Jean Lauzier's Blog

Stroll Down Memory Lane

2012-01-24T22:59:00.000-06:00

Hi, my name is Jean and I'm a readaholic. I love to read. Mystery, fantasy, romance, science fiction, horror, westerns and even the classics. And yes, I spent many nights with a flashlight, under the cover, reading my favorite book. Well, favorite book at the moment.

Remember reading under the covers, the air hot and stagnant? Getting so caught up in the story that you don't hear Mom sneaking up on you?

Okay...I'll get to the point.

Last night we gave our daughter a Kindle "fire" for her birthday. She loves to read and this seemed like the perfect gift. She loves it. :-) But as I watched her with it, I realized something.

The Kindle Fire takes away the need for flashlights under the covers. Thankfully she is older now so has had the flashlight-cover reading experience but I wonder what kids will do years from now.

I guess we'll just have to do the "when I was a kid, we didn't have all those techno gizmos, we had to read under the cover with a flashlight" thing. :-)

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

2012-01-18T13:39:00.000-06:00

This past week, I've have friends and family ask me for my autograph. It's a really strange feeling. And just what does one right inside? Best wishes? Hope you enjoy? Thanks? I mean, you want the inscription to be something personal, and that's easier when it's friends but what about when the person is a stranger?

Any suggestions?

Now for shameless self-promo. :-)

Six Pack of Murder is live! You can get your copy on Kindle and Nook for .99.

I'll also be at my first book signing this Saturday. At the Curves in Glimer Texas (from 10 - 1) and I'd love for you that are close enough to be there.

chainbooks starter chapter - To The Rescue

2012-01-11T02:18:00.002-06:00

This week, I'm sharing an excerpt from a romance starter chapter. It's titled To The Rescue. There's lots of ways this could go so I'd really like for someone to take the reins and write the next chapter. You can read the rest HERE then add to it.

To The Rescue

Lynn Branson tossed the unruly map into the passenger seat of her rented KIA with a sigh. Pine trees lined both sides of the two-lane highway stretching out empty before her. She should have gotten a car with GPS but she'd been trying to save a few dollars. Now she was lost. Nothing to do but keep driving, take the next exit and hope to find someone who could tell her where she was.

The engine hesitated and the car slowed. Lynn glanced at the fuel gauge. "No, not empty. This can't be happening." She pumped the gas pedal then pressed it all the way to the floor. The engine died and the car continued to slow. Lynn steered toward the side of the road and manged to pull onto the grassy edge as the car came to a halt. Taking a deep breath, Lynn turned off the ignition. Now what? She remembered her cell phone. Last night she’d packed it in her suitcase and earlier this morning loaded that suitcase in the trunk of her rental car along with the rest of her bags.

Standing at the rear of her vehicle, she pulled her suitcase from the bottom of the trunk onto the top of her luggage and pulled the zipper along its track. A breeze brought the fragrance of pine trees and teased her hair. Panic washed over her when she couldn't find the phone. She fumbled through the neatly folded and stacked clothing until finally discovering it had slid to the bottom. She flipped it open, pressed the power button and waited. She pressed it again. Still the screen remained dark. Panic threatened to take control but she shoved the fear aside. So, she hadn't turned her phone off before packing and now the battery was dead. Someone would come along sooner or later and help her. After zipping her suitcase and closing the trunk, she turned and stared down the road the way she'd come. The last exit had been miles down the road, she'd never be able to walk back to the last convenience store. Better to wait for someone to find her. She sighed and returned to the driver's seat.

A half-empty bottle of water sat in the cup holder next to her. She took a sip, let the cool liquid slide down her throat. At least she had plenty to drink. A small cooler sat in the passenger side floor and held four more bottle of water along with some ice. In the seat next to her sat a large bag of corn chips, a jar of cheese dip along with an opened bag of chocolate. Lynn replaced the cap on her bottle and returned the bottle to the console. All she could do now was wait. She rolled down the windows a bit to let in the breeze, locked the doors and leaned against the window.

Lynn jerked awake. She turned to the window and looked up at the man who had tapped on the glass.

"Miss, are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine, but my car is out of gas."

"I can give you a ride to Ridgewood. It's not that far ahead." He glanced back behind her car to his truck then down at her. "I'm Cameron."

"Thanks, but if you'll call someone, I'll wait here." Just because he looked trustworthy, didn't mean he was. She'd learned that lesson with Vince. Vince Carter, playboy handsome and with money to spend on fancy cars, expensive dinners and all the luxuries she didn't have. However, it hadn't taken long to find the dark side hidden under his designer suits.

Cameron shook his head. "Ma'am, I can't leave you here. My momma would disown me." He thought for a second, finally pulled a cell phone from his pocket and stuck it through the small opening in the window. "In the contact list you'll find the sheriff's office. Call them. Tell them who you are, that you are stuck out on highway seventeen and that Cameron Daily has offered you a ride to town. They'll vouch for me."

Lynn held the phone for a moment, then flipped open the cover. Maybe he could be trusted after all. She pressed the call buttoned, waited as the phone rang on the other end. A woman answered letting her know she'd reached the Ridgewood Sheriff's Department. Lynn explained why she was calling and listened as the woman laughed then confirmed Lynn would be safe with Cameron. Still listening, she unlocked the door and stepped out of the car.

"She wants to talk to you." Lynn handed Cameron the phone and studied him as he listened. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, Cameron stood at least a foot above her five feet five inch height. Dark hair curled around his ears and his eyes were the color of melted chocolate. He smiled into the phone.

"Yes, ma'am. I understand." He took a breath. "That's what I told her. Yes ma'am." Cameron added another "Yes ma'am" then closed the phone and slid it into his pocket. Gazing down at Lynn, he ran a hand through his hair. "Ready?"

Adjusting...

2012-01-10T10:42:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I mentioned we'd moved the end of November, first part of December. We still aren't unpacked and each time I wind my way through the boxes stacked in our garage I wonder if we ever will be. I also wonder just where all the stuff came from.

Course, some stuff in the garage was in the small storage building. Some of it is furniture we had room for in the other house that we don't here. Like my desk. I've had my desk for over twenty years. It's huge and weighs about 900 pounds - or seems to when trying to move it. It's wooden, 6' x 3' with a 3' x 2' attachment that forms an L shape. There are drawers for lots of "stuff" and plenty of room to spread out. Problem is, it just won't fit in this new house.

So, I'm trying to find a new place to write. One that feels right. And so far, it's not working. Thankfully I have a laptop so I can try different places. Right now, I'm sitting on our bed and the words are beginning to loosen up.

My question to you... Do you have a favorite writing spot? Can you just write anywhere, anytime?

Six Pack of Murder

2012-01-09T13:34:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I stopped by and updated things here but I really have been busy. Not only did we move the end of Nov., first of December, we did Thanksgiving at our house. Then there was Christmas and all that entailed. Can you believe 8 Christmas parties in one month? Throw in a sick hubby, a new cat and a litter of kittens. Lots to keep up with.

In the midst of all that, I managed to edit Six Pack several times, discuss cover options, settle on a cover I really like and get everything submitted to the publisher.

Now, here's the really exciting part...

Six Pack of Murder will be available on Nook and Kindle the 17th of this month. That's only a week away. It will also be available in paperback through Amazon and any chain store can order it for you.

Or, if you'd like and autographed copy, you can contact me and I'll be more than happy to send you one. My publisher emailed me yesterday that copies were being mailed to us today so I'll have copies here really soon.

When I get the direct links, I'll post them for those of you who'd like to purchase through Amazon.

Oh, an excerpt from Dark Descent is included. Dark Descent is in the revising stage and our goal is to have it available by July.

Announcing...

2011-11-01T07:11:00.000-05:00

Six Pack of Murder

One of the decisions I've made recently is to let a small press publish a short story collection. Naturally, the stories are mysteries and from the title you can tell there are six of them. Six Pack will be available for e-readers and in paperback.

We don't have a release date yet but are aiming for the first part of December. I'll be sure to let everyone know when I have a fixed date.

The edits have been done, I've a few minor things to fix then that will be off to the publisher. We are working on cover art now too. I'm really excited about that. We brainstormed some great ideas and I can barely wait to see the finished piece.

I'll be doing some things here in the way of promotion such as a contest or two so check back often for news.

Taking charge...

2011-10-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

"You are responsible for the success of your writing career..

And you are responsible for it 100% of the time."

Christina Katz

This has never been more true than now. There are so many options out there for a writer, it's sometimes hard to know which direction is the one to follow. And, publishing is changing so rapidly, it's actually hard to keep up.

As I mentioned not long ago, I've made some decisions, set some priorities, and have started setting some goals along with the steps to reach them. I'll be sharing some of that soon but as the year is coming to a close -- Can you believe it's almost November??? -- I want to encourage each of you to consider what you want to accomplish, what you have accomplished and then make some plans to get to your goals.

For me, it meant setting aside my fantasy writing for a while and focusing on my mystery writing. As Earl Smooter said, "You can't ride two horses with one ass." Yes, I'll still play with my dragons and such but the main focus will be mystery for a while. And I'm happy with that. It was the right decision for me.

It also meant setting my sights a little lower than the "Big Six" and New York. Yeah, it took me a while to acknowledge that, and it's still a bit irksome but there is no way I can sit and wait for NY. By the time I got an acceptance, then wait the 18 - 24 months for the book to hit the shelf, it could be three years or more down the line.

By going with a small press, I'll have something out much sooner, have more input in the process and since I have to do most of the work anyway, why shouldn't I get most of the earnings. So, I'm happy with my decisions.

Again, I want to urge each of you to consider your writing goals and decide just what's the best way for you to achieve them. Yes, some decisions may be hard to make but it will be worth it in the long run.

When I first read the quote from Christina Katz, I tweaked it a bit, made it my own. I then typed it up, gave it a little color and shape then printed it out as bookmarks and even a "flyer" thing. I've included the picture below. Copy it, post it where you can see it, take control of your writing career!

chainbooks and The Cell

2011-10-24T13:43:00.002-05:00

Not long ago I discovered chainbooks and have been writing for them when I have a chance. One of the things I really like is I can play in different genres without having to finish a whole story. I can have part of an idea, play with it a bit then let someone else finish it.

Here is part of one of those ideas. You can read the rest of it HERE then if you'd like, add the next chapter to it.

The Cell

I hurried down the aisle, past the shoes and artificial flower stuff. By the time I reached lay-a-way, my jaws ached from clenching them so tight and I was doing the 'from-the-knees-down' kinda run that every woman who's waited too long to go knows about. Finally rushing into the restroom, I made it to the first open stall, barely closed the door and settled it into a sitting position without doing something I'd not done since first grade. I'd been new in school, my first day. I still remembered how they kids laughed and teased. After that, I taught myself to delay the need to go for hours at a time. Course, not drinking a lot of liquids helped but I'd never had an accident again. Oh, I'd cut it close a time or two but nothing serious.

Momma had always said "a bean's a bean but a pee's a relief" and while sitting there enjoying the relief, I took a moment to read the graffiti on the stall walls. Nothing much there, just the usual 'for a good time call Glenda at' with a phone number along with a couple 'I love' and the boy's name kinda thing. Above the toilet paper holder someone had scrawled a really crude poem about farting. I snickered a bit since I was alone.

That's when I saw the cell phone. Just laying on top of the toilet paper holder. It was one of those cheap, twenty dollar phones you buy to placate the kid who thinks she'll die if she doesn't have a phone to text her friends. I knew cause I'd bought the fifty dollar version. And for another fifty dollars a month I had unlimited talk, text and web. Not a bad deal really when you compared other plans. And believe me, I had.

I picked up the phone, pushed the green send key and watched the screen come to life. The airtime info showed just under fifty thousand minutes available and twenty-nine service days. Someone had just reloaded it and would probably be angry they'd lost it. But hey, my own phone was about to run out of service days and since things were a little tight in the cash flow area, I figured this was a gift I couldn't refuse. And like momma had said many a time, "finders keepers, losers weepers."

I finished up my business, stuck my new cell phone in my pocket and left the stall. After a quick washing of the hands, I strolled out of the restroom. No one had been looking for a lost phone in the restroom and no one stood at the service desk asking about a lost phone so I snagged an empty shopping cart that appeared to be abandoned and headed to the grocery section to get some ice cream to celebrate my good fortune.

After settling on fudge swirl along with some chocolate sauce to top it off, I used the self-checkout machine and headed across the parking lot to my car. Sliding the cell phone from my pocket, I deposited it in a cup holder then started the engine. I'd just sifted into reverse when the cell sang "you've got mail." After shifting back into park, it only took a moment to open the message and read, Time to play a game. Strange message since that wouldn't be possible on this version of phone, no games. It was one of the things that kept me from buying this model to begin with. I shrugged and then deleted the message.

I'd just returned the phone to its spot in the cup holder when it sang its "you've got mail" announcement again. Sorry, wrong number, no game playing here. I picked up the phone anyway, opened the message. Yes, you! Drive out of parking lot, turn right on Gibson Road. Go to the Sonic. Order a cherry limeade then wait until you hear from me. The phone sang again. I opened the message. Don't think about disobeying Carol. I sucked in a deep breath and dropped the phone. It slid between the seats and down beside the gas pedal. Glancing around the parking lot, no one seemed to be watching me. There were a couple of shoppers going toward the store and a guy with a cart full of stuff coming down the aisle but no one close by or that paid any attention to me.

"You've got mail" came from the phone by my foot. I jerked away bumping my elbow on the door. Maybe if I ignored it. But, whoever was on the other end, they knew my name. How could it be possible? I reached down, picked up the phone. Dread washed over me, my stomach churned. I touched the view button and swallowed hard. Go NOW or you won't live to regret it. Wrong, I regretted picking up the phone already.

Motivational Monday

2011-10-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

I really like this!

How many times have you not done something because you might be wrong? I know I have. Many times.

As a writer, it's so hard sometimes to put words on the page that might not be the right ones. I think that's one reason writers are such great procrastinators.

So, today I challenge you. Yes, you. Put aside those doubts and fears. Stop worrying about getting the words perfect.

Remember, great books aren't written, they're rewritten.

You can't revise what you haven't written.

Write from the heart.

Friday Fun

2011-09-23T10:15:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday! And, boy am I glad this weeks almost over. We finally had some rain the last couple days and it's actually feeling like fall out there. Plus, I've made some major decisions about my writing path this past week so things are looking up.

So, I thought I'd share some fun with you today.

First, Stickman. This is cute.

Next, some of you have seen this before, but for those of you who haven't...Wordle. I really like playing here. One day I'm going to use one of these for a t-shirt design.

And of course, Banner Maker. This is fun to play with.

For those of you who are at work and need a break without looking like you're having fun, there's this.

Have fun y'all!

FOCUS

2011-09-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

The other day while running errands, I had the radio on as normal and heard something interesting. The guy said the reason most people don't succeed is because they don't focus. Then he went on to explain what he meant.

Focus = Follow One Course Until Successful

He said people tend to start one thing, work at it for a while but then we drop it when something we think is better comes along.

And I don't know about you, but I am so guilty of this with my writing. I'll work on one thing for a while, then a new idea comes along and I drop what I've been writing and start this new, great idea that just can't wait. The process then repeats itself over and over and over. I don't know how many stories I have that abandoned for something that seemed better.

This leads to something else I came across lately. It was a blog post (and I can't find it to post a link) about the difficulties of writing, publishing and promoting in multiple genres at the same time. One point made was that each genre will suffer because none of them are getting your full attention and your best effort.

Again, this hit me just like one of Gibbs' slap to the back of the head. I've written romance, fantasy, mystery, horror, non-fiction, inspirational, a little sci-fi and even some poetry. I've got novels in various stages of revision and editing in fantasy, romance and mystery along with an inspirational self-help thing plotted out.

Naturally, I went into denial. I can write 5 or 6 different genres at one time and do it well. I can revise 3 different genre novels at one time without any problem. What does this person know, what makes her an expert on me?

After getting over myself though, I realized she was right. I love my fantasy novel. But it's suffering because I'm not FOCUSED on it. And my mystery novel, the one I hope to pitch to New York one day, we'll it's suffering right along with the fantasy novel, and the romance novel. Because I'm not FOCUSED.

So, I asked myself some questions. Hard questions like just did I think I was accomplishing by spreading myself so thin. And, just exactly what did I hope to accomplish with my writing and was I making progress the way things were going now.

I made some hard decisions too. And I'll be posting more about those soon but for now, I thought I'd share what I've learned lately.

And I have to ask...

What about you? Do you have a stack/file of unfinished stories? Are you working on multiple genres at the same time but not giving each your best because you're spreading yourself too thin?

The Comma

2011-09-20T10:22:00.000-05:00

Morning...

I don't know about you, but I have a horrendous time figuring out just where commas belong and where they don't. So, when I found this on Twitter I knew I had to share.

First, Comma Usage 101. This is a nice basic article from Novel Publishing Group and doesn't make me feel stupid.

Here's part two. Comma Usage 201. Again, this is easy to understand without making me feel stupid. I mean, high school english was a LONG time ago. :-)

Here's another helpful article on commas.

I've got these in my favorites and plan to study them soon.

What about you? Do you abuse, ignore or overuse the comma?

Or, do you have issues with some other form of punctuation? I love ellipsis... :-)

Where there's smoke...

2011-09-06T12:12:00.000-05:00

And there's a lot of smoke around here today. Ash is flying, smoke hanging in the air and even making it's way inside.

While we aren't in the path of the fires or in any danger, I do have friends who are.

Normally, I keep my personal things off the blog...unless it's writing related, but today I'm asking each of you to take a few minutes and say a prayer for those who have lost their homes or loved ones in the recent wave of fires. Also, remember the firemen and women who are standing between the fires and the homes of all those folks out there at a risk to themselves.

Texas is really, really dry right now. Lakes and ponds are a fraction of the size they used to be. Grass is brown and crunchy. Ranchers and farmers are in terrible shape right now and it doesn't seem to be getting better, especially with the fires.

I know things are tight right now, but if you can find a few bucks in the budget, here's a place that could really use them. Texas Wildfire Relief

Shall we play a game?

2011-09-01T08:14:00.002-05:00

This morning, as usual, I checked my facebook page and said hi. A friend commented right after with the fact that she didn't sleep at all last night. Well, naturally I felt bad for my sleepless friend but being in an unusual mood already, my brain took the words she'd written and linked them to an old song. And before I knew what had happened, I had "I couldn't sleep at all last night...I was tossing and turning, turning and tossing" stuck in my head. Over and over...turning and tossing...tossing and turning...

My friend commented "Use it" and like the writer I am...I realized the reason she was tossing and turning is cause she was wrestling with the nuances of her plan to get rid of the guy that done her wrong.

So, here's today's game. Why do you think he or she was tossing and turning? Leave your answer in the comment section.

I had to look up the lyrics so if you need a bit of inspiration, here they are. From the song Tossin' and Turnin' by Bobby Lewis in 1961.

I couldn't sleep at all last night
Got to thinkin' of you
Baby things weren't right
Well I was tossin' and turnin'
Turnin' and tossin'
a-tossin' and turnin' all night

I kicked the blankets on the floor
Turned my pillow upside down
I never never did before
'cause I was tossin' and turnin'
Turnin' and tossin'
a-tossin' and turnin' all night

Jumped out of bed
Turned on the light
I pulled down the shade
Went to the kitchen for a bite
Rolled up the shade
Turned off the light
I jumped back into bed
It was the middle of the night

The clock downstairs was strikin' four
Couldn't get you off my mind
I heard the milkman at the door
'cause I was tossin' and turnin'
Turnin' and tossin'
a-tossin' and turnin' all night

*** Bonus points to the person who can tell me what movie I pulled the title of this post from. :-)

Motivational Monday

2011-08-29T08:54:00.000-05:00

"Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties."

Bonnie Friedman

These past couple weeks, I've been taking my own advice. I mentioned not long ago I felt sorta stale, or stagnant with my writing. That' I'd been revising so long instead of writing something new. Well, I've been writing new stuff. And it feels really good.

But, I've learned a couple things I thought I'd share. And, yes, I knew these things to begin with but sometimes I tend to forget and have to be reminded.

First, I love the way it feels putting words on the page. Especially good words, words that fit, that tell a story. I love the creative thought process. The "what if" and "then what" questions. I love getting to know new characters and places.

However, writing is work. The words don't always come easy and when they don't, it's usually easier to walk away or play some game on the computer than push through the rough spot. It's so much easier to blame "writer's block" than actually confront why I'm having problems.

It takes discipline. I need a word count or page goal. I need a deadline. I don't know about you, but I need to be accountable. Sometimes I just have to do the "backside in chair" and write until I get the word count thing. And you know what, those words are pretty good too.

The most important thing though, I need to make writing a priority. Writing is important to me and I need to remind myself sometimes. I need to remind others too, because if it's not important to me, it won't be to them.

And so today, I encourage each of you to make your writing a priority. Take the time each day to put words on the page. Set a word count or page goal and then meet and exceed it. Enjoy the creative, pondering process and be sure to leave out some chocolate for the plot bunnies. :-)

Pet Words

2011-08-18T08:26:00.001-05:00

When I first started writing seriously, I had a few words I liked to use over and over. Just and that. How many of you have the same problem? Now, whenever I see either of those words, I always wonder if I can take it out. My critique partners must be tired of me telling them they had too many 'thats' or 'justs' by now. It's one of the first things I notice.

However, they caught me with a new pet word the other night. "So." *Insert head to desk* Seriously, how could that happen? I mean really... Now I have to go back and check each time so is in there to see if it's just a filler word or actually needs to be there. Sigh...

Thing is... We all have our pet words. Mine just happened to change once I noticed. I'll have to be more alert as I weed out the all the times I used so and didn't need to. Cause I know there'll be another word ready to take its place.

One of the best books on self-editing is called The 10% Solution by Ken Rand. It's a small thing, only 63 pages but honestly, it's the best money I've spent on a writing book. You can find it at Fairwood Press. He has a really helpful list of things to check for in your writing.

In fact, I had his list taped to my monitor for years. Here's a picture of the list. I don't have it taped where I can see it any longer but still have the list. You'll notice at the top right, I've added "also." It was one of my trouble words once. I'm going to have to add "so" now. :-)

So, :-) what about you? Got a favorite word?

Motivational Monday

2011-08-15T08:11:00.000-05:00

"If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow."

Louis L’Amour

I really like this. Sometimes I do wait for ideas to come when I should be "doing" instead. There are times when life gets in the way and sorta drys up the ideas but again, if we prime the pump, they do return.

Ideas are all around us. We just have to open ourselves up to them, let 'em know we're listening and looking.

Plus it helps to leave out chocolate for the plot bunnies.:-)

Ladies Who Critique

2011-08-12T14:40:00.003-05:00

This is a bit late getting posted but I wanted to give you the latest info.

Ladies Who Critique is a new online group for all us ladies who need a critique partner. I'm going to pull some info off their website to share with you...

Ladies Who Critique is a critique partner matching site for writers of all levels – published, unpublished, aspiring, hobbyists, even closet writers or complete newbies!

Here are the core ideas behind our community;
- A place where women writers of all levels can search & find a match based on genre, experience & interests.
- A completely free service.
- Fun and without obligation.
- Safe and trustworthy.
- Fills the current need for such a space online.
- Be up to date with current trends in publication.
- Support the women who wish to pursue the traditional path and those who choose to go down the self publication route.
- Build confidence in those who aren’t even confident to call themselves writers quite yet.
- Offer a variety of articles, resources and blogposts on how to successfully critique, the benefits of critique, and how to maintain a good critiquing relationship.
- Enable our members to be fully savvy on the ins and outs of the new rules of publishing by keeping up to date with the newest and current technology, and developments in the publishing industry.

Now, this is the "beta" version and things are just getting started but there are already over 100 members in just about every genre.

One of the cool things, you can search member profiles and find a person you have other things in common with. In fact, I've already found a critique partner, set things up and sent pages to her this morning. She and I have lots of other interests in common and I'm really looking forward to working with her.

I encourage each of you ladies to head on over and check it out. I know you'll love it. I'll be hanging out (mostly) in the Crime & Mystery along with the Short Stories groups so stop by, join and say hi.

We'll also be using the #LWCritique hashtag on Twitter so be sure to check that out too.

Wonderful Wednesday

2011-08-10T09:57:00.002-05:00

Howdy...

It's hot in Texas. How hot you ask? Well....

And it's so dry...
A buddy out of Longview said he'd killed a mosquito that was carrying a canteen. A man in Lubbock said the chicken farmers were giving the chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs. In Lake Palestine, they caught a 20 lb catfish that had ticks on it!

Dear Diary,
Just moved to Texas! Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. It is beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:

Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.

June 30th:

Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:

The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:

Fell asleep by the community pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:

I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon. The car now smells like Kibbles and Shits. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat. Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.

July 25th:

The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:

Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 1st:

Its 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.

Aug. 4th:

If another wise ass cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. Damn heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 7th:

Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, I thought my ass was on fire. My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and ass…now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and baked cat.

Aug 9th:

The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do anything for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this damn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over. Even the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

Aug. 10th:

Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead. Forgot to crack the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?" My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. FREAKING TEXAS. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??

Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.

***

Feeling stale?

2011-08-09T09:15:00.001-05:00

Lately I've been feeling kinda stale, or maybe even stagnant in my writing. Kinda blah if you know what I mean. And yesterday, I finally figured out what's the problem.

I haven't written anything new in ages. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've been revising like crazy. In fact, I'm revising three different things right now but I haven't written anything new. No new characters or conflicts. No new plots or brainstorming. For a while, I wasn't even blogging.

For me, this "no creating" is not a good thing. I need to be writing new stories on a regular basis. And honestly, I love writing short stories. The benefit of writing new stories, besides feeling better, means I'll have new things to send out and hopefully have published.

So, today I pledge to brainstorm a new story. I pledge to get at least an outline on the page. (Today is payday so I have to run errands this afternoon so won't have all day here at puter.)

What about you? How are you feeling about your writing? Written anything new lately?

Happy Monday...

2011-08-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

That's right, it's Monday. Another week is starting and it's time to get things accomplished. I know most folks don't really care for Monday, but since it keeps showing up, we might as well get used to the darn thing.

So, here's a bit of motivaton for today.

"Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words."

Valerie Sherwood

I love this quote. How about you? Got a favorite motivational/inspirational writing quote? Share with us in the comment section. :-)

Character Interviews

2011-08-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

Not long ago I saw a blog post where the author had interviewed her main character and posted that interview. I've seen other authors who do the same thing but hadn't really thought much about it.

Now, I do interview my characters at times. It's a way for me to get to know them, what they are all about and discover things about their past which might be relevant to the story I'm writing at the time. But I've never posted these for anyone to see.

But, I can sorta see reasons to do this...

The reader gets to know your character on a more personal, deeper level.
The reader gets to know things about the character other than what's in the story, which could be cool.

And as a writer, anything that connects the reader with our characters is a good thing.

But my question is to you, the reader. Well, I have a couple questions but I'll start with you, the reader.:-)

Do you enjoy these character interviews? Do you even read 'em?

Now, what about you, the writer?

Have you ever posted character interviews? If so, what kind of response did you get? If not, have you thought about trying this?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T08:02:00.000-05:00

Monday Goals

2011-08-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

What do y'all plan to get accomplished this week?

Me, I'll be doing lots of writing. This week I intend to finish a romance story I've been playing with off and on for a while. I think I need about 10k more on it. Plus, I've got some revising to take care of on my mystery.

No Mas!

2011-07-28T12:51:00.000-05:00

This past week, well really two weeks have been hectic here. First, my step-dad passed away and I went home for the funeral. There was lots of family drama from his side of the family, which I won't get into here but believe me...it was drama. :-) I returned home on Friday evening and spent most of this week getting over the drama and catching up on things, just not the blog. *sorry*

A couple things "came" to me during this time and I thought I'd share them with you.

First, we put off so many things that would give us pleasure because it's not the "right" time or some other silly reason. So, I'm vowing not to put off things I'd enjoy. I'm going to buy that boquet of flowers for myself cause I like having flowers around.

Next, we carry so many burdens and stress. We let the negative things we have no control over weigh us down and take the joy out of life. We let other people dictate our happiness. Well, from now on, no more. Or as the chihuahuas say, "No mas!" :-)

And, we need to take control of our lives. Sure there are things we can't control, but there is so much we can. We just don't. We (I) just let things happen instead of planning. And there's nothing wrong with being spontanious but if we plan for things, we'll have more great happenings in our lives that we can look back on and remember instead of regrets.

So for me as a writer, this means I"m going to take a serious look at my writing goals, make some plans then get busy making those decisions happen. I've been letting things slide in that area, waiting for them to happen but no mas, I'm taking the bull by the horns. Ole'!

Here's the "No mas!" scene for those of you who haven't seen it.

What about you?

To Prologue or Not To Prologue

2011-07-15T06:59:00.004-05:00

Right now I'm working on two novels, one a fantasy and the other a suspense/romance/mystery thing. And, they both have prologues. I've debated about using prologues on both of them and came to the decision that, yes, using a prologue on them was fine. I decided my prologues did give the reader info that was needed, that would enhance the story, make it a bit better for the reader just starting the book.

Then, as I got more along in the revising process, I came to the conclusion that I really didn't need a prologue on the fantasy novel after all. The info I give out can be woven in later. So, now I've got to get rid of the prologues and do some tweaking.

What about you? How do you feel about prologues? Do you read them or just skip over and start with chapter one? Have you pondered the issue of using a prologue in your own writing and if so, what did you decide?

Here's a great article on prologues.

Fun Facts Friday

2011-07-14T06:29:00.002-05:00

Today I thought I'd share a few things about me and hopefully you'll share a few things about you. That way we can get to know each other a bit better. So, here goes...

I love to put in ... I like 'em a lot... In fact... I think the more the merrier...
I don't like commas. At all. I'm surprised the comma police hasn't stopped by and arrested me.
I put the "pro" in procrastination. In fact, my middle name is Jean Procrastination Lauzier. :-) Not really, but it probably should be.
I live in East Texas, Longview to be exact.
I have three cats and a Golden Retriever.
Also have three kids. Oldest is only son.
Hubby is Baptist preacher, I teach a ladies Bible study.
I'm a graduate of Long Ridge Writer's Group and write a weekly column for their newsletter about useful websites for writers.
I love writing and writing conferences.

And, I love to talk about writing.

So, now you know a little bit about me, share a bit about yourself in the comment thread.

Writing Challenge

2011-07-14T06:28:00.001-05:00

Next week my kids will be at camp. All three of them. I'll be at home alone, other than the cat, all day. I'm not sure how that's going to feel since it's been years and years since that's happened but I've decided to make the most of the quiet time and write, write, write. And then, I'm going to write some more.

So, here's the idea.

Y'all join me in my writing marathon. If you can't spend all day, then set a goal you can handle and get some words on the page. Maybe you might want to try this. #write100 It's a really nifty way to get some writing accomplished.

So who's up for the challenge? Share your goals with us, then check in each day during the week and let us know how things are going.

The Senses

2011-07-13T06:09:00.001-05:00

Last Friday night at our writer's group meeting, our speaker talked about how important it was to get all five senses (if appropriate) in each scene. And I have to agree. By adding the other senses, we allow our readers to get more involved in each scene.

One thing I did when plotting out my romance novel was to take each scene/chapter and make notes of what the characters would hear, smell, feel, see and possibly taste. Once I knew what those items were, I could then add them in and make the scene richer. (I need to do this for my mystery. *sigh*

Now, you don't want to do an info dump of sensations. That's about as annoying as any other info dump but sprinkle those tidbits in here and there. Weave them in with the rest of the story. Maybe use them in your dialogue tags instead of the classic said.

So, what about you? Do you have trouble getting all or most of the senses in your stories? Got any ideas or tricks you use to get 'em in?

Oooooops!

2011-07-12T10:01:00.001-05:00

One of the things I really don't like in a story is when a character rolls his/her eyes. Or when a character "catches" someone's eye. I always get the picture of someone taking their eyes out and rolling 'em across the table/floor and then someone catching eyeballs. I'm not sure why, but for some reason it just bothers me. I know it's a common way of saying things but still. It's something I try to avoid in my writing.

Another one, and I saw this in a story somewhere... Character spun his head around. Reminded me of the scene in The Exorsist.

Again, I try to avoid my characters body's doing things that are physically impossible but sometimes...

For example, I found this in my WIP the other day. My character "turned" into a flower lined driveway. My inner editor was NOT happy with that.

And, as I'm editing my mystery...I swear, I've found 900 "thats" to take out. It's like they were on sale or something. I have no idea why I put so many of them in there but gee...
So, the point of all this... Give your WIP some time to cool off before you edit/revise. Once you've been away from it for a bit, you can see it with fresh eyes and catch those slips of the fingers.

FenCon

2011-06-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last year I'd planned to attend FenCon and take part in the writer's workshop. But you know how life is and plans had to be changed so I didn't get to go. Thankfully, the wonderful people at FenCon rolled my membership fee and writer's workshop fee over to this year so I'm going this year. Or at least I'm going to do my best to make it.

Last week, I received info for the writer's workshop. The deadline to submit pages is July 15th. Naturally I wasn't ready. I hadn't even decided on what to submit much less have it ready to be seen by anyone other than myself.

Now, it had to be a fantasy type novel or short story so I pulled up all my WIPs and gave 'em a good reading over to see which project I wanted to work on. After much contemplation, I made a decision and copied the first ten pages into a new document so I can polish 'em up and get 'em ready to see the public.

After tweaking the pages, I sent them to my critique group. We meet tonight to discuss things so I'm excited/anxious to see what they say.

Be sure to check out the FenCon link and if you are close by, join us. It should be an excellent conference.

And speaking of conferences... What cons will you be attending this year?

Twitter

2011-05-09T11:37:00.002-05:00

Okay, confession time. I like Twitter. I don't tweet often but I follow some really great people who share lots of great links, info and just general chat.

I've made several friends on Twitter and connected with other writers from all over the world.

I've gotten to know several agents, editors and publishers via Twitter.

And sure, there's often a bit of frivolous tweeting but sometimes frivolous is good.

So, today's question...Do you "Twitter" and if so, who do you follow that the rest of us should follow?

I'd recommend @KristenLambTX, @jamesscottbell, @WritersDigest, @Janet_Reid, @AdviceToWriters just to start with.

Oh, me too, of course. @JeanLauzier

Let's Finish...

2011-05-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

Neil Gaiman

I like this quote, a lot. I don't know about you but I have started and stopped several pieces without finishing them. Good stories that deserve to be finished. Stories that readers would enjoy. But somehow, I've managed to move on to something else...and sometimes left that for something else too. I don't know how many ideas I've got jotted down and stuck in a drawer for later. Seems like later never comes for them though.

So, what do I do? I think it's time to dig 'em out and start finishing them. For example, I have this really neat idea for a romance that involves an alligator wrestler and a chocolate saleswoman. And there's the far east fantasy that needs to be finished. It's a great story. I had the first five pages critiqued by a Japanese writer a while back and she really liked it. Said it had a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon feel to it. Or maybe that YA ghost story.

What about you? Got anything you haven't finished that deserves to be finished and shared with the world?

Let's pledge together to finish one of our set aside pieces. I'll decide which one soon and let y'all know.

Oh...for those of you who need to get organized, be sure to check out Productive Flourishing. He's got some great planners specially designed for us creative folk. And if you sign up for his newsletter, he gives access to his secret lab where he has some extra special tools.

Monday, Monday

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

It's a rainy Monday here and I won't complain cause in Texas we really, really need the rain. And, since it's rainy and cool outside, that makes it perfect to be inside writing.

Which kinda brings me to today's question. Do you have a plan for your writing? What I mean, a path lined out to take you where you want to go. Do you even know where you want to go? Do you have a timeline with checkpoints so you can see how you're doing?

For example, four months of this year are gone and what have you accomplished toward your writing goals? And what do you need to do to make those goals happen?

I know I'm behind schedule. So, today I'm going to map out a plan. I'm going to set things in motion, get my act together and get busy.

What about you?

Z is for Zombies

2011-04-30T11:18:00.000-05:00

Now, I have to admit, I'm really not into zombies. I don't care for zombie movies, I haven't read any zombie books (Are there zombie books?), and I don't listen to music by or for zombies. However, I do like to play Plants vs. Zombies. In fact, it's the first video game I've bought in ages.

Zombies are attacking and you defend yourself with plants. Each level has different zombie challenges and as you play, you earn different plant weapons.

Starting with the front lawn, you go to the backyard and your pool to the roof. Day and night. There's mini-games to play along with puzzle type mini-games. You can play a free partial version here.

And speaking of zombies, a while back we were challenged to write a flash fiction piece for Valentine's Day but to do something different. So, I figured even zombies like a little romance. I haven't had any luck finding a home to publish the piece so I'm going to share it with y'all. I hope you enjoy it.

Zombie Hearts

Henry stood before the open fridge and gazed from side to side. Chinese or Mexican, which would Freda prefer? His left ear fell off, bounced across the linoleum. "Holy Moldy Oldie!" He shambled across the kitchen, picked up his ear and jammed it back in place. "Mexican I believe." Henry grabbed two ziplock bags and placed them on the counter. "Now, what to drink?" He scanned the shelf of bottles, picked one from the end. "This will be perfect." Placed it on the counter next to the bags. Storage dishes of delicacies joined the bottle and bags and soon ended up on the dining table along with his finest china and crystal.

The living room clock chimed seven as Henry lit the candelabra. He stood back and gave the dining table one last look. Perfect, just perfect. Mexican, served a la skull and aged to its peak, Freda's favorite salad of fingers and toes with extra spicy salsa , liver pate' served with fried noses for dipping, and candied lips for dessert. Henry gazed at his watch, she'd be there any moment. He patted the nearest head, smoothed down the hair. Nodding to himself, his left ear dropped off, hit the edge of the table and bounced into the liver pate'. Henry sighed and fished out his ear.

The doorbell rang announcing Freda's arrival. He grinned , licked the pate' off his ear and jammed it back in place again. He'd have to call doc in the morning, see about getting it reattached. Henry hurried to the door and swung it open. "Freda! You look wonderful." Almost good enough to eat. Not quite, but almost. She stepped through the door, handed him the small box she carried.

"I hope you don't mind. I know how much you love kidney pie and when I saw they had fresh ones at Jasper's, I just had to get one for you."
Henry opened the box, took a deep breath. His stomach rumbled and Freda laughed. He leaned in, gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you. Now, come to the table, dinner is ready." Freda strolled across the room, Henry following. He set the pie on the counter and met her at the table.

"It looks delicious!" Freda smiled up at him as he pulled out her chair.

"I've got a special surprise for tonight." He uncovered the ice bucket, pulled out the bottle and popped the cork. "I think you'll really like this." He filled the champagne flute, held it out to her.

Freda took the flute, swirled its contents then sniffed. She took a small sip and grinned. "AB Negative! My favorite." Freda took another sip. "It's perfect."

"That's not all. Open your skull." He watched her eyes as she pulled the skull open by the hair, saw her joyous expression when she gazed upon the diamond ring nestled between the brain hemispheres. He knelt on one knee beside her. "Will you marry me?"

Y is for YOU!

2011-04-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

Today is all about YOU!

So, tell us a bit about yourself in the comments. Tell us what you like to write, where you live, about your kids or critters.

Tell us your favorite silly joke.

What's your favorite book, movie or song?

Add a link to your blog is you have one.

X is for X...

2011-04-29T10:33:00.002-05:00

Did you know X is the third least common letter in the English language? I didn't either but I can understand why. I mean, just how many words start with X anyway. Not many. And those that do are some huge thing I have no idea how to pronounce.

Another interesting fact, words that start with the letter X are usually pronounces as if they started with the letter Z. How strange...

So, here's some X words that are actually functional.

•Xanadu (n) - an exotic, luxurious place. This word comes from the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel T. Coleridge.

•Xenolith (n) - a fragment of a rock embedded inside another rock.

•Xylograph (n) - a wood engraving.

•Xyloid (adj.) - resembling wood; woody.

•Xanthic (n) - yellowish in color; having to do with the compound xanthine.

•Xebec: A xebec is a special three-masted sailing ship used in the Mediterranean.

•Xeric (adj.) - dry or desert like conditions; having very little moisture.

Got any other favorite X words?

W is for Walrus

2011-04-27T11:14:00.000-05:00

Info dumps = walruses. I'm sure you've seen 'em before too. Those big long paragraphs of description and pages of back story that really doesn't have much to do with the story taking place at the moment. You know, those things the reader skips over to get to the action.

For the writer, it's important to know why our character is terrified of cats and how this fear affects him/her. It might be important to an event that will happen in our story. Maybe this fear is why the character reacts in a certain way during an important scene.

And, sure we need to set the scene for our reader, to let them know where the character is, where the story takes place. Especially when writing fantasy or science fiction. But when our walrus is so big it covers the whole beach, that's not a good thing.

That's where ADE comes in. A mentor of mine told me about it.

A = Advance the plot.
D = Deepen the characterization.
E = Enhance the setting.

Each sentence we write should do at least one of these things. It's even better if it can do two and super great if it can do all three. And this is where the work comes in. It's sometimes hard to get those sentences to earn their keep.

And sometimes, we may have a great sentence but it's in the wrong place. For example, our character who's afraid of cats. Would it not be better to have her react to a cat when the reader least expects it than to tell the reader 50 pages beforehand that he/she's afraid of cats? (That's also the show don't tell thing.)

Having info in your story is not a bad thing. It just needs to be woven in here and there, in little bits and pieces. Don't let your really cute, impressive walrus get lost in the crowd. Make him stand out!

V is for Vultures

2011-04-26T06:23:00.002-05:00

Let's talk vultures, shoulder vultures that is. You know, those critters that sit on your shoulder while you're writing and whisper just how horrid every word that goes on the page is. How that no one would ever want to read anything you could write and why even try, cause no one in their right mind would ever pay to publish your writing.

We all have 'em. And sometimes they come in the form of family and friends. Often they come in the form of ourselves though.

For example, how many people have you told you're a writer? When someone asks what you do, do you tell them you write? It took me a long time before I had the nerve to let the "world" know I was a writer. Naturally, the next question is "what have you had published" or some form of that. And it's hard to consider yourself a writer when the answer is nothing. But the thing is, if you are writing, you are a writer. Even if you don't have anything published.

The thing about shoulder vultures is, you don't have to listen to 'em. You can ignore them. They don't have to steal your joy in writing. So, next time you hear those whispers, make the conscious effort to ignore them. Tell them they aren't welcome. The more you ignore them, the less they'll hang around. Oh, they'll come back ever so often to see if you really mean it or not but you can win the battle.

Mine like to sit in the yard and laugh when I get a Negative Marketing Report. They've learned not to come inside. I just ignore 'em and send my work back out.

U is for Umbrellas and Underwear...

2011-04-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why, but whenever I tried to come up with a "U" word, all that I could think of was umbrella. I guess it goes back to school and learning the alphabet...A is for apple, B is for ball and so on. I can't remember all of them. Dog, elephant, goat, igloo, kangaroo, lion, monkey, queen, ring, top, yo-yo and zebra are the others I seem to remember.

I also thought of underwear. Though I have no clue why.

So, what do underwear and umbrellas have to do with writing? Well, I'm not sure but let's see if we can connect 'em. Underwear should be worn under and not seen. Umbrellas have that wire (usually) frame that no one pays attention to unless it doesn't work.

Stories also have a frame that we don't usually see. The "underwear" of a story is something no one pays attention to. And just like panty lines, no one wants to see how stories are put together. Now, as writers, we do notice how a great story is put together, how it just seems to flow without any effort. We know a lot of work went into getting it just right though.

And in honor of story structure here's a great place to check out. StoryFix

T is for Titles...

2011-04-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

I don't know how it is for you, but either titles come easy, often before the story, or they are the hardest things to come up with.

Since I like the title to somehow relate to the story, either through characters or theme, sometimes it takes ages to come up with the right one. I like the title to hint at what you'll find somewhere in the story. But a very subtle hint.

Sometimes I like to do the "play on words" things. For example, I'm working on a romance titled Free Fall. The first scene shows the heroine stuck in a tree, hanging from a parachute. I'm going to put her into a free fall type romance, head over heals whether she wants to or not. It's going to be a rush. :-)

A mystery short I titled "Last Laugh" sorta captures the "he who laughs last, laughs loudest" saying. A fantasy short called "Prey" deals with a wolf-like being hunting a child. And in "Tyger, Tyger" not only is the main suspect a tiger, my character quotes a line from "The Tiger" by William Blake.

What about you? Do titles come easy for you? Do you know the title before the story? And do you like to connect the title with the theme or some other element of the story?

S is for Slushpile & Submitting

2011-04-22T08:33:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I really don't like the slushpile. And for the most part, if we're sending out our work, we're going to have to deal with it. It's not fun being in the slushpile either. That said, there are some things we can do to improve our odds of getting out of the slushpile.

For example, reading the guidelines. Sure it takes some time to find 'em. And sometimes you may find multiple sets of guidelines and have to decide between them but the closer you get to sending a publisher (or agent) what they want, the better your odds are. I don't know how many times I've heard agents and editors comment about people sending them queries for genres they don't represent. That's automatically gets your work discarded.

Sending an attachment is also another way to get your submission discarded. Yes, there are some places that want things as an attachment but most folks don't. It's just to risky.

Pink, swirly, 18 point fonts are generally a no no too. :-) Don't laugh, I once got a submission like that. There's a reason it's called standard manuscript format. It's the standard expected.

We all know our submissions need to be as error-free as possible. Don't rely on spellchecker to catch all your errors. Get someone else to look at your work. Or, if that's not possible, start reading from the end and work your way to the start. Yeah, it's strange but this way you aren't focused on the story, you focus on the words.

One of the many things we can do to better our chances of acceptance is to read several back issues of whatever publication we are submitting to. For fiction, this gives us the chance to get a feel for the publication. For example, just because it's a mystery magazine doesn't mean they will publish a cozy mystery. Maybe their focus is on hard boiled detective stories. You won't know that if you don't check 'em out. In non-fiction, reading back issues is a good way to see what type of articles they've published in the past, the tone of the publication and if your piece will fit or not.

Marketing research is one thing many writers don't like to do. It's time consuming, boring, and often you find more places your work doesn't fit than places it does. It's a necessary task though.

Want to by-pass the slushpile? Then go to writer's conferences. Talk to agents and editors. Having your work requested is like going to the head of the line. However, don't say your work was requested if it wasn't. They remember what they ask to see. You can always include a line in your cover letter saying you met them at such & such conference and enjoyed chatting but never lie to 'em.

Thing is, the more work you do before submitting, the better results you'll get. If you have to be in the slushpile, make your work stand out, in a good way.

R is for Reality

2011-04-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but I've about had it with all the reality shows on tv. I mean, how unreal can they get? Real Housewives for example, you know any housewives who act like that?

Thing is, I get enough reality every day by myself, I don't need to watch it, or what some producer thinks is reality. I deal with the reality of finances, high grocery prices, higher gas prices, children, cats, dog, deadlines, cooking and cleaning. It's my own version of Survivor every day.

So, I read to escape my reality for just a while. And I think that's why many, many others read. Starting as low as .99 I can find a book on Kindle (I don't have one but I have the kindle for pc thing) and read on the computer. I can pay a little over $5 at walmart for a paperback, then sit in the shade outside and read myself away. It's like a vacation but not near as costly. Sure, there's no hunky pool boy to rub suntan oil in for me and bring a cool drink with an umbrella in it but at least I don't have to pack and unpack.

Which brings me to my point today. We have to do our very best to deliver the kind of story that takes the reader on vacation. But many times, we mess that up. We throw in humongous words when small ones will do. We have sentences that run on for paragraphs and are hard to understand. We hop from one character's head to another without warning the reader or we leave out dialogue tags so it's hard to keep up with who's saying what. All these things distract the reader from the story and we don't want that. Reading shouldn't be hard. Sure, there's times and topics that are hard to read/understand but those aren't escapism reading.

It's been a while since I found a book that totally swept me away. One that sucked me in and didn't let go until the last page, that made me forget about everything but the characters. But, I'm still looking. And I'm seriously trying to write one.

What about you? What have you read lately that made you forget reality for a while?

Q is for Query

2011-04-20T12:28:00.000-05:00

That's right, query. I could have gone with another "Q" word but this is a writer's blog so...

The thing about queries, we stress over them way too much. Yes, they are darn important but when we put so much pressure on ourselves to get 'em perfect, we, or at least I, tend to lock gears and totally mess things up.

Writing a query can be learned. It just takes practice. And then some more practice.

Here's a couple great places to learn to write a query.

QueryShark - Agent Janet Reid takes bites out of queries, tells what's wrong and what's right with 'em. Reading the archives is a lesson in query writing you won't regret.

Agent Query Connect - a networking community where you can get input on your query from other writers. You'll also find forums on most aspects of the publishing business. When you get finished here, click on over to Agent Query for more info on agents and submitting to them.

Got any other favorite query sites? Share in the comments please!

P is for Plot Bunnies!

2011-04-19T10:10:00.000-05:00

I know those of you who are writers have heard of plot bunnies. The mysterious, seldom seen, visitors who leave ideas around for us to play with. Believe it or not, I've seen one.

It was one of those dark and stormy nights...no, really, it was. We were on our way to church when this little bunny ran across the road in front of me, hopped along side the car for a bit then ducked between some bushes and disappeared into the darkness. I realized no sensible rabbit would be out in that kind of weather so he must have had somewhere important to be. That's when it hit me...he was a plot bunny making a delivery to a writer in need. The kids were with me and were talking about the bunny so I told them he was a plot bunny making a delivery. They accepted the explanation and we wished the bunny a safe journey and went on about our business.

Not long after, we were in Books a Million one afternoon and my youngest (about 8 or so) found me, all excited, held out a stuffed bunny and said, "Look Mom, a plot bunny!" See pix below. His name is Harold, and he specializes in mystery and darker plots. He's kinda quiet, but when he leaves an idea, it's a good one.

Not long after, Grace (center) and Ginger (end right) joined our little plot bunny family.

They hang out on my printer for the most part. Sometimes they'll settle on my bookcase behind me but they are always close by when I'm writing. Never can tell when I'll need a fresh idea.

What about you, got a muse or plot bunny you'd like to tell us about?

And yes....

O is for Options...

2011-04-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

Options. Have you noticed how many options there are out there for getting your book published? I'm not talking about Print on Demand vs print 'em all now type options, though. Or even the paper vs digital option...but the publisher option.

First, there's the "Big 6" guys. Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, MacMillan Publishers Ltd., Penguin Group, Random House along with Simon & Schuster. For an overview of who these guys are, or consist of, check out this link.
Then there's the independent publishers. Here's a good definition of independent publishing. There's quite a few of these publishers out there. Some have a better reputation than others so you have to be careful when dealing when them, but that's true in most cases.

And of course, there's the self-publishing option. At one time self-publishing was not only frowned upon by agents and editors, it was something to be avoided at all costs. The thought was if you self-published, it was because your work wasn't good enough to get a "real" publisher. This idea has changed greatly the last couple years and it's no longer the stigma it once was.

Lastly, there's vanity and subsidy publishers. Here's a really good link with all the definitions, differences and lots of information.

Each option has its good points (except maybe the vanity publishers). Each option has its bad points. What's a viable option for one person might not be for another. What's right for me, might not be right for you.

What I'm asking I guess, is have you considered all the options? What decisions did you make and why if you don't mind telling.

N is for Negative Marketing Reports

2011-04-16T07:27:00.006-05:00

When I first started submitting, I received a LOT of rejection letters. I still get them now. Got one Thursday night as a matter of fact. And while they still aren't the most fun things I've ever gotten in the mail, I don't let 'em get to me like I used to.

Someone, and I don't remember who, once called rejection letters, Negative Marketing Reports. And when we get right down to it, that's what they are. The market we submitted to, can't use what we offered them. For whatever reason, maybe they had one similar not long ago, maybe the editor doesn't like cat stories and there's a cat in yours, or even something as simple as the tone isn't quite right for their publication, it's not us they are rejecting. There's nothing personal involved. Sure, it feels like it sometimes but we have to realize publishing is a business, especially to publishers.

Another writer friend of mine once equated it with selling apples. You have the prettiest, shiny red apples. They are practically a work of art. Thing is, the buyers are buying oranges that day. It doesn't mean anything is wrong with your apples. Just means that's not what the buyer is wanting. Just go find another buyer who wants apples.

One of the first rejection letters I received was the cover letter to a story with the words "I really don't like this." scrawled across it. There was no signature, nothing. Just those five little words. I tossed that one in the trash.

I think my favorite rejection letter is the one that says my story was enjoyable reading, thanks for letting them see it but that it didn't fit any of the spaces they had open at the time. This one is signed by the editor, has the title of my story and is actually addressed to me. I've saved it. One of these days, I'll try something with that editor again.

So, what's your worst or best rejection letter? Don't name names though. And what do you do with 'em after you get 'em read?

M is for Maass...

2011-04-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

Donald that is.

Not long ago I mentioned how much I liked Donald Maass. You can find that post here. I don't know much about him as an agent, except he's a very good one, well known. And I know one day I hope to have something ready to query him with.

Writing the Breakout Novel was one of the first books on writing craft I bought many years ago. I still go back and reread parts of it even now. Naturally, I had to have the workbook that went along with it. I even typed all the questions from the workbook into a Word doc, printed it out and had it spiral bound at a local office supply place so I could fill in the answers without messing up my workbook. Plus, I can print out the questions and make a workbook for each novel I write. (It's very cool and handy.)

Here's a photo of just a few of the books on writing I have. If you look close, you can find Writing the Breakout Novel right on the top shelf, third from the middle on the left side of the shelf. The workbook that goes with it is the first one on the left side of the second shelf.

And FYI, the trophy that's in the middle of the very top, with the red accents, is from the Pen to Press Retreat last May in New Orleans. It's the "Spirit of Excellence" award. The smaller trophy is 2nd place for a non-fiction proposal.

In the post linked above, I let y'all know Donald Maass had joined Twitter and was tweeting a prompt each day for a month. But not only that, each Tuesday he adds another prompt to the list. After his month of prompts was over, I asked permission to share those prompts with y'all on my blog and he kindly said yes. So, here's the first 10 to get you started.

01. What’s the worst thing your MC does? Whom and how does that hurt? Now work backwards, set it up to hurt even more.

02. What’s the most selfless thing your MC does? What good change or effect does that have on someone unexpected? Add that in.

03. Find any violence in your ms. Delete any shock, fear or horror. Replace with two *conflicting* emotions that are less obvious.

04. Choose a middle scene: What does POV character feel most strongly? Evoke that feeling without naming it, through actions alone.

05. What should your readers most see, understand or be angry about? At what story moment will that happen? Heighten it in two ways.

06. How does your POV character change in your current scene? Work backwards. Make that change unlikely, a surprise or impossible.

07. What does a sidekick or secondary character see about your MC that your MC denies? Force a showdown over it.

08. Over what does your MC disagree with his/her boss or mentor? When does the boss/mentor prove to be right?

09. What’s a place in your story where something significant happens? Switch two other story events to that location too.

10. In your current scene, what’s a setting detail that delights or disgusts your POV character? Why? Elaborate & add.

You can find more information about Donald Maass as an agent on his website

Here's a link to his latest "how to" book. The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writer.

If you aren't on Twitter, you need to get there and follow him. You can find him as DonMaass. These prompts will make a difference in your stories if you use them. And while you're on Twitter, follow me too.

L is for Lemmings!

2011-04-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

The game, not the critter. Lemmings was originally developed for the Commodore Amiga (which we had) in 1991. I loved this game and was totally addicted to it. Which is one reason I try to avoid video games, I tend to get obsessive. Here's the scoop.

Lemmings is divided into a number of levels, grouped into four difficulty levels. Each level comprises both destructible landscape elements such as rocks, indestructible sections such as steel plates, and numerous obstacles including chasms, high walls, large drops, pools of water or lava, and booby traps. Each level also includes one or more entrance points and one or more exits. The goal is to guide a certain percentage of the green-haired, blue-shirted lemmings from the entrance to the exit by clearing or creating a safe passage through the landscape for the lemmings to use. Unless assigned a special task, each lemming will walk in one direction ignoring any other lemming in its way (save for "Blockers"), falling off any edges and turning around if they hit an obstacle they cannot pass. They die if they fall from a great height, fall into water or lava or off the map, or get caught in a trap; they also die after being assigned the bomber skill.
To successfully complete the level, the player must assign certain lemmings specific skills. The quantity of skill assignments of each type is generally limited, requiring the player to carefully assign which skills will have to be used in order to successfully guide the lemmings. There are eight skills that can be assigned. Two skills stay with the lemming regardless of how they are reassigned: "Climbers" will climb any vertical surface they hit, and "Floaters" can safely fall off from heights without injury. "Bashers", "Miners", and "Diggers" cause the assigned lemming to dig across, diagonally downward, or directly downward, respectively, through destructible material until they emerge into open air, hit indestructible material, or are reassigned. "Builders" create a rising stairway of up to 12 steps, with audible cues when they are nearly done with their task to allow the player to reassign them if a longer stairway is needed. "Blockers" will reverse the direction of all lemmings that hit them, and cannot be reassigned unless first the ground under their feet is removed. (They can be exploded, though.) "Bombers" will continue whatever they were doing prior to assignment, but after 5 seconds (indicated by a countdown timer above their head) they will stop and explode, taking a small chunk out of any destructible environment around them. While the player is able to pause the game to inspect the level and status of the lemmings, skills can only be assigned in real-time.

The lemmings are initially released at a rate predetermined by the level (from 1 to 99), but the player can increase this to a faster rate. If the rate has been increased by the player, the player can decrease the rate down to, but not lower than, the initial rate. The player also has the option to "nuke" all the remaining lemmings on the screen, converting them all to Bombers, either to quickly forfeit in order to retry a level or to remove any Blockers that remain after the rest have been rescued.

The four difficulty groups—"Fun", "Tricky", "Taxing" and "Mayhem"—are used to organize the levels to reflect their overall difficulty. This rating reflects several factors, including the number of obstacles the player has to surpass, the limitation on the number of types of skills available to assign, the minimum rate of lemming release, and the percentage of lemmings that must be saved. *** Copied from Wikipedia.

I still play occasionally when I need a break and don't want to do the solitaire thing.

Want to give Lemmings a try? Then click on over to here and enjoy.

When you need a break, what do you do? Go for a walk, read, play some kind of video game? Got any links for the rest of us?

K is for Kryptonite

2011-04-13T09:47:00.000-05:00

Kryptonite, the one thing that could bring the man of steel to his knees. His Achilles' heel..

Thing is, we all have some sort of kryptonite in our life. Something that never fails to bring us to our knees. I'm not going to turn this into a personal life type post but think about it. We all have issues in our writing that brings it to its proverbial knees. Meaning, we can always improve our writing.

For example, for a long time "that" or "just" showed up in my writing all the time. It weakened the writing, kept it from being a good as it could be.

Others among us might have issues with dialogue tags. Replied, questioned, hissed, sneered, cackled, cried, and so many others. Usually a simple "said" will do.

And what about adverbs. Have you ever read something like these, "yelled loudly" "whispered quietly" or "ran quickly"? Those adverbs weaken our writing. Not only are they redundant, they tell us instead of showing us.

Another weakening issue is generic terms. Chair, car, house. Instead, why not use words that show us a specific item, for example, a rocker, convertable or victorian.

Sure, these things are fine for a first draft. Remember, the first draft is to get the story written, to get it on paper (or screen) so we have something to revise.

So, what's your writing kryptonite?

J is for Jean...

2011-04-12T11:03:00.001-05:00

I mean, what else could it be for. So, here's a bit about me.

I'm old enough to know better, but too young to care. I was born in Arkansas but live in Texas now. Course, since I was born in Texarkana, I was really close to Texas from the start. After joining the military, I lived in Florida, (Homestead, Panama City) and Missouri (Sedalia) along with Fort Worth, Texas. Also, lived on Guam for two years, thank you Air Force.

I met my better half in Homestead, he was in the same squadron I was. While I worked on airplanes and he worked on bombs, we still managed to meet and get married.

We have 3 kids now, the oldest (21) is myone and only son. We had three daughters but lost one to cancer at age 5. It was 11 years ago so while there's still a void, time does heal.

Hubby is a Baptist preacher, and while I don't mention it here often, my faith is very important to me.

I've been seriously writing since about 2002. And while I play in most genres, my favorites are mystery and fantasy. I like SF but don't like the research needed to get it right. Which reminds me of a story...

After the plot bunnies dropped off a SF idea for me, I realized I needed to do some research on space travel, specifically Faster Than Light (FTL) travel. Now, I tend to get a bit obsessive about that kinda stuff so I read a LOT about FTL travel. I guess when I went to sleep that night, FTL was the last thing I thought about cause next morning when I got clothes out for hubby, I noticed the FTL printed at regular intervals around the waistband of his undies. Naturally I wondered just what the heck underwear had to do with Faster Than Light travel. It took me about 10 minutes of pondering before I realized FTL stood for Fruit of The Loom.

My WIPs include a mystery which is being run through my critque group and a dragon fantasy I'm revising in my spare time. (Yeah right, what spare time.)

I do stupid things. Multiple times. I don't care for veggies cause I ate so many of them as a kid. It was veggies or nothing so...

Chocolate is my favorite food. :-) Course you already knew that.

Our household includes a Golden Retriever named Doofus and a several cats. El Gato de Muerte keeps bringing me dead things (this morning a cardinal) and Skittles is a kitten given to us by the neighbor last week. I love horses, Dobermans and Long Horn cattle.

As a kid, I spent many hours under the covers with a flashlight and book. I loved "horse" books, westerns, fantasy, SF, horror and even gothic romance. My favorite books vary from day to day so I won't even try to list those. However I will say I've never read War & Peace, Moby Dick and most of the other classics.

Comment section open for questions though I won't guarantee an answer. :-)

I is for Inconsistency

2011-04-10T22:57:00.001-05:00

Okay, I admit it...I like CSI Miami, or used to. I haven't watched it very often since they moved it to Sunday evenings but I managed to remember tonight and honestly I wasn't very impressed. Besides the fact that all the CSI guys are out in the field searching buildings, interrogating suspects and arresting the bad guys, they do things that no self-respecting cop would.

For example, tonight one of the characters let himself get beat up by the bad guy. First, this particular bad guy was an expert in some form of martial arts. Second he was carrying a gun and had already killed several people. So, what does CSI guy do...get within reach and get himself beat up.

Next, when the bad guy is finally brought down, one shot to the chest by the way, the head CSI guy strolls up to him and makes a "witty, sarcastic" remark while the guy is laying there with a gun in his hand. Which of course, he raises and tries to fire. (That earns bad guy another bullet and ride to the morgue.) Anyone who knows police procedure knows one of the first thing a cop's gonna do is get the weapon from the bad guy, probably by using his foot to slide it out of the way.

Maybe it didn't bother some folks but that kind of inconsistency bothers me. It's like when characters put silencers on revolvers. (And yes I know they really aren't silencers but that's what they are called by most people.)

My better half was in the military and worked in the Munitions area. He knows bombs and missles. What they look like, how they work, which airplanes they go on and just how many can be carried by an aircraft. It drives him almost over the edge when he watches a show that get those things wrong. It doesn't bother me cause I don't know any better. (What bothers me is his ranting about how the plane can only carry 4 of a certain missle and but just fired #15.) :-)

All of that to say, get your facts straight.

Here's another thing to think on. Not long ago, my critique group called the police procedure in my WIP into question. I was pretty sure I'd done enough research and had it right but I did some more research and talked to a sheriff's officer and ran my scene past him. I was indeed correct. My police procedure was spot on.

My guess is, and I'm not sure, but I figure my critiquers have watched crime shows and were going by what the officers on the show were doing. And that's cool. I realized later the reader may have the same expectation so I need to make sure they know that my procedure is proper. When I revise that scene I'll do some tweaks so it's not a big deal.

The thing is, we don't want to throw readers out of our stories. Either by getting the facts wrong, or by getting them right and the reader having a different expectation.

H is for Hmmmmmmm...

2011-04-09T10:50:00.000-05:00

As I've pondered "H" nothing has really popped out at me so y'all are getting some random "H" thoughts today.

H is for Heros - not those in our novels but those who lay down their life everyday protecting our freedoms and fighting for the freedom of those who are in bondage. Also, the guys in the background who support those heros on the front lines. I spent almost 5 years in the Air Force, and my husband spent 20 in. As a military member, we didn't/don't have the choice of which war to fight, we follow orders. Even if you don't agree with the politics, I urge you to support the men and women who are just obeying orders.

H is for Hairy Monsters - I love Monsters, Inc. Sully is most definitely my favorite monster. And I love shouting "2319" ever so often when least expected.

H is also for Happy Dance, perfect for just about any occasion. Acceptance letter, do the Happy Dance. Hubby brings home chocolate, do the Happy Dance. See the first Robin that says spring is near, do the Happy Dance. Find a great book from a new author, do the Happy Dance. Send out a short story, do the Happy Dance. You're a writer, do the Happy Dance. Find an unexpected Hershey's Kiss in the bottom of your purse, still in the wrapper, do the Happy Dance!

There are so many reasons to celebrate that we ignore or don't see. Let's make it a point to celebrate every day. Don't let life pass you by.

H is for Hairballs. Ewwww...ever step on a fresh hairball in the middle of the night with your bare foot? Not the greatest sensation. Reminds be of those rawhide chews my dogs used to leave on the floor. I don't know how many times I stepped on one of those.

Lastly H is for High Hopes. One of these days I hope to see a novel of mine on the bookstore shelves published by a major publishing house. I know that's not every writer's dream and that's cool. We are free to chase differing dreams and march to that different drummer. Just don't let anyone rob you of your dream.

G is for Good Friends...

2011-04-08T12:49:00.002-05:00

Today I was reminded just how much good friends are worth. I spent the morning in the Emergency Room being that good friend to a good friend. Which is why this post is late and the topic has changed. So, to all those good friends, here's a big THANKS!

To my writerly friends, Mary Rosenblum, Deborah LeBlanc, CJ Lyons, Judy, Evelyn, Gay, Lynn, Roe, Kassie, Sandra, Wolfie, Elfie, Gala, and all the many others too numerous to mention...THANKS! For your support, your critiques, brainstorming, the freedom to be myself and all the good times we've shared. Know that y'all are a very important part of any writing success that I have had or will have.

Sassy...we've gone to conferences together, brainstormed and shared. Know that you'll always be one of the special friends I've made through writing.

Autumn - I'll never forget New Orleans. The memories we made at the Pen to Press conference will never be forgotten.
To my non-writerly friends...

Kym & James - We've been friends for a long time and though we don't live close by now, I still consider y'all some of the most special friends. Y'all were there before kids, at the birth of our first and second, and through the hard times when we went through the cancer treatments with Tinker and when she was called home. I always knew if I needed anything, you were there. I hope you realize the same thing goes for you...need something, don't hesitate to call.

Sherrie & Vicki - Thanks for being there while we were at Bethlehem. I'll always remember your kindness.

Miss Betty - You're very special to me, especially cause of your love for my girls. I miss seeing you each week.

Ladies of Parkway - I haven't know y'all long, but already y'all are special to me. Rebecca, I admire your strength. Deborah, I applaud your servant's heart. Elaine, you amaze me with your inner strength, your caring, calm nature and how you share your faith even going through tough times. Sue, Phyllis, Mary, Brandy, Bobbie, Sharon, Geri, Angela, and all those names I can't remember, your friendship means a lot to me. I look forward to getting to know y'all better. Julia, I think of you as the sister I never had.

And to the best friend of all...my husband. I know he won't read this, but I'd not trade him for any other. Not only is is a great father and husband but he totally supports me in whatever I attempt. He cheers for me, consoles me when I fail, and celebrates with me when I succeed. Plus he knows that chocolate is always on the list of things to pick up at the store. :-)

So today, I encourage each of you, take the time to let your friends know just how much you appreciate them.

F is for "First Things First"

2011-04-07T08:12:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but so many times what I "want" to do gets shoved aside for things I "have" to do. Somedays, writing (what I want to do), takes a backseat to just about everything else and sometimes writing doesn't even make it in the car. (Insert big sigh here.)

The question is, how do we make what we want to do a priority? I don't know about you, but sometimes it's hard to justify sitting at the puter when there are dishes/laundry that needs doing, kids that need our attention and what seems like 900 other things demanding our time.

I once read, well, more than once really, but the idea was to get up a half hour early and do your writing then. Or, stay up a bit later after everyone else has gone to bed. But what if you are just too tired to do either one?

Then, there's the "make an appointment with yourself that you can't break. Ha! Isn't that just the time when the baby wakes up or the cat hocks up a hairball in the middle of your desk?

And, then there's the other stuff we need to do that relates to writing such as blogging, tweeting, editing, market research, submitting and such.

So, what do we do? We run plots through our heads while doing the dishes. While running errands we rehearse dialogue and when we get it right, we pull over for a moment and make a note. (I plotted a whole story in the car one day. Thankfully I had pen and paper with me.) We jot down a scene here and a scene there and sooner or later, we have a whole story. Then, we can put it all together. And, while shopping or doing things out on the town, we watch people. We watch how they carry themselves, their body language and expresssions and make a note about that so we can create realistic characters.

I don't know the answer for everyone else so here's where y'all come in. What are some tips, tricks, helpful hints to get the writing done when there are 900 other things that need to be done?

E is for Expectations

2011-04-06T06:34:00.003-05:00

I don't know about you but when I buy a book, there are things I expect. For example, I expect to be transported to another world. I want to leave the reality behind for a bit and go on an adventure. I want to experience something I've not done before and might never get the chance to do. I want to meet characters who become real to me, that I'd like to sit down and chat with over a glass of tea or cup of hot cocoa. When I read a book, I want to go someplace I might never get the chance to visit.

Back as far as I can remember, I've loved to read. I remember reading under the cover with a flashlight cause the book was so good I couldn't wait to read the next page. In school, I used to read during class by putting the book on top of my textbook and holding it up so the teacher couldn't see. Of course, that worked fine until I got so involved in the story I didn't hear the teacher call on me and a classmate had to get my attention.

But, when I read a book, I want to get that involved. So involved I forget where I am, that I need to fix dinner, or put the laundry in the dryer. I want to keep turning the pages until I reach the end at three in the morning. And when I get to the end, I want to feel satisfied but also a little sad. Satisfied cause it's a fitting ending but sad because my time with the characters has come to an end. I want to put the book on my keeper shelf and know I'll be reading it again soon.

What do you expect from a book? And got any recommendations?

D is for Dream, Dream, Dream...

2011-04-04T23:54:00.001-05:00

One of the ways I can tell I need to be writing fiction instead of non-fiction is my dreams become extra vivid and extra strange. It's like my subconscious is so full of ideas that insist on coming out, one way or another. Most of the time, the dreams are unconnected and don't make much sense but ever so often I dream something that's really good. I've even gotten a couple ideas for stories from my dreams. Which is kinda cool. What's interesting is when I'm writing a lot of fiction, if I dream, I don't remember them.

And speaking of remembering, I remember as a novice writer being told never start a story with your character dreaming. And I kinda understand why. I seriously dislike starting a story only to find out it's a dream. It's annoying. Same thing with television shows.   It's like I've put all this time and emotion into whatever's happening to the character only to find out it's not real. I feel cheated. Of course, there's always exceptions to any rule. The mystery novel I'm working on now has a prologue that's a dream. However I make it plain from the start it's a dream. The dream also gives the reader some info that is important later. I'm still not sure if I'll use the prologue but it's there for now.

And speaking of dreams, I read an article this past weekend (I think) that basically asked how much you sold your dream for. Meaning, at one time you had a dream, yet you settled for something else. The example was a man who had at one time dreamed of becoming a chef but had instead gone into business. It sorta made me think about the things I let get in the way of acheiving my writing related dreams.   I realized I need to be more focused on what I want instead of what just sorta happens. And, I find it sad when people give up on reaching their dreams because the journey becomes a little tough.

So, here's some questions for you to ponder. Please share your answers in the comments if you like.

1. Have you ever gotten any ideas from your dreams? Do your dreams ever connect with your writing?

2. How do you feel about dreams in novels? What about in movies? Do you use dreams in your writing?

3. Are you letting unimportant things distract you from your writing dreams? And just what are those dreams anyway?

C is for...

2011-04-04T07:00:00.002-05:00

CHOCOLATE!!!!

Milk, dark, white (yeah, I know, it's not really chocolate), semi-sweet...it's all good. Cakes, pies, brownies, fudge, cookies, ice cream, cereal...just bring on the chocolate. Chocolate eases stress, stokes the fires of inspiration, is the perfect reward and cures most things that ail. Okay, I admit it, I'm a chocoholic. My dream vacation would be to Hershey Pennsylvania for a week.

Hi, my name's Jean and I'm a chocoholic. It's been, ten minutes since my last bite of chocolate. :-) Egads, it's been ten minutes since I've had chocolate! Well...it's not that bad really, but I do like chocolate.

What's this got to do with writing? Just that one of the things well known by my friends is I enjoy chocolate. What do your characters enjoy? What is their passion? When your character has a really, really, really bad day in fiction land, what do they turn to? Some form of alcohol, ice cream or other comfort food, a hot bubble bath or a trip to the gym to work out some frustrations?

Showing the reader this bit of information gives depth to your character and helps them connect. We want our reader to connect, to become part of the story. We want our readers to relate to the characters we write about.

And when they do, it's a good thing.

**Update: This came to my email a few minutes ago and I just had to share with the rest of you chocoholics. I haven't tried them but they sound yummy.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup fat-free hot fudge sauce, warmed

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

2.In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except fudge sauce; mix well then spread half the batter in prepared baking dish. Top with hot fudge sauce then spread remaining batter over sauce.

3.Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely then cut into squares and serve.

B is for Bonsai

2011-04-02T08:00:00.002-05:00

A couple years ago I started a new project and needed a "cool" hobby for the main character. I don't remember exactly why I chose growing bonsai but I did and now I'm hooked too.

I've killed two little trees trying to figure out how to keep 'em alive and think I finally have it. This little guy has lived through one summer, one winter and now is here for spring. It's about ready for trimming though I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle that part of the process.

Growing bonsai is kinda like writing too. You need a strong root system, have to water often and then you have to trim 'em back. For us writers, we must have a strong root/plot, have to water/write often then we trim/edit what we don't need.

It's a learning process too. And while we can't kill out writing, we can obsess so much over it that it's not fun any longer.

And writing should be fun. Sure there will be days when we really don't want to write but shouldn't be be eager to write, to get words down on the page and slip into the world of our characters? I'm vowing to have more fun with my writing. How about you?

A is for Attitude & Altitude

2011-03-31T23:54:00.000-05:00

During the month of April I'll be taking up the A to Z Blogging Challenge. You can still join in the fun, right now there are over 900 blogs taking part so click on over, sign up and blog with us. Let's get started...

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”

Zig Ziglar

I've been hanging around the blog-o-sphere for quite a while now and one thing I hear over and over again is how hard it is to get published. How unfair the system is, how agents or editors or publishers take advantage of the writer and yadda, yadda, yadda. There's a never ending list of things writer's whine about. Just this week, one writer blew up about what she thought was an unfair review.

I don't know about you, but I really don't want to be around people like that. They are having such a wonderful time being miserable, they make everyone having a wonderful time miserable. Or something like that. Anyway, all that to say, they aren't fun to be around.

I've always heard you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And it's true. Ask politely and you'll get a totally different response than if you'd whined and complained. Even if the answer is still no, it'll be given in a different attitude.

But, back to the publishing business. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it may seem unfair when celebrities who can't put three words together so they make sense get a huge advance for a children's book.

You have the choice as to how you will react though. You have the choice in your attitude. You can either whine and complain or suck it up and keep up the good fight.

I'm getting my boxing gloves on...what about you?

Change is a Good Thing

2011-03-09T13:36:00.001-06:00

I've been mentioning Kristen Lamb quite often the last week or so and there's a good reason. First, she's giving away critiques to folks who comment at her blog, link to her blog and mention her book, We Are Not Alone - The Writer's Guide to Social Media. While I have to admit I really want that critique but that's not the only reason I've been mentioning Kristen so much.

The main reason I keep sending you to her blog is that she knows a couple things about social media. Well, lots more than a couple actually but you get the idea. :-) For example, her Twitter Tuesday series. If you're on Twitter or just considering Twitter, check these posts out.

Today, she started a new series on blogging. Right off the bat, she hit the proverbial nail on its head. I've already made one change she suggested and will be making others as we go along.

So, now I'm going to send y'all over to her blog again.

Also, don't forget to check out the BreakOut Prompts from Donald Maass on Twitter. If you don't have an account, you'll have to sign up, then follow him @DonMaass.

Confession Time

2011-03-08T07:17:00.011-06:00

Years ago, when I was just beginning to get serious about writing for publication I knew I wanted to pursue the traditional "get an agent, big NY publisher" route. I don't remember how I found him, but I was head over heels. He was (and still is) smart, one of the top agents around and knew more than I'd ever learn. I knew with "Mr. Wonderful Agent" I'd be on the best seller list in no time at all.

Thankfully I have one of those obsessive personalities that requires I research as many details as possible before acting so I didn't do anything stupid. And, while I've grown from know nothing beginner to a novice with some short stories published along with some non-fiction, I'm still very much in like with Donald Maass.

I bought his "how to write" books, studied them like crazy and while I still haven't learned enough to query him, I am making progress.

Not long ago, Donald Maass joined Twitter. One of the almost first things he's started to do is a month long series of "BreakOut Prompts" to get us thinking. Monday's prompt was "What’s the worst thing your MC does? Whom and how does that hurt? Now work backwards, set it up to hurt even more."

As I pondered this, I realized I need to dig beneath the surface of my character and bring out her flaws more. I'm looking forward to the process. :-)

So, all that to say, if you want to improve your novel, check out Donald Maass. You'll find him on Twitter at @DonMaass and you'll be glad you did.

Bonus Monday

2011-03-07T10:34:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday y'all! It's the start of another writing week since I take the weekends off and spend them with the family. Which leads to the question, do you take time off from writing ever so often, just to let your batteries recharge? Do you even need to recharge?

This is going to be a busy week for me and I'm looking forward to getting some words on the page. What about you, working on anything special this week?

I'm still doing the weekly columns for the Long Ridge Writer's Group newsletter. You can see the latest colum here. You'll need to scroll down about halfway but it's there. I promise. :-)

I mentioned the Bald Eagle Nest Cams a while back and while not much is happening yet and it seems like the Pelican Harbor nest has been abandoned. But the other two nests have eggs in them. I'm looking forward to seeing the chicks when they hatch and watching them grow.

And here's something for all of you getting ready to pitch your novel. Pitch University is doing a week long pitching workshop with Jennifer Wilkov. Today is "day two" but you can easily catch up.

So, let us know what you're working on this week, enquiring trolls want to know.:-)

The "B" Word

2011-03-03T08:08:00.003-06:00

One of the things I do first every morning after hubby leaves is check my Facebook and Twitter pages. And sometimes one of the next things I do is blog. And that's what's happening today. As I scrolled down my Twitter feed, I found this from "Fuel Your Writing".

[NEW POST] Don't Let the 'B' Word Ruin Your Writing http://fuel.bz/I7X

First, I thought the 'B' word might be bitch. I used to breed and show dogs so don't consider that a "bad" word. It does sound strange coming from a 4 year old but when used in the appropriate context, well, hey...

Then, I decided the 'B' word must be bad. I mean, if you could see some of my first drafts, you'd say they were beyond bad. :-)

While both my guesses were wrong, I'm not going to tell you what the 'B' word she's talking about is. You have to go read for yourself. However, she said something that I've noticed in my own writing life. Here it is...

"I have a theory: the more you’re talking about your book, the less you’re writing it. Blabbing to everyone about it, outlining the story, the structure, the essence of it, isn’t writing it.

It’s seeking approval. It’s getting your jollies on the content without doing the work. It’s robbing your book of its chance to come into the world and have an impact.

So hush about it. Keep it to yourself or talk to your coach or writing peers to help you stay on track. Sit down and write."

Now, she's not talking about brainstorming plot and such with another writing buddy. We often need to air out our idea with another who understands plot, structure and character motivations. But many times we, myself included, tell our story to any and everyone who'll listen, we talk about our characters and before you know it, the urge to write the story isn't there.

Anyone else notice this? How do you keep the fire to write your story alive?

Social Networking

2011-03-02T10:54:00.000-06:00

Not so long ago all a writer was responsible for was the writing. Now, we must take a bigger role in the promotion part of being a writer. And while I'm no expert, I've found some great links and websites from folks who are. So today, it's another link fest.

First, Kristen Lamb's WarriorWriters blog. I love the "Twitter Tuesday" posts. I'm actually planning on starting at the beginning and reading through all the posts. Kristen is the author of "We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media" which is on order. Hopefully it'll be here soon. I've heard very good things about this book.

Get a free Book Marketing Tips e-book from The Savvy Book Marketer. Here's a blog post with Ten Twitter Tips for book promotion. And another on running a Twitter Contest.

Need a FaceBook Fan page? Then check out this step by step "how to" article. This is something I've got to do. *sigh*

And while I don't believe anyone other than the books author should ever do the querying (I think you'll find most agents/editors believe this too.), the folks over at Novel Publicity have some good promotion tips.

Since this post is all about promotion, how about leaving your twitter or facebook info in the comments.

Monday, Monday...

2011-02-28T09:31:00.000-06:00

I had such a great weekend. Naturally chocolate was involved but so were friends and family. Now that it's Monday, it's back to work.

So, what's on your agenda for the day? Also, how are you doing goal wise for the year? On track or a little behind?

Me...I'm writing. :-) And while I'm a bit behind on where I wanted to be at this time, I'm planning to catch up.

When you take a break from the writing, check out this excellent post on beginnings and hooking the reader by Kristen Lamb.

Going to a Writer's Conference????

2011-02-25T12:46:00.001-06:00

I love writer's conferences. I really, really do. There's just something about immersing yourself in craft workshops, getting to know other writers and meeting industry professionals that's almost addictive. If you've never attended a conference, then I highly recommend you do so.

One of the great things about conferences is the chance to meet an agent or an editor up close and personal, one on one. However, that can also be one of the most terrifying thing a writer will ever do.

Kristen Lamb has a great blog post about her agent pitch experience with some tips so your time in the spotlight will go easier. I found Kristen's blog about a week ago and it's filled with wonderful tips for writes at all stages of their career. I'm in the process of reading the archives and there's a wealth of info there so y'all check 'em out too. I love the "Twitter Tuesday" posts!

Kristen is also the author of We Are Not Alone - The Writer's Guide to Social Media. I've heard lots of good things about this book and have it on my "buy and read ASAP" list. The president of my writer's group swears by this book.

Remember, you can find some information about writing conferences at Shaw Guides or by googling your state and writer conferences.

Monday Goals...

2011-02-21T08:00:00.001-06:00

Good morning all! It's the start of another week here and it should be a good one. And it's time to do a little planning so things get accomplished. So, what's on the agenda this week?

What projects do you have that need to be finished? Got any ideas waiting to be started? Are you setting any word count goals for this week?

I've got 900 things to do as usual but I'm focusing on just a couple. The Long Ridge column of course and I'm hoping to get that "snowman" prompt figured out and written. Tuesday night I plan to attend a new writer's group meeting and I'm looking forward to that. Then, Wednesday night I'll get to attend my critque group meeting. The last two times I've tried to go, we'd had to cancel cause of the weather.

And...my better half suggested a new project last night that's got my interest. It's needs a lot more pondering so I'm letting it simmer a bit.

Now, share your upcoming week with us...and let us know how you did last week.

Link Salad

2011-02-15T19:40:00.000-06:00

Thought it was about time for some links. To get us started heres....

9 Worksheets to help with plot, scenes, characters and revisions. I love worksheets in general and while I might not use them all, I still like to have 'em around.

Here's another worksheet. It's a complication worksheet but there are several others on the site.

This link has nothing to do with writing but is still cool. It's an American Bald Eagle nest cam. There are three nests but I've only seen eagles in two of them. And while not much is happening right now, I'm thinking when hatchlings come along it might be really interesting to watch.

Here's 7 Habits of Serious Writers. How many of these do you have?

Check out this search engine for writers. Writer's Knowledge Base There are thousands of articles on all aspects of writing. Get prepared to spend some time here. :-)

Author Kristen Lamb has a great blog dealing with social media. She has some great craft type posts to so browse awhile. Her book We Are Not Alone - The Writer's Guide to Social Media is on my "gotta have" list.

Remember Q on Star Trek? He's his performance of Poe's The Raven. It's excellent!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

In honor of the holiday I'm going to post some links for all you romance writing folks out there.

Naturally you all know about e-Harlequin. But, have you really, really, really checked them out? Especially the forum? I knew about the writer's guidelines and the free reads but if you spend time in the forum, you'll find contests and even editors taking pitches. Of course you can chat with others about your favorite authors and other writers about writing but there's just a whole lot of other stuff to explore.

Also, Romance Divas. This is a special place to hang out. You'll find author interviews, book reviews and writing tips on their blog and each month there is an Author of the Month workshop in their forum area. **The forum area is closed to new members at this time while the owners are upgrading the site but bookmark the page and come back often.** They also have a chat room so you'll want to check that out too.

The Romance Writer's Association is the big organization for romance writers. They sponsor contests and local writing chapters along with a really big national convention each year. Give 'em a look.

Here's a link to some articles about writing romance. I haven't read them all but I'm sure you'll find something of interest.

Want to give writing romance a try but not sure how? Here's a free mini-course to get you started.

Lastly, for more romance writing info check out Romance Fiction Factor.

Have a great day y'all!

Time to Generate Some Fun

2011-02-08T06:53:00.001-06:00

All work and no play makes Jack and any other writer a dull writer. And that's where this weeks websites come to the rescue. Plus, while playing, there's no telling what ideas may pop up.

First, Seventh Sanctum. (www.seventhsanctum.com) I love this site and could spend hours there playing with their generators. Actually, I have spent hours there, the time just seems to fly by. At Seventh Sanctum, you'll find dozens of generators for characters, places, names, skills, beings, organizations and much more. For example, clicking on "setting" gets you generators for adventure sites, lost civilizations, outer planes, realms, rooms (which is really cool) and tavern names. Some of the ideas/names generated won't be useable but may spark others. The pirate ship name generator is great too.

If you get stuck, you can always click on "writing" and get quick story ideas, themes or a writing challenge.

Next, Wordle. (www.wordle.net) This tool generates word clouds highlighting the words used most in text you provide. One writer I know uses this to come up with ideas by putting in poetry and looking for interesting word combinations or themes. Another use is to find possible titles since the most common, most frequently used words are emphasized. It's an interesting way to see your story. These designs can be printed out and used for whatever you like. Perhaps a t-shirt...

And for some inspiration, create your own newspaper headline at Fodey. (http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp) Enter the name of the newspaper you like, add some text and you're a headliner.

Now, go play. But only for a little while. You've got work to do. :-)

Jean

** Originally published in the Long Ridge Writer's Group Newsletter on Jan. 17, 2011

Monday, Monday...

2011-02-07T07:46:00.001-06:00

I have internet at HOME!!! And I'm so excited. Now I can get back to posting on a regular basis and chatting with all my friends. I've really missed you!!! Thanks for hanging on and waiting for me to return.

So, new week, new goals. What's everyone got planned? Novel, short story, contest??? Poetry?

Me...I'm finally getting back to writing on a regular basis. Other than the weekly column anyway. :-) I've sent part of novel to new critique group for the upcoming meeting this week and I'm really looking forward to finally being able to take part in live, in person group.

I've a column to write for this week but I know what it's about. Just have to do the research and put it together.

There's some revising I want to get done plus a new idea I want to finish plotting out.

Now, what about you? What have you got on the agenda? Need a prod? I'll put the iron in the fire and heat it up. Just let me know. :-)

And the winners are...

2011-02-06T21:41:00.001-06:00

Nanci and Chris Weigand. I've sent them both emails so hope to hear from them soon. Ladies, I need your mailing address so I can send out your books. If I don't hear from them by the end of this month, I'll pick another winner to go along with this month's drawing.

January's books for the drawing were "A Writer's Paris" by Eric Maisel and the WD "Handbook of Article Writing".

Remember, if you follow this blog in February, you'll be entered to win a writing book too. Not sure which one but it'll be worth it.

Have a great week and thanks for all of you who do follow.

Jean

Monday Goals

2011-01-24T07:07:00.001-06:00

Hey all...
I find it hard to believe we are more than half way through January. And while I've gotten things done, I'd still like to get more accomplished. So, I'm going to have to step up my goals a bit.
This week I hope to get internet at home which will help a lot. I need to get column written for Long Ridge newsletter along with some writing of my own. Plus, I've joined a live, in person critque group which I'll meet with for the first time Wednesday night. I didn't have pages ready in time for this week's meeting so I'll have to get some ready for next time.

What about you? Getting things done? Need to focus more?

Oh, be sure to update us on last week's progress.

Monday Goals

2011-01-17T07:35:00.002-06:00

I'm starting this week behind already due to last week's infection but I'm rearing to go. Or at least imagining rearing. :-)

I'm still planning on trying to get two columns written and I have to decide what I want to work on to take to Fen Con in Sept. I didn't get to go last year but had already paid. Thankfully, they carry over memberships and workshop payments to the next year. But now, I need a fantasy novel for the writer's workshop.

Also, I just joined a live critique group that's part of my local writer's group so must have pages for that this week too. Maybe I can combine this with the above goal. :-)

Let me know what you've got planned.

2011-01-16T07:37:00.000-06:00

Today is Dragon Appreciation Day. Personally I think dragons need a month of their own to be properly appreciated (or at least a week). I mean, could there be a more awesome critter?

So, what's your favorite dragon book, movie or story?

Me, I love the movie Dragonheart with Sean Connery as the dragon. I don't like the movie Reign of Fire though.

And I really like Smaug and while I really didn't care for the whole Eragon book thing, I do like Saphira.

Lastly, check out Design Toscano for some really cool dragon items.

Saturday Update

2011-01-15T17:28:00.000-06:00

Time to see how you did this week with your goals. Me, not so good. I've been fighting a losing battle with a sinus/respiratory infection and it finally got to the point of seeing a doc. I did that on Thursday and feel much better today. Thankfully! :-)

So, how'd y'all do?

Getting Organized

2011-01-11T06:49:00.003-06:00

(Orginally published in the Long Ridge Writer's Group Newsletter Jan. 3, 2011)

January is typically a time when we focus on resolutions, goals, along with what worked or didn't in the past year. And for us writers, it's a good time to evaluate where we want to go with our writing and how to get there. It's also a good time to get organized. Here's a couple places to help you get on the right track.
First, each month Productive Flourishing posts a new planner. For bloggers, there is The Blog Post Planner for brainstorming topics. The Blog Post Calendar lets you schedule posts and see what you have planned for the whole month on one page. I wish I'd found these earlier.

The Monthly Action Planner lets you see just what needs to be accomplished each month and breaks it down by the week. It includes major events and objectives along with a space for notes.

Need to keep up with multiple projects? The Freelancer Worksheet is the perfect tool to keep up with schedules, deadlines and time spent on each project. You'll need one for each week so print out several.

These are free to download with new planners being posted toward the end of each month. If you prefer not to wait, you can pay a small charge and download a whole year of planners at one time.

Next, over at SpaceJock you'll find two really nice tools created for writers, by a writer. And again, these are free to download.

Sonar 3 is a manuscript tracking program that tracks submissions, markets, rejections, and sales. You can see what works you have out and which ones need to be submitted. Not only can Sonar 3 be used for short stories and nonfiction articles but novel submissions as well. Sonar 3 is easy to learn and simple to use.

You'll also find the yWriter software at Spacejock. This is a word processor that breaks your novel into chapters and scenes. It won't write your novel for you or make plot suggestions but if you're the kind of writer who likes to be organized, then this may work for you. Again, it's a fairly simple program to learn and use.

Norman Vincent Peale once said, "All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do." I hope these tools help you visualize and reach your goals.

Lagniappe: Share your weekly goals and progress Under the Troll's Bridge with our new Monday Goals & Friday Praises series of posts. We'll even break out the prod if needed. :-)

Monday Goals

2011-01-10T07:45:00.000-06:00

Monday again and time to get things lined out for the week. What do you want to get done before Saturday?

Me, I'll be working on column and revisions. Plus, I have a short story I need/want to finish along with some market research to do.

January Contest

2011-01-08T10:58:00.000-06:00

Become a follower of this blog during the month of January and be entered to win a writer's book of some sort. I'll even include those who became followers before January so everyone has a chance to win. There will probably be two winners since I have two books at this time. Maybe more by the end of the month. :-)

Saturday Update...

2011-01-08T10:45:00.000-06:00

It's time to let us know how you did on your goals and what you got accomplished this week. Remember, even a small step forward is a good thing so blow your own horn. :-)

I managed to get my column written, the second one roughed out in my head, and will finish up the writing group newsletter today. I even managed to start working on revising a WIP.

Poetry Anyone?

2011-01-05T08:17:00.001-06:00

This past weekend my daughter and I headed over to the mall to look around. It's a short trip now...about 7 or 8 minutes verses the hour and half it used to be. One of the benefits of city life. :-) In the middle of the walkway was a lady selling all sorts of calendars. And, they were half off the full price. Naturally I had to check them out. And naturally, one came home with me.

It's a Magnetic Poetry calendar with about 200 little magnetic word pieces and a magnetic board to play on. Very cool and I've decided it's kinda fun too. The word restrictions make for some interesting ideas and really get the brain thinking.

So...I think we all need to try some poetry. It doesn't have to rhyme, no need for following any special form either. Just share a poem with us...about any subject. And no, it doesn't have to be perfect, this is just a creative exercise for fun.

I'll share one of mine soon. :-)

Just had to share...

2011-01-04T15:42:00.001-06:00

I took this from my backyard last week.

Monday Goals

2011-01-03T07:29:00.001-06:00

Weekly goals is one way to make sure we get things accomplished. Not only does sharing our goals in such an open forum help us to achieve them, it helps us see how much we get accomplished over time. Plus, having someone else to be accountable to is a great motivator.

So, share your goals for this week in the comment section and we'll be glad to prod or cheer you along.

Drumroll...please!

2011-01-01T06:34:00.002-06:00

During 2011 I'll be writing a weekly column for the Long Ridge Writer's Group newsletter. I'll be sharing websites, resources and other helpful writing links. The newsletter comes out each Monday and you can find it by clinking on the above link, then clicking on Writing Craft, then Newsletters.

Each newsletter will be on the Long Ridge website for about three weeks however I'll be posting the column here the week after it comes out in the newsletter. That way they will be archived online and searchforable. (Yes, I know searchforable isn't a word.)

I'm really excited about this column and the places I've got in mind to spotlight. I think you'll like 'em too. :-)

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-01T06:21:00.002-06:00

We've made it to another January. And I believe 2011 will be a great one. I've got some exciting things in the works and will be sharing a lot of them with you. So be sure to check back often.

Here's a preview...

A new column.
A weekly goal setting series.
Picture prompts.
Contests.
Markets.
Interviews with publishing professionals.
Reviews.

You don't want to miss out.

Update to the update...

2010-12-30T17:21:00.000-06:00

Still no internet at the new house. I'd chosen a provider, got everything (I thought) set up but turns out the person who took my order didn't know what they were doing and the other two people I talked to were just about as clueless. So, I told them to cancel my order and that I'd find another provider. Thankfully, there are several options in town here. I'm not sure when I'll be online from my home, I hope by the middle of January but won't hold my breath. Until then, I'll be hanging out at wifi hot spots. :-)

I'm still enjoying new home and living in town. The weather has been crazy...summer one day, winter the next...then kinda springlike. Never boring.

I do have some writing news to share so check back soon.

Update...

2010-12-13T20:12:00.000-06:00

It seems like forever since I posted anything here and I really miss it. Not only have the holidays been a distraction but we moved. We found our new place on Tuesday, started moving on Wednesday and finished up on Saturday. We moved 11 years of stuff for 5 people. Talk about work! And while I dislike the moving process, I love being moved. Or will once I get everything unpacked and put away. :-) And we get internet at the new place. (I'm using wifi in Chick-fil-a now.)

Because of the holidays, things will be quiet here until the first of the year. Then, I'll start posting on a regular basis again. And while I don't have all the details yet, and some I can't announce, the new year is going to be great here. There will be interviews, contests, reviews and lots of other cool stuff so check back on the first or second of January to find out what's happening.

So, if I don't get a chance to tell you closer to the day, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your holiday season be joyous, filled with good things and plenty of chocolate.

Monday Mug Shot

2010-12-13T19:58:00.000-06:00

This is actually my daughter's mug but since I have no holiday themed mug of my own, this one will have to do.

I'm not sure when she got this but it's been around for several years. It's larger than the normal mug which is especially nice for hot cocoa on a winter morning.

I'm not sure just what started the penguin thing years and years ago but she has several penguin items. And speaking of penguins, we both love The Penguins of Madagascar. I have a hard time deciding if Skipper or Rico is my favorite, or maybe it's Private.

Monday Mug Shot

2010-11-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

I love this mug. It holds about three times as much as a normal mug does so I haven't used it for drinking. Usually it holds emergency chocolate for those times the plot bunnies need to be fed.

This mug is a souviener from our first trip to San Marcos Texas for son and his piano playing. My son taught himself to play piano so after two years of him working at it alone, we found a teacher for him and he qualifed to go to "All State" and compete with kids from all over Texas.

While he didn't make "All State" that year, he was rated "Outstanding" which is the next best thing. Especially since he had only a year of lessons under his belt and was competing with kids who had taken lessons for 5-6 years. Naturally we were/are very proud of him.

And speaking of the son, Saturday he competed in the East Texas Hymn Festival. He played two hymns, was rated "Superior" on both and brought home another blue ribbon.

Mug Shot Monday

2010-11-08T10:39:00.001-06:00

I thought about it long and hard then decided to steal the idea and join the party. Well, not really a party but fun anyway.

This is one of my favorite mugs. It's not fancy and at the moment it has hot cocoa in it. A special friend gave this to me over 20 years ago. We had started going to a gym and working out together. She said the VIP stood for Very Impressive Partner. She and I are still good friends even though we don't get together as often as we used to but every time I use this mug, I'm reminded of her and how much friendship means.

Now, click on over to Coffee and a Keyboard and check out some more mug shots. And, if you are blogging, join us with your mug shots. :-)

Reading...

2010-11-07T22:20:00.000-06:00

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."

Stephen King

I love this quote. Not only is it very true but it gives us the perfect reason to pull out a book and read.

When we read, we get a chance to see how other writer's weave words, both good and bad. We get inspired by the good and encouraged by the bad. I mean, if they can get published writing such dreck, we who write better surely can with some persistence. :-)

I've been on a reading binge this past month. I've read the entire Harry Potter series, (I'd never read them before though the kids had.) a western, two thrillers and started another fantasy novel.

There's a historical romance waiting for its turn too.

I want to encourage each of you to read, and read widely. Read outside the genres you write in. Expand your reading horizons.

So, what are your reading ?

Pumpkins...

2010-10-31T19:43:00.000-05:00

NaNo Thoughts

2010-10-25T10:51:00.000-05:00

Next Monday starts the November Madness known as NaNoWriMo and I have to admit I'm looking forward to it...most of the time. I have my idea though I still have a lot of pondering to do. I have to finalize some character names too. And...I don't have a title yet. Which is unusual since I normally have titles first. There is a possible title I'm considering but no decision has been made yet. I hope to get most of the plotting, names and such finished today.

I've also added a word count widget to the sidebar of the blog just so y'all can keep up with the numbers without having to go to the NaNo site.

And speaking of the NaNo site...they have some great forums there however they can be a huge time suck. What you plan to be a 5 minute "break" cause you are stuck on a scene often ends up into an hour or more lost. So, leave the forums until you have your daily word count down. Turn browsing the forums into a reward.

Also, turn off the internet while you are writing. Don't worry about checking email, facebook or twitter. They can wait. I know it sounds unreal, but the world won't end if you don't check 'em out every fifteen minutes. :-)

Need a word count meter? Try StoryToolz. You can have up to three meters going and they are simple to update.

To finish NaNo with a 50k word count you need to write 1,667 words each day. Thing is, Thanksgiving comes around in November. So, if you are going to be traveling to family or having them come to your place and won't be writing for a day or two, get some extra words whenever you can.

Most of all...

No matter how you do during NaNo, you'll have more words written at the end of the month than when you started on the first. And that's a good thing.

Numbers, Pt. 2

2010-10-21T11:35:00.001-05:00

The other day, after my horrid "numbers" thought, I had a nasty attack of shoulder vultures. I mean, with those kind of numbers, why even try? I sulked a while, had some chocolate then sucked it up and got back to writing. (Yesterday was good day for sulking...I had to be in the car most of the day.)

Thing is, my numbers aren't "quite" correct and I want to thank Timothy for reminding me of something.

This is part of Timothy's comment...

I've spent the bulk of my career as a publisher's book editor. I reviewed over 20,000 proposals. Most of these had a good idea buried somewhere in a fair or poorly written document. 80% of what I received did not make it past the initial review.

I've heard this before. I've even heard it's about 90%, depending on the publication. So, let's look at those numbers from the other day again.

Let's say they get 100 submissions a month but only 10-20 are decent. But you know what...they only need 15 for that month's issue. That makes the chances of getting in a lot better. Sure they hold things over from month to month but when you get rid of the chaff, the numbers aren't so bad.

And, I don't know for sure but I'd bet out of those 10-20, only 5 or 6 pieces really, really shine.
Now let's look at the high end of the numbers, 500 submissions a month. At 80%, 400 of them won't make the first cut and at 90%, 450 won't. That only leaves 50-100 submissions. And let's say only about 20 really sparkle and shine.

Things still don't look so bad. And that's why it's so important to do your part. Again, study your target market, know what they publish. Write the best story you can. Get reader feedback, polish and shine your submission until it sparkles. Follow those submission guidelines.

Publication can and will happen. :-)

Numbers Game

2010-10-19T10:45:00.001-05:00

This morning while hubby took his shower, I stayed in bed for a few extra minutes and while in that half asleep phase I had a thought that sorta woke me up. And not in a very good way.

I've heard it said many times that getting published is a numbers game. The more you send out the more chance you have to get something published. And that's true. You can't get published if no one sees your work.

But here's what came to me this morning.

There's this well known magazine I'd love to have a story in. It comes out monthly and has about 15 stories in each issue. That means they need about 180 stories for the entire year. Thing is...every writer in this magazine's genre wants in so sends them stories.

Let's say they get 100 submissions a month for 1,200 a year. But they only need 180!
What if they get 200 submissions a month? That's 2,400 a year. Again, they only need 180.
Let's take it up a notch, 500 submissions a month for 6,000 a year. They still only need 180 though.

The numbers are kinda staggering and don't really give much hope. But, there are things we can do to better our chances of getting one of those 180 slots. (Or any other magazine.)

1. Study their publication. Read back issues. See what type of stories they like to publish.
2. Write the best story we can and polish it until it gleams. (This means learning our craft and practicing.)
3. Follow submission guidelines. (Yes, basic info we should know but sometimes we need to be reminded.)
4. Hope for the best, expect the worst. Meaning, have another market in mind in case of rejection.
5. Realize there are a lot of stories competing with yours. Just because it's rejected doesn't mean your story is bad. It just means it wasn't what the editor was looking for at that time.
6. Never give up. Keep writing, keep submitting.

More Snowflakes

2010-10-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Okay...

I've my one sentence summary of my NaNo novel and I've been working on the paragraph. I've done a lot of pondering but just haven't written anything down yet. But, for those of you doing better than me, here's step 3.

Step 3) The above gives you a high-level view of your novel. Now you need something similar for the storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you invest in designing them up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:
•The character's name
•A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline
•The character's motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
•The character's goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
•The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
•The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
•A one-paragraph summary of the character's storyline

The Snowflake Method

2010-10-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

I'll admit it, I'm a plotter. To some degree anyway. I like to have a roadmap that shows where I'm heading. Sure, I might drift from the map at times but it's nice to have the map, just in case. So, this year for NaNo I thought I'd give something different a try during my plotting. And, I thought since misery loves company or something like that, I'd have y'all join me in the process.

For this week, let's work on step 1 & 2. I've copied them here for your convenience but you can find the whole process on this site.

When you get your steps done, feel free to post 'em in the comments for the rest of us.

And...here we go!!!

Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Something like this: "A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul." (This is the summary for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture.
When you later write your book proposal, this sentence should appear very early in the proposal. It's the hook that will sell your book to your editor, to your committee, to the sales force, to bookstore owners, and ultimately to readers. So make the best one you can!

Some hints on what makes a good sentence:

•Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words.
•No character names, please! Better to say "a handicapped trapeze artist" than "Jane Doe".
•Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now tell me what he or she wants to win.
•Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is an art form.

Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I like to structure a story as "three disasters plus an ending". Each of the disasters takes a quarter of the book to develop and the ending takes the final quarter. I don't know if this is the ideal structure, it's just my personal taste.
If you believe in the Three-Act structure, then the first disaster corresponds to the end of Act 1. The second disaster is the mid-point of Act 2. The third disaster is the end of Act 2, and forces Act 3 which wraps things up. It is OK to have the first disaster be caused by external circumstances, but I think that the second and third disasters should be caused by the protagonist's attempts to "fix things". Things just get worse and worse.
You can also use this paragraph in your proposal. Ideally, your paragraph will have about five sentences. One sentence to give me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence each for your three disasters. Then one more sentence to tell the ending. If this sounds suspiciously like back-cover copy, it's because . . . that's what it is and that's where it's going to appear someday.

NaNoWriMo

2010-10-03T22:40:00.002-05:00

I'm most of you know about NaNoWriMo but just in case you don't, the basic idea is to write at least a 50k novel during the month of November from scratch. You can plot and plan before Nov. but no writing allowed. It's an interesting challenge that thousands of writers each November take part in.

For those who don't know about NaNoWriMo, you can find more info at their WebSite.

I've taken part several years now. When I set my mind to it, I've managed to finish with something that can be used as the basis for a novel. In fact, the dragon novel I'm revising now (that's under contract by the way) is a NaNoWriMo project.

This year, I've decided to take the NaNo leap again. I'll be doing something a bit different from my normal mystery or fantasy so I'm kinda excited. I'm actually ready to start plotting some.

So, I thought we should plot our NaNo novels and share the journey to 50k together. I think tomorrow we'll talk about characters. :-)

Here's today's questions?

1. Who's going to take the NaNoWriMo plunge?
2. What are you going to be writing?

P.S. The NaNo website might be a bit slow for the first couple days of this month as they have just relaunched it and are working to get the bugs out.

Dream a little dream...

2010-09-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

The last couple nights I've had some of the strangest dreams. And that means I've spent too much time editing and revising and not enough time creating. I've noticed this also happens when life gets in the way and I don't write anything new for about a week.

Normally I don't remember my dreams (if I have them) but when I haven't been writing/creating I have the most vivid, interesting dreams. Dreams that hang on all day, nag at me and sometimes get jotted down in an idea file for later.

In fact, I've got three story ideas right now that came straight from dreams.

So, what about you? Do you remember your dreams? Do you ever get ideas from them? How can you tell if you haven't been writing/creating enough?