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Final Check-In Round 2 – ROW80

June 25, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

ROW80Badge

This will be short and sweet. My goals were to write at least 15,000 words per month and to get my WIP ready for publishing by June 30. Neither of those goals will be met. According to my Supernatural (love Sam, Dean, and Cas!) spreadsheet, I would have to write 1898 words per day through the end of the month to make that goal. Not gonna happen. Maybe without the full-time job, but not working 40 hours a week. I really wanted the print version of Fire Wizard ready to take to the book fair at RNC, but it’s just not possible now. I’ve been concentrating on things that have to be done. Some of that is over now, so maybe I’ll get going in the next round. See ya then!

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ROW80 Un-Update

June 15, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

My mom told me today I’m spreading myself too thin. I know I am. I’m putting everything before my writing and taking in too many jobs, but to tell the truth, those other things are making me more money than my writing at the moment. I have no desire to be a “starving artist”. Writing is something I love to do, but I need to make money. Hubby’s been out of work, and now we have to have a new heat pump.

So here’s the thing. I need to organize and prioritize. Since I took Virginia Nelson’s class on sprinting, I need to dedicate at LEAST 15 minutes per day on MY book. With the sprinting method, I can do about 500 words in that time. I think I’m going to have a little breathing room through June and July, because I’m going to be working on books that will be easy to proofread. I just tried to do too many things in May and the first part of June. The fact that I had five nights of teaching Vacation Bible School didn’t help. It put me behind. But I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

That brings me to something else. I feel like I’m neglecting ROW80 and the people who make up this wonderful group. What really made me think about this is that my last post was the revealing of who my next cover model will be, and I had very few comments. I was SO excited about this, and not many people came by. And that made me realize I hadn’t really visited many ROWers in awhile. I should be checking up on some of you, even if it isn’t a ROW80 post. All of you have blog posts you write besides those twice weekly ones. So how can I expect anyone to visit my blog when I haven’t been visiting theirs? So I want to apologize for that. It’s just been a time thing, but I need to make time. And we need to visit each other on other days besides Wednesdays and Sundays. We’re friends, right? I know all of us can’t visit everyone. But shouldn’t we pop in on one or two a week besides the check in days? What do you all think? Am I just being weird? LOL

I’m going to try to do better!!!

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Cover Model for Fire Wizard Revealed!

June 3, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

This isn’t a huge secret, I just hadn’t said anything yet. So I’m going to let you all see the cover model for my next book. Some of my friends and “co-horts” already know who it is. But since the book should be out within the next couple of months, I think it’s time to tell everyone. Drum roll, please….

James and Me!

James and Me!

This is James Magnussen, and he’s not only gorgeous, but he’s a genuinely nice guy. Very friendly, but he’s also very professional when it comes to the business end of things. So ladies (or gentlemen), if you need a cover model, and James fits the bill, you can contact him on Facebook at James D Magnussen. Okay, so I’m in the picture, too, but I didn’t have one of him by himself. LOL

So, ladies (and gentlemen?), what do you think? Doesn’t he look like the perfect Fire Wizard??? Cover reveal will come in a few weeks, I hope.

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Buildin’ the Dream and Arizona Dreamin’

May 31, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I’m still here in Scottsdale, AZ at the BtD and AD conference. A little bit about it…Buildin’ the Dream is for authors and Arizona Dreamin’ is geared toward readers, although many authors and readers attended both.

We kicked off Thursday evening hearing Diana Gabaldon speak. I read her book, Outlander, YEARS ago. She’s lovely and funny, and I enjoyed the presentation so much!

Today, we had classes, and they were so helpful. Rose Gordon did a class on marketing, talking about how this is a business and your book is your product. She also did a class on mistakes made by historical authors. This was such a fun class.

Deena Remiel did a class on “crafting the dark moment”. It just so happens the scene I’m currently writing is the dark moment for the shero, and Deena made me realize I could make it even darker. Bwa ha ha.

Virginia Nelson did a class on sprinting. Although my inner editor balks against this, I think I know a way I can do this. We did a 10 minute and a 15 minute sprint in the class, and I got quite a few words in. If I had been on my laptop instead of my iPad, I would have gotten more.

And of course, I sat in on Anya Kelleye’s class on book covers and working with your cover artist. She did a great job.

Tonight kicked off the Arizona Dreamin’ part of the conference. We had a little reception with auctions and entertainment. And pictures could be made with the Men of Our Dreams contestants, as well as last year’s winner. Tomorrow there will be “book clubs” with featured authors and dinner with authors. And some other stuff.

Somehow, Anya and I will have to find time to get together to do the photo shoot with the cover model for my current WIP. He’s really nice, and he looks great. I’m really excited about this cover because it’s the first time I’ll have exclusive pictures for a cover.

RNC last year was my very first writer’s conference. This one is my second. The two are very, very different….

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Secret Project – Not So Secret

May 19, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I’ve been tossing something around in my head for a long time. This is sort of a Christian post, so fair warning. I noticed the last time I posted something of a religious nature, I got only a couple of comments. We’ll see what happens this time.

Anyway, I truly believe we are supposed to use the talents God gave us. Some people are better at some things, and other people at other things. We are all so unique, but we all have SOMETHING we can do. Our preacher did a sermon on this very thing on Sunday, and it touched me because I had been thinking along the same lines. I’ve been thinking about writing a book that could be used as a book in a ladies’ Bible class or maybe just to read. The first one I’ve thought about writing is called “Nurturing a Christian Marriage”. Honestly, it makes me sad to see how many marriages don’t last anymore. If I could just make one person think about the permanence of “I do”, it would be worth it to me.

Now is the question of…would I charge for this book? The answer is yes. Churches expect to pay for class materials, and I want to write for a living someday. This might be another direction to go in for income. However, I would like to keep the cost low. This won’t be a long book.

I’ve worked on this some tonight, mostly figuring out my chapters and some Bible verses pertaining to each one.

So that’s my news. Oh, and I won’t be writing it under this pen name.

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Bad Writing Week & Dragon Naturally Speaking

May 11, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I wrote 249 words this past week. Bah! I normally work on Fire Wizard on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday, I decided hubby and I needed a date night. It had just been too long since the two of us had gone out together. So we went to Macaroni Grill and then to the Earth Fare store (kind of like Whole Food, I think). By the time I got home, I was too tired to write. It was kind of late. And Friday…well, that’s when I wrote the 249 words, playing with my Dragon Naturally Speaking software. More on that in a moment. Saturday, I found too many other things to do. Some productive, like cutting out a skirt pattern, and others not so much, like playing a Big Fish game and going to the matinee to see The Amazing Spiderman. Bad me.

Now, about Dragon. Honestly, I was afraid it wouldn’t be able to recognize my southern accent. But I read a speech by JFK to let it understand my speech patterns. I think this software is amazing. I would haven written more with it, but I was still learning. I could go faster saying a sentence because I can talk faster than I can type. But I have to get used to saying “period”, “comma”, “open quote”, “close quote”, etc. I was doing pretty well at the end, but I found I didn’t know where my story was going, so I knew I had to think about it some more. Anyway, the Dragon software was worth it as a business expense. It will be especially good when my hands are hurting or when my back is bothering me. When I get used to it, I think it will feel more natural than it does right now. It’s regularly $99.99, but I clicked on a FB sponsored link which took me to the Nuance website, where it was advertised as $59.99. When I put it in my cart, it was $49.99! And it comes with a microphone.

I’m thinking about doing some writing today since I slacked off last week. I never write on Sundays, but I might have to make an exception.

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ROW Update 5/4/14

May 4, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I got a whopping 5,348 words written on Fire Wizard this past week. That feels awesome!

I’ve been trying to loosely plot the cozy mystery I’m thinking of doing under a different pen name. I’ll have to say, those people who write these on a regular basis have acquired genius status in my eyes. To have to figure out “whodunit” and why. And then all the investigative stuff. It makes me want to pull my hair out. I don’t know if I can do this or not, but I’m giving it a whirl. It’s good for writers to step outside their comfort zone. If it works, great. If I can’t live with the frustration…at least I can say I took the leap.

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Scheduling My Time

April 30, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I only got 2205 words written this week. But I’m soooo close to the goal I set on my Supernatural (Sam & Dean!) spreadsheet. So close. It said last night I needed to write 2561 words per day to meet my goal. I have only one day left. Today. It’s church night, so I really don’t think I can do it. But I WANT to so badly! What should I do? Could I handle an after church writing marathon???

I think one of the biggest problems I’ve had with writing is I’m not really scheduling my time. Yes, I have an idea in my head about what I want to do but…look, there’s another cool Big Fish Game. And I have a free credit, so I can download it! Um, where was I? Oh yeah. Anyway, I think schedules need to be WRITTEN DOWN. And then adhered to as best one can. It’s especially important that I get my schedule worked out because I have four proofreading jobs from now until the end of July. I’m just glad they didn’t all come in at once. LOL.

So here’s what I’m thinking for May:

Monday-Tuesday: Work on a cozy mystery I’m thinking of writing under a different pen name
Thursday-Saturday: Work on whatever my WIP is under Lauralynn Elliott
Sunday & Wednesday: No writing
Monday-Friday during lunch (and possibly Saturday): Work on my proofreading jobs

What do you think? Does this schedule make sense? Do YOU make schedules for yourself?

And don’t forget…if you need content editing, line editing (proofreading), formatting for ebooks, or all of these, check out The Forge: Affordable Book Finishing

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A Little Teaser from Fire Wizard

April 23, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I wasn’t sure if it was fair to post an excerpt so soon since the book won’t be out, probably, until the end of June. But I just couldn’t help myself *grins wickedly*

fire

Thirty minutes later, the scanner came to life, a voice shouting out information and orders. Finn pulled on his clothes from the day before and started out the door, pulling his hair into a band to get it out of the way. He jumped into his Jeep and took off down the winding mountain road as fast as he dared. When he got to the fire, he saw there were two houses involved, and it looked like the whole fire department was trying to contain this one.

Since the other fires had been so hot they couldn’t put them out, it looked like the first thing on the firefighters’ agenda was to saturate the surrounding houses and lawns to make sure the fire didn’t spread. Finn watched helplessly as the men and one tiny woman fought to hold the blazes back. He wanted so badly to help, but what could he do? Fire wizards could only take back their own fires. They weren’t able to do a thing about fires started by others.

He rushed to one of the firefighters who was working with a hose, and asked, “Were there any people in the fire?”

“Entire families in both. We couldn’t get them out.”

That’s when he saw her. The woman who was constantly on his mind. She was sitting in the grass sobbing, and her boss was trying to console her, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. He knew what had happened…she had rushed in to try to save the people in the houses and wasn’t able to. Could she possibly be what he was beginning to suspect she was? A female? He shook his head. The council would have known.

Suddenly, she locked eyes with him, and a strange thrill went through his body. Why was she affecting him like this? She jumped up and started toward him, and he quickly disappeared into the shadows, his breath coming fast. He couldn’t let her see him. He knew she suspected him of being an arsonist. Finn knew they had a tendency to stay around and watch the fire they set, and she had seen him at every fire. He should have been more careful.

He was finally able to get to his car and drive off before she found him. From now on, he needed to keep himself hidden from this observant woman. He was hoping there wouldn’t be another opportunity for her to see him, but he knew if the council couldn’t find the rogue wizard soon, there would be another fire. And another. He wouldn’t stop. It was worse than being an arsonist. Fire wizards could get high on starting fires if they weren’t careful. The feeling of power surging through them was addictive, and that’s why they were trained to control themselves and their feelings at an early age. Sometimes, although it was rare, the training didn’t take. Or the control eroded. From what Finn knew of their history, this hadn’t happened in a very long time. He hoped the council could get this taken care of and fast.

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Oops – A Little Late with my Update

April 21, 2014 by Lauralynn Elliott

I totally forgot to post yesterday. There’s not a lot going on anyway. I’m still working on a couple of other things that need to get done. I finished one and am almost finished on another, then one more. I’m not writing as many days as I want to (one day this past week), but I seem to be writing more at each session. I remember back when I could only seem to write about 500 words per day. But I wrote more days. On Friday, I wrote almost 2000 words in one session. So that’s like 4 days worth back in the old days. LOL. I’m hoping to get back to writing 3-4 days a week. Work is slowing down just a bit here at the full time job, so my brain power won’t be as depleted at the end of the day. Our church is doing a food thing for the homeless shelter this week, and I’ve never served at a shelter before, so that’s going to be an experience. That’s going to take up some of my time, but I think this is something that will be well worth it. As important as writing is to me, my spiritual growth is MORE important to me. If I strive to be a better person, I think life will improve in all areas. 🙂

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