My Writing Plan, Aug 20

Posted on by August 22, 2017

Last week’s Writing Plan took a hit when I happened to stumble across the info that Carina Press was accepting online pitches this last Monday through Friday. The Plan went on hold! I immediately sent off a pitch for Wishes in a Bottle. Then, on thinking things over, I pulled out SwanSong, which I had finished some years back (along with the subsequent book in that series), and took a good look at it. The reason it had been shelved is because I needed to change the geographical location of the entire series. On the other hand… it was otherwise finished. Hmm. I decided I’d been putting that off long enough, so I pitched that too, and got to work. First I did a full read-through, then I dove into editing to make the needed changes, beginning to end (with lots of time-outs to stop and read over a scene, LOL). It took a few days, but I got it done! It’s now ready to go if an editor bites.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Two Finished Manuscripts, ready to send:
    1. Wishes in a Bottle, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series
    2. SwanSong; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series
  2. Two Finished Manuscripts, revisions in progress:
    1. A Gift of Jacinth, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. Castles in the Sand, 2nd book of Sons of the Desert (Completed!)

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently outstanding:
    • 5 submission queries to literary agents
    • 2 pitches to Carina Press.

 

THE WRITING PLAN:

So basically, we’re back to last week’s Writing Plan, with some additions. Again, I’m not putting a time limit on it for now. The revisions work on the two finished manuscripts, Jacinth and Castles, is going to be fairly extensive, and revisions are actually more exhausting than the writing itself! Go figure. So, here, in no particular order, we have:

  1. My primary beta reader identified a loose thread in Wishes in a Bottle, so I do need to get that tended to asap, just in case any (brilliant, perceptive, incredibly awesome) agent (or editor) is interested by my query and requests the full. (Completed!)
  2. Begin work on the revisions of A Gift of Jacinth, tying it in more closely to the first and last books.
  3. Begin making the geographic, political and any other changes needed in Castles in the Sand. (Completed!)
  4. Write and/or update the blurb and the synopses in 2-page and 6-10 page lengths for all finished manuscripts (in order of priority):
    1. SwanSong (Completed!)
    2. A Gift of Jacinth (blurb and 2-pg done)
    3. Castles in the Sand (Completed!)
  5. Write synopsis and blurb for When Darkness Falls, in preparation for possibly submitting a proposal to Carina Press.

 

Looking Ahead:

  • A Cat for Troy is the third book in Wishes & Dreams, and at 47,000 words it’s High Priority.
  • When Darkness Falls is at 165,000 words (660 pages). I want to get this done! It’s close… very close! High Priority.
  • I’ve identified Michael’s Quest, the third book in the Sons of the Desert series, as my potential NaNoWriMo project this year. With that in mind, I’ll be starting to do some characterization work during off-times when my mind doesn’t want to cooperate or I just need a break from whatever it is I’m working on.

 

 

Backing Up Your Writing

Posted on by August 20, 2017

There’s just no way you don’t want to back up regularly… everything, yes, but your writing even more so. This is a part of you, your blood and sweat and tears, your baby, your creation. To me just the thought of losing any of my writing is enough to send me scrambling from my bed in the dark of the night to make sure I’ve got some recent writing or edits safely backed up… and the thought of losing *all* of it is… well… it’s unthinkable. I mean, really. I’ve managed to accept (barely) the idea that I’ll lose all my stories when I die. Losing them in any other way is simply not acceptable.

I backup several different ways; I have a 1-Tb Passport external drive on which I back up all my data … documents, music, pictures, videos, etc., plus I have my writing backed up additionally on both One Drive and Goggle Drive.

Possibly I’m a bit paranoid, but let’s face it.. BAD things can happen to anyone, at any time, with or without warning. Theft. Fire. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Volcanic eruptions. Okay so that’s drifting into the paranoid area again but you get the idea.

Now.. why all these different ways? Isn’t it overkill? I don’t think so (paranoia aside). First off, an external drive can hold HUGE amounts of data, plus, it’s fast and easy to transfer files (which can be grrrrrrrrrr annoyingly slow on any of the cloud type connections), also if you buy a new computer or tablet or something, just zoom and it’s done. It’s lightweight and portable, too. If you’re going to be traveling, or want to go hang out and write at a cafe or crit group, just toss it into your laptop bag and off you go… just in case, you know, you wind up somewhere there’s no internet connection and you can’t get to OneDrive or Google Drive to work on your manuscript. Remember you have to rely on an internet connection to access things saved on OneDrive or Google Drive (or Cloud, et al.).

So if you have your writing saved to a Passport, why bother with OneDrive or Google Drive or Cloud? Look back up at the list of Bad Things that can happen. Almost no one really thinks this would happen to them, and most of those things (hurricanes excepted) you often can’t see coming. If… gods forbid… your house burns down, your computer is *melted*. So is your Passport (or CD or flash drive or whatever). A thief might just take your computer, which is bad enough, but if he/they have a lot of time they might clear out such things as external drives, flash drives, etc. Seems unlikely, but these are YOUR stories we’re talking about. Do you really want to *count* on that?

Back to the paranoid issue, why OneDrive *and* Google Drive? Because in a disaster, I don’t know what I’ll have time (if any) to rescue… I might wind up with my tablet or laptop or Passport, I might not. I might not even have my phone. That means I’ll have to be able remember my login and password, in the absence of ANY device that would get me logged in from a library or whatever. Since I’ve just, obviously, *lost* everything, I’m going to be relying on my memory alone, at a time when I’m guaranteed to be stressed practically right out of my mind. By using both OneDrive and Google Drive, I have two shots at actually remembering a login and password, not just one.

Space becomes an issue for non-text data such as music, videos, pictures. Those I keep backed up to the Passport reasonably regularly, and every year on Jan 1st I have made an annual “event” out of backing up absolutely everything to the Passport… the Event includes cheese and sausage and crackers, petit fours and iced tea and/or hot cocoa (depending on the weather) and a huge pot of spaghetti, and listening to the audiobook of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” On my Emergency Preparedness list, the Passport is third on my list of things to grab, after my purse and my cat.

But text takes up a tiny amount of data, so really there’s no reason not to utilize the various cloud services to keep your wonderful, precious stories for ever, no matter what! I also like to have hard copy of my manuscripts in binders… not so much for backup purposes anymore (OMG can you imagine re-typing??!!!) but because it makes me happy to look at the row of binders on my desk hutch.

So… back up! Do it! Do it NOW!

The Beta Reader Process

Posted on by August 18, 2017

Okay, Jenna Moreci is my goddess of the Beta Reader process!  She has a series of youtube vlogs on beta readers.  It’s from these that I’m basing my own beta reader process as I get started. Here’s a comprehensive list (so far) of her vlogs on the subject. These are really fun to watch as well as informative, she’s just fabulous! And yes! I will be using the specific questions she suggests!

She’d done some older vlogs, but has started a new, more updated set of vlogs on the topic:

Beta Readers part 1

Beta Readers part 2

Then the older ones, which are also well worth watching:

How to be a good Beta Reader 

Everything you ever wanted to know about Beta Readers

Getting the Most out of your Beta Reader

 

It’s Official! A Cat For Troy placed 3rd in On the Far Side Contest

Posted on by August 15, 2017

The On the Far Side contest is through RWA’s Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter. A Cat For Troy, which is the third book in my “Wishes & Dreams” series, took third place in the light paranormal category, and I’m thrilled to death! This manuscript was started in November 2008 for NaNoWriMo, when I wrote 50,000 words in… not 30 days… but 9. I didn’t even get started until November 21st. Long story, but it was the first time I won at NaNo! Anyway, A Cat for Troy got back-burnered as I finished the first two novels in the Wishes & Dreams series. I also spent 2 years on When Darkness Falls (which involved another NaNoWriMo win in 2016).

Now that I have the first two manuscripts, Wishes in a Bottle and A Gift of Jacinth, completed, A Cat For Troy is next up for completion.

My heroine, Katerina, is a shapeshifter… she likes to hang out as a Maine Coon cat that has some serious “cattitude.” This is absolutely a joy to write and in fact, as a writer it’s been a struggle for me to get into her human head because the cat thinking is just so much fun! She only has cattitude in her cat form (it’d be super annoying in a human, if you think about it), so I’m doing some serious characterization work of Katerina the woman as well as working out the world building and the rules/laws of shifters; the first two books were about Djinn, and Cat only showed up in cat form, so I didn’t really have to work on the shifter world at the time; in fact, I was already more than halfway through A Gift of Jacinth before Cat stomped her paws at me, and made it known she would really appreciate (insist on) having her own book, LOL. So here we are! The contest judges seemed to really like her as well! 🙂

Officially seeking beta readers

Posted on by August 18, 2017

Seeking out beta readers is a new endeavor for me, so bear with me. I’m working on a three-book romance series, Wishes & Dreams, which could be classified as either light paranormal or urban fantasy; the lines are a little blurry. My primary desire is for my stories to be romantic, charming and with lots of humorous moments. My heroes and heroines (as well as an antagonist) include Djinn (genies) and shapeshifters. For the most part the world-building, especially for the Djinn, I’ve tried to make uniquely my own; i.e., not based off of Disney or Barbara Eden or anyone else’s. Rating: There are steamy parts, and a few explicit adult scenes in each book, appropriate to the story line and the development of the romance; make no mistake, however, I am not writing erotica nor am I writing “sweet” with the bedroom door shut. I like to stress the “appropriate” part 😉

The first two books are completed manuscripts, although the second book is in the process of some major revisions (most additions).

Here’s my mini-synopsis for Wishes in a Bottle, the first in the series:

     Centuries ago, in plague-struck Italy, Julian DiConti cast a powerful spell to have unlimited power to be able to help people. The spell goes spectacularly awry, leaving Julian enslaved to a Djinn bottle, bound to grant three wishes to each Master of the bottle until one Master uses all three wishes to help others. More than anything, Julian longs for a normal life – for a home, and a family. After six hundred years, however, he has begun to despair of ever being freed from the spell.
Enter Alessandra DiConti, a young woman who has followed her calling to help others. The youngest of her family, she has watched her five sisters give up their hopes and dreams as they have been pushed into marriages of her father’s choosing. She views marriage as a trap and vows never to be caught in it. Then one day she finds an old perfume bottle in her attic. She’s drawn to the handsome, brooding Djinn. She’d gladly free him from the spell if she could, but he can’t tell her how, and one by one she’s forced to use the precious wishes to help others. But where will that leave Julian, and the growing love between them?

And the second book, A Gift of Jacinth:

     Douglas McCandliss considers himself an ordinary kind of guy, leading an ordinary kind of life. His biggest problem is that his alcoholic ex-wife kidnapped their two young children and disappeared. When a young woman appears in his living room and announces she’s a genie, come to grant him three wishes, he thinks she’s escaped from the funny farm. In no time at all, she reunites him with his children, and then proceeds to join them in turning Douglas’ well-ordered life upside down. What with the ebullient Jacinth’s beyond-beautiful mother popping in, followed by her languishing suitors, a supercilious shapeshifting cat, a disapproving guardian genie, and Douglas’ ex-wife trying to kidnap the children again, Douglas soon begins to wonder if he’s the one that needs to be in the funny farm!
Jacinth has absolutely no intention of falling in love with a mortal. Having watched her mother grieve for a millenia over the human man that she loved, Jacinth has no intention of spending an eternity in mourning. Why should she love a mortal anyway, when there were so many handsome genies to choose from? Of course, she hasn’t found one she could love, but she’s only 900 years old, she just needs more time to run into the right genie. When she agrees to stay awhile with Douglas to help him with his children, she certainly doesn’t foresee falling in love. Even if her heart does go pitta-pat when he smiles at her. Because there is no way she’ll allow herself to love a human. Ever.

I’d like to attract beta readers who think they might enjoy this type of book, to give me feed back on the characters, conflict, plot. When something works for them, or doesn’t work, and why or why not. Please give me a shout on Twitter or Facebook if you are interested in being on my Beta team, or email me at writer1@alliemccormack.com.

P.S. If you love romance but paranormal’s not your thing, I’ve got the first 2 of a 4-book contemporary romance series finished, and will be gathering a beta reader team for those as well.

The Writing Plan

Posted on by August 20, 2017

So the previous Plan got a bit messed up since my back decided to go into severe spasm for about 10 days. Not fun. However, I did get the most important step accomplished: I chose my first rank of literary agencies and sent out six query letters for Wishes in a Bottle.

Also, during those not-fun-filled days I got the initial read-through of the next book in the series, A Gift of Jacinth, done, and a list of revisions and additions that I want to make. Most of these are to tie Jacinth more firmly into Wishes in a Bottle, and to add in more of A Cat For Troy, the third book in the series; when I originally wrote Jacinth I was well over halfway finished before Cat stomped her paws and demanded her own book. Okay, okay, sheesh. Gotta love demanding characters.

So the plan currently is as follows. I’m not putting a time on it for now, as I still have to be cautious so as to not set off my back again. I have a month at least before the query responses start rolling in.

  1. My primary beta reader identified a loose thread in Wishes in a Bottle, so I do need to get that tended to asap, just in case any (brilliant, perceptive, incredibly awesome) agent is interested by my query and requests the full.
  2. Begin work on the revisions of Jacinth that I’ve outlined on the read-through, also, the word count needs to bump up about another 20k , but the added scenes should take care of that.
  3. Write a 2-page synopsis, a longer synopsis and a blurb for Jacinth.

That’s it for now.

Twitter… I tweet!

Posted on by August 1, 2017

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter… I do a lot of writing-related chatter that’s basically meaningless *mea culpa* but I also do post and re-tweet articles and blogs that I think are helpful, or pertinent, or funny, and I really enjoy the social aspect of tweeting. More, I find tweeting to be highly motivating without distracting me when I’m deep into my manuscript. You’d think this would be contraindicated, but it actually works for me.

Writing, let’s face it, is a fairly solitary endeavor. But if I’m having, say, a rough time with sentence construction to capture just the right feeling I want to convey… I can pop over to Twitter, dash off a quick note about my frustration, then get back to work. A bit later, when I go look at Twitter, and see it’s been replied to or even just re-tweeted… I feel like I’ve been “heard.” This is important. We all need to feel heard. And somehow… this just does it for me.

Because it’s a Tweet and not a blog or FB post, we’re severely limited in the space we have to write, plus leaving room for hashtags, so it doesn’t take more than a minute to get something written quick. OMG if I went to FB or here on my blog to post every time my characters weren’t cooperative, or every time a scene was going GREAT and practically writing itself and I was jumping out of my skin for joy… I’d never get anything written on the manuscript, I’d be too busy here or in Facebook writing about it! And that makes Twitter perfect for me.

In fact, some nights when I’m writing late, I find myself staying up later than I’d planned, so I could write more to have something to Tweet about! I kid you not!

Motivational Flyer for A Gift of Jacinth & Writing Plan

Posted on by August 20, 2017

Gift of Jacinth fabulous-250A Gift of Jacinth is the second book in the “Wishes & Dreams” series, and it’s basically a completed manuscript but I do want to go back in and do some more editing (is editing ever done? at least up until the point it goes to print! LOL). Anyway! I never did give myself a “reward” for finishing it several years ago. And rewards are important! Finishing a book (except for editing, of course) IS a huge accomplishment, and needs to be rewarded. So when I came across an artwork in DeviantArt that looked very close to how I envisioned Jacinth, I contacted the artist, and commissioned a piece, asking particularly for a lamp and a calico cat (The third book, A Cat For Troy, is about a shapeshifting Maine Coon).

Anyway, the final version was just delivered this morning, and I worked on  my flyer some, and here we go! Mind you.. this is NOT a book cover, nor meant to be; I’m aiming to sell this to a traditional publisher, and they have their own artists do their covers. No, this is just for me, because it makes me happy to have a visual flyer for my works in progress. Unfortunately, I can’t afford commissioned pieces for each and every one, but hey. I have *this* one and that makes me happy!

So, I sat down and hammered out A Writing Plan, now that I’ve recovered from the emotional rollercoaster of having finished “Wishes in a Bottle,” and I’ve done my research on literary agencies and gotten a short list made up for queries.

Between now and the end of next week (August 4):

  1. Do a final refining and checking on the agents/agencies in my short list and choose the top five that I think would be the best fit. (done!)
    1. Begin submitting NLT Monday, August 7.
  2. Make final edits on the 9-page synopsis for Wishes in a Bottle (done!)
    1. Submit the 2-page synopsis to the class Blackboard on Thursday, Aug 3rd.
  3. Pour over the contest judges’ comments on Jacinth, throw away those that make me eye roll, and very, very carefully read through the ones that are actually helpful and thoughtful and see what has merit, and where I need to work on my weak points, and go through the manuscript with that in mind.
    1. Introduce the concept of a “Wish Bearer” and what how they are distinguished from other Djinn, in both Wishes (done!) and Jacinth manuscripts.
    2. Add in the mischievous adolescent Djinn, Remi, from When Darkness Falls, in no more than 2 scenes.
    3. Since Douglas’ partner Troy is now a secondary character with his own book, let’s see a bit more of Troy in Jacinth.
  4. Make a specific timeline for Jacinth, since events in Jacinth and Cat will overlap (not an issue with Wishes, since that came before). (done!)
  5. Write a long and a short synopsis for Jacinth.
  6. Write a “blurb” for Jacinth (though a query letter is not required, since it’s being pitched along with Wishes in a Bottle as part of the series).

I’m not making A Writing Plan for after that; I want my focus to be on these, not what will come after. By  Friday the 4th, I’ll be able to see where I am on things and where to go next. Obviously, finishing A Cat For Troy (at 47,000 words currently) is high on the list, but for now, I’m leaving that alone in order to focus.

Focus.

FOCUS.

I finished the manuscript!! But…

Posted on by August 8, 2017
I think I have the writer’s version of postpartum depression. I’ve been trying not to whine (well, except a couple times over on Twitter). It was about 11:45 pm Monday night when I typed The End (shivers in delight recalling that moment). About 2 minutes later, I got a sudden idea for just a lil bit more to squeeze in there between the final scene and the epilogue. But I was utterly exhausted and fell into bed… and at 1 am was wide awake because my Muse wanted me to get that bit written. I finally got up and did it… was only about 2 pages more, we’re not talking major here.
I woke up Tuesday morning just about incandescent, as you can imagine! After calling my mom and my daughter and everyone I knew and making them deaf with my “SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” in their ears, I went out to swim, then took myself out to buffet lunch at the Indian restaurant (where I hadn’t ever been but kept promising myself I would these last 2 years since I moved here). This is where I went wrong… I spent too long out in the pool, at 96 degrees at noon (but the water felt so WONDERFUL!)… and then stuffed myself at lunch (but it was GOOD!). This started a kind of yo-yo effect.. the “high” of having finished the manuscript interspersed with honestly not just feeling well (not so much from the food as the sun, the food just didn’t help matters). And of course the bouncing between high and low was exhausting, in and of itself.
I figured I’d be better today, but I’ve been blaaahhhhhhh. You know those moods when nothing is right? My left brain is all “you could do this” or “you should do that” and my right brain is “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” with the occasional “will you STFU” at the left brain.
I finally dove into researching agents, which I hadn’t meant to do til starting tomorrow, and to do it in bite-size chunks over the next week. But since I wasnt’ feeling like doing anything interesting or creative, it seemed a good time to do this and at least it’d be done and I could get that feeling of satisfaction at having all the information I need at my fingertips (my ocd’ness showing up heh). I’m almost done with that, about one more hour. Then I’ll work on my synopsis and try to get that down to 2 pages for those agents who specify the shorter length. I already have my query letter written. So I’ll be ready to start querying shortly… with two completed manuscripts for a three-book series, and the third is already half done!!! Okay I’ve managed to talk myself back into a better mood already, see??? LOL!

Synopsis Length… the vexed question

Posted on by August 8, 2017

Back in the days of paper submissions, every publisher and agency had specific requirements laid out, i.e., query letter, first 10 pages, 5-page synopsis and SASE. Or whatever.

In these days of email or webform submissions, I did a spot-check of agencies listed on RWA’s website, and a handful of publishing houses, and discovered that is no longer the case. Not one of the agencies I looked at specified a length for the synopsis. With publishing houses it was even harder to find anything about submissions at all; of those few that did, only Harlequin specified a length, and just to confuse things more, they asked for 350 words (so not even pages!). Granted this was just a spot-check; I didn’t do a thorough research (I’ll be doing that after I finish this manuscript, hopefully by the end of this weekend). If you go by contests, most of those I’ve entered or judged permitted (or required) a 5-page synopsis; Golden Heart says no more than 15 pages.

This is not a change for the better. It is, moreover, frustrating as a writer. When querying an agent or editor, naturally we want to give it our very best shot, to increase the chance they’ll at least look at it. And that means giving them exactly what they are expecting to get… which we can’t do unless they tell us. Without specifics, we’re left either guessing or assuming. Not a good thing. If there’s an “industry standard” now, I sure couldn’t find it, and if there was one, I wish it was announced in big red letters everywhere! Researching this on the various writing advice, tips and blog sites is totally At Your Own Risk… for every site that says 2-3 pages there’s one that says 5 pages, or 1 page single-spaced, or 10 pages, or even the formulary 1 page per 25 manuscript pages (or 35… or…).

Editors and agents have to be aware of this huge grey area regarding synopsis length. They’re almost bound to have a preference for what they want to see, so why don’t they state it, so that’s what they get? Or do they really want to see whatever it is that we send? Which is fine too, but I’d like to know that’s their take on it… rather than send a 10-page synopsis, only to hear back that they wanted a 2-page one, or send a 2-page one and hear back that they wanted 10 pages. Why not just have it in the submissions guideline section? That’s what it’s for, after all.

My personal advice to writers is to have at least three versions of your synopsis for each manuscript: 2 pages, 5 pages and 10 pages. It’s better to have it written and not need it, than need it and have to go back to the drawing board. But it still comes back to the same vexed question: If they don’t tell us what they want, how do we know which to send?

I have a Pinterest Board!

Posted on by July 20, 2017

It’s really just for fun more than anything. I created some boards to put pictures I’ve found around the web (or, in some cases, taken myself) that were inspirational for characters, clothing, places, etc. For instance, the photo for this post is exactly how I envision the Sultana, the wise ruler of the desert city in  my fantasy romance, When Darkness Falls.

Of course I have the requisite board for such things as Maine Coon cats, crafts,  etc., LOL.

Check it out at Allie McCormack on Pinterest!

Entering the Home Stretch

Posted on by August 8, 2017
I feel like I’m on the home stretch with Wishes in a Bottle. I’m almost up to the second wish (which scene is already written) and the third wish comes hard on the heels of that. I’m hoping… *really* hoping! …to have it finished by this Friday. Which is both exciting and scary.
I do have A Plan for once it’s finished. I’m slotting one week to research publishers and literary agents. I mean to submit to agents, but I want to educate myself which publishing houses might be interested (I already have a few ideas, just from who publishes some of the books I like to read). Anyway… I’ll spent a week researching and making a “short list” of agents, prioritized. While I’m doing that, I’ll also be working on the synopsis; I already have the blurb and query letter. I’m taking Laurie Sanders’ class on Literary Marketing Package.. .which is where I got the blurb and query letter worked up. So the timing of this class is exactly perfect! Then…submit.
Once that’s off to the first round of agents, I’ll pull out the second book in the series, A Gift of Jacinth, which actually is already written, and insert some changes I’ve got in mind, as well as incorporate some of the feedback I got from judges from contests. I’m also adding in a couple of cameo appearances from a Djinn character from When Darkness Falls… a totally different novel set in fantasy setting medieval times, but it’ll be a blast to have him show up in Jacinth’s story.
From there, it depends on timing. I have the third and last book in the series, A Cat For Troy, half done… but When Darkness Falls is SO close to being finished, and I very badly want to finish that. So that’s up in the air for now, and I’ll make the decision when I get the edits on Jacinth done. Also I’m keeping in mind that NaNoWriMo is in November. I’m too close to finished on When Darkness Falls to want to work on it for NaNo… but it would be perfect to finish A Cat For Troy, if I haven’t gotten to it by then. I don’t even dare DREAM that I might have BOTH of those finished by NaNo!!!! OMG. Not that I dont have anything else to write on, because I do, but … OMG to have the entire 3-book series finished, PLUS When Darkness Falls, is just… too awesome to contemplate.
I need to think up a suitable reward for that particular milestone.

Scene Crafting, Allie’s Trick #1

Posted on by August 8, 2017

I have a number of “tricks” that I use when crafting a particular scene, whether in the micro or macrocosm of the scene; that is, whether I’m crafting the wording of  a sentence or phrase, or an entire paragraph, or whether I’m trying to decide which event comes first, I try to take myself out of my everyday headspace and free up my creative side to come up with just the right ideas.

So here’s the first trick. Well, it’s not the first but it gets to be #1 because it’s the first one I’m writing about. It’s also more or less the easiest. Some years ago, I discovered that cute mouse trailers were absolutely fascinating, and almost hypnotic… sometimes I could spend long periods of time just doodling away, making designs with my mouse while the trailer trailed along after. So I got a script and some hearts, and made a mouse trailer, and put it on a page with some nicely spaced pretty hearts to have something to actually go around and around with the mouse trailers.

AffirmationsHearts

I put the mouse trailer over some affirmations,  in order to get the benefit of those… because let’s face it… just sitting repeating affirmations is booooooring. Ugh. But, play with the pretty hearts trailer doodling designs and swirling and looping about the pink and purple hearts, or going around and around a particular affirmation, you’re getting the benefit of the affirmations (subliminally?) while your mind is open and receptive because you’re doodling with the trail of hearts.

Here’s the link to Allie’s Affirmations page with the cute hearts trailer, if you want to try it out! I’ll be happy to send you the script if you have a page of your own and want to use it, just shoot me an email or comment below!

I have an official “blurb”!!!

Posted on by August 8, 2017

I’m taking a class, Literary Sales Package with Laurie Sanders, and the first assignment was the query letter, which included a short “blurb” for the second paragraph. I brainstormed and got it written, and Laurie tweaked just a couple of words, and here we go!

Long ago, Julian DiConti was caught in a powerful spell binding him to a Djinn bottle, forced to grant wishes to each owner of his bottle. Three wishes… of the right kind… could free Julian of his bonds, but after six hundred years, he is beginning to wonder if he will be trapped as a Djinn forever. Enter Alessandra Taylor, good Samaritan extraordinaire. She’d gladly free Julian from the spell if she could, but he isn’t allowed to tell her how, and one by one she’s driven to use the precious wishes to help others. But where will that leave Julian, and the growing love between them?

Laurie, by the way, is a FABULOUS instructor, and her blog posts as well are incredibly informative and helpful! She teaches online classes through the Outreach International RWA Chapter (classes are available to nonmembers). I highly recommend them!

No writers jokes in the ER!

Posted on by July 12, 2017

So, in writers groups, we joke a lot about the voices in our heads. At least, we do in the groups I hang out with. Anyway! So a few years back I wound up in the ER with bronchitis/incipient pneumonia. And in the course of the intake, the ER nurse asked me if I heard voices in my head. I responded, “Not in the way you mean.”

Well! She looked at me, and it was that kind of look, without the least bit of humor. I could see an incipient 72-hour psychiatric hold in my immediate future. I rushed to reassure her that I was a writer… I remember scrambling in my purse to find my business card announcing my pseudonym to show her. LOL!!!

She did accept this (thank goodness for the business card!) but I’ll never make that mistake again! It’s not quite as bad as joking at the airport about bombs, but it’s in that general arena of things it’s really not a good idea to do.

 

 

A rejection letter to cherish

Posted on by July 8, 2017

Rejection letters are no fun, even if they’re nice. It’s depressing. But I got one from an agent, querying for my very first book, Truck Stop, back in 2000, that said:

“There’s no question of your ability.  I think you have a very fluid, commercial style which is remarkably polished and self-assured… I think your writing has a lot of commercial potential…”

She hadn’t liked the actual premise itself, which is why she was rejecting it… but then, she said if I hadn’t found an agent by the time I finished my second manuscript, which was well under way, she’d be happy to take a look at that!  Waaaay cool!  I’ was more about celebrating that letter than feeling bad, LOL!  To top that off, some writers whom I’d shown the rejection told me that this particular agency is top-of-the-line and rarely take beginning writers at all, that they frequently turn down *published* writers, so that I should absolutely pat myself on the back because she’d invited me to submit to them again!

Just to put the final cap on this validation (despite the fact that it was a rejection)… another writer reassured me: “Sometimes this takes years of writing to generate a rejection letter of this quality!”

I still have that rejection letter, carefully in a box with my letter from the Undiscovered Writer II contest, the first contract with the epublisher, and the first copy of the paperback, plus the long-stemmed white silk rose I got from Desert Rose Chapter of RWA for a first sale 🙂

How I came to finish my first novel

Posted on by July 8, 2017

Year 2000 was a turning point in my life; that year, I completed not only my first, but also my second-ever novels, both contemporary romances. So this is the Cliff’s Notes version *laughs*

I’d been writing on and off all my life since as early as I can remember (I specifically remember 3rd grade, writing in bed at night under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping). But I was never “A Writer” (TM), it was just … my stories. That’s what I called them. I wrote bits and pieces as they came to me. One day, on a whim, I joined AOL. I have to admit, I joined it because I watched “You’ve Got Mail” and the computers said “You’ve Got Mail” when they turned them on, and so I joined on a free trial, just for a lark so I could hear my computer tell me I had mail. Yes, I’m that easy 🙂 Anyway! AOL had writers groups, and I found them. REAL writers. People who were writing and/or had written… even *gasps* PUBLISHED writers! I never met a published author in my life. Kinda like happening across the Holy Grail by accident. Anyway, so I got involved in some of the writers groups, and heard for the first time about Romance Writers of America. No kidding? I joined on the spot.  The next thing I started to be made aware of was writing contests run by RWA chapters. Reading the lists of contests in the RWR had me just hot to join a contest and see. I mean, my mom said my stories were good, but she’s my mom, right? I mean, it’s in her job description to think her duckling is a swan and that her daydreamer daughter can be a writer. I mean, she also told me that I was smart, when my dad always told me I was stupid. Hmm, actually she turned out to be right, when she tricked me into taking a test for Mensa when I dind’t have a clue what it was, and then qualified… but eh, that’s another story.

So there was this contest, the Undiscovered Writer II contest by an RWA Chapter, Love Designers Writers’ Club and Rendezvous Magazine. It required a first chapter and a synopsis. I decided to give it a shot… see what kind of feedback I got and if anybody thought I could write at all. I thumbed through my (112 by then) stories, and pretty much at random chose Truck Stop. I didn’t, of course, have the opening scene written, much less a whole chapter, but I had 3 various scenes written, and a rough idea of the main conflict. Fortunately my Muse kicked in, as she sometimes does (unreliably), and I came up with a first chapter, and one with which I was actually pretty pleased. Then I took that very rough idea of the conflict, along with the first chapter and 3 various scenes, and hammered out a 3-page synopsis, and sent it off.

Mind you… I wasn’t entering this contest with any thought, or even hope, of winning. I just wanted to see if the feedback I got back was in anyway validating. The burning question here was, CAN I WRITE?

What I never expected in a million years was that… it would WIN!

Which it did. AND… that the prize for the winning manuscript was to be read by an senior editor at Silhouette. Who already had my name, and I had a PHONE NUMBER (yes, really!) to CALL!!! She’d already read it when I called, and wanted to see more.

MORE?

Um. I explained that the book wasn’t finished (massive understatement there.. I had the first chapter and 3 random scenes). She said send along the first three, and I agreed, no problem. Once I was off the phone… AGGGHHH!!!! I scrambled to get two more chapters written. Plus, my synopsis had taken some heavy criticism from the contest judges, so I got a copy of Writers Market and dove into the section on synopses, and came up with one that seemed much better, to send along with the new chapters.

Then I sat back to relax in total satisfaction that I’d written THREE whole chapters and had a great synopsis, VERY pleased with myself, and waited for my “Thank you so much for submitting but…” letter to arrive.

Only.

It was a “Thank you so much for submitting, please send the full manuscript” letter.

WHAT???!!!!! I hadn’t written any more on it in the intervening month (only one! not 3 or 6 or a year like I’d been warned), and I figured I had plenty of time to write more, since I now had lovely new 3 chapters and a shiny new synopsis to send out to agents/editors, once Silhouette sent their rejection letter. And then *they* would take months to reject it, too (See? I  was totally totally all mentally prepared to take the rejections!). I had lots of time! It never, EVER occurred to me that they’d actually want to see the complete manuscript! I mean… I was a totally newbie! This just didn’t happen. It takes months… years! to get this far!

So I got to writing with a passion. From May 8, 2000, when I received the letter from the Undiscovered Writers II Contest, to October 10, 2000, I wrote, and finished, the whole book. (I also made a major move to another state in the interim, partially accounting for the time factor).

Ultimately, Silhouette did not make an offer on the book, because it didn’t fit into their lines. We discussed it at length, but given the conflict was absolutely crucial to the plot, there was no way to get around that obstacle… or they *would* have!!!! I went on eventually to accept an offer from a small epublishing company in 2001, and when it was published in paperback, I sent a copy to Romantic Times magazine, and it got a four star review in February 2002!

For anyone interested, click here to go to Diary of an Aspiring Novelist to read the complete story. Warning! This is very long, and is probably only of interest to my close family & friends, and other beginning writers 🙂

A Cat For Troy finaled in On the Far Side!

Posted on by July 3, 2017

A Cat For Troy synopsis400

So here we are, Monday morning. I’d been up writing on Wishes in a Bottle until 2:30, and had just hit the 90,000 word mark. So I rolled out of bed around about 9 and got the dishes done from last night (I’d been writing, so I’d just grabbed some leftovers and microwaved them) and made another pitcher of iced tea, logged into SecondLife and checked on my horses, then settled in to write. About 10 minutes later the phone rings. I was already deep into the scene I was writing, so I didn’t quite catch the beginning of what was being said. The phrase “RWA” caught my attention though and dragged me out of my scene. I remember thinking, oh my gosh, it must be the Saguaro chapter (which I’d just signed up for last night late) calling to welcome me! Unusual, but nice. Then.. Wait… what??? A Cat For Troy… did WHAT??!! WHOA, wait back up! OMG!!! It’s a contest coordinator, from FF&P (Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal) Chapter of RWA, calling to tell me A Cat for Troy had FINALED in the 2017 On the Far Side Contest!!! *hyperventilate* *scream* *laugh* *hyperventilate more*

Aside from the amazement and excitement factor, there’s another level to this: HOPE! Because the final round judges include an editor from a reputable publishing house (Theresa Cole, Entangled Publishing)… so just finaling is HUGE!

I’m so excited I haven’t been able to come back down to earth to get back to writing, LOL! It’s even MORE crucial now that I finish Wishes in a Bottle, because it’s the first book in the Wishes & Dreams 3-book series, of which A Cat For Troy is the third book. Since it’s a series, the first book has to be finished before a publisher or agent will even consider looking at any of it. The second book, A Gift of Jacinth, is already finished. So when I have Wishes in a Bottle finished (and it’s currently at 90,000 words with a target of 100,000), I’ll have the first two books in the series finished, and A Cat for Troy is at about 46,000 words.

Here’s the section of my website for the Wishes & Dreams series. It’s still under construction, as I have to add the  synopses, but you’ll get the general idea 🙂

Business Plan? Who, ME?!

Posted on by June 16, 2017

I signed up for a class that has brought up the subject of business plans. I strongly recommend this article they sent us to: http://jamigold.com/2014/08/introducing-the-business-plan-for-writers-worksheet/ plus you’ll want to read https://janefriedman.com/business-plans-for-writers/

My first thought to all this was: “business plan? whaaa…?” I have ONE epub book out. That’s it. Also, to me, business plans dealt with…you know… numbers and flow charts and such. *shudders* But then I opened the plan and read the fine print, and I could *feel* my brain kicking into gear! Even my Muse poked her head up and said “oh really?”

When reading through the article on introducing the business plan for writers, this pretty much jumped off the page and smacked me in the face:
* What path will take us toward our success goal? Are we on that path already? If not, what do we need to do to get on that path?
* Are we spending time on activities that impede our goals? Are adjustments needed to refocus on activities that match our goals?

um… well. *blushes* My bad. I do have the time to write, but I allow myself to get distracted. No excuses. So I have to really face that, and accept that challenge head-on. I DO want to write, I do want to be published. It’s my #1 priority in life (after breathing). So if it’s not getting done, that’s on me. The buck stops here, and all that.

There are, however, some valid issues that arise from time to time, that interfere with writing. So… (this first lesson really got the brain working, I must say)

1. Pain. I have spinal stenosis and a knee that’s bone-on-bone. Acute pain is a frequent issue. I always have a certain amount of low-level chronic pain; mostly I ignore that, but if it ratchets up, it can and does interfere with the writing process…. even more if I have to take pain meds, which make me sleepy/groggy at worst and loopy at best. During those times, however, I *can* edit. Doesn’t matter if I can’t focus for long periods of times, I can work on a paragraph at a time.

2. When the scene is there in my head, but the words to write it just won’t come. This is a Serious Nasty trick my Muse likes to play on me. I do have a a work-around on this one, the problem is, I dont DO it. It’s like having a headache but you don’t go take aspirin until it’s too late, right? I’ve found that dictating the scene while it’s in my head, is amazing. It comes out stream-of-conscious just as I see/hear/feel/experience it in the moment, and I dont’ have to worry about struggling for how to get exactly the right wording down. By capturing it in-the-moment in voice, then when I go back and transcribe it, I can take my time with the wording, while the recording keeps the in-the-moment feel of the scene that it had when I recorded it.

The problem with these solutions above? It doesn’t WORK if I don’t DO it!!!!!! The problem with these solutions above? It doesn’t WORK if I don’t DO it!! So.. starting now, I’m taking this on!

For the business plan itself, I found it was very helpful to actually get down in black and white, things I already knew and had swirling around in my mind. Which wasn’t more than just the basics, and in no particular order. So I downloaded the form from the article, and got those thoughts all sorted and organized 🙂 It’s not much, admittedly. But it’s a starting point.

“Truck Stop” is officially re-released!

Posted on by August 8, 2017

“Truck Stop” was officially re-released on June 8th! It’s as both Kindle and paperback (for now.. I’m working on an ePUB format). You can sign up on my website to read the first chapter for free!!
In the meantime, I’m hard at work on “Wishes in a Bottle,” the first of my three light paranormal romances, the Wishes and Dreams series. The second book, “A Gift of Jacinth,” is completed, and I am about half done on the third book, “A Cat for Troy.” http://ow.ly/i/vHBi6

Slowly but steadily!

Posted on by June 4, 2017

The proof of Truck Stop in paperback arrived last night. I poured over it carefully last night and most of today. I only found 2 errors, minor formatting stuff that only someone OCD like me would even notice, much less care about *le snicker* Anyway! got those fixed, and uploaded the file and submitted it for final review to CreateSpace. Then I went into Kindle Direct Publishing and, working through step-by-step instructions, figured out how to make a Table of Contents for the Kindle version (and it worked!!! OMG! Who’d’a thunk?). A few more formatting changes were needed for that (like taking out pagination, since that’s not used in eBooks), and so forth. Then I got the final of that previewed and the submitted for final review to KDP. I should hear in about 24 hours from CreateSpace, and up to 72 hours from KDP, and then the new version goes live!

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A new cover for Truck Stop!

Posted on by May 21, 2017

It’s official!!! Back in January I decided to do a re-release of Truck Stop, which was originally published in 2000, then I’d self published on Amazon in 2012. I started researching for a professional book cover, and several members of RWA PRO recommended Dar Albert of Wicked Smart Designs. I contacted her two days ago, and after some tweaking, this morning she sent me the final version, a perfectly beautiful cover! I’m so thrilled!  Here’s the cover!

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