Tag: Writing

It’s October!

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And that means it’s time for a blog challenge.  Once again, I’m taking part in the October Memoir and Back Story Blog Challenge, run by Jane Ann McLachlan.  I had a lot of fun with it last year, so I thought I’d try it again.  It’s a little bit different this time around, but I don’t mind.

IMG_20130722_191349The theme for the first week of October is childhood memories.  I always feel like I don’t remember very much about my childhood; I think I blocked out a lot of it in a misguided attempt at coping with my mom’s illness (which you can read about in posts from last year’s challenge here and here).  There are times, though, where I think I remember more than I realize, and that thought has worked its way into at least one of my stories.

Today, though, is an absolutely beautiful fall day…

Lotsa news!

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First up, The Lokana Chronicles is up on Miss Snark’s First Victim as part of this month’s Secret Agent Contest.  Click here to check it out!  And if you follow me on Twitter, I apologize for the pitch spam, but the After the Madness Twitter Pitch Party is today and I’ve – belatedly – been pitching my book in hopes of snagging an agent’s interest.  I missed out on Pitch Madness this time around, and I haven’t been too addicted to the #pitmad thread today, either, but both things are always a lot of fun and I wish all the contestants good luck (and all the winners congratulations). 🙂

Next, I was super excited to see this in my email yesterday:

bu-sod

I adore the Banned Underground books and have been anxiously awaiting the release of The SatNav of Doom ever since I finished the last book in the series.  My screencap cut off some of the links, so here they are again: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, even a blog!

And last, but certainly not least…

A letter to my blog

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Hello, pretty blog.  How are you?  Have you missed me?  Been lonely without me to update you?

I’m sorry.  Really, I am.  It’s just that I’ve been revising.  And writing.  And chasing one kid after another – it’s like herding cats, I tell you.

Don’t believe me?  Why not?  Oh, you want pics or it didn’t happen?  All right, fine.  Here you go.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There, are you happy?  Proof I’ve been writing and drinking all the coffee.  What more could you want?

Oh, you want something of substance?  Well, I think I can help you out there.   Here’s an excerpt from my new short story…

Change is falling all around me

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Autumn in New York

Beautiful fall color (Photo credit: blmiers2)

Can you believe it’s September already?  Overnight, it seems like fall has struck.  The grass in the ditches is suddenly golden, the temperatures at night are nice and frosty, and football is now everywhere I look.

I love fall.  The colors are breathtaking, the temperatures are perfect, and fresh apples abound (I’m a sucker for the smell of fresh apples – nothing beats it).  Fall is a time of change, though, and I don’t always do well with change, so reconciling my love of fall with my strong dislike of change will be interesting this year.

Whether it was the beginning of a new school year or the start of a new job, fall for me means change.

What’s in a name?

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Names are stories, and in those stories are a person’s identity and culture.  -Icess Fernandez Rojas

I love that!  It’s so true, too, at least for my stories, anyway.  Think of it: a whole story, a saga, if you will, all summed up in a single word.  Now that’s mind-boggling.

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

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We are the champions, my friends!

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campnano

I did it!  I crossed the 50k line tonight!  Well, I probably actually crossed it sometime this noon, but I typed across the 50k line tonight and validated everything tonight and holy crap, you guys!  Fifty thousand words is a lot of freaking words!

Okay, so that’s my excitement for the night then.  I know I can write another 50k because I’ve done it before (The Lokana Chronicles is roughly 100k) and that it will probably take that many more before my story is all done, but I’m just trying to focus on one thing at a time right now, especially since I was hoping to have this story nearing completion by this point in time.  I can’t believe I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and I’m only half done.  I had hoped to be so much further along than this!  But I suppose that’s just the way it goes, huh?  That that’s all part of being a mother/wife/friend/office drone/writer.  There are only so many hours in the day and I only get one of them, sometimes two, to write.

But I’m greedy – I want more.

Luckily, my work schedule is about to get a lot less hectic, so that should help.  Naptime will once again be writing time!  And with school starting back up in just a few short weeks, perhaps homework time can be writing time, too?  I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m going to celebrate my Camp Nano win by going to bed early tonight.  I could definitely use the sleep.  How has everyone else done with their Nano goals?  If you haven’t done Nano, why not try it come November?

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Things I love

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  • Look at that sky! It just makes you feel good to be alive, doesn't it? :)

    Look at that sky! It just makes you feel good to be alive, doesn’t it? 🙂

    The sound of laughter in the morning.

  • Long talks with old friends.
  • Cuddle time.
  • Sunshine streaming through my window.
  • Bright blue skies dotted with fluffy clouds.
  • Crisp fall air.
  • Lazy weekends.
  • The smiles elicited by a bedtime story.
  • Impending visits with distant friends. 😀

Speaking of impending visits, I am beyond excited for August 8!  One of my oldest friends will be flying out from sunny Californ-I-A to visit dear old Mom and Dad and guess who’s couch she’ll be crashing on?  That’s right, mine! 🙂

All sorts of fun things are in the works for that weekend.  Of course, fun for me would be staying up all night with a boatload of pop and watching movies till dawn.  But I’m sure other things will be involved, too.  Some major catching up is in order.

But for now…to the writing cave!  My boys (all of them) are down for naps and I’ve got a word count to hit.  Enjoy your Sunday, my lovelies!  How will you be spending it?

(c) 2013.  All rights reserved.

Down for the count: My reaction to the recent authonomy kerfuffle

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That’s right, I’m feeling a bit let down tonight.  See, I’ve taken my work down from authonomy.  The fit hit the shan late this afternoon (or at least that’s when it hit my attention, anyway) and after much reading and much soul-searching, I decided that this was the right thing for me to do.

What could have prompted such a decision?  The story of Carl Ashmore, author of The Time Hunters.  The book was up on authonomy a few years ago and reached the Editor’s Desk (if you’re unfamiliar with authonomy, the top five books each month make the desk and receive a review from a HarperCollins editor).  The review was good, stating that the book had “…terrific potential.

You can read all about it here and here.  Suffice it to say, Mr. Ashmore published his novel and it began to sell well and now all of a sudden, there’s a new series called Time Hunters being released by HarperCollins that is eerily similar to Mr. Ashmore’s work.   Anyway, check out the links above for the full scoop.

Sneak peek Thursday

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I’ve been hard at work on Remnants again lately for Camp Nano. I have a small word count goal – just 5,000 words, give or take – and I have no idea how close I am to hitting it. But I inadvertantly skipped over a major portion of the story during a writing spree a few months ago, and now I have to go back and fix it, so if I can at least get that accomplished, then I’ll consider camp a success.

Meanwhile, here’s a little taste of what all that fixing has wrought…