Category: The Writing Life

Monday Musings

As the countdown to the RWA National Conference in Washington, D.C. begins, I find myself surprisingly glad that I’m not going. Okay, maybe I’ve just talked myself into it, but after two years in a row of attending National, I’m ready for a break. Typing this, I realize I’ve never attended National three years in a row. I suppose I will some day. This year, given the cost of flying across the continent, the fact that neither I nor Penny sold a project in ’08, and because I’ve attended National in D.C. once before, I don’t think I’ll miss it. I’ll miss seeing my Looney Bin and Scrabble buddies, Tina Ferraro and Diana Duncan, attending the RITA ceremonies as nominees, however. Wouldn’t it be cool if they both won their categories?

As for myself, I’m looking forward to continuing to write instead of going crazy prepping for conference. The money I would have spent on new conference clothes can go toward the new stove instead. Last week, I began a new story for Penny, her first “short.” Wrote 3800 words on Thursday, I think it was. Aside from the year I participated in NaNaWriMo, that’s a record for me. Am revising them now before proceeding with writing new stuff. Target market requires 5000-15,000 words, so I have a lot of leeway.

Meanwhile, my cindpk ST is sitting and gathering inspiration. Depending on how Penny’s short story goes this week, I might dig into revisions on the cindypk in another week. Two at the outside. I don’t want to leave it sitting too long.

I signed up for Carbonite last week, an on-line document backup system. I really like it, it’s easy to use, but my desktop is 4.5 years old, and, alas, I fear Delbert is too slow for Carbonite. I’ll have to allow my trial to expire and return to using flashdrives.

With the weather so nice lately, for the first time in my writing life I’m really feeling the absence of a laptop. Especially now that the household budget has recovered from buying each of the kids a laptop for high school graduation. And, also, the cost of those new netbooks is rather tempting. If I sell something this year, I might indulge in a netbook or a small laptop. I prefer my ergonomic desktop keyboard, but the portability of a netbook/laptop is carroting in front of my eyes.

A heads-up, I’m blogging at Nobody Writes It Better on Wednesday, July 1st, which is Canada Day for those not in the know. I’m giving away a paperback copy of my Canadian-set novel, HEAD OVER HEELS (by the way, if you visit that link, the upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 seems to have affected some spacing issues on my Books pages. I’ll have to fix that one of these days).

I’ll post a reminder about the book give-away Wednesday. How is your week shaping up?

 

I’m Alive!

You wouldn’t know it from my lack of participation around here.

I’m still in Between Projects Mode. My massive To-Do list exploded when I suddenly discovered myself taking on far more of the Nobody Writes It Better blog launch than I’d expected. It couldn’t be helped. One of those life circumstances that happens along, and the majority of the work shouldn’t fall to one person (I’m not talking about me here), anyway. I was happy to lend a hand to get the blog up and running. I still have a task to accomplish there—getting the Gallery page packed with more than placeholder images. But I also need to continue tackling The Office so I can move from Between Projects Mode to Brainstorming New Projects Mode. So that’s what I’m paper_mountaindoing. Digging my office out from under several years’ worth of manuscripts. Which mainly means storing them somewhere else. I’m one of those packrats who likes to keep ALL the evidence of agents and editors to whom I’ve submitted a particular project as well as at least one copy of every draft I’ve printed out. Until I sell a project, those files remain in my office. However, I just found a ton of files for BORROWING ALEX, which was published two years ago. Time for the files to move! I also found a bunch of files for Penny’s next release, this coming December. I’ve done everything for that release aside from getting to see the cover and promotion, so, yep, I can pack her files away, too.

I’ve discovered great little binders I put together the last time I did one of these The Office checks. They’re full of notes from Kiss of Death classes I’ve taken. I’d forgotten where they were, because they were on top of a plastic pseudo-file cabinet (which held pieces of BORROWING ALEX, among other things), underneath two cat blankets. Yes, The Evil Entity has been sleeping on mystery/suspense notes. Explains her personality.

The notes don’t do me much good if I don’t know where they are, so I’m trying—note that, trying—to reorganize the office with a tad of a semblance of order.

What’s up in your writing world?

Tell Me Tuesday

I’m resurrecting Tell Me Tuesday—for this week, anyway. So…what have you all been up to? Is the writing going great, does it suck dusty toenails, do you wish you could take up another career?

I’m happy to report that I’m nearly back into the swing of things. First, an eight-day absence (What? Cindy was gone for eight days? Why didn’t she tell us? Where was she? What did she do?), then a nasty, nasty cold, followed by incorporating research into the first half of my WIP. Now I’m finally ready to begin writing new scenes again. What a relief! However, Friday morning Eldest Son comes home for—ta-da!—Canadian Thanksgiving. I’m picking him up from the airport with Allie McBeagle, who I’m sure will slobber all over him, then demand to get taken for a walk.

E.S.’s car is out of commission for the school year, which means I’ll spend much of MY long weekend without a car. However, Sunday night I’ll get fed at SILly’s house (Sister-in-Law, get it?), and all I have to bring is a green salad! Monday night (the actual Thanksgiving holiday), I’ll join my extended my-side-of-the-family for dinner at my parents’, and all I have to bring is a sweet potatoe casserole (which is interesting, because I hate sweet potatoes, yet every year that’s what The Queen of Sheba requests that I bring, so I must do a decent job of the dish even though I don’t eat it.) Tuesday is the Canadian Federal election, and for the first time ever the entire family—My Liege, Myself, Eldest Son and Youngest Son—will all get a chance to visit the polling stations together. I can’t recall if this is the first election since E.S. turned 18. However, Y.S. just turned 18, so it’s definitely his first election. I don’t know, I get all warm and fuzzy thinking of us voting as a family unit (even if our votes might count each other out).

Tuesday evening, E.S. flies back to university, and then I’ll be off to the races with my writing again.

So…I better get a LOT of work done before Friday. How about you?

New Chapters

The WordPress dashboard tells me I have exactly 100 posts on my blog now. Yay, me. Congratulate me on my milestone. I guess that makes this post #101.

Sigh. I’m still feeling very unsettled in the wake of Eldest Son’s departure to university, especially after investigating flight costs and realizing it would cost something like $400 after taxes and surcharges to bring him home for Canadian Thanksgiving (usually around October 10th). And the flight is under an hour! Holy price-gouging, Batman. E.S. said when we parted that he was fully prepared not to come home until Christmas, and you can bet I’m springing the bucks for that two-week holiday. But two nights? We shall see… (In the event you all think I’m heartless, I do have a friend in his university town with two kids he grew up with who would ensure he was well taken care of).

Just before leaving to take E.S. to university, I wrapped up a chapter on the WIP that left me firmly in the middle of the book with a major turning point and a hook. You’d think the next chapter and scene would be a breeze to write, then, huh? Um, not so much. I have a lot of fast-drafted scenes for this story, and I’ve spent the last couple of days (after re-reading those first 12 chapters to plant my brain in the story again) physically moving the drafted scenes around in the manuscript, trying to strike the right balance between plot, mystery, development of romance, and characterization. I think what I’ve moved makes sense, and it’s time to begin revising the first of the two transferred scenes and see if I’m right.

Often, when I begin a new chapter or even a new scene, I walk around in a haze for a day or two, during which I feel super-anxious. I know the brain is churning, and in a way I can actually feel it churning. The churning is the anxiety (some might call it creativity). Right behind my forehead. Agh! Every time this happens, I curse my writing process, but I shouldn’t curse it, I should embrace it. It appears I need to go through the churning in order to successfully write and plot the next few scenes. I often blame this process on Elle Muse, because she’s the one standing inside my head laughing at my bruised forehead! However, she’s also the one doing all the work right now.

And you thought being a writer was all fun and games. Think again. It’s freakin’ hard work.

Well, there you go. I’ve begun a new chapter of my life with E.S. leaving home, and I’m beginning not only a new chapter of my WIP but a new direction, thanks to that major turning point. Wish me luck. For the next week or so, I’m pretty sure I’ll need it.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I am so tired of rain, I can’t tell you. It rained most of May. It’s been raining for most of what amounts to June so far. Sometimes it feels like someone is standing in my driveway with nothing better to do than chuck huge buckets of dirty water on my house. Now, June is often rainy in my neck of the continent, but this is getting ridiculous. Usually, when June is rainy, we’ve had a pleasant spring. Especially our Mays, which can be gorgeous (but not this year). However, this year I feel like we’ve missed out on spring entirely. When the rain stops and I turn off the furnace, within a day I need the air conditioner, because the weather hops from cold, cold rain to hot, hot sun overnight. Then back again.

I have weeds in the concrete that need spraying. I have to blow/sweep the driveway. Neither of these tasks can be accomplished in the rain. And, gee, wouldn’t it be nice to take the writing outside once in a while?

How’s the weather in your part of the world? As out of whack as mine? If you’re a writer, does the weather affect your progress? Would you rather edit when it’s cloudy out, write new pages when it’s sunny? Or does it not matter? My creativity is tied to the weather to a point. The weather isn’t an excuse not to write (or try to write, as the case might be). But I admit my muse would rather play (as in work) when the sky is blue. It can be colder than a witch’s you-know-what, I love those blue skies!

 

Tell Me Tuesday

It’s gearing up to be another Motherhood Madness week. Youngest Son has his high school graduation ceremony and all-night dry grad this Friday. My Liege and I are on the entertainment committee and will be at the dry grad for part of, if not all, the night. Imagine, getting to graduate on Friday the 13th. I love Friday the 13th. However, there’s also exams upon exams this week and the next for Y.S., plus “back-up” university registration on Thursday. Eldest Son is between summer jobs and his laptop hard disk just died. What fun. Next week is his university registration.

As a result of all the family stuff landing on my plate, yesterday was pretty much wiped for writing, although I did edit several chapters and, while spacing out during my bi-monthly massage therapy appointment, I brainstormed several approaches to what I believe is the last scene I need to write totally fresh before I get to revise a big ol’ whack of NaNoWriMo-drafted scenes. Yes! I’m a little worried that the NaNo scenes won’t quite mesh with the scenes I’ve been writing these last few weeks, but I know Elle Muse has my best interests at heart, and she’ll come through for me, won’t you, baby? Elle? Elle??? Elle!!!

I think she’s taking a nap. Time to go kick her in the butt.

Anyone else have news or writing progress/lack of progress to share?