November 2013

Archive for November, 2013

Auction for Charity

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ebay auction, haunted lake, justplummy holiday bazaar and fundraiser, loving the dead and the undead, soul of a vampire, starfane, women's center high desert on November 29, 2013| 2 Comments »

I just wanted to let everyone know that my five print books are up for auction on eBay, all proceeds going to Women’s Center High Desert. This charitable event can be found on the FaceBook event Justplummy Holiday Bazaar and Fundraiser.

Here are the eBay links to my books:

Haunted Lake

Starfane

Loving the Dead and the Undead

Soul of a Vampire

Vampires’ Curse

Go check out all the listings for plumhoff1955. There will be more up this afternoon. The bids all start at $5.00. All proceeds go to the Women’s Center. This event starts today and runs for three days. Thanks Rhonda Plumhoff!

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ROW80 Check-In 11/24/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cleaning house, exercise, flylady, flylady.net, goals, ROW80, writing on November 24, 2013| 10 Comments »

Brrr. We’re having a cold spell. My computer says it’s currently 23 degrees. Ouch!

So here’s how it went this week:

Writing: I was so afraid to read my last chapter, which is the climax of the horror part of the story. I put it off and put it off, thinking it was a mess. I finally reread it yesterday, and I really like it! I just hope my beta readers will. I also wrote almost 1500 more words, which was basically the denouement of the horror part, and kind of a little climax (no jokes!) of the romance. I started an epilogue, but I have no idea what I want to do here. I don’t know if I want this to be a complete HEA, or do I want to end it with something happening to let readers know the evil isn’t over? I will ALWAYS have an HEA for the romance part of any book I write (or at the end of a series), but horror doesn’t always go that way. I may need to brainstorm with someone.

Exercise: Walking on the treadmill every morning is continuing as usual. I’ve upped my speed just a tad. I only got to the gym one day. Monday, I had my doctor’s appointment. I went to the gym Wednesday. Then, Friday, I took too long at lunch, so I didn’t have time to work out. I only get an hour to get food and work out. It’s fine when I take my lunch, but when I have to get something, it pushes me.

FlyLady: This is the one I’m most proud of this week. I cleaned off one half of my dresser (this was a job that took a couple of hours…it was that bad), cleaned my bathroom sink (I’m letting hubby clean his side), cleaned part of my tub (it’s huge), shopped for groceries, did three loads of laundry, and WASHED MY CAR. Did I mention it’s getting cold around here?

How did the rest of you do with your goals?

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ROW80 Check-In 11/20/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged exercise, flylady, flylady.net, goals, ROW80, susan bischoff, writing on November 20, 2013| 10 Comments »

This has been a so-so week.

Writing: I’m still sitting on that last chapter, almost afraid to look at it. One more day. I’ll look at it tomorrow and see if it sounds insane or awesome.

Exercise: I didn’t get back to the gym for my normal Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule because I had to go to the doctor Monday. But he’s very pleased with my blood sugar and me in general. And I’ve lost 2 lbs. this week already. I’m going back to the gym today.

FlyLady: I’ve kept a shiny sink so far this week. I did my 15 minute mission on Monday, and it ended up being more like 25 minutes. When I checked my mission for yesterday, it turns out I did both missions on Monday. LOL. So I felt like I could slack off yesterday. *looks around to see if Susan is seeing this*

I hope to have much more to report on Sunday. Later!

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ROW80 – Writing, Exercise, and FlyLady

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged exercise, flylady, flylady.net, goals, ROW80, writing on November 17, 2013| 14 Comments »

I’ve found that when the rest of my life is organized and NOT in chaos, that my writing goes the same way. I was really sick last week, and I did practically nothing in any category. So today starts a new week, and I want to tweak my goals a bit and really work hard on getting my life in order, especially now that the holidays are coming up.

Writing: I don’t know if I’m going to make my November 30 deadline or not. I don’t know how many of you read my last post, but I felt like my last chapter was out of control, so I want to sit on it a couple of days and see if it’s better than I think. I might still make the deadline, but I’m not going to obsess about it. I would rather the story be good than be done on time.

Exercise: I go back to the doctor for my three month visit tomorrow. I have no idea how my A1C test will look because I haven’t been checking my blood sugar. (bad me) I didn’t exercise last week because I was sick, but I have been exercising. And I have a new incentive to go to the gym. If I go at least 12 days out of the month, my insurance will pay for my membership fees! Who doesn’t want to save money, right? But I’ve gained a few lbs. so I’m not sure what my tests will look like. Today, I’m back on track!

FlyLady: For those of you who don’t know who FlyLady is, she has a website that basically teaches you how to keep your house clean and how to stay organized. My goal is to start back doing the daily missions, which usually take about 15 minutes. But the very first thing she wants everyone to start with is to keep your sink shiny. No dishes in it. Mine is shiny right now, and that’s after I cooked breakfast. 🙂 After you get the daily missions started, you can go on to the detailed cleaning. She encourages you to keep a control journal. Check it out. FlyLady.

That’s all, folks!

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My Ending is Out of Control!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged WIP, writing, writing the ending on November 16, 2013| 9 Comments »

Okay, so I was working on my WIP Thursday night, and I was feeling like a crazy person. For one thing, I’m afraid my WIP is going to be too short, because the ending was coming too fast. I pretty much wrote the climax of my story last night. It needs a denouement, to bring it to a close and to explain a few things. But what is really disturbing me is that I felt kind of out of control while I was writing it. The words were coming and things were going like I wanted…but were those words interesting? Believable? Logical? Or were the words a big jumbled mess of incredible goofiness? I really don’t know! I’m sure my beta readers will tell me, but I like to have something halfway decent before they ever see it.

So here’s what I did. I didn’t write last night. I didn’t even look at my WIP. Because I think it needs to rest a bit before I go back and read that last chapter. I’m not sure what I will find when I do. Will it be the mess I am afraid it is? Or will it be a solid piece of writing? I’ve been told before (by reviewers) that sometimes my endings are too sappy. This one feels almost too much like “the world is saved, all is well, and I have such a warm feeling in my heart”. I kind of like those types of endings. But not everyone does. This is a horror story, after all. So I keep wondering if I should make the ending more angsty. Or maybe make the reader THINK the ending is happy, but then it’s really not. I’ve written the big climax of the horror part of the story. The denouement will wrap up the story, but also have kind of a climax to the romance. (No jokes about the word “climax”, please. You are all English students.) You know, I almost feel like my thoughts here are all over the place, just like my WIP. Anyway, I might go back to it today and see how it looks. Or I might wait until Monday. I just don’t know. I’m almost AFRAID to look at it. Also, I set a deadline for finishing on November 30. I’m afraid I won’t make that if I have to fix this story. We shall see!

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ROW80 Update 11/13/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged goals, ROW80, WIP, writing on November 13, 2013| 8 Comments »

I don’t update on Wednesdays very often, since I write Thursday-Saturday. I was going to possibly try to write a little on Monday or Tuesday, but this week I have been SICK. I went home from work Monday after only working two hours. I was miserable yesterday, but stuck it out all day. I’m better today, so I’m hoping to be practically well by tomorrow. Because tomorrow is writing day! And I’ve set a deadline to finish my WIP by November 30, so I have to get going. 🙂

By the way, I just gotta ask this. Do you find yourself writing a blog post and realize you’ve used a local colloquialism, so you change it to something else because you’re not sure anyone that’s not from your area will have a clue about what it means? 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/10/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged goals, ROW80, WIP, word count, writing, writing goals] on November 10, 2013| 15 Comments »

I feel really good about my progress last week. My word count goal has been 3,000 words per week, but since I set November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP, then I realized I had to write more like 5,000 words. The good news is that this week I wrote 5,777 words! I’m really close to finishing this book, and it’s getting exciting. I just wrote, Saturday, an action scene that I’m pretty pleased with. I’m really liking how this book is ending, but I’m almost afraid I’m going to end it a little too early. I need to flesh out some of the scenes, but that can be done during the editing process. I’m glad I’ve finally gotten excited about this book.

My other goal was to visit several of my fellow ROW80er’s blogs. I visited ten last week. I’m glad I got that goal done, too.

I’m really pleased with the way last week went. 🙂

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The Book I’m Working On

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged anya kelleye, book cover, book title, WIP, writing on November 8, 2013| 6 Comments »

I don’t think I’ve said a WHOLE lot about the book I’m working on. I don’t like to say too much about my WIPs until they’re released. Anya and I sat down at lunch yesterday and worked on some book cover ideas and book titles. Those are the two things that sell a book to me. Although most people look at the cover first. I always look at the title first, the cover second. If the title is catchy, I look further, but if it doesn’t interest me, I don’t usually even look at the cover. The cover is the second step in determining my interest, though, so it’s very important, too.

I think Anya and I have a general idea of what to do with the cover. I think it’s going to look great. But the title is still elusive. I have an idea, but someone else has a title ALMOST exactly like it. I know a lot of books share the same title, but I try not to duplicate unless the title just calls to me. So that’s where I am, thinking of a cover, trying to come up with a title, and about 8,000 words away from finished.

I still don’t know if this will be considered horror or not. We shall see. There’s murder, an evil spirit, and bad people in this book. And a little romance thrown in for good measure. 🙂

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Deadlines

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged deadlines, goals, indie authors, l.s. engler, self publishing, word count, writing deadlines on November 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

Today I was reading THIS blog post by my friend, L.S. Engler. She was talking about a quote concerning deadlines whooshing by. Her post made me start thinking about deadlines and how, as indies, we only have self-imposed deadlines. Although one of my favorite perks of being indie is that I don’t have to answer to anyone about deadlines, it also can cause me to be lazy about them. If I only have to answer to myself, what are the real consequences of not meeting them? Maybe this is part of the reason I haven’t published anything in a year (except a short story in an anthology). Because I don’t HAVE to. I’m not making even a quarter of the money I made when I first started, before this whole indie thing exploded, so THAT motivation isn’t there like it was. As long as I’m answering to only me, will I have the discipline to make myself meet deadlines? Wait…I haven’t even SET deadlines.

Okay, this has got to stop, right? So I went to my trusty Google calendar and I entered November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP. That gives me about 17 days to finish. I’m already about 80% done (see my nifty little word count widget over to the right), so that should NOT be a problem. This will make me have to up my word count per week a bit, but it CAN be done. If I finish by November 30, then I should be able to get it published before Christmas. My beta readers are super fast and they are also great editors and proofreaders. This should be NO PROBLEM. The only obstacle is me. I’m going to start treating this like a real job again with deadlines. And you guys out there need to kick me in the behind if I don’t do this. When I said the only person I have to answer to is myself…well, that should be the most important person!

Thanks, L.S.!

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