Time For Goodbyes

As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to be shutting the blog down. I just don't have the time anymore between work, school, kids, writing and attempting to have at least 5 minutes alone each day.

If and when things settle down (or I get a book deal), I'll post again, but not until.

Update

Yes, I am doing the Snoopy happy dance :)

Why you ask? Easy. Both Twin Magic and Cassandra's Secrets rewrites have both hit over 10,000 words!!

Okay, so it doesn't take much to make me happy these days, but shouldn't we find our joy where we can? (No, I promise this isn't turning philosophical.)

To me, 10k (and it's multiples) has always been a bit of a milestone. I think it comes from when I did NaNoWriMo. One way to keep motivation up is to reward yourself every so often. I chose to give myself those rewards at the 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k marks.

So even though nano has been over for 8 months and won't start again for 3, those numbers still represent something to me. This morning I hit it for CS and I rewarded myself by buying a new secondhand book.

As for Sensory Deprivation, the second chapter is well under way. I think I may have it finished tonight.

I'm cruising, folks!

ADD

Some authors complain about writer's block. I really can't say that I've ever experienced it. In fact, the inside of my head looks more like this:


With more and more book ideas popping up every minute of the day. Most of them, I'll probably never write. Some of them, even if I do write them, won't be sellable.

That doesn't stop me from working on them though. Right now I have about 17 active WIPs that I'm flip flopping back and forth on.

Yep. Seventeen.

See why the post is called ADD? I (and some other writers I know) am convinced I have it, but only in relation to my writing. No matter how much I love a project, no matter how strongly I believe that it might be the first novel I get published, I can not settle and work on just one at a time.

Right now I have two WIPs in rewrite stage - Twin Magic and Cassandra's Secrets. Now that's understandable to me. I despise editing/rewriting. So I can't do too much at a time.

I'm also working on a bunch of first drafts. These are the ones that have me wondering. I'm not sure I'm ever going to finish them.

Why?

Because they're taking so long. The rough draft of TM took me only 1 week to complete. CS took a little less than two. Most of the ones I'm working on now have been stagnating for months. I'll add a few sentences here or there, maybe a page, but that's it.

My first day writing TM, I churned out almost 11,000 words in 24 hours. That's a major amount considering I'm not the fastest typer since I only have one hand. And I had all the kids home and I was going to school myself.

With CS, the first week went slowly and I only got about 3,000 done. Then my friend Chelle and I spent a day doing word races. 20 minutes racing then 10 minutes break. We kept that schedule going for about 7 or 8 hours. A full weekend like that and the rough draft was almost done.

The Newest Project

I mentioned in one of my posts about the WIP with a blind girl as the MC. Well, it turns out it's a teen romance (that sure wasn't the plan orginally!), but also a book about self-realization for the hero and heroine.

Unlike most romances, I'm not going for the alpha male as the hero. Nope, he's strictly beta material. I think it'll work though. Here's a little snippet to give you a look at Vince. (Remember this is a very rough draft.)

His breath caught in his lungs. She was beautiful. The most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. Her hair had so many colors in it, he couldn’t think what to call it, but it hung in soft curls down to the middle of her back. What little of her face that he could see was tanned. He wondered if she used a tanning bed or had just moved here from some sunny state.

Vince let his gaze travel down her body and grinned. She wasn’t some stick figure like most of the girls at Chriswell Prep. She had curves, reminding him of the actresses in the old black and white movies his family watched together every Saturday night.

The woman next to her looked enough like her, so he guessed it was her mother. What the hell? he thought. No teenager lets their mom walk them to class.

The heads of some of his classmates moved, opening a space so he could see the huge, black German Shepherd standing next to the girl. Something was wrong with her. The handle and harness looked like those he’d seen on service animals before. And that’s the only reason Principal Garreth would let an animal on school grounds.

He saw Ms. Janney and the mother step back into the hall, but his eyes never left the girl. She looked . . . lost, standing there all alone, not sure where to go. Her face lifted then and Vince knew in an instant that she was blind and the Shepherd was a seeing eye dog. Her eyes were a dark blue, but with a hazy film covering them.

Ms. Janney strode back into the room alone, her thin lips pressed together so tightly they practically disappeared. Not a good sign at all. Vince peeked at the other students, who were whispering amongst themselves.

She clapped her hands once, loudly. “Class, please say hello to our new student, Brooke Matthias. Pick any empty seat and get settled so we may begin.”

Brooke stood in the doorway looking confused. Vince couldn’t believe the teacher’d done that to her. How was she supposed to pick an empty seat when she couldn’t see them? He opened his mouth to mention it, closing it again without speaking when she whispered to her dog.

The dog began to move slowly down the aisle between the desks. Each step was carefully placed to lead the girl around the backpacks, purses and legs sticking out all over.

Two of his soccer buddies, Jarod and Don spoke quietly as pointed at her as she neared them. The dog took a step forward into the open aisle next to Jarod’s desk, Brooke following right on her heels.So fast that Vince hadn’t even realized what was happening, Jarod stuck his foot out and tripped her. Brooke fell to the ground, a loud crack echoing in the room as her head hit the floor. Jarod tucked his leg back under the desk and hi-fived Don.

His classmates snickered and pointed, some laughed out loud, but no one moved to help her. Vince half rose from his seat, but a glare from Jarod stopped him. Not so long ago, he’d been the new kid. An ugly nerd who no one wanted to know. Without soccer and Jarod absorbing him into his group of friends, Vince would still be the lonely outsider he’d been at his last school. If keeping quiet was the price he had to pay for that friendship and popularity, he’d keep his mouth locked tight.

He switched on his iPod and let the classroom disappear as Harry Dresden dragged him into Chicago and the supernatural happenings there. He’d deal with his conscience later.

This new WIP is tentatively called Sensory Deprivation, but I'm not sure that's a good title for a romance. What do you think?

My Turn

You know how sometimes, when there's twins, they have different personalities? Almost opposite?

I'm not talking about good versus evil that you writers do. Just regular stuff. A quiet twin and a loud one. One that always takes a dare and one that never will.

That's the way Sarah wrote me and my twin Maddy. I'm Lizzie Nichols, the main character in one of the book's she's rewriting right now - Twin Magic. She didn't know what to write today, so I'm taking over.

Like I said at the beginning, me and Maddy are opposites. But don't think that means we don't get along. We do. Closer than best friends actually. I read a book called Anne of Green Gables once and Anne uses the phrase "bosom buddies." I think that works for us too.

At least until that witch, Patience, gets to her. Maddy can't help being weaker. It's who she is and I don't hate her for it.

I'm the loud, outgoing, always ready for a fight twin. Maddy . . . isn't. She daydreams and wants to bring home wild dogs to keep as pets. She forgets what's real a lot, so she needs me to take care of her.

I don't do such a good job or Patience would never have gotten her under her spell. I just got . . . obsessed, I guess. We found those journals and the spellbook, and I started playing the "What if?" game.

What if magic was real? What if the body in the cave were really alive, not dead? What if we could do magic?

Next thing I knew, we were trapped. And it was my job to find a way out. I'm the one who looks after Maddy.

That's all I'm going to say or I'll give away the end of the book. Sarah might get mad at that. See y'all next time she can't think of a post.

Editing

It's been happening. Slowly, thanks to starting my new job, but it is happening. I've been working on both Cassandra's Secrets and Twin Magic.

New writing is taking a back seat as I'm determined to have something query ready by year's end.

Writing News

It feels good to be writing steadily again. Weird, because I'm writing on paper instead of the comp (need to be accessible to the kids while they're here), but good nonetheless. At least words are making it out of my brain.

I'm still stuck at the research phase for the MG I was talking about in the last post, that is temporarily titled Don't Turn Your Back. But I've gone back to an old WIP that has never had a name. It's a YA romance with a blind girl as the MC. It should be quite interesting to write.

One of the things that helped me pick it back up again was a post over at one of my favorite blogs, The Prairie Chicks. The post was all about touch, and using the senses when writing. It really started me thinking, and I rewrote the first two paragraphs, focusing on the sense of smell.

According to the critters that I let read the new beginning, it works and well. I'm not entirely sure where the story is going, but I should have fun getting there. The MC, Brooke Matthias, is the new featured character on the sidebar. Check her out if you get the chance.

The kids and I have decided to do a "summer NaNo" this year. They are each going to have a story written, edited and printed to show their teachers on the first day of school next year. They are quite excited!! Brett is already planning something with zombie birds. Micah's talking about flying horses and other animals. And Ben said something about a killer video game.

Yes, if there is one thing my kids have, it's imagination.

My New Project

Well, I just did my first book review at the new blog Book Faire. If you get the chance, check it out.

So, I've started a new WIP. Not new really, because I've had the idea and some research notes for almost two years now (and yet it still doesn't have a title, though I'm thinking of something like Don't Turn Your Back). I spent about 3-5 hours researching for it yesterday.

When I add up all the research I've done, and still have to do, for this WIP, it scares me. Why? Because I've never really had to do much research for any of my other WIPs. They were all set in either fictional places or places that I know, having lived there myself. So far the only project I had to do research for was Cassandra's Secrets and that was just 5 hours sitting in Denny's with a couple of cops, discussing kidnapping. Not really tough.

The magnitude of research required for a book (even though it's MG) set in the time period of 1668 - 1676 in my hometown of Simsbury, CT, centering around King Philip's War is huge!

I need to know the clothing. What the town looked like then? Was it even a town? Actually it became Simsbury in 1670. Who were the original settlers? What would daily life have been like for a young girl back then?

Then I have to know pretty much the same things about the Wampanoag tribe. But for them, I also need to find some traditional names in their language. Maybe even some stray words to throw in. It would add not only realism, but might spark some interest in their culture and heritage.

All in all, a pretty daunting task that I hope I am up to.