Writing goals

I know I've tried this before, but some things in life threw a detour at me. So with this new book, newly titled "She's All In," (SAI from now on) I'm going to give goals another try. And what better way than to be held accountable than announcing them publicly on your blog?

I'm setting a goal of nine weeks to write the book. That's not including 100% of the revisions. That's a full first draft and solid progress on revisions. Why nine weeks? Two reasons: the Emerald City Writers Conference begins nine weeks from today and NaNoWriMo is in November. I hope to be able to start another book in November by either letting SAI sit for the month, or have sent out queries on it.

Nine weeks sounds insane to me. But then I tell myself that it's mostly plotted (which saves a lot of time staring at the computer screen wondering what should happen next), I don't have kids, I've got a steady 8-5 job so I have all evening to write, and I have a wonderful support system to keep me going.

I hope to write 2,000 words a day so that I can spend the weekends revising and catching up. There are many writers who take a year to write a book, many who take two weeks (including revisions). I hope that I can write speedy because I'd like to be prolific. Here's a great test for that, eh?

Here's my secret motivation: I hope that I'm so busy writing I forget to eat and lose a bunch of weight! Muhahahahahaha!

So folks, leave me your most harassing blog comments. Poke and prod me until I bleed words. I'm ready (imagine you hear the Rocky theme in the background).

Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...

It starts today.

Atlanta pics

My sacrifice to the Blogger Gods has been answered. They are allowing me to post my pictures from Atlanta.













Fellow Rose City Romance Writers member Shirley Karr and myself at the literacy book fair. Don't you love her ode to Captain Jack Sparrow? I know, the coloring is whack. I had the camera on the wrong setting.














I hunted down the lovely Michelle Rowen. I was very happy to meet her in person after stalking her blog for months and months. Why is my mouth so wide open and you could stick a triple stack cheeseburger in it? Sheesh. Can you tell I'm hungry right now?














Some of the wonderful women at Romance Divas. It was great to meet them after chatting on the message boards for so long.













White I was hammin' it up at the FF&P Gathering getting my groove on with the chocolate fountain, my two lushes for roommates went out with the Wet Noodle Posse to a karaoke bar. Oh the things I miss when I'm eating chocolate and drinking screwdrivers.













Again, what's with my mouth?













I'm petrified of heights, so on the last night I finally felt brave enough to lean over from the 26th floor.














Don't you love Elisabeth's shoes?













Elisabeth and I. We're drunk on chocolate covered fruit. Did I mention that I love all the chocolate at RWA? And they had pineapple trees of fruit! Those women know how to throw a party...I mean conference.










Last but certainly not least. All three of us never got a group picture taken. And by the time Elisabeth and I had found Alice after the RITA's, she had already changed into her PJs in the room. So I photoshopped the photo of her before the Harlequin party on Friday into the group shot. You probably couldn't tell until I mentioned it, could ya? Haha!

There are several other, worse, photos of me that will never see the light of day.

My books arrived

After more than a week of waiting, uncertainty and then panic, my books from Atlanta arrived! I gathered more than 100 books during the conference (I only paid for about 15 of them). About 25 made it in my suitcase, but the rest had to be shipped for weight reasons. I lugged the entire 15-volume set of Secrets books (a perk for volunteering at the book room) and some choice reading material while I awaited my shipment for a week, back home to Salem, Oregon.

I was fretting over how much this shipping would cost because they didn't tell me when I dropped the boxes off for UPS ground, nor did it appear on my room bill. I just checked my credit card statement and they charged me after the fact $46.17. That's not too bad for four boxes totaling 17 pounds. It equals buying about seven paperbacks. I got my money's worth, that's for damn sure.

I eagerly watched the reach 5 p.m. yesterday so I could run home and put my books away. Part of the excitement is that I moved recently and spent a lot of time with my dad building a wonderful bookcase. A bookcase that looked empty waiting for those books from Atlanta.

Empty no more! I took a picture of it because I'm so excited.


I don't have my writing books on there because they're on my desk and I'm missing a few recent reads because I haven't put them back. The bookcase doesn't look that great in the picture, but in person it's glorious. We primed and painted the shelfs a dark brown color and my dad secured them to the wall so it wouldn't topple over.

The top two shelfs (minus about 10 books on the right of the tippy top) are all "to be read" romance, romantic elements, chick-lit, erotica, etc. Most of those are from Atlanta.

The themes for the left cubby on the third row is castles, Scotland, Greece, Greek mythology and random funky non-fiction books such as urban legends, ghost stories, forensics for dummies, etc. Random reference tools that I may call upon for writing.

The right cubby on that shelf is Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, most in multi-volume books. Then a couple other vamp fiction books before moving on to vampire non-fiction. Don't laugh, they really are non-fiction.

The left cubby on the fourth shelf is a few random paperbacks that didn't fit anywhere else then Anne Rice's vampire books. The right cubby is full of wonderful romances. On shelves five and six, the left cubbies are both true crime. The vertical books on the right cubby on shelf five are commercial fiction. The horizontally stacked books on the right of shelves five and six are what I call "book club oopsies." You know, those mailings that you forgot to say no to then forgot to send back so you end up buying them? The good part is I actually wanted one of those books. The bad part is, I don't want the rest. But they're unused hardbacks so I feel I should sell them.

The bottoms shelves are the least read or cared-about, they are random non-fiction books like Carlton Sheets' making money off real estate, Matthew Lesko's free money stuff (I did PR for him for about a week) then other stuff.

You may be asking why I dedicated an entire blog post to this. I don't have an answer my friend. It may be because I'm crazy. Or I'm too excited about finishing my bookcase. Or maybe it's that I don't have a life. I'll let you decide.

Afterthought: One year ago I would have never thought I'd read a romance. Now they take up three shelves of my bookcase. Go figure? What a difference a year makes.

I get to keep my Diet Coke

That's right, I hit my goal baby. I've got the SNI (I really need to think of a name) plotted, or as much as I wanted to do ahead of time. I've got 34 scenes that will be used as mile markers, or my Mapquest directions if you will. They tell me where to turn and how far to go, but I don't know how many gas stations there will be on the way.

So, what's next? What? I actually have to write it now? Oh shit.

Weekend 'o plotting going well

I'm pretty confident I'll get the book plotted by the end of the day. I haven't done all 50-60 scenes because I want to leave some pansting leeway. I've got the big stuff and about half the scenes so I'll let myself figure out the rest as I write. But at least I have lots and lots of check points to write toward.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if my SNI is a contemporary with paranormal elements or a paranormal contemporary. I know the basic difference is if the paranormal elements can be pulled and there's still a good story, then it's just paranormal elements. But, I'm still on the line. I guess I have to write it and see how it ends up.

There's been lots of vamp movies on all weekend, too much distraction. I also finished Secret Society Girl, it was great! I was all for Amy + Malcom until I read the Revelation. I'm still trying to decide between George and Brandon. I think I lean toward George because it seems Brandon is the easy choice. If she really wanted Brandon it wouldn't be a tough decision for her. I can't wait until the next one!

Next on the reading list: English as a Second Language by Megan Crane and Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer. On a related note, my books from nationals still haven't come via UPS. Anyone on the west coast get theirs? According to their online schedule, the boxes should have arrived Friday. If they don't come tomorrow I'll be very, very upset. If they don't come at all...well...I just won't say.

Weekend o' plotting, here I come

I'm looking forward to the weekend. My one and only goal and mission, should I choose to accept it (I did, FYI), is to plot out my SNI (for those who missed the last post or forgot, that's my Shiny New Idea).

I typed up all the exercies in the Writing the Breakout Novel workbook into Word so that I can type out answers instead of hand write. My wrist is crooked 45 degrees so longhand hurts after about a page. I'm still just as jazzed about it as before. Turns out upon further inspection that part of the exercises can be done during the plotting process and some can be done during revisions - talk about a multi-purpose book.

Per Michelle's recommendation, I have The Marshall Plan workbook on hold at Border's, which I'll purchase immediately after work today. They asked if three days on hold is enought time. Ha! I only need three hours. So I'll be plotting with that as well.

Since I'm, uh, unique, I'm going to break down my weekend to see how much time I have to plot my book. I consider my weekend beginning tonight at 7 p.m., once I'm done running errands. Let's say my weekend ends at 9 p.m. on Sunday since about then my dog will be crawling on my keyboard demanding attention and I'll have to stop working.

That leaves me with a 50 hour weekend. Minus 20 hours for sleeping (hey, I was at RWA last week, I've got some catching up to do). So 30 hours minus six hours for showering, getting ready, eating, errands, etc.

A full day for plotting. Except, I started reading Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund last night, there's no way I'm not finishing that this weekend. Shave off three hours for that. Okay, 21 hours for plotting. I'll probably read another book because my TBR shelf grew exponentially since last week (gee, I wonder why) so we'll shave another three hours. Eighteen hours left for the weekend. I moved a few weeks ago and still have some boxes to empty, so if I take off four hours for that I've still got 14 left.

That's a lot of plotting time, I hope. It sounds like a lot, but I'm sure that once I dive into it I'll find ways to distract myself or I'll get Plotter's Block. I wonder if that's a real term. If not, I hereby claim it.

Does how my brain works scare you? It scares me. I don't know why I always break things down into number. I hate math!

Here's what I would like from you. If I don't finish plotting by the end of the weekend (my Monday morning post) - how should I be punished? Let's keep it clean folks, there may be children readers. No Diet Coke for a week? No chocolate for a month? No reading blogs for a day? Any other terribly ridiculous idea that will have me plotting like mad so I don't have to partake in the punishment?

Great writing tool

I, like many, am going through the post-RWA Nationals writing frenzy. I learned a lot and got some great ideas brewing in my mind. Now I want to use them and go full steam ahead on my Shiny New Idea (hereby referred to as SNI.) The truth is that I began the frenzy mid-week of the convention. My poor roommates had to put up with me waking up in the middle of the night, grabbing my pen and paper off the nightstand and writing notes. In the dark. Can you say freak? I sure can.

I decided that I'm going to think about this book by scenes rather than a list of events - to me they're different. I think that will improve the action, pacing and make it easier to plot. So last week I sat down with my $15 lunch (sandwich, soda and fruit cup) and my trusty Alphasmart. I spent an hour coming up with the first five scenes. Aren't there usually 50-60 scenes per book? That's a lot of Alphasmart time. I may actually have to change my batteries.

I realized that I needed a tool to help me plot my book, I'm new at this and just can't do it all on my own. I used some of the First Draft in 30 Days worksheets. Several of them helped get the ball rolling, but for my need at this point in time, it won't get me all the way there.

Then, I remembered that I own Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and the corresponding workbook. I hadn't looked at it before, but I sat down with them both last night. I skimmed the book then dove into the workbook. Bypassing the explanations and character sections, I jumped to the plot exercises. Holy wedgie Batman! It's just what I'm looking for! (Bear with me, I know this is jumping between present and past tenses.)

It breaks things down into scenes and subplots and threads. It asks questions like:
* What would make your novel's central conflict worse?
* What are the circumstances under which my protagonist(s) would actually fail to solve the problem?
* Assign a character to enact each complication.
* What are some other problems, not related to the central conflict, that your protagonist(s) will face? Use those as subplots.
Etc.

This may look like a nightmare to some of you. But I am a list-obsessed-control-freak-who-needs-medication-yesterday. When I looked through these questions, pieces fell together in my head. It points me in the right direction to the elements that will make a great novel. It helps weave those elements together. And it will help me reach those 50-60 scenes, easily. There are so many little tricks and tips in there. I can't wait to use it! I know what I'm going to do this weekend.

Is there a resource you've found that turned the light on for you?

Oregon druggies have manners too

My dad was on his way to work the other day, about 3:30 a.m. He stopped at Plaid Pantry to pick up coffee and a paper, as is his morning ritual. There was a man and woman acting fishy and sort of antsy in front of the store.

He went in and bought his stuff. When he came out and started his car, the low oil light, or whatever it's called, was on. He ran back in to buy some oil and when he came out he heard the woman talking on the phone saying something about how she was about to get some money. A few minutes later the guy came up to my dad.

Get this, he apologized, twice, for partaking in a drug deal in front of him. Salem, Oregon is the meth capital of the country so odds are that's what he bought. But hey, you can't say that Oregon druggies don't have manners.

Back from the ATL

I survived my first RWA national convention. It was a blast! I fully intended to blog each day while in Atlanta with a blow-by-blow of the conference. However, I wasn't willing to spend $13 a day to do that. Damn that's expensive.

So here is a week's worth of posts all in one for your reading pleasure. It's really long, I know!

Flights
I flew standby. Before you gasp and reach out to slap some sense in to me, let me explain. If I were to by a flight to Atlanta from Portland, Oregon. It would have cost about $600. A very nice person who works for an airline offered a reduced rate standby option. That cost $270. So - big price difference. Just about enough to pay for my hotel for the week.

I don't regret my decision to fly this way, but it didn't turn out as I hoped. Let me preface this by saying I only slept two hours on the Sunday night before my trip and three hours the night before that. I wanted a redeye on Monday night so I'd get in to Atlanta at 9:30 on Tuesday. I planned to go to the World of Coke and hang out with my roommates if they had arrived on Tuesday.

I didn't make the redeye. So my mom got to the airport at about 12:30 a.m. to pick me up. I was laying down to go to sleep about 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a ride with my dad on his way to work to go back to the airport and try for an early morning flight. For those of you math challenged - that's seven hours of sleep over three nights. I need eight hours a night to function properly. I don't drink coffee either, so don't even bring that up.

Luckily I got on that early morning flight to Dallas. I was told that Dallas-Atlanta is easy, it's in and out of Portland that's hard. I got the first flight out from Dallas I wanted and got in to Atlanta about 5 p.m. I lost my day of sightseeing, but oh well. At least I got there the day I wanted.

The return trip was a different story. I didn't sleep Saturday night because I had to get up at 3:30 to check out and head to the airport. My roommates and I talked until pretty late and I just couldn't sleep. I got to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn. It turns they had an opening in first class, so guess who got it? Me! Yay standby. However, when I should have been celebrating my good luck and soon-to-be-blissful-nap-in-comfortable-airplane-seats, I started panicking. I knew that it was a prepayment for a really shitty day. Don't ask me how I knew, but in my gut I knew the only reason I got first class was because the Karma Police wanted me to get some sleep before spending the rest of the day in an airport.

I landed in Dallas at 7:40 a.m. There was a 9:30 a.m. flight to Portland. I was number 14 on the standby list, needless to say I didn't get on. There was a 12:30 flight, didn't catch that one either. I was moved up to number eight on the standby list. I was starting to panic because I only had a 4:40, 5:50 and 8:10 flight left for that day. If I didn't catch any of them I'd be paying up the ass for a hotel room last minute.

At about 3 p.m. I go up to see how it looks for my chances to get on the plane. I had been bumped down to number 14 on the standby list. The guy at the desk (very unfriendly, they all were when they found out I was standby except for the guy at the gate when I left Atlanta), said he didn't see how I would get on a flight to Portland that day, let alone the next day. They were all oversold and I kept getting bumped down the list by employees of the airline. He said I should look into going to Seattle.

I called my dad to see if he could pick me up if I flew there. He said he could and would take a day off work. So I marched back up to the gate, feeling good about my prospects of leaving the Dallas airport that I had been sitting in for nearly EIGHT hours. With no sleep the night before. He looked on the computer and said that those flights were just as full, but there was one leaving at about 9:30 p.m. So if I didn't make the Portland flights I could try for that one, and stay in a hotel worst case scenario.

Um, sitting in the airport for another SIX hours, a total of 14 hours did not sound pleasant. Especially not knowing how much a hotel would cost, I didn't have extra clothes, and I need to work the next day.

I panicked. I called my dad and had him look on Orbitz for flights from Dallas to Portland. Keep in mind the time was about 3:15. There was one on another airline leaving at 4:30, with a layover in Las Vegas. The price wasn't terrible. The problem was getting on the tram and booking it to the other side of the airport to see about buying the ticket. When I got there, there were in fact seats available. It cost me $250 for a flight from Dallas to Portland. It was delayed a bit and had a three hour layover in Vegas. I wasn't scheduled to land in Portland until 11 p.m.

For those trying to keep track of time zone changes and travel times, let me break it down for you. I woke up to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. (east coast time) on Sunday. My flight from Vegas was to land in Portland at 2 a.m. (east coast time) on Monday morning. That was nearly a 24-hour day of traveling. Holy shit, I just worked that out myself and that's a lot of fucking time in airports and planes.

I made peace with the decision to buy a ticket, bringing my air costs to $520. It was still less than if I would have bought the ticket in the first place, but time equals money, ya know? I just reminded myself I had to get home for work and it was only money.

Don't worry - there's an end in sight for my tale of bitching and complaining. When I'm on my way to work Monday, I got a call from the person who hooked my up with the standby (he was really nice throughout the process, checking on flight options for me and getting up in the middle of the night to list me for flights). He told me that, *deep breath*, the 5:50 flight leaving Dallas for Portland had 10 seats that were never filled. One in first class. That means that about 20 people on the oversold flight didn't show up and the 18 people in front of me on the standby list either didn't show up, or made it on the place. I would have gotten to fly first class from Dallas to Portland and saved $250. Fuck. Ing. A. Talk about pissing in Cheerios. I don't regret the decision because how in the hell was I supposed to know that the airline Gods had chosen me to fuck with? It's only money, it's only money (yeah right).

Hotel
I had stayed in that hotel for a conference about eight years ago. I didn't remember it being so expensive! A bottle of coke, turkey sandwich and bag of chips ran me about $13. Good lawd that's a lot of money.

The hotel staff I talked to while walking through the hotel were very friendly. The staff in Grandstand and Champions were a totally different story.

On our first night the three of us went to Grandstand for some drinks. We sat at a table, merrily talking for twenty minutes or so. No service. Three seats opened up at the bar so we moved. Another half an hour or so go by before the guy took our drink orders. It was ridiculous. That was the story every time we went there. We would watch other people get two drinks before we got our first and when we'd ask for drinks he'd say "just a minute." Sheesh.

The rooms were great though, very comfortable beds. And it was easy to meet people in the centralized areas. I just hope the food is cheaper at the hotel in Dallas.

Roommates
On Tuesday, Elisabeth and I hung out in the hotel room for a while, hoping that our other roommate Alice would arrive before we went out to dinner. After a while our stomachs won and we trekked to Hard Rock in the humid heat (nothing compared to the weather we had in Oregon the weekend before - topping at 107 degrees!). I ordered my favorite Hard Rock meal, a pulled pork sandwich. I also splurged and got a Hurricane and paid for the glass. It was $11, but it equaled about three drinks at any other bar, so a good deal if you ask me. Elisabeth had a Hypnotiq Tea and holy crapola it was yummy!

When we got back to the hotel we decided to walk around and check out the pool. As we're walking on the Garden Terrace level, we hear "Elisabeth!" Low and behold it was Alice! Here is a near-accurate reenactment of the conversation:

Elisabeth: "Alice! When did you get here?"

Alice: "This afternoon. Didn't you see my bags in the room?"

Elisabeth: "No. Did you?" She turned to me. I shook my head.

Alice: "Did you get the notes I've been leaving you?"

Elisabeth: "No...have you been getting mine?"

Alice: "No...uh, what room are you in?"

Elisabeth: "2632."

Alice: "I'm in 609! (or whatever it was)"

We proceed to the front desk to reconcile the situation. It turned out that although we were all supposed to be in 2632, they made a booboo and put Alice in the wrong room. But we got it fixed.

I had a blast with my roommates. We got along great and had lots of fun teasing each other and giggling like fools. All that was missing was a pillow fight in our underwear. They even put up with my newbie energy and helped me with some brainstorming. While we were there Alice found out that her intrigue "My Sister, Myself" hit the Waldenbooks Top 10 list!!! The sequel is at stores now, called "Duplicate Daughter."

People
The literary signing on Wednesday was awesome. Elisabeth, who was interested in the romantic suspense authors, and moi, interested in paranormal authors, walked up and down the rows meeting our favorite authors and taking pictures of each other with them.

A highlight for me was meeting Michelle Rowen. I'm an addict of her blog and books and was jazzed to meet her in person. I got a super cute photo of us (will post later when Blogger stops being a bitch.) And I love the smiley face she turns into an angel when she signs her books. Clever Michelle, very clever.

I wanted to meet Stephanie Rowe as well. But, I was alphabetically challenged that evening and didn't stop to think that Stephanie would be right next to Michelle (Rowe - Rowen.) So I went back there later and met her. She's so nice!

I was also excited to meet Susan Grant. I was lucky enough to get to read "Your Planet or Mine" before it came out. It's fantastic! She's really sweet too.

The next night I went to the Mysteria booksigning at the Border's across town. It was only supposed to be a couple of blocks up from the Marta station. It was actually a few blocks up, several blocks down the hills and several blocks up again. Well worth the trek though. MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter and P.C. Cast were there. The four of them are fantastic! And really, really, really funny. I can't wait to read the book. I shared a cab ride back with some great ladies from a Seattle chapter. Woo woo PNW!

I also met some of the lovely ladies at Romance Divas. I didn't make it to the event but luckily I ran across several of them throughout the week. It was great to put faces to people I've been talking to for months! I'll post a pic later of some of us, again, once blogger stops being a bitch.

Everyone was very friendly throughout the conference. I'm an introverted person unless I know someone well. But I really felt like I could come out of my shell a bit at the conference. I love RWA.

Workshops
I started out the week by religiously attending the workshops. I had a couple of "a-ha!" moments, but nothing too profound. I felt my time was spent just as good by working on my new book idea. A couple of the workshops I wanted were full. Overall the workshops were okay. By the end of the week I was choosing booksignings over workshops. I still learned a ton over the week though and met lots of great people.

Food
I wanted to hurl at the first luncheon. The salad was good and the rolls, top notch bread. But when the main course arrived, yikes! I don't eat chicken on bones. I don't like cook vegetables. And I really hate mashed, cooked, cauliflower that tries to replace potatoes. At least I thought it was mashed cauliflower. I took a bite, almost barfed, then learned it was grits. Fucking gross is what they were.

I don't eat much red meat either so the steak the next day wasn't very appetizing. Especially since it was mostly fat. Thank god for potatoes though. The desserts were yummy both days.

I loved the sandwiches at Atrium Express. Even though they cost a ton, they were really good for pre-prepared sandwiches. I'm actually craving one right now. Lots of yummy, fresh turkey on a croissant. One night I ordered room service and it was really good. A turkey club. Mmm mmm mmm.

Books
My roommates lovingly call me a book whore now. I ended up with over 100 books. I only bought about 15 of them. Some are going to our chapter for our workshop next month, I'm putting together the goody bags and gift baskets. But the rest are mine, all mine. Muhahahahhahaha! I shipped four boxes home. USPS wasn't open so I couldn't do media mail...my only option was UPS ground. I still don't know how much it cost because the hotel didn't put it on my room bill by the time I checked out. They'll probably just charge me for it later. Bastards. I wonder when they'll even ship the books.

I can't wait until they arrive. I rearranged my bookcase to accommodate my needed TBR space. I'll post a photo once it's done.

Long-winded, I know. But it was an eventful week, even if I didn't crash any cool parties. My new goal is to be on the other side of the tracks by the San Francisco conference in two years - published. I've got myself a great book idea and a can-do attitude and I'm ready to roll.

Optical illusions

Read out loud the text inside the triangle below.

More than likely you said, "A bird in the bush," and.......
if this IS what YOU said, then you failed to see
that the word THE is repeated twice!
Sorry, look again.

Next, let's play with some words.
What do you see?

In black you can read the word GOOD, in white the word EVIL (inside each black letter is a white letter). It's all very physiological too, because it visualize the concept that good can't exist without evil (or the absence of good is evil ).

Now, what do you see?

You may not see it at first, but the white spaces read the word optical, the blue landscape reads the word illusion. Look again! Can you see why this painting is called an optical illusion?

What do you see here?

This one is quite tricky!
The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.
Last one.

What do you see?

You probably read the word ME in brown, but.......
when you look through ME
you will see YOU!

ALZHEIMERS' EYE TEST

Count every " F" in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI

FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH

THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

(SEE BELOW)

HOW MANY ?

WRONG, THERE ARE 6 -- no joke.

READ IT AGAIN !

Really, go Back and Try to find the 6 F's before you scroll down.

The reasoning behind is further down.

The brain cannot process "OF".

Incredible or what? Go back and look again!! Anyone who counts all 6 "F's" on the first go is a genius. Three is normal, four is quite rare. (My dad and I both got 3. I tried it several times before I scrolled down and still couldn't find them.)

Why am I so tired?

Why am I tired?
For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough sunshine, too much pressure from my job, earwax buildup, poor blood or anything else I could think of. But now I found out the real reason:
I'm tired because I'm overworked.
Here's why:. .
The population of this country is 273 million.
140 million are retired.
That leaves 133 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school.
Which leaves 48 million to do the work.
Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government.
Leaving 19 million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden.
Which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.
Take from that total the 14.8 million people who work for state and city governments.
And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.
Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me.
And there you are sitting on your ass,
at your computer, reading jokes.
Nice. Real nice.

Is it Sept. 5 yet?

I'm going to request September 5 off of work. Can you guess why? It's the release of Lover Awakened, the latest book in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. Zsadist's story. That's going to be some steamy stuff. And there's no way I'll make it through the work day waiting to read it when I get home. So, I'll use a vacation day.

I keep reading the excerpt to it to help pass the time. I think I've read it so much I can recite it. Well, to my surprise there is now an excerpt for Lover Revealed. Man o man does that look like it will be good. The emotion and sexiness packed in just that little excerpt is incredible. She's a fantastic writer.

This brings me to a question. On the "brothers" page on J.R.'s site it reads: "Tohrment: the steady one, the calm one. He is the one whose betrayal by fate will cut the deepest."

How do you interpret that? That he will betray the Brotherhood and it will cut them the deepest? Or he will be betrayed by fate and he will be cut the deepest? I just can't stand the thought of him betraying the Brotherhood.

Her Pinkness, my inner-Diva with pinkitude says: "Lisa, it's fiction. Chill your ass out. They. Aren't. Real."

Blogger ate my posts

Well, the few posts I did in the last week have disappeared. Blogger decided to eat them. Grrr.

In other news, I leave for Atlanta on Monday night. Woohoo! My first RWA conference and I am very excited about it. I've picked out all of the workshops I'm going to and I'll post that schedule this week. Maybe some of you are going to the same ones.

I signed up to volunteer at the registration table all day Wednesday, but I'm first on the waiting list. If I make it in there, be sure to stop by and say hi. I'd love to meet you all.

So, who else is going to Atlanta? Anyone want to bring me to some publisher parties ;-) *wink* *wink*

Review: Angel with Attitude by Michelle Rowen

From the back cover:

Falling naked into the killer whale tank at MarineLand is always bad news, but it's a real bummer when you've just been kicked out of Heaven. Former angel Valerie Grace is determined to reverse her banishment -- Earth's just no fun. Her best friend is a slightly perverted human-turned-rat (note to self: never cross a powerful witch) and she's being tailed by a sexy Tempter Demon named Nathaniel who's trying to lure her to Hell with kisses that are almost worth the trip.

With the talking rodent sneaking peeks down her shirt and Nathaniel getting more irresistible every minute, this ex-angel has only one hope: find the stolen Key to Heaven and go home. Then the oddest thing happens -- Nathaniel starts to show signs of loyalty and love. And soon Val is asking herself if it is such a bad thing to have the hots for a demon.

Let me start by saying - I loved it. Michelle Rowen's writing and wit really works for me. When I'm looking for a light, humorous read there are only a few authors I know I can turn to and get what I'm looking for and Rowen is definitely in that category.

The concept of this book was great. A fallen angel named Valerie Grace (I love the name) must face a tempter demon whose sole purpose is to tempt her down to hell, while she's trying to make her way back to Heaven. She has no idea why she was kicked out of paradise and when she eventually learns the reason, it doesn't make any sense. But Rowen's great writing helps the reader understand why she was kicked out, even if Grace didn't.

The secondary characters like Reggie the womanizer-turned-rat by his witchy girlfriend, and the seven-foot-tall demon who writes romances, kept the book very entertaining. The reader meets a lot of other creative characters while Grace takes a trip to the Underworld to obtain the Key to Heaven, namely biker fairies.

Rowen did a great job with the plot throughout the book and the conflict. How can there not be conflict when the hero and heroine are an angel and a demon? I also appreciated how Rowen was able to make Nathaniel, the hero, lovable even while he was doing his demonic duties.

I would also like to say that I really liked the ending and the twist at the end (I won't give it away) of why Valerie was kicked from Heaven. It was a realistic ending, which is a nice turn from many romances that end unbelievably with the hero and heroine getting married after knowing each other less than a week. You'll still get your happily ever after ending, don't worry!

If you're looking for a funny, creative book with entertaining and lovable characters, and fresh ideas (a rarity these days), then run out and get Angel with Attitude. Click on the picture above to go straight to Amazon to order it, and while you're at it grab her first book Bitten & Smitten. She's currently working on the sequel to that.

Also, swing by my Web site to read an informative interview with Rowen where she shares with us how she writes and edits her books. I'm always fascinated to learn how other people write, and I love to pick up tips.

Contests scores: part 2

Let me start by apologizing for not being on here much lately. I just moved. It sucked. Hard. End of rant. Wait, I need to add that dads are awesome to have around. Mine has been a lifesaver with this move. And my cute little house is ADORABLE. I'll post pictures.

On to the main reason for this post: another contest entry. I entered two contests about the same time. The feedback from the first results I got back were helpful. There was criticism, but it was constructive. So I'm ok with that.

You know how people always say that contest feedback ranges quite a bit. And how everyone will probably get feedback from one judge that maybe went a little too far. Well, I'm proud to say I'm a member of that club. I just got results from the other contest I entered - same entry as the other. I was judged by two people, one was published in something outside of romance and the other was unpublished.

This contest included a sheet with scores and rankings for all of the other entrants in that category. I received the lowest score the published author gave, 15 points below the next lowest. I was middle of the pack for the unpublished author. However, the average between the two put me in last place because of the published author's score. Oh well, I wasn't in it to win. I was in it for feedback.

But this feedback - yikes! I'm going to break it down for you. First of all, the scorings were a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best. Everything was 1s and 2s except I got a 5 on "do you as a reader feel the emotions of the main characters" (sweet!) and I got a 3 on "do you get a vivid picture from the writing." I felt good about that, obviously compared to everything else those were things that this person liked. And those were things I didn't think I did well, so maybe I did better than I thought.

These are direct quote comments from the published author of something other than romance (I cut out a lot of comments directly relating to events in the story or plot points, this is general stuff):
* like about heroine - "she knows a hottie when she sees one"
* dislike about heroine - "she's a lemming. No brains. A chick lit bimbo"
* favorite parts of story - "description of the hottie; good sexual tension"
* parts of the story that didn't resonate - "her voice - standard chick lit with no originality; her stupidity; excessive efforts to be sassy; plot is dumb"
* "if you stop trying to imitate a chick lit voice you will find you already have a voice that works fine (but what if my voice is naturally chick lit-ish?)"
* "lot to like here but it's 'like' totally buried in chick lit bullshit verbiage"
* "cut all the explaining, the head chatter and the girly-girl crap"

I whole-heartedly appreciate the time this person put into the feedback and for pointing out holes in the story. He/she filled out the score sheet thoroughly and took extra time to write suggestions and comments on the back of two pages. And this person practically line edited the entry. I'm really thankful for that, especially with the number of entrants in the category.

The unpublished author gave me a much higher score, but didn't leave any comments or suggestions. I would have liked to know why some of the things worked for this person. Even though I was a bit put off by the published author's brashness, this person took a lot of time and energy on my entry. Thank you.

So, there's a contest entry folks. I made it through another one. My skin must be thicker than I gave it credit for because I'm not in the least deterred by it or upset that someone thought it didn't do well.

Tag, I'm it

Thanks for the tag Karmela :-)

Man, this was hard to think of.

1. A song by the first band you liked:
Anything by the Monkees. Davy Jones, *sigh*

2. A song that makes you think of your best friend:
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Nobody rocks the house when that song comes on like the Stanimal, baby.

3. A song by the first band you saw in concert:
I know I saw several bands when I was a wee one in concert, but this is the first concert I really remember. New Kids on the Block, the song is Step by Step. I remember driving from Portland to Seattle. All the other girls had painted stuff on their cars and would flash the universal peace sign to each other up I-5. It was rad.

4. A song that reminds you of college/school:
College Girls are Easy by Easy E. I think that's who sings it. I thought that song was hilarious, I blasted it from my stereo on my dorm room as my first taste of rebellion.

5. A song that makes you think of a boyfriend/girl (love) past or present:
I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden.

I tag:
Elisabeth Naughton
Piper Lee
Paty Yager

Studmuffin of the day

This gorgeous specimen of a man goes against my "type" in so many ways. But, I still can't get enough of him on Supernatural (great show, by the way). He's tough, but sincere. A smart ass, but caring. He would fit the bill of an alpha pretty well I think. Maybe I'll use him for inspiration in an upcoming book. There's a lot to work with!

Jensen Ackles















Is there anyone you love who goes against your traditional type?

Watch your language people!

Not profanity, no. I don't mind that. It's the repetitive language in romance novels, the kind that sticks out in your mind and makes you take pause when you read it again and again. Sometimes this comes in the form of purple prose. I know when I read too many "his throbbing sword of passion aimed right toward my velvet petals of desire," I tend to second guess my interest in the book. Sidenote: I haven't read that sentence in a book, but I vow I will find a way to work in to the one I'm working on ;-)

I thought of this rant for today because of several books I've read lately. They are all from the same series. I love the author, I love the books, but the repetitive language has me taken pause dozens of times in each book. I'm tired of reading the same phrases over and over. I feel like the creativity of the language is gone, almost like it's a list of phrases that are inserted rather than organic writing.

Here are examples of some phrasing that is used over and over in the books:

• velvet sheath
• rippling muscles
• molten fire in his eyes
• lightening sizzling and arcing across the sky
• spilling breasts
• tongues of fire lapping over her body

I knew to watch for purple prose, but I don't consider the above purple prose. It's some nice phrasing that's used too often. When I say too often, I mean at least once a chapter in each book (approximately).

Part of it comes from reading these books back to back so these phrases stick out more. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep reading because some of the scenes feel formulaic with the repetitive phrasing.

I know that when a love scene comes up, I'm going to know his eyes are molten, lightening will strike, her velvet sheath will pulsate and tongues of fire will be a-lapping. It takes some of the fun and fantasy away.

But, I will still read books from this author because I love the plots and characters. They are just becoming slightly less enjoyable.

I know that when my book is finished, I'm going to find a fresh person to read it - just looking for repetitive language like this. I don't want to take any chances.

Writing progress

Do you want the good news or bad news?

Let's get the worst of it done then. According to the schedule I gave myself last month, I should be waaaaaaay closer to the end than I am. I wanted to have a solid draft done before RWA for agent/editor appointments. But, I didn't get an appointment. However, I hope to do a walk-up pitch - if I can grow the cajones. So - need to get crack-a-lackin.

The good news is I began incorporating the contest feedback yesterday. I hope to have that finished up today so I can send it off to a wonderful person who offered to rip it apart. Thank you! :-) Ripping apart is good, that's the only way to make it better. A friend of mine thinks I'm crazy for wanting someone to tell me what's wrong with it. But as I told her, I'd rather hear it from someone critiquing me than an agent or editor and get rejected.

I still hope to have a good draft by RWA. I'm going to have a lot more free time pretty soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to work out some plot kinks and do a little outlining. I'm taking part in an online plot workshop right now. I'll let y'all know how it goes once it's over.

I'm also reading lots of articles on showing vs. telling. That's a weakness of mine. I'm a big teller.

Here's the big countdown folks: 42 days until I leave for RWA Nationals. I signed up to work the registration table all day Wednesday, so hopefully I'll meet those of you I only know online.

I will leave you today with a pearl of my wisdom, savor it as it may be my last: I became a writer so I could tell. If I wanted to show, wouldn't I be a painter?

I'm back...and got my first contest scores

Wow...I didn't realize it's been this long since my last post. It's not out of laziness, I assure you. Things in life have taken me away to other, more personal things. But I'm back on the schedule, or will be tomorrow :-)

A few days ago I got my scores for the first contest I entered. I entered it for feedback and to get a feel for whether or not people like my voice. I always figured that fixing problems with plot, pacing and characters is more attainable than changing my natural voice.

Luckily, the two who reviewed me liked my voice. I had other problems, but I expected that. One person gave me 121/150. The other gave me 90/150. I was actually very proud of myself. I didn't feel depressed or upset about my scores, I was more excited about some of the comments. Maybe I'm in a weird emotional place or something because I fully expected to throw myself over the balcony or something with some criticism.

Maybe I have thick skin after all. That's a very exciting revelation. It could stem from the fact that I write in my day job too. I never thought about that until I began writing this.

This contest gave a nicely detailed grading sheet. So does the other one I entered, but I'm still waiting for those results. That was one of the reasons I entered both of them, more bang for my buck.

The biggest problem I had was reading the comments. I haven't written cursive much, so reading it is somewhat difficult. I can only make out about half the comments on one judging because of the cursive. I'll probably bring it to my next RWA meeting for some help in deciphering :-)

So here are some of the comments I received - in case any of you have never entered a contest and are curious about the types of feedback.

From 121/150 scorer

• Lots of passive (I thought I had done well in eliminating most of that, back to the drawing board)
• Lots of strong images (I thought I did a poor job in that area, nice to know someone disagreed)
• Good sense of heroine, not so good sense of hero (I'm writing in first person in the heroine's voice, so getting a good sense of the hero right away without dialogue will be tough)
• Dialogue a little awkward and formal (and I thought I was too casual)
• Good balance of action and narrative so far (woohoo!)
• Five senses aren't present (that one I knew, need to work on it)
• Strong voice/original voice in writing (yessssssss! I knew my odd sense of humor would pay off!)
• They are going to be pretty hot (that surprised me most of all, I thought my sexual tension wasn't believeable and was lacking, I may be on the right track)
• Love the premise in the synopsis (oh yeah, baby!)

From 90/150 scorer (I couldn't read many of the comments because of cursive, back to school for me)

• The heroine comes off very (?-can't read the cursive - I think it says nosey or manly) in this segment. (the judge marked know when asked if they liked the hero/heroine, ouch, got to work on that)
• I think you've got a great plot (why thank you kindly)
• You're dialogue is very witty and amusing (stop, you're making me blush)
• I really struggled to get a mental picture as I was reading this (done with the flattery, eh?)
• Way too much backstory and telling (I agree with the telling part, I struggle with that, but I thought I did a good job of diving into the conflict and weaving in details throughout)
• Your strengths are your plot and humorous dialogue, work on pacing and description (will do)

And now that I'm thinking about these comments, I'm not obsessing over the criticism and suggestions. Rather, I'm saying to myself - "They like my voice! They think I'm witty and humorous! I wanted to come across as witty and humorous and it just might be working. Maybe I can be successful as a funny, paranormal writer after all. Woohoo!" Then I remember that I have to actually finish the damn thing.

Moral of the story is contests can be a good thing if you pull out what you want and discard the rest. They can help confirm what you thought was or wasn't working. And, if you have pretty stationary like I do, you can use it for thank you cards.