Happy New Year: more #Fitzgeralds #Guardians&demons #romance @ednahwalters http://amzn.to/ww3nEF

So what does the future hold for you? Any plans? Goals? Resolutions? I hate resolutions coz I never fulfill them. Goals are good coz you need one even if it is a tentative one.

Here is my to-do list for 2013. What do you think?

•  Write 6 full-length books-finish the next GL book, write the next 2 Runes book (these are YA, 80,000 words), 1 paranormal adult romance (a new series,) and the next 2 Fitzgerald books (adult contemporary romance)
• Write 2 contemporary novella
• Save the world at least 3 times (that's what my paranormal series are about, men and women saving the world from total annihilation)
• Find a publisher for my picture books
• Cure world hunger one child at a time (my family is planning on supporting a child in an orphanage in Kenya, $35 a month this year)

 It seems like a daunting list, but I’m at that place where I’m certain I can do all 5 things. Eight books, LOL, I'm pushing it, but hey, they say dream big, right? If I make it, I'll be Queen of the Bookdom. Will start working on one next week.

 

In the meantime, let me know what your plans are.

Ooh, before I forget. Winner of Mid-Winter HOP is: Holly Underhill (hope you got my e-mail)

Here’s to 2013!!!

Editing Thou Art a Witch with a capital B

1. Okay, so I got the edits (HUNTED, the next Guardian Legacy book) from my amazing editor, Rich Storr, and I have to slice off about 10,000 words.... drip..drip, drip...yeah those are tears rolling down my face. But it's gotta get done. My next book, I'm so aiming for 75,000 words.  I swear.


2. I did complete the WIP I was working on in 6 weeks, so not so bad. Sorry, I was out of town and didn't blog about it. Plan to upload it so my CPs can plow through it and gut it out while I work on HUNTED. I'll probably edits both books in the coming weeks.

3. Kids are off to school next week...hooray...party time... Yeah, I know, I'm a bad mother. But after five kids, you get your yippee moments wherever you can find them and thumb your nose at anyone who condemns you with a look. Yeah, I'm talking about you reading this. Judge lest ye be judged.

4. Our shopping trip to Park City and Salt Lake City was fun but my poor visa suffered the most. We tend to go somewhere fun each summer and skipped this year...except for the few days in Vegas at the beginning of summer, which wasn't bad. We did enjoy Mistere, Bellagio water show, and Madam T's wax museum. Still my oldest wasn't with us, so it wasn't the same.

Okay, enough about me. What are you working on this week.

AnotherTwilight Fan-fic?

Do you authors write according to trends?

We all know about the success of 50 Shades of G. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and bash the series. To each their own. We, however, know that it was a Twilight Fan-fic. I read somewhere that the author has earned 7.3 million (since April) and has become UK Amazon bestselling book of all time and outsold the latest Harry Potter. Good for her.

Now another Twilight Fan Fic has been picked up by Penguin Imprint for seven figures... As a writer, it makes you wonder. Is it better to stay true to you and write your story or jump on the bandwagon and go with the trend?

Readers don't seem to care. Publishers want to make money and don't care.

Personally, I try not to follow trends. Why? I want to wake up in the morning and feel good about myself as a person and a writer. Maybe that's why I'm not a millionaire, hehehe.

When I started writing the Guardian Legacy series, there were no books on children of the fallen angels. But I had an idea and went with it. Then my agent started subbing it to editors and all she heard was "we've just signed up an author writing angel books...blah blah this and blah blah that."

I didn't care. I had a story to tell and will continue to write until I finish my GL series.

On a different note, it's been a mad dash to the finish, Olympic style, on my WIP. I'm totally wiped out, but what a ride. I think I'll start another WIP after I revise my present one and send it to my editor. This is where I'm at as of this morning...will start writing at 10:30.

Grace Doll @jenniferlaurens: Enjoy this amazing booktrailer

This is where I'm at with my WIP. Getting there, right?.

Today, I hit the ground running, so now I have 25 K to go. Hopefully, I 'll be done by the end of the week...lol.

Today I want to talk about my critique partner, who does such an amazing job with her covers and book trailers. Who said Indie authors don't have photoshoots for their covers.

Jennifer Laurens uses real models, does photoshoots for both her video and book covers and has a cover editor giving her exactly what she wants--an amazing cover that matches the amazing, unique story inside. If you haven't gotten a copy of Grace Doll, you don't know what you are missing. Buy it on Kindle.

And here is the trailer:

BLURB:

Grace Doll had everything a girl could want: Fame. Fortune. Beauty. Everything except her freedom. So when a powerful movie producer forces an experimental treatment on Grace--one that's purported to make beauty immortal--she stages her own death to escape him. With the help of trusted friends, Grace slips into hiding. She's forever flawless. Forever young, and forever pursued by her past. But when a stranger arrives on her doorstep, holding the key to a life she thought she'd left behind, Grace must decide between the safety she's known...and embracing the role she was born to play.

COVER:

Girl Meets Boy: A Sneak Peek at my next #YA romance

This is where I'm at with my WIP. Getting there. Looks like I might finish it at around 90k, but you just never know.

Here is a sneak peak at my next series (unedited): Runes Master is a fast read, heavy on romance, some action, forever young hero who kicks serious booty and a heroine about to discover she's more than what she seems;

***

The image in the mirror was the same one I’d looked at the last, I don’t know, seventeen years. I wouldn’t win a beauty contest, but I wasn’t at the deep end of the ugly gene pool. My brown hair and brown eye might be boring but my friends thought I had spunk. And my chest might be flattish, but I was still growing. Mom had said she was late developing too. Now she was the proud owner of D-cups.

I glanced down and grimaced. I could be so lucky. My phone beeped again. Another text from Sayre. I slide my thumb over the surface of my phone and read it. He was sending his cousin to pick me up.

What cousin? I was his only cousin. Honorary cousin anyway. He and I had known each other since pre-school. Before they moved to their huge house at the top of Grandview Drive, we’d been neighbors, inseparable. We’d played in the backyard in kiddie pools, fought over sand shovels and promised to get married in third grade. He was my best friend and there was not a thing I didn’t know about him. Until today.

I grabbed my chem text book, sketch pad and a steampunk novel I'd promised to give him and raced back downstairs to see this cousin. Was it a boy or a girl cousin? Snooty or nice?

A sleek, metallic blue sports car roared into our cul de sac, did a U-turn and pulled beside our mailbox just as I stepped out of the house. The windows were dark, so I couldn’t see inside. Could this be his cousin? It looked exactly like Shay’s car from last night.

I bit my lip and debated my next move. Should I go and tap on the window? I glanced toward Grandview Road. The school bus was pulling away. Too late to take it now.

I pulled out my cell phone and texted Sayre, furiously punching the letters as I moved closer to the car. All I managed was blue sports car when the doors lifted upwards like wings and a tall guy stepped out. I stared, my pulse leaping in response to the hip-hugging jeans, black polo shirt that hugged a broad chest and hinted at the hard muscles underneath.

By the time my eyes reached his lips, my imagination was on overdrive. Soft lips. Fuller bottom and thinner top. Perfect. Kissable. My mouth went dry, heart pounding with anticipation mixed with panic. His lips turn up, the right corner higher than the left. Kissable just became mocking.

My eyes flew to his, which, unfortunately, were hidden behind aviator sunglasses. All I saw were arched eyebrows underneath a lock of wavy black hair. I wondered how it would feel to run my fingers through it.

I was ogling. Drooling, to be precise, but who wouldn’t. He was about the hottest guy I’d seen in my entire life. How old was he? How come Sayre never mentioned him before?

His lips moved and I realized he was speaking, but the blood roaring past my ears made it impossible to hear a thing. A chuckle, deep and throaty, was all I heard when the roaring died down.

“What?” I asked, or meant to since no sound came out. A wave of heat rushed to my face.

“I didn’t know you had a hearing and speech problem.”

His voice was deep and melodic, with a faint accent. He spoke Enlish precisely as though it wasn’t his first language.

“Can you read lips?” He slowed down his speech and used sign language. “Sayre asked me to give you a ride to school.”

He thought I was deaf? I wanted to die right there and then. If I spoke now, he’d know he’d rendered me speechless. The humiliation would be too much. There was nothing to do but turn around, go back into the house with my dignity intact and pretend I didn’t need a ride after all.

Beware Bloggers and Authors!!! Copyrighted Images on blogs and FB, You could be sued

This is where I'm at with my WIP. I'm lagging behind a bit, but at least my computer woes are over. Thank you, Dell! No, sorry Dell, I'm shifting to HP Laptops when this one slows down or conks out on me. Your desktops are great. Laptops? Not so much.

Have you heard the latest on image rights? If you are using a picture you've gotten online, you know,Googled and fixed it up a bit and slapped it on your banner. Or cropped and photoshopped it and slapped on your Hunk of the Week, of Hump Day or Eye Candy, the photographers with copyrights will sue your pants off.

Just as we authors lament piracy, these photographers have a right to demand you ask their permission to use  their pictures or pay for them. I recall when I was looking for a dagger to use on the cover of my book... that is when I tried to self-publish it before my super agent Leticia found a home for it, I found a beautiful kris dagger online. It is in a gallery somewhere in Mississippi. I e-mailed the guy gazillion times but never heard from him. Needless to say, I never used that daggger.

Also, I use a painted picture on my YALITCHAT and Youtube Channel, which reminds me of my MC in the Guardian Legacy series. I saw the picture and fell in love with it, so I contacted the artist. He's an Italian painter and his pictures are effing amazing. I mean this guy is super talented. I love his work because they have fantasy elements and the paintings just pop. Once he gave me permission, I was happy to link back to him. Thank you, Artist (lost his link when I changed computers but will find it)

However, it is so easy to Google pictures and post them on FB or Tumblr or your blog. Not anymore. I know of authors who've gone over their blog posts and deleted every picture they've ever used. Others are changing their banners.

Will I remove my pics? Yes. As soon as I can. Here is the author who got sued over one picture and her lawyers were involved in the case and she had to pay the photographer for a picture she didn't need. Head over there and read what she learned from her lawyers.

Bottom line? Bloggers and authors, no more posting pics on FB unless you've bought copyrighted free stock pictures.

To buy pictures, try Dreamstime and iStock .

Lucky for me, I have quite a few pictures I'd bought from Dreamstine, which I use on my book trailers. Dreamstime also have some freebees, so always check the free ones first before you buy any. 

Anyhew, just wanted to share. As for the saga of pirate sites selling your books, will blog more on that on Friday. It keeps getting worse...seriously.

Keep reading.

Haha, I'm baaack: Determined to write one book in a month

So after a nasty flu and many, many computer bugs...my laptop of less than a year old is effed up big time. Freezes every few minutes, so I spent yesterday with Dell peope and it is still not fixed. Grrr! The muses don't want me to finish this book!!!


Then my older laptop just upped and quit on me. Seriously? I was like, WTF? Turns out the mother board short-circuited. The stupid machine won't even turn on. Luckily I bought a hardware warranty for it and have 4 months before it expires, so a Dell rep will be here next week to replace it...YES!!!

So today, I decided to us my old...old...desk top. Have you any idea how weird a desk top keyboard feels after you've been using a lap top the last 2 years? Very weird.

I managed to scrape a little over 3000 words. Not bad, huh?

**

NOW I'm off to Girls Night Out. Woohoo!

Till Tomorrow.

Keep Writing.

Writing Bland or Brilliant Scenes... @ednahwalters, @yaednah_walters

First, I have a question.

80% of authors use fictitious town. 20% use real town or both. If you use fictitious towns in your story, is it in a fictitious state too and fictitious country/world? (This might work for some fantasies). Or do you decide where you want to have your town then research the place so you get the weather, vegetation and topographical features right. I mean, I can't decide to have a desert town in Oregon or a carpet of grass as far as the eyes can see in the Rocky Mountain region, which has huge mountains. How do you sketch your town?  Or am I overthinking this.

Second, I cheated yesterday and posted no progress report. Why, you may ask. I spent the whole day writing, writing and writing, had 13 beautifully crafted pages then made the mistake of reading what I'd just written (actually, it wasn't a mistake).

It was, to be blunt, bland...no tension...no sparks...no that special something that makes a reader want to continue reading. It was the big bang moment, the secret-revealing scene you are supposed to build up to, not dump in the middle of the book. Does that ever happen to you?

So what did I do. I renamed the chapter 9x and restarted this morning.

Should I add that toward my word count? I'd love to, but I decided not to. So today I made up for it.

To celebrate, I've decided to share 2 brilliantly written Sheldon scenes from my favorite comedy, The Big Bang Theory:

SCENE I

"Leonard is upstairs right now with my arch-enemy," says Sheldon .

"Your arch-enemy?" asks Penny.

"Yes, the Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic, the Dr. Octopus to my Spider-Man, the Dr. Sivana to my Captain Marvel..." says Sheldon.

"Okay, I get it, I get it!" says Penny.

"You know, it's amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees," says Sheldon.

SCENE II

"This is between you and me. You can't tell Leonard any of this," Pennys says.

 "You're asking me to keep a secret?" Sheldon asks

"Yeah," Penny says

"Well, I am sorry, but you would have had to have expressed that desire before revealing the secret, so that I could choose whether I wanted to accept the covenant of secret-keeping. You can't impose a secret on an ex-post-facto basis," Sheldon says.

"What?" Penny asks, looking confused.

"Secret-keeping is a complicated endeavor. One has to be concerned not only about what one says, but about facial expressions, autonomic reflexes. When I try to deceive, I myself have more nervous tics than a Lyme disease research facility," Sheldon pauses. "It's a joke. It relies on the homonymic relationship between "tick", the blood-sucking arachnid, and "tic", the involuntary muscular contraction. I made it up myself."

BAZINGA!!!

Story Setting, real or fake.

When you write a book, do you use a fake town or a real one? Why?

My Guardian Legacy series is an urban fantasy, but the Guardians' HQ/setting is in a town in northern Utah, my home town. To get my facts straight, I visited the local high school and got the layout for my fictitious high school, the hotel near and RV park, where my character and her grandfather lived, made calls to local business and city offices...you name it, I researched it.

Even though I found it easy to use a real town, my characters visit other places across the globe, so I do a lot of research online too as I write. Needless to say, I go nuts when I don't have internet, like today.

Our wireless has been acting up, so I had to vamoose to the library to use their wireless. Turned out great. I made today's deadline--finished chapter 8. Woohoo!!

TEASER (scene from Vegas) from BETRAYED

With Bran behind the wheel of the Suburban, we headed toward the Strip—the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South where the largest hotels, resorts, and casinos were located. The entertainment capital of the world pulsed with people’s hopes and dreams. Desperate-looking people stared out of taxi windows and disappeared into the flashy buildings.

I reached up to touch the Cardinal pendant through my shirt. The jadeite core was warming up, typical of its behavior in Vegas, where demons mingled with humans in casinos and resorts. Despite that, my dagger lay calm in its sheath, which meant no strong demonic presence in our vicinity.

The ravens were the first warning that things were not okay. The black birds perched on the Arc de Triomphe replica at the entrance of Las Vegas Paris. More sat on their Eiffel Tower. Ravens weren’t nocturnal birds to begin with. They were also a rare sight in Vegas.