Happy Tuesday all, It's been a while since I've updated my blog. Like always, I mostly concentrate on Facebook and Twitter. However, I do try to get on here at least once in a while. I used to be so much better about this. I'm sorry! My revisions for Immortal Dreams Book 1:  Dream Weaver are coming along. I'll be sending them to my proof reader very soon, then I'll go through it again and get it out. I'm ready for this novel to be going out into the world. It's not a Third Realm novel, but I think it's a lot of fun. I'm classifying it as a New Adult Paranormal Romance. It does have magic in it, which lends a little bit of the fantasy to it. New Adult is a fairly new designation. I was reading in article in a magazine about how it's not quite adult and not quite YA. In general, the characters tend to be between 18 and 25. It's based on getting into new adult situations--college, marriage, adulthood. (Most of what I'm saying is bas...

Hello Everyone, Okay, today's topic has nothing to do with the pile of stories you're currently working on, or even your rejection slips. It has to do with those stories who you started writing at first and then said "This won't work" or "I think I better put this one on hold indefinitely...unless something grabs me." I'm sure we all have stories like that. Ones we got excited about and then was like "Wait, no I'm not ready to write this, it's not coming together, what was I THINKING???!!" This is what I'm calling the "Writers' Rejection Pile". I remember on a computer I used to have (that has long since crashed, poor computer; it was properly mourned, now we're just hoping one day my younger brother will be able to unlock its secrets and pull out some files we had on there, that didn't make their way to disc!) But I remember I had a couple of stories. One was an anthology of short stories, which included s...

Morning/Afternoon All, I have to have sympathy. I know, I'm not usually one to ask for a pity party, but in this case, I think I might actually need one. I'm having reflux issues and so I emailed one of my doctors (the 2 doctors are married to each other and own a family practice, I've been to both the husband and wife on different occasions for different things). I emailed because I really didn't want to call the office and wait for a call back or have to go in and negotiate the dang hospital complex parking lot. My doctor wrote me back told me what to do, but she also warned that I should avoid certain foods. Among the foods mentioned...caffeine and chocolate. (I can handle avoiding peppermint, that ain't so hard, and tomatoes I can avoid). But coffee and chocolate??? Okay, the chocolate I've been mostly avoiding for awhile now because of my diet--but CHRISTMAS is coming! I was going to make FUDGE...my sister and her husband make Million Dollar Pie--it has cho...

Good Morning All, My weekend was nice and quiet for the most part (other than Friday evening when I went up to my high school Alma mater to see my son's Godsister perform in the choir--she did not do a solo, but it was still fun). Saturday and Sunday were pretty quiet, though, which is fine :-) I've been wrestling with the question of approach and the way to write one particular story for some time (if you all remember previous entries about my trying to revise this story, you know precisely which one I'm talking about and how many times I've been trying to figure out what to do with it). I don't know if this new approach is going to work or not, but it brings up the question I've often brought up, which is when one method isn't working, that a writer should try a new one. Do you write mainly third person omniscient? If that's not working, try third person limited, or even try a whole different pov altogether. Trying to start the book with an argument bu...

Good Morning Folks, Don't you just love that saying? Okay, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but I think it's cool. So yesterday I did (as I said I was going to) actually get to writing on Conjure A Man . Chapter 3 is finished being rewritten (for now). But chapter 4 might need some work. The idea for chapter 4 isn't bad (I mean it makes sense Delaney's vampire friend, Caruso, would want to meet Pierre, especially since he suggested Delaney summon up a human in the first place). However, I'm not sure how well it works (hence the "dash it all" title for today's post). But, that doesn't mean it can't work. We writers sometimes have to make a decision. Sometimes this decision is easy and sometimes it's painful. And that decision is whether or not a scene works in one particular place or even at all for the story in question. Sometimes we have these "Dash it all!" moments where we think "If I have to revise this story one more ...

Morning Folks, Well another beautiful Fall Day (yay for pretty sunshine and cooler temperatures!) Yes, I will cheer on the cooler weather all Fall and Winter if it means I don't have to wear shorts during the Christmas 12 days (and earlier and through January). I think we writers need a slogan on button that says "I have a pen and I'm not afraid to use it!" Hmmm...I wonder what kind of questions we'd get about that? Maybe we could also have our own coffee from all the major coffee manufacturers (do they realize how many writers drink coffee?) They could have "The Write Stuff" or "Write Bold" or "Write Italian Roast" Okay...maybe the coffee is already hitting me and I need to back off the sugar. But still...it seems like novelty coffee would be fun. What do you think? In along the same lines as the title of this post (which, don't ask me how I thought of it, just all of a sudden it occurred to me and I liked the sound of it) Lately...

Morning Folks, Halloween Day seems like the perfect time to announce that I have a book preview video (not great quality, but I'm hoping to either figure out how to fix the problems or have my younger brother who knows about a lot of media stuff might be able to help when he's in town for Christmas). You see, I don't have a Youtube account (I might end up getting one; but I'm not sure, yet) so I think maybe I'll wait until I have a website to put it up. But once I'm able to work out the kinks I think it's pretty good. The preview is for Surreal . Other than that I'm working more on Conjure A Man . I worked on Chapter 2 yesterday, but I'm not sure if it's just right or if I went overboard a different direction. I'll have to review it and if necessary, I'll make changes. But I do like Delaney's character better for this, now. I just didn't like having her appear so weak because I know that in all her life she was pretty strong. I ...

Happy Late Evening One And All, Whew. I've been immersed in some serious revising. I ought to be working on Surreal , however, I think one chapter a day works best for that project at this time. Once ideas start flowing I can do more. At this point I'm reintroducing myself to the story after an absence. The other revising I'm doing? Serious reconstructive work on Conjure A Man . After some thought based on some advice Kim Lenox gave at the chapter RWA meeting on Saturday morning, and some suggestions from Tess, I went back and cut out all of Chapter 1 to lead off with chapter 2. This way, I throw the reader immediately into the action and the story. The situation is right there and the back story flows through the dialogue. Combining chapter 2 and 3, I'm working on improving the beginning. Fortunately I only have about 11-12 chapters so far, but I'm getting reinvigorated. I have to quit for now, because it's almost 10 p.m. and with motherhood responsibilities I...

Hello Everyone, Welcome back from the Labor Day Weekend. Hope everyone had a safe and great time. Mine was peaceful, which is just fine by me. Recently I've received the first chunk of edits for Surreal back from my editor. Earlier this year I realized a valuable lesson: edit as you go. Either after finishing the first 3 chapters, begin the edits or go chapter by chapter. It will make the load of revisions lighter and give you a sense of already "polishing and buffing" before an editor or critique partner gets a hold of your story. Rewriting can be rough, but it's a fact of a writer's life. Writers write the first draft, go back, fix mistakes, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, then begin the process all over again until the project is polished, buffed and as good as they can make it. You want to send your best work. Not your first draft. After having spent almost a year of hardly looking at Surreal , I realize how much I've learned about writing since having compl...