I was going to write yesterday, but I simply got too busy. One thing I was doing was answering several people’s questions about how to write a book, or how to publish a book once it’s written.  The answers are already in Ask L. J. or in the FAQs.  Please, please, try to look through these before writing to me.  Also, please remember that the Internet is your best friend if you have questions about how to get an agent or format a manuscript.  Just Google “literary agent for (say, horror fiction).  You’ll get all sorts of helpful hits.  And manuscript format depends on the publisher, which is something your agent can tell you about.  In any case, the first thing for first-time writers is to write a book.

The other thing is that legions of Bamon fans have contacted me—and I do get the point.  You want delicious Bonnie and Damon moments.  I think I can promise you that in Midnight.  The best of all Bonnie and Damon moments so far is in this book, I think.  Meanwhile, yes, I am going to publish a slightly revised (all to the good) version of After Hours, the Bamon library story.  I hope it will be new to some new visitors to this site.

As for the optioning of Secret Circle—well, I’m afraid I don’t have any information that can’t be reached by Google or Yahoo.  And I have to say it: I just don’t have a good feeling about this option. With Vampire Diaries, I knew that it had been picked up by Kevin Williamson, and that he was “serious” and “loved the books.”  With Secret Circle, I’m so far out of the loop that I might as well live on Neptune.  But here is what I know:

First of all, none of this is official.  This info was first released by Vulture and then that article was cited by MTV etc.  But for what it’s worth:

Two of the writers, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fan, consult and write for The Vampire Diaries.  They are also cited as being affiliated with Josh Whedon (the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer) although they wrote for  Angel (a Buffy spin-off) and Dollhouse (a recent Josh Whedon creation).  They’re said to know about science fiction and fantasy.

Andrew Miller, writer for the series Imaginary Bitches, is writing the pilot script and is also executive producer.  Imaginary Bitches was a web series that was popular and also got a fair amount of acclaim.  Andrew Miller created it, directed it and appeared to be the only writer for it.  It was about a girl whose imaginary friends turn out to be, well, bitches. :)

So there’s the first agony.  Not knowing anything official and having a vague bad feeling.  Sigh. For all I know everything reported could be wrong, so it’s hard to take comfort in the past success of hypothetical writers and producers.  I guess what it comes down to is that I’ll believe it when the CW shows the pilot and confirms that it wants the show.  Then I’ll at least have something to root for.

Meanwhile I’ll be posting the first half of a Secret Circle novella at the next site update, and I have a contest for a SC something so gorgeous you won’t believe your eyes!