I’m Off to Boot Camp

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it’s off to boot camp I go.

Work-out boot camp that is. I don’t think they’d want me in the military. I’d be just as likely to shoot someone who gave an idiotic order than the guy on the other team. But I digress.

As I was saying, work-out boot camp. It is based on the 12 week body changing program. Basically how they are doing it is setting up two teams. My team meets every Saturday morning, and the other team meets Thursday evenings. They work you out, teach you proper nutrition, etc. We compete against the other team for pounds lost. And anyone that knows me knows, I do love me a good competition.

Which hopefully will mean that I will buckle down with the healthy eating and get back into the habit of making better choices (you know, like carrots instead of carrot cake, that kind of thing). They give us this log book where we have to log everything we eat. Somehow the idea of having to write down the amount of crap I can consume is making me much less inclined to eat the stuff.

The free intro class is this Saturday and the 12 week run starts after that. My goal is to drop a pound a week minimum. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Meanwhile, my revisions to Salvation Falls are going pretty good. I planned on getting 30 pages revised this week and ended up with 70 pages. The first few chapters were in pretty good shape. It’ll slow down a bit soon where I have more major changes and some rewrites needed, but its nice to get a bit ahead of the game first.

And, I’m hoping to have updated puppy pictures next week so stay tuned…
Which reminds me, we’re trying to develop a short list of names, so if anyone has a good idea for a golden retriever name, throw it at me.

They're Here! They're Here!!

The puppies arrived on January 24th... now the waiting begins....

The SuccessTeam

A group of my writing pals (including Anne who did a fabulous job on my new website) have gotten together to form a SuccessTeam. Basically, the gist of this group is to meet every two weeks, set specific goals and then egg / encourage / harass each other into meeting them. But, while this group consists of said writing pals, it isn’t just a ‘writing goals group’. We can set goals on anything we want to accomplish be they writing, health, money/finances, etc. And given that I function much better when I have a goal, this is right up my alley.

I mean really – if it involves a calendar, set dates, specific goals…why, I get positively giddy. It’s sad really. My friends and family razz me mercilessly about this at times, but hey, this is how I get things done. I make a plan. Then I make a back up plan (and yes, my back up plans also have back up plans – easier to shift gears at a moment’s notice if Plan A or B need tweaking). Then, I give myself a deadline, and then, finally, I put the proverbial pedal to the medal and get things done.

You’ve likely heard the expression: There’s no “I” in “TEAM”. Maybe not. But there’s an “M” and an “E”. And ME is going to put it into high gear this year and get some serious stuff accomplished. Manuscripts revised, research done, weight lost, health improved, books read and knitting projects completed.

And I’ve got ME and the TEAM to make sure that happens.

Miss Make A Movie

I'm blogging over at Miss Make A Movie today, waxing on about things going to hell in a hand-basket. And jars. I'm not kidding. Check it out.

Downward Facing Dog

I joined the gym for the first time in 10 years. I was having trouble fitting my workouts in after work and since Nubodys is strategically located next door to my office and we have a corporate rate there…well, it seemed a pretty easy sell. I could go on my lunch hour rather than sitting in our windowless lunch room watching the paint dry. My desire to be in the lunch room now that my SO has taken a new job elsewhere and my good friend is leaving for good this week has dwindled. Plus I am determined to whip my butt back into shape this year, no excuses.

At lunchtime, the gym has several different classes. I’ve tried all that they offered and here’s what I discovered: I love yoga. Love, love, LOVE IT. In fact, if I had to pick just one workout to do for the rest of my life, yoga would be it.

Some don’t feel yoga is a hard workout, but I beg to differ. Even the most basic of yoga moves strengthen your muscles and leave you stretched and flexed. After only a few classes my natural flexibility was back so that I could stretch forward and have my face land on my knees. After a few more classes, I could hold the full plank position for ten slow breaths.

Right now, I can do this:

And I’m thisclose to being able to do this (I can get into it, it's the getting out that's tricky):

However, this...well this will take awhile:

I have done yoga at home for a few years off and on, but I have to say I enjoy the class environment way more. Plus our yoga instructor plays these really restful tunes of lapping waves and soft music that leave you so relaxed I spend the rest of the afternoon in a zen-like state that few things can perforate.

So to celebrate my rediscovered love of all things bendy, I decided to treat myself to a new yoga mat and bag. I got the red one on the end with the fish on it.

Right now I am taking 2-3 classes per week. But since variety is the spice of life, and I like to confuse my muscles and keep them from growing complacent, I throw in 2 spin workouts per week and 2 mixed days where I do a cardio / weight circuit training thing.

I've decided to keep a little weight loss tracker at the bottom of the blog to help with the motivation. To date, while the poundage is fighting to stay where it is, I think I am starting to win the battle. At least I feel better, and that has to be a turn in the right direction.

Where to start?

I have committed to finally buckling down and writing the historical fiction novel that has been rattling around in my head for I don’t know how long. At first it was just a kernel of an idea but over the past few months it has grown and evolved.

But here’s the thing – unlike historical romance…uh, wait…this is going to sound wrong so hang with me while I try and explain what I mean… in historical romance, the setting is historical, but the main focus is the romance. In historical fiction, the history almost becomes a character in itself. And by virtue of that fact, there is a lot more research that needs to be done and a lot more description of the history that will make its way into the historical fiction novel. That’s not to say you don’t do a healthy dose of research when you’re doing an historical romance, it’s just a bit of a different animal. At least for me, especially since I’m dipping my toe into unchartered waters. I hope that came out right.

My story is to take place in a small fishing village somewhere in England beginning around 1780. So right from the get go I am in a new time period, a new setting, and using characters many rungs below the social economic ladder than I write about in historical romance. And while I love the grit of being able to delve into this side of things, I’m a bit stymied as to where to start.

I’ve decided that while I’m revising Salvation Falls and Invitation to Scandal, I will spend part of my time doing research for The Tangled Garden. But when I look at all the things I need to research, my head starts spinning and things go black. Where to start, not just as far as what topic to pick first but where do I go to get the info? The library would be the logical choice and I plan on jumping across the harbour to the Halifax Library where they house all the good research books. But the problem with that is that the books there are usually non-circulating. And thick. So how do I get the info I need without taking the books with me? I’d be sitting in the library for eons reading/searching for the info I need.

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the daunting task ahead of me. So I have decided to…drum roll please…make a list. I figure if I can break it down into 8 sections, I can do one topic each month. Surely that should get me started. Then, once the 8 months are up and the revisions indicated above are completed, I should have enough info to get me at least started on the first draft.

Now, the question is…what are the 8 topics and which one do I start with??

The Time Has Come…

It appears I will be getting a golden retriever puppy from the breeder I want. The litter is due on January 29th and as some people dropped off the waiting list I got bumped up from the reserve list. The new litter, provided they arrive on time, will be ready to go to their new homes by about first of April.

As excited as I am about finally getting a new puppy, I have to admit there is that gut clenching nervousness I had forgotten about at the thought of taking on a new bundle of fur and realizing you are responsible for this living, breathing thing for the course of its natural life. Its health and well-being now rests in my hands. Ack…

I know once the pup arrives the nervousness will subside and I’ll fall back into the grove of dog ownership and re-juggle my schedule to fit in the walks and the feedings and the training, but until then, every now and then I feel the anxiety of what I’m doing. I’ve never been one of these people that rushes into buying a puppy because their so damn cute you just have to have one. Maybe its because I firmly believe the reason puppies are so damn cute is because it’s often the only thing that saves them during that crazy stage when they are learning it isn’t okay to eat your furniture or gnaw on the baseboard or run through the backyard with your skivvies trailing from their teeth.

What puppydom is really is a lot of work. A lot. There’s the regular exercise the dog requires, the housebreaking, the training so you have a well behaved dog, the incorporating it into your life as a member of the family and not sloughing off your responsibility just because you’d like the day off. It will be making sure there are dog-sitters if you want to go away, and vet visits and pooper scooping (ah yes…pooper scooping…the glamorous side of dog ownership).

Most of all it will mean a curtailing of the freedom you have when you don’t own a pup that is sitting at home waiting for you to return. I can’t run out after work and go somewhere. I will need to get home pronto because there is a dog waiting there that needs to be let out, fed and walked. The lunch time gym workouts will have to stop at least for the first 6 months since I’ll have to zip home and lunch and let the poor guy out for a pee break and midday feeding. Which means figuring out just when the gym will be fit in…later in the evening? Weekends? A walk in the morning before I leave for work is also a necessity, how will I fit that in with my morning writing schedule? Get up at 5:30 am?? Oiy…

Sigh…this would be so much easier if I only worked part-time…

But despite all of the nervousness and changes that taking on a new pup hold, there is a much bigger part of me that can’t wait to once again have a pooch meandering around the house. Despite the curtailed freedom, I never regretted a day of it when I had Cooper, and I know once I get into the groove again I won’t regret it this time. The pay offs are so much more than the time you hand over to them.

Now, if I could only come up with a name for the pooch...

It’s That Time of the Year Again!

That’s right…it's resolution time…ahhh yes. Another reason to make a list. And we all know how I do love a list.

I really had to sit down and think over what I wanted to accomplish this year. I’ve been feeling a little burned out on the historical romance genre of late. Not the historical end of things, but more on the parameters of the romance genre part. I keep hearing how the editors / agents are looking for books that break the mould, how they want the books to be sexier, etc, etc. And while that’s all well and good if it fits the story you are telling, a part of me is beginning to feel as if the story is coming in second to the sexy. And I don’t want to tell a sexy…I want to tell a story. And I don’t want to be told to sex it up for the sake of sales at the expense of the story.

Now, maybe I was just having an off day when I was doing my goals, and I’m not saying that I will no longer write historical romance. I have every intention of keeping my toes in that pond. But my ultimate goal has always been to write historical fiction with a romantic element – think Elizabeth Chadwick, along those lines. Where the story and the history and the characters have top billing and the romance feeds into all of these elements but at the same time you are not constricted in what you do. There is a freedom in historical fiction to really branch out into the grittier side of things, to explore different eras that might not sell as well in the romance genre, and to bring to life characters both real and fictional who come from all walks of life rather than just the upper crust.

For the past several months I’ve had a story percolating in the back of my head that wants to be told. It is straight historical fiction and bit by bit the heroine is revealing herself to me, to the point where I had begun to make notes of who she was and what her story is. Then the title popped into my head, and once that was done, there was no turning back.

When it came time to write down my goals, I had to decide what the best use of my time would be this year, given that my writing time is limited to 1.5 hours per day in the morning. As Brimstone has yet to sell, jumping in and doing Book 2 didn’t seem to be a good idea until I knew what was going on with Book 1. So I decided to look at my inventory. I have first drafts of a western historical I did for Nano in 2007 (Salvation Falls) and the first draft of a new series I did for Nano this past November (Invitation to Scandal).

So here are my writing goals for 2009:

1) Do revisions to Salvation Falls (Jan – Apr).
2) Do revisions to Invitation to Scandal (May – Aug)
3) Research historical content for The Tangled Garden and develop outline (Jan – Aug)
4) Write first draft of The Tangled Garden (Sep – Dec)

Next up…figure out my personal goals for the year, one of which will likely be to work off the gelatinous spare tire developing where my waistline used to be…