It's been an awesome week of writing, but I must apologize for not blogging. So now that that's been said, I owe one more apology. The amazing, the stupendous, the remarkable, (yeah even I'm gagging) the perfect blogger that I can no longer find, sent me one of those seriously sweet blog awards and being the numbskull that I am, I can't locate it. So, I'm sorry.
Getting back to the promise I made to humiliate myself for your amusement, I'm
posting the first and last sentences of the first five chapters of BLAZE, my 2010 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month AKA November) story.
Please be gentle as the goal is to write a novel with a minimum word count of 50,000, and it was mission accomplished. The rest is self-explanatory.
BLAZE is a completed, unedited YA Romantic Fantasy at 66,500 words.
Chapter 1
1. Don’t call Captain Thorton please, just this once, just this year, can’t we skip it?
2. Super crapola, the rest of the handkerchief crowd was headed her way, rheumy eyed and ready for a good cry to salve their conscious.
Chapter 2
1. “What’s up Wheels? Or should I say Mazel Tov?”
2. Shouldn’t she happy for them?
Chapter 3
1. The gate screeched as Blaze pushed the rusty hinges to their breaking point and slipped through the gap into the overgrown brambles.
2. He sent the other half of his soul out after her, but as usual it sang to empty air.
Chapter 4
1. Blaze’s yard was swarming with police officers as she ran up and her stomach fell through the sidewalk, the flowers in her gut turning into liquid acid.
2. And she continued running until she was safe inside the walls of Athens High and halfway to her locker.
Chapter 5
1. Wheels’ locker was below and to the left of Blaze’s and he was already there as she arrived out of breath and frazzled.
2. He’d be ready and waiting when they knocked on his door.
The chapters in this novel are very long and will undoubtedly be cut in half when I actually start editing it. But for now, I can see the plot following through by the first and last lines. So, even though I'm very proud of this one, it will be salvageable when the work I'm on finally gives me a rest.
Now that I've been baring my soul, I hope a few of you, will follow suit and let me know where I can read them. I will be taking a week's vacation at the beach with my darling perfect pixie of a granddaughter, but I will check in.
Happy writing!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T & Other Things That Go Blahhhg
The April Blog A to Z Challenge was rolling along nicely…
Okay so on the 10th of April I posted my “H” blog and was almost caught up in the blog challenge and feeling rather spiffy about myself. And then disaster struck! A common malady in my world, I think I must have been a troll or goblin in a former life and Karma is paying me back in this one. My laptop contracted a latent zombie virus and began to eat itself.
I replaced the laptop on Thursday and have been playing catch-up ever since. I was an uber idiot as I had not bothered to save my WIPs on a flash drive and had only backed up my laptop to my laptop. I did have my completed novels on flash but not the latest edits. SO yeah, I suck!
As my head is perpetually in the clouds, the silver lining is sticking to my eyelashes and I'm to be assured my old laptop will be returned in a week or so, sans virus. I’ve already chunked out the cash for this miracle, so I’m hoping being the Easter season I'll have a little luck at that resurection thing.
In the meantime, I’ve been answering the two weeks worth of missed emails which included……big drum roll here…2 partial requests on one of those edited but not the latest edited completed works.
I…is for Idiot, me. As I will now fastidiously copy everything on flash and backup online.
J…is for jumbo, as in my jumbo mistake at not saving my files adequately.
K…is for kicking, myself in the butt.
L…is for libation, poured myself several after the fiasco.
M…is for murder, the act I wish to commit on the sicko who invented the virus.
N…is for Norton, worthless antivirus company that assures me they protected me from other viruses.
O…is for obsessive, my new devotion to backing up files.
P…is for peeps, those nasty little marshmallow things stuffed in Easter baskets (just seems appropriate).
Q…is for query, only the favorable ones shall be remembered.
R…is for raving, ranting, and railing, still ongoing but trying to shut up.
S…is for snorting, something I did for hours as my laptop died.
T…is for tomorrow, for tomorrow never comes.
Okay so tomorrow I’ll post the ubiquitous “U” and be back on track. Anyone feeling the need to point out that this is flagrant cheating, please keep it to yourself, I’m already wallowing in guilt.
Okay so on the 10th of April I posted my “H” blog and was almost caught up in the blog challenge and feeling rather spiffy about myself. And then disaster struck! A common malady in my world, I think I must have been a troll or goblin in a former life and Karma is paying me back in this one. My laptop contracted a latent zombie virus and began to eat itself.
I replaced the laptop on Thursday and have been playing catch-up ever since. I was an uber idiot as I had not bothered to save my WIPs on a flash drive and had only backed up my laptop to my laptop. I did have my completed novels on flash but not the latest edits. SO yeah, I suck!
As my head is perpetually in the clouds, the silver lining is sticking to my eyelashes and I'm to be assured my old laptop will be returned in a week or so, sans virus. I’ve already chunked out the cash for this miracle, so I’m hoping being the Easter season I'll have a little luck at that resurection thing.
In the meantime, I’ve been answering the two weeks worth of missed emails which included……big drum roll here…2 partial requests on one of those edited but not the latest edited completed works.
I…is for Idiot, me. As I will now fastidiously copy everything on flash and backup online.
J…is for jumbo, as in my jumbo mistake at not saving my files adequately.
K…is for kicking, myself in the butt.
L…is for libation, poured myself several after the fiasco.
M…is for murder, the act I wish to commit on the sicko who invented the virus.
N…is for Norton, worthless antivirus company that assures me they protected me from other viruses.
O…is for obsessive, my new devotion to backing up files.
P…is for peeps, those nasty little marshmallow things stuffed in Easter baskets (just seems appropriate).
Q…is for query, only the favorable ones shall be remembered.
R…is for raving, ranting, and railing, still ongoing but trying to shut up.
S…is for snorting, something I did for hours as my laptop died.
T…is for tomorrow, for tomorrow never comes.
Okay so tomorrow I’ll post the ubiquitous “U” and be back on track. Anyone feeling the need to point out that this is flagrant cheating, please keep it to yourself, I’m already wallowing in guilt.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
"How Horrible!" as said by Benny Hill
One of my all time favorite British phrases!
I am huge ho for British comedy with Benny Hill being my most beloved. It just so happened that I was detained in Heathrow Airport the weekend that he passed away. (When I say detained, well, let’s just say it was a misunderstanding of security forces concerning the passport under which I was traveling.)
Being the easy going person (I so want to say bloke right now) that I am, I proclaimed my sincere remorse at the lost of one so admired the world over. Considering the circumstances in which I found myself, I was already aware the police force in the United Kingdom was severely lacking in humor. Which is undoubtedly why the genius, who was Benny Hill, lampooned them often as the police farce.
Yet I was still taken aback at the vigorous retort I received for my heartfelt condolences.
“How horrible!” I was rebuked with overly forthright self-righteousness by a picture perfect depiction of a Benny Hill characterization.
Instead of upsetting me, why bother, I was about to be sold down the River Thames anyway, I began to chuckle. Which wasn’t well received either, but thank goodness not illegal. His obvious horror at my laughter set me off in a bout of giggles so tremendous it still amazes me I didn’t end up in the tower. Which thinking about it now, I realize would have been a tour indeed.
With the letter ‘h’ being the assignment, I challenge you to recall your most ‘h’umorous accounting of the humpbacked letter.
For me and my own, my multiple personalities that is, we will stay with, “How horrible”, and our fond memories of the greatest comedian to ever live…Benny Hill.
I am huge ho for British comedy with Benny Hill being my most beloved. It just so happened that I was detained in Heathrow Airport the weekend that he passed away. (When I say detained, well, let’s just say it was a misunderstanding of security forces concerning the passport under which I was traveling.)
Being the easy going person (I so want to say bloke right now) that I am, I proclaimed my sincere remorse at the lost of one so admired the world over. Considering the circumstances in which I found myself, I was already aware the police force in the United Kingdom was severely lacking in humor. Which is undoubtedly why the genius, who was Benny Hill, lampooned them often as the police farce.
Yet I was still taken aback at the vigorous retort I received for my heartfelt condolences.
“How horrible!” I was rebuked with overly forthright self-righteousness by a picture perfect depiction of a Benny Hill characterization.
Instead of upsetting me, why bother, I was about to be sold down the River Thames anyway, I began to chuckle. Which wasn’t well received either, but thank goodness not illegal. His obvious horror at my laughter set me off in a bout of giggles so tremendous it still amazes me I didn’t end up in the tower. Which thinking about it now, I realize would have been a tour indeed.
With the letter ‘h’ being the assignment, I challenge you to recall your most ‘h’umorous accounting of the humpbacked letter.
For me and my own, my multiple personalities that is, we will stay with, “How horrible”, and our fond memories of the greatest comedian to ever live…Benny Hill.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Apocalypse Anyone?
I am participating in the A to Z Blog Challenge, but didn’t start until the letter “C” so this is a make-up blog. I do know the alphabet, honestly, I do.
a•poc•a•lypse/əˈpäkəˌlips/Noun
1. The complete final destruction of the world, esp. as described in the biblical book of Revelation.
2. An event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. More »
Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster
Apocalypse…the word means different things to different people.
To my mother it means the end of the world, as described in the Bible in the book of Revelations, see numero uno above. She sees the attack on the World Trade Center as the first horse of the apocalypse. She truly believes that Barack Obama getting elected heralded in the second horse…something to do with his views on Israel. Yada, yada, yada. So when she called me to espouse her views on the tsunami, earth quake, and subsequent damage to the nuclear reactors in Japan, I wasn’t surprised to learn that was the third horse. As she has nothing else to talk to me about, figured I’d make her happy and asked when she expects the fourth horse to be coming down the track? Let’s just say that conversation didn’t end on a pleasant note. But hey, it gives her something to pray about…besides my soul.
To me the apocalypse, in some form, is my favorite writing subject. It’s the possibility, of all that havoc and wretchedness. Not saying I buy into the whole four wild horses, I’m more of numero dos option. It opens my mind to describing what a certain place would look like if it actually survived an apocalypse.
The most common in movie themes and literature is the nuclear holocaust. And I’m no different, that’s the exact world I’m building in my current WIP. But I don’t have total devastation, as I don’t believe total devastation is likely. Sure, if every country currently holding nuclear weapons decided to release them against each other in showdown, we’d most definitely have total devastation. But what are the actual chances of that? Man has the innate will to survive. And even the most evil villain alive, with the exception of a certain few, realizes that a nuclear war would take them out as well.
So what do you think? Am I wrong in making part of the planet still inhabitable? According to the definition I suppose I am. Leave me a comment about your thoughts and apocalyptic works.
a•poc•a•lypse/əˈpäkəˌlips/Noun
1. The complete final destruction of the world, esp. as described in the biblical book of Revelation.
2. An event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. More »
Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster
Apocalypse…the word means different things to different people.
To my mother it means the end of the world, as described in the Bible in the book of Revelations, see numero uno above. She sees the attack on the World Trade Center as the first horse of the apocalypse. She truly believes that Barack Obama getting elected heralded in the second horse…something to do with his views on Israel. Yada, yada, yada. So when she called me to espouse her views on the tsunami, earth quake, and subsequent damage to the nuclear reactors in Japan, I wasn’t surprised to learn that was the third horse. As she has nothing else to talk to me about, figured I’d make her happy and asked when she expects the fourth horse to be coming down the track? Let’s just say that conversation didn’t end on a pleasant note. But hey, it gives her something to pray about…besides my soul.
To me the apocalypse, in some form, is my favorite writing subject. It’s the possibility, of all that havoc and wretchedness. Not saying I buy into the whole four wild horses, I’m more of numero dos option. It opens my mind to describing what a certain place would look like if it actually survived an apocalypse.
The most common in movie themes and literature is the nuclear holocaust. And I’m no different, that’s the exact world I’m building in my current WIP. But I don’t have total devastation, as I don’t believe total devastation is likely. Sure, if every country currently holding nuclear weapons decided to release them against each other in showdown, we’d most definitely have total devastation. But what are the actual chances of that? Man has the innate will to survive. And even the most evil villain alive, with the exception of a certain few, realizes that a nuclear war would take them out as well.
So what do you think? Am I wrong in making part of the planet still inhabitable? According to the definition I suppose I am. Leave me a comment about your thoughts and apocalyptic works.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tangled in My Own Web
I made this amazing schedule to get my writing career going in a forward direction instead floundering in the quagmire. Well that sucked! Even without the laptop keyboard glitch, I haven’t succeeded at following it one single day. These are the reasons why:
1. Querying a mere three agents, not the ten I so loftily amused myself with, per day takes me upwards of four hours. I troll QueryTracker.net selected picks for me and then research the agent. Hoping my letter will not look completely random, I Google said agent and read at least one of their interviews and quote some little ditty they’ve espoused.
2. I hadn’t scheduled time for bathing or Chardonnay, but I’m proud to report those items have not missed a day. I cocooned my laptop in Saran Wrap and have been practicing with washing and guzzling while typing. Not vastly successful yet, but I have high hopes. Sadly for the monumental span of my derriere, exercise has been moved down on a notch on my ‘to do’ list.
3. I swore that I would write on one of the two WIP’s and rotate them regularly, but that has been revised to writing like mad on one and ignoring the shouting voice of my MC in the other.
4. I committed to editing my badly needed rewrite on my NaNoWriMo. Wisely, I moved it to the end of my document’s list so I need not feel any guilt by accidentally scrolling past that sad file.
5. No more time suckage allowed by FaceBook or Twitter? No comment.
6. And as for that blogging, reading blogs, and commenting on such… I’m working on it.
So for those of you who have this whole shebang under control, how do you do it? And how do you deal with the guilt when you flop miserably?
On a completely sane level, would anyone like to post their query letter and let random strangers poke fun, er, I mean critique it?
Leave me a comment if you want to be my guinnea pig.
1. Querying a mere three agents, not the ten I so loftily amused myself with, per day takes me upwards of four hours. I troll QueryTracker.net selected picks for me and then research the agent. Hoping my letter will not look completely random, I Google said agent and read at least one of their interviews and quote some little ditty they’ve espoused.
2. I hadn’t scheduled time for bathing or Chardonnay, but I’m proud to report those items have not missed a day. I cocooned my laptop in Saran Wrap and have been practicing with washing and guzzling while typing. Not vastly successful yet, but I have high hopes. Sadly for the monumental span of my derriere, exercise has been moved down on a notch on my ‘to do’ list.
3. I swore that I would write on one of the two WIP’s and rotate them regularly, but that has been revised to writing like mad on one and ignoring the shouting voice of my MC in the other.
4. I committed to editing my badly needed rewrite on my NaNoWriMo. Wisely, I moved it to the end of my document’s list so I need not feel any guilt by accidentally scrolling past that sad file.
5. No more time suckage allowed by FaceBook or Twitter? No comment.
6. And as for that blogging, reading blogs, and commenting on such… I’m working on it.
So for those of you who have this whole shebang under control, how do you do it? And how do you deal with the guilt when you flop miserably?
On a completely sane level, would anyone like to post their query letter and let random strangers poke fun, er, I mean critique it?
Leave me a comment if you want to be my guinnea pig.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Schedule Wisely or Get a Job
The above are the sage and heartless words of my dearest..
Several of the NYT Best Selling Authors churn out multiple novels in a year, which in itself with the required hours of editing and rewriting is monumental. Add in Twitter, FaceBook, a myriad of other social networking sites and a blog and the task seems unattainable. How do they do it? Where do they find the time?
I’ve spent 3 years beating my head against the wall, not literally (I hate pain), and I feel no closer to being published than the day I scaled down my real estate brokerage in order to do this. I’ve come to an impasse. (My husband is losing patience with my lowered income, but I’m fine with not working 80 hours a week.) It’s time to get serious, to get organized, or admit defeat and go back to work fulltime.
I have three finished novels and two under way. I write, I edit, I rewrite, I edit, but I really suck at querying. I have queries for each of the aforementioned novels but sending them out? Ewww! I’m breaking out in hives just thinking about it. I do the research, I find my dream agents, but… just...ewww.
Enough! I will, starting today.
Since I have three completed novels, I will work on one book at a time rotating them weekly. The new and improved (first ever) schedule I came up with went like this: 10 query letters per day-three hours, two hours of editing, two hours of blog reading/writing, two hours of FB/Twitter (time suckage no longer allowed), and four hours on the WIPs. A full thirteen hours of devotion.
Extremely proud of my spurt of industriousness, I boasted of my eminent success to my other. He rolled his eyes and sagely noted that I hadn’t scheduled time for him, bathing, eating, exercise, or (OMG how could I have forgotten?) chardonnay.
Okay so something has to go, and it won’t be my wine. Do I really need to query?
Several of the NYT Best Selling Authors churn out multiple novels in a year, which in itself with the required hours of editing and rewriting is monumental. Add in Twitter, FaceBook, a myriad of other social networking sites and a blog and the task seems unattainable. How do they do it? Where do they find the time?
I’ve spent 3 years beating my head against the wall, not literally (I hate pain), and I feel no closer to being published than the day I scaled down my real estate brokerage in order to do this. I’ve come to an impasse. (My husband is losing patience with my lowered income, but I’m fine with not working 80 hours a week.) It’s time to get serious, to get organized, or admit defeat and go back to work fulltime.
I have three finished novels and two under way. I write, I edit, I rewrite, I edit, but I really suck at querying. I have queries for each of the aforementioned novels but sending them out? Ewww! I’m breaking out in hives just thinking about it. I do the research, I find my dream agents, but… just...ewww.
Enough! I will, starting today.
Since I have three completed novels, I will work on one book at a time rotating them weekly. The new and improved (first ever) schedule I came up with went like this: 10 query letters per day-three hours, two hours of editing, two hours of blog reading/writing, two hours of FB/Twitter (time suckage no longer allowed), and four hours on the WIPs. A full thirteen hours of devotion.
Extremely proud of my spurt of industriousness, I boasted of my eminent success to my other. He rolled his eyes and sagely noted that I hadn’t scheduled time for him, bathing, eating, exercise, or (OMG how could I have forgotten?) chardonnay.
Okay so something has to go, and it won’t be my wine. Do I really need to query?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
First Day a New Way
Thanks to my innate laziness I'm the world's worst blogger. Besides the fact that I find writing about writing incredibly sad, especially as to date I'm unpublished. Sure, I could go the indie way lots of today's millionaire writers have done that very thing. I've even read a few of those books, but I haven't found one yet that made me stay up all night reading it. They read like early drafts, the potential of something great is there, the yeasty scent is enticing but the bread is only parbaked.
So, I shan't give up my quest, I shall lumber on.
This new blog will be my rant at the futility of my search to obtain that goal. It will be filled with angst and guest bloggers and contests. Why? Because I've been assured by the “oh so wise”, Office Girl, see her blog under blogs I follow, that this is the key to wild success. And she knows all. She is wise beyond her tender years.
What I won't do is curse the heads of those sage and venerable creatures, otherwise known as agents, even when they turn down the unbelievable opportunity to represent my work. I will sadly keep a public count of my humiliation here for your pleasure.
Why? Dare you say I should wail at the beasts that could so obtusely refuse such a gold plated sweet deal? I should spit in their eye? After all they must be blind; they couldn't see the spit coming.
Well I won't and I'll tell you why. Because one day, one of those higher beings is going to pick up my query letter, laugh their asses off, and request a full. And it goes without saying that the wise one will love it! Find me a publisher with a flick of his/her cellphone and rocket us both to instant success. So there!
So, I shan't give up my quest, I shall lumber on.
This new blog will be my rant at the futility of my search to obtain that goal. It will be filled with angst and guest bloggers and contests. Why? Because I've been assured by the “oh so wise”, Office Girl, see her blog under blogs I follow, that this is the key to wild success. And she knows all. She is wise beyond her tender years.
What I won't do is curse the heads of those sage and venerable creatures, otherwise known as agents, even when they turn down the unbelievable opportunity to represent my work. I will sadly keep a public count of my humiliation here for your pleasure.
Why? Dare you say I should wail at the beasts that could so obtusely refuse such a gold plated sweet deal? I should spit in their eye? After all they must be blind; they couldn't see the spit coming.
Well I won't and I'll tell you why. Because one day, one of those higher beings is going to pick up my query letter, laugh their asses off, and request a full. And it goes without saying that the wise one will love it! Find me a publisher with a flick of his/her cellphone and rocket us both to instant success. So there!
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