Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘writing’

ROW80 Update 1/26/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 26, 2014| 14 Comments »

Is it really almost February? I’m so looking forward to spring. It’s been colder here this year than it’s been in 20 years!

So…about my goals. I set a goal for 5,000 a week, which is pretty steep for me, but I want to get this WIP done more quickly than the last one. I was really dragging my feet last year. I didn’t hit that goal this week, only coming in at 2812. But, I’ve also been working on final edits for Hearts of Evil, planning a release party, etc. So I haven’t been idle by any means.

About Hearts of Evil. I posted earlier that my two beta readers disagree on the inserted chapter. So I let my mom read it and asked her opinion. She said, “It works either way.” Grrr. She’s no help! LOL. So I’m waiting to hear from one more, who I let read it without the inserted chapter first, then I’ll send her that chapter. She’s the only one who will have read it without the chapter before reading the chapter. Maybe that will give a different angle.

I have no idea when Hearts of Evil will be released or when the release party will be. I need to make a decision about that chapter. After all, I make the final decisions, right?. Isn’t that the great thing about being indie? 🙂

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Update 1/22/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 22, 2014| 19 Comments »

I’ve missed a couple of updates because there wasn’t much to report. I’ve been out of town, and if you want to see pictures, check out my previous post. Anyway….

I finished edits on Hearts of Evil. Here’s the publishing holdup. My two beta readers strongly disagree on a chapter I inserted close to the beginning after the book was written. One beta thinks I should take it out, the other thinks I should leave it. They both have VERY valid reasons for their opinion. And I just can’t decide. So I’m having a couple of other people take a look and see what they think. I know the ultimate decision is mine, but it’s hard when both beta readers could be right for different reasons. The good thing is, they both really liked the story. 🙂 Another thing that’s holding me up is I want to do a FB release party, but I have to get all the prizes together. Luckily, I have most of what I need since I can’t afford to buy anything else right now, but it’s the putting everything together that will take a little time. I want to thank Ruth Ann Nordin for giving me some good ideas about questions to ask for the release party.

Now on to my other project. I sat down and wrote the first chapter of Fire Wizard last night. I don’t know why I always have this fear when I start a book. I’ve done this a dozen or more times, but I’m always scared to death when I start. Well, I didn’t used to be, but I’ve felt that way for the last two or three projects. I need to get over this silliness!

I hope to get in about 5,000 words per week now that I’ve actually started on the book. I hope you all are doing this with less fear than I am!

Read Full Post »

The End of 2013

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on December 31, 2013| 8 Comments »

Several of my friends have written a blog post recapping 2013. I almost didn’t, but I think I’m going to.

This year has been a pretty bad year for me. Hubby and I have both had health problems, his much worse than mine. The health problems contributed to financial problems, which would have been much worse if not for the generosity of others. I don’t think I can blame that for my lack of writing, though. I can’t really find a good excuse for not publishing anything (except a short story for an anthology) in all of 2013. I haven’t published since December 2012. That’s the longest I’ve ever gone without having a new novel or novella out there. I think I just wasn’t motivated enough. Book sales have been down, and that’s discouraging. But I’m SURE not going to sell anything if I DON’T get it out there. If I could have gotten my last book out this month, I could have said I published a book in 2013, but alas….

Anyway, I didn’t meet too many goals this year. I lost 25 lbs, so that was good, but I wanted to lose more. I’ve kept up with my exercise, so that’s a positive. My eating habits have slipped, so I need to fix that. My writing goals were NOT met. This is going to change in 2014, but that’s a post for tomorrow.

Now I want to count my blessings in 2013.

1) Hubby is still alive.
2) I’m still alive.
3) I have two wonderful, healthy sons, and I love them and their families SO much.
4) My mom is still around, and she’s the best mom in the world
5) I have awesome friends, both in real life and online.
6) I met even MORE awesome friends online this year.
7) I got to read a lot of books.
8) My church family is awesome, and I love them.
9) I have a job that I like, and I love my co-workers.
10)I may not have everything I want, but right now I have everything I need,

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and I’ll talk to you guys next year. I’m getting ready to go to a party/singing at church in a little while. Love you all!

Read Full Post »

End of ROW80 Round 4

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 25, 2013| 15 Comments »

I FINALLY finished the first read through of Hearts of Evil. Yes, I have a title! I added a scene between the prologue and the current first chapter. If the beta readers think the scene adds to the story, it will become the first chapter. I found a few errors, but not as many as I thought. I sent the story to two of my beta readers today. I had already sent a non-edited copy to another one. I have one more to send it to. My two major beta readers are very thorough and always have a lot of suggestions for edits. I hope they will be gentle. LOL. I have a few concerns about this story, and I hope the betas can help me address those concerns. I have no cover art yet, but Anya is working on that.

There is a lot going on with my husband right now, and I’ve purposely withheld a lot of it for a couple of reasons. 1) It’s the holidays, and I just didn’t want to bring anyone down with all of this. I also tried to forget a lot of it, and I managed to enjoy Christmas with family and friends. 2) I don’t want anyone to think I’m whining or trying to get sympathy. When I’m ready to share, I’ll do it because I feel close to all of you and WANT to share. But after the holidays. We are going to enjoy these holidays all the way through the New Year.

Next year, I’m going to set deadlines for myself. I let myself get very lax with my writing this year, and because of that, it took me a whole year to get my latest book done. I’m used to publishing more than that, so this didn’t feel good to me. I’m going to be stricter with myself in 2014, but I’m going to make sure I allow for possible setbacks that might be beyond my control.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas (if you celebrate it) and let’s all have a fun New Year’s Eve.

Read Full Post »

Genres, Pen Names, and Going in New Directions…or Not

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 19, 2013| 15 Comments »

Sometimes I feel like if I hear the word “genre” one more time, my head will explode. I know it’s a legitimate word about a legitimate thing, but it’s so frustrating sometimes to try to figure out where my book fits. I’ve worked on my latest book for many months. During that time, I’ve tried my best to figure out what genre to put it in. Because, you know, you HAVE to. It has to go somewhere. So, is it… Horror? Paranormal? Paranormal romance? Thriller? Murder mystery? Supernatural thriller? Ack! I really hope my beta readers will be able to help me with this, because this is the first time I’ve never had a clue.

So now we segue into pen names and new directions…which also involves genre. I can’t get away from this word! Anyway, almost two years ago, I started what I was going to call a Christian Romance. And I was going to write this book under my real name instead of my pen name. I wanted something I could actually let my church friends read. I abandoned that idea after only writing about 15% of it because I was afraid it would take time away from my Lauralynn Elliott books. Today, I was thinking about a couple of things. First, I wonder if I should abandon the idea of writing Christian Romance and write “Sweet Romance”. I think there might be a bigger readership if that’s how I market it. I could get the Christian romance readers because they know there won’t be graphic sex in it, but also maybe get readers that don’t necessarily want to read books with the word Christian in them. I would have to rework a little bit in this book so it won’t sound so “judgy” in places. The second issue is the fact that it could push back publication of my other books. I’ve never been able to write two books at the same time. But I know others that do it, so it CAN be done. If I set aside certain times or certain days for each of the books, maybe I could pull it off. And it might be helpful if I’m stuck on one to be able to work on the other.

So what do you all think? How do you feel about genres? Have you ever had problems figuring out where your books fit? Do you write in different genres? Do you use more than one pen name?

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check In 12/15/13 and an Injury

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 15, 2013| 18 Comments »

I’ve edited about half of my book. I wanted a Christmas release, but that’s not going to happen. So…sometime in January.

Now the bad news…I was so looking forward to a great Christmas. I’ve been so happy about the holidays, looking forward to time with family and friends. But hubby came home from work with an injured foot. It’s probably broken. It’s not the same one he broke earlier in the year. It was a scary thing for him. His foot got caught in machinery and it dragged him. There are reasons he’s not going to the doctor right now, but I’m not going to go into that. This is just all too much for me right now, and I’ve sat here and cried. He’s supposed to go in the morning to the hospital to have a heart cath done (a test where they check for blocked arteries, and they are also checking the valves), so now he’s going to go in there limping or on crutches. I keep thinking there are so many people in this world that are much worse off than we are. But it’s so hard to think that way when things are happening. We need prayers and/or good vibes sent our way.

Read Full Post »

Editing During the Holidays

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 11, 2013| 17 Comments »

Ack! That is how I feel right now. So many parties, Christmas shopping, house cleaning to get READY for it all. I had fully intended to do some editing on my book during lunch yesterday. THEN I remembered…during lunch I had to 1)Buy a sweater or sweatshirt for the ugly sweater contest at the party I had to attend last night, 2) Purchase ugly things to put on said sweater/sweatshirt, 3) Purchase food for the party (I forgot to make anything), 4) Actually put ugly things on the sweatshirt. My lunch hour was shot. I got back home too late from the party to do any editing. Tonight is church night, so editing might happen, but only a little. Why do we finish up books this time of year? I really, really wanted a Christmas release. I could probably get the first round of editing done, but I can’t expect my beta readers to drop everything this time of year to read my book. I happen to know one of them is extremely busy right now, and the others probably are, too. I think I’ve actually probably lost one beta reader due to the fact she’s so busy all the time.

I don’t believe I’m going to have a Christmas release. The upside to this is that most of my book sales have always been in January and February, because people are finding books to download on their shiny new Kindles, Nooks, iPads, etc. The downside is that most people already own a reading device now, so there aren’t as many new ones, therefore, not so many downloads. It’s not like 2011 when I had GREAT sales in those two months, and one of my books got up to 134 in the Kindle store. There are too many writers publishing now. It’s hard to get noticed. And, I’m totally rambling and getting off-topic. Where was I? Oh, yeah.

So, do you feel like it’s a huge challenge to write or edit during the holidays? How do you handle this? Do you try to schedule some time for it, or do you just throw up your hands and decide to wait until after the holidays?

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check-In 12/8/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2013| 12 Comments »

Is anyone else getting excited about Christmas? I am! Last year, I lost my father on Thanksgiving day. Then, in mid-December, I found out I had diabetes…the same day the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. Not a great holiday season last year, huh? But it’s a new year, and I have my blood sugar under control with one insulin shot a day plus some pills. Not ideal, but life is good. I intend to ENJOY my holidays this year.

So onto the report.

Writing: I finished my WIP on November 30, and I didn’t touch it until yesterday. I edited five chapters yesterday. So far, so good. I only found a few little things where I thought I should word some things differently. The manuscript is actually 900+ words short of what I shot for. Also, though, I realized there was a scene that might work between the prologue and the current first chapter. I’m going to talk to my beta readers about it and get their input when I’m ready to send it to them.

Exercise: Mostly, this has gone well. I did my three days at the gym. I have an extra incentive not to skip workouts since my insurance will now pay for it if I go 12 times in a month. I skipped a couple of days on the treadmill because 1) I had to get up at 4:00 on Thursday, and 2) I overslept on Friday (probably because of #1).

FlyLady: I’ve done so-so on housekeeping and organization. Now that the last exporting class for work is over, my stress is now lower. I nailed our presentation at that class, by the way. WIN! 🙂 So I’m ready to embrace all three of my goals with gusto! The rest of December is going to be awesome!

Let’s all get excited together, okay? It can be contagious!

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check In 12/1/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2013| 16 Comments »

It’s been a decent week, I think. I had a good Thanksgiving with great food (if I do say so myself),but most of all, great family times. Unfortunately, my oldest son was sick, so he and his wife couldn’t make it. But we might get to see them next weekend.

So here’s the deal:

Writing: My goal was to finish my WIP by November 30. This has nothing to do with NaNo, it’s just the date I picked for a deadline. I’m happy to say I typed THE END yesterday. I’m not so happy to say that I don’t really like the ending. I kind of let my corny sense of humor get the better of me in the epilogue, and a lot of people probably won’t be amused. I’m going to need a lot of help from my beta readers with it. I’m going to start editing and proofing next week before sending it out to be criticized critiqued. 🙂

Exercise: I was off from work for the holidays starting Wednesday. I didn’t get on the treadmill for three days. Grrr. But I got back on Saturday morning and walked a little extra to make up for some of it. I’ve bumped my speed up a bit. This is a big deal for someone with short legs.

FlyLady: The housekeeping and organization with the FlyLady method is going well. Not perfect, but good enough. Because FlyLady says we have to let go of our perfectionism. 🙂

How about the rest of you? Who did NaNo? Who WON NaNo? Who is glad they didn’t do NaNo? *raises hand* Good luck to everyone this week!

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check-In 11/24/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , 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?

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »