Web Developer by Day, Mad Typist by Night

New Year, Small Updates

2012-01-18T18:15:00.002-06:00

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged. I've been a bit busy jumping back into the mix.

So, what's being going on?

I turned in a round of line edits for KEPT. Hopefully it will be all shiny soon.
I got a supa-awesome preview of the cover for KEPT and it is sooo good! Can't wait to reveal it.
Another quote came in for COVETED from the wonderful Ann Aguirre:

"If you like your urban fantasy original, quirky, and off-beat, this is the series for you. Natalya is the craziest heroine since Carolyn Crane's Justine Jones, and you will love her just as much."
--national bestselling author Ann Aguirre
With what little spare time I have, my book marks and romance trading cards are done! I can't wait to show them off. They are some cute little guys!
I signed up for Lori Foster's Reader and Author Get Together. If you plan on attending I'd love to see you there. That will be June 1st - 2nd in West Chester, Ohio.
The conference news keeps on getting better! I also plan to attend RWA (Anaheim, CA) and San Diego Comic Con in July! (Let the geekfest commenceth.)
I've got plans in the mix for a book launch event in San Antonio Texas so keep your ears open for more details as they come. =)

I'm super excited about the RT Convention coming in April in Chicago as well. I will definitely be doing a lot of travelling this year!

Congrats to Nadia Lee on THE LAST SLAYER!

2011-12-29T08:32:00.001-06:00

I've had a busy week, but I feel like I'm finally catching up! Woo hoo! I'd like to congratulate, Nadia Lee on the release of her book THE LAST SLAYER from Carina Press!

BLURB: Ashera del Cid is a talented demon hunter, but when she kills a demigod’s pet dragon, the hunter becomes the hunted. Her only potential ally is Ramiel, a sexy-as-hell demon. Now the two must work together to battle dragons and demigods…and the chemistry crackling between them.

Ramiel has his own reasons for offering Ashera his protection. He knows her true identity and the real reason the demigods want her dead. What he can’t predict is how she’ll react when she discovers he knew who she was all along…

Ashera is shocked to discover that she is the only daughter of the last slayer. To claim her destiny, she and Ramiel must join forces to face down danger and outwit their enemies. Only then will she be able to truly accept her legacy…

Check out THE LAST SLAYER online: Amazon Kindle ~ B & N Nook ~ Book Depository ~ B-A-M ~Carina Press

If you like what you just read, I'm giving away on the Magic & Mayhem Writer's Blog!

Read the First Two Chapters of COVETED

2011-12-12T08:28:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday, all!

If you're like me scrambling to figure out how the holidays are approaching so fast, you're not alone. :)

For anyone who has been curious about COVETED and my holiday-ornament hoarding heroine, Natalya Stravinsky, here's a fun preview of my book.

Hope you like it.

Coveted by Shawntelle Madison (Excerpt)

SHADES OF GRAY Comes Out Today!

2011-12-06T08:48:00.001-06:00

First of all, I want to say congrats to my good friend Amanda Bonilla! Her book, SHAEDES OF GRAY comes out today from Penguin's Signet Eclipse imprint. I'm so proud of her. We both traveled on the publishing road together and actually made our first sales a few days apart. (Same week. Seriously.) She's been there to help me with my messy words and I'm pleased as punch to be reading her book.

So... go forth to your nearest bookstore or buy that sucker online!

Amazon · B & N · Book Depository · B-A-M · Chapters · IndieBound · VRoman’s

Blurb: In the shadows of the night, Darian has lived alone for almost a century. Made and abandoned by her former love, Darian is the last of her kind—an immortal Shaede who can slip into darkness as easily as breathing. With no one else to rely on, she has taught herself how to survive, using her unique skills to become a deadly assassin.

When Darian's next mark turns out to be Xander Peck, King of the Shaede Nation, her whole worldview is thrown into question. Darian begins to wonder if she's taken on more than her conscience will allow. But a good assassin never leaves a job unfinished...

If you like what you just read, I'm giving away a copy on the Magic & Mayhem Writers Blog tomorrow. Just leave a comment to enter!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

Hope your holiday is a joyous one this year! :)

NANOWRIMO 2011 - Day 3

2011-11-03T20:39:00.002-05:00

Well, I haven't hit the wall yet, but I did need some help to get there. I only use something like Dragon Dictation when my hands hurt from writing or I've hit a wall. But well, my hands don't hurt and since I'm at the beginning of a story, I've got plenty of words waiting to come out. My problem is that my internal editor is talking pretty loudly cause I'm in edit-mode. What is edit mode, you ask? That is when my mind is constantly thinking of ways to strengthen the manuscript. To make better sentences and story flow. It sits like a nagging child asking the question, "Are we there yet? Are the cookies/book/cake/manuscript done yet?" This isn't helpful when I should be spitting out words without abandon.

So in came the Dragon on my iPad to save the day. While I worked with source code this morning I spoke into the Dragon for the first 1K. After that everything flowed for a while this evening which was nice.

Final total for today: 1,805 words. I'm hoping to clear at least 2K again on Friday.

NANOWRIMO 2011 - Day 2

2011-11-02T22:55:00.002-05:00

Today's been hard. I've been battling headaches lately and most of my time goes to editing. But I still managed to snag nearly 1200 words!

Onward to day 3!

NANOWRIMO - Trying again

2011-11-01T22:48:00.002-05:00

Every year I prepare for it. I plot out the book and get to know the characters before I write. But based on past experiences from the last few years. I've failed miserably at NANOWRIMO. But I'm not the kind of person to give up. Tenacity is something every writer should try to have so I'm giving it another go.

Day 1 will be over soon and I've already got a little over 2,900 words done. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post more words or feel guilty for stopping so soon.

New Release Tuesday - The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams

2011-10-25T10:48:00.002-05:00

I'm so pleased today to give a Happy Book Birthday shoutout to my Magic & Mayhem Blogger sister Sandy Williams for her book, THE SHADOW READER. Be sure to check it out!

A Houston college student, McKenzie Lewis can track fae by reading the shadows they leave behind. For years she has been working for the fae King, tracking rebels who would claim the Realm. Her job isn't her only secret. She's in love with Kyol, the King's sword-master-but human and fae relationships are forbidden. When McKenzie is captured by Aren, the fierce rebel leader, she learns that not everything is as she thought. And McKenzie must decide who to trust and where she stands in the face of a cataclysmic civil war.

Amazon · B & N · Book Depository · B-A-M · Chapters · IndieBound · Mystery Books CA · VRoman’s

COVETED Cover Reveal!

2011-10-14T12:21:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting so long to reveal the cover to my debut novel to the world. Now that I've been given the go ahead from my editor Tricia Pasternak, I'm so stoked for you to see Nat and Thorn on the cover:

Coming April 24th, 2012 from Ballantine Books!

SOMETIMES WHAT YOU COVET IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP.

For werewolf Natalya Stravinsky, the supernatural is nothing extraordinary. What does seem strange is that she’s stuck in her hometown of South Toms River, New Jersey, the outcast of her pack, selling antiques to finicky magical creatures. Restless and recovering from her split with gorgeous ex-boyfriend, Thorn, Nat finds comfort in an unusual place: her obsessively collected stash of holiday trinkets. But complications pile up faster than her ornaments when Thorn returns home, and Nat and Thorn discover that old flames still remain intense.

Before Nat can sort out their relationship, she must face a much hairier problem. Her pack is under attack from the savage Long Island werewolves—and Nat is the first target in the turf war. Toss in a handsome wizard vying for her affection, a therapy group for the anxious and enchanted, and the South Toms River pack leader ready to throw her to the wolves, and it’s enough to give anybody a panic attack. With the stakes as high as the full moon, Nat must summon all her strength to save her pack, and ultimately, herself.

-----

If you haven't yet, be sure to add COVETED to your GoodReads TBR list or pre-order it.

And yes, I do wish I was at NYC Comic Con right now. LOL

ARCHON Bound and Some Writing Thoughts

2011-09-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

On Monday at Wicked Authors, I talked about my upcoming ARCHON fun here in St. Louis. On Saturday I'll be presenting at two panels there.

Wednesday, I was at Magic & Mayhem talking about what I wish I knew about the writing process when I started. I was lucky enough to have Sarah Bromley to get me started, but if I didn't have that helping hand I would've loved to have been given the information I gave in the post.

If you missed it, I'm giving away an ebook copy of THE SHADOW READER at Magic & Mayhem. The winner will get it as soon as the book comes out! Just leave a comment with a tip or question and you're entered!

Have a good weekend!

Kept is Done and DragonCon Recap

2011-09-13T08:15:00.002-05:00

Curious to know how my DragonCon trip went? This awesome picture is just a snippet of the awesomeness that occurred!

Fan girl squee! That's me and Charlaine Harris!

If you don't know that this guy is Ming the Merciless, that's okay. ;)

I have more photos and a recap of my adventures at Romance at Random! You can find my DragonCon photo gallery on my website as well.

In other news! MY SECOND BOOK, KEPT, IS DONE!

Okay, I'm so glad to get that out of the way. Now that KEPT is done I plan to relax for a while until the next writing binge hits. (Hopefully that will be a few months from now...)

May the Winner be Hounded, Hexed, and Hammered!

2011-09-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

Congrats to the winner: Ceridwen83!

Shoot me an email through here! It looks like a lot of folks love Kevin's work so I'll definitely have another giveaway closer to the launch of COVETED!

Everyone have a great and safe weekend!

Galley Proofs are Done!

2011-08-25T09:00:00.004-05:00

The past week has been so busy for me! First of all, I got my galley proofs for COVETED! It was so wonderful to see my book in the format that readers would see it when my book is released. I had to do a final read to make sure all my werewolves, goblins, and dark elves were lined up and behaving right. In the meantime, I'm wrapping up work on KEPT, the second book in the series.

Even though there are several months until my book comes out in 2012, a lot still needs to happen. (In particular, I need to mentally prepare for the madness to come.)

What's in the pipeline:

Promotion, promotion, promotion
Cover reveal
Advance reader copies
Book launch contests
As well as some other geekery yet to come!

I'm also excited since next weekend, Labor Day weekend, I'll be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta! In particular, I'll be participating in a panel for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Literature track called "What's Coming from Del Rey/Spectra." Not only do I get to experience my first Dragon*Con, but I get to talk about my upcoming book and reveal the cover art to those in attendance. And no, the cover art hasn't been shown anywhere else so any attendees will get to see it first. :D

Due to my busy schedule, it's been quiet on my blog, but to celebrate completing my galleys I'd like to have a giveaway. A rather nice one! To one of my lucky commenters, I'm giving away all three of Kevin Hearne's books from the Iron Druid series so far: HOUNDED, HEXED, AND HAMMERED. The books are amazing and I'd love to further share their awesomeness with someone. Book 4 is coming out in April 2012! ;)

No need to leave a deep and meaningful post, but if you've attended DragonCon before I'd love any tips! :D So just leave a comment and I'll pick a winner next Thursday.

Coveted is available for pre-order!

2011-08-08T17:13:00.002-05:00

I got a surprise this morning when I noticed COVETED is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. You can also add it to your to-read list on Goodreads. :)

I announced the winners today on Wicked Authors for two books. If you didn't win you can still leave a comment on my August 5th post at Romance at Random. On Friday the 12th I'll pick a winner for a $15 Amazon.com gift card.

Have a great Monday!

Well Hello There August!

2011-08-05T14:30:00.002-05:00

This has been quite a busy week!

On Monday, I posted on the Wicked Authors blog about the wicked weather. Leave a comment about how you spend the day keeping out of the heat to either win Stephanie Rowe's TOUCH IF YOU DARE or Tamara Hogan's TASTE ME.

On Wednesday, I posted on the Magic and Mayhem Author's blog about my writing process. Or as how some might thing I lose my mind and jump into the Write or Die pool of mayhem. ;) When I write I prefer to sprint. In the post I talk about how I go from start to finish.

To add in more fun, on Saturday I'm presenting at WordCamp St. Louis at Maryville University. I'm so excited to learn more about Wordpress and talk about how I use Wordpress as an author.

August Heat and Fast Drafting

2011-08-03T07:35:00.004-05:00

My writing has been going well, but this week I plan to turn it up a notch and do some fast drafting. If you happen to see me walk by mumbling, "Oh, dear! I shall be too late!" and I'm looking for a rabbit hole, just point me in the right direction 'cause that meant I wrote too much. And like Martha Stewart says, "That's a good thing!"

Yesterday it was 102 degrees--at dusk! I think this is a sign that I should be inside somewhere writing instead of pondering how I could do a weird experiment cooking cookies on the sidewalk. (Nope, I didn't do it, although I should've tried.) I remembered going to the store and seeing this poor guy trying to run in this heat! He didn't have any water and he was trying to run up a hill. At first I was like gee that looks painful--and after I passed him I was like--he is so hard core. I'm gonna be like that tomorrow. Hard core writing in the heat. Inside my house outside the heat hard core.

RWA 2011 Conference Day #1 - Exhausting Monday

2011-07-06T11:39:00.004-05:00

I've been back for a few weeks from NYC and I must say, the trip was exhausting! I had a 6 am flight from St Louis to New York so I had to get up quite early. I'm a morning person, but I'm not that much of a morning person.

The morning should have gone without a hitch. Well, that was until I saw the epic-ridiculously long line at the airport. Everyone and their cousin Lenny had an early flight that morning. I had checked myself in early that morning, but being the genius of the world that I am--I didn't print out my confirmation number for Southwest. So I had to wait in three lines before I reached the plane. One line was to get my check-in paper, the next was to check my bags, and then the final one was the security line from hell. I could have stood in two lines, but the line to check in was ridiculously long and the kiosk line was...manageable. Naturally, when I got to the kiosk line, I discovered that I got the jacked up kiosk that wouldn't take my credit card or driver's license. I had a ticking clock in my head and all I could think about was how embarrassed I was with the long line and how I held everything up with my twentieth scan. The girl at the opposite kiosk finished and she let me jump on hers. It worked. The line in security was never-ending once I reached it. I was in line so long that Amanda Berry started texting me with lovely updates: the doors are opening, we'll save you a seat... It wasn't fun at all! I did make it on the plane, but my adventures were just starting.

I'm one of the unlucky souls who does take jerky motions very well. I'm prone to tension headaches and the flight's bumpy flight around Baltimore and NYC didn't help. I took some headache medicine and hoped for the best. (Nope, the drugs didn't work.)

We took a shuttle to the hotel and got to experience a fun ride (not according to Amanda) under the Queens Midtown tunnel. This was my first visit to NYC and I definitely enjoyed my first view. The air is quite different compared Saint Louis though. It wasn't the heat, but a stuffiness in the air. We reached the hotel and prepared to check-in. I got my first ride in the Marriott Marquis elevators. And I must say...it made my headache much worse. Okay, bump that, it made my headache go nuts.

Once we got into the suite, I took a few photos:

Jeannie Lin and I

Amanda Berry

We could've seen the sights that day, but everyone was sapped or in a world of pain. I was in the world of pain camp. We got a bite to eat late that afternoon at Juniors, a nice restaurant that serves 24hrs a day right next to the hotel. (You'll see Juniors mentioned several times this week. ;-) I ate there a lot.) The food was good, but it was hard to eat since I felt like major crap.

Like last year, we got out bags early. They were from Sourcebooks and they were quite nice with pockets on the sides and a zipper to close the top. :D

Since we had Romance Divas Pitchfest in the suite that night, we took a trip to Walgreens in Times Square. This was my first visit to Time Square and whoa, that place is pulsing with life. I heard so many foreign languages, saw so many people with cameras taking pictures. It was a really cool place--but I didn't take any pictures cause I was in pretty bad shape. :(

While the others got supplies, I stopped next door with Megan Kelly at the Subway Metro to get a Metrocard. I needed to pick up the Magic & Mayhem booklets from Penguin the next day so I needed to have a way to pay for the subway.

Once we got back to the room we lounged and hung out until Pitchfest. I took a few pictures.

Romance Divas Pitchfest in the Suite

Pitchfest was a blast! It was so nice to see everyone from last year or the previous year. :)

It was a damn shame I took that headache to bed with me.

Tomorrow, I'll post how the second day went.

Two Weeks Until RWA 2011!

2011-06-13T15:37:00.003-05:00

Today it's a bit dreary outside, but I'll take a bit of rain over dry heat any day. All day I've been editing and writing. Enough to make me think that I might be surgically attached to this laptop...

The countdown has begun! Less than 2 weeks until RWA in NYC! Woo hoo! Last year I tried to do a blog post from each day. It was a lot of work and I plan to do it even bigger this year! (Both video and photos!) Hee hee! (To see more of my repetitive summer activities, check out my post over at the Magic & Mayhem blog. For some reason, I do the same thing every summer...)

In other news, I blogged today over at Wicked Authors. I talked about how I think books fit us like a perfect pair of jeans. I also made note that I visited Coldstone Creamery for the first time. The place is divine! And pure scrumptious evil! LOL

I'm ashamed to report that it took me many months to finally finish MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins. My Goodreads review is here. (Take note, I did put down for the Goodreads challenge that I'd read 50 books this year. Sadly I am quite behind!) At least I know how the trilogy ends, which is a good thing since the movie comes out next year! I can't wait! I can't wait!

I've finished the first Anita Blake book by Laurell K. Hamillton and now I'm moving onto THE LAUGHING CORPSE.

Another fabulous development that came to my inbox today: I got a preview of what my cover might look like! Woo hoo! Even though I can't show off anything it's cool to see my characters come alive! I can't wait for you to meet Natalya and Thorn!

May Ran Me Over - Ouchie

2011-05-31T16:32:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I've gotten a little behind on things. Just a little.

So far things are going great in KEPT.

If you've missed some of my blog entries, I blog over at Magic and Mayhem:

A Programmer's Confession - This is where I talk about how much of a geek I am. (Seriously, look in the dictionary at the word geek and you will see me kicking it there.)

I also talked about how I critique since the M & M bloggers gave away a crit for the Brenda Novak Diabetes Fundraiser Auction.

I will start to post more, I just need to get control of my multiple projects. *sigh*

April Will End Better

2011-04-25T13:20:00.005-05:00

I posted today about my weekend on the Something Wicked Blog. I won't repeat what I wrote there, but I've definitely had an...interesting April. Around the beginning of the month all three of my kids got influenza A. Then one of them caught a stomach bug. To add more fun to the mix then a set of horrible storms rolled through the neighborhood on Friday. :(

I think I'm due some really good news this week. Maybe a lottery win? A contract to write a book about how annoying it is to be exhausted, yet still wake up around 7 because you're a morning person? I will admit last week did include a nice package. I got my Round 5 prize from DABWAHA! And it included the Jaci Burton poster too. (All I can say about that is...oh my...)

Last week on the Magic and Mayhem blog I talked about my copy edits as well as my growing TBR pile. (No progress on that front either...)

So far I have around a hundred pages left to go for my copy edits so I'm on schedule to finish them before my due date. I'm just hoping, hoping, hoping that nothing else happens so I can enjoy the rest of my month. Really. I'd like a break please.

The Joy of Waiting No More - Auel in St. Louis

2011-04-08T07:58:00.008-05:00

I've been so busy lately trying to finish my manuscript that I haven't had a chance to post on my own blog! Whoops! But as of Monday I had something fun to talk about! I met Jean M. Auel!! On the Something Wicked Blog I talked about how I couldn't wait to see her! About how I'd waited years for this next book to come out. Since she had a tour date scheduled for here in St. Louis, I jumped on the opportunity to see her in person.

Before Monday I've never met her in person. I'd seen her picture on television, on the the back of the books, but I'd never seen her up close or heard her talk. Of course before this book came out she did do online interviews, but it was nice to see her up close and personal. Answering jokes. Talking about her writing experience. One thing I learned was that she queried her book. (And then got a very very nice advance.) She went through the process every writer does and found the ideal fit in literary agent Jean V. Neggar. Also, just like other writers, she didn't have plans to become a writer. It just happened after the spark of an idea hit.

I got to the talk a little early, but not early enough. As you can see by this picture, in the end I sat against the wall in the back. But the cool part is that I was in direct line of sight to see Jean speak! Woo hoo!

Also got in the signing line and got my book signed. And I didn't go fan girl either. Well, I didn't think so!

Overall, falling back into her book is like reuniting with family I hadn't seen for a long time! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to read her books again and to actually meet her in person! I feel so lucky since several other larger cities didn't have tour dates listed.

New Title!

2011-03-23T13:40:00.006-05:00

For the past few months I've swam around in Untitled land. Even my Publishers Marketplace announcement didn't have a title. LOL. But, low and behold, after some brainstorming with the awesome folks at Del Rey, I have a brand new title and now I can reveal the news to you. HOARDING YOUR HOWLS is now:

COVETED

I'm so happy with the new one. The other one did convey the humor and werewolveness of the story, but that's not all there is to the book. Natalya is at the center of it all and the old title doesn't encompass everything about her. Hopefully in a few months I can show off this new title with an awesome cover!

New Member of the Something Wicked Blog!

2011-03-08T06:45:00.005-06:00

Hey all! This week started out busy for me. I'm the newest member of the Something Wicked Blog! My first post was yesterday. You can check it out here. I'm also giving away three books. In particular, Jaye Wells' new release GREEN-EYED DEMON. Make a comment there and you'll be entered!

I talked about books in general and why I love books that are quirky and different. As an adrenaline junkie reader, I want to be hooked early and to be honest, I watch scary movies for the thrill. Okay, I will admit it. Once in a while I do close my eyes. I cover my face with my hands. But most of the time I jump and then laugh with glee.

In case you missed it, I also blogged on Magic & Mayhem about the book I can't wait for this month: Wither by Lauren Destefano! I also have an author Facebook page. (I'm getting dangerous, people. LOL)

As far as my books are concerned, my first book has been approved and now I'm waiting for copyedits! I have a new title coming and hopefully soon I'll be able to unveil it to the world! The second book is coming along nicely. So far I'm 10K in and Natalya is waiting patiently for me jot down her quips!

The Birth of a New Book and My Newest Addition

2011-02-20T12:57:00.005-06:00

Well, my second book for my hoarding werewolf series has begun. So far its been so fun to swim around in Natalya's head. For me she has so many layers that I love to explore. When it came to starting the second book, it took me forever to complete my first page. On the Magic and Mayhem Writer's Blog I talked about some favorite first lines I found during crit group at Borders. For me personally, the first page is so important. I'm one of those impulse buyers. As an adrenaline junkie, I tend to be picky and want to be hooked immediately. I'm not ashamed to say that if a book does not keep me interested I tend to just put it down instead of wasting what little time I have as a parent and an author.

Since this isn't my first book, I feel a little more comfortable with the process, but what's different is that this book is a sequel. (Cue the ominous music...) As a rule, I don't write sequels to books that aren't under contract. Even when I was querying, I didn't write a second book to a second one I ever wrote. For the first book I wrote as a writer, I did write the first chapter of a sequel, but I never finished that particular book. That first book is also kicking it with the dust bunnies and may never see the light of day. Of course, there is the what if factor. What if the agent/editor liked it after it was sent and I could've had that second book ready to go? But well, I'm a suspicious person. I don't like to invest time in writing a book only to have it join the dust bunnies under my bed. I wish I could write a book for fun, but with all the time I have to give to write, I just can't write for kicks anymore.

I have a lot of time to work on this second book so I'm taking it slow and letting things flow as they come. I tend to write very fast, but only when I'm in the mood. I actually remember the days before I used to write. Scenes would come to me and I'd be like, that sure would be fun if I wrote it down. Right now things are coming slowly so I see that as a sign that I can recharge the battery and read a good book. Or in my sad case right now, I can endlessly watch a bunch of South Korean dramas and cry my heart out every five minutes. I promised myself I would stay strong and not watch. (Yeah, right!) For goodness sake, if you are a sucker for a cute romance with lots of angst do not click the link above. Just keep reading and stay strong! Don't fall into the black hole of quality entertainment... Oh man, I clicked the link.

My Big Fat Urban Fantasy Blog Post

2011-02-18T08:08:00.004-06:00

Over on the Magic and Mayhem Blog, I had a post on Wednesday about creating casts for Urban Fantasy. I tend to just let my imagination go wild as you shall see...

Why yes, I did talk about creating a gun/knife dealer Grandma who got her granddaughters knives for Christmas. If you're concerned at least know that Grandma did tell them how to properly use it. :D

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:44:00.002-06:00

Normally on Valentine's Day or during the weekend, I get to have fun and have dinner with the hubby or something like that. Well, since I re-injured my chest that pretty much got tossed out the window. So while I bid you a Happy Valentine's Day, I advise you to avoid doing things in college (like doing a spread eagle jump and landing hard enough to hurt your chest) which might haunt you for the rest of your life. Yep. I really did hurt myself in college and I'm still paying for it.

So far this week, things have been quiet. My edits are sitting with my editor so I'm in chill mode. That means recharging the writing machine and eating up ideas for Book II. I'm already getting lines from Natalya coming left and right, but she hasn't bugged me yet to work. The next major writing purge is coming soon. Just need to be rested up before the madness comes.

The Mad Scientist also has another writer tool in the lab that is bubbling away. If you haven't seen my other tools they are on the right hand side or on my website.

Hope everyone got what they wanted. I know I want more chocolate and any candy from today does not count toward diets. :D

Editing Vacation is Over

2011-01-26T06:43:00.007-06:00

Well, I've finished editing the first draft of Hoarding Your Howls a few weeks ago and now I'm back editing the second draft. I had a few fruity drinks and read a few great books--both adult and young adult. But now my imaginary beach vacation is over and now its back to work. I've had two weeks to "forget" about the words and come back fresh.

The first draft was...an experience if one could kindly use those words. It's amazing how the editing process is so different when you have an editor at a publishing house on the helm. There are so many things I miss or I could do better. I spent one hour once analyzing what she changed. Almost like I had to learn what my writing kryptonite was. The most interesting thing though was that I tend to hold back description and things since I don't want to slow down the pacing. I mean, who wants to spend a few years plowing through a long and drawn out description of the landscape of New Jersey? :D

Besides editing, I'm slowly, and I mean slowly, working on my futuristic young adult book. When I first thought of this book, I saw scenes from Blade Runner. (If you haven't seen that movie... Wow, you need to get the hook up from Blockbuster or Netflix! Stat!) I wanted the cities to be dark and have flashing ad screens like the movie. The whole process has been agonizingly slow, but like I've heard other authors say, it's not a race to finish a book. I'm competing with myself and my personal goal is to finish this book before I need to start writing the second book for Hoarding Your Howls. I have time, but it's easier to assume I don't have time so I will be productive. ;) Overall, the voice for this book requires for me to write slowly. I just can't rush it for some reason. It just flows differently than my other books.

Hopefully, I hear soon about the new title for HYH and additional cool stuff like a hard set release month. Woo hoo!

My Book List - 2011

2011-01-12T17:14:00.005-06:00

In 2010 I proudly read 25 books. Not as many as I wanted to do so this year again I want to read 50 or more. There are so many great books out there that I'm excited about (young adult and urban fantasy wise) and I can't wait to read them. So here's my list. Here goes nothin'!

Educating Aprodite - Kimberly Killion (January 1-6)
Everything I Was - Corinne Demas (January 1-10)
Plan B - Charnan Simon (January 1-14)
Five Flavors of Dumb - Anthony John (February 2-3)
Seven Day Loan - Tiffany Reisz (February 2-15)
Taking Care of Business - Kathy Lyons (March 3-13)

Writing Goals for 2011

2010-12-31T13:49:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow a new year begins. 2010 has been a great year for me and I hope 2011 will be even better. I made a few goals last year. In particular, I sold my first book! I didn't read all the books I had wanted to read, but to read or write one has to be in the mood.

Next year I would like to become focused again. Especially since the holidays make it hard to write.

So, let's see how 2010 went:

My goals for 2010:

I will write 4 manuscripts in 2010.
I finished 2 manuscripts. Not bad.
I will sell my first manuscript in 2010. (Optimism = Yay)
Hoarding Your Howls sold to Del Rey!
I will complete 3 novellas. (I have two unfinished ones. *sigh*)
I finished 1 novella. Not the best, but one is better than none.
I will harness and understand my process of writing. (Yes, it took me a year to figure out I'm not the write everyday type of gal. I need to live with it.)
I didn't stress too much over the days I didn't write. Quite easy to do.
I will break my previous record of 8,000 Words in one day and will knock out 10K in a day.
I was pleased as punch when I got this one accomplished!

So, onward to 2011... What will be my goals?

Finish 4 manuscripts in 2011.
Develop a fun promotional tool for my upcoming book.
I will read 50 books this year...not 25, but 50! (I can do eeet!) And one of those books will be in a genre I don't normally read. Maybe middle-grade or something inspirational.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T19:16:00.006-06:00

It's Christmas at my house! I just had a delicious dinner with turkey, ham, and all the fixings. Christmas Eve and Christmas have been a wonderful holiday for me--not only did I get a Sony Reader from my mother, but I got a fabulous letter from my agent. I got my signed contract from Random House. Woo hoo!

After all the work I've done, I've finally reached my goal of being a paid writer. Not a billionaire or anything, but at least I can contribute a few packs of gum or something.

Woo hoo! My signed contract. (Time to get to work...)

I've spent the holidays editing my manuscript. My super fast editor marked up my baby and now I'm adding in spices here and there to make the story spicier and tastier. A lot of fun with brainstorming and such.

Hoarding Expensive Christmas Ornaments

2010-12-20T19:21:00.013-06:00

As the holidays approach I can't help but channel the heroine from my book whenever I visit the store. So many Christmas lights, the cinnamony scent of pine cones in a bag, various holiday do-dads and knickknacks... Pure happiness in the holiday aisles. Personally, I do all my ornament shopping after the holidays. Especially since there's nothing more beautiful than a 75% off sign.

Now if I had much more money I would go nuts for these beauties:

Waterford Holiday Heirloom - $35.00

For thirty five bucks you can have a piece of this shiny satisfaction. :D

That ornament was a warm up. This next one is so beautiful, and so beyond what I could afford to pay:

That lovely Dreidel on White is available for $320.00.

I browsed the site a bit more since I was already oogling the designs. This ostrich egg is divine:

The Pink Floral on Ostrich Egg is $400 bones. Yep, you get that one ornament for four hundred dollars. For that kind of money I'm thinking the box needs to be covered in gold.

If you have $400 to drop on an ornament, why not spend $100 grand?

Hallmark Jewelers created this insanely expensive Christmas ornament:

Were you able to count the diamonds on that puppy? That shiny bauble is made of 18 carat white gold with 1,578 diamonds. It's surrounded by two rings made of 188 rubies! If you're pulling out your check book now I would stop unless you have about $130,000 for a rainy day.

If Natalya had the money to buy these, I think she'd choose the Ostrich Egg. An ornament as expensive as the Hallmark one is just asking to be stolen. Although I know she'd take great care of it.

Am I missing any other companies with luxurious Christmas goodies for me to drool over?

Writing and Reading When Distracted

2010-12-16T10:19:00.005-06:00

To say that I'm distracted right now would be an understatement. My daughter has been in the hospital since Sunday due to surgery. We hope to leave jail, I mean the hospital tomorrow. :D Over the past couple of days I've lived at the hospital and my brain has turned into a mush like material that doesn't resemble a brain. As a proactive writer who tries to write often and write a lot, this kind of distraction is a bit hard. I'm tired. I don't want to think deeply. Initially, I took my young adult WIP with me just in case the moment comes.

It hasn't.

Although, I have noticed that scenes and people from my stories do come to mind. It's rather neat to be sitting there wanting to resemble a petrified rock and have your characters come up to you to strike up a conversation. They tell me about their lives, what they ate for dinner, and other cool things I should remember to write down.

But I don't bother.

The book isn't going anywhere, and I have a weekend to recover once we get home. I have the holidays to listen to Christmas music and a pile of books to enjoy. I just finished Melody Carlson's FORGOTTEN in one night and now I'm enjoying James Dashner's THE SCORCH TRIALS. All in all, it okay to be distracted. The important thing is that I plan to write after everything is over.

My characters will most likely continue to haunt me, although I have a feeling that my weird character with creepy eyes, who's flipping me off by the way, might not be back for another interview.

Get Your Edit On

2010-12-01T07:27:00.005-06:00

I've been busy with life, with at least a little writing in between. My manuscript is pretty much in edit mode right now with pieces hovering with my betas. I feel like the darn thing resembles Frankenstein. I ripped out the innards and now I have to sew the poor guy back together. I'm actually taking my one book and dividing it into two! (Yes, you read that right.) Not impossible. Just messy surgery. LOL.

I failed NANOWRIMO. I was so determined to do it this year! I practically fell off the horse, the horse kicked me while I was down, and then it proceeded to ride into the sunset without me. (I did wave though since that's the polite thing to do.)

In the meantime since I didn't make it, but so many friends made it (Congratulations!!!), I created a list of my favorite editing tip spots. Every time I finish my work, I do a sweep. This sweep includes checking stuff I often find on these pages.

Hope these help. I also have a similar list on my website, but having it more than one place never hurts. :D

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T08:43:00.005-06:00

Happy Turkey Day!

May your trousers support all the fowl, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, ham, dinner rolls, corn on the cob, carrot cake, deviled eggs, baked macaroni and cheese, egg nog, apple cider, tossed salad, peach cobbler, candies yams, biscuits, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, turducken (whoa!), and if you have a turkey in a turkey (turturkeykey)--well that's just wrong.

Introducing the Book Royalties Calculator

2010-11-15T07:22:00.009-06:00

Part of the process in learning about book deals is the madness of contract terms and book royalties. To be honest, I didn't know much about how it worked. Well, until I created this bad boy.

I whipped up this quickie application to learn more information about the book royalties process. I didn't want anything too complex. Just an application which showed me whether I would earn out or how many books I would need to earn out. I could have gone hardcore and developed an application to break down multiple royalties and sale types. (For example, a break down of hardcover with its percentage and amount, and then mass market with its percentage and amount of books sold.) But I somehow stuff the crazy urge back into the can and create a simple application to answer my questions.

In the application below you'll see I filled in the values to give you an idea of what you can put in there. You can also check Brenda Hiatt's Show Me the Money to get ideas on royalty rates and advance values you can enter in there.

Note: This is a tool for fun/estimate the values to earn out an advance. It does not factor in the fact that book costs can be discounted to bookstores or that the royalty rate may change base on the number of books sold.

I have other writer tools as well. Be sure to check them out.

What Would Your Heroine Do For a Klondike Bar

2010-11-08T09:51:00.006-06:00

I'm writing today for Nanowrimo. Okay, I have the document open and I plan to use this blog post as a warm up.

My thought provoking question today: What would my heroine do for a Klondike bar?

In my book, my heroine, Natalya Stravinsky, is a werewolf with OCD. She is a normal person, to an extent of course since she's a werewolf, but she loves to eat delicious things like anyone else. But and there is a but. Based on her personality, she might love the taste, but she wouldn't be too happy with what happens to the Klondike bar as you eat it. Yep, if you've eaten one of those square ice cream treats you know those suckers break apart and melt pretty fast. My heroine would be horrified to the point of dumping the Klondike bar in a bowl and then eating it that way. (Hey, I'm sure you've had an ice cream cone that melted to the point where you had to put into bowl.)

I find it cool how a different perspective shapes how people approach things. Natalya would kick my butt for a Christmas ornament, while on the other hand I would love a bag of jelly beans right now. LOL It's those perceptions that shape our wants and needs and thus drives us to do certain things to fulfill those wants. Even if our needs border on the extreme.

Now for me, I would never do anything unscrupulous for such a wonderful, delicious, tasty, chocolate happiness like a Klondike bar. (Like pay extra money for it, avoid writing my manuscript to think about it...)

Can you tell I am easily distracted by the evil which is chocolate today? :)

Great Book - Poison Study

2010-10-31T07:16:00.000-05:00

For the longest time since I've had a chance to find Maria's V. Snyder's books, I've wanted to read her first book, Poison Study. I learned about her work when I encountered Inside Out. Her style of writing is smooth, action packed, and easy to fall into for a great read.

I tend to be picky with books, so I was pleasantly surprised when I read and enjoyed Poison Study. The book is about Yelena, a nineteen year-old who had been convicted of murder. On the day she is to be executed she is offered a choice: either die or become the Commander of Ixia's food taster. (In essence either a quick death or a death that may come at any time from eating food.)

After she agrees to take the position, the second in command, a handsome man named Valek, gives her a poison to where she is forced to stay. Every day she must come back to him to receive the antidote. And that is just the beginning! Through Yelena's will to live she grows stronger as a character and learns to fight--as well as learn more about the magical abilities she possesses.

Throughout the story, Yelena also faces dangers from the father of the man she murdered to magicians with evil intent. The end of the story was a bit bittersweet, but all in all, I loved the story and I can't wait to read Magic Study, the next book in the series.

My Publishers Marketplace Announcement!

2010-10-29T17:00:00.002-05:00

Well, as of 11 pm last night my announcement went up! Glad to see things finalized! Next comes the contract and the edits.

Shawntelle Madison's novel, in which the heroine, a werewolf from New Jersey, is afflicted with a hoarding obsession and tormented by the sexy alpha male ex she still loves, to Tricia Pasternak at Random House, in a two-book deal, by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World). Rights: rkind@randomhouse.com

So excited!

Here is a screenshot:

My Urban Fantasy Sold to Del Rey!

2010-10-28T11:18:00.001-05:00

I am so stoked I can finally announce to the world my good news! Especially since I've been sitting on this since last week.

My Urban Fantasy, HOARDING YOUR HOWLS, will be published by Random House Del Rey Books in 2012 with Tricia Pasternak as the editor! (Thank you so much, Betsy Mitchell, editor-in-chief of Del Rey!) Woo hoo!

This book was born from an idea I got from one of my husband's physician magazines. (American Family Physician ) I saw an article on OCD and my mind started whirling about what I could do with it. What kind of adventures could a character go through if they were a werewolf with OCD? From that point, HOARDING YOUR HOWLS was born. I started the book last year, but I didn't wrap it up until around February 2010. After all the fun edits with my crit partners, I handed the book off to my agent Jim McCarthy and he helped me pull it through the wringer until that puppy shined. Now I can happily say all that work paid off! I have a two book deal! With a fabulous house where my inner geek can feel comfy and happy!

The shock has not worn off yet, and I am so grateful to my friends for their support on my journey. Thank you so much!

What Not to Write for Nano

2010-10-27T11:35:00.005-05:00

As I sit here enjoying a healthy lunch (the bad lunches come when I'm writing), I thought about the horror stories from the publishing community based on the work that comes out from Nano. They dread Nanowrimo and what hot mess may come from the bowls of an author's head. I'll be honest, what I write when I sprint is not in the prettiest shape, but I know that I plan to edit the heck out of it when I'm done. I also plan ahead so that what I write is what I should be writing. A full month of writing madness should be done productively--well as much as possible anyway! :)

Once in a blue moon I do get a shiny idea that pops up out of nowhere. (Oh, shiny!) I gaze at it lovingly and wonder what I could do with it, what direction I could go and what awesome things could come from it. But then reality hits and I realize that my idea belongs in one of the following bins:

Alien Invasion Hard Sell Bin
College-Age Student Finding Themselves Hard Sell Bin
Sparkly Vampires and Three-Way Triangle Relationship Bin
High Fantasy With 20 Races Searching for the One Ring Hard Sell Bin
Boring Regency Where She Must Find Inheritance/Love Bin
Never-ending Space Opera With Sub Plots so Deep You Can't Figure it Out Bin
Medical Thriller Where I Need an MD Bin
Wizard School/Academy/Institution Where Must Learn Magic Hard Sell Bin
Werecats, Werebats, Wererats: Thundercats Ho! Bin

Do these bins apply to everyone? Nope. There are no hard rules in writing. But if I ever did plan to jump into one of those bins, my premise would have to be very strong. I can't be cookie cutter or my idea won't stand out. I'd also have to write a very clean manuscript to make sure I get great visibility with a potential agent/editor.

What I'm saying here is that before I invest hours and hours into Nano I plan to be ready with an idea that has potential in this market. I've pulled apart my idea using my GMC Wizard to make sure my heroine/hero isn't heading off to Neverland without a reason. (Even if they have enough Frequent Flyer Miles.) I've check Amazon to see if here is a similar title. I've run my idea over with my crit partners to get their feedback if this is a totally new idea. (Usually isn't...) So much time goes into a labor of love like a book. I just want my time where I could be doing something else to be worth it. :)

Only a few more days and counting! This Nano will rock!

Excerpt Monday

2010-10-18T07:30:00.003-05:00

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don't have to be published to participate just an writer with an excerpt you'd like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

This is an excerpt from my YA steampunk manuscript, THE RED CROSSROADS. I had so much fun writing this book and performing the necessary research. This is a portion of the opening chapter. Thanks for reading!

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“Whatever you gave me isn’t working!”

From the slight slur of my brother Alvin’s voice, I suspected he might feel pain, but alcohol had dulled it enough to hold him at bay. “Be quiet and stop twitching.”

I adjusted my surgical glasses and plunged the needle into his flesh to close the opening where over a year ago I’d made repairs to the machinery within.

My brother quieted. Far too quiet for him. I reached for his wrist to check his pulse. The dull thumps created an irregular rhythm. As usual, Alvin had arrived home from the university’s winter recess even more broken than when he’d left.

And now I sit with my tools, scalpels, and suture—forced to patch him up again. My left hand trembled when I removed it from his wrist. Lively buggars. I watched the pale skin of my fingers as the digits twitched.

“Stop it.” I opened and closed my fist. My gloved right-hand always did the work. Much more steady and reliable with sharp objects like scalpels.

Once I closed the skin over the gear-driven machine that operated his thigh, I set about replacing the components in his left hand. During the initial examination, I’d heard a faint scraping sound. After a year away at medical school, I expected any machinery in his arms would’ve deteriorated a bit. It wasn’t as if Alvin tried to be careful with his condition.

From the far corner of my father’s dimly lit workshop a young man’s voice yelled, “Fiona, does he need another drink?”

“Not yet, Pax.” I used the scalpel to open the skin along a scar from a previous procedure. Alvin hissed as the skin parted like an open book.

“Hurts every time,” he muttered. “Give me another drink.”

A chuckle tickled the back of my throat as our best friend Pax lumbered over to us with a half-empty bottle of vodka. “My dear inebriated brother, if you allowed me to use my ventilator you wouldn’t be awake to experience this.”

Pax pushed the bottle to Alvin’s lips. The clear liquid missed his mouth a few times as Alvin sputtered. “I saw what happened to the dog—” He paused as his forehead scrunched to gather his thoughts. “—after you used it on him… Not happening.”

I adjusted my seat. “As you wish, but I’m not surprised you’d pick spirits over something logical like diethyl ether.” I turned to Pax. “Please fetch me another two-inch clamp from the cabinet.”

With a round belly and faded brown overalls which stretched to accommodate it, Pax towered over us. Even before my father passed away, Pax had worked in the Jacobs family repair shop. Pax passed along a clamp and then scratched his unruly blonde locks. “How does he look?”

“A horrible mess. At least everything is functional and only needs a few adjustments or new pieces. But I don’t want to think about the miniscule fractures or breaks in his bones he hasn’t told us about.”

“If he doesn’t tell you, he’ll learn soon enough,” replied Pax with a toothy grin.

“Are you done yet?” grumbled Alvin.

“Soon enough. I should’ve knocked you out so you’d be quiet.” Using the long sleeve of my blouse, I wiped my forehead. The overhead lamp was too hot, but it generated sufficient light for detail-related tasks.

“I’ve updated two gears that made the grinding noise. Now I need to test and then close you up.” I grinned. “We have to keep those hands fully functional so you can survive your anatomy course.”

“It doesn’t matter—I quit,” he blurted.

I nearly dropped my hook scissors as my mouth gaped. A sliver of anger pulsed through me. This had to be the alcohol speaking. Not the words of someone I worked day and night to support since I couldn’t attend medical school in a few years. Boys only. I bit the inside of my mouth before speaking. “Have you spoken to the school’s Dean regarding your decision?” He didn’t answer. Merely smacked his lips while his dulled brain cells attempted to form coherent words.

“Is he in pain? Does he need more?” asked Pax.

“To hell with the vodka. I’m almost done anyway.” From that point on, I fumed and tested the arm’s gears. I hated losing my temper. Especially when I reached the level of cursing. If my mother were alive, she’d say such language wasn’t becoming for a young lady of seventeen years.

When I was satisfied with my work, I closed the skin with fine stitches. Alvin jerked in pain. I couldn’t resist a slight smile as my anger eased.

“Serves you right for keeping secrets,” I grumbled.

He scrunched his nose from the strong minty scent of the healing salve I applied on the stitches. Thanks to the medicinal greasy slime, he’d heal in no time.

With the procedure done and my brother’s wounds wrapped tightly with gauze, I checked his pulse. Still not good. From the lessons my father taught me about irregular rhythms, I knew Alvin’s heart was diseased.

I’d never asked my father why Alvin didn’t receive medical attention from a hospital. I didn’t need to ask. All my life, the stringent rules of my homeland prevented me from receiving an advanced education. They also kept Alvin from the hospitals. Machinery within the holy vessel of the body is strictly forbidden.

I released Alvin’s wrist and ran my fingers along all of my tools: bone separators, the scalpel, and retractors of various sizes. When I needed heavy duty work, the steam-powered drill and bone mallets came into play. Not your average repair shop tools. I’d recalled only one other who used such things—my father. And with him gone, I couldn’t fathom building a replacement heart. Nor the dangerous intricacies of open-heart surgery.

By the time I stood to clean up, Alvin snored softly on the table. A tendril of chocolate brown hair had fallen over his eye. I pushed it out of the way and kissed his damp forehead. He might’ve been a fool, but he was the only family I had left.

I passed Pax as he sat on one of the stools next to a tool bench. He stretched out the newspaper in front of him.

From the workroom, I walked down a hallway to the connecting house. Sconces with tiny flames fed by gas lit the way. My leather boots scuffed against the worn wooden floors as I entered the kitchen.

I could almost imagine my mother cooking dinner while my father sat at worn kitchen table reading his scientific journals. She’d fuss over the bubbling pots and pans while our family dog kept his nose to the floor searching for scraps.

When I opened my eyes, the stark reality of my mother’s death three years ago hit my gut. The pain churned, increasing the urge to return to my sanctuary of my workshop. After Mother passed away from the Plague that went through town, my father went traveling again and returned home a broken, lonely man. As broken as his children who’d remained behind. A few months later we buried him next to our mother.

At least my brother was home. With resolve, I placed the pot on the stove, and then flicked the switch to channel the heat from the house furnace to the stove. I was about to add fresh vegetables for a stew when a chilly October draft blew down the hallway into the kitchen.

“Pax, shut the door!” I’d need a few shots of whiskey in my tea at the rate those boys tried my patience tonight. I continued cooking until I realized no one answered. Then another breeze blew in, causing the apron on the wall to flutter.

I turned off the stove, wiped my hands on a towel, and stormed down the hallway. I bet Pax let him get up and now he was drunk and roaming the streets.

But the workshop was empty. The only sound was from the open door flapping in the wind. Beyond the door lay darkness. The dirt road usually had oil lanterns lit. I took a single step forward toward the blackness that swallowed streets.

“This isn’t funny, Pax.” My gaze darted to the makeshift operating table where I’d strapped Alvin down. The leather straps had been ripped off.

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Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

Finish What You Start - Perseverance in Writing

2010-10-13T14:24:00.009-05:00

Not too long ago, I was in the middle of convincing myself to finish a troublesome chapter and I thought about all the times I've finished other chapters. This lead to thinking about whole manuscripts I've tackled. I've created worlds and people who exist within them, but how did I start the whole process and then do it again and again? Not a simple question since writing a story is a constantly changing process. The goal I'd set when I wrote the words 'chapter 1' wasn't the same goal when I wrote the words 'THE END.' My overall goal was to complete a manuscript, but the process to reach the end was as tumultuous as the words within. I had to deal with:

* Family
* Life, Life, Life
* Illness
* Exhaustion
* Vacations
* Life, life, life

I think there is more to finishing a book than determination, (which sure helps), I believe it takes perseverance.

Perseverance: steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

You can be determined to finish the book, the chapter, or even a section. But that's not enough during the long term. You need to ride the rough waters and make it out to the other side. Even if your book takes months or even years. I've seen so many writers start books and then never finish them. I've done the same. But, and there is a but. I have to have a reason for the decision. Sometimes I have to focus on another book. Or I switch gears when the book isn't working. The plot might not be strong enough or the characters aren't working out. I can cut all the words all I want, but if the overall structure is flawed I should not waste my time trying to fix a broken manuscript.

Either way, even if I fall off the horse I still have to work on something and in the end complete something.

I asked a crit partner and Harlequin Special Edition author, Amanda S. Berry, about why she finishes a book. She told me the obvious: "It's not a story until it's complete. A chapter doesn't get you anywhere but closer to the end."

YA writer Sarah Bromley said, "There's the great feeling of completion. A lot of the time when I finish something its because the story has grabbed me. I feel obligated to finish it and see it through. Discipline and dedication is required."

There are various ways to look at writing. Some people do it for the joy of creating words. For me, I get the joy involved in the creative process, but I also see my work as a potential product that my agent can sell. In order for my agent to have something to pitch, I need to finish what I start. Even if my kids are running around screaming, dinner needs to be made, my house is a hot mess, the laundry is piled up--I still have to get through all that and come back to my work to finish it.

Lately, I've been plagued by headaches. They've knocked me down a few times. Enough to force me to not work on those particular days. But the day after I got hit hard, I jumped back on the bucking bronco again to get something done. I learned through writing manuscripts that I'm goal-oriented. I want the prize of a completed manuscript. I hunger for a completed manuscript. So I dangle that lovely carrot in front of myself and I chase after it whenever I hit the keyboard.

Writing is hard. Life is hard. But the rewards are worth it for those who are dedicated and put in the overtime to finish and edit the work. You can do it!

So are you ready to finish what you started? Are you ready to get up early before your family? Work late at night after a long day at work? Can you ignore the call of a great book to write YOUR book? Is writing a hobby for fun or a business decision where you want to submit to an agent or editor? Are you goal-oriented or at least goal-oriented when it comes to your writing?

Nanowrimo is coming! What do you want to do?

Preparing for Nanowrimo 2010

2010-10-13T08:14:00.004-05:00

Well, I did Nano last year and failed. *sigh* These things happen. I've decided to do nano again this year, but like the last, I won't beat myself up if life jumps in the way again. I got a pretty good start last year and then fizzled. I tend to write in bursts but sustaining a big haul is difficult for me. I think in order to make this year work I'll have to stick to 3K a day to maintain by steam.

I have no idea what I will write this year. I may finish a book I've started or write a totally new one. I have plenty of books sitting in the bat cave waiting to come out. I plan to use Lynn Viehl's Novel Notebook again since I love using that thing. I need to find a way to use it electronically though since my printed copies tend to disappear with my other papers. Be sure to check out Lynn's Post today where she's talking about her prep.

Fast Draft: Day 5 - 9

2010-10-06T06:23:00.007-05:00

Okay, I'll admit it. I fell off the bus. I rolled off and the aftermath wasn't pretty. After Day 5 I had the Archon Conference here in St. Louis. (My birthday present for the weekend.) I had so much fun with my good friend and mentor Angie Fox as well as so many new and old friends! Each day I did write, but I didn't write close to what I should write. :( I tried to stay positive and kept reminding myself that I'd written a lot of words and made tremendous progress before I got sidetracked. (And hey, I think I could at least let myself off for my birthday.)

Unfortunately real life hit again with a series of bad headaches. I get them once in a while and they hit hard and make writing near to impossible. But today is a new day! My goal is to at least get 10 pages or more today. I usually can write 4K in a day when I get my mojo back! I have 5 days left to make things count. Here goes nothing!

Day 1: 15 pages
Day 2: 15 pages
Day 3: 20 pages
Day 4: 2 pages
Day 5: 3 pages
Day 6: 2 pages
Day 7: 1/2 page (Birthday!)
Day 8: 6 pages
Day 9: 1/2 page

Fast Draft Day 4

2010-10-01T09:04:00.002-05:00

Sadly, Day 4 didn't go as well as my other days. I ran out of steam yesterday and I think the transition point I hit snagged my momentum. The story I'm writing spans over 9 months and well I can't give every day, every second. So the story needs to jump forward without looking like a hot mess after I jump. (Is it weird after I typed jumped forward my mind went to the Back to the Future scene where Marty sees his house in the future? Weird...)

Anyway, I only got 2 pages done. Not my best, but I do feel refreshed today and ready to work.

Day 1: 15 pages
Day 2: 15 pages
Day 3: 20 pages
Day 4: 2 pages

I did try to open the document a few times to get started. But nothing panned out. My writing process tends to go fast where I write in a blur. Perhaps my mojo will come back today and I'll knock out my goal again. :)

Fast Draft Day 3

2010-09-30T06:53:00.004-05:00

Wow, I am exhausted. LOL

Day 3 resulted in success! I got my 20 pages. But right now I am empty. May need to recharge the mojo for a bit this morning before I can move forward with the story.

Day 1: 15 pages
Day 2: 15 pages
Day 3: 20 pages

Total: 50 pages

Right now I should be sitting at 60 pages, but life, kids, etc making doing fast draft very difficult. Last night's final round had to been a bunch of crap. I kind of scared to read it so I can do a bit of editing. After I write, I usually scan over it the next day to knock out fast and furious edits:

Misspellings
Missing Words
Sentences that make no damn sense

My weekend will be busy with my birthday on Sunday and the Archon conference all weekend. How the hell will I pull this off?

Fast Draft - Day 2

2010-09-28T19:33:00.002-05:00

Somehow I'd survived my second day. It wasn't easy. I'd written over the whole day.

Day 1: 15 pages
Day 2: 15 pages

Total: 30 pages

Not a bad start. Yesterday started well, but then ended poorly. I was in the middle of writing using the application Write or Die and then my machine went blue screen of death on me. Not only did it crash once, but it crash three times. In the end, I ended up disabling auto Windows Update, adding a Windows Debugger to scour through the Windows dump file (.dmp) for my materials, and then going to bed fuming...

Lesson learned? You bet. I usually work in applications that guarantee me a backup. Like Microsoft Word. The application can give me an auto backup whenever I create a new document. I can even have that backup stored on my remote server for safe keeping.

I'd foolishly assumed Write or Die saved files as well. It does mine you. In My Documents there is a folder for Write or Die files. But those files are created after you finish a session. Which means that you could have thousands of words in the session, but if your computer goes nuclear then you are screwed.

It's the next day and I'm trying to be positive. It's likely those words are meant to be gone. Perhaps in my sleepy haze I wrote shoddy work and now I can write something deeper and more beautiful. I'm at a scene between the hero and heroine so with this chance I need to make things better and edit what I would have wrote yesterday.

Onward and upward!

Fast Draft Day 1

2010-09-28T06:24:00.005-05:00

I'm participating in a Fast Draft through the encouragement of Bria Quinlan. I'd already needed a kick in the butt to get some work done on my current work in progress so I happily joined in. Candace Havens began the Fast Draft program and now I'm a happy participant.

The Fast Draft works like this:

20 pages per day for 2 weeks
No excuses
No internal editor
Just write, write and write

Of course, this is easier said than done. Yesterday was my first day and I only got 5K which equals around 15 pages. Not the 20 pages I meant to get, but close enough. I've had a 10K day before so I know I can get out 20 pages.

How did yesterday work out?

Three quick rounds in the morning and then three in the afternoon. My best sprints are over a 45 minute period where with Write or Die I can knock out at least 1500 words if I'm in the zone. The hardest thing about sprinting is that you have to have to story ready to go in your head. I'm about to head into part of my story where research would be nice. Under normal circumstances I would spend a few hours researching and looking things up. Instead, I simply add a bracket around a set of words. [Vegetarian dish here]. It was hard as hell not to use the almighty Google to find what I wanted, but I managed to do it.

Come join in the fun! You might be surprised at what you can accomplish!

Great Book - The Chosen One

2010-09-15T12:38:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've done a review. I've been a busy bee working on my next book. My crit partner Cole Gibsen had a talk a few weekends ago and she talked about a YA book with a great opening. The book was The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. I'm so glad she told the audience about the book. The opening is spectacular. Matter of fact, the whole book has great pacing and by the end I was like wow, I won't forget this book.

What I loved about this book was how the plot propelled me forward. I cared about and wanted to know what happened to the heroine, a thirteen year-old girl named Kyra. Kyra lives on Compound with her father and his three wives. The Compound is the home of a conservative, polygamist community where girls are married off at a young age and they often become a wife to an older man with multiple wives. During the story, Kyra is told that she has to marry her sixty year-old uncle and become one of his many wives. The idea of doing such sickens her. Especially since she has given her heart to one of the young men in the Compound. She also longs for the things the community had before their zealous leader instituted more stringent rules. No more books. Young girls were to be married to the men the leader chose. Even if they didn't want to marry them, they would be either beaten or killed.

The story is full of shocking moments where I cringed and covered my mouth. It's these shocking moments that make the story rich and forces the reader to think about what might be out there in the world. Are there people who think and treat children in this type of manner. I won't spoil the story to tell you what happens to Kyra, especially since I want you to read it, but I highly recommend this book.

When I enjoy a book I read it quickly and this one took me a day or two. Definitely worth your time. I'd give this book a solid grade of an A.

Newbie's Guide to Literary Terms

2010-09-14T12:59:00.004-05:00

Every writer has to start somewhere, and writing fiction can be intimidating enough with fellow writers tossing around literary terms like candy on Halloween. Sometimes you can see what's in the wrapping, while most of the time you have no idea what's within. Let's delve into a few of these terms:

■ Narrative
■ Exposition
■ Introspection
■ Plot Device
■ Deus Ex Machina

I retrieved a few of my terms from the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary. The first term we'll look at is the narrative. That one relates to the whole picture. It's defined as:

narrative: "an account, story, or tale"

When you write a story, you create a narrative. The narrative is an account of the journey your protagonists (hero/heroine) and antagonists (villain, death, etc) undertake.

Let's look at the term exposition. This relates to how you convey your information. Your voice conveys to the reader what's in the narrative. Of course, like the narrative, you can mess up the exposition as well. Have you ever given so much back story that a crit partner knew the color of your character's underwear? Well, they might've said you gave an information dump or an exposition dump.

Formally, exposition is defined in the dictionary as: "the act of presenting, explaining, or expounding facts or ideas."

As authors, the exposition for us is the dialogue, description through imagery, etc. that gives the audience the background of the characters and the present situation.

So anytime someone says there's a problem with your exposition, you can elegantly extend your pinky finger in the air and tell them you'll correct it no problem. (Just make sure to ask for a specific page and paragraph since you'll likely have a lot to crawl through.)

Our exposition can go too far. Have you ever read a book where you got bored, couldn't wait to put it down? Perhaps the author included too much description. Or they had a never ending flashback or talked about every dog the character had since childhood. Details are nice, but like the next topic below, it should be used enough to convey the story and advance the plot.

Our next topic is introspection. Via our dictionary, introspection is defined as:

introspection: "The observation and analysis of one's own mental processes and
emotional states."

In essence, introspection is when your character reacts or thinks about something that has occurred. It's important when using introspection to not give too much or too little. For example, if your villain just left your heroine in the middle of the nowhere with no ride, I doubt she will have one line or two of introspection. There will likely be some dialogue (cursing), a visceral reaction (anger), and then some introspection on what has occurred and how she feels. Introspection is a valuable tool for romance writers.

Now we come to the plot device. Have you ever been told by a crit partner that you used something in your story as plot device? Perhaps you pulled a Deus Ex Machina out of thin air? How about we define these two terms together?

plot device: a character or object in the story that is only used to advance the plot.

deus ex machina: a plot device where the story's conflict is resolved through something that is not related to the story in any way. Also known as the "hand of God."

Based on the definitions given above, you can see these should be avoided in your manuscript. It's far too easy to use these our plots. For example, it would be too easy to let the heroine I described above find a car running and ready a few feet away from where the villain ditched her.
The car is a smaller form of Deus Ex Machina. A larger example would be if our heroine confronted the villain at his house. While in a knife fight, we might learn that the hero hid at the house the whole time and he comes bounding out of the attic to fight the villain and save the day. Way too easy! Why not have the heroine save herself in a battle to the death?

How do you avoid plot devices? If something is critical to making your story work, it should be fully ingrained in your plot. If you have a magical necklace that saves the day, give the necklace a history. Foreshadow it. Make the object a more active part of your story. There are ways to surprise the reader in the end without giving them the "cringe effect."

Cringe Effect: When a crit partner reads your work, cringes, and moans, "Oh, c'mon that came out of nowhere!"

Here are some great articles/blog posts on the topic I discussed above:

Avoiding Deus Ex Machina
Deus Ex Machina and the Aesthetics of Proof (Interesting, but Technical Article)

Any other terms you can think of when you started writing?

Meet the Synopsis Wizard!

2010-09-07T10:13:00.011-05:00

Okay, after a busy Labor Day weekend I've emerged from the mad scientist's lair with another toy! The Synopsis Wizard. If you are like me, you hate writing a synopsis. You hate thinking about them, plotting out what needs to be written, and then having to write them down. I hope this little tool will at least make it less painful. This doesn't magically make the words in your head come out. You'll have to do the work and add in the elements for your synopsis.

Once you add in all the "pieces" your synopsis will be generated in a new window. Copy and paste into your preferred word processing application and then you are done!

Take a Look!

The wizard is hosted on my website since it needs more space than this little window! If you have any questions or spot any bugs let me know!

Introductory Video:

RWA Conference 2010: Final Two Days

2010-08-17T07:15:00.004-05:00

I ran out of steam on Friday and Saturday. Wowsa! The last days of the conference went by in a blur as well. Friday went well. I left the room early to eat the yummy continental breakfast with other authors. After that I headed down to the Editor/Agents Appointments area where I had the fun job of volunteering! At first I stood around waiting to work, but in the end I got to be the lady who watched the clocks. In my best professional voice, if one could call it that, I announced, "2 Minutes" and then the evil, "Time's Up." It was fun actually. I had a chance to chit-chat with literary agent Donna Bagdasarian (she's a sweetheart) as well as many other agents and editors. One thing I immediately noticed was the inspirational editors from Harlequin didn't get many folks. (So if you're an inspirational author go to RWA Nationals! You have a great chance to pitch your book!)

Yes, I'm missing many photos from Friday and Saturday during the day. Perhaps due to the fact I went zombie those days! The RWA Conference can be an exhausting experience. I highly recommend taking the Monday off after the conference to recharge. I'm also happy I took a later flight on Sunday. I got to spend the morning on Sunday slowly packing and working on edits for my agent. (It's amazing what a quiet hotel room can do!)

I had so much fun at the dinner and on Friday when I went to FF&P chapter's dinner, The Gathering. They had a steampunk themed dinner with a costume contest! So much fun. I kinda wished I would have brought a costume. :)

Overall, I had a blast at RWA. I can't wait to see everyone again in New York! (I think I need to start saving up now since it will be at the Marriott Marquis.)

Ritas and Golden Hearts Awards Dinner (Last year we didn't have a dinner. This year, instead of a lunch we got dinner. I like this format much better.)

Socializing After Dinner (I see a few Romance Divas!)

Megan Kelly and Jennifer Jakes

Amanda Berry, Keri Ford, and Jeannie Lin

Julie Opdyke and Megan Kelly

Jeannie Line, Karen Davidson, and Kate Pearce

Kristi Lea and Amanda Berry

Bria Quinlan, Amanda Berry and Jeannie Lin

Brian Quinlan and Gwen Hayes

Me and Michelle Rowen

Bria Quinlan, Gwen Hayes, and Jeannie Lin

Rachel Jameson, Sabrina Darby, and Jeannie Lin

Jeannie Lin, MG Braden, and Amanda Berry

2010 YA Rita Winner - Simon Elkeles for PERFECT CHEMISTRY

Kimberly Killion and Kristi Lea

Me and C.L. Wilson

YA Authors Jennifer Echols and Rosemary Clement-Moore

I did take a quick video shot of the fountain outside in the Dolphin Hotel where I stayed. So pretty! The MORWA folks were getting ready to have lunch for the last time before got on our flight.

RWA Conference Day #3: Thrilling Thursday

2010-08-12T11:02:00.004-05:00

By Thursday I'd recovered from Disney and could finally enjoy the workshops. I'd only stayed up until 1 or so for Diva Karaoke. (I distinctly remember strolling out singing Like a Virgin... Or was I dancing out to Material Girl...? Eh, either way it was some Madonna song.) I was beat, but I had fun waiting in the Swan hotel: the YARWA Breakfast gathering. I took a moment after I got there to snag a seat and then snap some pictures. I got a chance to talk with so many folks including Tera Lynn Childs, Sophie Jordan (be sure to check out her YA debut of Firelight -- the cover is the BOMB), and the outgoing President of YARWA the fabulous Rosemary Clement-Moore. I made so many friends. I hope to get things going for YARWA and get my plans in place for the website and things.

After the breakfast I walked with Tera and Sophie to the Goodie Room. From there I hung out until the first workshop I attended: Pansters, Plotter, and Plotsers. OMG, the presenters were so much fun. (By the way, I confirmed I'm a Plotser. And thus a hybrid model.) After that I went to the next workshop which I loved, loved, loved. How to Mend a Broken Scene by Roxanne St. Claire. The room was packed--I mean we had authors sitting on the floor in the back, me included. I managed to snag the coveted handout and boy was this workshop worth it. She broke her scene down and then showed us how she added back in the missing elements. I had my "ah-ha" moment when thinking about my own materials. (The ah-ha resulted in a 50 page edit, but hey, books are made to be edited, right?) After that workshop I had planned to go to the Shitty First Drafts one, but I met up with some Divas and we headed on over the Paranormals workshop with Kelley Armstrong, Jeaniene Frost, Terri Garey, Colleen Gleason, Juliana Stone, and Cheryl Wilson. Not too bad. A few of the questions left me scratching my head but overall a decent workshop.

Thursday is a busy night at the conference. Many chapters have events as well as different publishing houses. On that particular night I had the YARWA general meeting and I was Amanda S. Berry's date for the Finally a Bride awards ceremony. Amanda won first place last year for the Paranormal category (yay Amanda!) I hung out with her for a while. I even had a chance to see Michelle Rowen again as well as a chit chat with Romance Divas Rachel Jameson and Sabrina Darby.

Eventually like Cinderella I had to ditch my date and head to the YARWA meeting. I snapped many photos as you can see and had a blast listening to Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk. I rubbed elbows with the members and afterwards I thought the evening was over. Yeah right! I meet up with some Divas including Jeannie Lin, Gwen Hayes, December Gephart, and Bria Quinlan to head to some room parties. At our first stop we had some wine and donuts. I had a chance to meet Ann Aguire (she even has a YA coming out!) Victoria Dahl and several others.) After that shindig, we bounced to Courtney Milan's suite. She's a really sweet HQN author who writes Regency. By that point I had lost my shoes and had a chance to chill. While there I met Regency Romance author Tessa Dare, YA author Jennifer Echols, and even managed to talk to Lindsey Faber, the Managing Editor at Samhain Publishing. Whoa, what a night. No wonder I'm writing this several days later. I stayed up way too late that week!

YARWA Breakfast Get Together

Another Breakfast shot. (I tried to make sure folks didn't have their mouths open with food.)

YARWA Breakfast (I see Tera Lynn Childs and Laurel Wenrow there...)

YARWA Breakfast

YARWA Breakfast

Our Keynote Luncheon With Nora Roberts - Great Speech. But also the beginning of the chickenfest at the conference.

Post Luncheon Pic with MORWA Authors

YARWA General Meeting

YARWA General Meeting - The new Treasurer Micki Gibsen and President Jennifer Hilt

YARWA General Meeting - Folks lining up for goodies

YARWA General Meeting

YARWA General Meeting

YARWA General Meeting

YARWA General Meeting

YARWA General Meeting - Jennifer Hilt and Rosemary Clement-Moore

Me and YA Author Gwen Hayes

Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk.

Tera Lynn Childs and Rosemary Clement-Moore give their talk. (Another angle!)

Wine and Donuts in a hotel room party. I wish I could remember what made Bria laugh... That's Jeannie Lin and Keri Ford across from her. And then I spy Rachel Jameson as well.

Gwen Hayes and Decemeber Gephart

Ann Aguire and Gwen Hayes

Ann Aguire and I

Why yes, that is Gwen Hayes, Courtney Milan, and Bria Quilan playing Operation at the hotel suite party.

I wonder who will trigger the buzzer first?

RWA Conference Day #2 - Wayback Wednesday

2010-08-11T08:07:00.015-05:00

Yep, the RWA Conference happened 2 weeks ago, but I'm jumping into my wayback machine to recap on those misty memories.

On that Wednesday I woke up stiff and in pain. Serious pain as a result from Day #1 at Disney. Oh yes, Disney, I blame you for my pain and suffering. Most folks don't need to stretch after they wake up from a walk around Disney.

After I recovered enough to move, I went down to volunteer for the literacy signing. I worked from eight to noon opening boxes and labeling them for the signing. It was so nice to meet fellow YARWA authors like Micki Gibson (new YARWA treasurer) and Jennifer Hilt (new YARWA president). I had a chance to chit chat briefly with Smart Bitches Blogger Sarah Wendell (Boy can that chick haul books in a dress, you go girl!) My reward for hauling books: two free ones. Woo hoo!

I spent the rest of the afternoon chilling and reconnecting with friends. Somehow I managed to spend to some time editing (very, very little that day).

The fun jumped off that evening when the Literacy Signing started at 5. I had a chance to take pictures of MORWA members, fellow Romance Divas, as well as pictures of favorite authors and friends. I had a blast!

After the Literacy Signing wrapped up, I joined a few authors, including Amanda Berry and Ella Drake, to head over to Kimonos. The Diva karaoke would take place there so we decided to snag a seat. We had a wait a while, but while we waited we got a chance to snag our Diva badges! (I'm Camping with Cheesecake Diva by the way.)

Then Romance Divas Karaoke started! So much fun! Okay, except for the server who brought my check real fast. Hey, can't a girl have more than one soda?

While I was there I saw so many authors from last year! I got to watch Amanda Berry, Melissa Francis and another Diva sing Baby Got Back. There is a video floating around Youtube, but I will be kind and not post that puppy. I also got to watch Angie Fox, her agent Jessica Faust, and two other BookEnds authors sing It's Raining Men! Bravo, Angie!

I got to sing Love Shack as well as some other classics where I got to gyrate and sing on the tiny stage. There's nothing like coming back to my hotel room after bonding with the Divas.

Two romantic suspense authors: AJ Brower and a new friend I ate lunch with. :)

Authors and Romance Divas: Gwen Hayes and Jeannie Lin

Gwen Hayes and Cambria Dillion have a kodak moment when they meet. *grins*

Romance Divas reconnecting and meeting for the first time

Literacy Signing Pictures:

Sci-Fi Romance Author and Romance Diva Jess Granger

Paranormal Author and Romance Diva Teresa D'Amario

Harlequin Author and Romance Diva Amanda S. Berry - Her First RWA Signing Yay!

MORWA Authors waiting for Amanda to sign

Romance Divas Jeannie Lin (The Blinker) and Bria Quinlan (I still love the pic though.)

Historical Author and Romance Diva Sabrina Darby

Erotic Romance Author and Romance Diva Robin L. Rotham

The Fabulous Michelle Rowen. She's an agencymate of mine. We're both repped by Jim McCarthy with D & G Lit Management. I got a signed copy of Demon Princess!

Harlequin Author and Romance Diva Liz Talley. (Love her clothes!)

Paranormal, Urban Fantasy & Young Adult Romance Author and Romance Diva Extraordinaire Kristen Painter

YA Author and Romance Diva Melissa Francis (As well as Baby Got Back All Star)

Romance Author and Romance Diva Louisa Edwards

One of my many writing sprints partners in crime: C.L. Wilson. I heart Cheryl. We got a chance to reconnect and talk more during this conference!

Dark Paranormal, Futuristic, and Science Fiction Romance Author and Romance Diva Ella Drake. She was a finalist for the PRISM award this year from the FF&P chapter of RWA.

Historical Authors Jeannie Lin and Jennifer Jakes. Jennifer was a finalist for the Golden Heart's Historical Category.

Author and Romance Diva Karen Erickson

Historical Author and MORWA President Kimberly Killion

Historical Author and Romance Diva Victoria Janssen - I love her covers--so good.

Me and Brenda Jackson - Her writing is spectacular!

Paranormal Author Angie Fox (all my other pictures of Angie are too serious to post. Yeah. *cough* Too serious.)

Authors Angie Fox and Cathryn Fox. (Can I call them the foxy ladies?)

Romance Divas Karaoke:

RWA Conference 2010: Orlando's the Most Tiring Place in the World

2010-08-10T08:09:00.001-05:00

My experience in Orlando for the 2010 Romance Writers of America convention was a happy and fulfilling one. But let's just say I had my butt kicked on Day #1 by the happiest place on the world. I ventured out on Tuesday July 27th with two other authors to have some fun in the sun before the conference festivities began. I'll post my Day #2 adventures tomorrow.

Here are some pictures. Yep, it took me forever and a day to get this post up. I'm the new VP of Communications for the Young Adult Chapter of RWA so I'm all over the place now.

I managed to ride:

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Rock and Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith (God in Heaven the pain...)
The Great Movie Ride
It's a Small World
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Haunted Mansion

All of this over a 6+ hour span after jumping off the plane. I was out late enough to see the fireworks show in the Magic Kingdom at 11. Oh, man did I shuffle back to the hotel after that!

A picture of Cinderella's castle.

Sci-Fi romance author Jess Granger and I in front of Cinderella's Castle

Hollywood Studios movie ride - nice and quiet

This ride kick my butt... I practically limped from this puppy.

Why yes, I do have a little Captain Morgan in me. (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Hollywood Studies photo - before I melted in the heat...

More walking in Hollywood Studios

After you ride the Tower of Terror they take your picture. Unfortunately, I was one of the souls who disappeared...

I took this picture while waiting in line for the Tower of Terror. For some reason this resembles home.

Unusual Writing Locations

2010-07-20T08:48:00.006-05:00

There are all sorts of places people believe writers tend to dwell: their home office, the coffee shop tables, the library, or even under a lone tree in the park on a bright sunny day... Well, I'm here to tell you that writing can happen anywhere with any tool capable of inscribing the written word. (And no you shouldn't use the custard from inside a Krispy Creme donut to write out your poetry. It would look cute, but it would also be a complete waste of something delightfully yummy.)

Case in point. My toddler daughter yesterday had a successful short surgical procedure done. While I waited I whipped out my cellphone and began to type out more of the YA fantasy I'm cooking. (I actually have two books I'm working on right now.) While she rested post-op, I worked on adding words to my manuscript. At the time, I really wished I would've brought my laptop, but then again we were only there for the morning and the idea of hauling my massive laptop along with her around seemed a bit too much. So all I had was either the mini notepad in my purse or my smartphone with its keypad. I wrote one paragraph in the notebook and then switched to the smartphone. Why write twice? Either way, I'd begun writing this way in the past, might as well keep truckin'.

Writing in the cellphone all began a few weeks ago when I was sitting at car rental place waiting to be picked up. I had nothing to do but sit and wait so I pulled out my cellphone, opened Microsoft Word on that puppy and used the tiny keypad to type out my words. At first things felt silly. Matter of fact it took me a while to get used to the lack of a quote key (") and some other quirks. (Maybe there is a quote and I need to hunt more for it. I dunno.) But after a while, the words kept coming. My characters, who likely laughed at me from a corner, now crept closer and started to speak. The scenes began to unfold and then bam, I had enough material to keep my fingers flying. That brought up another problem... I type much faster than the tiny keyboard can handle. Yes, I could do shorthand, but really, I plan to transfer that sucker to MS Word, so the less editing/translating I have to do the better.

After that day a few weeks ago, I continued to write more. At the store waiting in line, waiting for my husband's car to get an oil change, and now waiting for my daughter to recover at the hospital. I didn't need a cozy spot at the local coffee joint or the couch with my laptop. No fancy software required. All I needed was the urge to write and a spare moment in time.

Results: Linux Experiment using OpenOffice

2010-06-30T10:16:00.008-05:00

Introduction: So yesterday I posted that I wanted to go a day in Ubuntu to see what it would like to do my writing activities such as editing/creating new work using a free tool such as OpenOffice's Writer application.

For my editing work today I plan to make a copy of my current manuscript and turn on the apply changes. That way if I jump back to Windows I see the changes I made, but its not a hot mess of formatting changes. The point of this project is not to set back my work but to see what I can do with OpenOffice 3.1 and other tools in Ubuntu.

Part I - Setup
Its been a while since I've used Ubuntu so I had to update the system first. That wasn't the problem though. My current version makes the process quite pain-free. My first problem actually came with the network. My files are not on my laptop hard drive. I don't trust my machine. This puppy could crash at any time and then I'd be stuck yanking out the hard drive to fish the files out. So I use a machine on my network to save my files. Initially, I had no idea how to connect to it since its a Windows box that shares files. (Not a server.) But I figured out I needed smb://INSERT_LOCAL_IPADDRESS to connect to my windows machine. Once I had that done I was ready to rock!

Now I'm ready to apply edits from a crit group from a previous night. Let's see. First I need to be able to jump to Chapter 18.

Using a Document Map:
In MS Word you can use a document map for headings, etc. I use it to jump to different points of my manuscript like chapter 10. I could do a search for a particular word, but with a few clicks I can bring up the document map and I'm there. In OpenOffice you access the document map using the navigator:

Choose the View menu item.

View | Navigator

From there I saw all my chapter headings and I can jump around.

Tracking Changes:
Now its time for me to enable track changes to edit my manuscript. I had no idea where to look. Eventually I had to consult help. (For this experiment I'm trying not using the web. I'd only hope the Help gets me where I need to be.)

To start tracking changes go to the Edit menu item.

Edit | Changes | Record

Okay, that sounds easy enough. Now any changes I make will show up for later. I need to insert a comment for myself. After a brief search I learned in OpenOffice this is called a note. To insert a note, like Adding in a Comment in MS Word, I went to:

Insert | Note

Now if I want to add a box I just need to remember I'm adding a note instead.

What Looks Different:
Some of my headings don't look right. To test, I opened other word documents from other authors and for some of them the formatted remained the same. Since I use a special format to introduce space between my first paragraph (Heading 2) and my chapter heading (Heading 1), I guess I should expect a few issues. Without the Heading 2 gaffe everything would've lined up fine. Matter of fact, it was weird to see a few chapters didn't have the strange effects.

Starting a New Document:
The final part of my experiment related to creating a new document and preparing it in manuscript format. I know there are templates out there for manuscripts. (Even OpenOffice) But I am picky about how I want mine to look. So I started fresh. I added in a header first. Sounds easy enough:

Insert | Header | Default

Now the page number:

Insert | Fields | Page Number

With that done, I added in the rest of the elements for the front page, the title and word count. I used CTRL+Enter to jump down to the next page to enter Chapter One. I used Heading 1 to format it. Of course then I realized my page 1 sound be my page 0. I do want chapter 1 to be on page 1. I followed the directions on a website which seemed logical but I couldn't get it to work. So after a few tries I moved on...

Now I want to get rid of the first page header. I had to hunt this information down as well. First of all, place the cursor in the Header section of the first page.

Format | Styles & Formatting

A window popped up. I then selected the Page Styles icon (See picture). From there another listed showed in the same window with First Page as an option.

Part II - The Aftermath

I took my edited manuscript and headed back to the comfort of MS Word. Only to find things didn't look the same way I found them...

Word Count differences:
OpenOffice said I had 82,000 words while MS Word said I had 81,000... Ok, that is interesting.

Changes Made:
The formatting of my headings had been altered when I opened it in OpenOffice. I can see this carried over when I opened it back up in MS Word. :( That means I would have to go into each of my headings and change them back to a proper format.

The comments look good and any changes I have made have transferred over as changes I can approve. Which is okay.

Splitting up the Windows:
When I apply suggestions from another copy with comments in it, I like to have the other window open along with my main document. In MS Word I would have simply split the window and then had the other one follow along while I worked. Unfortunately, OpenOffice doesn't do this, so I had to do it the old fashion way and line up the windows by hand.

Overall:
Like any new program, a few things flowed easily. But I also had to consult help for other things. I wish it was easier to change the starting number of a page. Overall, if I had to use OpenOffice for my work I would. The transition wasn't that hard and searching online for help was simple. If I needed a free option to do my work I'd use OpenOffice.

Ok, next I'll post how things worked out in using other goodies I found.

The Linux Experiment - Using Free Tools for Authors

2010-06-29T16:31:00.005-05:00

What if I didn't have access to Microsoft Windows anymore to write?

I am a heavy MS Windows user. I use it to code and write. But tomorrow I'm doing something different. I plan to spend the whole day in Ubuntu. For those who aren't inclined since I threw on my geek hat, Ubuntu is an open source distribution of Linux. Its supported by an army of coders who keep it up to date so folks out there can run various software. (Open source and otherwise.) My laptop is a dual boot system so I plan to use this opportunity to see if I can thrive on the other side of the fence using free tools to do my writing.

What is the purpose of this experiment? Well, I have a few goals:

What free tools I can use as author on Ubuntu (i.e. OpenOffice) that would be practical for my day-to-day work writing, editing, and plotting.
What are the pitfalls I'll encounter? (I know I'll be screaming...)
Will OpenOffice support the track changes and comments from Word? Will there be a document map for me to jump between chapters? Will the formatting differences be a problem? How long will it take me to start a fresh document with page numbering, header, footer, etc.
Will any of the popular Windows tools work in Linux well? (i.e. yWriter)
Will the final product of work, meaning adding/editing a large manuscript, transition well back to Windows?

I'm sure there are writers out there who exclusively use the various Linux distributions (CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Linspire). (Even Mac exists as well, but that's not free to use. You have to pay for the license.) I haven't found any blog posts that go in-depth on getting started and show what will happen if you use Linux for writing fiction.

With the economy making it hard to pay for the tools of the trade, I'm curious how things will go when I use OpenOffice/Ubuntu. (I've used Google Apps before and that's another post waiting to happen...) I don't use the software that often so this will definitely be a newbie experience to see the differences.

Muse Monday

2010-06-28T08:24:00.005-05:00

Well, for those who've seen my writing process before you know I tend to write hard core when the Muse shows up. Well, she hasn't showed up yet, but I'm trying my best to plow forward. For the last month I've been editing my next book to head out on submission, HOARDING YOUR HOWLS. It's another paranormal chick lit book about a hoarding werewolf. I had so much fun writing it as well as researching it.

But now after a month of writing vacation I need to starting plotting and researching again. And coming up with another title, (thanks Sarah Bromley). I'm one of those writers that comes up with horrible titles. But in order to feel good about moving forward I need one.

Without the drive to write, ending my vacation has been painful. To be honest I'm one of those writers that needs that final push to send me over the edge and go nuts with writing. If the mojo isn't there, I don't produce hardly anything but a trickle. (But my house sure does look clean!) Does it mean my heart isn't in the story? No, I don't start anything I don't truly feel passionate about. Its just the motivation to fall down the rabbit hole is the hardest. I'm not an every day writer. (Took me a while to learn that one.) But I can tell right now I'm getting hungry. So I'll continue to tap my fingers and wait for the Muse to show up. In the mean time, I'll work on editing my werewolf book and getting another manuscript converted from 3rd to 1st person (one of my urban fantasy manuscripts).

As of last night, I wrote one page in the next WIP! It was hard, but I did it! :) I have other projects I'm dabbling with in YA futuristic fantasy and even a paranormal manuscript where the male protagonist is in college (from a horrific plot bunny attack). (If you want to see more about college-aged protagonists Amanda Brice wrote a great post about it on The Fictionistias.)

Hope your Muse is cooperating today. :D

Excerpt Monday

2010-06-21T11:09:00.005-05:00

Jumping Back on the Horse... I think...

2010-06-15T12:53:00.004-05:00

Well, I've been out on a mini writing vacation. I've written a bit, but nothing crazy like my usual antics where I write, write, and write. Vacations are good and sometimes they give the muse a much needed break so I can chew on new ideas.

Little did I know I'd get sick this month. I'm actually glad I didn't have any deadlines or manuscripts begging for my attention these past couple of weeks. It's amazing how not feeling well can turn a brain which was a well-oiled machine into a blog of gray mass with about as much focus as a camera with a spear through the lens. But now I'm feeling a bit better and I hope this upward turn means I can start planning my next top sekret projet. *rubs hands together* Ready, set, plot!

Meet the GMC Wizard!

2010-05-31T20:03:00.012-05:00

I'm a big fan of Debra Dixon's book: GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. I read this book every time I start a new project. Why? Because the book really helps me stay on track with what the plot bunny comes up with in my head. Book ideas are great, but they won't help make a great book if my protagonist or antagonist are walking around randomly with no goals and reasons why they do what they do. To help facilitate the brainstorming process I created the GMC Wizard. (Especially when I got tired of creating my own grid each and every time.)

Instructions: From the first screen you enter basic information about your character that you may want to reference later if you plan to print out the results.

After you enter basic information (if you like), you move on to the External GMC screen. Now you will build you goal-motivation-conflict statement. You start with the goal. Then the motivation for that goal and then finally the conflict that will hinder that goal from coming to past.
The next screen is for the Internal GMC. You'll do the same steps. From there you'll work on the external GMC to the internal GMC.
You can work on two sets GMC statements (internal and external) at a time. Once you are done you can print the results for later if you like. When you press the View Printable Grid you will be taken to a new window with the grids that you can print.

Future Plans:

GMC-O-Matic - For those times when you just need a sample GMC period.
Additional Slots so I can build GMCs for chapters and scenes.

Suggestions? Send them my way. I created this to hold my hand while I plan my books so I hope it helps someone else.

Jellybelly Jellybeans Addicts Unite

2010-05-26T09:04:00.003-05:00

Hi, my name is Shawntelle and I'm a Jellybelly jellybeans addict... *sigh*

When I write those lovelies are so easy to eat while I work. I found this bag of flavors with acai berry and fruits. I wonder if I can trick myself into thinking its healthy? Yep, even I can't lie to myself on that one.

I seriously need to switch to the sugar free kind. To make matters even worse I went cold turkey and then these bags started showing up everywhere. I used to have to WORK to find the darn things. Now they are at the grocery store, the dollar store, and now the hardware store. WTH... It's a conspiracy I tell you!

I don't need them to write, but jeez the sugar rush is sure nice.

Plot Bunny Strikes

2010-05-18T09:02:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I said not too long ago that I'm on writing vacation. Well, just this past weekend the plot bunny came out of nowhere and attacked me. It was a horrific experience. One minute I was helping a family member move, the next minute the plot bunny jumped from around a corner and threw an idea at me. So evil!

And now I'm being plagued by scenes when before I was leisurely living day-to-day getting back to a nice routine of feeling normal. My house is clean. My hair is getting done. I'm reading books. But another idea has come again... *sigh* I give myself seven hours before I cave in and start sprinting again.

On Vacation!

2010-05-11T09:12:00.003-05:00

Well, after finishing two books this year so far, I'm on a mini writing vacation. And boy does it feel good. When it comes to writing, I think breaks are good. Our brains are the muscle and they need a recharging break too. Mine in particular is sapped. When I wrote the Red Crossroads I was so much in the zone I wrote until my hands got tired. I stayed up writing and editing until 1 am on most days. For me, writing is consuming both mentally and physically. So when I get done I take a break and let the poor Muse recover in the Bahamas with some other writer. =)

Soon enough, the ideas will start flowing again and I'll be itching to write. But for now I'll take my virtual fruity drink, pull up a seat next to my imaginary beach and lounge until the next book wave takes me away.

Congrats to Cole Gibsen on her Book Deal!

2010-05-04T12:39:00.005-05:00

One of my critique partners, Cole Gibsen, is sharing some wonderful news: she sold her book to Flux books!

I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of Cole! She is a great writer as well as a great person. I've read Katana and its a great book. I can't wait to write a post about the book so folks can head out and buy it! :)

Writing Post-Mortem: My first YA book - The Red Crossroads

2010-04-30T06:57:00.006-05:00

"It's alive!" *cough* *cough* "Well, it looks alive anyway." *pokes with stick*

Like Frankenstein, I have gathered together the pieces and now I'm rearranging them into the perfect beast. My young adult steampunk is heading toward the finish line and I wanted to talk about the process of creating the book. For those that are new to the steampunk genre, its a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction.

The idea for this book popped up in my head last summer while at a conference in Washington D.C. Since that point I chewed on the idea and worked out the synopsis. Over the months I took notes and eventually I jumped into the pool to write the book. I can't believe its done! =)

Here is the short description for THE RED CROSSROADS:

Most seventeen year-old girls don’t have to decide between rescuing the world and saving a dying brother. For Fiona Jacobs, the post-industrial society where she lives is a world of survivors and red dust drifting through the low lying mountains from the deserts to the east. After her parents passed away, she was left alone to support her older brother, Alvin Jacobs, as he lives out her dream of attending medical school.

Highly intelligent, she has learned her father’s craft of bioengineering and has spent her teen years maintaining the machinery her father implanted within Alvin. Even with all her hard work, she discovers Alvin's heart is failing and she must find a way to replace it with a mechanical one. Circumstances thrust Fiona before a dictator who is searching for a set of plans to fix an ancient weapon. Plans which could be adapted to help her brother. After Fiona escapes from the dictator's clutches, she falls into a life and death race where she must discover the key to saving her brother and the world at the same time.

Post-Mortem: First of all, I have to say writing young adult is not easy. My crit partner, Sarah Bromley, hit me over the head a few times with her YA-stick. I still have the bruises, but the lessons have actually helped me see young adult books in a different light. I've read YA before and I've critiqued it for over a year now. But its not the same as going into your own story line and developing a young adult character. Transitioning from writing adult to writing YA is not as simple as it sounds. The "what would I do if I was a child prodigy with engineering and medical skills" mantra kept going off in my head while I wrote this book. (It didn't hurt to watch a few episodes of Doogie Howser either. Flashback coming...) Its not the same as approaching my previous characters who have attended college and have had relationships. They have to deal with taxes, mortgages, and jobs. They have baggage. And well, my YA heroine has a different kind of baggage based on her childhood and I had to get into that mindset. Its a bit of a jump, but not impossible.

Writing this book was so much fun! I normally write contemporary books with a paranormal twist. For this one I got to tap into my inner ubergeek and go nuts with it. All my teenage years of reading Harry Harrison's WEST OF EDEN and Octavia Butler's sci-fi books influenced how I tapped into the genre. Of course I read classic steampunk titles as well as new ones. (right now I'm reading MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO by DM Cornish. The premise is so good!) But all in all, I really got to go beyond my previous manuscripts expand my world building to a bigger scale. Much much bigger. I could let my imagination go wild and create laws and norms for different societies.

The historical aspects were fun as well. Not only did I finish my first young adult, but technically I finished my first book with historical elements (Victoriana). I spent hours researching the clothes, the modes of transportation, and even the food they ate. (Watch this great video from The Supersizers Go Victorian. So funny, yet unappetizing in some parts.)

Now the final hurdle, where I had to figure out the engineering and medical concepts. In my book Fiona does surgical procedures. We're not talking about patching up paper cuts here. She actually goes in with scalpels. Thanks to my hubby who is a doctor, I made sure my scenes were up to muster. Then I had to take my ideas and bring them together in the subject of bioengineering. How would machinery work in the body? (How do I expand this within the context of a steampunk world?) I had to chew on and visualize the concepts in order to add them into my story. This wasn't as easy as it sounds. I was concerned I went too technical, but in the end I learned my descriptions were easy to understand. Whew! (Lesson learned: Just write the book and let your crit partners or betas let you know if your flux capacitor is too over their heads. I don't have a flux capacitor but you get the point.)

Lesson I learned:

Create a timeline! If you have events from the past that you reference in the future a timeline helps so much.
Write out the major events in the back story for reference. I wrote about five pages of backstory that will never be seen in the story. But they helped me get the story line right and I knew when to push in those tidbits. And who knows, maybe the story can carry on in another book. =)
Work out the technical aspects early if you can. Of course there are folks who write by the seat of their pants and I tend to do that with world building, but the technical aspects take time to chew on so if they are mapped out early there will be less pain in editing.
Let your imagination go wild. This is an easy one, but there's nothing like going through those what-if exercises in your head. How can I make this scene bigger in scale? Have I gone far enough in terms of how this society works? Whip out the pencil and paper and draw some pictures. You'd be surprised how visualizing concepts helps you write them.

I highly encourage others to write outside of their comfort zone. This is my first young adult manuscript. I've written fantasy before, but this is not the same with so many elements combined together. I've learned so much from writing this book and hope it gets a chance to run out in the wild.

Excerpt Monday

2010-04-19T07:45:00.002-05:00

FUN AT FIRST BITE - PART VI

For the third time I chickened out from calling my boss to tell him I wasn't coming to work on Monday. Most folks spent their Sundays relaxing or preparing for the work week by scoping out the men folding their undies at the local laundromat. I spent the day planning how the hell I'd avoid vamps during my work day.

I also had questions galore for Chauncey Harlow. Most of the questions for my boss ranged from the obvious to the creepy. Why was the safe in the office left empty? How did he throw away an enchanted necklace capable of commanding vampires like zombies? Perhaps I should toss in the more adventurous one, "Do you dance in the moonlight with fairies? 'Cause only supernatural folks carry around this kind of stuff?"

Over the months of my employment as shift manager, I'd asked the owner of Harlow's Family Fun Center much deeper questions based on the strange behaviors of the teens on the staff, but my current request bordered on playing with the straps of my comfy new straight jacket.

The cursed jewelry hung around my neck like a noose, heavy and foreboding. I wasted an entire day on the Internet consulting the all-knowing seer called Google. I didn't dig up much though. What a waste of what little time I had to spare today. My silver necklace had the description of every piece of crap Ebay offered. A few listings even had a tear drop shaped holder missing its gem or a broken clasp. Of course I stretched things a bit in my last diatribe, but in essence I didn't have what looked like anything special.

As I tugged at the silver, I pondered on which tools in the house might get it off. Chisels and hacksaws came to mind, but due to the proximity of my jugular vein I vetoed the idea. By the time the sun set, I wished I had a way to contact Edgar. I shouldn't have shooed him out so quickly.

By morning, I didn't have any clean clothes for the week, but at least I woke up determine to pretend I'd have a normal day. But as I sat in front of the mirror applying my makeup, I knew I was screwed. I draped five different hokey scarves in enough formations to resemble a life preserver. I still had the necklace on and the damn thing wasn't budging.

Edgar had warned me Saturday night not to come to work on Monday. Over and over again my mind worked over how with a few simple words I forced him to leave my home. A freakin' vampire under my control For a second there, the idea was more than tempting. I flashed a toothy grin from the memory. When Edgar showed up a few nights ago with his rain-soaked shirt clinging to his chest, I was perfectly ready to re-enact any Kama sutra positions that came to mind. And those eyes made my body sizzle like butter on frying pan.

Once done with my morning ritual, I decided to stop believing in nonsense and go earn a paycheck. Even though I kept repeating those words to myself I still shoved a small bulb of garlic into my bra. I didn't give a damn if it reeked and I looked like I had a third boob.

I crept out of my apartment and peered into the hallway. Not that I expected a blood-sucking vampire to be camping outside my door, but who knows? The hallway was empty. No passed out drunken college kids or even the morning paper. Maybe I'd psyched myself up for a big disappointment when I drove to work and nothing happened. Perhaps nothing would happen since it was daylight out and I had the afternoon to evening shift.

By the time I reached the main office, I couldn't resist grinning. Edgar had frightened me for nothing. I made it into work without some great vampire uprising occurring. When I strolled inside only a few customers whizzed about. During the day we catered to families with younger kids, so I settled into the office to handle managerial duties in silence. The afternoon went faster than I planned. Other than an emergency with a backed up toilet, I managed to avoid any vampire sightings.

Of course my sanctuary didn't stay quiet for long.

"What the hell is that smell?"

My head snapped up to see Edgar no more than two feet away. The sharp intake of breath didn't prevent my heart from skittering. He leaned in close and wrinkled his nose.

I pursed my lips. Garlic warded off vampires, but not in the manner I wanted.

"How did you get in here?"

"I opened the door and walked in."

He sauntered to the other side of the desk. My eyes wandered to take in the snug fit of his black uniform. A belt around his lean waist held pepper spray, a walkie-talkie, and a menacing \club. Chauncey had moved fast and now Edgar DeMille was our newest security guard.

I stammered, "When most people enter into a room, they’re heard."

"I am not like most men."

From my memories of the first night when we met and he used a robber like a blood popsicle, I would agree on that one. Blue eyes bore a hole into me while I pretended to rifle through job applications. While I went through an application scrawled with a bright red pen, he continued to stand there.

I glanced up. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"I'm doing it," was all he said.

I rolled my eyes. He could stand there all evening for all I cared. "You do that. I have to make my rounds."

Edgar stepped into my path. "You don't want to go out there."

This had to be good. "I haven't seen a single vampire all day. Ok, other than you. Are you saying every vampire in the area wants to play Whack-a-Mole?"

I wanted to return his stare and convince him that he didn't intimidate me. Even though he towered over me with a face chiseled in fine marble, I didn't falter. If he pressed hard enough I wasn't afraid to use my trump card. The necklace.

His eyes went to my neckline as if he'd read my mind. Like a silky caress, his gaze went from my lips down my neck. My hands reached for the necklace and touched the smooth silver.

He crossed his arms and widened his stance. "Laney, trust me on this one. You don't want to head in there."

I stepped around him and opened the door. I tried to take it all in, but I couldn’t prevent my mouth from dropping as my stomach turned sour. A huge party of pale faces, shining bright with smiles, surrounded a table with balloons. Another damn vampire birthday party.

Links to other Excerpt Monday writers

Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and
be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

My Book List - 2010 - For my sanity...

2010-04-16T08:16:00.024-05:00

Last year I was too busy writing to read a lot of books. And that's a shame. But this year I plan to head of out the gate running! My goal is to read 50 or more books this year. Which actually isn't hard since I can read a good book under three days. I will only list a book here if I get it done. With kids and a personal life I don't have time for a snoozefest. I plan to keep coming back to update this list as the year goes on to keep myself motivated.

There are a few books which I started and plan to come back to so who knows what this year will bring. So here's my progress of completed books so far:

Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer (Jan)
Turning Japanese - Cathy Yardley (Feb)
The Maze Runner - James Dashner (April)
The Dead and Gone - Susan Beth Pfeffer (April)
Wake - Lisa McMann (April)
This World We Live In - Susan Beth Pfeffer (April - So good - Read in 4 Hours)
The Jigsaw Man - Gord Rollo (April)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (April)
Fade - Lisa McMann (May)
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (May)
Gone - Michael Grant (May)
Hunger - Michael Grant (May)
Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs (June)
Lies - Michael Grant (June)
Dirty Little Secrets - C.J. Omololu (June)
Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris (June 6-20)
Midwife of Blue Ridge - Christine Blevins (July 7-10)
Wings - Aprilynne Pike (August 8-11)
Dream Called Time - S.L. Viehl (August 8-25)
The Chosen One - Carol Lynch Williams (August 8-30)
Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder (October 10-15)
His Hired Baby - Jacqueline Diamond (November 11-30)
Spellbent - Lucy A. Snyder (December 12-10)
Forgotten - Melody Carlson (December 12-15)
Shotgun Sorceress - Lucy A. Snyder (December 12-27)

Hello Chicka-dee! The Joys of Paranormal Chick Lit

2010-04-08T08:31:00.006-05:00

Right now, I'm in the middle of working on a project that couldn't be classified as chick lit, but as far as the genre is concerned, I love it. Yes, people say chick lit is dead, but in my opinion sometimes a girl needs to sit back and follow someone on their journey and laugh at their life. There's just something about following a woman, or it could be a man as well, and seeing yourself in them and what they go through. In terms of chick lit and women's fiction, I believe one is a sub-genre of the other. Women's fiction includes chick lit as well as mainstream women's literature. For me, I prefer a quirky, snippy voice. No offense against Jane Austen, but either some Prada shoes or hilarious angst makes my day!

I love to write fantasy/paranormal chick lit! It's like a warm fluzzy blanket where I go deep into my character's head and I follow them around as they face the main conflict in the book. My first paranormal chick lit was Enchanted, Inc. I just loved the main character! Before her job at Enchanted, Inc her job sucked. I could related to her experiences with her horrible boss. But then the author took it a step further and gave into my cravings for the fantastical--she placed Katie Chandler at a company where magic is manufactured as a product and sold. Another book I enjoyed was A Girl's Guide to Witchcraft. So funny! I'm not looking for drama or a full out War and Peace, I just want to curl up and experience Jane Madison's drama. I want to laugh and cry, but most of all I want to have fun.

Other books on my TBR list (even some YA in there):

Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel - Ronda Thompson
How Not to Make a Wish - Mindy Klasky
Undead and Unwed - MaryJanice Davidson
Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom - Julie Kenner (Need to finish this one! Great paranormal mommy chick lit!)

You Had me at Halo - Amanda Ashby
You are so Undead to Me - Stacey Jay
Oh. My. Gods. Tera Lynn Childs
Spells and Sleeping Bags - Sarah Mlynowski
The Salem Witch Tryouts - Kelly McClymer

In terms of writing, completing a paranormal chick lit isn't easy. For me, I love to push the envelope. What is the worse thing I can do this person? Can I take it a step further? I have a character already created for the next one and she won't shut up. I plan to take her from the normal life she's always known and turn things topsy-turvy by doing the worse thing possible. *evil laugh here*

Do you have any favorite fantasy/paranormal chick lit books? I'm open to suggestions! Especially young adults ones I may not know about.

Great Book - The Maze Runner by James Dashner

2010-04-05T20:24:00.004-05:00

Last week I finished a great book which I devoured: James Dashner's The Maze Runner. The story revolves around Thomas, a teen who wakes up in an elevator with any memories of his past life. Once he reaches the top elevator his new life starts in the Glade, a place that is surrounded by a dangerous maze. The Gladers, or the teens who live in the Glade have those amongst them that are called Runners. The Runners search the maze for an escape from their current lives. Thomas arrives with a series of other strange happenings that signal the end of the Gladers existence in the Glade and a final battle to escape the nasty creatures that lurk in the maze.

This is my kind of book. The whole time I read it I kept wondering about what would happen next. This drove me to move the next page and the next. The pacing is great and Dashner did a fabulous job of holding back just enough to make me curious about what would come next. (Ok, not curious, a bit crazy.) I read it quickly and highly recommend it to others. By the time I reached the end, I was kinda sad since I'd have to wait a while to read the next one. =)

April Fool's Day and Why April will Rock!

2010-04-01T09:37:00.004-05:00

Well, first of all Happy April Fool's day! Personally, I hate days like today. Why? Cause I'm gullible as hell. You know that friend you always had in school who believed everything you said--no matter how crazy it was? That's me! My hubby takes advantage of my gullibility at every chance possible. So a note to my friends, no matter how funny the joke is, I'm not laughing. Well, not at first anyway.

In other news, I'm closing in on the finish line of my steampunk. The journey has been so much fun! I had every opportunity to geek out on every page with steampunk yumminess. *Heavenly sigh* This is my first young adult book and so far its been a blast!

I've also fallen into a great book called The Maze Runner by James Dasher. So good. My TBR pile is a mile high, but I keep coming back to it again and again. I'm not even half way and I want to know what's coming next! So many great books to read. I can't wait to settle into editing and reading books out of the pile. My agent, Jim McCarthy, posted on the Dystel and Goderich blog about John Warner, one of the commentators for The Tournament of Books, who offered up a service. If you listed the last five books you had read, he would tell you what you should read next. So Jim did the same. I posted my last five books that I completed (meaning read from beginning to end - cause I have a few I never finished).

Jim wrote, "Shawntelle, I say what I said to some other folks before: this is harder when you know the person! So I'm gonna go out on a limb with my suggestion for you. Less outwardly fantastical than most of the titles you mention, but something about it feels right: Out by Natsuo Kirino."

Hmmm, I've never heard of this author before. She has a few titles at my library, but not the book in question so I'll order it online. I'll have to let you know if its any good. I can't wait to read it.

Writer's Kryptonite

2010-03-25T14:11:00.004-05:00

I've talked about how writers feel the need to write. Well, so far today that writing feeling has been shot. And its all due to my kryptonite as a writer: pain. Headaches I can ignore. I'll pop some pills and walk away for a bit. But pain slows down the mojo big time.

Case in point, last night I burned my wrist taking the dinner out of the oven. The chicken was perfectly cooked, just like my wrist when the cover fell off and the steam blasted me. At that point, I had to write one-handed... (Couldn't lean the wrist against the keyboard.) To add to the streak of bad luck, later that evening my stomach bothered me. There went writing period.

By morning, all my bad luck should either go away or get worse. That's when I banged my kneecap on my van door. The pain sucked. It hurt enough to have me laughing and wanting to hurl at the same time which is never good...

So here I am with my leg throbbing and an uncomfortable wrist wishing my distracted brain could ignore the pain and write. I do have options to avoid typing since I can dictate the words, but what good does that do when my leg feels like I tried to knee a dude with steel balls? Since the Muse is waiting beside me tapping her impatient foot I plan to do what I can, even if I'm weakened today.

Muse Monday

2010-03-22T07:30:00.002-05:00

Well, after a long break, the Muse is back at my house. She told me she'd been off with some writer in Colorado skiing on slopes or something. I didn't care. The important thing was that she's back and I have scenes I'm itching to write. I thought I'd convey what this feeling feels like to others when I say the Muse is in my house. In other words, I feel an overwhelming urge to write. Its like a bunch of scenes and characters that were never there suddenly popped out of nowhere and started talking. And they never shut up. The whole thing is a movie waiting for me to type it out.

All I can do during this time is go crazy. For the last three days I've gone to bed past midnight when normally I'm knocked out by now. When my family went out to eat for Chinese food on Saturday, I had my notebook open so I could write down plot points that screamed to come out. It's a flood I can't stop. During dinner my husband looked at me and said, "You look like you're plotting to have some heroine save a dragon or something."
I smiled back and said, "Not exactly, but you could say that." (Wow, that means I have a dreamy look in my eyes or I looked like I'm in a druggie writer haze. Sweet!)

For now, I resumed my famous spot on my couch in my living room where I can type on my laptop. No televisions blaring, only me and the words waiting to come out. I'll get an interruption to the flood here or there. But, all in all, the Muse is back so its time to par-tay.

Excerpt Monday

2010-03-15T07:30:00.007-05:00

Fun at First Bite

I've had pizza delivery men show up looking crazy, vacuum salesmen with attachments longer than the span of my cryptic living room, but I have never had a hot guy show up dripping wet outside my door. Call it karma, whatever you want, but after using a chisel to get pizza off the carpet floor at Harlow's Family Fun Center, I think I deserve some man candy.

Edgar's appearance left me distracted. His wet polo shirt clung to his chest. For half a second, I watched the rise and fall of his chest. (Dead people didn't breathe... Who cares? He looked delicious.)

"Edgar?" I stammered. After everything that had happened in the shower, I didn't expect to say anything eloquent.

I licked my lips as drops of water dripped from the tendrils of his hair onto the floor. For once I didn't give a damn if a guy brought in mud.

"You're safe," he whispered. He took a half-step forward and I gasped.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I had this overwhelming feeling that you needed me." He tilted his head. "That you wanted me to help you."

The kind of help I needed from him involved less clothes, but I didn't have plans to express these feelings with a complete stranger I'd recently met.

The space between us dwindled. I tried not to think about how I was naked under the bathrobe, how my bed was approximately eleven feet away, and finally, if my former roommate's dusty condoms would work on a vampire.

The scent of his cologne tickled my nose. Nothing subtle like the products I smelled on the men from work. With a single whiff, I inhaled a rich spiciness which slithered down my hips and made me willing to part my thighs.

His gaze swept from my tousled hair down to my toes. For once I wished I'd painted my chipped toenails. Then to make things even more interesting my robe parted. I expected Edgar to stare down the half-exposed boob, but he immediately spied the necklace.

"Where did you get that?" His eyebrows lowered.

Did he think I stole it? "From a trash bin. My boss threw it away." I took a step back when his lips parted slightly revealing an elongated tooth. The idea of introducing him to the Happy Laney Playland went away with a swoosh.

"You have something very dangerous around your neck, Laney."

"Dangerous? It's just a necklace." No need to talk about the freaky-naughty shower dream.

He circled around to the couch and leaned against the side. After a brief sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair. "There are magically imbued objects out there in the world. These objects, like your necklace, shouldn't be in the hands of mortals."

"Seems like an easy enough problem to solve. I'll give it back to Chauncey in the morning."

"This isn't a request. I'm telling you to give me the necklace if you value your life."

"I'm not giving it to you." I placed my hands on my hips. "First of all, this is not my stuff to give. I refuse to lose my job over stealing private property. Second, if you have a beef with Chauncey, then you two can duke it out in the morning."

"If you walk into work with that thing on, I can only protect you so much."

Did this guy think he could walk in here and tell me what to do? Other than Chauncey, no one told me what to do anymore. Well, on the other hand, he was a vampire and he could strike out and rip the damn thing from my neck. But he didn't. He stood there waiting patiently. After what occurred with the robber, for some reason I knew he wouldn't hurt me.

"I'll settle this tomorrow evening with Chauncey. He'll get his necklace back and you two can figure out who the owner should be since Chauncey and I can't keep it."

"What makes you think Chauncey is a regular man?" He flashed a grin.

This night had gone from weird to insane. "Ok, we're done. You can leave now."

I expected a rain of protests, instead he stood like a marionette with invisible strings and staggered to the door. The necklace vibrated against my skin, leaving me gasping by the time he left.

The door closed behind him and I fell to the floor in exhaustion. My legs resembled pudding and the once comfortable robe suffocated me. I closed my eyes as pain pounded against my sinuses. He'd already left, but by that point I'd decided I didn't want to keep the necklace anymore. With trembling fingers, I reached behind my neck to remove the jewelry.

The clasp had vanished. The necklace wasn't going anywhere.

Happy Friday - Onward Ho!

2010-03-12T08:38:00.004-06:00

Still waiting. Still writing. But the nice thing about waiting is thinking about the good things one has going for themselves. Right now I am healthy. (Yep, starting out with the basics.) I could be sick on my butt *knocks on wood, I'm not that dumb* with a head cold from hell and busted knee. Instead my eye is still on the prize of writing and continuing to distract myself with nerdy projects.

I'm trying to work on a bunch of writer tools, but well things happen slowly when you are crunching code.

Another good thing is I have ideas. I am drowning with ideas. I could write for years with the treasure trove I have. Right now my steampunk and dark paranormal are coming along. Slowly and not as fast as I'd prefer, but the wave is coming soon where my house will go to hell and my husband will question my sanity as I write like mad.

Things could be much worse. I could have a finished book in my agent's hands and no idea on what to do next. I could dwell on how any ideas I have suck and how they'll never be published. But I refuse to because I am driven to succeed. There may be bumps in the road to OZ, but today I will happily march down the yellow brick road, kick the Cowardly Lion a few times for being a punk, and think about the positive things.

Absolute Beginners

2010-03-02T08:15:00.006-06:00

Today, I can't help but think about over a year ago when I started writing again. It was back in November of 2008. Wow, I was so excited about my story. And hungry too to write. But boy did I write a dousy with a bunch of new writer mistakes all over the place. My first manuscript was in such a poor state where Sarah Bromley had to rip me a new one. (Yes, she did it kindly.) Whoa, that flashback was painful. Backstory all over the place, heavy use of "it was" cringe. Either way, I was an absolute beginner and I had to start somewhere.

When I think back to those first days, I remember that excitement in knowing this was the beginning of a journey I didn't want to end. Took me a while to figure it out, but writing is a journey. The whole thing reminds me of that movie Stir of Echos with Kevin Bacon. It's the story of a psychic whose ability is triggered based on a hypnosis session. His sister-in-law opened a door in his mind. One that could never be closed again. Now, I'm not sayin I see creepy folks walking down the halls of my house, (and that includes my kids) but I feel like I can completely relate to that. When you're a writer, you are driven to write. It's that itch you can't completely scratch. That succulent dish on the table that you can never get enough of sampling. Once I started writing again, I knew I wouldn't be able to stop. Hell, I'm missing the four key on my keyboard but that hasn't slowed me down. (Irritated me to no end, but that's another story...)

Sometimes, when I'm not in my frenzy of writing, I ask myself, why not quit for a bit and enjoy something else? I've done that a few times. I took a week or two and worked on a programming project I like. But I keep coming back because I love to write. I have to get the words out. All those years where I didn't write, I wonder how come I never started back up. Writing is like a warm blanket. (Not Snuggie size, though. They're weird. Case in point, the WTF Blanket.)

There's no escape. The door is open and I've gone through it. And I'm perfectly happy with things that way.

Great Book - Turning Japanese

2010-02-21T13:47:00.004-06:00

I just finished a book that I absolutely adored. I know I loved it since I finished it in three days! And its women's fiction too and done well. (Yep, I write women's fiction and I admit I'm a picky customer when it comes to the genre. I'd been waiting weeks for a book to keep me coming back!) Turning Japanese by Cathy Yardley took me on a whirlwind adventure to Japan with Lisa Falloya, a half-Japanese, half-Italian woman, who won a manga contest. With her winning entry, she became an intern at a Japanese company for a year.

Where do I even begin? The story gave me so much. Personally, I am a fan of Japanese anime. I loved my first encounter with Vampire Hunter D (and now the Emma Victorian Romance series) and my inner geekiness was appeased with Lisa's adventures in Japanese learning about the culture and her work environment at Sansoro Publishing. I walked in Lisa's shoes while she lived with the Kanai family and went to work everyday. I reveled in learning about the Japanese culture. From the weird food (octopus in the fettucine and seaweed ice cream) to the various settings, Cathy made me want to go so bad. (And leave the munchkins behind. LOL)

And the emotional rollercoaster at the end kept hitting me hard. Just the right formula for women's fiction to keep me coming back again and again! I hate admitting it, but I got teary eyed when Lisa had to leave Japan during her party at Denny's. (If you haven't read the book ignore everything I've revealed. But I can't help it...)

I was reading the catalogs of the houses where I'm being submitted and I came upon the book and instantly thought, I wanna read it! And it was SO worth it. Cathy has a great voice and this book shined. *happy sigh*

Balancing Multiple Plates

2010-02-17T14:59:00.005-06:00

Well, I'm still twiddling my thumbs while I have projects out on submission. Hell, there's nothing left to do except for work, write another book, or start a hobby like gardening. I veto the gardening though. Every summer I kill something. I haven't given up, but the well, let's say the dead red pepper plant from this last summer is still dead outside in the snow-covered backyard. *hides face in shame*

After going out on submission with Bachelors and Broomsticks, I continued on another book, my paranormal chick lit werewolf book. Now that its done and safely in Super Agent's Hands I'm waiting for the engine to start on my next two projects. I learned after this past werewolf book that I'm not an every day writer type. As I learned from Eileen Dreyer, I'm a binge and purge writer. Which means everything comes out in a mad rush after my mojo builds up and overflows. I feel like I'm getting close... But I'm doing something different this time. I'm working on two projects at once. Why? Well, I have time to burn and no deadlines. Time for me to enjoy this golden period and leisurely work on two projects.

Normally, I don't like to bounce between two different heads, but this time I don't feel the urge to rush or hurry. The fun part of this is planning how I will pull this off.

Option A: Alternate days for each projects. Monday-Wednesday Project 1/Thursday-Friday Project 2

Option B: Work on each project when I feel like it... LOL

Option C: Work on the project my Super Agent prefers

I think initially I will let the muse do the choosing. (At first I thought I would alternate days, but I don't see that happening.) If I don't feel like writing one I will jump on the other one. If Super Agent jumps into the fray and prefers one over the other then I will push one to the side like a ill-fitting prom dress. Either way, I'm not sure how I will tackle this until I try doing it. It will be great practice for the day hopefully in the future when I have multiple projects to tackle. I mean hey, why not up the ante now to see what it feels like. I'm already a workaholic. Why not feed the beast? I'm curious how pubbed authors balance multiple projects...

Excerpt Monday

2010-02-15T07:30:00.004-06:00

Instead of doing another chapter of my Vampire paranormal romance, I'm taking the month off to present a short story. I'm normally a plotter and after a few months of writing by the seat of my pants, I need time to plot out the rest of my story so I'm not writing a hot mess featuring hot vampires and pizza smashed into the floor of Harlow's Family Fun Center.

Therefore I'm presenting a dark paranormal called THE TIGER'S ROSE. Thanks for reading it!

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published
books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don't
have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you'd like to
share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday
site! or click on the banner above.

----------------------------------

The Tiger’s Rose

After three days of searching the swamps around the Everglades, Ingrid found the alcove of the Silver Rose. Compared to the pleasant breezes and slick bodies in Miami, the swamp was composed of damp heat and mosquitoes which swarmed around the murky waters.

She spotted a thick outcropping of mangroves. The thin, spindly trucks rose out of the water, obstructing the view of the jagged mound of earth within. The trees formed a wall of protection that drew her forward and beckoned her to explore.

Once she parted a few branches, she spied her target. Her heartbeat increased tenfold as she imagined what the ancient relic represented for her home town. Torrents of rain. Abundant sunshine.

Decades ago, this section of the swamp had been a barren wasteland of dried up patches of mud. With the rose present, life bloomed here again. The croaks of the frogs and screeches of the herons were evidence enough of the wealth bestowed on this land. Wealth that Stafford, Mississippi needed.

Now all she had to do was take it. As she crept toward where the luminescent rose perched on the ledge, a tingle tickled the back of her neck. A breeze tousled her chestnut hair, flinging strands into her face. Yet, the wind didn’t stir anything else within this sanctuary. Even worse, the swamp’s symphony ended. Not a single frog or crocodile stirred.

Focus on the prize. Her gaze locked on the fragrant petals. The scent hit her nose and left her heady. Almost there. She crawled up the short rocky ledge. The damp rocks didn’t provide the best grip. Reach. Her thin fingers almost touched them. She could make out the thorns along the stem. Then a growl—deep and menacing slithered up her back.

She froze. Shit. Nana had told her the Guardians didn’t exist anymore. Just like she’d told her the rose didn’t exist. Only a tale to entertain children. The gun strapped in the holster by her side offered support, but when something ominous brushed her leg the urge to fight left her body.

Whatever it was—it had to be big. She tilted her head to peek below. She caught a fleck of burnt orange. Black stripes. Oh shit. Another growl of warning. All she had to do was grasp her gun and shoot. Yet her limbs didn’t answer. The scraping of claws against the rocks filled her with dread.

Wake up, damn you! Her hand trembled but its purpose was sure and true until a man’s hand clenched her shoulder.

“Don’t move.” His warning was accompanied by a tightening of his grip. She mewled from the pain, but didn’t twitch.

She didn’t know what to say. Her throat went dry. She’d been caught in the middle of nowhere.
Somehow her mouth formed words. “I only came for—”

“You came for something that doesn’t belong to you.”

“I need the rose. For my home.”

“This place needs it much more.”

She gulped as the stranger pressed his chest into her back. His lips brushed her ear.

“You don’t smell like the others who’ve came.” He nipped at her ear. “The others I’ve ripped to shreds.”

Her first impulse was to flinch—hell this guy just told her he'd killed any intruders. Yet the desire for him to move closer washed over her. This man was the Guardian of the Silver Rose. A shapeshifter.

Nana had told her the benefits the rose would bring to the dust pit of their Mississippi town as well as the healing properties for the dying—like her grandmother. But her outlandish stories didn’t include dead bodies. The dead bodies of the fallen explorers the Guardians took out. She would join them if she didn’t kill the Guardian first.

Warm breath tickled her neck as he drew his nose up her nape. She sensed him behind her, burying his face in her hair. “Been so long since I’ve encountered another one like me.”

Like me? Time to go. Fight another day—with a bigger gun.

“If you let me go, I’ll leave peacefully,” she murmured.

The hand that had gripped her shoulder slid down her back and rested on her hip. His hard legs pressed her closer to the rock. With her head tilted to the side, she could make out moss and bits of slime clinging to the mound.

This had to be some kind of delusion—a spell cast by the shimmering rose. A lean stranger with skin the hue of an almond, clad only in jeans, wasn’t at her side causing her to question what she came for.

“You came here for me,” he whispered.

White-hot shock coursed through her legs.

“I came for the rose. For…”

He purred against her back, turning her body into liquid.

“The one who told you to come here never told you where new Guardians come from did they? From the mating a willing female with a male... They never told you of your true lineage.”

Between clenched teeth, she murmured, “I didn’t come here for you. Get your damn hands off me.”

“You think I’ll let you waltz out of here with the rose?”

She tried to think of her Nana. The way she hobbled to the door, weakened from heart disease. The woman who’d raised her would never deceive her like this. His words had to be a rouse. A game to trick her into leaving her guard down before the death blow would come.

He jumped off the ledge and landed in the water with a splash. He paced back and forth, peering at her with midnight-colored eyes. Even in the darkness, she faintly discerned the reflection of the moon.

“You never noticed the way things smell differently? The way certain animals avoid you?” Sweat ran down his chest, drawing her eye to the chiseled marble of his body.

He grinned.

She kept her mouth shut. He didn’t have to question her any further. He’d asked the right questions. She’d never shifted, but the evidence from the last couple of years left her pondering on how she survived this journey south with only her wits and a few bucks.

He took a step forward. “How about a wager then?”

Her eyebrows rose. Like she’d trust him.

“You reach your boat safely and I’ll let you go. But if you don’t make it, you’re mine.”

“This is your territory. You have a distinct advantage.” She jumped into the knee-deep water. No signs of wildlife lurked in the cloudy water.

He turned his back on her, revealing a set of jagged scars along his right shoulder blade. After running his hands through his black hair, he said. “My rose. My terms.”

Another toothy grin that stirred her blood.

He continued with, “I’m a fair man. You get two minutes head start.” In his hand laid the silver rose. Her head whipped around to see the vacant ledge.

All of this seemed too good to be true. A trap waiting to be sprung. Ingrid took a step toward him, eager to snatch the flower from his hand. She could reach her boat within two minutes, start the motor, and head northwest to Naples. From there she could catch a bus back to Mississippi. A simple plan.

With the rose in hand, she bolted between the mangroves into the open expanse of the swamp. The mud clung to her boots, making it difficult for her to trudge forward. She glanced over her shoulder a few times, not bothering to think about the ticking clock. Two minutes. She had two minutes.

By the time she reached deeper water, she paused. Loud splashing with crocodiles prowling about wasn’t a great idea. Clutches of foxtails swayed from a breeze. She couldn't hear him, yet she sensed him near by. She drew her gun. Either she could wait to be mosquito chow or get her ass to the damn boat.

She waded through the water when necessary, but mostly stuck to the patches of muddy earth between the smaller bodies of water. She reached her paint-chipped boat in good time. A few crocs had passed her path, but with luck, she avoided their attention.

She crawled into the boat slowly, trying to draw enthusiasm in the thrill of victory. But the drive wasn't there. The hunger to win and avoid the tiger had faded. Her fingers touched the ignition, but she didn't start it. What the hell was wrong with her? All she had to do was start the motor and she could peel out of there.

The waters around the boat rippled, coming to life. The boat shifted as another large body stepped on. She’d won. Or had the chase been for nothing? A test to see if she’d really leave?

She turned around and peered at the lethal cat. Water dripped from its thick coat onto the floorboards. The tiger nearly stretch from bow to stern of her narrow boat. Golden eyes absorbed her every move. With a single swipe of his massive paws he could slice her to ribbons. Yet, he waited patiently.

The choice to become his mate was her own.

She started the motor, refusing to look at the hulking beast in the boat. Maybe he’d leave once he knew she planned to make a break for it. He backed out of the boat, blending into the night shadows.

The breath she’d held came out as a heavy sigh. He could’ve killed her. Her grip tightened on the rose. She’d won. She had the prize.

But her gaze flitted to the grove of mangroves in the distance. The tips of the trees had already grayed from decay. The magic of the rose was no longer present. And she was to blame. The synchronous croaks of frogs resumed now that the Guardian had departed back to his lair.

Part of her wanted to flee, yet a yearning clamped over her like a vise. She’d only known this man for a short period. Hell, she didn’t even know his name. And what about her Nana? The elderly woman had played a part in this as well. It was likely she sat on her rocking chair, grinning from ear-to-ear.

She turned off the motor and stepped out of the boat. The withering mangroves sprung to life again when she re-entered her new home.

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Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T12:09:00.002-06:00

I planned to take today off from writing, but I have to finalize my Excerpt Monday post. Everyone have a wonderful day. I got flowers and candy from my husband. (I wonder how much I'll get done after the sugar rush wears off.)

The Mad Typist Submits Again

2010-02-11T16:32:00.005-06:00

There is some news I haven't posted about. I learned last week that I was a finalist for the Harlequin's Nocturne Bites Pitch Contest. As a finalist on Tuesday I got to pitch a short story to Associate Senior Editor Ann Leslie Tuttle. The experience was great and I walked away with another submission. The story was fun to write and a great diversion from my current two projects. BITTEN BY DECEIT has gone out into the world. I hope it fares well. Congrats to the other finalists as well. I hope your submission is bought! =)

I'm proud to say I can reduce the number for one of my 2010 goals. Yay!

I will write 4 manuscripts in 2010.
I will sell my first manuscript in 2010. (Optimism = Yay)
I will NOW complete 2 novellas. (1 DONE YAY!)

I have a bunch of catch up reading to do this week for critique partners as well as the next installment of my Excerpt Monday and my two projects need to be worked on. To make things worse another idea for a bite popped into my head. *sigh* The fun never ends.

For those that are interested in the line I have compiled some links:

Stephanie Draven's Top Five Tips for Getting Published by Silhouette Nocturne's Line
Silhouette Nocturne's Podcast featuring Senior Editor Tara Gavin and Associate Senior Editor Ann Leslie Tuttle
Nocturne Bites Chat Transcript with Associate Senior Editor Ann Leslie Tuttle
Anne Hackett's list of Nocturne Bites Tips (PDF)

Friday Finds - Bookshelf Muse

2010-02-05T08:00:00.007-06:00

Over the week I ran into some cool things from other authors that I'd love to share. Cool things always give me warm fuzzies.

1. Podcasts by Julie Kenner - I'm reading Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner. I noticed these podcasts on her website with chapters to listen to from her other books

2. Making a long story short by Angela Knight - I keep coming back to this article for advice. I highly recommend it. As well as Anna Hackett's Short Story- Big Impact (PDF).

3. Great blog post referred to me by one of my MORWA members: AJ's Notes: Welcome Margie Lawson. There are great tips in there about adding rhythm and cadence in your work. I read the article and couldn't wait to get to work.

4. The Bookshelf Muse: Another blog referred from a MORWA chaptermate named Chris which I am loving and wondered how come I hadn't found it yet. They list emotions and various examples for each. There are also posts on scenes and examples of descriptors for that scene. Nice stuff. Me likey!

On Inspiration for Works In Progress

2010-01-28T07:12:00.005-06:00

On Nathan Bransford's blog, he asked the question: How Did You Come Up With the Idea for Your Work-in-Progress?

I found the post interesting since my ideas pop up in the strangest of places. Like Nathan said, inspiration happens without conscious thought. For me, its like each idea is a fireplace waiting to be lit. I simply need one idea, or a piece of kindling, to get the fire started. As sub-plots form the fire builds.

I briefly blogged about how I store and build ideas, but I never went into how they came about. For me, ideas just pop in. And 90% of them start with the lead character. A year ago, my witch matchmaker popped into my head while watching the Bravo! television show The Millionaire Matchmaker. As I watched I was like, I wonder what would happen if she was witch with powers and had to match warlocks who were superficial about witches. And thus my story was born. Of course at that point of inspiration I didn't have the objective, conflict, or what her ultimate confrontation would be, but most books need a main character you want to sympathize with and follow.

For the past book I finished, the process began again with a character but it was based on an article about OCD from a medical journal and a book by Ronda Thompson called Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel. How did these two ideas come together? Well, I read the blurb about Ronda's book, which has great reviews by the way and I'm dying to read it, and the spark came. What if I had an OCD werewolf? And that's where it began. More research, more thinking about my character and how they would react to the world around them. Then I had to take it to the next level and come up with the conflict they face. (And it has to be more than what happens if she has a panic attack.) The whole process to me is about asking those what if questions. Ask them again and again whenever you see something cool. Write it down! The idea may not be sellable right now for a particular market, but it may be in the future. When inspiration hits, store it away for another day.

I've never had the entire plot of a book appear out of thin air. I either have the lead character or I have an interesting scene that grows into a plot. If you're one of those people who has the whole thing fall into your lap, you are so lucky!

Excerpt Monday

2010-01-18T07:30:00.008-06:00

Here is the fourth part of my series which I started three months ago. I normally don't write about vampires, but the madness at Harlow's family fun center continues. If you would like to read Part I, Part II , and Part III, they are available as other Excerpt Monday postings.

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

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Part I | Part II | Part III

After the short drive home to my cubby hole apartment, I settled into a Saturday night with an unwatched, overdue movie from BlockBuster. But before I could cuddle close with a bag of popcorn to whisper sweet nothings, I had to take care of my ritual shower and make up removal.

With an adjustable mirror in place, I prepared to clean off my foundation. Now some folks would simply wash their face off with a face cloth, but like my mother I had clogged pores similar to those old glass bottles of Pepsi. I scrubbed my face down to prevent any future similarities to the crusty pizza sold at Harlow's.

My supply of makeup removal resembled the stash the Avon lady hauled around my neighborhood. When I reached for the container of swabs amongst the various bottles, I noticed my right hand was cupped. What the hell? My hand trembled as I turned it over slowly. The subtle increase in weight left me momentarily breathless. Like a suave magician, I revealed a silver necklace. The same necklace my boss had tossed in the trash.

I distinctly remembered when I stood in the office and picked up the necklace with its missing gem. I fingered the broken clasp with my left hand. This had to be some kind of delusion. Perhaps I'd fallen down in the rain on the way home and this entire sequence of events was a dream. I peered into the mirror and snorted. Not with that pimple on your forehead.

I got ready to place the necklace in the medicine cabinet, but the compulsion to wrap it around my neck and fasten the clasp overwhelmed me. I should be frightened. Somehow this thing leapt from the waste basket into my hand and traveled home with me. In my hand. But putting it on would be so simple. Like taking half a foot of fattening chocolate from a package and thinking to myself, Gee, I could eat this. No biggie. A few calories.

My hands moved in slow motion to wrap the necklace around my neck. Somehow the jewelry fastened--broken clasp and all. I released my hair from a messy pony tail and started the shower. Then I finished undressing from my uniform and entered the narrow stall.

Scalding water hit my back, but I didn't move. Something held me in place as the steam enveloped the room and clouded my vision. Pale hands reached around my waist and stroked my belly. I wanted to flee, to shake myself out of this strange set of events. Instead, I moaned as the hands descended to grasp my hips and pull me back against a solid wall of muscle. Slick from the water, one of the hands rubbed the skin under my breasts while another caressed my shoulder. Lips kissed my right shoulder where the hand once before rubbed. As the lips crept toward my neck, I couldn't stifle another gasp. Those delicious swirls from that tongue. Absolutely divine.

Edgar.

The hand under my breasts descended between my legs. Yet as he brought me closer to a passionate peak with each caress of his fingertips, his mouth continued his assault on my neck--kissing and licking. My legs quivered as I leaned closer. My trembling fingers reached behind me to explore the hard muscles of his legs up to his buttocks. Should I turn around? Should I end this torture in order to bring him to my bed? When I thought I would climax right then and there, sharp fangs plunged into my neck.

My head suddenly snapped up. Whoa. Shivering, I held the necklace in a death grip as icy water beat on my back. How the hell did I go from a freaky vampire make out session to a cold shower? Somehow, I pried my hands from the necklace and touched my neck. When I checked my fingers, there wasn't any blood.

Stunned, I escaped the shower and wrapped myself in a terry cloth robe. I sat on my couch for a few minutes but the images remained. The sensation of his body behind me. Hell, inside me. How could I face him at work knowing what I'd imagined?

By the time my damp hair soaked the back of my robe, I headed back into the bathroom to blow dry my hair. Perhaps after an hour or two of my cheesy movie, I should be back on track with reality. Then the door bell rang. I closed the bathroom door and tried to hum a lively tune. The sounds of the blow dryer didn't drown out the incessant ringing. Based on my past experiences living here, I knew a few drunk college kids stumbled to my door a couple times a year. After five minutes of madness, I headed to the door prepared to call the campus drunk bus for the unruly student.

I threw open the door, prepared to release my fury, but I didn't expect to see Edgar standing there. Rain water soaked his clothes, but he stood there with his dark-blue eyes roaming over my body as if he knew what had happened to me twenty minutes ago. He waited for me to speak.

Oh, boy.

Links to other Excerpt Monday writers
Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

Switching Mindsets: From Writing to Editing

2010-01-16T20:14:00.005-06:00

Right now, I'm neck deep in edits before I send my next baby over to my agent. During all this mad deleting and rewriting, I noticed one thing in particular. My brain rewires itself while I edit my work. I outlined my process below:

Stage 1: Chapter 1 = What?
This is where stare at the screen and barely get out a word. The first chapter is my Achilles heel and takes the longest. But from what I've learned, this is an important place where your work needs to shine. It has to be just right. And well, you can't move on until you give it your all. I gave this part a stage of its own since its like placing a Wendy's Frosty in front of yourself and commanding yourself to simply stare at it. Go ahead, you see if you can hold back taking a bite. Yep, that's what chapter 1 feels like to me.

Stage 2: Write Like Mad
This is where I turn into a writing demon. This is the point where you let your characters take over. (Some at gunpoint if necessary.) I think this is a mindset for some writers. Where you turn off the internal editor and everything is about the words. Of course you may think about how you structure them and make sure your characters guide you and not you guiding them, but, all in all, its the point where I let it all go. If I spent time worrying if everything is right and all sparkly, happy I'd get nothing done! Whoever said writing is about rewriting hit the nail on the head with a resounding whack. *Thunk*

I've met writers who agonize over every word. (I even read an interview where the fabulous author Dean Koontz wrote that he doesn't advance to the next page until the previous one is perfected.) And then there are those like myself who have to get it out before they come back later to mop up the bodies after the word massacre occurred. But no matter how you approach writing, its about getting the words out so you can move on to editing. The whole process kind of reminds me of the song, "Let Go" by Frou Frou.

Stage 3: Edit This Sucker
Editing my work as I write it feels weird. I can do it as necessary but I notice my mindset is quite different when the book is done. I think this is due to the fact that my mind is focused on completing on the work. If I thought about what was wrong with the darn thing I wouldn't finish it so I could reach stage 3. Stage 2 takes the longest, but it would take longer for me if I dwelled on every weak verb and poor sentence structure.

I do meet with a critique group once a week and I check over my work with them, but like I said before my focus to edit isn't there. I wrote up a list when I know I'm livin' in editville:

1. When I'm reading published books, my mind scans sometimes as if I'll find an error. (Once in a blue moon I actually find something.)
2. Any sentence I thought was perfectly good after the first draft needs a complete overhaul.
3. As I read I'm constantly asking myself questions about the storyline.
a. Does my hero have the same eye color from beginning to end?
b. Did I really use a Nissan Altima for every single car in the first half of the book?
4. I feel a strong urge to refresh my memory on semi-colon usage. (No semi-colons were harmed in this blog post.)
5. Shiny, pretty new projects look so interesting right now. Stage 1 is looming down the road. Away with you new scenes! Leave me be while I lurk in the bowels of the bat cave.

All in all, writing is about finding the process that works for you and using it to your advantage. I only hope that as I finish this book, I will have perfected the process of completing and editing a manuscript.

Great Book - Life As We Knew It

2010-01-11T09:37:00.005-06:00

This past weekend, I fell in love with a book by Susan Beth Pfeffer called Life as We Knew It. These days, I try my best to get in some reading between editing and writing. Well, once I picked up this book on Friday I couldn't put it down. (Ok, well the kids had to eat so I did have to stop.)

But the book is one of those where you keep saying to yourself--what happens next?

I have the next book in the series and I will let you know if its any good. Feel free to pass along any recommendations since I do not stick to one particular genre. A great book is a great book in my opinion.

Writing Goals for 2010

2009-12-26T07:48:00.003-06:00

Only five days left until 2010. This year was a great year for me and I feel blessed to have an agent and three completed manuscripts. (The latest one is in living in Editville right now.) It's easy to forget the little things like:

Having a functional laptop (even though writing Bachelors and Broomsticks resulted in a broken 4 key... Don't ask.)
Having an understanding family that allows me to lose my mind in the worlds I create
How good it feels to read a great book by other authors and get lost in its world

My goals for 2010:

I will write 4 manuscripts in 2010.
I will sell my first manuscript in 2010. (Optimism = Yay)
I will complete 3 novellas. (I have two unfinished ones. *sigh*)
I will harness and understand my process of writing. (Yes, it took me a year to figure out I'm not the write everyday type of gal. I need to live with it.)
I will break my previous record of 8,000 Words in one day and will knock out 10K in a day.

Creating a Word Notebook - Day 1

2009-12-20T17:18:00.005-06:00

Happy Holidays! A few more days until Christmas!

Based on Bria Quinlan's motivating blog entry, I've decided to create my own Word Notebook. Most of the time, I use 1000 Verbs to Write By via Deanna Carlyle. But now I'm biting the bullet to use the notebook to see how it will improve my work.

Phase 1: Overused words hunt
Using a demo of heal-a-doc

OK, so I ran the demo and now I have a list of my overused words. A few of them I expected to see while some other ones reflected the popular crutch words I used at the time.

Manuscript #1 (Top 5)
1. Really
2. Very
3. Issues
4. Whatever
5. Beeline

Manuscript #2 (Top 5)
1. Really (I'm sensing a pattern here. LOL)
2. Suddenly
3. Very
4. Whatever
5. 24/7

Manuscript #3 (Top 5)
1. Really
2. Whatever
3. Focused
4. Suddenly
5. Issues

I think I really use the word really too much. I mean really, the word is a junk adverb but hey sometimes I need to get a point across and really fits... Ok, point made. Point learned.

OK, in a few days I will tackle the next step in building the notebook--searching my favorite books for new verbs, nouns, and phrases. (I hate such pleasurable research.)

Excerpt Monday

2009-12-14T07:30:00.009-06:00

*Comments Fixed Now!*

Here is the third part of my series which I started two months ago. I normally don't write about vampires, but for fun I started this series. If you would like to read Part I and Part II they are available as other Excerpt Monday postings. I still don't have a title after three months. I think I've been lazy in that regard. LOL

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

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Part I | Part II

A vampire security guard working at Harlow’s Family Fun Center left me shaking my head in disbelief for the rest of my shift. I’d gone from believing vampires were the stuff from legends to a spooked employee wondering if the local Popeye’s still needed a new manager. The thought of heading home everyday smelling like spicy fried chicken didn’t seem appealing but at least I wouldn’t be on the menu as an appetizer to the local vampire population.

Our brief conversation echoed in my head as I assisted customers and wiped up pizza that some punk kid had ground into the worn carpet.

After he’d introduced himself as Edgar DeMille, he said, “You don’t look like the kind of woman that would work in a place like this?” He had tilted his head and cocked a grin which made my toes tingle.

I crossed my arms. Not what did he mean by that? “What do women who work at this kind of place look like? All I see here are people who need work and prefer not to panhandle on the streets.”

Edgar’s smile vanished and then he said with sincerity, “I meant no offense. But there’s something about you that’s different from most of the women I encounter in this town. You’re not from the area are you?”

Perhaps it was the bitterness that made me different. Unlike most of the cheery townfolk on this side of town, I actually had to work for a living and not waste money on a place like this.

“I kind of stumbled into this place. I’m actually from a small no-name town in Nebraska.” This place with the larger Colonial homes lining the streets wasn't the same as my old home town. Everyone knew everyone's business back there--including the business you didn't want them to know like alcoholic mothers who hoarded their empty wine bottles.

“Do you like Maine?” he asked.

“I'm used to the winters here. But it gets lonely at times without family.”

He nodded as he stared at me with those eyes. I wanted to look away but I couldn't. “Well, I'll have to do something about that.”

We parted ways a few minutes later, but his presence lingered in the room as if he already guarded the place.

I continued to wait in the office for the phone call from the insurance company, but eventually I left and finished my evening shift. I didn't have time to wait for nonsense phone calls like a secretary. A few hours later, after cleaning up the disgusting pizza stain, I returned to the office to close out the registers. I spied my boss shutting down his computer.

“I’m heading out, Laney.” Chauncey tossed something into the garbage. “Watch out for Donny, will you? That guy asked me earlier how to mop the floor.”

I chuckled as I printed the next week schedule. As he left the room, I stood to pick up the paper from the printer. The old machine cracked and hissed from its perch in the corner. Chauncey had the best desktop unit but for some reason he couldn’t let go of Old Betsy. The printer was so old it had a name. One of the cashiers had joke a few weeks ago that if someone opened the unit up they’d see a hamster inside printing out words by candle light.

I plucked the piece of paper from the printer and noticed a glint of light from the waste paper basket. Amongst a pile of gaudy necklaces Chauncey had tossed into the basket lay something else. I reached inside and gathered the cold metal. Did he mistakenly throw away a valuable necklace? The silver necklace had a tear drop shaped holder for a missing gem. The necklace ends appeared to have a broken clasp. I didn’t have much jewelry except for a few cheap rings but I knew silver when I saw it. Nothing screamed cheap jewelry from a nice relative like when a gem was so small you needed a microscope to see it and gold that caused an allergic reaction similar to hives.

With a small Post-It note, I wrote Chauncey a message and left the necklace in his desk. I didn’t want to hear his mouth on Monday complaining about how his wife made him sleep in the garage for losing her valuable babbles. As I closed the drawer, I noticed on closer inspection that Chauncey had left the safe open. What the hell was up with this guy tonight? First he left a necklace in the garbage and now he'd left the safe open. Might as well have left a printed sign from Old Betsy labeled: FREE FOR ALL.

What made matters even worse was the safe was empty. All the cash was gone including a few small packages he always stored inside. If I needed to make change tonight, I was screwed. This place gave me a bad feeling again. Not only did I have to deal with a vampire security guard coming in a few days, but now I had an empty safe and a mysterious boss with a lot of explaining to do.

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Links to other Excerpt Monday writers
Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

Happy Agent Day Thanks Jim

2009-12-11T09:51:00.003-06:00

Kody Keplinger is celebrating today as Agent Appreciation Day with a post about how she appreciates her agent. In honor of today, I thought I would include other posts I find and a shout out to the agent in my corner: Jim McCarthy. Here are the top 3 reasons I think he's a huge can of awesome.

3. The man has the speed of a cheetah. Jim's incredibly fast and responds to my emails and concerns quickly and efficiently. I sometimes wonder if I wasn't the only one surgically attached to the computer. *sigh* I'm not alone. He isn't on twitter (not that I know of) but he does blog though with D&G. Thank you Jim for reading my manuscript so quickly and offering to represent me.

2. Jim has a fabulous critical eye. During revisions Jim caught quite a few holes that slipped past my critique partners. He helped me polish my manuscript to make it even shiner. Thanks Jim! (He even found the humorous stuff funny.)

1. He remains calm when I hit the panic button. I'm in the middle of submissions and Jim's the calm cucumber as I ramble on about the stresses of submissions. I can almost imagine him typing the email with a smile. Thanks Jim for enduring my emails. =) From your other clients I know you do such a fine job and I wanted to say thank you today for your hard work. It is appreciated.

You can find a long list of shout outs on Lisa and Laura's blog for their agent Catherine Drayton.

Building Ideas Box

2009-12-02T08:31:00.007-06:00

I am an idea factory. (That shouldn't be confused with title factory cause I suck at those.) When I should be working on my current WIP ideas are brewing like steaming coffee in my gray matter. Before I would stow them away for a rainy day when I would remember to scrawl them down on a piece of paper. But then the piece of paper would get lost in the office of doom and then I can't find it anymore. (Currently happening right now for an old idea. *sigh*)

I thought I'd divulge how my conveyor belt of ideas are currently built, stored, and then packaged for potential pick up by my writing shopping cart. (Cue the 1950s shopper music.)

1. Idea Pops Into Head - This most often happens while I am driving, changing a diaper, or taking a walk. My best ideas have come while driving. Thank goodness only one idea came during a diaper change.

2. Let the Idea Roll Around - Ideas are a dime a dozen so it really helps to let it go crazy after it pops in. I don't really start thinking about the black moment or the plot. Most ideas start with an event or a crazy character. Most of the time my ideas start with either.

3. Store the Darn Thing - Before I used paper for my ideas. I even had a notebook. But now I'm snazzy and use Google Docs. Why Google Docs? Well, they provide a central location for me to access my ideas from anywhere. Hey, I'm in Borders and I get a cool plot point for one of my ideas--then I add the note to my Google Doc for that idea.

4. Organizing Ideas - Once my idea is jotted down into a new Google document, I expand out from my initial paragraph. I use LOCK plot builder from James Scott Bell's book Plot & Structure. Basically LOCK includes the Lead, Objective, Conflict, and Knockout. As I build my idea I fill in these portions. From the LOCK, I am able to add in plot points, the black moment, and other goodies to torture the protagonists.

5. Add in Sugar, Spice, and Conflict - By this point, the idea is packaged and ready to turn into a story if I wanted. But most of the time I'm not ready so I add in bits of scenes if they pop into my head. Most of the time if I get a scene it has an expiration date in my head. If I let it sit too long I'll forget so I simply type into the idea document I've created.

Yes, I'm not ashamed to say I came up with another idea after I wrote this post.

Great Book - Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

2009-11-22T21:00:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I consumed a book and read it quickly. Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth was such a book. I knew it ensnared me in its web when I misplaced the book and search fifteen minutes for it. Most of time I would've simply picked up another book to read but I couldn't wait to see what happened so I searched the house for it.

I highly recommend the book for adults. It may be YA but the book was entertaining and quite wonderful with its zombieness. (This is my first YA book in years. I normally do not read the genre unless the book hooks me in.) Now I understand why the book has done well and my agent sold it. Fabulous book! I highly recommend it.

Writing and Music

2009-11-18T15:52:00.004-06:00

Music is one of those mediums that helps drive my writing. Whether I am working on something dark or light, I prefer to have music in place to help set the mood. Not to say I haven't written in silence, but if I have my heroine and hero beating up bad guys I most certainly wouldn't use some let's-hold-hands-and-make-world-a-better-place music. Now my tastes are eclectic. At first, I always listened to R&B or even rap. But college and a cousin with an undying love for Prince (if you don't know about the great purple one...I'm so sorry. Cue the tears and a single dove released.) revealed a vast library of music I hadn't heard before. In particular Stevie Wonder and P-funk. I was like Flashlight, Brickhouse. Whoa! Bootay Shake!

But well, when it came to writing, I found that I couldn't work with my standard set of music. For me, certain music evoked emotions within me that compelled me to write scenes. And well Rumpshaker from Wreckx N Effects from high school doesn't give me those write romance/urban fantasy/ummm whatever genre feeling. And well, I write paranormal, so I need that creepy, dark stuff, or I need that light quirky stuff I heard in college like Blue's Traveler's Run Around. One of my favorites--I love her music, is Me'shell Ndegéocello. Her music has such feeling and I feel compelled to write. And thus the music does its job. Sometimes I don't feel like writing, but all it takes is the right song at the right time and I feel something that makes my fingers want to get the scene out. Even if its a song I would not listen to while in the car, if it has that "vibe", I'm more than willing to listen to it to fall into the moment. =)

Nano Down the Draino

2009-11-17T17:02:00.003-06:00

Well, my Nanowrimo has not gone well. I'm officially out on submission and my mind is in lalaland doing a strange dance. I've gone back to my third book and I would love to knock it out by the end of the month. (Yeah right.)

At this point I've made little progress. I wish I was much farther along by now:

Shawntelle's Third Book:

It doesn't help that I work more now than I used to. As an independent developer I work as often as I have work. And of course I have plenty to do during the day.

Excerpt Monday

2009-11-09T07:32:00.005-06:00

Here is the second part of my series which I started last month. I normally don't write about vampires, but for fun I started this series. If you would like to read Part I its in last month's Excerpt Monday posting. I still don't have a title, but one may pop up as I continue to work on it.

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

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Part I of This Story

As I drove to work the next day, I wondered why I didn’t tell the police about the night visitor who had rescued Molly and me. But who would’ve believed my story?

“Hi, officer. We’ve had a robbery attempt. But everything’s fine now since a blood-sucking vampire took out the creep and hid the body.”

Yep, I didn’t see that phone call going well. I’d found poor Molly hiding out in the girl’s restroom in one of the stalls. I’d expected her to call the cops, but as a teenager I would’ve flipped my lid as well. Her mother came and picked her up as I finished my call with the police.

The cops and Harlow’s owner of course applauded my bravery and said I worked well with such a dangerous assailant. Was that before or after I would’ve wet my pants when the guy pointed the gun at me?

I really should quit this place. But with community college bills and an apartment, I couldn’t afford to switch positions in such a turbulent economy. I had to face the facts—I was chained to the Mr. Happy Clown game like those florescent green mallets used to pound out those stupid clown figures you had to beat the crap out of for a measly ticket.

Last night's traffic of screaming kids and juveniles had filled the place. But on Saturdays, like today, the restaurant was packed. With a snort I thought, the guy should’ve hit the joint this evening to snag a bigger haul.

I entered the main office to find my boss, Chauncey Harlow, working on the accounting books on his computer. “Hey, Laney. Glad you could help out tonight.” The sixty year-old man hunched over his keyboard and squinted at the screen through his ancient bifocals.

After the robbery, I had asked for the day off to collect myself. Of course, the Saturday shift manager conveniently backed out.

I suppressed the response of, “I should’ve told Kyle he needs to bring his lazy ass in and stop taking an emergency evening off to get trashed at the local bar.” But as a soft spoken lady I replied, “It’s all right. I guess keeping busy is the healthy thing to do.”

Chauncey nodded. “After what happened yesterday, I plan to bring in some security around here. I’ve had problems before with those older kids causing trouble, but I didn’t expect to be robbed like that.”

“Video cameras sound like a great idea.”

“Oh, no. I plan to do more. The electronics guy referred me to a firm that does video cameras, security doors for the office, and training for our cashiers. He had great advice for how I can clean this place up.”

I’d told the police of my suspensions when I noticed the robber knew the exact time when the safe would open. My boss had balked after he heard the news, but he didn’t believe that someone would plan a robbery at a children’s entertainment restaurant. I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him that dollar bills from piggy banks worked just as well as the adult version.

“I need to check on a problem in the kitchen. Could you wait here for a call from the insurance company? I need to know a bunch of stuff about my premiums if I increase security at this place.”

He left without waiting for my answer. Didn’t he remember I worked as the shift manager?

Five minutes after he left, a knock sounded on the door. Perhaps one of the servers or cashiers needed help. I left the desk and then opened the door.

The vampire from last night stood there waiting. He formed a half-smile when he saw my surprise. The memories of the chilly flesh of his skin made me shiver. And those navy-blue eyes—I remembered how he clutched the robber in an iron-grip as he drank his life from his body.

The heavy door had blocked out the noise from the restaurant floor, but the full blast of cheesy music and games assaulted my ears and drove me away from my moment of reverie. Somehow my mouth moved. “Can I help you?”

“Is Mr. Harlow available? I'd planned to meet him here at 6:30.”

I gripped the door knob, but didn’t allow him to enter. “He had to check on something in the kitchen. Is there something I can help you with?” Other than a blood donation?

“Perhaps later, but right now I need to formalize the agreement between us for my services.”

So, he had to be the electronics guy. “You’re here to install the cameras right?”

He grinned and took a half step closer. “Apparently, you don’t know.”

“Know what? Chauncey said something about a consultant coming in to increase the security of this place.”

“Oh, I plan to make things much safer around here. I’m the new security guard.”

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Links to other Excerpt Monday writers
Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

Confessions from a Reality TV Junkie

2009-11-02T12:02:00.009-06:00

Would everyone in the room who is addicted to reality television raise their hand.

*Raises hand*

If you are a reality television watcher like myself you love to watch the train wrecks as they happen. As a writer, reality TV for me is the ultimate idea generator. In the past I've watched:

The Millionaire Matchmaker
Flipping Out
How Clean is Your House
Hell's Kitchen
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Real Housewives of [Fill in the City - Atlanta, Orange County, New Jersey, you get the drift]
American Idol
Punk'd
The Biggest Loser
Moment of Truth (OMG, the word work train wreck is not good enough for this one...)
Trading Spouses
Nanny 911
Tabitha's Salon Takeover (Luv this show!)

I'm leaving out classics like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich (the real who's my baby-daddy show). To be honest, I couldn't get into Survivor or Dancing with the Stars. I tried, but it wasn't entertaining to me. I guess they didn't have enough of that hot mess factor I was looking for. :D

So what have these shows taught me? That if I can't think of unique characters for my books, then these places are filled to the hilt with ideas for me to tap, flip in a bowl, and slap in pan to sizzle into something interesting. Take the chef from Hell's Kitchen for example, he is a potty mouth chef from England. He treats the other chefs like crap, but I love to watch this show. (As well as the F Word on the BBC. Another BBC America addict here.) With all those personalities trying to cook a risotto properly there's bound to be a scene hiding in there somewhere to twist with a paranormal idea. Either with a loud mouth contestant or one who seems to have poor fashion sense.

So grab that remote folks and pull out that research paper. You can find plenty of what-if scenarios to utilize in your manuscript.

Day 1 of Nanowrimo

2009-11-01T09:11:00.003-06:00

Well, its the morning of day 1 and I've survived October. My agent approved my edits yesterday. Woo hoo! So I should be heading toward the rolling plains of Submissionville soon enough. For my nano novel titled, Seduced (that is the shortened name), I have already conquered 650 words. *pumps fist* Of course, it was midnight and I had the likelihood of typing out "Work makes Jack a dull boy." about fifty times. But after a quick look see I have determined I wrote coherent words with dialog.

For my third book, which I still plan to continue working with I reached this far:

Shawntelle's Third Book:

Not bad, actually. I wanted to be at 50%, but 10% off is not a failure. I may be able to reach 75% by the end of nano. I didn't want to edit two books at once, but in the future that may happen so it may be for the best.

Four Days Until Nano

2009-10-27T07:09:00.004-05:00

Well, my progress for Nano has gone much better than my current WIP. LOL As if last night, this is where I stand with my third book:

Shawntelle's Third Book: (AKA Get the Darn Thing 50% done Before Nano, Please!)

I've followed Lynn Viehl's notebook and I have completed several pages of the Novel Notebook. I've also written a synopsis. A few books ago, I hated the darn thing, but with time they're not so bad anymore. Romance has a distinct formula and armed with GMC (goal, motivation, and conflict) for each character the synopsis flows out much faster. Of course, my synopsis is under review this week since I may have weak points and I may have to hash out the messy middle to toss in a subplot or two to hold the thing up with toothpicks.