Busy, busy, busy

It has been a busy, busy few weeks. I'm running way behind where I wanted to be in certain things, but I did get the revisions on The Barbed Rose finished and sent back to New York. It's looking good, I think.

Next week, I'll be starting on the last book in The One Rose trilogy, which has no title yet. I have a few things I want to have happen, but beyond that, I'm not clear. Which is why I'm glad I'll be meeting up with my critique partners in Dallas this coming weekend at the Dreamin' in Dallas conference. We always brainstorm for each other when we get together. They helped me with the main plot outline for Barbed Rose, so I know they can help me with this one. And they're a lot of fun to hang out with besides.

I've spent a lot of time out of town over the past month. I went to New Mexico for a week (well, one day going and one day coming home again) taking kids skiing for spring break. It was early here, so we were a week ahead of the big spring snow storm. The weather was fabulous--the boys in the group skied without shirts the last day of the trip. And then we got over a foot of snow after we got home.

Got to go to visit some of the grandboys over the Easter weekend--it was fun, but exhausting. All this traveling has really put me behind in things like updating my website or clearing away the stacks and stacks (and stacks) of "already read" books I need to go through, list in my computer and sort into keeper, trade-in, and library donation stacks. The keepers are the ones I know I want to read again (and have probably read again already). The donations are the ones I think I might want to read again, so I'll let the library keep them on their shelves, since I don't have room, and the trade-ins are the books I'm pretty sure I won't want to read again. Although sometimes I pick them up at a bookstore and buy them again. (sigh) Did that this week with Suzanne Brockmann's Hawken's Heart. I didn't realize it was one I had in the original edition, and bought the reprint--because I didn't even look at the inside. If I had, I'd probably have recognized the story, but I didn't. I did read it again. :) Do any of you do this? Probably all the time. Ah well.

More when I manage to get here.

Back again

I really ought to post on a more regular basis, but... well, I don't even keep up with my journal or "morning pages" (from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way) on a regular basis. And the journal is where I work out problems with the writing.

Hmmm. So does that mean I don't regularly have problems with my writing? Must be. ;)

It's confirmed. The Barbed Rose will be the title of the second book in The One Rose trilogy. I'm working on revisions for it now. Almost halfway through. I ought to be able to finish them by the end of next week. Probably a good thing, because we're going to go visit two of the grandboys (and their daddy) for Easter.

I've got a bazillion other things to do, but first, I need to get past the company coming this evening. We had a big batch of people over for Sunday dinner, now I'm resting up for the next batch. Then I can do my other Tarot readings and work on the website (which has not been updated since the book came out. Did I mention that? The Compass Rose is out and available in bookstores everywhere. And it got some pretty good reviews too.) And I know there's at least another dozen and a half things I need to get done. Ah well. The brain gets lost when I'm working.

Stuff happens

The writing has begun to move along. Probably just in time for me to switch to something else for a deadline. I typed in the opening pages of the new book, and decided that I needed to trash the first 3 pages (an improvement over the 50 pages that had to be dumped from the One Rose book I finished last month). I can feed all that information in--and probably ought to--while the story moves along. And some of it probably doesn't need to go in.

Thursday night, I took seven local kids to a Mercy Me concert in Amarillo. Because we're an hour away, we had to leave by six to get there on time. Problem was, several of the kids didn't get out of baseball/softball practice till right at six, and understandably didn't want to go to a concert in a dirty practice uniform. We left town about 15 minutes late with an Excursion full of hungry kids--some did eat ahead of time, but most of them had no time to do it. They scarfed down the few Girl Scout cookies I had, a small bag of Chex Mix and a small bag of green salsa Doritos one of them provided.

Of course, by the time we got to the "big city" (hey, compared to our little town, Amarillo IS big...) all the close parking was taken, so we had to hike a ways, then while I ran around to pick up the tickets, they ran to the concessions for food. Anyway, it was an excellent concert. Okay, even when I was their age (high school or younger) I never did like bass cranked up so loud it made the body vibrate. I still don't like it. But other than that, it was great. We saw most of the rest of our town there--lots of visiting went on during intermission, and lots of singing along with the bands. Lots of fun.

School night, I was trying to get them home as early as I could, so--since they were still insisting they were starving--we drove through at McDonald's. I'm truly impressed they could keep our mass order straight. One young lady got an ice cream cone. When they handed it to me, the very tall ice cream proceeded to topple over, and I had to catch it in my bare hands. It didn't melt too much before the clerk brought me a sundae cup I could fold the ice cream in and stick the cone on top. And the sweet child who ordered it was sitting in the farthest back seat in the vehicle. Even with all the napkins, my fingers tasted sweet all the way home.

And I still got some good writing done on Friday, even with all the late hours.

The son (a high school senior) is acting in the college's spring play--last performance is this afternoon, so I'll sign off now. I am finally taking the camera with me so I can get pictures.

The State of Being a Bum

I am wallowing in bumness. The writing--when I do it--is going well. Problem is, I'm not writing like I should be. Hoped to get a proposal done this month. Ha!

I know I usually take quite a bit of time off after I finish a book, but I had hoped to manage to take a bit less this time. And I have started the new book. The time off has been sporadic and sprinkled into the midst of the attempting to write, and filled with vital and utterly boring things like taking the computer to the shop after a power outage killed it. And playing online games. And reading books. (I'm almost caught up on all the Luna releases so far...still have 2 to go, I think.) And making chicken 'n' dumplings for a bake sale. And stuff.

Tomorrow, I have to get serious. Wish me luck.

Starting New is Always the Hardest

I'm trying to get untracked on this new book. Wrote 6 pages Monday, was going great guns, had lots more that I knew where it was going. Tuesday was a bust, because Monday afternoon, the computer died (more on that in a minute) and I had to cart the computer into Amarillo to the fix-it shop to get it fixed. Today, when I went back to write, I got a whole page and a half out of all that stuff I knew about. Then it was time to switch POV, and Phhttbbbttt! Nada. Everything I thought I had I didn't. No clue what needed to happen next. So I quit and went to play on the internet and let the brain percolate.

The reason the computer died--apparently the garbage truck driver (this is a small town. There's only one. Only one truck--there may be two drivers) was either hungover or--well, something, because a block or so down from my house, he clipped his second power pole of the day. This time, instead of just leaning the pole over on its lines, the power lines snapped. He was lucky he didn't electrocute himself. (I have it on good authority--from the mother of a young man who did this to himself and didn't die--that you just ain't the same after.)

Anyway, even though the electricity just blinked off for a few seconds, my computer wouldn't boot back up. At all. I had all my story stuff backed up, but I hadn't backed up things like website bookmarks or e-mail addresses, or things I needed to reply to, or notes for articles. ACK!!

So, I'm doing this on the backup computer. Because it lives in the son's bedroom, he thinks it's his, but it isn't. I miss my split keyboard (if there are typos, it's because my hands feel all squished together and I keep sticking them on the wrong keys) and my trackball mouse.

And I'm still not writing.

ACK!!! It's been too long!

I've been away too long. After the Christmas craziness, I vanished into the Deadline cave--you know, that place where you eat, breathe, drink, sleep the book, when you never leave the house, forget every appointment, meeting and whatever you're not dragged to bodily, all in order to Get The Stinkin' Book Done On Time.

Yes, I did get it finished, I finished it on time, and it's not so stinkin' after all. In fact, it's pretty good, if I do say so myself. We shall see what the editor says.

Now it's time to start another book. I hope I manage to do better next time. I really didn't intend to cut off ALL outside contact when I descended into that cave. The next one's about curses, and though I'm not a real fan of ghost books, it may have a ghost in it. If I can't figure out a way to get rid of her. Wish me luck.

A New Week

Okay, I don't think I posted a single thing here last week. I was working on a BIAW and the NaNoWriMo, and writing lots and lots--I didn't even write my newspaper column last week. Everything focused on the book. Well, mostly everything.

I got about 40 pages written last week. Not as much as I wanted, but more than I expected. The story is moving right along.

Then I went with my son's French Class to Dallas on a one-day trip to see Cirque du Soleil. We left at 7 a.m. and got home around 1:30, with about 6 hours in Dallas. Want to hear panic in a teenager’s voice? Just sit in on a game of high school Truth-or-Dare during a school trip and let them suddenly recall in the midst of all the uproar that one of those listening in writes the weekly column for the hometown newspaper.

Cirque du Soleil was fabulous. I can't describe it--just go visit their website to see what all they do. But now I want to write a circus story even more than I did before. Someday, maybe.

Meanwhile, it's back to work on the book. I got 4 pages done this morning, but I really need to go back to work on it. I'd like to have a couple more pages to the good today. It's time to rescue the guy and get out of town. I'm on the downhill side, but...

Getting sidetracked

I've been pretty good this week about getting the writing done. I didn't always write all I wanted every day this past week, but I wrote every day, and reached my page goals most days. Thursday, I think it was, I got an e-mail from the editor that they were going to be working on cover art.

Of course, this being me, I was reading the e-mail faster than my brain could compute, and skipped over some of the pertinent information and began to panic that they were re-doing the cover to The Compass Rose. Then I read the e-mail more carefully--the way I should have done to begin with--and realized that no, this was for the cover for Book TWO of the One Rose trilogy. The book I'm still fighting to finish. Immediate reaction: ACK!!!

I'm only a little past the halfway point (I think). I have no idea whether any scenes will turn up in the end of the book that will make great cover scenes. (There is a pretty cool one in the middle, though.) So I put together descriptions of the settings where most of the book takes place (and will have to go back and beef up the descriptions, because I tend to skim over those, even though I have definite ideas about what things look like) and descriptions of the characters, and a couple of scenes and which characters are in what locations, and we'll see what happens.

I spent most of today (Saturday) doing this, so I can get back to the writing tomorrow. Only have two things I have to do next week--no, three. But I can get that done. I can make it.

Need to go buy new bulbs to put in my flower bed, too. The ones I had rotted before I could get them in the ground. (sigh)

National Novel Writing Month

The point of NaNoWriMo is to write a whole, 50,000-word novel in one month. Why they chose November with Thanksgiving smack in the middle of it (okay, at the end), I will never know...Maybe because the guys who started this are guys. Who don't cook. Or do Thanksgiving for their families.

Anyway, I'm not doing a start-from-scratch novel, so I didn't sign up on the "official" website. I've got this book to finish. And it's one heck of a lot longer than 50,000 words. If I can keep it under 150,000, I'll be happy.

But I'm doing my own unofficial version, on a couple of loops, because, as said, I have to finish this stinkin' book. Got 5-1/2 pages written yesterday. Found my way out of the corner the characters boxed me into, and got into the next scene...and had to stop because I had no clue where it was going.

Worked that out in morning pages over breakfast, and wrote six (6) pages today. Met my goal. And I'm still in the middle of the scene, so I know (sort of) where to pick it up tomorrow.

It's snowing today--election day. It does snow more often in this part of Texas than further downstate, but it's unusual to be snowing this early. Though now I think of it, it snowed here on the last presidential election day... Hmm. Is this some kind of sign or something? I voted two weeks ago, just so I wouldn't have to think about politics and could ignore people picking at me.

I can't be worrying over that kind of unimportant stuff. I have a book to finish!

Cornered

Got four pages today--and they went in a totally different direction from any I expected. I wrote myself into a corner. It's not a bad corner, but I think the only way out is through, and I'm not sure I want to go through this love scene. I may have to though.

It's not that I don't like writing love scenes. This one may be a little tricky, but it ought to be fun as well. It's that I write them so slowly. It takes my page production way down because I want to get them Right and I spend twice as much time weighing words and making sure what they do is actually physically possible. These people aren't gymnasts. (Though sometimes I think they'd like to be.) And this one is definitely tricky. Very, very tricky.

If they refuse to cooperate unless I let them do this, maybe I can write it, then cut it later... (grumble, grumble) Characters are SO uncooperative...

Stinky Day

I'm trying not to use...questionable language in my blog. But today was not the best day for me. Got a rejection on a romance--deserved, I think. Which will require some thinking as to the next step to take. But not now. I'll think about it later. (I'm very Scarlett O'Hara that way) It's still da** depressing. (Yeah, I know. I used one of "those" words. I can't help it. I'm in a questionable mood.) I do know that everything said in the rejection letter is 100% true. I know that I have sold books before, and will again. But it's still depressing, and I'm still in a stinky mood.

And I only got 4 pages written today. Got six pages yesterday--didn't post that yet. I was pleased with yesterday's stuff--and today's is pretty good. Just didn't get as much done as I would have liked. It would probably help if I knew what needed to happen. Didn't do "morning pages" today, which is where I usually work this stuff out. Guess I'd better not skip them tomorrow. Got to get on the stick and get my writing done. Don't want to be finishing it January 31.

A Week's Worth of Writing

It's been a good week, once I managed to get into it. Mondays and Tuesdays always seem to be so hectic, for some reason. But I was able to consistently get pages written, though not always as many as I wanted. I did four to four and a half through Wednesday, then Thursday, I got five pages. Friday, I got six, and yesterday--though I usually don't write on the weekends--I got seven pages done. It was a "working Saturday".

I think I've reached the half-way point in the book. I hope there's enough adventure up to this point--I know there's set-up--I just want it to be right. I love these people and this story, and I want to do them justice.

Starting slow

Getting back into gear slowly. The 4 pages I wrote yesterday feel a tad slow--I'll have to see when I go back over them again. The 4-1/2 pages I got done today, before heading to town, went better. Big fight scene. Now I have to do the wrap up, and figure out what happens next. I sort of know, but not sure how much transition I need in between.

But that's what "morning pages" are for. Figuring stuff out.

Can't think of anything else to blog about, so I'll just quit. Done here.

Back to Work (I hope)

I haven't posted here in a while. Haven't done much of anything, actually. I went to Waco a week ago Saturday to for that workshop on characterization, and came home exhausted. It wasn't until Wednesday afternoon (after I fixed lunch for the Friends of the Library) that I realized I wasn't just tired. I'd come down with some kind of creeping crud. I've been fighting it ever since. And I still had to organize breakfast for the high school band Saturday morning before marching contest. I only had to make phone calls and ask people to do stuff, but you may know by now how much I hate doing that. I'd rather eat worms than make phone calls. I'd rather get bit by fire ants than make phone calls. I'd rather...well, you get the idea.

Finally went to the doctor today for drugs. I hope it will go away soon, because I was worthless when it comes to writing. I did type all the stuff I already had into the computer--I'm up past p. 200 now, but new stuff is coming slowly. The brain is definitely in a fog.

About all I've done is read books. I read Shield of the Sky by Susan Krinard, the October Luna book--very good. I read Karen Harbaugh's The Vampire Viscount and The Devil's Bargain--paranormal Regencies--and enjoyed them a great deal. I also read the new Laurell K. Hamilton, Incubus Dreams about 3 times--my usual practice with her new releases. I'll let it wait a bit more and go back and read the good parts again. I really like her books...

I read more than that, but don't want to take time to post them. I may do a "Recent Reads" page on my website, or something.

I did get 4 pages written so far today. I want to do six--but don't know if I can get the brain in gear or not.

Off to the Waco Workshop

Today, I typed in more of the story into the computer. I'm up to p. 160 and still have lots to go--and I'm not sure I'm halfway in the story yet...I mean, even with the stuff I haven't typed in. And in the afternoon/evening, I wrote up this characterization workshop I'm doing in Waco on Saturday--which meant I had to figure out just how I do my character creation. Frankly, I don't really have a clue--but I do have a process. And I don't create characters. I get to know them. They somehow already exist. They live in the primordial stew that's called my subconscious.

And then, once I figured that out, I had to do all the handouts and visual aids for the workshop. Hope they appreciate them.

Hope it works.

Oh, and then I had to dig out some childhood/baby pictures for the boy for his last senior year pep rally. I couldn't find his toddler pictures--when he had a thing for wearing sun visors upside down and backward, or deely-bobber antennae. I tried to scan one from a photo montage thing we have on the wall in a frame--didn't work too well. But we did find some cute pictures. Had to do it tonight, because they're due in the morning.

It's coming together

I think I have converted the whole of the new opening, typed it all in, added in scenes from different places that needed to be moved into the new bit, and managed to get back to the main story already written. I think it's working.

I typed it in and converted the stuff I already had typed--I started on about p. 53, but with the new opening bits, I only lost about 26 pages. Not bad. Lots of stuff coming. I'm up to p. 123 or so. This one may not be quite so long as the first one.

Didn't do diddly-squat yesterday as far as writing goes--well, except for the newspaper column and another little news tidbit. (Didn't look to see whether I got it in in time to make the paper...) I went to Amarillo. Went early so I could go see Wimbledon, because I knew I couldn't drag the men who live with me to see it. They have to see manly movies. I really liked this movie. Lovely romantic comedy, nice tennis stuff, great scenery. Oh, and England was pretty too.

Finished a painting, but didn't bring it home because it was raining. I really need to take pictures of these things. I write it on my "to do" list every day, and never get it done.

Tomorrow, I have to put together a workshop on characterization for the Heart of Texas RWA chapter. Driving down to Waco for it, and to brainstorm with my best buds. Don't know what I'll brainstorm, but will come up with something.

Exhaustion Sets In

Actually, being as it's Monday, and I've had all weekend to rest, the exhaustion is beginning to pass. I left home shortly after I posted Friday's entry to this blog thing, and didn't get home again (except for rushed trips to change clothes and visit the little girl's room) till ten o'clock that night. And I didn't get to sit down until the football game that evening. My knees are still killing me.

I did almost nothing on Saturday. I couldn't. I did get up and go to the $5 quilt club thing at 9 a.m. Turns out that two of my new neighbors (I'm actually the new one.) are also doing this quilt, so we decided we might try to get together and work on it if we need to. Then I came home and went back to bed. When I woke up a couple of hours later, I read a book (The Mountain's Call by Caitlin Brennan--fabulous read) and then decided to get out the sewing machine. So I've already finished this month's quilt block. And a bunch more blocks for the Indian Hatchet quilt I'm doing. Now my back is killing me too.

Sunday, we did church and then I came home and sewed some more, and was generally lazy. So we come to Monday, and I was able to get back to the writing.

I was entirely and totally right to cut that second beginning and start on this third one. It's going much, much better. I'm wondering whether Kallista is getting a bit histrionic, but given her stresses, I suppose she deserves it. Only one of them gets to lose it at a time, though. It's her turn. Didn't take but four new pages to catch up with what I already had. Now I have to do a scene break and figure out what's going on with the rest of the crew.

Tomorrow is "going to the city" day, but if I get my newspaper column done tonight, I should be able to work on the story before I leave.

The week from Heck

If this has been the week from heck (and it has), today is the day from you-know-where. This is the day all the stuff I've been trying to pull together all week MUST come together. And I have to look good too! (Or at least dressed nicely.)

Last night, the luncheon hostesses (including moi) decorated and set tables for the luncheon today, and of course it started raining before we left, so we got wet. (One of the ladies won't be able to come today, because she got so much rain out on her ranch, the roads are too bad for her to make it into town.) I came home and burned a CD with Italian opera music so we could have music with our lasagna today, and then I went to type in some of the story, and figured out what was wrong with the new opening I've been working on all week.

It's too dang slow. So I'm dumping another 6 or 8 pages and going with the heroine's POV and the scenes that begin when they arrive in town. Which means I now have to find more ways to work in character introductions and set-up. Which means I have to go back and re-write Again. Ugh.

And who knows when I'll have time to do it? Maybe not till Monday. Because after I go to the luncheon, serve and clean up there, I will have just enough time to come home, change into my cooking clothes, grab the 30 pounds of browned hamburger and run up to the school to start working on the band dinner. I do have someone bringing change. I have someone cooking--and I imagine I'm going to have to cook too, because the other person I'd asked won't be able to do it. And somewhere in all this madness, I want to go out and watch the Homecoming parade, since I haven't seen a single one since the son started school in this town, and he's graduating next spring...

Oh, and my parents are arriving in town sometime today to spend the night. They always stop off on their trip from Austin to Colorado, or vice versa. (This time they're heading south.) And today's the day. So somebody needs to come meet them at the house and escort them to dinner at the school. (They've come to the Mexican pile-on several times before--somehow always seem to be traveling through during Homecoming...)

And then tomorrow, we're loading up all the leftovers from the garage sale and carting it to Goodwill or the library. (They get the books.) Which will probably take all day. I might be able to get to the rewrites by Monday. I hope.

Thanks for listening to the lengthy rant.
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Life and all that junk

I tell ya, life can really interfere with the writing. Still, it's gone pretty well so far this week. I managed to get a few pages written on Monday. Yesterday, I got seven, even with another trip into Amarillo to pick up things I didn't get Monday and to paint. Today, I've done five.

I might get another one done, maybe, but I'm in the midst of browning thirty pounds of hamburger meat for Friday night's Mexican Pile-on. Fifteen down, fifteen to go. Not to mention the ice cream I need to scoop up or the regular, ordinary, normal stuff that needs to be done. Like watering the house plants.

Three of my five African violets are currently in bloom, as is--believe it or not--the white Christmas cactus. Both the cacti I own bloomed late last year--in February and March, rather than Thanksgiving through Valentine's like they usually do. And the white one's blooming again! I almost missed it. The pink cactus--which is about 2 feet around--is currently outside. I guess it's about time I brought it in. Here's hoping it puts on a nice show for me. Now if I can just keep the begonia from dying on me...

Some days the writing seems more real than the rest of my life--even though the rest of it keeps me hopping. After this week, I hope I'm through with the volunteering for the rest of the year. But I doubt it.
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First Try

Worked on the new opening all morning today (along with laundry). I'm not sure it's working. I keep thinking of things I left out, and I've got 6 pages of pretty much nothing but introspection. Very slow. And it's in the POV of one of the secondary characters. I may write it this way, then try doing it the way it was at first, only thinned out a whole lot. Except there are other changes I think we're going to make, which would slow down the original opening and cut a lot of the action.

Well, The Compass Rose actually opens fairly slowly, with the heroine on the city wall musing over how they got into this fix, so I guess I can get away with a slow-ish opening for book 2. I'm hoping once I move into the heroine's POV, it will get more active--a lot more active. I hope I'll have time to do that tomorrow. I have a newspaper column to write, but since I ran some of my errands today, I'm hoping I won't have to head into the city quite as early tomorrow. We shall see how it works out. I have a big insert to write, something I forgot to do today.

The post-revision-letter depression was much alleviated Friday when I got a big package full of covers for Compass Rose. The cover is Gorgeous, and should get a lot of attention on the bookshelves. This is apparently the version that's going out to booksellers, because there's promo material about this book inside, rather than the stuff that's on the inside of the published books. So there may still be tweaking going on, but I'm thrilled with the way it looks right now. (It's up on my website on the "my books" page. Now you have an excuse to visit my website.)

I sure am liking my computer glasses. Fewer headaches and I can actually see. Seeing is important. Of course, I tend to forget to take them off and put on the bifocals when I get up from the computer, but eventually, I do figure out why I can't see to walk through the house...

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