Renovations

If you've visited my blog before, you'll notice a slight colour difference. I've changed it from bright green to brown. Not a sign of depression, I assure you. Merely an update. I've been painting walls in my house and decided to paint the wall of my blog as well.

Had a great meeting of the HWG again today. Very intriguing prompts which led me to channel Edgar Allen Poe and write a something so creepy it made my hands sweat! Never had that happen before. Couldn't stop writing it either, which does happen lots, but nothing so heart pounding as this one. I promise to give it an edit and post it soon. Let's just say it features a special ghost and an unsuspecting guest.

The weather here in Southern Ontario has been rather bizarre this winter. Today we're huddling in a -17 degree Celcius chill. It will get up to 2 degrees come Tuesday. All this cold (not to mention the blackouts we've been having because of it) has one wonderful side effect. It makes me want to huddle with a candle, paper and pen and write. Seriously write. Lately, I've been so focused on editing novels with the intent of submitting to agents and publishers that I've neglected the creative side and it has been rebelling.

No more.

Balance is key.

Write, read, edit.

And keep warm...

A New Year, but not new goals

Happy New Year to you all.
I haven't made Resolutions per se. My goals are perpetual. Get my books published and make more ME time. Neither is easy to do with three kids and a job, but I'm managing.

I am currently in the editing-like-crazy mode as far as two of my novels are concerned. Book 1: The Bookstore Lady and Book 2: Date with a Dead Guy will be making the rounds again this year. Ah, the polishing phase.
By the end of January, I WILL be ready to resume the hunt for an agent/publisher and move on to edits of Book 3: Padded Walls and writing Book 4: ????.

I had a wonderful time at our Headwaters Writers' Guild meeting yesterday. I was leading and decided to simplify the prompt for once. Usually we end up with anywhere from 5-10 items to choose from. I gave everyone one, which extended into two due to the conversations we were having.
1) Why do you write?
2) Who are you?
The responses people gave were incredible. Similar, yet from such totally different perspective that it was invigorating to hear them all. I came home last night and settled right down to write.

Usually I do most of my writing during the week while I'm not at work and the kids are at school. Last week I was sidelined while my youngest had the flu. Did get time to brainstorm and do some research though. Sometimes you just have to take the moments that you can. For example, I'm writing this while at home on my lunch break!

Hope you all have a happy and productive 2011.

The Christmas Spirit

Okay, I know the last time I posted I wasn't exactly full of Christmas cheer. But here we are, it's Christmas Eve and not only am I ready for the "Big Day" I'm also working on a novel about it set in the wonderful little town I've created over the past three years in other novels. Those novels have been works in progress for far too long. This year, 2011, is the year I finally put them all to rest and work my sorry butt off to have them published. There, it's out there. The Bookstore Lady and Date with a Dead Guy will see their last edits early next year. As for Book Three which is titled Padded Walls, I'm still working on it and have Book Four started as of the beginning of December. It doesn't have a title or even a real story line yet, it's more of a meandering at present.

I have so many projects sitting on shelves which do need to see the light of day. Now is the time to get my act together and start getting things published.

On the bright note, the Headwaters Writers' Guild book is on shelves as of Dec 18th. It is called A Walk in Fields of Gold and retails for $14.95 with $4.95 of that going to purchase books for the children's library of the Headwaters Health Care Facility (our hospital). Our way of giving back to our community and encouraging young readers.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Two Weeks Before Christmas...

I've been having a hard time getting into the whole Christmas spirit this year. We live 2000 miles away from our family and have no visitors this year. Not to mention we've had no snow until now.
Today, Dec 12, we've been blessed.
First of all, it started to snow today. Everything is white and fresh.
Secondly, I hosted the HWG Christmas Luncheon while my husband went to a karate seminar.

Not all of the HWG group was here, but the ones to joined the party had a wonderful time. Plenty of food. Great conversation. And my cats. I was worried about the cats causing problems but they were wonderful. Oscar slept the entire time, Jazz made his rounds as a social butterfly. He checked out all of our guests - heads and feet - and seemed to approve of them all. Tonight, Jazz was asleep on the foot of my son's bed. Exhausted from the festivities. So were the kids!

As writers, we all had a similar complaint. Not enough time/too busy to write. Although today gave some of us a lot of inspiration. The company, the snow and the food.

We did get to see the proof of our book A Walk in Fields of Gold which should be in our cold little hands later this week. A step toward getting more work published.

I've made the same New Year's Resolution for the past several years: to have my own book published.
This year, 2010, I've had stories published in two anthologies, A Walk in Fields of Gold and Stories of Prayer and Faith, and photographs published in Escarpment Views and more lyrics recorded on my dad's albums.

In 2011, I'm making an even bigger push to get my own novels published.
One baby step at a time, I'm making my dream of being a "real writer" come true.
Stay tuned to track my progress!

The Great Procrastinator

If there's one thing I'm great it, it's procrastinating.
It's true.
If I weren't so darn good at it I'd already be published several times over, my house would be spotless and my kids would have the cleanest, most hole-free clothes on the block.
Alas, this is one area in which I excel.

Then I get those phases where I see a job that needs to be done and get it done before I have the opportunity to put it off. No seizing the chance to procrastinate - I jump before the dust can settle and get things done. In general, I'm not exactly a go-getter. Nope, not me. But the more I sit back, the more nothing gets accomplished.

Query letters don't write themselves. Novels don't edit themselves. (Although the kids are learning to cook and clean.) In short, no one else will do it for me. At the end of the day, it's ME who has to put on my "game face" and do what must be done if I ever want my novels to grace the shelves of Coles, Chapters and Amazon. I am the only person who cares if my work is ever published.

Every little triumph I have, whether it be publishing a photograph or short story in a magazine, a story or poem in an anthology or a full-length novel in bookform or on-line is added to my list of accomplishments. Every year, that list grows a little bit longer. This year alone, I am part of two anthologies - the second due for release by Christmas (I hope!) called A Walk in Fields of Gold.

Procrastination gets you nowhere.

Rolling up your shirtsleeves and working hard to make your dreams come true can get you much farther.
I know I'm a month ahead of schedule, but I have two Resolutions for 2011.
Number 1: I'm working harder than ever to get my novels published. I have two that are ready aside from a great hook and cover letter.
Number 2: I'm taking better care of ME next year. It's hard keep on top of things when you feel like someone ran you over with a team of sled dogs.

To be honest, I was going to post Chapter One of Date with a Dead Guy but...I procrastinated.
I'll get right on that. Soon. Maybe.

Keep on Writing.

Edits and Re-writes...

I've spent a lot of time this week - between trying to get rid of a sinus infection, doing the laundry and going to work - editing. The working title of the book is "Date With a Dead Guy." I started it right after I finished "The Bookstore Lady" (less of a mouthful than The Bookstore Lady's Secret Life) a couple of years ago. Both books have been written, edited, re-written and edited again until I'm starting to hate them both.

But, alas, I don't. They are my babies after all.

As I type, "Date With a Dead Guy" is being printed off so I can give it one last good reading before I submit it to a couple of friends to read. Regardless of their comments, I also need to rework my query letter and come up with a darn good tag-line. You know those lines. They're the one's that hook readers and shoppers alike. Every product on the market today has a phrase that every consumer associates with it. We all know them by heart - ever sing the Oscar Mayer wiener song? - even if sometimes we can't quite remember what product they're for.

Next week, I'll post a chapter from "Date With a Dead Guy."

This week, I have a lot of work to do and an agent to find.

Marge's First Novel

Okay, I admit it, I watch The Simpsons. I was one of the skeptics who said they'd never last, but they have and I am a fan. My favourite episode has to be the one I saw the other night. Marge meets a writer at the public library and asks what kind of training you need to be a writer. The woman tells her that she needs to take courses. She'd taken one at the local continuing education program that lasted a whole hour and was now a published romance author.

Marge dives in and writes a romance based around a painting in her livingroom of Moby Dick and "what she knows." The instant she completes it and sends it to a publisher, they love it and print it. Of course, we all know this is for the sake of a 30 minute cartoon. The fallout from neighbours speculating on who characters are based on leads to a confrontation between Homer and Flanders on top of a cliff beside the ocean.

I don't think any of my novels will end in any confrontations between friends, family or neighbours, but it was a fun view of someone who wants to be a writer. Marge demanded her time to write from her family and stuck to it until she had a manuscript. She sent it in without hesitation. Lucky her, the first person she sent it to loved it and sold it all over town. She didn't even have to research agents or publishers, nor did she have to face rejection.

We don't live in a cartoon world.
We get rejections.
We get readers and editors who tell us "this doesn't work, make me love it."

For every writer who gets their "first" novel published, there are several practice manuscripts in the closet that could say otherwise and a stack of rejections to keep them company.