I am Always Write

Be My Nook Friend...

2012-01-06T14:46:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I've become one of those people...you know, the electronic book people. I was determinded never get one as I love my paper books so much. But, I got a Nook for Christmas...and I think I love it. Please don't tell my books. I haven't broken it to them yet.

Now I'm looking for Nook Friends to share books with. Every year it's my goal to read 100 books. I know this may seem like small potatoes for some people who read/skim books with the spead of light, but it takes me time to read, especially when I'm really enjoying a novel. I know I'm backward. Still, for the past few years I've fallen short of my 100 goal, ending at about 75. Now that I have my Nook, I hope to see what others are reading and that way I can add to my list. Maybe this time I'll meet my goal of 100 books read in 2012!

If you have a Nook and want to be my friend, send me an email, or leave your email in the comments and friend you!

2011 IN REVIEW

2012-01-02T14:53:00.003-05:00

• February 3rd slipped on ice and dislocated my right shoulder, resulting in a broken bone. Ouch!
• March 8th had surgery to remove bone shard and repair damage.
• May 7th went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Beyond Awesome!
• July 7th three requests for my full manuscript!
• July 15th the final Harry Potter movie came out and I went to my fist midnight viewing! I’m sorry that I waited until the last one to do it. There is such a nerd-energy that I love. Thank you J. K. Rowling for giving me something to be super nerdy about.
• July 23rd went to New York to see Daniel Radcliff in How to Succeed in Business Without Trying. Was part of the crowd who sang happy birthday to Dan. The musical was FANTASTIC. I wonder if there is anything he can’t do once he sets his mind to it.
• August 3rd turned 39. I’m blessed to have 39 years in this world and be comfortable with who I am. No complaints!
• August 23rd the East Coast Earthquake. Nothing more to say about that. LOL
• August 27th-28th suffered zero damage from Hurricane Irene. Thank you God!
• November 7th test results from endometrial biopsy came back negative!
• December 9th pathology results from D&C came back negative.
• December 21st my sister came to town for Christmas.
• December 23rd head to Delaware to spend the holidays with family.
• December 28th bought a new car! 2012 Hyundai Sonata. I love it!
• December 31st had a very restful New Year’s Eve.

While I have some goals that were not achieved during the year of 2011, namely, weight loss and obtaining an agent (I’m still waiting to hear back from two of those agents who requested from me in July), I think my year has been very good. The days between each of the listed dates were days filled with writing, reading, laughter and love. I don’t have one complaint. Hope all of you had a full and wonderful 2011 and may 2012 be even better!

There’s a Thin Line Between Literary Genius and Crap

2011-12-20T12:37:00.002-05:00

As my current work in progress nears the end, I have moments where I say to myself, “I can’t believe I wrote this. It’s the most amazing story I’ve ever written. It’s emotional, philosophical, scientific and funny.”

And then there are times when I say, “I can’t believe I wrote this! It’s whiney, pretentious, inconceivable and no one is going to get my jokes.” In other words it’s crap.

The problem with writing something you think is brilliant is at some point your bubble will get burst. I love this story I’m creating right now. I love the characters, the world and definitely the dialogue, but I guess it has to happen to authors at some point.

We are too close to the work and then doubts start to creep in. The only way I know how to handle this is to keep writing. If it turns out it’s crap, you can believe someone WILL tell me. It’s just that I recently noticed that I’d written a chapter without thinking much about it. It came from an emotional place and when I read it back, I thought, this is fan-freakin-tastic!

But then a few days later, I lay in bed thinking about that chapter and started to second guessing myself. Is it too emotional? Too preachy? Am I full of crap and therefore my writing must be full of crap too? Inquiring minds want to know, people! LOL.

I can’t be alone in this. Please tell me I’m not. At some point do you think you’ve written the next new classic novel? They will make movies, a theme park and everybody will want to be your characters. And then you think this is utter garbage and is probably not good enough to line a bird cage?

Tell me I’m not alone.

A Bit of Downtime

2011-12-15T08:59:00.003-05:00

With all the writing, reading and online shopping I have no time for blogging. Well, the truth is, I've sufficiently fried my brain so I'll be taking a small break.

Carry on!

Beta Block

2011-11-28T20:48:00.005-05:00

I’ve long since come to the understanding that I’m not going to agree with every beta. That would be impossible. Still, I never want to disregard someone’s hard work. Whenever I get feedback that is a bit hard to take, I always take a few days, weeks, or sometimes months, and come back to it with fresh eyes and an open mind. If I still find the comments off, or bizarre, or just completely out of left field, then I disregard them. Sometimes I don’t need days or weeks or months. I know instantly that I’m not going to heed the comment.

My most recent venture into Beta Land was with someone I’ve never worked with. I want so desperately to form a core group of good betas, but I’m not sure how to do that other than to give strangers a chance. Yeah, you can read their sample work, and like it enough to say, ‘okay, you seem to have some writing chops, take a whack at my work.’ But in the end, it’s still a person you don’t really know pawing over your manuscript. This is what we as writers have to do, so I’m not really disputing this process. I lucked up three times and found betas who give honest, constructive criticism—beta’s who have helped me immensely. One is sadly no longer with us, Zellie, whom I miss dearly. The other is Tere and the third is Abby. I’m looking for two more to have a core group of four. I don’t need a like mind, because sometimes someone who thinks differently will see things I miss. I just need some good tough love.

So tell me, do you debate the disagreements with your beta? Generally, I don’t. Unless I truly don’t understand her point, or I think she has misinterpreted something I’ve written. Otherwise, I don’t bother.

If any of you out there are interested in swapping manuscripts with me, let me know...or should I be asking for a crit partner? Do you think there is a difference? I’m nearly done my current WIP and will need a reader/critter sometime after the new year!

Hope everyone survived the tryptophan coma!

Looking on the Bright Side

2011-11-22T15:51:00.002-05:00

After a rejection, I often tell myself, “It wasn’t meant to be.” And even if I really don’t believe that at the time, most of the time, I come to believe it eventually. Yesterday I got a reply on a full that wasn’t an offer, and as sad as that may be, it was the first time I truly felt that it wasn’t meant to be. The email was so gracious and complimentary that I had to smile while reading it. (My mother is under the impression that it wasn’t a rejection, but a postponement-lol.) Here is a bit of the letter:

Dear Karen:

I like your work so much. It’s odd, quirky and refreshing; all at the same time. It also grabs my attention. Believe me, I read all the time and it takes a lot to become memorable in my book.

Still, at this point, I’m just too booked. I don’t want to stand in the way of your success and I don’t believe I could even think about offering you representation until sometime in June – or so. That’s not fair to you. It’s not fair to me. It’s not fair to my current clients.

Thus, as sad as it makes me, I’m going to have to pass on this completely fun, exciting work. Now…if you’re still looking for representation come the Summer – 2012 – I’ll hope you’ll let me know…

I have to say, I’m hoping not to be able to take her up on her offer come summer, but I’m glad to know it’s out there. It’s funny, reading the forums and taking count of all the new clients this agent has just taken on, I began to feel like this may not be the place for me. I don’t want to take anything away from the agent; however, I began to wonder if I’d get lost in the crowd. So, I think it was truly meant to be that I was passed over.

Have any of you ever received a rejection and thought, yeah, that was probably for the best?

Implausible

2011-11-17T09:54:00.004-05:00

While reading, I came across a chapter that I just couldn’t believe. Yes the story was about paranormal activities and entities, however, even in speculative fiction the reader needs to believe that what’s happening is plausible. I was having a hard time buying into the scene and the steps the characters took to solve the problem.

Reading urban fantasy, dystopian or sci-fi means the reader has to come to the novel with a bit of suspended belief. We know that werewolves don’t exist, but we are willing to accept this for the sake of the story. However, if said werewolf suddenly sprouts wings and starts to fly (when it hasn’t been established that he is a flying werewolf), then we as the reader will most likely go, “Um…WTH is going on here?”

My point; think about what you are writing and make sure that it is logical within the world you have created. Don’t just have characters acting in a certain way just because it will be easier to get the plot moving along. Make sure that normal, rational people will say, “yeah, I can understand why she did that.” And if they can’t, make sure you have truly explained why your character has done something so seemingly foolish.

It’s tricky because you want your characters to be active and not passive, so sometimes they are going to do things that make the reader yell, “No dummy! Don’t do that!” That is different from a situation where just about every reader is scratching his head thinking, um…why in the world did she just do that? And even your explanation doesn’t make it plausible.

We’ve all seen it. The horror movie where the people are safe inside their home and suddenly someone spots something out in the dark woods.

“There’s someone out there.”
The crazy person says, “Let’s go check it out.”

Am I the only one who thinks it’s ridiculous to leave a nice, warm, well-lit home complete with possible weapons and a working phone to go looking around in the woods for a lurking stranger? Who do these people think they are going to find? It’s NEVER going to be Publisher’s Clearing House with a big check.

I know you have all read/seen this type of thing before and you’ve said to yourself—or perhaps out loud—“No one would EVER do that!”

Tell me all about it!

Profess Your Love....

2011-11-09T10:31:00.002-05:00

I haven’t done this in a while, so I think it’s time to share the love. Here are some random things I’m in love with right now.

The only rules: No need to tell me that you love your kids, your husband or your mommy…we know this. I want to know about something that’s putting a smile on your face today.

For me:

I love that my biopsy just came back negative! GO ME! :-)

I love my cinnamon plug-in from Yankee Candle. Makes my house smell like Thanksgivings and Christmas all rolled into one.

I love that I get paid tomorrow instead of Friday because the banks are closed for Veteran’s Day.

I love the OPI shellac nail polish. It’s SO glossy and it lasts for weeks!

I love that I no longer look like I’m storing nuts in my cheeks. (Had two of my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday.)

I love the Pumpkin ice cream is back!

And this one isn’t really a love of mine, more of a question. How many of you have tried the McRib from McDonalds? I’ve never had one, but people talk about it like it’s the best thing ever invented (doubtful). Years ago (years) when the McRib first came out, I asked my boyfriend—at the time—for a bite of his. He said no! Can you believe that? One of the many reasons he’s an ex.

So what do you love now? The McRib? Lol. Let me know, so I can share your love too.

I’ve Decided Not to Listen to Audio Books…

2011-11-01T11:42:00.001-04:00

…Well, audio books for YA, anyway. I’m about to make a generalization, so bear with me. I listen to a lot of audio books, because it allows me to “read” while working. Usually, your boss frowns upon you reading at your desk when you’re not on break, but as they allow radios in the office, they don’t care what I listen to as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work.

My usually audio books consist of my guilty pleasures, regency romance or some chick-lit. But every so often, I get a YA book in audio form.

The problem I’ve found with most of these audio books—well, at least more times than not—is that the voice is terrible. With the exception of a few, most YA audio books I have read have narrators that make the mc’s sound like babies, or at least far too young for the teens they are supposed to be voicing.

I’ve been listening to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Her characters are spunky and witty with a touch of sarcasm. The narrator makes the mc sound like she’s on the verge of laughing at any moment, so the sarcastic lines don’t have the same conviction. She’s bubbly when she should be displaying dry humor, and the character doesn’t sound as spunky as the words make her. Fortunately, I actually LISTEN to the words and have managed to tune out the most annoying parts of the narrator.

I know I take this chance when listening to a book over reading it, but I find that I have more problems with narrators when it’s a YA novel. It was only when I started listening to this last novel that I realized this was the reason I read most of my YA and listen to Adult fiction. Not to mention, I think I pay much more attention to YA novels than I do to adult ones. Most of my adult novels have been recommended to me and I don’t even really know what they’re about before I pop in the disc. With YA, I’ve read the summary, looked up the author (if I haven’t read or heard of them before) and I check out who represents them.

So now, this is my decision—I’m sure you were all waiting on the edge of your seats—I won’t listen to anymore YA audio books. There, I said it. I’m not going to say I’ll never do it again, because I never say never-lol.

How do you guys feel about audio books? Is there a certain genre you are willing to forgo the page and grab the CD? Or does it even matter to you? If you do listen to audio books like me, do you find a difference between YA and adult? My inquiring mind wants to know.

Quotes, Yea or Nay?

2011-10-25T15:47:00.001-04:00

While reading a novel the other day, I noticed that each chapter started with a quote. The quotes were either from a poem or something a famous person said that may have been relevant to the chapter or the novel as a whole.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like it, (but who cares what I think, right?). I get it. I’ve seen quotes and songs that seem to speak to the novel I’m working on.

Still, I don’t like it. *folds arms over chest like a stubborn toddler*

It pulls me out of the story. As someone who is naming each chapter in my current novel with a specific title, even that pulls me out of the story somewhat. I’ll take that over the quote, especially if it’s long. I’ve seen some chapters start with a quote that’s a good five lines long. If I’m reading the book, I skip right over this. If I’m listening to the book, it annoys me that I have to sit through this before I can get back into the story. I don’t mind them in the very beginning, and have seen occasions where the quote has fit so well that I’m a little jealous-lol. Not much, though.

So what I want to know is how do you all feel about quotes? Do you use them in your writing? Do you read them at the start of each chapter, or are you like me and breeze right past them?

Research

2011-10-11T09:53:00.001-04:00

One of the characters in my new wip develops a medical condition that I needed to research. Fortunately, I work in a hospital with three of the greatest doctors I’ve ever met, so I don’t have to only go by what I find on the internet.

Doing research is always fun, well, most times. I like learning new things, but research for novels seems different to me. It can sometimes shape the way a story is told. While gathering information on this medical condition, (Atrial Fibrillation), I’ve had to go back and add minor things to the story, like the way my character reacts, physically and emotionally to strenuous activity. And learning about this condition has helped me fine tune the ending.

The one thing I’ve discovered about doing research for novels is that I usually have far more information than I’ll ever need. I’d rather have it that way then the other way around. Still, having more than needed is good for back story. Just recently, I had to research, “How to cook a possum,” for this wip. Let’s just say, it was SCARY!

How much research do you do when crafting a novel? And do you trust what you find on the internet?

How Much Broken English is too Much?

2011-10-03T09:25:00.004-04:00

Let me explain. As writers, we all know that real people don’t speak in complete sentences, or often times with complete words. My current wip has a lot of broken English in the dialogue. The main male character is a—for lack of a better word—hillbilly.

On a side note, most of my friends and family knows that I am terribly afraid of hillbillies. I suffer from Hillbill-a-phobia, if you will. I’m not just speaking of country/southern people. Some of my closest friends and family are county/southern. I’m talking about the people who view the film DELIVERANCE as a how-to manual. Those are the people who scare the ba-jesus out of me. So, it’s a shock to people when I tell them I’m working on a story where the love interest is a hillbilly. Hell, it shocked me too!

So anyway, this boy slaughters the English language every time he opens his mouth. I don’t want to have a bunch of garbled dialogue in this story where my readers will be scratching their heads and will eventually put the book down because they can’t understand what one of the main characters is saying.

I think about it like how J.K. Rowling wrote Hagrid. He butchered words, but he didn’t have much dialogue, as he wasn’t one of the main three characters in the Potter series.

Fortunately, my male lead is a quiet guy, usually speaking in clipped sentences. Below is an exchange between the male lead and some of the other hillbilly boys. Let me know what you think.

~*~
Wulf holds up his hand, and all talking stops. “Despite the fact that y’all seem ready to fetch the preacher man so’s he can marry you, she gone. Whatchu want me to do ‘bout it? Now think hard ‘fore you answer that.” Several seconds of silence linger in the wake of his question.
Samuel-Adam is the first to speak. “I liked her. Bring’er back.”
A scatter of agreement follows the five year olds’ demand. Wulf sighs and rolls his eyes toward the ceiling.
“I’m gonna close my door and get on wit’ my nap. When y’all come up wit’ a plan—a logical plan—wake me.”
Fitch glares Wulf. “You don’t seem like you care at all that she gone.”
“I don’t.”
~*~
Have you had a situation like this, where a lot of your dialogue needs to reflect and accent, slang, or poor grammar? How did you handle it?

The Story in the Music

2011-09-26T17:22:00.002-04:00

How many of you listen to music while you write? Show of hands…one, two—okay, a lot of you. If possible, I always listen to music while I write, if I can’t, then I prefer nothing at all. Mostly, I try to stick to music which has some relevance to the story I’m currently working on, or inspires the story in some way. If there isn’t anything fitting, then I keep the music benign. What I mean by benign is that the song choices can easily fade into the background while I focus on writing. When I’m really into a certain part, an entire CD will play and I won’t even notice.

So, the other day I had my Pandora up on my iPod. The Pandora station was on Today’s Pop Music, because nothing is easier for me to drown out than Pop music. No disrespect to Pop, just my opinion. Suddenly, a Taylor Swift song comes on. I’m not a huge Swift fan, if one at all, but I have to respect someone so young and so talented. The song playing was You Belong With Me, and it proved my former point wrong. Because even though Taylor is a country singer, her songs are Pop music…and this song did not fade to the background.

If you’re not familiar with the song it’s basically about a girl in love with her best friend, (who hasn’t been?), and the best friend has no clue. They never do. But the lyrics really caught my attention. I’ve heard this song before because they used to play it on the only station that comes in clearly in my office—unless I want to listen to sports. Not!—but I’ve never paid much attention to it.

It’s this line that makes me stop writing: Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself, hey, isn’t this easy.

I could see the story, just pictured two teens sitting on a bench, carefree. She’s in love with him. He’s clueless…or maybe not. I love stories where friends get together. I’ve written a couple and will probably write more. I’ve had that experience when my now deceased ex-fiancé, (okay, I know that was confusing. He was my fiancé from the age of twenty to twenty-three. We broke up and he passed away four years ago. Got it? Good), professed his undying love to me. He was in love with me from the time we were seventeen and I was clueless. Yes, CLUELESS-lol.

Maybe that line and this song spoke to me because of how my cluelessness turned into my first love, or maybe it’s because I write stories for young adults and this is such a YA song/story. I don’t know, but I love when I hear that song and can actually see the entire 200+ page novel. I think Swift did an excellent job co-writing this. It sounds like a teen. She could have made it convoluted, where you wonder what the heck the song is about. Maybe that has something to do with her being a teen, writing for teens about teen issues.

Are there any songs you’ve heard that are visual to you? Or have you heard a song that has inspired a novel? Tell me all about it!

Frazzled!

2011-09-19T19:29:00.004-04:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. My days have been so busy lately and I feel like I don’t have enough hours. I’ve been looking for a new place to live, a new car and a new love…well, I’m not actually looking for the latter, just opening myself up for good things to come.

Still, all that searching, plus getting up at 0530 (I have to list it as military time because it’s too early for civilians to get up unless they are crazy…which I am) to go to the gym. By the time I get home from work, I just want to write. My new wip is taking over my brain and all of my free time.

But I’m making myself this promise. I will post at least once a week. Mondays. Unless I have an extra post that simply can not wait. Life is about juggling. I’m trying to toss lots of balls in the air and not drop any. I love blogging so I don’t want this to be one of the balls I drop.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you stay organized. Believe me, it will help.

Thanks!

What Gives You Pause?

2011-07-26T20:16:00.002-04:00

As I trudge through my love/hate relationship with Query Hell, I read a lot of posts/comments/blogs while doing my research. I’ve moved beyond the wide-eyed aspiring author who only wants someone to love my work and take it on. I’m now the author who asks, “Are you the best person for my novel?”

Now, there are glaring reasons why one would say no to an agent:

They charge fees.
They have an editorial business that they push on rejected authors.
They have a known history of unprofessional behavior.
They have bad reviews from other clients/submitters. *This is why scrolling writer’s forums are so invaluable.*

While there are many more reasons to remove an agent from your list, (which happens to be the question all searching authors should ask, “Do you deserve to be on my list?”), what this post is about is what gives you pause?

I’m talking about the little things that aren’t the obvious reasons to say no, but may raise a red flag.

For example, I was researching an agent the other day and couldn’t find much information about the agent online. I kept going to the sparse website rereading everything posted. I kept looking for different ways to Google said agent, and reading what little information I found. Then I saw the agent’s email address. It was through AOL.

Is this a reason to keep the agent off my list? Not necessarily. Does it seem odd that an agent—who has been in the business for several years—doesn’t have an email address linked to their business? Little bit, yeah. The AOL address was enough to give me pause, and on its own probably wouldn’t be enough to keep the agent off my list. But combine that with the lack of information, and this agent didn’t make it on my list.

So tell me, have you come across something while researching an agent that made you pause and rethink sending them your query? Was it so-so feedback from other authors? Typos on their webpage? Or comments made on their blog that rubbed you the wrong way?

So I was watching Dr. Phil Today…

2011-07-01T22:38:00.003-04:00

…And something on the show made me scream! The episode—which was a repeat—was about feuding mothers and daughters. This one woman told the story of how she was stalked by a serial killer. He’d murdered 37 women and she was next, but fortunately, he got caught before he killed her. As horrifying as this was, it was not what made me scream.

The daughter wrote her mother’s story and shopped it around. She found a publisher, but the deal fell through because the mother threatened to sue, accusing the daughter stealing the story. Thus ended the book deal. The daughter said they had the potential of making $3 million.

So, Dr. Phil says, “Your publisher is here.”

They turn the camera to a woman sitting in the audience. She introduces herself, and Dr Phil says, “And what publishing house do you work for?”

“Publish America.”

S-C-R-E-A-M!!!

Oh, you poor, misguided, delusional family. You think you’re feuding now? Wait until you owe more money then you make.

But this was my favorite part. Dr. Phil asked the lady from Publish America how many $3 million checks they’d written in the past.
Her answer: “I can say with some certainty, none.”

Damn right you haven’t! This family has no idea what a big ass bullet they just dodged! I wish someone would’ve walked away from the fight and simply typed, “Publish America” into Google. I mean, there is an entire thread dedicated to PA on Absolute Write, Water Cooler.

So, is it weird that I was more freaked out about their book deal being with Publish America than I was about the serial killer? To be honest, the mother was more upset about the book deal than the serial killer.

I don’t even have a question to ask you all. I just found this entire episode completely bizarre.

Interviewing Your Characters

2011-06-15T16:12:00.002-04:00

I’ve blogged about the importance of knowing your characters before. Non-writers laugh at us sometimes when we speak of our characters like he or she is our friend or enemy. But this is how it should be. We should know our characters well, very well. That’s not to say that a character won’t sometimes do something that will surprise us, but when that happens it really shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to us, because we know him so well, right?

As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of interviewing my characters. Sometimes it’s very helpful. Ever see a politician or an actor get tripped up on a question? Makes you wonder about them, right? Interviewing your characters is a great way to keep him from getting tripped up within the plot of your story. It will keep him from behaving out of character, which is totally different than doing something surprising. And it will keep you secure in who this guy is that you have created.

I love the television show, Inside The Actor’s Studio with James Lipton. At the end of each interview, he has his guest answer the questionnaire made famous by French television personality, Bernard Pivot. Perhaps these questions aren’t for you. No biggie. Make up your own. I have another set I ask my character that help delve deep enough to really draw out my character’s personality.

The questions below are pretty light, but I think they help firm of the edges of a three dimensional character.

I’ve answered the questions like my mc Sayra from the novel I’m currently querying. Hopefully it will tell you something about her without a long drawn out summary.

1. What is your favorite word? Vrrroooom!
2. What is your least favorite word? Murder
3. What turns you on? Working on my car
4. What turns you off? Undeserved Entitlement
5. What sound or noise do you love? The purring engine of my 67 Mustang.
6. What sound or noise do you hate? Girls giggling. Ugh.
7. What is your favorite curse word? Shit.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I don’t have a profession, but I’d probably like to be a mechanic.
9. What profession would you not like to do? Anything that would require me to wear makeup and nail polish on a daily basis.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? I gave you these psychic dreams so you can make a difference in the world.

Since I write YA, I also add:

11. What do you want to achieve by the time you graduate, turn eighteen, return from summer break…etc.? Whatever the setting is for your novel will help to fill in that question.
I hope to have my father embrace my gift, gain better control over my psychic dreams, and use my visions to help people. Oh and maybe get drag racing legalized in Monterey California.

Take some time out and set up and interview. Use these light-hearted questions or dig deeper and see if it helps round out your characters!

Operation Ignore Inbox...FAIL!

2011-06-09T12:54:00.004-04:00

I said I'd be honest with you guys about my attempt to ignore my inbox for one week. It was hard! Harder than I thought it would be, because even if I didn't check my emails it didn't stop me from seeing exactly how many emails I had waiting for me. My mind starting playing tricks on me, saying things like, "What if one of those emails is from that agent who has your full?"

Or, "What if 7 of those emails are from agents who want a full?" Yes, they could wait a week to get my manuscript. No harm no foul, but tell that to all the synapses in my brain firing off all those warnings.

"Check the email, check the email, check the email," they chanted in my brain like a crowd holding picket signs.

I had to do it. So, at exactly 9:13pm on Tuesday June 7th, I check my emails. And wouldn't you know, not one was from an agent. Not even a rejection. * le sigh *

Operation Ignore Inbox has taught me something, though. I can go all day without checking my emails and nothing bad happens. I might be a bit distracted, but come on, I'm always distracted writing in my head while I'm working, so what's the difference?

My biggest problem was, I didn't think this through. I'm waist deep in query hell, and for the month of June I said I'd send out one query a day. Well, I can't really do that if I'm not opening that email account, can I? So I had to weigh the options.

Ignore emails, or send out query? *taps chin while contemplating for a nano second*

Sending out queries won. Duh.

Perhaps in July, I'll revisit Operation Ignore Inbox. It's a worthwhile goal for me to have, ignoring my emails within a reasonable amount of time.

So, we shall see how I manage. Hope you all aren't too disappointed in me. :-(

An Experiment

2011-06-07T08:02:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, I’m knee deep—well more like waist deep—in query hell. As much as I love having a completed manuscript ready for agents to see, I am driving myself insane!

I check my phone um-teen times a day. It’s the first thing I check in the morning and the last thing at night. I love to hear that ding, see that little number indicating how many emails I have waiting. When I tap that little mail icon and see that I’ve got mail in my account specifically set up for all things related to writing—where my queries are mailed from—I get an extra beat in my heart.

Then to see it’s a reply from an agent—triple beat. If it’s a rejection, I say to myself, “Oh well, he/she has just made way for my agent to come in and scoop me up. If it’s a request, well then it’s time to do the happy dance!!! Which is remarkably close to the Humpty Dance. *If you don’t know what that looks like, Google it right now!*

I’m saying all this to say, I’m ADDICTED! I’m checking my emails at an unhealthy rate. As we all know, a watched pot never boils…or so my grandmother says. Still, the disappointment of not finding any new emails in my inbox driving me a bit crazy.

So here is my experiment:

Starting today, I will not check my emails for a week. From Tuesday to Tuesday. I know, I know, calm down people. Take a deep breath with me…let it out slowly.

I’m very interested to see if I can stick with this. I’ll be completely honest with you all, so if I break after a day—or an hour—I’ll fess up. I’m making this across the board for all my personal email accounts. The temptation will be too easy to check the query email address if I allow myself to check the others. I will have to check my work email, as I don’t want to lose my job. Other than that, I’m going cold turkey!

If I make it to next Tuesday, I’ll give you guys a detail of how many emails I’ve missed. More importantly, how many—if any—were from agents. This is something I’d only suggest doing if you don’t have an agent and aren’t out on submission. No one wants to make your agent wait a week when there could be good new about a submission.

So there you have it. Operation Ignore Inbox has begun!

Wish me luck!

Edit: At the time of this posting I had 5 emails according to the little mail icon on my iPhone. It’s 8:09 am and I already have the shakes! Phone goes back in the purse to be forgotten. *gulp*

My Aha! Moment

2011-06-06T12:11:00.004-04:00

In addition to working on my new WIP, I’ve been rewriting LIGHT BRINGERS, my YA Urban Fantasy. It was the first YA novel I’d written and I queried it about 2 years ago. After several requests for fulls garnered no agent, I realized that I needed to do a complete overhaul.

First I changed it from third person to first person, feeling like I needed to get more into my main character’s—Ryan—head. I was halfway through and realized that wasn’t going to work, because I had a few chapters that needed to be in another pov.

So, back to the drawing board. I worked on it in while the novel I’m currently querying sat or was with readers. Finally, I finished the rewrite. I let that sit for a few months and just started reading it. I felt the problem about 8 chapters in and my heart sank. I love this story. Love the characters and want so desperately to share it with the masses one day. So, when I saw that something wasn’t working, I couldn’t believe it. What’s going on with this story? I thought.

Then, I saw X-Men First Class on Saturday. LIGHT BRINGERS is somewhat like X-Men in the sense that my characters have special abilities due to a genetic defect. Ryan works for an elite group of soldiers known as Venators, but that’s where the similarities end. However, when I saw X-Men First Class this weekend, I realized what I was doing wrong with this novel I love.

Ryan’s age is 18 almost 19 in my novel. That right there will make some agents say no thanks, he’s too old for YA (which completely baffles me, but we can debate that at a later date). With his mere 18 years, I was trying to make him too knowledgeable, too advanced. Yeah, there are some characters in the novel who think he’s a hot shot, some kind of wunderkind. But what it boiled down to was, I didn’t believe he was capable of the responsibilities I’d put on him. So, how could I expect anyone else to say, “Yeah, I believe this 18 year old could have joined this elite group of soldiers at 16 and in almost three years he could be promoted to Under-Sergeant, able to lead his own squad.”

Nope. It wasn’t working. The thing that I got from X-Men First Class was that these new recruits could do awesome things, and save the day, but they had a leader, someone who trained them and watched over them. It was believable that they would go out on this mission and do what they did best, but under the leadership of Professor Xavier.

I don’t have to change my plot, or my characters. I just need to put Ryan in his place. Stop trying to force him to be more than he’s capable of being at the present moment. He’s a rookie, so let him be a rookie. He can still be cocky, still screw up, and yet, he can still save the day, right?

Now, I’m going to do something I’ve never done. I’m going to do an outline. Eep! I’m a fly by the seat of my pants type of writer, but this hasn’t been working for LB. I need to map out all the ways I can change Ryan into a cadet (instead of a corporal), trying to prove himself and keep his best friend alive. * cracks knuckles * Off I go! I’m so PUMPED!

Have you guys ever had an Aha! moment with your work? It could be plot, character, or that fantastic ending. Tell me all about it.

Long Overdue

2011-06-04T22:07:00.014-04:00

Last month I went on vacation. My family and I went down to Florida to visit Disney and Universal Studios. Personally, I was only interested in Universal and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

All the same, I promised Tere Kirkland that I’d post pictures from my trip. I should’ve done this weeks ago since I’ve been back since May 14th.

So here are some pics from my trip to the Wizarding World:

My sister and I a bit tipsy at Bonefish Grill.

My sister was supposed to look demented like Sirius Black, but she kept smiling.

The handsome men of Drumstrang. They performed like in the movie (without the fire-breathing), but my sister got that on video.

The Lovely ladies of Beauxbaton. These people really were very much like the movie. Universal really went all out with this park. I was very impressed.

The frog chorus was nice, but I could not make heads or tails of the song they were singing. I don't know if they do more than one song, but I didn't know what the heck they were singing and it didn't sound too good-lol.

This was at Sea World at the Seal and Otter Show. It was a funny show, but that seal was huge! Actually, I don't know if it was sea lion or seal...what's the difference?

Here are some of my souvenirs. This is a tumbler set with all the house seals on them. Nice to have a cool glass of pumkin juice from. Btw, Pumkin Juice tastes like Thanksgiving in a bottle! And Butterbeer tastes like a sweeter version of a cream soda...it was too sweet for me.

My lovely Marauder's Map coffee mug. It holds a large amount of coffee so I can sip and write an entire chapter if my brain is flowing well.

The Triwizard Cup! I saw this and had to have it. I'm wondering if I can drink wine out of it at Boordy Vineyard this summer.

All of my non-nerd friends (which would be all of them) said they won't go out with me if I wear this. But who cares, I'm wearing this shirt! My sister bought a really cute sweatshirt, but it was a bit too expensive for me.

So there you have it, some of the pictures from my vacation. Have any of you been to the Wizarding World yet? If so, tell me what was your favorite part?

Just a Quick Post to Let You All Know...

2011-05-05T20:55:00.003-04:00

I know it's been a million years since I'v e posted, but I'm working my way back to a regular post schedule. I had to have surgery on my shoulder because of the fall. I'm in physical therapy now and while my range of motion is SO much better than it was, I probably won't be back to myself until next March. They say it takes about a year to recover from shoulder surgery. *Booo-hisss*

Even though I was able to type roughly three weeks after surgery, I kinda fell into a mild depression and didn't start writing again until a couple of weeks ago. I was worried about money--being on disability--worried about all the work that would be waiting for me when I got back to work, and even worried that I wouldn't fully recover.

I have to say that I've been blessed with an awesome doctor--his personality is as dry as desert sand, but I didn't need him to tell me jokes, just to fix my shoulder and he did just that! My physical therapists are awesome as well, even though they kill me three times a week.

So, now, I'm back to writing, back to reading for friends, and getting ready for vacation in Orlando starting Saturday!!! Can't wait to visit the Harry Potter theme park!

It's good to be back. Talk to you guys soon!

KAREN GO BOOM!

2011-02-08T21:08:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday I fell on the ice. “Waaaaa!” The bad part…I dislocated my shoulder. After seeing the orthopedic surgeon I was told that I’d chipped the bone that keeps the shoulder in place so it’ll just keep slipping out of the socket until I get it fixed. OUCH!

If any of you have ever had a shoulder, or any part of you, slip out of joint you don’t need me to explain how mind-numbing that pain is. For those of you who have never experienced this kind of pain, well pray to what ever God you pray to that you never do.

I’ll know on Monday if I need surgery, which I’m thinking I will. I just want it fixed, cause living with the limited use of my right arm SUCKS!!!

It takes me forever to pull up my pants.
I can’t cut my food.
I can’t curl my hair.
I can’t stretch when I yawn.
I can’t scratch my armpit, and the minute you can’t do this is when it itches like a bitch!
I can’t cuddle my teddy bear in bed—that’s not a euphemism. I actually have a teddy bear.
And if all of that didn’t suck like a Hoover, yesterday I was JUST able to type without pain.

So to reference my two most recent posts, I have some random acts of NON-kindness. I don’t want to dedicate a whole post to this, because I don’t want to dwell on the negative. But when I fell, there was a woman sitting in her car and watched the whole thing (she told me so when they took the incident report at the café where I fell). So she clearly saw that I couldn’t get up—hard to do that when one of your arms doesn’t work—and she DIDN’T GET OUT OF THE CAR AND HELP ME!!! Um…unkind lady, unkind!

Then, as I went into to work—no worries people, I work at a hospital so I was going to their ER—the people walking behind me could CLEARLY see that something was wrong with me. And then I TOLD them that I’d really hurt my arm so I let them go in front of me, to get out of their way. Do you think any of them held the door for me? That would be a big fat NO! Totally unkind people. Totally!

Okay, enough of that. Since I don’t want to end this on a grumpy note, I’ll tell you what I’m professing my love for this week.

My Sling!

The one the ER doc gave me was six kinds of sucky, but the one the ortho gave me is awesome! It has a cushion on the neck band so it takes the pressure off. It also has this snazzy thumb loop to keep my arm properly supported.

Man, I’m a nerd.

Be careful out there people!

Profess Your Love

2011-02-02T09:38:00.002-05:00

What are you in love with right now?

The rules: I know you love your kids/family/friends and writing--no need to mention them. Tell me what else is currently rocking your world.

For me, I’m loving the Lavender Vanilla sleep lotion from Bath and Body Works. I smell wonderful and I sleep like a snuggly puppy-lol.

Random Acts of Kindness

2011-01-28T11:00:00.003-05:00

I’m a firm believer in paying it forward, random acts of kindness and do unto others… Yeah, I know it all seems a bit hooky and clichéd, but something tells me that even the most pessimistic person would change their mind when they are on the receiving end of an act of kindness.

I find that when I’m down, having a pity party or just having a funky day, someone always does something, or says something that makes me feel better. Maybe I’m just hyper aware of what people do and say because I’m a writer and I pay attention to things like that. Most times the person isn’t even aware that I’m in a bad mood. I’m not whiny or a person who dwells in sadness, so when I’m having an off day, I’m usually trying to dig myself out. It’s not always possible. Sometimes I’m just going to be in a funk for a day or so. This is why it’s so important what you say and how you interact with people. It has an impact that can reach far more than you know.

Well, the other day, I’d just gotten a rejection on a full and was having a major case of the “When’s it going to be my turn?” Complete with sniffles and pouty bottom lip. I hadn’t told anyone about the request nor had I told anyone about the rejection so I was literally having a private pity party. Then, I got this email:

Hi Karen,
I just wanted to send you a little note of thanks for the comment you left on my blog yesterday. I'm glad you enjoyed my story . . . but more than that, I'm glad you're writing. :)
Who knew it was so hard, right?!
Not that it matters, coming from someone you don't even know, but from one writer to another, keep at it, alright? All of it--the writing, the resolutions--all of it.
Hey, You just may be closer than you think!

Yes, Beth, it does matter even if it’s coming from a woman I don’t know. I’d just left a comment on her blog because I was moved by her story of The Call. My blues were completely wiped away when I read this. My situation hadn’t changed. I’d still been rejected by an awesome agent, but how I reacted to the rejection was completely changed.

The entire email made me smile, but it was the last line that really had me feeling better. This author will probably never know that her email came at such a perfect time, and isn’t that really how it works?

I just wanted to share this with you all because it was such a pleasant surprise. Do any of you have a random act of kindness someone showed to you? I’d love to hear it.

How Are Those New Year Resolutions Going?

2011-01-26T08:51:00.001-05:00

This year, I’ve decided to set goals. Goals for my writing, goals for my health/weight loss, and goals for my social life. So far, on the 26th day of January, I haven’t stuck to any of those goals. I haven’t written 1000 words a day. To be honest, I’ve been reading for friends and that is taking priority right now. So it’s not like I’m just veggin’ out on the couch—yeah, I’m making excuses-lol.

I haven’t been to the gym at all this month. Granted, I’ll be getting the Zumba Fit for Wii this weekend, so I plan to be svelte by summer…tee-hee.

And as for my social life…I’ve been to one party. It was a football party and there were more women there than men. So…um, yeah, not the best place to meet a man. In my defense, the weather has sucked. I’m supposed to go to happy hour this Friday, but they are calling for more snow!
Snow, Snow, go away. Little Karen wants to play! I haven’t given up on my goals for 2011. It’s still early. I WILL get on track.

Tell me, have your resolutions/goals fallen by the wayside already? If not, share your secret to keeping your word to yourself. I could use the help!

Book Suggestions for 2011...Help!

2011-01-14T09:04:00.002-05:00

Last year I set a goal to read 100 books. I fell short with a total around 70 (I know I’m missing about five, but I can’t remember them now so I won't count them). Some of them were rereads like, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Lord of the Rings and a few of J.D. Robb’s In Death series. Some were classics that I’d never read but will now be a part of my favorite lists, like Pride and Prejudiced, and Sense and Sensibility.

I discovered some fantastic YA novels that weren’t in my genre, like Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It’s been a long time since a book has made me cry tears of joy, but that book did it. Will Grayson, Will Grayson was my favorite book for 2010. The characters stayed with me for weeks after reading that book, so much so, that I bought it after borrowing it from the library.

This year, I’m going to keep my goal of 100 books for 2011. Now that I know it’s MY responsibility to keep track of the books I check out of the library—thought they had an archive, but they don’t—I’ll a keep better list and won’t forget any.

I just finished What I Saw and How I Lied. I didn’t know what to expect, but I really liked it. For this coming year, I want to read more books in my genre—YA, paranormal, urban fantasy, and dystopian. I really want to read more Steampunk and sci-fi too. I like character driven over plot driven and a little romance isn’t bad either.

I welcome suggestions, actually, I’m begging for them. So if you have anything you want to recommend, leave them in the comments for me. Many thanks!

Sushi Slippers

2011-01-10T11:46:00.002-05:00

Every once and a while you get a gift that, on the surface, seems so ridiculous, you wonder what the giver was thinking when they bought it for you. Well, my brother-in-law thought it would be funny to buy me Sushi Slippers.

What are they you ask?

Well, they’re exactly what they sound like…slippers that look like sushi. (I assume they are supposed to be salmon and tuna-lol) And they just happened to be the most comfortable slippers I own!!!

What started out as a gag gift is rapidly becoming one of my favorite things of 2011. So thank you, Naoki!

What quirky gift did you get that you ultimately loved? It doesn’t have to be from this year.

A Word About Jealousy

2011-01-07T08:34:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I was at lunch reading a printout of Authoress’ post about how she landed the awesome Josh Getzler as her agent! I loved the story and commented, out loud, that I was 95% happy for Authoress and only 5% jealous.

One of my lunch companions said, “Jealousy is such a wasted emotion. I never get jealous.”

Hum…let’s examine that.

First, I was probably 98% joking and 2% serious, but can anyone honestly say they NEVER get jealous?

I don’t think so.

Personally, I agree with part of that statement. Jealousy IS a wasted emotion. And for the majority of my day-to-day life, I’m not a jealous person. I don’t covet my neighbor’s husband, house, or fine automobile. I really do look at the world and think, “You never know what’s going on behind closed doors so coveting could get you something you definitely do not want.” The grass isn’t always as green as it looks.

However, I’m also honest. And being an honest person means that when I read stories from authors who just signed with an awesome agent (yes, I mean you, Josh!) I get a pang of jealousy. I want that too! And to me, it’s only natural to feel that pang when you’ve worked hard for something and it’s right at your fingertips, but you haven’t been able to grab it yet.

I don’t take anything away from Authoress. She has done far more than I think even she imagined for unagented authors. And while I’m 5% jealous of her, I would never want to dismiss her achievements or even envy them. She’s worked hard and she certainly deserves all the great things to come.

I just want to sign with Josh too…is that so wrong? *blinks kitten eyes*

So tell me, am I alone? It’s okay if I am. I’ll live on my 5% island of jealousy. It’s really only the size of a postage stamp. I swear.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-03T11:39:00.002-05:00

Hi all! Hope 2010 was a good year for you. I have no complaints. There were things I wanted and did not get last year and things I got that I never asked for. J

Looking back at my post New Year’s post 2010, I actually asked a Magic 8 Ball to answer my resolution questions? What the heck was I thinking? This year, instead of leaving my life to chance, I’ll be setting a list of goals and constructing an actual plan to bring them to fruition. This way, at the end of 2011 I’ll see how I’ve achieved each goal. If for some reason I am unable to reach a certain goal, hopefully my plan will show me exactly where I went wrong.

I have three goals I’ll carry over from 2010 to 2011. In no particular order…

1. Obtain an agent.
--It didn’t happen for me last year, but to be honest, it couldn’t have happened for me in 2010. I was at the tail end of querying LIGHT BRINGERS and had come to the decision that it needed a major rewrite (something I’m still working on) and then I started on my current novel, PLATINUM DIARIES. That novel wasn’t ready to be queried until mid October. Granted, it was possible to query in October, hear back from an agent and have an offer by December 31st. But with this novel, I queried in stages and thank God for that idea. Needless to say, things are looking up for my novel and I’m happy about it.

2. Get a husband.
--Now those of you who are married and have been for a while, don’t know what’s happening in the world of dating. To sum it up…PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! No other way to put it. Without getting too specific, I had an incident that has really soured me on dating. I’ve NOT given up on love, but man, some guys are just creepy! Nuff said. I know there is someone who will be a perfect match—not a perfect man, but a perfect match for me. So I can be patient, but really, where is he already?! LOL.

3. Reach my goal weight.
--Maybe the reason I haven’t reached my goal weight is because I don’t really have a ‘goal weight’. I’ll know it when I see it. According to my height, and age, the AMA (American Medical Association) says I should be between 107-lbs and 131-lbs. Maybe 131-lbs would be okay, but seriously, something tells me I’d look like a crack head at that weight. I’m muscular so I weigh more than I look like I do. I look at my sister who is my height and 155-lbs and she looks good. She wants to lose 15-lbs and I think that would be fine, but her frame is smaller than mine. I was probably meant to be taller, but somehow got stunted-lol. All the same, I’ve lost 25-lbs and while I still have more to go, I feel good about my accomplishment!

So, now as I add those three goals (and several others) to my list for 2011, I’ll also add a plan to achieve each. Granted, I’m not sure how to set a plan to find a husband, but I know ‘Avoid the nut-jobs’ will be at the top of the list!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (if that’s the holiday you celebrate. If not, hope your holiday was wonderful, nonetheless). I look forward to 2011, because I plan to make this a great year!

WOW! Where Have I Been?

2010-12-07T19:29:00.003-05:00

The truth? I’ve been right here. Sorry for the absence. I’ve been lurking on other blogs, researching agents and writing, writing, writing. It’s still no excuse for the long silence. All I can say is I think I’ll be back to normal after the holidays. Hope all has been well with you out in blog land!

We’ll talk soon…

The Deconstruction of our Youth

2010-10-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

I love teenagers—as should anyone who writes about them and for them. However, yesterday a few teenagers left me feeling something very different than love. I have two best friends. I love them both like sisters and yesterday both of them were violated by teenagers.

One of my friends had her back door kicked in my three teens (not one of them over 17). As my friend said, they would’ve been sadly disappointed when they saw she had nothing to steal, but it doesn’t make it any less violating. Idle minds resort to destructive—sometimes dangerous—behavior. Fortunately, nothing was taken from my friend’s house. Thanks to alert neighbors and the fact that these would-be thieves broke in to the basement and couldn’t get into the main part of the house, she came home to find only a damaged door. Still, it’s scary.

My other friend was violently attacked yesterday by a 17yr old girl. My friend has been a social worker for 15yrs and has never had anything like that happen to her. Unfortunately, her job takes her to terrible neighborhoods, into sketchy homes and around unstable people. But she has dedicated her life to helping teens who need shelter, food and education.

I don’t get this behavior, but maybe I’m not meant to understand what would provoke teenagers to kick in a door or physically attack a person who is there to help you. Mental instability speaks for a lot of it, but I think there is also a lack of structure, a lack of morals and a lack of hope. When you feel like you have no chance, why try?

I think about that when I’m writing. While every story doesn’t have to end happily, I think we owe it to our teenage readers to show them another alternative to violently acting out. Does that mean we don’t write about drugs, sex and violence? That’s certainly not what I’m saying, nor am I saying we have to have moral of the story either. We have to tell the truth because kids are smart and will know when the there is bullsh*t on the pages.

The problem is these teens kicking in doors and attacking people aren’t reading our books. If they were, I can almost guarantee they wouldn’t want to engage in such destructive activities. When you know there is a world out there bigger and better than what you know, you begin to hope. Maybe I’m corny or misguided, but I believe hope changes everything.

My question is how do we reach these violent, door-kicking teens? Because I honestly don’t know.

Should I Give Up Writing?

2010-10-13T12:45:00.003-04:00

Last week a guy asked what my plan B was, concerning writing. I didn’t understand what he’d meant at first so he clarified.

“What will you do if you don’t sell this book? Will you go back to school to learn something new, more marketable? Will you try to get a promotion at your current job?”

His questions left me silent for a long while. I’ve never been asked that before so when I finally had an answer it seemed anticlimactic.

“I write another book,” I said.

I don’t think that was a good enough answer. Writing another book probably didn’t seem like a plan B to him, more like throwing good after bad. No one who really knows me would ever ask me such a question because they know that giving up on writing is not an option. Most writers do it because they love it. You really have to because it’s such a solitary thing that I’ve been accused of being a recluse, an old maid, you name it. That’s just the way writing is. I’ve never met a writer who could do it with a room full of people talking, with the television on and babies crying. It requires concentration, so yeah, I kinda have to be alone—at least in the room alone. It’s often thankless. You have to wait months, years, or decades—if ever—to see any type of profit or accolades. So if you’re in the business for the glory then get out.

Yes I want to be published and yes I want to make enough money from my writing that it’s my single source of income, but if I don’t sell this novel, I HAVE to write another one. In this guy’s mind, not getting a book published would probably be the ultimate failure, but that’s the view of a non-writer. Actually, there are quite a few people in my family who think this way. They ask, “Are you still trying to get that book published?” It’s easier to say, yes, than it is to explain “that book” is now on the back burner and I’m querying a new one.

Writing for publication is filled with a million little successes so I don’t feel at all like a failure.

The first time you complete a novel = Success!
The first time you take hard criticism and make yourself a better writer = Success!
The first time you write a well-crafted query letter = Success!
The first time an agent requests a partial = Success!
The first time an agent requests a full = Success!
The first time an agent offers representation = Success!
The first time an editor wants to buy your novel = Success!
The first time you see your novel on a shelf in a book store = Success!
The SECOND time you complete a novel = Success!

Tell me, why would I want to give up on that? I’ve only gone through half that list! So if any of you out there are thinking of quitting, if there’s anything on that list you want to stick a pin in or mark off your list, hang in there. It happens every day so why wouldn’t it happen for us?

Jane Austen Has Done it to Me Again

2010-09-30T18:27:00.003-04:00

I was nearly halfway through Emma when I thought, “Nope, not really liking this one.”
Emma is snooty, meddlesome and a know-it-all. I did not like her through most of the novel. As with Pride and Prejudice, I felt it was drawn out with lots of telling vs. showing and everyone was so terribly fussy-lol.

And then Mr. Knightley told off Emma. Told her off good enough to have her hiding tears and I fell in love with Mr. Knightley a little bit. That was the start of Emma looking at her behavior and how she treats people and let me just say, thank God for character growth.

All the same, Emma has not replaced my love for Pride and Prejudice. P & P is just so much more romantic.

Now I’m off to watch the BBC mini series. I think I saw the one with Gwyneth Paltrow and while I have nothing against her as an actress, I have something against Americans being put in a British roll. I mean, is there a shortage of British actresses that I didn’t know about? Me thinks not.

Up next...Sense and Sensibility.

Have any of you read Emma? If so, how did you like it? Better that Pride and Prejudice or no?

Backspace: The Writer’s Place

2010-09-27T09:57:00.003-04:00

One of my blog posts is featured on the fantastic site Backspace: The Writer’s Place. If you haven’t heard of it, go right over and check them out. I’ll wait….

Okay, so now that you see all the fabulous and informative articles, posts and events they have, you can be in the know like me! Actually, I just learned about them when I was contacted to feature two of my posts about rejection.

I’m very interested in the upcoming agent/author conference. Really, I’m just excited to have a new place to gather information and network. How did I not know about this site?
Anywho, if you want to check out my post go here and be sure to leave a comment!

I’m Not Writing

2010-09-24T14:20:00.000-04:00

My laziness during the past week has been astounding. I can barely pull myself off the sofa least of all sit at my computer and string together two sentences. Wait, I just did that, didn’t I? Nevertheless, I’ve been struck by a paralyzing bug and it’s called Laziness. Perhaps I suffer from seasonal depression. Perhaps I just don’t feel like writing.

But I’m starting to feel guilty. As I walk past my laptop and don’t even bother to boot it up, I hear it mocking me, calling me a good for nuthin’ hack, but I just ignore it. It’s not like I don’t have things to write. I have at least five wips I can dive right into. I have a massive rewrite of Light Bringers that I’m actually excited about, but something keeps my butt on the sofa.

If I want to be a fulltime writer I can’t just sit around and waste valuable writing time, can I? Absolutely, not! Deadlines and editors won’t care if I want to watch all the season premieres of the new fall shows. They won’t care if I have miserable menstrual cramps, well, they might care, but they won’t want to hear it as a reason for missing a deadline. And even though I don’t have a deadline, editor or even an agent, it’s not at all prudent to wait until I have those things to start writing like it’s my sole source of income. So with that said I’m going to give my laziness another week and then I’m going to put a boot up my own @ss and get to work.

What do you guys do when you just don’t feel like writing? Do you worry about leaving work undone? Do you feel guilty when you don’t write?

Note: I’ve taken down the link on the sidebar to Zellie’s novel, Lightning Spliced, because it was taken off Zulu and edited for the second printing.

I Have Stepped Into Query Hell…

2010-09-17T09:14:00.000-04:00

…AND IT BURNS!!!!

A few days ago I started trickling out queries. Fifteen! I know for most people fifteen is not a trickle, but when you consider on my last novel I sent out close to one hundred, fifteen is modest.

I’ve received 6 rejections thus far—Ouchie! But the way I’m looking at it is each rejection will clear the way for the right agent to step in. So, from now on, I’ll be sending out one query—to a well researched agent—for every rejection I receive. This is keeping my attitude positive. I realized, I thrive on that hope of hearing that ding on my Blackberry, hitting the button, seeing it’s indicating an email to my gmail account and then opening that to find a request from Mr. or Ms. Dream Agent.

Giving up is not an option. I mean, what else would I do if I gave up writing? Sit and drool in a corner? No, that’ll never do.

Tell me, how do you keep yourself motivated? Are you in Query Hell right now and is there anything I can do to help you?

Go Ahead, Say I Told You So

2010-09-10T13:50:00.000-04:00

Months back, when J.D. Salinger passed, I was moved to conquer some classics. As a writer, I felt kind of bad when people would talk about certain classics that I’d never read.

On my short list was:
The Great Gatsby
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Catcher in the Rye
Pride and Prejudice

I’ve conquered two on that list so far—The Catcher in the Rye and Pride and Prejudice. Lets just say, I’m not such a fan of The Catcher in the Rye.

Pride and Prejudice. First, lets not talk about how I’m probably the last person to read this book, because I know that I am! As I started reading I thought, “WTH is going on? Why do so many people love this book?” I just didn’t get it. It was drawn out, full of telling over showing and—as I put it to my sister—terribly fussy. Some parts of it actually exhausted me. I think I caught the vapors.

And then Mr. Darcy proposed…and was turned down flat. All of his pride and arrogance tossed back on him by lovely and head-strong Elizabeth Bennett.

I was hooked from that moment on. Whoda’ thunk it…me, a romantic. But I wanted MORE when I was done. I wanted it so much that I went on Netflix and looked up Pride and Prejudice. There are about half a dozen versions so I scaled it down between the one with Kiera Knightley or the miniseries with Colin Firth…Colin won and boy was I happy I chose that one.

I don’t have a big problem with Kiera Knightley, but the in the A&E miniseries seemed so much like Elizabeth. I thought I’d always be conscious that it was Kiera Knightley if I’d chosen the other one. Plus the reviews said the man playing Darcy wasn’t at all like book Darcy. I wasn’t disappointed in Colin Firth.

A lovely time was had by all. So I can now be counted as one of those people who love Pride and Prejudice.

Go ahead, say I told you so…

In Memory of Zellie Blake

2010-09-07T19:01:00.007-04:00

I lost a friend on Sunday September 5, 2010. Actually, I don't want to say it like only I’ve lost a friend, because Zellie meant a lot to so many people. I first met her two years ago in the beta forum on Absolute Write. We liked each other instantly. She was quirky and had a bubbly personality, not to mention a wonderful way of giving critical feedback.
When I gave Zellie LIGHT BRINGERS to beta, her comments, advice and support helped me shave it down from 102k to 78k. I truly believe it was her input that helped me grab the attention of several agents, three of which wanted to read the full.

When she told me she was sick with cancer, I was terrified. It’s a horrible disease and I haven’t meant a single person who deserved such an evil thing to live inside their body. Zellie, however was always so upbeat, so bubbly and even in emails you could see the sun shining through her. It was because of this zest that I thought we’d have her for so much longer.

It happened so quickly that I never got to tell her how proud I was to be her friend or how happy I was that she’d published her novel. LIGHTNING SPLICED is now available here.

I read a rough draft of this last year when the title was The Resistance so I can’t wait to read it now and see what’s changed. I just wish I could gush over it with my friend.

ALL proceeds from the book will go to The Cancer Society.More information is available on her website. So please, pick up a copy 0f LIGHTNING SPLICED. Zellie will live on through her words, and we can help find a cure for this terrible disease.

Thanks everybody.

Rest in peace Zellie Bean.

How Can You Write For Teens When You Don’t Like Them?

2010-09-01T09:54:00.003-04:00

This question was posed after a particularly colorful rant I had the other day. I was in a grumpy mood to begin with, but then I’d been hearing my coworkers complain about their selfish teenagers. I’d witnessed lazy teens in the waiting room giving their parents attitude for no reason, while their pants hung below their butt-cheeks. I’d started listening to a book (I won’t mention the name) where the main character was whinny, hateful and just an all around little sh*t.

This sparked a rant like I’d been channeling a crotchety old man—minus shaking a cane at the neighborhood kids to keep them off of my lawn.

So when the question was asked: How can you write for teens when you don’t like them? It stopped me in my tracks. The coworker who asked this has read my work. She looked at me like she was completely confused.

That’s when I had to step back and rewind all the things I’d said in my head. Yes, I guess it would sound like I don’t like teens, but nothing could be further from the truth. I actually love that age group. The immediacy of everything and the intensity, but what I probably love the most is the new experiences, straddling the lines of child and adult. I loved being a teenager. (I wouldn’t want to go back, but…) I loved high school and this is why I write for teens.

What I explained to my coworker is that my rant should have been aimed at selfish people, at whinny people, and mean-spirited little sh*ts because that’s who I really dislike. And as we all know, those personality flaws are prevalent in all ages.

So even though no teens were harmed during the production of my rant, I apologize. I love you teenagers. Rock on! lol.

Repost...The Name Game

2010-08-30T10:42:00.003-04:00

This is a post from June 1st. I was having another conversation about character names and thought I should post this again.As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for character names. Sometimes they just jump out at me and I jot them down on whatever’s handy. At other times, I have to search for a good name. Most of the time main character names jump out at me. I’ll see or hear a name and think, “ohh, I like that.” Even if I don’t have a character for that name yet, some names are just meant to be heroes and heroines.

Usually I have to hunt for a minor character’s name. Working in a doctor’s office gives me an ample supply of all different types of names. We get every ethnicity, every social class and every age…well, as I work at a Perinatal Center, we don’t get every age, but we did have a 51 year old patient last week! I’ve never used someone’s whole name from work. I mostly nab a last name and make up a first name, or vice versa.

I subscribe to David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants—if you aren’t signed up with this, do so. His advice is golden and I’ve learned a lot from these daily tidbits. The other day the Kick in the Pants was about character names, which is where I got the idea for this post. Mr. Farland talked about a movie he watched that he couldn’t enjoy because the names distracted him. In the end, he issued this warning:

“As an author, you’re going to be tempted at one time or another to play games with names. There are a number of traps that you can fall into here, but they’re really all the same trap: your name can call attention to itself and thus distract the reader, pulling him or her from your fictive universe. Be careful!”

There’s a fine line between finding a memorable name and coming up with a name that will make your reader scratch his/her head and think more about the name than your story. Admittedly, I was very confused by most of the names in Harry Potter when I started reading The Sorcerer’s Stone. While I became enthralled with the book, I really got tangled with Dumbledore, Hermione, McGonagall, but especially Hermione.

I guess my point with this example is, if you are going to have odd and hard to pronounce names in your book, you better make sure the story can handle it. Personally, I’m a fan of common names with a slight twist. The MC’s in my current work in progress are Sayra—which most Americans would pronounce somewhat like Sarah, but her Cuban parents would pronounce it Say-ra, giving a little roll to the R—and Chaz. I almost named him Chad, but liked the slight difference the Z made.

So tell me, what are your favorite types of names, and how do you come up with characters names?

Book Signing Guilt

2010-08-24T11:45:00.003-04:00

The other day, while spending a lovely week visiting my parents in Delaware and the beach in Rehoboth, I stumbled across a book sighing. I was in the mall with my mother, waiting to get a new tire at Sears and we stopped in a bookstore—as we can never pass one up.

It was a small store and seated right at the front was an author signing for her first novel. Immediately, I wanted to go over and pick her brain, give her praise and just bask in the glow of her new release euphoria. Someone was speaking with her as I entered so I walked the store, waited while my mother purchased a few novels and as we were headed out, Mom and I stopped to speak with the author.

She was perfectly nice and very enthusiastic about her new novel. I really enjoyed speaking with her. Oh! And she told me she designed her cover. I know it’s rare for authors to have this kind of control, but she said her publisher put her together with a graphic designer and the image on the cover is what came from her mind. How awesome is that? I didn’t ask if she was agented, or self-published, but I should have…sorry.

I didn’t buy a copy of the book. From reading the back, I didn’t think the novel was going to be for me, but also, I was in a bit of a cheap mood because I had to shell out $113 for a freakin’ tire so shelling out $20 wasn’t something I was excited about at the moment. I know that’s not the author’s fault, but I think if it hadn’t been for the stupid tire—taking away from my vacation money—I would’ve bought the book even if I never read it.

So now I feel guilty. I know this is ridiculous because I can’t be expected to buy a novel every time I stumble upon an author signing copies of their books. As a writer, aspiring to sit in a book store and sign/sell copies, I feel like I should’ve supported her.

What do you guys think? Have you been in this situation? Did you buy? If you didn’t did you feel guilty about it?

How Do You Write A Book?

2010-08-19T10:49:00.004-04:00

I was asked this question the other day and for a moment, I didn’t know how to answer. Sure I know how to write a book, I’ve completed five of them so far, but when you actually have to explain the process, it can be daunting. While at the beauty salon on Saturday, I was editing my current manuscript. The girl doing my hair was young and thought I was a teacher (I get that a lot when I'm marking my manuscript with a red pen—once I was asked if I was an actor going over a script-lol).

I told her it was a novel. It’s funny, people who have no clue about writing automatically say, so when is it being published? They have no idea how many steps it goes through before it hits the shelves. Anyway, this girl asked about writing. Her exact question was:

“How do you write a book? I mean, how do you fill up 200 pages telling a story, because when I tell a story it takes about five minutes so how can that fill up a whole book?”

Well, I sat for a moment, because I’d actually never thought about it like that. Yes, when you're telling a story to a person, it should only take a few minutes to regale them with a specific event during your day. If it takes 200 pages to tell someone about the screaming match you had with your boss, no one’s going to be listening when you’re done, and they might brain you with a hammer.

My answer to her was this:

“Well, when you tell a story to a friend it’s usually like, ‘He said this, and then I said that, and then he said this, and then I slapped him.’ The end. So yeah, that should only take a few minutes because really, when you’re talking to a friend and telling a story, no one wants to hear all about the interior of the room, (except if that’s what the story's about) unless a piece of furniture is going to get thrown. But when you’re writing you have to describe everything—or most everything.” (Here I gave her an example as the other beautician entered our area).

“You wouldn’t write, Charlene said, ‘how do you want your hair?’ and the patron said, ‘curly.’

You’d write…Charlene led Mrs. Peterson to the styling area and gestured for the older woman to have a seat. She ran her fingers through Mrs. Peterson’s hair, checking its moisture, looking for damage and signs of a dry scalp. She swiveled the chair slightly, so Mrs. Peterson could look at herself in the ornate mirror mounted above the station. ‘Did you have a style in mind?’ Charlene asked. Mrs. Peterson pressed her lips together, tilted her head from one side to the other and said, ‘I was thinking of something with a lot of curls. It’s getting cooler out, and the curls should last.’”

I explained to the girl doing my hair that a five minute conversation could take up five pages in a book when you add in scenery, expression, dialogue and emotion.

Truthfully, I always thought this was common sense, but I see that I was wrong. It’s common sense because I’m a writer and most of my friends are writers so we just know the basics of writing. There are so many people out there who don’t have a clue so I guess it’s our job to educate-God help them-lol.

I find the deeper I go into this world of writing, the more I’m called upon to answer question. I like it, because I want to explain what I do. Nothing frustrates me more than people who don’t have a clue about what I do, but want to give me advice because they knew someone who published thier book of poems. So all those people out there who have question, if I’m able to answer, I will every time. Sometimes, though, no matter how clear I am, they still walk away scratching their heads.

Do you all find it easy to explain what you do—the basics of writing and how you string together words to make a sentence, sentences to make a paragraph, paragraphs to make a page and pages to create a novel? I thought it would be easy, but I was actually kinda stumped. If you have a better explanation/example by all means, leave it in the comments!

Villains

2010-08-16T08:53:00.005-04:00

I’ve been reading quite a few books that give the villain’s/antagonist's point of view. Usually, I don’t mind this, or at least, I never minded until recently, but lately, it’s been getting on my nerves.

I know what they say, make your villain three dimensional. Give them more shades of gray as opposed to just black and white, and to do that, you have to get into the head of the villain. But what I’m finding is a lot of telling. The problem with giving the villain’s pov is we have to learn their neurosis, there insanity and their motives all without making the novel all about them. What I’ve been getting lately is a three to five page narrative in the mind of a sociopath and it’s no fun being in there, especially when we’ve left some good and interesting characters to take a trip down the rabbit hole.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good demented character just like the next gal, but the rules for villains are the same for any character, show me don’t tell me. I’m finding that I don’t remember any of the information about the antagonist that was dumped on me, so it’s almost pointless to have it in the book.

J.K. Rowling was a bit brilliant with her construction of Voldemort. We first learn about him through fear of his name. Then we fear him because of dastardly deeds of those who are still loyal to him. When we finally get to see Voldemort, live and in person in book four, we are terrified by then. Not everyone will have four books to build up their antagonist, but maybe you’ll have four chapters to show us fear, show us henchmen, show us the end result of one of his/her tirades, and then bring on the villain.

I think about this whenever I’m writing my antagonist and trying to make him/her as shaded in gray as possible, as well as showing their motives and not telling them.

How do you construct your antagonist/villain?

Edit 08/17/10: OMG! I can not believe I had PROTAGONIST all throughout this post. It was like my brain had shut off and only now did I realize, "Dummy, you meant ANTAGONIST!" Thanks to all of the people who said nothing because you knew what I meant. But feel free to correct me in the future-guh!

Tit For Tat

2010-08-11T09:54:00.003-04:00

Taking criticism is often a hard thing. I know this, you know this and anyone who opens themselves up to have their work viewed knows this. I have thick skin, within reason, and I don’t usually fly off the handle when someone gives me tough love…if it is in fact, tough love.

I used to post my work on forums to make it better. Queries, first pages and so on, but now I don’t. Too many eyes come with too many opinions. Many of them are contradictory and some of them are down right insane. That’s the problem with opening yourself up to strangers, you never know their qualifications.

Just recently I forgot my rule and posted a bit of my work on a forum. I really don’t have a problem weeding through the nit-pickers or the flowery-critters and honing in on the true advice that will help me. And like I said, I have a thick skin, but what I’ll never have a thick skin about is someone who wants to tear apart my work because I gave them a less than glowing crit. Payback, so to speak.

I’m never mean-spirited with my feedback because it’s not helpful. I’ve had mean-spirited comments before and even though there was some constructive criticism hidden in there, I couldn’t see past my anger to the true meaning of their comments until much later.

In this situation, I think I was honest and asked the questions I had of the work. Not to be mean, but to give the author something to think about. Coming back and reviewing my post only to place snarky comments about what an agent will and won’t want to see, is ridiculous to me. If you’re not an agent, not even an agented author then you can’t say—with the emphatic certainty that this commenter had—what an agent will or won’t want to see. I felt like the comments were a blatant attempt to get back at me for the comment I left. Of course, I can’t prove this so really the point it moot.

Actually, my point is this; I’m not trying to bad mouth writers forums. They are awesome and have helped me in so many ways I can’t begin to count. But understand when you post on them that not all criticism will help you, not everybody has your best interest at heart and you may walk away more confused than when you started.

End Rant

Have any of you had similar experiences? How did you handle them?

How Much of You is in Your Characters?

2010-08-02T09:45:00.001-04:00

As writers we often place bits of ourselves into the characters we create. Some part of me can be found in everything I’ve written. But only parts, otherwise I’d run the risk of having one fully fleshed out, three-dimensional character and a host of copycats.

My sister just finished reading my latest novel. The first thing she said was that she understood my MC so much. She loved her voice, her humor and she got her insecurities. The reason this resonated with my sister is because it was very much ME. My MC and I are polar opposites physically. She’s tall, slim and of another race than I am, but her personality has bits of me that I think my sister picked up on.

My MC is attractive, but doesn’t really know it. She’s a bit immature, doesn’t really know what to do with boys, and likes to work on cars over being dolled up. When I was 12 I thought nothing of playing games, climbing trees and being a kid. While other kids my age were out discovering boys, I wasn’t.

In the 7th grade, there was a girl in my class who was really nice, but really quiet. One day she sat on the bench while I ran around being chased by my silly friends. I asked if she was okay because she didn’t look well. She stood, perhaps to get away from our loud laughter, and I noticed her pants were undone. I pointed that out to her—being the helpful child that I was—and she promptly told me that she was pregnant and couldn’t close her pants anymore.

I was FLOORED! I feel terrible about it now, but at the time, I stared at her like she was a circus freak. My mind was SO far away from sex, pregnancy and anything close to it, that I didn’t know how to act around her anymore. This may sound weird but, even though I didn’t lose my virginity until 5 years later, I’d lost some innocence that day. At the same time—looking back now I see that—I tried like hell to hold onto what was left.

My struggle for innocence stayed with me so that by the time I was sixteen, all of a sudden, I wanted a boyfriend. I’d spent the three years between 13 and 16 having lots of boys who were friends—and yeah, most of them liked me as more, but I was clueless—to suddenly wanting a boyfriend and feeling like I’d been left at the starting line while my friends had been running for a few years.

This is what my sister picked up on from my MC. It seemed so real to her because I knew exactly what my character was feeling and going through. I didn’t consciously write with the idea that I’d take something from my adolescence and put it in this character. I honestly didn’t notice it until my sister pointed it out.

So tell me, how much of you do you put in your characters?

Facts in Fiction

2010-07-29T13:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was speaking to a coworker—ever notice how many of my posts start from my conversations—and I’d made a comment about a technicality my sister caught in my current ms. I’d mentioned something about a character firing three people without a severance or their 401k. My sister—a human resources director—told me that’s against the law. So I’d needed to change it. No matter what happened, the person was entitled to their 401k since it was money they invested.

This is another example of the value of “readers” because I would’ve never known that. Well, my coworker was like, “Who cares, its fiction!”
I had to explain to her that even in fiction you need facts. Everyone on my job, with the exception of those few who have actually read my writing, think I write nothing but Harry Potter type novels, when in fact, I’ve never written anything remotely close to the Potter universe—other than fanfiction.

To make this coworker understand, I had to point out all the inaccuracies in hospital shows—as we are medical professionals. It’s frustrating for the doctors and nurses I work with to watch their work being so inaccurately portrayed on screen. I said, “That’s fiction, but you want to be accurate, right?”

She understood, I guess, but I have a sneaking suspicion that when she thinks of my writing she envisions people flying around on broomsticks, worried about their 401k’s.

*Le Sigh*

This scenario had me thinking about how much we are willing to suspend our belief while reading fiction. Or watching movies and tv. I just recently saw Salt and, as with most action movies, you have to suspend your belief somewhat so you can go on the ride the director has planned. Watching people accomplish impossible feats and come out unscathed is sometimes hard to sit through without rolling your eyes, but when it’s done correctly, we buy it.

With my current novel, the main character has psychic dreams. Is this real? Who knows? I can honestly say I’ve never met anyone who could tell the future through their dreams. Have I had foreboding dreams? Yes. But out right showing the future, nope, never had, never met anyone with that ability. So to me, everything outside of that one paranormal activity needed to be grounded in fact for this particular story to work. It may change with other novels I write, but as I’m probably always going to write earth bound novels, there will be certain facts that I’ll have to keep intact.

How about you guys? Do you think a lot about the facts you put in your novels? Do you research, ask people who may be in the know, even if you’re writing fantasy and sci-fi? If you have some examples, leave them in the comments.

To Outline or Not Outline…that is the question.

2010-07-26T11:25:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I was reading a post on the blog of kt Literary. The posed was about how people plot out their novels. Outline or fly the seat or your pants? As much as I’ve tried to outline, it’s never stuck. I am and, suspect I always will be, a fly by the seat of my pants type of writer. Perhaps if I ever write something like The Da Vinci Code, or my most recent reads: Caught by Harlan Coben or The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, then perhaps I’ll need to outline, post up cards and have detailed pedigrees. Those stories have a tone of characters, plots within plots and enough twists and turns to snap a neck. So, yeah, I’d probably need to outline.

I’m a character driven writer. I like to read books, watch movies and tv shows which are character driven (one of the reasons I never really got into Law and Order). I care less about the crime and more about the toll it takes on the character.

So for me, I’ve never really had to plot out a character driven novel. Sometimes I have to take note of certain things, for instance:

In my latest novel, the first chapter starts with the main character angry that her on-campus parking spot has been revoked and given to the new guy, even though she stood in line last term to get it, and followed all the rules. It’s a small thing, but I wanted it to come back into play near the end of the book, so hopefully my readers will say, “Oh, now I see why her spot was taken.” The funny thing is, I’d written it down as a reminder to circle back around to it at the end. And then I promptly forgot about it, yet somehow managed to still bring it full circle. So I guess, until my memory stops working for me, I’ll keep flying by the seat of my pants as I write.

Tell me, do you outline or fly by the seat of your pants?

Writers vs. Readers

2010-07-22T09:43:00.003-04:00

Today I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about a comment I made yesterday. I was speaking to a friend who has a copy of my ms and I said that I was looking for real readers for my ms. The word REAL made her look questioningly at me as if I thought of her as a ghost. I hadn’t meant to insult her, really, she’s awesome. I spit the foot out of my mouth and said, “What I meant to say was, I’m looking for writers to read over my ms. Writers and readers look at things differently.”

I was wrong to use the word real and I apologized because everyone who puts in the time to read something you’ve created is VERY real. Once I explained and dug myself out of the hole I’d fallen into, she understood what I’d meant. (and she doesn’t hate me. Yay!)

Sometimes—not all the time—people who have never written anything, can tell you that they liked or disliked something, but can’t really tell you why it works or doesn’t work. I find this to be the case with one of my best friends. She’s well-read and reads fast, but at the end of reading my ms, she will say, it was good. Or, I liked it. While those are the things you want to hear, as an aspiring writer, you need more. With my first ms, I was so frustrated with all those comments that I nearly shelved it for good. I didn’t know any other writers at the time, so I really had no clue if what I’d written was actually good or sucked sideways.

Turns out, it sucked. The novel was WAY too long—like almost 500 pages—I know, right! The plot was thin. The protagonist was 17 and I had way too much explicit sex in it to cater to the teen market. And the format was insanely wrong. I’d italicized, bolded, and double indented all the dialogue. *hangs head in shame* Yeah, I did that.

So as I try to rinse the flavor of my shoe out of my mouth, I want to know if you all understand what I’m saying. Do you think there’s a difference between readers and writers when it comes to reading your manuscript? The value is there for both, of course. The average person who buys your novel will be a “reader” so you don’t want to discount your primary readers opinions. But writers look at things differently. We appreciate sentence structure, deep characters and solid plots and we know how to tell you how great that is. Or we can spot the flaws in all three and know how to tell you how to fix it.

I’d love to hear your opinions!

I have No Patience

2010-07-20T10:36:00.003-04:00

I need help, people! I’m done with my edits and I have readers plowing through my novel as we speak (btw, I still need a beta that’s an actual writer or editor. My readers now aren’t writers, they are family and friends and we all know you need someone with a critical eye. Here is the synopsis of the ms, let me know if any of you out there is interested—thanks!). Now I’m at the point where I have to physically stop myself from sending out a query nearly everyday.

I don’t do it, because I know the repercussions of querying too early, but man am I eager to start. I need you all to talk me down from the ledge and keep me from leaping into query hell prematurely.

What do you guys do when you’re suffering from premature query-lation? Think about baseball? Chew your nails to the nub? Eat chocolate? Write other things? Shop? Or all of the above?

When Did I Write That?

2010-07-19T08:35:00.004-04:00

As I’m in edit mode on my current novel, I read each sentence, each word carefully. Sometimes I have no memory of writing a certain sentences. I remember creating scenes or chapters, but the little bits that constitute a scene or a chapter…I usually can’t say, I remember the day I wrote that sentence.

I found myself explaining this to a friend and I mistakenly told her that’s how it is for writers, that no one remembers the tiny nuances of a chapter or a completed novel, but who am I to speculate?

Maybe there are some of you out there who can say, “I wrote that sentence on the fourth of July.” I think the reason why it’s different for me, and I expect many of you, is because while I may have a detailed scene in my head, when I sit down to write, but then something takes over. I may not stick completely to what’s in my head. And then it’s all organic after that. Sometimes I really like what I’ve written and think, “Wow, I must’ve been on a roll that day.”

Sometimes I’m like, “What was I thinking when I wrote that?” Mostly, it’s a joyous thing and I’m happy to be at the point where I’m revising. I stumble across things that make me smile, laugh out loud or tugs at my heart and I wonder if the reader will feel the same in those places.

Am I the only one who forgets certain sentences, and then is surprised by how good they are? Or are you the type who can’t remember writing every word of your novel?

No Imagination

2010-07-09T15:00:00.006-04:00

I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers and had a sudden realization…this woman lacks any sort of imagination. It all started from a comment I made about wanting a dog just like my sister's…as seen here with Santa and I planned to name him Sirius Black. Well, my coworker had no clue who that was, which is fine. Not everyone is required to know Harry Potter.

When I explained it was from Harry Potter, she went on a tirade about how stupid the books and movies are—even though she’s never read or seen any of them—and that it’s just dumb to write about people flying around on broom sticks. For a minute I just stood and stared at her while my other two coworkers—who’ve read and loved HP—went about telling her how great the books are.

Her counter argument was, “Why can’t people just write about normal stuff?” This was her honest-to-God answer and belief. Now, I’m not one to mock someone’s beliefs because I’d hate for someone to do that to me, but the interaction just made me sad.

What would the world be like if people only wrote about ‘normal stuff’? People are well within their right not to like fantasy for whatever reason they choose, just as I’m well within my right not to like books on science or math. But wow, I have no clue what I would do if I had no imagination. I certainly wouldn’t be a writer.

This coworker is, overall, a decent person. She makes me laugh and we have fun when we hang out, but I could never have a conversation with her about ANYthing other than beer—which I don’t really drink—annoying patients, or family. She has no interest in history, has no clue about current events or even pop culture. Sometimes there is a vast nothingness that comes across her face when you say something to her that you think would be common knowledge. And I just want to point out that I have no plans to change her, because who am I to tell her she shouldn’t be this way? She’s happy, she’s a good person and I really do like her, but my heart just hurt for her today. I know that’s dramatic, but being someone with such a vivid imagination, I almost felt like I should transfuse her or something.

I don’t mean for this blog to sound like I’m ragging on her, because it’s not. It was just something that I saw and as most of the people who follow me are writers, I thought you all could relate and maybe give me some ideas on how to deal with someone who thinks something so valuable and important to me is just a big ball of ridiculousness.

So this is my question…Do you have people in your life—close or not—who think it’s bizarre that you write? Or have you come across people who can’t even begin to wrap their minds around fantastical worlds or think they are a stupid waste of time—especially those of you who write fantasy, urban or otherwise, paranormal, or sci-fi?

From Songs To Novels

2010-07-05T12:17:00.006-04:00

Have you ever listened to a song and a whole freakin’ scene just popped into your head? It happens to me all the time. Most times I ignore it because it’s usually so fragmented that it can’t sustain a full 200 or so pages. But lately, there have been a few CD’s that seemed to have conspired to give me an entire novel. One of the CD’s is The Script.

It all started with their song Breakeven. I heard this song for the first time awhile ago as I was driving. I wasn’t really paying attention to the radio, just driving and writing in my head. Well the song starts with:

I’m still alive, but I’m barely breathing
Just prayed to a God that I don’t believe in

And I went, “Whoa, I need to listen to this.” So I turned up my radio, quieted my brain and fell in love. A few days later I hunted down the CD and to my delight discovered that Breakeven wasn’t even going to be my favorite song on the CD. What happens with me is that I fall in love with several different songs and currently I’m in love with a song called, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.

The song is about a guy who stands on the corner where he first saw the love of his life. He has a sign and her picture hoping that if she changes her mind and wants him back, she’ll come back to that corner. People think he’s homeless, but he’s just heartbroken…okay, when did I become such a sap, because that hits me right where I live.

There’s a part in the song that watered the seed of a novel for me. It goes:

And maybe I’ll get famous as the man who can’t be moved
And maybe you won’t mean to, but you’ll see me on the news
And you’ll come running to the corner ‘cos you know it’s just no use
I’m the man who can’t be moved.

Well, now, thanks to that song and several others including tracks from Kings of Leon and Adelle I have an entire novel added to my list of future projects. Thank God for music!

Just from reading other blogs out there, I know a lot of you have playlists while you write, but have any of you ever been inspired to write a novel based on a song, or CD or a combination of a few songs from different authors?

I Love Books!

2010-07-02T19:18:00.005-04:00

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. I’ve been doing edits on my manuscript, trying to get it ready for my beta readers (if any of you are interested in reading for me, send me an email at kdrose at g mail dot com and I’ll tell you about the book and we can see if we can swap ms if you want).

I’ve been reading a lot. Sometimes I get into a habit where I read/listen to two books at a time. I just finished listening to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson and reading Kill For Me by Karen Rose. I have to say, I almost fried my brain. The two stories were different enough for me not to confuse plots or characters, but they both had TONS of characters in them.

If any of you out there have read any Karen Rose novels you know she gives you lots of people to play with and some of those people aren’t who they say they are. They have different names, nicknames, secret identities or no identities at all. You have to stay on your toes when you read one of her books, but as this novel was part of a series, I already knew most of the characters so I didn’t have so much trouble keeping track.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo…OMG! I don’t know if any of you have read it—I mean, I know I’m late to the game and somebody has to be reading it for as long as it’s been on the bestsellers list—but what a dense novel. Admittedly, I struggled in the beginning. My manager has read all three books and warned me that I might have a hard time getting into the beginning, and that was no lie. I was two discs in and I was like, I don’t know what’s really going on. My manager said, “Karen, promise me you’ll stick with it. It’ll be worth it.” I stuck with it and boy was it worth it. I really loved the book and more over, I loved the way Larsson wrote.

It struck me when I was about halfway through the book that as an unpublished writer, I’d probably have a hard time getting an agent if The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was my first novel. It’s a brilliant story and once someone gave it a chance, they’d see the brilliance, but it’s a story that’s heavily told. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from agents, editors and authors that you should show and not tell. But somehow Larsson tells about 70% of this story and shows about 30%, but it WORKS!

So if any of you are out there looking for a good thriller I whole-heartedly recommend The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Yeah, all both of you who haven’t read it by now-lol. If any of you like a little more romance with your thrillers then pick up a Karen Rose book. You won’t be disappointed.

This combination worked so well for me that I just got The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio and another Karen Rose book, Silent Scream, so I can read some and listen some. God, I love books!

Everyone have a safe fourth! Don’t eat too much and keep your manikins away from fireworks because every year the news show those poor manikins getting their hands blown off…when will they learn?

The Makings of a Bad Narrator

2010-06-15T17:53:00.002-04:00

As most of you know, I listen to a lot of audio books. I’m fortunate enough to have a job that works well with me listening to novels that can sometime have racy language/text and no one will know because I have my own office.

There are some things that annoy the heck out of me with audio books, and I suspect some or all of these things I’m about to list is part of the reason some people don’t like listening to novels.

What makes a bad narrator?

I talk LOUD, I talk low.

This is the fluctuating voice. I’ve listened to audio books that force me to turn the volume down only to turn it way up because the narrator has gone from shouting to whispering in a matter of seconds. Here’s a hint, narrators, if the text calls for you to whisper…DON’T ACTUALLY WHISPER! We can’t hear you! There’s a way to mock whisper so we get the point and still hear important plot points. If you’re a man with a deep voice, talking low will making it virtually impossible to hear you. Has no one told them this?

Angry when I should be Sad.

Actually, you can insert any emotion in those two spots. Whatever it is, the narrator has gotten it wrong. I actually listened to a novel where the narrator was shouting at the love interest, sounding very angry, when he should’ve been scared and shaken. Somewhere toward the end of the monologue the narrator got it and killed the shouting, but the scene was just all messed up by then.

I Put the EmphAsis on the wrong SyllAble.

Mispronouncing words. Man, this gets me steamed. I don’t know what goes into being a narrator for an audio book, but I’d imagine it’s more than just walking into a studio, cracking open the book, clearing your throat and reading. Is there a run through? Do they get a chance to look over the text to get a feel for the characters, decide what voices to use? Figure out that you don’t pronounce short-lived with a long i. Hint, lived—long i—isn’t even a word. Hard to say names are one thing, but to mess up on everyday words just kills me and pulls me right out of the story cause I’m thinking, “Did you seriously just pronounce that word like that?”

Listening to the Paint Dry.

This is the dull voice that will even put someone hopped up on no-doze, red bull and espresso to sleep. I’ve never been able to listen to one of James Patterson’s novels because the narrator was like listening to the man from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller….” Man, I’m falling asleep just thinking about it.

Oh No You Di’int.

This is where the narrator makes all black people sound like they just got off the plantation or out of the ghetto. I want to scream when I hear this. Maybe this annoys me most because I’m black. I kinda understand what they’re trying to do, inject soul into the voice, but if you can’t do it, then don’t try it. If the author has told us that the character is black or African American and doesn’t go out of their way to mention how this person speaks, doesn’t show it in their dialogue then DON’T DO IT! It’s offensive and just wrong. The novel I’m listening to now has a woman who is a dean at a private school for crying out loud, she would not speak like some chick out of the hood! I almost took the CD out, but the story is really good, and I’m hoping this character won’t reappear.

Okay, so now that I’m done with my rant. Any of you have these issues with audio books? Are any of these the reasons why you don’t listen to novels?

Beetles, Wine and True Blood…How’s that for Random?

2010-06-13T13:40:00.011-04:00

Saturday I went to Boordy, one of Maryland’s local vineyards. I’m lucky to live close by and to have good friends who like to do these types of things with me. Wine, music and good company…what more can you need?

It was singles night last night, but no one pays attention to that. There were families and couples and I’m sure singles there too, but I couldn’t find any-lol.

The band was a Beetles tribute band—The Mahoney Brothers—and as the Beetles were a bit before my time, I’m not a diehard fan. I do have my favorites of their songs: Come Together, Hey Jude, Twist and Shout, and Penny Lane. The funny thing was, while this band was great, even down to the costumes, the people were freaking out when they hit the stage like the REAL Beetles were there. I was like, whoa, these people are serious about their Beetles tribute bands-lol.
Before I went off to sample wine and lay back in my chair listening to music, I worked on my manuscript, Light Bringers. I got a pretty good amount of attention on that one, so I’m not willing to shelf it completely. I’ve pretty much made up my mind that once I’ve roped an agent, I can present Light Bringers as a second or third project, once I’ve proven I can sell. Look at how confident I am and not the least bit delusional *clasps hands together in prayer.*

When I wasn’t drinking wine, listening to music and doing rewrites, I was catching up on TV shows on my DVR. Can I just say how much I freakin' LOVE Glee.

You know I’ve got it bad when I watch and wish I’d thought to write it as a novel. Man, I love that show. It’s weird. I always DVR it thinking I’d rather watch/do something else, and then it takes me at least a few days to watch it. It’s like my brain is like, it’s not that good, but man am I always wrong. I had two episodes to catch up on and both had the tears welling up in my eyes.

The other show that I’ve been catching up on is Burn Notice. Now this isn’t a show that makes me wish I’d written it. I don’t know anything about spies and espionage, but I wish to hell I was ON this show. I wouldn’t say no to being Gabrielle Anwar who plays Fiona Glenanne, the volatile love interest of Jeffery Donovan who plays Michael Weston. To me, he’s not someone you’d be like, “oh, god, he’s sooooo cute,” but OMG is he sexy. I’m in lust with him and that show.

I mean, look at him!

But tonight comes one of my favorite shows. I’ve suffered through months waiting for season 3, but now the time has come. True Blood! I better not get a phone call at 9pm est or there will be hell to pay! Well, actually, there won’t be any hell to pay. I just won’t answer the phone.

Wow, reading over this post makes it sound like I’ve had such a busy weekend, but I’ve enjoyed every minute. Are there any shows you can’t do without right now? Summer isn’t the time to be plopped in front of the TV, hence my DVR, but when I’m all done with writing for the day and I have my terrace door open, listening to nature, I sometimes like to catch up on shows I’ve missed.

Hope you all had a good weekend. Be safe!

Writing Out of Order

2010-06-10T10:07:00.002-04:00

So I was just reading a post by David Farland, about When to Write That Great Scene Bouncing Around in Your Head.

It got me thinking about how my writing has changed over the years. I don’t know how unusual this is, but I’ve never written a short story—with the exception of the writing I did when I was a kid and wrote my first story, MURDER SHE WROTE—BLOOD ON THE PORK CHOP. My parents should’ve really gotten my head examined, but they listened—and laughed—at my tale of murder with pig products.

When I started to write later in life, as a teenager, I began with a novel. The thought never occurred to write a short story. So I’ve always had these big ideas rolling around in my head. When it came time to write my second novel, I had a scene in my head of gorgeous twin brothers and the girl they grew up with. One brother thought of her as a sister and the other thought of her as so much more and they were discussing the pros and the cons of this brother pursuing a relationship with this girl who grew up with them like family. This scene kept looping over and over in my mind and I couldn’t wait until I got to that part so I could finally get it down on paper…or actually, on the computer.

For years I wrote like that, letting one scene drive me to fill in the story around that inspired scene. Over the last year, as ideas and scenes filled my head, I changed that approach. I write the scene when I think of it, get it out of my head so I can breathe again. Otherwise I find myself zoning out during staff meetings, when people are talking to me, and when I’m listing to audio books at work. Also, as long as I’m stuck in that scene and my other writing suffers.

I found that I really enjoy writing like this. I have a wip that has four files attached to it. The first is the main document to the manuscript because the opening scene happened to be one that haunted me until I wrote it. The next scene I wrote was the end. I couldn’t get this conclusion out of my mind and while it may change, the gist of it will remain the same. The other two scenes happen in the middle of the novel, but they are intricate parts of the story. So now, when I sit down to finish this novel, I’ll have most of it in pieces.

I trust my brain—for now—but it never hurts to get those nagging scenes out of my head so I can fill them with more beautiful ideas! Do you guys do this? Do you jot down ideas in little books, on napkins and then work from there? I’d love to know what your writing process is when the story comes to you out of order.

Excerpts/Outtake

2010-06-07T18:40:00.003-04:00

Since I'm all done with this current novel...well, for the time being, I've decided to post a scene that didn't make it into the first draft. I liked the scene, but it didn't really move the story along and I knew it almost as soon as I wrote it. So it was one of those scenes that got deleted pretty quickly. As I'm writing, I make a file of all big chunks of text that I delete, just in case I change my mind. Do you guys do something like that ? Do you keep big deletes? Would you ever share them?

Scene Summary:

Sayra and Chaz have been outside during their lunch period, in a place they have to get to through the boiler room. So while they wait for their eyes to adjust from the sunny garden to the dark boiler room, they have this conversation:

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you,” I said as we waited to see more than two inches in front of our faces. “I told my mother that you said her books were filled with heaving bosoms, throbbing loins and—”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“It just came out. I blame you.”

“Okay, this oughta be good.” Chaz folded his arms over his chest. “How am I responsible?”

“You fed us all that sugar and fat and it did something to my brain.”

“Uh-huh. So I guess I can forget ever meeting her. No way I’ll be able to look her in the face now.”

“She won’t remember. But the crazy part is, she made me read one of her books. I have until Sunday and then we have to discuss it.”

“Yikes.”

“I know, right? I’ve read about half of it and I have to admit it’s really good. It’s weird though, the main character’s name is Sayra.”

“Really? So your mom named her character after you. That’s kinda cool.”

“No, she wrote this book before I was born so I’m named after the character.”

“Oh. Well, it’s still kinda cool.”

“It is, but it’s weirding me out. I think I’m coming up to the part where the girl is about to, you know…do it for the first time and I’m going to freak if this dude is all like, ‘Oh Sayra, let me touch your heaving bosoms.’”

Chaz laughed so hard I thought I was going to have to resuscitate him. “Oh god, let’s hope your mom is a better writer than that.”

I'm DONE!

2010-06-06T19:15:00.004-04:00

Yay! I just finished my current manuscript, PLATINUM DIARIES. I sat down on Saturday morning and said I would not get up until my novel was finished. As I’d said that the weekend before Memorial Day, I meant it this time. And wouldn’t you know, 5900 words later, I was finished my rough draft!

Whew, I’m tired, but also excited. I know I’m going to find a lot to change, cut or expand on and that editorial process always gets my juices flowing. I’m excited to let people read it because Platinum Diaries is significantly different from my last manuscript, LIGHT BRINGERS.

So now my plan is to let it sit for about six to eight weeks and then read over it and cut, chop, change. Then I’ll line up some beta buddies and hopefully, I can be off to query land or query hell, however you want to look at it. Personally, I can’t wait to query, but I will, as I only have one chance to make a first impression.

So tell me, how long do you let your first draft sit before you go at it with the machete? And if anyone is looking for a query letter or YA paranormal ms to beta, drop me a line!

The Name Game

2010-06-01T19:10:00.003-04:00

As a writer, I’m always on the lookout for character names. Sometimes they just jump out at me and I jot them down on whatever’s handy. At other times, I have to search for a good name. Most of the time main character names jump out at me. I’ll see or hear a name and think, “ohh, I like that.” Even if I don’t have a character for that name yet, some names are just meant to be heroes and heroines.

Usually I have to hunt for a minor character’s name. Working in a doctor’s office gives me an ample supply of all different types of names. We get every ethnicity, every social class and every age…well, as I work at a Perinatal Center, we don’t get every age, but we had a 51 year old patient last week! I’ve never used someone’s whole name from work. I mostly nab a last name and make up a first name, or vice versa.

I subscribe to David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants—if you aren’t signed up with this, do so. His advice is golden and I’ve learned a lot from these daily tidbits. The other day the Kick in the Pants was about character names, which is where I got the idea for this post. Mr. Farland talked about a movie he watched that he couldn’t enjoy because the names distracted him. In the end, he issued this warning: “As an author, you’re going to be tempted at one time or another to play games with names. There are a number of traps that you can fall into here, but they’re really all the same trap: your name can call attention to itself and thus distract the reader, pulling him or her from your fictive universe. Be careful!”

There’s a fine line between finding a memorable name and coming up with a name that will make your reader scratch his/her head and think more about the name than your story. Admittedly, I was very confused by most of the names in Harry Potter when I started reading The Sorcerer’s Stone. While I became enthralled with the book, I really got tangled with Dumbledore, Hermione, McGonagall—especially Hermione—and others. I guess my point with this example is, if you are going to have odd and hard to pronounce names in your book, you better make sure the story can handle it.

Personally, I’m a fan of common names with a slight twist. The MC’s in my current work in progress are Sayra—which most Americans would pronounce somewhat like Sarah, but her Cuban parents would pronounce it Say-ra, giving a little roll to the R—and Chaz. I almost named him Chad, but liked the slight difference the Z made.

So tell me, what are your favorite types of names, and how do you come up with characters names?

Karen Rose

2010-05-21T18:18:00.004-04:00

So as you all may know, my name is Karen Rose and there is also a well established author with the same name. As an aspiring writer, whenever I see one of her books in a store my first thought is, oooh, my name is on a book! My second thought is:

“John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
His name is my name too
Whenever we go out, the people always shout
There goes JOHN JACOB JINGLEHEIMER SCHMIDT!
NA NA NA NA NA NA…”

That song has been in my freakin head all day! But it’s all good, because I’ve finally read one of Karen Rose’s books, Scream For Me, and it was very good!

I’m halfway through another of her books, I Can See You.

And I’m enjoying this one even more than the last. So Ms Rose is doing my name proud.

As much as I’d like to publish under my name, I’m fine using a pseudonym. If any of you like thrillers with lots of sexual tension that will leave you satisfied when it’s resolved, go check out Karen Rose’s books.

One day I’ll be saying that about my own book!

First Kiss

2010-05-05T20:12:00.004-04:00

Hi all! I know I've been silent for a spell, but all is well...hey, that rhymed. Still, I'm feeling good and that's the reason for my absence. I've had to catch up on lots of things. One of those things was coming up with a list of what I hope will become weekly posts. As I have family coming in this weekend, I'll be starting that on Monday...I hope.

But for today, I've submitted a first kiss scene to Miss Snark's First Victim's site. If you want to go check it out, go here. It's number 40 and from Platinum Diary and it's a rough draft so be kind...actually, tell the truth. I'm telling you all which one is mine because it's NOT a contest, just something the wonderful Authoress thought up and wanted to share. I love writing kissing scenes and at the same time, I hate it. I love when my characters get to the point where they can share a kiss, but I get so worked up about writing it. I know I'll change this scene at least two more times before I'm satisfied with it. All the same, I love reading kissing scenes, so let me know if you've submitted anything and I'll go check it out!

WIP Excerpt

2010-04-20T21:15:00.004-04:00

This is another excerpt from my wip, Platinum Diary. In this scene, Sayra is sitting in her car, feeling bad about the way she looks, about the fact that she's never read one of her mother's novels and about a boy--of course. She's talking to one of her best friends, Penny.
~*~
“Do you think I’m weird because I never snuck and read any of my mom’s books? I mean, she wasn’t even your mother and when you were told they were off limits, you went right out and read them.”

“Well, I have a sneaky streak," Penny said. "But I don’t think it’s weird. No weirder than me not really liking my father’s rap music. I mean, I listen to his latest song, pretend I’m all into rap and then go to my room and listen to Colbie Caillat.” She shrugged. “Mechanics interests you, reading romance interests me.”

“My mom was hurt because I never asked to read any of her books.” I couldn’t hide the shame in my voice. Penny stayed quiet as a Taylor Swift song played through the car speakers, filling the silence. “Maybe I should try to be more girly.” I lifted a shoulder, thinking back on my issue with Chaz. “Maybe I should start wearing makeup and stuff like that. Get the dirt from under my nails and soften my hands.”

Penny twisted in the seat to face me. “Okay, so let me tell you what’s not going to happen. We’re not going to have a makeover party straight out of a teen movie, where I do your hair and buy you new clothes and you walk through school like the new hot girl. No. Not gonna happen. And while we’re at it, stop trying to make yourself look shorter. News flash—it ain’t workin’! I know you think you walk around proud of your height, but you don’t. You sit in the back in class just 'cos you think people can’t see around you—so what if they can’t? You never wear heels and whether you know it or not, you don’t stand at your full height.”

Wow, I didn’t know that.

Penny took a breath and continued. “If you want softer hands and less dirt under your nails then wear gloves when you work on cars. You don’t blend at West Nottingham, but neither do I. I’m one of the only black people at that school. I mean, it’s bad enough I’m a black girl named Penelope, but—”

“Yeah, what were your parent’s thinking?” I chuckled.

“Somebody's aunt's aunt had the name, whatever, I’m stuck with it. My point is, I stand out at our school just like you, but you don’t see me trying to make my skin lighter.”

“How would you do that anyway?”

"Can I finish, please?"

I zipped my lips.

"I like most of the people at our school, but I can’t make myself into a clone of Hillary, who, in my opinion, is the epitome of the sunny California girl, just so I could blend in better. I have to be me—brown skin, braids, sexy curves.” She lifted a shoulder with a big smile.

“Yeah, but look at you.”

Penny sighed. “Okay then, let’s take Ivan. He doesn’t lift weights to improve on that birdcage he calls a chest.” She talked over my laughter. “Does he cut off his ja-fro so people will stop talking about his hair? No. He could do things to make himself fit more comfortably into the West Nottingham world, but he doesn’t. He’s a skinny, bushy-haired geek and he’s proud of—”

“You’d better not be talking about me.”

Penny and I screamed as Ivan’s face appeared at the passenger window. He crouched, folding his arms over the car window, and waited patiently while we caught our breaths.

Medical Updates and Word Counts

2010-04-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

So, just to keep everyone updated. I had a Lumbar Puncture (Spinal Tap) on Wednesday and yes, it’s just as bad as it sounds-lol. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. Not really painful, but imagine if you will, someone sticking something sharp into your back, you’d want them to stop doing that, right? All of you women who’ve had epidurals know what I’m talking about.

The purpose of the LP was to measure the opening pressure of my spinal fluid. I was told the normal pressure should be between 10 and 20. Mine was 33. So it explains the headaches, dizziness, swollen optic nerves and whooshing in my ears. The doctor took a sample and drained off a little extra. I felt better when I left, aside from the pain in my back. But I felt no headaches, dizziness or whooshing for several hours and then it came back. I’m assuming the fluid replaced itself.

I’m now on the diuretic and let me tell you, I think I might have to move my office into the bathroom! One of the side effects is tingling in the fingers or toes. Well, I knew this beforehand but when my pinky toes started tingling, I thought bugs had simultaneously started attacking them! lol. It only lasts a few minutes, thankfully. Tingling toes aside, I’m feeling so much better. My eyes don’t hurt and my vision is already much, much better! Can’t complain about that.

Anywho, on to better things. I’ve been writing like a madwoman! I love it. I think from Friday, I’ve added 6000 words to my wip. My word count is up to 48k and as I think this story will top out at 65k, I should be finished by the end of the month. Then I’ll let it sit until mid June or maybe July. I can’t wait! I’m so excited to start querying again. As much as it’s hell, I really do love the whole business of it. I know this is going to sound crazy, but when I get an agent, I’m going to miss querying…though, not enough to turn down an offer. I’m not crazy-lol!

So, I’ll be posting an excerpt tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, I’ve lost 10 pounds!!! WooHoo!

My Pseudo Sickness

2010-04-12T08:28:00.000-04:00

Hi all…I’m sorry I’ve been M.I.A. lately, but I was just recently diagnosed with a condition called Pseudotumor Cerebri. For the past seven months I’ve been having dizziness, mild headaches and a whooshing sound in my ears. My doctor thought maybe it was from poor circulation at first, but that proved to be wrong. For a while I ignored it and chalked it up to just sitting too long at work.

Then a month or so ago the dizziness got so bad that it started scaring me. My ears constantly felt like I was flying in a plane and waiting them to pop, which they never did. My doctor said my blood pressure was dropping when I stood and that’s what was making me dizzy. I posted about that, but turns out what my doctor thought was a side effect from my medicine turned out not to be the cause either.

No one could explain the whooshing in my ears and that, along with the dizziness, were the most constant symptoms I had. My doctor sent me for an MRI…which was terrible…and that came back negative, thank God.

I’d started having increased headaches, so much so that I went through a 50 count bottle of Excedrine in 2 wks! That many pills would normally last me a year or longer. Then I started having pains in my eyes to go along with the dizziness, headaches and whooshing in my ears. Two weeks ago I started seeing double. It happened off and on, but it scared the heck out of me.

It was time for my annual eye exam so I went to my optometrist—told him about the pain in my eyes, headaches and double vision. He used that instrument they have to look into your eye and said, “Huh.”

Let me tell you, you never want a doctor to say that when they’re examining you. When he looked into my left eye he said, “This is weird.” Something else you don’t want a doctor to say while examining you.

He told me that if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d just had a clear MRI, he’d have though I had a brain tumor based on how swollen my optic nerve looked. Again, something you don’t want to hear. So he referred me to a Neuro-Optometrist. She diagnosed me with Pseudotumor.

Oh, I guess I should tell you what Pseudotumor Cerebri is. It’s basically too much fluid around the brain. There’s no known cause for it, but it’s more prevalent in women of child bearing age who are overweight—I’m two for two-lol.

I have to have a lumbar puncture—spinal tap—to measure the fluid and then I will start on a diuretic to run the fluid off. That should alleviate the pressure on my eyes, stop the headaches and the dizziness. I’ll have to shed some pounds which I was already doing and hopefully that’ll be the end of it.

I’m sharing this and going into detail, just in case someone else is out there suffering from this and can’t figure out what’s wrong with them. While no one wants to have anything wrong with them, you just don't know how good it feels to know what's wrong with you AND to know how to fix it.

I haven’t posted in a while because my eyes have been really tired and achy when I get off from work, and that’s usually when I get the double vision. But this weekend I did a lot of writing on my wip! And my eyes are doing well. I’ll be posting a little more frequently and maybe drop an excerpt since I don’t have to do much but cut and pastes.

If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask.

P.S. A.L. Sonnichen…I haven’t forgotten about your query, but I’ve been resting my eyes in the evening. I should be getting to it in a few days.

Take care everyone!

W.I.P. Excerpt

2010-03-26T15:12:00.002-04:00

Excerpt from PlATINUM DIARIES: Sayra just spent an afternoon with her friends and found out a couple of them had read the books her mom wrote, and they aren’t books targeted to teens.
~*~
That reminded me, and before they could speak I said, “Guess what I learned today?”

They both looked at me with mild curiosity.

“Mom writes porn.”

Dad’s café sprayed the counter as he choked on his mouthful.

“Excuse me?” Mom’s face took on an expression that had me thinking, ‘oh shit’. Say something, stupid, or run out of the room faking impending projectile vomiting. Granted, if Mom kept looking at me like that, there would be no faking involved.

“I…well, I mean…Chaz told me that you write about heaving bosoms and throbbing loins and—”
Dad choked again, but this time it was on his laughter.

Mom aimed her daggers at Dad. “You find it funny that our child is being disrespectful?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Sit,” she snapped and I plopped my butt on one of the high-back stools at the island. Dad sat on my right at the end of the island, with Mom on the other side, squaring off with me.

“What do you know of the books I write?”

I licked my lips, annoyed that now they seemed glued together when they should’ve been sealed shut minutes ago. “Um, well, nothing. I just—”

“Exactly. You know nothing about it, and do you know why?”

Did she want me to answer that? “Well, because you told me that I couldn’t read them.”

“Years ago, yes. But natural curiosity should’ve made you question me by now. You’re just not concerned with anything that doesn’t have to do with car parts.”

Ouch. That was the second person to tell me I wasn’t normal. I starred at her as a bit of anger flared up side. “So Chaz lied, you don’t have characters named Storm or Sebastian in your novels?”

When she glared at me, I dropped my eyes. “I do,” she said. “But give me some credit not to be such a cliché as to have heaving bosoms and throbbing members. I write romance and fantasy, but it’s in a real way. You’re not a child anymore, Sayra, why are you so upset by this?”

“Because…people will make fun of me at school. Hillary knows now and I don’t know how, but she’ll make my life hell because of it.”

Mom shook her head and walked out of the kitchen. I stood to go after her, but Dad clamped a hand over my forearm. He gestured for me to sit back down. A moment later Mom returned. She resumed her position on the other side of the island and tossed a book in front of me. It had a metallic blue jacket with the word, FIRSTS written in silver.

“That’s one of the first books I had published. It’s about a twenty-year-old girl going through an identity crisis and experiencing a series of firsts, including her first sexual experience. You’ll be twenty soon enough and will be having sex soon enough too.”

Dad jerked like someone had touched the back of his neck with icy fingers. He hissed something in Spanish, but Mom ignored him.

FanFiction...Yay or Nay?

2010-03-23T09:56:00.004-04:00

I read this article about fanfiction. It got me thinking, so here is the story of how fanfiction changed my life.

Back in 2005 I was at work saving pictures to my computer for a slideshow screensaver. To add to pictures of family and friends, I also wanted pictures of some of my favorite things. So I searched the internet for pictures of puppies, *awe*, wine and martinis, *yum* and of course of covers of books that I love. It’s when I typed Ron and Hermione into the search engine that I found a horde of fanfiction sites.

As a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of this stuff before—a place where people go and write stories based on popular novels and movies and tv shows. Still, at this point I was only looking for pictures to round out my slideshow screensaver.

Eagerly anticipating The Half-Blood Prince I, like many others, wanted something to hold me over. I didn’t know it would be fan fiction, nor did I know I’d like it so much. Admittedly, some of the first stories I read were pretty bad. Lot’s of goofy stories about Ron running around in his boxers, but then I stumbled upon this story called After the End at a site named The Sugar Quill. Wow, that story was amazing! It was super long—I think 1000 pages or something crazy like that—but when you’re getting it chapter by chapter, you’d read a million pages if you loved it enough.

In 2007 I took the leap and wrote my own fanfiction. I don’t know why, but I felt like I should try. I’d written original work before that, tons of it for my own personal enjoyment and some with the hopes of publication. But one thing I can say about writing fanfiction is that I learned a lot about what NOT to do. There are some bad habits that can be picked up in fanfiction. Lots of purple prose, lots of Mary Sue characters and lots of runaway stories—hard to rein yourself in when you have no one tell you, “enough already!”

But I have learned some priceless lessons too. It taught me to take criticism. When you put your story or chapter out there for all to see, people can be brutally honest if not cruel. Fortunately, I never had anyone be nasty, but some were brutal. I used to guard my writing like a fragile antique, all bubbled-wrapped and strapped to my chest. But fanfiction helped me share it with strangers. That there is one lesson I’m SO happy I learned. You can never hope to be a successful writer if you’re terrified to let people read your work. Before fanfiction, I was TERRIFIED!

There is and probably always will be controversy surrounding fanfiction. Some people think it's for losers and I for one was embarassed to tell people how into it I was--I'm not anymore.

Some authors don’t want people writing their characters in different stories/situations that they haven’t created themselves. I understand and I respect it. At the same time, I don’t know that I would care if fans created fiction based on characters from my novels. First, I’d probably be jazzed that my work was popular enough to spawn fanfiction, but if they weren’t profiting from the stories then I don’t think I’d mind.

I can’t really say because I’m not in the shoes of a J. K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, or Anne Rice. But looking at it from my point of view…with all the help it’s given me, I seriously doubt that I’d be willing to fight fans looking to write fiction based off my characters. I don’t write fanfiction anymore, haven’t for more than two years. It’s not because I’ve changed my opinion of it, it’s more so because it opened my eyes to the type of writer I want to be, one who writes fantasy for young adults.

So tell me, are you a fan of fanfiction? Has it helped you? Or do you think it’s a rip off of the original author? All opinions are welcome!

Blogging for a Year!

2010-03-22T08:32:00.004-04:00

I just realized that I’ve been on Blogger for a year. This came about when I started looking for a topic that I wanted to blog about and couldn’t remember if I’d posted something on that topic before. The exact date was March 1, 2009 so it’s technically a belated birthday.

Initially I was on Live Journal. And while I enjoyed LJ, I realized I was coming over to Blogger more and more to read the posts of industry people, aspiring writers and just some all around great blogs. So I created a blog over here. At first I thought I would only talk about my writing process, maybe use it as a query tracker. I have used it for talking about writing, but it’s also been a place for me to learn and meet people.

Looking at my first post,--which going back to read it felt like more of a complaint than a post—I remember sitting back and waiting for some comments to come in-lol. I had no followers, but I wasn’t really sure how Blogger worked-lol. Then as I read a post by someone, I don’t remember who now, but she was saying how to make your blog more active and successful. She said you must follow people to get followers. I didn’t know how to follow people. I’d found some really great blogs and wanted to be a follower and once I figured that out, I started following like crazy.

I wasn’t doing it just to get followers. There were certain criteria a blog had to meet for me to follow. For the most part, the blog had to be about writing in some form, professional or just the love of it. Also, they had to be active, blogging a least a few times a week and then I’d follow them. But I also found followers from blogs like Miss Snark’s First Victim, Nathan Bransford, Colleen Lindsay, and Rachel Gardener. I’d read the comments on their posts and go to the pages of the ones who said something I enjoyed, agreed with or even some I didn’t agree with. If I like their blog, then I’d follow.

Over this year, I’ve learned so much about my writing, about the manuscript I queried in 2009 and about myself. So I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you out there who offered advice, encouragement and just a pat on the back when I needed it.

THANK YOU!

The Thin Line Between Realistic and Too Realistic Dialogue

2010-03-19T11:16:00.003-04:00

Today I had a typical conversation with one of my friends at work. It went something like this:

Trish bursts into my office. “Are you okay with lunch at The Orient?”
“What?” I said, because I genuinely didn’t hear her since I was listening to an audio book.
“The Orient.”
“What?”
“The Orient?”
“Why do you keep saying The Orient to me?”
She laughs. “Are you good with lunch from The Orient?”
“Do I have to go get it for everyone?” (I’m the designated lunch getter since I don’t see patients.)
“No.”
“Then I don’t care where we eat.”

So this is a prime example of how real people converse…sometimes-lol. Although I’ve never understood why people simply repeat the last word when they’ve asked a question and someone didn’t hear them. Still, we wouldn’t want to write anything like the above interaction, nor would we want to read it.

Some people have very distinct and sometimes horrifying ways of speaking, or slaughtering the English language. Even as one side of me squirms when I hear someone ask, “Where you been at?” there’s another part of me that thinks of a character who might speak like that. I think there’s a fine line between making dialogue real and making it too real.

If someone speaks broken English, it would be hard to write—and read—a whole page of dialogue with figgerin’ and nuffin’ and dunno’s all throughout it.

So here’s a bit of dialogue from one of my current works, DWELLERS, tell me what you think. And feel free to put some of your dialogue in the comments where you may have a character speaking in broken language or has an unusual way of speaking. I’d love to read it!

This is a conversation involving Britta (the heroine), Gareth (the hero), and Keo (the leader of the strangers they’ve just met). Keo has a bit of a lazy drawl and a southern twang. I wanted to make his way of speaking a bit different and hopefully it shows.
~*~

“So the government still exists?” I ask.

“Course.” Keo pinches the area between his brows. I know my questions are inane to him, but there’s a lot I don’t know.

He continues. “Renegade soldiers been herdin’ Dwellers south, anywhere below Virginia. They plan to blow this place off the map in ‘bout four weeks, last I heard. So that means we got a week, but I’m outta here in three days tops.”

Gareth looks at Keo like he can’t understand the language Keo is speaking. “How the hell do you herd Dwellers?”

Keo barks out a laugh. “Trust me, you don’t wanna be face to face with a Renegade soldier. They ain’t nothing nice, and I might add, they the only ones allowed to drive, other than a few licensed poachers. Anything that’s not in a Renegade uniform is an enemy and they don’t ask questions—capture or kill. Believe me, you don’t wanna be captured.”

“They’ll kill even humans?” I ask.

“I repeat, capture or kill. Best thing to do when a Renegade is near…run, hide, pray.”
I’m not sure I want to know, but I ask anyway. “What do they do with captures?”

“Experiments. Stuff like they did with the Dwellers.”

~*~
I really like writing dialogue, but it’s one of the things that intimidate me too. Not as much as writing scenerymakes me squirm, but with dialogue, I want to make sure I capture the flow and the natural breaks without making it too chunky, or having it be too wordy. So now, I pay attention to how I speak and sometimes I’ll play over conversations I’ve had in my head and ask, “Would that look right on a page?” Most times the answer is, no.

Query, Query, Why So Dreary?

2010-03-16T20:36:00.005-04:00

Today's, or rather, tonight's post is inspired by a comment by the lovely A.L. Sonnichen from yesterday's post and my admission of how I like to write query letters. I think I need to explain this a bit more.

When I’m having writer’s block…well, I don’t really like to call it writer’s block, I’m more so just at a stall and need to let my mind focus on other things. So when I’m like that, I still like to be in the world of the manuscript and that often has me writing my query or synopsis.

I know some people think you shouldn’t be writing a query or even thinking about it until your manuscript is complete, but I say do what you want! If it helps to keep you in that world by drafting out a letter, then do it. I have queries written for books I haven’t even started. Now I will caution not to send out the query until the ms is complete, but write it whenever you feel like it.

So here’s my offer. Because A.L. Sonnichen wanted to know if I offer help to those aspiring writers who have queries they’re struggling with, I came up with this idea. If you look to the right sidebar you will see where the fan-tab-ulous Daphne Unfeasible--a.k.a Kate Testerman over at KT Literary--critiqued my query for LIGHT BRINGERS, or you can go here and read it. I’ve also posted the query I just wrote for my current w.i.p., PLATINUM DIARIES, if you like either of them and want me to take a look at your query, feel free to email me at kdrose72 at gmail dot com and I’ll have a looksee.

Also, feel free to offer an opinion on either of my posted queries!

Note: I can’t claim major success with my query for Light Bringers, but it did get me several requests for partials which lead to a few full requests. Ultimately I haven’t landed an agent, YET :-), but there are some problems with LB that I’m working on and I truly believe it will see the inside of the books stores, and not just from me carrying the ms into Barnes & Nobel-lol.

~*~

I am seeking representation for my young adult paranormal novel, PLATINUM DIARIES, where dreams can cause real life nightmares.

Sixteen-year-old Sayra Nieves’s dreams always come true. Usually, her nocturnal visions are glimpses of teen angst—who’ll get caught making out behind the bleachers, who’ll face-plant in the cafeteria, or which teacher has a pop quiz planned. When she dreams of a man being murdered by a gang of masked men, Sayra is shaken to her core—she’s never had a dream that hasn’t come true. Because the dream manifests after the new student, Chaz Bishop knocks her off her bike with his truck, she wonders if that accident is the reason for the violent turn in her dreams.

Weird by most standards, Chaz instantly lands on Sayra’s bad side with his gloved hands, tightly buttoned shirts and freakish aversion to being touched. He’s kind of cute, but to Sayra, not nearly cute enough to overlook his odd-ball behavior. It becomes a side project for Sayra, finding out why Chaz is so weird about being touched. But as her dreams become more sinister, Sayra enlists the help of her two best friends—and reluctantly, Chaz—to begin their own amateur sleuthing. As one mystery leads to another, Sayra quickly discovers that she and her friends are dangerously in over their heads. But once they discover the identity of the murdered man from her dreams, no one will quit until they help him, even if it costs them their lives.

Platinum Diaries is complete at 65,000 words. I majored in English at the University of Maryland, where I studied media arts and creative writing. I believe fans of Lisa McMann and Alyson Noel may enjoy my novel. The entire manuscript is available upon request. Thank you for your consideration.

Tagged

2010-03-15T21:54:00.002-04:00

I got tagged my Tere over at The Lesser Key and here's what I have to do:

Finish each sentence and then tag three bloggers.

• I like Peanut M&Ms…duh.
• I like listening to audio books at work.
• I like having a dvd marathon of tv show seasons I’ve missed.
• I like a good steak…man I could go for a prime rib right now!
• I like happy hour with my coworkers…5pm and a cosmo is alright with me!
• I like making protein shakes. I know that sounds lame, but they really help me lose weight.
• I like my new H2Go water bottle. It’s eco friendly, and a cute copper color and helps me get in at least 64 oz of water a day.
• I like writing query letters…I know, I know. This is something I’ve just discovered about myself and it’s shocking-lol.
• I like summer when the festivals and vineyards are open and the weather is balmy.
• I love my mother and sister…I know I should, but I really do. They’re awesome!
•
• Today was boring at work, but tonight I did my workout and now I’ll write a bit and then watch my shows…Life Unexpected, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Greek! So the nights looking less boring.
• I hate getting an MRI. Just had one for the first time and it was the WORST!
• I hate seeing anything with big pores. Not people who have large pores, but something abnormal like this frog I saw once with all these holes in its back. So basically any tight cluster of holes that could be porous will gross me out-lol
• I hate waiting forever to get my hair done! Salons are ridiculous!
• I hate doing dishes…nuf said.
• I hate news stories about people doing things we shouldn’t care about ie: John and Kate, Heidi and Spencer, Tiger Woods sex scandal…need I say more people?!
• I hate when I’m scheduling people at work and they won’t shut up and let me give them the information they need.
• I hate racism…nuf said there too.
• I (secretly) like America’s Next Top Model…omg, did I just admit that? Sorry, but I can’t help it. For some strange reason I like looking at the finished pictures.
• I love writing and can’t wait until I can do it fulltime!

And I chose to tag:
Tamika
Jemi
Tracy

WIP Excerpt

2010-03-13T12:46:00.005-05:00

This excerpt is also from my current w-i-p PLATNIUM DIARIES. Sayra (16yrs old) is at school talking to her best friends Ivan and Penelope about the dream she had last night—the first violent dream she has ever had.

~*~

Ivan sat beside me again. “Haven’t you ever had a dream that was just a dream?”

Again, I shook my head. I couldn’t recall a single dream that hadn’t come true. In fact, I had no memory of ever having a dream before I turned eight.

“Maybe this is the first,” Ivan said hopefully.

“Yeah,” Penelope added.

They were trying to make me feel better, and I loved them for it, but there was no denying it. I’d dreamed the murder and it was going to happen. The diary was snatched out of Penelope’s hand before any of us knew what happened.

“Dear Diary, I think Chaz Bishop is ever-so dreamy.” Hillary giggled while she walked up the steps as if no one would dare rip out her hair, which was exactly what I’d planned to do. I dashed after her, ignoring the jackhammer attacking my head and the greasy ball of nausea in my stomach. Maybe I’d puke on her.

Tag grabbed the diary from Hillary, laughing like the oaf that he was. He looked at Hillary for approval and when he got it, held my dairy out of reach.

“Give it back, you idiot!” I might’ve felt like the walking dead, but nothing lit a fire in me like someone touching my diary without permission. I jumped for it, but as one of the few people taller than me, Tag managed to keep it just out of my grasp. Then his free hand was caught and bent behind his back. The glee on his face quickly turned to terror as Ivan gripped Tag where his neck and shoulder met, bringing the big guy to his knees.

A hush fell over the front steps as nearly the entire school watched. One of Tag’s cronies ran up, ready to swing, but Ivan only kicked out his long leg and tripped the guy, sending him sprawling across the steps.

“Give her back the diary,” Ivan said quietly.

Tag’s face had turned a purplish-red and a vein in his forehead bulged, but he held out the diary.

“Asshole.” I snatched the book.

Ivan released Tag and danced back quickly, anticipating the attack. Tag had to save face, after all. He swung wildly, but Ivan sidestepped, ducked, pivoted and managed to avoid both throwing a punch and having one land. Somehow Tag still ended up on his ass looking dazed.

Every so often some testosterone-head would try Ivan, unable to resist his gangly build, his glasses, his ja-fro and his affinity for electronics. They always seemed to forget that Ivan was a second-degree black belt until they were staring down the business end of his fist or foot. His parents put him in the classes when he was seven to give him confidence. In all the years I’d known Ivan, I’d never seen him start a fight, but he’d always finished them.

The Great Audio Book Debate

2010-03-12T09:15:00.004-05:00

I’ve spoken of my fondness of audio books before, but I find myself defending my stories on cd once again. A co-worker told me I was cheating listening to audio books. Cheating…moi? Surely you jest. Am I not actively engaged? Is the story not embedded into my mind? Do I not fall in love, or out of love, or get bored, or get excited listening to a book? Of course.

I won’t be as simplistic as to say that listening to a book is the same as reading one, but some people can’t read books. Should they be denied fantastic fiction, informative non-fiction because they are blind or illiterate?

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t speaking of the visually impaired or the functionally illiterate so we can strike that from the argument. But speaking as a writer, I LISTEN to the books I choose on audio. I pay attention to the sentences, to the dialogue and to pretty much the same things I would pay attention to if I had the book open before me. No, I can’t see the punctuation and can’t really tell if the author is using sentence fragments or if it’s the way the narrator is reading, but that doesn’t matter when I’m listening. I still get pulled out of the story when I hear a sentence that is crafted well, or one that’s poorly worded just as I do when reading.

Don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t for my job, I probably wouldn’t be able to listen to audio books other than on road trips.

Also, if the narrator sucks it’ll ruin the book! Prime example: My mother loves James Patterson and has been after me to read his books for some time now. Well, I was at a bargain bookstore and saw James Patterson’s, 1ST TO DIE in audio format and bought it. I couldn’t get twenty minutes into the story because the narrator droned on in a monotone that put me to sleep—not something you want to do whilst at work.

Another example: Nora Roberts book, BLOOD BROTHERS. The narrator—a man with a naturally deep voice—went up to a creepy falsetto when doing the female characters. I can’t believe someone didn’t stop him and say, “Um…what the hell is that voice? Just talk normal, dude!” Note: I love Nora Robert’s books and that particular one is the only one I’ve ever had a serious problem with the narrator. They find good ones for her novels.

So as much as I love audio books, I still read a lot too because I love the feel of a book in my hands and turning a page. Just because I listen to some books, doesn’t mean I’ve somehow cheated myself, or the author, or the story.

And as a writer, if someone came up to me at a book signing with an audio version of my book, I wouldn’t tell them that they haven’t REALLY read my book because it’s on CD. I’d be delighted that they took their hard earned money and purchased my work when they had hundreds/thousands to choose from. And I guess that’s all that matters.

So tell me…cheat or no cheat?

Back Home

2010-03-09T18:43:00.005-05:00

So I just got back from Delaware where my parents just bought a new home. Basically, they used me as a pack mule as my mom and I went through a few hundred boxes—no exaggeration—looking for the rest of my mom’s underwear and frying pans. Found the pans, but the underwear is still M.I.A. Personally, I think she already has them up in her bedroom somewhere.

Anyway, I had a nice time with the parental units and I’m sure I’ll be making many a trip up to the fair state of Delaware. Granted, I could probably never live there. It’s just a bit too spread out and not enough to do. I need culture and city and ethnic things nearby.

So, once we finished opening boxes I had lots of time to sit and do nothing—my mother was watching HGTV (as usual) and my stepdad was watching some movie with Jan-Michael Vincent—which gave me time to think about things I want to write. I couldn’t actually write since I was barred from the upper level of the house because my parents were having hardwood floors put in and, unfortunately, I left my laptop up there and who could concentrate with all the banging.

After I thought of a new direction for my novel LIGHT BRINGERS, I began to make a mental list of movies I want to see. At the top of said list is the revamping of Clash of the Titans. There are a number of reasons why I want to see this movie and why I hope it doesn’t suck. First, it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. The scene where Perseus—Harry Hamlin—cuts off Medusa’s head is my main memory of that movie. It was awesome! My mother was totally grossed out but my sister and I couldn’t get enough.

My second reason for wanting to see the new Clash is Sam Worthington. I’m really starting to like this guy. I loved Avatar. I know there’s a backlash with it now because that’s usually what happens when things become uber successful. Still, I loved it and I’m proud of it! Lol.

My third reason for wanting to see this movie came when I heard Liam Neeson say, “Release the Kraken!” I mean, come on…you know there’s going to be some sh*t going down right after those words are uttered. Cause it’s all fun and games until someone releases the kraken. I want to be able to say that one day. Maybe I’ll get a dog and name it Kraken. That way I can set him on intruders. Hmm, not a bad thought.

Okay, so clearly I’m in a silly mood, but seriously, I want to thank Niki over at Wool’n‘Nuts for Nominating me for the “From Me To You Award!”

The rules: Tell 7 things about yourself. Since I just told some things about myself, I’ll just send you here to read those. There really isn’t that much interesting about me-lol. So now I’m off to watch some old episodes of Smallville!

Lost a Follower

2010-03-05T10:51:00.001-05:00

So as I reported a few days ago, I had reached 100 followers! When I started this blog I wanted to meet people, other writers, people in the industry and simply make new friends. When the numbers started to climb for my followers it made me so happy. I love reading blogs and it delighted me that people wanted to tune in and read what I had to say.

So the other day when I pulled up my blog and saw that I was down to 99, I have to say that my feelings were hurt. Who would suddenly stop following me and why? Did I say something to offend someone? Did I not update enough to keep someone’s interest?

I had all sorts of questions and I’ll even admit to doing a preliminary search of my list of followers to see who had jumped ship. Well, as I was at work I couldn’t commit to an all-out down and dirty hunt—which I had planned to do the moment I got home—but a funny thing happened…

When I got home I was no longer in the mood to hunt for my lost friend. Maybe I was tired by then—after the killer workout—but I think it was more that I’d resolved to simply let it go. Truth is, not everyone is going to like me, not everyone is going to be interested in what I have to say, not everyone is going to want to be my friend. As I thought about this, I realized that whoever this person was who stopped following me had every right to do so without me seeking them out and trying to figure out why they stopped following me.

Believe me, as someone who was once called “Machete Mouth,” because of my razor sharp tongue, I know that not everyone will like me—most people do though. *wink-wink* I was more surprised by my reaction to this than the actual loss of a follower. I guess on some level we all want people to gather around and hang on our words, but the truth is, that’s not going to happen.

What I know is, I have great people tuning into my blog. People who care about what I have to say, people who are funny and smart and interesting and hopefully they find those characteristics in me as well. I also know that I’ll surely gain more followers just as I know I’ll probably lose some more on the way...but it’s all good.

Take care my 99 lovelies!

WIP Excerpt

2010-03-04T12:03:00.004-05:00

I've been working on a new novel--Platinum Diaries--well, full disclosure, this is what I started during NaNo. So I decided to post an excerpt. This is a first draft, but in this scene Sayra (16 yrs old and has psychic dreams) is upset because her parking space was revoked at school and given to the new kid who has yet to show, three weeks into the school year.
~*~
Students filed past me, lingering on the sides of the main steps for the few remaining minutes we had before first period. I stared at the mustard-yellow number nine drawn on the asphalt, taunting me from my coveted parking spot. What would the headmaster do if I just drove my car and parked there? Nothing, right? So I should just do it tomorrow!

“If you stare at that space any harder, it’s going to burst into flames.” Ivan bumped my shoulder.

I spared him a glance. Ivan was tall, skinny and tragically Jewish—his words—and my other best friend. His handsome face was nearly covered by what he liked to call his Jewish afro or Ja-fro. He wore wire-framed glasses and baggy clothes that made him look like a bully’s wet dream.
Without taking my eyes off the vacant parking spot, I handed my diary to Ivan. “Flip to the last entry.”

He groaned as usual about holding the silver book encrusted with crystals that he’d labeled my platinum diary. “Please tell me you finally had a dream about me making out with a hottie?”
“No, and quit asking me that.”

“I’m hoping it’ll seep into your brain like a subliminal message and voilá, you dream of me giving some tongue action to Hillary Teagarden.”

That got my eyes off the parking spot and onto him. “If I ever have that dream I’ll gouge out my mind’s eye with a rusty nail. You can’t seriously want to hook up with her, can you?”

He blushed, making him look like an adorable little boy. “No. I mean, well, why not? I know I’m not a big stupid jock like Tag, but she could like me.”

“That’s not what I meant. She’s not good enough for you. She’s so…she’s just a…” I let out a frustrated breath. “She was probably the muse for Pink when she wrote that song Stupid Girls.”

Ivan laughed. Ugh, what would I do if I dreamed of him with Hillary? Move heaven and earth to see that it never came true, that’s what I’d do. There was someone else who liked him anyway, someone much better. According to my dream he would find out soon. Ivan scanned the page detailing the headmaster’s slip and fall during our lunch period and howled with laughter.

“Oh, today is going to be a beautiful day.”

Updates & Awards

2010-03-01T15:58:00.003-05:00

Whew! I just finished digging out from the snow…kidding…but wouldn’t that be an awesome excuse for why I’ve been M.I.A. for more than three weeks. The truth is, it’s been a combination of bad health and laziness. I’ve been having these headaches and dizzy spells because my blood pressure drops when I stand up. Turns out, I was severely dehydrated—who knew—and I was probably on too much medication for high blood pressure—go figure. So my doctor and I are working it out now and I’m feeling much better.

As for the laziness, well, there’s nothing to explain there except everyone goes through it from time to time where all you want to do is come home from work and plop down in front of the tv to veg out. I knew it was bad when I couldn’t even muster the energy to write on the weekends and I LOVE writing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

But I’m back in the swing of things now. I’ve set myself a schedule for writing 1000 words a day and exercising 1 hour a day. The exercise has really revved me up and gotten my mental juices flowing…hence the blog update. I went out on a limb and bought the Power 90 dvd’s. If you’re not familiar with them, check out the link here.

My sister owns the dvds and she really likes them, plus they worked for her. So, while I belong to a gym, today is day one of the Power 90 dvd’s. I took all my measurements last night *gulp* and my weight *double gulp* and I’ll update my progress in 30, 60 and then 90 days. If any of you out there has used Power 90 or P90X please let me know what you think!

Anyway, on to better things. I was nominated for two awards during my hibernation! An Over the Top Award by Hannah over at Musings of Palindrome--—Thanks! And The Sugar Doll Award from Stina over at Seeing Creative—Thanks!

I’m going to cheat here a bit as the rules to both of these awards are similar. For the Over The Top Award I must:
Mention the person who nominated me and link to their blog. And then give one word answers to the following questions:

Your Cell Phone? Blackberry
Your Favorite Food? Italian
Your Hobby? None
Your TV? RCA
What Are You Wearing? Scrubs
Your Life? Awesome!
Your Music? Hodgepodge
Where Did You Grow Up? Baltimore
Your Car? Neon

For the Sugar Doll Award I have to tell ten unusual or unexpected things about myself. I’m going to make it five as I’ve already made this post long enough-lol-and I can’t think of ten things. :-)

1. I scored a perfect 90% on my test for the 12-gauge shotgun qualifications. I am in no way a gun fanatic, in fact I won’t own one. But when I was a correctional officer we had to qualify with a .38 and a 12-gauge. For some reason I took to it like I was a card carrying member of the NRA.

2. For the last year or so, I’ve worn fake hair! LOL. I have hair, nice, thick and healthy hair, but as I’m trying to save money, it’s just easier to wear the fake stuff sometimes. Most people have no clue unless they know me. I think by summer I’ll be going back to the salon regularly and won’t have the fake stuff then. Ironically, I’m a trained cosmetologist, but I don’t feel like doing my hair much anymore…am I getting old?

3. Once, in a high school rendition of The Wiz, I was on stage poppin’ and lockin’ like Re-run from What’s Happening and while the audience loved it, the director tore me a new bleep-hole for upstaging the other performers. That was not my intention…I just wanted a laugh.

4. When I was little, I used to live behind a school. The neighborhood kids and I would climb in the dumpster and get out all the old school supplies like dittos, chalk and pointer sticks! God, just thinking about it now gives me the willies. There was never any garbage in that particular dumpster, but still, it was a DUMPSTER!

5. I used to have a reoccurring nightmare as a kid about a giant crab. *note, I just fixed a typo that said I had nightmares about a giant crap! That would give anyone nightmares-lol* Maybe this has something to do with growing up in Maryland—who knows. But the crab would come up the back alley behind my house and peer into the windows with its beady little crabby eye looking for kids who weren’t sleeping. I was never afraid for myself because I knew it was coming and could fake sleeping, but I was terrified my sister would wake up as the crab was peaking through and it would take her. I had this dream off and on from the time I was 4 or 5 until I was about 10. Maybe one day I’ll understand what it meant…or better yet, maybe one day I can parlay it into a bestselling novel like J. K. Rowling and her Demetors!

The five people I want to award both the Over The Top Award and the Sugar Doll Award—see, I’m cheating—are:

Lisa Marie @ Confessions of a Writing Mama

Roxy @ a woman’s write

Sarah @ Falen Formulates Fiction

Katie @ …&& Prophetic Pictures

MG Higgins @ A Day at the Zoochini

Last but not least, I have to say I was very surprised to pull up my blog and see that I’ve reached 100 followers! You guys are awesome! Thanks for following and I promise to have regular updates from now on.

Still Snowed In!

2010-02-10T23:10:00.003-05:00

On top of the 24 inches we got between Friday and Saturday, another 20+ inches fell on us today. They say the snow totals for this season--which really means a few days ago and today--is 77.5 inches of snow...I'm only 62 inches tall! I can't even express what I'm feeling right now as I think about digging out OR where all this snow is going to go. I'm just going to let these pictures speak for me.

The Blizzard of the Century!

2010-02-06T19:52:00.003-05:00

Okay, well “Blizzard of the Century” is kinda premature as it’s only 2010, but hey it’s a pretty bad storm for this area. As you may know by looking at my bio to the right, I live in Maryland and we are under one of the worst storms we’ve seen in some time. You mid-westerners are probably laughing as this is probably just a typical Tuesday for you all.

We’re not used to it and now that it’s over, I want the sun to come out, the temperature rise to around 90 and for all the snow to melt! It’s beautiful, but I’m thinking of Monday when I have to go to work or tomorrow when I venture out with a shovel. Not fun! *pout*

Still, it was funny how the news panicked everyone. So much so that on Thursday schools announced that they were closing early on Friday. My job (I work at a doctor’s office in a hospital) closed at 1pm on Friday, because the snow was supposed to start at noon. I wasn’t complaining about that. I had food, plenty of T-paper and lots of dvd’s and I got home in time to watch Dr. Oz, Ellen and Oprah.

With that said, I still spent a good amount of time online shopping. *hangs head*

We had fun coming up with names to match the media drama. Like these for example:

Snow-mageddon (courtesy of the President)
Snow-appaloosa
Keyser Snöze (my personal favorite-lol)
Snow-gate
And
Sno-pocalypse Now

Okay, clearly cabin fever has set in. I’m off to watch a few episodes of Greek on Hulu . If you haven’t heard of Greek and love college shows (not like Animal House) then check it out! I’m in love with it.

J.D. Salinger Inspiration

2010-02-01T11:42:00.004-05:00

I know this post is late, but I’ve been battling a stomach thing for the last few days *blerg*. But the death of J.D Salinger got me thinking about how poorly read I am with the classics. Shamefully, I’ve never read The Catcher in the Rye and many other staples of our literary history.

Just recently, I bought A Tale of Two Cities for my dad. He’d read it before but lost his copy. I thought of all the Charles Dickens novels that I loved and still, it didn’t move me to go on a buying spree.

Well, when J.D. Salinger passed, I felt embarrassed when everyone around me talked about reading it in school and because I’m a writer, they assumed I’d read it too. In my high school we had to read To Kill a Mocking Bird and Beowulf and Of Mice and Men and things like that, but never The Catcher in the Rye.

So that evening I went home, and utilizing both my handy-dandy B&N gift cards, bought the following:
Of course.

My sister told me a bit about this and it sounds awesome!

I hope I like this, but I don’t know.

I know some people will be shocked that I haven’t read this, but I didn’t think it would be my thing. I’m willing to check it out though and I hope I’m wrong.

I loved this movie so I’m thinking, if the movie was good the book HAS to be 10x better!

I got this because I love vampire movies/books/tv shows, so I should really read one of the first popular ones, shouldn’t I?

So here’s my challenge to you all. I’m on a mission now to bone up on the classics. Leave a comment and tell me your favorite classic novel and why you loved it. If it’s one I haven’t read, I’ll go out and get it!

As it was my goal to read 100 books in 2009—sadly I only made it to 77—my literary goal in 2010 is to read as many classics as I can.

Help me become a well rounded author/reader, please!

A New Critique Group!

2010-01-22T12:25:00.002-05:00

I don’t know about you, but I love a good critique group. As writers, we need this almost more than we need an agent or a publisher because without the beta, critter, or reader, our writing may never make it to agent level.

So it’s with that in mind that I want to let you all know about an awesome, new online critique group called Chimera Critiques!

They have a very interesting set up. Currently there are five staff members and you can read their bios, samples, and critique philosophies to see if they match the type of work you write. I can vouch for their work because if you click on each bio, you will see a sample of the first chapter of my wip, DWELLERS that I let them critique for the site.

Make no mistake, I didn’t just hand over my chapter to a bunch of strangers. I met Zellie Blake about a year ago on Absolute Write (you’re all familiar with that site, right?) when she answered my call for a beta for Light Bringers. We hit it off immediately. I liked her way of critiquing and she obviously liked that I didn’t whine about her comments-lol. I will say that it’s because of the help I got from Zellie that I was able to shave off 30k words from the original manuscript. And I believe her comments helped me get the attention of agents like Kate Testerman, Graig Tenney, Joseph Veltre, Emmanuelle Alspaugh, Bernadette Baker-Baughman, and Robin Rue, who all requested fulls!

I’m not bragging, trust me, because none of those ended with representation. But Zellie’s insight helped me step into a place that a lot of writers never get to see, a place I hadn’t been able to get to before. I still have work to do obviously, but I’d say check them out because maybe their help will get you all the way in the door.

It’s free and you can take a look at how each of them critiqued my chapter (which was a rough draft) and who matches you best.

I’d be really interested to follow up with anyone who uses Chimera Critiques and see how you liked them! When I’m finished Dwellers, I’ll be handing it over to someone there…well, if they agree to the whole ms-lol.

I was not paid for this endorsement—lol!

Ten Things That Make me Happy!

2010-01-17T20:55:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Diana over at Writing Roller Coaster for nominating me for the Happy Blog Award! YAY! This makes me happy!

The Rules…

I have to tell ten things that make me happy and then nominate ten blogs that make me happy. That’s what’s going to be the hard part. I have so many blogs that make me happy, but I’ll try to narrow it down to ten.

First let’s talk about the things that make me happy…in no particular order.

1. Writing.
Of course writing makes me happy. I love thinking about writing, reading writing and actually writing writing-LOL.

2. TV.
I know it became trendy to say things like, “I don’t watch much TV,” because it somehow meant you did more productive things with your time instead of being a couch potato, well I’m here to tell you that TV makes me happy! On a Sunday afternoon, I love nothing more than popping in a dvd of The Office, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, My Boys or That 70’s Show. There are more, but I could be here all day.

3. Making My Sister Laugh.
My sister is like a comedian’s wet dream. She has a good laugh and she laughs easy. I’ve made her choke, spit her drink across the table, cry and nearly pop her staples after surgery—that was probably the wrong time to start telling jokes.

4. Book People.
I have to swipe this one from Diana because it’s an awesome thing to make us happy. People who read the same types of books I read aren’t in the minority, because hey, I’ve read plenty of bestsellers. But people who read the same types of books as I do AND happen to live near me, well, they are few and far between. Most of my friends read, my mom reads, my sister reads but none of them read YA. When I do luck up and find someone who reads YA or will pick up a suggestion from me, and we get to talk about it…man, it’s bliss!

5. Peanut M&M’s!
Love the M&M’s and it’s weird, I’m not a big fan of all the other kinds. To me an M&M doesn’t need an almond, or dark chocolate or peanut butter, it just needs a peanut. They’re the first thing I give up when I’m on a diet and the first thing I eat when I fall off the wagon.

6. Beauty Salons
I LOVE getting my hair done. As someone who went to a technical high school where my trade was cosmetology, I love everything about salons. I love the smell—well not the smell of perms, they stink! I love having my hair shampooed, love having it combed and styled and most of all, I love trying new styles.

7. Reading Blogs
I’ve learned so much about writing, about books and the publishing industry by reading blogs. I get so happy when I learn something new, no matter how small it is.

8. Having My Parents Closer.
My parents lived in Tennessee for nearly 11 years after my stepdad’s job sent them there. Now they’re in Delaware and instead of a 16 hour drive, it takes me only an hour and a half! With my mom closer, I get good food—excuse me, great food—my apartment redecorated and my laundry folded…can’t beat that with a bat!

9. Unexpected Things
I don’t mean surprise parties as I’ve never had one, but going to a movie that I think will be just okay and it turns out to be AWESOME. Avatar! Finding a pair of shoes that totally look like they’ll kill my feet but not only are they comfortable, they look good with everything!

10. Audio Books
Not many people can listen to audio books at work, but I can! I’ve been able to enjoy so many wonderful books because I have my own office and I don’t have to spend a lot of time on the phone. To me, it’s no different than having a radio playing, but instead of having to suffer through songs you hate and commercials, I can listen to some of the best books out there, get my work done and make the day go by fast. What more can you ask for?

And now for the 10 Blogs that make me happy! It was hard to choose, but here goes:

1. Victora S.

2. Anissa Off the Record

3. Falen Formulates Fiction

4. Natalie Bahm

5. Solvang Sherrie

6. Sharon Mayhew at Random Thoughts

7. Possum

8. Christina Farley at Chocolate for Inspiration

9. Tracy at A Blissful Life

10. Niki at Wool’ N’ Nuts

The American Idol Lesson

2010-01-13T21:35:00.003-05:00

For nine years people have lined up to pour their hearts out to the judges and America. Even if I haven’t followed every season all the way through, I’ve at least watched the auditions. Most of the time I laugh at the poor deluded people who can’t carry a tune. However this year, as I sit on the phone, watching with my best friend, I felt sorry for many of the contestants. And it had me questioning how these people can be SO wrong about their talent. Which in turn led me to think about writing—see, all things go back to writing.

A lot of people on the show have their parents and friends with them and they all sing these people’s praises even when it’s clear the people have no talent. My advice to these people…GET MORE OPINIONS! It’ll save you lots and lots of pain.

My mother LOVES my writing, thinks I’m the greatest thing since the word was invented. She always wants a poem—even though I hate writing poetry. She thinks the first book I wrote was great and believe me, it wasn’t. And while my sister thinks I’m a great writer, she gives more constructive feed back than my mother. Still, imagine if I dipped my toe into the big bad world of publishing based on the fact that my mommy and my big sis think I’m great.

Not only that, but most of the people who get rejected on American Idol don’t want to hear it. They reject the rejection, let the criticism—which, admittedly, isn’t always constructive—bounce right off of them like a bullet ricocheting.

So what I was saying to my best friend is that, if I suck, please tell me! I know it’s a fine line between being honest and stomping on someone’s dream. So this is where we, as writers, have to open our ears and our minds and listen to what people are saying to us. It’s never fun to get criticized, to have someone tell you that what you’ve created isn’t perfection. But if you want to get better—for some, it’s just not in the cards—then you have to have someone tell you that you suck, tell you why you suck, and then YOU have to do something about it.

Don’t be like the American Idol rejects who stomp away in tears, cursing and saying the world will see you again and the judges are idiots. While some people are mean and don’t know what they’re talking about, most people who critique your work honestly want to help you. So listen to them!

And that is my American Idol lesson.

Magic 8 Ball

2010-01-08T23:16:00.005-05:00

One of my coworkers has a Magic 8 Ball on her desk. For years this thing has sat there without me thinking twice about it, but the other day I picked it up and decided to ask it all the questions I wanted to know for 2010. The answers were as follows:

Magic 8 Ball, will I find an agent in 2010?

Magic 8 Ball, will I sell a novel in 2010?

Magic 8 Ball, will I reach my goal weight?

Magic 8 Ball, will I sell a novel in 2010? (asking again later like Magic 8 Ball said-lol)

Magic 8 Ball, will I meet my husband in 2010?

(No need to use foul language with me 8 Ball!)

Magic 8 Ball, will I get married in 2010? (see, I’m asking it the same question in a different way-lol)

(Damn it Magic 8 Ball quit playing with me!)

Magic 8 Ball, will I buy a house in 2010?

Magic 8 Ball, will I get married in 2010? (asking again later like it told me)

YAY!!!!

So, it looks like 2010 will be my year as the Magic 8 Ball is NEVER wrong. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted! LOL.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!!!

2010-01-04T10:57:00.002-05:00

So in an exciting hat—actually bag—drawing of all the names, all the double and triple entries, the winner of a brand new copy of Catching Fire as well as a $20 Visa gift card is…..

SHARON MAYHEW @ Random Thoughts!!!!!!!

YAY! Everyone give her a round of applause.

Ironically, I just won a contest on her blog! Just the luck of the draw.

Sharon, email me at kdrose 72 at gmail dot com…because I don’t have the envelope anymore that has your return address on it-lol.

You guys had some great Resolutions/Goals for 2010. I share a lot of them. For example: Finish my WIP and find an agent. My other goals...meet my husband, buy a house, and manage my finances. Well, I should probably manage my finances before I buy a house-lol.

All the same, hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. I’ve still got one more day off and I’m going to use it to write!

I want to also thank all the new followers I got from this contest!

Solvang Sherrie
Susan R. Mills
Wolfpaw6
MG Higgins
Suzette Saxon
Niki
Lynnette Labelle
Jean
Simply Stacie
Meregarden
Diana Paz
Tracy
Guinevere
Elle Strauss
KM
Possum
Falen
Book Lover Forever

And of course I must thank all of those who were following before the contest. Thanks for hanging out with me and leaving all the great comments!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION CONTEST

2009-12-28T08:51:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everybody! Yes, I know it’s not yet, but I have a great contest for everyone!

I’ve never been one to make resolutions. For me it’s a surefire way to do the opposite of what I wanted-lol. But this year, I think I’ll make several resolutions.

My first two are to blog more often and to be more generous.

So with those two things in mind I came up with the New Year’s Resolution Contest!

The Rules:

Post in the comments your top TWO resolutions for 2010 for ONE entry.

Be a follower or become one for another entry.

Mention this contest in a post on your blog, or link to it on your sidebar, or both for another entry.

So if you (1) post a comment with your resolutions, (2) are a follower or become one, (3) mention this in a post on your blog AND/OR (4) link to it you can get a whopping FOUR entries!

See, that’s easy.

The Prizes:

A brand new hardcover copy of Suzanne Collin’s Catching Fire!

AND

A $20 Visa Gift Card to buy whatever you want! (I like chocolate and I wear a size 8 1/2 shoe...just in case you were wondering.)

*Contest ends Sunday January 3, 2010 @ 11:59 EST.* I’ll have an impartial person (my mother) draw the name from a hat.

Have fun and I can’t wait to hear some of those resolutions for 2010!

Kissing Day Part Three

2009-12-23T09:05:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I've milked this kissing day for as long as possible. So fear not dear readers, this will be the last scene posted-lol. This is part three of my kissing scene. I've cut it and it's still long, but it's mostly dialogue so it'll read fast--hopefully. The scene: Ryan and Heath have gone into the garage to meet with Mr. Webb, Ryan's father. He gave them both motorcycles for Christmas (I know, expensive right, but it makes sense in the context of the novel) Heath has gone in the house, leaving Ryan and Jeremiah to talk. Above is a pic of what Ryan's new bike looks like.

~*~

Ryan didn’t know if his father was looking at him, but he kept his head down and polished his new, beautiful motorcycle. He made sure to keep his mind shielded against his father’s thoughts. He didn’t want to hear that his father thought it was disgusting for him and Kalie to be together.

“Ry, do you remember when you were fifteen and walked in on your mom and me having an argument?’

Ryan looked up, baffled. Jeremiah was leaning against the black Impala with his arms folded over his chest, probably to keep finger prints off the vintage car.

“Um…yeah, I remember. I’d never seen you and Mom argue like that.”

Jeremiah nodded. “We never had before, or since. Did you ever find out what the argument was about?”

“No.” Ryan’s brows knitted as he wondered where his father was going with this. “I tried to see if Olivia knew, but the KGB couldn’t get a secret out of her.”

Jeremiah laughed. “True.” He cleared his throat. “We were arguing about Kalie.”

“Why?”

“Because your mom wanted to adopt her and I didn’t.”

Ryan jerked back like his father had just struck him in the chest. “Why not? Don't you--"

“I love her,” Jeremiah said intensely. “She’s my daughter in every way that matters. But…well, I guess I always knew that scene in the gazebo would happen and—”

“Whoa, Dad. If you’re about to tell me that divination is a part of our gift then I’m going to be so unbelievably pissed. I haven’t even gotten used to this mind reading crap.”

Jeremiah smiled. “No, we’re not gifted with the divine powers to see into the future. As I was saying, your mom came to me when Kalie was six and said we should adopt her.”

“Don’t tell me you saw something between us when she was six and I was eight.”

“No, I didn’t. Back then I felt it was too soon after the loss of her family to adopt. I didn’t want her to think we were trying to replace her parents. Patty agreed. After that, every time she brought it up, I put her off, or talked around it.” He sighed and rubbed a hand through his brownish-blond hair. “You and Kalie never really interacted like siblings. Yeah, you got on each others’ nerves like siblings sometimes, but it was more like an old married couple even when you were children. When I saw how you reacted to seeing her in that bikini at your going away part, I knew I’d made the right decision.”

Ryan’s face heated as he remembered Kalie in that bright orange two-piece. “But Dad, even if I had less that civilized thoughts about Kalie, it doesn’t mean you couldn’t have adopted her.”

“If she was legally your sister would you have kissed her like you just did in that gazebo?”

Ryan vehemently shook his head. “No way.”

“See.” Jeremiah stepped away from the car and clapped a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “If there was even the slightest chance that Kalie could be the one for you, there was no way I was going to let a piece of paper stand in the way. I love Kalie and I don’t care how she’s a part of this family, be it as my daughter or your wife—”

“Wife!”

“Calm down, I’m not dusting off my tux yet. I’m just saying, if you want to be with Kalie, you have my blessing.”

Ryan swallowed. “I appreciate that, Dad. I really do. What about Mom?”

“Well, she’s a different story. She just doesn’t see this thing that's been between you and Kalie and probably won’t see it until you're having your first dance at your wedding.”

“Dad, enough with the wedding talk. You’re giving me palpitations.”

Jeremiah laughed, then he looked Ryan in the eyes. “Treat her with respect, Ryan. Don’t mess about with her because if things go to crap, I don’t want her to feel awkward around us. I want Kalie to know she’s always a member of this family.”

Ryan scoffed. “Trust me, Dad, if there's a vote on who to boot out the family, I'll be the one packing.”

“No, we’d work it out so you’d both feel comfortable. Just treat her right. No more groping her in public.”

Ryan smiled crookedly. "Yes, sir."

“Are you in love with her?”

He looked away from his father’s questioning eyes. “I should probably tell her before I tell you.”

Jeremiah pulled Ryan into a sideways hug. “You make me proud, son.”

A lump formed in Ryan’s throat, but he swallowed it down, and then remembered something. “Dad, what song did you sing for karaoke?”

The older man’s grin was both boyish and wicked. “A nice little tune by Sir Mix-A-Lot called, Baby Got Back…it’s a classic, you know.”

Ryan fell over laughing, hating that he’d missed that performance. But if given the choice between seeing his father sing about liking big butts or making out with Kalie, he would choose Kalie every time.

FOLLOW UP TO KISSING DAY!

2009-12-22T08:25:00.005-05:00

THANK YOU guys for all the lovely comments from yesterday’s Official Kissing Day Blog Fest. There were so many good kissing scenes! I LOVED it. I still haven’t read all the submissions so I’ll be working on them throughout the week. I think I got to about 33. I really want to read and comment on them all. So if I haven’t comment on yours yet, never fear, I will soon.

Since I had so much fun with the kissing scene, I wanted post the follow up scene because it’s one of my favorites. I had to cut the scene because it’s simply too long to post here, but it ends with a really sweet conversations between Ryan and his Dad.

This picture sort of captures the scene again, but not quiet. I just love this picture.So, a bit of background: It’s still Christmas night at Ryan’s parent’s house. Heath, Ryan’s partner at work, comes up from the basement in time to catch the show-lol.

~*~
Heath climbed the basement stairs under the guise of getting Jessica a drink. Truthfully, he’d had enough of the off-key karaoke and was wondering where Ryan had gone. He rounded the corner, cut through the great room, and headed into get to the kitchen. Mr. Webb stood at the bay window, staring out as if in a trance. Heath picked up a soda for Jessica.

"All right, Mr. Webb?”

Jeremiah turned slightly, without taking his eyes away from the window and said, “Su-sure. I’m…”

Heath stepped up on Mr. Webb’s right and saw why the man was staring out of the window. Ryan and Kalie were mauling each other in the gazebo like each held surviving breath for the other. Heath snorted as Ryan hoisted Kalie up on the railing and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Jeremiah looked like he had just swallowed something and it was lodged in his throat.

“That, sir,”—Heath nodded toward the groping couple—“is the result of years of repressed sexual tension.”

“Do me a favor,” Jeremiah said, still watching the display, “go get my son off her before they conceive my next grandchild in the middle of Patty’s prize winning garden.”

Heath laughed. “Sure thing.”

“Hurry, before someone comes up stairs. And when you’re done, you and Ryan meet me in the garage.”

Heath nodded even though he was confused as to why he needed to go to the garage. Was Mr. Webb angry? The man had to see how gone his son was over Kalie. This can't be a surprise. Heath put down the soda and went outside. The snow fell silently, muffling his foot falls. He made it about three yards from the house and decided it was far too cold to go any further.

“Oi! Webb!”

They didn’t seem to hear him or if they did, they were ignoring him. Heath whistled and the sound split the air like a cracked whip. Nothing. He sighed and stepped closer, close enough to hear Ryan and Kalie moaning and slurping each other like melting ice creams. This’ll bloody scar me for life. He picked up a clump of snow, made it into a ball and hurled it at Ryan’s head.

“Ouch!” Ryan staggered back, holding his ear. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You’ve got an audience.” Heath gestured toward the wide kitchen window, which was now empty. “Well, you had an audience.”

Kalie gasped. “Who was it?” She jumped down from the railing, her face flushed from the cold and from kissing, and probably from embarrassment too.

“Mr. Webb.”

“Oh, God!” She dashed off of the gazebo and ran for the house.

“Kalie, wait.” Ryan made a move to go after her.

Heath stopped him. “You’re dad wants to see us in the garage.”

“He does? What for?”

“How should I know?”

Ryan took a deep breath, seemed to drum up his courage, and started toward the garage.

Official Kissing Day Blog Fest

2009-12-21T08:34:00.008-05:00

This picture sort of sets the scene. This is from the follow up to my novel Light Bringer, tentatively called Venators. Ryan kissed Kalie once last summer and they haven’t really spoken since. It’s Christmas night at Ryan’s family’s home, and the couple are in the gazebo talking.

~*~

Kalie broke eye contact and said, “You kissed me, Ryan, and then apologized for it. You kissed me and said you’d never do it again. How’s that supposed to make me feel? What’s so terrible about kissing me that you’d never want to do it again?”

Ryan gaped at her, watched her hazel eyes mist over and he finally understood. “Kal, I wasn’t apologizing for kissing you, but for how it happened. That I just pounced, forced myself on you.” He stepped closer. “I never meant to make you think that I didn’t want to…kissing you was like…I just…” His emotions took over and he slammed his mouth to hers.

Their teeth clanked, their noses bumped and Ryan thought he bit her. It was a terrible kiss, the worst he’d ever had.

He pulled back. “Sor—”

“Don’t apologize or I swear I’ll punch you.” Kalie sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, and he hoped it wasn’t to nurse a bite.

“Okay, I won’t ever apologize to you again.”

Holding back a smirk at her eye roll, Ryan licked his lips and closed the distance between them. His lips met hers in a much more civilized manner. He tasted her slowly, nibbling tenderly. Kalie’s hands moved up to his shoulders and around his neck. Ryan pulled her snuggly against him, deepening the kiss.

Hints of apple cider coated her tongue and he remembered the first time he’d kissed her she'd tasted like mango. Would she always taste like something sweet? His hands began to roam as they stumbled back against the railing. Swirling his tongue deeper into her mouth, he tried to learn as much as he could about how she liked to be kissed. But his brain rattled around in his head like a lone marble. He was kissing Kalie, again. And she wanted it. Awesome! Ryan didn’t care that snow was wetting his hair or that he was freezing. Nor did he care that he was kissing and groping Kalie in full view of anyone who may happen upon the kitchen window.

Kissing Day Blog Fest Tomorrow

2009-12-20T19:48:00.002-05:00

Head on over here and read the instructions for The Official Kissing Day Blog Fest!

Basically, if you want to participate you'll have to add your name to the link list and then tomorrow, December 21, 2009, post a kissing or near kiss scene from your WIP or completed novel, or your favorite scene from a movie or novel!

Hope some of my lovely followers post some scenes. I'd love to read your work!

The Great Digout!

2009-12-20T12:51:00.003-05:00

HELLLLP!

Okay, so it wasn't that bad but I still feel like this...
See, all the shoveling turned me blue!

Man, I need a husband! Anyone out there know someone who enjoys reading, music, Food Network and dorky fantasy/Sci-fi movies, send him my way. Well, he'd need to have a strong back for shoveling, and not scream when squishing bugs.

Now, I'm off to lay on the sofa and take a nap!

SNOW DAY!!!

2009-12-19T11:53:00.009-05:00

So what it's Saturday, a Snow Day is a Snow Day!!!

I finished my Christmas shopping last night. I'm good on milk, bread and toilet paper (what's the deal with that? Why those three things when facing a snow storm? Honestly, I only bought bread. I have six rolls of toilet paper and I live alone so I think I'm good. As for the milk...I'm lactose intolerate. I do not tolerate milk and all it's foolishness, damn it!)

Sorry about the mini-rant. I think the snow is getting to me already--LOL. They're calling for snow all day, ending somewhere around 12-18 inches. Now I know you mid-westerners will laugh yourself silly thinking that 12-18 inches is a lot of snow, but this place SHUTS DOWN with like 5 inches. They've been talking about it since Thursday on the news. They've been running the news broadcast all this morning. They've been out on the street talking to people at the gas station and Wal-Mart.

WTH?

With the exception of college and a little over a year in Miami, I've lived in Maryland all of my life and I still don't get why snow is such a big deal--why they have to send a reporter out to freeze their nads off just to ask people how the roads are. It's insanity!

I, for one, will not be venturing out. I have 2 WIP's I can work on, 1 completed novel to revise and several DVD's to watch. Not to mention, Hulu, Netflix and a fresh unopened bag of peanut M&M's! Can life get any better?

Here is the view out the back of my place.

Okay, so you don't think I live in a prison, here's a view without the blinds looking like bars-lol.

So tell me, is it snowing where you are? And if so, what are your snow day activities?

Drop The Needle

2009-12-16T22:10:00.002-05:00

Today over at Miss Snark's First Victim's site, she had her Drop The Needle submission. My post is here. If you haven't gone over to comment, please do so. Most of these writers will love to have some feedback...including me! The theme this round was danger so feel free to comment on my submission either here or over there. And my skin is thin (well thickish-lol) so say what you think. I know I have a typo in there so do forgive me ;-)

Thanks!

THINGS I HATE ABOUT SHOPPING!

2009-12-14T12:06:00.001-05:00

1. Shopping—period.

Okay, so I’m not one of those girls who can spend hours in a mall. If you ever want to torture me, forget bamboo shoots under the fingernails just send me to a crowded mall and make me shop for hours. I’ll give up all kinds secrets just to go home. Honestly, all malls aren’t medieval torture devices. I actually like Arundel Mills Mall. They have a gi-normus Books-A-Million and a 24 Theater Cineplex—my two favorite things.

2. Crowds.

I’ve never been one to tolerate a lot of people around me. Well, that’s not exactly true. When I was a teen and going to nightclubs, the more crowded, the better! But when I have to hold my purse like a baby, wait for people to get out of the way so I can get down the isle, or when I have to listen to what you and your boyfriend did last night because you’re WAY too close to me, then I HATE crowds.

3. The Toy Section/Store

What kind of place in hell is this? I mean, I don’t have kids so I don’t frequent the toy store/section. Does it normally look like a herd of buffalo have just stampeded it? Then you have the parents and their big shopping carts blocking the isle, snatching, grabbing, and shoving for those picked over shelves. The funny thing is I went down there to look for a toy for my mother. She loves Elmo and toys with animatronics so I wanted to get her the Elmo Live (the one where he tells jokes like a standup comedian—what can I say, my mother is 10x corny). First it was $60—which made me say, hell-to-the-no—and second, it was dirty and looked like it was on its last leg…ugh! It was the worst. What am I going to do when I have kids?

4. Traffic!

This bugs me at any time, but as someone who has a 7 minute commute to work, I’m not terribly plagued with traffic on a daily basis. I was nearly KILLED in the parking lot of Joann Fabrics. As I was crossing the road to my car, this woman, who had driven past me already, stopped and threw her car in reverse because she saw someone pulling out of a spot. SHE NEVER LOOKED BEHIND HER! I had to leap out of the way or she would’ve run me over!

I know what you’re thinking, Karen, you’re a writer and tend to be a tad dramatic. Nay I say, NAY! I would’ve been a fixture on her bumper if I hadn’t been quick on my feet. There isn’t much that’ll make me resort to violence, but I think about if I had my God children with me, or my mom who isn’t feeble by any means but she’s not so quick on her feet. This backward-driving-looking-forward woman would’ve hit them. I think I might’ve flipped her car over like the Incredible Hulk if that had happened.

Now, all I have to say is BA-HUMBUG!

Meet Lennox!

2009-12-10T19:57:00.006-05:00

This is my sister’s dog. Isn’t he just the cutest? He’s two years old and I really want a dog just like him. I threaten to dog-nap every time I go visit my sister, but I haven’t found a purse big enough to smuggle him out. I plan to get one just like him when I have a yard big enough.

He reminds me of Fang from Harry Potter, except he doesn’t drool as much, but he is a coward like fang-lol. He’s a Japanese Tosa which is in the Mastiff family. I know this isn’t the normal post for me, but the last time I saw Lennox he was sick, had withered down to 118lbs. I know that sounds like a big ass dog, but he’s normally around 145lbs. And at 118lbs we could see his ribs and spine. As seen here on my Lennox Action Movie-lol.

We were very worried about him, but it turned out that he had food allergies. I was SO happy to see him fit and healthy with that shinny coat! He’s currently 137lbs, and still gaining. And that's why my blog has gone to the dogs today.

There’s a Smurf in Your Book!

2009-12-09T18:50:00.003-05:00

Don’t ask me why I thought of this, but the Smurfs have been on my mind lately. I loved The Smurfs as a kid, and I started to think about how you can probably find a Smurf in most books. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Papa Smurf = The Old Wise One. This is the character who has all the answers, whose main purpose is to dispense information, usually after the hero has gone through hell and back. He/She has lived a long time and usually speaks slowly and in riddles that the hero will only understand after they see the light, or walk down a certain path, or reach the top of some mountain.

Smurfette = The Pretty Girl. You can find these girls in all books. They’re usually the source of envy, hate, or fear. Some Smurfettes don’t know they’re Smurfettes. They think they’re plain and dumpy and geeky, but there’s always a boy who sees the true Smurfette in them and it’s only through the eyes of this boy that they finally become one with their inner Smurfette.

Brainy Smurf = The Know-it-all. This is the character who thinks he/she knows it all! While they usually know a lot, they can be proven wrong at times, because as we all know sometimes it ain’t all about the brains. These characters make others feel stupid either intentionally or simply by knowing things that no one their age would probably want to know. Most times, someone in the book wants to punch this character in their know-it-all mouth, but this Brainy Smurf will more than likely figure out some vital information that’ll help the hero save the day.

Grouchy Smurf = The Meany. This is the character with an attitude. He/She hates everything and everyone and usually has a snarky comment at the ready. Grouchy Smurfs usually provide the hero with someone to strive to be better than, a bully, a jerk-jock, or a thug. Or Grouchy Smurf can be on the hero’s side, but they just don’t give a damn about the quest, the problem or whatever the conflict may be at the moment. Personally, I think a good Grouchy Smurf can be a great character. I like a bit of snark.

Vanity Smurf = The Pretty Boy. This is the character whose beauty and all around perfection defies the laws of physics and gravity. He can make the sun rise and set with just a smile. He can render girls incapable of thought and speech with just a single glance. He can make the opposite sex float on air and just plain lose their minds. Where would most books be without a good Vanity Smurf? Now, he may not stare in the mirror and cloud himself with perfume like Vanity, but the girls falling at his feet pretty much serve the same purpose. After all, who needs a mirror when there’s another character there to describe your perfection on every page?

And last but not least…Gargamel. = The Villain. Where would books be without a good villain? This is the character whose sole purpose is to create conflict for the hero. They usually have a diabolical plan, a deep-seeded hatred, or they’re simply mortal enemies because that’s just the way it’s always been. Gargamels spend every waking moment thinking of ways to ruin the life of the hero. They’ll destroy the entire world if it means they win and the hero loses. We need the villain however they are presented. I love a good Gargamel as long as he/she has three dimensions.

So, as there are practically 100 of these little blue creatures, tell me, what other Smurfs have you seen in books?

A Dabble of Dialogue

2009-12-06T14:56:00.004-05:00

I borrowed this idea from Buffy Andrews site, Buffy’s Write Zone. Go check out her page. She has some good info!

Below is a Dabble of Dialogue from Venators (the second in the the Light Bringer's Trilogy). In the comments, add a Dabble of Dialogue from something you’re working on, querying, or even if you shelved this work, but loved a particularly witty, deep, or emotional exchange, post it in the comments!

“I thought we could be mates,” Heath said.

“Mates? You mean friends?”

He nodded.

“But,”—Jessica swallowed—“I wanna be more than that.”

“I know,” he said softly.

“But you don’t wanna be more?” She didn’t let him answer. “I think it’s mean to come over here night after night, knowing I…I have feelings…”

Heath stared at the floor. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought of it like that.” He met her eyes. “I’ll leave you alone.”

“That’s not what I want. I want us to be—”

“I can’t offer you more than friends, Jessica. You’re right, it’s unfair of me to hang around, just because I like talking to you. I’ll just go then.” He backed up until he was against the wall. Before he could Faze through and leave her, possibly forever, Jessica rushed forward and hugged him. Heath paused for a shocked second, and then wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.

“If you ever need to talk…” Her voice quivered. She felt like she had just given her soldier boyfriend a Dear John letter.

Now it’s your turn…gimme some of that juicy dialogue!

New Moon

2009-12-04T23:28:00.003-05:00

Well, I went to see New Moon tonight and my plan worked—well, I wasn’t going to see at all because the graphics looked like they sucked with every preview I saw—I decided to go once the fangirls had their gasp and swoon session and it worked. It was nearly empty and only a scattering of fangirls.

My friend Bonita went with me as we couldn’t find any self-respecting guy to go with us. She’s read the books, well all but the last one. I’ve read the first two, started Eclipse and put it down more than a year ago and hadn’t had the desire to pick it up again.

There were some things that came to me while I was watching this movie. Here are just a few:

--Doesn’t anyone in that town think the Cullens look odd as hell? I mean, they’re supposed to be extra beautiful—which is something Stephenie Meyers really made impossible to create in real life—but if I saw the Cullens in my school, with their gold eyes and pale (very pale) skin, I’d be like, “Um…you people look a bit sick…perhaps you need a transfusion or some iron pills, or a B-12 shot?”

--Taylor Lautner NEVER needs a shirt. I mean, good lord! There were audible gasps when he took off his shirt for the first time and quite a few of those sharp inhales came from men—LOL.

--The guy playing the Volturi vampire, Marcus looked like he was knocking on death’s door (even for a dead guy). I get that he was supposed to be bored by the whole scene, but he look like someone made him run 20 miles then hid his inhaler. I got the worse case of the giggles when Bonita said, “He looks like he’s bout to die.” I don’t know why it was so funny, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Now I have a headache.

--The graphics weren’t as bad as I thought from the previews and they were certainly better than Twilight’s.

--And the final thing that came to me when I was watching New Moon was that, even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the books (the two that I read were pretty entertaining, but I wasn’t sucked in enough to finish the series), based on the movies and what I read, I’m team Jacob all the way! When I was reading the books, I wasn’t team Jacob only because I didn’t think Bella deserved him. I thought he was far too good for this girl who had the personality of drying paint. I still kinda think that, but I can connect more with the actress Bella than I can with the written Bella, and I wanted actress Bella with actor Jacob.

Or maybe I’ve just been hypnotized by Taylor Lautner’s chesticles! I’d serious do the May/December thing with him *wipes drool*

Tell me, what were your thoughts on New Moon? If you haven’t seen it, are you planning to? Are you going to wait until DVD? Are you going to wait until hell freezes over?

NaNo Fail and Honest Scrap Award!

2009-12-01T22:34:00.007-05:00

So I didn’t make NaNo’s goal of 50k. I managed 35,006. That’s an average of 1166 words a day, and in my opinion, not too shabby for my first attempt. I was never one to write daily. I power write on weekends, holidays and sick days, but to come home from work, boot up the computer and sit to write…that wasn’t something I could do. Even though I sit at work and write in my head, by the time I got home I was just too tired.

Or at least that’s what I told myself. When NaNo came along, and I decided to do it, I made myself go home from work, boot up that computer and sit to write. Instead of turning on the television, I turned on the CD player and I wrote. I didn’t do this every day, but I’d say 4 out of the 5 work days. I lost a weekend early in the month because of family visits and this past 4 day weekend was completely lost with all the baking and cooking and family.

So there you have it…my NaNo Fail…or maybe, my NaNo near success. Yeah, I like that better.

Now on to fun things…

Tricia over at Talespinning nominated me for the Honest Scrap Award! THANKS! The rules are that I must tell 10 honest things about me and then nominate 10 other bloggers. I’m only going to do 7 because I can only think of 7 honest things about me…so here goes:

1. Bunny rabbits and Hillbillies creep me out. A Hillbilly holding a bunny rabbit—forget about it!

2. I wrote my first novel when I was 19. Then went back and read it when I was 23 and cringed. It was so immature, but at 19 I hadn’t been in love, hadn’t had my heart broken, but by 23, life didn’t seem so rosy-lol.

3. I used to sneak my boyfriend into the basement when my mother was asleep and then take her car to drive him home…she never knew!

4. I had my first kiss when I was 12 by a boy named William Jeffreys. His voice hadn’t changed yet so it was still kinda high. When he called, my mother would think he was a girl and hand me the phone—I wasn’t allowed calls from boys until I was 15—but then my sister ratted me out. Then I had a “girl” friend who called and she had a deep voice, my mother would grill her every time, thinking she was a boy—LOL.

5. A boyfriend of mine bought a sex toy as a gag gift. Then his parents came over unannounced and saw it lying on the sofa. I have NEVER been so embarrassed!!!

6. When I was little, my grandmother used to make me put on her curly red wig and sing Tomorrow from Annie…This is my childhood trauma!

7. When I was a correctional officer, I saw more naked men then the law should allow…this is my adult trauma!

Here are the Seven Blogs I’ve recommended:

Karen Amanda Hooper
Amanda The Semi-Published
Caroline Starr Rose
Carrie Harris
Nicole Green
Stephanie Jenkins
Tere Kirkland

And thanks to all my new followers! Welcome to the family.

No More Cakes

2009-11-30T17:57:00.013-05:00

So I made it through THE WEEKEND OF CAKES, but just barely. I don’t want to see another egg, stick of butter or cake pan until after the New Year. I know that’s not going to happen because I’ll most likely have to make a cake for the family dinner. I also want to attempt a red velvet cake (mainly because my grandmother thinks I can only make lemon cake).

I made a black bottom cake for Thanksgiving dinner. It was the easiest cake I’ve ever made…well, that wasn’t from a box. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know-lol.

Next, I had to make little Sophie’s 1st birthday cake. Kids cakes always stress me out because I want to it to be cute as well as taste good. I left the bag of Sesame Street toys in my stepdad’s car and he went back to Delaware on Friday so I didn’t have all the things I wanted on the cake. I made her a lemon flavored cake with lemon filling in the middle.
Now, there's something about the color red that NEVER comes out right for me. I used an entire bottle and a half of red food coloring and that was the darkest I could get it. My mother said they have a paste food coloring that will work better. I think I’ll look to it because I don’t want to have a pink velvet cake for Christmas.

She's just as cute as can be. This picture cracks me up because she looks like she's crashing from her sugar high-lol

Then on Sunday my aunt got married. It was a small ceremony with a reception and my other aunt’s house. So I made the cake to reflect the fall colors from her bouquet.

Pay no mind to the mess. Those aren't balled up tissues around the cake-lol-it's parchment paper that I stick under the rim while I'm frosting the cake so there's nothing on the white base, just something to keep it looking neat.

The cake was lemon with a lemon filling (see why my grand mother thinks it’s the only kind of cake I can make, but it’s what the people ask for so you gotta give ‘em what they want!). I colored the frosting a pale orange but it doesn't show well on the pictures even though it matched the highlights in the flowers perfectly. The reverend at the reception kept asking if the cake was pink and even after I told him the cake was lemon FLAVORED with orange COLORED icing, he insisted that the cake was pink and therefore had to be strawberry…"breath in--breath out, Karen." Had to repeat that several times during the night. Especially when a seven year old brat turned her nose up at the cake and said, "This doens't look like anything I'd eat."Breath in--breath out, Karen.

So, of the cakes I made this weekend I used 22 sticks of butter, 12 cups of flour, 10 cups of sugar, 8 pounds of powdered sugar!!, and 5 cups of milk. And people want to know why I don’t do this for a living, pa-leeez! The main reason is because I’m not that good. I mean, I’m better than the average person baking a cake and smearing frosting on it, but I’m nowhere near good enough to stand with the Duffs of the world. I’ve never had a cake turn out exactly how I pictured it in my head. That’s not a good think for someone who might be expected to replicate a picture or something like that. I can’t take the stress! LOL. Give me a blank document any day and I can sit and write for hours!

So lets hope I don't wake in a cold sweat from a nightmare of a giant stick of butter trying to whip me into a nice fluffy cream.