What’s up?

February 23, 2020February 23, 20207 Comments

Well, my video diary idea rapidly crashed and burned, and with it, my plan to write a new poem (and blog post) every day.

Whoops.

I guess that’s about par for the course, though. Lately it seems that I plan and God laughs (hysterically). So what have I been up to so far in 2020? Well, let’s see. I’ve been:

Revising The Lokana Chronicles (again);
Writing poetry (but sadly, not every day);
Workshopping my poems (yay feedback!);
Trying to keep up with the kids;
Working;
Getting older;
Saying goodbye to relatives;
Capturing Iowa’s natural beauty with my camera;
Playing a ridiculous amount of Harry Potter Wizards Unite and Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery;
Stress eating;
Catching up with friends, both old and new; and
Submitting poems for publication (not that it’s gone well).

I suppose that’s actually quite a lot, given that the new year is only just a couple of months old. And January was definitely crazy – almost as crazy as December, if you can believe it (I know I can’t).

Also, show of hands: Who’s ready to be done with winter?

So how about you? What’s new in your world? Have you been able to stick to your New Year’s resolutions?

A work in progress

February 18, 20172 Comments

Work on my novel continues…slowly. I’m my own worst critic, I know, but it’s very hard to turn that inner critic off.

Still, I didn’t think this bit was all that bad:

It was then that he noticed the silence. Riverdell was a small, quiet town, but it had nothing on this place. Even on the quietest night in Riverdell, there was always traffic thrumming in the distance. Electricity sang through the power lines; streetlights hummed on otherwise dark streets; kids toting stereos pumped up the bass loud enough to rattle a whole building.

There was none of that here. There was only the wind in the trees here, tall grass waving in the breeze, a cricket choir backed by a bug band singing him to sleep.

It was another beautiful day here today, and the warmth of the sun has been most welcome. I hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend!

Writing bunnies

February 10, 2017February 10, 2017Leave a comment

I’m home from work today with a sick little Thumper bunny and taking advantage of the unexpected time off to catch up on a bit of writing. I’m working on revisions for another novel, and it’s not going as well as I’d initially thought it would. There’s so much more to cut than I’d first thought: trying to keep it to one POV per scene is a major challenge.

I’ve been fiddling around with these books for a good decade. I even queried them a few years ago, but didn’t get anywhere. That, of course, happened long before I decided that one book should become two, but even then it was a hot mess. It’s still a hot mess, but at least I think I’ve grown as a writer since then. I still feel like the head-hopping isn’t such a big deal, but others (okay, pretty much everyone else) disagree, so I’m changing it.

And it’s hard. So very, very hard.

Silencing my diligent and devoted inner literary critic is even harder.

I think the changes I’m making will…

Night of the Living Potato

January 17, 2017January 18, 2017Leave a comment

As I was scrolling through Facebook tonight, I happened upon the following picture:

That could be fun, I thought. I’ll give it a try.

It seems simple enough, right? Ah, but coming up with the perfect potato title…

Things I’ve found inspiring this weekend

January 15, 2017January 17, 2017Leave a comment

Ice storms.
My children.
Old episodes of Dancing With the Stars (I’m playing catch-up).
Climate change.
My current WIP.

What inspires you?

The Seventh Question

November 30, 2015Leave a comment

Today was definitely a Monday. Luckily, the good outweighed the bad, and on balance, I’d have to say today was a good day, despite the rocky start this morning. I got to celebrate my niece’s birthday with pizza and brownies, and when I got home tonight, I found a package of pogs waiting for me in my mailbox, and I was featured on Simon Goodson’s blog! Pretty fantastico, don’t you think? 🙂

Simon has a new interview feature called The Seventh Question, and I’m thrilled to have been asked to take part. Head on over and check it out, and then catch up on the rest of the series to learn more about Mark R. Hunter and Joleene Naylor. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

In December, I plan to…

November 27, 20154 Comments

…read at my friend’s wedding. Hooray! 🙂

…have a night out with Seymour. Minus the kids. Double hooray! 😀

…finish this round of revisions on The Lokana Chronicles, take a break from it, and then dive back in with notes from my awesome CP.

…savor my children’s glee on Christmas morning.

…spend lots of time with family.

cheers

…dance.

…take lots of pictures. One can never have too many pictures.

…cook. A lot.

…crank up the Christmas music to eleven.

…try not to lose any more of my marbles. 😀

What about you? What do you plan to do in December?

Into the woods

November 5, 20158 Comments

For today’s Writing 101 challenge, we were asked to write something based on one of four images. This is the one that spoke to me:

womaninwoods

What follows is a sneak peek at…

Time to write like there’s no tomorrow!

November 1, 20152 Comments

Happy November!

Yes, it’s November, otherwise known as Time-To-Write-Like-There’s-No-Tomorrow-Month! And that’s exactly what I’ll be doing, too. I may not be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (though I thought about doing my own unofficial version), but I did sign up for NanoPoblano and a couple of Blogging U. courses, plus I’m revising a short story and rewriting the last little bit of The Lokana Chronicles.

TPMTLC According to Facebook, I’ve been working on The Lokana Chronicles for a decade now. That’s simultaneously scary, impressive, and depressing. When I started writing it, I had a different husband, a different name, and three less kids. So much about my life has changed since I started writing this book, including the book itself. What started off as one book has now become two books, and what started life as a sequel has now become the third book in a trilogy. I never dreamed that, after ten years of work, I’d still be polishing the first book (hence the depressing aspect), but I’m not giving up. I’m gonna finish this book and then the next and then the next, and then when I’m done, I’m gonna move on to something new (that will hopefully take a lot less time to finish).

In the meantime, I’ve been exiled to deep space. I’m hoping to survive any alien encounters and have some time to write, and if you’d like to read more about my deep space adventures, then head on over to my friend Sophie’s blog and check it out. She’s launched quite a few people into deep space over the last several months, and everyone’s had a pretty fantastic time drifting through the final frontier.

And now I think I’ll scamper off to bed. I really enjoyed that extra hour of sleep I got last night, but boy am I ever tired now!

Time to party like it’s 1999!

October 2, 2015October 1, 20154 Comments

Reunited and it feels so good…

I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone this long without blogging. I’ve thought about it often over the last *checks notes* several weeks, but I’ve been busy. Between football games and family time and working and cleaning and moving my in-laws and all the other stuff I tend to put off till the last possible minute, I’ve been doing something wonderful.

I’ve been writing.

And it has been glorious.

Sure, it’s first-draft type stuff. Sure, it’s going to need a lot of work. But I’ve been writing. And it makes me happy.

Almost as happy as that can of pop over there on the right.

Who besides me remembers Surge? Anyone?