Sun vs. Snow Critique Workshop

February 13, 201528 Comments

The Sun vs. Snow Contest just ended, and now the ever-lovely Michelle Hauck is running a Sun vs. Snow critique workshop ahead of upcoming contests! Isn’t she just the best?

Since I’m still revising, I didn’t enter Sun vs. Snow, or any of the other contests that have come and gone over the last few months, even though I reeeally wanted to enter a couple. But I’m two-thirds of the way through the revision (I think), so I thought, why not? It’ll soon be time to start polishing, so why not get a little feedback on the beginning?

You can find Michelle’s post and all the details on the workshop here. It’s open till the 21st, so there’s still time to enter if you’ve got something you’d like feedback on. In the meantime, here’s my entry:

Photo 365 #188

February 11, 20154 Comments

TLC Revision Notes 4_2 So, how’s the writing been going?

Well, uh…

You see that picture to the right? It’s taken me all week to write that much (plus two lines on the preceding page). You might say it’s been slow going. Lord knows I would.

In fact, I might even go so far as to say that writing this particular section of The Price of Mercy has been akin to pulling teeth, to pounding my head against the table until words bleed out, to prying the sweet story meat from my brain with a crowbar. In short, it’s been a brutal, bloody mess, and I hope that when I finish this revision and get the think edited, it reads well because writing it has been a complete and total #*!@$.

What have you all been up to lately?

Photo 365 #182

February 5, 20154 Comments

prayerandcoffee

This pretty much sums up how I’m feeling right now. This cold is still kicking my butt, but in the last twenty-four hours, I’ve managed to finish that story for Miss Tadpole (and she liked it so much, she took it to school to show off), fix a bunch of track changes issues in stories I’d submitted for an anthology (and learned how to use track changes correctly in the process), start reviewing a short story for someone (Oh, hello, track changes, how are you today?), and process two tax returns at work.

*scarfs chocolate miraculously left over from yesterday*

Of course, these are quite fitting for today’s mental state as well:

Our local coffee shop has the best décor. Of course, I probably only think that because it happens to be true.

On second thought, no I don’t. It’s awesome regardless of its truth.

*passes out*

Photo 365 #181

February 4, 20156 Comments

truffle I bought myself a treat last night in anticipation of reaching my short story goal for the week. I’m proud to announce that I met said goal this noon and have now done the requisite polishing. Woo!

Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying my treat. Because after all, what writer doesn’t love chocolate? Especially when it’s as good as this!

How do you treat yourself when you reach a goal?

Photo 365 #176

January 30, 20158 Comments

Since yesterday was my birthday, I decided to treat myself by going out to lunch. It was positively divine to get a break from the ramen I’ve been scarfing for far too long.

riss

It was nice to get out and about, but it didn’t work so well for my writing. Between the noise from my fellow diners and the soap opera playing on TV, I had trouble focusing on what I was trying to write. Despite all that, and the similar challenges I faced at lunch today, I actually got quite a bit done and feel rather pleased with myself.

The project in the picture is my latest short story, commissioned by Miss Tadpole. I’ve been working on it for a couple of months – rhyming is haaard, yo – and I hope to have it finished by the time she comes home on Monday. I don’t know if I’ll reach my goal or not, but I feel like I’m finally gaining ground with this story, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. It’s set in Lokana, but long before the time of my novels.

And now, on to the next thing! Have a great Friday, everybody!

Photo 365 #168: Revision time

January 22, 2015January 23, 2015Leave a comment

If you haven’t been following me on Twitter the last couple of days, I’m really ramping up my revision of The Price of Mercy.

revision

This was taken a while ago, but I forgot to snap a newer pic of my revisions this noon, so I went trawling through my archives. Some time after I took this, I gave up on marking up my hard copy and decided to go straight into rewrite mode. What that means is that I am literally recopying my hard draft, adding new things and fixing old things as the need arises.

When I started this revision, I’d chopped my book in half. That left me with a starting page count of ~154. The latest page count is 295, which means that I’ve done a heck of a lot of rewriting since I started this project! I still have a heck of a lot more to do, though, and I’m beginning to wonder if a fourth book won’t end up being necessary. Of course, if that’s the case, then I’ll start worrying that I won’t have enough material to fill a fourth book…

Being a writer is…

Photo 365 #154

January 8, 20158 Comments

Some people complain about working lunch breaks, but really, I don’t mind them. In fact, I think they’re a heck of a lot of fun.

lunchbreak

Maybe that’s only because my idea of a working lunch break involves taking off to parts unknown and spending time with all sorts of crazy characters. 😀

Photo 365 #153

January 7, 20156 Comments

2013-04-29 12.10.19 I’ve been hard at work on a couple of projects this week. It’s nice to feel that I’m being productive again, after an extended bout with the lazy bug.

Oh, who am I kidding? I needed an extended bout with the lazy bug. 🙂

Anyway, I finished rewriting chapter 16 of The Price of Mercy and got a decent start on chapter 17 this noon. I’ve been polishing my query up a little more, too. I’ve finished formatting the e-book version of my new poetry book and have moved on to working on the cover. And have I mentioned the story that Miss Tadpole commissioned? I’ve been working on that, too, and have set it in Lokana, about a thousand years before the events in The Price of Mercy. It rhymes and is rather like a fairy tale, which has been both interesting and challenging because it’s not the sort of thing I normally write.

There’s still lots to be done on all of these projects, but I’m having a lot of fun with them. What are you working on right now?

Queryland revisited

January 4, 201511 Comments

Zandoor
Artwork by Hazel Butler

Hoo boy, am I ever tired! I finally finished reading the Query Shark archives last week and boy, did all that education wear me out. Two hundred and sixty-six queries, plus revisions, plus comments. Talk about a learning experience! That and the comments I received as part of Michelle Hauck’s query critique blog hop have really helped me shine up my query. And further brainstorming led to a name change for my MC.

Behold, my new and improved query:

Dear Super Agent:

Nineteen-year-old Prince Zandoor is expected to follow in his father’s corrupt footsteps. His first task: Marry a wealthy noblewoman and fill the royal coffers to the brim. But the prince has other ideas.

When he falls in love with a peasant…

Why do I write what I write?

December 7, 2014December 6, 20142 Comments

Jenny at readsbyredriverbanks asked me to take part in the Writer’s Blog Tour last weekend, and I’ve finally taken a few minutes to sit down and type up a post. I did a post on the same topic back in May, when the ever-lovely Tricia Drammeh asked me to take part. That time I answered the questions with more of a focus on my fiction writing, but this time I decided to focus a bit more on my poetry.

Why do I write what I do?
I write poetry because it’s something I’ve always enjoyed reading. I remember as a kid I spent a whole afternoon in one of the trees out at my grandparents’ place writing poems about my summer vacation as a school project. I used to really like free verse, and sometimes I still write a bit of it, but I’ve found haiku to be an interesting challenge, and it’s really quite satisfying to be able to cram a world of emotion into 17 syllables.