Taryn's Writerly Ramblings- #revisions & #rewrites & #edits, Oh My!

Things around here have been uber busy as of late. I've been deep in revisions and rewrites on LOVE BY DESIGN since earlier this month. Between revisions and rewrites I was working on, I was also doing edits based on the suggestions and feedback of a fellow KY author who was beta/editing for me.

I finished up this past Monday, just after my weekend away for my Kentucky Independent Writers meeting on the 22nd. I came back refueled and focused and whipped the last three chapters' rewrite out in no time. Tuesday I sent out to the one author who betaread the entire manuscript pre-rewrite, but who I'd shared my rewrite notes with. While she read, she kept that in mind.

Then it was off to 3 betas and an editor I had lined up. Last night I mailed it off to 2 more betas, so it's out to 5 betas + the editor.

My fellow author, sent back the 3 rewritten chapters with only minor "pickies" as she called them, a few things of which were just flubs on my part, where I pounded the story out so fast that I missed a typo or two here and there, or a added/missing word and a few other suggestions. She said that the added conflict upped the expectation at the end of the story, so I'm pleased with that feedback, for sure.

This has me thinking too about how soon I'll have a RELEASE DATE to share, and that's just making me crazy excited! I'm hoping it will be sooner rather than later. We're getting so close, I can taste it. Yippee! And that means that soon, I'll be putting out a call to bloggers who might like to interview me or have me guest on their blogs, so keep an eye peeled for a blog about that or if you sign up for my NEWSLETTER (link listed below), you can find out about it that way as well.

All while doing this, I've also been having car troubles again. Last month after I went to my first writers meeting, my check engine light came on. A diagnostic check said the thermostat was going out, but after mechanic and husband checked and didn't seem to find a problem, we basically just "reset" it and it went off without any more trouble.

This time my brakes have been squeaking and I thought maybe it was just cold weather, but then it pulled a "squealing" on me- Sounded like a big fat pig crawled up under my hood. And it wasn't the squeaking brakes, but a sound it emitted while I was accelerating, when my foot was no where near the brake pedal. It only happened on Sunday while I was in my hometown before I headed back and only for a short time. Called my husband to ask him what he thought it might be but considering he was here and I was there and he couldn't look at it or listen to it, he didn't know. Said it could be the rotors, or maybe the fan belt. When I took it over to my parents to have my dad ride with me to see if he could figure out what it was doing, it quit and has behaved ever since. Not really sure what the deal is....

But, poor Jasper is in the shop now and won't get him back till Tuesday or Wednesday right now. He's had a time of it since I got my license...maybe I'm running too hard? Or maybe it's just the wear and tear of having almost 100k miles under his belt. I know he'll need an oil change before I travel very far again, but for right now, the mechanic is going to change the fan belt, the spark plugs and lines, and some other things they seemed knowledgeable about that I don't.

I'm also re-immersing myself in Triberr (and hopefully going to find time to start posting blogs myself more consistently), joining groups on FB like Kentuckiana Authors and Kentucky Romance Writers (not the RWA Chapter I once belonged to, as it disbanded a while back.) Been doing the "social media" thing, bouncing around here and there, trying to cover some bases and make connections.

I got a new cell phone and have been having a time with the learning curve of going from my dinosaur Motorola Cadbury that I could only call and text on, to an Android phone and though I like it, I'm still a bit perturbed and displeased with some of the specs of the one I got. Why? Because the internal memory is not large enough to handle the workload of the calling plan it goes with. That just doesn't make sense to me. Don't offer a phone with a tiny internal storage if it's meant to handle a LOT of data, like the Google Play store and all the apps that are out there, especially if none of the ones pre-built in can be saved to the SD card and any tiny update to anything causes "Low Storage Space" notifications CONSTANTLY! And it tries to update all those apps as soon as I turn on my data. That's just stupid (or a genius marketing ploy to screw over the customer.)

The phone and plan should complement each other and be compatible...this DOES NOT. I can't update apps and I have a lot of "low storage space" issues to contend with if I try to, which sucks big toes, but it was the "only" phone they sell with the specific "unlimited talk, text & data" plan I went with. It'll do for now though, I suppose, as long as I don't hassle with it too much or slam it against the wall... (Yes, I was tempted within the first DAY of having it...but I'm restraining myself... Lord am I restraining myself!!!!)

I did sign up for Instagram though and found I can use it without it causing a lot of headache- it saved to my SD card! Whoo Hoo! So, you are more than welcome to come follow me there, where I'll just post random pictures of whatever suits my fancy or tickles my funny bone. Or inspires me, etc. I kinda like it.

Also been updating my website, and my FB Page - I have a few new tabs on my page. Besides Photos and Likes, I have my Twitter, Goodreads, and my Newsletter Sign-Up tied to it (If you haven't signed up I urge you to so you can stay in the know- I haven't sent out my first yet, but will soon!), and I JUST added a "My Books" Tab and the "Authorgraph" Tab and a "Pinterest" Tab, so you can easily access those things through there. I was going to do the Instagram one but it just doesn't work for some reason and I found a FAQ on their site that said it couldn't be connected to a FB Page currently through an Android, so that may be why.

I'm looking into added a Tab linked to my Website or maybe a few other of my Social Media connections, but that requires doing a FB Developers thing- I'm not sure or confident enough yet to try that, being I'm no computer whiz or graphic/web designer who's knowledgeable about HTML codes and things of that nature. I see that it implies it's simple to do, but still makes my stomach churn with anxiety that I might screw up my entire FB Page if I attempt it, so for now I'm leaving well enough alone.

It leaves me wondering, what other things readers like to find on Authors' FB Pages, so I'll leave you with a few questions today- feel free to leave me some ideas that might make my FB Page more interesting, that might draw attention and help my page gain more "Likes" and more visibility.

Do you keep up with what's going on via "Pages" you like? Are there Tabs or links or widgets that readers find helpful or that make them follow an author more closely? What are things that make you deeply invested in an author's Page enough to visit it regularly?

It's crossed my mind to look into finding a way to "Tab" link my blog there as well. Or Google+.

Let me know what you think. Would love the input!

Tuesdays with Taryn~ Spring Fever Like Molasses #writing #edits #distraction #life

Spring Fever is rolling through my veins like slow warm molasses as we stumble back and forth between cool weather that chills to the bone and humid days that are perfect for sitting on the bank fishing or sunbathing in the backyard.

It's loading my senses with inspiration and distraction and each force is vying for my attention which has made it hard for me to concentrate on one sole thing at a time. I don't feel like I'm multitasking as well as I used to- I originally started writing this blog a week ago and every day I'd come back and pull it up, alter the title to fit the day of the week and then get sidetracked before I could write another word. I'm really struggling to stay on track. I was also reading through Love By Change, the 2nd story in the Love By Series, but I've put it aside momentarily because I need to work on my craft.

Most recently I've been trying to improve it, by taking a fellow author's advice. I invested in The Anatomy of Story by John Truby.

I'll admit right now...I feel that I fail in this area where a lot of my fellow authors have taken time to study the craft of writing. My writing does not come from years of schooling, research or education. My need to write is simply drilled so deep into my heart that I do just that—write the stories that come to mind. I don't really know a lot about the craft of writing or how to build worlds because I'm such a pantser and I have never attended conferences or craft lectures. That leaves me with some disadvantages, like not having strong story arches and I tend to internalize a lot and I'm sure there are a lot of other things, but now it's time for me to build onto what foundation I already have.
 
I am only a few pages into Truby's book and have taken time to pause so I can work through my "wish list" and my "premise list." I'm not sure WHAT all to put on the wish list. I don't really want for a lot of material things and I'm not sure that's part of the list making or not, but I'm giving it my best shot.

It's also been a LOT harder to come up with that single sentence for each story than I thought, so I've spent the last several days chewing over how to write my premise for each and every story idea I've ever had or written or would like to write.

No small task, so I'm not very far into the exercise, but already I sense a shift in my way of thinking and awoke the other morning realizing that there might be a better way for Love By Design to start than what I have already. In fact, it could mean some major rewrites or rearranging of the current manuscript even though I thought I was nearly to the finish line and ready to self-pub it.

Now that I'm looking at it from this new angle, I'm not so sure. I want to be certain I put out the best possible book for you, the reader, so that it's worth your time and money and that means that I'm taking the time to sort things out and make sure I give you my best. Even it if means putting off the release a bit longer than I hoped to.

Sometimes you just got to know when to take a step back and do what you have to do, rather than what you WANT to do. You'll almost always end up with better results.

Have a fantastic Tuesday!

Writerly Wednesday~ Not in the Market for an Ulcer... #homesick

You know that scene in Something's Gotta Give when Erica is BAWLING while writing her screenplay, because Harry broke her heart— I wasn't technically "writing" the past few days, but while doing the read through edits for LOVE BY DESIGN, I have been overwrought with emotions.

I don't think my book is something to cry about, but I have been overly emotional since I've been back from visiting my family in my hometown. I catch myself sobbing at the drop of a hat, for no good reason. I don't know why, but this last trip in has been a kick in my heart and I can't seem to stop with the waterworks. It's horrible and I should be terribly ashamed of myself.

I guess the reason I'm not ashamed (too much) is because I haven't had a honest to goodness cleansing cry in, well, I can't remember. These tears just seem to pour forth, pausing occasionally, but in some ways it makes me feel like I'm having a panic attack or suffocating, and that's not a good thing. You would think as much as I've cried in the past two days, I'd be dried out, but it just keeps coming. Maybe something does have to give. Maybe I just need the release of pent up emotions. Severe homesickness after almost 12 years of living away from my hometown and family and my roots can still cut me to the core just as deeply as the first time I went up to stay for a few days after I moved away.

My husband scoffed when we were heading up because one of my best friends posted a comment on Facebook about the fact that I was "almost home" and I saw it on a text on my phone. I had to remind him that there's my "home" and then there's my "HOME" as in hometown where my roots run deep. Everything I am is built upon the 26 years of my life I lived there before I came here. I haven't been here but 12 and he can't expect me to now claim this place as my "hometown"---I might not EVER be able to say it and mean it because I love where I'm from. I asked him, if he would feel the same if we lived in my hometown but only visited here and he said that his "home" would be wherever I was...

Aww...sweet sentiment, but that's easy to say when you don't have to miss where you're from or not get to see your family & friends very often. My visits never last long enough and even when I stay for a couple weeks, it hurts to walk away. I guess it's because I get so little time with my parents, who are getting older, my sister and my friends, who I miss dreadfully. I never seem to be able to fit it all in and that just leaves me sad and melancholy when I return here- knowing I wasn't able to fit everyone in.

I've always been an emotional person though, so this should come as no surprise to me that I have a meltdown after being with family and friends for a week. Was watching an old episode of King of the Hill last night when Buckley broke up with Luanne and Uncle Hank's advice went a little something like this---

HANK: Luanne, sometimes life throws you a curve ball. Now there's two ways you can deal with it. You can cry -- and that's the path you've chosen -- or you can not cry.
LUANNE: How do you not cry?
HANK: Well, instead of letting it out, try holding it in. Every time you have a feeling, just stick it into a little pit inside your stomach and never let it out.
LUANNE (trying it): Are you supposed to have a pain under your rib?
HANK: Yes. That's natural. The body doesn't want to swallow its emotions. But now you go ahead and put that pain inside your stomach too.
LUANNE: I think it's workin', Uncle Hank. I feel sick, but not sad. 

Yep, that hit home with me and gave me a good chuckle. Don't think I'd hold in all these tears or emotions though if I could- I'm not in the market for an ulcer.

Tuesdays with Taryn~ Emotional Rollercoaster #amediting

I know I've been lax in posting a lot since 2013 began. It's just been an emotional roller-coaster for me- especially since I've been intent on self-publishing my contemporary romance LOVE BY DESIGN- the first of my four book Love By Series. There's been a lot of highs and lows though in my day to day life and my writing, as well as Mercury being in retrograde last month and a lot of other really lame excuses for why I can't seem to get my groove back.

Mentally I feel wiped clean of inspiration and determination to accomplish the goals I set for myself. Physically I'm doing better and have lost around 25 pounds while eating better and doing yoga and Everybody Dance exercise workouts and this past week, walking while I was visiting in my hometown. I'm 4 years a non-smoker, which still feels like a great accomplishment and all, but somewhere in my writing self, I feel like I'm lacking and self-doubt is strangling me just a bit. I'm digging the claws out, but there are still days when it takes all I have to focus and aim my attention in the right direction.

If things were always simple, life would be too easy, so I'm going to keep on keeping on and push through this- Chugging up the hills and screaming down the slopes. I'll get to the end of this crazy ride!

Have a wonderful Tuesday and thanks for stopping by to hang with me today!

Getting Back in the Groove...No Thanks to Mercury

Mercury is in Retrograde (February 23rd-March 17) and my household is surely feeling the effects of it. Little things going wrong, hubby had a sty in his eye last weekend, around the time Merc went Retro, or shortly thereafter. He treated it himself here at home with warm wash cloths and rubbing alcohol, but since then, he's started noticing symptoms of having another staph infection in his nose. He had one a couple years ago and the doctor warned him that once he'd had it, he would always be susceptible if his immune system was vulnerable. Well, with the eye issue and a cold and working some overtime, I guess he's gotten a bit rundown, so it's off to the doctor for him today—to get this cleared up and get him to feeling better.

I’m still working on edits to my manuscript for LOVE BY DESIGN, which seems to be taking longer than I had hoped and I’m not too thrilled about doing “revisions” during a retrograde, but I figure I was already working on them beforehand, so I should be okay.

I’m sort of feeling trapped outside myself though and wondering how I’m going to get this done and whether the minor changes I’m making aren’t actually major changes I should have left alone. Thank you again, Merc, for making me rethink & reassess what I’ve set out to do. You’re such a buddy…a super duper true pal!

I guess really I just need to purge the bad feelings from my mind onto the screen here…perhaps if I relinquish the hold it has on me, this niggling that I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, then I can let it go and come back to the manuscript with fresh eyes. I know I feel like I’m just chopping the story to bits and making it worse, but I know that’s not something that only plagues me.

I’m sure many writers feel that way when they’re “in process”- taking useful critique and trying to weave it into the story, hoping to build up the tension, tighten the sentences, tighten the story and plot line and polish it until it shines.

It’s hard to do when the story is complete and it’s not always as easy to go back in and squeeze in a puzzle piece into the jigsaw that wasn’t there before, but might need to be.

Makes me feel like my puzzle has bunched up on the tabletop though and will NOT lay flat to safe my life or the life of the story. Rework is an emotional thing for an author and there’s a lot of moments where you think—

“Yes, this is working great!”

OR

“Wait, this feels wrong!”

Of course, that leads me to wonder if sometimes it’s better to trust your own gut and stick with what you already knew, to the truth of how your story played out to begin with, rather than trying to make changes that might be unnecessary in the long run. I guess I’ll get it figured out. It’s just a matter of time and hopefully a few more swipes through the manuscript and perhaps after a few more eyes have seen it, maybe they can help me figure out if I reworked it enough, too much or if all I’ve done was for naught.

Maybe Mercury in Retro is trying to tell me something. I guess I shall have to wait and see.

#MemoryLane Monday- Yard Saling~ The Editing of Life

Recently my mom suggested that we might attempt having a yard sale at her house when I go up to visit during my kids' fall break from school, so this has become a distraction from my writerly business the past couple of days as I've sorted through the spare bedroom junk room for items to pack up. Mostly it's clothes my kids have outgrown and a few toys. I'm starting to think my parents need to make a trip down here to take it to their house, or I might have to borrow someone's truck or a small trailer. How did I accumulate SO much? And didn't I just go through a bunch of stuff not that long ago?

I don't think of myself as a pack rat or hoarder, but as kids grow, boy they run through clothes like nobody's business. Then I find myself with bags and boxes full of stuff no one in the house can wear, and yet it sits here because we never make an exerted effort to either sell it or give it away to some charitable organization.

I know there are other things in the basement I could probably pack up as well, old toys there, too, but the very idea sends me into a panic attack thinking about clawing my way through the mess down there, the possible bugs, spiders, maybe even a snake...ewww...See, I've nixed that thought already. I really need to hone my decluttering skills.

This got me to thinking about my childhood and how yard sales/garage sales were always an exciting shift in our normal routine. There was something almost medicinal and cathartic about packing up things that were no longer needed, removing that which doesn't belong anymore, or perhaps never did- it's quite a lot like editing- weeding through what isn't necessary or required in our lives, in our stories.

I remember the days leading up to a garage sale at our house. We had the luxury of walk-in basement back then (there's still a basement, but my dad has so much wood and tools and stuff in his workspace we can't use it), so we'd spend weeks going through the house, searching for items worth parting with- clothes, toys, appliances that still worked but were never used. There were loads of laundry to wash, labeling items with sale stickers, and as a kid it was pretty awesome when you could pretend you were a store owner and you'd have customers and get to work the cool calculator and maybe make a little "real" money, too. Of course, as soon as someone actually came into the basement, I'd hide because I was morbidly shy and scared to talk to people I didn't know! Ha!

Of course, looking back on it now, there were a lot of items, toys mostly, that I wish I hadn't sold so I could pass them on to my children, but that is life, isn't it? I'm lucky I did hang onto my baby dolls and Barbies for my daughter, but sometimes watching Toy Hunter makes me think-

"Oh, man! I had one of those! It's worth HOW much now? You've got to be kidding me... I sold mine in a yard sale...."

This will be good though- to shake out the cobwebs, declutter what I can at the moment and edit my way through another chapter in my life. Then I'll get back to writing! Yay!

Have a great Monday and don't forget about Tuesdays with Taryn. I have J.K. Miller II visiting tomorrow to answer a few questions and share about his book, Reborn.

WIPlash Wednesdays- Questions from Mary Ellen & Katie

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

~E.L. Doctorow~

Mary Ellen T.- Is your book about your life or someone you may know? I wonder how you can put everything together for a book.

Everything I write is fiction, so no, my book, nor any others I release, will be about my life or anyone I know. As a writer I know that parts of who I am, and those I love, are woven into the fabric of the story, but I never write myself or others intentionally. I do think it just comes with the territory that, as a writer, our stories are who we are, without ever meaning to be because they come from the heart of us.

(the 2nd half of Mary Ellen's comment also kind of blends into Katie's below)
Katie M.- Do your plots just come to you?

Putting together a story for me is rather free form. Sometimes plots come to me freely, spinning out off something I heard, saw or imagined. Some of those ideas percolate in my dreams, but being I'm a pantser (write by the seat of my pants), I don't plot or outline the stories in great detail.

In 2006, when I first started writing with the serious intentions of getting published, pretty much every story I had started with bare bones- character names, a general idea about what they do for a living, how they might get thrown together, what kind of conflict could exist between them and a tentative title.

All the stories I've written so far stem from those. In truth, I'm still working on writing all the ideas I already have jotted down and it hasn't been until more recently that several ideas sprung from the well I thought was dry. The only problem is that until I finish some of my others, the new ones have to be put on the back burner.

How did the new ones come to me? I fell asleep one night with all the thoughts racing in my mind and when I woke up they were still there, burning into my brain, so I wrote them down. Doesn't happen often, but I figured it was worth taking notes. Some have followed me to bed and taken their sweet time to congeal over long periods. The majority of them though, I wrote in a month, taking my cue from my participation in NaNoWriMo- conforming my writing patterns to nailing down the first rough draft within 30 days. I tend to produce a lot more when I work under such tight self-imposed deadlines.

How do you keep all the back stories straight?

Keeping the back stories straight is usually pretty easy. I don't outline, but I do usually keep a list of all characters, main and secondary, in a notebook wherein I also keep track of how scenes play out, how characters are connected (family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances- I've even jotted a sketchy-at-best family tree, just to make sense of how many siblings there are), how long the chapters run, and make notes of things to come as I'm writing or even research I've done online for certain things like preparation of certain meals or dishes or decorating jargon, rodeo information, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater, or when the match came into existence, etc.

For Castaway Hearts, I was halfway through the story when I wondered if matches even existed in the late 1700s. A quick search on Bing found my answer.

Friction matches, were first invented by an English chemist in 1826, so no, my character couldn't light pipe tobacco from a match. So what did they do to start a fire? Before friction matches, also known as lucifer matches, men lit their pipes with a paper spill or carried a tinderbox with them for lighting their tobacco. This was a much more time consuming habit, but I knew I had a few places in the story where I needed to remove the match lighting and give a little insight into what would have been the norm in that bygone time.

Story timelines, most especially for those that play out in chronological order are definitely something I need to police myself over a little more. I realized at the end of January while reading through to finish my current WIP, that a secondary character, who was pregnant in a previous book, would have been due in March, but when the WIP started, it was already May, but she was due anytime...I kept thinking, wait...2 months OVERDUE? That's just not possible! And so I had to fix it. And then there's the whole, "did that couple get married in the last book, or are they getting married in this one?"

It's a juggling act, to say the least, but something I enjoy tremendously.

Thanks for the questions ladies! Tune in next week for a question from Joey R.

Feel free to leave me more questions in the comments here at anytime.
I'll be happy to answer them.

Happy Hump Day! I can see the weekend from here!

WIPlash Wednesdays-Question from Marlo

WIPlash....it's what I get when I work with on my current novel(s)-

Unlike the real word "whiplash"- I'm putting a new spin on it.

WIP= Work In Progress Lash- the flexible part of a "WIP"

Wednesdays are also flexible. They're not quite so stressful as Monday, but not nearly as exciting or as looked forward to as Friday and the weekend. It's a nice little in-between to take inventory of where you've been and where you're heading.

WIPlash Wednesdays will be that place for me in my writing. It will be a day to take inventory of what I've done on my current manuscript, whether it be writing, editing, or whatnot. It will also be a nice place to just answer questions from friends and family about my life "as a writer." Questions that other writers also get from family and friends or curious strangers and their readers. Eventually I'll probably pool all the questions and my answers into a FAQs section on my website, but for now, I'll just be flexible and go with the flow.

Hopefully soon though, I'll be adding word count to my meter again(I added 3,046 new words to my WIP just the other night), working through various manuscripts, and talking again about the thrill and excitement of creating, of actually getting words on paper (or on screen, as the case may be.) I have more stories to tell and many miles to go before I sleep.

Today's WIPlash will include a question from one of my friends on FB. Of course, as my fellow writers can attest, these questions remain the same, but the answers are usually as personal and as individual as the writer who answers it and those answers vary tremendously among all of us in the writing industry.

Here's my take on one question. I think I'm going to get long winded on this question, so bare with me. Other questions will follow on other WIPlash Wednesdays in the coming weeks.

From Marlo- I've always wondered how writers come up with their characters.

My characters come to me in a variety of ways.

Catherine, from Castaway Hearts, came to me via, of all things, a Myspace background in 2006, which I'll touch more on when I post my blog in a few weeks that introduces her. (not sure who this image actually belongs to, but this is where Catherine really started to come to life in my mind)
See, though the story came to me via this "black & blue" image, Catherine Barrett had actually existed on paper since I was a teenager. I wrote what I considered the introductory couple of pages—just one sheet, front and back, but I never got any farther than her stepping up the planks of her grandfather's ship. I knew the story was historical, I knew she was going to sail away to a new world she was not accustomed to, but I hadn't yet dreamed what that story would possibly be. The image above helped bring Catherine from my past to the present. It haunted me as I'd lay down to go to sleep at night. This girl was so forlorn, so heartbroken and I knew the ghostly ship meant something, but what?

But what of all the other characters? Some were born when I gave them names, and their personalities bloomed from there. Literally. Others, names just came to me and I just already knew what kind of person they were and still others, a name has come to me, but they are playing coy and keeping their secrets about themselves a mystery for now.

In my Love By series, the four sisters originally started out as individual book ideas, single titles. There wasn't going to be a series, but their names all seemed "flowery" and this formed a synapse in my brain that said they HAVE to go together, those characters are SISTERS!

Some authors name characters and give them characteristics based on their names, the origins of the names, based on the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of their characters but I go on gut instinct a lot in choosing names. The wrong name can make or break the character, or do little more than create a block when it comes to writing them as they should be. The right name that suits a character feels like it fits them like a second skin, blends with who they are and makes writing and reading them a pleasure.

Tune in next Wednesday for more and questions from Mary Ellen & Katie!

Feel free to leave me more questions in the comments here at anytime.
I'll be happy to answer them.

Happy Hump Day! I can see the weekend from here!

Come Sail Away With Me

Edits for Castaway Hearts are nearly done. Editor and I did an editing chat yesterday to tie up a few minor details and agreed that we'll now set it aside for a 2-week breathing period and not look at it at all in that time. Then we'll do another read through, fix any smudges and then, fingers crossed, it is off to become a galley! After that, the release won't be long behind. I know I should be looking forward to Christmas, New Year's, my birthday in February, etc, but I'm already looking forward to Spring and the release!

I'm getting eager to see and share my cover art with you. I will as soon as I receive it and have the go ahead to share. Hehehe! I also need to prep a small "dedication" for the book, too. That is proving harder than I imagined! LOL I'm not going to list everyone I have ever known, but I want to make sure I include who and what I feel are the most pertinent for me on a very personal level.


Right now, I have time on my hands, but that time will not go unused. This coming Monday, I have an appointment for tooth extractions. Not looking forward to it, but I'd rather have them out than have to continue with the pain, headaches and misery I've dealt with for the past 7 months or so.

In that downtime while my gums heal, I plan to take it easy. I'm going to imagine the tropical view above and pretend I'm there, the roar of the surf at the edge of the sand, the warm sunlight coaxing me into a nap in the shade of an umbrella while seagulls caw off in the distance of that clear blue sky, a book in one hand and a Mojito in the other.

Meanwhile, back in reality, I'll just settle in on the couch and use my time to read a few books and maybe tackle filling out my Christmas cards and envelopes and look forward to being able to EAT at Thanksgiving! LOL Once I feel like being on the computer, I'll probably dig into other manuscript edits or work on the WIP. Have a great one!

Have a wonderful Hump Day!

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
~Dylan Thomas

Fall is still having it out with Summer, vying for whose turn it is to shine. We've had some mornings where it's freezing when I put my children on the bus, but by afternoon, they've shed jackets for temperatures in the 70s and 80s and come running into the house squawking about how "hot" it is.

I crank up the heaters when I roll out of bed and by midday, I'm sweating bullets and turning them all down, if not off. By next morning, I'm cold all over again and adding socks to my wardrobe, even if I'm planning to be in the house all day.

There's a blanket of golden orange and russet on my lawn. The trees stand proud in their state of undress and until Wednesday, these roses (pictured above) were weathering the temperature spikes with the stubbornness of a mule- determined to show off their pretty dressings just one more time before Fall and Winter put them to sleep for months. Not even the frost deterred them or killed their will to survive. Nope...

Dressed in satiny soft petals, they shivered on those freezing mornings, raging against the dying of the light, indeed! I finally decided if they were that determined, I would rescue them. Safe in a vase, nestled together, their skirts are blossoming and they will finish their dance, at least for this story.

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It's been a while, I know. Since the last blog post I've been busy. I received my first round of edits, and there were quite a few things to work on. The great thing about writing- I'm constantly learning about myself as a writer, about my strengths and weaknesses and learning how to build and mold them to my advantage. It takes perseverance and determination in this business, much like my roses striving to bloom amidst bitterly cold temperatures. I'm dressed in MY strong will and thick skin, baring my soul in the written word rather than the freezing cold, but just the same, I'll do so with stubborn determination to get my dance in. Others must examine and pick the bones, help remove what doesn't work and sometimes you have to build new foundations and add support beams to help smooth it into a work of art that can stand on its own. So far, so good. I have a wonderful editor who is helping make it the best it can be.

So, I spent my time taking care of that through the end of October and got it back to my editor. I still keep thinking about NaNo, but instead of worrying about it, I'm giving myself permission to be okay with the fact that I'm not participating this year so I can concentrate on more important things. Yesterday I decided that in the "between time" of edits, I'm going to pull the unfinished WIP forward and work on it to get it closer to being done.

Then, perhaps I'll give myself a month, my own personal NaNo, sometime after the beginning of 2012 to write the 4th and final in that series. I'm not sure what the next project will be after that, though I know I'll have a lot of work ahead of me when it is time to start promoting Castaway Hearts next spring.

Looks like it's going to be busy from here on in, as this tends to be the busiest part of the year anyway, what with decorating and cooking and family gatherings for the holidays. I can't wait. I have so much to look forward to, I've got the tingles.

Happy Friday!
Write On!

A Plethora of Things (cross-post from myspace)

Today, 5 years ago, I had my daughter. Of course, five years ago it was a Friday the 13th, but there she was. The light of my life- a piece of me that will live on. Tonight we'll be doing her birthday "party" like we did for Chris a couple of days ago. Grandparents, presents and ice cream cake.

In other news~ I'm officially a member of RWA and KYRW. We also now have a myspace profile for KYRW. See link below.

Kentucky Romance Writers Myspace

I'm still taking in being a member, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but still tickled to be a part of it and have had quite the warm welcome from other members.

Yesterday was the first time in a while that I was able to concentrate my current WIP, 4 that I started during NaNo. I went through about 140 pages..possibly more. I lost track. Right now I'm mostly correcting misplaced words or adding or deleting where I saw editorial mistakes and just trying to get my head back in the story so that I can move forward with finishing it.

I would like to at least get this draft done before the year is over. Not sure whether I can manage that with the holidays coming up, but I'm sure going to work my hardest to complete it. Then it's back to editing and such on all 4 novels after the beginning of the year to polish till they shine and I feel ready to try submitting.

I'll admit, it makes me nervous as can be to imagine doing so. I just hope that I'm also well prepared for a lot of rejections. LOL I like my writing-most the time, but I'm not foolhardy enough to believe I'll be picked up directly.

So...I am off to cross-post this to my other two blogs so I can cut my time online today and get back to doing more editing on my novel. Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday!

Got my NaNo shirt last Thursday. It's COMFY! Soft cotton and comfortable. I'll enjoy writing in it along with wearing the shirt I got last year.

I actually have been working on revisions on last year's Nanovel this past weekend. I've gone from around 80k to almost 83k. That was just from adding some of the scenes I felt were necessary from the main female character's POV.

She was lacking- a flat character who I wasn't sure held up her end of the bargain on being the woman a reader would WANT and HOPE the main male character would end up. So I'm giving her depth and even found a friend for her that I didn't know existed. When I originally wrote the story, I had written it strictly from the male M/C's POV, but after having reviewed it a bit, thought back on how things play out and had time to think about it long and hard because I knew something was missing, it hit me one day that she wasn't nearly as deserving of the role I gave her in his life unless I wrote more of her side too.

I've also discovered just how LONG my chapters ended up being. There were only 13 chapters when I finished. Several chapters ran very long, without scene breaks where they should be, so that's been part of my revision plans...breaking them up where they need to be broken down. Changing my sentences to flow more smoothly, adding here, extracting there. I feel like a surgeon. LOL

So now I'm off to work on that some more- Operation: Polish This Novel!

Have a great Monday!