Rewriting the Novel

Ah, there is nothing like the smell of wet dog permeating the writing room to get my creative juices flowing. Okay, maybe it isn't so much that it gets my creative juices flowing as it is that I want to finish this scene so I can escape the stench.

Either way, I am making steady progress on ITS and quite happy about what is landing on the page. Even more than that, I am excited about getting back to Fractured Sight when I'm finished my revisions on ITS. I've figured out part of the problem I was having with the story, and I'm anxious to dive back in and muck around to bring the rest of it to light. And I'm already playing around with ideas for the trailer. For some reason doing the trailer has really helped me solidify things about the stories that I hadn't realized initially. It seems to make the stories more concrete for me, so I will continue doing them.

But first I have to finish my revisions on ITS. On the weekend I bought, The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel by Robert J. Ray. So far it is really making me think about how I structure my book and giving me a fair bit of insight into ways to make it better.

Yesterday I took off from actual writing and developed a plan for the second half of 2010. It's rather ambitious (I seem unable to come up with plans that aren't...) but if I put the nose to the grindstone I think I can pull it off. And if not, it certainly won't be for lack of trying.

Meanwhile, my stinky dog has decided to prance around the room with his toy box held tightly in the jaws of death. If you'll excuse me, I must go inform him that the actual purpose of the box is to hold the toys, not be one.

Excavating My Inner Diva

I'm over at PopCultureDivas today, talking about blinging it up for the sake of my art. Come check it out!

Fun with Trailers

Every June my RWA Chapter does an all day workshop, usually broken down into 4 different mini sessions. This time we had the technically savvy, Anne MacFarlane teaching us about websites and how to create our own using WordPress. Then Stella MacLean extolled the virtues of showing up everyday for your writing whether you felt like it or not. After a tasty lunch at the Redwood Grill, we spent the afternoon with Deb Hale and Jennie Marsland. Deb showed us how psychics could be fun when you apply it to your characters, while Jennie taught us how to make our very own book trailer with Windows MovieMaker.

Now, I’ve been using Windows since it came out and I had never realized it came with MovieMaker. Which may be a good thing since now that I know how to use it (thanks Jennie!), I am completely addicted.

I no sooner arrived home from our workshops than I ran downstairs to the writing room and turned on the computer. My reasoning was that I needed to try this out for myself so I didn’t forget everything Jennie showed us. Of course, she gave us a hand-out explaining everything, but I reasoned I needed to actually ‘do it’ to remember.

I decided on doing a trailer for Book 2 in the Invitation to Scandal series. Now, if I were doing this to use as a publicity / selling tool, I would have to be more careful about using pictures and music that didn’t infringe on anyone’s copyrights, but since I was just making it for personal use, I didn’t worry too much about it. I just wanted a visual inspiration of the book itself. Something I could look at to evoke the theme and mood of the book.

I spent a few hours that night and a few more hours the next day playing around, finding the right wording to tell the story, the most mood-evoking pictures, and of course, the perfect song choice to accompany it as the trailer played.

It was a blast and I loved the end result. What surprised me the most was how the exercise allowed me to really nail down what the story was about. So, of course, now I have to do one for ITS. And then Brimstone. Salvation Falls. I can YouTube pixs or video of the pooch too. And these things can also make great digital photo albums for family and friends…

The possibilities are endless. It’s as addictive as scrapbooking, only with less glue.

And the Winner Is....

The winner of the book draw for Pamela Callow's debut release, Damaged is....(there's a drum roll going in my head, hang on a second)....Maxx!

Congrats Maxx - I know where to find you so I'll be sure and get the book to you asap. And you'll be happy to know it's a signed copy!

Last night was Pam's book launch and there was a huge turnout, but I'll blog about that with pictures early next week, so stay tuned!

Happy Release Day & Book Giveaway!

My very talented critique partner, Pam Callow, has her debut thriller, DAMAGED, being released today and let me tell you - it is definitely worth picking up.

One busy lady, she has just returned from BEA in time to appear on Live at Five tonight to talk about her book. This Thursday I will be attending her book launch in downtown Halifax, so hopefully I'll remember to take my camera and post some pixs of the event later this week.

In honor of the special occasion - I will be giving away a copy of Pam's book. Just leave a comment and your name will go into the draw. The winner will be announced on Friday. Here's a little preview of the book in the interim: