Boy when I fall off the wagon, I really fall…

Sorry.  This is why I didn’t do NaNoWriMo this year. I chug along pretty good but if I hit a bump- like getting sick and not posting for a few days- I tend to wander off and do other things rather than getting back on the horse.

While I don’t plan on the everyday post thing anymore, I do want to post frequently.

I am in productive state of mind. I haven’t been writing any articles in a while. Instead I focused on the book. Once the book was written, I am not sure what I did.

I plan on writing articles every day again. Need money for Christmas and to pay the bills. But I still want to stay on target for the novel. I need to keep editing so I can submit to an agent.

Discipline is what I need. I wonder if I can rent a severe looking nun to crack a ruler over my knuckles when I goof off like I am in Catholic school? I wouldn’t wear the plaid skirt though. My uniform tends to be grubby shorts during the day. The scary thing is I probably could hire someone to do that and there is probably some clubs devoted to ruler wielding severe nuns. So not googling it!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you have a happy and productive day.

Read any good books lately?

I have read some very good books lately.  Since I have been sick I have been sleeping a lot and reading a lot. The husband picked out some very good books for me from the library.

One series is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. How did I miss these little gems? I finished reading City of Bones and devoured City of Ash. Now I need to get City of Glass and the next is due out in March. I love books like this. It is YA urban fantasy at it’s best. It’s clever, with some romance and kick butt fantasy elements. These are the books I want to write.

This is what I hope someday someone will feel like when they read my book.

What good books have you read lately?

please leave a message…

I’m sorry I am unable to get to this blog right now, please leave a message after the beep, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Okay, that was the only humor I could come up with right now. I have been sick the last few days. Yesterday woke up feeling like poo. I managed to get online a teeny bit. Today I woke up feeling like poo with a pounding headache. I got online to email the hubby who is working a half day today to tell him to get this Thai beef noodle soup I like when I am sick. It’s my comfort food.

So, sorry no pearls of wisdom today. Just a lot of whining. Hopefully I will be back and ready to go tomorrow- especialy since these characters won’t get out of my head and let me rest.

Oh the lovely words…

What a wonderful day. There were some great words today. The best were from my five-year-old son who asked, “Mom, do we have princesses in our country?” I told him no. His response, “Well, you are my princess, mommy.” Melt.

He is so getting a new bike for Christmas!

The other lovely words were the rewrite I did for the novel.  I have a fight scene right at the beginning where the two main characters meet for the first time. In my mind the fight was a means to an end- to get them together. Apparently that came across in my writing.

I had several readers say there wasn’t enough detail, etc. I realized something important- the fight scene wasn’t a big deal to me, the writer. However, the fight scene was very important to the characters, we’re talking life or death. So it is important to the reader.

I rewrote the thing and ended up with something I really like. I was also able to develop the characters more because I decided to add things in during the fight.  Now I have a fight worthy of being in my first ten pages.  woo hoo!

I am so happy I listened to my beta readers and fixed it.

Now I am off to polish my tiara and a few more edits while my royal subject is asleep in his bed.

I have a new printer, woo hoo!

Target has the Lexmark X5650 4 in 1 printer on sale for $39.  I have been wanting a fax/scanner/printer combo for the “office” for a while now. A few weeks ago our old printer ran out of ink. Man, those ink cartridges are expensive! I was able to buy this whole new printer which includes ink for less than the refills for my Canon printer. Crazy.

I heard I can refill ink for this printer at Walgreens for $10 so that makes me happy.

I can’t wait to finish editing the next few chapters so I can print them out to bring to the next critique group meeting.

I have been twitching with ideas but haven’t been able to work very much on the book at all this weekend. I am probably the only person on the planet looking forward to Monday because the kid goes to school and the hubby to work and I get to write. woo hoo! Come on Monday.

Critique groups are so important…

I have found a critique group I can go to in person. Previously all my critiques have been online. The feedback is different when it is face to face. There is less BS and I can ask questions about things that I don’t understand. I love it.

I had a meeting today and brought the first two chapters of my baby to be reviewed. When eight people all say the same thing about a part you know they are right. One person saying it you can write off by thinking they just don’t get it.

But when more than one person doesn’t get it- that means you as a writer have failed. Which means it is time to rewrite.

There was one person in our group who was upset after her review. She said she had received a lot of criticism. She didn’t really. Several people were gushing about how poetic her work was but she only heard the negatives. I wonder if she will ever come back.

I guess I have a thicker skin. I want to hear all the bad. Throw it at me! Why? Because it means I can fix it and make my novel even stronger. I want the best of the best when I submit to agents.

I am in this for the long haul. I have a goal in mind- to get my book published and to have readers love it. So even if it means chopping a funny scene that I love because it doesn’t work in the flow- I am doing it. I have no problems hacking down the rosebush if it means I will end up with a beautiful rose at the end.

So my suggestion to you is find a local writing group and join. Not only did I get good feedback, I was itching to write when I got home. Heck I was hoping for a red stoplight on the drive home so I could write down ideas that popped into my head.

Critique groups are good! Go find one today.

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.