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Friday, December 04, 2009

Done!

Alright, my next attempt at SSE is done as of today. It stands at 59K but will need tweaking. Yay! I finished. I finished. Yes, I'm doing the happy dance. My line edits for L.A. CINDERELLA are staring at me from the end table. So those are next. I sent my agent my plan for rewriting FALLEN and am waiting to hear back on that. Yay! So I've got stuff to do, but I finished one thing, kind of. Woot!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

I Haz a Sad

So I still have a few thousand to go on Exposed and now I have major rewrites on Fallen. I knew something was off base with it and in the back of my head I probably recognized all the issues that I didn't want to rewrite all over again. But now, I'm working on restructuring the plot and as soon as I finish Exposed, I'm going to write the heck out of Fallen. That means NaNo is a no go, since you are supposed to start a new project. :( Hopefully I'll be able to schedule so I can do a project in NaNo next year. Will I write 50,000 words this month? Quite possibly and it's still a goal. So I may still use the NaNo meter to track progress, but I won't be confirming my win, if I make it to 50,000 words on three different MS.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

NaNo

Well, for me so far NaNo has been mostly No. As in very little progress on the NaNo book. First off I want and need to finish Exposed (not the whole title, I like to keep you guessing), see off to the side I put a shiney new ticker just for it. I'm flowing into the black moment and found that trying to write on the NaNo while this one was screaming at me to be finished just wasn't going to work out. So I will be cramming for NaNo once I finish this one. I love my Hollywood flavored books. So hoping my editor will love my next one too.

I get to watch E! and read People and claim it's research. I also get to look up things like the Oscars and fabulous clothing and shoes. My most recent was London movie premieres. The Leicester Square Odeon is the movie theatre. They even have a live webcam which is sweet and can spur a whole new array of ideas. Okay, back to my characters. Cheers!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

This Year is Amazing

FALLEN is a finalist in the Finally a Bride contest sponsored by Oklahoma RWA and I'm seriously bouncing for joy. I scored my first ever perfect score. Anonymous judge, I think I love you. I'm working on getting the final packet ready to go off to the final editors...that's right, editors. Two to be precise. Yay!

I am working on finishing up my next potential SSE(Silhouette Special Edition) and have started NaNo. For NaNo, I've decided to do FORSAKEN. The beginning needed a rewrite, but I'm finding it very difficult to get into the story with the SSE rattling around in my brain. So to focus I'm going to finish the SSE as quickly as possible and hopefully still manage to write the 50K needed on FORSAKEN for NaNo.

I'm going to be missing my writing partner, Kristi, for NaNo this year. I completely understand her position and should have probably skipped it this year as well. She was my main driving force the past two NaNos since she has younger children than me and a full time job. If she could do it, damn it, so could I. :) Not that there aren't others out there to motivate me and Kristi probably wasn't even aware how competitive I'd become with her :).

My agent (woohoo!), Becca Stumpf from The Prospect Agency, is looking over FALLEN and supporting me as L.A. Cinderella makes its way through the jungle of publishing. Together we'll whip FALLEN into something fabulous.

Okay, gymnastics is about over. Hey, a busy mom has to find time somewhere and thank goodness for my new Mini. Dear Mini, I think I'm in love. Happy writing and if you see me online, ping me I'm always up for a sprint or two. :)

Monday, October 19, 2009

Updates

Woot. Okay, CATCH A STAR has become L.A. CINDERELLA. It will be published June 2010 by Silhouette Special Edition.

FALLEN won 2nd place in the 2009 Golden Gateway and garnered a request for the full from the final editor.

I made it through round 2 of Paranormal Authors Fight Club and will be posting for voting again on Thursday. Without your votes, I'm not a competitor.

I'm awaiting results of two contests that I entered right before I sold. Things are really quite insane at my house right now. I'm making it, but it's a slow process of getting myself untangled from all the things that suck up my time.

How has your writing been going? Getting ready for NaNoWriMo. I'm trying to finish up my WIP so I'll be ready for NaNo. Where did the year go?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Week 2 Paranormal Fight Club

I'm still in Paranormal Fight Club, paranormal romance writers are going head to head to win a critique from author Angie Fox. The second part of Forbidden is up. You can vote once a day for the next 3 days. Please vote for me. :)

http://www.rom...anceinthebackseat.com/fightclub/blog/2009/10/forbidden-part-two.html

Backstory on Forbidden: When I signed up for Paranormal Fight Club, I had no idea what the prompt would be and what would develop from it. When I sat down to write it, FALLEN was on my mind, as well as FORSAKEN. FORBIDDEN takes place in the same paranormal world. Dagon is a Fallen angel who has tired of his role in creating chaos in the world. Anita is alone in the world until she finds herself attacked by creatures with wings and dragged into the ultimate battle of good versus evil.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Paranormal Fight Club

I agreed to do this new idea Paranormal Fight Club with the Romance in the Backseat Ladies. The idea is 8 competitors write 1000 words based on a beginning paragraph. You compete each week with another writer, the one with the most votes goes onto round 2. So please vote for me. :) http://www.romanceinthebackseat.com/fightclub/blog/2009/10/forbidden.html#comments My entry is called Forbidden. Click on the survey button to vote. Thanks.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Catch A Star Sold to Silhouette Special Edition

I just received edits from my editor. :) And have put my follow up Silhouette Special Edition on hold to get the edits turned around. We're in a whole new ballgame here. Before when someone critiqued my work and didn't like something that I liked I could just dismiss it, now unless I have a really great reason to not change it... It will make a better book. :)

So I'm journeying into the foreign land of deadlines and revisions. It's quite the odd land and I'm not 100% on navigating it. Yeah, I know I changed from baseball to exploring, deal. :) The poor people sitting in the restaurant of my mind are getting ansy. I've been writing like mad lately and still can't seem to get it all out. Must work faster.

As it stands I'm 22,200 out of 55,000 words on my followup. I'm sad to put them aside, but I've always had a soft spot for Chase and Natalie and will be happy to revisit them. I've also accepted representation from Becca Stumpf at the Prospect Agency. So hopefully with a little help, Fallen might see the light of day.

If this is the first you are seeing any of this, please be assured I am super excited, but the initial shock and spastic actions have worn off. Yay! I'm a writer!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The End and The Beginning

I finished revisions on Fallen and am going to work on a new story. There's always a kind of energy that hits me with the beginning of a book. I usually start with an idea. One of those bursts of inspiration that happen from time to time. This particular idea came to me when someone asked about one of my yahoo messages on messenger. It sparked an idea for a hero and his dilemna. A little writing gave me his heroine. Now I've written 10 pages and I've stopped.

Now I need to know more about these characters as an immortal my hero has a very rich history and I'm loving filing in the details and trying to work out how he became who he is. My heroine has been a mystery to me. Even her name hid from me for some time. She has a name and I know what happens to her mostly, but I don't know why she is who she is. And the big thing is tying her curse somehow to his curse. Once I find these clues the story should start to unravel.

I know the situation. I know who these characters are at this moment. I need to know how they became these characters. I also don't know who the villian is. I'm not sure that the villian will tie into their backstories or not. There are a lot of ways to go with a story. Even after plotting this out, things will change. My characters will seem to take on a life of their own and their motivations might surprise me, but that's what is fun about writing. Change.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Waiting and Working

With the kids home for two more weeks, I'm desperately waiting for school to start. Meanwhile, I'm attempting to write/revise between requests to play on the computer, to play on the Wii, and to fix some food. While my head is in the right place for revisions, I'm trying to get as much done as possible.

It's kind of like when you are in the right mood to go through old stuff. The wrong mood is where you sit and look through the box and think I should really keep this ticket for The Bird Cage. I don't remember who I went with or why I decided to keep it, but I should keep it anyway, because it's sentimental. Hey, my old pair of earphones that only play out of one side. Maybe I can use them again.

The right mood is you pull the box over to the trash can and start pitching. That ticket to The Bird Cage, gone. Broken earphones, gone.

I've been in the wrong mood to revise for a long time. I wrote this book and though I know it needs revising, I don't even know where to begin. Now I'm in the right mood. A friend went over the first bit and pointed out, not grammar or spelling errors, but plotting errors or places where the tension was lagging. While I love when people correct my commas and my accidental word choices, I prefer the type that my friend gave me. It made me open my eyes and really look at what I'd written as a whole and not as a sentence here and there. The scene after her corrections I just finished revising. I'd had it in the heroine's POV, but it really needed to be in the hero's to show his conflict at that time. Though I loved some lines in her POV, I took them out.

Okay before I type this if you've never heard it before I'm not a sadistic person, really. But there are times when you need to Kill Your Darlings. I'm not the first to say this, nor do I expect to be the last. If it doesn't fit, if it doesn't move the story forward, if it is the most brilliant piece of tripe you've ever written, but doesn't do anything for the characters, CUT IT! Move it into a file for special circumstances, just in case you can use it, but get rid of it in this story. It's like throwing away those old earphones and that movie ticket. They are taking up space and while they may work for something else, they aren't working for you.

So while I spend the rest of the day wishing my kids were in school, I'll be killing my darlings in my MS.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Off to Nationals

We're leaving today. I just got my new website finished check it out at www.amanda-berry.com.

When I get back, I'll post pictures from my new camera and hopefully blog posts from my new netbook. If you see me there, say hi!

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Brain, Can We Have a Talk?

Okay, so we already know that I'm having difficulty staying on task. But this is getting ridiculous. Normally, the patrons of my particular brain diner are nice and patient and are willing to go into their neat little files to wait for another day. I think they've finally caught on though. I keep getting new ideas and don't get back to the ones in the file. So basically I need to write a whole lot faster. But Micah and unnamed heroine (which will drive me nuts until I figure it out) need to be quiet. It's bad enough that Kaitlin and Caleb are working through their issues and Mark/Casanova and Kate/Amy have way too many names. But they are separate genres and each need their special moment in the sun. But there is also the immortal and his key who are getting crazy in my head.

To recap, Forsaken (paranormal), Casanova (category rom), Fearless (paranormal) and WFTWTE (paranormal, yup I'm not telling you the name) are all on the surface of my brain or seated at the counter in the diner and all are demanding to be served. Meanwhile, Fallen is sitting waiting for dessert (revisions). Wait and see what else my brain serves up.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Bad Writer, Bad

I would love to say that I'm currently revising Fallen or finishing Forsaken, but I've been taken a hold of by a different story and it's working it's way out of my system (4800 words into it). Next step is to form a synopsis for it so I can put it aside and work on my edits. Then when I pick it up I can slam through the first draft. Fun!

That and I'm preparing for Nationals. For those who don't know, RWA (Romance Writers' Association) holds a conference once a year for its member. This year is in Washington, DC and it's my first year going. I've spent a lot of time shopping for proper clothing and shoes for the occasion and going over my pitch for Fallen. I can't wait to go and there doesn't seem to be enough time left. 2 weeks.

I will begin my focused effort on Fallen tomorrow and tonight I'll try to wrap up Casanova.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Research is Hard

Can I tell you how much I love my job? So I finished up Catch a Star this week and will be sending it in on Monday. Nerve level has skyrocketed but I'll deal. So I have an idea in the same vein...Hollywood Hottie. Nomnomnom. So far I've needed to look up information on Manolo Blahnik (I even know how to spell it now). Then I spent a while trying to figure out a Hollywood Hot Spot, decided to make one up so used the English to French dictionary for made up name. Will be using another hot spot later in the book, this one will not be made up. Now I'm looking at the 2008 Sexiest Men Alive photos on People's website to figure out what my hero should look like. Wait for it....I love my job.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Been Workin'

At least on my mom's farm. With dial up connection. That and finishing up the revisions on Catch a Star so I can send it off to the editor that requested it. Once that's done, I begin revisions on Fallen and then work on synopsis for Forsaken and The Shoe Story (working title) and get elevator pitches ready for Nationals for those two when I'm asked what I'm working on. Gearing up for Nationals by spending way too much money on shoes and clothing. What else am I doing? Hmmm. Well, when revisions are done I'll be writing. I'm also working on the RWA FF&P blog which while I'm not writing a lot on it, it does take time.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

What You Are Missing on Twitter?

aka I waste time when I'm stressed.

Wendy Lawton discussed the Kisses of Death to authors.

Renee Hagar discusses branding at Rachelle Gardner's blog. Something even the beginning novelist should look at

Amie Stuart entertains Aphrodisia readers with her take on the Power of Love

Want to understand why HarperCollins twitters? The New York Observer discusses.

Yen discusses in a 3 part series the idea of sending review copies to bloggers

Dear Author is trying to determine if people love the love triangle or hate it

And finally, looking for a good ebook. Check out CoolerBooks. I'm not sure it encompasses everything, but it has a good number of ebooks available.

What now? Well, you could follow the discussions going on currently on twitter including ... well, lets just say some people can't get songs out of their heads, while others are busy making themselves into romulans and vulcans, still others are avoiding working, and others are discussing the merits of Amazon publishing.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Envisioning Nationals

I'm a member of Romance Writers of America. In July they have their National Conference. As a PRO member (having completed a MS and submitted for consideration of publication), I joined in the mass onslaught of the RWA website to sign up for one editor and one agent pitch session. It opened at 8 cst this morning. I wasn't able to get in until 12. I did get my first choice for agent, but there weren't that many editors taking appointments.

I'm very excited about going to the conference. I'm also working on getting my submission ready for my contest win. I've gotten some really great ideas from my crit partners and going through them in my head. I also have plans for revising Fallen and want to finish Forsaken. There's the idea that I'd like to finish developing. But I need to work on getting everything clean.

And there's the part time job that keeps rearing it's head. It's good because it stimulates a different section of my brain, but having recently contracted the plague (just a little sick and being melodramatic) the time I have to work is limited. So this is where we need to coordinate our schedules and make goals and stick to them. Time to sit with a piece of paper and crunch the numbers.

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Disappearing Cat

Until I read through the entire MS, I hadn't noticed that I mentioned a cat in one scene and only one scene. We are in her apartment multiple times and no cat. It's silly the consistency things you see only when you read the entire MS. I mention the cat twice once by his name and that he was the only thing she had to go home to and then again as her hair looked like something her cat had coughed up. That's it. No purring cuddly cat at home during movie time. So unfortunately poor kitty will have to make his debut in a different book.

I'm still contemplating a scene I never completed. I don't know if it adds to the book enough to keep it in. Or if it's more of the same.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

OMG!!! BIAM put on Hold

http://www.wrwdc.com/ee/index.php/marlene_awards/

I got first place and apparently a request for my Catch a Star novel!!!! I'm psyched and am dropping Forsaken (in the middle of a very intense scene) to work on revisions of Catch a Star. Woohoo!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Day 17 of BIAM

It's been slow going with a few set backs, but I can still make it. I have 12,000 of the 50,000 required to finish. Seems big, but it's 3000 words a day. I'm not done for the day and hope to write through the weekend as well. It's definitely easier to write 50K with a more defined plot. I have key points I'm heading to, but how I get there is up to the book giving it a more organic flow. It also makes it slightly frustrating to turn off and come back to since the thoughts of where I was going may not be there anymore. The beginning was a lot less epic battles like Fallen. Not that Fallen has "epic" battles, but it definitely has more fight scenes. We'll see how it turns out.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Day 8 of My Book In A Month

I challenged myself to write 50K this month to finish off Forsaken. I've written 8,452 words so far this month. By daily goals I'm behind 4,884 words, but I can pull off some 3000-5000 word days to recover. The story is going well. I need to start redirecting it to the next turning point. It's nice to concentrate on one thing and get it done. Unfortunately I allow myself to become distracted by bright shiny things like researching netbooks, which became a more intensified search when I realized my current battery on my laptop only holds about a half hour of charge now.

Right now I'm just eyeballing them and waiting for the next innovation on them. I typically go for Thinkpad noteboods, but Lenovo's offering has a strangely placed right shift key. That leaves Dell, HP, ASUS and MSI Wind. Some of the ASUS also have the shift key in the weird spot, but they've got a newer version with a 9.2 hour battery. I tend to be a power consumer, meaning I like having the screen super bright and run iTunes and a few internet windows open while working in Word and having my Excel spreadsheet to flip back to to update my word count. So a netbook might not be for me, but I love the idea of having something that will fit in my purse that I can pop out while the kids do gymnastics or while waiting at the doctor's office. Until I can go and feel a keyboard I'm not keen on dropping a couple of hundred dollars to get a secondary laptop, especially since I just bought this one in Dec 2007. I did compromise on this one. I was completely in love with the 12.1" tablet PC offered by Lenovo and almost bought it, but I ended up getting the 15" T61 instead with more processing power and better graphics for less money. *Sigh* Maybe I should skip the netbook and get my tablet, but then it won't fit in my purse. Arguing myself in a circle. Not very effective for a blog post.

If you've been eyeballing netbooks, tell me which one you think is the best and why. Note I'm a heavy keyboard user. If the keyboard is crap, I don't want it. :-)

Monday, March 30, 2009

Words Are Creeping Up

Yes, I'm adding scenes to Fallen and making it a longer book. Finally! So I'm plugging away at getting the important bits down and then will go through and make a pass through to make sure I'm not repeating myself later and there are a few scenes at the end that I know could use a little more beef. Then back to Beta Readers.

I also want to complete Forsaken this month. Meaning 50K in a month. I do it in November all the time. Except in Nov I have a bunch of folks plugging away beside me. So if anyone is left following this blog (Hi!) and wants to play too, let me know. We'll commisserate.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Forgive Me

Hmmm. Maybe that will be Fallen's new title if I need one. I got Fallen back from a Beta reader (someone who reads your book like a reader not a critiquer) and she made some suggestions I'm going to try. It means revamping the beginning, but it's adding the word count I need and adding depth to the characters. I wrote 2000 words on it today, so I'm slowly but surely raising the word count. I received my scores from the Enchanted Words contest from the final judge and her words were encouraging. So I'll keep pushing forward. Knight Agency is having a contest to pitch your story in 3 sentences so I'll need to work on that at some point as well. Keep writing.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sleeping Beauty

My daughter has been home all day today since she woke me at 1:00am because she was completely clogged up. She's been fairly good and I got some writing in. Not as much as Monday, but 600 words isn't a bad day given the number of days with big fat zeros in them lately. I've found a new distraction. Twitter. While I enjoy it, it is a time suck with all the people I follow, but I enjoy it.

I was able to sprint with people on Monday and today which makes the writing so much easier for me. Major Procrastinator. Which brings us back to twitter. While I've been writing this blog post, twirl (twitter application) has been adding more tweets. Hey, look big distracty thing. I'm going to have to shut off twitter to get anything done.

Unfortunately, some really interesting things pop up on twitter, such as the call for submissions that I sent my MS in on. So I'm learning to scan twitter for tidbits and when I have time, I read through the posts. The allure is they are short, but the fact is that when you have 5 to read it's almost as long as this blog post. (estimated please don't check :))

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Been a While

Wow, I've been negligent about posting. So I've finaled in a contest and I sent a full out as a submission. I've been busy on the business side, but not so much on the writing side. I took on a part time job that's sucking away my writing time, but I have Monday free to go crazy. Which means Forsaken is getting some attention. I left Kaitlin fighting off a daemon in her room and Caleb racing in to save her. I'm not sure where Eli is. Poor characters. To be stuck in a scene must really suck. I must give them my undivided attention on Monday which means *gasp* turning off the internet. I know, I know, my soul will slowly wither and surely die without constantly checking Romance Divas or twitter, but my characters won't get very far if I don't. We'll see how it goes. Smile, the day is just beginning.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Internet Went Down

Last night while I was playing with this blog format. So if you happened to see pictures appearing and disappearing on my header, that's why. I forgot to change it last night after the internet came back on. Oh, well. I'm having fun playing with formatting. A little too much fun, as in it's new and shiny and I want to play with it all the time. I need to get into revising like that, but unfortunately, it is not new and shiny. It's old and gone over a million times. :) But I will prevail. After I finish work.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Website Post #2

Okay, through with the tutorial from here. So now I'm going here to CSS introduction. Hopefully it will tell me how to put cool stuff (ie pictures) in my web build. Note, I do have some experience with html from college. I'm also somewhat computer savvy and can find my way around a computer and fill in the blanks if things are left out. So this may not be for everyone, but I'm willing to give it a shot. The worst thing is I've wasted tons of time that could have been spent doing something else and still have to pay a couple hundred dollars to have someone else build my website. The best thing is that I have a site I can maintain myself. I'm hoping to figure out how to interface my website with this blog instead of using WordPress as a blog. I like my blogger account, but it may be for the best to move everything over. I don't know, but I'll figure it out as I go along. It's been fun learning and I'll still keep you posted on how things are going. I'm going to try to limit web building to after school, evening type activity.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Website Post #1

Aspiring author wants website. Aspiring author doesn't have $200 extra laying around to pay someone to build, not including maintenance. What's Aspiring author to do?

This is my journal is learning to create my own website. Not very writerly of me, but I'm sure other writers may want to take this trek as well. The first thing I did was go to godaddy.com and find my name had already been taken. I found a derivative by using a hyphen. Apparently it's very important to look at this url before you register it. Just look at it as if it might be mistaken as a p0rn site. Alright so what all do I need. Well, I could register one domain or two. Each has an annual cost associated with it and if you want the privacy option that's per domain. However, if you buy 5 domains you get the privacy option free. Privacy means that someone can't find your name listed as the owner of that site easily. The price of 2 domains with privacy cost almost as much as 5 domains. So I got 5. Knowing that I was only going to actually use one to build the website. It was an investment in the future. I bought the .com and .net of my chosen website, a potential pen name, another version of the my writer name, and one that I'll set up if my Fallen series gets pubbed.

Okay, so now I have 5 domain sites. What next? Hosting. Now a lot of places offer hosting and godaddy is one of them. So I bundled in one year of their economy plan. Now if you intend to use WordPress, take a hint and go for the Linux and not Windows operating. You can always switch at anytime. The next fun in installing WordPress. I finally got it but it took a little time. The Five minute installation is a lie. But it does have its uses. You will have to change the Database Host, but all in all it isn't that bad. Just follow the directions until .... upload. Umm. Yeah. Where is that supposed to go?

Not as bad as I thought. Go to ftp.(yourdomain).com [don't actually use (yourdomain) and open the ftp with windows explorer. It tells you how to do that. It will open a folder window. Copy your files and paste them in that window. Then follow the remaining instructions in the 5 minute installation.

Now I tried to read the how to on Wordpress.org and wanted to cry myself silly. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy, but my brain slowly eeped out my ear as I tried to make heads or tails of the instructions. So using the power of Google, I found dummied down instructions.

That's what I'm doing today. So here's the link to How to Create Wordpress Themes. The lessons are broken down into 10-15 minute chunks (at least in the beginning which is all the further I've gotten). They aren't that hard to follow and I've been using the ftp to load up the changes. So go forth and create a website. I'll keep ya posted as to how I'm doing.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

AHHH! I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

You'd think I would have seen that gigantic hole up ahead, but I think I must have been looking the other way. I'm not quite sure why they call it digging yourself out of a hole. That just seems to make it deeper. Between starting my part time job and duties with volunteer positions, I was completely swamped last week. I have not had a day off and all my writing time had to be used to work on an old problem, I'd let go for too long. So, am I anywhere near my goal, no. Is it time to rethink the goal, probably. Do I feel I have the necessary brain power to accomplish anything at this time, definitely not. A week of doing nothing but accounting can sure weigh down the creative mind. I'll be continuing to work on the accounting stuff this week and a group I'm in is doing a book in a week, so maybe I'll push through and complete FORSAKEN during that week. That's all my brain has time for. Hope everyone else's February is going well.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Day Three

Fallen Goal - 60 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
51 / 139
(36.7%)


Zokutou word meter
0 / 28
(0.0%)


Forsaken - goal 9000 word

Zokutou word meter
0 / 65,000
(0.0%)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Day Two

Another snow day and tomorrow is my first day at a part time job, but I've kept up with Fallen's goals and haven't had time to write yet, but I'll catch up.


Fallen Goal - 40 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
41 / 139
(29.5%)


Zokutou word meter
0 / 28
(0.0%)


Forsaken - goal 6000 word

Zokutou word meter
0 / 65,000
(0.0%)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Here We Go - Jan 27 - Day One

Fallen Goal - 20 out of 139 and 0 out of 28

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
19 / 139
(13.7%)


Zokutou word meter
0 / 28
(0.0%)


Forsaken - goal 3000 word

Zokutou word meter
0 / 65,000
(0.0%)


Kids were home from school, but I would have had to work anyway. Still trying to tie down my cards for nationals too. Will do better tomorrow.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Goal Tickers

Fallen

Zokutou word meter
0 / 139
(0.0%)


Zokutou word meter
0 / 28
(0.0%)


Forsaken

Zokutou word meter
0 / 65,000
(0.0%)

Whisper, Whisper

Fine, I hear your whispering. I acknowledge that you have a story to tell. I also acknowledge that I hate revisions. So your whispering is more than I can take.

Forsaken has finally risen up in me again wanting to be spewed out. (Unnecessary visual, ew) Regardless, I've tried to commit myself to revisions, but I just don't get it. I know I have to go back over and find the problems but if I didn't notice them when I was writing it, how am I supposed to find them now? Besides I haven't finished telling Caleb's, Eli's and Kaitlin's story. I want to tell their story. Get it down on paper and out of my head. But I also want Fallen to be in publish form, which means revisions. Ugh, dilemnas.

So how bout a compromise? If I read through x number of pages of Fallen, I'm allowed to write x number of words on Forsaken. Seems like an easy goal to set. Hmmm, if I want to finish by the end of February. That's 33 days. Page 47 to Page 186 need to be read (It's a screwy format to print on less paper), so 139 pages plus time to go over revisions on the computer and do hunt and kill exercises. 28 chapters. So if I do 20 pages a day, that's 7 days of reading and then 2 chapters a day for revisions would be 14 days, leaving my weekends free still. Okay, so then on Forsaken, I have about 25K written and 90K target, so 65K with technically 24 days of writing (not including weekends) ....about 3000 words a day.

So the goal starting tomorrow is read 20 pages on Fallen and write 3000 words on Forsaken. As a caveat, I am starting a part time job tomorrow for Tuesdays and Thursdays while the kids are in school. But let's give it a shot. Anyone else want a kick in the pants.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Contest Final

I finaled in the OVRW Enchanted Words contest. Woohoo!!! This was with FALLEN. The query, synopsis and first five pages. Now it gets judged by an editor. An actual real live editor. I'm psyched.

Oh, and I'm registered for RWA National Conference too. It's been a great week.

Motherload

Anyone ever want to take a course at MIT. Here ya go.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm

Thanks for finding that goes to Paperback Writer.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Free Contests Abound

So if you've hit the internet lately you know that free contests are happening everywhere. From Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent contest. (currently closed for submission but she has them every other or every month. To Chase the Dream Contest which is once a year and still open by the way, first 1000 words once a week until March. To contests if you were asleep that day you missed it from certain agents. Fortunately, I'm well networked and tend to get a heads up when something is going down. But I also like to spread the news when I find it.

So today was supposed to be about getting two beginnings ready for two different things. The first is Catch a Star for The Marlene Contest. First pages and up to a 4 page synopsis, not to exceed 35 pages. I spent all morning cutting and tweaking and this afternoon cut and tweaked some more. The Marlene is an RWA chapter contest and cost $30 to enter for nonmembers of that chapter. The main reason I wanted to enter was for the final judge, Patience Smith, an editor for Silhouette. The feedback is usually nice if I don't final too.

The second thing I was supposed to do was clean up the new beginning of Fallen and send it to the Firebrand Literary Agency Query Holiday. I decided today not to do this one. Reasons being, the critiques that came back show that it still needs a lot of work, the whole novel needs to be spit shined, and I don't even know if the agent reps Paranormal Romance. They might and when I have a clean copy of Fallen and everything in it is exactly how I envision it or at least close enough that I'm not going to play with it anymore I'll submit it via query letter. I don't mind entering contests when things aren't 100% perfect, but for an agent I want polish. I needed to face the fact that Fallen isn't polished to where it needs to be because of my reluctance to revise.

Both the contest and the query holiday end today. I'm going to sit back and relax. Finish reading my book on revision and then take out the sandpaper. I'll start going through my sci fi writing book as well and if any ideas fall into my lap for shorts I might pursue those, but no serious novel writing until Fallen and Catch a Star are revised. So there.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wishing They Would Keep it Down in There

Whisper, whisper, whisper. The restaurant is getting quite noisy again. Part of the problem is I've turned off the writer. I'm working on revisions and getting ready for contests and submissions and am not writing new words. It's not like just one book is whispering either. Everyone in the restaurant has decided know would be a great time to whisper to me a little more about their story. So I have a new Silhouette Desire buzzing around my head. Unfortunately, Casanova won't give me his name, but doesn't seem to mind going by Casanova. Hmm, maybe for his last name..... Stop it. I haven't been sleeping well which is part of the problem. I wake up mentally before my body is truly ready to give up the bed and start moving. So I lay there and that's when they whisper. Yesterday it was a whole new idea which could go as a Novella or a Paranormal, they really haven't decided yet. This morning was an idea that's been talking to me for about a month or two. It started with the heroine and apparently the hero is starting to fill out in my mind. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't being so stubborn about not starting anything new until these two novels are revised. Don't worry about me too much, Fallen (one of the revisees) is also whispering to me. The beginning that I wasn't 100% on, filled itself in yesterday.

I love this job, I do, but some real money would be nice for all this work. With all the things I do for my writing, including putting in time on nights and weekends, I work more now than when I actually went to a job. I love it. I can't get enough of it. Even with the whispering. :) I'm grateful I have this opportunity and don't want to blow it, so it's back to the grindstone with me.

Oh, and to anyone else waiting to be served in the restaurant, I will try to get to all of you in good time. Please don't stop whispering because I do enjoy listening to you. Just make sure you wait your turn and I promise to not stop listening.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Feeling Overwhelmed

As my family continues to eat up my writing time and my continued hatred of revisions keep me from going forward. Sigh. I've been MIA due to my two youngsters feeling ill and a two week break in work and school for the whole family. I got a couple of books to go over. One on revisions, the other on writing sci fi and fantasy. I'm still working my way through On Writing by Stephen King. I've got characters brewing in my head, silently stalking me. Whispering me who they are and what they want to do and how they want to do it. But I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. Maybe if I keep writing that I'll believe it.