Category: My Writing Life

I put up the winner to the first Readers on Deadline at The Deadline Dames  and offered up the new image for the next writing challenge. It’s an excellent piece by artist, Darren M. Boudreau.  So visit me at the Dames today!

I would bitch slap all of the shoe salesmen who sold my shoes as a child.

I am 5’10” inches tall and I have the long feet to match.  I’d grown out of a size ten by the time I was ten years-old.  Problem with that was most stores didn’t carry shoes over guess what size… Yep, ten. 

 So, my long, skinny feet (AAA) with their long, skinny toes were shoved into too small shoes most of my life.  I remember going to shoe stores, getting my feet measured, the scratching of the chin, the meeting of eyebrows… and then the lie. Every. Single. Time.

 This gave me crooked toes.  As a young adult, I worked on repairing this problem.  I searched for shoes that would fit and ended up spending most of my time in narrow men’s shoes, sandals (with toes hanging over end) or Keds.  I could find those in my size. 

 (A neighbor’s kid once pointed out a pair of Keds at a store and called them Rinda shoes. <g>)

 Why am I complaining about something so odd on a writer’s blog? 

 I sit on my butt to work.  I’m always sitting with a laptop in my lap or on a desk or on a table.  (I mix it up to keep from being bored).  All that sitting requires a decent workout.  Yesterday, I seriously enjoyed my four miles on the Treadmill.  I rocked out to Tool, The Spill Canvas, The Gathering and Ladytron.  I plotted and the jolt of my feet on that belt kept time with my fleeing heroine. 

 Today?  All those stupid crooked toes are covered in blisters.  Every week it’s the same.  Run, recover, run, recover.  I’ve been told I just need to build up the calluses-but have you ever tried to run with blisters on the sides of toes that lean on each other?????

I have a big, family gathering happening Sunday and we go all out with ping pong, horseshoes… good food.  After writing so intently and um, winter, the outside is a mess.  I did a lot of indoor cleaning over the weekend so I could focus on writing mostly this week. But Friday and Saturday will be a grand slam cleaning of the yard and gulp, garage.  Yeah, sooooo looking forward to that.

But today through Thursday is all about the “REAL” work.  Writing and critiquing.  Rachel is in her slam to the deadline rewrite phase which means I can get several chapters a day.  Got three Saturday.  She really needs me to focus so I’ll be digging in. 

And I love it.  Critiquing for Rachel always inspires me to work harder and since I’m also giving her chapters now, hopefully, it’s doing the same for her. 

I will share that she called me Friday to GUSH over the new version of my WIP.  Seriously gushed.  I think she might be as excited as I’m about this trilogy.  I know I’m having a blast working on it now.  The struggle is over because the huge missing element the story needed was most certainly found.  Incorporating it isn’t easy, but I do love a good challenge!

So, what else is happening?  This Wednesday I’ll be announcing the winner the Deadline Dames Readers on Deadline challenge and I’ll be posting the image for the next.  It’s a very, very cool piece of artwork, so I’m jazzed the artist gave us permission to use it.  Hope it jolts everyone into writing an intriguing scene!

Dame Keri had some FANTASTIC news at the bottom of her post yesterday and the rest of the Dames want to celebrate with her, so make sure to visit today–sometime Friday afternoon if you’re in the states–though I’m posting this late Thursday night.  (The Dames are all over the globe from different time zones here in the states to England… and Australia–so our posting times vary.  😉  )

There’s a special giveaway and all you’ll have to do is comment!!!  Click on Miss Leather here to go!

My friend, Sara Saint John, author of Trust the Night, will be speaking on horror, paranormal romance and writing on Blog Talk Radio tonight  at 9:00 central standard time.  Trust the Night is available in print and as an ebook at Samhain Publishing, but you can click on the title link to get there. 

Book Description:

Description

Bullets won’t bring down this killer. It’ll take a vampire.

Having survived a violent husband, homicide detective Beth Andrews has no patience for abusers. In her eyes, “Mad Jack” is committing the ultimate abuse against the women of Oklahoma City—murder—and she’ll stop at nothing to bring him to justice. Even risk her own life.

The sexy “mind scientist” she’s been paired with is a distraction she doesn’t need, but he’s getting under her skin in more ways than one. She spends her days investigating the murders. Nights, discovering Sam.

Criminal psychologist Sam Jordan knows he is two things Beth doesn’t trust: a shrink, and a man. But Beth needs his help more than she knows, because like the killer they hunt, Sam is a vampire. And he’s been pursuing Jack the Ripper for longer than Beth’s been alive.

Revealing himself would do more than destroy her fragile trust. It could make her Mad Jack’s next target.

See that small fenced square?  That’s the historical grave site on our property. Two graves inside.

And… The Photographer. Isn’t she adorable?

I’ve reached a point where the story is driving my life.  In fact, I get frustrated when I get tired.  Even my thighs are sore from holding this lap desk so much, yet I continue to go.  It’s just so alive right now.  I want a lap desk that doesn’t actually sit on my  legs.  <g> 

I’ve also been reading the ROD entries for the Deadline Dames challenge.  Man, narrowing down the winner is difficult.  Lots of talented writers out there.  Yet, it’s also fun.  I found a FANTASTIC image for the next ROD challenge and contacted the artist, who was cool with us using his work to create.  I can’t wait for everyone to see it next week.  Dame Devon has a very good post on outlining up today, so check it out.

Life is hectic as usual, but with me digging in so hard with the writing, other things are suffering.  I forgot to check phone messages and missed a few calls last week.  I swear, I’m not rude.  Just not really in my own life right now.  In fact, over the weekend, my husband would ask, “Are you here or in that blizzard in your book?” before he’d bother to talk to me.  Said I had a glazed expression most of the time. 

Ironically, we did have a “blizzard” here.  Yeah. Blizzard.  A dusting of beautiful snow that last all day and then melted when the sun came up Saturday night.    My daughter took some gorgeous pics but she hasn’t loaded them.  I’ll post them when she gets them to me.

Hope everyone is enjoying spring!

I’m such a dork.  My reward for either finishing this next book fast or selling the first one is this.  It comes out in June and I’m excited about it.  (This video is fun!)

http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/videos.jsp

Yes, I play the Sims.  It’s been a while, but a local artist I like, Nene Thomas, has been showing the fun she’s having with the game on her blog and she reminded me how much I used to love it.  My setting is contemporary and kind of crazy at times. And okay, okay.  I make Sims from my book characters.  (Hides in shame.)  I currently have Sims 2 Nightlife and I use a lot of custom content–seriously funky clothes and fantastic decor for the homes.  A lot of people are involved in Sim World–even another favorite artist of mine, Linda Bergkvist, has created gorgeous options for the game.  Pixie and zombie skins, oh yeah.  You’ll have to click the link to understand. <G>

It’s a time suck, so it’s only done as reward for me. I’m not nearly as involved as I could be, but as soon as this book is done, I’m taking a couple of days to play.  Right now, I fit in an hour here and there.  I do have more fun creating and designing than I do the actual play, but it looks like Sims 3 will make the play more interesting. 

And in book news, I’m flying through the current WIP and loving it.  Just loving it. 

I made a major change to the world and environment and the book is now more ME than it was before.  Sent up three chapters to Rachel today, so we’ll see if the goosebumps I’ve worn while typing mean I nailed it. 😉

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.  ~Ray Bradbury

Last night, I wrote until the words blurred and my fingers starting tripping over themselves.  This morning, when my husband got up at five, I shocked him by not griping and going immediately back to sleep.  I got up.  Granted, I haven’t started writing yet since I watched my DVR copy of Castle and got the kids ready for school.  But I’m about to dive in. 

There is NOTHING like the feeling of a good story capturing you in its grip.  NOTHING.

And at least I’m not thinking about the book out on submission so much. SO MUCH. <g>

I’m blogging at the Deadline Dames  today!