Tuesday, August 31, 2010

All Is Well...

Well, I am healing rather rapidly from the first extraction, but had to put the second one on hold. Mainly due to the fact that I now HAVE A JOB! No, not excited at all. I am now the Art Staff at our local Boys and Girls club. It is fun so far.
The other reason for putting off the second extraction is the fact that I sat in the chair for two hours. It had to be surgically removed, therefore costing me extra cash. So it will have to wait for when I can get a long weekend or even a Holiday break.

How cool is that? I don't work when the kids don't go to school. Wicked cool.

So thanks, all, for reading and responding to my little snippet. Alex, don't worry, I did get me some good painkillers.

I hope you all are having an awesome week and keep having an awesome week. I will post more later! Have a good one, guys. And gals. Hehe!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Just Letting You Know...


I'll be offline for the rest of this week and possibly a couple of days next week. I'm going to have a tooth extracted today and my husband will be using my truck for work. Even if I wanted to get into town this week, no dice. Not a big deal, I need this extraction.

Then next week I will be getting another extraction. Yep, two in one shot. Sort of. Oh well. Has to be done. I had to stop drinking soda. Good thing came out of it, I lost weight. But, my teeth were already having problems. Dentist always told me to quit, but did I listen? Noooooo.

I never listen. Sometimes it takes the Sledgehammer of Subtlety for this girl. Karma can't just slap me on the wrist and say, "Bad girl. Don't do it again." Nope, Karma has to whack me down until I am cowering in the corner, whimpering and begging her to stop. Seriously. Then I get the, "What did you learn?"

I know, this has not a flippin' thing to do with writing. Doesn't always have to be about writing, though, does it? Okay, you're right. It does!

I will be nice and leave you with a little snippet here. As you all know (because I whined and protested about doing it so much) I have revised my revision of LoBR. (Legend of Black Rose) I started in the middle. So I am going to let you all have a look at what I have ripped to shreds and painstakingly have put back together. Still sort of rough, but now much more doable. So enjoy. Have a great week and a great weekend. I'll be pining away for you all as I slurp soup, swallow pudding and applesauce and waiting for the day I can crunch on solid food once more.

The cool stone floor pressed into Black Rose's cheek. His mouth was dry from being unable to breathe through his nose. He could no longer taste blood, he supposed that was a good sign. After taking a mental note of all his aches and pains, he opened his eyes. It took a moment or two of blinking to realize he wasn't blind, just darkness pressing in on him.

So Quagha Li'endrin must have tossed him down into the darkest, dirtiest pit he could find. He could taste the foul air on his tongue since his sense of smell had been compromised when the guards broke his nose. Shortly after that, they threw him into the barred carriage that would transport him to Relavia.

Rose didn't want to move. Pain made him selfish. He knew he would have to sit up eventually, but for the moment the cool, damp surface felt good. Made him ache that much more, but that is how he knew he still lived. He hurt like all hells. His stomach growled, his mouth was dry from having to breathe through it. When was the last time he had something to eat or drink?

He closed his eyes and the past few days began to replay in his mind, like a dream that refused to let go of the waking world. At first, he could see his garden. The soil had just been turned, it lay waiting and ready for him to plant the seeds that would grow under his nurturing care. His garden was his sanctuary.

He remembered his conversation with Fizanu, the goddess of Justice. Rose had been chosen to be her Champion. She had chosen him out of all the hundreds of thousands of mortals on this world. There were times, only times mind you, he wished she hadn't. He wouldn't change his life now for anything. Okay, well maybe he would change his location at the moment, but that was just geography.

He breathed in slowly, his ribs protesting at the expansion required to fill his lungs with air. The pain as he breathed in was sharp and exquisite. He recalled Fizanu telling him to travel to the small kingdom of Jenlakai. The king and queen were being held against their will until they produced their only daughter to Quagha Li'endrin, king of Relavia. Quagha wanted to unite the two kingdoms in marriage; the daughter of Jenlakai to his old, ailing cousin simply for the sake of forcing them to be allies. Not exactly a faerie tale romance.

Footsteps sounded off to the right. Rose kept his eyes closed and his breathing slow and even. Perhaps if they thought him still asleep, they'd either leave him alone or say something they wouldn't otherwise say in his waking presence. Whoever approached didn't stop. The footsteps retreated, echoing off of the stone walls and fading off to his left. Must have just been a guard walking his rounds, Rose thought to himself.

Time in a place like this was difficult to figure out. Was it daytime? Nighttime? What day was this? Rose wouldn't be able to figure it out and had already seen his fair share of men who had gone mad trying to do so. His situation reminded him of several different occasions he had been held in similar cells, just not so far underground. He let the memories come as exhaustion saturated him.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Word Count and Award...

You guys are all so silly. But I loves ya all anyway. :D And I seriously love me some awards. But before I go on to the award that Nancy Williams graciously passed on to me, I want to tell you all I have broken the 10,000 word count mark!

Woot!

I am currently sitting at 10,608 and am plugging away madly. Because really, is there any other way to simply plug away? I didn't think so.

So, starting this revision in the middle has proven to be a good move on my part. Again, I need to listen to my instincts more often. Silly instincts were right, go figure.


Okay! So on the very sweet, very pretty award. Nancy Williams sent me the One Lovely Blog Award. I have to pass it on to 8 people. I really do not like having to choose people. BUT... I will. Because I am just that way. So here goes.

1 - Slushpile Slut
2 - Alex Cavanaugh (I know it is all frilly and girly, but change it to a beer if you want and call it "One Manly Blog!"
3 - Roxy at "A Woman's Write"
4 - Amy at Artistically Amy
5 - Chary Johnson at Bronx Tales & Inner Musings
6 - Karen G at Coming Down the Mountain
7 - Deborah at Dragon Wrangler
8 - Ellie at Ella's Edge

I tried to pick people I haven't picked before or who I usually lurk on their blogs. Yes, I am a lurker sometimes. What can I say? So. The only thing you need to do is pass this on to eight other people. Gift it to someone who hasn't had a lot of awards or no awards. I'm limited on time, so I couldn't go check out everyone's blog. I just wanted to give you all the update and pass this on.

Have a great week everyone! And Write On!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Just Some Ramblings...

Nope, I do not have a new word count. I just had some time to kill today, so I thought I would grace you with another post. ::Snorts:: Yeah, I am so not like that. I adore all of my followers and love your comments. Speaking of... if you are following me and I have not followed you yet, leave me a link. Don't be subtle, it takes a sledgehammer to get my attention sometimes.

I have been reading some Nora Roberts books lately. (Don't judge me, she has awesome freakin' plots! I skip over all that mushy love/sex crap anyway.)

I have just one question as far as Ms. Roberts goes...

How does she do it????? You crack open one of her books and you are faced with two pages, TWO PAGES, of her written works. She is about to run out of room. Then again, maybe it has been bumped up to about 3 pages these days as these are older books I am reading.

How? How? I can barely juggle the two stories I have in the works and do not even have time to sneeze on any other idea.

Speaking of, I need to write down said ideas before I lose them completely.

Insane. Granted, though, I do not know how often she puts out a book, but seriously, she's like a machine.

Stephen King got the same way for awhile, but then his books weren't doing very well (in my opinion) and got kind of boring. But Roberts has fresh ideas, at least from my perspective. I am not a big fan of paranormal romance, let alone romance. If it doesn't have a good, strong plot, forget it. I don't want to read page after page of hot monkey sex. But again. MY opinion. Doesn't count for much, but it is mine, my own, my precious.

I would like to be able to discipline myself to get to the point where I could crank out a story a year, but I am still so new to my world building, plus having to introduce this young world. Perhaps someday I will get there.

Am I being too "Instant Gratification-ish"? How fast do you come up with ideas or do they take you forever? Do you focus on one idea at a time or do you bounce back and forth to keep fresh perspectives?

I'm sure I am being redundant in this post, I know I posted something similar a little while back, but it still baffles me.

Have a great end of the week and weekend!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Okay, Okay...

Okay so I got a little caught up in my reading more than my writing this week. However, word count:

8,989

Not bad for a poor white girl.

I've been reading "Regina's Song" by Leigh and David Eddings. OMGah... I SO did not know they had written this book. I'm loving it. I love finding books by my favorite authors in different genres. It is kind of repetitive in places, but I'm giving them a break as they had to be repetitive for so long writing the Belgariad and Mallorean books. Have to remind us fantasy whack-o's what we're reading you know.

Soooo.... yeah. I will be getting help from my husband this week on this scene I am sort of stuck on, which is why I picked up some books to read. It is his character, after all. He tells me what he wants to see and I write it out for him. We're a great team. I'm excited to get this revision done. I want to move on to Crowning Absolution!

I think that's it for now boys and girls. I've been loving your comments, even if I haven't been responding much. I do not like being limited for time on the internet, but you do what you have to do to get by. And get out of the house. I hate being stuck at home. So it is a win-win situation! Wee!

Have a great rest of the week!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Can I Get a Drumroll...

No, it might not seem like a big deal to most people who don't write. But we authors know exactly how it feels to watch that word count grow. Especially when you are in the revising stage!

At the moment, I am sitting at 8,403 revised words for LoBR.

Can I get a "Woot!"?

I have been struggling with this story since I first wrote it during last years National Novel Writing Month. I have issues. Mostly, I have so much information that I've used to build my fantasy world that I try very hard to shove as much of it down the reader's throats as I can in one shot.

It obviously doesn't work, hence the struggling on my part. So I decided to take those huge chunks of information from the first draft and use them to sprinkle throughout my story and therefore starting said story in the middle. Where it should have started. In the first place.

I suppose those who write high fantasy feel this way sometimes as well. You have all this cool information about your world that you want to share all of it in one huge lump.

Well, I have forced myself to hammer that lump down to a thin wafer. While it is still not polished to absolute perfection, it is far better and different than what I started with. This is the same thing that happened with Crowning Absolution. I will take the huge chunks of world building from that as well and shave it down to fit nicely into its little niche.

Oh the joy of being an author. ::Chuckles::

I hope everyone has had a great week and hope you all have a great weekend!

So tell me how you whittle things down to fit?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Getting Caught Up...

I've been forcing myself to get back into the writing habit. I've been a lazy girl. Rain doesn't help especially when it seems this has been one of the rainiest summers I've experienced up here in my 4 years.

However, not only am I enjoying how this revision is working out on LoBR (current revision word count is at 5,400+) but I am stoked about finally having figured out the background and history of my deadly little assassin, Nightshadow. I worked it out and talked it out with my hubby about what makes her tick and why she fell onto the path of being a hired killer.

Woot!

'Nuff said about that. IF I get my tail in gear and am able to get LoBR revised completely before NaNo hits again this year, I have two ideas waiting in the wings. I really need to get my writing organized, write down some notes and keep this stuff on paper rather than trying to keep it all in my head. After writing last night and coming up with Night's background, I couldn't sleep. I was dog-tired, but my brain refused to shut down. I hate those nights sometimes. Other times, if I am not too tired I will get back up and write until my brain is satisfied and the voices in my head finally shut up and go to sleep! Grr.

Well that is all for the moment. I'll have to share some of what I came up with for Nightshadow once I get to that point. In the meantime, everyone have an awesome week!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A Little Better...

So I'm resorting to bringing my computer into town and connecting on the library's WiFi. This still isn't ideal, but much better than getting a mere 45 minutes to do anything I want to do online. I at least get 2 hours. That is more than enough time for me to get re-connected with you all and start reading blogs again.

I've been feeling rushed in doing my online thing as well as paranoid about who is looking over my shoulder as I write. :D Maybe I should start writing erotica and see who walks away from my computer. ::Snorts:: That'd be kinda funny, but I wouldn't do it.

Even though this is a bit of a drag, it does get me back online. I've got just over 3,000 words revised on LoBR. I wrote up a new beginning....not sure if I mentioned that before I moved. So the word count I have up there currently is still part of the revision but, like I said, I started a new beginning. It is moving better, I like where it is and it plays out very well. We'll see what happens. I've got to get things moving or I will not be doing NaNo this year. I'm already behind in my revising of last year's book. To begin another and have it waiting in the wings until I'm done with those revisions would kill me. I hate being so disorganized and am trying to improve myself to finish what I have started. Otherwise, no one would get to read these damn books. Lol!

I read lots of blogs where authors have two or three WiP's and it amazes me how they can juggle so many. I get that once you get an idea, you have to write it down so as not to lose it, but I get so caught up in it, nothing else would get finished so I patiently plug along and keep it in the wings of my mind. I have little notes here and there of what I want to do. So if I do participate in NaNo this year, I'm moving to the Paranormal genre. I've got an awesome story waiting in the wings, dusty as they are. So perhaps it would be worth it to get it written out and dust it off once I'm done with revisions. I certainly have to start sticking to my personal deadlines.

Hope you all have had a great week and have a wonderful weekend. I'm praying for sunshine. :D

Monday, August 2, 2010

Still Hanging In...

Nope, no internet yet. Still working on that, but even in the midst of it all I have new followers.

Woot!! Welcome to anyone who is new.

So I got a question from N. R. Williams (Nancy). What kind of Fantasy do I like?

I have to say, I'm partial to High Fantasy. Lord of the Rings sort of stuff. I like to write High Fantasy as well. I'm all about creating my own little world and having fun running it. I play games like Port Royale and Crusader just to get a feel for it. But I am also a history buff and participate in Medieval Re-enactment. Gimme a cutlass and allow me to don my pirate hat and away I go. Arrggh!

So yes, High Fantasy seems to be the favorite but I do read all sorts of fantasy. I've just picked up a couple of books at the local Salvation Army store of "Year's Best..." fantasy in my case. Several years old, but still good stories. There were a couple in there I didn't particularly care for, but hey, can't please them all can you?

That brings me to another subject I've been mulling over these past weeks. As I've been in and out of the library I run into all sorts of people and have had some fun conversations. One in particular was being asked what I wrote.

"Fantasy," I replied, trying not to grit my teeth. "Oh." There it was. That one tiny word with the downcast look as if I were a beggar on the street asking for alms for the poor.

"What?" I just had to ask, I couldn't resist and plastered a smile on my face as I spoke. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

I flustered the person and finally got an answer out of them about the subject of fantasy as in why do people say, "Oh". I was told, sincerely even, that fantasy is "okay, but there's no real work to it."

Insert whatever facial expression you desire. "No real work," I repeated. "Hmm... Well what do you call all the medieval history research I have to do to even make the fantasy that I write SEEM real to those who read it? I can't just make up a word for armor and expect it to fly. I have to show that I do know a little of what I write about. Not just 'he donned his barak for fighting...'" Okay now, I have to admit that was kinda cool. I could just make up stuff, I continued to explain patiently, but then I would lose the reader. They would see I have no intelligence, no real talent and no one would ever publish my book.

All writing is work. You can't just tell people that the genre of their choice sucks because they get to make up stuff. How many others have been told this very thing or did I just get lucky enough to find the one person who would be honest with me about it way up here in my corner of the world???

I'll stop ranting now. :D I'm sure you all missed that. ::Snorts:: Anyway, N. R. Williams, I hope that answers your question and then some. I see you are a fantasy author and would love to look you up on the internet. I will do just that. Perhaps I could get some pointers from you, what do you say? ;)

Have a great week everyone. I will be back as soon as I am able. Miss you all terribly.