Big Sur Here I Come!

Big Daddy has agreed to my attending the Big Sur Writer’s Workshop! Yay me!

Of course, he’s insisting on tagging along.

Now we are squabbling on how to pay for it and which package to buy. But thanks to the infinite wisdom of a fellow blogger, I’ve come up with a solution. There may or not be a midnight organ snatch on a certain father-in-law who may or may not be living in foreign lands. Well, financing is in order.

So now my new puzzle…

Which manuscript do I use for the workshop?

My very first novel is a fictional piece set in both and Kosovo and needs massive overhaul. And that’s after 4 full edits. It started at 174K so I’ll let you figure out the ridiculous shape of it. ALKONOST-A TATTOO AWAKENS

My second is a tongue-in-cheek YA with major voice issues. McDRACULA

My third is my NaNoWriMo YA love story from this past November that I’m currently editing and it’s getting kind of cute. BLAZE

But my favorite, which I think is the best I’ve written to date is a YA dystopian that I’m letting simmer. UNCLASSIFIED

Should I start editing the fourth, the dystopian, so that I have something that I love to work on or use the NaNo YA love story which is in a better position editorial wise?

I don’t want to get laughed out of my chair, but I think the dystopian has the most potential overall…

What would you do?

Finished, Finished, Finished

Ta dah!

I finally finished my WIP with an ending that will stand. At least until I edit and undoubtedly I will chop it to shreds.

But for now, I have that satisfying feeling. You know the one, you've cleaned your entire house and you're finally soaking in a bubble bath with a case of chardonnay? Sorry, that was just a fantasy it usually entails a guy name Guy rubbing my shoulders and begging me to let him paint my toenails. I don't know why, it's a fantasy, okay?

I've been neglecting my blog and I would like to promise to never allow that to happen again but as I already live in a world of self-delusion I don't want to press my luck. But I will check in more often.

Now that UNCLASSIFIED is marinating, I am taking a little breather and writing a couple of short stories for competition. One thing I've learned so far about shorts, I suck. Short, right? I'm actually surprised at how hard it is to write a complete story in under 2500 words or less. And what should I write about? I mean, do YA shorts even have a chance up against lost love (most common category)?

Please leave me your ideas for short stories so I can shamelessly steal them. Just kidding, I will feel shame, promise.

Rethink & Research

I've finished my WIP three times. And I hate every ending.

How did I lose my path? Where exactly did Ezra take over and spin out of control? I could just move on, leaving my three endings and begin the edit. I could do that. I should do that. When I finish a story I like to let it sit for a month or two and marinate, but I can't leave poor Ezra with her swollen belly hanging out.

I backed up a few chapters to where the climax first begins to peak. In this case, it's during her survival exercises when she's forced to make a big choice. Keep the baby and die or skewer the baby and die. Yeah, her options her grim. Reading over these chapters, I realized I didn't like the scene setting.

It's not that I didn't do my homework, I did. Truly, I did. The setting is Post-Apocalyptic Baton Rouge, LA. And I've visited Baton Rouge, granted it's been years and I've never actually been since the bomb, but I googled the fancy out of it. So, I was ready, right? Wrong!

Our memory plays tricks on us, especially Chardonnay tinted ones, and cities change. I told my wonderful husband, yep the one I stabbed, (It wasn't even a flesh wound, relax.) that I absolutely had to go... immediately. He agreed, maybe he's a little afraid of me, suppose he has reason to. Since he didn't make a fuss, I insisted on a private guide for a predawn swamp tour. He agreed to that too, probably hoping I'd be eaten by an alligator.

But my fairy godmother was by my side. The guide was a no show and the two hours waiting on the bank of the bayou was enough for me. (I've got mosquito bites where no mosquito should go.)

To make a long winded blog a wee less windy, the walking tour through Baton Rouge, AKA Red Stick, was wonderful. It was everything I imagined the Mississippi River would be in July. Hot, stick, and fragant. I found a dozen flaws in my manuscript, drank only coffee, and dusted off the cobwebs of my memory. Ezra's survival exercises will be so much better for it, although the Belle Casino may not feel the same.

Well, I drank only coffee anyway, can't say that about my dearest...

Drop me a note on how you research your WIPs...

It's Only a Little Obsession

I have been neglecting my blog, but not because it doesn’t come to mind or due to lack of time to write. I’ve been negligent due to obsession. My current WIP is sucking up all of my cognizant hours. When I’m not writing on it, I’m thinking on it. I go through this with each new story I fall into, but this one seems to be edging on madness.

Is this a good thing? I’ve got three finished pieces, including one that’s in desperate need of editing, and I should be querying them. Sporadically, I am, but not enough to ever move them to the next step. Why is that? I loved the stories when I wrote them, I even loved them through the numerous rewrites, but I just can’t seem to commit myself to time necessary to get their voices heard.

Am I only using this new story as an excuse to not query? Or am I finally writing the one, the story that will be my break through and get me published? I believe I am writing better than I’ve written, and I adore the plot, but if I’m honest with myself, I always feel this way about each new story. Well except for that NaNoWriMo ditty that needs its head cut off.

I abhor longwinded blogs so I’ll get straight to the point. How about you? Do you fall madly and obsessively in love with your MCs? Do you spend your every waking moment, including the ones when you should be falling asleep, imagining ways to make their lives hell?

Drop me a note and tell me about your MC and why he/she deserves the love you lavish on them…

W equals WIP

If you're a writer then you know what a WIP means. If you're shopper you're busy 'googling' this exclusive designer, and if you're the parent of small children you are trying to make it into a sandwich.

WIP = Work in Progress. So, what's your sign? Mine, of the two, the one I am working on like mad, in between querying the already growing dust manuscripts, is a YA dystopian. And I love it! But hey, don't we all? Don't we all fall madly in love with our MC (main character, not mayo and cheese)? The weird thing is every one of my works is vastly different, which does make it easier to go wild in his/her world, I fear also dooms me to never finding my niche.

Here's my one-liner (Don't judge, it's a WIP): 16 year-old Ezra Thibodeaux should be assimilating on target, but getting her period proves her biochip is worthless. Raped, pregnant, and marked for destruction, she fights One Globe alone, utterly alone.

Drop me yours!

Dadnabit, Dog Gone it, and Damnation…or Dystopian

Things I say when I smash my thumb or my darling doesn’t finish the job adequately. But that’s probably TMI.

I have the perfect dystopian novel plotted out, but it’s not coming out on paper the way I see it. (When I say plotted, I refer the jell-o bouncing around in my brain.) My MC is boring; she’s flat, unattractive and scared of her own shadow. So how in tarnation is she going to save mankind?

I’ve tried a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with her, and while she’s down on her knees, she doesn’t seem to be praying, she’s still pathetic. I’m currently considering an ALICE IN WONDERLAND move and in the spirit of the Queen of Hearts, “Off with her head”.

Here’s another issue with the plot, (yes that junk in my head) I have her getting raped by a descendant of the most hated man in America. Is that too much for a YA novel? The rape scene isn’t graphic and the only reference to the origins of the surname is the surname itself.

Does that make any sense?

Okay a few more issues… The opening scene she’s just started her period, sounds gross right? But it’s integral to the story. Oh crap, maybe I’ll just toss the bloody thing and start over.

D is for damnation! I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t.