'Tis The Season For Paranormal

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 haven't worked on Heartbeats in awhile, but maybe it'll help me figure out Delaney's character even further. I like the idea and story line I have for Conjure A Man, it's just the execution of it is proving more difficult than originally anticipated. But, oh well, some stories are easier to write than others. Just got to keep letting creativity flow and try not to let it bother me that this is a bit more frustrating than writing Surreal.

Speaking of paranormal and spooktacular stories, I've been reading Kim Lenox's So Still The Night. Pretty spooky stuff going on currently. This book is the sequel to Night Falls Darkly; she has another one coming out next year, Darker Than Night it says it supposed to come out April 2010. If you're interested in immortals, good versus evil and romance, these books are definitely worth checking out. So far I think Night Falls Darkly is my favorite (it was pretty creepy having Jack the Ripper involved, but I think So Still The Night is even creepier--I think a friend of mine would really like these, she likes spooky stuff).

In any case, whatever your plans are for today, I wish you well!

Question for the day: What are you currently reading? (something other than your own manuscripts).

Have A Spec-Spook-Tacular Saturday!

October Is Ending

Hi Everyone,

So, this weekend is Halloween. Yes, we have a pumpkin, no we haven't carved it. It's been kinda busy over here. We've had a lot going on. But Halloween also marks the end of October. A month I'm rather fond of because it's when I start feeling more of the fall weather, my birthday happens, my dad's birthday, one of my sisters and her husband have their wedding anniversary, and it's just nice to see Fall breezing in.

Kids of all ages look forward breathlessly to Halloween and everything they like about it (whether it's costumes, treats, parties or spooky movies) Halloween has a lot of things for people of all ages. I wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween--whatever you celebrate or don't celebrate, or what Oct. 31st means to you, I wish you well.

What does the end of October mean for my writing? Well, pretty much the same as it meant for every other month. Working, working, editing, revising, and improving and getting closer to querying.

Yesterday I reworked Chapter 1 of Conjure A Man and I think I like it better. I wasn't happy having Delaney blush often or be uncertain. It didn't make sense to me with the fact that she's the one who brings a human over into her world. I wanted her to be strong and outspoken to keep things lively and add a dimension to the relationship. Besides which, Sasha is the shy, quiet, blushing character, I don't need all my females to be like that. I want them to be themselves--not the same thing.

Today it looks like I'll continue reworking Conjure A Man to fit how I view Delaney's character, so hopefully that will make everything else make more sense and flow even better.

Also, yesterday, Regina paid me the nicest compliment about chapter 1 of Surreal. She read it to give me input on POV and tense and she was most helpful and kind. I appreciated her comments. She said that she wants to know what happens and can't wait for it to be published. Hopefully it will be published one day. That would be awesome for both my manuscript and me. Shout out and kudos go to Regina for all her help and her kind words!

Need to send out kudos to Tessy (my wonderful cp) and to Debbie my free-lance editor. They both deserve tremendous amount of credit, as well. Not to mention all of you who come, read, comment, offer encouragement, and input on this blog, as well. Thank you!

Anyway, so what does October ending mean to you? What are your plans for the ending of this month?

Have A Fantastical Friday!

Works In Progress

Morning All,

I've got 3 manuscripts in the works:

Surreal is in editing. It's my first finished full-length novel. You've got a parallel world (The Third Realm), shape shifters (I call them Man-beasts just to differiante from other shape shifting beings) jealousy, desire, fight scene, and love. This story is still in editing, and I'm waiting on the last pages from my free-lance editor. I've discovered other ways of fixing up this manuscript, too, by doing Todd Stone's 7 Revision Passes (starting on slide 6 of the link I provide).

Conjure A Man has witches, warlocks, vampires, patronizing relatives, and Delaney Ryan (witch) risking imprisonment by The High Counsel when she brings a human into The Lands of Fantasy. She's risking being found out...not only that, risking her heart, as well.

Heartbeats is the tentative title to the companion novel for Conjure A Man. It's not a sequel, but it has Delaney's best friend, Caruso Valetti (vampire) in it. Revenge, lost love, former best friends, and a possibility for great love for the asking.

So, what are you all working on? Anything ready to be queried? You got a particular editing method? Got anything just lurking on the edges of inspiration?

Have A Terrific Thursday!

Book Previews, Websites, and Building A Platform

Good Mid-Morning Folks,

Today the sun is out, it's only slightly cloudy and the sun and shining and it's around 53-55 degrees out (Hello, Fall, where have you been?) Cooler weather has come back to my neck of Texas (or rather Southwest Texas, rather than a neck...probably more like the calf or something). Anyway, it's lovely and it's freezing in my house (guess it's not cold enough for the heater, but not hot enough for the air conditioner!) Hope the weather hangs around a bit (despite my allergies).

So...let's talk platforms. No, I'm not talking politics or Miss American Pageants, I'm talking writing platforms.

Writing platforms are talked about all over the place. By agents, by other writers, by readers (even though they might not call it a platform, they might call it a website or a book signing or something). In whatever case, it's a writer's reputation, it's information regarding the writer and his or her books/screenplay/poetry/et cetera.

Currently my platform mostly consists of what I put up on my blog--which is generally a combination of what I'm writing, advice, and books I've read. I kind of like to cover the myriad that's out there. (I do plan on having a website, soon, that's still in the planning stages).

Now there are writers out there with websites already (even some unpublished ones).

Published author of mysteries, Laura Childs, has a website up (with a great Mysterious/Halloween type feel)

There's Kerrelyn Sparks who has some book previews up (little videos talking about a book that's coming out or is out to give you a "taste" of what she's written/is writing).

There's also an aspiring author (and member of NWHRWA), Jennifer Bray-Weber who has book previews on her site as well.

Author Elizabeth Pina has an inspirational coming out next month (release date is on her website). The book, Learning To Let Go looks good. (P.S. I sat next to her at the Todd Stone Workshop. She's an awesome person and really nice. She's working on a Romantic Suspense that sounds really good, too--she's also a member of the NWHRWA).

And I can't mention members of NWHRWA's websites without mentioning a follower of this blog who has a website and is a member of NWHRWA, Ciara Gold.

There's other members of the NWHRWA who have websites (Kim Lenox being one, as well). But the point is, all these authors are working to build up their platform.

So, what are you doing to build up your platform? Do you have any advice for others in doing this?

Have A Wonderful Wednesday!

Applying The Tricks Of The Trade

Morning All,

All right, it's good that I look over things before posting them on here, because the title of this post was almost "Applying The Tricks Of The TADE" rather than "Trade". Yet, another reason for authors to proofread their work.

Okay, so I don't have to cover proofreading (that's pretty straight forward anyway, right?)

I don't know how you all feel about outlines. I personally don't usually do them. Every now and again I'll write up a synopsis when an ideas are just bursting out all over the place for me. But sometimes I start with a vague idea then it blossoms.

Todd Stone's workshop helped me organize those vague ideas:

If you go to slide number 14 on this link, you'll find a diagram that helped me organize those "vague ideas".

This one helped a lot. I had an idea for Delaney Ryan's best friend, Caruso as a companion novel to Conjure A Man, but I only had a vague idea of conflict and possible opponents. With this diagram I was able to start the ideas flowing. (In fact, yesterday, 2 pages of tentatively titled, Heartbeats came out--stronger than my original attempt).

Another concept that helped me (also from Todd Stone's Workshop) was what Todd calls "Book On An Index Card" (or, BIC). You can find out about this by clicking here and arrowing down until you get to where it talks about the BIC. Click here.

This BIC idea is used as the synopsis for Todd Stone's book, Close To Home.

Now granted, sometimes synopsis don't start with "When" but rather WHO. Things like:

"Such-and-such character has had it with______________. Therefore, she/he decides to___________. Problem is that________________________."

But it can help you organize the events in your story.

The other thing I do is let some ideas "marinate" for awhile--usually 1-2 days before I get started writing. This lets things "take shape" and develop so that I can sit down and write.

What are some of the tricks you use? What have you found most helpful?

Have A Thrilling Tuesday!

P.S. I've added The Novelists Bootcamp Blog to the list in the righthand margin under "Other Blogs To Read"

"Overpowering Your Writing Goal"--Todd Stone

Morning Folks,

Well, it's awfully yucky outside. Gray, dark, thunder, lightning and rain, rain, rain. Splat, splat, splat against the window panes (I suddenly feel very Dr. Seuss-ish LOL...Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? anybody know that book?)

In any case, in the fine tradition of continuing a theme, I'm gonna give you some of the pointers I learned from the Todd Stone's Novelist Boot Camp.

Todd Stone told us "Never fight fair" (and re-emphasized this at different times in the workshop). What he means is, if your goals are 5-10 pages a day and you're struggling to get it out, don't tell yourself "I have to do this!" And get all frustrated, consider lowering your daily goal until you get your rhythm. (even if this means you're writing 1-3 SENTENCES per day).

His point? When you break your writing down to simpler goals, then your creativity has room to grow.

Who knows, you could be up to 5-10 pages before the end of 2 weeks!

Todd Stone calls this "overpowering your writing goal" (hence the name of this post).

He says when you're writing a draft "You can't write anything bad because you're going to make it better."

I don't know about you, but when I learned about lowering my personal goals for my writing I felt much better about the whole creativity process. It felt like, "Wow, I could really get a lot done." Finding a rhythm is something all writers have to do.

Todd Stone says: "Writing should be fun work."

There's way more information about all this on his site (in particularly in his book) so be sure to look that up (I provided the links in an earlier post, titled "Boot Camp Kicks Butt!").

Happy Writing!

Have A Marvelous Monday!

Boot Camp Kicks Butt!

Hi all,



If you haven't checked out link (in my previous post) about Todd Stone, please do so. There is a ton of information I got out of the workshop, that if I tried to post it all in this post, it would be insanely long. So, I'll give you all some short cuts:



First of all, the workshop was called Novelists Boot Camp; the slides we saw are available in the margins of his website if you click here. Worksheets include this one (with the map) and several things from his book.



Second of all, if you can get to a Todd Stone workshop, I highly recommend it. He's informative, he's fun, he's helpful and he's dynamic. He had us cracking up more times than I can count. But he offered great advice.



I made more progress on figuring out what to do with the 3 scenes I brought with me (he has to bring 3 printed out scenes from a finished or work in progress) than I have in a long time. Granted, most of my pages now look like a war zone with lines and arrows and notes everywhere, but I have a clear direction on how to improve the scene as opposed to, "Oh cut this, and put this in...maybe."



Friday was pretty much an overview. We did a lot of drills, but it was "lightweight". There were authors writing all kinds of stuff there. I sat between two ladies working on suspense romance.



There was a lot of people from the Northwest Houston chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). Awesome women (and men) Shout out to Will, Jen, Tessy, Melissa, Stacy, Jody, Judythe, Janet, Christie, Elizabeth, Marisa, Cheri, Melinda, Colleen, et al from the NWHRWA that were at the workshop. Y'all rock big time and are too cool and sweet! (Please note: Ciara Gold, a follower of this blog, and published author of Celestial Dragon as well as several e-books is also a member of NWHRWA).



In any case, it was fabulous. Todd Stone also recommended Donald Maas's The Fire In Fiction, which, I haven't gotten, yet, but have wanted it for awhile.



Saturday was the big stuff. We went through the 7 Revision Passes which I'll talk about more in later post (*If I get to Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 and I still haven't posted them, somebody remind me!)

By afternoon (just a little before the workshop was over) I was tired...but I was very, very, very glad to have gone. Like I said above, I highly recommend it. Don't worry about the tough stuff, it gets broken down and Todd walks you through it. It's probably some of the best writing instruction I've gotten in a long time (I took a class on Novel Writing some years ago). The editing process makes more sense now.

Make no mistake. It is a lot of work. You will work hard. But it's good work and it's extremely helpful.

Todd Stone says that when writing stops being fun, then you have to change your tactic. You have to find a way to make it work, but also should be fun work. He says what he has to offer are "tools not rules."

My wish and hope for all of you keep your writing as not just work, but fun work!

Have A Swell Sunday!