Winners and More Answers

The not-a-raffle raised just over $1500 for rape crisis centers.  More than that, actually, since for at least part of this month RAINN has been matching donations, meaning much of your generosity was doubled.  Not to mention everyone who donated goods to shelters, or offered their time as volunteers.  Y’all are awesome, incredible people.  Thank you!

73 people entered the drawing.  Congratulations to Elektra, who won an autographed ARC of  Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon], and Marie, who won the bonus prize of Heroes in Training.  I’ve e-mailed you both with details.

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In my first round of answers to the Q&A post, I said Talia would beat Batman in an (unfair) fight.  Many of you argued this point, but now we have proof!  Pictures don’t lie.  Click on the thumbnail for the glorious evidence.  Thank you socchan for settling this issue once and for all.  Now for a few more answers…

• Kevin Stewart asked, “How do you outline a book series based off one idea that you know will take that long to tell in the way you wish to tell it?”

I don’t know, because I haven’t really done it yet.  Goblin Quest was originally a standalone novel.  I didn’t get the idea for book two until I was halfway through writing Quest.  I think I did a pretty good job of building on the story and creating a larger arc by the end of book three, but very little of that was planned in advance.

With the princess series, I knew I wanted to write multiple books, and had some ideas about overarching plot arcs.    But they were very loose ideas, things I wanted to develop or come back to, but nothing planned out or outlined in detail.  I sold Stepsister Scheme in a standalone deal, then sold Mermaid and Red Hood in another deal.  The sale of Snow Queen came later.  So I didn’t even know for certain if I’d have four books to finish the story.

When I finally get around to pitching my next series, I’m going to try to plan it out in more detail and see what happens.  But knowing me, even if I outline every last twist, by the time I start writing the third or fourth book I’ll be going off in completely new directions anyway 🙂

• atdt1991 asked “What’s the worst thing about being diabetic?”

Probably the worst thing for me are the times when I can’t get my blood sugar under control.  Overall, I’ve been fortunate to be able to maintain very good control, but some days, for whatever reason, I just can’t.  Whether it’s because I’m sick, or the pump’s infusion site isn’t working, or whatever, I absolutely hate the feeling of being out of control of my own body.

• Finally, Sean asks, “Who would win in a fight, Jig or Talia? We’re talking prison rules here.”

Dude, Talia took out Batman.  I love Jig, but if he ever goes up against Talia, it’s not going to be pretty.  Fortunately, Jig is clever enough to know when he’s outmatched, and would probably find a way to avoid the fight altogether.  Either by tricking the hobgoblins or the orcs into fighting for him, or simply running the heck away.