Thank You!...And Goodnight.

Thank you to all of those friends who've submitted their MSS to be critiqued by me. I truly appreciate your support in starting this new adventure.

And I'm excited to announce that on October 15th, 2011, SPJ Editing will go live!

This is a scary - and busy - time for me. Starting your own business brings excitement and jitters. There are so many things that need to be done before tomorrow and little time to do it.

Things are crazier than ever. Not only am I revising and querying two manuscripts, I'm writing and still going to school as well. Add a full-time job on top of it and I've got no time to blog!

So, it is with a sad realization that

The Las Vegas Writer blog must retire.

Not just because of the new business venture, but because of school and writing as well. I've met a lot great people through the blogosphere, made friends, but I don't think it's fair to keep stringing you along with a post every now and then and no comments on your blogs.

The site will stay active in order to keep the collection of Resources up, but there will be no more posts as of October 15, 2011. I updated the About Me page to reflect what I will be taking on in the future and hope you'll stay in contact! I'm glad to have connected with each and every one of you.

Keep writing!

Call for Critiques!

As many of you know, I am currently studying for my bachelors degree in English Literature to start a career in editing. Well, it seems getting the degree is going to take a while. There are many different reasons, but mostly because Nevada State is a small college and class availability is joke.

But I'm tired of waiting for something that will probably take another year.

I have been applying to e-publishers in hopes of getting my foot in the editorial door, but like querying, it takes time. During this waiting process, I need to build a portfolio and gain more experience.

So I am starting my own business!

My editing services will officially available in a couple weeks with the launch of my professional website :)

During this waiting time, I am calling for another round of critiques! I will, to the best of my ability, be able to give you insight into your first chapter while helping you correct copy edits and ready your submission for agents. This will hopefully help you in your writing career and me in my editing career.

If you are interested in taking part of this free editing session, please email me at the address below with a query letter and your first chapter attached as a .doc file.

Send submissions to: critiquesubmissions[at]yahoo[dot]com

Thank you for your support!

My Kind of Motivation

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome back for Six Sentence Sunday! Now that major revisions are finished for BLEED FOR ME, I'm having some fun with a short story. May turn into a novella. Haven't decided. Let's take a look at CAUGHT WITHOUT PANTIES.

Trey Ashton has just been arrested for prostitution by sexy Officer Jesse Cane. They have a past and now, she's having a staring contest with her John in the cell across from her. Jesse has come in to give her back something she lost.

"These belong to you?” he asked as he came around the corner. Jesse held up something made of pink lace and black ribbon. “Got ‘em out of his pocket.”

            “And you thought I’d want them back after he touched them?” Trey smiled as best as she could out of sarcasm. “No thank you.”

I'm Back!

Wow it feels good to be back from hiatus!

As you may know, I was having a lot of trouble with these WIP revisions, but the hardest part is over! Yep, I rewrote the ENTIRE novel starting in April of this year. That's only what? 5 months? You can laugh. I didn't get serious about it until the beginning of August. So technically, it would be about 3 months of actual work. It was the worst three months of my writing life though. I will never write another novel in 3 months because then I have to spend close to 6 rewriting it.

During my hiatus, I not only finished the revisions, I spent some time writing a couple of awesome articles, which will appear up here shortly, arranging some interviews for you guys and investing in my career as an editor. That means I've been apply as a copy/content editor to publishing houses. Yep, I'm getting all official.

So what now you ask? Well, there's a few things.

First, I need to get back to networking with all of you! I've been so neglectful and I'm sorry for that. I promise to try very hard to get back in touch with you, but I'm sure every writer goes through hard times just like I did. So when it happens to you, I won't hold it against you ;)

In October, I'm starting what will hopefully be the last round of revisions on LET ME OUT. Critiques just came back from 4 lovely ladies today and it's time to jump in and get the book back on the market. When I say back on the market, I mean querying. This will be the last round of queries this book sees. If I don't have any hits, self-publishing it is. During my hiatus, I've researched stock photos for a self-publishing cover. I haven't found the perfect picture yet, but I have a very good idea of what it would turn out like if it gets to that point. This is my baby and IT WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!

In November, I'll be final drafting BLEED FOR ME (I need to write 30,000 words I cut from the MS) and then send it out to the critique group at the end of the month. That's only about 1,000 words a day. I'm hoping it won't be as nasty as it sounds because I have the plotline, subplot line, characters, etc exactly the way I want them. They're just at the bare bones right now. I need to fill it in a little without over doing it. During these last revisions, LET ME OUT will be out for copy edits with the last member of my critique group and I'll be getting ready for December!

Which includes another break. It's the holidays. I'll have finals and I'm traveling, so writing will be on the back burner. However, querying will be a priority for LET ME OUT and I'll be stewing on what my next revision or WIP project will be.

Yeah, I have another book to revise that I wrote last year. It's my first Paranormal Romantic Suspense. (Say that 3 times fast). I can't decide if I want to go ahead and start revisions or move on to the next book in the series, which has three chapters written. December will be plenty of time to decide.  Don't you think?
That's the rest of my year. What does yours look like?