Although Borne was not my first manuscript, it is my first manuscript to see the light of day, and hence was a major learning experience. I used MS Word to write it, an old familiar friend from my college days.

Bound, however, is turning into a learning experience in its own right, as I have switched to Scrivener. Let me say that I LOVE this program, and why wouldn't I? It was designed for novel-writing, and you can tell. It is so incredibly intuitive to my creative process, that I am impressed every time I open it up to write.

Bound is coming along nicely, although I've slowed my pace a bit as I've thrown myself into researching a particular area of the story that I'm unfamiliar with (martial arts and rainforests!) This book is going to have quite a bit more action than the last, which is exciting and frightening to me at the same time. Will I outrage real martial artists, or will I impress them with my handy research skills. We will see.

The parts that flow the easiest for me are those based on relationships. The relationship between Maya and Matt, Maya and Cayne, Cayne and Jakov, Jakov and Dragana and these combos including the new characters.

As for formatting, I am not sure how my readers will like it. Its a bit different than anything I've done before. Instead of having "flashbacks" or head-hopping, I've set aside certain chapters that actually go back in time. Basically I have mini-stories within my overarching story line. I hope this isn't a mistake, and that it will smoothly inform readers by "showing-not-telling" in a way that makes sense. Otherwise, I'll have a lot of irate commentators! Just ask Terry Mancour, author of Warmage. (I loved his book, by the way, and was not one of his detractors on his format).

I guess the moral of the story is that you can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself (and your editor, hopefully)!