Coming Up: Another Fast First Draft...Another Book Completed

First, have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend. We're not going anywhere or camping. Might take the kids to Lagoon, an amusement park like Six Flags though smaller. We'll see. Okay, back

1.      My Internet is down, so last night I had no access, which is torture…torture of the worst kind. Did I say torture twice? Yeah, that's how it feels whenever we don't have Internet. You see, my family ditched regular TV eons, so all our news, movies and TV-watching is done on online. But that’s not it. If I don’t stop by FB, catch up with my blogger friends, check my e-mail, listen to Jon Stewart while I work, I get very snippy. So now I’m outside my gym piggy riding on their wi-fi until the library opens.

2.      I finished cleaning up the WIP I completed two, or was it three, weeks ago. Now I’m plowing through suggestions by my CP partners. You girls rock!! Then it is off to my editor then agent.

3.      Will spend the weekend outlining my next WIP, the next Guardian Legacy book (FORGOTTEN), which I hope to start next week. This will be another fast draft. I do know what’s going to happen at the beginning of the story and the end, and some key events in between though but no idea when they’ll happen.  All I know is the characters won’t leave me alone. As I wrote HUNTED, the book with my editor right now (which they loved…no plot issues…yeah!!), I kept thinking about FORGOTTEN, so now I’m ready.

4.      I will also work on my rune book, the first in a new series. This one will be critiqued as I write…that’s my old way of doing things. You know, write a chapter and post it on my group as I continue writing. FORGOTTEN won’t be seen until it is done.

 

Okay, enough about me. What are you up to?

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.

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.

Cover Reveal: Grace Doll @JenniferLaurens

Yippee, my writer friend is about to release her next book, GRACE DOLL. Congrats Jenn. Grace Doll will be released August 20, 2012.

Blurb: Grace Doll had everything a girl could want: Fame. Fortune. Beauty.

Everything except, of course, 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.

Publisher: Grove Creek Publishing 220 pages. Available in paperback, on Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook and in the iBook Store.

The Grace Doll Book Tour starts Aug 14-20. Over 30 book bloggers have signed up to read and review the book. I hope you'll join us for interviews, character chats, giveaways and the coolest Hollywood "premier" party a book launch has ever seen on August 20th!

WAY TO GO, JENN.


Where am I on my WIP?  Right here:

Blogger Awards

I've met some wonderful bloggers, authors, aspiring authors since joining YALICHAT. Once such author is Elizabeth who has so graciously given me TWO blog awards!

NOW I must tell you seven things about me...(pssst, just so you know I'm boring)

1. Once upon a time I thought I should be a model, had a portfolio and went from over advertising studio to another...didn't get a single booking (the power of thinking you are hot when you are not is priceless...hehehe

2. I grew up in a large family with 5 brothers and 2 sisters and 5 half siblings (2 girls and 3 boys)

3. I went to a boarding school run by nuns (hated it.)

4. I started reading romance book when I turned 13 (borrowed my older sister's stash)

5. I lost my mother when I was 13

6. I hate Macoroni & Cheese

7. I could live on salads (I make the meanest salad ever)

8. I love to dance (Zumba all the way!!!)

NOW WHO DO I TAG?

Page Flipperz

Jowanna's YA Blog

Jennifer Laurens

ForbiddenPassion
United by Books

Catie's Water Guardians
Jeanette's FireGuardians

 

Where am I on my WIP?  Right here:

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.

And the Challenge Continues One WIP a month

I like to say that my life is fun
because it revolves around my family
and my writing, and that’s absolutely true.
How many can say they hear voices and not sound like a lunatic.
 We, writers, hear imaginary people demanding we write their stories, but they are so real to us we laugh and cry along as we write. Oh, and we we get to live vicariously through them too....first crush...first kiss....the excitement...the heartache...the making up... Can't beat that.

I'm also one of those people who never go anywhere unless the entire family comes along. It's our family thing, you could say. So I've never attended a conference or a writer's retreat. Here’s hoping one day I will.

HOWEVER, 2-3 times a year, I need a moment to rejuvenate and take off to a hotel.

You know, time alone when
1) I can hear myself think without hearing,

"Mommy, she’s being mean!”
“No, she started it!"
“She’s making faces at me.”
“Why is she my sister?”
(My 7 and 9 year old going at it)

2) have a shower without someone knocking on the bathroom door with a question.

3) kick back and write in blissful silence without doors being banged, children chasing each other, screams and oh, cats demanding attention. Our cats are like dogs. One actually follows me around nonstop. She even sits outside my shower…really spooky.


Anyhew, so usually I take off on Friday evening, book into a hotel downtown and come back Sunday. Yesterday, I just decided to do an overnighter  because DH wanted us to have a date tonight (watched Spider men after having dinner…loved the movie. Was hoping for an Avenger agent at the end though)
Still, my night alone paid off as you can see by the word count above.

Will take tomorrow off and be back on Monday.

CHUGGING...CHUGING...CHUGGING ALONG
Thanks for the well wishes, ladies

Writing a book in one month

I love Fridays and today I want to try something I don’t do often enough, blog about writing. Before I start, congratulations are in order:

Drum roll please.........

Leigh Ann,

you won the swags and a copy of Betrayed in the Freedom to Read hop, so e-mail me you addresses.

Now back to writing.

How many hours do you write a day?
Do you set aside hours/time to write?
Do you jump on where you left or revise what you’d written the last time.

I write whenever I can and when not dropping off or picking up kids. Between 5 kids and a husband, I’m lucky if I write continuously for hours. But I want to try something different and this is why.

I came across a fellow author’s blog and she wrote her book, 400 pages, in two weeks. Two freaking weeks? I was like, no way? That meant she wrote 28-29 pages a day. Since I am competitive and believe I can do anything if I put my mind to it, I have decided to try this.

I plan to write a chapter a day on my present WIP.

A chapter, for me, is about 16 pages (4000 words).

6 days a week (one day break) puts me at 24,000 words

1 month at this pace totals 106,000 words.

Since my target is 100,000 words (400pages), I should be okay, right?

Hehehe.

Lofty goal, right?

I know, I know. I have to keep in mind this is summer and I have 5 kids to drive around and entertain. Still, I’m going to try.

Have you ever had a goal like this? I tried Nano last year and actually made my goal of 50,000, so maybe, just maybe I might swing this.

Wish me Luck!

Here's where I am today, Friday 6th

********************************

***

24130 / 100000 24.13% Done!