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!

#Journey to #Publication & #Spotlight on @DevonMatthews_ #Blog #Excerpt #Readers

My journey to publication has really been a long time coming, at least in my mind. I've known I wanted to write since I was a child, but it wasn't until 2006, with my stepson already in school and my daughter soon to be heading that way, I knew the time I spent as a stay-at-home-mom was going to open up and that besides housework, I would have time for other things.

Something I hadn't spent much time doing since I'd moved in 2001, gotten married and had my daughter, was write. I thought about it constantly but kept believing, with the self-doubt I'd carried most my life, that I probably couldn't accomplish it. I knew there was a partially finished novel tucked away in my closet or a drawer somewhere, and several other novel "ideas" scribbled and scratched out in notebooks and on scraps of paper, but there was no encouragement nearby to say, "You should definitely take your writing back up."

And then I got a friend request from an old schoolmate and therein came the encouragement, so I really started digging in to the unfinished manuscript and in a fit of frenzy, I finally put the finish on a nearly 10-year-old project. It had been hard to give birth to because some of the situations in the novel hit so close to home for me personally, but I did it. To that friend, and my mom, I'm forever grateful for your encouragement. You will NEVER know how much!

But just like getting my first tattoo, finishing that first manuscript was addictive. It bolstered me, lifted me up- I was hooked on that feeling of self-satisfaction of creating something and finishing it. Of course, that manuscript might never see the light of day- or I might someday polish it up and publish it, but it was with great enthusiasm and confidence from completing that 1st one, that I dove headfirst in and started writing with serious intentions and with a sense of pride I hadn't felt before. I'm working on my 11th manuscript at the moment and hoping I finally found my mojo again because for a while, I think I'd lost heart. The burnout nearly wiped out my desire to write, but I'm getting it back, bit by bit... (bird by bird)

Castaway Hearts is actually the 3rd novel I wrote, over the summer of 2007, between a computer crash and the relief when those files I hadn't backed up were recovered before the hard drive was trashed completely. So that gives me even more joy to be able to share this story with you, the public. It was saved from oblivion, once upon a time.

And so, today I'd love it if you would swing by and join me at
Western Historical Romance Author Devon Matthews' Blog
where she's honoring me with an author spotlight and I'm sharing another excerpt from the now available Castaway Hearts.