Thursday Miscellany

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.

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.