September's Giveaway

For the month of September, celebrating my next try at submitting to agents, I will be be giving away a book from my collection to a lucky winner. September will be Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. If you want a shot at this free book, all you have to do is comment on this post or on my Facebook page regarding the picture below. A winner will be chosen by random.org Sept 30. Good luck!

Goals...What Goals?

August's goals:
1. Reach 50% completion with current work in progress, My Demonic Love.
2. Finish synopsis of All or Nothing.
3. Work on short story for Chapbook competition, Relief.

Accomplishments in August:
1. 50% completion with My Demonic Love.
2. Finished synopsis of All or Nothing.
3. Worked on Relief

Yep, August goals have come and gone. Yay! For September, the goals include:
1. Finish Relief for competition deadline of September 30th.
2. Reach 75% completion for current work in progress, My Demonic Love.
3. Final read through and start of querying for All Because of You.

Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans

Oblivious

Good morning, friends. Not a lot has been happening in the world of writing since we last spoke. I have been asking myself a question for the past two weeks concerning my current work in progress, My Demonic Love, and this morning the answer was suddenly on the tip of my tongue. Location, location, location. That is what has Chapter 6 at a standstill. I literally could not think of a place that my hero and heroine would be safe to find the answers to their problems. They are being followed, their enemies know every detail of their lives and out for blood, so where in all of New York City (my main location) could these two feel safe? Well, she is a demon, and he is a doctor with no religious background. The answer was simple and obvious when you think about it. A church! Only my church is going to have a few extras to fit into what my characters need. I was stuck thinking the only place they could get the information they needed was a library and libraries are boring to write about. So out with the old and in with the new. Maybe Chapter 6 will actually get done this week or next. And yes, you can laugh all you want at my obliviousness.

Checking In

The past couple days have been very productive. The completion of my August goals are in sight and looking better with every passing day. I finished another chapter of My Demonic Love last night, making a total of 8.5 complete. This morning, I was up bright and early working on the synopsis of All or Nothing, which, of course, I put off till the last of the month. I have about two paragraphs of that written, with another 6 or 7 to go. If I put my mind to it, I can finish the thing before August 31st, which was my original goal. I also worked a little bit on my new short story, Relief, my contest entry into the Pudding Chapbook contest and first chapter of All Falls Down. In the original chapter, I have the hero, Daniel Banvard, released from prison, but not a lot from his POV. That is changing. I am making the ENTIRE chapter/chapbook from his POV. There are a lot of emotions playing around in that kind of situation and I intend to explore all of them in this revision.I'll be posting the short story on my "Other Works" page when I'm through and hope to get some feedback on what my readers think. It's not due till Sept 30th, so don't hold your breath.

Yesterday, I heard from my beta-reader about All Because of You and he gave me some great advice when it comes to my characters. I was surprised he didn't have more to say, but am a little relieved at the same time. I'm hoping September will be the month to start submitting to agents for this MS. I have a read through I need to do apparently, but then it's out to query.

I Forgot to Add...

I forgot to add one other WiP to include in my list of others. It's called My Road and it is my personal journey to publication. The end is not in sight, nor do I know if it ever will be, but I was inspired to write about my life as a writer and the emotions/actions associated with it. Right now, I am still at the beginning, remembering what it was like when I first decided that I wanted to be an author, that I wanted to write for the rest of my life. Writing brings me peace of mind, lets me work my emotions out on paper and this WiP is just another way of doing that, only it's about me. Some out there who read this blog can say they know me well, or personally, but most of you can't. I have given up a lifetime of friendships to get to this point in my life and have neglected a lot of others. Some I'm not happy about, but most are for the best. In any case, I'm hoping this WiP will show others who I am a little clearer than this blog and what writing means to me.

Making Progress

My Demonic Love is coming along nicely for now. It's always easier to write the beginning and the end. I have trouble writing the middle of my novels. That is were most of my time is spent, trying to get to the end and not in a boring manner. But it's going well, I think. I have been working on other things as well and should update you on those too. I'm not really giving as much attention to the other works in progress as I am with My Demonic Love, but they deserve recognition anyway!

My Demonic Love @ 39k (Paranormal Romance)
My Mortal Eclipse @ 1k (Paranormal Romance)
My Angelic Death @ 1k (Paranormal Romance)
Relief - A Short Story @ 5k (Chapbook)
Never Too Early @ 1k (Sleuth)

I'm keeping pretty busy and loving every minute of it!

Catching Up

Well, hello there. It's been a while. This week has been eventful. My best friend was in town from Wednesday night to this afternoon. I just dropped her off at the airport. We were able to see Eat Pray Love, the movie and were both very inspired to better our lives for ourselves. Even it involves just learning a language and dreaming of traveling to our favorite countries. I was able to get out and rock climb this week for the first time since husband and I moved to Nevada. I also got a very needed hour long massage on Thursday. I had a great week. My vacation was much needed and even fruitful.

I'm up to about 200 pages on the current MS now. Each morning while my friend worked on her doctoral project, I worked on my book. I spent at least two hours each morning writing and was able to get a lot done. My goals for the past week were to finish Chapter 6 and Chapter 13 and work on my short story for the Pudding Chapbook contest. I finished Chapter 13 and I worked on my chapbook, but Chapter 6 is still at a standstill. I'm not too bummed because I wrote seven pages of Chapter 14 instead. The month is passing quickly and I have a little under two weeks to reach my goal of reaching 50% completion. I'm not really worried. Yet.

Today, and the rest of the upcoming week, I will be catching up on some neglected reading. My nightstand is stacked with books and only growing bigger every day.

Under Control

No, not really. I don't feel that way at all. It's been a very busy week in the writing department. I wasn't even sure I wanted to take time away from the current work in progress to blog. But blog I must.

Here's what's new:

This week I was able to finish two chapters in My Demonic Love. Pushing my total count of chapters finished to 5. I started another two chapters today. I have about 5-7 pages of each written right now. These two make up my goal for the week. Must finish them by Saturday.

Something else kind of cool: I've been thinking about stepping out of the Romance genre once I have My Demonic Love, My Mortal Eclipse and My Angelic Death written. I was actually able to outline at least half of the new idea yesterday. It wasn't planned. I was toying with the idea, but my subconscious made me do it. I woke up this morning and forced myself to get the ideas out on paper. The new book if tentatively titled Never Too Early. It is more a Sleuth, but may have some romantic elements. I'm not sure yet. My focus is still on the current paranormal project, but I did have to write out the prologue for Never Too Early before I could move on.

I was able to register for classes this week. So I am going to start my bachelor's program in a couple weeks. This will most likely take some time away from writing and blogging, but I will do my best to keep up with everyone.

Some bad news: I lost three pages of My Demonic Love. I don't know where they went. I opened up a finished chapter, and suddenly I remember that's not where my chapter left off! So I searched my backup drive and the chapter was on there, but a previous version and not the one I was looking for. Thank goodness it was only three pages. It was nothing compared to The Great File Loss of 2009 where I lost 150 pages of All Falls Down.I cried then. Really. So today was nothing. I was able to rewrite the three pages I lost. So no harm, no foul.

Hope you all have a good upcoming week. I have a friend coming in to town this week, so you won't hear from me probably until next Sunday. Happy writing!

Pudding House Chapbook Competition

I'm entering yet another contest this month. The Pudding House Chapbook Competition. The piece for competition ranges from 24-28 pages in length, due September 30. From my understanding, the word "chapbook" is a pocket sized book. The publisher is requiring cover art in case of publication. I'm honestly thinking about using a chapter from one of my books, but I need ideas for cover art. Any suggestions? My first idea for submission would be the Chapter 1 of All Falls Down which is Daniel's (my hero) release from prison and the starting of his new life. That chapter is actually only 14 pages long, but expanding it won't be a problem.

Send me pictures or artwork that you think would work for the coverart!

Slowing Down

I've finished yet another chapter for My Demonic Love. That makes 4.5 chapters written now. It doesn't seem like much, but when the chapters are 30+ pages each...yeah. So I'm up to about 135 pages. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of my plot unfortunately. I have a big picture idea, but somehow I keep losing sight of it. When I'm writing, I just go.

In other news today. UNLV is off my list of schools to attend. I'm going to check out Nevada State College once more. It's closer to home, it's a smaller school and they aren't idiots. We'll see how it goes. I need to something soon...school starts in a couple weeks.

A New Day, A New Month

It's a new day, a new month even. Time for some updates.

First, a mini book review. Right now I'm reading Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert. I've only read up until about page 79 so far, her time in Italy, but am loving this book. It makes me inspired to follow my dreams, to do things because I want to do them and let nothing hold me back. I believe we all should take a chapter out of her book, literally, and try to live more like ourselves. Stop worrying about work, stressing from day-to-day. Just live. I'm looking forward to finishing this book, a true story mind you, and living my life on my dime, not someone elses. I recommend this book to all women, maybe some men, and would be happy to let you borrow my copy.

Now, for writing updates. I haven't been posting much because I've been writing! Yay. About time huh? My Demonic Love is coming along well. I'm still sticking with my goal of 1,000 words a day, but some days, like yesterday, I wrote 1700. Right now, I'm in the mind of my antagonist, who will be getting a new name because the character I'm basing her off of is also named the same. I made it that way at first so I could relate the two, but now that the story is coming along and she's developing her own personality, I have to change her name. My antagonist is a power hungry, evil, masochist who will stop at nothing to rule. What kind of name can explain in a single word that type of person? Any ideas?

So far I have about 3.5 chapters written, each totaling around 30 pages, but my entire novel is outlined so I knew exactly what I want. Of course, it never stays that way. I'm always changing this or that as I go, forgetting what I originally wanted in favor of the way the story wants to run.

I haven't had any trouble with my characters as of late, not since last week when I didn't want to write a particular scene. I did write that scene and with a clear head even. I just had to take a step back and analyze the emotions I was feeling then try to get those exact emotions down on paper. I'm confident I was able to do so and as a bonus, without tears.

Other works in progress are stirring around in my head. Even though I moved My Angelic Death to the end of the series, I have a feeling I will actually be writing that one sooner than planned. Since I'm currently in that character's mindset with My Demonic Love, it's easy to get new ideas and plan out her book while I'm working on someone elses. It's driving me nuts.

Since it is a new month, I believe some goal setting is in order. I STILL haven't written the synopsis for All or Nothing. I'm not sure why I'm putting it off or what I have against writing it, but My Demonic Love is in the forefront of my mind and apparently causing other writing problems. So that is one goal for me to get with this month. Another would be to have My Demonic Life 50% written by the end of the month, praying, if I'm going to school this semester, that I can spend that kind of time with it. I've written two novels this year already. Three would be great, but it's not a priority for me.

What are your summer goals?