Ideas, Lightbulb Moments & Cuteness!

For some odd reason, I get a lot of my ideas or plot bunnies when I am unable to get to a computer or ever write the ideas down in a notepad.  In sometimes happens when I'm driving my car.  Red lights are for jotting down notes!  But most of the time, I get ideas while I'm in the shower.  This happened to me the other day.  I was stuck on a certain part of my work in progress, and I was frustrated.  Out of the blue, a past event in one of my character's life came to me, which makes their behavior very logical.  I thought I had motivation for the character before, but this little piece of history was the very thing I was missing.  \0/

Sometimes, I get ideas while I'm blow drying my hair.  I mentioned this once on Romance Divas and the naming fairies got me.  I'm the Blowing Ideas Into My Hair Diva.  LOL!  I once came up with a complete poem while drying my hair.  I had to run over to my desk and write it all out.

I shall leave you all with a cute cat video:

Another Submission ~ Rolling Right Along.

In an attempt to keep moving forward while I wait to hear from publishers, I have done a few things.

I am concentrating on writing more of my Paranormal Romance, Skeptical Latitude.  Man, oh, man, that novel needs a new improved working title.  And today, I submitted Do Not Disturb to Avon Impulse.  I'm not sure that was a good move, because there is no advance and the royalty rates are slim.  Not to mention that I am not informed enough on the subject of DMR protection or on the library thing.  The chance to work with Avon editors and have professional marketing and cover art is very tempting.  Chances of getting my novel accepted is slim with so much competition out there.  I will get informed and make the best decisions for me.

Also, I am still working with my mentor, who is totally awesome by the way.  Check her website out:  Sela Carsen.  She's got me reading novels with the assignment of paying attention to the author's voice.  It's very interesting, and I hope to learn something from it. 

Mentor Program

I am going to participate in the Romance Divas mentor program this year!  The mentor/mentee pairs will be posted in a couple of days, and I am looking forward to finding out who my mentor will be.  One of the moderators is giving out hints.  It's fun and a welcome distraction to flex my research muscles while I try to decipher the clue she gave me about my mentor. 

I will be concentrating on my Paranormal Romance during the program.  I am approaching the novel as the start of a series, so I'm very excited to pick it back up again and start work on it.  Here's hoping my mentor can help me see where my weaknesses are and give me some assignments to help me improve.

It feels as if I've been on this journey for a long time, but that I have a very long road still ahead.  There are so many issues with my writing that I need to work on.  I hope it won't overwhelm my mentor.  I am determined to improve, so at least I have that.

I like that the mentor program is not about trying to finish a work in progress.  It's about improving writing skills and getting help, advice and feedback from someone who is more experienced than the mentees.  It's a three month commitment, and I'm ready to get started! 

Must Write . . . Right Now!

It's that feeling I get.  A tightening of the chest.  A sort of rush, like a drug humming in my veins.  I wish I could get this feeling every time I sit down at my desk to write.  I have it now, at almost 2:00 am.  Normally, I'd be dashing off to open one of my works in progress, but not this morning. 

I want to figure out what sparks this feeling so that I can try to recreate it when I need to be creative.  Things that might have factored in to this: 

1.  Beautiful blue sky this morning.  Crisp and clear day, yet cool.  I love California weather and the scenery. 

2.  I went shopping for new expensive toys today.  We bought a 40" Plasma TV.  My husband loves the whole shopping experience where he gets to badger multiple sales people and shop as many stores as he can possibly go to before he finally makes a purchase.  I love getting the new toy home and figuring out how it all works.  Gadgets are so much fun!

3.  I watched a lot of TV today.  And I actually think this might be the key.  I watched some amazing television where the actors were good looking, the writers were spot on and the whole atmosphere of the show was just perfection.  I also watched a few blah shows that I am still keeping up with even though I'm finding that they've gone ridiculous and are just a waste of time.  Bones, Supernatural:  I'm talking to you.  The Mentalist:  You are so right there, on the edge.  Then there was the horribly stupid reality shows that are like watching a train wreck.  But I think all of these varied shows help me to be more creative.  I see what not to do, I see possibilities in reality TV and I see what really, really works for me.  Damon Salvatore, you work it, man!

Well, whatever it is that gets this feeling deep in the heart of me, that feeling like I have to move my characters forward, I have to make scenes come alive in a .doc file, the feeling that I'll burst if I don't start typing, I feel so blessed/lucky to get that feeling. 

It would be nice if the feeling happened at 9:00 am or 10:00 pm, when I have set aside time to write.  Not 2:00 am when I should be asleep and I've going to regret staying up, in the morning when my six year old is jumping on me like joyful bit of sunshine, asking for breakfast. 

I'm going to write in a few minutes, but just like this post, I'm sure what I write won't make much sense in the morning.  I'll have to edit later.  At least the story will get edited.  Somehow, I think it's a good thing to babble incoherently on my blog once in a while, just to remind myself why I should go to sleep before 2:00 am in the future.

Write on, creative people!  Write on!

Real Men and Their Flaws

My eldest son, who recently turned fourteen, reminded me the other day that men have flaws that often times do not end up in romance novels.  But maybe some of the flaws should find their way onto our pages.  Can’t our heroes be more realistic and still charm the socks off us?

My house was a bustle of crazy insanity early one morning, as all five of my kids ran around trying to gather their things for school at the last minute.  My oldest son complained that he couldn’t find his jacket.  As I rushed through the house helping the younger kids gather backpacks, I gave him ideas of places where it might be, but he insisted that he’d looked in all of those places.  He stood in the middle of the living room looking lost.

Once I had everyone together at the door, I opened the entry closet to get my youngest son’s jacket and stopped short.  There, hanging on a hanger, plain as day, was my oldest son’s jacket.  I took it out and waved it in front of him.  

“What!  That wasn’t there a minute ago.  I just looked in there,” he said to me with a slack jaw.

I could only shake my head and do my best to stifle a giggle.  I told him, “You have now officially entered manhood.”

And that got me thinking about romantic heroes.  Color-blind ones who need help making sure they don’t wear one blue and one black sock.  Ones who continually misplaces their car keys.  Or one who is a neat freak that gets bothered when the heroine drops things on the floor.  Flaws that can be annoying, but really, they make the man real.  He can still save the day, team up with the heroine to get things done, make decisions, fight for the girl and all the other wonderful things heroes do.  

Just something to think about.

Novella Submitted

Well, I did it.  My first time submitting to an epub.  I've got the category romance subbed with Harlequin while I still have queries for it out to agents, and now the first novella in what I hope will turn into a series is in an epublication editor's inbox. 

In three years, I've gone from taking up my dream to become a published author to this point.  I'm really proud of what I've accomplished so far.  I've still got a long way to go, but just knowing that I began this journey, took my time with it and have gotten to where I have more than one finished, polished work out there on offer makes me want to pat myself on the back.

I spent time in the playground (created world) of someone else, creating stories with characters not my own.  Thank you, Joss Whedon, for allowing your fans to play that way.  I learned about story structure, beta readers and proper formatting.  I also found a great bunch of writers/readers online that I now call friends.  During this time, I worked on my grammar, sentence variety and dialogue.  I enjoyed every minute I spent writing stories that I could never make a dime off of.  Stories that fellow fans could enjoy. 

When I felt like I could do original fiction justice, I still had a lot to learn, but I had the confidence to know I could finish a story if I put my mind to it.  I knew I could handle tough critiques and many hours revising and editing my stories.  And I enjoy every minute of the process.  I don't find it tedious or boring.  I love writing the first draft; I look forward to making corrections and adding and subtracting from the first draft.

I won't lie and say I enjoy writing query letters or synopses, but I love when they are finished to my satisfaction. 

I'm still not good at hitting send when I query an agent or submit a package to a publisher.  I get jittery.  My hands tremble, and I feel like I'm going to be sick.  I wonder if that will ever go away?  Probably not.  A little fear is a good thing.  It will keep my on my toes, and help me to stay diligent and professional.

I will be very disappointed if I get a rejection on the novella, because I love that story and I love the epub that I have subbed it to.  They are my first choice.  There are others out there and I do have a second and third choice that I'd be happy with, plus four others that I would be okay with.  After that, there are still options.

So, now, I will keep busy writing the two works in progress that I am most interested in right now.  I've got 14,000 of the sequel to the novella written and just under that amount of my single title fantasy story written.  Plenty to do to keep my mind off possible rejections.

Taking Care of Myself This Year

I am going to be good to my body this year.  To kick things off right, I've joined the Romance Divas team for the Biggest Loser Pound For Pound Challenge.  I've pledged ten pounds.  Wish me luck!

A New Year

The future looks bright and I'm raring to go!  I'm a list maker.  I make many lists every day.  One for things I need to purchase, one for chores I need to do around the house, and one for things I want to do by the end of the day to further my dreams to make a full time career out of my writing.  There is something so satisfying about crossing off items accomplished.

Now that we are in a new year, I need to think about my year long list of goals I wish to achieve.  I try to stretch myself with big goals, but have a few easy to accomplish ones as well.

1.  Submit All Business to an epub this Friday.
2.  Write the sequel to All Business by February 1.
3.  Continue to seek an agent and/or submit Do Not Disturb to publishers that take unsolicited manuscripts,      including epubs.
4.  Complete my YA Fantasy novel, do rounds of edits and be ready to query agents by September. 
5.  Work on the third novella in the All Business series. 
6.  Complete my Paranormal Romance.
7.  Work on Contemporary Vegas Romance.

By the end of the year, I would like to have a contract for All Business and hopefully one for the sequel.  I would also love to have a contract for Do Not Disturb, but I'm more confident about All Business.  If I can't find a home for DND by the end of the year, I plan to self-publish either on Smashwords or with CreateSpace.  I want to have books in all stages of planning, writing and submitting.  I would also like to improve my photoshop skills as I love making book covers.

What are your goals for the coming year?

Publish Post

Tools I Use

Every writer has their own routine and their own set of tools that help them keep moving forward.  I try to keep it simple.  Here are some of the tools I use to help me along.

I do all of my writing in MS Word.  I like being about to add notes and use track changes when I'm editing.  Before I could afford MS Word, I used the free program, Open Office, and it was almost just as good.  It has some of the same features and files could be saved as .doc files.

I backup my files using Dropbox, which is just an awesome program.  All of my writing file folders are kept in Dropbox.  I can access them from any computer, and no matter which computer I open files and make changes on, those chances will be there on any other computer, when I open the file again.  If my main laptop dies, I will still have the files on Dropbox and will be able to still retrieve them. 

When I am querying agents, I use Querytracker to keep it all organized.

If I'm stuck and need to push myself to keep writing, I will use Write or Die, which is just a lot of fun.  I recommend using the normal mode, because it's more evil to have to hear that song than to have my words erased.  LOL!  He's got a new editing tool that I want to check out too.

What tools do you use?

Got My 50,000 words. Moving On.

I did it.  Got my 50,000 words for Nano.  I had a bad month with computer woes and financial issues, but I somehow managed. 

Now that I've given myself a few days off from writing, I'm going to focus on submitting two of my completed stories, and I'll be writing two others.  I'm also thinking about what my realistic goals should be for the coming year.

Writing Contests & Nano Progress

I entered the first week of the Some Like It Hot writing contest with All Business.  Unfortunately, I did not place as a finalist, but I did win the random entry contest for a critique of the first chapter!  That's something.  I'm excited about the critique, and I'm looking forward to taking the advice of someone who knows more than I do. 

I am thinking about entering one of my other finished novels for this week's section of the contest.  It will depend on how much time I have to condense my synopsis from three pages to one.

I also entered the 'Tis The Season writing contest as well.  Voting has started.  If you could take a moment to read my excerpt, vote and comment, I would greatly appreciate it.  You don't have to register to vote.  I'm entry number three in the contemporary section. 

And now for my Nano report.

I got off to a good start at midnight and went to sleep with over 2,800 words down.  I plan to spend two hours writing later in the day.  It would be great if I could get 5,000 words written for day one.  It's always good to get a good head start for the month.  So many things can happen to take me away from my laptop for a day.  Like that little holiday, Thanksgiving, where my family expects me to come out of the writing cave and socialize.  :)

NaNoWriMo Time!

I'm a mere hours away from the starting line.


I've got my plot bunny file open, I've been charting out scenes, and I just make the file for the manuscript.  I've got the header set up and I've typed up the title.  It's just waiting for midnight.

I'm very optimistic about this year.  I hope to go well over 50,000 words before the end of the month.

www.nanowrimo.org

Good luck to the other writers who are participating this year!

What I Like

I just got done reading a book that reminded of me all the things I love to see in a book.  Strong characters, great supporting characters, and the author kept me strung along.  It was a long single title about two families.  The writing was sharp and I knew it was going to be good, when in the early part of the story, the writer was able to put that ache in my chest, that longing for the couple to find happiness.  There were peaks and valleys, but always, that ache was there.  

I want my stories to have that.  To give the reader the slightest bit of hope and put them on a roller coaster ride of emotions, with a satisfying HEA. I want the reader to burn dinner (like I did) because they can't stand to put the book down. 

One of these days...

The story was not perfect, by any means, but it was a great read.  Deborah Smith's Blue Willow.

Busy Life is Real Life Busy

Autumn is here in SoCal.  You can't tell by the wild and brilliant leaves, you can't tell by a chill in the air, but you can tell by how busy I've been.  The kids are firmly set in school, and I've become taxi-mom once again.  Through it all, I've trudged ahead with my dreams, snatching a free moment here and stealing a moment there.

Query letters have been sent to a total of sixteen agents with one request for a partial that resulted in a kind rejection.  I've had six more rejections, so I'm waiting to hear back from nine other agents.  With that story, I entered the New Voices Contest.  I was not one of the ten out of 800 plus entries to move forward to the second round. 

I have completed All Business and started on edits.  The sequel is now in the planning stages, with a ton of notes and a plot bunny form filled out.  I'm waiting for NaNoWriMo to start (November 01, 2010) to actually begin writing.  And it's killing me...

I was invited to join a critcircle and I gladly accepted.  There are four of us, and I'm really enjoying the process.  I've edited/beta'd many a fanfic in my time, still do for a few authors and I've done some critiquing for a couple of original authors, but the circle is something new.  I'm getting three opinions all at once, and it's been very helpful.  I'm planning to enter two contests near the end of this month with All Business and having so many eyes on the story before then gives me a little more confidence.  

When I get blocked or can't write for some reason, I like to play with photoshop.  I've created just-for-fun book covers for All Business and the sequel Risking It All.  I know I won't actually be using them if they get published by an epub, but they were fun to make and they gave me inspiration.

Queries, Partials and Contests.

An update on my queries.  I've had three rejections.  One request for a partial with a rejection coming after she read the partial.  I still have eight more queries out there.  I entered the Mills and Boons Contest, and I'm moving forward.

I plan to send out a few more queries next week, when I have time to pay close attention to what I'm doing.  In the meantime, I've been working and that has taken time away from my writing.  I would like have All Business completed and some edits done before Oct. 25th when I'll need the first chapter ready for a contest I plan to enter.  Here's hoping I can meet that deadline.  I have a chapter and half left to write, but haven't had time to write in a week.  

Query and Writing Progress

I have sent ten queries out to agents this last week.  I've already gotten one polite rejection.  I am doing more research and lining up my next batch of agents to query, and will start sending those out on Monday. 

I love querytracker.

I've gotten over 12,000 of All business written, but stalled after coming down with a terrible cold that has sapped all of my energy.  I've been focusing on the query letters until I get healthy.  I'm hoping to get back to writing by Monday at the latest.  I'd love to have the rough draft of this story done before Sept. 1.  I have some betas and crit partners ready to read it as soon as I get the rough draft self-edited.  I would love to have this story submitted to epubs by the November so I can concentrated on NaNoWriMo.

Writing Inspiration ~ Where Do You Get Yours?

It’s difficult for me to explain inspiration or what prods me to write, but I do know my writing is richer and more layered when I am inspired to write as opposed to when I force myself to write.  With the start of this new story, I have been attempting to push myself to write.  I somehow manage during NaNoWriMo to push myself and write a set amount of words everyday and I’m doing okay with this new story.  The one thing I have been doing is taking mini breaks to grasp for more inspiration.

I find inspiration in many places.

Movies.  There are a few movies I have set aside to watch because they churn up inspiration in my gut.  Some of these movies I know by heart now, and I can just watch a particular scene to get that feeling.  I’ve noticed that most of these movies have a similar plot.  The number one movie that I watch for inspiration is The Cutting Edge.  There are so many scenes in it that move me.  Others on my list are:  The Proposal, Love Actually, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Step Up, Real Genius, Drop Dead Fred.

Buy It at Amazon!

What I’ve noticed about my list is that it says something about me.  I’m not much of an intellectual.  My list does not include smart movies with complex plots and there isn’t a sober, depressing one in the bunch.  There might be a bit of drama, but the emphasis is on the relationships or the fun.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

New Project Started ~ All Business

I'm thrilled to report that I have started a new story.  The idea came to me quite some time ago, but I had too many other things going at the time to do much more than write down basic notes.  About a paragraph's worth.

Last night, I used a form that Kendal Ashby had sent me once when we were exchanging chapters.  She's an awesome critique partner, by the way.  I was able to fill out the form, which included character sketches, conflict notes, a story blurb, scenes that must be in the story, the black moment and the end scene notes.

And better than all of that!  I was able to get the first chapter written.  I'm stoked!  Like, totally.  I credit the Romance Diva chat room for helping me to get the second half of the chapter written.  I love those timed challenges.

The working title for this 25,000 word novella is All Business. I shall keep everyone posted of my progress as I plod along.  :)







All Business

Is Giddy-Happy 'Cause I Won Some Stuff!

I used to be able to say that I never win anything, but can't now.  In the last two weeks I've won three great prizes by just commenting on a blog or forum post.

I  was thrilled to win a copy of Moving Target by Rosalie Stanton.  I love this author's clean, engaging writing and this newest novella did not disappoint.  You can pre-order it here.



Yesterday was the start of the NGTCC over at Romance Divas.  I commented on three door prize posts and won two of them!  An ebook from author David Bridger entitled Beauty and the Bastard.  I'm halfway done with it now.  It is very interesting to read a romance novel written by a man.  The writing is clear and the story is really good.  So good that I didn't get to sleep until two in the morning.

I also won a synopsis and first three chapters critique from Golden Heart Finalist, Cynthia Justlin.  I'm really excited about this one. 

Getting Ready to Query Literary Agents

I'm going to try using Query Tracker to keep track of queries that I send out.  I really like how the website is set up.  I'll be able to keep track of who I have sent a query to and when I get a rejection.  I really love how they have a place to paste in the exact query letter sent to the agent, because while the blurb section will always be the same, each query will need to be personalized and I like the idea of being able to see exactly what I sent to different agents.

I have used Query Tracker to find some of the agents I plan to send the first wave a queries to, but I have also found agents in other ways and went back to tracker and added them in to my personal list.  I've found agents in forum posts and on other writer's blogs.  I pay attention when someone praises their agent and then I look them up and see if they would be a good fit for me.  

If all goes well, I will start sending out queries in the next few days.  *bites nails*