I haven't Disappeared!

It would seem so from my blog, but I have not been abducted by aliens!

The kiddos and work have been keeping me super busy. I have not written in more months than I care to count. Which wasn't so hard when I was prego and had NO inspiration whatsoever, but now I keep getting great ideas and unless I can vastly improve my one handed typing (as I'm currently typing this with the munchkin in the other arm) I won't be able to get any done soon.

Oh well, here are my reasons for being absent...

Naughty Writers Beware!

A morality clause for writers?

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/random-house-asks-yo.html

Now what on Earth constitutes behaving "in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children"? Because that seems pretty darn broad to me!

Historical Romance Dialect...Your Opinions?

Following a comment I received on Dana of the Whispering Wood, I would like to know you're opinions on the "historical romance dialect," specifically the medieval version. You know the one I'm talking about. We've all read it. When it's done well, I even enjoy it.

The comment I got was basically that I wasn't using historically accurate words. Well the book is set in 12th century Ireland so they weren't speaking English at all. I suppose I could have written it in Gaelic, but goodness gracious, who would have understood it then?

I did, in fact, contemplate using this standard "medieval" dialect that I've so often read. In the first version of Dana I even used it. I came to the conclusion, however, that it seems for the most part too forced. I'd much rather have my characters seem more modern and human. I think often this dialect strips their humanity away by making them seem more like caricatures of a medieval historical heroine than a person for themselves.

But don't get me wrong! I'm not dissing people who write in this dialect. As I said, I do enjoy it. I just don't think it's right for me and my characters.

So what do you think? Yae or nay? Forsooth, I'd love to know your opinions! :-D

Oh, and just to be clear. I really do appreciate the time the person went to to make this and the other comments I received. I just don't agree with this particular one.

United Romance Writers Association

If you're a writer, go check out this group I just joined. :-D

Those of you who write romance, or books with romantic elements, may be interested in this new networking association for writers.

United Romance Writers Association (URWA)

The United Romance Writers Association is a forum for authors to critique, workshop, discuss and share info about the Romance industry. This forum is a private member group FREE to all Romance authors published and unpublished.

Authors of all genres are welcome, too – we don’t exclude anyone. We can learn from each other.

We make no distinction between published and unpublished authors. No levels of membership will exist.

URWA came about because of the limiting barriers thrown up from other professional writing organizations. We don’t want barriers. We want creativity and honesty, candid discussion and contribution, to the field of romance fiction.

We are small and growing and may evolve as we do. We need your input, expertise and ideas.

Note: This is a promotion free forum. Advancing the craft of romance fiction is the goal, book promotion is not.

To join the forum, click here

I Need an Opinon

How long should one wait after the submission of a full, before you start worrying that perhaps it got lost in the shuffle somehow? The company website does not give an indication on fulls but says 12 weeks for queries. I worry that my email, which was being rather tumultuous recently, might have lost it.

I'm sure it is just that they are very busy, but I'm a worrier. I certainly don't want to get labeled one of THOSE writers.

So what do y'all think? How long should I wait before sending a polite inquiry? Thanks for your opinions!!!

Yes, I am Procrastinating!

I hate writing synopses so I am going to contemplate my next course of action instead of doing it. Muhahaha

I think I'm going to write the two books that have most to do with Blood and Violets next. The question is which one. One of the books is tentatively titled Blood in the Water, and it's about Alexander's brother, Tristan, and a lovely lady from the coast of South Carolina, Caroline. Yes, her Daddy did name her after the state. It was a terribly patriotic time. (Can you be patriotic in regard to your state? Well, at any rate...) The other isn't yet named, but it has to do with Alexander's father, Finn, and quite possibly the spunkiest little horse trainer this side of the Mississippi named Harley. Yes, the name Harley can be either masculine or feminine. Finn had no idea she was a woman when he hired her until she showed up at the airport though... oops! Lucky for him. ;) hehe

I have contemplated both books coming first... I really think I should do Blood in the Water first, because the issues between Finn and Tristan need to be resolved before Finn can really go on to have a healthy relationship. I don't just mean slight issues like daddy Finn didn't give Tristan enough hugs when he was a little boy. I am talking about life destroying issues that ruined the last two hundred years for two lovely people. Don't hate Finn though! *big hugs for Finn* Because he really did think he was doing what was right. And Tristan really does need to take responsibility for his own choices and stop blaming his Daddy for everything.

Okay, I think I've sufficiently convinced myself that I need to write Blood in the Water next. hehe After I finish the rewrites for Blood and Violets, of course. And write the synopsis for Click Yes to Submit so I can...umm...submit it. hehe

Tristan and Caroline

Meet Tristan and Caroline the stars of my next WIP, Blood in the Water.

I'm working on their outline right now. Tristan is actually the brother of Alexander from Blood and Violets. I guess I should really be working on the rewrites for that instead of playing with my 3d program... Neah! It's much too amusing.

Click Yes to Submit is Done!

It's 18.5 k instead of the 15k that I'd first intended, but I'm okay with that!

This is Hard!

I'm working on Click Yes to Submit, and I have to say writing online conversations as dialogue in a novel is somewhat challenging! You'd think I'd be good at this! I mean there isn't an hour that passes a day when I'm not writing at least one instant message. Not to mention the fact that I met my husband online. This should be easy peasy, but there is no way to include body language which is pretty darn important in dialogue. Oh well, I'm off to slave away and figure it out! :-D

My New Friends: Gabe and Claire

This is Gabe and Claire. They're the main characters in the short I'm working on, Click Yes to Submit.

Blood and Violets Rough Draft Complete

Excuse me while I collapse into an exhausted pile on the floor here. :-D

It's going to be some hefty rewriting! Oy!

Stinking Gremlins!

Well, they really did a number on my hard drive. It wasn't fixable. Fortunately, I think that most things were backed up. My writing is safe. I keep it in two different places and burn it to CD pretty often. Not that I'm trying to tempt the fates here. I'm not saying this is an infallible system so don't try to prove me wrong or anything!

But for the moment, it's all good.

Bryon managed to get my pictures from vacation off the hard drive through some mystical computer guru process. I dunno exactly how he did it, but he did. :-D So yay! Thanks, sweetie! I'll do my pictures from vacation Thursday 13 this week.

Now I'm going through the arduous process of reinstalling everything! *Whines* It's so boring! I could be writing! And I was on a roll yesterday. There was a brief lull in the writer's block that has been plaguing me with the last half of Blood and Violets. Of course, this probably means that it will come back since I'm not going to be getting any writing done today. At least, none worth speaking of.

I'm putting this at the very bottom of an unrelated post in the hopes of not jinxing it. I just can't not share any longer though!!! I GOT A REQUEST FOR A FULL!!! YAY!!! It was actually almost a week ago now. I wonder how long these things take. *checks her email again* I'm sure some of you are like, "La dee da, she got a request for a full. Who cares! It's not like it was a contract offer or anything." Well, it's special to me, cause it's my first one! *bounces* So I guess I'm gradually moving up in the world. hehehe

That, my friends, is all. Now I'm heading back into the reinstall cave. Wish me luck!

Something Seems Off...

I was hoping that when I got back from vacation I'd be able to plunge back in to Blood and Violets, but something just doesn't feel right about it. I'm not sure what it is...

I guess most of the stuff I write is far more paranormal than romance, and this is feeling more romance than paranormal. I'm also suffering from some serious rejection induced lack of confidence.

Should I just keep trudging forward and hope I can make it right in the rewrites? Or scrap it for the moment and work on one of my other W'sIP?

The good thing about Blood and Violets is that though it does vaguely reference some of the characters in the Women of Sithein books, it isn't enhanced by having already read them. So it is truly a stand alone. A lot of my other W'sIP would be much more fun if you knew the back story for the characters which is provided in the WoS books. However, if I'm never going to get anything but rejections for them, should I really waste my time working on other books that rely on them?

Do I even care if they're ever published?

Of course, I care. I need to feel a little love too!

Do I enjoy writing them even though they aren't published and might never be?

Of course, I do.

Am I done whining?

Of course, I am.

Totally Uninspired but with Adorable Pink Hair!!!

Well my sweetie pie, Lishy, helped me chunk my hair fuchsia today! It looks absolutely fabulous. I think she must have missed her calling as a beautician. I can't seem to get a good picture of it. It almost glows in the light! Not in a neon way but like in a crystalline way, if that makes any sense. So I'm going to try to get Lishy to take a good picture of it. She is somewhat of a queen of photography.

So despite the fact that I can't even seem to write a decent sentence, I can at least look cute while I'm sitting here staring at the blinking cursor. :-D

Resplendence Publishing?

Does anyone know anything about this company?

I haven't heard anything about them from anyone who has had dealings with them, so I thought I'd pose the question in case anyone who happens across my blog has.

Their covers are HEAVENLY! I know I shouldn't judge a publisher by its covers, but click on the link! They are beautiful.

Hi! I'm Lesley, and I have a "That" Problem

What the heck is she talking about? I hear you say.

Well, the word "that" of course. I use it too darn much!

Every evening I start my writing by reading what I wrote the night before, and inevitably I have to delete at least five that's.

Why then, Lesley, don't you just not write them?

That's a very good question, my friends. I wish I knew. I try to hold back, but those sneaky little that's just make their way into my writing, where they are absolutely unnecessary.

...she doubted THAT she was dreaming.

Now wouldn't "she doubted she was dreaming" be much more eloquent. Of course, it would!

*slaps hand* Be good you naughty fingers! Only use that's where they are actually necessary!

Blood and Violets Cracked 100

I finished off the first 100 pages and 30k words of Blood and Violets last night. I think I'm going to be doing some major rewriting on it, because I'm struggling with some of the scenes, but then I thought that with Fiona too... Well, we'll see.

Series vs. Set

Okay, I've been thinking...

A series of books is all the books an author has written that are connected, right? Or perhaps all the books that are written in one world/reality. Well the book I'm working on now, Blood and Violets, is actually loosely related to the other three books I've already written, but not nearly as closely related as those three books are to each other.

Dana of the Whispering Wood, Arianna Penndragon, and Fiona O'Sithein make up what I would consider a set within the series. I call the set The Women of Sithein, but I have no name for my series. I guess I should decide on a name, but for the life of me, I can't think of anything that would be appropriate. It's driving me to distraction!

And so my next question is can I even do this? Is it allowed? I mean, I guess anything is allowed, but I wonder if it will confuse people if I have Dana of the Whispering Woods in The Women of Sithein set from the Blah Blah Blah series. I have another set which focuses on the return of the fairies planned, and for that matter Blood and Violets could easily be part of a set since I have plans for Alex's brother, Joachim, and his father, Finn.

*throws hands up* Oh well, I'll just jump off that bridge when I come to it.

Found My Muse...

She was behind the sofa the whole time!

Lost and Found: Missing Muse

I think my muse must have taken a vacation. Probably somewhere with a beach. *grumbles jealously* I have absolutely no creativity. Maybe my WIP is in a funk and I need to take a look at it from another angle or something. I'll have to try that. Perhaps I'll skip forward to some juicy bits. At any rate, I need something to get me inspired.

And chocolate...Dang it! I neeeeeeeeeeeeed some chocolate! I've banned it from the house. Now that doesn't mean I won't eat it. The same rules apply to it that apply to the diet coke. I am allowed to have it if I want it but it can't be easily obtained, which means it can't be in my house. I was seriously contemplating seeing if I had everything I needed to make fudge though earlier. I think I do...*Stares longingly at the kitchen*

Also I would like to put in an order for some decent luck. Mine has been pure and utter crap recently, and I'm tired of it! I need something good to happen!!! And nothing else bad!

Think this order will go through? We'll see...

*Lesley is a Nervous Girl*

Whew! I just entered a couple things in the Romance Junkies writing contest. And now I'm absolutely all aflutter! I'm looking forward to any commentary that I might get back on them even if they don't do well.

It's so scary putting your little babies out there in front of the world for criticism!!!

Organizational Woes

Now no one is going to ever claim that I'm organized. Not even jokingly. If they did a lightening bolt would come down from the heavens and strike them dead on the spot.

I want to be organized! I try to be organized! I buy all kinds of organizational tools! I love organizational stuff! Notebooks, little caddies for household items, calendars, wall things that you're supposed to hang your keys on. And what happens. The notebooks get piled in a pretty little pile, the calendar never gets touched, and my keys end up places like in the refrigerator. Yes, it's happened! Oh, hush, its not that weird! I probably put it there when I was putting away groceries or something.

Anyway! I finally at least organized my computer files for my writing yesterday. It took two good hours, but now they are organized into fragments that are related, fragments that are undeveloped story ideas, and that sort of thing. I even have a file of "supporting documents" which includes stuff like the time line of my series, a spreadsheet with the facts about my vampire families, a doc with favorite quotes. You know, the really geeky stuff.

So upon further investigation, I have seven fully developed or almost fully developed outlines and various scenes for WIPs and about 40 things that could be developed into full-fledged novels. Will I ever get to writing all these? Who knows! But at least they are organized now. ;)

Out, damned apostrophe! out, I say!

I've been working so hard to actually use contractions, which is something that for some reason I have difficulty doing, that I'm afraid I've accomplished my goal a little TOO well. I was trying to type up something for a professional report today, and it was chock full of contractions. That's a big no no! Good thing I'm an obsessive editor. ;) Except where it comes to my blog. *scolds herself*

Go Me!

Finished the revisions I was doing to Arianna Penndragon last night. Now I'm on to working on Fiona O'Sithein. Although I may have to take a few days off and work on the outline for a book that just came to me. Revisions make me such a tired girl!

Why I shouldn't be in the room when someone is reading one of my books...

My husband is reading Fiona O'Sithein, and, of course, he always seems to be doing it when I'm in the room. So when he laughs or makes a comment aloud, which is apparently supposed to be to himself, I respond with...

"What??? What is it?"

What am I supposed to do? I really just have to know what the heck it is he found so funny! Now if I hadn't intended it to be funny, I would be very upset by all these outbursts of hysterical laughter, but since it was intentional I'm pretty darned flattered.

When he was about 50 pages of reading into it, he started teasing me every single time I asked him what he was laughing at. So I tried to ignore him and then naturally every time he laughed he would look at me and wait for a response. To which I had to hide my head behind my laptop from him. :-D

So from now on unless he can be quiet or take the questions he is just going to have read them in another room!

Meet My New Friends

Who hasn't read the romance novel about the rich, handsome man, who hires a beautiful young woman to be the nanny to his young child? I know I've always enjoyed them. Well here we have the same story... Only with a twist. A rather large twist.

The rich, handsome man is Arlan, the King of the Dragons, and the child isn't his child at all. She's the reincarnation of his grandmother, the Queen of the Fairies.

Then things start getting really complicated...

7k of Superfluous Fluff Eliminated

I discussed the whole situation with Superfluous Fluff in Dana of the Whispering Wood earlier. Well I finally finished the edits, and it's 7000 words shorter after I removed phrases and paragraphs that add nothing whatsoever to the plot. Go me!

That puts Dana at a whopping 115k.

Now I'm on to do exactly the opposite to Arianna Penndragon. I left things out of that one that need to be there. I don't know why I just assume that you all know all about the vampires in my world. How are you going to know if I don't tell you?

Do you prefer them Long or Short?

No, you naughty, naughty person! That is not what I was talking about!

I mean chapters. Do you like it when there are lots of different scenes in a chapter and have it last maybe thirty pages or would you prefer that the chapters only have one or two scenes and are shorter.

I'm torn now. I used to like long chapters, but now I think I like short. I don't have a great deal of time to read so I love to be able to read a quick chapter and move on to all the other things I do in life. They also seem to make the book move faster for me somehow.

I ask because I'm editing Dana and making huge changes, and I'm seriously considering breaking up the chapters. I think it would pick up the pace some and that's really what I'm working on now.

Well anyway. I'm off to slice and dice my novel. ;)

Happy Summer Solstice!!!

Superfluous Fluff

Ugh! I'm working on Dana of the Whispering Wood. I wrote the rough draft going on five years ago, and I've edited it alot since then. Still I'm having to do some major cutting. It was too long anyway, but for some reason when I wrote it I felt the need to put in all this superfluous fluff! It slows the story down terribly. I've already cut about 1500 words, and I'm sure it'll be alot more before I'm done. And contractions! What the heck was my problem with contractions! I still have trouble putting in contractions to this day, but at least now I can usually catch it in the editing. I think I must have written too many research papers in my life. hehe

Also Dana's personality is so incredibly different than Fiona's. I guess I've got Fiona on the brain since I just finished writing her book. The whole tone of how she deals with things is different. Every time someone bosses her around or is rude to her, I want her to put the smack down on them! That's what Fiona would do! That is just not how Dana works. I'm having to get back inside her head.

Which I should be doing right now instead of blogging! :D So I'm off to do that.

Marie Gets a Makeover

I was working on my 3d model of Marie and finally got her more like I wanted her. This is about a 10 times better representation of Marie and her personality than the old one I did was.

So, Meet Marie Moonstone! But Call her Marie Smith...she HATES her last name. ;)

Fiona, the world. World, Fiona O'Sithein!

Fiona O'Sithein, the final book in my Women of Sithein series, is done! Wooters!

Okay, she is actually not ready to meet the public yet as she has to go through about fifteen different edits. I just can't leave a book alone. Dana of the Whispering Wood and Arianna Penndragon are getting a run through as soon as I've done my first round of edits on Fiona.

Perhaps if I continue to edit eventually they will get published. hehe

I'm still waiting to hear back from Tor Paranormal Romance. They've had the partial of Dana for twenty weeks. An agent I like has had the same partial for eighteen weeks and still no word. I understand they are busy. Especially this time of year. It's just so darn frustrating! If they don't want it then I wish they would just say so, because I'm dying to submit to Samhain Publishing.

Yes, I admit it, I was originally drawn to them just because of their name, but they are doing some amazing things over there, and I would love to be a part of it. Actually they are closed to submissions at the moment, but I entered their Best First Line Contest with a short story. I'd have entered with Dana if she weren't already subbed.

Fiona is 200!

Happy Birthday, Fiona!

She's not really 200 years old, but she did just hit 200 pages and 63,000 words. I'm enjoying writing this one immensely. Fiona has quite the little attitude! When I first starting writing this book, I thought she was sweet and adorable. Well she is! But she also has a temper that could take out an army! I didn't see that one coming.

The Complications of Love Scenes...

You know, I was just thinking...

I've not read a great deal of homosexual erotica by any means, but I was really thinking that it might get pretty darn complicated. I mean you couldn't use pronouns!!! If you've got a love scene between Jill and Tom, then you can refer to them and he and she the majority of the time, but if you've got Dan and Alan for instance, do you have to keep referring to them as Dan did this and Alan did this? I guess you'd have to. Because if you did anything else you would never have any idea who was doing what to who.

This was another Hmmmmmm moment brought to you by Lesley Speller.

Flashbacks Complete with Waynes World Wiggly Fingers

OK, perhaps not... but Flashbacks nonetheless.

I've been struggling making my main characters history work in Fiona O'Sithein, but I think I've found a way. Their relationship started in Arianna Penndragon, but there is verrrrrrry little mention of it. It naturally greatly effects their current relationship, and I was trying to figure out the best way to do it. I've been working with them both just remembering things, but it didn't have nearly the umph that it needed. So I'm moving on to full on flashbacks. Queue the wiggly screen and weird music here.

Yeah, this is gonna work great! Now I just have to decide when they'll be remembering what! This should be fun! Muhaha! I'm totally going to screw with Beltran's head!

It's all about the plot, baby!

Much to my husband's dismay and irritation about 19 times out of 20 within the first half hour of a movie I can tell you the entire plot of the rest of the film. I don't know if it's because of the insane numbers of movies I've seen in my lifetime and books that I've read, but usually the plot is completely laid out before me. Bryon asked me the other day if this annoyed me? That I knew exactly what was going to happen, and that got me to thinking.

It really doesn't bother me. I guess it's because I never know for sure until the very end if I'm right or not. Also just because I know the story doesn't necessarily mean that I don't enjoy the journey. Also if they are about to do something really bad to me, like murder off the main character who I'm growing to like, I want to know it ahead of time. I think that's part of the reason I like romance novels so much. They might kill off some secondary characters in the course of the book, but you know in the end the hero and heroine are going to get together and neither of them is going to drop dead.

One of the main reasons I started writing was because I got sick and tired of them killing off people I liked in books. That and the injustices done to our friends the vampires. I'm not for the angsty vamp, and I'm most certainly not for the vampire not getting the girl just because he's a vampire, or vampiress not getting the boy, or any combination thereof.

But I digress...

So it made me wonder if my plots are all so completely predictable. I hope not! Although you'll never have to fear that I'm going to hurt the main characters! Well...hurt perhaps, but they'll survive. :-D

Must Not Sleep...Must Write...Oh, Who Am I Kidding?

Ugh, I want to work on Fiona tonight and a wrote a few pages, but now I'm going to have to give up the ghost and call it a night. My darling, sweet, adorable son woke me up at 2:30 this morning and refused to go to sleep again until 5:30. It was the horror. Poor little guy was so stuffy though. I can't blame him for not being able to sleep. I know how hard it is to sleep with a stuffiness. (Wow I really was tired!!! Make that a stuffy nose...)*Shakes her fist at all the nearby allergens*

I'm off to bed! Bon nuit!

The 1st 100 are Behind Us

Last night I got the adorable Fiona O'Sithein up to 101 pages and 32k words. Then it was one in the morning and my darling baby boy decided it was time to get up...

At least at 2:45 my darling husband agreed to take him in the living room and let me get a little sleep. I had a dreadful headache! Too much angst in the scene I was writing? Perhaps...

Help My Characters are Rebelling!

Not only did I just have to rewrite a big portion of my outline for Fiona, because Beltran decided to do something I'd told him not to, but two characters just popped up who are demanding I write a book about them! They appeared approximately ten minutes ago in the storyline and they are so charming that I might have to go back and write their whole story. It wouldn't be as part of the Women of Sithein books, but another stand alone. There names are Tarran and Bronwyn, Wyn for short. He was a soldier who fought with Arianna in the Penndragon guard, and she is still telling me her story.

Well I'm off to see what other trouble my characters are going to get themselves into tonight.

*hears crickets*

...and the incessant beeping of that hideous cursor!!!!!!

In an Effort to Prevent Pshycological Melt Down...

Okay, I've been trying to work on two novels at one time this past week, but I've decided I get WAY too much into it to do that. The characters are alive all the time in my mind and when I've got two main characters competing for my attention at once...Well lets just say that this could go horribly wrong!

I think I can work on plotting for more than one at once just not the actual writing. Plotting is more about details than emotions and it's the emotions and personalities that get me all confused. Fiona and Marie (from Blood and Violets) are two utterly different personalities. Now you may say what about the other characters in your novel, Lesley? Don't they get all confused too? Well not usually. My heros do occasionally intrude on the party in my head but generally its just me and the heroines planning how to make their lives difficult. ;-D

So who won the tug of war? Fiona. Because while it would make the most logical sense to work on Blood and Violets, I'm finding it difficult to get completely immersed in Marie's world. Despite the fact that its much closer to the reality in which I live.

Reality? Blah!

I'm Torn...

Listening to: Carmina Burana

So I read an interview with an author the other day and she suggested that as soon as you get your query letters out for a project you start work on something else. Always a good plan! I've been working on the third and final book set in Medieval Sithein. Now while all of these books can stand alone just fine, they do all compliment each other which means that Dana of the Whispering Wood really needs to be published first.

So here I am...I've got Dana out submitted. Arianna is in the very last phase of tweaking, and I'm starting to write Fiona. I finished off the outline of Fiona about two weeks ago. However, I can't send out submissions about Arianna until I sell Dana so what's a girl to do. I'm afraid I might be wasting my very limited writing time working on something I can't sell until I sell something else. Argh!!!

So I'm thinking perhaps I might start working on a modern day one I have in outline form called Blood and Violets. Or maybe I'll work on both of them at once. When the creativity of one lulls I'll go after the other. I know of others who write two books at the same time. I dunno if it'll work for me though, because I get so deeply entrenched when I'm writing that it might confuse my tenuous grip on reality.

We shall see...

I'm playing with my 3D program right now creating a model of Marie, the heroine from Blood and Violets. I'm off to that again. :D

Finished!

I finished writing Arrianna Penndragon. Well, at least the very rough first draft. I know there is tons I'm gonna wanna rewrite when I get back into it, but I'm going to let it lie and finish up Dana of the Whispering Woods in the meantime. And then off to the publisher with it. Eeeeeek!

And Now We're Back Round to Writer's Block

*beats head on post*

It's so freaking annoying. I know where I am and I know where I need to be, but I can't seem to find my way there. I've been sitting staring at two pages of a chapter for about an hour. And seeing as my hours are somewhat limited that is quite a loss!

And now my crazy dogs are inspecting something that their sure is a burglar...It's probably just the ice maker if I had to guess. Well they didn't wake Nicky up so I guess I can forgive them for being nuts.

Okay enough procrastinating!

Tylenol PM and A Wonderful Husband

Through the graces of a dose of Tylenol PM for the headache I got from the exhaustion and a darling husband to watch Nicholai while I slept in a drugged haze I finally got some sleep last night! I can't tell you how lovely it was!

Now I just finished writing about six pages so I hope that's enough to calm my creative whims so I can get some sleep. Of course, writing might have just made it worse but we shall see. Can't stop the creative juices when they are flowin'!

Noooooo.....My Writer's Block Turned into Writer's Insomnia

Okay I don't know if any of you writers out there have experienced this, but it tends to happen to me when I working hard on a book. When I try to go to sleep I lay down and scenes start playing out in my head. So much so that its impossible to sleep! Yesterday I woke up at 2:30 when Nicholai was fussing and got him back to sleep and laid down and could NOT go back to sleep. So I laid there until about 4 when I completely gave up and sat up and just started writing. I got a little done. Not nearly enough for someone who was awake most of the night though!!! I can't do this anymore. I've got a little munchkin who doesn't permit naps during the daytime. It worked fine when I was younger and with no one to tell me he wanted a snack or a cuddle every two minutes.

This morning I woke up at 2 again! Except this time it was Fippy, my crazy Lab, who did it. I swear! I love the dog! But he is NUTS!!! He is afraid of everything! This morning when he woke me up he was barking like someone was trying to get in the door. So I bolted out of bed and went into the living room and looked at the door. Nothing... Then something floated by my head... Nicky's balloon which barely had any helium left in it was kinda floating mid air and my poor nutso dog was convinced that it had come to kill the entire family!

So tonight I'm drinking about three cups of Sleepy Time Extra tea and going to bed. I'm telling Bryon that if Nicky wakes up he is in charge and I'm going to SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

At least I hope I am!

The Eternally Blinking Cursor

You know back in the days when I used to write with pen and paper instead of on computer staring at a blank page was bad enough. However! There is something far worse about staring at an empty word file with nothing but that little black blinking cursor.

I have terrible writer's block!

Maybe if I just start writing something random that will help. Sometimes skipping around is useful. Of course then you have to make it blend in and it never blends in as well as it would if you actually wrote it in order. At least it doesn't when I start putting stuff together anyway.

Of course that could just be me.

Happy Belated Halloween!!!

We had fun. Got the little munchkin dressed up like Darth Vader and took him to play with his two baby girlfriends. The highlight of the evening was Darth Vader, the fairy, and the witch all playing in the water table with the bobbing apples. It was tons of fun!

The Characters are Taking Over

Okay, it's very strange how you can be going one way and out of the blue one of your characters just decides to take off on their own little tangent. One of mine decided to single-handedly rewrite the story of King Arthur last night. I'm not sure that I agree with what she did but hey what can you do when you're characters take over your writing.

Reality Check...

Wow! I'd forgotten how really strangely my mind works when I'm writing. Like it keeps writing even though I'm not actually trying to. It doesn't do it when I'm editing just writing. I've written about 20 pages of Arrianna in the last few days, which is more than I've written in ages and actually enjoyed it. Seems like when I was getting my creative writing degree it was more work than pleasure. That on top of the fact that I passionately hate writing short fiction and knew they were going to just tear it apart anyway cause it wasn't all angsty and drug-filled. Well most of it wasn't. It's wonderful to be back in familiar worlds that I enjoy writing about.

Its just that...

Well the world follows me out of the book to be quite frank. I was driving home from the Applefest this weekend and the trees on the mountains were just starting to change and I was thinking. "Jeez, it's pretty but its going to take forever to get over that mountain in this carriage." At the time I was writing a long trip. Then I was like, "Uh no its not, stupid, this is a car not a carriage!"

I also go through personality shifts depending on the character I'm writing about. Dana is strong willed but painfully polite. Arrianna is...how to explain it. I wouldn't say she is weak by any stretch of the imagination, but she doesn't fight back against everything the world throws at her nearly as hard as she should, and she is witty with a tendency to be a little rude. Let's hope no one slaps me for being a smartass while I'm working on this book.

I'm planning on starting final run through of edits for Dana next weekish. We shall see how it goes.

Woot! Revisions done!

Yay! My revisions are done and now I'm just waiting for comments before I subject myself to the pain and torture of submission!

My grumpy little boy finally went to bed about 8:30 and I sat down to work and was immediately distracted by an episode of the new series Jericho. OMG It looks good. So of course I had to further procrastinate by finding the first two episodes online and getting caught up. Then I actually got down to work.

Now its almost midnight and I'm tiiiiiirrrrrrrrred, so I think I'll be heading to bed soon.

The Dreaded Synopsis

I've been working on my synopsis for a couple of days now and am still not completely satisfied with it. Of course, maybe I never will be. They are just about the most important thing you write. If a publisher isn't intrigued by your synopsis they sure aren't going to waste time reading your first chapters.

I've also been working on some rewrites and I have my team of lovely ladies helping me with comments! Thanks Mom, Lishy, Jenn and Manda! I should be done with my 2.1 rewrites and ready to accept comments in a week or two. Its so exciting.

Once I'm done, I'm submitting to Luna. It's a Harlequin Romance line that is focused on Strong, Magical Women! I can't tell you how excited I was when I discovered it. I've never read another description of what a publisher was looking for that was more perfect for Dana!!! Let's hope they agree! :D