It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Who's The Fairest of Them All

2011-12-13T09:45:00.002-04:00

I will admit, I am a sucker for a good fairy tale and Snow White and the Huntsman starring Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth looks awesome. The effects in the trailer were amazing and it follows the grittier original tale, not the Walt Disney-ized version. I will definitely be checking this one out.

What about you? Any fairy tale movies you love?

Did You Know...

2011-12-06T15:43:00.001-04:00

Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast. ~Logan Pearsall Smith

So it turns out that for every pound of lean muscle mass I gain, I burn an extra 90 calories a day. Which is great, because according to my assessment, I am to gain approximately 7-8 pounds of said mass. All while getting rid of about an equal or so amount of, well, less than solid mass. I refer to it as goosh. You may call it chub, flab, or excess flesh.

The great thing about gaining the muscle mass is it will actually be a lot more helpful in keeping weight off and helping me look good (I'm all about the vanity). And since I'll be constantly burning about 630 extra calories a day, I won't have to worry quite so much about gaining said goosh/chub/flab/excess flesh going forward. The bad news is, in order to get this lean muscle mass I have to work out. Hard. We're talking heavy weights and fatigued muscles 3-4 times a week.

Now don't get me wrong - I actually love working out. If I had more time in my schedule I'd be at the gym every day of the week doing something. But the initial period of re-starting weight training is a huge OUCH. My muscles are revolting. I've broken my workouts down to segments that I do over 3 days: arms/shoulders, legs/abs, chest/back. Then I throw in 1-2 yoga workouts per week and hopefully a good ole cardio workout as well.

I've gone through one cycle of the weight workouts and holy crap! I'm pretty sure there isn't a muscle left in me that isn't sore. If this doesn't work, there's a good chance nothing will.

I'm also trying to eat clean - which means no processed foods, no sugar (outside of what's in fruit, etc), 6 meals day and protein with each meal. The clean eating will likely be a gradual shift. I need to meal plan and buy groceries.

On the plus side of my assessment, my fitness level was above average and my blood pressure was 96/60 and my resting pulse rate was 59. All good stuff. So all I really need to concentrate on is building the lean muscle mass and revamping the eating habits to make that an easier target to hit.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. Provided I can still use my arms.

I'm Being Assessed

2011-11-28T09:52:00.005-04:00

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise. ~A.A. Milne

I have to go to the gym after work and get my annual fitness assessment done. This consists of 90 minutes of being weighed, measured, and told how much body fat you're carting around and how far that percentage is from where you should actually be. Then we go over my nutrition and what I'm doing workout wise. Then they will suggest I invest in personal training sessions, likely 3 times a week at the cost of a kidney in order to reach my fitness goals. That's all well and good. Quite frankly, if I could afford a personal trainer I would throw the money at them and tell them to get to work. But alas, my bank account tells me that lowering said body fat percentage is going to be all up to me.

The worst of it is, I know the assessment I get this evening is going to be worse than the one I had last year at this time. Mostly due to the fact that this time last year I was just ending my previous employment where my office was strategically located in the same building as the gym and my boss didn't care if I spent 1.5 hrs there over lunch. My work was done, he was happy. Sadly our office was shut down and with it my extended lunch hours spent at the gym.

I managed to stay on top of the workouts until May while I was training for the 10K, but once the race was run I took a little time off. When I went to go back my TI bands screeched in protest and alas my running fell by the wayside because, well I don't know if you've ever had a TI band screech at you, but it hurts and I'm not generally partial to courting pain if I can avoid it.

I kept walking and made it to the gym here and there on the weekends but things were going soft. Gelatinous really. I know people said this happens as you get older, but I have to confess I thought I would be exempt. Apparently not.

So off I go, burying my head in shame and already cringing at the knowledge the assessment will not be pretty. On the plus side, it will undoubtedly be a motivating factor. Why, just the idea of going to the assessment made me give my schedule a good hard look and determine where I can fit in my gym-time to make sure I get to a couple of BodyPump classes, at least 1 yoga class and an RPM class per week. If that doesn't help whip my butt back into shape, then I don't know what will - aside from thrice weekly personal trainer sessions that require me to give up a kidney.

By the way, the coffee consumption has been reduced. I suck back a mouthful in the morning to stave off the inevitable caffeine withdrawal headache. Except for the weekends. On the weekend I have a cup from the french press my lovely critique partner, Pam Callow, gave us as a wedding gift. And the chocolate has been reduced to one chocolate covered cereal bar per day.

The writing is an ongoing process. I got stuck on something last week but I'm over that and have moved on. I really want this manuscript out by end of December so I can jump into January writing the follow up to The Outlaw Bride.

When Chocolate Goes Bad

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. ~ John Archibald
Wheeler, The American Journal of Physics, 1978

I would totally disagree with Mr. Wheeler on that point. I'm pretty sure everything has been happening at once around here because I've spent the last month scrambling like a madwoman trying to get it all done. Don't ask me how I'm doing on that...

One thing I have been successful at, however, is eating about 10 lbs of chocolate a day. I'd like to blame it on Halloween, but I actually started the process about a week previous...okay, maybe two. Either way, by the time the kids showed up at the door trick or treating, I was in a full blown milk chocolate addictive meltdown. By the way, did you know chocolate can irritate the bejesus out of heartburn. I do. Now.

Needless to say, I am on a no chocolate hiatus. Just to add insult to injury, I'm also cutting out my one cup of coffee a day and adding 7 days of workouts to my schedule. Some days are just walking, which the dog will appreciate, but there's about 3 days of strength-training and 3 days of internal training and another 3 days of 30 min moderate/high cardio. Which, for those of you who are good at the whole math thing, equals more days than there are in a week, but I'm doubling up. And hoping to do a spin class and yoga class on top of that. I've noticed a softness creeping up where muscle used to be. Then I heard on the radio a week after my wedding that marriage makes people gain weight. I considered an annulment, but I kinda like this guy I married so figured maybe working out was a better option.

On top of that, I need to develop a solid marketing plan for my writing to boost my profile, sales, etc, as well as a workable writing plan for maximum output of manuscripts over the next 18 months.

All on no coffee and minimal amounts of chocolate.

Please have the rubber room standing by...

This is me exploring the gardens on Petrin Hill in Prague. I'm still trying to get my pixs up on Facebook.

Which reminds me...stay tuned on Facebook. Next week I'm looking at doing a book giveaway and visit to a blog where they're asking me lots of fun questions.

I'm Back...Again!!

2011-10-20T07:20:00.001-03:00

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads
which sew people together through the years. ~ Simone Signoret

What can I say...it was a really busy fall season.

In my defense, I got married, went on a honeymoon, did a writers retreat, finished a manuscript requested by Harlequin and...um...probably some other stuff. Right. Anyway - that is all behind me now and I am determined to get back to weekly blog posts.

What am I doing now? So glad you asked (You did ask, didn't you? Let's imagine you did.) Writing-wise, I am revising An Invitation to Scandal to send off to Random House and re-plotting (for the 4th and FINAL time) the follow up novel to The Outlaw Bride, which is tentatively titled The Widow Bride. That one was hard. Every plot I tried to work up kept falling apart on me. Finally, at the annual RWAC Writers Retreat this past weekend, everything fell into place.

I'm also checking out some some different writing software. I have the Snowflake plotting software, WriteWay Pro and Scrivener, which one of my RWAC buddies suggested. It's in beta format right now for Windows, but so far I'm liking the look of it. I was having a little trouble with WriteWay Pro (my own fault since I didn't read the manual yet).

I'm hoping to update my website soon once I find a free minute and I also need to start working on knitting up some Christmas gifts now that I'm down to about two months to get stuff done.

Meanwhile, here is a picture from my honeymoon to Prague. It's an incredibly beautiful city and I'll write a bit more about the trip later, but I have to say this is a beautiful city and if you love history and/or architecture, a definite must see!

Hellllllooooo....

2011-08-29T15:40:00.001-03:00

I have been a very, very bad blogger this summer. I'd like to blame it on the lovely weather, but unfortunately we haven't really had any, so...

I have had my nose to the grindstone however and that has claimed a lot of my time. Since returning from RWA #11, I've been trying to spend every spare minute getting my manuscript requests completed.

So that's where my summer has gone. Writing, writing, and more writing. My fall is looking much the same. And when I'm not writing I've been reading up on marketing - both for my writing and for my Etsy shop, At Knit's End, and knitting items for said shop.

Somewhere in between there is the day job.

Which begs the question - how is the whole cloning thing coming along...?

But I am hoping to get back to regular weekly posts come September, so stay tuned!

Counting the Days

2011-07-22T12:50:00.000-03:00

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~ Earl Wilson

By this time next week, I will be on vacation. I cannot tell you how much I have been waiting for this. Not because we're doing anything super-exciting. We're spending the week at a cottage in PEI, which sounds nice, but after about 3-4 days I'm generally looking for something to do and starting to crawl the walls. And that's if the weather's good. It would be better if the cottage we rented had comfortable furniture I could hunker down in and read to my heart's content. But after 30 minutes in any of them and I'm in need of chiropractic care.

Why not pick another cottage? Well, this one was 'inherited' I guess you could say. My fiance and his ex-wife would come here every summer with their son for two weeks. Now the two weeks is split, we get it one week, she the other and the boy stays down for the entire two.

After the crippling effects of the furniture and my inability to get through more than one book in the week, I suggested maybe we consider going elsewhere next year. Somewhere closer to home even where we could take the dog. He gets stuck in the kennel now because we take one car and between the boy with his booster seat, food, toys, suitcases, etc, there's no room for a big, goofy golden retriever. And to be honest, I want my pooch with me, but taking two cars all the way to PEI just doesn't make financial sense. But if it were only an hour's drive away on the Nova Scotian coast, that I could do.

Anyway, this year I'm taking my lawn chair with me which will help a little. Better than the plastic jobbies they have on the deck. It has a footrest and cup holder and if I use a pillow at my back I might get a couple hours reading time in before I need to jump on the yoga mat and start doing some back bends.

So if anyone has some great summer reads to recommend, let me know! I have a week to decide what I'm taking with me.

So Many Books...So Little Time...

2011-07-06T10:10:00.003-03:00

“An ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” ~ Augustine Birrell

I am back from conference in New York City and wow – what a whirlwind. I’m still exhausted. Conference was, as usual, a fascinating and awesome experience. The keynote speeches were inspiring, the Literacy for Life book signing jam-packed (What does that mean, anyway – jam-packed? Who packs jam in things?), the workshops endlessly helpful, and my editor and agent appointments successful.

But here’s the thing about conference – there are books everywhere! There are books to buy at the Literacy for Life signing, free books in the goody bag you get at registration, books given away at the keynote speech luncheons, books to buy at the Book Fair, books given at the publishing housing book signings, and there are often free books at the Publishing Spotlights. At least there was at Sourcebooks which was the only one I made it to and was very glad I did.

Now to any writer and avid reader, the idea of all these books is enough to send you into a blithering state of euphoria. The only problem with this is, I only brought one suitcase and one carry-on and neither had a whole lot of room to spare, and shipping the books home was too expensive an option. So I told myself, “Self, you will not go hog-wild. You will take home only the books you truly, truly want.”

Wise advice. The only problem with this is, I often truly, truly want every book I see, because each book holds the potential of an awesome story I have not yet read and what if I leave one behind that the one I leave behind is THE one that could ultimately move me, change me, alter the entire course of my life?! I mean, my God! The ramifications!

You see my dilemma. Needless to say, I ended up wearing several layers of clothing for the trip home in order to fit my books into my suitcases. And even then, I managed to control myself somewhat. I bought 3 craft books: one on characterization, writing a first draft in 30 days (after my editor/agent appts this will be essential), and revisions (where most of my writing time is spent). I picked up a couple of books at the Sourcebook spotlight. I kept the books from one keynote speech and bargained with my roommate to borrow the other ones from her. I went to only two publisher book signings and picked up only 3 books (one being Jennifer Crusie’s new book which I feel was more than justified!). I purchased 4 at the Literacy for Life signing (hey – it’s for a good cause!).

So now my TBR pile has grown yet again. Which is a bit of a problem because my reading time has shrunk somewhat to give more time to my writing because after said editor/agent appointments I have much to prepare. Plus I need to do revisions for Harlequin and I need to get the second book that follows The Outlaw Bride off to Carina.

Ack! I need to find more hours in the day and more days in the week!

Cartwheeling Maniac Spotted in NYC

2011-06-21T11:22:00.003-03:00

"I wonder what it is in the New York air that enables me to sit up till all hours of the night in an atmosphere which in London would make a horse dizzy, but here merely clears the brain." ~ James Agate

I am flying into NYC this Saturday, arriving at the ungodly hour of 7:00am. It isn’t so much the 7:00am that’s ungodly as the 3:30am wake up to get to the airport to catch the 6:15am flight to arrive at 7am that’s ungodly. But it’s for a worthy cause, so I’m willing.

I’ve already made up my packing list, printed off my event invites, worked up my workshop agenda around my agent/editor appointments and purchased all my little travel sized toiletries. I have a brand spanking new iPad 2 to take with me to stay wired in (thanks to J for the early wedding gift!) and I am ready to rumble.

This is the first conference I’ve attended as a published author and I have to admit, it has a different feel to it for me. I’m not sure exactly why that is – I’m still doing all the same things. Editor and agent appointments, workshops, getting lost in the labyrinth of hotel hallways… Maybe the difference is that my goal was by the time the NYC conference arrived I would go as a published author. I’ve vaulted over one hurdle (only 1,486, 234 to go) and it feels good. I mean goooooood.

FYI – if you see someone doing cartwheels through the hotel lobby shouting “I did it! I did it!!”, it’s not me. I don’t care how much she may look like me. Also, if that individual is doing these cartwheels while wearing a skirt, please tell her to stop. She’ll thank you for it later.

But NYC isn’t all about the conference for me. I’ve wanted to see the City That Never Sleeps for eons and going down a few days before conference gets underway will be a great opportunity to do that. I’ve also tried to book out a little time each day for myself, even if that means just getting out and walking around Times Square or somewhere else. And given my horrendous sense of direction, there is no telling where ‘somewhere else’ may be.

FYI#2 – if you see someone who looks a lot like the cartwheeling maniac from the hotel lobby wandering around Times Square trying to find the hotel, please send her back in the right direction. You may also want to watch for a minute to ensure she heads in the direction you indicated. Yes, her sense of direction is that bad.

FYI#3 – if she starts up with the cartwheels again on her way back to the hotel, just let her go. You’ve done all you can.

A Nice Little Day Dream

2011-06-01T10:53:00.002-03:00

"Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul." ~ Gaston Bachelard

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping this morning. Not the angry squawk of crows, not neighbors mucking about in their yards (they tend not to do that at 5:30am), not the guy across the street revving his motorcycle engine for 10 minutes non-stop until I’m so angry I want to go online and order a rocket launcher. But birds. Chirping. And it was sunny, which after 60 days of rain, cloud, drizzle and general ickiness, made waking up a good thing.

For a minute, I just laid there and pretended I didn’t have to get up, rush through my writing then trudge off to the day job. I imagined I wasn’t situated in the ‘burbs, but was lying on my bed in the spacious room of a sprawling old farmhouse. Outside, the yard was filled with thick old oak trees, their leaves still rife with the newness of spring green. There wasn’t even the faintest hint of smog or exhaust or fumes of any kind, it was just pure fresh air. A breeze wafted in from my partially opened window and the white sheers billowed out like clouds. Somewhere beyond the oak trees there was a little barn, and in that little barn was a horse, and a cow. Probably a pig, a barn cat, a few chickens with fuzzy little chicks, and a goat with a bit of an attitude problem, but no more than that.

And in this wonderful daydream, I didn’t have to get up, rush through my writing and then slog to work. All I needed to do was get up, go milk the cow and feed the animals while Cedar lumbered along at my heels happy as a clam. When I get back to my rambling farmhouse, the coffee has percolated and the scent permeates the kitchen. I pour a big mug, grab a warm cinnamon roll, and amble into my writing room. The room is decorated in honey colored hardwood floors, butter yellow walls that glow warm and cozy in the sunlight filtering through the large window and a big comfy red couch. My desk is old and ornate with cubby holes and drawers and a modern addition of a keyboard tray at just the right height.

I turn the computer on and print off yesterday’s writing then plop down on the couch with the coffee, kick my feet up on the rectangular ottoman (with interior storage!) and get out my favorite fine point pen. The dog curls up next to me, content to just hang out and snooze.

The words flow off the page and—

J nudges me. “You gonna turn that alarm off?”

Sigh…back to reality.

Book Giveaway!

2011-04-25T08:46:00.004-03:00

To cap off my one week release anniversary, I am giving away a copy of The Outlaw Bride. Just pop over to my Facebook page (link on sidebar) and leave a comment to enter yourself in the draw. The draw will take place tomorrow morning.

Cloning

2011-04-19T06:24:00.008-03:00

Normally, I'm opposed to the idea of cloning. The idea that you can take someone's DNA and somehow recreate them never sat right with me. Maybe physically you could have a life-like replica, but I'm still not convinced you can recreate someone's inside, their soul or their imagination or whatever it is that makes them who they are.

That being said, if someone could clone me, just for the rest of this month, I'd really appreciate it. Because for some crazy, insanity-inducing reason, I thought it would be fun to do a book release and complete another manuscript to send off to HQ and plan the company AGM during work's busiest month, all in one shot.

I know I like a challenge, but the next time I try to challenge myself like this, someone give me a good, hard shake until my sense is restored.

Meanwhile, here's a list of The Outlaw Bride Blog Train for promo week. There will be a book giveaway at Petticoat & Pistols on April 23rd, so hopefully you can all mosey on by and check it out.

And congratulations to Lina Gardiner who won the book giveaway on my Facebook Page.

I'd also like to give a huge thanks to all the reviewers who have been singing The Outlaw Bride's praises. It is hugely appreciated to know your enjoying the read as much as I enjoyed the write.

The Outlaw Bride Blog Train Tour:
April 17: A Piece of My Mind
April 18 : The PopCultureDivas
April 18: Manic Readers
April 20: Carina Press Blog and Carina Press Facebook Page and Carina Press Twitter
April 23: Petticoats and Pistols - BOOK GIVEAWAY
April 25: Back here for another BOOK GIVEAWAY.

The Blog World Blitz

2011-04-15T13:34:00.006-03:00

I've been busy writing up a storm, preparing for the looming book release of THE OUTLAW BRIDE on April 18th (ack! only a few days away!). A lot of the prep has been writing up blurbage for a blog tour. So while I will only be popping into Dark & Stormy for one day next week, here's where I'll be the rest of the week:

April 17: A Piece of My Mind

April 18 : The PopCultureDivas

April 18: Manic Readers

April 20: Carina Press Blog and Carina Press Facebook Page and Carina Press Twitter

April 23: Petticoats and Pistols - BOOK GIVEAWAY

April 25: Back home to Dark & Stormy for another - BOOK GIVEAWAY

I am also hosting a book giveaway on my Facebook Page . The draw will be done on April 18th to celebrate my official release of THE OUTLAW BRIDE. You just have to click the "Like" button and your name will be entered in the draw.

And that's it. For now anyway.

Then it's back to work on SALVATION FALLS to finish the clean up and fire that off to Harlequin Historicals who requested the full.

The fun never ends!

What Price Beauty

2011-03-24T09:08:00.003-03:00

I'm ranting about plastic surgery over at The PopCultureDivas today. Come join the party!

The Week in Review

2011-03-14T07:15:00.004-03:00

"The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it." ~ John Lubbock

It’s difficult to come up with a scintillating blog entry when you’ve only slept a few hours, so I’m going to forgo the linguistic gymnastics and just give a brief update on what’s been going on.

The past week has been a busy one prepping for the upcoming release of The Outlaw Bride scheduled for April 18th. (Like that little plug? That’s as subtle as I get while sleep deprived.) But here’s what I’ve been up to. I ordered my bookmarks and ad design from Croco Designs and just received word from GotPrint that they are on the way. I also ordered business cards from VistaPrint and they too are en-route. I sent in my first sale information to the RWR and that will show up in May’s edition, and then I reserved space in the June issue of RWR for my ad.

I have a few blogs I’ll be appearing on (in?) the week of April as well and received a list of review sites my book will be available to through Net Galley.

Then, in the midst of all this, my author’s copy of the book came in (which I had totally forgot about!) and I loaded that onto my kobo, ooh’d and ahh’d over it for a few minutes and then realized I needed to come up with some contest ideas for book giveaways.

There’s a lot of stuff that comes along with releasing a book. It’s true what they say about the real work starting after you sign the contract.

I’m also putting the finishing touches on Salvation Falls, cleaning up a few things, before doing the final revision on Invitation to Scandal in time for conference. I’m hoping to get a little time before conference to work on The Widow Bride as well, but we’ll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to take 2 hours each Sunday to hunker down at the local Starbucks and write whatever I want. Yesterday was my first stab at this. I just sat down and wrote whatever came to mind and I realized halfway through the first page, what I was writing was the opening scene to a contemporary fiction story, Talking to Winston, that I’ve been kicking around.

Training for the 10K is coming along. My friend, Christine, took me hill training the other day and after 6.2K and a hill that I swore was never going to end, I crawled back to the office and questioned my sanity. Then I went out on Saturday and ran another 3K.

I’ve also been trying to squeeze in some knitting time to replenish items on my Etsy shop, At Knit’s End. I sold 3 items in the past week and a half and now I need to restock.

I’ve come to the conclusion, there are just not enough hours in the day, and not enough days in the week.

The Things I Do…

2011-03-07T11:00:00.006-04:00

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." ~ Steve Prefontaine

This one I blame my sister-in-law for. She started running last year and we batted around the idea of doing a 10K together. We had both run 5Ks before (she this past summer, me a few years ago), but she wanted to up the ante. Unfortunately a bad chest cold and injuries thwarted our plans.

But the other day, while I was at my nephew’s birthday party (and while she was waving a cheesie in front of my face), my SIL suggested we both sign up for the Bluenose Marathon 10K. The early bird sign up ended the next day, so if we wanted to get the cheaper rate, we had to act fast.

Now this suggestion was made on Feb 27th. The race is on May 22nd. And unless I’ve lost my ability to count properly, that means I have a whopping 2.5 months to go from not running for about a year, to running 10K.

I blame the mesmerizing power of the cheesie that made me nod and mumble something that sounded like, ‘sure…sounds like a plan…you gonna eat that cheesie?’

So here I am, in training mode. My friend, Christine, took me out running on my lunch hour the other day indicating she had a great route in mind. Christine is a runner. That should have been my first clue that this was not going to be an easy little jaunt. By the 4K mark I was starting to feel it. By the 5K mark I wasn’t sure I could lift my legs much longer. Thankfully, the route ended at 5.13K.

I hobbled back to the office wondering what the criteria for a lung transplant was.

Still, I had done it. After not running, I managed to live through a 5K run. Sure I felt it the next day (or three), but I was already half way to my goal, and still had a little over two months to build on that.

Am I crazy? Maybe. But every time I think I’ve completely lost my mind, I remind myself that summer is right around the corner. The time of shorts and skirts and bathing suits, and suddenly, running 10K seems like a really good idea…

Vanity. The world’s greatest motivator.

My Night at the Theatre

2011-02-25T12:04:00.003-04:00

"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

This past Wednesday, I went to see The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Neptune Theatre. Written by Martin McDonagh and directed by Rosemary Dunsmore, this play delivers everything you could want. It’s a strangely twisted gem, blending comedy and drama in such a way that one moment you are laughing out loud, and the next you are gasping in horror and shock. Either way, both ends of the spectrum keep you riveted to the players on the stage.

Set in a small village in County Galway, Ireland, Maureen Folan (Laura deCarteret) - a bonafide 40 year old virgin, lives in a sparse little cottage with her mother Mag (Mary Colin Chisholm), a relentless harpy of an old woman. Maureen has been trapped playing caregiver for the past 20 years and as the play goes on, seeds of why that is are sown.

The two women share a completely dysfunctional relationship and it is clear Maureen wishes she could escape, but seems unable to do so. At least until a hint of romance begins with Pato Dooly (Hugh Thompson), a man from town who is bitter about having to constantly move away to England to work. It is his younger brother, Ray (played hilariously by Ryan Bondy), who delivers much of the comic relief, acting as messenger for his brother. And it is these messages that ultimately lead to tragedy and betrayal.

I don’t want to say too much about what the tragedy is or how it comes about; the not knowing is what keeps you perched on the edge of your seat. But I will say this, if you are in the area, buy a ticket and treat yourself to the experience. You won’t regret it. And if you are not in the area, and this play comes to your town, make sure you take the opportunity to check it out.

And that was my night at the theatre.

New York City Bound

2011-02-21T06:54:00.006-04:00

"Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along." ~ Hugh Allen

I’m getting excited about New York in June. I know I have a while to wait, but I can’t help it. I'm arriving in the Big Apple on Saturday before conference starts to spend a little time exploring the city with my two RWAC cohorts, Lilly Cain and our chapter prez, Annette Gallant. I’ve never been to NYC before, so while this is a work trip, it’s also a pleasure trip as well.

I love that we’re staying in the middle of the action. It’s a great central point. I plan on doing a little shopping, a whole lot of sightseeing, and a general wandering around. I’d love to take a run through Central Park too, though I have no idea how close the park is to our hotel. Time to break out the map.

The other thing I’m happy about is that I made the goal of going to the New York conference as a published author. Check and done. By the time conference rolls around, THE OUTLAW BRIDE will have been on the electronic shelves for two months. Where I don’t have a print book to allow me to do the literary signing, etc, I will have to get a little inventive on what promo materials to take with me to help get my name / book out there.

Would walking through the lobby of the hotel with a bullhorn be too much do you think? Perhaps so. A more subtle approach then.

Just as an aside, while I am typing this, my dog has his nose jammed under the register and is snorting up a storm. I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to find there other than a dust bunny or three…

Meanwhile, back in the everyday, this will be a busy week. My partial of Salvation Falls sent to Harlequin over a year ago, seems to have fallen through the cracks somewhere. So I need to resend it to the editor. I’m doing one final read through and then off it goes. Wish me luck.

I will be attending the Neptune Theatre this week to see The Beauty Queen of Leenane. My friend Julia Smith hooked me up with the theatre’s Word of Mouth evening. I was given two tickets to see the show, then will blog afterwards to promote it, hence the Word of Mouth. Or blog as it were. So stay tuned for next week’s blog to hear all about my night at the theatre and a recap on what went on this week.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go dislodge my dog’s nose from the register.

All Kinds of New Things

2011-02-11T06:43:00.009-04:00

"For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work." ~Doug Larson

I had the best of intentions of blogging every week when 2011 started, I really did. But oddly, I discovered that time, like money, does not grow on trees. And the free time I used to have through the day at the old day job no longer existed with the new one. And while I’m enjoying the new job at CCS (Canadian Cancer Society) it is a hundred times busier than life at ING. Hence no time to squeeze out a quick blog post through the day. I’m lucky if I find time to break for lunch. My, how things have changed…

And given how the commute has eaten a half hour out of my writing time, there is little time in the morning to squeeze a blog post in after writing.

But I am determined to still manage a weekly post and get out and visit all my blog pals who I have sorely neglected this past month. I’m going to carve time out each week ahead of time to do just that.

So here I am, squeezing! And there is news to report. Last night, Romance Writers’ of Atlantic Canada were hosted by Charlie Mac Productions/Media Inc, EnviroWeb Consulting, and Bconnected Progressive Networking Organization for a great evening of networking and promotion. The event was held at Argyle Fine Art Gallery’s new location. Despite a brief snow squall shortly before the event started, we had a good sized crowd and a good time was had by all. It was my first opportunity to get out there and promote THE OUTLAW BRIDE. Here’s a pic of me holding the cover. I received the file a couple days before and managed to whip off photos of it to take to the event.

Which is the other big news – my cover. I’m waiting for the final file from Carina Press to post the cover, just in case they have a few last minute changes, but you can get sneak peak in the picture above.

As for the writing, it was a little slow going for the first month trying to find a balance with the new routine and limited amount of time. I’m still tweaking it to maximize my writing time, but it’s getting better. I’ve finished taking Angela James’ course on self-editing, Before You Hit Send, which was great. I’m currently using that to clean up SALVATION FALLS before I send it off to Sally Williamson (hopefully next week). Turns out Harlequin lost the partial I had originally sent, which is why I hadn’t heard anything back in so long. My writing bud, Donna Alward, checked in with Sally Williamson and discovered this for me, and Ms. Williamson suggested I resend to her direct. But after taking Angela James’s course, I want to ensure SF is in the best possible shape, so I’m taking a week to clean up before I hit send.

Then I’m on to finish INVITATION TO SCANDAL and THE WIDOW BRIDE before the conference in NYC which I am booked for, hotel room secured and flights arranged. Can’t wait! Then, after conference, I'm going to spend the second half of the year working on something new and different which I'm pretty excited about.

Oh – and the last bit of news – my website revamp is completed! Take a look: www.kellyboyce.com. And thanks to AnneInspired for the great work on the design.

The Year of Living Ambitiously

2011-01-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it." ~ Winston Churchill

It never fails. The New Year begins and the first question out of many people’s mouths is – What’s your New Year’s resolution?

Thing is, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. They’re too nebulous for me. If I really want to do something, make a change, tackle a new venture, I don’t need a resolution. I need a plan. So several years ago I gave up the resolution making and dove headfirst into the plan. Every holiday I sit down and think about what I want to accomplish in the coming year. Then I figure what I need to do to make that happen. And then I break out the calendar and start planning out the steps to get there.

Now last year things got a bit off the rails. I lost my writing mojo for about the first half of the year. Thankfully it resurrected itself sometime around July, but for the first six months of 2010 I floundered, jumping from one thing to the next, leaving in my wake a trail of almost-finished manuscripts, partially started stories, and scribbled ideas. By July I realized I needed to get myself straightened out. Shortly thereafter THE OUTLAW BRIDE sold to Carina Press. That seemed to be the spark I needed. It lit a fire under me and made me realize now that the ball was rolling, I might want to stay on top of it, capitalize on my first publishing success and build it into more.

Hence (that’s right, I said ‘hence’), when it came time to make my plan for 2011, I looked at what I had on hand. Invitation to Scandal was 80% done. Brimstone was done but still needed a bit of tweaking to tighten up a few areas. Salvation Falls was going through one last tidy up revision. Fractured Sight and The Widow Bride were in the first draft stages. The plots required some reworking before I could go further. And then there was Finding Home, a story with characters I loved, loved, loved but a plot that was bland, bland, bland. I had a brain storm on how to fix it – finally! There were also the follow up books to Invitation and Brimstone that were outlined and ready to go.

I decided it was time to clean up my partials and send them out into the world before I sat down and started writing anything new. So my plan for this year is simply that – finish ITS, Brimstone, Salvation Falls, The Widow Bride and Fractured Sight. Once that’s done, I’ll sit down and start reworking the plot on Finding Home.

It’s a bit ambitious, given that I only have 1.5 hours every morning to write, and it may mean giving up some weekend or evening time to get it done, but there’s been enough lollygagging. It’s time to go big, or go home. And it’s like my mom always said – ‘You never did like to do the easy thing.’

Well, no…what fun would that be?

Book Review: INDEFENSIBLE by Pamela Callow

2010-12-16T04:45:00.000-04:00

Check over at The PopCultureDivas today where I'm reviewing Pamela Callow's upcoming release, INDEFENSIBLE.

You Are Not Spartacus

2010-11-18T09:55:00.002-04:00

I'm posting over at ThePopCultureDivas today about Spartacus, Blood & Sand. Click the link to check it out.

The Roller Coaster Ride of Life

2010-11-04T10:21:00.003-03:00

Whenever it is possible, a boy should choose some occupation which he should do even if he did not need the money. ~ William Lyon Phelps

J and I have been together for not quite three years now. In that time, we've managed to fit in nearly every major stressor in life there is between the two of us.

Marital Separation and Divorce - check
Death of a Family Member - check
Illness - check
Illness of family member - check
Marriage - almost check
Job Dismissal - check, check, and check (we thought we'd do this one three times)
Addition of a new family member - check

We often joke that if the early stages of our relationship can survive what it has so far, it can survive anything.

Once again, we've been hit with another one. This time it was my own job loss. Our company was bought by another and, well, we all know that old refrain: Out with the old, in with the new. My co-workers and I discovered on Tuesday that we were the old. Which is funny, because I don't feel that old...

But since I like to find silver linings and drink from a glass that's half-full as opposed to half empty, I've decided to look at it as extra opportunity to fit in more writing time. An even greater chance of meeting my 50,000 Nano word count.

Granted I still have to look for a job during this time, preferably one that won't force me to commute across the harbour in the mornings and cut off my writing time. If nothing else, losing my job has made me realize just how important my writing is, because the first thought in my head wasn't, "Oh no, I need to find another job right away!" It was, "I need to find a job that doesn't interfere with my writing time."

I think most important to me is not the pay cheque I end up bringing home, but that the job fits my life and maintains a balance of what is most important to me. No one wants to work in a job that makes them miserable. Life is too short.

The Toothless Wonder

2010-10-28T06:00:00.001-03:00

"I find that most men would rather have their bellies opened for five hundred dollars, than have a tooth pulled for five." ~ Martin H. Fischer

I had my four wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. My dental surgeon looked at my x-rays and wished I had come in 20 years ago because now my roots were very curved and one tooth was impacted, another resting right up against another tooth. Fun stuff.

I wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight so by the time I got there at 8am I was starving!! And in desperate need of java. They took me in almost right away and got to work. I was under the twilight sedation, but contrary to being told I wouldn't remember the surgery, I pretty much remember all of it. The top two seemed to come out without a problem. The impacted one came out okay, then they went after the wisdom tooth resting against the other tooth. It was not budging. The dentist finally took a break from all the pushing and pulling against my jaw and I took the opportunity to utter, "uh...oooowwww". They froze me up a little more after that and finally the tooth came out. At which point the surgeon commented he was glad he was getting his most difficult case out of the way first thing in the morning.

Yes...happy to accommodate....

Unfortunately I have no fun stories to tell you about being looped up on the drugs afterwards. I just was quiet and drowsy. There was a big, good looking guy from Tanzania in the recovery room with me. This guy had to be 6'5" if he was an inch and built with that lean, not an ounce of fat on him, physique. He was also high as a kite and sporting a big goofy grin. We both were sporting a mouthful of gauze too. And let me tell you, that is NOT an attractive look for anyone, but I think he pulled it off better than me. When his girlfriend came in the nurse said she wasn't sure what he was saying. He'd been talking off and on, but it turns out he'd reverted to speaking in his native tongue while stoned.

So far, I've been lucky. My jaw was swollen but that's gone down some already. There is very little pain, although my lower jaw is still a little frozen in spots so that may be why. They say the pain usually worsens on the 2nd and 3rd day. I have big ibuprofen horse pills and Tylenol 3s to take in between those if I need them.

Oddly, the worst pain I've experienced so far has been due to the fact I didn't get my morning java. I have a caffeine withdrawal headache!

J has been playing nursemaid but I finally let him off the hook to go play hockey. In the meantime, with the rest of the week off work for recovery, I have books, movies, magazines and knitting to keep me busy. I'm not to drive, operate heavy machinery, do any strenuous exercise or lifting for a few days. I have nothing to do but sit on the couch and recuperate.

Here's hoping the rest of the recovery goes without incident...

Thursday Miscellany

2010-10-21T07:18:00.008-03:00

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. ~ Ansel Adams

I will apologize now for any upcoming typos that I miss. As I sit here typing this, the dog keeps dropping his toy on my keyboard. You know, I'm sure Lassie never behaved this way. Perhaps he was too busy saving Timmy from the well he'd fallen down for the umpteenth time. Great...now he's doing his butt dance. This is something that has to be seen to be believed, but I'll try to describe it as best I can. Imagine a bunking bronco, and then imagine that bunking bronco is slamming his butt into your chair. Oh well, at least he's not trying to eat his tail. He seems to have gotten it into his head that it’s a chew toy.

Meanwhile, back to my originally scheduled post before Cedar got me off track. My vacation has ended (que sad music and wailing). It was an awesome vacation sandwiched between two weekends away, lots of food, and plenty of writing. Sadly the lots of food was not followed by lots of trips to the gym. It should have been. I'm sure at the retreat alone I ate double my weight in carbs. I'm making up for it now.

The photo shoot with Heather Gionet was fabulous. We had a great sunny day and lots of natural light. The setting at Kings College was perfect. It will be about 3-4 weeks before the pictures are ready for me to view and choose. I can't wait!

Last weekend was RWAC's annual Writers Retreat at White Point and once again it was an absolute blast. There was plenty of food (and when I say plenty, I mean I ate anything that wasn't nailed down), a little vino, lots of writing, and awesome company.

When I arrived Friday around noon, I started working on my plot for my NaNo book. My plan was to write Book 2 in the Brides of Fatal Bluff series. Book 1 is The Outlaw Bride (Carina Press, April 2011), and Book 2 is The Widow Bride. I thought I had it all pulled together and it just needed a little more tweaking. Ah, foolish girl...

The more I worked on it, the more the plot fell apart. The main problem I was having was...well, it was somewhat boring. This, upon closer inspection, revealed there wasn't much in the way of conflict. Now, because of the set up in Book 1 with these characters, I didn't have a blank slate to work from. I was married to certain details. I tried not to panic. I failed miserably. I needed to have this ready for NaNo. The clock was ticking. I couldn't figure out how to fix this. None of the ideas I came up with were working. Ahhh!!!

Ahem. I decided I should take a break and go walk in the fall foliage. That seemed to do the trick. I came back with a new idea. Played around a little. It held up. It led to other places. It made the story fun! Interesting! Problem solved and story saved. Whew!

So now, all I need to do is work on my detailed outline to have it ready for NaNo. I use Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet to help with the process. This week and next, I'm transferring the Beat Sheet into 40 beats and posting them on index cards on my bulletin board. Then voila - I will be ready to go on November 1st.

Photo: Julia & me doing the annual clinking of the wine glasses.

When Retreat Is Good For the Soul

2010-10-14T08:44:00.003-03:00

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say." ~ Sharon O'Brien

I'm blogging over at ThePopCultureDivas today about my chapter's annual Writers' Retreat. Check it out!

Blissfully Happy Vacation

2010-10-08T06:47:00.006-03:00

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." ~ Robert Orben

I am just one day away from vacation and I can’t wait. This weekend is Thanksgiving in my neck of the woods (we Canadians celebrate the holiday in October) which would make this a long weekend for me, but I decided to stretch it out and take the whole week.

It’ll be a busy one. J and I will be heading out for a night at the Blomidon Inn where we make the annual trek for Thanksgiving, returning in time to have turkey dinner with the folks. The weather sounds great for the weekend too, so bonus!

Then on Tuesday I have my photoshoot scheduled with Heather Gionet from This is Photography. She did Lilly Cain’s photos and that’s how I got her name. I can’t wait. We’re taking the photos at Kings College to take advantage of some of the historical architecture in the city. So far the weather is looking good for that too. I’m excited about getting this done. I had tried to do it a little over a year ago but timing and finances never cooperated. But now with THE OUTLAW BRIDE coming out in April, it’s time. I’ll give you the rundown on how it went in next week’s post.

The rest of next week will be spent revising AN INVITATION TO SCANDAL, trying to get as much of the 2nd draft completed before NaNoWriMo starts. I’m tearing apart scenes and reconstructing them in a different order to try and tighten up the story. I should hear about where I placed in the Lone Star contest the weekend of Oct 16th, provided I have cell phone reception.

You see the weekend of Oct 15-17 is my RWA Chapter’s annual Writer’s Retreat at White Point Beach. I start looking forward to this event the day I return home from it. It is a highlight of my year and is always a huge blast. There are 8 of us staying at the cottage this year where food, wine and creativity abound. I’m hoping to brainstorm ideas for Book 3 in the Brides of Fatal Bluff series while I’m there.

And that is what’s in store for the upcoming week. Now, if this week would just END so I can GET THERE I’d be all set.

The Writing Room Revamp!

2010-09-30T08:07:00.008-03:00

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." ~ Albert Einstein

Finally! I've taken pictures of the before and after of the Writing Room revamp. First, let's start with the before and in progress pictures.

As you can see, it was messy, and then got messier. I don't even want to get into how much dust was kicked up during this process. Suffice to say, I should have taken out shares in Claritin. But finally, after way more work than I had originally envisioned and after weeks of promising my Success Team members that I would get it done, we have the finished product:

Ahhh...finally. Everything has a place. Granted, I still don't have my hardwood floor, two extra bookshelves or a big comfy reading chair. But once the dog condo is no longer required for the canine, those will come next. Either way, it feels good to finally have things squared away. I don't like mess. It agitates me.
Now I can sit and write and not worry about messy distractions. Unless you count the dog. And he's not so much messy as he is moronic. I'm told by the time he reaches the age of two he'll snap out of that...

So Many Books...So Little Time

2010-09-23T15:06:00.005-03:00

Choices are the hinges of destiny.
~ Attributed to both Edwin Markham and Pythagoras

I know…I know…I was yet again going to do the Writing Room revamp, but I’m not at the computer that has my photos so unfortunately it will have to wait for yet another week. Just trust me when I say that it looks fabulous. Or at least not as much of a disaster as it did originally.

This week has been busy. I finished off my revisions of THE OUTLAW BRIDE and sent them back to my editor. Then I started thinking – what next. I am so close to having AN INVITATION TO SCANDAL complete and ready to send off to agents it would be a shame to just drop it now and put it on hold while I work on THE WIDOW BRIDE (Book 2 in the Brides of Fatal Bluff series). But at the same time, I have my foot in the door at Carina Press, it seems prudent to capitalize on that.

Oh the conundrum…

In the end, here is what I decided:

1) Since I am so close to finishing INVITATION, I will work on that from now until end of October with a view to completing it and getting out the agent queries, then;
2) I will use NaNoWriMo to write the first draft of WIDOW. (I’m using this week to work on an outline for it.)

My RWA Chapter have our annual Writers Retreat in mid-October and we always do brainstorming on books we are trying to develop, so I will use that to help build the outline for THE SCANDALOUS BRIDE (Book 3 of the Brides of Fatal Bluff series).

I think that is the best way to use the time I’ve got to my best advantage.

I still need to sit down and try to figure out the plan for 2011, but I have a few months left to get that done.

My Day In Court

2010-09-16T09:53:00.004-03:00

"This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

My plan was to do a post on the Writing Room revamp, but I didn’t have time this morning to write it up and post, so today we are exploring the wonderful world of traffic court.

A few months ago I was pulled over on a routine stop where the police were checking everyone’s Motor Vehicle Inspections to ensure they were up to date. I wasn’t worried, as I had had mine done in January. I remember this distinctly because it occurred right before my birthday and I had to purchaser four new tires to pass inspection, which I was not happy about. I had planned on spending the money on a new pair of sexy boots as a b-day present to myself. Instead, I got tires. Not anywhere near as sexy.

However, when the po-po pulled me over, she said my MVI was not current. After my initial – “What?! No way!!” – I peered through the window to see she was in fact telling the truth. The sticker clearly stated January 2009. She told me to check my glove compartment to see if I had the current receipt they always give you, but that too had the old date on it. It appeared my dealer had forgotten to attach the sticker and give me the receipt. Well done, boys. Well done.

Now, if I hadn’t purchased the new tires, I would have been questioning my recollection of events, but since I had, I knew the MVI had been done. Unfortunately, my brand new tires were not enough to convince the officer. She wrote me up a ticket for $168.00. However, she was nice enough to tell me all I had to do was appear in court with my paperwork showing the MVI was indeed done and they would void the ticket.

I went home and checked my invoices and sure enough, along with two other things I had done the same day to the car, the MVI was among them. I called my dealer and told them what happened. I also told them I wanted a letter from them taking full responsibility for the gaffe, which they gave me when I swung in to have the sticker and receipt updated.

Then it was off to my court date for 8am (ugh). After going through security to get into the court and having a jolly little joking session with the very nice security guards who rifled through my purse, I went down to the waiting room. As the others filed in, I realized you get all kinds of people from all walks of life at the courts. I started slyly eyeballing each of them, trying to figure out their stories. Turns out most of them were there for not having their headlights turned on during daylight hours. Hardly scintilating stuff.

Finally, I was called before the judge where I entered my plea of not guilty and was given a court date. Now I am off to Night Court on December 8th to show them my paperwork and get the ticket dismissed. A lot of rigmarole for someone else’s mistake, but I figure I’ll think of it as an adventure and see if I can rustle up some story ideas along the way.

Revisions Have Landed

2010-09-09T09:21:00.003-03:00

I had planned to do a post today on my writing room makeover, but my re-org hit a snag yesterday when the revision letter for THE OUTLAW BRIDE arrived from my editor (Liz Bass). The makeover has been put on hold while I deal with those.

My first thought when the revisions arrived went something like - oh my God oh my God I'm going to make a complete mess of this I don't know what I'm doing oh my God oh my God. And no, there wasn't any punctuation in my head either. It was one long, rambling mental stream of stark, unadulterated fear.

Thankfully, it lasted only five minutes before my brain took over, slapped itself upside the head and told me to smarten up. And then the dog barfed, which sort of diverted my thoughts elsewhere. Poor pooch is still dealing with some intestinal issues, and while there's improvement, he's not 100% yet. We hope the new antibiotics will help get him over the hump and back to happy, healthy puppy land. Although to look at him, he seems blissfully unaware there is anything wrong.

But I digress. Today, my plan is to read through the revision notes my editor made on the manuscript and formulate my plan. Once I have a plan everything will be right with the world. I'm almost through the manuscript now and so far, so good. There isn't anything there that jumps out and screams, 'You can't do this! You're in over your head! You should have taken up basket-weaving!'

Therefore, it will be a short post today, while I tackle my revisions. I'm hoping to get as much done this week as possible since I'm on vacation. Once I head back to Pod Land my writing time drops back to my 2-hour morning stint. Plus, I loathe leaving things to the last minute. I was always the kid in school that did projects the first day they were assigned to avoid any last minute panic.

The writing room post will happen next week (promise!), with before / during / and after pictures included. But first - revisions.

Cover me...I'm going in.

Adventures In Puppy Raising

2010-09-02T08:00:00.007-03:00

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." ~ Will Rogers

If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know we recently added a beautiful Golden Retriever to the family mix. Cedar is now nine months old and 70 lbs of sheer goofy stubbornness.

Now, I'm not saying Cedar is a bad dog. He's actually quite delightful for the most part. But then there's the other part. Like when we tell him not to do something, he'll stop the one time, then do it again a few minutes later. The worst of it is, I know he knows he's not suppose to do it because he has that guilty look on his face and watches you out of the corner of his eye waiting to see if you notice what he's doing.

We took him to obedience school and he did great. Well, medium great. He was easily distracted when anyone new entered the room. Whatever was going on had to stop while he rushed over and went crazy with exuberance over their arrival. That was all well and good when he was only a small, fuzzy puppy. But he's a big boy now (albeit still a puppy), and if you've ever been barreled into by 70 lbs of muscle, you'll know it isn't exactly a joyous experience. At least you'll come to that conclusion once you regain consciousness and find yourself laying prone on the ground, your body feeling as if it's met the business end of a Mack truck.

Anyway, I have been bemoaning the fact that we have not kept up with his training and now we are having some issues. Mostly pulling on the leash, trying to jump up on any newcomers (or just anyone walking by), and his new thing - barking then biting the arm of the couch when he wants our attention.

We tried several methods that our trainer suggested, and while they worked when he was a younger pup, now they no longer do. Frustrated with how to handle the situation before it became a permanent thing, I found myself watching At The End of My Leash yesterday. Brad Pattison, the trainer guy, told the people on the show who had similar issues as we did with their lab, that they couldn't talk to the dog for a week, and when they needed to correct him, to give a quick snap to the leash. Not a hard, yank-you-off-your-feet yank, just enough to get their attention.

Hmm...I thought. I wonder if this would work with Cedar? I had the opportunity to find out about a minute later when he started barking and biting the couch. And oddly, it did work. J and I stopped talking to the dog and did the collar jerk when he barked, interrupting his behavior and showing it was unacceptable. After a few minutes, he figured it out and settled down at our feet. But he kept looking at us all night like he couldn't figure out why he was ensconced in the Cone of Silence. Have you ever had sad, golden retriever puppy eyes turned on you? It's a deadly weapon. But I was determined and refused to cave! Plus, it was working.

It's only been one day, but the walk this morning went better than usual. J rated it a 5/10 as opposed to his usual -12. So, we are going to keep the silence up for a few days and see how it goes. Hopefully, we are onto something, and the bad behavior will be a thing of the past. Our goofy not-so-little pup will grow up to become a well-behaved member of society. And this time, we will keep up with the training and not slack off. I refuse to become one of those dog owners people point at (curse at) because they have no control over their animal.

The Lowdown on the Sale

2010-08-27T07:40:00.003-03:00

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells." ~ Dr Suess.

I promised to pop back and fill you in on the sale of The Outlaw Bride once my brain has stopped spinning at rates of speed that would make Mario Andretti suffer severe motion sickness. So here I am, but first, let's pause a moment while I resurrect an old pix of Connor Langston, TOB's hero in residence. Ah...yes...now where was I?

Wednesday afternoon, while sitting in my pod diligently working away...okay I was talking to J on the phone...my cell phone rang. Thinking it was the vet calling me back (my dog seems quite keen on picking up every parasite he can find), I hung up on J and took the call. It went something like this:

Me: Hello?
Caller: Hello is this Kelly Boyce?
Me: Yes.
Caller: This is Angela James from Carina Press.
Me: ogoafhoav blaiodr blergh

Okay, I didn't actually say that. In fact, I don't think I said anything at all. I was too busy trying to decide if I was hallucinating or not. When Ms James continued talking, telling me they had read The Outlaw Bride and wanted to offer me a contract if I was still interested (if I was still interested...hahahaha...ahem), I realized I wasn't hallucinating. Then I spent most of the remaining phone call trying not to scream my fool head off - seeing as I was still in my pod and said screaming would have sent my podmates into a panic.

I believe at one point I may have blurted out, "This was totally worth hanging up on my boyfriend for!" And yes, I may - may - have done an arm pump or two. Maybe three. And a front kick. There was also some type of dancing involved.

Sigh...so mature.

Anyhoo...They sent the deal sheet later that day, I perused it, filled in my contact info and sent it back. Liz Bass will be my editor (I've heard nothing but good about her so very excited), release date is Spring 2011, and, at this point, no change in the title is requested.

But now that the initial shock of selling has receded somewhat, my head is spinning with all the things I need to do, so that come release time I will be ready to go. Revamping the website, setting up an FB fan page, going back to monthly blogging at PopCultureDivas, blogging here more regularly, etc. I figure the more things I can organize now; the smoother things will run down the line. On top of that, I need to finish my revisions on ITS so I can start marketing that to agents before I get caught up in the editing process with The Outlaw Bride.

I see a list in my future. Possibly even a spreadsheet. I do love a good spreadsheet....

And there you have it. The lowdown of my first foray into the world of Published Author.

Hold the Phone!

2010-08-25T15:55:00.005-03:00

I got the call!!

Angela James from Carina Press called me this afternoon while I was at work. They want to publish my western romance, The Outlaw Bride!!

I so badly want to scream at the top of my lungs but I'm still at the office. AHHHHH !!!!

More info to follow once I can think coherently!

Summer Series Catch Up

2010-08-19T07:00:00.003-03:00

Check out PopCultureDivas where I'm blogging about my Summer TV viewing, catching up on all the goodies I missed during the regular television season.

No News Is Not Good News

2010-08-11T07:47:00.006-03:00

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

I decided to enter ITS into a few contests this summer. Four to be exact, all with editors/agents as the final judges that I wanted to target. Most of the editors you need an agent to get in front of and this seemed a good way to get around that while I tried to find an agent.

Naturally that meant making the finals, but I was hopeful. I had made changes to ITS that I believed made it a better story. It had already placed second in the Toronto RWA contest in 2009, and while it didn't final in the other contests I entered in 2009, the comments for the most part were helpful and encouraging and mostly had nothing but good to say about it. With the exception of the one judge who indicated she did not like my heroine and did not care whether she lived or died.

Unfortunately my plans are not coming to fruition. The New Jersey contest finalists were to be notified by August 9th. Given that I have not been contacted, one can safely assume I did not make the finals.

This morning I awoke to a notice from the Heart of the Rockies contest informing me I did not make the cut there either. The scoresheets were attached, so I opened them (with trepidation - it was 6:30 am and who likes starting their day with bad news?). The first two scores were 99 and 92. They had nothing but good to say about the entry and no major concerns that required fixing and wished they could have read more. The third score was a 79. Ouch. The main concern here was that while I hinted at the scandal and gave some detail, by page 25 I still had not fully revealed what the scandal was. Also I used too many words ending in 'ly'. Points to consider, so I guess that's something. On the plus side, no one wanted to throw my heroine under a bus.

At this point, I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the last two remaining contests, but we'll see. It's frustrating, that feeling of banging at the door and never getting in. Actually, I feel more like I'm doing a full body slam against the door and just bouncing back onto the concrete walk.

I have made a few story tweaks since entering, shoring up the backstories to strengthen motivation and conflict, but alas these epiphanies occured too late to help me with the contests. Although none of the judges seemed to feel the GMC I had entered lacking, so who knows.

Perhaps contests are not the way for me. At least with this manuscript. It looks like I'll have to do things the old fashioned way and fire off my agent queries again and keep slogging away.

I think it is a testament to my complete lack of sanity that despite all of this, I'd still rather do this writing gig rather than the day job, which pays a decent salary and doesn't reject me at every turn. Perhaps I need a 12-step program for Gluttons of Punishment Anonymous.

A Mid-Summer Check-In

2010-07-20T08:03:00.005-03:00

I can't believe it's mid-summer already! Ack!!

Vacation is soooo close I can feel it. Just 4 working days left and then one week away to (hopefully) sunny Prince Edward Island. We rent a cottage there for one week in the summer and I am taking with me a stack of book as well as WIPs. One is just an idea and needs fleshing out, the other (Fractured Sight) needs work before I can continue. So while the Boy and J build sand castles on the beach, I plan on putting a dent in my TBR pile and working out the kinks in FS and/or outlining the new idea.

I'm continuing to work away at ITS, and the more I write it, the more excited I get about book two which bumps two of my secondary characters, Spence and Caelie into the starring roles. Spence has a disturbing phobia towards marriage, so much so he has just declared he would rather be sacrificed to the lava gods (he's recently back from a brief sojourn on the islands). Of course that comment now has my brain in overdrive while his backstory begins to form in my mind. I already know Caelie's backstory, which is rather heartbreaking at best. It will be fun piecing together how these two will get together and figure things out.

But first I need to finish ITS and get that fired off to agents. My goal for completing it has been pushed back. I'm giving myself until the end of September. I'm making good headway and things are falling into place, so hopefully that will be a doable deadline.

In the meantime, tonight I am meeting my critique partner, Pam Callow, for coffee so we can do a little catch up. She's been flitting about to one conference after another promoting her latest release DAMAGED and January's upcoming release INDEFENSIBLE which picks up a few months after Damaged ended.

What are everyone else's plans for the summer?

Rewriting the Novel

2010-06-24T08:06:00.004-03:00

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

2010-06-17T07:00:00.000-03:00

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

Fun with Trailers

2010-06-10T09:00:00.006-03:00

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....

2010-06-04T06:46:00.004-03:00

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!

2010-06-01T07:46:00.009-03:00

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:

Love, Romance & YouTube

2010-05-27T07:30:00.001-03:00

I'm blogging over at PopCultureDivas today about - you guessed it - love, romance and YouTube. Check it out!

Guest Blogger - Hank Quense

2010-05-19T09:00:00.001-03:00

Hank Quense, an author of humorous and satiric fantasy and sci-fi stories, is stopping by Dark & Stormy today to discuss his collection of twenty short stories called Tunnel Vision. Welcome Hank!

Can you briefly give us some background about yourself?
I was born a long time ago, married my wife, she gave birth to two daughters. I left my day job to write stories, my daughters gave birth to five grandkids. That's all that's important. I have over three dozen short stories and a few fiction writing articles that have been published. I also have a novel called Fool's Gold in print and ebook versions and an ebook on fiction writing Build a Better Story.

Let's get to Tunnel Vision: what's the hook?
I think my book blurb tells it best:
Live longer. Laughter is good for your health. Read this book and you may live longer. Unusual characters, settings both strange and familiar, and bizarre plots are a few of the things you'll experience and enjoy.

Aren't you tired of reading sci-fi and fantasy stories that take themselves too seriously? Well, you won't find any stories like that here. It doesn't take anything serious. Politicians, Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, the military, aliens, the undead, they all get cut down a notch or two.

What are your favorite stories in Tunnel Vision?
I have a couple. MacBeth the Sequel is one of them. I gave the Wryd Sisters a starring role in this one. They are out to save their pet Nessie from the Laird of the Loch. Lucy in Love is another. In this one, Lucretia Borgia and her father Pope Alexander VI are sent to modern-day Manhattan by Satan. Their mission is to increase Hell's market share of souls. Then there is Ida and undead chick who can't remember her last name. She's the catcher on an undead softball team that plays in a league in Central Park. This story is called Manhattan Monsters.

Do you have favorite characters in the book?
Of course. Besides the three mention in my last answer, I have a few others. Rhonda Mi nestra is one of them. She has been the protagonist in several of my stories. She works for her uncle who is a life-style consultant in Manhattan. The two of them are plagued by alien visitors and time-travelers. Zaftig the Magnificent is one of those aliens and another of my favorites.

Do these stories have a message or a common theme?
All the stories are about characters that have tunnel vision. We all have it to some degree, but my characters have it to an extraordinary degree. This overabundance of tunnel vision generates much of the humor as my characters react on surprising ways.

What's Fool's Gold about?
It's a retelling of the ancient myth about the Rhinegold. My version takes place in the future rather than in the Dark Ages. I also replace fantasy creatures with two different races of aliens. A Ring of Power? Forgetaboutit. Now it's a Chip of Power.

And Build a Better Story?
In this book, I describe how a process to put together a story. It's based on my own writing experiences and on critiquing hundreds of stories.

What do reviewers or readers say about the collection?
"Hank knows how to take the every day ordinary and twist it into a parallel universe of you-never-know-that-could-be sense of humor that keeps me hooked. Tunnel Vision is a collection of Hank's short stories, which make it easy to pick up on an e-reader (I use my Black Berry) and read a story during any "wait time". But be careful where you read; you could find yourself laughing out loud." This was written by Nanci Arvizu.

Does reading your stories have any possible side-effects?
A. I'm glad you asked that because there are precautions that should be taken by readers. First, check with your doctor to determine if you are healthy enough to take part in spontaneous laughter. Second, if you are suffering from a contagious disease such as the flu, wear a mask to limit the spread of airborne germs when you laugh out loud. Finally, no one should read my stories while driving a car or operating heavy machinery.

Where can folks learn more about you and your stories?
My website http://hankquense.com has a lot of stuff about me and my stories and my writing. My blog http://hankquense.com/blog has several new posts every week. I blog about my books, the characters I create, life in the modern world, book reviews and even an occasional rant.

Here is a link to a trailer for Lucy in Love, one of the stories in this collection

Upcoming New Release - DAMAGED by Pam Callow

2010-05-13T08:00:00.001-03:00

My own writing has hit the skids a bit of late. I floundered around for the first four months of the year working on my YA and hitting a brick wall. Apparently that’s what happens when all the other elements are working with the one fatal exception of your protagonist’s motivation. After a somewhat disastrous week of trying to figure it out I finally threw in the towel and called a cease fire. Time to shelve the book for now before I blow torch it and dance on its ashes.

In the meantime, I decided I should finish Invitation to Scandal since I’m thisclose to having it completed anyway. I’ve revised the beginning, dropping the horrendous cliché of my heroine twisting her ankle and requiring the hero’s assistance. I opted to throw her into the Serpentine instead. I’m looking at a few contests as well for both ITS and Salvation Falls, which Harlequin have had in their slush pile since last October.

But none of the above has to do with the title of this blog post. The title refers to my oh-so awesome critique partner, Pam Callow’s new release, Damaged, due out the first week in June. This is Pam’s first book, and the first book in the series and already the buzz is hot. Being her CP, I know why. I’ve had the pleasure of reading this book from its early stages to the end and let me tell you, it is amazing. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Here’s the blurbage on it:

Haunted by the death of her sister and wounded by her ex-fiancé’s accusations, Kate Lange throws herself into her new career at a high-powered law firm.

When the grandmother of a lonely private school student seeks her counsel, Kate thinks it’s just another custody case. But then the teen is brutally murdered. And it isn’t only Kate who wonders if her legal advice led to the girl’s death.

Put on notice by Randall Barrett, the firm’s charismatic managing partner, Kate must fight for her career, for her reputation-and for redemption.

Unwilling to live with the damage she may have caused, Kate pursues the case on her own and unearths some chilling facts.

Facts that lead straight to the heart of a legal conspiracy.

Facts that lead Kate directly into the surgically skilled hands of the Body Butcher.

Now here’s the visual (love the music on it!):

Guest Blogger - Pembroke Sinclair

2010-05-05T07:00:00.004-03:00

Please welcome Pembroke Sinclair who is swinging by to talk about her latest release:

Inspiration
by Pembroke Sinclair

Coming From Nowhere was originally conceived when I was a junior in high school, which was a long time ago. The main story has remained intact, but the book has gone through four MAJOR revisions. If you were to see the very first draft, you wouldn’t believe it turned into the final version. I was inspired by many different things, but mainly movies. The main ones were Star Wars (Episodes 4-6) and Blade Runner. It’s pretty evident how those two films shaped my book.

Like Star Wars and Blade Runner, my book focuses on the characters, mainly JD. Told in third person limited perspective, the reader learns about the world the characters live in through JD’s perspective. I chose to focus on her because she doesn’t understand her world. I have to build a new world on Mars and in the rest of the galaxy, one that the readers can understand. By using JD’s perspective, nothing is taken for granted. The reader learns, as she does, the different nuances of the places she goes and how to survive. She has the help of the other characters, but everything is fresh and new, just like it is to the readers.

One thing I strive to do in my books is to make my characters life-like. They have some characteristics that make them slightly above average, but they still have emotions and feelings. Even though JD is trained in a military academy, she still reacts to situations like a normal person: she gets angry and she even cries. She experiences love and loss and what it’s like to be betrayed. The other characters have flaws, too, and sometimes the line between the good and the bad is blurred. My hope is that readers will find a character they can relate to, which will make the book that much more enjoyable to read.

You can buy Coming From Nowhere on Amazon here, to learn more about me visit my website , or you can visit my publicist’s website at http://www.heetr.com/.

Guest Blogger - Robin Cain

2010-04-09T06:38:00.000-03:00

As a novelist with a newly published book, I now spend a great deal of my time doing things that are greatly annoying the forthcoming characters of my imagination. Instead of getting lost up in their joys and sorrows, I have to set them aside – literally put their journeys on hold – so that I can spend time introducing the world to the ones whose story now resides in book form. I tell you, they don’t like that one bit and they’re becoming quite vocal about it.

The already-brought-to-life characters of WHEN DREAMS BLEED, thrilled to now be out in the world, are just rubbing it in the faces of my new characters who sit cooling their heels, waiting to do the same. The new characters mumble and complain, pop into my head and distract me, waiting for their story to be told, while I spend my time booking social engagements for the others.

I have to tell you - it’s causing a great deal of angst among all of us.

The WHEN DREAMS BLEED characters, finally out of my head and living their own lives now, want nothing more than to be shared, experienced and introduced. Frank (the main character) tells me constantly that it’s HIS time to be on center stage and living large. After waiting nearly four years to be in print, his power hungry, Type-A personality wants his efforts recognized. Proud of his accomplishments and tenacity, he’s looking forward to being pretty smug. Despite his accident and the misery he’s caused others, he thinks he’s got it together now and wants to share it with the world.

Meanwhile, Sadie tells me that she just wants everyone to comprehend her reasons for doing what she did. She cries out for compassion and understanding of all she left behind; the decisions that nearly killed her. My heart still breaks for her.

Citra, on the other hand, frankly just doesn’t give a whole good gosh damn what anyone thinks. Self-absorbed and greedy, she’s only out for herself and willing to squash anyone and anything in her way. She is 100% convinced that everyone will agree with her actions. Frankly, she tells me, one would be a fool to not see it her way! She keeps telling me if it wasn’t for her their book wouldn’t be selling. Between you and me, I never liked that bitch, anyway.

Don’t get me wrong. My characters in WHEN DREAMS BLEED are nice people –at least in their own right. Honest. Yes, even Citra at times. No one would ever accuse of them of not being able to liven up a cocktail party, add interest to a lonely solitary night or not be remembered long after they’ve left the room. The lessons they’ve learned are good ones and all they want to do is share. Their actions have created a real page-turner and they are darn proud of it. If only they could just tell you themselves…

You see, each of them had dreams – dreams to be rich, dreams to be successful or dreams to be forever loved. Not unlike a lot of people, they thought happiness would be theirs…“if only”. Yet their dreams began to bleed – and for many of them, it was just a little too late.

So now they harp and whine and pester me in my sleep,
“Who are you telling about us now?”
“Where have you placed us?”
“You haven’t forgotten us, have you?”

They sit among the pages waiting to tell their story while just hounding me to get the word out. And at the same time, the new characters poke me on the shoulder, tap on my brain and wake me in the middle of the night…

“What about us?”
“When do we get our chance?”
“C’mon, leave those others to their own devices! We have a story to tell, too.”

Next time, I tell you, I’m making everyone far more self-sufficient…

©2010 Robin Cain

Best Laid Plans

2010-04-07T09:36:00.002-03:00

I should have made a list. I know better. When I have lots of things I want to accomplish, Step 1 is always make a list. But I didn’t. And now my four day weekend has breezed on by and I haven’t a thing to show for it.

The Writing Room in desperate need of a strategic reorganization now that Cedar's Dog Condo (aka a crate big enough to fit two Saint Bernards) has taken up residence in there? Overhaul still required. I didn’t even get the Goo Be Gone on the walls to clean them and put up the bulletin board.

The upstairs bathroom tub I’ve been complaining all week needs cleaning? Still needs cleaning.

The new Etsy photos I needed to take? In my mind they look absolutely fabulous. Sadly I can’t download those pixs.

The garden prep? Despite summer-like temperatures every day I didn’t do much more than yell at the dog to stop trying to pee in it.

So what did I do? Well, I did get some writing and revising done for Fractured Sight. I walked the dog a fair bit thanks to the beautiful weather. I ate copious amounts of chocolate (two big Lindt bunnies and some Easter eggs to be exact). And that was about it. Four days and that is all I accomplished.

I shoulda made a list…

Swing by again this coming Friday when I have guest blogger Robin Cain coming by.

Pop Culture Divas

2010-03-30T02:00:00.001-03:00

Find out what Saving the Cat, Shannen Doherty and A League of Their Own have in common over at PopCulture Divas today.

Guest Blogger - Lisa Campbell

2010-03-25T09:00:00.002-03:00

Schizophrenia and the Writer

or
What's that pervert doing behind the tree?

By Lisa Campbell

E.L. Doctorow once said, "Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." As a reader, I never understood. Now, as a writer, I agree with part of that quote, as I tend to live inside my head more often than not. I'm just not certain the way I go about the writing process is socially acceptable.

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes schizophrenia as "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life."

In the beginning, I had a problem with Doctorow's assertion until I dissected this statement and realized his quote wasn't too far off the mark. After all, those of us who write fiction, and romance in particular, spend a lot of time shaping characters, situations, and places in our imagination, agonizing over their fictional lives for days, months and sometimes years.

Now, before you shake your head in complete denial, check your concentration level the next time you study a couple sharing a passionate kiss. Ask yourself this question. Were you a bit more interested in cataloguing hand and lip placement for the upcoming first kiss scene in your manuscript, rather than giving the couple a passing glance? Uh-huh, thought so. Now that I have your attention, ask yourself another question. Do you find yourself falling off chairs, or skulking around corners to eavesdrop on private conversations for the sake of character development? What interests you more, the topic of the discussion, or the emotions behind it? If you have answered at least one of these questions, you, my fellow writer, are completely uninvolved within your external environment. Mmm-hmm… shocking, is it not?

A solitary person, I shy away from such behaviors in my un-writing life, and yet, I have no problem indulging in these dubious traits for the sake of my story. Therefore, I can safely assume this is writer's schizophrenia taking over. Now what, you may ask? Well, the next step should be admitting there is a problem, and finding a solution to correct the behavior before you wind up in an arraignment hearing.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to pin down such inappropriate actions if you're unaware of them. Enlisting the aid of family and friends is a proactive first step, though I have to admit my own husband isn't always useful in certain circumstances. He's a great help positioning himself between my subjects and me when he sees I'm sidling closer to a group, notepad at the ready, to record outbursts and the like. However, he's more than eager to parse a few love scenes when I want to confirm positions or pacing. In this instance, he supports my schizophrenia one hundred percent---and in the end that is all any of us wants; one special someone who understands, accepts, and supports the schizophrenic side of a writer's life.

Superstition's Desire:

The lush landscape of the Scottish Highlands holds great beauty, but also great peril. Therefore, when Lady Arabella Wyndmere is spirited away from her English home, she is right to fear for her heart and her welfare. Held to a deathbed vow, Laird Connal MacRae is honor-bound to deliver Lady Arabella unsullied, to his deposed older brother, as a prize to soothe his ego. Nevertheless, Connal cannot deny the burning ache the spirited beauty has awakened in him. However, something far more dangerous stalks from the shadows. And in a climate of treachery and betrayal; the greatest risk of all could be surrendering to the depth of feelings of unexpected love.

Bio: Lisa M. Campbell
I've traveled the world, lived on two continents and in eleven cities. I've met my childhood hero, twice. I wore a uniform during wartime, though I never fired a shot. Thanks to my husband, I've flown an airplane. I'm a wife, and mother. I'm owned by two crazy cattle dogs, both of which I rescued from puppy prison. Right now I live in the beautiful Black Hills, the Oglala Sioux call Paha Sapa. I have a Celtic Connection with a Gaelic speaking friend. I write what I love to read.

Guest Blogger - Sara Taney Humphreys

2010-03-22T20:21:00.004-03:00

I'd like to welcome Sara Taney Humphreys. She's blogging today about the Musical Marketing Muse.

Musical Marketing Muse

Soundtracks for movies and television shows are standard. In fact, a really great movie or show is often instantly associated with kick ass music. Well thanks to my old college buddy and DJ John Campbell...I found the soundtrack for Book 2 in my shifter series.

Actually, I had been in a major writing rut. Completely blocked. Book 2, Amoveo Heart was not coming to me as easily as the first book did. At any rate, John wanted to interview me on his weekly radio show and had gotten some musicians who were willing to let me use their music as an intro for the interview. He sent me the links and the second song I listened to stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe it. It was as though this song was written just for the heroine in Book 2. Amazing! The combination of the lyrics and her hauntingly beautiful voice were absolute perfection. I immediately contacted the artist and asked if I could use her song for Amoveo Heart's book trailer. Gratefully both she and her record label said yes!

Then I had an idea to take it a step further. Luckily, she is located not far from me and as a new musician is looking for new opportunities for exposure. Why not have her play at my book launch/signing? Gratefully she agreed. Amy played at a couple of my book signing events and it really brought a great bit of texture to the signings.

The song that sparked my creative juices and woke up my muse is called "Honey on the Skin". You can find Amy Petty and her spectacular music on her website .
.
John connected me with another awesome musical muse. The Strike Nineteens. TSN are a band of adorable guys from Scotland. Ladies...think William Wallace/Braveheart accent....yummy. Their music is gritty and intense. These darlings actually wrote me two songs! One of which will be on their new album "Screams for Denver" which will be released this Spring. I look forward to checking them out LIVE when they come to the USA later this year.

You can check out their music at here.

Cross marketing with music is fun and a little outside the box...just the way I like it.

Sara Taney Humphreys

Busy Little Bee

2010-03-19T11:50:00.002-03:00

I’ve had a very productive writing week and finally feel like I’m making some headway. Using Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet, I worked out the scene by scene outline for my YA novel, Fractured Sight. Then I moved on and did the same with one of my historicals awaiting revision, Invitation to Scandal (which turned out to be in pretty good shape) and the second book in the Brimstone series, Saving Grace (needs work).

Next week is when the hard work starts. I have to go in and using the tools I learned from Donald Maass’s Putting Fire In Your Fiction, start my scene by scene revisions for Fractured Sight.

Thankfully, doing the Beat Sheet allowed me to see where I had some issues, make a few scene changes and additions, juggle things around and realize the ending I had should be the ending in Book 3, not Book 1. I wondered why I couldn’t figure out where things went after Book1…well, that’s why. I need to do the story in increments, saving the big finish for Book 3. Book 1 and 2 will be the lead in to getting there, the build up. Each will have a stand alone story in it that builds up to the final book.

I’m hoping I can finish the revisions in eight weeks, but it will mean a lot of head down, nose to the grindstone, hard work.

By the way, just a heads up. I’ll have two guest bloggers next week: Sarah Taney Humphreys and Lisa Campbell so stay tuned for that.

Give Me Freedom

2010-03-10T14:29:00.009-04:00

We have had a beautiful stretch of weather. And when I say stretch, I mean 4 days in a row, which in Nova Scotia is akin to a miracle since the weather has a way of changing every five minutes. The problem with this is that you can sense Spring in the air.

That's right, I said problem.

You see, as soon as the weather improves, I get antsy. Big time antsy. As in I want to quit my day job, jump in my car and just drive and drive and drive until I’m so far away I don’t know where I am anymore. Granted with my sense of direction that would take me all of five minutes to achieve but you know what I mean. I want my freedom. I crave it. And it is a daily chore to not say ‘to hell with everything’ and chase after it like my very life depended on it.

That’s not to say I’d chuck everything. I’d keep my house and the hot guy living in it. The dog would stay. Maybe what I really crave is the freedom from responsibility. I know I’m a Capricorn and responsibility is deeply encoded into our astrological DNA, but I must have a recessive gene in there somewhere. The psychic I go to every year told me I have a progressed Sagittarius in my chart which makes me a bit of a gypsy. Maybe that’s what causes this need to throw caution to the wind and hit the open road.

Whatever it is, once the weather even hints at getting warmer, or someone mouths the words 'my crocuses have started to bloom' I have to start reminding myself that I have a mortgage to pay and debt to get rid of and a car payment due and until I can make a living from writing I have to keep slogging away at the salt mines.

But I’m not happy about. Not happy at all.

I think if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have tied myself down so much. I would have left my ability to get up and go where and when I please more open.

Sigh...hindsight...it's a hell of a thing.

I'm With The Divas Today!

2010-02-26T11:29:00.002-04:00

I'm blogging over at Pop Culture Divas today on a different kind of creativity.

Mired in the Muck

2010-02-18T11:11:00.002-04:00

Revisions. The scourge that they are. To be honest, I have a love / hate relationship with revisions. I love taking the lump of words and reworking them into something coherent. But by the time the second run of revisions comes around, I just want to move on and do something new. I do not want to slog through the story all over again and fix all the things I missed in the first set of revisions. I want to put the story to bed so I can start sending it out into the big, bad world and then move on.

But alas, if I were to send it out too early I would be wasting my time and the editor or agent’s. And there in lies the crux of the problem. I get frustrated with my inability to pump out a pristine manuscript with only one set of revisions. I want to tear my hair out if it requires a third. Don’t even get me started on what happens when I know I am likely looking at a fourth. Possibly fifth.

I know its all part of the process. Every writer goes through it. Guaranteed we spend far more time revising than we do writing the initial first draft. That’s where the work comes in. The first draft is like play. New people, new places, new discoveries. The revision is when you take all that play and try to form it into something workable. Something someone wants to buy.

I’m in revision hell right now. It’s only the first revision and I see at least two more in my future. Right now I’m just re-piecing the story together after the frenzied writing of NaNo. Moving things around, taking out what isn’t needed, changing characters and arcs and motivations. I always feel disconnected from the characters during the first set of revisions. I’m looking more at the technical aspects – is the plot in the right order mostly. Later, in the read through (before the…sigh…next round) I’ll hopefully reconnect. But right now they have become strangers to me.

Happy Anniversary

2010-02-08T15:31:00.005-04:00

Today is my 2 year anniversary with the BF. We had planned on celebrating at Hamachi House last night after my RWAC meeting but as luck would have it, the poor guy spent the day in bed sick as a dog. Needless to say we put dinner off (unless you count the yogurt and tea he managed to get down around 8 pm). We’ll exchange gifts and cards tonight and do dinner next Sunday if we can get a reservation, given that it’s Valentine’s Day and all.

The BF and I make a habit of wishing each other happy anniversary the 8th of every month. Maybe it’s a bit cheesy (my sister’s comment: ‘oh you still celebrate each month’ in a pandering tone that clearly said – ‘how cute’), but I think it’s important. It was a big day for both of us as we knew right from the get go (having been friends for nearly 2 years previous to this) that we were in this for the long haul and that it would be something significant. Neither of us took that lightly.

And given the roller coaster ride life has put the two of us on the past two years, celebrating that we made it with all the odds that kept stacking against us seems a small thing indeed. I hope even after we’re married we keep celebrating the 8th of every month. I think those little things are important and should never be overlooked because you're busy, or you think it doesn't matter.

Do you and your significant other celebrate any special dates?

Also, if you're interested, I've updated the Duly Knitted blog today as well.

Turning Creativity Into Cash

2010-02-04T09:47:00.007-04:00

I’ve decided to set up a blog to help promote my Etsy shop now that I’ve decided to get things rolling again and start adding items for sale. Feel free to check it out: it’s called Duly Knitted.

First I had to determine if I had the time to do this what with the writing, the day job, the new puppy, home life. Because I am completely insane, I decided that yes, I did have the time so why not try and bring in a little extra income to fund my habit.

However, much like writing, setting up shop isn’t just about what lands on the printed page – or slips off the ends of the needles. There’s promo involved, time needed to take photos of the product to its best possible advantage (something I’m still working with but I have some ideas…), different sites to network on, etc.

But what the heck. I’d be knitting anyway, and since I can’t possibly keep all the stuff I knit (I only have so much closet space), I might as well try to sell it. Besides, like my writing, I get way more done if I have a goal, and populating my shop with quality knit goods seems as good a goal as any.

To that end, I am enrolling in a two-day knitting course at a local yarn shop, The Loop, which runs over two Sundays to better get a handle on intarsia knitting. I’m also designing some of my own patterns which isn’t quite as difficult as I thought it would be, but I reserve the right to change my mind on that when I start getting into more intricate patterns.

Meanwhile, back in Revision Land, I am not sure whether or not the first third of my YA is working. I have a fair bit happening, but a lot of it is set up. Which is required but I’m concerned I might be dragging it out for too long. I’ve decided to keep going, tighten up where I can, and then go back and figure out if the pacing works when I do the read through. Hopefully I’m not as far off the mark as I feel right now.

The pup starts obedience training next Tuesday. I’m looking forward to that. He’s a pretty smart dog. So far he’ll sit and stay and come. But the mouthing of limbs needs to get under control and walking him where he isn’t rushing ahead practically choking himself needs to be addressed. Ah, the joys of puppyhood. There’s a reason they’re so cute, you know…

Meet Cedar

2010-01-27T16:10:00.006-04:00

I did plan on doing a longer post this week, but between puppy training, knitting, re-setting up my Etsy shop (might as well try and sell some of the knitted items to make money to buy more yarn...) and revising Fractured Sight I've been pretty busy. So I will leave you with some puppy pixs of the new addition for the time being...

The Knitting Bug

2010-01-19T11:28:00.004-04:00

I’m a knitter. My house has a yarn stash that’s big enough to open my own shop. And this is after I’ve culled through it and handed off at least half the stash to friends and family.

But so far my knitting has been strictly basic items. Scarves are a favourite, along with mitts, socks, afghans, hats, dishcloths, baby items and some Christmas ornaments. I really haven’t ventured too far beyond that though I have always wanted to. But part of me always balked. I don’t have time, it’s pretty confusing, I don’t understand the directions. All these things would run through my head and in the end I would go with what I knew and told myself I’d get to the other stuff at another time.

The other stuff being sweaters and intarsia knitting.

Last year I didn’t do a whole lot of knitting. I lost the urge, overwhelmed with other commitments and life in general. But as Christmas approached I had to get on the stick (or sticks I guess, in this case) because I had planned on doing several projects as gifts. And the more I did, the more the bug re-bit me. My love of knitting that had taken a back seat for the past year resurrected itself with a vengeance.

Adding to this, I received a copy of Kate Jacob’s Friday Night Knitting Club and, well, that was it. I have to knit. Now. All the time. I think about it at work and try to figure out how I could smuggle the needles in and work on a project without anyone noticing…not really doable, but oh if it was…

So this year, since the knitting bug has re-bit, I have decided its time to learn how to make a sweater and how to do intarsia. I’ll start off small and drive my mother crazy while she tries to teach me the ins and outs. I’m itchy to get started, but first I promised myself I would finish the scarf I had started last year. It’s made of this very fine specialty yarn and knit on small needles, but it’s a basic garter stitch so I should be able to finish it in a week or so if I dedicate the time and can figure out a way to do it without the new canine deciding he wants to get a piece of it.

Speaking of the new canine, Cedar has settled in quite nicely. And I realized this morning I had inadvertently taught him how to sit. I’m not sure how or when this happened but after telling him to sit several times this morning and having him obey I didn’t question it. Now, if I could only get him to stop mouthing everything…

How Should You Stay Warm?

2010-01-18T16:26:00.002-04:00

It's my birthday today and while I had planned on doing a post, time just got away from me, so instead, I decided to do a quiz. Let me know what you end up with.

You Should Stay Warm by Building a Fire

You are an independent, self starting type of person. You are quick to act and make decisions.

You wouldn't just sit around and be cold... you'd make sure and do something about it.

You are a natural leader. You like to be around other people, and you usually end up directing things.

You are usually fearless. And when you are afraid, you try to confront your fears. You aren't about to be intimidated by a bit of fire.

How Should You Stay Warm?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Book Review - Whitefeather's Woman by Deb Hale

2010-01-12T10:06:00.004-04:00

There's nothing that warms up a cold winter like a great read from one of my favorite authors, Deb Hale.

Whitefeather’s Woman, a Harlequin release, is an engaging fish out of water story right from page one, taking big city girl, Jane, and throwing her into the wilds of Montana in the hopes of escaping her abusive fiancé. Throw into the mix a blue-eyed, handsome hero in the form of John Whitefeather whose past comes with its own set of scars (and who doesn't love a scarred hero??) and you have the start of a great story. John’s strength and his gentle nature along with Jane’s never-give-up attitude prove a winning combination. The violence in their respective pasts provide the common bond that they can build a lasting relationship on. And they’ll need it as the story unfolds and the path to true love does not necessarily run smoothly.

Deb Hale writes emotionally packed, gripping stories that leave you turning one page after another until you reach the end. Do yourself a favor this wintery season – pick up a copy of this book, pour yourself a hot drink, find a quiet place, and give yourself a gift of a great story.

Beat Sheets, Pot Holes & Puppies

2010-01-08T09:28:00.008-04:00

I’m still working away on the revisions for Fractured Sight, my YA novel. Using Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet has proven to be a huge help in keeping my page count down, my pacing in forward motion with all its required highs and lows, my character arcs on track, and my plot holes plugged. It’s hard work trying to figure out where to put scenes for maximum benefit and sadly, saying good-bye to scenes that just don’t work to the benefit of the story, but I think in the end I will have a better book because of it.

So I continue to slog away and wrangle my story into submission. I had a great breakthrough on the plot this morning as well as the best way to work the whole structure so that it will feed into a series rather than a stand alone book.

Meanwhile, back in Every Day Land, my car is making a strange sound – somewhere between a clunking and a rattle. We’re pretty sure it’s the brakes, but I think the sound is coming from my back driver’s side and my significant other (hereto for referred to as the SO) is convinced it is from the driver’s side front end. I’ve decided to leave it up to the professionals, although explaining the sound to them over the phone made me feel like a bit of an idiot. I’m sure my podmates thought I had lost my mind. However I think my warranty on the brakes runs out next month, so regardless of how foolish I appear, I figured I better get that sucker in before the cash came out of my pocket.

And speaking of cash out of my pocket, mid-month is fast approaching which means the puppy comes home soon! We had a last minute change after visiting the breeder. We had originally picked out a female so pale she was almost white, but when we went to see the puppies first hand we fell in love with a big bundle of boy who melted in your arms when you picked him up.

It’s hard to believe I’m going to have a puppy again. I have some anxiety that I’ve forgotten everything Cooper taught me. It’s been 15 years since I’ve raised a puppy and I really had no clue what I was doing then. Granted I learned as I went, and Coop was a great teacher, but I still have a bit of a fear that I’ll screw it all up and make a mess of things. Which is foolish. All my dogs have been well trained and well behaved. I need to stop worrying.

And I can't remember if I mentioned in my last post but I became an aunt again for the 6th time. My newest nephew, Gabriel Xavier, was born December 17th but had to stay in the NICU for a little bit. My sister surprised everyone when he was released on Christmas Day and she showed up to Christmas dinner with three kids instead of two. Below is a pix of me and the other two, Maggie (wearing my hat) and Malcolm in front of tree, George. Yes... my sister names her Christmas Tree every year.

Saving Cats

2010-01-05T07:48:00.005-04:00

Over the holidays I read Blake Snyder's, Saving the Cat. It was a bit of an eye opener as far as how to plot out a story. The part I liked the best was his use of the index cards. He breaks it down between three acts and each card indicates a scene. Within each scene there has to be a conflict and an emotional arc. Then the index cards get put up on a bulletin board. Ten cards for Act I; ten cards for part one of Act II which takes you to the midpoint; ten more for the second part of Act II; and then of course the final ten cards for Act III - 40 scenes in total. Granted, he is referring to screenplays in his book, but the method translates into any form of storytelling and has really helped me look at things differently.

Not only has it made me look at things differently, it also got the creative juices flowing again and the idea I originally toyed with of taking a leisurely year to just 'hone my craft' was tossed out the window and the need to really use this method and put a push on to revise previous manuscripts and write new ones quickly replaced it.

Right now I am back to revising the NaNoWriMo first draft of my young adult novel. I'm seeing holes already using this method. Not surprising given that it was a first draft and a NaNo book - which meant lots of writing through, around or over the holes.

My goals for 2010 are pretty ambitious. Revise three manuscripts, write the first draft of two more, agent hunt and get a publishing contract. I threw the last one in there as I was writing my goals realizing I had never actually put that one down before. Maybe having it there in writing will make a difference this year. Guess we'll find out.

Let the games begin.

Re-focusing for 2010

2009-12-15T11:07:00.005-04:00

This year was really busy. Kind of insane, really. When I look at everything I had to deal with in 2009 I sometimes wonder how I got through to the other end with my mental status still registering normal. Well…normal for me, anyway.

However, the year is almost at an end, and despite all the brouhaha kicked up in the past twelve months, the lack of publishing success, the questioning of my goals – in writing, life, etc (you name it, I questioned it), the belief that I was living under a dark cloud that kept chasing me everywhere I went, I am actually looking forward to the holidays.

And not because that means 2009 is almost at an end. I made the mistake of saying at the end of a rather trying 2008 that I should look on the bright side – 2009 couldn’t be any worse. Then the sh*t storm that was 2009 hit and, well, I learned that yes, Kelly, it could get worse.

I also learned that what doesn’t kill you makes you scarred and bitter and angry. Oh no, wait, no…that wasn’t it…hang on, I wrote it down here somewhere…just give me a minute…ah, here it is: it makes you stronger. Hm. Well okay then. I suppose it beats the alternative. Not to mention much more attractive than scarred, bitter and angry.

So I will not say 2010 cannot possibly get any worse. I’ve learned my lesson on that account and there’s no point in throwing that challenge out to the karma gods yet again.

But I will tell you what 2010 will be. It will be a year of re-focusing. Of getting my head back in the game. And even more importantly, getting my heart back in the game. Re-discovering my joy of writing, the rush of can’t-get-to-the-keyboard-fast-enough, the wonderful play of words and ideas and emotions. And the craft. I think the past two years I got so caught up in the business of writing, I forgot to have fun. I forgot about the craft.

I forgot that I love to do this and can’t imagine any other alternative.

Given all of that, 2010 shall henceforth be dubbed the Year of Re-focusing. Actually that sounds kind of blah. How about The Year of New Beginnings? I like that better.

This year, I’m going to play. With words, with ideas, with new genres. I’m going to invest my time in the craft and improving my skills and rediscovering why I do this and why I can’t not do this. I’m also going to update my blog more regularly. Hopefully once a week. I swear.

And speaking of new beginnings, I’m starting off the new year with a new addition. A fur-baby in the form of a fuzzy golden retriever pup who will be ready to bring home on my birthday in mid January. And this time, I don’t care what catastrophe befalls me, this puppy is going to stay.

Beware the Mall Zombie

2009-12-14T09:31:00.002-04:00

I'm blogging over at Pop Culture Divas today on ways to avoid the Mall Zombies. Check it out!

FINISHED!!

2009-11-27T07:29:00.004-04:00

Woo HOO!!!

50,292 words in 27 days. I am done. Stick a fork in me.

*falls forward into keyboard with a resounding 'thunk'*

Madness Descends

2009-10-31T09:06:00.000-03:00

This time tomorrow I will be madly typing away. That’s right boys and girls, tomorrow is November 1st, official start date for the month long madness that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is my third year participating and I’m happy to say the previous two years I’ve managed to meet then exceed the 50,000 word count. I’m hoping this year goes equally as well although the idea I’m working from is a different genre and has a bit of a more complicated story line. And I’m writing in first person, which I normally don’t do. Not sure if I’ll stick with that. I might get two pages in and ditch it for third person.

But I digress.

In preparation for this monumental month of mayhem, I do a few things every year that may seem odd to some.

For starters, I buy a new notebook. Now this may not seem odd to most writers, after all I’m starting a new project. But this notebook will not be used for the NaNo project. I already have a notebook half filled for that. No, this notebook will sit in the stack of other notebooks (I admit, there are a number of them and I needed another like a hole in the head) until some later date. But it sure is pretty. Hard sturdy back cover and a very pretty red cover with white swirls on it.

Then, I do up a monthly calendar to figure out what is going on that month. Not that it matters really because all my writing is done between 6:00 am to 8:15 am and I don’t schedule any appointments during this time, so… I don’t know, but the calendar gets colour coded and slapped on the refrigerator door. There’s something about a schedule that makes me feel calm.

And thirdly, and this is perhaps the most weird of the preparatory to dos – I cut my nails. Stop screwing up your faces. This makes perfect sense. I type much faster with short nails. I make fewer mistakes. There is a significant difference in word count when my nails are short and sailing across the keyboard unfettered then when they are longer and clacking away at the keys in an annoying fashion. Trust me.

So there you have it. I have my notebook, my calendar is on the fridge, and my newly buffed short nails are ready to fly.

If anyone else is signing up for NaNo, feel free to add me as a friend. You’ll find me under lochbriar.

Good luck NaNo-ers!

The Dreaded "R" Word

2009-10-30T07:12:00.004-03:00

Come on over to Pop Culture Divas where I'm blogging about the dreaded "R" word - Rejection.

Rejuvenation!

2009-10-20T09:33:00.006-03:00

The writing gang (aka 10 members of the RWAC chapter) converged on White Point Beach this past weekend for our annual Writers’ Retreat. Each year we rent a private cottage on the resort that sleeps about 10 and we spend Friday-Sunday writing our little hearts out. Not to say writing is the only thing we do. We also do brainstorming sessions, writing exercises, plenty of eating, movie watching (for inspiration of course), and wine drinking.

This year’s format allowed for more writing time, so I had lots of opportunity to work on the two new manuscripts I’ve decided to concentrate on and figure out which one will be the chosen one for NaNo. I had intended on working on a contemporary story with romantic elements, but I think I will save that one for the new year and use the YA paranormal for NaNo. It means a lot of work trying to get the structure of the book outlined and the characters figured out before November 1st, so I’m hustling my butt and my brain, and the retreat gave me the opportunity to do both.

The retreat always rejuvenates me and as soon as we leave I’m already looking forward to next year’s.

Below are some pixs of retreat that Julia took. Mine are still languishing on my digi-cam and will hopefully get downloaded this weekend when I find a spare minute.

Meanwhile, in other news – we’re still waiting to hear if we are getting a pup from the current litter the breeder has or the next one. I’m really hoping for this one, but if it doesn’t happen, guess there’s not much I can do but wait until the next one. I’m really happy with this breeder and her dogs and definitely want one of them.

In preparation however, we did get the kitchen and hallway floors redone and now have the ugly peeling linoleum gone, gone, gone replaced by lovely new ceramic tile. Which is very cold in the morning, but oh so pretty to look at.

It was REALLY chilly when Julia and I arrived. We were the first ones there and the heat was turned off, so we had to bundle up until things got warmer.

This must be where I'm regaling everyone with my brilliantly constructed plot. Or where I killed the clown. I forget. Either way, they're obviously riveted.

Me and Julia imbibing during dinner. I did mention there was wine drinking. : )

The Great Re-evaluation of 2009

2009-10-05T09:55:00.002-03:00

Well, I managed a second place finish in the Toronto Golden Opportunity contest, breaking my past winning streak with this contest. And sadly, no request from Leis Pederson despite the 8/10 rating. Unfortunately there were no comments on the scoresheet from her so I have no idea why she chose not to pick it up for further inspection. I’ll tell myself it was due to timing and economy.

To be honest, while disappointed, I wasn’t crushed. You see, for the past little while I just haven’t been feeling things writing-wise. It’s almost like I’ve just been going through the motions. Yesterday, before the contest results came in, I started giving it some thought. Did I want to give up on writing? That was a resounding no. For one, I really have no back-up plan. There is nothing else I want to do. This is it for me. But when I asked myself did I want to keep writing historical romance, well that answer wasn’t quite so clear.

The problem I’m having right now is the trends in the market. You keep hearing how editors want that ‘sexy historical’. They want you to try something different. But by different, they don’t really mean a new setting, a new time period, a new anything really other than a new way to fit more sex into the book. At least that has been my take on it based on the information and feedback I keep getting. It is beginning to feel like more sex, less story. And I prefer the opposite – more story, and sex only when it is appropriate to the story and the characters.

It seems to me the parameters of what is acceptable are getting narrower, not broader. The timeframes continue to be mostly restricted to Regency (getting the lion’s share), Victorian, and those Scottish highlanders, with maybe a little medieval thrown in from time to time.

When I originally started writing historical it was because of the variety. I was excited that I could pick and choose from a vast array of times and settings. Along with the usual – Regency, Victorian and the Scots, there were also Cowboys and the Civil War, the American and French Revolutions. Crusading knights and medieval lords. Pirates even! Where have they gone?

Anyway, my point is, this has all led me to re-evaluate what I want to be doing. Lately, I have had the urge to write something deeper. Something more from my gut. Grittier, more emotional maybe. I'm not entirely sure what.

So I have decided to put my regular writing on hold for the month of October. I am going to play around with some new ideas and see what I come up with for NaNo. I’ll resume the edits on Invitation to Scandal in December. I still like that story – I still like all the historicals I’ve written. I’m just not sure they are what the market is looking for. But I’ll do the editor/agent search in December either way and see what happens.

As for next year, that depends on what happens with the manuscripts I have out for submission right now, but my current plan is to not worry so much about pumping out the manuscripts to add to my inventory, but instead to take the year and work on a book I love, maybe take the time to do some thorough research and write historical mainstream, or develop the YA novel I’ve been toying with for the past few years. Or maybe I’ll work on a contemporary story with romantic elements. Who knows? Whatever it is, it’ll be a story I want to tell the way I want to tell it.

Poking My Head Up

2009-09-28T07:54:00.004-03:00

It has been a busy month for me, hence my lingering absence on the blog. I keep waiting for things to calm down but I think I'm beginning to realize calm is a relative term. So I am attempting to find a balance between all the things that need to get done, and all the things I want to do. Oddly these are often two very separate lists with little overlap.

The past year has been one fraught with ups and downs. Between illnesses (mine and others), family issues, sick children, getting a dog, giving the dog away, forgoing my single life and living in sin, uncertainty at work, writing, rejection, placing in contests, and still feeling as if I'm slogging away and making little progress, and realizing there really are never enough hours in the day, I am one exhausted (albeit resilient) individual.

I would love to take a week and get away from it all but unfortunately with one of the issues being an ill child, any trips have been put off until next year.

But slowly things are improving. The child is doing well. Big sigh of relief. I was thankfully given the diagnosis that I do not have MS, another big sigh of relief that was seven months coming. And though we had to give up the pup, we now have another one on the way, scheduled to be born September 30th, which means a bring home date of around end of November. And I don't care what catastrophe befalls us this time, that dog isn't going anywhere!

The writing is coming along. I had awesome comments from the Toronto judges, which was very satisfying. The Indiana contest was not too helpful. I had two judges but their comments were almost diametrically opposite. What one liked the other didn't and vice versa. I have one more contest entry out there, so we'll see how that one does.

I have also decided not to enter the GH this year. I was planning on it, but now that going to Nashville is probably just a pipedream due to finances, I am going to hold off and not rush my revisions to get the manuscript ready for the deadline. I'll work on them in October and December, taking November off to do NaNoWriMo and hammer out a first draft of something new.

What that new thing will be, I have no idea. I suppose I could do Book 2 in one of my two series but I would really like to venture out into somewhere different. A different time period, a different setting, even a different genre maybe, I don't know. But I better hurry up. I like to have my outline ready by November 1st and I'm still stumped on an idea. Hopefully our writers' retreat Oct 16-18 will help loosen the creative muscle and pump out a new idea.

I also realized that Christmas is only three months away, which naturally, like every year before it, means my knitting projects are far from being finished and I need to get my proverbial butt in gear.

The cake decorating course is going good. Unfortunately, due to a day surgery procedure I need to have done, I am going to missing the last class of Course I. So unless I can slip into another class that isn't fully booked to make up that last class, I won't get my certificate. So I'll have to figure something out because I'm starting Course II the following week.

And there you have it, the latest update of what's going on in my little world.

If I Knew You Were Coming...

2009-09-10T07:38:00.002-03:00

I am over at Pop Culture Divas blogging about cakes, cooking and what happens when I get an idea in my head...

I'm Still Here!

2009-08-24T07:46:00.003-03:00

I have not forgotten I have a blog - I swear! But the powers that be have blocked a bunch of websites at work so being able to post in my downtime or lunch hour has been curtailed and I didn't want to cut into my writing time since I'm trying to get revisions completed on both Salvation Falls and Invitation to Scandal before NaNo begins in November.

I'm still pondering what book to write for NaNo this year, but I'm leaning towards either Book 2 in the Brimstone series or Book 2 in the Invitation to Scandal series, just to give me a bit of a jump should one of those books get picked up for contract.

A bit of good news: I received a call last Thursday that I made the finals for Toronto RWA's Original Golden Opportunity Contest. My marks were 100, 100 and 98, which I was really pleased with. And when I say really pleased, I mean through the roof thrilled beyond belief. I wasn't sure how this book would be received. It was last year's NaNo book and maybe because the pieces all fell into place too easily I was wondering if maybe I was missing something. I had the top preliminary score in my category which also was a much needed boost in the writing mojo. Granted, that preliminary score means nothing when it goes to the final judge (Editor, Leis Pederson, Berkley), but it's nice to know the story did its job so far.

Leis Pederson was the final judge when I entered Brimstone. The manuscript is still with her, so I'm hoping maybe, just maybe, getting another dose of my writing might help with respect to having her take a look at that and make a decision. Preferably one that comes with a contract.

Meanwhile - I have resent Brimstone to Kensington. Hilary Sares had originally requested it but she has since left. I sent off a letter inquiring on the status and received a letter back indicating they didn't have a record of the request but please resend it and they would have a look. So off it went. Today I am sending The Outlaw Bride off to Harlequin Historical. Then it is back to revisions starting tomorrow.

Other than that, the vacation in PEI was awesome, Hurricane Bill managed to pass through town yesterday with minimal upheaval and no power outages at my end. And today I have the exciting prospect of having 10 years of top soil being delivered which will be shoveled when I get home. Oh joy...

In the Infamous Words of the Go-Gos...

2009-07-31T10:59:00.006-03:00

Vacation all I ever wanted! Ah yes, I am going on vacation. Finally. I have been counting down the days for about two months now. I so need a break from the every day. So early tomorrow morning I will be off to the great Island of Prince Edward. I haven’t been there since I was about 9 years old.

I am taking with me about six different books to read, one full manuscript (Salvation Falls) to read through and edit and write the synopsis for, my netbook so I don’t have to write everything longhand, and my notebook jammed full of ideas, some on loose pieces of paper shoved between the pages. I’m hoping to decide, or at least narrow down, which idea will get fleshed out and outlined for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

I’m also taking my yoga mat so I can get in a daily workout (or just simply find some zen moments on the beach).

By the way, I finally got to watch the movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion the other night and loved it! I’ll have to reread that book again.

Hope everyone’s summer is going great and I’ll check back in with everyone upon my return next weekend!

Oh, and one last thing – you may have noticed I took a break from blogging over on Pop Culture Divas (formerly Miss Make A Movie). But starting in September I’ll be back to my usual monthly post over there. In the meantime, check it out – we have a new post every weekday and traffic has been increasing steadily.

When Hollywood Calls

2009-07-21T10:06:00.006-03:00

No, sadly, Hollywood hasn’t called. Yet. Like my eternal optimism? I haven’t even signed a publishing contract and already I’m eyeballing Hollywood and dreaming of selling my books to the big and/or small screen. I remember being 9 years old and telling my mother I was going to move to Hollywood and become an actress. She threatened to disown me if I did. But seeing how supportive she is of my writing career, I’m pretty sure she’d be okay if I got in this way.

But once again, I digress. The Hollywood I’m speaking off is of the fictional kind. I was skimming through (meaning reading in wide eyed fascination) People.com and out of nowhere this idea begins to percolate. At first it was just a ‘huh, isn’t that a funny situation’ kind of thought, but as most writers know, sometimes that’s all you need. The next thing I know I have a cast of characters long enough to fill an entire season of Grey’s Anatomy (guest stars included) banging on my mental door demanding an audition.

Then as I zip over to TMZ.com I’m assaulted by more entertainment news which fuels more ideas and before I know it I have too many characters and situations to deal with.

So I do what any half-crazed, idea-soaked writer would do. I grab a new notebook and start scribbling like a mad woman every idea that pops into my cranium. I’m jotting down back stories with no idea which character they belong to, situations with no clue as to which poor sap will end up mired in them. And most importantly, I’m feeling this rush of excitement and glee at the prospect of finding out.

Granted, the Hollywood scene is a far distant cry from early Victorian England or the Old West, but I did say I wanted to branch out and try new things. So, while I finish up revisions on Salvation Falls before heading off to vacation, I will keep jotting down the ideas on the Hollywood novel, currently titled “All That Glitters” and see where it takes me.

A Break with Romance

2009-07-07T09:31:00.005-03:00

I am taking a break from romance. Reading, not writing. Although I am also branching out into other areas of writing as well with a shift to more mainstream historical fiction and, of all things, children’s books. Then there’s that crime/legal thriller that’s been kicking around in my cranium for a little over a year now…

But I digress.

You see, here’s the thing. Firstly, I love historical romance. It combines all the elements that interest me – history, adventure, relationships. But lately, that’s all I’ve been reading, and I’m discovering that sometimes too much of a good thing is not such a good thing. Even my favourite authors who never fail to keep me glued to the page are not doing the trick. I don’t feel the same joy I normally feel when I delve into a new story. And it isn’t because the book is not a good book, it’s simply because I am craving something different. Like I overfed on Caesar salad and now I’d sell my own mother down the river just to have a taste of Greek.

Okay, I wouldn’t actually sell my mother down the river. I like my mother. She’s highly entertaining, survived having me as a daughter, and makes the most amazing apple crisp. But you get my drift. I want something different. In reading material, not mothers, that is.

And it isn’t as if I don’t have a bevy of books to choose from. My TBR pile has a plethora of selection. Granted about 65% of that selection is historical romance, but I also have plenty of historical fiction, fantasy, literary and a few contemporary. I have authors like Ken Follett, Anne Bishop, Emma Donoghue, and Marisa De los Santos sitting on my shelf. I have classics like Middlemarch and North and South waiting to be picked up. I have a few borrowed books I’m sure my critique partner would like to get back that are completely outside the norm of what I would normally read but still look interesting.

So here is what I’m doing – for the rest of the summer I am going on a self-imposed hiatus from historical romance. I will start working my way through the other 35% of my TBR pile. I will rediscover my joy of a good story well told in genres outside my usual comfort zone. My imagination is feeling the need to expand and reach beyond its boundaries. It’s growing stagnant and that’s never a good thing for a writer.

So off I go. Should be an interesting summer.

Body Sculpt Boot Camp – Part Two

2009-06-24T12:41:00.008-03:00

Since the first workout boot camp I did went so well, I figured I would do another one for July and August to keep me motivated. Also, with J and I spending a week in PEI near the beach (is there anywhere in PEI not near a beach?) with his son, I thought I might like to be in bathing suit shape.

I have to admit, after the first boot camp ended I grew a little slack with the workouts. I didn’t stop, but 6 days a week looked more like 4 and the strength training took the biggest hit. So when my trainer told me she was doing another Body Sculpt Boot Camp, I signed up. It was either that or get Tommy Europe from The Last 10 lbs Boot Camp to whip my butt into shape and I'm guessing I can't afford him.

My workout calendar for the next 5 weeks looks a bit brutal. I have something going on each day, although the Saturday Yoga is optional. To me, yoga is like ‘rest’ day. I don’t feel depleted after doing yoga. Usually I feel like I’m ready to do more.

So here’s a basic overview of what it’s going to take to whip my butt (and thighs and arms and abs) into shape between now and the end of July:

Sun – two softball games
Mon – Cardio / Lower Body strength training / Abs
Tues – Yoga
Wed – Body Sculpt Boot Camp Class
Thurs – Yoga
Fri – Cardio / Upper Body strength training / Abs
Sat – Yoga (optional)

I think that should do the trick. Now I just have to revamp the diet to work in tandem. That’s always the biggest challenge for me. I do like my food…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: The writing is going great. I worked out a plan for the rest of the year and my revisions to Salvation Falls are bopping right along – I’m already halfway through. This month I’ve also been busy, rearranging furniture and coordinating what goes, what stays, etc. to make room for J’s stuff when he moves in this weekend. That’s pretty much all done.

Now I’m just counting the days until vacation. I have a little mini vacation the first few days in July to make for a 5 day weekend, but it isn’t until the first of August I get any real time off. I’m REALLY looking forward to it. I’m taking a stack of books to continue my plan of working through as much of my TBR pile as humanly possible this year.

And that is what’s been going on. What’s new with you?

I’m Not Slacking…I’m Busy

2009-06-05T10:53:00.008-03:00

I have been a busy little beaver. Entering contests, preparing a workshop for our chapter meeting in June, getting the house ready for the BF and his boy to move in has kept me hopping. I’m looking forward to a little down time but there’s no vacation for me until the first of July.

In the meantime I decided not to waste the momentum. I sat down and made a writing plan for the next six months. By the end of the year, if I can stick with the plan, I will have 4 completed manuscripts to market in the big bad world. I will also have 2 first drafts ready for revision and I also have the outline of the remaining books in the two series I have on the go.

I have a week off the first of August to spend with the BF and his boy in a cottage on PEI. My hope is to take a stack of books with me to try and put a dent in my ever growing TBR pile. It would help if I didn’t keep adding to it, but it’s not my fault. People keep writing these great books that scream to be read! What’s a girl to do?

Speaking of great books to be read, Jennifer Haymore’s new book – A Hint of Wicked, came out on June 1st and I picked that up on Wednesday. Jennifer and I met online a few years back when we both belonged to the HisFic Critique group and we managed to meet face to face, along with another critique partner, Christine Wells, when we all converged on San Francisco for the conference. I’m so excited to see Jennifer's first book hit the shelves and it sounds like its going to be a great read! I can’t wait to dive into it.

But that will have to wait. For now, I have a To Do list the length of my arm and this afternoon I am taking off work to finish up my gardens (finally!). Then I get to start reorganizing rooms, purging and tossing and moving things to make room for the BF’s furniture.

I have a feeling the busy isn’t going to stop any time soon…

What’s Going On

2009-05-21T11:04:00.003-03:00

Good question. What IS going on? Someone asked me that the other day and my response was, “Same ole crap, new week.” Which basically sums it up, I guess. Nothing brand spanking new to report.

I am writing, working away, trying to stay more focused on the creative side and less on the business side for the time being. Although my brain is always jumping ten steps ahead of where I’m at so to say I’ve been entirely successful on that account would be a lie. Currently I’m planning on entering two manuscripts in one contest. One completed manuscript to give it another shot at an editor I’m interested in, and a new manuscript that has a first draft completed and could use some outside feedback. The new manuscript I’m also going to put in a couple of other contests next month as well.

Once the contest entries are completed, I’ll continue plugging away to get this ready to ship out to agents and editors, which hopefully will be ready to do by September-ish. That leaves me October to brainstorm my NaNo mss (a planned revamping of Juicy Lucy and her Big Bat – my brother’s title, not mine) and fire off query letters.

I am not going to Nationals this year. I made that decision early on and I don’t really regret it, much as I enjoy the experience. I felt there wasn’t anything new to sell at this point, whereas next year I should have four finished products to sell, possibly five. And, if the writing gods smile upon me favourably, maybe I won’t have to sell anything in Nashville, maybe I’ll get to promote something that’s sold instead. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, in every day life, I am working hard to maintain my optimism and keep my stress levels down. I am successful some of the time, and a walking disaster at other times. Sometimes the battles feel epic and the war never-ending, but I feel my old optimism creeping back and slowly gaining the upper hand. My mother will be happy to hear this. She said over the past few months my eyes looked dead and I had stopped laughing, which, for anyone who has spent any time with me knows, I spend a large part of my day laughing. Or I did. And I’m starting to again. So boo-yah on that.

The weather has not been cooperating with my plans to get my yard and gardens ready for summer, but that appears to be turning. I got a little done by taking an afternoon off work on a sunny day. Hopefully tonight I will get a little more done. Bit by bit I will conquer the dandelions and get my gardens cleared and replanted…

Eating right and working out have been a struggle the past few weeks. Once boot camp ended I think I fell off the wagon hard. I’m getting back on it this week, at least workout wise. The eating…well the meals are healthy but the snacks are killing me! So today I have called a bit of a moratorium on that. I don’t want to undo all the good I’ve done to date. I’m hoping by late fall I will have saved up enough to hire a personal trainer to push me that last little bit.

And that is about all that is going on here in Crazy Town.

Ooohhh Right… Optimism…

2009-05-08T12:20:00.007-03:00

Optimism: (noun) – a disposition or tendency to look on the more favourable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable outcome; the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.

I am an eternal optimist for the most part. I pride myself on having a glass half full kind of attitude and strongly believe that regardless of the circumstances, if you can find something in it to laugh at, you can live through it. This last one makes me a questionable invite to most funerals however, but hey, what can ya do?

Anyway, in the past six months it seems I’ve been hit with one bad thing after another between lay-offs at work, illness, stress, control freaks, the whole puppy thing, feeling like my writing had stalled out, etc. It was almost as if there was no time to come up for air when another wave came along and sucked you under again. And every time you thought, there has to be an end in sight, it was all just a ruse. I stopped even believing things would take an upswing. That’s so unlike me.

I was feeling unmotivated to do anything, include eat (which anyone who knows me knows – that is a nearly impossible feat). I kept telling myself I had to snap out of this, but I didn’t even feel motivated to do that.

But then I started seeing these little signs. That sign mainly manifested itself in the shape of Michael J. Fox’s new book popping up everywhere. Now, I’ve always been a huge Michael J. Fox fan right from the first day Alex P. Keaton showed up on the scene. I’ve followed his career, his illness, his activism and can honestly say if I had to make up a list of heroes he would land squarely in the Top Ten, probably the upper half too. After all, anyone who can get the diagnosis he did, at a time in your life when you’re just getting your life underway and still have the attitude he does…well it’s pretty impressive.

So, feeling somewhat beaten down and exhausted by life, and knowing I needed to track down my normal optimistic mojo, I decided who better to turn to then him. In keeping with that, yesterday I went out to the bookstore and picked up his book: Always Looking Up, Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. And last night I stayed up to watch the special he did on ABC.

Now I’m not going to claim that a one hour show just turned my life right around and I’m all better. But I do feel a bit better. Before yesterday I felt like life was kicking my ass and I was letting it, too tired or overcome to even bother trying to put up a fight any more. That's changed. Now I’m going to start kicking back.

I’ll manage the things I can, and just roll with the things I can’t and make the best out of them. After all, it really is all a matter of perspective. I can’t control a lot of what happens out there, but I can choose how I respond to those things. So thanks for the reminder, Mike. I needed that.

The New Look

2009-04-27T12:05:00.004-03:00

I've finally made it around to changing the look of the blog over to something more spring-like. Actually this one is called Summer Breeze. What can I say, I'm looking ahead.

I have managed to catch my first cold in five years. Not impressed. I think the stress of late suppressed my immune system and germy boy from work coughed his illness all over my pod. I'm considering his punishment as I type this. Not sure what it will be but needless to say it will be something vile and painful and there will likely be bamboo chutes involved at some point. Thankfully, I had some Cold Fx at home and as soon as I thought the cold might be coming on, I started popping them to head it off. It didn't stop the cold completely but it kept it from being a lot worse than it could have been. I'm starting to feel better, although my nose is still on fire and the sleepless night didn't help much. I stayed home from work today to rest and medicate and get rid of the last of it.

Thanks to the cold, I didn't get out to get the gardens cleaned out as planned despite the first really nice weekend we've had in a while. Sigh... I will get it done. I am determined to restore them to their former glory this summer if it kills me. But I have to do it soon. Things are starting to pop up and grow. I need to get cracking before the ugly stuff takes over the good stuff and I forget what's there.

The writing is going good. I've finished my read through of ITS and storyboarded it. Now I have to write the synopsis (oh joy) and prep the first 30 pages for a few contests I've decided to enter.

The workout bootcamp is now over. We did our final measurements and weigh-in and I'm happy to report it turned out to be a success. I didn't make my intended goal but I did pretty good, so I'm happy about that. Shrinkage all the way around and enough knowledge on what I need to do to keep it going in a downward direction.

And that is about all the news there is for now. It's been a busy month just not an overly exciting one.

Return of the Mojo

2009-04-14T11:57:00.002-03:00

Wherever my mojo had wandered off to those first few months of the year, it has decided to return with a bang and bring with it reinforcements in the form of focus and determination. It’s a welcome homecoming but there’s no time for a party to herald the event.

I have decided to think more strategically this year. I have the potential to have 4 completed manuscripts in my possession by the end of this year as well as the first draft of a fifth. One is already completed, the other just needs a little tweaking to clean up a plot issue I discovered, one is thisclose to being done and the last one is in first draft form and ready for revision.

All that being said, I decided to take a look at what contests were available that would have final judges I would want to target with my work. Also, with the tweaking and revisions it would be great to get some feedback from people who haven’t read the manuscripts previously. So after some review, I picked six contests with deadlines in May and June.

Which means for the next two weeks I will have my nose to the grindstone while I prep the entries and write/revamp the existing synopses (oh joy).

Once the entries are sent off, my focus will turn to finishing the final run through of Salvation Falls and start marketing it, then fixing the plot issue in Brimstone I noticed the other day and sending out agent queries, then completing revisions on Invitation to Scandal and sending out queries on it.

That should take me up to end of October, leaving November open for NaNoWriMo and the opportunity to complete another first draft. I already have manuscript chosen. I am redoing Finding Home, Dash and Lucy’s story - or as my brother calls it – Juicy Lucy and Her Big Bat. There’s a reason I don’t let him pick my titles…

Finding Home is my contemporary that I began over a year ago but the plot just wasn’t working. So I’m scraping it, keeping the characters and most of their backstory and going back to the drawing board on the plot / storyline and conflicts.

December I will spend working on the outline for my historical fiction, The Tangled Garden.

So I have my work cut out for me in 2009 but I finally feel like I’m moving forward again with more momentum than I had when the year started.

All Kinds of Miscellany

2009-04-02T10:14:00.008-03:00

First, on the writing front, I have finished the first round of revisions on Salvation Falls and have started the read through. I’m hoping to have the manuscript ready to send out by the end of the month. I’m considering a couple of contests as well but we’ll wait and see. Money is a bit tight for the next few months so I have to pinch some pennies and watch where I do my spending.

The historical novel, The Tangled Garden, is not progressing as quickly. I thought I could research while revising the other one, but I seem to keep forgetting how many hours are in a day and that no matter how much I want to get done, I still need to go to work and sleep. So for now, rather than overload my plate and feel frustrated, I’ve decided to get Salvation Falls and Invitation to Scandal out the door first, then settle in to work on The Tangled Garden. My mother reminded me the other day that I’m always trying to jam my entire life into five minutes and maybe I should just try tackling one thing at a time. Sometimes mother does know best…

Meanwhile, the sickness that invaded the other week is being beaten back with a vengeance and so we are all very, very thrilled about that, not to mention breathing a collective sigh of relief that things are going so well.

The puppy is also doing well. I get regular reports from my boss who said the pup, now named Bailey, has this annoying quirk where when Boss tells her no, she sits down and argues with him. He is convinced I trained her to do this. I did not bother to disabuse him of that notion.

The snow that hit us the other day is pretty much gone. I can’t wait for the weather to improve so I can finally get into my gardens. The past couple of years I’ve been horribly lax in tending to them (I have quite a few despite a relatively small yard). And now the lack of attention is beginning to show. Which is a shame because they used to be quite spectacular.

The garden at the bottom of the deck steps is going to be completely revamped. The tree I hate. It’s ugly and overgrown. It’s coming out. The grass in front of the garden is a nest of stupid ants every year. Something must be done about that. And the walkway and the weeds…sigh…so much work to be done.

And don’t even get me started on the stupid basketball court. JG wants to take a jackhammer to it and I’m not going to stop him. Have at it, I say. I never wanted the stupid thing and ever since the hurricane in 2005 the net has had a rather threatening lean to it.

The front garden I want to add some color to and maybe put out some baskets or flower boxes that hang off the step railing.

In a year or so, depending on the markets, JG and I are hoping to list my house and buy one of our own, so I want to get as many improvements done now to up the value and add curb appeal. Now if the weather will just cooperate, I can get to work…

Oh Paris, How I Miss You...

2009-03-31T11:27:00.006-03:00

Mother Nature is not kind. Today, she is allowing winter to make its last dying gasp (at least I hope its the last gasp!). We are, once again, blanketed with the white stuff.

Sigh...its days like this that I like to close my eyes and remember the warmth of the sun on my face as I traipsed through Paris with John, oohing and ahhing over castles and architecture older than the hills, eating baguettes, shopping along the Champs-Elysees, and massacring the French language.

Oh to be back there amongst your busy streets, chocolate croissant in hand, not a care in the world...

Instead of stuck here, sitting in a pod, watching snowflakes piss down from the sky as if there were no tomorrow.

Sigh...

I hear Paris is absolutely lovely in Spring. I bet it doesn't snow there this time of year. I bet it wouldn't dare.

Lemons Into Lemonade

2009-03-25T10:07:00.001-03:00

I’m feeling good today. I think the initial shock of what was going on last week has settled in and become less of an emergency and more of an ‘okay, let’s deal with this thing’. Someone close to me was diagnosed with an illness that while serious, is also very treatable and curable, and now that the treatment is underway I think it feels a little more like there is forward motion. It’s a long road ahead, but at least we’re on the road now and not pulled off to the side. So I feel good about that and very positive about the eventual outcome. While I’m not so naïve I don’t expect there will be some bumps along the road, we’ll navigate those as they come.

To further brighten my mood today, as I was sitting on the couch writing birds landed right outside my window and began chirping and for those few brief moments, despite the snow dumped on us Monday, I felt spring in the air and the promise of brighter days on the horizon.

The puppy is doing well with my boss, though he says his dog may be crossing me off his Christmas Card list. He keeps looking at the puppy trying to figure out what she is, why she is and when she’s leaving. She has been renamed Bailey, which was actually the name of the dog I grew up with.

The writing is back on track after getting sidelined for a week and I’m nearing the end of the first round of revisions and pleased with how things turned out.

I’m thinking of changing the look of the blog too. I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter, more spring-like.

And I can’t get that song ‘grey skies are going to clear up’ out of my head. The only problem with that is that the second part I can’t remember, all I can remember is the commercial. So I have ‘grey skies are going to clear up, put on a Windex shine’ stuck on repeat in my cranium. Oiy.

The Vagaries of Fate

2009-03-22T17:11:00.005-03:00

I'm not sure where to begin this post. I'm not even sure if I want to, but I've posted every other up and down on this blog so here I go.

The puppy thing did not happen.

Or rather it did happen, but outside things converged within a few days of her arrival that made it impossible to keep her. I kept thinking I could figure out a way to juggle or balance or make things right, but I knew I was only fooling myself, especially when the final blow came.

I know that all sounds very cryptic and I wish I could be more specific but others are involved and its their business even more so than mine so I'll leave off the details out of respect for them. Suffice to say a family emergency that turned into a more long term situation that will require my full attention became the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

The puppy will likely have a wonderful new home with a friend whose generosity did not surprise me, but was no less appreciated either way. I feel good about where she is and I know it is the right thing. I don't regret the decision, just the timing of it all.

After this week is all said and done, I find myself on a road with a much different landscape than the one I started on just seven days ago. Strange how life can turn on a dime and leave you wondering what the hell happened. It's a little like walking through a door that should have led you into one room and instead dropped you in a foreign world where nothing looks familiar and no one speaks your language. You'd like to back up and return from whence you came but the door you walked through has moved and it's likely going to take a while to find it again.

Meanwhile, while I'm searching, my job is to support the one going through the worst of it and be there for them. It's a job I take on gladly and willingly and without hesitation. The door will be found or a new road will be taken, and by the end of the journey I can only hope to find myself a better person for having been through it and at least look back with the knowledge that I did the best I could.

Mine, Mine, Mine

2009-03-06T15:28:00.002-04:00

This little girl is mine. I went to the breeders to visit her for the first time today and don't ask me how I got away without tossing her in my satchel and making a run for the car.

Ain't she cute? She was the calmest one of the bunch and had such a sweet disposition.

When I picked her up, she just melted like butter in my arms, closed her eyes and started falling asleep. Usually when people do that to me I get annoyed, but this time I found it rather adorable.

This may end up being the longest two weeks of my life. Good thing the BF is taking me away this weekend!

A Crisis of Some Kind

2009-03-05T12:09:00.006-04:00

Ennui (en-nui): A feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom. Synonyms: listlessness, tedium, lassitude, languor.

I can’t seem to shake it so I figured I might as well blog about it. Maybe it’s the times we are currently living in. The sad state of the economy seems to have most people walking on egg shells or feeling like a dark cloud is looming over their head, a perpetual Schleprock state of existence. Yet, no matter how much I try and outrun the cloud I can’t seem to lose it.

In the past five months I’ve watched the majority of our executive management at work leave, including my own boss and another close friend. Then another friend was let go a month after that. I’ve stopped counting how many people we’ve lost to lay-offs or those who jumped ship before the lay-offs occurred. I refer to my area of the office now as The Dead Zone with the sudden quiet of empty offices and missing podmates. We used to call our pod of four, The Fun Zone. It’s not so much fun any more.

Added to all of this was the stress created by months of waiting to find out if you were on the list of those getting axed, or if you were safe. It was like a bad version of Survivor where you didn’t know if you were going to be voted off the island or not. Then when you discovered your name did not have a pink slip attached to it there was the inevitable dichotomy of feeling relieved and guilty, because it meant someone else took the fall, likely someone you would have preferred to keep around. All of this was topped off with the news wage freezes were in effect for the year, putting the kibosh on the slim hope that maybe all your hard work from the previous year might result in at least a minimal increase to help offset the 6% cost of living increase. But no.

Worst of all is that somehow this has begun to bleed into my writing. Not so much my output, or what lands on the page, but the optimism I feel about my work eventually hitting the store shelves. With rejection after rejection coming in from agent queries, it is beginning to feel as if my feet are stuck firmly in the sludge with no hope of escape. I find myself more days then not staring into the future and no longer seeing or feeling a light at the end of the tunnel.

Normally, I’m a glass half-full kind of girl. I’m pretty good at keeping my spirits up and just ploughing through tough times. I rarely let anything stand in my way and if it does I find a way around it, through it, over or under it. I'm Solutions Girl. It's like a super power without a cape to go with it. But lately I find I'm running out of ideas where the writing is concerned and the bleakness that thought creates only seems to compound the original ennui.

My hope is that it’s just a temporary glitch. I’ll get back to my old rarin’ to go self in no time. Maybe the onset of Spring will improve my state of mind. In the interim, I will just hang in and chant under my breath, ‘this too shall pass…this too shall pass…’ And hopefully I will be right. I have to be. The alternative is far too unpretty otherwise.

But it hasn't all been bad news. I am going for a little puppy visitation this Friday. I found out I am getting a girl, though the right name still escapes me. I'll be sure and take plenty of pixs while I'm down there and post a few next week. In the meanwhile, here is one from the litter:

Meanwhile back in Crazy Town

2009-02-20T13:58:00.002-04:00

This week has been another roller coaster. We did more lay-offs at work. Thankfully I managed to come through unscathed, but a few friends were not so lucky. It’s an odd situation. On the one hand you are breathing a huge sigh of relief you still have a job in this economic climate. On the other hand, you’re feeling bad about your friends who lost their jobs. And then you feel guilty for feeling relieved because they don’t have that option. I’ll be glad when this economic cycle starts swinging back up the other way. I know it will, but right now there are days when things can look pretty bleak.

On the plus side, at least it has hammered home the need to leave below my means. Luckily the BF is adamant about doing this which should keep me on the straight and narrow. Not that I spend money left, right and centre, but sometimes I can get that ‘need it now’ rush where you try to rationalize why you simply MUST HAVE SOMETHING. When in fact, you really don’t need it. Or at least you don’t need it right this minute and perhaps you can save up until you can afford to pay cash instead of whipping out the ole credit card.

So once the lay offs were done we were hit with another snow storm. Oh joy. I went into the gym on my lunch hour and it was barely snowing. I came out 40 minutes later and there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground. I went up to the office and told my boss I was leaving now, but my usual 10 minute ride home took nearly an hour and at one point another idiot nearly side-swiped me when he lost control of his car. I managed to avoid him thankfully.

Then today I find out I have to pick up a job from one of the people laid off. Now, when I started this job I flat out said – I am not doing phones, no way, no how. They said fine, wasn’t an issue, no problem. But with the lay-offs our receptionist’s usual lunch time replacement is gone. So my boss asked me to do him a favour and pick up one lunch hour a week. I was not happy. It felt like a demotion, which is maybe being a bit dramatic about it, but that’s how I felt. I started my career on the phones and suddenly 22 years later here I am back on them? What the hell??

Sigh…but my boss and I have a really good relationship and he hated asking me but what can you do. So we worked out a deal that made us both happy and I picked Monday lunch to get it done and out of the way for the week, and then promised not to answer the phone with ‘Good afternoon, what the @#$% do you want now.’

Writing-wise it was a good week. My goal was to edit / rewrite 6 pages a day, five days a week. Monday and Tuesday I managed 6 pages, but I missed Wednesday because I forgot to reset my alarm and slept in. Then Thursday I squeaked out 7 pages. Then today I went on a tear and blew threw 15 pages to end the week with 34 pages – 4 pages over my goal. Whew.

Work-outs are also going great. I’ve done two days of cardio and weights, one yoga class, 35 minutes of cardio yesterday, followed by about 40 minutes of shovelling. Today I survived my first Spin class in several weeks and then tomorrow its Boot Camp day. I am fitting into my new jeans too and already I’m a bit concerned about the waist. They fit fine on the legs, but the waist is a bit too big (my usual dilemma…argh). I’ve belted it up for now and we’ll see how that goes. I hate the feeling of the waist being bunched up though so I might need to look at tailoring.

Puppy news – STILL trying to decide on a name, but I was talking to the breeder and I can go pay the puppies a visit next weekend at which time I should know which one is mine. And I get to bring it home for good on March 21st.

And there you have it, the weekly recap.

How to Improve a Bad Day

2009-02-16T09:49:00.007-04:00

Sleepy is not a good way to start what is bound to be an insanely busy week. Waking at 3:15 am and not being able to get back to sleep, is not a good way to end the night. But, fitting into a pair of pants you haven’t been able to wear since last year improves the day and stumbling into work and finding new puppy pictures waiting for you -- well, that somehow makes all the bad stuff go away.

What Doesn’t Kill Me…

2009-02-09T15:15:00.001-04:00

Week 1 of Booty Camp is underway. We had our fitness assessment on Saturday, and while I was pleased to see my weight was 2 lbs below what I had expected, I was not so thrilled to see my body fat percentage was 29.9%. Apparently it should be around 25%. The circumference of my hips also did not please me. Looks like I’ve got some work to do.

What kind of work you might ask? Well, the kind that involves two trips to the gym a day in order to fit it all in. You see, apparently what doesn’t kill me, will make me stronger. At least that is the mantra I am sure I’ll be muttering by the end of the week. Although, truth be told, I am quite excited to see where I will be by the end of this 12 week process. I plan on working hard to meet my goals, which include dropping 12 pounds to reach my goal weight, and 5 percentage points to get down to a healthy body fat. As for the hips…well I will be shaking my money maker until I knock a good 5 inches off those.

The workout component of the bootcamp includes 6 workouts per week. I knew they meant business when I saw that. I’ve already been going 5 times a week, so adding another day isn’t too bad. It’s just the intensity that’s about to get seriously amped up. Here’s what the week looks like for me:

Sunday: Resting (or make up day if I miss one of the other workouts)
Mon / Wed / Fri : 40 mins of steady state cardio (20 on elliptical stair / 20 on treadmill) and lower body strength training and core training
Tues/ Thurs / Sat: Yoga and 40 mins of interval cardio (treadmill climbing hills) and upper body strength training

Then of course, also on Saturday is our Bootcamp Team meeting / workout. But because it takes over an hour to get all the workouts done, I’m splitting it into half at lunch and half after work.

On top of that, we have the nutrition side of things which allows me daily: 6 serving of grains; 7 servings of fruits and veggies; 2-3 servings of protein; 2-3 servings of dairy; 3 servings of fat; and 8 glasses of water. Naturally all the food is of the whole wheat, low fat, etc variety.

And they gave us this lovely log book that we have to write everything down in. The logic being if we have to write it down, we’ll be more conscious of what we’re doing. Which seems to be the case. Because I didn’t want to write down that I ate a big piece of cake at my niece’s birthday party, so I only ate a very small piece.

Here are some new puppy pictures to end things off. They are 15 days old in these pictures.

A Quick Round Up

2009-02-06T16:37:00.002-04:00

First up, as you can see, I have a new puppy picture. This one was taken when the pups were 11 days old (Wednesday). Their eyes are thisclose to being open. I purchased a second hand dog crate in excellent condition and some supplies (a few toys, brush, leash & collar), checked into obedience school and called my vet to give her a heads up.

Next up – revisions on Salvation Falls are humming along. Nothing too traumatic to report on that account. It seems to be flowing quite well. I’m beginning to think hashing out a first draft in 30 days might just be the way to go with me. So far both times I’ve done it, the story has held together remarkably well. Of course, I’m not quite halfway through yet so maybe I’ll be singing a different tune in the second half.

The Workout Bootcamp started last week with the free intro class. I could barely walk for two days afterwards. My podmate and I who are both going were groaning in pain every time we had to get up and walk to the printer. It wasn’t pretty. But the bootcamp starts in earnest tomorrow with a physical assessment and workout. I got the book that goes with it where it tells you what we need to do for nutrition and workouts (6 days a week) and then we will do the fitness assessment at the end of the 12 weeks to see how far we’ve come. I’m looking forward to it. Structure works very well for me (typical Capricorn…) so this is the best way for me to whip my butt into shape.

What else...oh, I finished reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley and I highly recommend it. It was, as all her books are, an awesome read.

And that is about all that’s going on for this week.

I’m Off to Boot Camp

2009-01-30T13:11:00.004-04:00

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!!

2009-01-26T10:39:00.001-04:00

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

The SuccessTeam

2009-01-23T09:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-01-21T13:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-01-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

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?

2009-01-14T09:00:00.003-04:00

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…

2009-01-12T11:21:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-01-05T10:21:00.003-04:00

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…