Monday, March 05, 2012

I've been a bad, bad blogger

The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling. ~ Orison Marden

But I can explain. Really. I've spent the past few months with my nose to the grindstone, grinding away at revisions on An Invitation to Scandal.  Now, it is finally done and has been sent out to the editor and agent that requested it, and I am onto something new! Woo hoo!!! I've spent so much of the past 2.5 years doing revisions on previously written material I almost forget what it's like to write a brand new book. Even the new manuscripts I've written in the past few years have been NaNoWriMo books, which meant spewing it out in 30 days or less. To actually take my time (okay, 3 months as opposed to 1) will be a nice luxury.

The book that is up next is book 2 in the Brides of Fatal Bluff series, The Widow Bride, and a follow up to The Outlaw Bride. I'm looking forward to returning to the town of Fatal Bluff and see what is going on with the other two brides who were on the same train with Kate.

To help with my plotting and note taking, I'm using Microsoft Office's OneNote. I had been hearing about it from a few different people but hadn't had time to look at it. Then at our RWA Chapter meeting yesterday, Michelle Helliwell did a presentation, part of which was extolling the virtues of OneNote. After getting started with it this morning I can officially say I love it!  All my notes in one tidy little spot. Character pixs, plots, subfolders. It's enough to make a girl lose her mind. I'm big on organization, and I really haven't been keeping up my usual standard of late, so this will help big time.

In other news, I have become totally addicted to Pinterest. I expect I'm a few short weeks away from needing a 12-step program. On the plus side, I'm finding the visuals incredibly inspiring for writing and I'm creating little collage like boards for my books that have been a lot of fun. If you haven't tried Pinterest, I highly recommend. I've found plenty of character, setting and atmosphere type pictures. I've also found hoards of different recipes and workouts and humorous sayings. I've even built my own dream closet (that periodically makes me weep because it isn't my real closet).

So now that I have lifted my head up from revisions, I'm hoping life gets a little bit back to normal. Regular postings here. The website updated with new material. Back to regular workouts at the gym and training for the 10K race in May. I may even finally get my honeymoon pictures to Prague uploaded onto Facebook one of these days...

6 comments:

Bev Pettersen said...

Glad you're back posting, Kelly. Always enjoy you blog. And especially looking forward to reading your next "widow" book!

Pamela Callow said...

Congrats, Kelly! I love the premise for INVITATION TO SCANDAL and can't wait to read it!

How exciting to start something new. The collages you are creating on Pinterest are so inpsiring. I've been thinking about doing it but not sure where to find images on a limited schedule.

So happy you have made it through your revisions and are now on the other side! :)

Pam

Unknown said...

One Note is awesome - so glad you're finding it useful. I was really inspired by your enthusiasm at starting something new after spending so long working on current projects - it was a reminder to me that I need to be patient and get the job done right before moving on.

I joined Pinterest a while ago and have just started using it. I'm a horrible scrapbooker but this might just be the thing for me:)

Paula Altenburg said...

Now that Kindle has expanded my universe, I can hardly wait to read The Outlaw Bride. Not even OneNote can get me organized, however.

Melissa Amateis said...

Good to see you back! I was really into Pinterest a few weeks ago, but it's sort of waning now (as all pretty shiny things must, I suppose). Still, I love it - I've tried recipes on it and founds lots of other great stuff.

Jennie Marsland said...

Hi Kelly,
Welcome back to the blog world. I'm trying to do the same thing now that the learning curve at work has settled down a bit.

I've also been using OneNote to set up a new story idea. I'm loving it. I'm not a plotter, but I hope it will help keep me from going too far off the rails. And it's so much fun!