Someone Worth Protecting is Finally Here!!!

And it’s only 99cents until Sunday 8/25! So grab your copy today! Get Someone Worth Protecting and 24 other amazing stories in this incredible collection! https://books2read.com/SweetestObsessions By some fluke, he’d managed to land on top, pinning her to the ground with her arms above her head. Her breasts strained against the thin material of the …

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An Excerpt from SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTING

Get your copy Here! “I’m sorry. I’ve been too busy living in a world with real action, actual bad guys who try to kill me with real bullets, and dodging explosions that literally blow things to pieces, to watch you play grown up while your adoring fans eat popcorn and dream about licking melted butter …

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New Book News!!!

I have a new book coming soon!!! August 20th to be exact. SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTING will be part of the SWEETEST OBSESSIONS romance boxset with 22 other books. The boxset just went on preorder today at iTunes, Nook, and Kobo! Kindle preorder will be available in May. Check it out! There’s something for every reader. …

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Family Life Friday

I have 2 daughters and I want more than anything for them grow up knowing they are strong, independent, and capable of anything they set their minds to. Sometimes that seems overwhelmingly difficult while raising them in a world that feels chaotic so often now. There are so many messages out there for them to take …

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Someone Worth Protecting is Finally Here!!!An Excerpt from SOMEONE WORTH PROTECTINGNew Book News!!!Family Life Friday

May
20
2010

Forward Go, or Edit Slow?

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I’m facing a crossroads with my novel today. I’ve written about 10,000 words in the last two weeks, which is a lot for me.  Normally I write about 1000 words in a writing session, then I take the time to edit them.  Once I’m very happy with those 1000 words, I write again and repeat the process.  Write, edit, repeat.  This is how I’ve written the first 2/3 of my novel.

Recently, I’ve had my mum visiting in town and she’s been helping with the kids.  She’s been chauffering them to and from preschool, she magically made them start taking naps again after a year of no naps — she may be part witch, but in a good way — and she’s been helping to cook meals too.  Needless to say, I’ve had more time to write than usual.  It helps that she is one of my beta readers and she is eagerly looking forward to new chapters.

So, instead of my usual 1000 words at one sitting, I’ve been able to accomplish upwards of 4000!  I’m incredibly happy to make such great progress in such a short amount of time!  But now I face my crossroads.  Do I keep charging forward as much as I can, or do I take a break from writing and start my editing?  Which is better?  Is neither better than the other?  I wish I knew the answer, but I have a feeling it’s a ‘chicken or the egg’ style of question.

I guess I’ll just take each writing session as it comes and do whatever feels right at the time.  One way or the other, I’ll find my way to the end.

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May
11
2010

Success!

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After worrying that my story was going to go stagnant, I sat down at my laptop this morning while the kids were at school and got writing.  A few hours later and my novel is over 4300 words longer!!  I’m so excited!  And as an added bonus, the words I wrote are actually good!  It’s a great feeling to continue my characters story and to finally see more of my ideas coming to life on the page.  I’m that much closer to the end and it’s definitely in my sites now.  Ahhh, I feel good today.  My brain is mush, but I feel good…

 

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May
10
2010

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

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My stone is getting mossy…

We’ve had company for the last month and the hubby and I went on vacation for a week as well. So needless to say, getting writing done on my novel has been a challenge.  We don’t get company very often, so while we do, I like to spend my time visiting and not plugging away on my laptop.  I have managed to find an hour here and there to write, but it’s definitely not my usual schedule of twice a week for two hours each time.  But I’m doing the best I can.  The best I can do, seems to be one chapter finished in the last month.  Yikes!  My stone that was once rolling like a rock in a landslide, has now slowed to a pebble being kicked along a meandering hiking trail.

I’m used to writing about one chapter every two weeks or so depending on the length of the chapter and difficulty of the scenes within it.  Having written, proofread, and rewritten this last chapter for the last four weeks, I’m about at my limits of patience.  I like to be happy with each chapter before I move on to the next so that I know the story is going where I want it.  I also like to make sure the story carries the reader through the chapter and leaves them wanting to read more.

I’ve finally decided that after four weeks, it’s as good as it’s going to get right now and I probably need to leave it be so that I can keep up the momentum on the story.  The last thing I want to happen is to get so hung up on one little section that I loose momentum on the rest of the story and end up with writer’s block.  If I see moss, I’m screwed.

So the story moves forward.  I constantly think about my characters even when I’m not working on my book.  I examine their story and try to decide if I need to add in scenes or delete scene.  I think about where I am in the story and how I want to write it when I finally get the chance to work on it again.  And I try to constantly look ahead to what I am going to be working on when I finish my current scene.  I guess it’s my way of nudging my stone forward just a little at a time so that it doesn’t get mossy.  There’s nothing worse than a mossy stone.

During my last peek at my outline, I realized that I probably only have five or so chapters left to write before I’m done my first novel.  I’m gearing up to make the ending of the book great, I just hope I can keep the momentum going long enough to finish strong.  In my heart I know I will because my characters deserve a great ending after their long journey.  So here’s to hoping that with that last chapter behind me and a new chapter just starting, my stone picks up it’s pace once again and streaks to the end without an ounce of moss to be seen.

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Apr
26
2010

The Process

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Writing a novel is a process. Since this is my first, I had no idea what the process would be like.  I assumed it would be challenging, frustrating and rewarding.  I had no idea it would be so amazingly fun!

It’s hard to describe exactly what my experience is like.  When I sit down to write my novel, I feel like I’m the reader, reading it for the first time.  I have an outline and I know approximately what my characters are going to do and when.  I may have even jotted down a line or two of dialogue here or there.  But, I never know exactly how a scene is going to play out until I’m finally putting the words on the page.

I’m usually excited when I get to a scene that I’ve been looking forward to working on.  The main character’s first kiss was definitely one I was waiting for!  I knew when and where I wanted it to happen, but what they would say, how they would touch, and the emotions they would feel were all a complete mystery!  I have to say that it’s just as exciting to write the first kiss as it is to read it!

Once I get started into the scene (the beginning is usually a challenge), then the words just being to flow.  It’s almost like I’m watching a movie about my characters, and I just write down what I see.  I laugh when they say something funny, I get annoyed when one of them overreacts to a situation because I know it will all work out, and my pulse quickens when they touch and things start to heat up.  I might be the author, but my characters are really the ones telling the story.  Sometimes if I get stuck and I’m unsure of what my character needs to say or do, I try to put myself in their place and imagine what they would say if they were a real person, not just a character in a book.  Usually a normal action or dialogue becomes clear and that gets the flow going again.

Many times I’ve said that I can’t wait to see what happens next for my characters.  It’s true!  I know what is going to happen, but I can’t wait to learn all the details as my characters voices come to life and they tell me their story.  The process of writing this book has been more rewarding and entertaining than I ever imagined it would be.  It’s so much fun, that I’m already thinking ahead to the sequel!

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Apr
23
2010

Hindsight

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They say that hindsight is 20/20. I guess they mean that once you know what the outcome is, you can look back and see clearly all the things that you should have done differently.  But isn’t hindsight really more like 60/40?  If you knew then what you know now, wouldn’t you make different choices?  Wouldn’t you stack the deck for yourself and give yourself at least a 60% chance of having a different outcome?  Would you do even more than that?  Wouldn’t you do everything you could to give yourself the best possible chances, so that years from now you wouldn’t have to say, “well, hindsight is 20/20?”

Do the same rules apply for foresight?  If you were told today that something could be a reality for you in the future, would you do everything you could to prevent it from happening, or would you say, “what will be, will be,” and let fate takes it’s course?  Do we really make our own future or is the future just fate regardless of our actions?

Such difficult questions to ponder at 8 am, but on my mind nonetheless.

If I apply these questions to my writing, I need to consider how I want my characters to act.  See, I already know their future.  Do I let them act recklessly?  Do I make them walk the straight and narrow?  In the end, their fate is already decided by me, only their pathway to that fate is up for discussion.  When it comes to my characters, I have the unusual gift of having both foresight and hindsight.  It’s kinda nice!

Real life is different.  I have no magical crystal ball to tell me the future.  The best I can do is use the foresight we been given and hope that we make the right decisions now, so that in ten years we’re not looking back in hindsight and wondering what we could have done different.  It’s a tricky way to live a life; always looking ahead and worrying about wether or not you’re doing enough to change the future you’ve been told could happen.  I guess the real magic is trying to find some middle ground.  To use the foresight you’ve been gifted, because it is a gift, and still live your life enjoying each moment, because every moment is a gift too.

For now, we choose to be thankful for the gift of foresight that we’ve been given.  We choose to walk the proactive path, so that we can stack the deck in our favor.  Our hope is that we will walk this path for a very long, long time.  Another 50 or 60 years sounds really great right now.  Preferably, we’ll be holding hands and enjoying every little step and moment along the way.  And hopefully, hindsight will instead become reflection on our lives well lived.

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