My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 22

Posted on by September 25, 2018

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’m When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. No rejections came in this week… that’s kinda positive, right? There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (201,775 words, as follows:)
      1. Book 1: The Palace (61,150)
      2. Book 2: The Dark Lord (90,500)
      3. Book 3: The Prophecy (39,400)
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  2. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 15

Posted on by September 15, 2018

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’ve still got some revisions to do on A Cat For Troy, then back to When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. No rejections came in this week… that’s kinda positive, right? There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  2. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 8

Posted on by September 10, 2018

I’m sorry, how did it get to September already??? Early in the week I’d decided to go through and write detailed synopses for each chapter in the Synopsis cards in Scrivener. In doing so, I realized I needed a few extra days toward the end of A Gift of Jacinth, to make a crucial event line up with the weekend. In doing so, I then threw off the timeline that overlaps with A Cat For Troy. So I’ve got that mostly done, I do want to get that finished so it’s off my list. I got myself so confused with dates and weekdays (for 2 manuscripts that overlapped) I finally went to google and found a blank calendar form I could use to write in events for both stories, and that was an enormous help. Then one of my beta readers found a (minor) loose end in A Cat For Troy. Here’s the funny part: I had actually found that myself, and *thought* so hard about what I was going to write to fix it, that I thought I *had* written it!! But I hadn’t!  She’s also found a couple of areas I need to do some serious thinking and work on, in the very last chapters, and so I’m bumping that up in front of When Darkness Falls.

The writing plan is still pretty much unchanged from last week. I’m still working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo.

I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A GIFT OF JACINTH / A CAT FOR TROY (Priority #1)
    1. Work on the overlapping timeline and get all chapters mapped out on a calendar (Done!)
  2. A CAT FOR TROY (Priority #2)
    1. Fix the quick fixes/errors/tweaks from beta reader feedback (Done!)
    2. Go over the (mostly minor) issues I’ve identified on the Synopsis cards (Done!)
    3. Go over the beta reader feedback requiring more in-depth work, issues, etc.
  3. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,750/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  4. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  5. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  6. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

Graphic “aesthetics” for my works in progress

Posted on by September 3, 2018

So I reeeeallllyyyy wanted to have graphics for each of my series, and for the trilogy. I had commissioned the portrait of Jacinth, so I used that as the background for the Wishes & Dreams series, but I’d done the one for Sons of the Desert series long ago. But I had NO idea what I was going to do for When Darkness Falls, and it’d been bugging me for awhile, so this morning I went shopping on royalty-free images sites, and found the perfect one! Once I had that done, I went back to look at Sons of the Desert, which was so old really and not very good quality. So I went shopping again aaaaaaaaand…. now I have beautiful aesthetics for each of my two series and for When Darkness Falls, all of which I’m super pleased with!! Here they are!

 

 

Future Rewards

Posted on by September 3, 2018

Just because I need a place to put these where I can find them when I need them… since these are rewards for significant achievements they won’t happen all that often and I’m liable to forget.

MAJOR MAJOR Rewards… this is for something HUGE like an offer of representation or a book deal.

A 14k gold-plated slinky!

Amouage Gold Perfume

LESSER Rewards, for finishing manuscripts, winning at Nano, Finaling in a contest,etc.:

 

Poster: “Doves” by Marta Dahlig

Also, “Pandora” and “Comfort” (Eros & Psyche) by the same artist. DeviantArt

 

 

 

Amouage Gold Soap

 

 

 


Lenox 2017 Christmas Carousel Horse

 

 

 

 

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Sep 1

Posted on by September 5, 2018

Again, there’s not much change from last week. I’m still working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. I still have a lot of submissions out, that were sent to editors and agents who requested them at RWA national conference in July. There’s an up-to-date list in Submissions Status below… for anyone who’s interested in looking!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls (rejection rec’d for 1)
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full of SwanSong!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

Tweet about getting a request for a full… UNREAL!

Posted on by September 1, 2018

So yesterday morning (Saturday, Aug 25), I posted this to Twitter:

OMG OMG! So yesterday afternoon I got an email from an agent I’d queried. But I looked at it in my inbox and just couldn’t take any more rejections right then, and didn’t open it. So I just woke up and opened it… it was a request for a FULL!! #amwriting #amquerying

For the last week, my Followers on Twitter have been running 1085 or so; Friday night they were 1086. Sunday morning, they were up to 1114; at the time of this post (9:35 pm PST), I have 1164 followers. Twitter Analytics shows 31,700 Impressions, 1,762 Likes, 136 Replies and 38 Retweets.

I’m just… huh? what? What’d I say? Not that I’m complaining, mind you! It’s just… awesome in a kinda surreal fashion. I just sit here shaking my head and laughing.

Monday a.m. update: Okay this is so crazy! I’m going to do a form kinda thing to watch it. Oh… and 17 new Likes came in just while I was typing up this post!

Monday noon:Here’s the final outcome as of Aug 31st:

My Writing Plan: Week of Aug 25

Posted on by August 25, 2018

There’s not much change from last week. Mostly I’ll be working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. And yes, I’m already starting to think about NaNo! I’m going to start making up freezer meals beginning this week.

Also, I’ll be working on my September newsletter, so don’t forget to sign up here!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle (rejection rec’d… but said nice things!)
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection rec’d… this was expected)
    • 4 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 2)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand (request for Full!)

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

A rejection letter… but still good!

Posted on by August 20, 2018

Well… if I absolutely HAVE to get a rejection letter, I sure do like to get one that reads like this!

Wishes in a Bottle looks to be a fun story and series for sure!  I think you’ve created an engaging novel that readers will enjoy.  I am going to pass however, as I think it is a bit niche after all, and because of that may not have the breadth of readership I’m hoping to obtain.

Keep up the good work – you obviously know how to tell a story.

I’m still not sure whether to cry or celebrate!

My Writing Plan: Week of Aug 18

Posted on by August 18, 2018

There’s not much change from last week. I didn’t get ANY rejection letters this week (???). Mostly I’ll be working on When Darkness Falls, trying to get these major revisions finished and out to the second round of beta readers before November, so I can concentrate on something entirely new for NaNoWriMo. And yes, I’m already starting to think about NaNo! I’m going to start making up freezer meals beginning this week.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection received… this was expected)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 1)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 201,200/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my writing Pinterest boards … which, by the way, I am having TOO much fun with!
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

Uplifting feedback from a beta reader

Posted on by August 16, 2018

In the face of all the rejections I’ve been getting, my heart got lighter when I got this feedback today from a beta reader in the middle of A Cat For Troy:

“Full disclosure: I read all of the chapters in one sitting. I couldn’t help myself they were SO FREAKING GOOD I couldn’t stop reading!!!! My initial response is YAAAAAASSSSSSSS!!!!! This is my favorite part of the book thus far, the story has great flow, the character interactions are solid, the sense of place is really well developed, and I am LOVING the relationship that is developing between Cat and Troy! Seriously this is such a great story!”

Followed by:

7. On a scale of 1-5, how much did you enjoy the chapter? 5
8. On a scale of 1-5, how eager are you to read the next chapter? 10

If only an agent could see it that way! Maybe, one day, one will… I have renewed hope!

 

 

Pinterest boards for my stories

Posted on by August 14, 2018

So over the past months, I’ve had lots of fun building my Pinterest boards, and I think now they are finally organized enough to start to share (I’ve had to work and re-work them, trying to find how I want to have them set up. When Pinterest came up with subboards option things got a lot easier!)

When Darkness Falls, my 15th century paranormal romance trilogy, has by far the most pins, partly because of the exotic, Arabian Nights style setting, partially because of the vampires and Others. I’ve really been going to town with it!

Here’s the break-down of boards:

When Darkness Falls:
Characters
World Building
Costumes & Jewelry:
Miscellaneous

Sons of the Desert:
Characters
World Building
Misc

Wishes & Dreams:
Characters
World Building
Misc

 

My Writing Plan: Week of Aug 11

Posted on by August 11, 2018

I’m back to writing! I’m working on When Darkness Falls, my 15th century paranormal romance trilogy. I just hit the 200,000 milestone this week. As it stands, it’s broken down into 3 parts/books:

Book I:  The Palace
Book II: The Dark Lord
Book III: The Prophecy

Word counts are 68k, 88k and 40k, respectively; I’m aiming for the last 2 books to be about 90k each; the third book really just has the bare bones of the events that happen, and now I need to do a lot of work on that. The Palace is probably ready for the next round of beta reading, but I want to go in and make one more read-through before I do that.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event:
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials of both (!!!) SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong (rejection received… this was expected)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls (rejections back: 1)
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong (rejections back: 1)
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 200,000/250,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Read-through The Palace and get it into beta reading
    2. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly:
      1. Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers
      2. Damien’s demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams)
      3. Maxim, the High Magi
      4. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles.
      5. Also Gabrielle (Normandy?) and Antonio (Genoa?)
    3. Tackle The Prophecy
    4. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Start on September newsletter
  3. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  4. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂
  5. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook
  6. Start thinking about NaNo (meal planning/freezer meals)

 

Status Report & Milestone Achievement

Posted on by August 10, 2018

Status Report! Last night I hit a milestone… 200,000 words on When Darkness Falls, my paranormal romance trilogy in a 15th Century Arabian Nights type setting. I’m aiming for at least 240,000 total. so far it’s broken down into 68k for book 1, The Palace; 88k for book 2, The Dark Lord; and only 35k so far for book 3, The Prophecy. But the last half of the third book really is hardly even a first draft, it’s more like the bare bones, and that’s where I’ll be doing my most work as stirring events happen. But still, I am TOTALLY thrilled to have hit the 200k words mark!!! I am having a wonderful time with this book! or books, although I still tend to think of it as just one, broken into 3 parts, LOL.

For the most part, The Palace is done and I’m starting to think about opening it up to beta readers. Not quite yet, though, there’s no particular hurry at this point, although I’d like to get The Prophecy whipped into shape so that all 3 books are ready for beta reading as I go into NaNo in November with an entirely different manuscript… probably Michael’s Quest, the third book of the Sons of the Desert contemporary series.

Just for fun… above is a picture I found on Pinterest; this is just how I envision Malikai, the city guard who befriends Alyssa on her first day in the city.

 

My Writing Plan: Week of July 28

Posted on by July 30, 2018

To be honest, not a lot of actual writing is involved in this week’s Plan. I was at RWA’s National Conference in Denver the 17th to 22nd, and I’ve spent most of the week getting unpacked and back into the swing of things. I did write up a blog post on the Conference here. This weekend I’ll be spending getting out all the partials (and even 2 fulls!) that were requested to the various agents and editors who requested them. Then my August newsletter needs to be finished. After that, though, it’s back to writing!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading. I’ve changed my take on beta reading; originally I was closing stories to beta reading since they were “done” and ready to go. But the fact is… I’m still open to feedback, and always open to improving them, so I’m going to keep each of them in beta reading until they are actually with an editor or agent. Because face it, they’re never *really* done, are they? LOL!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, need copy editing:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  3. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  4. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently sending out requests from the RWA Speed Pitch Event: (DONE!)
    • 1 Publisher request for the full manuscript (!!!) of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of SwanSong
    • 1 Publisher request for partial of Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent request for summaries of both series as well as When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for partials (!!!) of both SwanSong and When Darkness Falls
    • 1 Agent request for the full manuscript (!!!) of SwanSong
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of When Darkness Falls
    • 3 Agent requests for partial of SwanSong
  • Outstanding Queries:
    • 1 Agent query, Wishes in a Bottle
    • 1 Agent partials, SwanSong & Castles in the Sand

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 196,532/240,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
    2. Work with Chrissy (Darling Daughter and best brainstormer!) on brainstorming needed revisions
    3. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Send out requested material (PRIORITY–DONE)
  3. August newsletter (Done)
  4. Revisions on WIPs as they come in from beta readers
  5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂
  6. Research Audible/ACX versus Findaway Voices to see about having Truck Stop produced as audiobook

 

The Importance of Rewarding Yourself

Posted on by July 26, 2018

I believe *strongly* in the importance of rewards along the way.. and not just for the HUGE things like getting an agent or publishing contract or a new release. I mean, those don’t come along all that often, and in between we’re dealing with rejection letters, critiques and/or beta feedback, struggling with “is it good enough?” and a million other things… and that’s all *after* you’ve put all the time, energy and sweat into actually writing it.

So reward yourself for the little victories along the way. For reaching a certain word count, for finishing a difficult scene that’s been giving you fits for weeks, *definitely* for finishing a manuscript!! Rewards don’t have to be big, they don’t have to be writing related. They can be anything from a meal out, to getting your hair done, an art print you’ve been wanting, a pair of earrings… anything!

This blog post is also going to serve as my personal reminder of each and every little victory along the way, and I’ll update it as I go! 🙂

When I finished my first book, Truck Stop, I bought myself this heavy duty Swingline 3-hole punch. Mind you, I was a struggling single mom (with no child support), so the expense was a Big Deal, even though in fact it wasn’t very much. But every morning I print the scenes/chapters that I wrote the day before, and read it over before I start writing again; kind of a lead-in. So yeah. Having a  hole punch that took more than 3-4 sheets of paper is a lifesaver!

 

 

When the first box of the paperback copies of Truck Stop arrived from the small press epublisher I first started out with way back in 2001, I took my daughter Christina out to dinner at Outback Steak House to celebrate. Of course we took pictures! And yep, I was a little teary-eyed!! LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must confess, I didn’t do anything special when I finished SwanSong, Castles in the Sand and A Gift of Jacinth. And I should have. And from now on out, I’m going to do something for EVERY manuscript I finish!

I did belatedly do something to celebrate finishing A Gift of Jacinth. I happened across a fabulous artist in DeviantArt and I commissioned this portrait of Jacinth (and yes, that’s Cat, too). Um okay so maybe that’s a little over the top. It was a tad expensive, but… I LOVE looking at it, so hey. It’s only money and I can’t take it with me when I go, right?

 

 

 

A few months ago I finished Wishes in a Bottle, the first of my Wishes & Dreams paranormal romance series. And that one took me just forever! I had it backburned for years, literally, because for some reason the opening just never worked for me. Then back in spring I sat down with my writing buddy and we brainstormed… I got it totally re-written, and it worked, and I was off and running, and finished it just a couple months later!!! So… I ordered this writers mug to commemorate …it just arrived today 🙂

 

 

When I finished NaNoWriMo in 2017 as a Winner, I bought myself I bought myself this cool, silly little thing, but I wanted it, a Party Lights/Disco Ball for my living room, LOL! with a remote, and 7 lighting options, and flashing and strobe options, and you can even have it changing lights and patterns to music! Hah! 🙂 Love it!!

In fact… I got TWO prizes for finishing NaNo because I also finished A Cat For Troy, so I went for broke and got a 2nd generation Echo, with 360 omnidirectional Dolby sound 🙂

Of course, A CAT FOR TROY got its own reward, this wayyyy cool and FABULOUS sequined pillow cover that’s got dual-colored sequins, and you brush them one way or the other to make patterns!

 

 

 

If you’ve been around my blog, you’ve seen the picture of this in my NaNo post, but I got this really cute snowman torte from Swiss Colony to reward word counts… I’m slicing and freezing it, and will allow myself one slice for reaching 10,000 words! Just for fun. And rewards! Honestly though it kinda fell apart, so now I do word count rewards with Moose Munch (classic caramel!) by Harry & David! 🙂 🙂

 

  

A Great Time at Romance Writers of America National Conference

Posted on by July 24, 2018

So… OMG. There is so much to say, I don’t even begin to know where to start! This was a FABULOUS conference and I had the time of my life… in great part to my SecondLife roleplay mom and writing buddy, Sage Wolfsong. We roomed together, and even though we’d never met in real life before, we got along as if we’d known each other all our lives! I also got to meet my SL friend and writing buddy, Paul, and the three of us hung out during and in between various workshops. We spent lots of time texting back and forth to find out where we all were and where we were going next. Jenn was much more social than me, as she has an online bookstore and is a reviewer and blogger, and I kinda got to live vicariously through her, LOL!

The BIG thing I want to report is the stunning success of the Speed Pitch Event! I was scared to death about this… pitching to 13 agents/editors, at 3 minutes each. The fact is, once it started, there just was not time to be nervous. I am VERY proud of myself for not shrinking or stuttering, or freezing up. In fact, I looked each one right in the eye and held out my hand and said “Hi, I’m Allie McCormack” to the Manor born!

Let me say here, that I’d spent a WEEK researching every agent and editor who was going to be in that room, cyberstalked them, and had a printed sheet on each telling what they wanted and what manuscript I was going to pitch to each one… but there was no TIME for that. So I kind of winged it with the very first one and from there just used that; I told them I had a multicultural Arab-American contemporary series of which 2 of 4 books were finished, a 3-book paranormal series with Djinn and shapeshifters, all of which were finished, and a trilogy that was a paranormal romance in a 15th century Arabian Nights type setting, that was finished but still in revisions… and which did they want to hear?

This totally worked! And there were a few surprises for me out of this event! One agent wasn’t looking for anything I was writing, but when I explained that, she wanted to know what I was writing, so I told her, and darned if she didn’t ask more about the multicultural, and wound up asking to see a partial! Another HUGE surprise was the real interest shown in When Darkness Falls (the trilogy), which I had not expected AT ALL! But I came out of the event with 3 requests to see the first 3 chapters! Another huge surprise, I got not one but TWO requests for FULL manuscripts (one was the agent that wasn’t looking for any of the subgenres I am writing, and the other was an editor!), AND one agent actually asked for two partials, while another asked for a synopsis of each of the series and of the trilogy.

Here’s the breakdown of the requests:

  • Swansong (1st book, Sons of the Desert, multicultural contemporary series): 5 partials, 1 synopsis 1 FULL!
  • Wishes in a Bottle (1st book, Wishes & Dreams, paranormal series): 2 partials, 1 synopsis & 1 FULL!
  • When Darkness Falls (paranormal trilogy): 3 partials & 1 synopsis

 

As you can imagine, I have some work to do this week!

In addition, I attended a fantastic workshop on audiobooks, with a panel consisting of Hannah Wall of ACX (Audible/Amazon), Will Dages of Findaway Voices, Nita Basu of Hachette Audio, and Tracy Goodwin, a multipublished author with experience publishing many audiobooks. There’s too much to go into here (besides, it makes my head spin to try to sort it all out until I can get my notes typed out) but what I came away with is that I most definitely want to release Truck Stop as an audiobook!!!

I went to more workshops than I can count, but I will say that the ones I came away with a LOT to think about were the Subtle Art of Pacing, Strategic Career Planning for Pre-Published Authors, and Eliciting Emotion. I have tons of notes to transcribe, and lots of areas already I want to go through my WIP particularly, When Darkness Falls, and see where I can improve.

I didn’t get to see much (any) of Denver, and I missed ALL the social events… the two luncheons and the awards ceremony as well as the book signings. Unfortunately dealing with chronic pain one has to choose. It was go to the luncheons and crash and miss the workshops in the afternoons, or sleep through the luncheons and hit all the afternoon workshops. I hadn’t at all intended to waste lots of money eating at the hotel restaurants…. but we were just too tired to deal with going out, so we just went down to the hotel restaurant. They had this awesome Bacon BBQ Cheddar Hamburger that was to die for… with a rum-based BBQ sauce and a kind of garlic mayo sauce they put on it. And I don’t even like hamburgers! But if one must pay $17 for a hamburger, this one was totally worth it! Mostly I didn’t eat in the daytime, I took along a gallon of brewed sweet iced tea and kept it in the room refrigerator, and carried a thermal glass of tea with me everywhere 🙂 So I pretty much lived on that all day, and then had dinner.

It was awesome to run into some Tucson RWA members, like Roz Denny Fox, and do some catching up 🙂 I know my friend LeAnne Bristow was there, but though we exchanged a couple of texts we never managed actually catching up in person. It was harder looking for specific people, there were just so many people there, and the conference was spread over 2 buildings on various levels, with lots of time spent on elevators and going back and forth. I had lots of fun zipping around in my electric scooter and thank heavens for it, too, or I’d never have made it past Wednesday.

Another area where I got encouragement was for the newsletter. I have to admit I’m always waffling about should I? shouldn’t I? I’ve only got Truck Stop, but nothing else even pending at this point as far as new releases… yet everyone says we need a newsletter even if we’re not yet published or between releases. This came up in the Pre-Publishing Career Planning class. The instructor said (as others have also done), emphatically, YES! She said if they are interested enough to follow you, then they WANT to read about your progress and so forth, and she had lots of good suggestions! So… I shall persevere!!

I left Denver after dropping off Jenn at the airport, and had every intention of stopping overnight in Albuquerque, which was almost exactly halfway home. But when I got there it was only like 5:30 or so, and what was I going to do a whole evening sitting in a hotel room? So I thought, I’ll drive til it gets dark and then start looking for a hotel. Only when it got dark I was only about an hour from Hatch, which was where the bypass to Deming began, a 45-mile corridor that cut over from the I-25 to the I-10 cutting the corner off Las Cruces. So I thought, I’ll go on to Hatch and then Deming, and that would be a good place to spend the night. Only when I got to Deming and filled up the gas tank, really I was feeling just great and… well, the long and short of it is, I drove straight through and pulled into my driveway about 12:30 am! LOL! Considering I’d been doing really well the whole way, the instant I walked in the door with my purse and my pillow (yes, I take my own pillow!), I suddenly was on the verge of collapse. I petted my cat, gave him some food for good measure, and collapsed into bed, LOL.

Writing Plan: Week of July 7

Posted on by July 7, 2018

I did quite a bit of work this last week on characterization for When Darkness Falls. I’m expanding some of the major secondary characters, and shoring up descriptions and attitudes on the lower echelon vampires in the resident clan at Al Khair. I freely admit I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked, due to several days of chronic pain exacerbation and related sleep issues; however, I’m not beating myself up over that, because this is just part of my life that I sometimes have to work around. I am very pleased about the work I did get done, though! It actually was pretty considerable because I made a keyword for every character in the book, and then went through and flagged every chapter with every character that showed up in it, so I could go back and look at any one character overall as he or she appears through the book (I use Scrivener). This actually took a couple of days working at it full-throttle.

I’m leaving for RWA’s National Conference in Denver on Tues Jul 16th, so this week’s plan is very, very simple: Work on revisions for When Darkness Falls, and prepare for the Conference!

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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*
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
  3. In Beta Reading:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
  4. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  5. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently outstanding:
    • Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle
    • Literary Agent partial for A Gift of Jacinth

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 196,532/240,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
    1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
    2. Work with Chrissy (Darling Daughter and best brainstormer!) on brainstorming needed revisions
    3. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and put in a binder (Done)
    1. Speed Pitch Event:
      1. Go through the list of editors and agents in my assigned room and see what each is looking for (Done)
      2. Choose a manuscript and back-up to pitch for each
      3. Choose a backup manuscript to pitch for each
      4. Figure out what to say to the 3 agents who aren’t looking for any subgenre I write
    2. Keep working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
    3. Watch for any changes to the schedule and incorporate
    4. Create a quick-look schedule for each day with those events I particularly want highlighted
    5. Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
  3.  A GIFT OF JACINTH
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  4. CAT FOR TROY:
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂

 

Why Your Cat Should Be Fed CANNED Food not Dry Kibble!

Posted on by July 26, 2018

Cats are “obligate carnivores.” Here’s the definition, straight from Wikipedia: “Obligate carnivores, or “true” carnivores, are those carnivores whose survival depends on nutrients which are found only in animal flesh. While obligate carnivores might be able to ingest small amounts of plant material, because of their evolution they lack the necessary physiology required to digest that plant matter.”

There are a number of articles on the rationale for feeding cats canned food (or freeze-dried raw or homemade) rather than kibble. These arguments are extremely compelling!

There an article by Lisa Pierson, DVM, Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition. While it does read like a diatribe against kibble for cats, at the same time she gets very specific with quantifying proteins, fats and carbs, which is extremely helpful in trying to figure out just what canned food to give. She also has a section on how to transition your cats from kibble to canned food. She also explains just why many cats prefer kibble to canned:

“One reason that cats like dry food so much is because the pet food companies do not play fair when manufacturing this sub-optimal food source. They coat the kibble with extremely enticing animal digest sprays which are very pleasing to a cat – making a poor quality diet very desirable to the target animal.”

She also makes the interesting point that fish is very bad for cats, on a number of different levels; not only because of composition and toxins, but also that the taste is apparently highly addictive to cats! Another point of note is that “pouch” foods contain too much water, which makes their nutritional value considerably lower.

In Cat Food – Natural Composition she explains why it’s necessary to use the Typical Nutrient Analysis (TNA) rather than the Guaranteed Analysis (GA) which is what is on the cans; you have to get the TNA from the manufacturer directly. OR! She also has put together a WONDERFUL gdocs spreadsheet of 1169 commercial cat foods available with the protein, fat and carb percentages according to the TNA. She also includes phosphorus, but since she gives no numerical range to aim for, it’s pretty useless. You can sort the chart by the various columns but you can’t edit it. However! If you save it to your own computer or google drive, then it is editable and you can save changes, as it’s your own document then. I’ve done this to add my own notations, highlight particular food types that seem to have the best balance, etc., (as well as changing the font slightly smaller) so I can print out and take to the pet store with me when shopping.

This is a screen shot from my own saved version; as you can see I’ve highlighted foods with the desirable TNA values. Here’s the Cliffs Notes for shopping for canned cat food:

  • Protein over 40%
  • Fat under 50%
  • Carbohydrates under 10%
  • Moisture 75-78% (pretty standard and not on the chart; you’d need to check the can itself; pouches have too much water!)

 

There’s an even better article by Jean Hofve, DVM, “Why Dry Cat Food is Bad” that very simply and clearly lays out an excellent case against feeding kibble to cats.

To summarize: “The carnivore’s ideal diet is essentially the Atkins diet: lots of protein and fat, and a small amount of complex carbohydrates from vegetables.”

Some pertinent points are below. But these are just highlights I found most compelling; you need to read the whole article, it’s fabulous, and eye-opening!

  1. Ingredients: “Dry food is typically made from rendered ingredients, such as chicken meal, poultry by–product meal, and meat and bone meal (MBM).”  … “Some rendered products are better—or worse—than others. Chicken meal, for instance, is likely to be relatively pure, because the rendering plant is usually associated with a slaughterhouse that processes only chickens. On the other end of the spectrum, MBM is the “dumping ground” of the nastiest raw ingredients.”
  2. Dehydration: “Obviously, dry food is dry. This is a very big problem for cats, whose ancestors are desert-dwelling wild cats. They have passed on their super-efficient kidneys, which are designed to extract every last drop of moisture from prey animals. As a result, cats have a low thirst drive, and don’t drink water until they are about 3% dehydrated—a dehydration level so serious that most veterinarians would consider giving intravenous fluids. Dogs have a higher thirst drive and will drink more readily, so they are less prone to serious dehydration. Dehydration causes or contributes to many serious health issues, including urinary crystals and stones, bladder infections, FLUTD, constipation, and kidney disease.”
  3. Carbohydrates: “While classified as carnivores, dogs (and humans) are, in practice, omnivorous, meaning they can use pretty much any food as fuel. They use carbs directly for energy by breaking them down to simple sugars. Strictly carnivorous cats preferentially use protein and fat for energy, and these pathways are mandatory. Felines can digest and absorb carbohydrates, but those carbs mostly turn quickly and directly into fat.”
  4. Calories: “Dry food is a highly concentrated source of calories. Dry food, not canned food or any other high-moisture food, is where the calories are. Dry food is the leading cause of obesity in pets.”
  5. Contaminants: “Given the types of things manufacturers put in pet food, such as pesticide-soaked grains and diseased, dead, and dying animals, it is not surprising that bad things sometimes happen. Ingredients used in pet food are often highly contaminated with a wide variety of toxic substances. Some of these are destroyed by processing, but others are not.”
  6. Allergies: “As mentioned briefly above, the high-heat processing that dry food undergoes during manufacturing can denature proteins, meaning that it distorts their shape. To a protein, shape is everything, and only a protein in the correct shape will function properly. Shape is also how the immune system identifies proteins that belong in the body (“self”) versus foreign proteins. When an abnormal protein is picked up by an immune cell and antibodies are produced, then every time that protein appears, antibodies flock to it and stimulate inflammation. More bad proteins = more inflammation.”

 

In this fabulous article, again by Jean Hofve,DVM, Switching Foods, it’s made clear that our “finicky” cats, aren’t actually just being finicky! They are addicted to a particular food type/taste/texture!

“The last big reason to change foods periodically is to prevent finicky eating habits. Pet food makers are masters at making the food irresistibly tasty. Consequently, an animal fed a single food may become “addicted” to it.” … “Many cat guardians have tried—and failed—to switch their cat to a better diet. A primary reason for that is the tendency of cats to turn their noses up at any new food.Cats often require more a more gradual (that is, sneaky) approach,”

TIPS AND TRICKS: And there’s a solution! Dr. Pierson’s article also covers this; my kibble-addicted cat was thrilled to get wet food with a quarter teaspoon (one-fourth packet) of Feline Forti-Flora sprinkled on it! I found it also helped by giving him canned food with some texture, such as shreds or grilled. BUT… food that has “sauce” or “gravy” has far too many carbs, as starches are needed to make the sauces and gravies. I also make his life happier by giving him Wysong Optimize Supplement as hand-fed treats…he particularly loves the Wild Caught Salmon, he just goes insane with happiness and likes to pounce on it and toss it around before gobbling it down! I’ve never seen him this enthusiastic about ANY of his food (or even toys) as he is about the Optimize! The powder I sprinkle on his canned food like the Forti-Flora to make it tastier. Please note, the manufacturer sells Optimize as a *supplement* which is fine, but they also state it can be used as a regular diet… it cannot! First and foremost, it has 4% moisture, and the cat’s regular diet should be 75-78% moisture (that’s one of the main reasons why we’re taking them off dry food in the first place!)

One point that’s been stressed in several articles: COST is not an indicator of quality! Some of the most expensive cat foods (whether dry OR canned) are not the best quality but those that are… surprise surprise! ….heavily marketed and promoted. Hill’s is definitely one to stay away from and is mentioned specifically in a number of articles (by different authors).

I was so impressed with Dr. Hofve’s articles, I thought I’d give her book a plug here! What Cats Should Eat, available in Kindle on Amazon. Freshly updated for 2018! This Amazon best-seller clearly explains everything you need to know about feeding your cat.

 

 

 

My Writing Plan: Week of July 1

Posted on by July 1, 2018

Oy, I fell down on my weekly Writing Plan last month! There’s actually a reason for this. I fell into a depression over the constant rejection letters. I wrote about it in this post, When Disaster Strikes. However, I’m back now, deep into revisions of When Darkness Falls and preparing for RWA’s National Conference in Denver later this month. So Cliff’s Notes version of this entire month’s writing plan will be the above!

So that’s where we are for now. As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently in beta reading, which right now is only A Gift of Jacinth and A Cat For Troy!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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*
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  2. Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
  3. In Beta Reading:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
  4. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  5. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently outstanding:
    • Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle
    • Literary Agent partial for A Gift of Jacinth

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS:
    1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
    2. Work with Chrissy (Darling Daughter and best brainstormer!) on brainstorming needed revisions
    3. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
  2. Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and put in a binder (Done)
    1. Speed Pitch Event:
      1. Go through the list of editors and agents in my assigned room and see what each is looking for
      2. Choose a manuscript and back-up to pitch for each
      3. Choose a backup manuscript to pitch for each
      4. Figure out what to say to the 3 agents who aren’t looking for any subgenre I write
    2. Keep working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
    3. Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
  3.  A GIFT OF JACINTH
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  4. CAT FOR TROY:
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂

 

When Disaster Strikes

Posted on by July 1, 2018

Remember that full manuscript I had out to an agent? Well, she sent back a rejection, the main reason for which made no sense at all. Anyway, it sent me into a total tailspin. Yes, I do know rejections are a part and parcel of the whole thing, and heaven knows I have a drawer full (or would have, if I printed them out, LOL). Normally I just mark ’em off on the spreadsheet and keep on going, but for some reason, this one hit me really hard. Maybe it’s because it’s so hard to get a request for a full in the first place that had my hopes soaring, and maybe it was just the effect of the culmination of all the rejection letters… the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

Anyway, I went into a deep depression, and spent a week and a half binge-watching NCIS and then discovered NCIS New Orleans which I hadn’t even known about, so I watched all 4 seasons. I just totally did NOT think about writing at all and hardly even going near the computer. and got back to at least thinking about writing for a week, while binge-reading a couple of paranormal romance series that I’d already read and liked by Jenny Schwartz, as well as a couple of old Christine Feehan favorites.

Then I pulled myself up by the bootstraps, as my mom says. I called up my next project, a finished manuscript that needs major revisions, and got to work. And to be honest? I’m actually doing BETTER with that huge 3-week break. For a year and a half, I’ve been doing little BUT writing… or thinking about writing, editing, revising, characterization, pitches, queries… tweeting about writing *grins* Basically every waking minute is spent doing *something* around writing. With that big break, I definitely feel refreshed and ready to dive back into it again! I hadn’t even realized, until I came back, that I was burning out.

So it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing and actually worked to my advantage, my mind is zipping with fresh ideas!

Frivolous Lawsuit Damage (a Cockygate issue)

Posted on by May 26, 2018

One of the big problems surrounding #cockygate…. and I’m sure something that is powerfully motivating Faleena Hopkins, is the costs of her victims to mount a legal defense. Most people are going to back down with the threat of a lawsuit, even if it’s wrongful. How many of us have hundreds or thousands of dollars banked to hire a lawyer to defend oneself? I”m sure Faleena counted on that, and in fact until RWA and Kevin Kneupper got into the picture, many of the targeted authors were renaming their books and paying to have new covers and swag made… simply because the cost of fighting her threatened lawsuit would be too great to contemplate.

And as we can see, she was clearly fully prepared to go forward with lawsuits, as she has done so, even after the public outcry and outpouring of criticism. Kevin, at least, is an attorney himself, and an Intellectual Property attorney at that. What of those others named in the lawsuit? They have to come up with the money to defend against this lawsuit. Even if they don’t retain a lawyer to defend, then they’re going to still wind up paying Faleena’s attorney fees and whatever damages the court awards.

Everyone seems to believe, oh, Tara and Jennifer can get lawyers on contingent fee and if Faleena loses she’ll have to pay their fees. Contingent fees are generally only used by the claimant in cases where the claimant is suing for damages (generally workers comp or personal injury cases), and the attorney receives a large percentage of the damages awarded. This is not that kind of case, and Tara and Jennifer are the defendants, not the claimants. They will have to each pay an attorney up front to defend them, and HOPE that they win and that the court will award them attorneys’ fees.

That’s how these frivolous lawsuits and false claims come out on the winning side: It costs too much to fight them. Let me share a personal experience. When I was younger, I took a job as a transcriptionist for a law firm that defended companies against Workers Comp claims. Now. My grandparents had been union activists and organizers, in a time when this was dangerous… physically and mortally dangerous. My mother was a union rep for the Postal Workers, and wrote up briefs. So…. I had some severe qualms about this job… like, a traitor in the family. Seriously. I could picture my grandfather turning over in his grave. Until I started working and typing up the reports. There were so many false claims. The man who couldn’t work because of his hand injury that rendered his right hand useless. Who the investigators had videos… videos!!! …of him doing hours-long band practice on guitar and drums, and even videos of a live concert! The man who hurt his back falling at work and claiming 100% disability… and there were videos and pictures of him out dancing, over and lifting heavy objects and repairing cars in his driveway. And I asked the lawyers outright, WHY are you paying these claims? And I was told…. because it was too expensive to fight. That’s right, cheaper to give people the money they were claiming for injuries they did not have, than to defend against the claim.

And these were companies, businesses… some of them quite large. So… think about that. If YOU were served with a lawsuit over a word in your book’s title… yes, you. You, reading this. Right now. Do you have the money to get a lawyer? To fight back? Especially when it’s been made clear that this person is willing to take this as far as she possibly can?

This is the situation Tara Crescent and Jennifer Watson are faced with. And… there could be more lawsuits. She could have lawsuits for other “Cocky” authors in the works too, right this minute.

My Writing Plan: Week of May 19

Posted on by May 21, 2018

I did it! I got A Cat For Troy finished! Well, it still has to go through beta reading and revisions, but it’s written! Yay ‘n stuff!

We’re on countdown for a response from the agent who asked for the full manuscript of SwanSong…. she said 4-6 weeks, and it was 4 weeks yesterday, so I’m now going to officially be a nervous wreck! The really weird thing? I get all tense when I go to check my email… and then I’m relieved when there’s no email from her! I think it’s because as long as there’s no reply, I still have hope. I think being mentally and emotionally prepared for a rejection has crossed that line into assuming a rejection.

 

So that’s where we are for now. As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently in beta reading, which right now is only A Gift of Jacinth and Castles in the Sand, and now I’ve added A Cat For Troy!

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
  3. In Beta Reading:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    3. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  4. Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  5. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently outstanding:
    • Full manuscript of SwanSong requested by a Literary Agent
    • Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle
    • Literary Agent partial for A Gift of Jacinth

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A GIFT OF JACINTH
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  2. CASTLES IN THE SAND
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  3. CAT FOR TROY:
    1. Do a complete read-through, beginning to end; make quick corrections, notate larger revisions needed
    2. Tackle the larger revisions
    3. Get to beta readers, and do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS:
    1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
    2. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes that I’d set aside until November was over.
  5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂
  6. Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and get a binder started to take with me
    1. Check on the date they’ll announce the participants and rooms for the Speed Pitch event, then calendar that (Done)
    2. Start working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
    3. Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
  7. Order Allie McCormack business cards to take to the Conference
  8. Start working on the June newsletter (Priority)

 

I finished A Cat For Troy!

Posted on by July 26, 2018

I finished! At 12:30 am, total 93,246 words. So the entire 3-book series is done! At least, unless that one little niggling idea for a 4th book ever works itself into a viable plot, LOL! But for now, FINIS!!! And now I *officially* have 5…. count them, FIVE! …finished manuscripts! The 3 Wishes & Dreams, and the first 2 of Sons of the Desert.

It’s a bit late now, but tomorrow I have to decide on a reward for finishing… because I *believe* in rewarding every victory!! I want to jump and cheer, but it’s so late no one is awake for me to call and yell my happiness at! <sulks>

Of course, that’s just the first draft. Now I need to run it through Word’s spell and grammar check, do a full read-through, and then start getting it out to beta readers. But still… YIPPEEEEE!!!

ADDENDUM: So I took myself out to Village Inn along with my Kindle, and had their awesome pot roast and mashed potatoes for a celebration dinner. I also found the most FABULOUS sequined pillow cover that’s got dual-colored sequins, and you brush them one way or the other to make patterns! I’ve already ordered it, I can’t wait for it to get here, how fun! I can sit here and doddle with the sequins while I’m *thinking* 🙂

 

My Writing Plan: Week of May 12

Posted on by May 12, 2018

Excitement!!! I had a literary agent ask for a partial (first 50 pages) of Wishes in a Bottle, the first book of my Wishes & Dreams paranormal romance series. In the end she declined to see more… but she seemed so very encouraging, I ventured to ask her if she was taking a pass on the whole series, or if she’d be open to be queried on the second book, A Gift of Jacinth. Not only did she say yes, but instead of telling me to go ahead and query, she actually asked me to send the synopsis and partial!!

As far as the FULL MANUSCRIPT of SwanSong, the literary agent who asked for that had given me a 4-6 week timeline for a response; it’s been 3 weeks, so… starting next Friday, I’ll be gnawing my fingernails to nothing!

Quite simply, the current plan is (still) to finish A Cat For Troy and get it into beta reading, and get to work on the third book in the Sons of the Desert series. I took this last week off of writing, for the most part, as I got heavily involved in activism on the #Cockygate issue… I’ve got a blog post that I’m keeping updated with events as they unfold. You can read about it here if you’re interested.

So that’s where we are for now. As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently in beta reading, which right now is only A Gift of Jacinth and Castles in the Sand, but I hope to be adding A Cat For Troy to that any time soon! 🙂

Manuscript Status:

  1. Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
    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. Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
  3. In Beta Reading:
    1. A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
    2. CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
  4. Finished Manuscripts, revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
    1. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
  5. In-Progress Manuscripts:
    1. A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
    2. MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert

 

Submissions Status:

  • Currently outstanding:
    • Full manuscript of SwanSong requested by a Literary Agent
    • Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle
    • Literary Agent partial for A Gift of Jacinth

 

Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch:  All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:

  • Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
  • 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
  • 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
  • 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events

 

THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)

  1. A GIFT OF JACINTH
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  2. CASTLES IN THE SAND
    1. Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
  3. CAT FOR TROY: (Priority)
    1. Current word count: 85k, target 90k
    2. Areas that need work:
      1. Katerina’s career and employees and associates, and also some of her family relationships
      2. Adding more of Julian & Alessandra from the first book in the series.
      3. Some character work on Troy to see how he’s going to react *after* the crisis is over and they’re back home.
  4. WHEN DARKNESS FALLS:
    1. Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
    2. Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes that I’d set aside until November was over.
  5. Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂
  6. Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and get a binder started to take with me
    1. Check on the date they’ll announce the participants and rooms for the Speed Pitch event, then calendar that (Done)
    2. Start working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
    3. Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
  7. Order Allie McCormack business cards to take to the Conference
  8. Start working on the June newsletter