Snow Day!

"Laziness will cause you pain." ~ Slogan on T-shirt worn at the Vee Arnis Jitsu School of Self-Defense

We’re having a snow day on a Sunday, which really isn’t convenient at all. It meant my RWA Chapter meeting was cancelled and any plans I have for writing are nebulous at best with a nine year old running about. Even when he tries to be quiet it means he only sounds like half a herd of elephants as opposed to the whole herd.

I’m still reworking my outline for A Heart Betrayed. Today is my last day to outline because starting tomorrow I need to dive into the actual writing and then produce 30 pages a week until the first week of April in order to get the first draft down. I’m not sure how doable that is, but given I’m running out of time and still need to incorporate time in there for revisions, it’s going to have to be. 

Hubby suggested we take 5 day in April or May to go to Universal Studios with the boy. I looked at him like he had two heads and said something to the effect of, “Are you crazy?! I can’t go anywhere until I turn this book in May 31^st!” I then suggested sightings of me may be scarce between now and then and he might want to take a picture. We’re not looking at early June for the trip to the Universal. By then, I may need a few days away from anything resembling a manuscript.

But, because I like to heap a bunch of crap on myself at the same time, I have also embarked on a new job with an old boss and re-started my weight training and running program which sort of fell by the wayside over the summer. I figure if nothing else, the muscle building will give me the energy/stamina to manage the writing and the new job.

And that is about all that is new on this front. I’m going to sign off now and go finish that outline. Now that I’ve totally revamped it (yet again), it had better fall into place!

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!

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.

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.

Happy Anniversary

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.