May Mish Mash

Mother's Day, Prom, Progress, College Looming, and 3 weeks to BuNoWrimo

So there. Tired yet? Maybe I will give you a bit more so you can then decide.

First, I hope all of you who ARE Moms or HAVE Moms had a great Mother's Day! (that was easy)


Senior Prom

(and now for the bragging portion of this blog post)

My son had his prom Saturday. He and his group of friends all got together with their dates for dinner at a country club first, then the dance, and the after party was at one of the girls's houses (a house that seems to always host many of them—I asked my son what was so welcoming and the house is large and they always have good food. So there you go. The trick to being the host house...

Mine's the tall one. A few are missing, but this is most of them.

My son and his date. I hear she was excited to go with him as it allowed her to wear her 6" heels.

The full group

And a windswept pose.

And no arrests or suspensions!!! Erm...


College Prep

So this month son needs to get his dorm sorted, attend leadership camp and June 2 we go to orientation... It's coming too fast!!!


Writing Progress

About two thirds done the LAST fix I am going to do before querying Medium Wrong. It's going slow, but going at all is an improvement over the last few (many) months. I want to get queries sent THIS month (10 is my goal) then July 1, after BuNoWriMo, I can add 10 more.

*muttering about synopses goes here*

And Finally... BuNoWriMo

Who wants to write a book in June!? We manage it HERE and on Facebook and we'd love it if anyone wants to join. My Writing Group began this in 2016 and yes, I know there is Camp NaNoWriMo now, but we had June first... plus, there is no rule that says you can't do both. The nice thing about BuNoWriMo is it is a bit more personal... smaller, so people interact and get to know each other. (we also run during NaNo for that personal touch)

Here is the Facebook link if anyone wants to join there.

No No No No No! (When Edits Go Bad)

Hallo fine peoples! And welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Groups Meeting! [They occur first Wednesday of every month]


So know how you have an editing project planned... and it is all moving along a bit painfully, but it takes some hundred plus pages for it to occur to you, “What the HECK am I thinking!?”

Just me then?

Anyway, I had January slated as a FINAL edit for Medium Wrong... but it occurred to me about 150 pages in that this series of events that occurs needs a more coherent thread running through them... a reason.

Which stopped me up 2/3 the way through THAT edit because I realized I really am almost better off starting the edit OVER and after I then do THAT edit, I will need to polish... Last edit becomes 3rd to last... It's funny, this is about the third time exactly this has happened with this book which puts me on about draft 10 of the beginning but only about 3 of the end... if I ever get to truly editing the end... (I did it once, pre-reviewers, but I haven't gotten to it again).

This is why I have 20 first drafts and only 4 that have made it to publication...

I honestly could really benefit from a developmental editor, I think, but that whole professional mentoring thing costs money now. I am pretty GOOD at that role for OTHER people's books. I can spot where the work needs doing, probably because other people have different flaws than I do in how they see things, but on my own I just have trouble.

So that is what has me feeling insecure today.

What about the rest of you? Some piece of the writing process that you seem to have trouble implanting into your brain?


Be sure to go visit OTHER insecure writers today, too!!!

And So It Begins

I normally like beginnings, and historically the start of the school year is one of my favorites, but I am feeling a bit melancholy this time around. Thing 2 is a senior in high school, so it is my LAST start of school for one of my kids... and it is the start of the University school year, too, and my day job is so much busier when the students are present.

But in the spirit of having a better attitude, I am hoping to approach all this like it's a good thing. A chance to start fresh, reset my goals that thus far this year have been sorely missed...

Also Appearing

I think this is the only thing I've actually managed this year. I finished my edit Saturday. I am going to give it ONE MORE read to make sure there aren't any editing scars and then it is ready for my 2nd reader(s).

What That MEANS

It means I have 8 weeks until NaNoWriMo which is time to do TWO things:

1)  Edit one fairly done story
2)  And PLOT my NaNoProject

But What To Edit...

I think I am going to take a stab at Medium Wrong. I could do Kahlotus Disposal Site, but that has a different sort of problem than I feel currently equipped to deal with. Medium Wrong I think I can do... My goal is perhaps a “more or less” one... There is a paranormal element that I tried to keep very light, but I think I need to commit or tamp it down or it ends up deus ex machina. Committing would mean more clues or evidence Amanda has some sort of visions thing that she is capable of, the tamping would give her real ways of knowing stuff... I think the former works better.


As for My NaNo Project, I think I am going with a mystery. I still need to find my niche here. I want SO BADLY to walk the line BETWEEN cozy and actual dark mystery. I don't want humorless or just typical whodunnits. I want dark crime that affects real characters, but I want some of those characters to have tics and snark. I WILL do it!!! But I think I need to flesh out my characters better before I start and then I think I want to diagram the main murder plot. It is what I did for my cozy series and it helps me to not sort of get off pace or give too much away right up front.

So that is the rest of 2015 for me...


As for NON-Writing Goals for the rest of the year...

Um... wait, what? I really should have some fitness goals. I know I should... I think what I can commit to is some strength training and stretching stuff (I already walk a ton). And I should make some eating attempts, but I'm not convinced I will do a lot... Life is too full...


What about you? Do you have things you are trying to wind up in the four months left in 2015?

My Son the Senior Citizen (and a plea for help)

The senior citizen in question (and 1/3 of me)

So somewhere around 2005 the AARP lost an old guy named Samuel Johnson. But never fear. If the AARP loses you, they will find you... or some near approximation. About my son's 9th birthday they started sending us stuff. Offers for magazines, life insurance (really A LOT of life insurance), assist beds and chairs... Never mind that his dad didn't qualify until last September...

When they would call us asking for him, my husband would lecture them on his age. But we've never done anything about the mail. Heck, sometimes they send us discounts. And more often, it is just really funny to think about my teenage son getting these Bizarro World offers.

[Note I am 5'11. You can see in this photo my 14 year old has passed me by more than a wee bit)

So last night I got the mail and there is a letter. It is that weird type that might be type, might be handwritten, but since it's addressed to my son, I do the magnanimous thing and pass it on, explaining it might just be an ad...

Me: So what was it, Bud?
Him: They want to help me with my ear wax.

*dies *

Oh, to be fourteen and treated like 64.


MEDIUM WRONG Pitch for Feedback...

So the Amazon contest starts in 5 days, right? And the first cut is based on the pitch... so here is my current pitch and I would LOVE feedback... 2 things: After reading the pitch would you want to read the book and do you see ways to improve it?

MEDIUM WRONG



Amanda Harden has anticipated summer break and her brother’s return from college since Christmas. She’s been biding her time, trying to stay under her volatile father’s radar. Within minutes of Asher’s return; however, she learns he’s flunked out of college and their father throws him out of the house.

Worried as much about Asher’s self-destructive response as her own well-being, Amanda insists on tagging along on the road trip he plans as an escape. He resists, but then decides on a plan that can use her. They learned the con young, under their father’s constant example, and Asher believes Amanda can help him run a doozy to pay for their trip. Amanda will bring messages from the dead to their loved ones ‘for peace of mind and profit’.

The plan seems to go well... until the dead decide their stories need more accuracy and detail and start talking to Amanda for real.  Amanda suffers vivid dreams and lurid visions, not to mention the puking and the headaches. But mixed in are messages that are much more personal about a series of lies and cover-ups. There is a wrong that needs to be righted—one that could change everything.

At 75,000 words, MEDIUM WRONG is a young adult novel that combines a road trip, a family mystery and the love-hate struggle siblings do so well.

I would LOVE feedback!!!

Big Newses and Small Newses!

Best of 2012

Not sure why saving this on the Mac made it green...

First, because I can hardly contain myself… (and my apologies to those already inundated with this via Facebook)  last week a friend of mine, Mark Sadler, who is one of the staff writers for Suspense Magazine  informed me that The Azalea Assault was chosen one of the best cozy mysteries of 2012!!! I’m so excited! If you go to the magazine and click on it, it will download and I am on page 40!


Medium Wrong Edits DONE

For now, anyway… I’ve sent it off to two of my FABULOUS, reliable beta readers for the ‘big feedback’ and will get back to editing it over Christmas break. In the meantime, I need to find my latest version of What Ales Me and work on THAT. The ANNOYING piece of this is I have to do version magic to get it from my old hard drive where it is in Open Office into Word when none of the computers I have at the moment likes to talk to each other that way. The one that will read the old hard drive has too OLD a version of word to convert… So I need to send it all over, convert from work… all that irritating stuff…

Best Book of the Year

I downloaded this a few months back, but only managed to get to it recently and OHMYGAWD… I will do a full review when I finish, but I am humbled and amazed to know someone who wrote such a fabulous book. So if you are looking for a read… or have someone on your Christmas list who loved The DiVinci Code (but are maybe more of a stickler for real facts to back up the story)… Helena Soister’s The Compass Master is your book.


And Lastly… Tree is up… first set of cookies baked (have an exchange at work today, so I had to do that—will tell you what and share pics FRIDAY as part of Angela Felsted’s Book release cookie exchange!)… I even got a significant dent made in my shopping…

And now I need another weekend.

Nine and a Half Days

Isn't that a movie? No. There was 9 ½ Months... and How many days? There were a bunch of movies with days. And some with hours. Anyway. If this post were made into a movie it would be exhausting and a little bit boring, so you might as well just read the cliff notes.


Can I Just Tell You I'm EXHAUSTED?

No. Being me, I can't. I have to explain why. But I suppose that one line would have seemed measly and pathetic, so it's just as well.

NaNoWriMo in PROGRESS!

I was really really good for six days, and have struggled a little since... Election obsession/fatigue/defense to be discussed later in the specific, but here noted. I just can't obsess about two things at once.

But as this section is about NaNo, I will go with it. Flow has had a few fast, right on spots, but mostly I've just been working at a normal mid-novel pace. Which is a little frustrating in a beginning when it should be flying. My timeline is more detailed than normal, though, so maybe that is it. And maybe I won't slow down in the middle. I can hope. The top right corner uses my BuNo Meter, so you can see where I am if you are curious.

A few of my blogging buddies are really rocking it.

If any of YOU are doing it and want to chat with FABULOUS PEOPLE, BuNoWriMo is using its discussion pages for NaNoWriMo and Writing Sprints R Us does sprints most days. I think you can just join both, but message me if not and I will invite you. I think for that you need to be my FB friend (Hart Johnson).


The OTHER One

I am also doing my 'final before first readers' polish of MEDIUM WRONG this month. I am 100 pages in, which is just past 1/3. I will definitely finish the hard copy stuff, but the edits won't be entered until I hit 50K for NaNo...

The BEGONIA BRIBE

Of course day three of NaNo I received the copy edits from my editor... ACK! Copy edits are FABULOUS... somebody has gone through and made sure I was consistent, has pointed out anywhere I was confusing, has checked my facts... this is such a CRITICAL step. But it is one as author I have to then go through and address piece by piece... and my home computer doesn't play nice with Word... thinking on it now, the MAC would—the kids use that more, so I didn't even think of it, but it has word on it. But my OWN computer has Open Office. So I did all my edity stuff... then had to RE-DO it at work where I have Word... *dies *

(yes, you may throw a pity party... or roll your eyes at me, whichever)

But that is DONE... sent it back to Michelle yesterday... and last I heard from her Penguin offices were closed... not sure if they are back or not... poor New York and New Jersey have really had a time of it.


Election Obsession

I honestly couldn't concentrate AT ALL on Tuesday and not much Wednesday. See... I CARE. And I'm an information junkie and a stats nut... and a social scientist.

Even SINCE then, I feel compelled to correct misinformation when I run across it. There are some angry people... I get it. 8 years ago the same thing happened to me. How could we re-elect that nut!? But you know what the VERY BEST thing I've found about it is?

This blog does exactly that... relates 2004 to 2012... because both sides have been on both sides of this... You should read this if you, or anyone you know, is unhappy:

 So Your Nation Has Elected a President You Really Don’t Like

Seriously.  Good stuff, regardless of affiliation.

Next Big Thing Blogfest

So this little blogfest, The Next Big Thing, is for writers to share our current WIP, whether we are writing it, editing it or promoting it: Your choice.

We are meant to tag five people, and then answer a set of questions, so let me start with Thanking the two people who tagged me: Ia Uaro  (who has a book release technically tomorrow, but as it's Australia, that is almost today)  and Megan Bostic.



And now... the QUESTIONS!

What is the working title of your book?

The one I'm editing right now is called Medium Wrong.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Um... With the idea of a brother and sister taking off on a road trip to run a (series of) cons. The MC and narrator is in high school and her brother gets thrown out for flunking out of college, but she doesn't want to stay home without him.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal YA, I guess. Paranormal mystery? I do sort of a funny waffle where other people want to call it paranormal, but I see it as possible, but never mind... there are dead people communicating.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

See, I'm horrible at this. I am not particularly visual, but I suppose Amanda looks something like this:

Erin Chambers--young like this

She is older now and wouldn't work, but this is sort of the look I have in mind—a longish, lean 'cute' strawberry blonde.

And Asher (her BROTHER, not a love interest... though he GETS a lot of love interest, ifyouknowwhatImean) looks something like this:

Ryan Kwanten from True Blood

He's ALSO older now, but this look that can do both bad boy and sweet innocent is perfect for the brain behind the con.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

It's two sentences, but the second is really short...

Amanda and Asher have watched their dad run cons their whole lives, so when Asher gets thrown out for flunking out of college, they decide to go on the road pretending to bring bereaved messages from the dead. It all works well until the dead start really talking.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I will try for traditional, I think. A little though, depends on the fate of Kahlotus Disposal Site which I keep meaning to query again... This one has a first stop at the Amazon contest in January.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About six weeks. I do fast first drafts, then it takes about triple that for first rewrite and my version that is ready to SHARE is numbered about 5 (publishable is in the teens).


What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I haven't seen anything in YA like it, but the set-up is a little like what Whoopee Goldberg experiences in Ghost... the fraud that suddenly starts having real dead people show up. Only it gets more personal.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

You know... I don't actually remember. I was in the ABNA contest with Kahlotus at the time and that has a ghost narrator, though, so some variation on what I was thinking about there.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It's a real twist on the road trip book. And there is a mystery about a parent... all that angsty abusive upbringing stuff... And I think the sibling story is a pretty fresh angle—I don't see a lot of THAT as the main relationship in YA. I like the sibling relationship because it runs the full range: moments of intense love to intense hate without having to delve into romantic stereotypes.


And now for my tags. Hopefully I've tagged people not previously tagged. I also tried to choose friends with books they are promoting so they can add a line at the end:

What are you currently PROMOTING?

For me, it is still The Azalea Assault, though I notice The Begonia Bribe is now up for pre-order and to mark as 'to-read' at Goodreads...

For the tags!

Leigh T. Moore
Roland Yeomans
Cherie Reich
RaShelle Workman
Ciara Knight

The Plan BUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

If you've been around awhile, you know I can't say PLAN without a cackle. *cough*  So I was suffering from NaNoLag for a few days there, even though the book wasn't done. (in fact I think I am still suffering from it to a lesser degree) I just couldn't make myself keep going. It was compounded with a sick daughter, the death of the loved one of someone I care about, and just general holiday chaos, but for a few days there, I just couldn't reengage my mojo.

This weekend I managed to do a little on the BOOK end. I took the first and second off, but Saturday did a sprint in the midst of what was legitimately a very busy day, so even one was good, and Sunday managed THREE sprints, thereby finishing my first draft of Medium Wrong except for that tie-up chapter, which I've made some progress on. It has several spots along the way that need holes filled in, though less than former WriMos. It is over 76K now, so may be 90K before DONE DONE, and then I will need to pare it. 70K is really closer to right, but I know how these things go.

I STILL though, need a push to get back on track on the other stuff, as I have a book to finish this month for my Cozy contract. Some of you may not get my panic about it... it isn't due until June 30, but the fact of the matter is my revision method requires some down time. So I thought I'd share my PLAN—BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Starting today:

Write on Chrysanthemum Campaign (CC) like a WriMo—an hour sprint each evening. An hour in the tub later. Three sprints on weekends. No exceptions. At that rate I should manage 2000 word a day weekdays and 5000 weekend days up to the slowdown point (the ¾ mark). That is 20K a week for the next two, then I will slow to maybe 15K... possibly ten, but it is enough I can finish this month.


January: CC will SIT for a month (except some typing of what was already written). I will revise LEGACY for ABNA. LEGACY is relatively clean, but I have had a few recommendations and need a lot of work on pitch and such.

February: Revise CC on my own. Immerse in ABNA--February is the biggest month for this. Finish typing What Ales Me.

March: Send CC to peers with strict one-month deadline. Revise 'What Ales Me'. Work on promotional plan for AZALEA ASSAULT.

April: Peer recommended revisions for CC. Send What Ales Me to peers.

May: Beta read carefully CC. Execute promo stuff.

JUNE: Azalea Assault release. CC to agent. WRITE YA Armageddon. This is a twist on one I've been planning a long time--the ideas for what it's about are definitely filling in.


So at least there is a path again. I feel some relief about that. I am in a bit of a blog funk, too. Should be better soon, as I have 12 days of Christmas plans. But at the moment, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels just a little.

Today I largely won't be here—I have a funeral to attend. But hopefully that, too, will be getting back on track (the blog visiting, I mean).

And... so we get a little holiday stuff going, my buddy Laura over at the Daily Dodo, along with Lorelei, are hosting a SECRET SANTA event for bloggers. No money involved. Just a little time and creativity. So if you'd like to pass along a gift to a blogger friend for the holidays, go over and check it out!