I'm Back...Again!!

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!

The Week in Review

"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.

All Kinds of New Things

"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

"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?

Blissfully Happy Vacation

"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.

So Many Books...So Little Time

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.

The Lowdown on the Sale

"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.

No News Is Not Good News

"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

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

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.

Fun with Trailers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming New Release - DAMAGED by Pam Callow

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!):

Busy Little Bee

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.

The Great Re-evaluation of 2009

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.

I'm Still Here!

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...

I’m Not Slacking…I’m Busy

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…

The New Look

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

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

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…

Where to start?

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

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

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

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

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

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