#wipfire for Fade Into Me

This week I've been combing through FIM. There have been more form rejections AND more requests to read pages. My goal with this current revision/edit is to take the feedback from the few agents who offered some (as well as my excellent writer's group) and clean it up my manuscript even more.

This Weeks Accomplishments:

• Broke up a chapter full of backstory (It's important stuff, but I saved it to sprinkle it in at a moment when it will actually cause more tension between Ryanne and Caedan.) 
• Found and cleaned up several "telling" phrases
• Cleaned up a few personality slip ups
• Fell in love with the story all over again

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the novel. #Wipfire on twitter is a neat place to share a line or two you love or get feedback. That's where this idea comes from. Some of them are a bit more than a line. ;)

1
The colors of the garden danced in the sunlight—shades of red, white, yellow and green jumped from plant to plant, mingling, changing. They wrapped themselves around the sound of buzzing insects and the humming of bird wings. This is what I missed the most when living among the humans—this symbiosis of sight and sound. The collective magical ignorance of the human race compelled the colors to remain motionless. Here they played like joyful children.

2
Thunder ripped the sky open. The first drops fell lazily—big fat ones that normally would have made me giddy with joy. But not when wearing my most expensive dress. The lazy rain was followed by the shower. It only took three seconds for me to be soaked.

3
Ever since this human girl walked into my arms, I had been off balance. None of those emotions could be explained by her appearance. She was pretty, but not beautiful. Average in a way, and yet from the moment I saw her I wanted her. Needed her.

4
His eyes were so deep. Bottomless pools of concern. He hadn't bargained on me being damaged goods. Even if I wanted this life, I would never fit in. Not with these beautiful, perfect people and their swirling colors.

5
“Then let her go. Losing her memory might be the best thing for you. You've messed this up so bad you need a fresh start if you’re to have any hope." Mother laughed and continued. "I'm surprised she hasn't decked you yet."
"What are you talking about?" I sunk down, head in my hands. Why did women have to be so confusing?

6
I crumbled at her feet and lay my head on the couch. It smelled like old French fries and dust.

7
“Ryanne, I know you don’t care for me the way I do about you, but can we start all over?” He looked up at me so intently my stomach fluttered.
He cares about me? Still? I felt lighter than I had in days. Maybe he would stick around. But what if he didn’t? My inner demons snarled and clawed until the butterflies had been shredded.

I skipped a huge section between #6 and 7 because the bits I love are entire scenes, but these 7 come from the first 160 pages. Just because I love them doesn't mean you can't offer critique. Tell me what you think--good or bad!

Winter Storm #3, Hallucinations and Goals

Well, yesterday brought on winter storm #3 for NW Arkansas. You guessed it, no school today. In a way it's nice because I got to sleep in this morning. Yesterday was another long, sick child at home day.

Usually my family doesn't get sick. We really don't. Or at least we haven't. This year however, it's all catching up to us. Someone has been sick for the entire month, with just one or two random days respite. Yesterday it was my youngest son, age 7. When he's sick he is SCARY sick. Fever brings on hallucinations, and we just never know what he's going to say. For example:

He's laying quietly on the couch before jolting up, hands outstretched, screaming.
Me: "C, what's wrong?"
C: "It's Allen's brother!" (we don't know anyone named Allen, but C's middle name is Allen so does this mean he's talking about his older brother?)
Me: "Who is Allen?"
C: "We're all going to die! Allen's brother is the murderer!" (does this mean C is the murderer?)

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was really freaky. He slept on the little couch in our bedroom last night, feet hanging off the front and dangling near the floor. I put him back on twice in the night.


What are my goals on this Monday snow day?

• Help the kids clean and disinfect the upstairs (you have NO idea!)
• Fold the pile of laundry in my room
• Pull out Search For Knowledge and get ready to REVISE!! 

I'm so excited about the last one, but I bet it has to wait until the kids go back to school.

What are your goals for today?

The Before and After Pictures and A Question for You

Update: STELLAR CLOUD is now available in print as well as for the Kindle.

Are you addicted to food? 

I am.

You may recall that Hubby and I spent the summer trying to lose weight. We are both proud of what we accomplished, but are finding that coming off the program presents a few problems. Adding in the carbs again brings back all those old cravings. For me, the biggest trigger was actually adding dairy.

A big cold glass of milk is so good...

With a piece of chocolate cake, or cookies, or waffles drowned in syrup. You get the picture? When we were on program I was fine not having the sweet stuff because I couldn't have the glass of milk with it. Now it's a constant mental battle.

What I need is some kind of motivation to keep me from settling back into old habits and gaining that 20 lbs all over again. Public humiliation might work. I'm going to post my before and after pictures.



As you can see, they had me stand different in order to make me look better, BUT you can see the difference in my face. Every thing is smaller, but it's hard to tell just by looking. At least it is for me. Maybe I have deeper self-image issues that don't allow me to see? I do know that my clothes got too big and I had to get new ones.

The most important lesson that I've learned the last two weeks since adding in the old foods? What you eat really does affect how you FEEL. When I was getting enough protein and all the fresh veggies my body needed I had more energy and felt lighter. Now that I've had some homemade mac and cheese with smoked Gruyere (heavenly!), and a cookie or two (or several batches along with homemade cinnamon rolls and that above mentioned chocolate cake), I feel heavier, sluggish and like I want to crawl back into bed and stay there.

The plan?

I'm cutting out the stuff we've added to our meals. This will make the kids sad, but I just don't like the way I feel cooking the foods they like. My guess is they will continue to complain, but they will feel better too. I just wish we could all admit fresh foods make us happier.

Travel is Almost Over

It's been a busy summer. Not as much relaxing by the pool as I had hoped, but still a good summer with the kids. The best part is it hasn't been miserably hot the whole time.

I'm still in TN for another few days, but I'm ready to go home. I love my family and I always enjoy the time we have to spend together. However, I'm a creature of habit and coming to the end of summer I'm desperate to get back to a routine. My nerves and writing are frazzled beyond belief.

Here are my goals for the last two weeks of summer vacaton:

Week 1:

Staycation with hubby and the kids Aug 5-10
Goal: Have as much fun as possible. And sneak in some writing in the wee hours of the morning while everyone is sleeping. Projects to focus on--Fade Into Me, Stellar Cloud and the new non-fiction project I gave into this week.

I think we plan on doing some caving, hanging out at the pool, finish decorating my kitchen, school shopping (I think it's tax free week, unless I missed that already) and a local petting zoo that everyone says we MUST go to.

Week 2

Make sure the kids have everything they need for school (which reminds me I still need to switch kid #3's school registration), get oldest in to get her driving permit (scary!) and settle back into a normal schedule for meals/bedtime/wake up/cleaning and exercise. This will have me ready to slip back into full time writing as soon as everyone is back in class.

Unless I get a job. *sigh* I may have to get a job which will make it even harder to get these writing projects done.  I'm so spoiled that I really don't want to get a job. What in the world am I qualified to do anyway??

A Peek Inside and Writing Goals

Some of you have been asking for pictures of the inside of the house. With the kids home every day right now isn't the best time for picture taking if you know what I mean. However, there are three rooms that I have good pictures for.

The living room.

Another view so you can see the high ceilings and the great windows. I love the light!

 The dining room, which we always turn into the music room.

More great windows on the other side of the music room.

K's massive plaster mask that she worked 3 months on in 3-D Art.

I don't know why the camera went spotty, but we rearranged the bonus room today. Now it's more open and inviting for games and movies. In fact this morning I went in there and did the Dance Central game on the kinect for my workout. I love when the kids stay up late in the summer because I get to enjoy quiet mornings...until about noon!

Writing Goals:

With my computer dead, and the only option hubby's tiny Toshiba, I might be doing a lot of notebooking it this month. But that will be better than nothing. 

1. Re-write Earth 4 from a different POV. It's going to change the entire focus of the story and I'm excited about that. Then I will almost be finished with my short story anthology.

2. I MUST decide if Search For Knowledge is necessary. It's feeling very blah and I'm wondering if the approach is completely wrong. Maybe I need one chapter to get me from The Magic Wakes to what was planned as the third book in the series. Or, OR!!! Idea explosion in my brain! Keep the good and important parts of SFN and make it a series of short stories to get us to Battle for Sendek...wanders off to see if that would work... 

Oh! And my weight loss is now at 15 pounds. :D

Schedules, Resolutions, Walk throughs, and other random thoughts

Well, I've reached the end of all my pre-scheduled blog tour and guest posts. I'm really glad I had enough to get me through November when I was trying to move, but in a way I felt disconnected from all of you. Even though I never have anything brilliant to say I like conversing with you through my posts. So that's what I'm going to do today.

I have a few books to get reviews up for--The Burning of Isobel Key and A Timeless Romance Anthology: Winter Collection 2012.

Two books to read--The Betrayals of Grim's Peak and Whispers on Shadow Bay

Have you noticed that I've been reading a lot of romance novels lately? Yeah, I don't know why, but that's what people are sending me. I'm missing my main love--scifi. I want to get back on track with scifi reviews in January. In order to do this, I visited my new library and got my card and picked up two books--The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn (love him!) and The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card (worship him! Not really, but pretty close.)

Here's where I need your help. My old library had scifi and fantasy in its own section. This made it easy for me to browse and just pick something up. The new library has all the fiction together in one place. It sort of overwhelmed me, that's why I went searching for the names I know and adore.

Please, tell me some great scifi books or authors to look for.

I'll read them next year and do reviews from that pile. Thanks!

Now, on to resolutions. I don't make them. Ever.

Instead I set goals, and why wait until January to do that? Last week I set a goal to start exercising again. I've put that kind of thing off for almost a year. Hubby's new job comes with affordable gym membership for our whole family, and now that I'm unpacked it's time to start going.

Last week I went four times! I ran on the treadmill twice, took a serenity yoga class, did a tone and tighten weight class, and went to a water aerobics class. The best thing is I met a friend there that goes to my church and she introduced me to some other ladies. On Friday we all went to Starbucks after the class and just visited for a while. It was really nice to be with real live people!

Do you wait for January to make resolutions?

Inventions and Goals for September

I'm barely back from crazy August and I'm going to leave again on Saturday. You may be thinking, "Take a break already!"

Well, that's what I'm going to do. A good friend is going to watch my kids and hubby and I are going on a cruise to celebrate our 16th anniversary (which happened in crazy August). I hope the seas have calmed a bit, but even if not I'm going to get pampered and have a great time.

Inventions

Next, I just have to share a moment from my life. This should show you how lucky I am. We have so much fun in my family because of the great imaginations and the willingness to just sit around and talk.

Sunday night, hubby, the four kids (ages 6-15), and I were sitting in the living room playing one of our favorite games...Would you rather. As the night wore on and we grew more tired, things turned silly.  Eventually we got to this point.

Hubby: Oo! I wonder if anyone has ever tried to bread a hot dog?
Me: And fried it?
Hubby: Yes!
Me: Um, that would be called a corn dog.
*shock* for half a second then...Hysterical laughter from all six of us.
Hubby: I totally breaded it in my mind and it didn't look like a corn dog.
Ash (kid #2): yeah, mine looked like all lumpy like someone threw up all over it.
More hysterical laughter followed by the decision that it was time for bed.

Yep, we often try to reinvent the wheel at my house. 

Goals for September

• Stay busy while waiting for line edits
• Work on short story I want to do about Sendek's ancient past
• Get caught up on book reviews--I think I have 5 that I finished over the summer
• Post my five part series based on this post--Top 5 Issues I See When Critiqing by Angela Ackerman from the Bookshelf Muse
• Find a new jeweler to work on the necklace I want for my book release
• Work with my brother-in-law on a book trailer
• Get a completed sketch to submit to my publisher for possible cover art
• Write a story for an anthology we are putting together (we being the women from Unicorn Bell)

A New Chapter In My Life

Maybe even a whole new book!

Today my last child headed off to school. You know what that means? A quiet house all to myself for 7 hours! Well, hubby will be here too, but he works upstairs and I'm going to work downstairs.

The Plan:

• Get the kids to school (this will drag from 7am-9am)
• Exercise
• Clean something or other house project
• Shower
• Lunch
• Write, Revise, Edit, Blog, Marketing
• Kids come home, sanity time ends :)

So what are YOUR fall plans?

Regrouping and Shifting Gears

Ah, it's good to be back home. Last week was wonderful on so many levels, but the sleeping situation not so much. Just think mice, bugs, damp sleeping bags, and nervous jitters about pulling off another day.

Anyway, I wanted to take a minute or two today to share last week with you and to list what I'm planning to post over the next month or so. This is the easiest way for me to reset my brain from church serving mom to writer once more. Yeah, I know I'll still do both, but the heavy summer activities are over now.

Here are some stats:
7 days of fast paced, hard work

1 Mystery Dinner 50's Style (that I wrote and they enjoyed!) for 40 people (the leaders that came a day earlier than the other girls)
14 meals served
140 girls and leaders
1 Writing Class taught
4 Cooking Classes taught
60 dozen eggs
80 lbs pulled pork
13 lbs elbow noodles turned into mac n cheese
20 gallons of milk
12 gallons of apple juice
6 gallons of orange juice
10 large containers of lemonade mix
More fruit and veggies than I can count
14 hours of dish washing
1 new burn scar on my arm
3 days of thunderstorms--which I loved because it kept the temperatures down
a zillion flies because of the rain--ick!
multiple bug bites
7 trips to town for forgotten items--this is an improvement over last year
2 small bottles of Ibuprofen opened and used up
Smiles and hugs from appreciative girls and staff that made it all worth while
529 posts in my Google Reader--I just deleted because I knew I'd never get through them all
118 emails in Gmail
99 emails in Yahoo

I also learned that communication is key to running a kitchen. We asked my daughter and her friend to cut the bananas for breakfast. At first they were slicing them, with the peel on! Then we corrected them and asked them to cut them in half. Can you see how they interpreted that?! We laughed so hard.

Now, what's in store for me the next few weeks? Tomorrow I'm driving 7 hours to my Mom's for a well deserved vacation with my kids. While there I have three goals.

1. Finish revisions for my editor.
2. Exercise every day.
3. Get totally prepared to pull off an amazing School's In Query Contest over at Unicorn Bell August 13th--31st.

In order for me to do that, I won't be posting here during the 3 weeks of the contest. All my blogging time will be spent at Unicorn Bell. I hope you'll join us over there. The first week is a mini conference of sorts with 3-4 posts every day on how to make your query sparkle. Week two is an intensive critique session for your queries. During week three the queries for completed and revised manuscripts will be posted for our guest judges to comment on and maybe request pages.

After the contest ends, I have a 5 part Story Problems series lined up based on Angela Ackerman's guest post 5 Top Issues I Find When Critiquing.

Q4U: Would you like me to post my notes from the Writing Class I taught?

I Can Haz Healthy Body and Be a Writer?

Do you remember that blog tour giveaway I participated in for Cami Checkett's new book Dead Running? Well, she announced the winners on her blog. You can see them HERE.

And I won something.

I kind of feel weird that I won, but I did enter on A LOT of the other blogs participating. Cami said I could.

Anyway, I won exactly what I wanted. The three months of free online training.

I started today.

I hurt.

I'm so excited to get rid of my Mom/Writer bod though that I don't even care. You know what the best thing is? It comes with menus that generate grocery lists!!!

I don't have to think.

Just obey.

 

I think there's a sinister story somewhere in those two lines. I'll take before and after pictures and let you know how this turns out at the end of August.

Working with my editor

If you are looking for my "Lightning Flashed" Blogfest entry, you can find it HERE. 

I have to say that working with an editor has been wonderful so far. Two weeks ago I received my first editor's letter. This was a three page general thoughts on Sendek. It contained a section on The Most Important, Things to Address, and Other Things I Noticed. Each section contained questions that came up as she read, concerns, and some of the things I was doing right.

And you know what? Nothing made me cry! I was prepared to cry, but it looks like those years of hard work paid off. Don't get me wrong, there is still quite a bit of polishing to do, but it's all stuff I'm excited about.

Because of this first letter--and the questions, concerns, and suggestions Amie made--I feel that creative buzz again. Ideas are floating around and solidifying into scenes.

Nothing major is changing. However, I have the opportunity to deepen certain aspects of the story, add some more depth to Talia's character and the stakes throughout her journey. The best part is that most of the places where Amie wanted to know more are things that I already knew the answers to. It's all part of the back story I cut at some point in time.

Now I need to find the right way to sprinkle some of it back in. And that's exciting!

The goal is this:

 Not this:

It's also obvious from the page numbers listed in the letter that I combed through the front half of my book more than the latter half.


What tricks do you use to make sure you edit the back half as well as the front half?

In the future I'm going to try the end to beginning method of revision. This way you have to concentrate on each sentence on it's own because you can't get caught up in the story.

Birth of a Novel--Monday Comes So Fast

Whatever happened to those wonderfully relaxing weekends? It seems like Monday comes faster than I plan every time.

Today I'll report on last week's goals, make some new ones, and share a bit of music.

Last Week's Goals:
Work on Faerie Wings
Finish the short story Instincts

They were simple goals. A week plenty long enough to work on them. Right? Sure.

I've struggled all year to sit down and just write. I'm not sure what the problem is really. Too many distractions? Guilt? Too many voices talking at once? It's been all of these at different times, but the last two weeks I've made myself sit down and write something. Progress is coming, even if it is slow right now.

As you can see, Faerie Wings has gained roughly 2500 words over the last two weeks. Not stellar, but at least its something. The cool thing? I'm learning things about my MC I didn't plot! And they are awesome in that dark "who knew?" kind of way. For instance, I was writing last Wednesday and discovered that Ryanne has scars on her back from a run in with some of Kevin's friends. And he asked her to let them whip her. And she said yes! How messed up is that? I haven't figured out why and how any of that makes sense or fits in with the story I planned on telling, but there it is. Some back story (no pun intended) that is very telling about Ryanne's messed up self image and need for Kevin to like her. I'm still looking at her funny and she's pouting that I found out how desperate she was before meeting Carter. Current word count: 43,042

I started the short story Instinct but the idea lost it's appeal before I managed to get the rough draft finished. Currently there is 390 words of set up. Maybe I'll come back to it for May's W1S1 goal.

To be honest I'm getting frustrated with the short story bit. What's wrong with my shorts?? I love my stories and think they aren't too bad, but no one wants them. Is it because its not hard sci fi? All my writing has a lighter story feel--even the ones with a slightly creepy vibe to it. Maybe I'm just trying the wrong venues?

While I'm venting, I cleaned house like a mad woman for the first two days of last week. There was no writing of any kind. I was a good housekeeper. I hoped that by putting in the extra effort I could get a few hours of guilt free writing time.

Yeah, NO.

Thursday I tried to sit and write and got a lot of lip from someone I love very much. He had decided to clean out two of the kids' rooms and get ready for the yard sale (which is still a week away mind you!). First of all, my kids are old enough to clean their own mess. Second, I helped for the first three hours! All I kept thinking was, "Don't you have work to do for your employer??"

Do you ever get frustrated with the lack of understanding and support from your family?

This weeks goals:

• Continue to work on Faerie Wings until I get something to work on from my editor. I should be able to finish this draft if I just do it.
• I give myself permission to work on the sequel to SENDEK when I feel like it. Which is a lot and why I think FW is coming so slow.
• Start designing/writing the mystery dinner theater for girl's camp--I've started mapping it out in a notebook

And, a song to inspire:

Intimidating my Monday

It worked for Mal.

I feel like I'm forgetting something important. Because of that, I'm keeping my goals simple this week. 

Goals for this week:

Work on Faerie Wings

Finish the short story Instinct

Friday Already?

Once again the week flew by, thank goodness! This gets me one step closer to a fun filled (crazy) summer and then the fall. I can't wait for the fall. For the first time in sixteen years I will be at home with NO CHILDREN during the day!

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but think of the writing I can get done. Hopefully the biggest edits for Sendek: The Magic Wakes will be almost finished by that point, but I don't really know. I guess it depends on how blind am to the true faults in my story. However, if they are finished I can put everything into finishing book two Orek: The Search for Knowledge and get a detailed outline of Battle for Sendek on paper by the end of the year. That's what I would LIKE to accomplish, but we all know how life happens.

All of that is taking for granted that Faerie Wings will be finished and beta read by one or two people BEFORE the end of summer.

Do you think its weird that I've set writing goals for the entire year already?

Well, here is the week in review:
Work on Faerie Wings I did add another 1500 words, not as much as I wanted to do. There have just been to many other things to do. Most of that 1500 words were dialogue. Funny how much I love writing descriptions, but when I write, I write the dialogue first and then fill in around it.
Finish writing the short story I started Finished and submitted. I probably should have had someone read it first. :)

Prepare and teach all my lessons this week--not last minute I even made an awesome powerpoint for one of them.

Visit two families that I need to Check, and I made homemade bread for them and another family. I really do enjoy serving others, even if I complain about it. Perhaps a goal for next week should be "less complaining".
All that housekeeping stuff that doesn't go away Eh, maybe 80% on this one?
Make eye appointments for everyone--I keep forgetting this one
Run Um, failure. I ran once. Tonight should be interesting. Good thing I already planned to stay with my 5 year old. ;)
Run a 5k with my family Friday night--This is happening no matter what.

Art and Goal Reporting for April Week 2

Thank you for all your notes of congratulations. The last few days have been a wonderful high. I feel like I'm walking around with this expression on my face.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with my artist friend Chris to talk about scenes he could draw up for a book trailer. Chris is amazing! I've only seen black and white pencil drawings, but I'm always impressed with his detail and the emotion he manages to get in the eyes.

We also talked cover art.

Now, you might be asking, Why would you do that? I learned that I could submit art for possible covers. It doesn't mean it will be used. But who knows?

Chris read an earlier version of Sendek (about a year and a half ago, maybe two) and I wanted to know what he had in mind. The coolest part was we both had the same idea for what the cover should look like. 

He has the next two days off of work and is going to work on the cover art. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about that. Even if its not used for the cover, I can probably use it on posters, post cards, bookmarks, etc.

*squee!*

Okay, here's my report for the week. I'm going to do this more often to keep me on track for my goals. Reporting = More done.

On Monday I posted the following:

Planning:

There's a lot that I need to get done this week. To make sure I do what is the most important, I'm only posting on Tuesday and Friday this week. Yeah, today doesn't count.

• Tomorrow is the 3rd Annual LDS Writer Blogfest, and I don't know what I'm going to write about.
• I need to finish the last 150 pages of the edit I'm doing on Sendek.
• I need to do a first chapter critique that I should have done last week. I got started.
• Work more on the wip I'm critiquing. I'm on page 239/361
• Finish Faerie Wings. No, really. Sendek has reclaimed my brain.
• Finish the edit of the short story I plan to submit this month for W1S1. TODAY. This is my goal for today.
• Come up with a short story to write for April. Maybe next week?
• Laundry, taxi driving kids, cooking, maybe some cleaning, running (I'm getting fat!), and my early morning class. I'm going to miss those three and a half extra hours of sleep.

How did you do with your goals this week? What are your goals for next week?

Cupcakes and planning days...

That's all I've got for you today. First, the cupcakes:

That's two of my four kids in a contest. Even with that, K didn't win. I think she should have gotten something for that display.

Things to check out if you missed them earlier:
Continuation is up at Apollo's Lyre. 
I created a Facebook page for Sendek: The Magic Wakes. Currently I have a poll up that I'd like you to vote in because I'm nosy like that.

Planning:

There's a lot that I need to get done this week. To make sure I do what is the most important, I'm only posting on Tuesday and Friday this week. Yeah, today doesn't count.

• Tomorrow is the 3rd Annual LDS Writer Blogfest, and I don't know what I'm going to write about.
• I need to finish the last 150 pages of the edit I'm doing on Sendek.
• I need to do a first chapter critique that I should have done last week.
• Work more on the wip I'm critiquing.
• Finish Faerie Wings. No, really.
• Finish the edit of the short story I plan to submit this month for W1S1.
• Come up with a short story to write for April.
• Laundry, taxi driving kids, cooking, maybe some cleaning, running (I'm getting fat!), and my early morning class. I'm going to miss those three and a half extra hours of sleep.

Birth of a Novel Feb Week 2

Faerie Wings--I now have a first chapter that I don't hate. It still might not be the best place to start though. Eh, I'll keep building from there and try to finish the story, then I can re-evaluate where to start.
Current word count: 34,498

Eleena of the Stars--I worked more on the first chapter. Visualizing an evacuation has been hard. All that comes to mind are the ones I've seen on TV and I don't want it to be just like all of those. Plus, TV doesn't help with the smells. Good thing I have a great imagination.

Over the weekend I realized something very important. I have a nine year old. That's how old Eleena is at the beginning of the book (but this is NOT a MG or YA for that matter). He also has a great imagination and I bet if we sat down and talked, I could do a better job at capturing that age's voice. *headsmack* sometimes writing really IS that simple.

Would it bother you to read a book that moves through so many years of time? My goal is to have Eleena's voice/vocab/ageness grow with her. Makes it a bit trickier, but could be amazing if I pull it off, right?
Current word count: 950--this is a guess since I can't access my computer.

The Sleeper--Well, I sort of got stuck. But no worries! I sent the draft to my CP with questions and concerns. She's always honest with me and has a great talent for telling me where to cut back and where to expand. That's what I need right now.
Current word count: around 1,500

Checking Out For A Bit

With the holidays bearing down on us, I figured this was a good time to take a bloggy break. I have two goals for the next two weeks:

1. Enjoy family and friends.

2. Finish Faerie Wings.

Until January, 

I'm wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

See you when the new year rolls in!

Birth of a Novel Week 6

On the last day of November, and the end of Nanowrimo, I read my new wip. It weighed in at 30K words and is about half way finished.

Now I just need to finish the story. This is where it gets sticky. I have the final chapter in my head (as a matter of fact, I wrote the last chapter Saturday.) Now just to connect that last chapter with the rest of the book.

The hard part is I want to go back and rewrite already. This is my week to post over on Unicorn Bell, and I did some research on Voice. I probably learned more than what I manage to relate in the post. I also read a book this weekend that was a great example of what I had learned.

I kept those things in mind as I wrote the last chapter, and you know what? It was so much better! For some reason, learning about developing character voice made something click in my head and suddenly I understood how to get deeper into my characters POV. And now I want to put my idea into practice.

So, what do you think? Should I try to slog through and finish the story first, or allow myself to go back and 'fix' the first half before continuing?

Birth of a Novel and Housekeeping

How was your weekend? Did you get your fill of turkey and pie? I've frozen most of my left overs to save for another day. We can only eat so much, ya know?

Anyway, I'm ready to settle back into my normal posting routine. This means I'm moving my Birth of a Novel post to Monday instead of Tuesday.

What do you want me to blog about on Wednesday and Friday?

I really liked it when you asked questions and I did some research to find answers. Did you? Should we try that again?

Some other ideas I've had are:

• Interviews With a Blogger--where I interview you.
• Book Reviews--I just need some books to review. :)
• Answers to Your Questions
• First Look--you send your first 300 words to be posted anonymously and critiqued by me.

So, here are the guidelines? You can do one, all, or none of these. But it would be helpful if you did at least the first one.

• Comment and tell me what you would like to see on this blog.
• Post a question you want me to answer (about ANYTHING) in the comments.
• Post book suggestions you would like me to read and review in the comments. 
• Email me to let me know you would be willing to be interviewed (charity.bradford@gmail.com)
• Email the first 300 words of your story to be critiqued. I'll post it without your name (unless you want your name on it). Please include the title and genre with the submission. (charity.bradford@gmail.com)

Title: Faerie Wings
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Current word count: 29,310

Surprise of the week:
I woke up Saturday morning and really wanted to write. The house was quiet. I had survived turkey day and guests as well as Black Friday. The story was waiting at the tip of my fingers. I went down to write and got about 500 words before the five year old woke up. That was the end of the writing.

I kept trying to come back, but my home is not writer friendly. The frustration made me cranky and I think I went to bed at 9pm with a headache. The saddest part was that when I woke that morning, I actually thought I could pull off a Nano win. All I needed to do was pull off four days of 5,000.

Totally doable.

But not in my house.

I'm still not bothered by the Nano fail, but I really want to get this story out of my head and on the page.

And guess what? Last night I started dreaming about Sendek again. It won't leave me alone, and that's how I know it isn't FINISHED. The bit that came to me was actually brilliantly simple. *head smack* why didn't I think of it before?

Don't worry, I jotted down the idea, but I promised to let it sit until January at the very least before I dig into it again.

Snippet for the week (I actually went back a couple of chapters for this steamy bit):
He stayed close by my side all night. If he wasn’t holding my hand, our knees were touching. Or he found some excuse to brush the lock of hair away from my face, tucking it behind my ear. Each time he did, his fingers caressed the side of my face, lingering as long as possible.

The whole world slowed down. I could barely eat my dinner, even though it was delicious. Later, the music at the symphony swirled around me, carrying me away to places I had never been. And Carter was in every taste. In each sound. In every sensation that moved through my body.

Images of summer fields full of wildflowers, forest trails, gardens, and hummingbirds came to me off and on throughout the night. Somehow Carter knew when they came to me. He squeezed my hand and smiled each time. The looks he gave me promised there would be time to talk. Soon.

It came in the form of the last entertainment for the night. If the symphony had been planned for my enjoyment, the dancing was for Heather. She and Scott took to the floor as soon as we made it in the door. Carter and I sat in a corner. The music was too loud to talk much, but I learned you can say a lot without words.

Carter traced the same circular pattern on my hands over and over. I leaned over and spoke close to his ear.

“Why the circles?”

He turned until his mouth was next to my ear. “Circles have no beginning and no end.” He drew another one on my palm. “There are many other meanings, but that’s my favorite one.”

The warmth of his breath on my skin spread. In the dim lighting of the club, a new boldness came over me. I flipped our hands over and drew a spiral on his palm. We sat so close that I felt his body tense and relax as he exhaled into my hair.

“Ma Cherie?”

“Did you know that in Celtic symbols, the spiral represents growth, balance, and creativity?” I spoke into his ear.

“It also means surrender and awareness. A triple spiral is a sign of feminine power.” He nipped at my ear, and a delicious tremor ran through me. “Please don’t tempt me more than I can take.”

His other hand closed over mine, stopping it’s motion. He didn’t pull away but leaned his head into mine. I couldn’t hear his breathing, but I could feel the quick rise and fall of his chest so near to mine. When it slowed he pulled back and looked into my eyes.

“Shall we dance?”

Ack! I forgot to post the chain list. Go check out these other great peeps.

Angela H.
Anna M.
Brooke Busse
Charity Bradford
Elizabeth Davis
Elizabeth Poole
Fida Islaih
Huntress
Jen McConnel
Lena Hoppe
Mia Hayson
Miranda Hardy
Nyxie Moon
Tessa C
Zoe