I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the wip (AKA: The Book From Hell). It’s an RS (obviously), but while I don’t tend to write about dark and depressing subject matter like serial killers and rapists, this book has an overwhelming somberness around it. It’s emotional, there’s lots of worry and angst and lies and betrayal. Serious trust issues at the core of the story. I would classify it as being “lighter RS” in that I don’t document gruesome murder scenes, but it definitely has a “dark” emotional quality to it.

While editing what I’d already written a … Read more »

I read somewhere you have to blog every day to be a successful blogger. I’m not sure who decides what a successful blogger is, per se, but I think it depends on what you expect to get out of the whole blogging experience in the first place. Since I’m not published (yet), I’m not trying to drum up readers. Instead this blog is a way to stay in touch with my writer friends and make contacts. To offer advice and encouragement. To sometimes vent about the injustices of the publishing world. 😉

So in that vein, I want you … Read more »

Hey y’all!

That’s my new southern-ness shining through. 🙂 I’m afraid I’m not very good at it though. Y’all just doesn’t come natural for us Pacific Northwesterners, and I’ll never be able to say it with the gusto my cousin’s hubby from Atlanta can say it. Though I do see the catchability and ease of the phrase and may try to incorporate it now and then, just for fun. So consider yourselves warned. 😉

I know I disappeared after Nationals without a word. Big apologies. Life was hectic after coming home from Dallas, and then we turned around … Read more »

If I ever have to sell on proposal I will be in deep do-do. It’s no secret I can’t write a suckopsis to save my life. Wait. Correction. I can write a suckopsis prior to writing the book, though the book will end up being nothing like the suckopsis. Which, my pubbed friends tell me, is really no big deal.

(Maybe I’m doing things right after all???)

The-book-that-will-never-end has taken a strange twist. I ended up writing a scene the other night that went in the opposite direction I’d planned. (Bye, bye suckopsis.) I’m always amazed when this … Read more »

Not THERE, but there.

You know the place. Stage Two, Chapter Fifteen of Elisabeth’s Dreaded Manuscript Stages. The point where I am sure I will never get all these plot points outlined on my notebook into my book. The point where my eyebrows are in jeopardy. The point where I’m willing to hog-tie one more child that interrupts me when I’m in the flow.

*sigh*

And yet I keep plugging along because – finally – the end is in sight.

How’s your writing coming this week? And what stage are you at?

… Read more »

Finally. The zone.

18 pgs yesterday! Woohoo. But better still is I think I have a handle on how this book is going to play out. It’s only taken me 200+ pgs to get here. 😉

The great part about being a planster (vague plotter, mostly panster) is though you know where a story is going, how you get there is new and exciting. The bad part? Every chapter is new and exciting. And sometimes very very sticky to get out of. But I’m starting to see a way out of this web, so there’s hope.

How’s your progress … Read more »

While at the gym this morning, I had an epiphany. An entire book popped into my head. Characters, plot, conflict. Opening scenes, turning points, big black moment, resolution. The entire thing. This has never happened to me before. Not with such utter clarity and well-developed GMC. The problem? It’s not the genre I write.

The book is paranormal. I write romantic suspense. Technically, the book would be paranormal romantic suspense because I can’t write a book without murder and mayhem, but it’s definitely paranormal. And if you can’t tell from the picture I uploaded here, it deals with one … Read more »

Yes, it’s really me. Not Memorex. Shocked, aren’t you?

Vacation was fabulous. Hawaii was beautiful and warm and utterly relaxing. I have pictures to share, but don’t have them uploaded yet. I want to go back. In fact, I told DH anytime he wants to take a job transfer to the islands, I’m there.

In other good news I finally have my computer back!! Yippie–skippie!!! Yes, it’s been four loooong, heart-wrenching weeks for me without a computer. DH is thrilled I won’t be confiscating his in the evenings anymore. During those four weeks I learned … Read more »

I spent Friday night setting up my new ipod. New ipod you ask? Oh yes. New because I was uber-smart and dumped mine in the washing machine after I got home from the club the other day, unbeknownst to me. Of course, I killed it by doing so and needed a new one. So I got the new one, sat down to upload my music and looked at the list I have on itunes. And I was suddenly thirteen again, sitting in the front seat of my dad’s car, rolling my eyes at the twangy country music … Read more »

Tuesday night was my local RWA chapter meeting. It was good. I always enjoy the meetings even when I’m tired and don’t want to go. This month’s meeting was a crit meeting. People who wanted feedback on their WIPs brought 3-5 pgs to be read aloud for everyone to listen to and then comment on.

Now, I have to say outright that I hate these meetings. I really do. Only because I DETEST having my work read aloud. The last (and only) time I did this I was tricked into participating. I’d sent a chapter to Evil Lisa for her … Read more »