Delinquent Blurbs and Interviewed Elsewhere

Hallo fine peoples!!!!

So I was meant to post the last two story teases from Parallels: Felix Was Here on Friday and I lost my mind. So today I will share THOSE, but I ALSO am being interviewed today on Yolanda Renee's blog. So if you want a bit of the “behind the story” for The Seventeen, you can go over THERE and see it.

By the way... I read ALL these stories this weekend, and I was fabulously impressed. It is a really fun set.

Meanwhile HERE, the last two stories introduced are from Tamara Narayan and my own.


Scrying the Plane: A teen experiences thrills and chills in a virtual reality internet.

Are you 21 or older? Care to experience the internet through a virtual reality interface? See Twitter birds flock, hop in a Minecraft trolley, or don the “skin” of your favorite celebrity. Come, sit. Drink your Sleep-Ease and lie back. Don’t worry about the scalpel.  Just a few small cuts to access your temple chip and in go the leads. Hardly any bleeding at all! So hook in, hook up, and go wild. What could go wrong?  

From doling out popcorn to moviegoers to flinging smelt to penguins, Tamara Narayan's taken the “road less traveled”. Her career path veered off into a land of integrals and other strange things while she taught college level math, but these days she’s cruising the fiction highway. 



And LAST....

The Seventeen: In a world of unregulated drug trials, sometimes the side-effects are viral.

Cecily Daiker is keeper of the Seventeen--the survivors Pharmagna houses after a decade of drug trials which were unregulated, subjects unprotected and un-cared-for.

Until Cecily.

But now a drug is being proposed to undo the wrongs of past drugs, Within limits, of course. And Cecily is assigned to oversee the trial. What nobody says is that the newly tested drug may have unanticipated consequences. Not just for the Seventeen, but for everybody. And it is Cecily's job to contain the danger.
 

Hart Johnson is a social scientist by day, and plots murder and the apocalypse when the sun goes down. She has published a flu conspiracy trilogy (A Shot in the Light) and a cozy mystery series under the name Alyse Carlson. She has hopes to eventually support herself writing or take over the world, whichever works out first. In the meantime, you can find her at the links below:



For the rest of this week I am going to be largely offline. I am traveling for work, but I will see you all next week!

Nose to the Grindstone

Hallo fine people!!! Welcome to First Wednesday and the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Don't forget to go visit other insecure writers today, too!

So anybody know what makes up motivation? I am going to go out on a limb and say a lot of it is momentum (or inertia). But if the inertia is dragging you down, what do you do to get going again?

I'm hoping March Madness can pull me out of it. So far so good. (after one day, but whatever). Maybe it helps that work is forcing my hand right now, too. I have a meeting next week and am helping a student prepare her poster, so I have had to be focused and work hard and at a very steady rate... so keeping going when I get home is working out okay. At least so far.


So what do I have to accomplish this month?

I want to query Medium Wrong which requires me to finish entering edits (should happen today), write a synopsis and query, select agents and publishers, and send them...

I want to PLOT a cozy mystery. And then, when I get through some reading I have to do (a beta read, a copy edit and a library book) I want to edit Kahlotus Disposal Site.

So that is a polish/query, a proofing, a plotting and an editing this month. LOTS to do, but a much more scattered list than I've ever begun March Madness with. Normally I write or finish a book... still, when I finish the month hopefully I will have TWO ready to fly out the door that have been in my files for way too long.


What about all of you? Any tricks for getting going again? What motivates you?


[And anyone interested in this March Madness business, can find out more here.]

The Fourth Parallels (Sneak Peak)

Is it really Friday!? Thank goodness. And we were buried in about eight inches of snow, but I am infinitely grateful it wasn't tornadoes or hurricanes. My heart goes out to those of you on the east coast who got far worse than we did.

And you may have noticed, I am sharing two blurbs each Friday from the Parallels: Felix was Here Anthology that will be published May 3 (Pre-order here)(Or visit our group blog here)--for which my primary contribution thus far has been to shout "Hey guys! We should do some stuff! erm...). I'm honored to be part of this, though, seriously. Today is my fourth time sharing two apiece of the blurbs and I've got Melanie Schultz and Sylvia Ney on board!



The Haunted: Sometimes the best things in life are the things you never had.

For five years Andy has been consumed by nothingness. Her life was fine—normal even—and then suddenly it wasn’t. No one knows why, least of all her. Desperate for answers, she seeks out yet another psychiatrist, not knowing that psychotherapy has nothing to do with it, not when the problem is that you’re being haunted.


Melanie Schulz is planted in upstate New York with her husband and three kids on a smallish plot of land she likes to believe is a farm. She plays at being a writer, same as she plays at being a farmer, and nurse, and overall enjoyer of this thing called life. One of the things she enjoys most are people who delight in discussing all things listed above. 

You can find her at:

Website

Blog

Facebook

Win:  The connection is everything.

 Seventeen year-old David Masters has grown up in almost complete isolation, despised by those around him. He is smart, determined, and compassionate. Now, an act of terrorism threatens the lives of millions. Can David help the society who shunned his very existence? Or is all hope for humanity lost? Find out in “WIN”. 


Sylvia Ney is a freelance writer, editor, and speaker. She regularly contributes to newspapers, magazines, and other anthologies. Some of her recurring publications include Houston Family magazine. Southern Writer's magazine, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Sylvia is a member of the Texas Gulf Coast Writers and the Bayou Writers Group in Louisiana.

You can find her at: www.sylviacney.com

March Madness Looms Large!!!

Hallo, fine peoples!!! It is only 8 days until March!!! And around here there is a tradition for March that we call March Madness. Unlike the ball bouncing, hoop throwing, foot tangling thing that is going on among college athletes, THIS March Madness is a self-defined challenge we set to kick ourselves into gear.

Traditional March Madness Projects Include:

* A major edit you want to get done
* FINISHING a book you started at some other time
* Finshing TWO books that are closer to done
* Writing a new book
* Writing a defined number of short stories
* Converting a project (ie, making a screenplay from a novel)

It is anything YOU make of it. We suggest it be about comparable in time commitment to NaNoWriMo, but that is ONLY a suggestion. Mostly what we want to do is give a little adrenaline rush to your writing and create a supportive environment for getting something done.

If you want to join discussions and such on the subject, I manage a Facebook Group, BuNoWriMo, where we can interact more easily. You are ALL WELCOME. Bring your friends. Bring your ideas. Bring some silly shenanigans.

Sneaksy Peeksy Threeksy (For Parallels)

What?  You know I make stuff up.

And I can channel a four-year-old when I really want to and four-year-olds love to rhyme. So there.

So I have two more of my fellow authors and their stories to share with you today... two people I didn't happen to really know before this adventure--that is a perk of being part of an anthology I totally hadn't considered. I was excited to see friends on the list, but I am also enjoying this NEW friends piece!

First up is Michael Abayomi

Ground Zero: The ruins of New York City might not be as deserted as they seem.

Thirty years after a nuclear bomb devastates much of the Eastern United States, the survivors are still struggling to deal with the aftermath. Elijah is one of them, a man simply doing his part in the effort to rebuild from what's left. He is also a man on a mission, one that has been fueling what others might see as a morbid obsession with corpses. But he is secretly on a search for answers, a search that has taken him to Ground Zero, the very heart of the irradiated wasteland known as the Red Zone

Michael Abayomi was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He fell in love with the art of storytelling after reading J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. His books include Neuro, The Morning Star, and the epic fantasy series, Guardians & The Lost Paradise.

You can find Michael at:

Website/Blog

Twitter

[And see, I began my writing adventures in earnest after reading (and re-reading) Harry Potter, too. I always WANTED to write, but it took those books to accept the lesson that it is easier to finish and do it well (for me) if I know the ending.]

Okay, Next up is Sandra Cox

Rainers: Save his world or save her own.

Out hiking, Harper Reese tumbles into a parallel universe where a nightmarish virus has infected the sphere’s pubescent children. While there she encounters bad boy Noah Tanner who’s got problems of his own.

Now, they must work together to track down and destroy the source of the disease before it travels to her world and infects her twelve-year-old sister.


Multi-published author Sandra Cox writes YA Fantasy, Romance, and Metaphysical Nonfiction. She lives in sunny North Carolina with her husband, a brood of critters and an occasional foster cat. Although shopping is high on the list, her greatest pleasure is sitting on her screened in porch, listening to the birds, sipping coffee and enjoying a good book. She's a vegetarian and a Muay Thai enthusiast.

You can find Sandra here:

Facebook

Twitter 

Blog 

Website

If you want to go back and see the other blurbs and authors I've shared, LG and Yolanda are here and Cherie and Crystal are here.

Wait... Where'd Hart Go?

*sigh*  I'm back at any rate.

Monday and Tuesday I was doing college visits with my boy child. Pondering that in 6 months we'd be getting him packed to go live AWAY... hard to wrap my head around. Now I am doing my (his) FAFSA and trying to create the checklist for maximum options while limiting cash outlay...

But I will be here Friday to share a couple more story blurbs for Parallels: Felix was Here.


In the meantime... Deadpool... OHMYGAWD this was fantastic... if you have a stomach for violence, sex, sex jokes, strong language, and moral ambiguity... But SERIOUSLY.... if you ARE that person, this is the most fun I've had at a movie in ages. I laughed hard, shed a tear or two (I do this more easily than most--you won't cry--none of you, but I did). The jokes making fun of pretty much everything... breaking the fourth wall... BRILLIANT.

DO NOT take any children lower than high school age, and if you are at all prudish, maybe stick to R means R. (being the lax person I am, I would probably let my middle school kid watch it AT HOME when it is available later--but I am totally not a censor for my kids gal)

Parallel Lines Update and More Sneaksy Peeksies!

We have a Publication date MAY 3!!!!  and pre-order links!!!

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iTunes

I know, right?  So exciting!!!

And if you are a bit confused as to what exactly speculative fiction, LG Keltner launched our group blog for promoting Parallels: Felix Was Here with a great post explaining it.

So today I am sharing two more authors and story teasers with you... anyone around the blogosphere knows both of these ladies, and I'm thrilled and honored to be in an anthology with them (the whole group honestly--we've been collaborating on this promotey thing and it is so awesome to not be doing this in a vacuum. Love being part of a team.


First up Is Crystal Collier

The Mirror People:  We think no one is watching, but what if they are? Meet the Mirror People.

Jak Ralston leads an ordinary life. Home, work, church. Repeat.

Unremarkable in every way, except for one. Every day Jak stares into the eyes of a serial killer.

We think no one is watching, but what if they are? Meet the Mirror People.



Crystal Collier is an eclectic author who pens clean fantasy/sci-fi, historical, and romance stories with the occasional touch of humor, horror or inspiration. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, four littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.

You can find her at:

Blog   Facebook   Goodreads  Twitter

And next we have Cherie Reich

Folds in Life and Death: In 2001, the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes again.

Allyson Moore loves using her gift of paper magics. With precise folds and an incantation, she brings paper creatures to life.

But being a Paperist has its downsides too. She sees spirits, but she can’t revive them. She folds paper lanterns to release souls, but she can’t stomach sending another family member from this earthly realm.

The Curse of Tippecanoe, conceived nearly two centuries before, claims her brother, the President of the United States. She must journey to Washington, DC to be with her orphaned niece and nephew, but nothing—not even magic—can prepare her to see the brother she hasn’t spoken to in two years and release his soul to the sky.

Cherie Reich owns more books than she can ever read and thinks up more ideas than she can ever write, but that doesn’t stop this bookworm from trying to complete her goals, even if it means curbing her TV addiction. A library assistant living in Virginia, she writes speculative fiction. Her books include the paranormal horror collection Once upon a Nightmare and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles and The Fate Challenges. She is a member of the Virginia Writers Club, Valley Writers, and Untethered Realms.

You can find her at:
Website | Blog | Newsletter | Facebook | Twitter

And if you missed last weeks teasers from LG and Yolanda, you can find them here.

Ghosts Release Day!!! (by Kendall Grey)

So one of my writer friends has done an amazing experiment... she wrote and published this story online, releasing episodes relatively rapidly, but now, completed, she has pulled the online version and edited the story for book form.


So today is the day! Ghosts releases today! Here is the blurb:

Under the blazing cover of a post-nuclear, technology-crippled world, Sarah Coolidge is an expert at being neither seen nor heard.

She was an afterthought to her abusive parents.

She’s invisible to the criminals she works with.

And she’ll soon be the death-dealing ghost her enemies never see coming—if she can just shake loose the one person who does see her.

The one who could ruin her.

The one who gives her a reason to live.

About Kendall Grey:

A whale warrior, indie freedom fighter, and vodka martini aficionado, Kendall Grey is calm like an F-bomb*. She writes urban fantasy, rock star erotica, erotic suspense/thrillers, and apocalyptic science fiction. Swashbuckling cowboy priests in latex chaps are next on her To Write list**.

Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta, Georgia with three mischievous Demonlings, a dashing geek in cyber armor, and a long-haired miniature Dachshund that thinks she's a cat. 

* Detonation manual not included.
** Just kidding about the cowboy priests. Someone probably already did that.

AUTHOR LINKS
Website - http://www.kendallgrey.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KendallGreyAuthor
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/kendallgrey1
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5108885.Kendall_Grey
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Kendall-Grey/e/B006BA1V06

Purchase Links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Pink-Ink-Designs-ebook/dp/B01BJTWC2O

Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghosts-kendall-grey/1123356486?ean=2940157625467

Kobo - https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/ghosts-81

iBooks - https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/ghosts/id1077803833?mt=11

Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kendall_Grey_Ghosts?id=GZ2ACwAAQBAJ&hl=en

First Sneak Peek at Parallels: Felix Was Here

Hello, fine friends!

Today, as I promised last week, I am going to share two blurbs and two author bios from the ten of us who had stories chosen for Parallels: Felix Was Here.

I am starting with LG Keltner, as her tale, Felix Was Here, was selected as top story and gave the anthology its name.

L.G. Keltner has been trying to write novels since she was six years old. She’s wanted to be many things over the years, but the dream that survived into adulthood was that of being a writer. She graduated from Drake University in 2008, but she’s still learning every day. L.G. lives in Iowa with her husband and children.

Felix Was Here: Utopia isn’t meant for everyone.

Betty’s family lived in a small Brooklyn apartment when the 1939 World’s Fair offered the nation a stunning vision of the future. A charismatic man worked with the government to make that vision a reality. Six years later, Betty has a nice home, a good husband, and all is right in her world.

When someone casually mentions the name Felix in conversation, everything changes. Betty’s dreams suddenly revolve around a boy named Felix. A boy she doesn’t recognize. Sleep deprived and confused, Betty begins to question the foundation upon which she’s built her idyllic life.

You can find LG at these places:  

Blog- Writing Off the Edge

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter

Amazon

Next up is Yolanda Renée who says:

At one time Alaska called to me and I answered. I learned to sleep under the midnight sun, survive in below zero temperatures, and hike the Mountain Ranges. I've traveled from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and the memories are some of my most valued. The wonders, mysteries, and incredible beauty that is Alaska has never left me and thus now influence my writing.

Despite my adventurous spirit, I achieved my educational goals, married, and I have two wonderful sons. Writing is now my focus, my newest adventure!

Ever-Ton:  Orderly evacuation is the directive to leave our dying world…Salvation awaits in Salus, but only if you meet the requirements.

Leaving the queue of well dressed and military clad residents of Ever-ton, an overweight, and fidgety Quinn Cartier steps up to the ticket counter in sweats. 

“Unplaceable. Me?”

Unplaceable…the words rang through Quinn’s head like an apocalyptic siren. Leaving a dying planet never seemed more unlikely. 

As a lead engineer, I dedicated my life to feeding them...and now, I’m persona non grata~

Nothing made sense. The government promised all citizens a place in the new world. Why all the hurdles then?

Why indeed?

What fate holds for Quinn and all the Unplaceables at Pier 11? 

What secret is revealed by a mysterious old woman who disappeared as quickly as she appeared? 

Quinn has only one night to change her fate…

You can find Yolanda at:

Blog: Defending the Pen

Facebook

Twitter 

Pinterest

Amazon

Five weeks of this and we should be near release!!! So exciting!

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!!!

Lost and Found: A Writer's Tale and a Poem

First, I should introduce that this is a blog fest hosted by the fabulous Lee (Arlee Bird) at Tossing it Out, who has done more than his share in helping create a close-knit, supportive writing community, so thank you, Lee! You can find the list of participants here.

Second, I will say I CONSIDERED an ode to Facebook where I have found about 99% of the PEOPLE I once thought lost. It's an amazing medium for reconnection.


This is the part of the blog where I participate WRONG

But instead of Facebook... alas, as I got my stuff out to write this yesterday morning, there was my lost manuscript. Found.

You see, I got two weeks off for Christmas Break. I knew the first week would be spent in baking, shopping, wrapping, wine evenings with my buddies, cleaning as I always try to have one of my gifts to my seriously more cleanliness-oriented spouse that I clean up some of my crap for the holiday... But I really planned AFTER Christmas to spend the week immersed in an EDIT. I had printed it out because I see more hard copy. I did this at work as my home printer was broken and 270 pages in the life of an industrial toner is nothing (and I can print two-sided there, which seems more earth-friendly). At home I had taken off the first hundred pages to get started... and set it... somewhere... Blast it if when I went to get started the pages weren't GONE.

I did a couple small writing tasks the rest of break, but I couldn't get really started until I went back to work January 4...

And then about a week after I'd printed the new and gotten started, there was the old at the bottom of the mail pile.

It was the Universe telling me to rest it a bit, I think...


And THIS is the Part where I have read the instructions...

(I'm bad about this—par for the course would have been discovering I'd done it wrong after publishing).
I am to produce a piece of actual writing related to losing or finding someone I love...

Just let me put on my teen angst hat... you see, I've been with the hubs since I was 22—a VERY long time... and I didn't so much “find him” as we sort of settled into each other—nothing instant about it. So the only loss strong enough that I can still channel is the first one. Love's first sting...

Heartache: A Poem of Sorts

It wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't.
Isn't that always the way?
Sixteen, craving love
Craving craving
Dare I say it?
Craving heartache?
To feel so deeply
Love so deeply
That the sad songs speak to you
Every one.
To scream out
Cry out
Hurt so badly.
It is an initiation of sorts
A way of becoming.
A part of a grander universe
A member of humanity
for whom deep feelings forge the connections.
Oh to be sixteen and in love with love.


For the record—I'm still friends with this guy—the one who broke my heart first. So he was lost romantically, and found amicably. Because I don't actually lose people. I collect them. (This is normal for a Cancer)


So who or what have YOU lost and then found?

Book Cover and Blurb!!!

For those who don't know, I am part of the speculative anthology that will come out soonish (March if I were to guess)... and yesterday we got the cover and blurb and an okay to share!!!

I love it.  And then here is the blurb.


Enter the realm of parallel universes!

What if the government tried to create the perfect utopia? Could a society linked to a supercomputer survive on its own? Do our reflections control secret lives on the other side of the mirror? Can one moment split a person’s world forever?

Exploring the fantastic, ten authors offer incredible visions and captivating tales of diverse reality. Featuring the talents of L. G. Keltner, Crystal Collier, Hart Johnson, Cherie Reich, Sandra Cox, Yolanda Renee, Melanie Schulz, Sylvia Ney, Michael Abayomi, and Tamara Narayan.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will expand your imagination and twist the tropes of science fiction. Step through the portal and enter another dimension!


I'm hoping to collect some story blurbs from these folks so you can get a bit more of a taste before it comes out... maybe two a week over the next several Fridays...

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A to Z Opens and My Plan

Hallo, fine peoples!!! Today is the day! And two months and a couple days from today it STARTS.

Wait... how can both of those things be true?

Well TODAY is the day the SIGN UP opens for the A to Z challenge. This is a great activity... It commits you to blogging 26 days in April (it actually STARTS April 1], so not for the faint of heart, but it is good for discipline, networking, adrenaline... and honestly, if you aren't going to do it, you should probably plan to just take April off... It is the only game in town.

So what is MY PLAN?

I'm going to put you all to work.

[Say what?]

I made a plan this year to learn a bunch of networking and promoting tools and I've done exactly bipcus. I must have spelled that wrong... I am looking for the Yiddish word for nothing... But then it occurred to me that I can be sneaky clever sometimes... so I am going to come up with the TOPICS alphabetically, and throw out the question asking all of YOU your experience with these various things! Then I will be able to evaluate where I should best invest my energies...

How's that? Just call me Tom Sawyer.


In Other News

And when I say I've done bipcus, I mean on marketing... I am about 60% through my January edit (I should finish) and I did the copy editing eval turnaround gig for The Seventeen which is my short story going in Parallels: Felix Was Here, The IWSG Speculative Anthology.

Art, (Im)Mortality and the Sublime David Bowie

This isn't to downplay the very sad death of Alan Rickman, which is also a sad and serious blow to my years of fandom. My hat's off to you Professor, for bringing to life one of literature's more complex characters and many others over the years. You were amazing.

When I told my mom I liked Bowie,she had this in her head

But David Bowie has got me thinking of much deeper issues than just admiration of amazing talent, though he had that in spades, also. The way he approached art and himself. Never willing to settle. Always wanting to try something new. Growing from it and then outgrowing it. And then onto the next endeavor. People have called him a chameleon, but I think it was braver than that. He didn't adapt and change to what was going on. He ignored what was going on and thought, “What do I want my next iteration to be of me as an artist? What do I want to try? And then the world followed. Even that mullet... 1973... the mullet would become a thing in the early 80s... He led. So far ahead that most people couldn't even see it.

This was more what I had in my head

Even his most popular success, Let's Dance (the album) in the early 80s, was him saying “I'd like to make a popular mainstream dance album... see what that's like. He didn't want to do it for the money or to hit some high note and stay there as a pop star. He wanted the experience. Just to see. In every way, as an artist he led, he collaborated, he got excited about something new. Not just his new things--he celebrated other people's new things...

And he was PRODUCTIVE. Holy crap—I looked up his albums Monday and there are more than one per year he was making music—probably double if you count the albums that just recompiled and marketed already produced songs.

Even his death letter to us—his final album and good-bye was an original set of artwork for the authentic purpose of one last gift to all of us.


So you know how a tribute blog always gets back to all about me? This is that part.

Bowie had enough hits that were big enough they even played on KRPL in Moscow, Idaho when I was growing up. I'd heard Space Oddity, but would not have known it was Bowie. I was aware of Golden Years, Rebel Rebel, and my favorite, Changes, though I think only the first of those was late enough I was paying attention to who sang it.

But in 1982 when MTV first broadcast... when cable transformed, honestly, but I was 16, so MTV was what mattered... Bowie was a part of that very first exposure I had to music that was not pop radio or heavy metal (which is what my crowd tended to listen to). New wave. (remember that word?) Music that was more international, more big city. Closer to what my cool friend Melinda listened to (a pen pal from Pullman Washington who was seriously more serious about seeking out good music and had the Washington State Students to look to for source material—Washington including Seattle, so they were more varied and progressive musically than Moscow which had, as I said, metal. (not knocking metal—I still love a lot of it, but you get where I'm coming from... there were things in my background and things that were BRAND NEW. Bowie was part of that brand new for me.

The hubs hair was shorter and he usually wore a shirt, but...

And I'll let you in on a little secret... He totally defined sexy for me. I already had a thing for thin men: lanky. And he moved in sort of a feline way—I see all the references to androgyny for him but that wasn't what I saw at all—he was angles and flow. His mismatched eyes made him intriguing. His crooked mouth looked just a little naughty. And then his voice... it almost has its own echo, doesn't it—like he is providing his own backup? (is that even possible?) It gave everything he sang a bit of a haunted sound—it was totally one-of-a-kind. So yeah... I admitted a long term college crush of mine was probably as deep an obsession because he reminded me of Bowie (build, mouth and eyes—he even played guitar and sang for me once). And the hubs had the Bowie build and naughty expressions going on when I first met him... But I won't blame Bowie for my romantic decision making... just what I was attracted to.

And it just got better... though I miss the messed up mouth

I guess in his death though—the think that has been filling my week—is looking at Bowie and what we can learn as creators. I've written books for a market I know exists... and I don't find anything wrong with that. But I want to remember to prioritize always learning and growing—never settling in comfortably, but continuing to try things if I want to try something new. Continuing to learn and develop... collaborating if I don't quite have the skill set all on my own (look at what he did with Trent Reznor—WOW--or Tina Turner, or Bing Crosby...) always staying true to who HE is in it—his collaborations seemed to usually put HIM into somebody else's song PLUS put somebody else into one of his... just a really rich way of doing things. I hope just once in my life to create something that moves people the way he managed to do so regularly.

So I guess in addition with his thoughtful good-bye album, he has left me with artistic wisdom I hope to hang onto.

At Peace with the Process

Well... not YET, but I'm working on it.

Hallo fine peoples!!! Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group Monthly Meeting!!! I encourage you to go see LOTS of insecure writers today (list at the bottom) because we all love hugs. Or most of us do. Some are crabby, but in a funny way, but all of us need love.

So what am I on about?

I have recommitted to my writing process this year after a really darned lousy 2015 (if you are curious, probably half the other posts on the page mention details).

I wonder what the writing equivalent of this is... Totally looks like my style

The really good news is I've found a couple ladies to team up with for a bit of cross-promo... They are smart and extremely talented and I am really looking forward to working with them. But they are much more prolific than I am... much more published... much better marketers... I know they invited me because they see something... I've done really well in a couple contests, so there is some talent there... but I just seem to keep spinning my wheels trying to get some traction...

I have other friends who are all orderly... they talk about their idea, share blurbs writing the book. They send it to their agent who loves the book. It gets subbed to a publisher who loves the book. Then they start a new book. (I'm looking at you Gae Polisner). And it makes me feel like a scatterbrained mess.—and I'm kidding Gae about how easy she makes it look because just this week she was talking about how hard it is to get going on a new story—me, I'd start a story every day. Nothing would make me happier than to spend my life just starting stories—but I have a feeling this would turn my “support myself with my writing by retirement” dream into a never never-land plan.

And then I ran into Chuck Wendig's blog for the week. And it reminded me of one of my favorite Seussisms...

And I thought, you know... it's okay... I've written seventeen completed first drafts. The fact that only four have gotten polished enough I felt ready to publish says more about my difficulties approaching polishing and querying or the alternative, full-on prep for self pubbing than my writing. And then I also need some work on my marketing skills. None of these things means I can't write. It just makes it harder actually get my stuff OUT THERE. And I really do believe at SOME point I will manage that—sell something that does well, and the demand + my backlog of things that only need a LITTLE MORE work means I will be able to spread my wings and fly... And this is my process.

So Chuck's wisdom seemed the perfect thing to share for all of us feeling insecure. Your process is your process. My process is my process. We can all learn and grow but that doesn't mean pitching our own stuff and accepting that somebody else's process might work better for us. It DEFINITELY doesn't mean anybody should be judging anybody else's process. It just means we all could benefit from reflecting now and then on what is working and what isn't and adjusting accordingly. Not nearly so intimidating that way.

No go visit some other insecure folks!!!


THIS JUST IN!!!! The Seventeen, my entry for the Insecure Writer's Speculative Anthology, was selected for inclusion and it's an EXCELLENT list of fellow writers I'll share this honor with!!! Go check it out!!!

2016's Gunna ROCK

And now we reach one of my favorite annual rituals. The PLAN *buwahahahahahaha*

Now if you've known me a while, you know I always make a plan, and it is hit and miss on whether I follow through. But I have a history of doing better on even years, and I also seem to do best when I have dropped into a pit and so accept the enormous amount of work that needs doing.

So I am hopeful...


The Writing Plan

I have THREE sorts of books I write. Unfortunately, the one I love VERY most is the hardest to sell—the long epic tale. So while I have three of these slated, I have accepted I need to get either my mystery or my YA solidly going before people recognize my name enough to try those other stories.

This year I WILL get one or the other rolling.

Mystery

I think this is probably the genre easiest to break into. (and I've got a bit of a track record, even if I am looking at a break between books) BUT... While I have two first drafts in the series I want to sell, neither of them is the “first book” that I think I can hook a publisher with. One is pretty good, the other needs a serious rewrite because I tried something that didn't work (to do with changing PoVs—this is the wrong tone of book for that). So my next TWO books I write will be part of this series... Then in FALL I will try to sell traditionally, but by the end of year I will have FOUR, so if that isn't going well, I may decide to release one a quarter in 2017 on my own.

YA BEFORE THAT

I have three nearly done YA books (much nearer ready than the mysteries) BUT one doesn't fit style-wise with the other two. Also Appearing will be part of a series, but it is a series that currently only has the one book. Kahlotus Disposal Site and Medium Wrong both have a touch (JUST a touch, but a touch) of paranormal to them. And I have a couple other books I can adapt for this that are WRITTEN (so only need to be rewritten). So my plan is to edit Medium Wrong to “perfect” or thereabouts, and try to sell it in first quarter. Edit Kahlotus while I do that and if MW doesn't sell, try Kahlotus. Between my two mysteries I will both WRITE one more for this series (stand-alones, but of similar genre and style to establish a brand) and adapt another so if neither has been sold by say, August, I will work out a self release plan to start in the fall.


In Sum, that is 3 new first drafts written next year, two BIG rewrites, and several polishing edits.

It is also querying 3 books (1st, 2nd and 4th quarter) and planning a self pub cycle if the first two of those don't work...

I have a calendar, but that is probably less important than the big picture.


And the SUPPLEMENTAL Writing Plan

This is my weakest point... the trouble with my writing success (or lack thereof). I have some mental blocks with marketing... some annoyance with some theoretical ways a person “should” go about it. I don't know how to do this well, but I DO know I have not been doing it, so I intend to make a point of mastering a piece of this each month.

I also plan to work with my newly adopted writing group—cross promotion is part of what we plan and they seem to already be better at this then me, so I will learn from them and work hard not to be the drag on our team.


NON-WRITING

Fitness, fish slap, whatever

Fitness

So I say this all the time, right? I always plan to work on this. But I think I've figured out some boosters for the “old thing that worked doesn't work anymore” bit. I have ALWAYS eaten on a Weight Watcher plan and I walk about 25 miles a week. To that I am ADDING:

Keeping the food between 10AM and 6PM
A 15-minute, 3-Day-a-Week Super-interval thing
A supplement I did some research on

That last is something that would historically have made me very sketchy, but it is all natural so shouldn't hurt and the science analysis on it I watched suggested it really may help. I will let you know if it does.



Theoretically I should have some goals related to home or family, but the family rarely conforms and the home stuff makes me tired, so I will say I will try to be PRESENT and call it good.


How abut all of you? 2016 plans?

2015: A Year in Review

Can we just write this one off? Seriously. I had a bad year. I will chalk it up to a big change at work that had ripple effects that keep on giving. And then a couple writing wrecking balls that just compounded matters, shook my confidence and threw me for a loop. I am trying my darndest to adapt and finally making a bit of progress, but here is how things panned out.

Writing

ABNA did NOT happen last year. So while I got the book I intended to submit pretty ready (I've not had 2 rounds of feedback and think I can get it there) THAT threw a crimp in my plan... And my agent didn't like What Ales Me and fired me... we parted ways. Whatever. She was amazing to give me the chance she did, but she never really quite got me anyway. And then with the day job stress making the day job suck up all my energy, I just fumbled all year on the writing front. I failed at BuNoWriMo (first WriMo fail ever. (I have 12 wins to my record if I count both NaNo and BuNo), so Summer of Bones is only half done and one of the two mysteries I wrote I am really unhappy with. (the November one is a keeper)--so only one book in 2015 I am willing to call “written” and it is a few iterations from sharable. NO books editing to the point of being happy... In my frustration I also fell into several TV shows, which is fun and all, but bad for productivity...

The Recovery Plan to be shared later this week.


Fitness

Weight lost in late 2014 gained back and new scale highlighted that the situation was much more dire than I'd even guessed.

*Sigh*

The Childings, Christmas Eve

Family

This stuff went okay. No big emergencies. My daughter is working. My son has gotten 3 college acceptance letters (one with a nice scholarship). My house is a disaster, but I've not historically aspired to neatness.


Reading

I was going to read a book a month from a writer friend... I think I came close, let's see:

Dragon of the Stars by Alex Cavanaugh
Nasty by Bret Wright
Spilled Blood by Brian Freeman (met through a local book event, not social media)
A Twist of Hate by VR Barkowski
City of Refuge by Diana Wilder
Tower of Bones by Connie Jasperson
Hunted by Elizabeth Heiter (who I met because she is localish, rather than social media)
Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman
Running from the Past by Alan Orloff
The Boy Who Fell From the Sky by Jule Owen (I don't know her but I won this through one of you, so I believe she is part of this blogosphere)

And am currently reading a Mary Pax Sci Fi western story, so should be done by the start of the year.

So that will be 11 by year end. Plus I discovered a few authors I really really love. Maggie Stiefvater—I read 4 of her books this year and eagerly await another. Andrew Smith—hooked not just myself, but my son, too. And that will be 26 books for the year (of published, as opposed to a couple pre-published I also read... That is a reasonable pace to me. And fails to count the re-reading of the Song of Ice and Fire series I am doing in prep for Winds of Winter.


Blogging

I did not manage to be interesting. This makes me sad. I used to be so entertaining... When life is heavy it is hard to be light.

Shows the curls AND the fact I need to lose weight

Surprise Positives

I finally figured out what one does with curly hair. I've spent years in midwest humidity with just fuzz... I could see the potential for awesome but it wasn't to be. But in around March I read something and talked to a friend with curly hair and made some changes. I quit completely rinsing out the conditioner. I only run the comb through ONCE, when it is still pretty drippy, then use my fingers for all manipulation after, I use an olive oil product to keep the fuzz down. And I now have ringlets... real curly hair, not Hermione fuzz.

I also figured out how to make the DVD player play Netflix and Amazon Prime. I know. Small victories. But Netflix is having some awesome originals, so this is nice.

So Wednesday or Thursday I will share my hopes and plans for 2016, but I thoroughly expect it to be a better year...

Christmas Eve Eve

I love this day. I love it along the lines of Thursday only MORE so... Tomorrow it STARTS, though not until later in the day... and then next day it happens and is over... but TODAY is all about anticipation. So I thought I'd talk about some of the things I am really anticipating in 2016.

There are several book series that I am waiting for the NEXT one... and like with the Harry Potter series... WAITING for the next allows a lot of anticipation, guessing, wondering... it is different than reading a series you can devour all at once. I think you get more invested.


City of Mirrors, the third and final (I believe) in Justin Cronin's trilogy that began with The Passage and gave a scientific experiment version that resulted in something very vampire-like (and nearly extinguished the human race)... The Twelve was second... both these books were very good, though I have some issue with how they did their chronology—it is partially current day and partially about 100 years from now and I wish they'd intentionally gone back and forth. Instead they are first half now, second half later, so you have to RE “get into a new book”... but the premise and characters are great, so I am eager for the third.

The Next in the Raven Boys series... I fell in love with this series this year. Maggie Stiefvader is my new favorite YA author. She nicely combines somewhat quirky characters with just the edges of magic.

Winds of Winter: 6th in the Song of Ice and Fire Series. This is the biggie... the world I have immersed myself in the theorizing for and have dozens of huge guesses as to what happens next... And I really really want the book before the 6th season of the show starts. BAD...


I am also anticipating Downton Abbey's final season. The third season of The 100. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie... Allegiant (the last Divergent movie) and turning 50...  Good stuff coming!!! And that isn't even counting Star Wars, which I plan on taking my kids to next weekend.

But until then, I wish everyone a WONDERFUL wind-up of 2015. Happy Belated Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year... I will be back after Christmas with my end of year recaps (how I did, what I plan to do)--nothing like some time off work to get a little blogging in, eh?

Making a Plan to make a Plan

Or something...

So Friday is my LAST work day until after the new year (and there was much rejoicing). I will not try to fool myself into thinking I will do much besides Christmas prep until... you know... Christmas... but THEN I have a bit of time... Y'all know how I love a plan, right? BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Unfortunately, you ALSO probably know how my writing plans stalled out this year. I've written about it a dozen times... changes to the job, husband working full time, child challenges... I could whine and moan for days, but since I already have, I won't subject you to it.

You may NOT know I weigh the most I ever have. I don't advertise it. Though I have advertised how much harder it seems to me to lose these days. My last truly successful loss I was still in my 30s. It is time.

You probably ALSO do not know my house has grown steadily fuller of crap and gotten less and less organized in the last decade. Writing has lots of STUFF (especially for those of us delusional enough to have at one time thought our NOTES might some day be of value *rolls eyes*) and sucks up lots of TIME, and then the hubby working full time so HE is helping less...

So on my break I plan to MAKE PLANS to fix part of this stuff. And I am definitely looking forward to it... making a writing and marketing plan, making a fitness plan, setting a schedule for... maybe a cleaning project a month—wouldn't want to go overboard and the laundry and bathroom are hardly going to learn to sort themselves out, so they will stay on my chore list.

And let me just say... I LOVE THIS PART! I adore making plans. Following plans, not so much, though sometimes I give it a pretty good effort... But it is satisfying to put things in doable steps...

What about all of you? Making any plans over the holidays?

Character Lessons from Jessica Jones

First an apology for not managing to blog last week... Not even Insecure first Wednesday... I planned to. And then I lost my mind. So sorry about that...

So I confess I am mid RE-watch on this Netflix original series... and when I say original, I mean Netflix produced the story inspired by the Marvel comic books, which I have not read, but I have been assured from several YouTubers that Jessica Jones a la comics is a bit two-dimensional and definitely a side thought. The series though, is SPECTACULAR.

Now I am NOT GOING TO SPOIL PLOT but I do plan on giving some detail about character, which includes some relationship stuff and a bit of backstory, so I will say minor spoilers if you haven't watched. My focus though, is on a few character lessons.

Your MC Can Be Unpleasant If the Reader/Watcher Understands Why

(this harkens to Katniss Everdeen, too, but Jessica Jones has it in spades). And Jessica has an advantage her to Katniss. Her unpleasant snark is sometimes REALLY FUNNY. But she is isolating herself, cutting off the very few... okay one... person she cares about, pushing people around (sometimes literally) to get them to listen. But as the show reveals why, the watcher really comes to love her. She considers her major weakness to be that sometimes she gives a damn. And we understand that, too.

Relationships are COMPLICATED.

I think it is easy when we plot to think “this relationship is this way and that relationship is that way” but in reality relationships can be fluid changing things. Learning something about somebody can change how you feel. People can have a rift over some real life trauma so it looks like one thing, but the love there runs deeper than is apparent and if that comes out? WOW. Jessica's only real relationship is with her foster sister Trish and it looks at first like this naggy (on Trish's part) call when I need something (on Jessica's part) relationship. But digging down to the gritty details this is the most powerful friendship I think I've seen display in the media.

But in addition, Jessica has a couple of symbiotic relationships—people she doesn't like but needs, people she just feels irritatedly responsible for...

And she is drawn to people she shouldn't be for her own sanity...

A Villain with Charm is Scary as Heck

OHMYGAWD David Tennant. This villain's power is mind control. He says “you want to come with me” and you do. He says “cut out your heart” and you do. And he has NO conscience. He isn't even getting off on being mean—he doesn't care. He is annoyed so those are the commands he gives. But from a viewer perspective, he is vulnerable, charming, funny... and then he does something that drops the jaw. I think this nuanced villain is so much scarier than one that is just all evil. And and interview with David Tennant gave away what I think the key is here: See, he doesn't think he's the villain...

The Villain not in Isolation

In fact there is NOT just one villain. There are good guys who pose obstacles, they can be selfish people trying to take advantage, they can be idiots who think they can outclever someone... This show has all of them. Sometimes they foil the MC. Sometimes they help the villain (inadvertently or intentionally) and sometimes both. This show has all of the above and it's amazing what it does for pace and tension.

So have you guys watched? Any other character lessons you noticed? Any lessons you learned elsewhere you'd like to share?