I have been avoiding my book. The character calls to me, but I have hit an internal wall where the book is veering into TMI and not enough action.
So last night I sat down in my room (where it is quiet at 9pm because I have put all the kids to bed) and reviewed my notes and printed pages.
I had inspiration all over the place last night. I have a lot more action on my flow chart and a lot less BS. I am really excited where the pause took me.
I had to revamp some stuff I though was law, but makes more sense the way I have rewritten it.
I am excited about my characters, my plot and I can feel my MC in the back of my head saying "Finally!"

I am going to work through my workbook tonight and write some more notes and then tomorrow I shall begin again (For the 3rd time).

I like being back on track with this book. I also had some better ideas for the short story I have been pondering and playing with.

Writings good. The house is lonely without Superman, but really clean (I clean when I am emotional - angry, sad, lonely, etc). The teens are off to the water park today and toddler has swim day at school. All in all we are doing well. I just don't have an adult conversation once I get home. I am going to the gym tonight so I can have adult contact.

I have a fairly busy life and have struggled for some time with fitting everything I want to into my life with the attention I feel it deserves.

My biggest problem is my focus. I get really focused on one area and work really hard at it until something else grabs my focus (Oh is that a shiny organizer for my closet!) and then I am off with my focus on that area for a while.
( Long Post Continues )

I joined this for the first time this year.
I am all set up for the great November writing competition.
I can not wait.
I have been outlining, working on characters and am stuck at what is motivatin my MC at the moment. I will get there I just don't want it to be forced or cliche. I want the motivation to really click with what is going on and it hasn't happened yet. More brainstorming is in order.

If you are up for it, join me.

http://www.nanowrimo.org

50,000 words in 30 days. They had 17,000 people complete this last year. I will be one of them this year.

I am currently immersed in research and will continue until I recieve the final edits of Cadence WIP. I need to come up with a name for that baby.

I picked up some great books at the Library last night on Las Vegas. I live in Nevada and have visited Vegas often, but from a work stand point mostly.

I have seen the glitter the glitz and what goes into making that work. I have not seen the seedier side, the water ways under Vegas intrigue me the most right now. I think I will have to go for a visit here soon to get a feel for it all.

More research to ensue, but I also desperately need to sit down and outline what I am doing. I started that but it sort of fell apart. I am a very practical organized being, I need an outline and I need to flesh out the characters better.

I have an idea of who and what they are but... what drives them? where is the conflict? what specifics do I want to get across? etc.
I found some great character creation sheets that I think will fit the bill on this. I know what they look like, what they are, but I really need to know WHO they are! I am going to dig on them a lot and figure out what they are all about.

So the writer moves on into unknown territory, but with tools to help her along the way.

Reading - I finished the book by Lara Adrian Kiss of Midnight. I had a lot of fun reading it, but it was a romance. The story line was solid, war, vampires that are truly aliens, blah blah blag. The imagery was good, but I am fed up with romances. I need a break from them. No more sappy happiness for this reader.

Sadly, all romances end with a happy ending. I don't know why that disapoints me, but it does. I need to get away from the romance and delve into something grittier, less cliche', and filled with surprise ridden darkness. Maybe that will help with my want of tortured love.

So I am off to purchase books, dark books, gritty books, full of torture, malevolence and surprise.
Any good recommendations out there?

I had an amazing weekend. Full of little things that were just perfect. I wish it could be longer.

I cleaned my house to a shine and basked in the glory of sparkly countertops and completed laundry.
I watched a wonderful football game, that sadly we lost.
I watched The Incredibles with the three year old six times, and she took seven baths in three days. She likes her fingerpaint bath bubbles.
I read a crazy amount of books.
I bought Oreos and Keebler Chocolate chip cookies, this is an amazing thing because we haven't had cookies in the house for two years. I love cookies, I needed cookies. The Oreos are all that is left of the cookies.
I put my daughter's day bed up. Cussed a lot, got really mad, but the damn thing is up.
I weed wacked the horticultural weed wonder in the back yard.
I napped with my daughter, not once, but twice.
I talked to Superman and he let me know edits are going well and will be on their way back to me tomorrow. I can finish those up and get my short story submitted.

The books I read this weekend were a lot of fun. I flew through James Patterson's 4th of July and 5th Horseman. Great reads, fast paced and enticing.
I am finally caught up with the wide world of Harry Dresden. I finished Jim Butcher's Proven Guilty and White Night. Love that series. I am excited I am caught up and the same time sad that I have to wait for the next one in the series. Superman bought the Dreden Files only season dvd, but alas I will not be able to see it until he returns. - 51 more days.
I also started reading Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian. This was an impulse buy and I like the premise and difference in these vampires. I am also lonely so am sucking up the love story. I will be picking up Kiss of Crimson here shortly.
My TBR pile is sadly lacking now and I will have to get some books this week. I have one more story in the On the Prowl anthology. The one by Sunny. We'll see how that goes, I have heard mixed reviews on this author, but I will reserve judgement and see if it interests me.

Up for purchase (and subject to change at my whim)...
*Kiss of Crimson by Lara Adrian
*Nightlife by Rob Thurman
*Pretties by Scott Westerfield
*Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo
*The Devil's Right Hand by Lilith Saintcrow
*Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong
*Wild Thing Anthology
*No Experience Necessary by Ron Baker
*Skill with People by Les Giblin

I have a list of research books at the library to pick up today as well. Hopefully the research and the books will keep me happy for a couple weeks. Then I can delve back into my Danika WIP.

I have guard drill for four days this week which I am actually looking forward to, because me and my fellow guard members are heading out to watch another guard member and his band perform Friday night. Woohoo, it should be interesting. Watch out Haf Dead we were issued two livers upon completion of tech school. It should be a blast. Good company, good times, and hopefully good music.

Writing - Short story is off to Superman for edits. Woohoo! I am excited I finished the edits last night and got it to him by 9 o`clock.

Reading - Immersed in Undercover in Highheels. Great read. I have about sixty pages left this evening.

Killer in High Heels - Great book, nice twists and turns and I laughed a lot. Gemma is absolutely my favorite chick lit author.

This weekend - I have household stuff to do. Stuff to get in the mail, beds to create, rooms to organize, garages to clean.
There will be fun though - Library visit and house visit I think is necessary.
I want to sit down and watch a couple of movies that are sitting on top of the DVD player to be watched.
I am gonna weed wack the weeds in the back yard too. After I take photos of the scariest tumble weed I have ever seen. Apparently it likes pool water because it is thriving and it has flowers budding on it. Who knew tumble weeds had flower?
Not me, but after I take a photo it is a dead weed. It is simply out of control.

Research Research Research is on my late night agenda this weekend. Aren't you jealous?

Writing Front -
I am over half done with the short story edits. I should complete them and have it sent off to Superman tonight.
This has left me pretty open for the Danika WIP. I have to figure out where the hell I left that and get back into her head. I have discovered a little more research should be done before I proceed. Looks like a library trip will be necessary over the weekend. I love the library and so does my little princess. So fun and work all jammed together.
I will be reviewing notes and possibly do more outlining, plotting and character creation. I am not sure I have the depth of Danika down, what motivates her etc. I need to get in there and dig it out.

On the home front we have 56 days until Superman returns. I somehow got the homecoming date confused and it is two days earlier than expected. Woohoo!

Work front - blah

Reading front - I am currently immersed in Killer in High Heels by Gemma Halliday. I was up til almost midnight last night reading this book and with the exception of a battle with a huge fly I read for three hours and am yet to be done. I love the story line, very fast paced, a lot of fun, the snarky comments crack me up and the mother is hilarious.



I can not wait to finish this tonight and move onto the next Undercover in High Heels



That's it for now.

I lost track of the 70 days of sweat. I will have to sign up for the next go around. I have no intention of stopping writing though. I just need to allow myself to do it. Instead of reading everyone else's work I need to settle into mine.

I finished The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac. It was good, but the main character bothers me a bit. She is not a very good team player and makes some pretty arrogant mistakes.

The love story breaks my heart and I want to take up a damn bow myself on Rosa.

There were some descriptive areas that lost my interest and made me skip forward.

All around though she does a great job using all five and sometimes six senses in the book and I could really learn from it. I like the idea of the book, most of the characters, and the location is fab. It's the getting from here to there that irritates me a few times.
Great book all around, will be picking up the next one.




The Touch of Twilight: Third Sign of the Zodiac is up next. I have some expectations for this book and they better live up to it. I have no idea when it comes out but I am sure I will find out at some point.

Holidays are Hell will have a short story from Vicki too. I will be picking that up due to some of the other authors as well. I want to see what she can do with a short story.

I spent the last two weeks with my Air National Guard unit and worked my tush off.

During this we worked crazy ten hour days in over 100 degree weather on our flight line. I think I lost ten pounds by sweating alone. It was nice to be on the birds that much and feel accomplished at the end. Down time was in there, but a lot more up time on the aircraft than anything.

You would think that my writing and reading suffered during these extremely busy, exhausting, extensive two weeks of training, but nothing suffered. Not even the lawn, which is always last on the list of things to do.

I was awake more in the last two weeks than normal. Which had to do with waking an hour and a half earlier than usual.

My Guard unit is local and we pulled some long shifts but I got to go home at the end of the day and be with the kiddos.

( Two weeks of catching up. )

I am well into my short story WIP. I have five pages already! I just started and it is flowing really well and coming together. Their is some heat, build up and we are getting ready for whammo and crescendo.
Got that?
I am happy with this story and will be turning it over to my editor aka Superman this weekend. He can edit it to death and then I can rewrite and submit my very first. Yes my very first short story for publication.
I am excited and terrified.

1,698 / 5,000 (34.0%)

I am lost on the days and off on tangents with my writing.
I found a great place to make submissions of short stories with a rock and roll basis and an idea sprung from my current WIP.
And SS WIP was born. I have been researching and creating my character and I need to sit down and do a little hash out on what is going to go on in my 3k to 5k short story.
I am still pondering some of the plot and what nots but I love this character and shee needs to be on put on paper!
Off I go to research, plot and outline! Yes outline!

I am not writing. At least I haven't in many days. I keep thinking that I haven't written and low and behold I don't write again that day.
So I propose this to myself...

Let it go.
Do your best today. Don't compare yourself to the other sweaters and just do your own best. Each day if I do my personal best it will be a great day. I need to type one word in my WIP to beat yesterday.

I can do that.

I missed yesterday somehow. I did go and do my Wednesday check in, but it was sad. I have not written anymore. I have thought really hard about it though. Does that count?

I have done no writing. The day is not over. I will write. I will, I will, I will.

No progress, very sad. I know it is day 20 and I am behind. But watch me fly this weekend.

The day is not over yet. No progress since last post. That is all

I have made progress! I am up to 44 pages and that means that I will definitely be caught up by the end of the week. Woohoo!

Way behind.
I am still at 9872. I will be making some progress tonight once the kids are snuggled in. I decided this week I will be doing 8 to 12 a night to get caught up, because I am still at 31 pages and should be somewhere between 64 and 96. I am a week behind, but I have faith I can catch up.

I am still at the same count as yesterday but I finished A Deeper Blue and will be writing today.
I need to get through this chapter and onto more fun.

This weekend I will be kicking some serious writing arse and will be catching up. My tongue may be hanging out on Monday from the run but it will be done.

My internal editor took over last night and I didn't make as much progress as anticipated. I am now at...

9,278 / 100,000 (9.3%)

Life happens.
My husband is leaving with the military for a few months and departs on Monday so I am trying to squeeze in time with him around the mess of deadlines at work. I had to sleep too. I know sleep is a cruch, naps are for quitters, etc. But I want to be able to enjoy the closeness of my husband before he leaves and that involves sleeping. That is the hardest part when he goes away, sleeping. I am sure I will write a ton while he is gone and insomnia kicks in.

I checked in today

9,194 / 100,000 (9.2%)

I managed to do a page yesterday. I am at 32 pages now and will be attempting to make up pages at this point. I checked in but I feel a little discouraged at where I am. I will get over it once I am at the laptop typing away, but looking at word and page count is a bit depressing.

I should be between 44 and 66 pages at this point. Damn the research it put me behind.

It was needed though. Onward and Upward!

Officially I have not written since day six.

I am working toward something big in this chapter. I have the idea and foundation but actually conveying it is a big problem. I don't know if a flashback is smarmy or overdone or I am just wanting something more original.

It would help if I put the book I'm reading down and step up to the pc.

Instead I review notes and ponder it, but nothing.

Tonight I am writing, come hell or high water and I will make up my 12 - 18 pages this week!!!

I am officially at 31 pages and a little under 9000 words.

8,997 / 100,000 (9.0%)

I am really excited about tonight. I didn't do any writing last night but did quite a bit of research to move forward.

I will make up my missed day of yesterday and saturday in the next couple of days.
I have hit a really fun place in my book and it should flow good.
I have also discovered a wonderful website full of published writers and aspiring writers that is chocked full of info, advice an support.

I wrote six pages last night and finally smacked the internal editor in to submission and coaxed the muse. I sped through the last sequence it all coming together nicely.
I have no idea where word count or anything else is. But I know I am up to thirty one pages on day six so I am doing good and sticking with this challenge.

I was a faithful student of the challenge last night. I sat at my laptop and banged away for about two hours and produced a little over eight pages.
I made up for my miss the night before.
I got over this weird little jump from one part of the story to another I was having a problem with getting from point a to point b. Last night I succeeded and overcame the mess.

Tonight I am shooting for six good pages. My outline is solid in this area so I feel really confident tonight will go really well.

On a silly note, we share a laptop at my house due to the apple juice incident (One cup of apple juice kills a laptop, just so you know).
My beautiful oldest child, known as the Princess in our house, was typing up a list on the laptop yesterday and saw my file. Being the curious thirteen year old she is, she thought "Cool, I will get to read Mom's book."
When I sat down at the laptop last night to work on the book the Princess slid up next to me.
"Mom, why'd you password protect your story?"
"Because I have a nosy teenager"
From the kitchen my husband aka Superman pipes up.. "I told you that was why"
"You thought I would read your story?"
"You tried to didn't you?"
"I still want to read it first."

Kids crack me up, especially my nosy daughter who thinks she had pulled one over on Mom.

I did not write last night so that means twice the work tonight. No problem I know I can do this.

My current word count is...

4,647 / 100,000 (4.6%)

There is definitely movement going on. I just need to move through this little transition point that is bothering me. I debate how detailed I need to be in this little section and have decided less is more so I will just move forward now.

I am always up for a little friendly competition. I just discovered a wonderful challenge for writing. What a great idea! I have heard of several in the past, but have never participated. This time I jumped in. 

Seventy days of Sweat
http://www.alisonkent.com/blog/?p=2089

I am a day late in finding this, but the rules have 7/11 - 7/15 off. Which I won't take so I should be able to catch up that way. 
From Alison's blog.

The rules are simple. You agree to write 4 - 6 pages a day (depending on the length of your book) every day between the dates listed above. If you need to take off a day, you make up the pages another. If you don’t like to write 7 days a week, too bad. This challenge lasts for only 10 weeks, and if you have to get up early on the weekends to get the pages done, you do it. (Hey, we all do it! You can, too!)

You don’t have to have a blog to participate, but we do want you to sign up below so everyone involved can get to know one another. And if you do have a blog, you can post the information there. Going public with your commitment is about owning it. As far as reporting your progress, you’ll come back here each Wednesday and Sunday and post your total word count. (We’ll expect the first reports at LEAST by the 18th, the Wednesday following conference, though for those of you not attending, your first report is due on the 11th!) And those of us sponsoring the challenge will be dropping by your blog (if you have one) and egging you on! AND, we may be adding more sponsors!

I am really excited about this, right now anyway. Talk to me in a week and I may have changed my mind, at least once, possibly more like four times. 

I need a book title though.. that should be interesting. I just know where the story is going right now, every step until the end. Hashing out details as I go, sometimes throwing in crap I do not need. But I don't have a working title. Everything is revolving around  my characters first name so far. 

Hmm.. need to write and find a working title.

Writing News
I picked a book up at the library yesterday. Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. I have worked through the first two chapters.

There is a writing assignment that ends each chapter and I have completed those as well. They are a lot of fun and good practice.

I am still trudging through my grammar and sentence structure classes. They are helping but I am still bored with them. I feel that I should know this, but in actuality I need the refresher.

I am really trying to write at least 1,000 words a day so I can practice. I need to continue to write even if it isn't in my working novel. I will get back to my muse in a few weeks and feed her that gourmet meal. For now she gets snacks of short stories.

881 / 1,000 (88.1%)

Home Front News
My children are hillarious.
This morning Superman, the big Princess, the little Princess and me were headed out the door and the big Princess stops me after I have told the Prince that I love him and will call him later. Here is what commenced..

BP with a crease on her brow. "Mom, did you look at your son?"
Me "No, I just told him I loved him as I passed"
BP sounding exasperated. "Mom, go look at your son."
So I peaked over toward my passed out Prince and he has brown stuff from his forhead all the way down to his chin. I was apalled, what had happened to my poor baby boy?
The big Princess now laughing softly says "He tried to sneek some chocolate chops last night"
I laughed and realized the poor guy had fallen asleep with his stolen booty of chocolate chips. They had promptly melted in his hot little hand and he had scratched his face at some point during the night.

Kodak Moment I tell you!

In other Home Front news we are gearing up for the little princess's third birthday party.

My wonderful hubby, Superman and the little Prince are at home steam cleaning the carpets and mowing the weeds (silly isn't it?)

Will be an all family gathering that includes four generations, we shall have a hoot. The age ranges from two months to 81 years. I love this family!

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam
By David J. Parker


1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
Umm a lot happens very in the first fifty pages

2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?
Thankfully, No

3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?
No

4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy?
No

5. Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
No

I was onto page 33, chapter who knows what on the novel I have delved into when I decided it was all crap.
I saved it but started over.
This time I have a hook, which for whatever reason I did not before. I have better descriptions and a better sense of where I am going.
I have been trolling author websites, writing websites, etc.
The best help I received was from Kelley Armstrong's website. She has a wonderfuly section for writers and breaks down a great way to get started. Without her keen advice I would still think that mess I started was alright.

My only trouble. I have gone back in time in the numbers game. That is alright I feel better about what I wrote this time and actually enjoyed re-reading it. I didn't even edit! Ok, one sentence, but it was important to fix it.

I am getting ready to go on a trip to Utah and will be riding in the car for nine hours both ways. I intend to write, a lot. I hope this works out.

2,541 / 75,000 (3.4%)