You Don't Have to be Crazy by Misa Buckley

Writers are crazy. Utterly and completely crazy. Singularly, this might not always be immediately noticeable, but get two or more of us together and it most certainly will be.

Take me and my friend Lori. We're both nuts. Add to that a similar sense of humour and tendency to be on the same page at the same time, and chaotic silliness is the result. For example, the creation of "mittenpunk". I'll get to the meaning of that eventually, but it starts one late night and us discussing my actor crush and placeholders during filming. See, my crush had a sword in one of his films and... well, our conversation turned to it and became terribly high-brow:

Misa says: Also any placeholder would not have been sharp if they had any sense
"So how sharp /is/ this? Oh." *bleeds*
Lori says: "Cliff, keep your hands in your pockets until it's time for your scene." "Awww..."
Misa says: *sniggers*
Lori: "But I--" "Do you want to wear the mittens between takes again?" "No. *huff*"
Misa says: Oh God *dies at the mittens*

At the time of this conversation, I was writing a weird Western and struggling with a title. Enter another friend, Liana, and the "birth" of a new genre. Yes, really.

@MisaBuckley I have Title Block - the story is no problem. Naming it is another matter ?#amwriting?
@LianaBrooks Darcy Does Montanta? ?#Dirtywesterntitles?

Misa says: Liana is "helping" with the title problem
Lori says: Oh?
Misa says: [links to above conversation]
Lori says: *snerk*
MONTANA MITTENS!
Mittenpunk?
Misa says: *cackles*
Mittenpunk = Steampunk set in winter
Lori says: Exactly.

And what, you quite rightly ask, has all this craziness got to do with anything? Well, crazy though the seed might have been, the idea stuck with us. By the end of the next day, we had several authors wanting in on a "Mittenpunk" anthology, which was then presented to a publisher. Sixteen months later, and Lori's novella - NOBLE METALS - is published through Carnal Passions, Champagne Books' erotic romance imprint, while my own ELEANOR'S HEART was published with Champagne yesterday.

So yes, writers are crazy. Utterly bonkers and very often very silly. But even the daftest, drunkest idea sometimes bears fruit.

ELEANOR'S HEART

Dying of a rare blood disease, Eleanor Franklin needs laudanum to ease the pain, often driven to steal in order to buy more. But when she steals a ruby she has no idea that the gem will tip her into the midst of a deadly species war.

Saved by Jefferson Park, she discovers a man with an even darker past than her own: he is one of the last true Vampires fighting to stop the eradication of his kind.

But the Sanguine aren't the only problem as Eleanor finds herself falling in love with Jefferson. It is a relationship she cannot commit to, as she knows her time is limited, and she will not risk breaking his heart.