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Archive for 2013

Quick ROW80 Update 8/14/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged book fair, book signing, las vegas, rnconvention, ROW80, writing on August 14, 2013| 10 Comments »

As most of you know, I haven’t been writing lately. There are several reasons for that, but not very good ones. I spent the last week at the RNConvention in Las Vegas, so I’m hoping being around a couple of hundred authors all week and sitting in on amazing classes will jump start my writing. So far, I still seem to be suffering from jet lag or something. Or maybe the little bout of dehydration (or heat exhaustion, who knows?) because of my stupidity in Vega. I hope I feel better by tomorrow!

Happy writing, everyone! Here is a picture from the RNConvention book fair. That’s me signing something. 🙂

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Plotting for Pantsers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lynn lorenz, outlining, pantsers, pantsing, plotters, plotting, story outline on August 13, 2013| 9 Comments »

I’m a pantser. I admit it. What’s hard to take is when you have friends who mention they can tell a story has been “pants” like it’s some kind of evil. So you can imagine how that makes ME feel. I’ve tried to plot and outline. Every attempt has left me frustrated and made me feel I was losing that creative flow that comes from sitting down and writing before the ideas stop coming. A pantser HAS to write when the idea comes.

If there was one thing I took away from the RNConvention, it was that there’s a better way than plotting OR pantsing. I took a class called “Plotting for Pantsers” given by Lynn Lorenz. She gave us reasons why plotters are too rigid, often taking years to write a book. She said many times they get so caught up in plotting that they never write the story. She also said pantsers often get lost, forget what they named characters, and lose the plot because they forgot to include this or that. So she showed us a way to blend the two together. I won’t go into the whole process, but she basically uses a spreadsheet to start with. She has lines for chapters, different cells for scenes, etc. The way she does this seems really doable for pantsers. And maybe plotters, too. The point is, I think I’ve finally found something that could work for me. Some books, especially novellas, are easy to pants. But when the plot becomes more complicated, you need more structure. She talked about turning points in your story, etc. The way she does this, you can pretty much tell where that turning point is going to be without having a rigid outline. This lady just had it all together, in my opinion.

Btw, the majority of authors in the room were pantsers.

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My Final Thoughts on RNConvention in Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged las vegas, rnconvention, Romance novel conventin on August 11, 2013| 8 Comments »

Tomorrow, I will be getting on an airplane and heading home. I can’t wait. I miss my family. I miss my cats. I’m ready to be home!

The first day of the convention was work. We volunteers spent hours filling swag bags. But it was fun. That’s when I first met many of the people who I knew through Facebook. Later that night, as you all know if you read my blog, I got upset because I felt like I was abandoned by my friend. I was just having a hard time for some reason.

Thursday was filled with interesting and informative classes. That was great. That night, we had the costume party, which was fun.

Friday, more awesome classes. Then the RONE awards. There was great entertainment, including an illusionist and a singer.

Saturday was the book fair, which was the most disappointing part of the whole convention. I’m not going to say much about that. Saturday night was the Mr. Casanova contest. The contestants did skits from excerpts of romance novels. Let me tell you, these guys have great senses of humor. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.

Sunday was about relaxing. The only thing going on was model photo shoots with the Casanovas. We just kind of wandered in and out of where that was going on all day.

Now for my adventure. Saturday, I walked to the Silver and Gold Pawn Shop where they film Pawn Stars. I didn’t take into consideration the extreme heat. It was a mile to the shop. On the way back, I started feeling funny, rapid heartbeat, hard to breathe. Then I started feeling chilled. I guess I was dehydrated. I STILL don’t feel right, and it’s been over a day. I won’t be doing anything like that again!

All in all, this was a pretty good convention. It had lots of glitches, but this was the first one. It was geared mostly toward indie authors, although trad published authors were also there. I met book reviewers as well as some WONDERFUL fellow authors.

One person really did a nice thing for me. I didn’t know how I was going to get my 50# box of books home. A friend of Anya’s had driven in for the book fair. She took my books home with her and is going to ship them to me! What a nice person she is. She’s now a friend of mine, too.

Will I go again next year? That’s going to depend on a lot of things, one of which is whether or not I can get hubby to go next year. I’m not that crazy about Las Vegas, and I really wish they would consider another venue. So we shall see.

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Day Two in Las Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged costume ball, las vegas, rnconvention on August 9, 2013| 4 Comments »

Today’s post is totally different from yesterday’s. Everything got worked out that had hurt my feelings. The cigarette smoke still bothers me, but at least I don’t have that bad feeling about the city anymore. I was just so stressed last night, and I felt terrible.

Today’s classes were great. The high points for me was attending H.P. Mallory’s class and getting to meet her in person. She and I started this indie thing at about the same time. I didn’t think she would remember me, but she did. 🙂 Then I got to do Mark Coker’s class. I’m sure most of you know he is the founder and owner of Smashwords.

Then there was the costume ball. Anya and I dressed up in our finest and had fun. There was actually a wedding during the party. I didn’t know Jimmy Thomas had a license to marry anyone, but he did. It was cool. The best part was seeing all the costumes and taking pictures. When I get back home and save to my laptop, I’ll post some. I’m on my iPad right now because it has 4G on it. The wifi here is too expensive, so I haven’t used my laptop.

Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun today, so now I feel bad about whining yesterday. But I felt so depressed I had to share. Things were much better today!

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Fun in Vegas…not

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Sad in las vegas on August 8, 2013| 12 Comments »

This is probably not a good time to be writing this post because I’m a little emotional right now, but I can’t go into why. But I’m not happy right now.

Anyway…I have found I don’t like Vegas. Everything smells like cigarette smoke. The laws here are different than in Tennessee. You can smoke anywhere, and people do. I feel like I’m going to come back with lung cancer. I ended up working filling swag bags and doing other volunteer stuff all day. I’m tired. The kick off party was good because there was an amazing Elvis impersonator. But I felt so alone at the party. I ended up sitting with a couple because no one seemed to be talking to them and I felt bad. They were a sweet couple but seemed shy. Someone really nice I had met earlier ended up sitting with us, so that was nice. This place isn’t for me, though. I don’t know most of these people. There were a couple I know from Facebook, and it was REALLY nice meeting them. But I miss being with my friends. I want to go back home. But I have four more days here. I miss my ROW80 people because I’ve been so busy getting ready for this event that I haven’t interacted.

I’m hoping I will enjoy the classes the next couple of days. That will take my mind off things that have bothered me. I don’t even look forward to the costume ball because I’ll just feel alone again. I’m tempted not to go. I just shouldn’t be here.

I hope this sadness I’m feeling is temporary and I will be back to my optimistic self tomorrow. I will NOT cry.

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What I Want to Bring Back from Vegas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged jimmy thomas, las vegas, rnconvention, romance novel convention, writers convention on August 5, 2013| 7 Comments »

My brain is all over the place right now. I leave for Vegas tomorrow evening for the RNConvention, and I’m nervous, excited, and other emotions that are all over the place. I haven’t even posted in about four days because there’s been so much to do. I also haven’t had time to comment on other people’s posts, so I hope I’m forgiven. 🙂

Anyway, there’s a buzz all over Facebook about this convention, and there are so many excited people posting on the event page about all kinds of things. But I’m seeing a trend that’s bothering me just a bit. Yes, I KNOW it’s Vegas. And Vegas is about fun. But this is a convention with lots of classes that Jimmy set up for us to learn. He worked hard on getting the speakers lined up. But I’m not seeing ANYONE saying how excited they are to be attending these classes. It’s all about drinking and dancing. I’m not criticizing this at all, because I know most of these people have never been to Vegas, and many of them have never been to any writing conferences. It’s okay to have fun. (I’ve even posted about how I’m worried about what clothes to bring.) But I think some people have missed the whole point of the convention. As writers, we need to learn all we can about this business because it’s not as easy as it used to be. When I first started publishing, there was very little competition. Now there’s LOTS of competition, so it’s hard for readers to find us unless we stand out. Yes, we need to write a good book. But then readers have to FIND that book. It’s getting harder. I’m hoping to learn some marketing strategies as well as how to write a better book.

So what I want to bring back from Vegas is lots of knowledge that will help me in my business. Well, that and something for my husband from the Pawn Stars shop. 🙂

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Which of My Books….

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged lauralynn elliott books, lauralynn's books, my books, questions about my books on August 1, 2013| 5 Comments »

Okay, I’m doing this just for fun. I was just thinking in the shower (I think instead of sing) about which of my books was the most (fill in the blanks). So I thought I would share.

Which book is the sweetest? Probably “See Me”, although it does have a violent scene.
Which book has the most humor? “See Me” gets this vote, too.
Which book is the most emotional? “Soul of a Vampire”
Which book is the scariest? “The Gnome”
Which book is the most sexual? “Starfane”
Which book is my favorite? “Haunted Lake”
Which book is my least favorite? Hmmm. Probably “Club Blood”
Which book was the hardest to write? “Soul of a Vampire”
Which book was my first one? “A Rocky Path”
Which book has sold the most copies? “Guardian Vampire”
Which book would I like to do a sequel to (not counting the Vampires’ Curse books which are already a series)? “Haunted Lake”
Which book does my mother like best? “Starfane” (this is kind of weird to me since you can see what other question this book is the answer to, LOL)

Well, I can’t think of any more questions. Those of you who have published more than one book, please feel free to answer any or all of these questions about YOUR books in the comments. Also, if you have any more questions you would like me to answer, feel free to ask! 🙂

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My Dress for the Costume Ball at RNConvention

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged costume ball, dress for costume ball, regency costume, rnconvention on July 31, 2013| 16 Comments »

Some of you have asked for it, so here it is. This is the dress I’m going to wear to the costume ball. It’s a regency style dress, which has the empire waist.

Incidentally, this is the FIRST public picture I’ve ever posted of myself. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good one, but I wanted you all to see the dress.

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Sunday ROW80 Update 7/28/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged no writing, rnconvention, ROW80 on July 28, 2013| 13 Comments »

There’s really nothing to report today. After the awful travel experience I had Sun-Wed, I didn’t want to do anything but sleep. I wanted to write on Saturday, but my husband wanted to go on the lake on my son’s father-in-law’s boat. We got to spend time with my son, his wife, and his wife’s father. I tried to ski, but the rope handle broke and hurt my hand. 😦

I really hope I get some writing done next week. The week after that is the RNConvention, and there is going to be so much to do that I won’t have time to write. But, at least most of the time will be spent in classes that should help me as a writer. There’s a costume ball, movie night, bingo (with novel covers as the squares), and a welcome party on the first night. I’m not much of a party animal, so if things get wild, I’m going to my room. I’m there to learn AND to have fun, but some people have a wilder idea of fun than me. LOL. I HOPE I sell all my books at the book fair so I won’t have to have them shipped home.

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Fitness Friday – Losing Weight Anyway

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged costume ball, dress for costume ball, fitness, rnc, rnconvention, weight loss on July 26, 2013| 10 Comments »

Most of you know what kind of ordeal I’ve been through this week with all the airport stuff. I hadn’t even thought about how I was eating, and I certainly didn’t get any exercise in. But as I got on the scale at home, I had a pleasant surprise. Here are the stats. 🙂

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 167.5
This week’s loss: 1.5 lbs.
Total loss: 25.5 lbs.

On an unrelated note…my dress for the costume ball at RNConvention in Las Vegas is almost finished. I’m supposed to go by this evening and see how everything fits and get the hems figured out. I have no idea what kind of shoes I’m going to wear, so I hope the hem will be okay. For a little teaser, this is the material for the main part of the dress.