Reviewing 2009

This year I went a bit overboard with my goals, using 50 as my marker for, well, everything. Here’s what really happened.

Books read: 18

I could easily have read more if I stuck to YA and romance, but I had some fantasy to immerse myself in. Those aren’t quick reads, and I don’t want them to be. I learned that I do not read as much as I did back in school years. It’s not that I can’t read fast, it’s that too many activities interest me now. Scrapbooking, video games, parenting. I no longer have a desire to read every moment I have spare time. Which is fine. I can make more time to read though. My reading goal this year is 2 books a month.

 

Chapters written: 15

over various projects: Rt100D, TC, FwM, SS

could have done better. will do better.

 

Poems written: 20

14 color poems

at least they’re quality poems, if not quantity

 

Poems submitted: 51

1 published this year

7 submitted just today. cutting it close, I know.

Yay! One goal met!

 

Next year I’ll shoot for the moon rather than the stars. Next Tuesday Tally I’ll do a progress report on my projects and post my full list of new goals.

 

In January I started querying EotF. Did a couple revisions in between batches of queries. No bites yet, but not giving up. I think I finally have a strong query (not just a decent one), which I’ll start sending out next month.

 

Non-writing happenings in 2009: We bought a house. My son started kindergarten. Bought a kitten, who died six months later. Had many house problems and lots of adjusting as house owners. Lots of being sick, with kid in school full time and living in (now less so) cold house. I joined Twitter and Facebook. Got addicted to Zoo World. And got some wonderful new blog followers. Thank you to all of you that make this blog community so wonderful. See you next year!

Setting Goals for 2010

The new year is almost here. My goals will come later (got some house issues to deal with), but here are some helpful and entertaining links on setting goals:

Goal Setting Debunked

Setting, Keeping, and Achieving Your Writing Goals in the New Year

December 25th, 2010 (a great example of evaluating your own goals rather than adopting someone else’s challenge)

Warm Tidings

Remember the cold times? They are getting better. Friday we had more attic insulation put in. What a difference!

Before: by the time air got to our family room from the furnace, it had lost all its heat. The portable heater would have to be on for an hour on high to go up ten degrees, and once it got to a good temp would drop if put on low. I had to constantly check and put it from low – med – high throughout the day to not waste too much energy but not get too cold.

After: The whole house actually gets warmer with the furnace going. It doesn’t get as cold at night, and warms faster. The portable heater goes on for an hour to boost lower temps in family room, then actually maintains that heat when put on low! Much more efficient heat and energy wise now that all the hot air isn’t escaping through the ceiling.

Still to come: Windows have been scheduled for installation! We’ll be getting the two on December 28. We need to get a quote for a third window (big front one, or our bedroom one), as a wonderful relative (love you!) has offered to help us buy another.

Christmas is almost here! My husband bought stocking stuffers yesterday, and all our presents have been wrapped and delivered. We are ready! Are you? In case I don’t blog again this week, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my blog readers, even the lurkers who don’t comment. Wishing you a wonderful season filled with the best parts for you, whether that be family, friends, or peace and quiet; snow or blue skies.

Tuesday Tally and The Best Blog Award

A little belated, but thank you to Courtney for the beautiful new award:

Here are the rules for the BBA:

1. To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other bloggers that you recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I don’t always play along with these, but here are some more recently discovered blogs I have been enjoying.

• Tamlyn Leigh’s blog write between the lines.  I met her at the Muse Online Writers Conference, and have been following her blog since.
• Improv Everywhere is a fun group that stages scenes in public places. Much enjoyment to read and watch. I’d heard of them before, but recently discovered their missions page, which is quite a list of their past performances.
• Who is Kai?, a science fiction story by elucian. I haven’t read much yet, but it is so far poetic, deep, symbolic. And I’m not one usually into SciFi.
• Shooting Stars, a blog by some talented and entertaining sisters, Suzette Saxton and Bethany Wiggins, who are both newly agented writers.
• Laurelyn Estes over on Romantic Musings, where she blogs about writing speculative fiction romance.

 

I’ve been making some progress on TC these last two weeks. We should be getting insulation before Christmas, and a couple new windows hopefully soon after. So I should be ready for some productivity in a warmer house come the new year.

In the meantime, I’m focusing more on submissions. I may not complete any of my other way out there goals for the year, but I’m so close on my poetry submitting!

 

Goals:

• submit a minimum six poems before Dec 31
• prepare more queries for EotF, to send after Christmas

 

Ten days until Christmas! My favorite things about the season:

The decorated Christmas tree (looking at it, not so much the process), and watching my son's excitement over every little thing: the tree, snow, presents, the countdown. Do you know what he says when asked what he wants for Christmas? “Presents.” So easy to please.

A Cold, Cold Winter

If you’re newer to the blog, this is our first winter in a house of our own. We are learning how much colder it is here than our prior apartment a mere thirty minutes away.

For one, we get more snow. Eleven inches over a couple days. The other factor is the house itself. The windows are old, and plastic covering only helps so much. We’d love to replace the windows through the entire house, but can only afford a couple right now. And we won’t bet getting those for a couple more weeks.

We replaced the filter in the furnace, which improved efficiency, but we can’t keep it running all the time. A portable heater in the family room has done wonders, but I still have a hard time keeping my hands warm.

Last week on the first cold-cold night, most of our hot water pipes froze. Saturday, my husband ventured into the scary attic. After discarding junk such as old pants, clothing gift boxes, old metal pipes, and empty shotgun shells, he found the naked pipes and covered them with the unopened(!) bag of insulation also discovered in the attic. We found a big reason it’s so cold here: the attic insulation is three inches at its thickest. It should be at least eight! No wonder we keep getting sick.

I know the cold contributed to my dwindling numbers during NaNoWriMo last month. Once the temperature dropped considerably, my fingers got cold, wrists stiff. Hard to type! Also, it’s harder to think when my body is focused on getting warm. I was planning to finish my NaNoWriMo novel Race to 100 Deaths by the end of the year, but between the cold and the Trinity Coven chapters I promised my husband (and of course Holidays!), I see the chance of that happening to be… well, very small.

Hopefully we can get this house in warm shape soon. In the meantime, my goal is to figure out the warmest time to write. Maybe just after lunch, after the heater has been on. I’ve been writing this in spurts, so my hands aren’t out of the blanket for too long.

Chores are so neglected… as I limit my visits to the colder rest of the house. Now I must venture into the cold to change laundry loads.

Wishing you all warmer weather. Or if you already have heat, you’re welcome to some of our snow!

Tuesday Tally: YA vs Adult

Goals for this week:

• query more agents
• dig back into TC
• write a couple chapters for Rt100D

 

In the last Secret Agent contest hosted by Authoress, the agent said my opening of EotF felt fairy tale-esque, and that she wasn’t convinced the mood works well for adult fantasy. (My entry here) Sometime this last month, I read that a fantasy author of YA books said she wrote for adults, but publishers chose to call it YA. (I can’t for the life of me find the link again, so don’t want to say the author, as I could be remembering wrong and don’t want to misrepresent. If you know who might have said this, or where, feel free to speak up.)

These two things got me thinking. Should I try calling it Young Adult? Traditional fantasy doesn’t seem as strict on protagonist age for the label. Robin McKinley’s books are YA, and she’s always been one of my inspirations. But only one of my other stories (current and planned) have a teen protagonist, so there is a fear of debuting with a YA and following up with one that is not.

Here’s the breakdown for my other books. Title : Main Character(s) : age

• Race to 100 Deaths : Tilara : 30 (maturity=20 human yrs)
• Trinity Coven : Kaelin and Anton : 25 and 26
• Fly With Me : Vincent : 20
• Sienna’s Story : Sienna : 37
• The Blazing Princess : Aurora : birth to 16 (most likely to fit YA)

In Emergence of the Fey, Marian starts at 14, and ends at 20. Barely out of teen range. The secondary POV, Jex, is five or six years older. There are some training years that I could speed up if I wanted to shorten the timeline and end with Marian still a teen.

I never considered EotF a young adult novel. Then again, I rarely think in those terms when it comes to fantasy. As long as I’ve been reading fantasy, I’ve been reading from whatever shelf I wanted. Even now, the only reason I care if a book is Teen or Adult is where in the store do I go to buy it?

I know in the end it’s not up to me, it’s up to the marketing department. Which may be a non-issue if EotF is never picked up. So the question now is what label will best hook an agent?

Peace and Gratitude

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A. I have so many things to be thankful for. Today is my birthday. My son didn’t have school, and slept badly last night, but is currently taking a rare nap. I already opened the presents my mom brought up (what better way to entertain a 5 year old than open presents??). I had a lovely outing with my mom on Monday. I was thankful to have the one-on-one time. My husband won’t be home for another hour. He will be cooking dinner for me tonight. My father-in-law is doing well post-surgery. It is a good day. I think I will have a piece of cake then do some writing.

Happy holidays everyone!

‘Nother NaNo News Note

It’s safe to say that I won’t be winning NaNoWriMo this year. So I’m not going to kill myself (or my hands/wrists) trying. New goal: finish by end of year. I still plan on working on it the next two days, as well as next Monday.

Looking at the 17k+ words I’ve written this month, I’m amazed at how far I’ve come. That’s with not writing weekends, getting sick, hubby getting sick, the death of our cat, my son getting punched in the eye, my father-in-law having a minor heart attack and going into surgery over Thanksgiving week, and a pre-birthday outing with my mom today.

Being positive, I’m enjoying this story and it’s not one I would have written otherwise. I may have written about Tilara, but I would not have combined her character with Race to 100 Deaths if not for Lynn’s suggestion. No regrets.

Yay for NaNo! How are you all doing?

Helping Rayna live on

Thank you to Liana, who included our cat Rayna in her NaNo novel. She shared the excerpt on her blog.

She now lives on in my story as well. Here is her introduction:

 

Tilara stared at the broken bodies Sable had left. She had seen so much death, she didn't know if the tears streaking her cheeks were sadness or merely result of the smoke stinging her eyes. She turned to leave.

Meow.

The sound came from above. The loft. Flames shot up between her and the ladder. Tilara took a deep breath. Her own injuries would heal, but the cat wouldn't have any future without her. She dashed through, flames licking at her bare arms and legs. She pulled herself up the ladder. The thick smoke obscured even her elf vision.

Meow.

Tilara held her breath, ducked her head, and crawled toward the sound. A bundle of fur huddled against the far wall. Tilara scooped it up and kicked the weakened wood. She jumped through the hole down to the ground. Her throat burned as she coughed. She stumbled to the trees nearby, upwind.

The cat trembled in her arms. Tilara found herself petting the smooth coat with its unusual markings. It was mostly black, with patches of orange and cream. "You're safe now. I'm sorry about your family and your home. I guess you're on your own now." She set the cat on the ground. It sat on its haunches and looked up at her. Tilara couldn't resist the plea in those golden eyes. She sighed. "I saved you, so now I'm responsible for you. Is that it?

Meow.

The cat turned her head, hearing the approaching footsteps a moment before Tilara did. Its tail poofed as it arched its back. It hissed as Daon dragged a reluctant Sable past.

"Found him cleaning up at the river. Thought he had lost me. Thought wrong." Daon, the strongest of the three elves, pinned Sable against a tree trunk. "There's twine in my pack. Bring it over." Between the two of them, they tied his hands together, and then to a branch over head. Then tied his feet together so he couldn't use them to climb up.

Sable spit in Tilara's face. "There's no point fighting what we've become. We can't stop the war."

Tilara wiped the spit off her cheek and put her face close to his. "If there's war, wouldn't you want to be on the winning team? The elves?"

His laughter had a hint of madness. His breath was rotten. "How can the elves win if they stick to their lofty morals? Humans will do anything to survive."

Daon pulled Tilara away. "Leave him. Hopefully a night of discomfort will return his senses."

They set up their hammocks in a nearby tree. Tilara relaxed as the netting hugged her. With another meow, the cat climbed up beside her. Tilara got quite a view as it, she, walked over her face to wedged itself in between her chest and legs. She felt the purring, and it steadied her own heart.

"A warm ray of light in the gloom my life has become. I will call you Rayna."

Rayna

This is our beautiful Rayna. We have one other picture of her, a black and white photo that came with her file when we adopted her.

The photo here was taken when we took her to the vet on Saturday. We asked if they had a camera, and had them email us the photo. This is a crop, the full image is a family photo. My husband is holding her up for this. I know it’s not her best picture, but it’s all we have.

Last Thursday we noticed Rayna wasn’t acting normal. She stopped eating, didn’t want to play, and slept more than usual. She would drink, but that was it. She wasn’t getting better on her own, so Saturday we took her to the vet. We had hoped to get her some antibiotics, and have her back to normal in a few days. But it was so much worse than we thought. In addition to her liver failing, either from not eating or another cause, she had fluid in her abdomen. They took a sample, and it was filled with pus. The vet said that was really unusual, something she’d see in dogs sometimes, but not cats, especially so young.

She wasn’t sure the cause, and said that Rayna was in very bad shape. If we took her home for the weekend, she wouldn’t last until Monday. The vet could recommend a specialist for more testing – Rayna would get hooked up to tubes and cut open and they would try to find the problem and see what they could do. But the vet said even if they did “fix” her, she probably wouldn’t recover from the surgery. We talked it over, and agreed with the vets (got a second opinion from the other vet at the clinic). Rather than spend a lot of money and discomfort, for such a low chance of recovery, we had her put down.

 

When we first went into the Human Society (on a Thursday), we were just going to look, then check some of the other shelters, and get a cat that weekend. My husband was liking a Siamese, I wanted a gray striped little kitten, and B liked the black ones. Then I saw this gorgeous little tortoiseshell short hair curled in the back of a cage. I pointed her out to my husband, and we both fell in love. We took her to the visiting room, and all three of us decided to take her home that same day. We had no desire to look elsewhere.

The name on her papers was Raynie. We didn’t like the sound of that, too much like a rainy day, so changed it slightly to Rayna. It means song or queen. Rayna was born on March 30, 2009. We adopted her on May 28. She died on November 14, not even eight months old.

She was such a perfect addition to our family, and we don’t regret any minute we spent with her. We had hoped that being an indoor only cat we would have her for another ten years. Rayna was so loving. She loved to sit on your lap, get petted. She was very tolerant, rarely got upset. She liked to play, and had a string toy she would play with for as long as you’d play with her.

Rayna had a pink blanket that she came with, and we buried it with her. Now we walk by her everyday, as she’s in our front flowerbed. I miss her so much. Usually the first thing I do when I get home from walking B to school is let the cat out of the laundry room. But I didn’t get to do that today. I don’t have her sitting patiently by my chair for me to give her permission to jump up. She’s not here to play with my pen. I will never hear her demanding meows when I open a can of tuna. The house feels so empty.

When my husband took her in for her six month shots, I didn’t go with him. I have allergies, and though I’d become used to Rayna, I don’t do too well in a vet’s office. But I’m so glad I decided to go with him on Saturday. I got to hold Rayna one last time, and say my goodbyes. And I got to be there for my husband. He took it the hardest. Rayna was truly his cat. And she knew it. His lap was her first choice in the morning, and he gave her the best rubbing.

B understands that she is gone. He watched us bury her. But he wasn’t as attached as we were, and it didn’t have the same impact. His only question when I explained she was gone was if we would get a new one. We will. Eventually.

I wish I had more pictures. With all the house expenses, we hadn’t wanted to spend the money right now on a new camera. We thought we had missed out on some good pictures of a tiny kitten, but thought we’d have plenty more picture opportunities. And now those chances are gone. We have our memories. So many good memories. Rayna really was the perfect fit for our family. And we’ll always miss her.

Tilara Scarlet (NaNoWriMo character)

Not meeting my word count for the week (hubby took sick day yesterday). I’ll just spread the word count over the next few weeks. Rather than stress, I’d like to share one of my characters with you. I first created this character for a joint story/game that I never ended up participating in. It’s exciting finally getting the chance to write about her.

 

Tilara is an elf from the Scarlet Clan, named for the Scarlet Oak and known for making wine from the acorns of such trees.

Tilara and two other elves from trusted families were chosen by Queen Baowen Willow to serve as diplomats to Pallovia, the neighboring human kingdom.

Tilara is taller than most humans at 6’3”. Like most elves, her skin is very pale. Her chestnut hair is very long. She wears a black key around her neck to remind her of a box waiting at home, a gift from her favorite niece.

In my initial character sketch, Tilara is uninterested in romance, and a vegetarian. I have learned that in Race to 100 Deaths she doesn’t start that way. By the end of the story, she will have very good reasons to acquire those traits.

She is very loyal to her queen and people. She wants to complete the task set by the queen, and return to her family. She is calm, trusting, and has no prejudice against the humans.

Along with her fellow elven diplomats, Tilara is taken captive by a human baron that wants war. He forces them into a contest, a Race to 100 Deaths. The first to get their kills and return will become his personal assassin. The other two will die. With the restrictions and spells in place, Tilara soon learns that the only way she can serve her queen and return home, is to first conquer the baron’s challenge.

NaNo Update

I should be up to almost 17k words, but I’m behind. Took a couple sick days last week, and had a surprise mid-day date with my husband yesterday. My current count is 10,645. I am my own worst enemy. Too easy to get distracted and let a valuable hour disappear. I haven’t been writing on weekends. If I get near the end of the month too far behind, that may change.

My goal for this week is to get to 25,000 by the end of Friday. My half way point.

One tool that has helped me get this far is Write or Die. I set a word count and/or time goal, and go for it. With the screen going red, and warning sounds when I don’t write, I’m encouraged to write without over thinking. I can’t stop and spend ten minutes coming up with a name, or looking up a fact that is overall unimportant. I have to go with my gut, let the story take me. My monitor is big enough that I can have a word document open on the left with my outline, and Firefox open on the right with the Write or Die box. That way I don’t even have the excuse of stopping to look up what comes next. I have my one paragraph description per chapter, and go from there.

Without Write or Die: average 1000 words/hour.

With Write or Die: average 1600 words/hour.

Best uses: to start of the day. Great encouragement starting off with a big chunk in half an hour. Also to make most use of short period of time.

 

Here’s the banner for my NaNoWriMo Novel:

Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!

 

Death count: 1.

99 + to go.

 

Other interesting tidbit: Race to 100 Deaths has now matched Trinity Coven in word count. In a matter of ten days! I need to be this disciplined all year round. :-)

Tuesday Tally, Micro version

 

Last week goals done.

This month = NaNoWriMo

Today: woke up sick (sore throat, aches, blahs). will write something anyway, but no set goals. priorities today will include nap.

Mixed Bag of Updates

I survived Halloween. B was a pirate. He didn’t care that he didn’t have a hat, or a fancy costume, just a printed shirt from Walmart. This was B’s first time trick-or-treating. He was happy and excited, and that’s what matters. Plus, he had a pumpkin bucket. Pumpkin = B’s favorite thing about fall.

We went to the school carnival on Thursday, then Saturday went trick-or-treating at the mall. My husband and I wore our long, hooded cloaks.  We had no idea how packed the mall would be, and next year will go at the start instead of an hour in. After shuffling around the mall line for treats, B had a decent amount of candy (at least for him).

I’m guessing we missed some visitors during the hour we were gone. Only got one late group of six or so kids. We have LOTS of extra candybars. Mmm, chocolate.

 

Being a weekday writer (less distractions), today is my official NaNoWriMo start. Went to the site this morning, and it logged me out. :-( After being logged in for a month, I have forgotten my password! None of my usuals work, or some of my not so usual combinations, so did a password reset. But with the huge backlog of site emails, it may be another day until I get mine.

Once B is off to school, I will get started. Armed with chocolate for progress rewards, and Mountain Dew Voltage for the slumps. I have a water bottle for my desk and will break every hour to get house stuff done, snack, and move around.

I have 17 days for my writing (after accounting for weekends and holiday). That means I need about 3,000 words on my working days. I’ll post periodic updates in twitter. Wish me luck!

 

And now to get an unusually reluctant child ready for school.

A Cold Tuesday Tally

Last week’s goals:

• update blog look and sidebar
• update websites
• poetry submission
• finish current chapter of TC

 Goals for this week:

• final preparations for NaNoWriMo 
  • transform plot into bullet point outline
  • brainstorm ways to kill people in a fantasy setting (Race to 100 Deaths, remember?)
  • flesh out Tilara’s two companions/competitors
  • stock up on chocolate (should be easy over Halloween weekend)
• send out four more queries for EotF
• submit more poetry
• finish updating websites 

 

Woke up this morning to snow. I have a feeling it will be winter in my NaNo Novel.

In unrelated news, I now have a Facebook account.

Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?

Commenting fixed

Turned out pretty simple. Template didn’t like embedded comments. Switched to pop-up and it works fine. At least for me. Let me know if it works for you. (As it would be hard to let me know if it doesn’t, seeing as you couldn’t comment… you’d have to email or twitter.)

Template trouble?

I have just been informed that the comment feature on my blog is no longer working. I may have to switch to a different template, or figure out the problem with this one. In the meantime, feel free to email me any comments (feywriter at hotmail dot com) or say hi through twitter.

Agent Update

Last night I got a response from the agent I pitched to. Form rejection. :-( Oh well. Time to get the query train going again.

Warning: Changes ahead

I’m going to try out a new template. Be patient with me. If you see something you like, or don’t, feel free to speak up. I want something my readers enjoy as well. :-)

Tuesday Tally, time for cleanup

 

Goals for this week:

• update blog look and sidebar
• update websites
• poetry submission
• finish current chapter of TC

 

Makeover time for my Tuesday Tally’s. I’m getting invested in too many stories, and want to clean up the look of my posts.

 

I’m going to move all the WIPs to the sidebar, with less focus on the numbers. I like progress bars, but the novelty of the TickerFactory icons has faded, so those will go for now as well.

 

Maybe cleaning my desk this past week is carrying over. De-clutter my physical workspace, de-clutter my computer and online space. Very freeing.

Beautiful Morning, Beautiful Muse

Yesterday marked the end of the Muse Online Writers Conference. This was my 2nd year participating. I always make sure to sign up for a variety of workshops, because I never know which ones I’ll end up most interested in. Last year I got the most out of two poetry workshops – one on breaking creative blocks, and the other on creating a chapbook. This year my favorite courses were very different.

 

The first was the Dialogue Workshop with Devon Ellington. I started a new story just for the workshop. It was one already in my idea file (#2 from my NaNo ideas), but only very basic, one paragraph idea. I didn’t get much critique on the dialogue itself, which reassured me I shouldn’t over think the dialogue that comes naturally. What I really learned is that I can form an emotional connection to characters that I’m only beginning to know. I can write entire scenes with only a vague idea of plot. What an eye opener that was. Very reassuring with NaNoWriMo around the corner. I didn’t get through all the assignments, but really enjoyed and benefited from those I did.

 

The other course that really impacted me was Facing Your Fear of Writing with Tamlyn Leigh. She set us up to discover our own answers, through use of our inner two year olds. On that note, I have to share one way this has affected me beyond the conference.

 

My son woke up during the night, and I was up for an hour. I went to bed tired and frustrated, fully expecting to be cranky in the morning. But I woke up and my inner two year old was right there, making it impossible to be in a bad mood. I turned on some music for her, and I feel like I can do anything. This day is beautiful and promising.

 

One other beautiful thing about the Muse Conference was the opportunity to pitch to editors and agents. Through a live chat, I pitched EotF to an agent. Despite incredible nerves, I kept my head above water. She requested pages and a synopsis. Those are with her now, so hopefully she likes them enough to ask for more. Whatever the response, I’m grateful for the experience.

 

At the end of the month, registration will open for next years conference. I’m already marking my calendar. October 11-17, 2010. I’ll post another reminder once it opens up. For a free conference, that I can attend from my computer, the Muse Online Writers Conference offers a wealth of information and is worth every moment.

Two-thirds to the finish and turning around

What a bloody mess. I added in the spiders. Love the build up, and the chapter where they get them… then nothing. They don’t contribute enough to the rest of the story. It’s possible I simply don’t know how best to utilize them, maybe too stuck seeing the story how it is, but right now it’s not working. Two-thirds to the finish line, and I’m turning back to get back on the previous horse.

 

I did do some good tightening in other scenes, though, so I’ll have to compare versions, take some and leave some. Ugh. I guess that’s what I get for trying to add a new element after it had been sitting in a “finished” state for most of the year.

 

What I need to do is a quick edit for what changes to keep and what to throw out, then work on selling it, leaving the manuscript alone until I get some revision letters from agents or editors.

Tuesday Tally 10/6

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

status: additional querying on hold until after Muse Conf

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,634

status: first draft in progress

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

status: first draft in progress, taking backseat for TC

 

Color Poems

complete: 15

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• edit six chapters – B’s fall break (5 day weekend) really threw me off. I got two done. 
• submit poem revised last week

 

Goals for this week:

• finish editing EotF (30 pages/day)
• polish pitch

 

I can still get EotF ready for the Muse Conference next week. I will have it ready. I wanted to get another chapter of TC written this week, but editing takes priority.

 

In the midst of all this, I started a few new color poems. Those take time to ripen, so having the first few lines on a page is exciting; gives me something to mull over and add to at my leisure.

 

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo and have tried to find me, I realize the search page is still having issues. Here’s the direct link to my profile: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/511015

 

Now back to editing.

October Thoughts

October 15 looks to be a busy day. B has a dentist appointment. My sister is coming up to spend her fall break with us. It’s also smack dab in the middle of the Muse Conference. And, wonderful timing, also the next 10K day for Writers which I really want to try again.

 

On the plus side, I have no chats for the conference scheduled that day. I could use some of the workshop assignments toward my word count. I should still have the same uninterrupted six hours, while B is in school. If my sister comes early, she can keep me in check, and play video games. She can help entertain both my husband and son if I want to try writing more in the evening. Even more so than last month, I need to really make use of my time. See if I can beat my record of 3700 words.

 

It would also be great preparation for NaNoWriMo.

 

Speaking of which, the interest from Tuesday’s vote seems to be in projects #1 (Race to 100 Deaths) and #4 (traditional fantasy about Tilara Scarlet). Lynn had the brilliant idea of combining them. Now I need to dig out all my notes on Tilara. I have a drawing of her somewhere, as well as a page on her personality, heritage, etc.

 

So, plans for this month:

• Finish edits for EotF by Oct 9 (that’s one week from now!)
• Muse Conference Oct 12-18
• update website before pitch (see point below)
• online pitch with agent on Oct 14 (part of conf.)
• 10k day Oct 15
• write 3 more chapters in TC (with use of 10k day and last couple weeks of month)
• NaNo preparations – one paragraph plot summary, brief outline, antagonist character sheet
• jumper cables on my poetry submission group (been quiet, needs revitalizing. I haven’t helped)

 

Whew, that’s a lot. Going to be a busy month. Enough slacking. Time to get my son out of the bath and get back to editing.

Tuesday Tally and NaNoWriMo

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

status: additional querying on hold until after Muse Conf

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,634

status: first draft in progress

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

status: first draft in progress, taking backseat for TC

 

Color Poems

complete: 15

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• edit another five chapters
• submit some poetry – revised a poem, but didn’t actually submit

 

Goals for this week:

• edit six chapters
• submit aforementioned poem

 

NaNoWriMo, here I come! I signed up. *gulp* My username is Feywriter. I’ll have to explore the site more. One month to prepare!

 

I really don’t know if I should NaNo with two books already in progress, but it’s only one month, right? Then the NaNo book can sit while I write the others. A big part of this is simply seeing if I can do it. Like the 10k day for Writers. I don’t know what I’m capable of if I don’t push myself. And I need deadlines to do so. I really don’t have an excuse not to go for it this year.

 

Plot ideas at various stages:

 

1. Race to 100 Deaths – I found this phrase in my notes. Sounds like an awesome title. No idea what it meant.
2. Contemporary Fantasy – A woman divorces her husband because he believed in magic. Their teenage daughter gets kidnapped by something obviously out of this world, and the woman has to turn to her ex-husband for help.
3. Rumpelstiltskin is leprechaun gone bad. Beware the rainbow trap.
4. Traditional Fantasy about Tilara Scarlet, an Elven diplomat with a little assassination on the side. Her symbol is the leaf of a Scarlet Oak. I have a character sketch on her already.

 

I’ll take a vote: Which story should I write?

Signs a Book was written by Me

The topic of the week on Fangs, Fur, & Fey is “5 Signs a Book was Written by You.” I put some thought into it, and here’s my list. I went over five, and may add more later if I think of them. These are based on the following stories:

 

Emergence of the Fey (complete)

Fly With Me (in progress)

Trinity Coven (in progress)

The Blazing Princess (complete novelette with plans to expand)

 

1. death in the family - sometimes background, sometimes on screen, not always parents. (exception with BP - but not really, because in a sense the Main Character dies)
2. magic
3. flight. either magical creatures that fly (dragon, pegasus, pixie) or characters that can fly
4. romance. not always the main characters, but someone will hook up during the course of the story.
5. identity issues. an individual's reality shaped by their beliefs.
6. no clear-cut good vs. evil.
7. fairy tale reference – a cameo, painting, story premise
8. dark haired men. Blonde males are reserved for secondary characters apparently.

 

What do your stories have in common?

new TT

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,634

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 15

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• edit seven more chapters in EotF – did 5. not bad.
• participate in 10k Day for Writers – participated. :-) (recap if you missed it)

 

Goals for this week:

• edit another five chapters
• submit some poetry

 

I’m going to continue using Thursday as my writing day until I finish editing EotF. I’m not going to go all out like I did last week, but it’s a nice break from editing, and the actual writing progress feels good.

Some high-jacking, rambling, fun

 

And yes, Dr. Horrible won!

 

5,000 Questions... My answers so far...

 

671. If you saw The Queen of the Damned did you want to be a vampire/Goth afterwards? Haven't seen it. But now that I've looked it up, I'm interested in seeing it.

672. If you saw SLC Punk did you want to be punk afterwards? Haven't, and probably not.

673. What is your favorite zombie movie? ooh, tough question. I love the Resident Evil movies, my favorite of which is Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Zombies on a Plane was hilarious. 28 Days Later and sequel 28 Weeks Later are great ones focused less on the chasing and eating and more on the personal/society horrors of a zombie apocalypse.

674. Best kids birthday party: ceramics, chuck-e-cheese, roller rink, bowling, sleep over, movie theater. sleep over. never heard of a ceramics party.

675. What were your parties like when you were a kid? due to so many kids, we only had birthday parties every four years: ages 4, 8, 12, and 16. Mom always made the cake herself. We got to choose a theme, and it was a big deal. The other birthdays were celebrated as a family.

 

676. Best teen (about 15-16) birthday party: ceramics, chuck-e-cheese, roller rink, bowling, sleep over, movie theater, house party, catered in a hall, restaurant, family trip, concert. concert would have been awesome

 

677. What are/were your 15-16 year old parties like? I had a murder mystery party with a small group of friends.

678. Best 18th birthday party: ceramics, chuck-e-cheese, roller rink, bowling, sleep over, movie theater, house party, catered in a hall, restaurant, family trip, concert, club, pool hall, college party. restaurant with a few close friends

679. If you are 18 what was your party like? I didn't have a party.

680. Best 21st birthday party: ceramics, chuck-e-cheese, roller rink, bowling, sleep over, movie theater, house party, catered in a hall, restaurant, family trip, concert, club, pool hall, college party, bar, Atlantic city/Las Vegas trip. I was five months pregnant at the time. I was happy going to a nice sit-down restaurant.

681. If you saw The Craft were you interested in wicca/paganism/magic afterwards? haven't seen it

682. What are your top 3 priorities? relationships, making sure I have time for myself, and the written word

683. If you saw fight club did you want to get into a fistfight afterwards? dumb question

684. What is your favorite smell? the smell walking by The Body Shop. I don't know what it is, but it's rejuvenating.

685. Give everything below a humor rating (1 = laugh your ass off, 2 = lol, 3 = smile, 4 = lame, 5 = not funny, 6 = offensive): going to do this a little different than asked for, and group them into three categories: offensive, not funny, and potential for humor (can be anywhere from 1-4 depending on the joke/situation)

People falling: not funny
Rape jokes: offensive
Sarcastic comments: potential
Blonde jokes: potential
Dirty jokes: not funny
God/religion jokes: potential
Long-ass jokes: potential
Death jokes: potential
Pain/sickness jokes: not funny
Animals doing cute stuff: potential
Bodily functions: potential
Knock jokes: potential
Ethnic jokes: offensive
Puns: potential
Ironic situations: potential

685. If you saw Cruel Intentions did you want to have lots of meaningless sex afterwards? getting tired of these questions... especially as I've never seen these movies.

 
686. Do you get at least three hugs per day? yes. my husband, my son, and I are all physically affectionate.

 

687. What should someone never say to you/call you if they want to remain on your good side? Don't ever call me "Doll."

688. If you saw Trainspotting did you want to do drugs afterwards? not applicable

689. Do movies have a great influence on you? At last! the basic question these were leading up to. They have an emotional influence, but not a lifestyle one.

690. Do you have a favorite reality TV show? The Colony. What an interesting social experiment. We discovered the show when we saw it available to purchase on Xbox Live, and have been watching it on Discovery Channel's website ever Thursday. The Colony replicates a post-apocalyptic world. How would ten people survive? They have to scavenge for their own food, find ways to get and sanitize water, create electricity, and ensure their survival.

 

691. Are there certain roles that people are pressured to play in society or can they basically do whatever they want? In these days, you can basically do what you want. But some paths have more challenges, and all choices have consequences.

692. How does the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake compare to the original movie? I didn't see the original. I thought the remake was well done.

693. Have you ever held a magnifying glass over an insect to burn it? No.

694. Have you ever pulled the wings off a fly, butterfly or any other insect? No. I don't torture insects. And I only kill them if they are inside the house.

695. What would you think of a guy (if you're into guys) or a girl (if you're into girls) who wanted to take you to the park to feed the birds and look at the turtles and fish in the water on a date? I think that would be cool. I like parks.

 

696. Do you use public pools? Yes. Been a long time since I've been swimming though.

697. Do you use public bathrooms? yes. out of necessity.

698. Do you use public showers? only after using the public pool. swimsuit still on.

699. How old will you be in 17 years? 43. Wow.

 
700. Would it affect you at all if you knew that a very large meteor was headed towards earth that would impact in 17 years? I would hope that I'm already making the most of my life. Is this a kill everyone meteor, or a create a post-apocalyptic world, or merely cause much devastation? If it's not guaranteed death, I'd start doing better on my food storage.

10k Day Follow-Up

The 10k Day for Writers yesterday was quite an experience. I’ve never tried NaNoWriMo or anything with big numbers in a limited time, so wasn’t sure how I’d do. My previous high was 1500 words in one day. On normal days I’m happy to get 500. With the edits I’m focusing on, and the general procrastinations, and legitimate distractions (such as new house), I’ve probably written 1500 words (novel related) in the past three months.

 

So, I cleared my day. Once I got back from walking B to school, I had a good six hours to write before picking him up again. I wrote 3700 words! That’s more than double my previous record. No gold medal, but I’m very pleased with what I did. I learned that once I got into it, I write at about 1000 words/hour.

 

What I did right:

• Had notes/outlines for what I wanted to write
• Once I started, didn’t look back to edit or research
• If I wasn’t sure on a detail (ex name spelling), or had a comment for a tie-in earlier or later in the story, I used Piers Anthony’s method: put it in brackets right where I’m at, and keep going
• stopped every 1.5 to 2 hours to stretch, shower, eat, report in
• alerted my husband to my goals, so he could check in on me, make sure I was writing
• closed TweetDeck and browser during writing times
• had caffeine on hand to survive usual afternoon slump

 

What to improve for next time:

• corral husband into preparing dinner, and dealing with kid (maybe even picking him up), to keep writing streak going later in the day
• not take half an hour to really get started; even though I had read the previous chapter the day before, and had my notes, I still didn’t trust myself to just write
• have chocolate

 

And yes, there will be a next time. I will be signing up for next month when the RSVP goes up. I’m hoping my body and brain will be more ready for it next time, and I will beat my record. What I didn’t expect out of this was the aftermath. Today my brain is totally fried. I can’t seem to write a thing. And I took a one hour nap, which probably would have lasted longer if the dryer hadn’t buzzed.

 

NaNoWriMo has always scared, yet intrigued, me. I had a wonderful excuse of a pre-school aged child to deal with in previous years. This year he's in full-day kindergarten. And I just learned that I can write nearly 4k words in one day just during the hours he's at school. I may have to move NaNoWriMo off the "try someday" list to "give it a go this year." The biggest con is that I already have two WIPs going, and would have to start a new project for NaNo.

 

What have you done to challenge yourself lately? Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before?

T.T., some good news, and a self challenge

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• make some progress editing EotF without overworking myself – edited four chapters
• get well – a little gunky, but definitely on the verge of full recovery.

 

Goals for this week:

• edit seven more chapters in EotF
• participate in 10k Day for Writers

 

My poem “Princess of the Waters” is part of the September issue of Moon Drenched Fables. You can go directly to it here or follow the link to the main site and look on the Poetry Page.

 

To take a break from my editing, and increase my general productivity, I’m participating in the 10k Day for Writers on the 17th. The goal is to write 10,000 words in one day. I may not reach the word count, but the main purpose is to overcome blocks and simply write! I plan on writing the new chapter for EotF on acquiring a spider, and spend time working on Trinity Coven or Fly With Me. Maybe both. Wherever the words take me. If this goes well, I’ll sign up again next month.

100 word pitch - Revised

I need a 100 word pitch for the Muse Online Conference to pitch to agents/editors. Here’s my current version. Opinions please!

 

In Dashevona, where females with magic can be killed by law, Marian discovers she has not one magic, but two: enchanter and fey. When the elemental fey burn Marian's village, her mother within, Marian is knocked out before she can stop them or exact revenge. The Fey realize their mistake when Marian shows signs of being the woman to open the return for their goddess. Without the goddess, anything touched by fey, including Marian, could die as the source fades away. Hiding is no longer an option. Can Marian forgive those who killed her mother, in order to save herself?

 

Emergence of the Fey (97,000 words)

 

Edit: After the feedback here (thanks!) and from my husband, here’s my revision (at 105 words):

 

In Dashevona, where females with magic are executed, Marian discovers she has not one magic, but two: enchanter and fey. When the elemental fey burn Marian's village, her mother within, Marian is knocked out before she can stop them or exact revenge.

 

The Fey seek forgiveness when they learn Marian can hear their banished goddess, a sign of Marian's ability to initiate Her return. Anything touched by fey, including Marian, will perish as the goddess’ power fades.

 

Marian must overcome anger, heartbreak,  and betrayal, while being hunted by the Enchanter Council. Can she do all this when her heart has been stolen by a thief?

 

 

I don’t want to take space on describing the differences in magic. Or give too much away by going into detail on why the village is burned. Some questions are good, as long as the reader is interested. Thoughts?

 

((removed poll. getting weird error in Windows Live Writer, which poll seemed to contribute to.))

 

Tuesday Tally; Sept off to a sick start

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• edit four chapters – edited one
• one new chapter for Trinity Coven – nothing new

 

Goals for this week:

• make some progress editing EotF without overworking myself
• get well

 

My goals did not include getting sick. My son stayed home Thursday and Friday with a fever and runny nose. Taking care of him, I didn’t get much done. Then Saturday, just as he’s feeling better, I get sick. Ugh. Still not feeling well, though at least I’m on the upswing. Not looking forward to the walking to school part, but I am looking forward to an uninterrupted nap later this morning.

Tuesday Tally, September begins

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• brainstorm and outline to take advantage of kid free writing time next week
• put up display shelf so I can unpack dragons (one of very few remaining boxes) – didn’t happen. hard to make a goal you need a second person to help complete

 

Goals for this week:

• edit four chapters
• one new chapter for Trinity Coven

 

My plan for this month is to refocus on my writing. My progress has been very sporadic over the summer.

Our Sweet Ride

 

The Nissan Cube

 

Smooth riding, quiet, cool (literally, after coming from a car with A/C problems), and a unique, asymmetrical look. Definitely a fun car. We love it. We may have missed the Cash for Clunkers (by one day) but came out with a good deal. We couldn’t be happier.

Tuesday Tally and family update

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• submit poems to Strange Horizons – sent one, working on revisions for a second

 

Goals for this week:

• brainstorm and outline to take advantage of kid free writing time next week
• put up display shelf so I can unpack dragons (one of very few remaining boxes)

 

I wrote down the list of books we need to buy to fill out all our series: 104. That number may go down after we take another hard look at our collections. We have some where it’s only book 2, or we have a couple but the series is really long, and may decide to donate the books rather than buy the rest.

 

B will be in a full day kindergarten class. No more excuses not to write. It might be time to buy a watch again, since I’ll be walking B to and from school. At least my husband can pick up him some days, since work gets off before school. We met B’s teacher yesterday. She seems nice. B came away very excited about school. (Not that he hasn’t been excited prior to the visit…) Over the weekend we made a paper chain to represent how many days until school starts. Each morning after breakfast he cuts off a loop and we count how many are left. I’ve also been showing him on the calendar, so he can practice the days of the week.

 

B has been peeing his pants lately. Waiting until the very last second to run to the bathroom (and not always making it). Hopefully he’ll be back into good potty habits by Monday.

 

Nikki had twins on August 18. Both boys are doing well, but Nikki is not. She needs all the prayers and blessings you can send her way.

Avatar Awesomeness

If you are at all familiar with MMO’s, you are likely to enjoy this highly entertaining music video. Much satire and humor. And an extremely catchy tune. I can’t stop watching and singing! The song is called “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar.”

 

 

And if you haven’t yet, check out The Guild: a web series about a group of online gamers (seen in music video).

 

Speaking of MMO’s, got two big ones coming out next month! Looking forward to Champions Online and Aion. Two very different games. Both a lot of fun.

Tuesday Tally with a book count

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

additional querying on hold

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• write every day – once again, didn’t write during weekend
• work on description in first three chapters of EotF

 

Goals for this week:

• submit poems to Strange Horizons

 

Got all of our books organized and listed in Excel. Hand is tired from all the writing, copying down author/title/series/shelf to input in computer. The last time we did a count was in 2005. At the time, we had over 700 books. Since then, we have bought more books, but have also donated duplicates and a lot of books we realized would never be read. Here are some new statistics:

 

Total books: 325

Fantasy: 211

Other: 114 (includes non-fiction, poetry, as well as other fiction genres)

Most from one author: R.A. Salvatore (18+ books)

 

The plus is because three of those books are complete series in one volume.

 

Going through these books makes me want to read some of them again, as I remember how much I enjoyed them. And there are quite a few books that my husband brought to the collection that I’m interested in. I don’t think I need to visit the library anytime soon…

 

Later, I’ll have to figure out and post the numbers for how many books it will take to complete the gaps in our series.

EotF musings

Now that I’m revisiting EotF, I’ve been wondering if there are other ways to make it stronger. I had a light bulb “what-if” moment, and shared it with my husband (my backboard to bounce ideas off of). My idea:

 

What if magic did have that chance to drive someone crazy if it remains untrained? (Not just a lie the Enchanter Council spreads.) The boys are trained when they are eight, so it prevents anyone from knowing the possibility for them is there. But females that escape the testing go mad: a self-fulfilling prophecy. What takes mental training/overcoming is the sensation of spiders crawling over the skin every time enchanter magic is cast.

 

I know I would go crazy if it felt like bugs crawling on me, but nothing was actually there.

 

My husband had a few suggestions to enhance the idea even more, and agrees that this will add more “incentive/motive/danger for various aspects of the story.” The other part of the idea is Marian getting her own moon spider. Currently, only the higher up enchanters have moon spiders. I need to figure out how Marian is going to acquire hers.

 

So, I need to work in some craziness and spiders with my description, and write an entire new chapter for Marian’s spider bonding, and a few more scenes. It’s not a lot, but I think it will improve it a lot. Querying is on hold until I finish these new revisions.

Tuesday Tally 8/11

EotF Status

# of queries out: 7

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• catch up on crits
• revise query with recent feedback in mind
• write a min. of 250 words every day this week
• continue adding to TC outline

 

Goals for this week:

• write every day
• work on description in first three chapters of EotF

 

I didn’t do any writing Saturday or Sunday (shouldn’t have even expected it), and my Thursday and Friday counts were low. But I wrote over 1000 words the other three days, which brought up my average considerably.

 

My husband had a light-bulb moment on a problem with EotF. Not enough descriptive details for my world to really come alive for him. He has a point. My early stories had a lot of description. But the complaint was always that I didn’t get into the character’s heads. Too omniscient. Now my strength is in the dialogue, the emotion. I don’t have a problem getting in their head, but when I do I’m not focused as much on the world around them. Often when I’m reading books, I get very attached to characters, but half the time I couldn’t tell you what they look like.  I know my writing will be much richer if I can combine the internal with the external. They shouldn’t suffer from my own lack of observation. It means a lot of attention to my writing and rewriting. More awareness. And a lot of hard work if I plan to apply it to this book. I added some description in previous drafts, but apparently mostly generic, not unique enough.

 

The problem wasn’t one I could notice on my own. Obviously the world is alive to me. It took an outside source to point out where it’s lacking. I’ll see if I can add those details to the first three chapters before sending out more queries, or entering the War of the Words contest (deadline Aug 20!).

 

In other EotF news, I wrote a new query completely from scratch. I don’t know if it’s any better, but I tried to add more voice. I’ll give it a few days to sit before looking at it again and getting feedback.

Weekend Report

I had a spectacular weekend. Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco was absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. The singer was incredible, as was the live band. And the acts! The duo trapeze artists about gave me a heart attack when one caught her partner’s feet with her own. The biggest surprise, and the most fun, was Eddie. A jester, a clown, a master of sound effects. I laughed so hard! One of my favorite acts, though, had to be the boleadora duo. Very cool. The show was definitely worth the ticket price. If they come again with a different show, we will buying tickets without hesitation. And this is coming from two people who rarely go to events, not wanting to pay the high ticket prices. Cirque Du Soleil is worth every penny.

 

Olive Garden was a great follow up. I’d only been there for lunch, or had their soups. This was the first time I had one of their specialty dishes. I had the Chicken Scampi. Oh my gosh, was it good. Exquisite. I couldn’t finish it all, but not for lack of wanting. My husband had the Grilled Steak Crostada, which he enjoyed. I have finally seen the why Olive Garden gets the praise it does. It’s not worth it to go for the chicken parmesan, or spaghetti, or lasagna. Get something specialty rather than generic Italian. It’s worth the extra cost. My leftovers even heated well.

 

After such a filling dinner Friday, we decided not to eat out at Mimi’s on Saturday, saving our gift card for a future date. We still went to a movie. We saw The Perfect Getaway. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t an action-packed horror, or gore fest. Yay! Lots of suspense, and wondering who was the killer. With a killer twist in the second act.

 

Sunday was nice, not having to pick up B until the afternoon. This was the first time he’d spent two nights away from us. He did just fine, and had a fun time with his grandparents. Saturday he got to play for five hours with one of his cousins. He loves playing with other kids. We’re both looking forward to school starting soon.

 

With B gone, we took advantage of uninterrupted game time and opened up one of our unplayed board games: A Touch of Evil. We had so much fun, we left it out and played it again the following morning. I have yet to be disappointed by a Flying Frog Productions game. Next time we need to play with the soundtrack.

 

Conclusion: Awesome weekend!

Busy Weekend

I’ve got a lot to do this morning, to get chores and preparations out of the way. After lunch, we’re dropping B off at my in-laws. He’s staying through Sunday. (Woot!) Husband and I will then go see an afternoon showing of Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco.  So excited!

 

After the show, we’ll be eating out, using a gift card to Olive Garden that was given to my husband by a friend.

 

Then tomorrow, extended date time! My husband’s five year anniversary for working at his job came up this week, and they gave him a gift certificate to Mimi’s, and a gift certificate to the movies. So we’ll be going out to dinner again, and seeing a movie.

 

So, I need to give B a bath, get laundry done, plan meals for shopping Saturday, get B’s weekend bag together, and hopefully fit in some writing.

 

What are your weekend plans?

Dream Vacation

Your Travel Personality Is: The Adventurer

For you, travel is how you learn about the world. And you like to learn the stuff that's not in guidebooks. You truly have wanderlust. When you're not traveling, you're dreaming about where you'll go next. And your travels are truly legendary - they leave you with stories you'll be telling for the rest of your life!

What's Your Travel Personality?

 

I guess that is the ideal traveler me. So far it’s all in my head! I so want to travel, see the world. Go backpacking in the Amazon, climb the pyramids, walk on the beach, explore a castle. *dreamy sigh*

 

Our vacations growing up were never big ones. Can’t afford to go far with a family of nine kids. I got to go to San Francisco my senior year in HS, for our choir tour. That was a lot of fun. But we weren’t allowed to go to the beach, and there’s only so much we could do outside the itinerary (though what we did do was awesome). I want to explore, though.

 

Even in video games I’m the explorer. I love discovering new areas, revealing the map from the fog. Whether it’s an MMO or Civilization game or RPG.

 

Maybe that’s why none of my stories take place near home. I’m exploring the world through my characters. And I’ve always been fascinated by the world’s wonders: Easter Island, Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt and South America. My dream vacation would have to include a trip around the world. My very first novel attempt (I was eleven or so) was called The World Wide Contest, about a group of kids who won an educational/diplomacy trip around the world.

 

Anyway, a bit sidetracked? I came to write about my dream vacation. Though all out dream is unrealistic, so we’ll go with an uber-vacation that’s doable within the next five years.

 

Evil Liana for making me spend a big chunk of the day buried in cruise websites.

So today, for your workout, plan your dream vacation.
- Where are you going?
- Who will you take? - What time of year will you go?
- How much will it cost?
- How long will it take you to save an earn for your trip?

Going on a cruise. I will take my husband only. (Son can stay with his grandparents.) Most likely go in fall, just before school starts. Costs below. Will take a while to save up.

 

All out dream trip? World cruise. That’s a 106 day voyage though. Don’t think that’s happening until after my son graduates high school (aka 13 plus years from now). Oceanview room would be $63,189.88 for two, including fees. Heh. Anyone have a winning lottery ticket they’d be willing to give up? That’s more than two years salary… By the time we saved that much, prices would probably even higher. *sigh* Let’s see… if we round that up to $70k… saved up $200/month… that’s 350 months of saving… or 30 years. $250 a month would drop that to 23 years. Either way, not any time soon. There’s probably cheaper world cruises, but likely all equally out of my budget. Well, I just wasted a big chunk of my day drooling over that.

 

Okay, let’s settle for a much cheaper cruise. A 7-day Caribbean Cruise is more in the range of $2,000 for two. Plus money for the round trip flight to the port. Plus souvenir money. Plus passport money. Gosh, no wonder my husband doesn’t like the planning. Umm. We could probably save up, set aside some of our tax return money each year, and plan on a cruise for our 10 year anniversary in 2012. That’s not terribly far away, and would be a great event.

 

Okay, my head hurts. Time to play Sims 3 (and look forward to the newly announced expansion pack World Adventures, which comes out in November). Wow, that post got long… Lemonade, anyone?

Tuesday Tally and the diff between my WIPs

EotF Status

# of queries out: 8

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 9,034

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,751

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• write chapter outline for FwM – much progress
• write chapter outline for TC – little progress
• catch up on crits – still very behind on these

 

Goals for this week:

• catch up on crits
• revise query with recent feedback in mind
• write a min. of 250 words every day this week
• continue adding to TC outline

 

I may have to resign myself to working without an outline for Fly with Me, or wait until I have the story more fleshed out. I did make progress on the outline though. I now have general guidelines for the next four chapters. I’m not sure where to go after chapter six. Hopefully I’ll have a better idea once I get there.

 

Outlining Trinity Coven has been much easier. With FwM I only have a few sentences describing each chapter. Harder to tell how many scenes there will be when it’s all one point of view. With TC, I have my outline broken down to the scenes, with whose POV it will be and a paragraph of description. A lot more in depth. Maybe that should be a sign to focus on TC more. I’m up through chapter nine on my outline, and have a synopsis to draw from for the rest. I feel confident about finishing the outline over the next week or so.

 

Break Down

Fly with Me: 

• 5,751 words written
• 2 chapters completed
• outline through chapter 6 (one paragraph per chapter)
• no synopsis

 

Trinity Coven:

• 9,034 words written
• 3.5 chapters completed
• outline through chapter 9 (one paragraph per scene)
• synopsis

 

I’ve thought about this some more. For Emergence of the Fey, I was a definite plotter. I made no progress until I knew exactly where I was going. That meant a play-by-scene outline, and extensive notes. With Trinity Coven, the same method has been working. But with Fly with Me, which I am very excited about, I keep coming to a brick wall when I try to visualize what will happen in more than very general terms. It's also in first person, which I've never done before. This book is defying all my usual expectations. I gave in to the first person, so I suppose I'll have to give in to its need to be a pantser* as well. Any pantser’s here? How do you do it? Not knowing where the story is taking me is scary!

 

* pantser: aka “writing by the seat of your pants”; writing with minimal outlining and plotting, letting the story take you where it will.

Query results

Winners have been announced for Authoress’s query contest. I really appreciated the feedback from Jodi Meadows, as well as other blog commenters. For the purpose of the contest, we submitted a query and first 250 words of the manuscript. Mine was number #38.

 

I got nine comments on my query. Four were hooked (though one normally didn’t read the genre). One liked it “with reserve”, and thought it could be tightened. Four were not hooked (including Jodi).

 

Overall, the concept didn’t seem to be the problem. Advice leans toward tightening/more focus, and dry/lack of voice. Hopefully in fixing the first issue, I can bring out my voice more. And fixing the query is easier than fixing the central concept and conflict.

It was also pretty universal to drop the three sentences about Jex and romance which felt tagged on; which is fair, as they were… It was my second version query, that I tried to spin to more romance oriented agents.

 

Jodi also commented that (judging from the opening page) the manuscript starts too soon. I disagree, but that’s harder for me to judge (being the author and all). But if enough agents aren’t hooked by my query and sample pages, then I may have to reconsider. For now, I’m going to revise my query and send it out again.

 

The query is still open for comments if you want to leave any, here or on the contest entry post. All feedback is welcome. :-)

end of month Tuesday Tally

EotF Status

# of queries out: 8

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 8,272

 

FwM Status

word count: 5,547

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• send out 2 more queries – sent one

 

Goals for this week:

• write chapter outline for FwM
• write chapter outline for TC
• catch up on crits

 

I’ve decided to continue with TC as is. Will save muses for future story. After some recent feedback, I’ve decided to turn my novelette The Blazing Princess into a novel. There are too many characters, and not enough room to really care about the love triangle. I’ve definitely done the world building for a novel length book, I just need to multiply the word count by ten. Not until I’m done with current two WIPs though.

 

I’ve entered Authoress’s query contest, which means a crit from Jodi Meadows, assistant to agent Jenny Rappaport. I’ll wait to send out more queries until after the contest.

Tuesday Tally

EotF Status

# of queries out: 8

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 8,272

no change

 

FwM Status

word count: 4,302

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• send out 4 more queries
• submit more poetry

 

Goals for this week:

• send out 2 more queries

 

Any recommendations for first person contemporary fantasy? Particularly one with a male narrator? Trying to get away from the repetitive “I” syndrome. I may have to try writing a scene in third person, then switching it over.

Dreaming in Ink

I’m a member of the critique group Dreaming in Ink Writers Workshop.

 

Critiques are required to make sure everyone gives as well as receives. I’m enjoying the community, and the monthly challenges that push me to achieve. In reviewing other member’s writing, I have been enlightened to issues in my own. And I’ve received some great, well-balanced, helpful reviews.

 

As of the last count, there are 13 openings! The group has a limited size, to give a sense of community. You must be at least 18 to join. Basic guidelines can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/diiww/632.html. Feel free to apply if you like what you see.

Muse Online Writers Conference 2009

Deadline is coming up for the Muse Online Writers Conference. Registration is free, everything takes place online in forums and chat rooms. You can participate in just the workshops or just chats, or both. There’s something for every type of writer, whatever you write, and whatever your experience. I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, made new friends, and got out of my poetry block.

 

Conference dates are October 12 – 18. Registration deadline is August 1. I hope to see some of you there.

 

One of the ongoing benefits from the conference is my poetry group. It was formed by participants of one of the poetry workshops last year. I also have a poetry chapbook complete, which is ready to shop around. I’ve been holding off on doing so in the effort to get some acknowledgements first, but it’s done.

 

Some previous posts relating to the Muse Conf:

http://marywjensen.blogspot.com/2008/10/end-of-october-tuesday-tally.html

http://marywjensen.blogspot.com/2008/10/tuesday-tally-muse-conf-time.html

 

Let me know if you have any questions about it, and if you plan on participating.

Late Tuesday Tally

Had full intentions to post this Tuesday. Don’t know what happened.

 

EotF Status

# of queries out: 4

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 8,272

no change

 

FwM Status

word count: 3,983

 

Color Poems

complete: 14

min needed for chapbook: 20

wrote one on Steel

 

Previous goals:

• finish/revise fairy poem
• finish current chapter of TC and share with critique group – worked on this some, now on hold. see below
• highlight a few writing sites on blog – obviously didn’t happen. got the posts planned, starting writing them, and got interrupted every time. look for them this week. which now means the next few days.

Goals for this week:

• send out 4 more queries
• submit more poetry

 

I had all these plans to work on TC, then someone shared a link about the greek muses, and now I may make some changes. The article mentioned the original muses, three not nine: Melete (meditation), Mneme (memory), and Aoede (song). The Trinity Coven is currently influenced by the Triple Goddess, and each witch has their own elemental magic. Now I’m debating if I want to use the three muses instead. It would pull away from the oft used elemental magic (which EotF has with its fey). I’m only five chapters in, and not much of it would have to be rewritten. The change would come in my plotting. I could see the ending going a completely different direction. I don’t know if it’s better, just different. I could save the muse idea for a separate book, or I could combine it with Trinity Coven. Decisions, decisions.

 

On an awesomeness note, my poem has been accepted for Moon Drenched Fables! It will be in their September issue. I’ll announce when it’s up.

Tuesday Tally and Moon Drenched Fables

EotF Status

# of queries out: 5

# of fulls out: 0

 

T.C. Status

word count: 8,272

no change

 

FwM Status

word count: 3,028 +

progress in bits and pieces, and in different places. need to get it all typed up and organized so I know how much I wrote.

 

Color Poems

complete: 13

min needed for chapbook: 20

 

Previous goals:

• finish fleshing out chapters 1 and 2 of FwM
• poetry submission
• write new poem

 

Goals for this week:

• finish/revise fairy poem
• finish current chapter of TC and share with critique group
• highlight a few writing sites on blog

 

My poetry submission this week was to Moon Drenched Fables, a fantasy webzine. What a beautiful site, with fascinating poetry and stories to read. So far my favorite (a poem) is “Tower in the Veldt”. Such imagery inviting me into the world. Love it. I will have to read more. I love everything about Moon Drenched Fables: the title, the cover, the content. I foresee myself visiting this webzine often.