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!!!

Writer's Block or fatigue

1. Do you ever feel so mentally drained you can't plot or write? That's where I'm at. I pushed myself hard to finish, polish and worked on the edits of my next romance book, Forever Hers, book #5 of the Fitzgerald Family series, and I'm totally burnt-out (burned-out). But everything is on schedule...woohoo.
Realese date is October 15th, 10 days to go....

2. Meanwhile, I have two YA WIPS I'm working on. So far I've written about 20,000 words for each of them, 60,000 to go on one and about 80,000 on the other. My problem is, I can't seem to summon strength to write for long. I write a few pages and get frustrated and move to the other.

Anything llike this ever happen to you? How do I focus on one? The last two weeks, I've just read my critique partners' WIPs to try and get out of the funk, but it's not working. I want to write these two stories so badly. I even gave myself Dec 31st deadline. Nothing is working.

Any ideas?

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.

Tame The Editor in You While Drafting

FYI: I am participating in Summer Giveaway Hop, so if you missed it, head HERE. The giveaway is open until August 8.


I gave myself a month to finish a WIP and blogged about it on July 6th. I've had bumps in the form of a week-long computer woes and illness, days when I wanted to kick back with a glass of wine and a nice book, and hours when my 8 and 10 year had play dates and turned my house into the House of Screams. Despite all that, I plodded along.

So, where am I at one month and seven days later?

89,275 words instead of 100K I'd planned

2 and 1/2 chapters to go.

About 3 days to finish, right?

Maybe.

You see, this is exactly where I've been the last 3 days,

stuck with 2 and 1/2 unfinished chapters

What happened?

The inner editor in me happened. It usually takes me about 4 months to finish a book. I write a chapter...revise it...revise it again until I'm happy with it...upload it so my crit partners can take a whack at it...move on to the next chapter while waiting to hear from them. Steady and slow, but when I finish, it takes me less than a month to edit it.

This time, I was drafting a chapter a day, until last Friday when I  realized that for the black moment to happen, I had to fix the holes in the plot. I told myself they could wait, but alas, the editor in me took over and I've spent the last 3 days filling the bloody plot holes.

You know what happens when you stop and go over what you've written. You notice things that need fixing, weird sentences, stilted dialogues, out of character behavior... and you can't help yourself. You've got to FIX them.

So tomorrow, I'll be back on track finishing chapter 19, 20 (Wed) and 21 (Thur) because Friday morning I'm taking my kids on a a three-day back-to-school shopping trip and mini-vacation.

So the deadline is now...Thursday night. Or I'm going to be one  grumpy mom during this trip.
How do you tame the editor in you while drafting??

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.

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.