thought it was a great idea, as I'd been thinking of it myself and forgot to mention it), so I have to scare up a map of appropriate era and re-draw it. Need to check Ted's map books. He may very well have a European map from the 1580s in there. I also need to create a cast of characters list, though I've got that mostly done already because *I* needed one to keep my characters straight at first. And then since I had it already I mostly kept it up. :)

Anyway, so this morning I'm making bread, doing laundry, reading HOUSE OF CARDS, and looking for maps. This afternoon I'll be doing the AFS. And later this afternoon I think I need to round up some people and do some brainstorming on the individual quests for ANGLES, 'cause I'm in a rut on them now and need to be shaken loose.

If I'm feeling *especially* killer, I might try writing a synopsis for TRUTHSEEKER. It's what, Wednesday? I'm sure arcaedia has nothing better to do this weekend than read Yet Another Book Proposal from me... (my poor agent. :))

This job does not suck. :)

Working under the "easier to get forgiveness than permission" mindset combined with an, "It's probably okay," from the EA, I'm posting the AFS for HEART OF STONE. Quickly, my beauties! Read, before I have to take it down or flock it! :) (Also, the EA just told me this was the best AFS he'd ever seen. My, how cheerful I am!)

I don't believe this contains any spoilers or much in the way of information that you wouldn't get from reading the back of the book, more or less, but if you don't want to know anything, don't read it. :)

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Got email last night from my editor's assistant, who said, more or less, "Oops. I need the art fact sheet for HEART OF STONE by, uh, tomorrow, can you help me out?"

I have absolutely no idea if other houses do this, but Harlequin asks the author to fill out an AFS to get information on what kinds of things oughta be on the cover. My own experience with doing the AFSs so far has been freaking brilliant: with THE CARDINAL RULE, I cited Sandra K. Moore's Bombshell, THE ORCHID HUNTER, as an example of the kind of cover I thought would work: I liked the 3 basic elements of the woman, the smaller figure/scene at the bottom, and then the sideline of the orchid itself. I thought it worked really nicely as a cover. So I said I'd love to see something like that, and that the Vatican was a major scene point in TCR, so it might be a good location to work with. I got this as a result. I was freaking *thrilled* with it (still am!).

For the second book in that series, I filled out their zillion questions and said, "Louvre instead of the Vatican," and got this, which, again, I was completely happy with. They didn't so much use the 3-element thing in these as two and a quote/distinctive font to tie 'em all together, but I was (and am) totally cool with that. Basically when it came to the third one I filled out a bit of the material but said, "Honestly, it's silly to fill all this out, you guys are batting a thousand, the location element for the third one should be the Parliament Building or Big Ben," and that time *I* suggested the cover quote (no idea at all if they'll use it!), but I'm expecting the third cover is going to fit right in and I can't wait to see it (*checks Amazon obsessively*).

The Walker Paper covers I've filled out at least some of the paperwork for, but a whole lotta credit just has to go straight to the art department and Hugh Syme on those again. First off, on the first one I didn't fill out most of the questions--they hadn't set me up on the system yet--and when I got the first copy of the cover my editor said, "Now, don't panic, I know this isn't exactly what you asked for..." because it included elements like Jo's belt, bracelet, and babydoll shirt, none of which are things Jo would especially/necessarily wear (she does have a bracelet, but it's in an entirely different style). However, once she'd set me up for AUGH MY GOD WHAT DOES SHE MEAN DON'T PANIC?!? the cover was so incredibly perfect I think I spent about three weeks squealing over it. Same thing with THUNDERBIRD FALLS, which I just sat there and gaped at: it's exactly like the URBAN SHAMAN cover and yet completely, totally different.

For COYOTE DREAMS, she said, "How about if we have Petite on the cover?" which, I mean, right there just made me happier than anything. She sent me the art department's concept *months* ago, and even in black and white, I swear to God it almost made me *cry*. It was *so* *sad* and *so* perfect! I don't think the final version is going to be so *sad*, but it's going to be fantastic.

Right, so the point of all of this was that filling out the AFS for HoS this morning was actually a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what comes of it. I don't think I'm going to get what I asked for (I've asked for a long shot), but it'll be cool one way or another. I'm waiting to see if they'll let me post the AFS questions (donno if they're proprietary) so people can actually get a back-door look at the kinds of things they ask for the cover information (I said, rashly assuming somebody'd be interested :)).

But now to shower and then to write, having spent the entire morning working but not writing.