Stars Will Cry

Books & More Books

2012-01-27T09:13:00.002-06:00

Whee! It's Friday! It's Hubby's birthday, too. Mini has half a day of school today, and when he gets home, he's going to help me bake an Oreo cake for the man's birthday.

I said a couple of days ago, that I'd update on some of the books I've been reading, so here it is. I finished reading Write Tight by William Brohaugh Thursday afternoon. I feel like this is best used for non-fiction, article writing, and for term papers. There are a few good nuggets in here for fiction writers, such as how to spot and cut redundancies, plus helpful tips on using devices in your writing projects. The book is good for what it is. I'd pick it up and read through it again if I had a term paper to write, but in all honesty, I expected something else out of this book. If I had to recommend a book to help someone write tighter fiction, I'd go with the tried and true Browne and King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

I'm now reading Hooked, by Les Edgerton, {write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go}. As soon as I'm finished reading that one, I'll post what I think about it. I have to admit, I've thumbed through the book, and it looks really good. It has a section in the back with comments from editors and agents about "beginnings". I've read all of that, already. A sneak peek. ;o) Good stuff. Very interesting. Now to go back and read the rest of the book. {g}

All week, I've been cleaning out my office bit by bit. Early Spring cleaning, I guess you can say. Anyway, I posted about my new bookshelf a couple days ago, but I didn't mention I've also got a huge shelf in here, one that you'd probably put in a garage to store gallons of paint on, or whatever. For years, this shelf has been collecting clutter. I've ignored it, because it's mostly organized into bins, but it's seriously loaded down to capacity with old dollies, books, boxes of craft stuff, baskets...just a bunch of different stuff. You name it, it's probably in there somewhere. That's my puttering shelf, I guess. Mini comes in here and picks through it looking for interesting stuff to tinker with from time to time. If it attracts a six year old, you know it's a lotta junk.

I've been gradually boxing up that stuff. There's only one shelf with anything on it now. I've thrown a lot of stuff away, and donated even more of it, by putting it in the charity bins down the street. There were literally tubs of books on the bottom shelf. Most of the books are titles I've already read. I sorted through them all yesterday. I put aside the "keeper" books, so I can buy them for my Kindle, if they are available. I'll keep the paperbacks that aren't available digitally, but I imagine most are available as e-books, so that will cut down on space. The other books I've read are going into the donation bins down the street.

But that was just one tub - well, I say tub - actually, they're in huge canvas storage bins. In one of the bins, I found all these paperbacks that I bought, and never read. Oh. My. Jeez. There are probably thirty to fifty paperbacks in there. I am making a pledge to read and donate every last one of these books by the end of summer. I'm so bad about buying books I think sound great when I see them on the shelf at the bookstore, then I get them home, and I pretty much toss them on another shelf and forget about them. Makes no sense, right? Especially since I'm always reading something, both fiction and non-fiction. Sometimes I've even got two books I'm reading at the same time. I'll get to a slow point in one, and pick up the other book. So, it's hard to imagine how I managed to amass this many unread books in my TBR stack. Well, I'm gonna take care of that. I want these books out of here. And if I find any along the way worth keeping, I'm going to see if I can buy them through iTunes, or for my Kindle. Through it all, I'll try to remember to post about what I'm reading - to keep things interesting.

That's all I've got for now. I need to rush around the house and tidy up everything before Mini gets home from school. I have about an hour and a half. Yikes! I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!

Crazy Day :: Writing Inspiration

2012-01-25T18:08:00.000-06:00

Mini's new scarf.
"Sonic" blue, as requested.

What a crazy day! I woke up late for starters. It's my own fault, of course. I stayed up late finishing a crochet project. Well, I was kind of killing two birds with one stone. I was crocheting while watching research videos for my new writing project. It's been so cold, Mini desperately needed a scarf for waiting on the bus in the mornings. I finished it around one in the morning - a few minutes before the final video ended.
By the time I crawled into bed, I was pretty tired. I remember waking up at 6, and hitting the snooze button. The next time I woke up, it was almost time for the bus. With very little time to spare, I rushed to get Mini dressed, gave him money for breakfast, and snack time...and then the bus never showed up. I ended up driving him to school. I thought maybe the bus had simply arrived super early, but when I got to the school, I kinda doubted that was the case. There was hardly anyone on campus when we arrived. I thought about it later and realized I had seen hardly any traffic on the drive over. I parked out front and quickly went through Mini's binder to see if there were any notes about class being canceled. There weren't any, and I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. It was about 7:30 and the campus is usually full and busy by that time. After sitting in the car for about five minutes, I noticed the coaches out front on "drop off" duty, so I went ahead and pulled around to the porte-cochere and hung around until Mini dashed into the building.
I got back home and the power went out. That's when I found out that we have these massive storm systems coming through the area. I figured maybe the power outages caused some folks - possibly even the bus driver - not to get up on time. It's the only thing I can come up with.
Anyway, on to writerly things... I spent last night and most of today researching for my next novel. I'm in the taking notes and collecting ideas stage, so I'm still working my way through character sheets, writing down ideas for scenes, working on a plot, and such. I probably won't start writing the draft until February. I need to know how the story is going to begin, what the main mid-point event is going to be, and how the story is going to end before I start writing. Every time I try to start a story too fast, I end up having to strip one of those three points out of the story to rework them until I'm ready to pull my hair out. It's worth it to do the prewriting. It saves me a lot of headache in the long run. On the positive side, I love to research and brainstorm, so this is me in my element. Let the plotting commence! {g}
Earlier, I noticed that my e-book Heart on Fire is #88 on the Amazon Top 100 free Erotica list. Cool beans! Don't forget to grab a free copy for your e-reader. http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Fire-Cora-Zane-ebook/dp/B006M6A6V4/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
One more thing before I close today... I found this video on what it takes to be successful, and thought I'd share it. It's short, only about three minutes. It's inspiring stuff - well worth a look.

I'm almost finished reading WriteTight by William Brohaugh. I'll post more about it once I've had a chance to read the last few chapters. I'll possibly have a short review for it on Friday - which is hubby's birthday, just for the sake of saying so. Hm. Now that I'm thinking about it, I need to bake the man a cake. I wonder what kind he wants...{scribbles down note to self}
Next up on my (non-fiction) reading list is Hooked by Les Edgerton. Again, I've mentioned this somewhere before, I borrowed both of these from my local library. I've linked to the listings on Amazon. These aren't necessarily the cheapest listings, so be sure to do your own search. I linked them to the pages that had the "look inside" preview option.
Happy Wednesday!

New Bookshelf And A Scarf

2012-01-24T10:38:00.003-06:00

For a little while this morning, Heart on Fire was in the Amazon Top 100 Books on the free Erotica list. It's also #877 on the overall free list. It may still be there, I haven't had a chance to check on it. A big thanks to my anonymous friend, who pointed it out to me. (Name withheld by request.)

Heart on Fire is part of the Werekind Series. Just a fun little werewolf romance that is perfect for Valentine's Day. You can get a free copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Fire-Cora-Zane-ebook/dp/B006M6A6V4/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

I meant to blog last night, but time got away from me. I had to finish laundry and try to clear away some of the boxes in my office. Like a crazy person, I decided to add in a new bookshelf strictly for my writerly craft type books. Also, to hold my notebooks. Putting the shelf together was the easy part. It only took about 15 minutes. The real work started when I moved it to my office. Oh man, yeah, I started moving things around to fit the shelf in, and it soon looked like a bomb had gone off in here. I had literally boxes of books to sort. Lots of binders to flip through. Papers from...I can't even imagine where they came from.

My new bookshelf! You can also see part of
my space heater. And that blue thing
at the very bottom of the pic is the edge of
my jeans. I was sitting cross legged in my
desk chair when I took the pic. :P

When Mini made it home from school we had a grand old time shredded two bags full of papers. These aren't writing papers, they are bills from late last year. I have a storage tote of old bills to shred in the dining room, and that's on my to-do list for today.{whimper}

While digging through my stuff, I found two manuscript boxes from the 1990s. Back when I wasn't publishable. Yep. My old skeletons in the basement of my early writing years. I read through a few pages of a manuscript called Darkness Falls, and it's a miracle I didn't need a drink afterward. It was pretty horrendous. I'm sure you can imagine. But if you look at the bright side, I stuck with it, and now I have over twenty published stories, in various lengths: short story, novellas, and a novel. I can stand up and testify that writing can be learned, because...whoa mama. These early manuscripts are bad. Bad, bad, embarrassingly bad. Keep writing, people. If you get discouraged, keep writing.

When I get the room to rights again, I'm going to put away the books on top of the shelf and set up some of the boys pictures.

Speaking of the boys, I have to sort through yarn later on this afternoon. Mini needs a scarf. It was bitterly cold this morning when he went out to wait on the bus. And, of course, the bus would choose that day to be late. {g} Anyway, he wants a blue scarf. One the color of Sonic the Hedgehog. I have no idea if I have any blue yarn, so, I'm going to have to check. It's been a while since I've dipped into the yarn bin. All that said, you know where I'll be later on this afternoon - sitting in front of the TV trying to work up a quickie scarf. Glamorous, no?

That's all for now. I have lots to do, and a short time to do it in before the MiniBeast is back home from school. Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Library Books Du Jour

2012-01-22T12:23:00.001-06:00

No new posts since last Thursday. Sorry about that. I've been catching up on work, and doing little odds and ends that needed taken care of before the conference rush starts. I sent off the erotica short story around 1:30 this morning, so I'm currently caught up with all the projects I needed to complete by the end of this month.

I met up with a fell writer friend this past Friday at the local library. We used to ride to the RWA meetings together, but I haven't seen her in a few months. I helped her with her synopsis. Basically, I showed her how to condense and organize it chapter by chapter so it would be easier to write. Also, she wanted to read the first few pages of one of the stories I have out on submission right now. It was a good visit, and since she's living in town, we talked about getting together again soon, possibly for timed writings and such.

While at the library I checked out several writing books that must be new to the catalog. I've never seen them up there, anyway. I checked out You Can Write a Romance, by Rita Clay Estrada and Rita Gallagher. I read the whole book Friday afternoon. It's only about 120 pages cover to cover. There are some good sections in there, such as the how they define a romance, and how to layer in backstory. I probably wouldn't buy this book for my keeper shelf, though, since I have a lot of this information in other books I already own.

I also checked out Write Tight, Say Exactly What You Mean with Precision and Power, by William Brohaugh. I'm currently reading this one. It's supposed to teach you how to cut down on wordiness, trim the writing "flab" from your projects, and whatnot. It looks like an in depth book on the subject, so I've got this one marked as a possible purchase later on.

The final book I checked out is called Hooked, write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go, by Les Edgerton. I picked this one up because the back of the book claims to help you develop your inciting incident, create a story-worthy problem for your characters, and gives you a run down on scene length and how to manipulate transitions. Transitions are a big pain in the rump, if you ask me. So that one is a plus. I can't wait to read this one, and will post more about it once I've had time to read it cover to cover.

And...one more book, this one I bought while in Bossier last week, and it's just for recreational fun reading. I picked up a copy of Hot as Sin by Bella Andre. Good lord, what a sexy cover! I'm looking forward to reading this one. I admit, I've did a sneak read, and read through the first chapter. But alas...the library books. I have to read those first because they've got to go back by the 3rd.

For the next week or so, I'll be researching, reading, brainstorming, and relaxing. It's probably going to be the only real break I get between now and conference time, so I'll take it.

Running Up That Hill

2012-01-19T11:29:00.004-06:00

It's hard to believe the work week is almost over. Everything has been a blur. We drove to MEPS in Shreveport yesterday and watched Oldest's swearing-in ceremony. Afterward, we had a few minutes to give him hugs and tell him we love him, then we had to leave. I got a call from him around 1:30 this morning. I stayed up late, expecting it. Waiting. He basically called, and reads from a sheet to let us know that he has reached basic training and is okay. Then he hangs up. A bit depressing, but I was relieved to hear his voice. And relieved to hear he'd made it to Illinois okay. It's the furthest away from home he's ever been.

I'm trying to get the house settled after all the packing, shifting, sorting, and moving of stuff that's been going around since Friday of last week. I have to run to the store later today, too, because we're out of basics. Ugh. I hate it when things are out of sort like this. What can I say? I'm a Virgo. I like organization, dammit. I'm aware it's probably going to take all weekend to get everything back in some semblance of order, so I'm trying to be cool about it. I can only do so much at one time.

Today, I'm making a final reading pass over the short erotica story so I can get it sent out tonight. Such a fun, sexy little story. :} Once that's out the door, I'm going to start filling in beat sheets and working on a log line for a new erotic romance. Honestly, I'm ready to start playing around with new ideas.

Anyway, that's all for now. I've got to get a bunch of stuff finished today, because tomorrow I'll be off visiting with a writerly friend in town. We're going to break out the wips and chat about conference and books, girl stuff, and whatnot. Basically, some fun time for relaxing before the weekend gets here. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Changes. Goodbyes. Hugs.

2012-01-17T02:03:00.003-06:00

It's after midnight. I didn't intend to stay up this late, but I've been rushing around doing last minute piddly things and tying up loose ends as best as I'm able. Tuesday is Oldest's last day at home with us. His recruiter is coming to pick him up toward the afternoon.

I should have Mini back home just in time to tell his big bubba goodbye. He's been very worried about him going off to basic, and I decided to send Mini on to school so he isn't crying all day, and jumping every time he hears a car drive by.

Yesterday, my parents came over to say their last goodbyes and gave Oldest lots of hugs. It was very emotional. They didn't stay long. Just spent a few minutes telling Oldest they love him, and shed a ton of tears, and then mom approached me in the living room and said they were going to go on home - they didn't want to get Mini started crying. I told Mom I'd call sometime in the afternoon to let her and Dad know when Oldest takes off.

On Wednesday, he'll be leaving meps and flying out to basic training. We're going to drive up to Shreveport to see him get re-sworn in, and give him a few hugs before he's off to the airport. I'm anxious, worried, nervy, sick to my stomach, thrilled for him, happy he's setting out to chase his dreams. There's this endless mix of emotions going on - and pride. I'm so very proud of my baby boy. Boo hoo. I'm going to miss him.

To keep the blues away, I'll probably spend extra time with Mini, and focus on writing. Conference is coming up soon, so I guess I'll have an extra excuse to focus on my getting my pitch projects together. My daily schedule is going to be very different with the big boy off doing his own thing. It's going to mean big changes here at home, and a lot more alone time for me - something I'm not at all used to.

On a lighter note, I finished the short erotica story yesterday. Or was it the day before? It all blends. Anyway, it's finished, and in pretty good shape. I need to read through it, make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, and it will be ready to send off to the editor.

That's all for now. I have to get the clothes folded and go on to bed. I have to be up in a few hours to get Mini ready for school. Happy dreams, everyone!

Saturday Is Close To Home

2012-01-14T10:51:00.001-06:00

This is Oldest's last weekend with us for a few months, so we're sticking close to home today. I'm also prepping a short story for submission. I have writing to do, boxes to move to the shed, and I still need to take down the Xmas tree and store it. Those are just a few things on a list of many. Tonight, we're going to flop in front of the TV and watch movies.

Next week is going to be super busy, and once Oldest is off to Chicago, I have to start getting my stuff ready for conference. It will be here sooner than I probably realize, and I still need to figure out what the heck I'm doing, and make my hotel reservations. I have a couple of things on hand to pitch, and I've decided to take more than one project to the table. Looking at the roster, I'm guessing my work is probably too dark for anyone scheduled to take appointments, but what the heck. The worst thing any of them can say to me is no thanks.

Under A Midnight Moon finally topped out in the Amazon Top 100, I think. It reached #10 for about an hour or so Thursday night/Friday morning. Something like that. It has since shifted downward a few slots, but it's all good. It was a fun ride while it lasted.

That said, I better get to work. The guys just left to make a run to the store...for more something. I didn't hear what they said on the way out the door. At any rate, I should try to get something done while I have the house to myself. Happy weekend, everyone!

Working For The Weekend

2012-01-11T22:19:00.003-06:00

I finally feel like I'm getting my stride back after being sick. Too, I have all the guys lined out and well, I think. Mini went back to school today, and I worked on my conference story for a bit. Tonight, I'm going to knock out that erotica shorty. It has to be send-ready no later than Sunday, because next week, the whole family will be taking off a few days to see Oldest's swearing in ceremony, and hugging him goodbye for basic training. I'm so nervous, I can barely stand it. I have to stay busy or I get weepy.

Tomorrow, I have to buy storage bins for Oldest's closet. We're packing away some of his things while he's gone. That way we'll be able to repaint and get a new bed in there for him before he's back home again. That's going to be Hubby's personal project.

This Saturday, my local RWA chapter - the Nola Stars - will be gathering for our monthly meeting at the Bossier Parish History Center. I'm really psyched about this one and hope I can make it. Author Melanie Atkins is the January guest speaker, and she's giving a workshop on pacing. If at all possible, I'm going to be there. First things first, though. I've got to get this story wrangled into something worth reading or I'll be stuck in my desk chair all weekend.

I noticed earlier today that Under a Midnight Moon moved into the #13 spot on Amazon's Top 100 Free for Erotica list. Very cool. If you like werewolf stories, I hope you'll grab a free copy for your e-reader.

Because I've been asked... It's true that Betsey, the heroine of Under a Midnight Moon, and her mate also have minor roles in Dominant Territory. And yes - Betsey's best friend, Adriana, has her own story - it's called Feral Instinct, which is a part of the Rekindled Fire anthology. (You can read most of Feral Instinct for free if you use Google Books and "preview" the anthology. Just sayin'.)

That's all the news I have at the moment. It's already after ten, so I better break out the wip and get writing. Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Reworking, Rewriting, Rereading

2012-01-10T08:46:00.001-06:00

Let's try this again, shall we? Late last night, I stripped the beginning off my short story and reworked it. Then I took that beginning off, and rewrote it entirely. I'm rereading through it again this morning, and anticipating more changes. The sexy bits are good, but it needs a hook. Something to make the story gel.

I hope I'm able to get to it today, but right now, I'm so tired I can barely think straight.

In an hour or so, I have an appointment to get my yearly thyroid workup. I'm sick with a cold on top of that, so the doctor should be thrilled to see me. I have to take Mini with me, since he woke up feeling yucky this morning. At first I thought he was attempting to play 'possum with me, but when he got up close I could smell that sick, viral smell on him, and thought, Dang.

Until this morning, he was the only one of us who hadn't caught it yet. I'm guessing it just took longer to germinate with him. Of course, I'm all out of children's medicines. I've got to grab something for him while I'm at the pharmacy getting my pills filled. Anyway, I called the school a little while ago to report Mini as absent - we're required to do so - and the woman in the office was startlingly bitchy on the phone. Wow. That was unpleasant!

This afternoon, I have to go over a synopsis for a friend, then I'm probably going to call it a day. Or at least take a nap. I wasn't anticipating getting up at five a.m., or I'd have gone to bed a little earlier. Sometimes it just can't be avoided, though. I have a lot to do, and time is running short, so I better get started. Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Inspiration & Amazon's Top 100 List

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-06:00

I've been sick most of the weekend, so I didn't get much accomplished writerly wise. Boo. Instead of trying to fight it, I edited a few paragraphs on the erotica short I recently finished, then put it away for when I've got my brains firing on all cylinders. Try as I might, I just couldn't seem to get a grip on it through the TheraFlu haze - a sure sign I need to hold off doing anything drastic. Monday, when the house is settled, I'm gonna try to wrap it up. At the very least, I'm going after it with a highlighter. It's not bad, it just needs a thorough polishing.

Late Sunday morning, while washing my hair - I have no idea why so many good ideas come to me when I'm washing my hair, but anyway - I had a writing epiphany. There's a story idea I've been playing around with since last year, but I couldn't seem to get it off the ground. I never gave up hope on it, and I'm so glad I didn't. I not only figured out how to get it off the ground, I figured out how to turn it into a series. Exciting stuff!

The answer to the story problems popped into my head, and I had to hurry and rinse my hair and wrap it in a towel so I could make a mad dash to my office to jot down notes. Which is kind of funny, because hubby always thinks I've gone mad when I run dripping through the house to grab and pen and paper. It also made me think of this video author J.K. Coi posted on her twitter feed the recently. It's Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert talking about fear, our writing geniuses dying, and where writing inspiration comes from. It's very inspiring and funny - a truly awesome video about creativity - be sure to check it out. You'll be glad you did!

I also have a very cool thing to share! Over the weekend, the lovely Suzanne Rock told me she spotted one of my freebie Werekind werewolf stories on Amazon. It sat at #23 earlier this evening, but Under A Midnight Moon just hit #21 on the Kindle Top 100 free erotica list. It's also #367 overall on the free list. Very cool! And a first for me. A special thanks to everyone who has downloaded my story. I appreciate you!

Under A Midnight Moon at #21
Cool beans!

That's all for now. I'm going to wrap this up on a high note. :*) Too, it's after midnight and I need to get the laundry in the dryer before I can go on to bed. I hope your Monday is magical.

By the way, if you do end up watching the Elizabeth Gilbert video, come back here and let me know what you thought of it. Are you going to name your personal genius - your personal Dobby the house elf? Hehe! Inquiring minds want to know! ;*)

Writing, Plans, and Writing Plans

2012-01-07T15:54:00.000-06:00

Ooh. That was close. I had just enough ink left to print up a copy of the short erotica story I've been working on for the past few days. I finished writing it late last night, when I was between cold medicine doses and couldn't breathe well enough to sleep.

If I can manage to wrap my brain around the words, I'm going to start polishing this thing today. I work much slower when I'm sick. It's completely frustrating. But the story isn't very long, and it's not a complicated piece, so I hope to get on it, and have it ready to send no later than Wednesday.

Once the erotica shorty has been sent off, I'll be taking off from doing any serious writing for about a week and a half to spend time with Oldest. Next weekend, we're having a going away party for him. He's leaving for basic training on the 17th. Next week we're going to sort through his room, pack up the stuff he doesn't use much, and put it in storage. While he's away, hubby's planning to remodel his room for him, which is cool. But it's still hard to believe my baby boy is gonna be gone for two whole months. <sniff, sniff>

My local RWA conference is only a few months away, so I've got to start planning for that. I still need to make hotel reservations, and pull together a pitch package. I think I've pretty much decided on my pitch story for conference. It's a straight up paranormal romance. I'm just not confident enough in the September Experiment at this point to push that particular book. I can think of a few key elements I want to change about it before I show it to anyone. That's going to take time. There's another story on the back burner, and I'm thinking it's time to pull that one out and give it a go.

The September Experiment is on my high priority list this year, but I'm thinking once it's polished and pretty, that book will probably go to one of my existing publishers. I'm still undecided, but that seems the most likely scenario at this point. Or rather, my most likely means of selling this book. I have a few places in mind outside my usual circle of submissions that I'd like to try, but we'll have to wait and see what develops. I could completely change my mind about the book between now and March. It's just one of those things. But for the time being, and with all things considered, I'm shelving it until after conference.

That's pretty much all I've got going on at the moment. Writing, plans, and writing plans. I realize I'm going to have to be more conservative with my time this year, because I have a lot of stuff on my plate. Before the month is out, I'm going to have to sit down and work up a schedule so I can hit my writing targets this year. I'm not so much worried about publishers as I am about writing the stories of my heart. There are a few I've had rolling around in my head for a year or more and I haven't touched. It's time to put them on paper and let them go. If I were to have a writing resolution for 2012 that would be it. It's time to write these stories and set them free.

Friday Inspiration

2012-01-06T12:11:00.000-06:00

Image courtesy of photobucket

Hurray for Friday! It couldn't have come at a better time. Hubby is home, snoozing on the couch. He has been sick for the past week, and it's finally caught up with Oldest and me. Oldest came to me yesterday afternoon and informed me he's not feeling well. Then last night, I woke up with the worst sore throat I've had in probably two years. Mini is the only one of us who hasn't come down sick, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

I made a doctor appointment this morning, but can't get in to see anyone until Tuesday. I'm going to work on polishing the erotica story that's due this month, and leave everything else until I'm feeling better. I can tell already I'll probably spend most the weekend curled up on the couch with a book or sleeping. It's just one of those things.

Image courtesy of photobucket

Since I'm not feeling very writerly at the moment, I thought I'd share some of the stuff inspiring me right now. I like the dirty, sweaty, glittery-glam look of Marilyn Minter's work. Although I believe she currently lives in NYC, Ms. Minter is from Shreveport, so that makes me love her as an artist even more. If I could have anyone's work decorate my office, it would be hers.

I like the colors, the glitter, the freckles, and the wetness of each of these photos. I believe the picture below the sparkly one with the fuchsia eye shadow is from a MAC makeup campaign, but I could be wrong about that. I found out too late that she did a collection for them, and sadly missed out on buying any pigments based on her work. Boohoo.

Image courtesy of photobucket

Just for the sake of saying so... How awesome would it be to have one of these delicious pictures for an erotica book cover? The pearls as a cover would be to die for!

I'm also currently inspired by 80s epic women's fiction with romantic elements such as Lace. I watched the television series with my mother back in the day, and I also read the book by Shirley Conran. It's one of those grandeur epics that scream dream big or go home. I kind of feel like that's an appropriate mantra for 2012. I don't know why it feels that way, but it does.

Hm...what else? Oh, yes. I'm also inspired lately by Tanith Lee's Hunting the Shadows. Lots of dreamy, dark prose in that one. Her work is so different from everyone else's. Truly wonderful stuff.

So that's it for now. I'm about to settle in and drink a cup of peppermint tea. In about an hour, I have to go pick up Mini from school, so I'm putting off taking more cold meds. I need to be alert. I hate driving when I feel like this, but I'm cool with it. We're going into the weekend, after all. And besides, it's not really about me. Poor Mini. Who the heck likes to ride the bus, yanno?
✥ Happy Friday, everyone! ✥

Writing Thoughts: Wednesday

2012-01-04T14:04:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe the week is already half over. I keep feeling like I'm missing something, a day, or maybe something important I needed to do, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it is.

I'm in the middle of working on the short erotica story due at the end of the month. It's all plotted out and arranged. I have a rough sketch written, and last night, after much debate, I finally came up with a title that fits. All I have to do is get the rest of the story down on paper, um, computer screen. So far, so good.

Conference is coming up fast, and I really need to start looking at what I'm going to pitch. I've considered the September Experiment, but I'm seriously thinking about subbing that around on my own, and on my own time. I already have a list of publishers where I'd like to see that particular book go, and none of those publishers require an agent. I also think at least three of my current editors would have an interest in the book. Even if I'm wrong about that, if I subbed the book and no one ended up taking it, I could always publish it on my own.

So, I'm not sure what to do about pitching now. If I don't go with S.E., I'm back hunting through my files for a different book to pitch - and I really don't have a lot of time to think about it.

I'm playing it loose at the moment, but I'm probably going to have to have a sit down with a few close of friends, pitch to them and see what they think. In the end, I'll probably go with what project seems the most likely to sell. I guess we'll have to wait and see what develops.

Teasing You - Tuesday is like Monday

2012-01-03T14:19:00.000-06:00

Coming in April 2012

I'm so lost today. It feels like Monday, but I look at the calendar and see it's actually Tuesday. My eyes know it. My brain knows it, but for some reason my subconscious is in utter denial.

I've been working on an erotica short story today. It's the one due at the end of the month. I should be able to wrap this one up tonight. Tomorrow at the very latest. It's flowing really well.

Yesterday I talked a little bit about new works I have coming out this year. I forgot to mention that the Ultimate Angels anthology should be coming out in February. I've heard nothing to tell me otherwise about that date. My fallen angel short story Prince of Thorns is in that one.

And in April, I have a delicious collection of erotica short stories coming out. The book is in the editing phases now. A few of the stories have appeared in various places around the internet. The title story What She Doesn't Know, originally appeared on the H is for Harlot blog, which I believe is now defunct. The Matador is a shorty short story, and it originally appeared as a blog flash fiction piece. It has appeared as both Viva El Toro, and Viva Ze Bull elsewhere. I absolutely love that little story! On the flip side, the collection also contains several brand spanking new stories that have never been published anywhere, and they will be exclusive to this book. So mark your calendars for April. There is some sexy, sexy stuff going on in this book. You won't want to miss it.

All this week, I'll be finishing up writing projects and sending them out the door. This is the mad rush before conference season, and I need to clear off my plate as much as possible. Of course, I'll be blogging as often as I'm able. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Right? ;o)

GrrlX Publishing and Upcoming Titles

2012-01-02T22:52:00.000-06:00

Coming soon at my new micro
press site - GrrlX Publishing

Last year, I began working on a self-publishing venture I've lovingly named GrrlX Publishing. (pronounced Girl X) I had hoped to have it up and running in the fall of 2011, but everyone who knows me personally, or reads this blog on a fairly regular basis knows last summer and into the fall, we were dealing with some pretty tough issues here at home. Family comes first, and when my father in law passed away in August, GrrlX stopped being a priority, as did the short stories and novellas I intended to self-publish.

Life is still a bit crazy here at home, but I've finally picked up where I left off on all these "old" projects. GrrlX Publishing, for one. The site isn't up just yet. The site is built and published, and I've just transferred the domain name and changed all the A Records. It's telling me I need to wait 48 hours, so we'll see. I hope the new site will appear soon. I'm not very tech savvy, so I may have some more tinkering to do before the actually website shows up. But for all respective purposes, my self-publishing game is on.

My first release for GrrlX is currently in production. Shown above is the temporary cover for At the Edge of Twilight: A Collection of Erotic Faerie Tales. The title story originally appeared in the In The Gloaming: A Faerie Anthology, through Freya's Bower. I got my rights back on it a couple of years ago, and I've expanded it for this collection. Other stories in this collection include The Butterfly Prince, and a third story I haven't gotten around to naming yet. I anticipate this book being finished sometime toward the summer. I intend to have it professionally edited and formatted, and along with the mountain of other projects I have going on, this takes time. Once it's ready, the book will be available in both electronic and print formats.

I also have a contemporary erotica collection in the works for this year. It, too, will be published through GrrlX. I'll be re-releasing a few stories I've previously published online, with a few brand new ones to sweeten the deal. I'll post more about the collection when I have the publishing package ready to go.

Right now, I'm working on a deadline piece due at the end of the month. Once I've got that out the door to the editor, I have to start focusing on the September Experiment so I can shape it up for conference. It's going to be my main pitch piece, so we'll see how that goes!

My critique partner, Cassandra Curtis, has a sexy new novella out this week. It's called Naughty Little Secrets. Of course, it's only for readers 18 and Older. Check it out...

About Naughty Little Secrets

Everyone has a few naughty little secrets. All of Stacie Purcell's secrets are in the red story binder she keeps in her messenger bag. An aspiring writer, Stacie dreams of the day her sexy stories will get published. But when she misplaces her binder, she is frantic, worried she'll never see it again. Desperate to get it back, she’s willing to do whatever it takes.

Tyler Murchison can't help noticing the cute little blond in his car repair shop's waiting room, her nose buried in her red binder. Closing up for the night, he discovers a not-so-innocent piece of paper and a mysterious messenger bag in the waiting room.

Intrigued by the drawings of sexual positions and the erotic fantasies Stacie weaves in her stories, he returns the binder, and offers Stacie a chance to experience all the incredible sexual delights she writes about.

But can a single night of wild, passionate sex lead to something more?

Naughty Little Secrets is available on Smashwords. The Sample and Purchase link is right here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118880

That's all for now. Tomorrow the holidays are officially over for us here at Chez Cora. <boohoo> Back to the grind. I better get to bed early since I have to be up bright and early to put the MiniBeast on the school bus in the morning. Until then...happy dreams!

First Blog Post of 2012

2012-01-01T23:35:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! Goodness, my first blog post of 2012! I love a fresh start. Yesterday, I finished revising The Devil's Cup, and earlier today, I submitted it to my editor. Now I wait! But I won't be able to rest on my laurels. Oh, no. I have way too much to do this month. Mini heads back to school on Tuesday, and I have a deadline story to pull together for an upcoming erotica anthology. It has to be turned in no later than February 1st.

Oldest, aka Navy boy, is leaving for basic training this month as well, so we're all getting together to wish him farewell. Oh gosh, my big baby is all grown up! <cry, cry> And at the end of this month, we'll be celebrating Hubby's birthday, and I hope we can make it something special. I'd love to take him to a really nice dinner, and have a small family party for him over at Mom and Dad's house. We'll see.

In the morning, I have to figure up the bills and go grocery shopping. Once that's out of the way, I'm going to spend the playing board games and coloring with Mini since it will be the last day of his vacation. Bless his heart, but I wrote through most of mine. Maybe we'll bake some cookies and watch movies, too. I'm more than ready for a little downtime!

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T22:48:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, everyone! It's still a few hours to midnight here in the land of La. Hubby and Mini were outside popping fireworks most of the afternoon, so they are now currently passed out on the couch. Me, I'm having a third glass of blackberry wine and celebrating the completion of my first Shivers story, The Devil's Cup. Let's hope my editor likes it!

Now that I'm done, I'm off to play for a bit. My resolution for 2012 is to not take life so seriously, to focus on family and being happy, and just enjoying life more. With any luck, this will also benefit my writing. ;o)

That's all for now. Have fun tonight, party hearty, and above all else, don't do anything I wouldn't do! <cackle>

Almost...There...

2011-12-29T22:13:00.000-06:00

Image courtesy of http://www.freephotos.se/

It's been a tough day, but a productive one. I managed to rewrite the scene that went missing, and added it into the story gap where it was needed. I worked on that one all night long. No kidding. I was a couple paragraphs from having it completely transferred to my main document, when I looked up and saw hubby watching me from the doorway. He said, "My baby, up all night writing?" I told him I'd be to bed soon, that I was almost finished, and then I realized he hadn't got up in the middle of the night for a glass of water. It was four a.m and he was getting ready for work.

I was half nodding off at my computer anyway, so I went on to bed. And I tell you, once my head hit the pillows I was down for the count. I made it to bed by five a.m., and MiniBear, bless his heart, let me sleep until nine. I got up and made breakfast, then sat like a zombie in my desk chair for about twenty minutes trying to figure out what I'd already covered in the wee hours in the morning, and what still needed to be added. I worked clear through lunch. I didn't stop working until Mini came to my office door and told me he was hungry. I cooked for him, had a bite to eat for myself, asked Oldest to walk the SassiePup, and went back to work.

I managed to complete the missing scene and polish it. I also proofed and polished the chapter following that one. So, two chapters down, two more to go.

All that took me until four p.m.. That's about the time I called it a day and went out to toss around the football with Mini. We also walked SassiePup again, then went out back and sat on the swing set.

While we were out at the swing set, Mini wanted me to tell him stories about when I was a little girl. So, I told him about the time his Auntie Lisa and I were nine years old and walking to her house for a sleepover, when my much older cousin and his two friends came by on their bicycles. They were big know-it-alls, who liked to talk a lot of smack, and on that day, they pelted us with dozens of green, unripe pecans they'd collected from the neighbor's yard.

Auntie Lisa got seriously pelted hard by my teenage cousin (who didn't like her very much because she wouldn't hesitate to tell him he was full of crap when he got to spouting his 16 year old wisdom). But, instead of running off toward the house, like I did, she stopped mid-pelting, and picked up a fist full of pecans and started lobbing them at the boys. Well, my cousin got away. He got pelted, but ya know, minimal damage. His best friend (the cute one) got away, too. But his other friend, red haired "Big Tommy", who lived down on the corner, he was a little too heavy and slow, and I will never forget turning around near Lisa's hedges to see her lob a rapid fire stream of green pecans at him. The guy was trying to duck his head and ride his bike, which was way too small for a guy his size, but instead of getting away like my cousin and his BFF, Big Tommy took about three pecans to the back of the head, and went down hard, bike and all, into the neighbors ditch. Lemme just say, that was a deep ditch he fell in to. One minute he was riding on the street, and the next, he was gone. You couldn't see anything but a bicycle tire spinning. He popped up out of there like a weasel, and took off. It was so unexpected, and happened so fast, I didn't really catch how hilarious the whole situation was until about fifteen minutes later. By then we were in her room playing Barbies. I thought about Tommy hitting the ditch, and totally cracked up laughing. After telling Mini the story today, I got to thinking about it, and if I remember right, Tommy never messed with us again. My cousin on the other hand... LOL ;o)

I'm exhausted. I didn't realize just how tired I am until I soaked in a hot bath and washed my hair. I stepped out of there and I could have melted into a puddle of sleepy in the bathroom floor. I put on my jammies, wrapped my hair in a towel, and snuggled with Mini on the couch. He wanted to show me this new level on Angry Birds, and within five minutes, I was zonked. I woke up a little while ago, when Mini told me he was going to bed. I gave him a hugs and a kiss, and sent him on his way.

So, now I'm up again, and first things first, I grabbed a cuppa tea and settled in to proof my crit partner's novella. I'm going to make a pass through it, and look for boo-boos. Then afterward, I want to break out the shivers story and get at least one of these two remaining chapters revised tonight. Two.More.Chapters. ZOMG, right? Two chapters left to go, and I need to pull together a short denouement and I can stick a fork in it. I outlined the denouement earlier today, so it's coming together. What a relief. It won't be much longer before I hit send...and once I do, I'm having a big glass of wine to celebrate!

Preparing For A Late Night

2011-12-28T22:05:00.000-06:00

I'm making tea and preparing for a long night at the computer. Today, I wrapped up another chapter, cleaned up two changes to a subplot, and a short while ago I finished rewriting the scene that came up missing.

The remake of the missing scene ended up about nineteen hundred words and four pages long (single spaced). I'm now going through it and doing markup. Before going to bed tonight, I'm going to shave it down and polish it, then transfer this to the final WIP. If there is still time after that, I'm going to start the markup on the following chapter.

There are only three chapters left to work with, and I've decided to write a short denouement no more than a thousand words long. It's gonna be more like an epilogue, probably, but whatever. I think readers will want it in there, so I'm going to add it in there.

Earlier tonight I talked to my critique partner, and once she gives it a glance over, I'm winging the entire submission package off to my editor. I'm hoping she takes it, since I did write it geared to a specific line, but I do have a back up plan just in case. We'll have to wait and see what happens!

I have my new calendar ready to tack up on my bulletin board. Holy cow, I'm so ready for new beginnings. Now that I think about it, what better way to start a new year than with a submission? Cool beans. I hope it's a symbolic start to 2012! May there be many more submissions as the year progresses.

Red Ribbon Monday

2011-12-26T21:48:00.000-06:00

First picture with my new iPod Touch 4g.

I hereby declare Christmas 2011 a success, even though it didn't truly feel like the holidays to me until I was sitting at the dinner table with the family all around me. I mean that, honestly. If not for the dinner, and my dad feeling better, it would have been just another day. The year has been such a blur, and I'm thinking that's quite possibly a coping mechanism.

I have plenty of time to work up a New Year's resolution, so I won't go into it with this post. I'd definitely thinking about it, though. A lot. The time has come to sit down and ask myself what I really want, and what I hope to get out of what I'm doing. I have some choices to make next year that are long overdue.

This coming week, I'm going to have both boys home, but I'll be working on revisions (still). It's the book that wouldn't end. I swear, I think if I didn't have conference coming up, this book would be done by now. I have three more chapters to revise, and I need to write a denouement on the end. Then earlier today, when I wrapped up another chapter to toss into the revisions stack, I peeked ahead at what I'd be working on, and noticed there's a scene missing. I remember writing it, I remember some of the phraseology I used. But, it's gone. Deleted. I don't remember when I did it, or why, but what matters is that it is gone, and I'm gonna have to rewrite it from scratch.

The missing scene comes just past the midpoint of the book, so I have to be very careful what I add in there. I've gotten much better at filling in gaps like this, though. I do a quick read through of the surrounding passages, make a few notes - listing pertinent details so the continuity is there. Afterward, I take out of fresh sheet of notebook paper, and sketch the scene. I ask myself the following questions:

What needs to happen in this scene?
Where does the scene take place?
Who is affected by what happens in this scene?
How are they affected?
Why must this scene be in the book?

I answer those question with only the important details, then fill in the gaps while writing. It makes the whole process easier to work with. With just those five sentences I can pull together a focused scene that flows with the rest of the book. It's still a chore to do it, but it's a valuable skill I've had to call on more than once. I don't know why I'm posting that now, but there it is.

I need to print up my next chapter and start with the markup, so I'm gonna close for now. Just for the sake of saying so, it would love, love, love to send this story out by the end of the year. <fingers crossed> I could happily wrap up 2011 in a shiny red bow if I could just get this one story off my desktop and into the submission pile. It's too hard to say how much work this story still needs, though, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. ;o)

Waiting For Santa

2011-12-24T22:22:00.000-06:00

It's been quiet here for a few days. We're lucky to have my dad with us this Christmas. Mom called me in the middle of the night on Thursday and told me dad had fallen, his breathing was shallow, he was shivering, and couldn't feel his legs. An absolutely terrifying phone call. Everything was a blur beyond that. I woke Hubby and Oldest and shoved them out the door to my parents' house. Dad is a big guy, over six feet tall and about two hundred and eighty five-pounds, and she needed them to pick him up off the floor. Mom called 911, and when she told them what had happened, what he looked like, etc., they told her he was having a severe allergic reaction to his medication. They instructed her what to do, what to give him, etc., and once Hubby and Oldest got there, they managed to get him stabilized. (Hubby has had EMT training.) If everyone hadn't acted when they did, my dad might not be here today.

This morning, we gathered over at my parents' house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner, and we are all very grateful to have each other. At times, we get so busy with the flow of life, we forget how lucky we are to have our family at arm's reach. That scare with dad was a little reminder not to take it for granted. Lesson learned, universe. No more surprises like that, plzkthnx.

We had dinner with my parents, and afterward opened gifts, and chatted for a bit. Then we loaded up the boys and came home to go sleep off our full tummies. Seeing dad up and about, looking well, then eating and such...I totally crashed when I came home. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was so suddenly sleepy once we got home, there was no way I could last the evening without a nap. Hubby was like, "Aren't you gonna play with your new toy?" The guys got me a 32G white, iPod Touch for Xmas, and they gave it to me to open over at mom's. I lurvz it. But even that had to wait while I napped.

Since then, I've set up the new iPod and iTunes and added all my music, updated my podcast subscriptions, etc. a few hours ago. Once Mini went to bed, I was able to bring in all the gifts for the guys to put under the tree. Cool beans. Now I'm sitting in my office, waiting for Santa to arrive.

Now that the day is done, I'm going to make a cup of hot cocoa, turn on some dance trax, and work on my wip for a while. Earlier today, I finished another chapter and placed it into the revised stack. So, onward we go. :o)

That's all for now. Wishing you joy and blessings of the season. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Rainy Day with KippityCat and SassiePup

2011-12-23T15:21:00.000-06:00

Nap Naps. Let me shows you how I do it.

You lays on your back like dis.

Doh!
Then the dog jumps on the couch
with a chewy.
So clumsy. So hyper. *le sigh*

Gah...not the dog butt!
That's the worst.
Settle down will ya?

Keep yer mittens on.
Gotta get the chewy positioned
juuuust right.

And now everybody's happy.
Let the nap naps resume.
=^.^=

The Xmas Rush

2011-12-21T11:44:00.000-06:00

Looks yummy! ;o)

Ahh! Christmas is coming too fast! I still have shopping to do, and packages to mail. I realize they are going to end up being late, but what can you do? There's just not enough hours in the day to take care of everything.

I'm revising the next chapter in cue this morning. I've made one pass over this section already. Thankfully there wasn't that much markup, mostly stylistic changes. I'm going to transfer it to the word document shortly, read it again, and give it another pass. I'm rearranging some dialogue in this one so better safe than sorry.

That's pretty much all I've got on the table for today as far as writing goes. Ideally, I'd like to knock out two chapters, then the rest of the day I can read ahead and see what needs work. Make notes, or whatever. I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself.

On another note, I'm about to order new book cards for a signing coming up in February. I'm going to have cards made for Wicked Obsession, Wicked Temptation, and possibly Wave Rider. I would love to have something else made up, like sachets or leis or something fun to give away at the tables, but I haven't had a chance to look at the cost of doing so.

Whatever I don't give away in February, I'll take to the NoLa conference in March...which will be here sooner than I realize, I'm sure. I was thinking about that yesterday. I still haven't made my hotel reservations. And I still need to polish my September Experiment! Sometimes I wonder if the to-do list will ever shrink. Speaking of which...I better get my shoes on and make a dash to the post office. Gotta get these boxes on Santa's sleigh while I still can!

Fill Your Brain

2011-12-19T14:33:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Monday! I climbed out of bed this morning, and my muse met me at the coffee pot. "May I fill your brain with lots of lovely new ideas?" she asked. Why, yes. Yes you may. And she did, bless her fickle heart.

I tell you, it must be something in the stars, because inspiration is cropping up at every turn. First thing, I came up with an idea for a new story. It's very fresh and strange. It would probably fall into a YA category, so that's different too. I promptly wrote everything down and tucked it away for later, when I've finished up all my deadline stories.

Next, I went onto Facebook, and saw a picture author Lori Wilde had posted about frozen fog. I've never heard it of, but oh my gosh, just Google for frozen fog images and be awed. Someone came in later and posted that it's also called hoarfrost. That, I've heard of, but had no idea what it looked like. Gorgeous, just gorgeous.

A little later, I heard from a friend via email, and learned she is thinking about self publishing. I did a little research for her on the financials, and found this awesome website about self publishing called Self Publishing Coach. There is so much interesting information here, you can't go wrong. If you've ever thought about self publishing, this looks like a pretty good place to start.

That's just the tip top of inspiring things that have drifted my way. I've also cemented an appearance in 2012. I'll be attending the Friends of the Library event in Bossier City, February 11, so mark your calendars if you think you can attend. I'll be sitting on a panel with author Keri Ford to talk about how to read digital media, download e-books, use a Kindle, etc. Sounds like fun!

I have my revisions mapped out for today, so I better get on them. I'll be cleaning up the last scene in this particular chapter, and moving on to the next. As much as I love this story, I'm ready to kick it out the door and get back on my September Experiment. <g> Be patient, my heart! ;o)

Book Expedition

2011-12-18T20:50:00.000-06:00

A mixed batch of erotic romances. I see an EC title
smack in the middle. There were a couple of Samhains, and
Aphrodisias as well. A good mix.

What a great day! I dragged Oldest shopping with me this morning, and we didn't get back until after dark. I now only have two more people to buy Christmas gifts for. That being the case, I'm calling this shopping trip a success.

I think we spent a little over two hours in the local Books A Million. I brought home a basket of new books, and a new tarot deck. The book haul aside, I remembered to bring my camera into the store and snap pictures of the trade paperback section, which is primarily what I read. I did go through and inspect other sections as well.

Berkley Sensations and Brava Paranormal Romances.
Not sure who published the Wicked Wonderland antho in
the middle. Will have to check on Amazon later.

I started out in the science fiction/fantasy section, and noticed there was a good mix of ROC, Ace, Baen, and Tor titles. I kept looking for Tor Romances, but I don't think they're branded as such on the spine, because I didn't see one throughout the entire store. I know they exist, I just haven't found one yet. I also noticed a few zombie horror titles mixed in the sci/fantasy section as well. I really bemoan the loss of the general horror section in the bookstore. I would love to browse a wall of genuine horror novels, and get an idea of what's out there, but it's nearly impossible to find any horror novels in store. They're mostly mixed in with the general fiction, but the only books I was able to find this trip were two zombie books. The rest were Dark Tower Stephen Kings, and a few Dean R. Koontz.

Moving along to the romance section...our local BaM has a great mix of paperback romances. I noticed a few more witchy type paperbacks, which was interesting. I didn't stick around the paperbacks very long. Trade paperbacks tend to be more to my liking.

Again, the same as in the Bossier store, Aphrodisia seems to have more books on the shelf than any other line. The Aphrodisias were about 50/50 single title vs. anthologies. I brought home two of the single titles.

Red Sage, Secrets volumes. And looks: a super
jazzy copy of Alison's Wonderland by the lovely
Alison Tyler.

The next most frequent line seemed to be Brava Paranormal Romances. There were nice colorful clusters of Bravas here and there. There seemed to be more series books with the Brava titles than any of the other lines. Speaking of series books...Red Sage had a nice collection on one shelf. Look at all those volumes of the Secrets anthologies. They were grouped together all nice and tidy on one shelf.

Samhain had almost as many books on the shelves as Berkley Sensation. That's different. I always looks for Samhain books when in store. I've bought a few of their trades, but always online. I like their books, I just can't seem to find what I'm looking for when I'm bookstore shopping. Most of their books I've found in store are cowboy titles. Not bad, but not really my thing. I'm more of a paranormal/futuristic romance kinda gal. ;o)

A nice clump of Samhain titles. There were more
scattered here and there.

The last section I checked out was the category romances. It seems like this section is shrinking a little more every year. What the heck? I know they have come out with more lines in recent years. Maybe I'm thinking of online exclusive lines.

A few years ago, the category books in this particular BaM had the front facing shelves as soon as you walked into the store. A whole row all to themselves. Most if not all were Harlequins/Silhouettes. (I think Silhouette has since been absorbed completely by the Harlequin brand.) If there were any other category publishers out there now, I didn't see them in this store.

The Harlequin section. That's a lot
of tycoons and cowboys.

Anyway, I like to pick up a Harlequin Presents or a Nocturne every now and again. Many of the other lines seem to be cowboy heavy these days. I wish they would branch out a little more, especially when it comes to American heroes. I'll read cowboy book in a pinch, but typically when I see a stetson on a cover, I'll pass.

The section of Harlequins at the local BaM is much larger than the category section at the Walmart near where I live, so whenever I come over here to shop, I always come through here and look for books written by the ladies in my RWA group.

And that's pretty much all I've got. <dusts hands> I'm about to put the MiniBeast to bed, and then I'll probably tinker around with The Hidden Path tarot I just bought. A perfect ending to a lovely weekend.

I'm Vampire Scented

2011-12-16T02:00:00.000-06:00

It's been an interesting day. The bus didn't come to pick up Mini this morning, so we figured school might have let out for the Xmas holidays. I checked the school calendar online, and it showed that the parent teacher conferences weren't until the late afternoon. We couldn't reach anyone by calling the school, the number kept giving us a fax machine-ish sound when we'd call, so Hubby drove up there, and discovered that it school was indeed going on. Not many kids showed up though. Only four kids in Mini's class. Hmm. After some thought, I'm going to guess the bus driver though I was driving Mini to school since he has missed so many days this week. I'm still not clear on that part.

At any rate, hubby picked up Mini's report card. He's on the Principal's list again this 9 weeks. He made A Honor Roll, and his GPA is at a 4.0. Way to go, little bear! I went to the store earlier and bought deli pizzas, since he missed his class pizza party. His teacher really awesome about the whole class party thing, and saved all his Xmas candy loot in his stocking, and sent it home with his report card. I admit I teased him a bit earlier, saying he made out like a bandit. ;o) We all know he earned it.

While I was in town buying pizza, I picked up a few things for my mom for Xmas. I bought her a buffet warmer, since she is always going to gatherings and such. She can use that both at home, and at her church, etc. I also bought her a bath set, and a large multi-photo frame that will look gorgeous on her living room wall. I plan to pick up a few more things for her this coming week.

I also picked up a little something for myself. I saw a boxed perfume set called Vampire, and had to have it. It came with a full bottle of perfume, and a mini sprayer that looks like a blood vial. How cool is that? I'm very picky about perfumes that are in essence body sprays, but I decided to take a chance with this one. That blood vial was just too awesome to resist. The scent isn't bad at all. It's got a sweet floral scent with a hint of citrus to it. The top notes wear off very quickly, but for fourteen dollars you can't go wrong. I'd definitely buy it again. This is the website with the advert: http://vampirefantasies.com/ It doesn't show the same box with the blood vial, so that may be a store exclusive. I have no way to know.

On the writing front, I'm revising the next chapter in the wip. This section isn't very long, so I'm worried it might be missing something. I printed up the pages and wrote a list to show what I need this chapter to convey. Hopefully everything I need is already in there. Tonight I'll be reading through it and marking changes on the pages. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow I'll be home with Mini and Oldest, kicking off the first day of the Xmas holidays. We're going to decorate the tree. Mini is a tree artiste, and Oldest likes to supervise. Yep, this should be interesting. <g>

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'm off to help Cassandra decorate her new mermaid house in Second Life. ;o) Happy Friday, everyone!

A Lack of Internettiquette

2011-12-15T17:12:00.000-06:00

Esther, my internet guardian angel.

It's Thursday already? Seriously? This week has blown by fast! It's after midnight here in the land of La., and I thought I'd take a quick break from working on the wip to add an update. I didn't realize I haven't posted since...what? Monday? I didn't intend to leave it that long, but it's close to Christmas, and I've been kind of busy with family things. Mini has been sick with the flu for the past five or six days, so I've been staying in the living room tending to him, instead of hanging out in my office as usual.

I tell you, I'm so glad this Mercury retrograde thing is over. A couple of days ago, I don't know what the heck happened. It's like a major blow up in every direction. I don't know if people just loss their damn minds en masse or what. I returned home from drying clothes at my mom's, and when I came online to check my Facebook, a friend I've known for over twenty years royally showed her ass on my Facebook wall with no provocation. Up until then, I haven't spoken to her in weeks. I responded to her attack, and promptly dumped her from my friend list. If a bitch can't be nice, then we don't have anything to say to each other. That's all there is to it. It doesn't matter if I've known you twenty minutes or twenty years. Don't post on my wall criticizing me for my depressing, domestic house Frau posts, especially when you do nothing but post game updates on yours. And I'm not just saying that as tit for tat. It is what it is. No matter who you are, when it comes to my wall or my blog, play nice or you'll be sent home.

I swear not twenty minutes later, some guy leaves a snarky comment on one of the memebase pictures I posted to my wall. I didn't make the picture, I put it there because I thought it was amusing. It apparently put this one guy's panties in a twist. So, two people got dumped from my friend list in one night. This is the first time ever for me. I've only had to defriended one other person in all the years I've been on Facebook, and I did it because he was spamming my email account. So, I'm sitting there in amazement after unfriend #2, wondering what the hell has crawled up everyone's collective ass.

Apparently it's something in the water, because it's not just me getting the jump. Hubby came home yesterday evening and told me a guy had jumped his case right as he walked in the door to work. It didn't even have anything to do with him, the guy just assumed it did. Well, that got taken up with the boss, and ironed out promptly, but it put the Hubster in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

And just today I was reading a friend's wall on Facebook, and learned someone reported their page for inflammatory content (a creepy Santa picture, of all things) and had their account frozen. Apparently it took a few emails to get access to their account back. I can't figure out why the angry reporter didn't just defriend him to start with. Sheesh.

People seriously need to take a pill and calm the frick down. In more seasonal terms, put some holly in your bonnet and be merry. Can you dig it?

On a brighter note, I finished revising a very tough chapter right before I started this blog post, so yay! That's one more for the sparkly fresh stack of ready to submit pages. Only a few chapters left to go. It's coming along slowly but surely. Slowly...but surely. *_* <lol> Night, night, everyone!

Real Life Days Like This

2011-12-13T00:10:00.000-06:00

A short post tonight since it's so late already, and I haven't had a chance to open my wip yet this evening. Mini has been home with me all day. He came down sick over the weekend with the flu. I've been keeping an eye on his fever, and sat with him in the den for a good long while today. Then I went to put a load of towels in the dryer and the machine completely died on me. I had all these wet towels, and no choice but to leave them there until hubby made it home so I could rush them over to my mom's.

Instead of worrying about it, I made a huge homemade chicken and veggie soup, thinking it would be good for Mini. He ate a tiny bit, and kept it down for several hours, so I was happy with that. Later, when hubby came home, Mini had already zonked on the couch. Oldest took out the garbage for me, and we took the wet clothes over to my parents house so I could use the dryer there.

Mom and dad weren't expecting us. We had a great visit though. Dad stood at the bar cracking pecans (and eating them - hehehe), and mom took me on a tour of all her Christmas decorations. The house looked and smelled fabulous! I have to find one of those candles she had burning in the kitchen. Vanilla frosting scented. O.M.G. Talk about heavenly!

And oh my, what a gorgeous full moon out there tonight. Did anyone else go out and look at it? It seemed really close and large. On the way home from my parents' house, I pulled over so Oldest could snap a pic of it on his cell phone. I'll have to see if he'll pass me a copy so I can post it. It was truly gorgeous out there. But anyway, we made it back home around seven. Not too shabby. I quickly put away the clothes, towels, and put fresh sheets on the bed - and the blankets that I dried at mom's. (Mini had a barf attack on my bed last night.) After that, I put a casserole in for Oldest. Cheesy potatoes and ham. I didn't even have to ask hubby if he wanted a plate. ^_^ That stuff was good. Will definitely be making that again.

Now that the house is settled, I'm about to shut down the comp for a while and work on this book some more. It's in the home stretch. I just need to kick the lead out and get this thing done!

Books and Books and Books

2011-12-11T11:53:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of www.glitter-graphics.com

So I'm sitting in my jammies, drinking coffee at noon, and reading Ray Garton's book Ravenous. That's my idea of a perfect Sunday. We'll be putting up the Christmas tree soon, and afterward I'll probably jump on the treadmill for about an hour.

Yesterday, I listened to Lorraine Heath speak at the Nola Stars Christmas event at the Bossier Parish History Center. Her speech covered her personal journey as an author, and I admit I cried a little hearing her story. What a wonderful mark she has made on the writing world. I'm so glad I was able to attend.

After the guest speaker, we nibbled on sweets and chicken salad, and chatted with attending friends and writers. A few minutes before one o'clock we went down the street to the Books A Million on Airline Drive where several Nola ladies and Ms. Heath held a book signing.

I drove Beth to the book signing, and while there, I browsed the store. I noticed some interesting stuff while looking around this time. Starting with the romance section, I noticed the romance shelves are still paranormal heavy, but they've "soft focused" the covers. I assume this is to give the books a more romantic appearance. Lots of solitary hero covers, the man looking forlornly toward the reader as if to say "where is my soul mate"? There are definitely less of the ass-kicking heroine covers than there were a year ago.

Also, there were fewer Urban Fantasies shuffled into the romance section. It appears they have been moved to the actual Sci-Fi Fantasy section of the store, and blended in among those books, which seemed to mostly be comprised of DAW, ROC, Ace and Baen - in that order. When paranormal was hot, hot, hot, you'd find anything vampire or werewolf shuffled into the romance section, even YA. I wonder if this means they're trying to re-brand these books into a truer fit, since the paranormal romance genre has cooled off a bit.

Let's see...I noticed more historical romances on the shelves. That was different. The majority appeared to be regencies. And I noticed a lot of long legged heroines showing some thigh. Is this the new style clinch cover? The contemporary category shelf space has been shrinking for a few years now, but in this particular store it seemed very picked over. I take that as a good sign. Someone out there is buying those books!

I stopped by my favorite section - the trade paperbacks - and was thrilled to find a few friend's books on the shelf. I'm so evil. Like a wicked bookstore Robin Hood, I turned all my friend's books face out so people could see the covers. ;o) Most of the spines were Aphrodisia. They made up a large majority of the books in that section. Also on the trade shelves...they had a few branded as Kensington? (Isn't that Aphrodisia, though?), Berkley Heat/Sensations, a handful of Brava titles, three or four books from the Spice line at Harlequin, and a few books from Ellora's Cave and Samhain. I was surprised to find the Samhain trades in store, and read the back blurb on each book. This is the first time I've found Samhain books on the shelves in my area. Send more, please!

I spent a long time in the romance and fantasy/sci-fi sections, looking at common themes, cover comparisons, brand, and just generally looking at what made it to the store shelves. Once I'd done that, I shuffled over to the YA section to look around.

The YA section was so cluttered, it was hard to navigate. Honestly the bookstores need to arrange this section better. Many, many books were turned out so the covers faced the shoppers, but the covers are so similar, it's not effective. You step into the aisle and there is wall to wall book cover - and at first glance it's like looking at the same book over and over again. There are many dark themed covers with gritty overlays and vector swirls over brooding faces. The less common "bare torso" book like City of Bones stood out more, but it too was silvery blue with more of the swirling overlays. Lots of black, silver, purple, and dark blue book covers. I went down both sides of the aisle, and was surprised by the number of vampire and fallen angel books. I saw a lot of teens with super powers books, too. The powers could be anything. I saw books ranging from being able to move around when time is stopped, to psychic abilities, to teens special for some reason indeterminable by the blurb or the book cover. (The latter seems like a very piss poor marketing decision, in my opinion.)

With all those YA books on the shelves, the teens in store were all hanging out at the Manga section. They were standing in the aisle reading the books. I noticed them when I moved over to the writing/reference section. I'm not sure what that means, but there it is.

After all that browsing around, I went over to the signing to hang out with the rest of the writerly folk. Lorraine Heath left shortly thereafter and I took her chair. <g> It was a good day. Exhausting, but inspiring. I left Bossier brimming with new ideas. I wish I had taken pictures, of both events and the bookstore shelves, but I left my phone in the car. Yeah, yeah, I know. Stupid move. You live, you learn. ;o) Next time (next week) I'll try to snap some pictures of the books on the shelves in Monroe to better illustrate what I'm talking about.

The Friday Rush

2011-12-09T12:19:00.001-06:00

Hurray for Friday! I wish I could say I'm in for a relaxing weekend, but things are gonna be a little different this Saturday. Oh yeah, I'm feeling it - the rush is on. I have to get my car detailed and pay up the bills, because tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be carpooling to the Bossier Parish History Center for the NOLAStars Christmas event.

Immediately after the speaking event and after party, I'll be attending a book signing for a few of the Nola gals at the Books A Million (I think!) around the corner. Since I'll be gone all day, everything that I don't manage to take care of today will have to wait until Monday.

In about an hour, I'm gonna go pick up the MiniBeast and take care of the weekly shopping so I don't have to do that on Sunday. I should probably buy a sweater to wear this weekend, too, so I don't go freezing my buns off while in Bossier.

Once all this is taken care of, I'm gonna try to work on the erotic horror story a bit, but I can't stay up too late tonight because I'll be leaving early, early in the morning to go pick up a writerly friend who's riding with me.

And that's the Friday buzz. I just finished another section of the wip last night, and noticed my story is gradually creeping up toward the 20k mark. Quite an expansion from a proposed 8k shorty. Hey, if it grows, I'm all for it. As long as the plot events don't get buried under any heavy exposition, it's all good! ;o)

Writing and Text to Speech

2011-12-08T01:32:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of www.freephotos.se

Um, yeah, we still don't have our Christmas tree up yet. I fear by the time I actually get it set up, it'll be time to take it down again. As soon as I get a free minute to dig the tree out of storage, I'll set it up. I probably won't load it down with ornaments this year, though, since I feel like we've already missed half of the holidays.

Earlier today I did a bit of Xmas shopping - for Mini's class party. I got a notice early on in the week that he needed to send $3.00, a stocking with his name on it, and some kind of treat type thing for 21 students. I ended buying a huge bag of filler candle, and stencils. Oh, and goody bags to put it all in. That will have to do it, because I'm too busy with other things to get all crafty.

Earlier today I managed to repair everything in the wip the power outage vaporized, and I finally made it through that difficult scene that has been driving me bonkers. So that's one more for the finished and ready to send stack.

In the morning, (well, technically it is morning, it's almost 2 am), I'm going to wrap up this next chapter and run it through my new text to speech program. I meant to post about that the other day, but I got side tracked. I recently bought and downloaded Natural Reader 10. As I said, it's a text to speech program that reads pretty much any text you want it to. I've been copy and pasting snippets of my wip for a "sound check" to see how it works out when read aloud. This is an awesome program, and is very easy to use. It does take up a lot of computer space though, so if you decide to try it out, make sure you have the hard drive space to support it. There is a free version for personal use, but the voice isn't all that great. The upgrade versions offer different voices, male and female, which are more "human" sounding, and easier to understand.

Anyway, you can find out more about Natural Reader 10 here: http://www.naturalreaders.com/free_version.htm

Back to the writerly manuscript stuff... as it stands right as this exact moment in time, I have nothing pressing I need to take care of tomorrow, so I'll be focusing entirely on the wip. If I can get two chapters cleaned up, I'll be thrilled.

I just noticed it's now after 2, so I better go to bed. I have to get up in less than four hours to get Mini ready for school. Ho hum. I'll be so glad when the Christmas holidays start. No school. No alarm clocks! Night night, everyone. Happy dreams!

Lights Out

2011-12-07T07:36:00.001-06:00

The power went out while I was working on my wip last night. I didn't lose much, but what I did lose was hard fought for. A perfect end to a perfectly shitty Tuesday. I sat at my desk in the dark, lighting jar candles with a box of matches from the candle hutch, cursing under my breath because I'd just managed to push my way through a very difficult scene. And, of course, since I was still typing up the last bits of it, I hadn't saved yet. Talk about something that'll make you sick to your stomach. That'll do it. Thankfully our heating doesn't depend on electricity, otherwise it might've been a completely different kind of miserable situation.

Once the candles were distributed throughout the house, I decided to go sit out the couch in the dark. Once I was in there, I don't know why, but I remembered seeing Mini's battery powered Coleman lantern on the end table by the TV earlier in the day. It's an actual camping lantern he swiped from his grandpa a few years ago so he could pretend to go camping. You know, sheet tents, and pillow floors and all that. Somehow the lantern ended up over here, and last night was truly glad for that. I found it and set it up near where I was sitting, and it surprised me with how much light it throws off.

It was bright enough to read by, so I ended up going back to my office for a notebook and pencil, and edited a chapter the old fashioned way. <g> I also wrote down a new transition for a scene that has been giving me fits. At this point, I feel like I need this one scene for GMC purposes, but at the same time, I've read it so many times trying to nail that it factor that I've come to hate it, and I'm tempted to cut the whole damn thing.

Today I've laid aside two chapters to get through. I missed so much time yesterday fiddling with the insurance company, it basically cost me a day's work. Then what little headway I made last night got cut in half due to the outage. Now I'm playing catch up. No fun. But what else can you do? Onward and upwards.

The Tuesday Scramble

2011-12-06T16:37:00.001-06:00

Honey, I'm home! I've been gone most of the day, taking care of a screw up with our house insurance. Yesterday we received a certified letter stating that they didn't get our November payment. But, a few days ago, they sent me a bill for December showing that last month's payment had already been credited. Say what? This snafu took hours to unravel. Even the woman at the insurance company couldn't figure out what the heck happened. So, after holding on the phone for hours, and then showing up in person to wrangle with this crap, I finally got it all straightened out. Santa, I deserve a pedicure and massage, ya hear?

So I pick Mini up from school, and he walks out of the building and bursts into tears. I asked him what happened, and after about 5 solid minutes of blubbering, he admits he got in trouble for talking too much in class.

"Are you going to do it again?" I ask.
He sniffles. "No."
Sounds good to me.
"You'll have a chance to be quiet tomorrow," I tell him. "Right now, we're going home to eat cookies."

Seriously. We went home and ate cookies. The kids have been stuck indoors for days with all this rain. What do these people expect? They're children, not robots. The only thing they're able to run right now are their mouths. Cut 'em some slack.

Finally everything has settled down. The guys are watching movies, and I'm about to crack open the wip and do some revisions. I cleaned up an entire section before bed last night, and started reworking another one. If the errand fairy would just take a hike for a few days, I might be able to get this book cleaned up before hell freezes over.

Meanwhile...Insanity

2011-12-05T03:00:00.000-06:00

It's after three in the morning, but I figured I should probably blog before bed. I sent out the beginning of my erotic horror story to my critique partner Sunday evening so she could take a look at it. So far so good. I'm thinking this is probably my last pass over this story. I'm pretty much going chapter by chapter now and tweaking it by ear. Once I make it all the way through the book, that's that. Off to my editor it goes.

I really hope I can wrap it up this week. I think I can do it, but it's gonna be hectic. December is always a crazy month for me, and this year the crazy seems to be starting early. In a few hours, I have to go out to pay bills, and buy groceries. I also have a workshop to pop in on, a package to pick up, and around two thirty I'll be going to pick up Mini from school. Too, sometime this week, I need to put up a Christmas tree for the boys, and do some shopping. Yikes. I worry if I don't get on it soon, I'll miss out on Mini's Xmas list items. Holy crap, we haven't taken to see Santa yet either. <forehead smack> Maybe we can do that Friday night. Saturday, I'll be out of town, attending my local RWA chapter's Christmas party. Directly afterward I'll be taking a carpool buddy over to a book signing. So much to do, only one month to do it in...

Anyway, that's a few of the businessy things. This month we've got to get Oldest's stuff packed away. He'll be heading off to do his Navy thing after the first of the year. Which I can barely see how this is even possible since it seems like only a few years ago I brought him home swaddled in a hospital blanket. Wah-hah-hah. Yes. I'm getting my first taste of empty nest syndrome and it's no fun. Come January, I won't be able to see my big boy again until March, when we fly up to Chicago for his graduation. 2012 is bringing, big changes for us...

It seems like there's a lot of between now and January, but I know there isn't. And somehow during all the insanity I have to get two more projects cleaned up - most importantly the September Experiment, which is now my official pitch piece for the NOLA conference in March. But I digress...

I better call it a night and get a few Z's while I can. I have to be up at six to get Mini ready for school! Next time I come in, I'll have to blog about the new software I bought. <eyebrow wiggle> Until then, night, night everyone...and happy Monday!

The Real Friday

2011-12-02T12:57:00.001-06:00

It's Friday, it's Friday...for real, this time, too! <slippery socks dance> Yesterday, I kept faking myself out. I woke up thinking it was Friday. I'd get excited about it only to realize I was a day off, and then I'd feel all let down. The sad thing is that I probably did that to myself about three or four times throughout the day. Yes, I'm mental like that.

I have to pick Mini up from school in about an hour, so I put the revisions down for a bit and decided to grab a bite to eat. When he gets home we'll probably go through the routine - change out of school uniform into play clothes, check the homework binder, and forage the kitchen for a snack. I haven't been grocery shopping yet, so I thought he might want to bake brownies and play some Candyland. So, that's likely what I'll be doing in about an hour.

I didn't get my blog up early enough this morning - I got tied up doing other things. Terribly sorry about that if anyone has been looking for a post. I should really make more of an effort to be time consistent. My life is very "go with the wind", though, so that can be kind of difficult. Not much has happened since I last blogged, but I'm definitely still working, sorting, writing, and all that jazz. These stretches of silence are usually when I'm involved in something intensive I can't break away from. Just an FYI.

I cleaned up a huge section this morning on the wip, and right now I'm fleshing out some dialogue in chapter three. This is also the chapter where my theme is firmly stated. This scene used to be in chapter two, but I added a new first chapter, one that steers the story in the exact direction I want it to go. So, it bumped my thematic statement into chapter three. It still fits, in my opinion, and the previous chapters all allude to the theme, so I should be okay. We'll have to wait and see what my editor thinks. As it stands, I'll be working on revisions all weekend, and catching up on the revision workshop exercises, which I'm applying direction to my manuscript as I go. Of course, at some point, I really should go dig the Christmas tree out of the storage shed and set it up for the bratlings...being that it's December and all. I should probably add that to my To-Do list while I'm thinking about it.

Before I wrap it all up for the day.... Speaking of revisions and first chapters, I came across an awesome article on the challenge of first chapters over at The Book Designer. I saw the link flash by on twitter, but for the life of me, I can't figure out who posted it. Whoever tweeted the link - thank you! If you haven't read it yet, go, go, go. It's worth a look. :o)

Feeling December-ish

2011-12-01T07:40:00.001-06:00

Holy cow, it's December 1st! Only 30 more days of 2011. Can you believe it? I can't say I'm sad to see it go. This has been a very tough year for my family, and I'm ready for a fresh start. Only in the last few weeks have things started to feel more cozy and back to normal, although it's a bit difficult on hubster when these holidays hit. This will be the first Christmas without his dad, and it feels very strange knowing he won't be around to chat with. And knowing we won't receive a Christmas card from him. It's not pleasant to think about, and I'm expecting the emotional roller coaster to intensify as we near the actual holiday. One way or another, we'll make it through. We always do.

SassiePup is stretched out across my lap snoozing this morning. It's kinda cold out, so she's in a super snuggly mood. Earlier, while Mini was waiting for the bus, she desperately wanted to stand at the door and look outside, but within two minutes of standing in the doorway she was shivering to bits. Silly girl. I ended up toting her around to help keep her warm. I've tried to explain to her this behavior isn't conductive to getting revisions completed, but I don't think she cares. Go figure.

Speaking of revisions, I had an awesome, squee-worthy moment late last night. I have about a third of the story cleaned up, and when I went back and reread parts of it, I came across this one scene that gave me chills. It wasn't because the scene was super hot, or scary, or whatever, it's because I noticed a change in my own writing. This scene came across as more sophisticated than anything I've written up to this point, and that thrilled me to no end. Maybe I'm finally breaking out of this plateau and growing as a writer. Baby steps, yo. I'll take it!

I'm about to grab my Kindle and snuggle on the couch with SassiePup for a while. At least until my coffee kicks in. Then, it'a back to revisions on this story. I've got some tough pages coming up, so I need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed to deal with it.

That's all for now. I hope your Thursday is a pleasant one. Oh, and if you're a Neopets player - don't forget: the Advent calendar opens today! ;o)

Meanwhile, in the land of revisions...

2011-11-30T03:00:00.000-06:00

Whoa, mama. I'm a tired girl tonight. I'm deep, deep, deep in revisions now. No turning back at this point. I've cut about 500 words so far, and I'm debating tacking a denouement on the end of the story. I probably won't make up my mind on that until after I've finished cleaning up what's already on the page, though.

As it stands...close, but no cigar. I'm still hunting and obliterating crutch words, but overall, when I read through the story, I'm excited by the potential. Too, by working on this project, I've come to realize how much I've missed writing dark themes. If my erotic horror story passes the sniff test with my publisher, I'll continue to write in the genre simply because I enjoy it. It feels like a very natural and comfortable fit for me. I'll basically be coming full circle, and picking up where I initially started out - writing horror. Just with a sexy twist. ;o)

Well, it's after 1am, so I'd better head on to bed. Mini is back to school tomorrow, so I plan to be up and ready for editing action at the crack of dawn - aka, I'll hit the writing chair as soon as he's on the school bus. <g> By the way, I realize this is kind of a short post. But never fear, I'll be back to blogging interesting stuff tomorrow when my schedule returns to normal.

Night, night, everyone!

Werewolf Handwriting

2011-11-27T21:31:00.001-06:00

I now have a few books listed over at Kindlegraph. If you'd like something signed, hit me up! I don't have a tablet to sign with, but I do have a scrolly mouse. <click, click> That's why my first siggy turned out looking a bit straight jacket mental, but it was still very cool to see it "write itself" across the screen when I finished it.

If nothing else, it kinda looks like werewolf handwriting, don't you think? For werewolf erotic romances? There is probably something very Freudian and weird about that in a psychological context, but whatever. I guess I'll just have to be down with that. ;o)

On another note, Monday swooped in like a bird of prey, snatching my weekend peace away in the blink of an eye. First things first, I had horrible insomnia last night. I finally crashed on the couch around 3 am., but I didn't sleep. I stayed up watching a really shitty horror movie called Virus, and was still awake when hubby left at 5 to go to work.

I still felt pretty wired when Mini got up, but that quickly changed. First thing out of bed, he couldn't decide what breakfast he wanted: oatmeal or pancakes with bacon, Pop Tarts, or eggs, or whatever. In the end, he settled on the Pop Tarts and ate something like three bites before he cried full. I put the remnants in a ziploc baggie for later, 'cause I mean, wow. Totally wasteful. After that, it was a big issue with what pants to wear. Mini's getting to the age he likes to change out his uniform clothes, and this morning he wanted to wear beige uniform trousers, because it's different from the navy ones he usually wears. The thing is, they make the khaki beige ones with these horrid button fastenings which are difficult for small kids to button by themselves when they have to hit the bathroom at school, so I haven't been picking many pairs of those. Nevertheless, I found two pair in the dresser, and while they fit in the waist, they were too short in length. I swear, it was a try on fifty pairs of pants kind of morning. By the time he had to go out to the bus I felt like I'd run a marathon, helping him change his clothes that many times. <fainting couch>

I went back to bed after the school bus left, and in doing so, I missed a call from my BFF. Total bummer. I miss hearing from her. She left a message for me on Facebook, though, and I know it will probably be the weekend before we get to phone chat again. Ho hum.

In traditional Monday fashion, it's all busy, busy at the moment. I'm working on revisions still. It's coming along very well, just slowly. I'm hoping now that I've got the house back from the Thanksgiving madness, I'll be able to pick up the pace.

But that's not all! As of this morning I'm involved in a month long self-editing course, which I hope will help me sharpen my skills and streamline my own revision process. I'm quite excited about this. It looks like it's exactly what I need to kick the September Experiment in the pants so I can have it ready for pitching at conference.

It's after 3pm, so I better get back to work. Mini will be home shortly, and I gotta have the house ready so we can throw down over a few games of CandyLand. I hope you all have a pleasant week. Oh, and in case you didn't notice...December 1st is this Thursday. How about that, eh? Where has the year gone?

A Lot to Think About

2011-11-26T05:00:00.000-06:00

I planned to blog earlier, but I got busy with things and totally forgot about it. So here it is, 3 am on Saturday morning. I'm so glad this Black Friday crap is over with...it was seriously getting under my skin. Every where I looked there were all these news stories about psycho bitches pepper spraying people so they could get merchandise, and/or cops beating down the slow moving elderly and body slamming grandpas into comas for trying to protect their grand kids from stampeding shoppers.

I swear to Christ I have never needed ANYTHING from Walmart that fucking bad. Seriously, people. There is a saying that what you give to the poor is what you take with you when you die. If you count yourselves among the people who would body slam grandma for a cheaply made, imported Wal-mart television, you're getting what you deserve, both in this life...and hopefully in the next life, too.

Because of stories like the ones I've been forced to look at all day, (which are everywhere and you can't escape them no matter where you go online, or heck, even in your own living room) I will never go to another Black Friday event. Ever. From now on, I will forgo shopping in store for my holiday purchases and do my shopping online. End of rant.

On to happier topics, or at least topics that make me feel less homicidal, I've patched both gaps in the erotic horror WIP, and managed to boost my word count by about 4k. I'd still like to add another 2k, but if it won't go, I won't force it.

As it stands, the story is ready for a round two read-through and markup, which I'll worry about in the morning. So far, so good. I'm really loving this story. It's dark, twisted, and a bit disturbing. Which is a good thing. I'm sure some people will get their knickers in a twist, especially if they don't realize it's an erotic horror, but I've decided not to hold anything back. I hope my publisher feels it will work for the line, because I'd like to send in few more stories like this one. We'll see.

It will probably take two more thorough passes on this book before it's ready to go out - which will make four passes in total. I'll probably be good and sick of the story by then, but at this rate, I'm thinking I should have it ready to release into the wild by Wednesday. Cross your fingers for me.

Late late late Friday night, I filled out my registration for the 2012 Written in the Stars Conference in Shreveport. I'm hoping that Oldest's basic training graduation doesn't overlap it, but since I only have a generic date for his graduation, I'm not going to worry about it for now. Instead, I'm gonna wrap up the short stories on my plate (there are two with some importance), and from there I've got to start looking at my September Experiment story, which is what I'll be pitching at the conference.

If I start revising the September Experiment in December, I'll have roughly three months to pull my package together for conference. This time, I plan to take at least a partial manuscript in to the pitch session with me. Not that I plan to shove anything across the table at someone, I may not even get a nibble of interest, but I want to at least be prepared just in case. The last time, an agent asked me for chapters right across the table and I didn't have any. Never again.

Topic change again... A couple of days ago, one of my best writer buddies called me up. She's been having a money shortage (who isn't these days?) and she was really disturbed to see that there was a weird discrepancy in her Amazon sales figures. She had checked her self published sales figures earlier in the month, and it showed that there was about fifty to sixty dollars in monies made. About half way through November, that amount dropped to about five dollars. A loss of roughly fifty dollars in royalties. While that isn't a lot of money to a lot of people, for this person in particular, it would have bought groceries, put gas in her car, or paid a bill. Her family is hurting for cash, and fifty dollars is a lot of money when you're broke.

Sure that there was some kind of error, she emailed Amazon to ask what was up with her sales figures, and after days of waiting, she got her answer and called to share it with me. She was very upset, and very close to hopelessness when she told me that Amazon claimed she'd had a significant amount of returns. The news floored my writer buddy, who had no idea Amazon is allowing returns on eBooks. Sadly, I told her that it's true. You can indeed return Kindle content for a refund.

I don't know the all the finer points and details of Kindle content returns, but I'm definitely aware of the policy. I've listened to other authors panic and rant over it. They can see what they're making through the month, then suddenly that figure drops without explanation. Although I don't have anything self published through Amazon, I have to admit I was a bit surprised and alarmed when I read about the current return policy. I'm sure on some level Amazon is aware that allowing eBook returns is going to hurt authors. Particularly self published authors. People like my writer buddy, who right now, could use fifty bucks to keep her family afloat.

What gets me is that people are allowed to keep the books for up to 8 days before returning them. That's time for them to read the book, to copy it, and to redistribute it somewhere. Heck, they could simply read the book and return it because it wasn't cheap enough for their taste. It's easy enough to lie about the reasons. And I'm crying foul over that. Especially when an eBook is 99cents, as is the case in my friend's book. I've bought books for ten bucks that I didn't think was worth the paper it was printed on, but I didn't take it back for a refund. I'm so disappointed with this whole scenario, it hurts. That window of return needs to be greatly shortened from 8 days to something more along the lines of 24 hours. And that's the very least Amazon could do.

With all the publishing industry douchebaggery going on right now, I'm sad to see Amazon putting the crunch on authors in this way. I know returns happen. Yes, I get that. And I can see how allowing returns might benefit the Amazon Prime program. I'm also understanding when it comes to allowing print-book returns, or allowing returns if pages are missing in an eBook. But seriously, this system as it stands is ripe for abuse. From fifty bucks down to five...all because of returns? Holy shit, yanno? Maybe the book sucks. I don't know. I don't even know which one it is, but that is an awful lot of returns for a cheap book. And this isn't the only author I've heard complaining about this kind of a situation. Am I the only one thinking this policy needs amending? Is anyone thinking about publishing their books elsewhere because of the return and/or lending policy? Curious minds want to know.

That's all for now. It's already 3:30, and I've gotta get to bed. Forgive any typos, plzkthnx. I'm too tired to go back and hunt them down. Night, night, everyone.

Into the Thanksgiving Writing Groove

2011-11-24T20:10:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I spent the day with family, then came home and crashed on the couch to nap away my yearly case of bloaty belly. Once I was up and about again, I rounded up Oldest for a trip to the store for essentials so that we won't have to face the Black Friday craziness late tonight and tomorrow.

Hubby and the kids will be home for the next few days, so I imagine we'll be hanging out and watching movies, playing board games, making a mess of the kitchen, and what not. During the daylight hours, I'll mostly be working on wrapping up this Shivers story. I added two brand new scenes to it yesterday, and I have one major scene to rearrange and repair tonight. I believe this one will be the biggest fix of the book. Erg. Not exactly looking forward to rewriting it, but it must be done.

So that's the battle plan for the next few days. Writing. And movies. And probably some reading. I need to whittle down my TBR stack again. But for tonight, I'm going to write. Le'see...I think I'm ready. Mini is in bed. The pets are settled and the guys are watching Pulp Fiction. I've got a cup of peppermint tea, a birds of paradise candle is burning on the edge of my desk, and I've got some tunes going. Yep. Looks like it's all systems go.

One more thing before I close, if you're going to the Black Friday sales tonight and tomorrow - be careful out there!

The Day Before Turkey Day

2011-11-23T08:20:00.001-06:00

That's a pretty good hand turkey!

Hubby brought home a brand new computer for himself last night, and ate up most of our pitiful bandwidth transferring all his Guild Wars and iTunes junk to the new machine.

As soon as he has all the gibblets transferred and downloaded and whatnot, we're going to scrub his laptop, do a complete reboot and restore to get it back to factory settings, then I'm gonna ship the laptop off to a friend who is currently without net, and in dire need of a wireless comp that can be hauled to the library or Starbucks, or really anywhere they can get free wifi to check emails.

In about two hours, I have to drive Oldest to visit the recruiter in Ruston. It won't be much longer now before he ships out, so they keep calling to make sure he hasn't run off with some baby mama or skipped the country before basic. I understand it's necessary, but at times...a tad inconvenient when we get a last minute call out. It's the day before Thanksgiving, after all. They're lucky they even caught us at home.

I planned to get a lot done on the revisions this week, what with Mini being out of school, and all. Instead, it's been more of a mom as entertainer type arrangement. Every ten minutes, someone is coming up to me with "Mom, I'm bored". "Mom, I need a ride to the store, to the library, to somewhere else because I know you're busy." Other apparently popular cries of the week thus far: "Mom, we're out of toilet paper."

It's always some such craziness. I've begun referring to household chores as part of the fun holiday itinerary.

For example: "Mom, I'm bored."
My response: "That's wonderful, dear. When you're done with that you can get started on the dishes!"
Clearly, this is not a popular response. But it does appear to chase off the male species (of any age) for at least forty-five minutes.

I've also told the guys they better conserve the t.p. (toilet paper, yo) because come Friday, I'm not going ANYWHERE. If they run out of vitals on that day, they'll have to gather leaves, because I have no intention of shopping on Black Friday, and will not lift my keys or crank my car that day unless it is to haul someone's fool carcass to the E.R.. And then I went on to clarify that statement to Oldest yesterday as he was foraging in the fridge. If someone does get injured, and I see they're able to walk it off, even the E.R. might be out. Seriously, I'm not leaving the house this Friday. I'm going to work that day, even if I have to lock myself in my office and pretend not to hear any sounds of scuffling outside my door. Kinda like what I'd do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. <thumbs up>

Yesterday, after several humbling rounds of Angry Bird bean bag toss with Mini, (I thought this would be fun, but I can't hit the broad side of a barn, apparently), I came online to check emails and realized there was an erotica writing workshop about to start in Second Life. Since I was actually gonna be on time for it, I decided to attend. I popped in world, took a few notes, and this picture.

I'm sitting on the back bench & wearing the green shirt.

I think, at this point, I'm out of workshops for another week or so. Now I need to work through the everyday distractions so I can get in a few hours of revisions on the Shivers story. I've told everyone I've reserved the afternoon for book stuff, but we'll see how that goes. Then tonight...the cooking starts. I'm on sweets detail this year, and I'll be making sugar free fudge, cookies, and a cherry cheesecake.

So there you have it. A rundown of the current insanity. Now I need to dressed to go to this recruiter thing. Happy day before Turkey Day, everyone!

Weekend Workshop Recap

2011-11-21T16:19:00.001-06:00

You can click on my pictures to make them larger.

On Sunday, I gave a NaNoWriMo workshop in Second Life at Awen. The topic was on how to kick start a story when it has stalled. I focused on the elements of building a very basic story, then explained how to use g/m/c and character responses to dig your story out of a rut. Very helpful stuff to know if you're on a deadline.

Anyway, the workshop went very well, except that my voice chat wasn't working, so I had to type everything as text chat. That little glitch turned a one hour workshop into a two hour workshop, but no one complained, everyone stayed, and since that's the case, I'm calling it a success.

One of the notices was sent out with the wrong time for the workshop, and so a handful of people teleported in as we were closing shop. I didn't want to disappoint anyone, so I've agreed to do the workshop again sometime after Thanksgiving, although it won't be as NaNo-relevant. Still, there's a lot of practical information to glean from it, so we'll see what happens.

Settling in for the NaNo workshop.

Today was the first day of Mini's Thanksgiving vacation. He was thrilled that he didn't have to go to school this morning. I got up bright and early and made breakfast for him, then promptly went back to bed. About an hour or so later, I got up and checked emails and such, then told Oldest to get his stuff together so I could drive him to the library. Once Mini and I made it back home from dropping off big brat, we settled in to play a few rounds of Don't Break the Ice.

I'm very happy to report that I didn't get my tail handed to me this time. For the past few weeks, anytime I play a board game with Mini he brutally smokes me. Like Tiki Topple, for instance. I've one a single game of Tiki Topple since we bought that game. One. So, in the spirit of teasing Mini to pieces, after I won three games of Don't Break the Ice, I told him I'm officially reclaiming my in-house game champion title. Which will probably only last until our next game of CandyLand later on this week. But hey, you take have to take what you can get while it lasts in our family. ;o)

After board games, Mini and I watched Alvin and The Chipmunks the Squeakuel...or however you spell it. We probably watched thirty minutes of it, and tickle fought through the other hour and a half. Sassie Bee pup even got in on the action.

Around 2 o'clock we went to pick up Oldest from his library adventures, and while it's been a full day, my "work day" will start in about an hour. After dinner, and once things have settled down. I'll be working on revisions again. I added a new scene yesterday afternoon, and now I need to poke through a few pages and clean them up. This one is on the road to being finished. Soon.

I guess I need to take the Sassie pup for a walk. She's grrr'ing at me and doing the doggy Riverdance. That's all for now. Happy Monday!

Tea and Revisions

2011-11-19T02:13:00.001-06:00

It's after 3 in the morning and I'm having a cup of tea while reading through my Shivers manuscript. Overall, I have to say it's fairly clean. I'm thrilled about that, since most of the time my first drafts are an utter mess.

Anyway, I just finished reading the last page about fifteen minutes ago, and decided to jot down a few thoughts on my blog for anyone who might be interested in reading about how I'm breaking down this particular short story and revising it.

Earlier, while doing the read-through (this is my first pass), I made it a point to jot little notes in the margins of the manuscript whenever I found something majorly broken. Some things I classify as majorly broken: missing scenes (scene gaps), time inconsistencies, changes in plot direction, a radical shift in story theme, and a character whose identity or purpose has changed midstream. In other words, BIG stuff. Those are the things I look for when I do a first round read through.

I also highlighted any insignificant tiny, easy-to-miss errors, so I won't accidentally overlook them on a subsequent pass. For example: whenever I've found a "wrong word" used, such as places where I've accidentally typing their instead of there, or whatever. I highlight those mistakes just to make a note of them since my spell check will likely skip over them later. However, I haven't gone around changing anything yet. I haven't rearranged any paragraphs, or rewritten any sentences. I'm not ready to change anything at this point. Not to the big stuff. Not to the small stuff.

About half way through this particular story, I found a loop in the timeline where it seems like I have two different ideas for conveying the same information. These two scenes are similar, so I'm going to have to decide whether to cut one scene entirely, combine those scenes into one large scene and smooth them out, or divide them into two separate scenes with distinct scene goals.

It looks like in the overall scheme of things, that section will be the one big fix needed to shape up this story. Nothing to fuss about, really. I simply need to decide how I want to handle the changes. (And I prefer to wait about making any decisions until after I've had a few hours of sleep, and then some coffee when I'm up and about again. Heh.)

The only other thing I see that needs changing is a short scene a few pages before the time loop. There's nothing technically wrong with the other scene, but it didn't grab me for some reason. Not enough at stake, I think. It reads more like a diversion than a real road block for my heroine. Whatever the case, I realized I didn't care for that scene very much, and wanted to skip it while reading. So, that one will either be cut or rewritten, too.

And there you have it, what I'll be working on for my first round of revisions this weekend. Once I've made those BIG changes, I'll be ready to read through my manuscript again, and start cleaning up the grammar. (Which is not my strong point, but I do the best I can.) During that time, I'll also make notes on any areas where my sentences need variation.

I'll post more as I work my way through the manuscript. Hopefully I'll have this story cleaned up and submission ready by the end of next week. That's all for now. Happy weekend!

After Midnight, Early Morning

2011-11-18T00:02:00.001-06:00

Quite possibly what happens when you blog after midnight.

Oh wow, it's exactly midnight, and here I am blogging. I'll probably be tired as all get out later...in the morning. At any rate, I had a nice, productive Thursday. Early on I managed to get about six pages of my erotic horror story marked up, and thenI popped in on Facebook to chat with friends for a few minutes. After that, I thought to check Second Life, since I have a workshop coming up this Sunday, and caught the beginning of Cass Curtis's NaNo workshop on characterization. Cool beans.

That's Cassie sitting in the front. I'm wearing the green shirt.
This is the NaNo workshop tent at Awen's Book Faire.
(click to enlarge)

Since I've already mentioned it above... My workshop on ways to kickstart your stalled NaNo project will be held at the Book Faire in Awen on November 20th. It starts at 8am SLT, which is equivalent to 10am CST/11am EST.

The SLurl to the Awen Book Faire is as follows: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/203/201/22
You must be logged into Second Life to attend. The event will be in voice, so be sure to wear your headphones.

On a completely different topic... I added a few books to my TBR list today. I bought a copy of Christine Feehan's Dark Peril (finally!) and Jennifer Crusie's Maybe This Time. I also bought a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney for MiniBeast. We sat down with this book - a 200 or so page hardcover - and he read about 20 pages to me. Cool beans. So proud of my little guy. He's only 6, but reads very well. And he finds the Wimpy Kid books hilarious. I get a big kick hearing him chuckle over these books. :D I'm thinking this will be one book of many for him. He's been a good boy this year, so it's quite possible Santa will leave the boxed set under the tree for him.

This weekend, as much as I'd love to take off and just crash across the couch and read all day, my big focus will be to get two stories revised for submission. One of them is the Shivers short story I've been working on for the past few days. The other is a short erotica story due early next year. Once I'm done with these, I'll allow myself some down time for reading. To recharge my creative batteries and all that. It's part of the overall plan to get the Shivers story sent out sometime next week while Mini is on break. I'll be able to put i the extra hours without having to worry about sleeping late, or Mini missing the bus. Before I can send it though, I still need to write a blurb, and go through all the forms. Right off hand, I have no idea what I'm supposed to send in. Gonna have to look that up, asap!

Once these two stories are finished, I'll be ready to tackle the other Shivers story, which I'm presently considering expanding into a novel. We will see. If that's the case, if I do decide to go full novel with it, I may put it on the shelf for a month or two while I pick up the September Experiment and begin revisions.

At any rate, it's all something to think about. I have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, so I can't afford to get too far ahead of myself. Even so, I would like to end up pitching the September Experiment at conference if at all possible. I really love the story, or I wouldn't bother. So if I have to choose between the two, I will probably put the September Experiment first. Because once it's finished, I know I'm going to need at least a month of down time to recuperate. <g>

Man, is it really going on 1 am? I guess that's all for now. The hour is wearing on, and I need to go over my workshop notes before bed. So....night, night everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Prepping for Submission

2011-11-16T14:49:00.001-06:00

About an hour ago I wrapped up one of the erotic horror short stories. I'm super jazzed about this one. It's a very dark, different story line for me, but nothing with werewolves or vampires. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

It doesn't appear to be too dreadful (revision wise) at this point, so I went ahead and formatted it as required by my publisher. Now I'm printing it up so I can sit down with it tonight for a thorough proofing.

If I can expand it out a little that will be awesome, but for the most part, judging by what I've read so far, it looks like it will only need a bit of cleaning up here and there to get it where it needs to be for submission. Even so, I'll definitely give it a critical eye later on this evening. As per the usual, I'll make notes (and necessary changes) if I see anything major that needs fixing. Right now I'm just thrilled to have it all jotted down - one of the best feelings in the world is writing "The End". And in this case, it's in time for Thanksgiving, too.

Since it's one of the shortest thing I have on my plate right now, my goal of the moment is to have this story polished and sent off to my editor by the end of next week. I know she won't be able to get to it until after the holidays, but that's all good. I just hope she likes it.

Now that I've taken care of the writing portion of the day, I'm going to go toss the clothes in the dryer, wash a few dishes, and wait for Mini to come in off the bus. Yep, that's me, totally domesticated. ;o)

My Car & Random Writerly Things

2011-11-15T12:44:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of www.freephotos.se

Hubby is such a gem. Despite not feeling well he picked up the parts we ordered and worked on my car this morning. Yes. I do believe he's a keeper. I still haven't given the car a test drive, but I'm gonna do that here in a few minutes when Oldest gets finished doing whatever he's doing. (I'm taking him with me.)

Yesterday, I worked on Shivers revisions, and tried to find note cards for the September Experiment. Then late in the afternoon, I settled in to write something new. I raked in 4k words on a new short story that I'm also gearing toward Shivers. I'm going to try to wrap it up that story this evening if at all possible. Another 4k should let me reach a base word count.

I also need to read through the erotica short I wrote a few days ago. By now I should be able to dive in with a fresh eye for the story. I need to get that one cleaned up and out the door while I'm still thinking about it.

Speaking of writing and writerly things, early Monday morning, I bit the bullet and downloaded Write Way Pro. I heard about it through one of the RWA loops, and decided to give it a try. There's a free demo, and when you decide to buy the full, you key in the activation code and voila. You had the full version (albeit limited) all along. No extra downloads.

This thing is pretty cool. It's supposed to be similar to Scrivner, but the learning curve is easier. I was skeptical about that, but now that I've had a chance to play with it some, I have to agree. It is easier to jump in the water and splash around with Write Way Pro.

The feature that sold me, though, is the formatting aid. Supposedly, I haven't tried it yet, you can write your book in Write Way Pro, then export it so that it's ready formatted for the Kindle or Nook. Cool beans. I'm going to give it a test as soon as possible. If it works the way I hope it does, I'm going to format my upcoming erotica collection with it. We'll see. :o)

At the End of the Day

2011-11-13T20:09:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of freephotos.se

And so hath ended the weekend of crazy. I feel like a tornado has blown through the house, and I've been grappling for my inner serenity, more so than usual. Hubby isn't feeling well, and I'm anticipating a trip to the doctor soon. I just don't see him getting any better without it, no matter how much he protests. It'll have to be after my car is fixed though, and the parts won't be in until Tuesday. <sob, sob> Oh boy, that should be fun. Car repairs and a doctor visit all in one week.

Overall, it hasn't necessarily been unpleasant, just...stressful. It's like I've been anticipating something all weekend, only I don't know what. I wrote about 10 pages here and there, wrapped up the short erotica piece (which now needs to be cleaned up), and revised a few pages of the September experiment. Which in the greater scheme of things feels like I haven't accomplished diddly squat.

This afternoon, mom brought an Oreo cake, a card, and get well soon balloon to hubby, which was so very sweet and totally unexpected. After we all ate cake, I let Mini make a mess in the kitchen. We made a couple of super bouncy ball things out of a craft kit, and then Mini played rock, paper,scissors with his dad to see which one of them would get the super bouncy ball in the blue casting mold. <g>

After Mini's bath, I put in the movie Rio, and Mini and I lounged around on the bed in my room until he fell asleep. I left the TV running, covered him with a quilt, and now I'm back up again, and not quite sure what to do all by myself. I could read for a bit, I guess. I have a couple of books I'm picking my way through...Le'see...I have Marie Ferrarella's The Doctor's Guardian right here by my keyboard. And if I'm ot up for reading, there is always writing or revisions to be done.

Sadly, I missed my monthly RWA chapter meeting again. The meeting was Saturday, and I'd planned to go before the crap started with my car. I had no way to get there is the excuse this month, which puts me out of touch with the group since August. <whimper> I know it sounds like no big deal, but writerly weekends are my thing, how I like to spend my personal time. Even though it's only once a month, if I want it, I kind of have to plot, plan, and arrange for that time. Lately, though, other events have taken precedence, and there's really nothing to be done about it. So, chin up, I guess. There is always next month, and next month...and then next month. Boo.

Whew. Thinking of my inner peace again. Lighting my candle. Birds of Paradise from Mary's Candles. My absolute favorite scent. Now. Deep breath. Lemme lay this one down for the record: I will be so thrilled when things finally level out and I can get my shit together. Mama needs a day off!

Full Moon Thursday

2011-11-10T07:08:00.001-06:00

I have Sassie pup in my lap, and the cat is yowling at me from the doorway. I believe they're telling me the cool weather means we should have an afternoon nap. I'm not entirely sure I disagree.

On the other hand, there are many good writing chats going on with the #SYTYCW2 series on twitter. So You Think You Can Write 2, is a web conference of sorts held by eHarlequin. If you're interested in writing for Harlequin, this a really good way to find out what editors want, and little gems of information to help you target the line you're most interested in.

I'm wrapping up an erotic short story today. I only need about 800 more words to make it a done deal. Then I'll set it aside for the afternoon and work on something else to give me a little space from the project. Tomorrow morning, I'll start the revisions. I don't think this one will need much clean up. I'd read through what I have about four times, and so far it looks pretty smooth. Probably a tweak here and there. My work isn't usually this clean right out the gate, but the piece is short so I think that made a difference. Whatever the case, I'll just keep working with it til it feels ready. No harm, no foul.

Tonight, since it's a full moon, I'm going to break out the Moon Garden deck and do a few tarot readings. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be power days, so it should be interesting. I also want to go through my workshop notes one last time to make sure it's all smooth for my presentation. The time is very limited, so I'm going to break out my egg timer and do a practice run. Wish me luck! ;o)

1980 Smelled Like Sunshine

2011-11-09T00:30:00.000-06:00

You know how there are certain scents that can take you back? Like the smell of Coppertone and Banana Boat in the summertime, or the smell of a thunderstorm, or ginger bread cookies at Christmas? Well, I caught a whiff of nostalgia earlier today. Oh boy, did I ever.

Granted, what with all the stuff that has befallen our family in the past year (2011 has been an ill-contented bitch to say the least), it's not a stretch of the imagination that I've been feeling a big nostalgic about the past, but wow...just wow... I was kicked back 31 years in an instant.

I can't remember a smell ever affecting me this strongly. I was walking through the hall this morning and smelled it for the briefest instant. Hello Sunshine perfume by Avon. It seemed so clear to my nose... I recognized it immediately, which is amazing, since I haven't smelled that perfume in years. It struck me as completely odd. Familiar, yet out of place. I stood there, confused, breathing it in, and my mind was racing - where could it be coming from? I didn't have an answer. I still don't. But I was suddenly struck with the vibrant memory of holding the perfume bottle in my hands. It had a yellow cap on top. The bottle was clear with a cute, summery print that wrapped around the bottle.

Once that one memory jarred the door loose, it let in a barrage of other memories behind it, a flood of stuff I haven't thought about since I was a little girl.

Like that yellow, apron-style dolly dress with a tiny rosette applique I used to swap from doll to doll. It was my favorite. The teddy bear with the yellow, zippered, removable fur. And again that perfume...The smell of Hello Sunshine had seeped into my old Holly Hobby jewelry box from the 70s, and back then, all I had to do was open the lid, and the scent came drifting out. A daisy chain formed. The jewelry box had me thinking about the toy box my dad built for me. It fit in the corner of my bedroom when we lived in Crossroads, a huge wooden trunk by the bed. I loved the box, but not that room. The look of melting, haunted faces glowered at me from the paneling. I used to tack up posters of kittens and magazine pop stars to hide the frightening ugliness. In that corner, there was also my collection of stuffed animals that I kept for many years. In particular, a well loved raccoon hand puppet I'd had since I was 3. I miss that thing even now. And the gold and orange floral wall paper in my en suite bathroom. I can still recall the way the light above the sink looked so yellowy when I was scared and left it on at night to keep the shadows away.

I swear the memories just kept pouring out after that... Little things that turned into bigger things. Full scenes I'd almost entirely forgotten. Like the green shag carpeting that smelled like lavender vacuum powder. We had that carpeting around the time our beagle Penny died. I barely remember what she looked like, but I still remember the musty scene of her fur. That old, loved doggy smell. Penny was quiet old when she passed away with canine leukemia. It was storming the night she died, and I remember Dad's glassy-eyed tears when he broke the news. He had to dig a hole for her in the back yard in the rain. Sad and afraid, I sat trembling on the couch with mom. I was too shocked to cry. I sat numb in the dark living room, in the presence of my mom, grandma, and grandpa. They'd turned on cartoons to get my mind off of it. The Popeye Valentine special was on TV that night. And Peanuts. I distinctly remember the Dolly Madison cake commercials had Charlie Brown in them. It's all a vivid blur.

Hugging mom made me remember the silky feel of this seemingly fragile, striped polyester shirt she wore in the late 70s. She always paired a small gold pendant with it: a simple gold coin with a scrolly, engraved "L". I haven't seen that necklace since probably 1985. The shirt, she had that before we moved to the apartment. We didn't live there long. I was quiet young, but I remember dad teasing me after work one night. He brought home a coke bottle radio that I thought I could drink. He also brought home a dark green balloon with the word LOVE printed in 70s stylized letters. I remember it drifting up to the silver flecked "popcorn" ceiling in our living room in Newton. Dad paid a dollar for it at the mall in Dallas. I loved that it could float upward without a breeze. That was absolutely amazing to me. Just let go of the string, and it went clear to the ceiling. It was Christmas Eve when he bought that balloon, and we had gotten home very late, around midnight or so. I imagine my parents were exhausted, because they told me Santa came early, and let me open my presents before bed: a Baby Alive doll, a box of play dishes, and a tin litho stove and sink set. They let me play with it for a little while, then convinced me we had to all go to bed. Those are the few memories I have of that place. That, and the steps out front. In my mind's eye, I picture the way my parents looked back then, so young, but then I was young, too, so I didn't see it.

Other things I remember...passing glimpses... I had a cache of toys shoved under my bed to keep from picking them up. I'm pretty sure my mother knew. My first grade backpack: a messenger bag that looked like an open box of crayons. I would hold it in my lap on the bus and chew on the strap when I got nervous riding the bus home. I didn't like the bus, it was noisy, loud, and I didn't know anyone.

Once, at that very apartment, the one in Newton, I stepped on a straight pin that somehow got lodged in the gold shag carpeting in my parent's bedroom. I screeched like a howler monkey when it happened, and my mom came running, only to make this sound of exasperation when she saw the problem. A pin in my toe, instead of me lying on the floor in a heap of broken bones. I'm sure she was relieved. But still she had to wrangle me under her arm just to be able to look at my toe and the pin. I struggled so hard she called me by my first and middle name, which meant she was dead serious. She told me to be still. And so I was...for barely a minute. But then, she was quick, and plucked it out. Just like that. A thorn pulled from a lion's paw. And I was stunned to see the bright red drop of blood that appeared on the end of my toe. She went right into the bathroom and grabbed down a tin, came back, and covered the blot with a band aid that I refused to stop picking at, because, the end of your toe is an odd, uncomfortable place to wear a band aid.

In the evenings after Dad came home from work, he would bouncing me on his knee while listening to It's Okay, by the Beach Boys. He did that until I got too big. Now, Mini sits and bounces on his knee. Seeing that always makes me happy. Those were sweet days of my childhood. I miss those times. I want it to be okay. I do. And then it is. I remember that one clear day...such a perfectly formed memory, of my mom driving us home in the old Cutlass. It was a sunny afternoon. The car was avocado green, and had bench seats, and no air conditioning. We lived in Granbury, Texas at the time, and that afternoon, we were coming back from what seems like nowhere.

We rode with the windows down that day - the air was nice and not too hot for once. I was sitting on the front passenger's side of the seat and rode without a seat belt. No one really worried about that sort of thing back then, and I distinctly remember holding a boxed, Lime Chiffon doll with Parfait parrot in my hands. I was fascinated with the doll's green hair and dress. Green was my favorite color back then, and probably still is. I vividly remember itching to open that box, but knowing I had to wait because I would need help getting the ties off the cardboard insert.

Amazing how that one scent made me think about all those things, but there it is. The memories poured out of me so quickly my skin prickled and for a moment I stood staring at the bathroom door, caught up in a profound sense of Deja vu. Then the scent was gone. Poof. I can't imagine where it came from. For ten full minutes I wandered up and down the hallway in my house, trying to find the scent again, but I couldn't.

The rest of the afternoon, my brain kept turning those thoughts over and over. Recounting those memories made me think of other memories. And other familiar scents, too. Such as the perfume my mother used to wear in the late 70s, and early 80s. Very clean and just a hint of fragrance. I didn't realize until tonight that scent wasn't perfume, per say, it was her makeup. I don't know why that is so important to me suddenly, but it is. Maybelline pressed powder, a dab of nude lipstick, and a pat of hair spray. Literally, a pat. Instead of spraying the hairspray directly on her hair, mom would spray it into the palm of her hand and pat it over her hair. I haven't thought about that in years, and it made me cry a little to be able to sum up that telling action so succinctly, to know and remember that so well. The scent that is her is a nostalgia of its own. I have probably always thought of that makeup smell as part of her essence. It is the smell in her house to this very day, and when I breathe it in, it fills me with comfort.

I don't know why I chose to write all this down, but then I guess I needed to. For me. It has been a hard year for our family. We've been dealt a lot of loss.

Time goes by so quickly, and there are so many little things we tend to forget because we are so busy, forever changing, always growing, and whether we realize it or not, moving forward. Our lives are dramatically different from what they were in what I think of as our glory days. I doubt my parents realize I remember that much elusive detail, but I do. Great times. It's all buried in there somewhere, in my head, waiting for a whiff of something sentimental to draw it out.

I don't want to live in the past, but I don't want to forget anything either. While cooking supper the other day, I was telling my husband, that gradually, one by one, the older generation is not only leaving us, they're putting us in charge of the family line. After hearing of my Uncle George's death earlier this week, I know this is true. It scares me sometimes, even though I know it's natural and inevitable for us all. I'm the age now my mother was in my happiest memories. Thirty-six. Mini is the same age I was then. So it begins again. A cycle I'm allowed to live again. I'm so blessed. And I hope one day Mini has little snippets of memories that come drifting in when he's grown. I hope the same for Oldest, too. I hope those memories give them comfort when the family widens and shifts again.

So that's my waffle for the day. Nothing serious. Just externalizing the internal. I hope I haven't gone too deep. But even if I did, that's okay. The little things matter. And apparently they add up, collecting in the mind like treasures stored in a dusty attic. There's inspiration in all that somewhere. Fuel for future writing fires. I don't know how I know it...I guess sometimes you just do.

Natural Born Control Freak

2011-11-07T23:59:00.000-06:00

Kippy cat looking super comfy on the sofa.

Everything feels very adrift right now. I'm a Virgo, which kind of makes me a natural born control freak, and it totally throws me off balance when there is so much chaos going on in my life at one time. At this moment, my car needs repairs, I have a workshop coming up, Mini has fall vacation is coming up soon, there's a memorial service for my uncle on Wednesday, I have a story to finish up this week, and...*faint*... that's just skimming the surface. I don't know what's going on in the stars right now, but about a million things have come crashing down around my ears in the past few days. I haven't been this swamped in a long, long time.

The test run for my workshop went okay. I still have cue cards to write up, and I want to run through it one more time before the event next week. I'm currently in the middle of taking a workshop, also, and still haven't read through the new lesson that just went up. Hmm. I better add that to my current "to do" list.

Despite all this insanity, I've made the decision to go back to school. I want to build on my current skills so one day, if I decide to do so, I can work as an editor. I'll only be able to take a few classes at a time because I'm busy, live about an hour from the college, and I need to be home for Mini as much as possible. That being the case, I have no idea when I'll actually put this decision into action. Not in time for the spring semester, I'm sure. But I'll be hitting the books as soon as I'm able to get my ducks in a row - hide and watch. Until then.... Starting in December I'll be taking an algebra refresher course. Because I'm secretly a masochist. <shakes fist at evil Algebra>

I planned to say more, but I'm out of time. It's almost midnight, and I want to read a few pages - or sections if I can keep my eyes open that long - in this Ray Bradbury Zen book. Nope, I still haven't finished it. Just another one of life's little curve balls. Guess it's a good thing I always played well as a hind-catcher. All for now. xx

Review: Halloween Tarot Deck

2011-11-06T06:18:00.000-06:00

Not all that long ago I bought The Halloween Tarot deck by Kipling West off eBay, and ever since it arrived, I've been planning to say a few words about it here on my blog. Well, here it is...

The tin, the card backs, and the little white book. Photos are
clickable if you'd like to see a larger shot.

I love this colorful, whimsical deck. It comes with a little white booklet, 78 cards, and the protective tin, which features artwork from several of the cards in the deck. The art work primarily features bats, pumpkins, devilish imps, and ghosts, which are replacement suits for the swords, pentacles, staves, and cups, respectively. There is also a recurring black cat in the cards - the same cat as shown above, on the card backs. The cat is almost like a watcher, or a shadow, moving from card to card through the tarot "journey" as if he is there to witness fate at hand. Personally, I love it.

Despite the Halloween theme, this is really a practical deck that can be used year round. I especially like the smaller size of this deck, which is playing card size. The Halloween deck is much easier for me to shuffle than standard tarot cards. There are some slight variations (vs. the Rider Waite meanings) on some of the cards if you go by the little white book, but the alternate interpretations didn't come across as too far out, so I didn't have any trouble interpreting a reading. I especially love the Hermit, Magician, and Temperance cards, which are shown with active instead of restful and/or meditative figures. Proof that during periods when we're offered a bit of universal "down time", it doesn't mean we're necessarily dormant, but entering a period when we can focus on bettering ourselves, learning new tricks, and cooking up new plans. Great stuff!

Overall, this is a fun, easy to read deck. Again, I love the festive art, and the size of the cards. They're comfortable in the hands, and are the perfect medium between matte and glossy card stock. They shuffle very well without being weak and overly flexible.

I recommend The Halloween Tarot deck by Kipling West for anyone looking to add seasonal charm to their Halloween tarot readings, or simply for a fresh take on the traditional Rider Waite deck. In my opinion, this is a beautiful, fun, and overall practical deck for use any time of year.

Past, present, future, and a final overall card - the Two of Bats. A
reading I did last week. Just for fun, feel free to leave your own
personal interpretation in the comments if you're so inclined. :o)

While I'm Away

2011-11-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

I got word a few hours ago my Uncle George passed away last night. He was "the cool uncle". The hippie. A very sudden and unexpected loss for our family. My dad rushed over to be with his sister once he heard, and I'm now waiting to hear from family to see what we'll be doing next.

Blogging will probably be sporadic over the next week or so. I'm going to try scheduling some things, but family comes first. I've already begun tying up loose ends so I can go be with my cousins and aunt when called on.

The NaNoWriMo workshop in Awen on November 17th is still set to go, so if you've scheduled to come, no worries. It's happening as planned. Everything else, reviews, critiques, etc. are being put off until further notice. If you were waiting to hear back on something in particular, email me privately through my website contact form and I'll get back to you asap.

Peace and blessings,
Cora

Zombie Pizza

2011-11-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

I had a crazy dream last night that I was standing line at a deli with the Oldest bratling. We were there to buy lunch, and one of the boxes on the top shelf was clearly printed with the words Zombie Pizza. It looked like a normal pizza, only it had a lot of veggies and greens on it. Like spinach. Oh, and tons of mozzarella. Hmm. I get it now. It was pale and green. Like a zombie, I guess.

Of course, I took down one of the boxes and offered it to Oldest, who passed, and went down to the hot serve counter to order...something. Whatever it was, it wasn't available. He came back to where I stood with the zombie pizza, and picked up something traditional for himself - sausage and pepperoni, I think.

Minutes later (in the dream), we were home, and in this bright kitchen area that doesn't look like my house at all, and were baking the pizzas we'd bought, when hubby came into the room and said that the "water company replaced the lines". I have no idea what this had to do with our pizzas, but we turned on the faucet and the water came gushing through. Talk about loud. I thought to myself, wow, we've never had such great water pressure. Which, in waking life is true. I just have no idea why I dreamed about it. And before you ask...no, it wasn't because my subconscious was trying to tell me I had to pee. :P

It's after 2pm, so I have to go pick up Mini Beast from school soon. Quickly, before I have to go, I wanted to toss this out there about the upcoming NaNoWriMo workshops going on in Second Life. These workshops are free to attend, and will be held in voice chat.

Nov. 17, 7:00PM: Workshop by author Cassandra Curtis
Author of the Midnight Effect and Shifting Tides trilogy.

In this mini-workshop, Ms. Curtis shows how a writer can deepen the characterization of an existing protagonist, antagonist, or develop a secondary character by using a few simple diagrams, an interview sheet, character check list, traits, and even an exercise she invented called the Writer’s Duel, which creates multi-player participation in a game setting. Developing your character look in SL will be briefly discussed as well.

Nov. 17, 7:30PM: Workshop by author Cora Zane

Are you struggling with your NaNoWriMo story? Erotic romance author Cora Zane will be covering ways to kickstart a story that has stalled, and get you back on track to reaching your 50k NaNoWriMo project goal.

Both workshops will be held here in Second Life:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/211/196/22

This weekend, I'll be working on revisions for the Shiver's story. It needs quite a bit of work, me thinks. Most of it is fleshing out scenes, characterization work, and an emphasis on building suspense. A tall order, but I'm on it.

I'm going to do the best I can to get this book as clean as possible this month. If I go over into December, that's fine, but hopefully I'll have it clean enough to submit in December. Then I have that short erotica story to write before the year is out, so I have time to revise it. Once that is done, I'll be able to take another look at the September Experiment. Hopefully the time I've spent away from it, will be beneficial for when I go back and pick it up. The material shouldn't be overly familiar with me by that point, so I should be able catch more issues in need of revision. We'll see.

That's all for now. Oh, one last thing...I haven't forgotten the Halloween deck. I finally took a pictures of it, but once again, I'm out of time. This weekend I'll have it up - I promise. Cross my heart and all that. ;*) Happy Friday, everyone!

Books, More Books, and Writing Books

2011-11-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

I'm about to move into the living room with my Shivers wip. Everyone else has gone to bed for the night, so the house is quiet. And mostly clean. Not an easy feat with all the guys tracking back and forth through the house in the evenings.

There's still laundry to throw in the dryer, which I'll fold before I go to bed. It's not that much, and I really don't mind doing it. At this point, it offers at least some excuse for my insomnia. Gotta stay up late - to finish the laundry, of course. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'd like to pick through at least one full chapter of the Shivers story tonight, and hopefully I'll have time left over to read a few more pages of Zen in the Art of Writing book before it gets too terribly late. Very interesting and inspiring book so far.

Earlier today I worked on stuff for the upcoming NaNo workshop in Second Life, and took down Halloween decorations. I also took some pictures of the Halloween tarot deck with my phone so I can do that up coming review. (It's coming soon, I promise!)

Toward the end of the year, I'm going to go through all the books I've read this year (a LOT of books) and I'm going to do a top ten list of the ones I liked, and/or found most helpful, etc.

I think I have about four more books to read before I'm ready to start list making. Off the top of my head, I can honestly say 90% of all the books I've read this year have been non-fiction, mostly writing related books. My last trip to a brick and mortar store was my anniversary weekend - Halloween weekend. I ended up buying four non fiction books for myself, including the Ray Bradbury "Zen" book. Two books were on ghost hunting, and one a fun little book on traditional witches. Hubby picked out two non fiction books on Louisiana which I should group together in with my own purchases since they all go on the same card. That's two more non-fiction books. And lastly, I bought Oldest a paranormal YA fiction/romance, which is his preferred type of book to read.

Most of the romantic fiction I've bought this year has been through Kindle, and were mostly books from writers or publishers I'm associated with in some way.

Of the paperback fiction books I've bought and read...the books that weren't Harlequins of some kind, were trade paperbacks. I don't think I purchased a single, mainstream mass market paperback this year. Without a doubt, this is a first for me.

I'm only missing one book on my "to-buy" list for this year: Christine Feehan's Dark Peril. As soon as I see it on the shelf in my area, I'll be buying it...hopefully in mass market paperback. Otherwise, I'll have to get it on Kindle. Oh! Last but not least, I bought two books in hard cover this year: Robert Heinlein's Friday, and a YA hard cover - The Replacement. I can't think of the author right off hand.

Hmm, interesting stuff... If I have time, I might go back and make a list of all the books I've bought and read this year. I've noticed that as I've gotten older, my reading habits have changed. I'm more selective about what I buy. I've made fewer impulse purchases when it comes to books. That last trip to the bookstore, now that I think of it, I went in with specific books in mind. So, I had a target subject going on. Not exactly impulsive. Also, until now, I had no idea I read so much non-fiction!

So there are a few rambling things to think about before bed. Not really what I set out to blog tonight, but that's just where my mind was flowing. Books, books, and writing books. Surprising, eh? ;o)

Back In The Trenches

2011-11-01T13:33:00.000-05:00

Oh, hi, November. How did you sneak in here? I woke up this morning thinking - we are weeks away from Thanksgiving. Then a few more weeks away from Christmas. Jeez, it feels like only yesterday it was August. Time is slipping through my fingers at an alarming rate.

Officially, I will not be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I have two "completed" projects to revise, and one more to write and polish for submission by the end of the year. ALL of this needs (ideally) to be completed by late February. Yikes.

In March, I'll be pitching the September Experiment at conference. The short and polish is due at the end of January. And the shivers story had damn well be out of her before either of those other projects. Because...well, it just needs to be. I don't like sitting on a novella for that long.

Taking all this into consideration, I dove back into the trenches yesterday with the Shivers story. I need a title for that thing, stat. I've learned so much from the Manuscript Makeover book, I'm kind of excited to be working on the Shivers again...but I'm also kind of dreading it.

The book is patchy at best, and needs a few more scenes tossed in to make it whole. I'm using this as my Dr. Frankenstein book. I'm going to cut it apart, stuff it full of god only knows what, then sew it back together and try to breathe life into it using all the new things I've learned over the past two months. If this operation is successful...or even if it isn't...I'm going to take away from the process whatever I can, because the next one up is the September Experiment manuscript and that's a full length novel. Which for all Frankenstein-ing purposes could very well mean it will be hellish to revise it. I'm intimidated, I admit, but there's no better way to learn than by doing. At least, that's what my mother tells me.

Onward to books... I'm now reading Zen in the Art of Writing, Releasing the Creative Genius Within You, by Ray Bradbury. I should be finished with this one soon. After this one, a fiction book. I've got Afternoon Delight {erotica for couples} edited by Alison Tyler next up on my TBR stack. I have to admit, I've cheated. I've already read a few of the stories in the Alison Tyler book, but then I had to get back to work. ;o)

So there's my current to do list laid out for me. I still need to get that review up for the Halloween Tarot deck. I meant to do that yesterday, but once again, time got away from me. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something else, but I can't imagine what, so I'm going to escape while I can. <g> I have to go pick up Mini from school in a little while, and I need to hop in the shower before I go.

Oh! One last thing... (yep, forgot something, alright) I'll be giving a NaNoWriMo workshop on November 17th in Second Life. The workshop is free, and will cover how to work with a story that has stalled. That same day, my critique partner Cassandra Curtis will be giving a workshop on Characterization.

If you're inworld, and would like to attend, send a message to Bryn Forsythe, Cassandra Sharktooth, or Cora Waverider for more information. I'll also be posting more information here, on my blog, as we get closer to the event date.

Pumpkins Scream in the Dead of Night

2011-10-31T12:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween and a blessed Samhain, everyone! I have the Jack Skellington "This is Halloween!" song stuck in my head this morning. How fabulous (and appropriate) is that? ^_^

I'm going to be baking cookies and making S'mores with the kidlets this evening. I'm also taking both Mini Beast and Big Brat to my Mom and Dad's house for a final round of Trick or Treats. Mom always buys the best treats. She makes candy pails for both boys - even the 20 year old. <g> The pails have everything from popcorn to apples to candies in there. Great stuff! When the guys are on up in their 30s, 40s and such, they'll remember those Halloweens. Every year I think about my Ma'amaw Rose. She loved Halloween, and her favorite candies were the wrapped orange and black peanut butter chews. The taffy kind. I think she said at one time they were similar to a kind of penny candy popular during the war.

Anyway, it's been a few days since I last posted. Busy weekend and all that. Hubby and I had our post-anniversary, anniversary date on Saturday. We had lunch at Red Lobster, and debated watching a movie, but ended up skipping it since there wasn't really anything playing we both wanted to see. Instead, we went to Books a Million, bought an armload of books - a little something for everyone, us and the boys. Afterward, we ended up prowling the antique stores over at Antique Alley.

I bought a set of tiny airplanes for my dad. Very much his kind of thing. One is a silver airplane that used to come out of cereal boxes a long time ago. I remember there was more than one color of them - silver, metallic blue, and metallic red. Dad instantly recognized that plane for what it was. The other plane is a 40s? tin toy a little larger than the cereal box plane. It had Japan's color's on it, and pieces of it move. The tail of the plane, and the pilot, both move back and forth. Very neat little toy. Dad put them both on his collector's shelf.

The rest of the weekend we lounged about, read books, watched TV. I went to Cassandra Curtis's Haunted Waverly Hills workshop Sunday night in Second Life, which was awesome as ever.

Now I'm back into the weekly swing of things. I have a story to work on this week, revisions to tinker with, and books to read. Just a few more pages to go, and I'll be finished with Manuscript Makeover. And I'm about 50 pages into Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I love Bradbury's stuff. He's one of my favorites, so I'm finding this one to be a bit easier to read than some of the other books. Inspiring stuff.

I'm trying not to give myself any more projects this late in the year. It's funny how fast the holidays come on us once the school year starts. This is how the year gets away from me, waiting until November to wrap up loose ends. By the time I'm able to lift my head again, Christmas will be over, New Year will be in sight, and I'll be relieved for it, because finally we'll be in the clear of the holidays. Whew!

There's still some time before that, though. I haven't had to listen to the kidlets snarling at each other for a week over Thanksgiving, or two weeks for Christmas yet. That's usually the defining point of "oh god, when will the hurting stop?" desire to emerge to the New Year. LOL Parents, I'm sure at least some of you'll probably understand where I'm coming from.

But for now, I'm loving Halloween. I've always loved Halloween. It's one of those less stressful holidays. Just candy, fun with the kids, and good stuff on TV. Like, John Carpenter's Halloween. You know I gotta watch that tonight, right? ;o)

A Spell on Her Lips

2011-10-28T12:09:00.000-05:00

The night before last, I dreamed about a snake. It was resting on the floor beside the refrigerator, in the hallway that leads back to my office. When I noticed it, I froze and the snake lifted its head to look at me.

Hubby stood at the stove cooking, and didn't notice the snake was only a few feet away from him. Without any fear, I walked over and grabbed the snake by the neck and blew into its mouth. When I did that, it stunned the snake, and I looked down at its face. For good measure, I blew into it's mouth a second time, then dropped the snake and walked away to the kitchen sink, over by hubby.

When I turned around again, I saw the snake coming directly toward me. It had followed me from the hallway to the area by the sink. I had no shoes or socks on, and took a step back, bracing myself for the snake's bite. When the snake opened it's mouth to bite me, I woke up.

I remembered that dream when I woke up this morning, and thought I'd better write it down before I forgot it entirely. Snakes and spiders are a few recurring symbols in my dreams, but that is definitely a strange take on the snake theme to add to my dream diary.

It's rainy and cold today, but it's Friday so I'll take it. The kippy cat came home from his wanderings right before the rains started, lucky beast. He's curled up in big boy's room snoozing. Sassie is napping in her doggy bed. Really, it's a relaxed, cozy at home kind of day. Since it's still fairly early in the day, and all the house cleaning is done, I'm about to take this Manuscript Makeover book to the den and read the end of it. I'm very close to finishing.

Later this afternoon, I need to outline a short story that's due early next year. It won't take me that long to write it and revise it - I'll probably have it ready for submission sometime next month. But I want to make sure it's as solid as I can make it, so a little planning is in order.

So there it is, the agenda du jour. Easy, breezy Friday. Gateway to the weekend. It totally gets my stamp of approval.

21 Awesome Years

2011-10-28T00:20:00.000-05:00

It's almost midnight, so "anniversary day" for me and hubby is coming to a close. 21 awesome years. Here's hoping we're given 21 more. Since our day fell in the middle of the week, we're saving our couple time sans kidlets for the weekend. Grammie and Grandpa will be taking Mini for the weekend so we can go out to dinner and catch a movie. Other than that, we don't have any concrete plans; we've merely planned to hang out together. I'm looking forward to it.

Because of the weekend agenda, wasn't prepared for a surprise anniversary gift. Hubby bought me a freshwater pearl necklace with matching earrings. Absolutely lovely. And perfect for conference. He's such a sweetie. He got lots of sugars and hugs for his thoughtfulness.

On a different note...I'm currently about two chapters away from finishing the Manuscript Makeovers (Elizabeth Lyon) book. That's pretty high on my to-do list tomorrow. I've learned a ton of stuff from this book, and I haven't even finished it yet. When you consider the larger picture, I think that speaks volumes. This book is destined for my keeper shelf, and I imagine I'll be referencing it over and over again. I just hope I can wrap my brain around this reading of it, so I can tackle my Shivers story and my September Experiment novel armed with new knowledge.

That's all for now. It's quite late, and I've been running on empty most of today. Over the weekend, I'm going to try to post about my new Halloween Tarot deck. I love it. It's very bright and festive. Perfect for holiday and themed readings. Like I said, I'll post more about it soon - complete with pictures. G'night, everyone!

Case of the Possibly Hormonal Fall Blues

2011-10-26T23:31:00.000-05:00

Oh, boy, the weather changes have knocked me for a loop. I've been feeling it all day today. Terribly sluggish. Normally I'm pretty perky this time of year - I love fall - but, man o man, I woke up with a serious case of the blues this morning.

I don't know if I'm just hormonal or what. I took vitamins, ate an apple, and after a good cry over nothing, I went back to bed and slept almost until noon. Then around four pm, after I had Mini situated with his homework and hubby made it home from the job, I tossed in the towel on any further work - chores or otherwise. I felt so dog tired I hit the couch and slept until 7pm.

When I woke up, I was so zombie-ish, hubby kept asking me if I was feeling okay. Other than a mild headache, and the sluggishness, I'm fine. Although, I'm kinda wondering if maybe I never quite got over my weekend ick, and that's why I'm still feeling so run down and moody now. Whatever the cause of it, this isn't like me at all. Ho hum.

Once I was up and about for the evening, I set the clothes washing, made a plate of pot roast with carrots and potatoes for Mini. Then later, as promised, I baked cookies with Mini. We had a blast. He put his step stool up to the bar and helped place the formed cookies on the baking tray. He waited patiently for the timer to go off, and after I slid one batch from the pan (I just slid the parchment paper liner off the tray cookies and all to cool on the counter top) he was ready to load it down with a fresh crop of cookie dough rounds.

After the last batch, I put Mini to bed, started the laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. I still feel so exhausted. I planned to write tonight, but I'm barely able to stay awake. Instead, I'm going to take the Manuscript Makeover (Elizabeth Lyon) book to the couch and crash for a while. If I fall asleep, I do. If not, I'll read and look for something Halloween-ish on TV. Speaking of which... Anyone else notice there hasn't been much Halloween programming on this year? Bah humbug to that. I need to go dig out my Hocus Pocus DVD. It's just not Halloween without watching that at least once.

Tomorrow, Hubby and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary. Well, we'll be home-celebrating. Dinner and a movie. With the kids and pets and everything. That's for the actually anniversary day. Then on the weekend we'll get to have a cozy couple celebration - just the two of us. We still have no idea what we're gonna do. Nothing fussy, that much is assured. I'm perfectly happy with going out for dinner and a movie then back home to flop in front of the TV, but if there's something special Hubster wants to do, we'll give it a go.

I better call it a night. It's almost 11:30, and I still need to put some clothes in the dryer. I swear, towels and wash clothes breed in the laundry hamper. Just when you think you've washed, dried, and folded them all... Night, night everyone.

Black Cat Monday

2011-10-24T21:29:00.000-05:00

So what's the story, right? I haven't blogged in a few days. Mostly because I didn't feel well over the weekend. Then today I spent most of my time doing the household accounting, and reading through the Manuscript Makeovers book I mentioned a few posts back. Thanks to all the thinking work, by the time I had to go pick up Mini my brain was on the verge of a meltdown.

There are only a few days left in the month and I still haven't started on the revisions for my Shivers story. Ho hum. That's next on my to-do list, but I wanted to get through the book on revisions first - a kind of refresher before diving in. Too, I have a workshop coming up in November, so at some point I'm going to have to put time aside to compile notes for it. Actually, I think I better sit down at some point and make a thorough to-do list so I don't forget anything.

Speaking of writerly things... Starting today, Cobblestone Press Publisher Deanna Lee is giving a free workshop on Dialogue over in the Coffeetime Romance forums. The workshop runs from October 24th - 28th and is hosted here: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=1815 .

I'm going to be super busy this week. There's just no avoiding it. I have projects to work on, and Mom's coming over Thursday for a visit. Then Friday I'm not sure, but I think Hubby is taking the day off. The 27th is our anniversary, and we're holding off til the weekend to do anything. Still, Hubby and I still haven't decided what we want to do when the weekend is here. He has talked about taking a short trip. I wouldn't mind it. Maybe a trip to New Orleans. Or Hot Springs. But at the same time, if we have to drive a lot, I'd prefer a low key kind of thing close to home. Like dinner and a movie. Something simple. Nothing extravagant. Then again, we're still rolling ideas around. No telling what the man will come up with before the week is out.

Now that the house is quiet, I guess I better get to work. I have pages to read, and laundry to toss in the dryer. Tomorrow's picture day at Mini's school, so I gotta have his favorite school shirt washed and ready. Ho hum. Hey, on the other hand, I'm kinda wondering if there's any Halloween programming on tonight. Might as well check while I have I have the den all to myself... <evil hand wringing>

On Being A Bookworm/Couch Potato Hybrid

2011-10-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

I think I've slept through most of today. It's 8:30pm now, and I doubt seriously the on and off catnaps all day will stop me from sleeping tonight. Yesterday I didn't feel tip top, but thought it was because I stayed up so late working. Well, it hit me this morning. I feel awful. Achy. And there's a tickle in my throat - just enough to annoy me into coughing. Ho hum. Universe, are you listening? I don't have time to be sick. :*(

My anniversary is next weekend, so whatever crud I have, I need to kick it by then. I'm drinking peppermint tea at the moment to try and combat the tickle-y throat. Earlier I took a Zyrtec, so I'm all zombie'd out from that. Honestly, I hate that feeling. It's like being alert, but disconnected. It annoys the crap out of me. I like to keep going 24/7, if the mood strikes me. Let me just say that Zyrtec doesn't help facilitate that lifestyle at all. Anyway, all things considered, tonight I'm probably going to sleep on the couch to avoid breathing my germs into hubby's face. I worry about him getting sick.

Tonight after the guys have gone on to bed, I'm going to wrap up in a cozy blanket, put in a horror movie for background noise, and read - if I'm able to stay awake. That remains to be seen. But I'd really hoped to gain some ground in this latest book I've picked up. So far, I'm only on chapter five, but I've learned a lot from it already. If I felt better, I'd probably be further along in it than I am now, but over the past few days, as soon as I settle in to read or watch anything on TV, I'm snoring the house down. It's crazy. I can't seem to keep my eyes open.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a few chapters in. That's the plan. But tomorrow - more reading and resting. Apparently I need it.

For those who are looking for updates on the September Experiment. I haven't forgotten it. I haven't given up on it. I've pushed back working on it until I've finished reading this latest book, and once I've had a chance to test out the process on my <still!> unnamed erotic horror story.

And there you have it, the Saturday report. I'm going to go check on the guys and see what they're doing. Then I might make an almond flour mug cake. It's totally Atkins legit! :9

Upcoming Workshops

2011-10-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

Visit our new Second Life location in Transylvania!

Happy Friday! I'm so glad the weekend is here. For the past week or so I haven't been getting enough sleep and I'm feeling kinda run down for my efforts. On the upside, just in time for Halloween, the Midnight Moon Cafe shop is live in Transylvania (Second Life). We are located on the corner between "The Wall" dance area, and across the street from the Vamypre Cultural Center. The sign shown above is posted out front. I still haven't placed the event board in the new shop, but it will be there shortly. Of course, we also have locations at Awen (Bookstacks), and at Witches Island.

In the coming weeks, Cassandra Curtis has a few tarot events coming up. On November 17th, we'll both be giving writing workshops at the Book Fayre in Awen (Second Life). For her writing workshop, Cass is covering characterization - I think. I'll be doing a workshop on writing a fast draft for NaNo. It IS possible to write a usable draft in a month, and I will be talking about how to reach the 50k word count goal, even if you're in the middle of your draft and you feel like your story is too "broken" to continue working on it. I hope to see you there!

As always, our workshops inworld are free, but tips are appreciated. They allow us to continue to have a presence in Second Life. If you're already in Second Life, you can join our group to receive blue notices of any current events held by MMC authors.

On a different topic...this weekend I'll be doing a bit of reading, revising, baking, and horror movie watching. Hubby bought a copy of the latest Howling movie on DVD and I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I have no idea if it's a remake or what. I haven't seen the trailer yet, but you betcha that's one of the first things on my to-do list. I <3 The Howling movies!

Also, since the family and I don't really have that much going on for a change, I though Mini would like to make a mess in the kitchen with me sometime tomorrow. I bought chocolate, sugar free frosting, almond flour, and more eggs. We're all set, so let the baking commence! <cackle, cackle>

Hehehe... what can I say, the fall weather has me in the Halloween spirit. ;o)

Writerly Wednesday

2011-10-19T18:27:00.000-05:00

I have a couple of writerly things to talk about, so I thought I'd make an entire post about it. First things first...Last night I started reading Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon. I bought the book from Amazon after a recommendation from a friend, and I gotta say - so far, so good!

I like the way the book is organized, and honestly, this one couldn't have arrived at a better time. I have two manuscripts awaiting revisions on my desk, and I have another short project to write by the end of the year. I'll post my opinion on Manuscript Makeover once I've had a chance to read it from cover to cover. <rubs hands together>

I'll probably be applying the teachings in this book to my Shivers manuscript while reading my way through it. Yeah, I'm half crazy like that. <g> When thumbing through the book last night, I read a few sections, and have already uncovered a few gold nuggets of wisdom...which is awesomeness. I'm definitely looking forward to this book.

On to other writerly news...coming up on October 25th, Sable Grey, author, cover artist, and co-owner of Cobblestone Press, will be speaking at a free chat about designing book covers over at Savvy Authors.

I can vouch for Sable's talent - she does some amazing covers. She did several of my Cobblestone Press covers, including Bonding Experience and Wicked Obsession. I request her as my artist whenever possible. She knows her stuff! So, if you're interested in learning more about designing book covers, visual branding, and other tips, be sure to register for her chat session. For basic and premium members, the chat is free! You can find out more about the event here: http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/showevent.php?eventid=1290

NaNoWriMo will be kicking off on November 1st. The website link posted here may not work right away when you click it. The last time I checked the site, they were doing maintenance for the upcoming event. You can still Google NaNoWriMo for the organization's primary links.

I won't be participating in NaNo this year due to prior commitments, but Cassandra Curtis and I will be giving a writer's workshop with a focus on tips to help you along the path to reaching your 50k NaNoWriMo project goal. The workshop will take place in Second Life on November 17th. More information about the workshop, including SLurls, is forthcoming.

Anyway, that's all the business-y news I have for now. On a lighter note, when I came home from picking up Mini from school this afternoon, I noticed the fig tree out front is loaded with ripe figs. Wow! It seems like that happened over night. Before the sun goes down I have to get out there and harvest the tree - yum, yum!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Cora's Picks: Writing Subtext by Linda Seger

2011-10-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Writing Subtext: What Lies
Beneath, by Dr. Linda Seger

Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath by Dr. Linda Seger is my latest "must read" pick for writers. A little backstory on why I picked up this particular book...I recently attended a workshop by the lovely Jodi Henley, and she made a suggestion that it might benefit me to work on subtext and layering. I thought: ah-ha!

The thing is, I didn't have a clue about subtext and had to look it up. I read a few brief articles that I uncovered in a Google search, then hopped over to Amazon, where I chose between two or three available books on the subject. There aren't very many. I picked up Dr. Seger's book, because it had a recommendation blurb by Syd Field, whose book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting is on my keeper shelf.

Writing Subtext is far from light reading. The book is only about 150 pages long, but don't let that fool you.

The chapters are fairly long, and broken into subheadings. However, the way the material is presented, the subheadings kind of run into one another. This makes the book, for its size, seem very meaty, and it's a lot to grasp in such a short page count. So if you prefer an Idiot's Guide or Dummy's Book presentation style, Writing Subtext is more compressed. It may be difficult for some readers to get through this book. When I first picked up Writing Subtext, it was a head dive into a complex subject. I wasn't entirely prepared.

Once I started reading it, I had to go back and reread parts of the book to truly grasp the subject matter. I'm sure I'll have to re-reference this book in the future, so it will be going on my keeper shelf.

As for the actual content of the book, it's worth the price and your time as a writer if you wish to learn to add those little "beneath the surface" nuances to your fiction. Dr. Seger teaches you how to explore and write deeper meaning into your character's dialogue and gestures. There are a lot of very good subtext examples from popular movies scattered throughout the book, also. This makes the books a little easier to digest.

A lot of material is covered in a short span, including subtext in dialogue, metaphors, and subtext for creating a strong visual image. There is also an interesting section that mentions a character's gut feelings and reactions that I think would be a valuable read for any writer, in any genre.

Overall, Writing Subtext is one of those craft books all writers should pick up at some point if for nothing else but to investigate the way they're putting their dialogue together. I will say that this book is what I'd consider to be geared toward an intermediate level writer. Beginners may find this book hard to read and apply. I wouldn't have been ready for this book six years ago. Nevertheless, the book is exactly what it presents itself to be - a thorough examination of writing subtext.

A Writing Mom's Life

2011-10-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

Oh, kippy cat... You're such a ham. I'm sure you already know that.
As an added bonus, you get a silly stamp of approval from MiniBear. :*)

For the next two days Mini is home with me. It's "teachers need a break" vacation, I think. They're rounding things up for the next 9 weeks or whatever. It's a very short fall break, and probably the only one the teachers will get before the holidays hit. I'm all cool with that, and thought if nothing else, I'd get to sleep in.

Instead, Mini woke me up this morning by coming into the room crying. How's that for a wake up call? <paranoid twitch> Of course, in true CZ fashion, I immediately start freaking out. I'm thinking he's hurt himself, or something happened to the pets, or...I don't know. Fires and screaming and buckets of blood. That's what I thought. I grabbed him, and I'm feeling around for gaping wounds and broken bones when he sobs, "Mom, I puked in the hallway."

Oh dear. Yeah, that's when I realized he was hot to the touch, and had the whiff o' stomach bug smell coming off him. If you're a parent, you might know what smell I'm talking about. It's very faint, but if I get within three feet of someone with a stomach virus, I can smell it. It's a sickly, bilious smell. Arg.

I got up and put him on the couch with a blanket, gave him some Sprite, then went about cleaning up the mess. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but now I'm all twitchy and weirded out that if I don't sanitize every surface I'm sure to get sick with what he's got. I'd planned to bake homemade almond sugar cookies today, but now I'm kind of worried I'll pass around too many germs if I do. I'm torn! **

In the meantime, I'm printing up my Shivers story so I can begin revisions. Woot! I haven't picked a title yet, but I hope to have this puppy ready to submit to EC by the end of the month. Wish me luck! I enjoy writing this kind of horror, so I do hope they take this one.

Once the Shivers story is out the door, I'll begin revisions on the September Experiment, which I hope to have in decent shape by the end of the year. I may end up pitching the S.E. book at the Written in the Stars conference in 2012. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I guess in the long run it depends when it's ready for someone else's eyes. We'll see!

This week sometime - my schedule is a bit crazy right now - I'll be adding my two cents about the book Writing Subtext by Linda Seger. While on twitter earlier, I saw someone post a link to a snippet from the book, and thought it was worth sharing. You can find the article here: Subtext: A Definition and Exploration. (no registration required)

Also spotted today...an interesting article from the New York Times. Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers out of Deal. I'm not really sure what I think about that one yet, but there it is.

That's all for now. Sassie pup is whining at my feet, and Mini is calling for more Sprite. Too, I need to put another stack of paper into the printer. Ah, a day in the life of a writer mom. <g> I hope you're all having a calm, serene, and sick free Monday!

**UPDATE: Mini just informed me I am indeed making those almond sugar cookies. He's waiting - chop, chop! ^_^

Thoughts Before Bed

2011-10-16T03:32:00.000-05:00

Sitting down by the window...

It's after 3am, and I just wrapped up my final timed writing for Saturday. I wrote a total of 5063 words, and I think the novella is pretty much done. Right now the story is sitting at 18674 words, and I'm willing to bet it will expand a bit when I work it over, revise it and all that...something I'll start on later today - Sunday. <g> These long nights get confusing after a while. Anyway, come hell or high water, I want to have this story ready to submit by the end of the month. During November, I'll be focusing solely on revising the September Experiment, so if anything else is getting done, it's gotta be in October.

About today's picture of me sitting at the window... When I logged into Second Life the other day, I noticed a few new scenes had been added to my skybox. What an awesome surprise! One of the new builds is this sweet little haunted house. . I think I'll be using this build for a while. The picture above was taken in front of the second floor window, inside the house of course.. There's a "forgotten" chair for you to sit in and stare out the window at the moonlight. It's absolutely gorgeous. Below is the actual front of the haunted house. How pretty is that? The designer did a fantastic job. I believe this one is my new favorite!

Home Sweet Home

Cassie met with me earlier in the evening and we did several timed writings in the courtyard of the haunted house.When I get some free time, I'd love to put some Halloween decorations out there! ^_^

Shivers, Scripts, and Fishing

2011-10-15T11:52:00.000-05:00

Timed Writings at the Midnight Moon Cafe in Awen.

Hubby took Mini fishing this morning. The boy came home from school a few days ago and that was all he could talk about - going fishing. I'm pretty sure some other kid was talking about the fun of fishing and Mini decided he had to do it too. Ah, well, let him experiment. He could end up a fantastic fisherman. Whatever comes of it, I'm sure the guys will have a good time.

I'm working on this Shivers story, and trying to wrap it up. (Please end already!) I'll probably print out a copy this evening so I can begin the markup. I have friends who work exclusively on their computers, but I find it easier to edit my work on hardcopy. Old school, right? <lol> I do have a feeling, though, this story is going to need another draft. It feels patchy at this point. I need to tie it all together better. Even so, it's still a fun little story. It would have been a good Halloween release, but there won't be time for that.

Anyway, there are still a few details to fine tune, and I'm not happy with the hero's name. I also need a name for the town the story takes place in. Also, the hero's back story is still too sketchy. I need to clarify everything with him. Yeah, there's a short list of things "to do" with this one. It's going well enough to be satisfied with it, though. On average, I've been getting in about 1k words on it a day. Usually a few minutes in the morning, then again at night. If it's anywhere near 15k I'll be happy with the length. That'll give me enough story to test the waters.

Speaking of writing, Cassandra and I were up until the wee hours of the morning doing timed writings. Not surprising, right? I'd actually gone in-world to see if the script writing guy had gotten back to me about our notice board at Witches Island. I'm trying to hire someone to write a custom script for me. I can get so far with the project, but then can't get it to do exactly what I want - a sign that it's time to call in an expert. Before it got to this point, me foolishly trying to do this crap myself, I bought a dialog/menu box for URLs from the SL Marketplace, and the script turned out to be no modify. WTF? So I can't take the numbers off the buttons in the drop down menu and replace it with text. I'm very disappointed about that. Anyway, this is for our book board, so I need to get this sucker working, but I can't seem to find anyone with the time to write a script for me. Maybe it's because of the time of year?

At any rate, the above picture is from a few days ago, but it's pretty representative of what's going on when Cass and I meet up to write. We use Skype sometimes, and I actually prefer it since it's less taxing on my comp, but lately Skype has been crapping out on us. I'm not sure what gives. So Second Life it is. There are far more distractions in SL than in Skype though, so it has its pitfalls, but it's still cheaper than a long distance phone call.

One more thing before I go... A few days ago I mentioned that I'd just started reading the book Writing Subtext by Linda Seger. I'm almost finished with it. I'll be posting more about the book very soon. Just mentioning that in case someone has been waiting for my thoughts on it, etc.

That's it for now. Time to get back to work! I hope you all have a happy weekend. :o)

Making Up For Lost Time

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000-05:00

I took this picture while visiting Innsmouth in Second Life. Amazing SIM. I love the dark atmosphere!
This is my current Halloween inspiration. Long live Cthulhu! ^_^

I'm trying to get a bunch of writing done to make up for lost time. Yesterday totally got away from me; I ended up in the car for most of the morning and afternoon, and half the night was spent cleaning - and then cleaning up after the lazy bums who wouldn't clean up after themselves. Yeah, I kinda went all Irish housewife on everyone, but it's not for trying to patient with the numbskulls. Sometimes I have to remind the guys I'm not their personal servant. Thursday turned out to be one of those days. Help us all, right?

I'm close to wrapping up this Shivers story, but it's not there yet. Boo hoo. I'd hope to be writing the ending by now. Well, I have the ending, but there are parts in the middle I've been going back to flesh out. The story needs more meat on the bones. And so there it is. I'll be working on this one this weekend, trying to wrap it up.

As it stands, I need to have at least two more stories in the hands of editors this year - hopefully the Shivers piece will be ready by the end of the month - and then the September Experiment by the end of the year. I still need to reformat the fairy story and get it uploaded. It will probably have to wait until the holidays before I get the time to get it together, though.

So much to do, so little time. Ack. And I just remember I still need to find a good URL Menu script for the Midnight Moon Cafe shop in Witches Island. (Second Life) We have it all prettied up for Halloween, and will probably be doing another tarot event shortly. So, better get that sign fixed. It does no good if we can't link to our books.

That's all for now. I better get started on my to-do list. It'll be time to pick up Mini before I realize it. Happy Friday, everyone!

Sleepy Thursday

2011-10-13T08:03:00.000-05:00

At the self photography booth on Witches Island.

Is it Friday yet? I'm so tired this morning I can barely keep my eyes open. I was late going to bed, and once I finally managed to fall asleep something kept waking me up every five minutes.Very frustrating. I finally got up out of bed around five thirty and did a tidy-up job around the house before I had to wake Mini up for school. Poor kid didn't want to wake up either. I ended up tickling him to wake him up, and for a while he played the whole "mom, I'm sleeping" fake out game. Huh, not gonna deter me with that! I threatened to tickle the beans out of him, and made him giggle until he gave in and went to the den to get dressed and eat breakfast in front of the TV. Altogether, not a bad start to the day.

I made coffee after I put him on the bus, and I'm going to try to get a few words in before I have to ditch the PJs for jeans and drive Oldest to Ruston to fill out forms or some such thing. I'm taking my Kindle with me since I imagine I'll be stuck waiting for a while. Hmm. Kindle + waiting room. That doesn't sound too bad, actually. It could actually be peaceful. Of course, if it's too peaceful, I may fall asleep. <g>

The shivers story I started at the beginning of the week is getting there, but it's not done yet. It's looking like it may take the weekend to finish it. Boohoo. I'm going to try to hit it hard this afternoon when I'm back from driving Oldest around, and after I pick up Mini. I should at least be able to get another 5-10 pages in. Whatever happens, I'll see it through. I like the story, and I'm actually quite far along in it...if only it didn't keep expanding. Oh well, I suppose in the long run that's a good thing.

Distractions, Second Life, and Writing Stuff

2011-10-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

Cass and Cora at The Voodoo, in Pumpkin Town

I'm having one of those mental meltdown kind of days. No matter what I try to do, it's a challenge to finished because I'm so very distracted. It started right out the gate this morning, too. Everything started out normal - I got Mini ready for school, but about an hour after I'd put him on the bus, I remembered he's going to a play with his class today. Thinking back, I can't remember if they were supposed to bring extra money or what. I didn't see any notes in his backpack when I put his snack money in earlier, but I wasn't exactly looking for anything regarding the field trip.

I've had that on my mind most of the day, and just when I tell myself I won't worry about it anymore, that I'll wait and find out the details when Mini gets home, I forget my own mantra and end up wondering about it again ten minutes later. One track mind? So frustrating....

To pass the time, I've been doing my best to finish this little horror story for the Shivers line. I'm so close! I'm about 3k from finishing it, if I've judged my word count right. It's very dark and extremely dirty. If at all possible, I'd like to have this story subbed by the end of the month.

For those who might be wondering, the September Experiment is still on. I put it away for a little while, but I always seem to pick it up and tinker with it, even when I say I'm taking a vacation from it. Now that the emotional structure workshop is over, I'm about ready to pick it up again full time.

It's thundering and about to rain, so I'm going to call it a day while the blogging is good. Today's picture is actually from this past weekend. Cass and I went exploring Halloween sims in Second Life. We found a little dance "bar" off the beating path over in pumpkin town and ended up dancing to the jukebox. Hilarious stuff. Dig that huge candy corn nom nom Cass is chewing on. We each got one of those out of a trick or treat pail. Fun times! ^_^

Studying Subtext

2011-10-11T08:22:00.000-05:00

Writing Subtext, What Lies
Beneath, by Linda Seger

It's a lovely Tuesday morning, and the hubby is home with me today. The poor guy hurt his back at work yesterday, so he's hobbling around the house slathered in Aspercreme.

I put Mini in the bus about an hour ago, and just got caught up on the posts at the writer's workshop I've been attending online this week. I'm about to break out the wip and do a bit of writing on the Shivers story. I'm about a third of the way through it at this point.

I just started reading a new craft book today, too. Well, actually last night I read a few pages in it. I picked this one up at Books A Million online after joining the current writing workshop I'm enrolled in, and it arrived yesterday afternoon. The book wasn't recommended to me by the workshop or anything, but I went on a search specifically for books on subtext because of some of the things I learned from the class. Out of the handful of available books on subtext - there are shockingly few of them - this is the book that called to me:

Writing Subtext, What Lies Beneath, by Linda Seger. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Subtext-What-Lies-Beneath/dp/1932907963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318336464&sr=8-1

I picked it up because it had recommendations by both Syd Field, and Michael Hague...so yes, those blurby recommendations on books do work for something, I guess. I'm a huge fan of both those guys - I've learned a lot from both, so based on their recommendation, I'm really looking forward to this book. The back cover says it will show you how to use subtext to strengthen your writing. Sounds good to me! I'll post what I think about it once I've had a chance to read through it cover to cover.

In the meantime, I better get on with my writing. I'd like to get in at least 2k before the day is over.

Come Little Children

2011-10-10T02:07:00.000-05:00

Wah. I'm sad to see the weekend go. It didn't last nearly long enough for me. I did a few timed writings with Cassie last night, and ended up a little over 2300 words or so. Then I watched Motel Hell and worked on this Shivers story a bit. I finished up a workshop yesterday afternoon, and I hope I can apply all that new knowledge to my September Experiment wip once I start rewriting it. The workshop was about emotional depth, and the transformative arc. Interesting stuff, and I feel like I learned a lot about characterization I didn't know before. I just hope I can figure out how to apply what I've learned, because it's something I feel the manuscript needs.

This week, I'm taking a little time off to wrap up this Shivers story. I want to get it knocked out this week, and that's my current goal. Once I have it off my plate, I won't have to think about it anymore and I can focus on the September Experiment wip and/or move on to other stories I've been putting on hold.

Too, the sooner I finish this the Shivers story and turn it in, the better I'll feel about it. It's not easy to get the right mix between sex and horror, and I've been having a lot of doubts about my story. Well, I'm gonna just go for broke and see what happens. I know the elements typical of the erotic horror/dark fantasy, but it's like I get started then shy away from writing as powerfully as I could. I need to stop being afraid of the damn story and just write it.

That's all I've got for now. It's two in the morning, and I need to get the clothes folded so I can go on to bed. Ho hum. I'd get so much more done if only I didn't have to sleep!

Dancing Goblins and the Giant Raven

2011-10-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

Dancing Goblins, Haunted Fruit Islands - Fig

A very tiring Saturday. Lots of cleaning up around the house, and other turn of the season chores. I'm finally off my feet - although the laundry will have to go in the dryer shortly. Blerg. At this rate it feels like I'll never get the house back to rights, and I've been at this cleaning stuff since 9am.

Last night, Cass and I went into SL and explored some of the Halloween SIMs. My favorite place to go during the holidays is Haunted Fruit Islands - Fig. The designer goes all out every year, and this year it looks spectacular.

There is a haunted house, a haunted castle, a witches' cottages, a green house with poseable swing...and noose, a haunted carousel, a spider's lair, pumpkin horsemen, and more. As I said, it's a beautifully arranged sim - well worth a look.

Halloween carousel on Haunted Fruit Islands - Fig
That's me on the raven. :*)

Bathroom in one of the haunted houses we visited. I
don't remember which sim this was on. Hmm...

We visited four or five sims, and walked through a couple of the haunted houses. The picture below is from one of the bathrooms in a haunted house - I can't remember which one. I think it was the one that had a problem with their landing site. We arrived and the greeter kept spamming us with note cards. Yikes! By the way, if you click on the pictures in this post, they should go larger.

That's it for now. I need to go over a few workshop lessons, and there's still the laundry to finish. Ho hum. I'm officially declaring tomorrow a relaxation day. ;o)

Eraserpocalypse 2011

2011-10-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

Kawaii iPhone Erasers

So, the good news is this: I survived Eraserpocalypse 2011. Now, where do I begin? Let's start with the school book fair. Wednesday morning, I sent Mini to school with a dollar for snack money, and instead, he met me after school in the pick up zone with an eraser. He was so proud of the darn thing, and I have to admit it's pretty cool as far as erasers go. His eraser is a miniature iPod touch with icons such as twitter, flickr, etc., etc. It's got a blue back on it (like his real iPod touch gel protector), and is similar to the blue iPhone eraser shown above.

He talked about his new eraser all the way home from school. He marveled over the printed icons. He waxed poetic over the blue back of the eraser which is a sign of destiny this eraser and his iPod were meant to live together under the same roof. I'm thinking the whole time how awesome to hear him being appreciative of something that is really such a simple thing.

That was before the crap hit the fan.

I've been taking a writing workshop this week, and Oldest has been preparing for his recruiter to come over for a check in. (Oldest ships out in January.) Anyway, around 6pm, the neighbor kids came over to play with Mini. All four of them. All screaming, hyper little girls.

Mini took a box of Legos outside so they could all play, but within thirty minutes time, Hubby had to send the neighbor kids home because all the kids - Mini included - began throwing toys all over the back yard. These are little things, too. Stuff that really shouldn't be outside. I got on to Mini about that later, but at the time, I was working, and not paying attention to what toy he'd grabbed for outdoors.

When hubby and Mini finally came inside, Mini was howling. Bawling his eyes out. I thought he had been hurt, and got up to find out what the heck was going on. Hubby informed me the drama was over his precious new iPod eraser. He'd lost it in the yard when the kids were throwing toys.

Uh-oh, right? It was already dark by that point, but we turned on the outside lights and walked around the yard in the dark looking for it. I was pretty sure by now that one of the neighborhood dogs had probably found it while the kids were playing and gnawed it up. Mini was inconsolable. Hubby gave him a stern talking to about his toys, and then gave him a dollar to buy a new eraser from the book fair. That made the evening at least mildly bearable. Mini finally calmed down, and then I went on with the nightly routine - supper, bath, TV time, bedtime.

Since I had a little time to tinker around online, I decided to look up those iPod erasers, and that turned into a massive search of omg proportions. The only USA listing of them on eBay was a set of four erasers for $55, and another auction that had multiple listings in one - but the iPhone erasers (as shown above) were all sold out. *_* I realized if Mini didn't get another iPod eraser from the book fair, he was going to have to do without. They were even sold out of the blue ones on CoolZips. Craziness!

Early this morning, a little after 6 am, I got Mini up for school, and put the leash on Sassie pup to take her for a walk around the yard. It was still dark, but I looked for that damn eraser. Nothing. Not even little crumbly, dog-eaten bits. I took Sassie pup back in the house and Mini didn't seem to realize I'd looked for the eraser. That being the case, I didn't say anything. Out of sight, out of mind, or at least that's what I was thinking.

Then around 10 minutes until the bus was supposed to arrive, Mini rushes to the front door, ready to go outside. He's got his back pack and his jacket, and I'm trying to tell him it's too early. "No, mom, I've got to look for my eraser!"

I felt so bad for the lil guy. I told him I'd just come in from looking and didn't see it. His shoulders sagged. Poor thing looked so disappointed. So much so, I put on my jacket and sneakers and went outside with him for a second search. It was finally light out, after all. I told him to go wait on his pile of rocks in the drive way for the bus, and I walked across the front yard to go around the house to where the kids were last seen playing.

On my way back there, I realized someone had left the garden hose unraveled, and as I started to step over it, I looked down, and low and behold what did I see there in the coil of the hose? The iPod eraser. Wet with dew, but unscathed. I picked it up, dried it off, and carried it to Mini, who grabbed me into a great big hug. He wanted to take it to school, but I said NO. It would be waiting on the shelf for him when he got home.

I went on in the house with the eraser, and he came over to the screen door and whispered, "Mom, can I look at it? Just for a second?" Of course I let him, and that seemed to satisfy him that it really truly was in the house and okay. A minute or so later, the bus arrived and he had to go.

I tell ya, it's a good thing I found the eraser, because when he got out of school today he had snacks instead of a new eraser. I asked why he hadn't bought a spare. After all, his dad had given him an extra dollar or two.

"They were sold out of the iPod erasers," he told me.

Lucky breaks, kid. Lucky breaks.

On a different topic, but not really I guess - Oldest. His recruiter was supposed to come by today. Apparently he couldn't because he was getting his car towed? *_* I have no idea. But my entire day was hijacked with waiting for him to arrive. I told Oldest the next time he called to set up ad appointment and I would DRIVE him where ever. Apparently both Oldest and the recruiter took it to heart. I have to drive Oldest to an appointment tomorrow - we have to be there at 1. I just hope the recruiter guy shows up. He doesn't have a very good track record of being on time.

So there you have it, mi vida loca. There's always some insanity going on here - I don't think anyone's too surprised. Current example of craziness: at this very minute the cat and dog are wrestling under my desk. I've taken to sitting lotus style in my chair to keep my feet from catching a claw. Le sigh. Come on, Friday, don't be late!

Furby Cat and the Carousel Song

2011-10-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm nearly out of my 12 hour Zyrtec zombie mode, I thought I'd blog. I have severe allergies, and woke up in the middle of the night last night itching all over and eyes watering. I hopped out of bed and ran to the dining room for the Zyrtec - which is what my doctor told me to take.

Does it work? Does it ever. I've walked around a cotton mouth zombie all day long. Itch and sneeze free. No watery eyes, but holy cow talk about zero energy. Around noon, I couldn't keep my eyes open another minute. I hit the couch and was out for almost two hours. A knock on the door woke me up - the Entergy people dropped by to tell us they had to cut the lights for 30 minutes or so to repair a transformer. If they hadn't told me, I would've probably slept through it. Likely Mini would've been calling home in a panic - where the heck are you, mom? So, it's for the best they woke me, I guess.

Apparently the syllabus is a little off for the workshop I'm taking. No worries. There were no new lessons posted today, so I imagine we'll catch up with it tomorrow. Next month I'm taking an editing course through Tech, and while enrolling in that, I got this grand idea that maybe I want to go back to school next year? As if my life isn't insane enough?

Anyway, tonight I'm reading through the September experiment - taking a look at what I've got. There will be plenty of revisions in my near future, to be sure, but at this point I need to get a picture of what's in the book, and what isn't - but should be.

the latest wip - a lot to do to make this one tip top

I can't remember who mentioned it, but I noticed someone earlier today talking about their NaNoWriMo project on twitter. I saw their tweet and it made me wish I had more time so I could join in. It's tempting. The event doesn't start until next month, but I know for the time being, I can't promise those 2k words per day. Boo hoo. I never seem to be prepared. At this point in time, I need to focus on the current manuscript so I can start sending it around.

Once this book is out there making the rounds, I need to write at least one more story by the end of the year, even if it's just a novella. Cass and I had talked about working on them at the same time so we could check out each others writing process. I hope I can get this current book finished in time to do that.

One more thing before I wrapped it up for the night... A few weeks ago I asked if anyone could remember a trance/dance song by a girl with a baby-ish voice. I also mentioned that I remember her standing in front of a carousel in the video. Well...I finally found the darn thing! Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to try figuring this one out.

Here's the song and video: Look At Us, by Sarina Paris. I remember watching this on MTV back in the day! ^_^'

Dragging in Late

2011-10-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy day, and I'm thoroughly exhausted. Right out of bed, I got Mini ready for school. Once he was on the bus, I had accounting to do - and then bills to pay. That took up most of my morning, and Oldest was chomping at the bit to leave the house. Poor beast. He kept coming to my door, and I'm like, kiddo, we're leaving when mama's ready, and that's that.

Before I left the house, I went over the first lesson in the writing workshop I'm taking over at Savvy Authors, and handled some other things online. I also printed up my manuscript to make sure I had the printer ink to do it. Nothing sucks worse than knowing you have a major print job to do, and you forget to buy an extra print cartridge. So, print first, ask questions later. Right? Right. Anyway, after I had the manuscript sorted out, I put Oldest one out of his misery. We took the bills to the post office then dropped by the grocery story to give all our money away for food.

When I made it back home from taking care of business-y things, I made Oldest help me unload the car and put groceries away. I was running short on time by that point, and as soon as I'd finished putting all the freezer things away, I had to get right back in the car. By the time I made it to the school to pick up Mini, his class was letting out. Whew! On the upside, it seems like they got out a bit early. I didn't have to go all defensive driving to get out of the parking lot when we left.

The Lil Bear had a pretty good day, but OMG the extra homework. I let him have a snack first, changed him into some play clothes, and let him watched a couple of cartoons before settling in for homework. That gave me time to wash off my make up and get changed into some around the house refugee wear. Seriously, the stuff I wear at home, you'd think I washed in from a ship wreck. Ah well. I'm comfortable, and after a day like today, that's all the matters. Anyway, I think there was something like four or five pages of homework for Mini. Wowzers. While that might not seem like much, it's like pulling hen's teeth to keep him focused on the task at hand. He's tired and just isn't interested in more school work. I don't blame him. Still, it's a pain in the ass when you just want to settle in somewhere quiet and let everything stop for a minute.

Nevertheless, I sat at the table and monitored him while he did the homework, and by the time he'd finished hubby was home. I was too tired and busy to cook, so the man - great guy, I might add - made burgers for the lot of us. I ate two grilled patties with cheese and pickles, then checked on the workshop again before I had to set some bath water running for Mini. In other words, it's been non-stop crazy since 6 am.

The guys are snoozing now, and I'm doing my best to keep my eyes open. I still need to put the clothes in the dryer, and set Mini's uniform out for tomorrow. Once that's done, I'll be finished for the day. Finished, I tell you. <shakes fist at the sky> I'd kinda planned on reading through some of my wip tonight, but I'm just too darn tired. I can barely handle mindless and simple right now. So maybe it'll have to be a TV night for me. Night, night, everyone!

October Already?

2011-10-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a couple of days since I blogged. I don't know how it got away from me, but I was surprised to see the date on the last post when I came in this morning. Time to fix that. <cracks knuckles>

First thing when I sat down at my desk, I answered all the reader mail I've received in the past week or so. I appreciate your letters! And you're right. I really should write another Werekind book. I'm amazed that's where all my questions and search requests seem to be directed. At any rate, I'll get on that next Werekind book asap - scout's honor!

I'm registered for a workshop about emotional structure that starts tomorrow over at Savvy Authors. It runs until the 9th, so I'll have plenty of time to read through everything and complete any assignments while working on my book. Hopefully I'll walk away with new info to inject into the September Experiment wip. I'd love to strengthen the emotional element while doing rewrites.

Speaking of the September Experiment. Last night...errr, rather, in the wee hours of the morning, Cass Curtis and I were up chatting and out of the blue a tricky plot issue we'd been waffling over suddenly resolved itself. Happy dance! That's the one issue that has been holding me back, and now there's a piece to fill it in without seeming forced. It was an issue with my hero. It seemed like something was missing about him. After asking a round of questions, I realized the guy had no true mission within the story. I needed to give him a sound goal. One that he could execute and the reader could track his progress. Well, color it done.

Another issue I tackled last night - the theme of the book. I had a theme written down, but it wasn't strong enough and realized I had to dig deeper. The story at its core is about finding love where you'd least expect it. A common theme, but I didn't have the core concept mined so I could ensure my characters could follow the bend of the story. Now that I know what my theme is I can strengthen the character arcs, and leave little nuggets throughout the story that solidify the theme.

I gotta say, while I understand the concept of theme, that's always been one of my weak points. I can't think of a single story I've ever written where I didn't wrestle with the theme. Oh well. I'm coming around gradually. Slow but steady. That's the saying, right? <g>

The house is quiet for the moment so I better take advantage of it. I wanted to get a little work done on the September manuscript today. First things first - straightening out the spine of my story. Oh boy. This is what I meant a few weeks back when I said the real work was just beginning. Wish me luck!

writing, laundry, and foam pumpkins

2011-09-29T21:43:00.000-05:00

Mini's foam pumpkin magnets

I'm doing laundry at the moment, and trying to come up with a title for the Shivers story I've been collecting notes for over the past few days. I have a beat sheet for it, and a couple of scene cards. Just enough stuff to compile into a binder. It's not ready to be written yet. But soon...

Over the weekend, I'll be changing out my goal calendars and putting my files in order so the September Experiment Phase 2 can move forward. I want to update a couple of the character profiles, and I still need to straighten out the spine of my story. I've been working on it on and off, even though I said I wasn't going to until next week, but it's all been little things - small tweaks. By Monday I need to be able to have all my material together so I can focus on what I've got. Le sigh. Time to get back to work and all that.

This afternoon I took time off to do some crafty stuff with the little bear. The kids from down the street came over to play, and he was a bit whiny when it came time for them to go home. Oh boy. To take his mind off of it, I got him busy making foam pumpkin faces out of a craft kit I bought for about $5.00. He had a blast making these things. I had a box of sticky back round magnets, and let him have at it. The kit makes 36, I think. My personal favorite is a cyclops pumpkin Little Bear made, but it's on the fridge and I didn't get a picture of it.

Well, it's that time...I better go get the clothes in the dryer so I can settle in and read while I can. Tomorrow, I'll be paying bills and buying groceries. Fun for everyone, right? <g> Happy Thursday, everyone.

Doctors, Ideas, and Miss Blossom

2011-09-28T07:40:00.000-05:00

I'm off to the doctor today. I have a major sinus infection, a possible ear infection, and right now, my nose is so sore and swollen it's as if I've taken a hit to the face with a football. The only thing killing the pain is BC Powders, and I'd rather not take anything stronger than that if I can get away with it. Not a happy situation any way you look at it, but I can't go around feeling like I've been hit by truck. Thankfully, I managed to get an early appointment so I won't have to sit there all day. I tell ya, I've never been so ready to sit through a doctor visit.

After I get out of the doc's office and pick up any prescriptions, I'm driving over to mom's to pick up what's left of Miss Blossom's dog kibbles. My parent's furbaby passed away yesterday at the grand old age of 13. She had advanced lung cancer. Very sad. Dad's beyond devastated, which is completely understandable. She is the last of their house pets - a thirty year lineage. No kidding. I actually named Blossom, and when she was a little pup, I started singing the "awesome blossom" jingle off the Chili's commercial to her every time I'd come over to see the family. I have no doubt it's going to feel strange going over there to a doggy-less house. I think mom's trying to make it easier on dad by clearing Blossy's things away, bless her. Out of sight, out of mind. It has to be done, I guess. But, goodness, she'll sure be missed.

On to more pleasant topics... I worked through a few scene issues last night with the September Experiment. I'm trying to clean up my index cards and beat sheet as best as I can before starting revisions. Also, I made a mock cover - it's horrible, granted. Yes, truly horrible, that's why I'm not posting it. My Photoshop skills are seriously lacking, but that doesn't really matter. The mock cover isn't for show, it's to see if the premise is succinct enough to pitch. I now have a simple title with log line, and a pretty good blurb to go with it. When I start fleshing out and rewriting scenes, I hope having this stuff will help me keep the core of my story on track. At least that's the idea behind it. We'll see.

For the two stories buddy project, I have a rough sketch of the plot, and I'm trying to flesh out character histories. I've started a notebook for this one, and I'm piecing together bits of information as I go. No fuss, no muss. I'm tossing ideas into the notebook when they come to me, so it's not like I'm spending more than five to ten minutes on it a day. Even so, the goal is to have a complete set of notes for when we actually begin writing our stories side by side. I want to have everything mapped out and ready to go.

Okay, it's around 7:30 am, and I need another cup of coffee if I'm to have any chance of making it through the day. Too, I'm rather crowded all the sudden. Sassie pup is on my lap, and Kippy cat is on the back of my chair, and they're both very dozy. They're probably going to be disappointed in me when I get up, poor beasts. So neglected... :P Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Reading and Mini-Vacation

2011-09-27T14:40:00.000-05:00

What I'm Currently Reading

In my time off from working on the September Experiment wip, instead of loafing around watching a bunch of TV like I thought I'd do (ho hum, boring!), I gave up on finding anything interesting to watch and picked up another book to read. Actually, I'm always reading something, but I decided this is the book to read during my mini-vacation writing sabbatical.

Save the Cat! Strikes Back by Blake Snyder is the book du jour for me. [The link goes to Amazon] I read the first book, Save the Cat!, and loved it. Great book. Very helpful, and would definitely recommend it. StC Strikes Back is supposed to offer more insight about how to build working log lines and survey your ideas to see if they are strong enough to develop and pitch. I'm all on board for that - especially with conference season right around the corner.

A little earlier today, I hopped over to Awen (in Second Life) and met up with my critique partner and BFF, Cass Curtis for a round of brainstorming. We're going to be working on our next stories side by side for motivation, and to share organization and writing techniques. We won't be co-authoring, but we'll be trying to reach each stage of our wips at the same time. I curious to see how this will work. Hopefully it will help us both each get a satisfactory story completed and ready for submission by the end of the year.

My story will be geared toward EC's Shivers line. I already have my beat sheet together, and I'm tinkering around with the character sketches. The easy, fun, organizational stuff before tearing off into a book. I'll be shooting for a story length of around 12-20k. I'll post updates about this once we get going. Right now, we're still getting our ideas together.

That's it for now. I'm running short on time. I have to be up at the school in about 15 minutes to pick up Mini bear, so I better hop-to!

September Experiment: Now Entering Phase 2

2011-09-25T21:04:00.000-05:00

It's done. This afternoon I wrote THE END on my September Experiment wip. The ending word count for the rough draft is 50,127 - not including an additional 2,900 in a separate file that germinated the idea for the entire story. Now, for some stats...

I started writing the book August 31st, and finished this afternoon, Sept. 25th.
I worked on the draft for approximately 26 days.
Five of those writing days, I claimed zero word count. (No writing.) Basically, a week off.
Median average words per day 1,928
Highest number of words for one full day: 5,078 on Sept. 1st
Lowest number of counted words for one full day: 816 on Sept. 9th
On average, Wednesday was my most productive day of the week - a total of 12,263 words
Least productive day of the week - Saturday, with a total of 3997 words

I'm taking the rest of September off to recoup from writing the draft. I'll probably blog, and I'll probably tinker with index cards, but I don't plan to crack open the September Experiment book file again until October. I need a few days away from the book so I'll be able to see it more clearly when I pick it up again.

In early October, I'll start sorting files and preparing for revisions. Ideally, I'd like to have a readable, full manuscript (although it may still need a fine polishing) within two months. I may finish sooner, I may go over by weeks or even months. It's all a learning experience. The gist is to see if I can duplicate the process I used to complete Wicked Obsession. I should probably mention there's no deadline attached to the manuscript at this point, which was by far the driving force behind getting Wicked Obsession finished as quickly as possible. Overall, I'd be thrilled to have the September manuscript finished and polished to the best of my ability by the end of the year.

Now that I've got all that set out for myself, I'm going to have cheese cake, fall across the couch, and watch a movie. Night, night, everyone!

Writing Systems Check

2011-09-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

I'm awake, I'm awake...barely. I went to bed around 2 a.m. after finally hitting 43k on my wip. Cassie and I have been timed writing in the afternoons and at night, and that means we're often up well after midnight working. Good thing we're both insomniacs, I guess.<g>

I'm currently 6900 words from my minimum goal of 50k. So close, yet so far away. Current issues are this: a gaping plot hole [in the second half of] the middle to fix, and I'm debating whether to remove one character from the book entirely to simplify the story line.

The thing is, if I remove that character it will strip out a complete subplot, and at this point I'm not sure if I should do that. For now, I figure I better let it be and then look at how it works within the larger picture once I'm finished with the book.

Whatever I decide, I can see already, once I've reached that 50k, I'll be playing with index cards again to sort through this stuff. Anyway, after I write "the end", I'll post all my September Experiment stats and word counts into a single chart for perusal.

For those who stumble across this post who might not understand what's going on, the purpose of recording and charting all the boring info is to see if I can duplicate the process I carried out with Wicked Obsession... and hopefully I'll be able to do it again on all my subsequent books, not just this story I'm currently working on.

The September Experiment started as a test to see if I could write a usable book in a month. (As opposed to writing a full manuscript in a month that ends up socked away in a drawer never to see the light of day again.) As it turns out, this experiment has become a kind of writing system check up. Am I being efficient? Can the process be repeated? Sounds like using scientific method for testing my own writing, no? <lol> All I really want to do is nail down the art of writing a novel in a way that works for me.

Today and Sunday I'll be trying to make the final push to 50k. That's the goal. Roughly 3k a day, which is do-able, especially when written in fifteen minute bursts. That's something interesting I've discovered about myself during this experiment - short writing jaunts work best for me rather than, say, a two or three hour block of time put away for writing, and expecting myself to be hammering away at the keyboard for that whole time. My brain just doesn't function for the duration of a long haul writing jag.

Call it ADD or whatever, I can't focus for that long. I run out of steam when writing a scene, and my mind starts to wander. Not only that, with the fifteen minute sessions, I can stop afterward and walk around, take care of something the kids need, or haul the dog outside for a walk. Too, I now know I can make my daily 2k word goal in roughly three or four timed writing sessions. It's much more manageable for me this way.

That's it for today. Hopefully by the next time I come in to post, my rough draft will be completed. We'll see. Happy weekend, everyone!

Cora's Picks: Chandra Ryan's Ravenborne

2011-09-23T01:06:00.000-05:00

In ChandraRyan’s novel Ravenborne, a wary king summons a telepathic young woman namedSaraphina Raven to his keep because he believes someone is out to take his throne.

A full-blood dragoness, Leissa, was once betrayed by others of her kindand sentenced to live ten lifetimes as a servant in human form. She plans toput her own child on the throne so she might see her bloodline thrive in a position of royalty long enough for her to live out the remainder of her sentence in peace.

Leissa knowsthat if Sara makes it to the keep, the young woman will telepathically discoverher secret plans.

Kavin, theking’s guard, has promised to retrieve Sara and deliver her safely into theking’s hands. Sara doesn’t want to be a guard, nor does she want to use herpower for the king, but she’s in no position to refuse.

To make matters worse,she finds herself falling in love with Kavin, a man who’s loyalty first and foremost, belongs to the king.

Ravenborne is an entertaining fantasy novel with an interesting premise. The author has built a world where dragons, magic, and supernatural abilities believably co-exist with humans. I recommend this book for fairy tale and fantasy romance readers who are looking for a something that delivers a different and intriguing take on the classic dragon versus maiden tale.

You can buy Chandra Ryan's Ravenborne at Samhain Publishing.

Buy link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/ravenborne-p-6418.html

10k To Go

2011-09-22T02:01:00.000-05:00

It's after one thirty in the morning, and I really need to get to bed. I thought I'd update the blog first, though, since I hit another milestone in my September Experiment.

I've been up doing timed writings with Cassie since about 10pm, and about an hour ago I hit the 40k mark on my wip. <dance, dance> Of course, I still have to add another 10k to this thing before I reach the minimum required word count.

If nothing comes up in the next few days, I should be able to have that word count knocked out by Monday the 26th. I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I told Cassie, after I reach that word count, I want to put the story away for a week and take a much needed break before I start revisions. ♥

Cards, Cards, and more Cards

2011-09-20T09:21:00.000-05:00

Monday was a bit of a scramble, so I'm making up for it this morning. On the plus side, the bills are paid, and I managed to take care of everything that needed my immediate attention yesterday while running errands.

Right now, I'm working on the wip...which is currently in the form of a rubber banded bundle of index cards on my desk.

I picked up another pack of neon index cards (just in case) and an extra cork board at Wally World yesterday. Once I'm finished shuffling through these cards, I'll be pinning the first half of my novel to the one on my wall, and the other half of the book will go on the board I have on my door. It will give me more room to work, although first things first, I need to sort through the cards and figure out what I have and what I don't.

I'm currently working on filling in scene gaps. I'm fishing out the scene cards in the deck that I haven't written into a word file yet. Not my favorite thing to do, but part of the game. The good thing is it saves me from writing junk scenes I'll likely have to toss out later.

That's pretty much the order of the day - filling in those scene gaps. Once I've gone through those cards, the draft is pretty much complete. After those final scenes are written, I'll take a week off from the September Experiment to let the dust settle before breaking the book down again for the 2nd (and hopefully final) draft.

I do have another project simmering on the side - the YA I pitched back in March. I'm not working on it heavily at the moment; I'm not good at juggling projects. But, I did sit down with what I have already on the story and worked out a beat sheet for it. The rough draft - which is too short as is to be a full novel - perfectly fit into the beat sheet, which is kind of exciting. It will need beefing up, but I have a theme, a cast of starter characters, a log line, and a rough synopsis. Plus that dodgy first draft.

Anytime I think of something new for that story, I jot it down on an index card and stick it into a binder I'm keeping just for this story. By the time I get around to writing it, I should have lots of information to play with. Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?

So that's what I've got. Not much, but that's not uncommon for me, I think. <g> It's after 9 (a.m.) so I better get crackin' on my story - gotta get in my word count. Have a happy Tuesday!

Sprinting toward the Ending

2011-09-18T03:38:00.000-05:00

Awesomeness. I've been tweaking my story (oy, me, it's after 3am right now), and adding more scenes. I'm roughly 14k away from finishing my book. I'm going to try to knock it out this coming week, so I can take the final few days of the month to sort through the scenes that I have, and make notes of what's missing.

Today, my writing goal is to tack on at least 3k in new scenes, which will put me very close to a solid 40k - a nice place to start the week. I still need to do some background work on 2 characters, and make a concrete choice about where this futuristic city is parked. It's loosely based on Georgetown, but I'm not sure I truly want it to be set there. On the upside, I've been to that area, and I know someone who used to live in that area, who can help me with details if I need it. That's something to consider. Whatever I decide, I need to do it before I settle in to organize all my information, and most definitely before I start working on the 2nd draft.

The next phase of the book is where all the "tough work" starts for me. I admit, when I reached that point with Wicked Obsession, and granted I was on a very tight deadline at the time, I kind of panicked. After I had the draft in hand, my mind went totally blank. I started at the very messy rough draft, I didn't know exactly how I was going to transform it into a finished product without the story being flimsy or broken. It was a challenge, but doable, and oh boy, I'm anxious about facing that stage age. This will be the real test of my September Experiment, fleshing out the story into a readable book, not the actual completion of the rough draft.
I have no doubt it's going to be a challenge, and I admit it...I'm excited, but at the same time, I'm a little nervous!

My Plotting Storyboard

2011-09-17T22:16:00.000-05:00

Each card is one scene.

Tah dah! As promised, here it is, my storyboard. No lecture on the crappy pictures, 'kay? I know the shots are a kinda dark and a little blurry. They looked far better on the camera, but when I did my magic and resized them (they were enormous) it did very little to make them beautiful. But for the purpose of this post, the resolution and crappiness is just fine.

I'm pretty sure you can click on these and see them larger, but I haven't tried that, so if you do it, you're on your own. Moving along...

If you've read any number of craft books on plot and structure, you probably already know what the story board is and what it's for, so take a gander and...I don't know, admire the index card rainbow, I guess. There probably won't be much for you to see here.

Anyway, I cut my books into four parts when plotting, although some people stick with a solid three act structure, I can't seem to finish a story when I do it that way. Also, cutting my story into four parts is what helped me to defeat the sagging middle problem I was having with my stories.

Right now, there are 22 scene cards on my board, and by the time I have enough scenes to get to 50k, I will probably have double that many, and I'll likely have to turn all these cards sideways to fit them all on the cork board.

Before I start talking about what I'm using the colored cards for, and why they're where they are... If you haven't read any craft books on story structure, I highly recommend Syd Field's Screenplay, (which is super cheap on Amazon), or Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! - which was actually recommended to me by a NYT bestselling author after I asked her what I should do to push my stories from novellas and full novels without compromising the story.

I've literally read dozens (and I do mean dozens) of books on structure and plotting, and to me, those two books listed above are the easiest of the easy to understand, and they are relatively short, so you're not left reading for days and days, trying to figure out what you need to know. Also, the Blake Snyder book has a section on story boarding in it, although I don't do mine quite like that. I'm going for simplicity. Too, I'm not writing a screenplay, I'm writing a novel.

Using a story board helped me get through Wicked Obsession, but I've gotten more organized with it in the past 6 months or so, and I've changed the way I do things when charting my scenes. Used to, I would use nothing but plain white cards or nothing but green cards, until I needed to add new information that wasn't in the draft, but that was too confusing. I ended up having to rewrite many of the cards, because I couldn't remember what Act they came from.

Now, using the neon rainbow cards, if I move a card to a new section, I can easily identify where I took it from. This is majorly helpful when tracking subplots, or moving around major story events, characters, anything like that.

Okay, I added a picture of the board marked up into sections. Now for a general run down of what I'm doing. Please note that this is not the be all end all of story plotting, or story boarding. This is simply what I'm doing. The yellow cards are for the beginning of the story, of course. The scenes run from the opening scene of my book, to the inciting incident. The inciting incident is some major event that more than likely screws up your characters nice serene life, and leads to the next stage of the story - the (often dreaded) middle.

Now let's move on to the green row of cards. Before I do anything here, I split the middle of my book in half.

The scenes from the first half of your midsection go into the green row. There are many screenwriting books that divide the middle, I can't think of all of them, but again, the Syd Field book explains it in the very simplest way possible. (Buy that book, darn it!)

Dividing the middle of your book into two sections is also a really good way to get rid of the sagging middle problem many books/drafts/novels/novellas have. The green cards in my picture are what I call middle scenes #1. This is where your character starts on their new journey to fix whatever crap hit the fan during or because of the inciting incident. This section leads to the literal midpoint of your book or novella. When creating the mid-point, to explain it in a nutshell, you should have an event that changes the course your character is currently on.

The orange cards are the #2nd half of the middle of your book. This is where your character begins to successfully pick up the pieces of their life and put them back together - this time, for good.

The hot pink cards on the final row represent the ending scenes of my book. If I have an epilogue, I include it in this section. In the pictures above, you can probably tell I still need to fill out the ending on my story, probably more so than anywhere else in the book. Usually you can look at your board and tell if you have too many scenes in one area. Also, you can read through the cards, and see where you have plot holes. That comes in handy when you're on a deadline.

Okay, here's a secret about doing scene cards like this. When you finish your book, you can take the cards you used, and sum up each card into no more than, say, two sentences. Anyway, summarize those scenes. If you do that, you can type up all the sentences in chronological order, and you will have a rough synopsis of your book from start to finish - no brain-busting involved. That alone makes story boarding worth the effort.

For some general information on screenwriting (I adapt it to novels) and resources like books and how-to articles, The Script Lab is a good place to start: http://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101

Squidoo also has a very good article on script writing books: http://www.squidoo.com/scriptwriting

There is also a free Teach Yourself Screenwriting lens here: http://www.squidoo.com/screenwriting_tips#module34228282

Also, you can see another example of storyboarding with index cards here: http://www.class.uh.edu/classidt/Tutorials_Help/profs/software/MovieMaker/preparation/storyboarding.html

Anyway, that's pretty much what I'm doing and where I am with this current book. I hope to have the rough draft finished within the next two weeks. I guess we'll see soon enough. Wish me luck!

22 to Go

2011-09-16T21:31:00.000-05:00

Louisiana. The other "LA".

I'm so glad it's Friday. For one thing, I'm behind on everything, and the weekend will give me a chance to catch up - at least I hope it will. I have a book to finish reading this weekend, a review to write, and I need to make up for the word count I didn't meet on Thursday. I'm going to tackle that tonight, because I'd like to get this story finished sooner rather than later. I'm at 35k words, and when I break it down into scenes, I still need to add at least 22 scenes to this monster before I can call the draft complete.

Today I added a new character to fill a necessary role in the story, but I'm still fleshing him out. I'm also trying to solve a slight problem at the ending of the book - how a guy gets a gun past security. It seems simple, but it's tougher than that when I sit down and try to make sense of it. There are a couple of little things in there like that, and it's kicking my tail, trying to sort them out.

Anyway, I bought batteries for the camera, and will get a pic or two of my storyboard in the morning. This winter, during the holidays, I'd like to completely rearrange my office so I can have two cork boards instead of one. Right now, there's no where to hang another board. Not a scrap of wall space. If I had two boards, I use one board to post everything up to the midpoint, and the other to catch everything that happens afterward. It seems like it would be easier to get a handle on the cards that way.

It's a short post today, but that's all I've got. Tomorrow, we're taking Mini over to my parents to spend the night, and I'll probably use the time to catch up on this story, plus some PITA chores I've been putting off. Exciting, no? ;o) Happy weekend, everyone!

Take It and Run

2011-09-14T14:07:00.000-05:00

Is it over yet? Oh my, I'm having a terrible week. It seems like every couple of hours there's a new fire to put out and I'm counting the minutes until Friday afternoon so I can escape it all.

On the plus side, I'm officially over the 30k mark. My wip is parked right now at 32,517 words. I'll be thoroughly jazzed if I can swing 35k by the end of the week.

I know I promised to get a picture up of my storyboard, and I haven't forgotten. I'll see if I can pull my webcam around and snap a pic of it tonight. If not, I'll do it this weekend. I didn't realize until yesterday the batteries in my SLR are dead. It's been a while since I've taken it out of the case, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I haven't changed the batteries since sometime around Christmas/New Year. At any rate, the book is coming along nicely, and so far I have no complaints.

When I hit around 50k, I'm going to declare the wip ready for stage 2. I'll take as much time as I need to pull the book apart scene by scene and element by element. The purpose will be to straighten any broken plot areas, fill in scene gaps and plot holes, look for any inconsistencies, and flesh out all the scenes to maximize tension and purpose. So yeah, round 2 is when the real work starts, and strangely enough, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm crossing my fingers this all goes well, but at the same time, I'm trying to keep in mind that this is a learning experience. Once again, this is all in conjunction with my September Experiment. I managed to pull this off once with Wicked Obsession on a very tight time frame.This is the test to see if I can duplicate the process with similar - or hopefully, BETTER - results.

Off for now. I need to go dry my hair and get the house ready for Mini. I have to go pick him up from school in about an hour. Urg. It's not that I'm dreading Mini coming home, I'm dreading the school news of the day. But what can you do, yanno? Here's hoping the rest of the day gets better. <time lapse> Oooh, on the plus side, UPS just arrived...with my new shoes! Retro, sparkly sneakers. My inner raver is appeased. Cool Beans. This also means, not only have I met my quota today, I have a happy ending for my post to boot. I'll take it and run! ;D

Hope you have a happy Wednesday!

Mish Mash Tuesday

2011-09-13T13:20:00.000-05:00

Whew! I survived Monday. Barely. I had unexpected visitors, worrisome telephone action, hubby had to work late, and my son got a note home - plus he got hit in the back of the head by the bully at school. Grr!

I just don't know what to do for poor Mini. He's a different animal than I was at that age. I grew up with much older boy cousins that were rough and tumble with a habit of taking my stuff from me. While I wasn't targeted like Mini, no one hesitated to scrap with me, so I ended up the same way. If someone walked up and punched me in the back of the head, I turned around and tagged them directly on the end of the nose. And if I missed my chance then, I'd find my chance later. And back then, being into outdoorsy play, I also had incredible, you-wouldn't-effing-believe aim with a baseball. Go ahead and knock me down now, buster. When I get up, I'll tag you five yards out in the head with a knuckle ball. That's a true story, btw, and just the way it was back then. As you can probably imagine, I didn't get picked on very often.

But Mini is a different sort of kid. I had to teach him to shout "leave me alone", and I literally had to teach him to shout it. I had to put on the old cheerleader voice and convince him it was okay, we were practicing, to get those words out there so everyone could hear him. He covered his ears the first few time and looked worried - we don't shout at home - so this was a very startling thing for him. Poor kid. But getting hit in the head? I don't expect him to put up with that crap. Why haven't they separated these kids yet? And why haven't they called the little monster's mother in for a talk about her child's behavior? I don't get it.

On the upside, I started back on the Atkins diet last week (Monday, Sept. 5th) with BFF Cass Curtis, and as of this morning I'm down five pounds. We're both shaping up before heading to the Written in the Stars conference in Shreveport next year. My goal is to be back in a size 7 around that time. I'm not worried at all what my end weight turns out, but I'm thin without being too thin - healthy looking - when I'm roughly a size 7. I was that size before and right after I had Mini in 2005. Let's just say I got comfortable, and fluffy, after that. <g>

On to writerly things... The latest update on the September Experiment! As of last night, my wip is parked at 28,280 words. Not too shabby. I'm a little over half way to the minimum safe word count of 50k, and by the end of today, I should be sitting at a cool 30k.

I have two scenes mapped out for writing this afternoon. I plan to hit at least three fifteen minute writing bursts to get the words down on paper. These are bare bones scenes, and kind of messy, but I'm working on this like I did with Wicked Obsession. (Which was written on a very tight deadline.) I'll go back and clean it up/flesh it out on the 2nd pass. Right now, I have a plot skeleton, and I'm trying to fill it in with all the essential bits - the heart of the story. I'm trying to make sure my story structure is as it should be. The rest can be fixed. If I don't have the essential beats in place, this sucker will either bomb, or need massive rewrites. I don't have the time or desire to deal with a mess like that. So, I have to get this part right the first time.

One more thing before I close...

A very good writer friend of mine is struggling financially right now. She is disabled and on a fixed income, and needs a little extra cash this month to pay her electric and water bills. She isn't asking for charity, but if you would please look at her ebay auctions and consider bidding on some of her items, it would be greatly appreciated. The proceeds will help her keep her utilities on for another month. You can find her eBay page and listings here:

http://myworld.ebay.com/mcaliciakat1/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

Thanks for looking!

That's it for now. Wow, I just noticed it's already after one pm! Where does the time go? I have to pick up Mini in a bit, so I better get up and make beds and all that jazz to prepare the house. Happy Tuesday, everyone!