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Archive for September, 2007

Easy Habit to Break

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

One of the things that continually amazes me is how writing works best when it’s a habit. Most of the time that isn’t a problem–I always seem to be writing something–but I’ve finally had a nice long break and guess what? I’m out of practice. Synopsis writing doesn’t count because that’s a lot more left-brained than right, so I haven’t done any new writing since I turned in my revisions July 1 for In Twilight’s Shadow. I’m really feeling it now.

All I need is one scene, ten measly pages. Even at two pages a day (a mere 500 words), I should have it done in a week–easy. The damn thing is I’m struggling to get anything down on paper. Tuesday I managed 1 page. One! Most of it is the two month plus break from writing, but the other part is the year that this proposal has been sitting, waiting for me to have time to work on it again.

A year is a long time. It’s time for the characters to fade into the background as other characters have clamored for my attention. Time for me to forget what I wanted to do with this scene and why I thought the original version was good (it’s not!). So far, I tweaked the first 50 pages–easy. Then I tweaked and reworked portions of the synopsis. Not as easy as the first task, but not a killer either. These ten pages, though, are making me contemplate cleaning my house. Now that’s bad!

So the h/h have just arrived at this party–that’s the beginning of the scene. I know how it ends. The problem is everything in between. Chapter goals remain vague. I’m becoming frustrated with myself. I think I’m going to need to join my chapter’s Club 100 writing loop and give myself permission to write crap. I hate that. I like to write close to finished the first time–this is why I’m such a slow writer.

Anyway, the fight continues today. Anyone have a sure-fire way on how to get my head back into a story I haven’t touched for a year? Especially when I haven’t done any story writing in 2.5 months?

Tags: characters, writing
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The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

A spider story. I loathe spiders–there aren’t words to describe how much. I bought a bug vacuum a few years ago primarily because of spiders (they don’t suck up box elder bugs, anyway) and I just want all spiders to stay far, far away from me and my house.

With that as a prelude, imagine my pleasure to open the door into the garage Monday morning on my way to work just in time to watch a spider rappel from the top of the door frame. Of course, I was running late for the Evil Day Job (EDJ)–I always am–and he comes to a stop about 8 inches from the ground. I didn’t have time to wait, so I brought my foot up and tried to drive him to the floor. I thought I had him, but I couldn’t find a body. I checked my pants and my shoes, but I didn’t see anything. Another check of the floor, but still no victim. I didn’t have time to look any more and I hustled out the door.

And I spent the entire drive to work feeling creeping sensations on my legs. I kept reaching down and brushing at them, worried that the damn spider was crawling on me. I did a more thorough search of my clothing when I reached work, but all was clear, and when I got home from the EDJ yesterday afternoon, I examined the floor more carefully–even shaking the rug. No spider. So where the hell is he?

Writing didn’t go real well yesterday. I read through the scene that I want to replace and cringed at how bad it was. I can’t believe it took this long for me to see all the problems. I didn’t have an immediate idea on how to fix it, so I worked on scene goals last night. The list isn’t finished yet–I need to think on it some more–but I do have a better grip on my h/h and how they’d really be behaving as opposed to what I wrote. I hope to get some more thinking in today, and with luck, some writing done during lunch.

Tags: annoyances, characters, spiders, writing
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Adventures In the Dark

Monday, September 17th, 2007

I was sitting in my great room minding my own business the other night, when I heard this noise. At first, I thought my dad had come over even though I’d said not to bother, because it sounded like he was putting the key in the lock. Only the door didn’t open. It unnerved me thinking someone was out there trying to get in, so I did what any author who writes kick-butt heroines would do–I turned on the porch light from inside the laundry room and called my dad.

Yes, he came over and checked it out for me. The only sign of something wrong was the small rabbit on the edge of the porch. It didn’t move when my dad was out there or while we were discussing it. I thought it was dead, but it wasn’t because it disappeared while my dad was going to the garage to get something to pick it up with.

After he walked around the house to make sure no one was lurking, we discussed the noise. We’re guessing that some kind of night predator was after the rabbit, it raced onto my porch and they tangled there. Then I flipped on the light, scared the predator away, and the rabbit was too stunned to move for a while. Or maybe too injured, although there wasn’t any blood on the concrete. I need to remember this the next time I complain about how boring my life is. Boring is good.

Sunday night I watched Design Star on HGTV. They were announcing the winner. I didn’t vote online, although I did actually see the final design challenge the Sunday previous. The problem was I couldn’t choose between Todd and Kim–I love them both! I became a huge Todd fan when I saw his room with the giant wave and the smashed up furniture and Kim is so likable, comes across as genuine and she did the best design in Hawaii for the final challenge. I was torn, wanting both of them to win. I guessed I’d be happy and disappointed no matter which one came out on top, and sure enough, I was. BTW, the winner was Kim.

I think I have the synopsis finished for my next proposal, now I just need to rewrite one scene (I scrapped the old version entirely), polish that new scene up, and it should be ready to go back to my agent. Of course, I haven’t written new stuff for a while, so buckling down and producing keepable work–especially on a story that’s basically been sitting for a year–is not going to be easy.

Tags: adventures, design, rabbit, TV
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Next!

Friday, September 14th, 2007

Yesterday, I managed to finish one of the big items on my To Do List. With that taken care of, I moved on to editing one of my proposals. This is one that’s been back and forth to my agent a few times now and has been revised a lot. It’s a stronger story now, I think, but I’m starting to get a little tired of it. The first 50 pages, though, are ready to go now, but I have one more scene and a synopsis to go through.

That scene, well, it’s wrong. I think. I haven’t read it in a year, so I’m going by memory, but I think I’m going to throw out the whole thing and start over. I think I’ll keep the same setting and the same end to the chapter, but I don’t know about the rest of it.

You see, the idea is to change it from the hero’s story to the heroine’s. If y’all have read Through a Crimson Veil, you’ll notice that it’s Conor’s story told primarily from Mika’s Point of View (POV). That’s what I’m trying to shift to in this story and it hasn’t been easy. There are two scenes in the first 50 pages from the hero’s POV, and I wasn’t able to transition either one of them to the heroine’s despite weeks of trying. Since their POV is split about 50/50, the problem isn’t the heroine’s screen time (so to speak), but that the hero has the stronger personality.

I’ve considered that, too and part of it is that she’s a chameleon, an observer. She wants to be low key. That means that the hero is the one that stands out more. I can’t change her personality, that’s not how my characters work with me, but I thought I could give her a scene from her POV that makes her take center stage. That’s why I want to rewrite this final scene in the proposal because she’s still in the role of observer. Might have to shake her up a little–whether she likes it or not.

Tags: writing
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Look What "Cereal Killer" Started

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

This morning shortly after I arrived at work, someone joked about another person being a “cereal killer.” I could only roll my eyes. It was funny when Susan Elizabeth Phillips used it in Nobody’s Baby But Mine, but that was ten years ago. Now, it’s so old, all you can do is roll your eyes.

I started thinking, though, when did the SEP book come out? Has it really been 10 years? That just doesn’t seem possible. Nobody’s Baby is the book that made SEP a must-buy author for me and it’s still my favorite of her titles. So, wanting to check out just how old the “cereal killer” humor was, I popped over to Amazon and I was right–the book’s been out for ten years.

But what really amazed me was that there were people who didn’t like this book. Oh, I know that there’s no way everyone in the world is going to love the same things, but this is Nobody’s Baby! I checked out a couple of these low-rated reviews and I had to wonder if they’d read the same book I had. Wow.

I was introduced to SEP at a conference a few years ago and I probably came off as a complete idiot because I had no clue what to say to her. Okay, yeah, I’m shy so I usually have trouble meeting people, but this was worse because this was SEP! I was so tongue-tied, I don’t think I even managed to tell her how much I loved her books. Probably, though, I would have looked even more idiotic if I’d started gushing because I never do that well.

Now I’m thinking, I should reread Nobody’s Baby But Mine and then after that I could reread Susan Andersen’s Head Over Heels, another favorite book of mine and one that I read over and over on my last real vacation (Jan 2002, right before I sold my first book). Of course, I don’t know when I’d squeeze the rereads in, but it’s oh, so tempting.

Anyone else have any favorite books that you love so much, you can’t understand how come everyone doesn’t love them? Seriously, I do know we all don’t have the same taste in books, but is there one book where most people agree?

Tags: books, reading
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Mission: Impossible

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Yesterday I was on a mission. I wanted to be able to share files and printers between my laptop and my desktop and I’d sought out–and found–instructions. I was getting this setup accomplished!

The first hour passed in a blink. I didn’t get anything to work yet, but I felt as if I’d made progress even if I was running back and forth between my great room and my office to do things on the two different computers. The frustration level was low at this point and victory seemed close at hand.

Hour two brought my first win–I managed to get the desktop to read files on the laptop! Hurrah! The second hour passed in a blink, too, and I had a ton of stuff to do that didn’t involve the computer, but hey, I was halfway there and it would only take a couple more minutes to get the laptop to read the desktop–I was certain of that–and most importantly to be able to print to the laser.

Hour three saw my frustration level growing. I was resorting to online searches to figure out why every time I tried to access the desktop, I received an “access denied” error. My problem was bigger than I thought because there was a time out when the laptop tried to ping the desktop. The router pinged and I could ping the laptop from the desktop. I managed to get this fixed. Now everyone can ping everything else. Surely, I must be thisclose to being able to print from my laptop.

Hour Four. Frustration level is soaring off the charts. Online searches are turning up instructions that say go to programs–>adminstrative tools–>security options and I DON’T HAVE SECURITY OPTIONS AS A CHOICE! I try to find more instructions. Nothing helps. I’ve since moved the laptop on the desk next to the other computer so I can search on one while I tinker with the desktop, but even this doesn’t help.

Time wasted: 4 hours
Other priorities/obligations completed: 0
Final result: Still can’t print from laptop and access to the desktop is still denied.

I went to bed.

Tags: computer
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The Flower Pushers

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

When I ordered my flower bulbs last week, I signed up for some email newsletters from a couple of nurseries as well. I’m not exactly a master gardener and I figured that I could use some of the information they’d pass along, and hey, finding out about deals beforehand would be cool.

I didn’t realize that I’d opened myself up to the flower pushers! Take this morning for example. I have an email offering me two dahlias–huge ones–for free if I bought a dahlia collection. Free flower bulbs. The temptation rose. So what if I don’t have room for the flowers I already have on the way? You can never have too much life and color in the yard, right?

The only thing that saved me is that the bulbs have to be lifted for the winter and there’s no way I’m doing that.

I can so, though, that if I’m continually tempted this way, it’s going to be a problem. I mean sooner or later they’re going to try to push bulbs that I can leave in the ground through a Minnesota a winter, and then what? Can I hold out against the lure?

Yes, I have considered unsubscribing from the emails, but I’m not ready to do that just yet. I’m betting that when winter rolls around, I’m going to love reading about flowers and seeing the bright, happy pictures will help relieve the cabin fever. I guess I’ll have to see how well I do saying no.

Tags: garden, plants
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The Guilt Monster

Monday, September 10th, 2007

So it was an interesting weekend–I guess. On Saturday I went to my chapter meeting and was asked to run for VP of Communications. To say I was surprised would be understating the matter. After thinking about it overnight, I said no and now I’m feeling hugely guilty.

The thing is I don’t know how I could handle it. I know other published authors who work full time have, but I don’t think I’d do half as well as they have. For one, I’m a slow writer and it takes me forever to get a book written. For another, I’m disorganized. I didn’t used to be that way, once, many moons ago, I was overly organized. I don’t know when I lost that and I don’t know how to reclaim it. The final factor is that when I become overwhelmed, I get paralyzed. Literally, the only way I can function is to write a To Do List and focus on what I have to do that day.

Heck, when I’m pushing on a deadline, I might go three or four months without even attending a chapter meeting. I don’t think board members can do that. And I keep thinking what would I do if some crisis hit in the final month before a deadline? Besides, would it be fair to the other members of the board? They handle other stuff, too, chair committees and what not. I couldn’t do any of that, which would put a bigger burden on them.

I still feel guilty and I’m trying to convince myself not to feel that way. :-/

In other news, I saw the tail end of a show on The History Channel that was way cool! Something about the Bermuda Triangle being on the exact opposite side of the globe from the Dragon’s Triangle. I missed most of the show and I’m sorry for that, but I didn’t think there’d be anything interesting. I mean how many times can anyone hear about the missing training flight from Ft. Lauderdale? Besides, I haven’t had a huge interest in the triangle since my days in grade school.

But they had some new stuff they shared and it was the kind of thing that had me thinking: I have got to use this in a book. Somehow.

Maybe the ever-cooperative Ethan can deal with this in his story. (EG)

Tags: ideas, life
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What’s In a Name?

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

My hero without a name finally coughed up the information. It took a threat, though, on my part to get the information. I told him if he didn’t share what his name was that I was calling him Immanuel, and since his last name is Kent, that would have made him Immanuel Kent, like the philosopher Immanuel Kant. My would-be hero was not amused, but I was. I told him if he didn’t provide a name, I’d pick one for him and I liked the humor. It’s amazing how quickly he came through then. I even got the last name of his best buddy. Sometimes threats work.

His name is Ethan. The jerk had me looking in the R’s when I was searching the baby name books. I can see already how much fun he’s going to be to work with. Gah!

Tags: characters, names
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Hall Monitor

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

I know most people who visit the blog don’t comment, but for those that do, you’ll notice that I’ve switched comments to moderated status. Some spammer has apparently figured out a way around the verification system that keeps them from posting crap. I happened to be online the two times the spam comments were made and deleted them quickly, but
that might not always be the case. I thought about turning off anonymous comments to foil them, but I didn’t want to force anyone to register with Blogger who didn’t want to do that. So best I could come up with was to moderate what gets posted. With a little luck, the Blogger experts will come up with a brilliant idea to solve this and I can turn moderation off again.

I managed to squeeze in reading most of In the Midnight Hour. I always like to read my books when they come out because usually by this point, it’s like someone else wrote it. Found a couple of things that made me nuts. Like the missing word. Sigh. I read the galleys twice, my mom read the galleys twice, and a proofreader for the publisher read through them and none of us saw that. I checked my copy to see if it has somehow magically disappeared between galley and book, but no. We just all missed it.

Then there’s the thing that’s making me nuts every time I think about it. In a scene in chapter 5, I talk about the heroine using “keyless entry” to get in her SUV. In the book, it’s “keys entry.” WTF? So I looked that up in my copy of the galley, too, thinking there was no way I’d miss that, and I was right, it was keyless entry in there, so who the heck changed it? Now the sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Argh!

Despite having no sleep for 4 nights, I still couldn’t fall asleep last night. That’s so frustrating! As soon as I tried to go to bed, though, my brain started whirling and for some reason, it suddenly became imperative that I know the first name of this character that’s hanging out in my head. I got up three different times to search through the baby name books. I still don’t have his given name, but I did finally fall asleep. I think it was self-defense.

I would have liked to lounge in bed longer, but today is my local chapter meeting and I like going to those when I don’t have a book due. The speaker today is Echo Bodine who’s a psychic, ghostbuster and healer. I took a psychic development class from her a while back and she’s a really interesting speaker. Plus, I think this idea that involves the hero with no first name is going to have psychic stuff going on so a refresher wouldn’t hurt. I suppose I better round up a pen and a pad of paper before I go.

Tags: blogger, characters, sleep
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