Trish McCallan

Announcing a New Website and New blog!

2011-07-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post here on my old t-time blog.

From now on I will be blogging over at my brand new website! Check it out.

The New Website Of Trish McCallan

Tomorrow I will be linking my domain to the website page, and I'll be official.

And to launch my new website and blog, I am hosting Eisley Jacobs. Eisley's first book--Born to be a Dragon will be releasing on July 20th.

Please stop by my website and enter Eisley's scavenger hunt. The grand prize winner at the end of the three week blog tour will be a NOOK!!

The Incomparable Eisley Jacobs

2011-07-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

The multi-talented Eisley Jacobs will be guest blogging on Saturday July 9^th, to promote her much anticipated Born to be a Dragon, the first book in her Dragons Forever series, which releases on July 20^th.

When I said Eisley is multi-talented, I mean just that. Not only did she create the charming and quirky Born to be a Dragon, but she created the cover as well. Yes, I am so jealous, she is just too talented. It’s NOT fair!

To celebrate the release of her green and scaly first born, Eisley launched a scavenger hunt yesterday. There will be prizes every day, culminating in the grand prize: A NOOK!!

It’s not too late to start scavenging; you can read about the hunt here.

Join the fun!

But don't forget to stop by Saturday to say "Hi!" and congratulate her on her new release.

Six Sentence Sunday #amwriting #sixsunday

2011-07-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday has once again rolled around and it's time for another SSS.

These lines follow one of the big battles in Forged in Fire. One of the secondary heroes is injured, he’s also with a woman he’s reluctantly attracted to, and trying his damnedest not to show his agony or his attraction.

As always, you can find the rest of the SSS participants here.

“Let me take a look at your shoulder, how bad is it?”

It hurt like a motherfucker. “It’s fine. Let’s get to the damn car.”

Ignoring him, she dropped to her knees and grasped the hem of his t-shirt.

“I’m fine,” he grated out, punctuating each word with a hiss as she maneuvered his right arm out of its hole and then over his head.

When she eased the shirt down his left shoulder and arm, the agony rolled through him in a dense, black wave. Nausea twisted his belly, and climbed his throat, Christ, he was about to puke.

How fucking humiliating.

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday #amwriting

2011-06-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Now that my time has freed up, I'm going to starting posting to Six Sentence Sunday every week. In the past, I wrote on Sundays and never had the time to read all the other awesome posts people shared. From here on out though, I'm going to be writing from Monday through Saturday and taking Sunday's off to read. Part of that reading is going to be Six Sentence Sunday snippets. I'm really looking forward to see all the various styles and stories.

My snippets from today come from Forged in Fire, the book I have out on submission. Forged in Ice, the second book in the series is way too raw to post. lol-- it's in that fast draft puke stage. After I start revisions I'll start posting that book

You can read the rest of the Six Sentence Sunday posts http://www.sixsunday.com/

And here are my six!

     Beth stared into his utterly cold, utterly empty eyes. She was dead anyway. Scream or no scream, he had no intention of letting her live. Once she served whatever purpose he had planned, she would be as disposable as Todd, as his co-conspirator at the airport.

     On the other hand, her scream would warn Zane and Rawls.

     He must have read her intentions on her face, because he smiled—a chilling, anticipatory stretch of thin lips.

A Sincere Thank You

2011-06-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

I started querying Zane around mid-March, and received an immediate request for the partial, which lead to some very savvy revision advice from the very talented and gracious Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

I’ve lost count of the number of agents who have posted on twitter or their blogs that they no longer offer personal feedback on queries or submissions because of the author’s reaction to their critiques. So I think it’s important that we thank those agents still willing to stick their necks out and offer an honest critique.

Jill Marsal did me an invaluable favor by pointing out the problems with my first three chapters of Zane. Her insight allowed me to revise. And those revisions were instrumental in attracting the attention of several other agents, and honestly--I can't thank her enough for giving me the opportunity to see the characters and story through her eyes.

Likewise, Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency did me the great service of offering her honest evaluation of the manuscript along with her suggestions for improving it.

I credit both these women with taking Zane (now titled Forged in Fire) to the next level and sincerely want to thank them for the time they took to evaluate the manuscript, and put their impressions into words.

At the moment I am working hard on the second book in the Forged In series. This is Cosky's book. I'm about 25K into the first draft of his story, and once again I am flying by the seat of my pants.

I am a plotter, a plotter, a plotter. (I am! I am!) So what is it about these particular books that refuse to be plotted before drafting? Zane was supposed to be an anomaly. But once again I find myself launching into Cosky's book with only the vaguest idea of what is going to happen next. It's enough to drive a person insane--or off Pepsi--which is close to the same thing.

In other news, I have the name of the heroine of Rawls' book. Her name will be Jolynn. There is a story to his heroine's name . . .maybe someday I will spill it.

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday #amwriting

2011-03-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

This last month has absolutely flown past. Can't believe how fast February went, and now we're half way through March.

Zane has been retiled Forged in Fire and went out on submission this weekend. (agents) My query letter appears to be strong. Just sent the first batch of eight queries out last night and two requests for partials came through today. This will be the only time I mention my query status. From now on mum’s the word.

I’ve decided to title the series Forged in --as in Zane’s book will be Forged in Fire, Cosky’s Forged in Ice, Rawls Forged in Fury and Mac’s Forged in Betrayal.

And now for my contribution to Six Sentence Sunday!

These lines are from the first kiss. Beth is having second thoughts.

#############################################

Clamping her mouth shut, she set every muscle to resisting.

A low growl rumbled up his throat and throbbed against her lips like a threat, but he broke contact and eased back.

Beth relaxed. Clearly he’d gotten the message. Except he leaned down and nipped her bottom lip. Not enough to sting, just enough to send a message—along with a rush of blood to her head—just enough to let her know that. . .yeah. . he had no intention of playing by her rules.

############################################

You can find the official Six Sentence Sunday site here

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday #amwriting

2011-02-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Six Sentence Sunday on your one year anniversary! May there be many more.

Come join in the celebration! There are several authors giving away books, just click on their links and leave a comment and you'll be automatically entered to win. You can find a list of the participants and the authors giving away free books here.

My addition to SSS this week is from taken from a snippet where the white knights are racing to the hostages rescue. Although you may not be able to tell they are the good guys from this excerpt. lol

##########################################################

Mac turned his attention to their chauffeur’s tense face. “My boy back there has a Smith and Wesson .500. You ever looked down the barrel of one of those babies? It’s like staring into cannon, leaves a crater the size of a pizza box. He’s got that sucker pressed against the back of your seat and while traveling through all that foam and fabric might slow it down some, that bullet’s still gonna disintegrate a good chunk of your spine and turn your guts into soup.” He twisted the gun against Little Mike’s ribs. “You copy me?”

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday #amwriting

2011-02-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Posting something from the villain's POV this time. As always you can see the rest of the talented Six Sunday gang here.http://sixsunday.blogspot.com/

################################################################################

Too bad about the boys, he hated killing kids, but they could identify his men. He couldn’t afford to lose his crew this early in the game, which meant none of the hostages could survive.

Including the kids.

He’d do them quick, though. Take care of it personally, make sure they didn’t feel a thing. Hell, he’d even take them someplace special beforehand—maybe to Chucky Cheese, Jilly’s kids loved that damn place.

Six Sentence Sunday #sixsunday #amwriting

2011-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

     Switching things up a bit today and posting six lines from a secondary character's POV. The background here is that this character's family has been kidnapped and abused in order to force the character to do something for the kidnappers. This snippet takes place immediately after he receives news his family has been rescued. There's actually more than six sentence. But I figured the fact so many are one word sentences makes up for that. lol

     The first inhalation burned his throat, but the second came easier. By the third, feeling had crept into his chest—his heart.
     Although the emotion wasn’t one he’d expected. He’d expected joy, relief, thankfulness. Instead, shame spread through him. It burst from his heart and spread out in ripples.
    He’d failed them. Everyone.
    Amy. The boys. The agency. All the passengers on that fucked up flight.
    He’d failed every last one of them.

As always you can find the rest of the SSS participants here.

Manuscript Updates

2011-02-09T19:50:00.001-08:00

After reading the full manuscript over of the weekend, I am pleased to report that no major problems showed up. The book reads very solid. No slow spots. No sagging middle. Lots of action.

Beth’s GMC wasn’t quite as well developed as I’d hoped, but it was actually better developed than I had expected. I’d forgotten I had already gone back in and beefed her GMC up in several scenes. Russ/ my villain held together pretty darn well too. He is much stronger than he was in the earlier version.

I'd been worried the focus of the book had veered away from Zane and Beth and onto a couple of the secondary characters somewhere around the middle of the book, and while yes- in one sense it did go into these other two characters more than I’d expected, the focus didn’t feel like it fractured from the two main characters, which was very nice to see.

I did find that the last two chapters were rougher than what I’d have liked. More hurried. Which I already knew. I was in such a hurry to get the revisions down on paper and read the manuscript as a whole, I quit polishing those two chapters too soon.

So the plan is to go back through and fix a couple of hiccups I noticed from all the layering I did earlier, layer a bit more of Beth’s GMC through her scenes, incorporate some crit feedback, and rework those final two chapters. I don’t think these things should take more than a week.

Then it’s onto the final polish and trim.

This book will be out on sub by first of March.

Six Sentence Sunday

2011-02-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Sunday and the Sixth day of the month, which means two things.

I’m blogging over at Tabby’s Nocturnal Nights.

And it’s Six Sentence Sunday. (Cue cheering!)

For my Six this week I’m skipping forward a bit. This excerpt if from Beth’s POV—Zane’s heroine. In this scene she is facing her best friend, Ginny, who was recently rescued from a hostage situation, and trying to tell Ginny that her husband was killed by the same men who had kidnapped her. Only Ginny doesn’t react as Beth expected.

“He’s what? Busy? In the middle of something? In a meeting?” Ginny’s voice climbed with each word, sharp as barbwire, brittle as an autumn leaf.

“No! He’s. . .” Beth reached for that robotic hand, but the tight, distant sheen in those haunted eyes told her the contact wouldn’t be welcome.

I encourage everyone to check out the rest of the excellent excerpts posted for today, you can find the links here

And a special welcome to my friend Edie Ramer who is joining us for the first time on Six Sentences Sunday. Check her six sentences out. I guarantee you won't be sorry!

Missed It By That Much

2011-02-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Picture me holding my thumb and forefinger a hairsbreadth apart, and saying the words in Maxwell Smart's whiny, high voice.

I entered Zane in the specialized category of the Great Expectations contest as a test. It's been doing well in the romantic suspense category, but from what I'm seeing on the contest circuit--very few romantic suspense entries are requested by their final editor/agent judge. On the other hand, a ton of entries from the paranormal categories are requested by their final agent/editor judge. Since Zane's premise is based on a paranormal aspect, I decided to throw it into the specialized category and see how it did.

It did very well, actually. Got a 99, 98 and a 90 for a combined score of 287 which placed it 7th out of 45 entries in the specialized category. But it needed at least a 291 to final. Thus the missed it by that much. (In Don Adam's high pitched whine.) One of the judges did mention it was in the wrong category, and to be honest I'm not sure the paranormal aspect is strong enough for the entry to stand out amid all the outstanding paranormal entries on the circuit. (I’ve been judging paranormals for the last few months) At heart Zane is all Romantic Suspense.

Depending on final editor/agent judges I'll probably go ahead and enter it in the paranormal category again. It did well enough in the specialized category this time it’s worth another shoot. From what I remember, there are several upcoming contests where the romantic suspense final editor isn't one I am interested in, but the final judge in the paranormal category is. So I'll probably throw it in the paranormal category in those contests.

The entry got top scores on the query letter though. All three judges commented on how good it was, so it looks like my query is ready to fly.

I'm doing the read through on the manuscript this weekend. And hoping that it holds together as well as Vee said, and isn't going to require more major lifting revisions.

Btw, how many of you remember the old Get Smart show from the 60s? Any of you catch it in reruns? I used to love that show. . . .

Someone Is Stealing Time

2011-02-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

My schedule has gone to hell in a hand basket since I finished Zane and took time off the writing stint to get some distance before hopping in with polishing and trimming.

I can’t figure out why I seem to get less accomplished each day, than I did when I was writing from 4:00-7:00 AM every morning. I’ve basically got three extra hours each day. Is my house cleaner? Ummm no. Are my dogs all brushed out and glossy? Um . . .no. Have I read any new books? Ummm . . .no.

I haven’t even been watching television.

I have no idea where those extra hours are disappearing to.

But I suspect someone on twitter may be stealing them.

On the Zane front. I still haven’t printed the book off and read it. My printer ran out of toner last weekend, and my hole-in-the-side-of-a-road-little-town doesn’t have decent office supply store. Which means no one carries my toner cartridge. I had to special order it. It was supposed to be here today, but I never got a chance to call and check on it. I don’t suppose it matters since I won’t have the chance to read the manuscript until this weekend anyway.

In other news, my wonderful CP Veronica re-read the first 18 chapters for me again. She is the first to read the new and improved (read layered to hell and back) version. Thank God she gave me the both thumbs up. From her feedback it sounds like the layering did exactly what I was hoping—which is bring my rather lack-luster villain to life. I still need to send the last two chapters out to CPs. But I want to read them one more time and fiddle a bit before doing so.

Looking forward to seeing how the book holds together this weekend.

Six Sentence Sunday #amwriting #amwritingparty

2011-01-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun last weekend with Six Sentence Sunday, I'm doing it again. You can find the rest of the participants here. I encourage everyone to check these excerpts out. Lots of great writing in there!

I had a couple of requests to continue from last week's Six, so that's what I'm doing. For those who are interested or want a reminder, you can read last week's sentences by scrolling down a couple posts.

Here comes the new set of Six!

*************************************

     Jesus, not Cosky.
     Not Cos.
     When his hands started to shake, Zane forced them to stillness.
     By the time they’d reached the ambulance, the backseat of the Chrysler had been spongy with blood. Cosky’s face had bleached to bone, gaunt as death.
     “Is your friend going to die?” Chastain's kid asked in his oddly adult voice.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up! #amwriting #amwritingparty

2011-01-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

Once again Lee Lofland has written a must read blog post. This one is titled War On Cops, I encourage everyone to check it out. You can read it here.

In other news that loosely pertains to law enforcement.

When I moved from Leavenworth to mid Columbia Basin I lost all my Sheriff and Police contacts. In the two years I’ve been down here, I’ve never gotten around to establishing new connections or setting up ride alongs. Until today.

And let me tell you, this new connection happened in the strangest way.

Mid afternoon, at the company office, we had a visit from one of Adam’s County’s Sheriff’s deputies. He requested the use of my office to set up surveillance on the fuel tank of the farm down the street. Apparently someone has been stealing a boat load of fuel. (although in this case I guess it can best be described as a tank full of fuel) Apparently the thief has siphoned thousands of dollars of fuel from our next door neighbor’s diesel tank.

So while our new friend, the Deputy, was setting up his cameras to catch the thief red-handed , we got to talking and I explained that I was a writer, writing law enforcement heroes/heroine (sometimes) and that I’d lost all my law enforcement connections when I moved down to the Basin. Guess what? Yep! He whips out his card and tells me to call him anytime I have a question. LOL. You gotta grab these opportunities when they waltz in your office with surveillance equipment.

In another story loosely connected to law enforcement, although this one runs along the lines of stupid criminals.

I got a very puzzling phone call today. A woman called asking for the current bookkeeper of the business. Since we run three businesses out of the office, and I do the books for one, but Becca does the books for the other two, I asked which company. She says for which ever company had employed Jennifer Leeland, and had given her the work reference. Now I’m familiar with all the employees in all three companies since I hired them, and I do payroll. I’ve been working for this company for three years and this name was not familiar to me. So I tell her we’d never employed a Jennifer Leeland. To which this woman replies- “well she couldn’t claim surprise considering Jennifer had lied about everything and stolen 30K from her over the past three years.”

So I ask this woman when the reference had supposedly been given, and this woman said three years ago. This news stirred a memory. I vaguely remembered my boss mentioning that one of his old book keepers had embezzled over 50K from him and he’d sent her to jail for a couple of years.

But I’m like no way. No way would this thief be stupid enough to use as a reference the boss she’d stole from previously and who had sent her to jail. But I call the boss and ask him if he had ever employed a Jennifer Leeland, and he says “Yeah, I sent her to jail for a couple of years. She’s supposed to be paying restitution since she was released, but we’ve never seen a dime.” So I told him about the phone call, and he was completely dumbfounded that she’d used him as a reference.

I bet this Jennifer’s newest victim is wishing she’d checked those references!

Computer Woes

2011-01-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

My computer had a personality melt down, which necessitated taking it to the computer doctor. Although I could open some sites, I couldn't keep the windows open. Internet explorer and every other browser I launched kept shutting down as soon as they'd open. Which made it impossible to sign into blogger, to access twitter, or to even get in my email. It's been beyond frustrating.

Just picked the computer up this evening and hooked everything up. So far, it looks like the problems been fixed. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Finished!!

2011-01-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

I finished revising the last scene of Zane last night!

Happy dog dancing.

This makes the second BIG revision on the manuscript. The heavy lifting and major character and plot changes are now complete. Of course, I still haven't read the entire manuscript front to back to see how it holds together. I‘m letting it sit until the weekend, at which point I'll print it off and do a read through.

But my instincts tell me the big stuff is set. There may be some minor tweaking, but I think we are ready for the final polish and trim.

Can’t wait to get this puppy out on submission!

Six Sentence Sunday #amwriting #amwritingparty

2011-01-22T22:41:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm joining the Six Sentence Sunday gang for the first time today.

These sentences are from the almost completed WIP- Zane's War. Better known as Zane. In this scene Zane is in the E.R. waiting for word of a fallen brother-in-arms.

Here We Go!

Uncertain what to say, Zane lifted his hand, started to rake it through his hair, but a flash of red stopped him. He froze, focusing. His hand was stained crimson, crusted with Cosky’s blood.

He lifted his right hand—the one still clamped around his cell phone—and stared, the blood a dark blur beneath his burning eyes. His mind flashed back. The breathless grunt as that first bullet hit.. . .Cosky lurching forward. . . the wet thwack, thwack, thwack as round after round struck . . .the twitch of dying muscles. . .the blood. . . so much fucking blood.

You can visit the rest of the brave folks putting their Six Sentences up after 9 AM. Eastern time through here.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That #amwriting #amwritingparty

2011-01-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Today’s Blog Post is a hodge podge of unrelated announcement.

I feel surprising frisky today considering I woke up about 1000 times last night. (AKA, every time I moved my head, or body)

The swelling on the side of my head is almost completely gone.

Nor are my muscles punishing me like I was expecting. In fact, I feel a lot better than I did last night before going to bed.

Okay- those four announcements were connected. Now on to the unconnected announcements.

I am down to one last chapter to revise on Zane and I am going to finish it this weekend even if it kills me.

Last week was a pretty pathetic week, writing wise. I try to get at least 1000 words a day. Most of the time I can get this fairly easily. In fact, most the time I can get around 1.5 K or even 2K. What makes last week particularly discouraging is I actually made it up early each day to get the writing in, but for three of the days the words just wouldn’t flow. I did have one 2000 word day and one 1000 word day, but I also had two 500 word days and a 250 word day.

Yesterday I finished my 1000 words in the morning before whacking myself. It’s frustrating because the words had finally started flowing again. The plan was to keep working on the scene during breaks and lunch at work and then again when I got home that night. Yeah, none of which happened.

So right now I am sitting at 4250 words for the week. I’ve got around 5K left to finish Zane off, fingers crossed I get it done this weekend.

Tomorrow’s blog post is going to be my first posting for Six Sentence Sunday. I’m still trying to decide which sentences to post, but I’m looking forward to joining the Six Sentence Sunday crew.

Smacked Myself Silly This Morning

2011-01-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Which is why this post is late.

I was on my way out the door to lock the dogs in their kennel for the day, when my foot slipped on the top step (there are four steep steps) and I bumped, slid, fell down the rest. Cracking my head way too hard on the top step and again on one of the others, although that spot didn't swell so bad.

I didn't lose consciousness, but it stunned me stupid and for a minute I couldn't get anything to move.

The funny thing is I heard my head hit, heard a sharp crack- or at least it sounded sharp. Felt the vibration all the way down my neck and shoulders and into my lower back. But it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. In fact nothing hurt. Not one thing.

At first I thought I must not have hit my head after all, because it would hurt, right? I mean think how much it hurts it you smack it on the cupboard or something? But when I felt the area that had hit, there was a huge lump, and getting bigger the more I felt around. I put ice on it, and it stopped swelling up, but it spread out instead.

Which is when I got scared. I went to the E.R. Where they took a picture of my hard head. I asked the tech to let me know if they say a bunch of strange people lurking around inside there.

hahahahahhahahha

The tech just gave me a blank look. Sigh. I guess writing jokes don’t transfer.

Other damage from the fall.

Dislocated pinky finger, which is splinted and annoying.
Bruised shoulder and arm.
I didn’t hit my elbow though, which seemed odd
The muscles of my shoulders, neck and back are very sore and stiff.
And my butt hurts. A lot.

They gave me a huge list of potential problems to look out for and if I have any of those symptoms I am supposed to get back to the E.R. ASAP.

After spending about four hours in the Emergency room, I went in to work. Mainly because the doctor kept going on and on about having someone to observe me for the next few hours. But when I got into the office, I found all our computers were under attack by a computer virus.

Yeah, I should have just stayed in bed.

Rolling Toward The End

2011-01-20T04:55:00.000-08:00

I finished chapter twenty yesterday, which leaves me with one chapter left to revise on Zane.

Lately, getting this book finished is all I'm able to concentrate on. I'm hoping to finish this last chapter by Saturday, at which point I'm going to let it sit for a week and just relax. Kick back. Do some reading. Get some distance from it. After a week I'll print that puppy off and read it all in one sitting. See how it holds together. I've done so much layering I've lost sense of how the book flows and fits together. I'm sure I'll find some small tweaking that still needs to be done. Plus, I’m sure my CPs will find problems in these last four chapters that need to be addressed.

Once I've done the last bit of tweaking, I still need to do a final edit/polish and trim. I'll have to cut somewhere around eight thousand words. I've added quite a bit of stuff in these last four chapters which increased my word count. Looks like the book will come in around 108-109 K this time around.

An Hour Late

2011-01-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

An hour late to bed, means an hour late up the next morning.

Which equals an hour less of AMwriting. #sigh

Looks like I'll be writing when I get home tonight.

I'm feeling a huge push to finish Zane by this weekend.

A Link

2011-01-18T04:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a link that I stumbled across on Saturday. (And spent way too much time exploring) I thought the pictures were gorgeous/intriguing and the history fascinating. The pictures are of the ruins of Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island. Hope everyone enjoys the article as much as I did.

Riverside Hospital/North Brother Island

No Electricity This Morning

2011-01-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

Which is why my 17th consecutive post was not up bright and early.

It's a good thing it’s been so warm out; otherwise I would have been a Popsicle this morning. But I didn't get my morning shower, or coffee. So even for a Monday it was off to a rocky start. This also happens to be the first day since I started the 365 day challenge that I didn't make my 1000 word goal. I did make my minimum goal of 250 words, though. I forced myself to hammer that out when I got home. So my chain of red Xs remains unbroken.

Lee Lofland & The Writers' Police Academy #amwriting #amwritingparty #WPA

2011-01-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Lee Lofland, one of the driving forces behind the Writers’ Police Academy, stopped by my blog yesterday to comment on Saturday’s post. In the process he updated us on what they have planned for the 2011 WPA. I’ll copy what he posted down below.

Before doing so, however, I want to encourage everyone to visit his blog and read of a recent experience he had. It’s a perfect illustration that when caught in a personal emergency, even the most experienced and cool-headed among law enforcement can and most likely will—react with emotion. For those of us writing law enforcement characters, I think this is something we need to consider.

For those of you writing law enforcement characters or working in the suspense/mystery/thriller genre- the Writers’ Police Academy is a perfect opportunity to learn from and interact with the pros. The men and women who do in ‘real life’ what our characters do in fiction.

This is the information Lee posted in the comments section of yesterday’s blog.

The Writers' Police Academy is a very unique event. Writers actually train at a real police/fire/ES academy. Here's a little about the 2011 event.

2011 Writers’ Police Academy

When: September 23–25, 2011

Where: Jamestown, N.C. at the Public Safety Department (local police/fire/EMS academy) on the campus of Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC).

Experience the most hands-on, interactive and educational experience writers can find to enhance their understanding of all aspects of law enforcement, forensics, firefighting, and EMS. This is real training at a real police, fire, and EMS training academy! GTCC instructors are all certified active-duty police academy instructors.

2011 speakers include Keynote Speaker NY times bestselling author of espionage thrillers Christopher Reich; Special guest speaker author/forensic and clinical psychology expert Dr. Katherine Ramsland; Featured speakers include, bioterrorism expert Dr. Denene Lofland, author/former prosecutor/law professor Alafair Burke, author/ATF Special Agent Rich McMahan, computer and cyber-crimes expert Sgt. Josh Moulin; author/former police detective Lee Lofland.

Registration for this one of a kind event opens in January. See more at writerspoliceacademy.com. (new website launching soon).

If anyone would like more information on Lee Lofland, or the Police Procedure books he has available, you can visit his website at http://www.leelofland.com/home.html

Mood VS Research #amwriting #amwritingparty

2011-01-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

They are talking on my crime scene loop about ‘mood’ verses ‘research’.

The discussion started with someone asking why in cop shows, the officers always search a building in the dark, with flash lights. Why not turn on the house's actual lights. The poster asked whether this was actual law enforcement practice, or whether the writers of the show took poetic license in order to affect mood and tension.

The answer came back instantly that law enforcement always turns on the lights before searching a residence or building. To do otherwise could be a fatal mistake. One writer even posted that she’d gone to some kind of writers’ police academy and one of the instructors had addressed this misconception. He’d had them search the premises of a fake crime scene with flash lights and then after they were finished, he’d turned on the lights. There were dead bodies everywhere and the flash light beams had missed them.

I’m sure law enforcement types far and wide laugh about this or possibly rant about it, depending on their mood.

But the truth is, the writers are writing toward mood and tension, and if they’d followed the actual police/law enforcement search procedure, they would have gutted both.

Because let’s face it—it’s much scarier to watch your favorite characters searching a house or building in the dark, with skittering shadows all around them--even the thin, wavering beams of flashlight light aids in the tension and mood—then beneath the harsh, illuminating brilliance of fluorescent lights. For the writers, incorporating established search practices would have shredded the mood and suspense.

It would have totally destroyed the X-Files. (GRIN)

I mean those character practically LIVED in shadows and darkness.

At some point every writer runs into where to draw the line in their own work. If you’ve done the research, and you know that using a specific plot element in your book would never happen in ‘real’ law enforcement, do you still stick with that incorrect plot element anyway? If using the actual procedure is boring and suspenseless will you retain your authenticity and write it correctly anyway, regardless of how the correct version impacts your book?

Or, do you write it the way it needs to be written for greatest impact on the reader, but try to mitigate the character’s choice. Do you make the character aware he is doing the wrong thing, but give him good reasons for doing it wrong. Do you motivate him so he has no choice, or believes he has no choice?

At what point should correct procedure be left for the ‘real’ law enforcement? And creative solutions be left for the writer?

Thoughts?

.

Happy Friday!

2011-01-14T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hoping you all have a very productive weekend with whatever you have planned.

Not much to say today other than this marks my 14th consecutive post!

Whoot!

Progress

2011-01-13T05:33:00.000-08:00

Progress on Zane is going slowly but surely. I’m working my way through the last few chapters of the book. I just finished chapter eighteen yesterday. I’ll go through it today for one last pass, but it looks fairly solid. I’m still sitting on chapter 17. I’ll reread it as soon as I finish my last pass on chapter 18 and then send it off to CPs for feedback. I’m hoping to finish chapter 19 this weekend, which will leave me with just one chapter to do.

At the rate I’m going, the last of the heavy lifting revisions should be finish by middle of next week. The original plan was to launch immediately into polish and trim, but I’m decided to let the book sit for a week or so, and then take a whole day and spend it reading the manuscript. I’ve done so much layering, and changing and adding- I’ve lost my sense of how it hangs together. I need to read the whole thing, and make sure all the layering added the elements I needed. After I’ve read it through, and have a better sense of how it hangs together, I’ll know whether I need to do some additional layering. Or whether the character growth arcs carry through the entire manuscript.

How are the rest of you doing on your projects?

Any ready to send out into the dark, cold querying world?

They Are Doing It AGAIN!

2011-01-12T04:17:00.000-08:00

And NO! I'm not talking about sex.

I'm talking about the phone. Once again one of my characters is on the phone.

I swear, every book has something that becomes exceedingly repetitive because my characters insist on doing it over and over and OVER again.

In my last book, they shrugged. A lot. Okay—constantly. They shrugged so much, I think they had permanent neck, shoulder and back injuries by the time I hit 400 pages.

In this book, they are on the phone. A lot. Okay, constantly. I’m thinking I should pull a Fringe and have the phone permanently wired into their skull, so they can go hands free (those hands should be free hands in case they need to shoot their guns) while they are talking on the phone.

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was writing about a gaggle of teenagers.

Making the Bizarre Believable

2011-01-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

I’ve been a huge FRINGE fan since the pilot first aired a couple of years back.

It’s my favorite kind of show. Rich Characters. Sharp dialogue and bizarre happenings. When I had my television disconnected last winter, Fringe was one of the shows I really missed. Along with Burn Notice, Stargate Universe, The Big Bang Theory, Psych—well and a host of others. A couple of weeks back, however, I subscribed to Netflix and started renting some of the previous seasons of my favorite shows, along with other shows people were raving about, but I never watched because they were on Showtime or HBO. Shows like Spartacus, Blood and Sand and True Blood.

But I digress, as usual.

One of the nice things about watching the full season of television shows on disk is that often times there will be special features listed on the disk. And one of the special features listed on the Fringe first season’s, first disk was writer and director commentary.

I listened to the writers’ commentary while I was working in the kitchen and they made a comment I thought was very insightful. They said after the pilot of FRINGE aired, they waited to see what kind of reaction the audience was going to have. There had been so many bizarre, strange scenarios in the pilot; they’d wanted to see whether people had bought into the scenarios or whether they’d post to the fringe blogs and websites saying how stupid and unlikely the show was. And sure enough, some people posted about how unlikely certain events were —like a fully operational lab in Harvard’s basement. But the bulk of the comments were all small stuff- nobody questioned the big, bizarre elements. Like connecting to someone’s dreams through an electrical probe in your brain, while floating in a rusty hatch of warm water and being infused with LSD. (LOL) Or!! Being able to see the very last image a dead person saw through the electrical impulses still trapped in their optic nerve. Or!! Questioning someone who had been dead for several hours. (while they were still dead.)

So after they laughed about the things some of the watchers question, verses some of the bizarre/strange/horrific things NOBODY questioned—one of the writers made this comment. He said, to paraphrase, that he thought the reason no questioned the bizarre things in Fringe, was because Peter, the skeptic in the show, had already questioned the insanity of the bizarre occurrences himself. Peter echoed what the watchers themselves where thinking and because he echoed it, and brought it into the open; it assured the watchers that the writers hadn’t ignored the obvious. (that the idea was insane) It would seem that as long as one of the characters questioned the bizarre happenings, the audience would follow along. He said you didn’t even have to explain what was happening, or why it was happening, all you had to do was question the sanity of it or offer possible reasons.

So, the next time you need to make the bizarre ordinary, or if not ordinary—at least believable—have your characters question the rationality of it. You’ll retain your audience that way.

Good Morning

2011-01-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

I would say happy Monday, but for most people that is an oxymoron.

So instead I will say- Good morning, and may we all survive the upcoming week.

And this constitutes my daily post.

An Early Morning Adventure

2011-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a very interesting adventure.

Around 2:30 am my dogs suddenly went ballistic. They started racing around the house, from window to window, barking up a storm. But wait. . . I need to back up about an hour, since the incident that happened earlier sparked what happened later.

I went to bed about midnight last night and about 1:15, Luna- the Golden Retriever that sleeps on my bed suddenly jumps up and starts barking. Of course this starts ALL my dogs barking and brings me instantly awake. I roll over in bed and yell at Luna to stop barking, thinking she hears coyotes outside. But as I glance toward the bedroom window a beam of light sort of wavers and then snaps off. Now I am still half asleep and not sure I actually saw that beam of light. But the dogs are all barking like crazy. So I get up, put my bathrobe on and check the windows. Except its dark outside and all I see are shadows. I turn on the porch lights on, but can’t see anything. I consider unlocking the door and letting the dogs outside, but I was afraid I’d just imagined the light and I didn’t want the dogs out there barking at 1:30 in the morning, annoying the neighbors. You see my dogs will bark at anything. Just because they were making a racket didn’t mean anything was actually out there. I have seen Bubbles bark at a plastic bag. Plus- I live right next to the John Wayne trail and in the past people have hiked it in the dark, with flash lights. Granted, not in the middle of winter- but still.

Anyway, since my dogs were settling down, I figured the crisis was over and I turned the lights off and went back to bed.

An hour later, the dogs go ballistic again. Waking me out of a deep sleep. Again. So I roll over in bed and look out my windows and there are beams of light, skimming across both my bedroom windows. Multiple beams of light. Of course I thought I was dreaming. I get up, put on my bathrobe and peek out the window. Yep, there are several men in my back yard, with flash light. WTF?

I go into my living room and look out my living room window. There were four men with flashlights walking around in my yard, and a couple down by the shed. I go to my office, which looks out over the front yard and the street. The street in front of my yard is congested with cop cars. There were at least eight or nine. Some marked. Some unmarked. None had any lights. No headlights, no alarm lights, no running lights. Nothing. But there is a street lamp in front of my yard, so I could tell they were cop cars. A mixture of state patrol, sheriff and city police.

So I locked the dogs in my office and open the front door and ask the closest cop what was going on. He tells me there had been a double homicide and the suspect had been seen in my yard. He asks if I’d noticed, or heard anything out of the ordinary and I told him the dogs had started barking around one am, and I thought there might have been flashlight beam. He said they thought the guy had fled down the John Wayne trail, but they wanted to check my shed. He asks if I would give them permission. I say sure. Check what you want to. He thanks me, then asked if they could use my yard as an access point to the trail. I said sure.

You see the thing about my property is it has the only access point to the trail from my neighborhood. I’ve got gates leading to the front street and the back trail. All the other yards in my neighborhood are fenced, but they only have gates to the street. So my yard is in demand with the neighborhood kids and couples who walk the trail. They have to use my yard, or walk about a mile down to the trail head.

Anyway, the cops checked my shed, which scared the hell out of my cats and they in turn apparently scared the hell out of one of the cops. I heard this shout down there and then all this laughter. But after tromping all over my yard, and all around outside my yard, they didn’t find their suspect.

I really feel sorry for those poor officers. They walked ALL OVER my yard. I mean all over it. I didn’t have the heart to warn them. But I have four dogs. And we have been getting snow on and off for weeks. So I haven’t had a chance to pick up my yard in a very long time.

I’ve been dreading having to pick that sucker up once the snow melts, because it’s FULL of dog poop.

I hate to think what the bottom of their shoes look like.

Anyway- they brought a snow mobile in through the head of the trail and checked the fields and trail. By 3:30 or 4:00 am they packed up and left. But they did leave an unmarked cop car parked in my driveway next to my SUV. Lights out. I’m guessing he stayed in case the suspect came out of hiding and tried to access the neighborhood through my yard again

I never heard if they caught their suspect.

One thing about this struck me later, and kind of surprised me. They never asked to search my house. I would think that asking to search the house would have been standard protocol. Make sure I wasn’t hiding this guy, or that he wasn’t inside threatening me to keep me quiet. But nobody even mentioned it.

Anyway, that was my exciting adventure last night or early this morning.

Someday, I am certain; it will find its way into my fiction.

Finding That Elusive Beast called Balance

2011-01-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Now that’s my initial week of daily blogging has passed, It’s obvious I need to find the balance between the writing/blogging/critting/blog hopping/ twitter/email half of my life and the day job, pay-attention-to-the-dogs, house work, sleeping, cooking & shopping half of my life.

You’d think, from the way my dogs are craving my attention, that I’ve been gone for a month. Good Lord, all four of them have started vying for my attention while I’m on the internet computer. Do you have any idea how hard it is to type with four Golden Retrievers trying to climb into your lap? They spill onto the keyboard!

So far I have been doing great on the writing, blogging and critting end of thing. And I suppose I can include the Evil Day Job on this list of things I’ve managed to accomplish every day.

However, my dogs quite obviously feel I haven’t spent nearly enough time with them. My house is a mess. I missed dinner three times last week because I forgot to leave time for cooking before bed. I am out of coffee, dog food, cat food and anything edible for a human. And I didn’t make my 8:30 bed time once last week. Several times I didn’t get to bed until 11:00 pm.

Since I get up at 4:00 am, that early bedtime is critical. Without it, I get up late, or I get up on time and I’m exhausted all day. Exhaustion and creativity do not mix well for me. Yeah, I’m getting the hours in, but my production rate is down. Nor did I manage to get up at 3:30 even one day last week, which was the plan for this year.

I think I’ll try to whip out a couple of blogs over the weekend and schedule them to post during the week. That should take some of the pressure off.

Does anyone have any strategies for balancing the writing, along with building a web presence and managing to keep up with the rest of your life?

If you do, I’d love to hear them.

First Week's Progress Report

2011-01-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

Today marks my momentous seventh straight day of blogging. I have the beginnings of a nice, heavy red chain and yes, I may be strange, but I like looking at all those strings of Xs. There is this instant feeling of accomplishment. You can literally see the result of all those hours spent on the blog. Oh, all right, I’ll admit you can’t literally see all the time spent. It’s more of a representation, but it still gives me a warm, fuzzy glow inside—so there!

I call this a momentous day of blogging not because it’s my seventh straight day, but because today I exceeded last year’s total blog count.

Yep, it’s true. As of today I have already blogged more than ALL of last year. This would be momentous, if the sad fact I only blogged six times last year didn’t prove what a pathetic slacker I’d been. You see this is why I so desperately needed this 365 day blogging challenge.

I’ve been getting the hours in on the book too, for those of you wondering. I finished the final revision on chapter 17, which leaves three chapters left to go. I’m planning on devoting a ton of hours to Zane over the weekend and finishing chapter 18, which will leave me with two chapters to finish next week. This schedule will give me two full weeks to polish and trim, and then we start querying.

Bring on week number two!

I'm Blogging at Tabby's Nocturnal Nights Today

2011-01-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

I blog over at Tabby's Nocturnal Nights on the sixth of every month, come check us out!

Today I'm blogging about Books that still haunt me years after I've read them. Won't you stop over and tell us about some of the books that you've never been able to shake from your mind?

And in other news, the other day I was playing around on the Blogger dashboard and discovered this button called Stats. ACK!! I am now officially obsessed.

Also, a new friend reminded me last night that the deadline for the revised entry for the Linda Howard Award Of Excellence final round of judging is due tomorrow. Good Lord! I totally forgot about this. If she hadn't said anything the deadline would have come and gone without me remembering it. Double ACK!!

And those three things complete my #06 blog post of 2011.

That Damn Villain

2011-01-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today, almost eleven months from the day I sat down and wrote the first scene—maybe nine months from the day I wrote HIS first scene—my villain told me his motivation for doing what he does.

Reeeeally?

After I’ve finished, and revised and tinkered with all your scenes?

NOW you tell me why you’re such an asshole?

And what kind of motivation is that anyway? I mean seriously. What kind of motivation is “because somebody’s gonna do it, and it might as well be me? Besides the money’s good.”

If he didn’t die at the end of the book, I’d kill him myself.

Oh wait . . . I already did.

The Idea Wheel

2011-01-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

Non writing folks constantly ask how I come up with my ideas. They never seem to ‘get’ my explanation that ideas are everywhere: in the newspaper, on television, studying the bat-shit-crazy-eyed man watching you from the bench in front of Starbucks. Or, maybe you stumble across some odd piece of history while on vacation, or even while reading a research book. The point is, ideas surround you. All you have to do is open your eyes and look.

As for me, I gravitate to the odd and bizarre. Things with a twist or unexplained elements.

For example- not too long ago our local radio station, in conjunction with our local police, put out a burglar alert. What was this thief stealing? Why he was stealing condolence meals gifted to grieving families during wakes, or meals following memorial services. He would show up at the funeral and then follow the grieving family to wherever they were holding the wake/memorial meal. He was well dressed in a suit and nice jacket. Always polite, respectful, and sympathetic to the grieving family. But he’d arrive with a backpack and after he’d paid his respects to the family, he’d open this backpack- pull out a dozen Tupperware containers and start loading them up with the food people had brought the grieving family. Last I heard, the local police were staging undercover officers at some upcoming funerals and the memorial meals in the hope of catching this vicious felon.

Yeah, seriously.

And if that news report didn’t inspire all sorts of story ideas,.

Or what about this? Suddenly, one night, out of the blue- over 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fall out of the sky. Dead. And nobody knows why. One hundred miles away, a day earlier, over 100,000 Drum fish, suddenly wash up on the shore. Dead. You can read about it here.
Now does this incite the imagination or what?

I can think of all sorts of scenarios for this and SOME of them aren’t even apocalyptic in nature.

What about the rest of you? Any odd/strange/bizarre piece of news that teased your brain into a story?

Linkage

2011-01-03T04:16:00.000-08:00

For my #3/365 blog posts, I will be posting links for your blog hopping pleasure.

Rebecca Antly has one of the creepiest, and most creative posts on revision I have ever read. Be warned, however, it will creep you out.

Edie Ramer has posted a marvelous snippet of her book Dead People.

Joan Swan is holding a massive, multi-author book give away. Check out her blog for the details.

Patti O'Shea is trying to learn Spanish, because her characters have taken control and are playing with her mind. Yes, they are trying to drive her crazy. (shhhhhh, don't tell Patti. We don't want to scare her)

Karin Tabke has a hot/Hot/HOT new cover. Everyone should be checking in with Karin off and on since she will be holding another First Line Contest sometime in the near future.

Suzanne Johnson is giving away a copy of the Urban Fantasy Soul Hunt by Margaret Ronald. Check her blog out for Details.

Happy Monday Everyone!

The 365 Day Challenge

2011-01-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

First a disclaimer.

I have no idea if this is actually true, or where I even heard it—but I read somewhere that Jerry Seinfeld credits his success with the daily writing of new material and he said the best piece of advice he could pass on to new comics was to buy one of those wall calendars. One of those big ones that has all the months and days on one sheet of paper. He said to set a realistic, easy to accomplish daily goal, something you know you can accomplish no matter what is going on around you. Then on the first day, after you accomplish that goal, mark that day off on the calendar with a heavy red X. Every day that you accomplish the goal, mark it on the calendar with a heavy X. Pretty soon all those Xs will make a red chain. You will be able to see your progress, and it will become increasing important NOT to break that chain by missing a day.

Jerry Seinfeld is brilliant. (even if he didn’t actually say this. *G)

So for 2011 I'm buying a wall calendar and a red pen and I am going to keep that red chain going for 365 days.

Only not just in writing, but blogging as well.

Now, realistically I know I won’t have the time to write a long blog every day. So for my blogging challenge the length of the posts and the content are open to whim. If all I have time for is one sentence, that will still constitute a blog for that day. If I can’t think of anything to post- then a short blog that amounts to “Sorry, nothing to say today” will still count for my daily blog. The point is to train myself to think about blogging, and the easiest way to do that is by forcing a daily blogging habit.

On the writing end of the challenge, I’m setting my daily minimum goat at 250 words. This is for either new words written or for the first round of revisions- which is basically rewriting. This does not include editing, tinkering or trimming. So when I reach the tinkering/polishing/trimming stage in Zane—which is coming up fast. My 250 word goal will be written on the new project.

I started both these challenges yesterday.

Anyone else want to come along for the ride?

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

May 2011 shower you with good fortune.

For me, 2011 will hence forth be known as ‘The Year of the Great Agent Safari.’

Zane is written, revised and re-revised up through chapter 17.

I have three chapters left to hammer into complete submission, and then I will spend a couple of weeks tinkering, polishing and trimming. Right now I am at 107K, but there are plenty of words to shed, and I’ll be able to trim it back to 100K fairly easily.

I have a query letter and synopsis ready to go and I will start querying select agents toward the end of January. I was hoping to have the book completely finished and ready for submission back in October or November and I might have made that deadline if I hadn’t decided to deepen the villain’s characterization. To do this, I ended up going back in and complicating the plot. This necessitated adding several scenes, as well as going into existing scenes and layering the new plot points through. It was a lot more work than I expected, but adds an additional layer of depth and tension. All told, when this project goes out on submissions, it will be close to eleven months since I’d sat down and wrote that first scene.

Back last fall I tossed Zane out on the contest circuit. I had three goals in mind when I did this. I wanted to final so I would have some credits for my query, and I was hoping for some agent/editor requests.

But I also needed feedback on a particular element in the manuscript—specifically the sensuality to suspense ratio and how the two were tied together. I knew from CPs/Beta readers that while everyone agreed the chapters were hot and the hero sexy, some readers had concerns with how I tied the heat and action together. Their concern was valid and I shared it to a certain extent. At that point it was running about 60% for how the sensuality was filtered through and about 40% against. There was no middle ground on this element, people either loved it or hated it. After five contests and twelve new sets of eyes it’s now riding at about 70% for 30% against.

However, another problem with the manuscript showed up through contest feedback, and this was an issue I hadn't been aware of. Quite a few judges mentioned they didn't get pulled into the story until the second page. So I revamped the opening off contest feedback. I hope it solves that slow opening.

Of the five contests I dumped Zane into, it finaled in two, came within a point of finaling in another, and came within three points of finaling in a fourth. It took first place in the romantic suspense category in the Launching a Star contest and I got a really cool engraved metal paperweight shaped like a star. Final ranking for The Linda Howard Award of Excellence hasn't been announced yet.

A couple things I have discovered about the new contest circuit since I started entering Zane.

Everyone has gone to electronic entries and paying through pay pal. In some ways this really simplifies things and saves money. No more postage! No more printing out x-amount of copies. On the down side, in all but one of the contests, when the judges received my entry it had severe formatting issues. Formatting issues that hadn’t been there when I sent. I know for a fact the wonky formatting cost me a final in one contest.

Other things I discovered while on the contest circuit.

Swearing is much more accepted then it was the last time I had a manuscript out on the circuit. Only one judge even mentioned the swearing in Zane, and she didn’t take any points off for it.

I do best in contests where one of the scores is dropped, and where there are five finalists. (Surprise! Not! LOL) I’m not sure I would have finaled in The Launching a Star contest if there hadn’t been five finalists. I wouldn't have finaled in the Linda Howard AOE if they hadn't dropped the one score. (Although it would have been very close) On the same boat, if two of the contests I didn’t final in had had five finalists, I’m pretty sure the entry would have finaled.

So, for 2011, I’ll be looking at entering Zane in contests with 5 finalists. I’m also going to try it in the paranormal category, since from what I'm seeing the Romantic Suspense category never gets any requests. I’ve already entered the new and improved first chapter in the paranormal category of The Great Expectations. This is a test, because while the plot rests on ESP, the suspense is much stronger than the paranormal element. We’ll see how it does.

In 2010, I trained myself to write every day, by getting up at 4:00 am and getting 2.5 hours of writing in before work.

This year I will be getting up a half an hour earlier, and writing for three hours. I am also going to make 2011 the year of building a presence on the web. In addition to the writing (which will always come first) I will be concentrating on blogging & I'm going to launch a website.

I'm really looking forward to 2011. I have this over whelming feeling of optimism. I think 2011 is going to be a great year for me.

Tabby's Nocturnal Nights

2010-11-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to blog over at Tabby's Nocturnal Nights on the 6th of every month. My first post is already up and touches on first loves. Not first loves of the romantic variety-- but our first loves when it comes to reading and writing. Stop by and share your first loves.

Inspiration

2010-07-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Blogger has some new skins and this marbled fuchsia is so full of energy it's inspired me to actually blog.

Updates!!

Still plugging away on Zane. (Nope, haven't named the sucker yet, no idea there) It's been going slooowwly, but it has been going. I finally hit the 50K halfway point over the weekend. I'm at 46K revised words and 52K total. I've just started revisions on chapter ten.

I can honestly say this book has been a very interesting experience. I've broken all my normal writing patterns. For one thing I never plotted this book, never figured out the characters, which is one of the reasons its going so slow. I thought I had enough figured out after chapter five to fly forward.. I mean I knew what was going to happen toward the end, I just had to get them there, right?

Ha, that meant chapters of NOTHINGNESS to fill. So I'd finish a chapter and then have to figure out where I was going from there, which meant days of mulling time while I worked things out. Which naturally lead to worrying that the scenes I was filling the nothingness with, were...well...boring. So I did some extensive brainstorming and came up with another threat that pulls my characters through the middle & provides constant action right up until the shit starts flying toward the end.

Of course adding this element meant going back through the previous chapters and layering the foreshadowing through. Which ties into another reason this book has been so slow going. There's been alot of going back and layering things through. It feels like I'm constantly going back and layering stuff in; foreshadowing, character GMC, hints of back story, secondary characters that just show up out of nowhere, plot twists that need to be at least hinted at earlier.

Interestingly, several of the twists and turns were hinted at earlier, I just didn't pick up on them or know quite why they were in there. For example secondary characters reacting in ways they really shouldn't have. Or characters who show up in the beginning under one guise and I don't know until five chapters later that they weren't at all who I thought they were. Or dialogue that is echoed and twisted later.

The other big difference with this book, in comparison to my last ones, is that I didn't just hammer out a first draft and then go back and revise. Instead, for the first time ever, I've been writing the chapter then immediately going back and revising/polishing/ tweaking, sending it off to my CPs and then revising again as soon as I get their feedback. If something needs to be added, or subtracted, or changed, I do so as soon as I realize it. This means the first nine chapters are solid, revised and polished. After the book's finished there will be one quick edit just to catch anything that was missed, and then it should be ready for submission.

Now that the book's been fully plotted, and the characters have been figured out, and all the foreshadowing and GMC has been layered through, I'm hoping I can pick the pace up. I'd really like to have this out on subs by October first.

Not that I'll have any time to lazy around, there are three secondary heroes in Zane who are demanding their own books. So I am going to be a busy girl.

Flying into the mists . . .without an airplane or a parachute

2010-05-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the two writing camps—plotter VS pantzer, I have always been completely, 100% on the plotter side of the fence. No wiggle room there what-so-ever. Before I’d even sit down to write that first chapter I’d have the WIP figured out from start to finish. I’d know the opening, (or at least think I did, most of the time I’d end up changing the opening after the first draft) I’d know the middle and I’d know the end.

Of course there would be surprises along the way, threads that would leap up and snare me, characters that would go off on little tangents acting totally different than I would ever have expected—but I always had a road map to find my way to the finish line.

Until back in late February, when I came down with a nasty head cold and started medicating the shit out of myself to enable night-time sleepy-sleep. I must have over dosed on the cough meds one night because I had the most vivid, incredibly visual dream. A dream that felt so real, I thought it had actually happened when I first woke up. And then I thought—MY GOD, that would make a kickass opening scene to a book. And because I couldn’t get that scene out of my head, I sat down and wrote it.

It just flew with absolutely no effort onto the screen and from that very first scene the characters fairly leapt off the page.

In retrospect, my first BIG mistake was letting that scene out.

At the time I was working on a different book, I’d already finished the first draft and had revisions complete up through chapter eight—which was close to 50% of the way through.

But once I let Zane and Beth out of the box they grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. I had no interest in the current WIP- I was consumed by my dream people. I suppose this would have been just hunky-dory if there had been an actual PLOT to go along with my vivid dream people. But no such luck.

I knew what was happening in the scene, but I had no idea why, no idea where it was going from there, no idea who the villains were or why they were doing what they were doing. I was quite literally lost.

For the first time I was flying into the mist and I hated it. So I screamed a SOS to writing buddies and Crit partners and they came forth and rallied around me and helped me plot out the first two chapters. Whew *wipes sweat off brow* I knew where I was going again. So I wrote hose two chapters and promptly got stuck again. So I screamed another SOS and more brainstorming ensued and I was able to write the next chapter. Only to get stuck again. And so on and so forth.

I have just finished the fifth chapter in this book and finally the rest of the plot has fallen into line. I know how it’s going to end, I’ve got a solid handle on several scenes in the middle. I feel much more comfortable with the whole process again.

Unfortunately, there are two very sexy, secondary male characters that are apparently going to be getting their own books. How do I know? Well, I dreamed their openings—again—minus the plot, minus the bad guy, minus the whys and the hows…just the characters.

Why? Oh why? Is my muse punishing me like this?

A serious reading glut

2010-02-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

Two weeks back I came down with a nasty cold, that settled in my chest and pretty much wiped me out for a couple of days. Since I'd given up television back last fall, and didn't have the energy to write, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my TBR shelf and started reading it between bouts of sleeping. It was Susan Elizabeth Phillips Natural Born Charmer and it was absolutely, freakingly fantastic. In fact, it was so good it started me on a reading glut like I haven't been on in years.

Now that, is the power of a good book.

I haven't read much during the past few years. I got out of the habit I suppose, actually forgot how much I used to love reading. Somehow, when I started writing the focus shifted, and reading took a back seat--and eventually it dried up completely.

But all it takes is one good book to make you want to read another. In this case, immediately after reading Natural Born Charmer, I read Match Me If You Can. Another fantastic book, but then I don't think I've ever read a book of SEP's that I haven't loved.

After finishing these two books I went down to Hastings and dropped close to thirty bucks on books. . . keep in mind that I haven't spent that much money on books in close to five years. Among the books that I picked up was Midnight Kiss...the first in Lara Aidan's Midnight Breed series featuring hot vampires.

Well, you know I've never been a big Vamp fan. The only reason I picked this book up was because a friend had mentioned it and I was curious. But by now I was seriously glutting on everything, and after reading the first book in the series I picked up the next three and from there I had the startling revelation that yeah-- I did kinda love vamps. It's all that alpha warrior--male on male bonding. lol It's an instant hook, you know? And if you are looking for Alpha Vampire warriors with lots of male on male bonding--well I knew from the buzz on the internet that there was another series out there that was consider a class act. So there went another trip to Hastings where I picked up JR Ward's Dark Lover. The first book in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

All I can say is OMG!!! I started that book last night about nine pm and finished it around 4:30 this morning. About 4:35 am this morning I went online and order every single last book in that series. Yes, I am that hooked.

All in all, during the past two weeks-- I've read twelve books. That's more books than I've read in three years. And I've come to another startling revelation. Reading, serious ramps up my creativity. Since I started this reading glut, I've had more ideas for books than I've had in years. I've started day dreaming books in the car, while falling asleep, while out on my walk. This is startling, since I haven't day dreamed in years. I’ve also started craving music, which is another strange side-effect, but there you have it.

The downside is that with all the reading, I haven't gotten the writing in. Not like I should anyway. I did finish one chapter last week, but it’s not a chapter from the book I should be working on—which is the one I'm revising. It's a totally new book, one that smacked me upside the head like a twenty-pound brick last week.

The problem is that I start reading just before bed, and end up staying up until 2: 00 to 3:00 am in the morning. Which means no 4:00 am writing, which is when I’ve been getting the majority of my words in. And then by nighttime I am so tired from the four or so hours of sleep the night before that I don't even try to write. I go to bed early instead..and tell myself I'll read for a hour and then turn out the light. Only that hour turns into three and before I know it its 3:00 am in the morning again. I'm guessing I've been averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks.

Since I apparently have no self control, I can’t allow myself to read on week days anymore. Only weekends. And only after the writing is in. If next weekend follows this weekend’s path, I will be turning into a vampire Friday night and reading all night than napping through the day. But boy is it worth it. Even strung out on lack of sleep, my creativity has never been so strong..and the words flow thick and furious when I sit down at the computer.

And it’s all thanks to Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her Natural Born Charmer.

Swimming in Negativity

2010-02-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

I stopped following a blog this week.

One that I've followed for years.

And I stopped following it for one reason, and only one reason. The bloggers have become just too depressingly negative.

This is a blog with a mixture of published and unpublished authors, agented and unagented writers. Every single one of them is extremely talented. Every single one of them has interesting things to say. And now, every single one of them seems to be depressingly negative.

I understand that we all have bad days, that we all have moments of extreme doubt. I even understand that it can be cathartic to cut into a vein and bleed all over your blog every once in a while. But when the bleeding goes on and one, through both posts and comments--well, then you start creating an atmosphere that just sucks the vitality and energy right out of you.

Anyone who haunts the various agent blogs knows the statistics. Anyone who participates in pitch contests, or queryfests, or any of the various agent and editor submission contests can see quite graphically the sheer volume of submissions to the miniscule number of requests. So what? Does that mean you won't ever achieve any success during the course of your writing career? Of course not. All it takes it one book, and one agent and one editor to hit the jackpot.

So what if an agent had 397 submissions during a given week and only requested four books?

Four books were requested, four authors have a chance to move forward. That's four chances out of 400. It's better than the lottery. It's better than any raffle I've entered. And at least with this gamble you can up your odds by writing a damn good book, and researching the agent enough to know you're giving them what they want.

When you sit there and dwell on the statistical improbability of even getting your work requested--or, if you're a published author you sit there and fret about your lack of sales/lack of royalty check, and question why you are even writing, how is that helping you?

Negative energy breeds. It feeds off itself. It can swallow you whole if you let it. It can suck every bit of joy out of your words and leave ashes in your heart. It can suck the soul right out of your stories and derail any chance at success. You can create your own negative tide, a negativity that will stop opportunity from pounding on your door.

Likewise, a positive outlook can create opportunities.

In the last two months I personally know one person who has sold Michelle Diener and one person who was picked up by an agent. Joan Swan

They were swimming against the same statistical tide as the rest of us, but they didn't let negativity swamp them. They kept swimming. They didn't give up. They didn't let the industry beat them down. They didn't sit down and whine about their circumstances. And they succeeded because of it.

It's time for the rest of us to either get out of the water or stop the whining.

Twitter Query #fail

2010-01-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight on twitter several agents started tweeting #thingsishouldnotseeinaquery.

And the more they posted, the more this pattern emerged. And I started thinking that someone could actually string all those tweets together and produce one gigantic query #fail. So I did.

haahahahahahhaha

Dear Agent,

Please pardon the intrusion. I know you are busy. I hope to arouse your interest. I really don't expect this to work, but I'm writing because of your impressive success in the Christian Republican genre. After reading about your expertise in the Christian Republican genre, I knew you would love this book because it has a strong pro-libertarian theme throughout, plus this is a story that God wanted to be told! So, I am writing to you personally. Besides, In your picture you look attractive yet approachable! Not to mention you come highly recommended by an a agent you don’t even know!

I am an escort working in Rome. I am 40 but advertise as 34, so keep the lights low. This story is a work in progress, and this is my first attempt to write, although I have been writing since I was seven years old. It is a clever coming of age story and will forever change the way we listen to people. Just in case you're up for a silly romp, I would like to take you on an adventure in a refreshingly new genre. So, If you're looking for a non stop adventure filled with action and thrills, look no further!!!

A blend of fantasy, action, YA, literary fiction, coming-of-age and paranormal romance, this book is Perfect for readers of all ages, and it has A plot sure to keep the pages turning. After finalizing my original draft of the book, I read it to two elementary classes to gauge interest, including my daughter's second grade class and it was a hit!!

I have been told that my writing is visual and exciting, so this book is sure to take the reader on a fun filled journey from beginning to end with superb writing. I think it will tug at your heartstrings, since this is a book with excellent storytelling.

This is memoir was largely inspired by the Twilight series, although if you read my situation below is an awesome true story that will be a best seller, because I am really quit unremarkable in all ways . This is very much the type of story George Clooney likes to sink his teeth into, capable of winning awards. I think it also said, "promotion should be easy b/c I look like Bon Jovi."

So with no further ado I would like to introduce to you this series of novels, they run backwards but can be read in any order. A new inspirational and spiritual movie script It tells through dialogue, which makes it an easy crossover into a screenplay with or without a narrator. We see the end all of the characters and the reasons for their particular ends. The environment spans a period of approximately 20 years shown in retrospect to the audience."

I’m not the best negotiator, so several film studios did not produce my screenplay. And I won't bother you with the tales I could tell about attempting to get published. However, I am a successfully published author: TITLE (Authorhouse/Xlibris/Lulu, YEAR. The aforementioned is currently in print through self publishing.

Unfortunately, I enjoy writing more than I do searching for an agent. Even though I never intended a career in writing, at least not creative writing, but I needed a new creative outlet. My major output has been technical and business reports. I am aware of archetypal patterns in literature, but I’ve always felt the stories can be insulting towards certain subcultures. But knowing you to be looking for literary historical romance, I am contacting you about a big literary idea that I have been itching to write and get distributed. I am positive that it will be a colossal seller. I'm hoping this book can be out by valentine’s day because timing is perfect!

I am looking for a major deal--six figures--not some BS offer. I've attached the first chapter as a PDF. If you wish to read more of my novel, please visit trishmccalln.com. Or better yet, please e-mail me a submission form if you are interested. I just received your details via Linkedin, so I should be available at all times and I can meet if needed to better pitch my idea.

Please respond as soon as possible with your offer, since I have sent this to another 500 agents I found in Writers Market.

Trish McCallan

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha

These were the tweets posted on twitter. I used ALL OF THEM. Well, at least the ones I saw.

I needed a new creative outlet."

have an epic tale in that is yearning to be told." #soundscontagious

"I am really quit unremarkable in all ways

"Perfect for readers of all ages."

"I know you are busy."

"is a work in progress."

"I'm writing b/c of your impressive success in [a genre I've never handled & don't care to]."

"I have been writing since I was seven years old."

"In reading about your expertise in the [genre I have never represented] genre..."

"Please pardon the intrusion."

"I hope to arouse your interest."

It is a clever coming of age story."

"My major output has been technical and business reports."

"This is a book that will forever change the way we listen to people."

"Dear Agent..."

"I would like to take you on an adventure in a refreshingly new genre."

ColleenLindsay "I am looking for a major deal--six figures--not some BS offer." [from a query last wk.]

"This is a book with excellent storytelling."

"This is a book that is currently in print through self publishing."

I think it also said, "promotion should be easy b/c I look like Bon Jovi."

"This is my first attempt to write."

"I've attached the first chapter as a PDF."

If you're looking for a non stop adventure filled with action and thrills, look no further

"This book has a strong pro-libertarian theme throughout."

A blend of fantasy, action, YA, literary fiction, coming-of-age and paranormal romance.

A plot sure to keep the pages turning."

"I've read this book to my daughter's second grade class and it was a hit!

I am writing to you personally.

"In your picture you look attractive yet approachable"

You come highly recommended by [Agent I don't know, and have never talked to]"

I am an escort working in Rome. I am 40 but advertise as 34, so keep the lights low."

"I would like to introduce to you a new inspirational and spiritual movie script." #thingsishouldnotseeinaquery

"I really don't expect this to work."

"Several film studios did not produce my screenplay

"I am a successfully published author: TITLE (Authorhouse/Xlibris/Lulu, YEAR)"

ust in case you're up for a silly romp."

I have been told that my writing is visual and exciting."

he environment spans a period of approximately 20 years shown in retrospect to the audience."

t tells through dialogue, which makes it an easy crossover into a screenplay with or without a narrator."

We see the end all of the characters and the reasons for their particular ends."

Sure to take the reader on a fun filled journey from beginning to end with superb writing"

Read my situation below is an awesome true story that will be a best seller."

he type of story George Clooney likes to sink his teeth into, capable of winning awards."

fter finalizing my original draft of the book, I read it to two elementary classes to gauge interest."

I think it will tug at your heartstrings."

"I’m not the best negotiator."

This is memoir was largely inspired by the Twilight series."

This series of novels runs backwards but can be read in any order."

I just received your details via Linkedin."

"I won't bother you with the tales I could tell about attempting to get published."

I am aware of archetypal patterns in literature

Unfortunately, I enjoy writing more than I do searching for an agent."

never intended a career in writing."

The stories can be insulting towards certain subcultures."

I'm hoping this book can be out by [holiday that's two months away], b/c timing is perfect!"

If you wish to read more of my novel, please visit [insert website URL]."

I am contacting you about a big literary idea that I have been itching to write and get distributed."

I am positive that it will be a colossal seller.

I should be available at all times and I can meet if needed to better pitch my idea."

"Please e-mail me a submission form if you are interested."

"Knowing you to be looking for literary historical romance."

Voice

2009-12-19T23:58:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, long, long ago a brand-new writer put her pen to paper and scratched her first word. It was a simple word. Too simple. Way, way too simple. In fact, it was so simple she hated it. So she tore the page out and started over. Her next few words were better, but still weak and flaccid and unimaginative. She ripped those out too. And thus she began her struggle for the perfect word. And with those perfect words she strung together a beautiful sentence. And with that beautiful sentence she constructed a lovely verse. And verse by lovely verse she crafted a gorgeous poem.

Her fellow poets all oohhhed and ahhhed. They described it as lush and evocative. They raved they could smell the marsh and feel the harsh pummeling of the sun. The fledgling writer basked in their praise and wrote another lush and evocative poem. And then another. And her voice became know far and wide as poetic and evocative and lush.

Several years later, our fledgling young writer grew tired of writing lush, evocative poetry. Bored she looked around, and found a short story critique group and thought to herself (with the arrogance of youth) since there is nothing harder than writing poetry, I could easily write a short story. So she did. She strung together lush and evocative words and created a beautiful short story and she presented it to her new critique group and sat back, awaiting their ooohhhhhs and ahhhhhs--ready to bask in their admiring praise. Instead they asked her about her plot, and something about characters, and gently mentioned that traditionally something needed to happen in a story--short or otherwise.

And thus our intrepid and still fledgling writing learned about storyish things like plot and character and gmc and movement and pace. (as in she had none of the before mentioned)

Another year or two passed while our clueless (and yes still fledgling writer) struggled with the short story format. Eventually her wise and oh-so-frustrated mentors gently suggested she may want to try her hand at novel writing, where her verboseness would be more welcome--and guided her toward a critique group that specialized in novels. I (oops) she could hear their sighs of relief as the door closed on their last session.

In the novel writing group our heroine felt embraced in her verboseness and love of imagery..Until she passed around her first chapter and talk of characters and gmc and goals and pace and forward movement swiftly rose up to swat her in her lush and evocative hinny. There may possibly have been talk of nothing happening, someone might possibly have said something like "I was hoping a bomb would go off somewhere, even if it killed the heroine, just so we'd get some kind of movement here. " and they definitely suggested cutting the first twenty five pages. (even through they'd only received the first twenty)

Crushed, the now unfledged authoress slunk back to her computer to massacre some of her lovely words, in search of that elusive beast called plot.

Fast forward a few years. Our now fully fledged authoress discovers contests and receives such praise as "lush and evocative", "beautifully written" and such criticism as "when in the hell is something going to happen" and "can you spell boring?" all in the same contest. Crushed she returns to her computer and slaughters even more of her lovely words in pursuit of that elusive double headed beast called characters and action.

And year by year, less and less gorgeous words make their way into her manuscripts. Lush and evocative no longer describe her voice. Now she's called things like dark and gritty, or mainstream, even sharp and edgy. But she pines for the magical words, the lushness of imagery, both imaginative and vivid. She craves those pretty picturesque words...and she hordes them and writes them down, only to butcher them because they no longer fit the WIP in either style or tone.

Until eventually, those pretty words flee in the face of her desire, knowing their fate if they were to be seized-- sacrificed to the ravages of progression.

Stepping It Up

2009-11-30T19:09:00.000-08:00

I have been lax.

There, I've admitted it. The funny thing is I have been writing, pretty much every day.

So why am I a full chapter behind?

Well, that would be because I have developed a strange new procrastination technique. For some unknown and ungodly reason I have been trying to get rid of every WAS in my last chapter. Seriously. I have no idea what that sad little verb did to piss me of, but suddenly I am obsessed with killing them. I spent two full days going through it sentence by sentence and trying to rewrite to pull the verb out.

Wow, now is that procrastination or what? When I gave serious thought to going through the chapter backwards and trying to rework all those sentences I couldn't kill the WAS in the first time--well that's when I knew I was in serious trouble. So I wrestled my muse to the ground and sent the chapter off to my crit partners before she could shoot off another procrastinators attack like trying to get me to murder all of those innocent little dialogue tags. . . wait.

That bitch.

I think she already got me with that one.

As I get further and further into this book ( I am revising chapter four now) it is becoming increasingly clear that I need to take my sneaky little Muse to lunch and have the "It's not you, it's me" chat with her. I need to find me a new Muse. One who is not obsessed with perfectionism. One who knows when to let go. One who will let me move on.

One who will not keep harping on that poor harmless verb was.

Those Favorite Lines

2009-11-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

One of the things that makes writing worthwhile, and makes it easy to sequester yourself in that room and focus for hours on end, are all those little jewels that pop up when you least expect them. You know those lines I'm talking about. They snap into place like they were specifically crafted for that spot in the WIP. They come out of nowhere and make you giggle, or snicker, or tear up.

Weeks later, when you're re-reading the manuscript for the fourth or fifth time, they still make you giggle, or snicker, or tear up.

Every manuscript has them. Heck, almost every chapter of every manuscript has them.

So let's share some here.

Post your favorite line from your first chapter and then your second one. A bit of set up is fine..or you can just let that line shine on its own.

I'll start.

From The Cat's Meow.

Chapter One: Rianna's syrupy response sounded eerily familiar, like something Bree might have said herself, oh--say--a dozen or so times in the past.

Chapter Two: The wreck clung to life with one determined belch after another. He was about to knock on the driver's window and tell her to pop the hood so he could yank the distributor cap when it cut loose with one last elephantine fart and lapsed into blessed silence.

Okay so I cheated on that last one. :LOL:

So what are your favorite lines?

Share by posting in the comments section.

Back To The Drawing Board

2009-11-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

A special thank you to Rebecca for reminding me that I needed to post again.

My original goal when launching this blog was to post at least twice a week. Obviously I need to do better with that. :lol:

On the revision front, I'm moving along--slowly but surely. The first two chapters have been revised, polished and shipped off to crit partners. I've already received the feedback for chapter one and after analyzing it, it's obvious I need to go back in and make some changes. Strangely enough, the things I was worried about ended up not being much of an issue. Only one out of the four had a problem following the dialogue and nobody had an issue with the volume of characters introduced.

The two things they did have problems with, were things I was totally blind to. Like the tone of the first few pages and the likeability of the hero. Although, TBH-- I knew the hero could be a problem...because...well... he's an ass. :lol: Interestingly enough, the verdict on the hero was split-- two loved him, and two...well not so much. One of the things I'll be doing when I go back into chapter one, is explain a bit more why he is acting the ass. Ramp up his motivation so to speak. I think that will fix his likeability ratio.

I'm going to wait to go back in and fix things until after I get the crits back for chapters three and four. I suspect there will be issues in both these chapters that will need to be addressed earlier-- in chapters one and two.

As for Chapter two, well that one seems to be a hit. I've got feedback from 3 out of the 4 people I sent it to, all highly favorable. So no major changes there. Chapter three, however, has been a PITA. It just wasn't flowing, and the banter between the hero and heroine turned into page filler rather than actually accomplishing anything and then a couple of the characters who were supposed to be in there, just sort of vanished. :lol: After struggling with it for four days, I finally just deleted the entire thing and started over. The new version is going much smoother and is very close to the way I'd envisioned it. So I think I've finally fixed the problem. It's amazing how deleting and starting over can fix things for me.

I will admit that I slacked off a bit this past week. I got hit with a nasty cold, and started sleeping in rather than getting up and writing before heading to work. Add in the fact by the time I’d get home I was exhausted. So I missed several days. I’m back on track again as of today though. For the first time in a week I got up at 4am and worked until 6:30. Maybe that’s why the writing went so smoothly.

Those early morning sessions are a must for me!

So how are you guys doing? What kind of progress are you looking at?

Progress

2009-11-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

I finished the final polish on chapter one Friday morning and shipped it off to my critique partners.

Very, very anxious to see how they like it. I tried some new tactics for dialogue tagging, but I'm not sure whether they actually worked. I know who says what, so I'm not the best judge of whether the dialogue becomes confusing. On the other hand, if the tags didn't work and there is confusion over who's speaking, that's easy enough to fix.

I have a couple of other concerns about the two scenes in this first chapter too. One is the volume of characters they introduce. I may need to go back in and prune some of those characters out. But I'm waiting to find out if my readers found them overwhelming before I do anything. The last worry is pace. (which is something I always seem to be worrying over) This first chapter sets up a ton of things, and I'm hoping it’s not so full of characters and plot that it bogs down.

I suppose if it does, I can always go in and make good use of that delete key. (no matter how much using that key hurts. )

I also made great progress on chapter two and finished the major revisions to those pages over the weekend. At this point I'll let it sit two days or so and then go back in and polish, so I can have it out to my crit partners this Friday. I didn't make as much progress in chapter three today as I'd hoped. I did get my 1000 word goal in. But my ears and head are all stuffed up, so I stopped there. The plan is to go to bed early tonight, so I can get up at four am tomorrow morning.

On To Revisions

2009-11-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

So after finishing the first draft of the WIP, the next step is reading it. See what I've got, see if the tone is consistent, if the characters have come alive and whether there are any huge plot holes.

Some people recommend letting the first draft sit for a while before you start reading it. They say give it a week or two or twelve, until you can come back to it with fresh eyes. I agree with that advice 100%. I believe you do need distance to evaluate the work subjectively. So did I follow that advice, did I let my baby sit there and whine for my attention for a whole week.

Hell No.

It didn't even sit there for a full day. I read it for the first time less than twenty hours after I finished it. I read it for the second time about 12 hours later. I found it rather surprising, actually. And very satisfying. For one thing it was much, MUCH better than I was expecting. The writing wasn't nearly as horribly, eye-meltingly bad as I'd expected. And the storyline was there--no serious plot holes. But the best part was the characters, from the first paragraph they virtually leapt off the page. The pace and the tone were just about perfect...at least IMO... but the biggest surprise was the arrangement of POV scenes. While writing it, it felt like it was really heavy on the hero's POV. So I figured I'd be revamping some of his scenes into hers. But upon reading it, I found the balance in POVs was there too. In fact, there might be just a few more scenes in her POV--so I won't have to worry about doing any swapping.

I gave myself Saturday to mull over new ideas, and then I started revisions on Sunday. I was just too anxious; I didn't want to wait any longer. So far I love how it’s turning out. I love the dynamics of the characters; I love how they bounce off each other. But as I expected the revisions are going much slower than the first draft did.

I have, however, been meeting my daily goals. I got 2100 words revised on Sunday and then 1000 each day for Monday, Tuesday and today. Monday and Tuesday were tough, since work's been hellish and I'd only revised about half what I needed before I left for work. So when I got home those two days I still had from 400-500 words left to revise. But I survived, and I got the words, and no matter how long it took me to find the ones I wanted to keep--I did find them. This morning went much better. I got up at 4 am and was able to get my entire 1000 words revised before work. Then I got a few more at work and after work.

But best of all I finished the final scene in the first chapter. Tomorrow I'll do a final tweak and polish of this first chapter and then I'm calling it good and moving on.

That's what I have to learn next, when to call it good and let it go.

TGE (That's Good Enough) it’s my new motto.

Goals

2009-10-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

It was exactly 41 days ago that I started writing again.

And yesterday, 40 days after typing that first word, I typed my 88,488th, and finished the first draft of this WIP. That's almost 90K in less than a month and a half. I've never written that much, that fast before. But I had a secret weapon this time.

Star Bucks Double Shot espresso.

Okay, two secret weapons. I also set a goal, as well as a deadline.

Oh, I've set goals before and made deadlines. Thousands of them. But I never kept them. Not one. In the nine years that I've been writing, I've never met one of the deadlines that I've set for myself. Pathetic, isn't it? And because I never met any of the deadlines, I never produced. Or at least I never produced well. I've written one book in the last nine years. I think its a good book, but still its just one. If I'd set goals and made deadlines and actually stuck to them, I might have nine books finished by now...I might even have gotten published.. ..

So what changed? What made the difference this time? Why was I able to make a goal, and set a deadline and actually stick to it. What inspired me to change my bad writing habits.

Well, as cliché as it may sound, I've had a serious awakening this past year. I lost my mother to cancer almost exactly a year ago and then I went through a serious health scare myself. I only have one regret with my mom. I wish I'd made the commitment to writing earlier and had found a road to publication. I wish I'd had an actual book to press into her hand before she died. My mom had always supported me, had always believed in me, and I wish I'd made the effort to actually do something with my writing. . . something to show her that her support and faith hadn't been squandered.

And then came my brush with mortality. In evaluating my life, I had a lot of regrets. One of them was the writing. . . or lack thereof. There is a deep sense of shame to having a dream, yet never making the effort to pursue it. There's a sense of cowardice, of unfulfillment. With my mom I can't go back--but with myself I can go forward. So I committed myself whole heartedly to pursuing this dream and then I set a goal and I made a deadline.

And once I had the major deadline chosen, I figured out how many words I needed a day to make that deadline happen. And then I sat down and I wrote those words--every day. The goal I chose was realistic. I was going to finish this first draft in 90 days. So my daily word count goal was 1000 words a day. In first draft mode, for me that takes about an hour. I chose this goal because an hour a day is easy for me, there is no excuse not to get it.

Still, I knew I needed support and through the years I'd lost most my writing buddies, so I decided to join Twitter and make some new ones. Smartest thing I've ever done. I found some kickass new writing buddies and they were all on self imposed deadlines too. Their deadlines, however, were much nearer than mine. They'd set November one as their finish the damn book deadline. And then a funny thing happened as I started to write. Once I'd hit my daily goal of 1K, I'd keep writing and the word count soared. After a while it became apparent that at the current rate of productivity, I could finish by November first too. So I upped my deadline to match theirs and I committed to finishing my first draft by October 31st.

Somedays I wrote a lot more than those 1000 words--my highest count was 6550--but there wasn't one day where I wrote less. And I finished one full day ahead of schedule.

Today I set new goals. Realistic goals, but this time for revisions.

I'm keeping the 1000 word goal. Only this time that means 1000 words revised and polished each day. This means I'll finish one chapter each week to send out to critique partners. My deadline to finish revisions is five months and then I'm tacking a month on for final polishing and then it goes out the door. 6 months more to finish this book, which makes my new deadline the first of May.

I'm not going to ask for luck on making this goal, because I don't need it. I need commitment, and goals, and deadlines, and determination and writing buddies and Starbuck's Double Shot Espresso. All of which I have in spades. (although I wouldn't mind if you sent me a couple of cases of Starbuck's Double Shot...this addiction is getting expensive)

Who needs luck when you've got such kick ass secret weapons like the ones above?