Darn you NaBloWriMo…

I was going to blow off posting today. It’s been a long week. Veterans day the kid was home. He ended up getting sick so he stayed home today and now, since he is still sporting a low-grade fever no school tomorrow.

The problem with my 5 year-old son is he is full of energy. I think once, maybe twice he has been so sick he sat on the couch quietly and watched TV. Otherwise he is ready to run around, chase the dog, ride his bike etc. But he can’t because it makes him cough. He is cranky from being sick so it usually ends up with me screaming “Stop running” by the end of the day and him screaming back, “No”- it’s exhausting for both of us.

I remember after he had his tonsils out they told me he would be out of it for the rest of the day and to keep him quiet. HA! He woke up an hour after he got home and literally (yes, I mean the correct usage of literally) jumped off the couch and ran to the freezer for popsicles. He ate one after enough and we spent the rest of the time trying to get him to stop running.

So not much of a post today. sorry. I need to conserve my energy for tomorrow.

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you to all who served and those who stay behind…

People who serve in the armed forces deserve respect and thanks.  I want to say thank you for your sacrifices for our country.

But I also want to thank a big group that is usually forgotten in the pomp and circumstance surrounding Veterans Day.

Thank you to the family members left behind. It is a horrible thing to watch your loved one go off to serve. Even if there isn’t a war, being a military family means knowing at any moment, your loved one can get called away.

I was a Marine wife during Desert Storm. My husband (ex now) didn’t have to go- but for a month we were told every day, tomorrow you are probably shipping out, be prepared. There were many tearful nights and mornings watching him go to work wondering if today was the day. It’s a hard life.

Thank you for your sacrifices military families for giving up anniversaries, birthdays and holidays while worrying about the one you love being in harms way. You are the unsung heroes that enable our military to go and do the job which keeps us safe.

An editing trick

I finished editing the first 30 pages or so of the book last night. whew. Let me tell you, editing isn’t as much fun as writing. However it is satisfying to know these 30 pages of the novel are so much better than they were before.

I tired a new editing trick I learned about on Twitter from another writer. I recorded myself reading the first two chapters then played them back. Anything I stumbled on or didn’t sound right I changed. It really helped catch awkward phrases.

There are free programs you can get online that will read back to you. I downloaded Natural Reader and will use that to read chapters as well, however you lose the natural inflection you get when you read it yourself.

So what editing tricks do you have?

Visions of query letters danced in my head…

I planned on getting out of the house today. I was going to go to a coffee shop and work. I need to get out of the house because I am turning into a hermit.

Instead I ended up not sleeping very well last night. I was dreaming I sent off query letters for the novel and before I got the responses back my son woke me up. GAH!

So I ended up coming home after dropping him off for school and sneaking back into bed for a nap and hopefully a continuation of my dream. Alas, much like the dream I had with LL Cool J, I couldn’t get it back. darn it. I wanted this one much more than the LL dream too. but shhhhh, don’t tell him I said so.

It’s okay. I think it means I am getting so much closer to sending them out. I read the query letter again last night and liked it. So I am letting it stew for a few more weeks, then whipping it out to see if I still like it.

Don’t worry. I won’t send it out until the book is complete. But it will be nice to know that part is finished- then I can work on the dreaded synopsis. gulp.

Conflict, too much or not enough?

I was reading a third book of a series yesterday. It had been a while since I had read the first two books. Yes, the book explained a little about what happened in the first two, but there were some parts I was totally lost. The book had way too much conflict to follow along. There was the main conflict which was needed for the story, then there was also other problems that needed solving and worries leftover from the other two books.

It made it really hard to follow. Yes the book mentioned that the character had faced the twinkie demon in the first book and defeated it by joining the ho-ho alliance and becoming the leaders mate. (yeah, I totally made that up).  But then it went into the complications from that because it upset the pretzel cartel who was lead by a sister to the character. It spiraled down from there to where it distracted me from the main conflict of fighting the Krispy Kreme cult. It was way too much conflict to digest. (get it? digest. I kill me.)

On the other hand, not having enough conflict isn’t much of a story. It’s like watching a reality show with one average person going about their daily lives.  Boring. Why would you want to read about it if you can look around in your daily life and see the same thing?

How does this relate to me and editing my novel for publication?

I am working on my query letter to hopefully snag an agent as I edit the book. This has me struggling with putting enough conflict in the query but not too much that it is too hard to follow. Yes, I am putting in the main problem… Karie needs to get her body back or she will die. (If you haven’t read my teaser about the book, please check it out here. ) But while resolving that conflict she uncovers an even bigger problem. Along the way her allies have conflicts they need to deal with also.

Which ones do I mention? Which do I leave out? Also, I can’t mention all the characters. But boy I feel like I am picking favorites when I decide who goes into the query letter. But pick I must.

I am constantly learning- constantly trying to improve my craft. I hope this never changes. After reading this book-which is a successful urban fantasy series- I learned not to make conflicts too complicated and abundant that they overshadow the plot of the book.

I also learned not to write blog posts when I am hungry or I make a lot of junk food references. The digest thing still cracks me up though.

Yard sale day, ugh.

Man, yard sales aren’t anywhere near as much fun on the other side of the fence. Woke up at 6 AM and sold until 2:30 PM. We did really well though with only a handful of items that didn’t sell. I am confident I can sell them on CraigsList.net though.

No writing or editing done today though. I have big plans on showering (hot out there today in AZ) then napping. There is a little fair going on at one of the schools here so we are taking the kid later. After all that I plan on writing and editing. Yeah, I know. Isn’t looking good.

But sometimes, you need to forget the book and enjoy time with the family. Happy Saturday all!

Information overload…

I have been reading every agent blog I can find for months now. I have read and reread winning query letters. I am trying to be spongelike. In both ways- absorbing as much information as possible and SpongeBob like when he shouts, “I’m ready!”

My head is starting to spin from all the information out there. Do this, don’t do that, always do this, never do that– much of the information conflicts with other advice.

Waxman literary agency must have sensed my pain. This blog post made me want to shout, Hooray! 

So, I am taking a little break from research. I need to finish round two edits. When I am ready to submit, I will read and triple check submission guidelines for each agent I am going to send queries to along with brushing up on what each one wants. Courier Sans or Times New Roman – word count and genre at the start of the query or at the end- I shall be like Burger King. I shall make it their way.

Hopefully one or two will enjoy it enough to ask for more.

 

Making your stories jealous…

Ha! I did it. I started writing the other idea, the new shiny idea and it made my other story jealous. Last night before bed, during the time I am trying to turn off my thoughts, the original story reared it’s ugly head and started talking to me again.

I can see my main character who I am sorry to admit has not told me her name yet. She is a take no crap kind of girl. Badgering me to cut the crap and stop leaving her hanging there. What, do I think she has all day to wait for me to write about her? No, she doesn’t. She has a cheating boyfriend- soon to be ex to deal with along with some idiotic werewolves, a younger sister and some other surprises. She does not have time to wait for me to write another story. She needs my attention now!

See what I mean? Feisty chick, huh? So i am ready to give it. And maybe when I am struggling with plot issues with her, the other story will finally get jealous. That main character is totally different. A nice guy who tries to be polite until pushed too far. Oh yeah, I plan on pushing him way to far to see what happens.

This is so exciting. Sometimes I love having a ringside seat to inside my head. By the time I am done I will have two more novels complete.

I love being a writer- I can say I hear voices in my head and it is perfectly normal.

Let me ask you, do your characters talk to you in your head? Also, I would love to get some character names from you. I was thinking maybe Diana but it might be a bit overused. Suggestions?

follow up post

Okay I was going to leave a comment on my original post, but decided a follow up post would be better.

I didn’t listen to my own advice here about walking away from the conflict. Silly me. I heard about more accusations and I lost it. I allowed the negative to swallow me up and drain my energy. I let it suck me in.

Shows you that sometimes the hands type faster than the brain understands. My hands knew I should follow good advice- walk away but the brain was hard and didn’t.

But, after falling and getting a bloody nose I am learning this time.  I have learned my lesson and am walking away for good.  I have asked the friends who know about it to keep me out of the loop. Don’t want to know. Doesn’t matter.

So now I am off to meditate a little, maybe read a chapter of a book then get back to writing. See not once did I say I would turn to chocolate. Diet score!

Life gets in the way sometimes…

Writers will talk about being so busy they can’t find time to write. Sometimes, life gets in the way of writing. For me, the biggest obstacle to writing is the stress of living. Worry of money problems, conflicts with others, starting my low carb diet and worry over swine flu have all contributed to my stress levels this week. My response to stress is usually, eat, sleep or lose myself in a good book.

I can’t eat because of the diet and I am not really hungry. With the 5-year-old boy running around I can’t focus on my book so reading is out. So sleep it is and I have been sleeping. I napped yesterday from 4 to 5:30, woke up ate dinner then went back to bed.  That is a lot of sleep for a chronic insomniac. Did you notice what was missing from these activities. Yup. writing.

I didn’t write a word all day yesterday except my blog post. That is bad. So I am going to break down my stresses:

1. Money worries. Join the club right? I know this is a concern for almost everyone. I also know a great way to make these worries go away. Write. Writing articles will bring more money in so easy peasy solution. Get back to writing.

2. A conflict with others. sigh. This I don’t want to go into in a public way, but basically legitimate complaints were made about a project that is 7 months past due. These complaints were twisted into claims they were personal attacks. They were not. Feelings were hurt all around. It was draining and disappointing. Solution: walk away. At this point I give up. If the project happens, great if not. My life will go on. I will not give any more energy into it.

3. Low carb diet. Nope, not looking for people to tell me how bad it is etc. It has helped me in the past. Okay, so you might be asking, “if it helped you so much in the past why do you need it now?” A legitimate question. I went off the diet and then because of personal problems went the other direction. Ate whatever I wanted. So now, I am back in control. I know the yucky feeling will go away in another day or so. This is my body detoxing all the carbs I ate “one last time” on sunday. Pretty soon I will feel better and look better.

4. Swine Flu- H1N1 whatever you want to call it. This one I struggle with still. I have big issues with getting truthfully information. I know of one person who has died from getting sick and it was a friend of a friend on twitter. Heartbreaking to hear about a 27-year-old woman in Florida dying and leaving behind a husband and 7 month old child. My prayers are with that poor family. I also know of one person who had severe reactions to the vaccine- the pro cheerleader you may have seen news stories about. My prayers are with her and her family. Those are the only 2 cases I know of with extreme reactions currently.

I do know of several people who have had the illness or whose kids have had it and are fine. I worry over my 5-year-old son. I have decided not to get him the shot. But I worry. Being a writer, I can paint vivid pictures in my head. I stress over seeing him paralyzed for life from the shot. I stress over him getting sick and losing him. I hate this.

I don’t trust all the propoganda about the Swine flu/H1N1 because I know in AZ they are counting all flu cases as Swine flu confirmed or not. How can they do that? It isn’t right. They are doing that to boost the numbers of Swine flu to scare the public into getting the shot.

The other thing about the shots is if there is a reaction and death or paralysis there is no recourse. You are S.O.L. You can not sue in the US. So imagine this, a drug company that stands to make millions of dollars by producing a vaccine as quickly as possible with no chance of fallback should the vaccine not work or kill people. I simply don’t trust these companies to do the right thing and make sure they are tested properly before releasing them.

Think I am crazy? Look back to 1976 when the initial Swine Flu scare caused millions of people to get a vaccine the government pushed. After 3 weeks it was halted because of the deaths and disabilities it produced. Over 4000 people sued and were awarded money. After that is when the laws changed where you can no longer sue drugmakers over vaccines. scary stuff there.

The other side of the coin, is the propaganda from anti-shot groups. They mix up facts with rantings so it is hard to decipher what is real and what is not. I wish these people would learn that scare tactics do not make your case- they make people shut off your message.

I just want to know real numbers. How many cases of actual tested and confirmed swine flu cases are out there compared to regular flu. How many deaths from swine flu and regular flu. How many severe reactions from the shots?

Those are my worries right now. Everyone, meet my stresses. Writing them out makes them seem much smaller. Everyone is controlled except the last one. I can live with that. You know what else, I can write with that!

Suddenly, I feel ready to write and excited. I can do it.

Feel free to leave your worries in your comments. Maybe they will not seem so bad after you do.