Where Does All My Time Go?

I haven’t been posting my craft and sewing projects lately. That’s partly because I’ve been working hard on a sequel to Christmas Wishes, (I think I’m about 75 percent done with that) and promoting both Friendship Star Quilt and Searching for Lady Luck through Facebook events and guest blogging. It seems I spend all my time online!

Still, I have been able to get a few things done. I’ve made a couple of quilts at my church, and made a bunch of promotional items. Unfortunately, I didn’t get them finished in time to send to the Romantic Times convention in New Orleans. I could have sent them along with some of the other authors who are going. Rats! But now I’ve got a bunch of stuff to send to people for other things. Not sure what. Or maybe I’ll be extra ready for next year!

Here are some little notebooks I made, using directions from the fabulous Joselyn Vaughn:

And here are some sticky note pad folders I made, inspired by a project from my scrapbooking friend Sharilyn:

So I haven't totally abandoned my crafty side! I'm hoping to finish this book in the next week or so, and then hit the crafts hard. I'm going to donate a bunch of things to Gabriel's Shoppe, a charity run by a friend of mine. I'll share more about that soon. In the meantime, here's the Facebook link where you can see what it's all about: https://www.facebook.com/gabrielsshoppe

What Will I Get Done This Year?

Image credit: jpldesigns / 123RF Stock Photo

Happy New Year! It seems that every year I start out with great intentions, and then they fall to the wayside before long. I guess I'm too easily distracted. But I would like to set forth a few things I want to do in 2014, based on what the past year was like. I'm no longer working in the bakery, so that's an extra 24 hours a week to get some things done. So rather than wasting time, I need to work on completing a lot of projects that have been shoved to the back burner a little too often.

Writing:

1. I need to finish the sequel to The Samurai's Garden. It's about half done. I just need to concentrate and get it finished.

2. I should blog more. I think I need to be more disciplined about this. I've had lots of guests here and I've sent posts to other people to advertise my new books, but I need to work on defining this blog a bit more. So I think I'm going to try to blog at least twice a week, and one of them is going to be a post I write myself - hopefully about something creative I've observed or done.

3. I've committed to one project due later this month. I'd better get in gear and finish it!

Crafting/Sewing:

I have sooooo much fabric and craft supplies it seems I could keep busy forever. I need to use some of this stuff up and give away what I'm not going to use. Last year I made a little dent in my supplies by vowing to post a picture of a project each week. I think maybe I ought to re-instate that. Make something and post a picture. Every week. Hopefully each project will be made with supplies I already have on hand.

Reading:

I have a lot of books on my ipad that I could be reading. I can't review books by Astraea Press authors but I can let them know I read and enjoyed them. I signed up for the reading challenge at Goodreads and I want to finish reading at least 50 books this year. That's not quite one book a week. I should be able to do this if I don't waste a bunch of time online playing games and reading articles about people I don't know and really don't care about!

Okay, these are my goals for 2014. My plan is to post my own blog each Thursday, and have guests on other days. Tomorrow is Thursday - I guess I'd better get in gear!

It's All About the Log Line

Image credit: inspirestock / 123RF Stock Photo

Sometimes when I write, certain things trip me up and I get stuck. Sometimes it's how to get the heroine out of a tricky situation. Other times it's the hero's motivation in doing something. Several times I've written the entire book and not known what to call it! Fortunately, I've now got Facebook friends to help me with that.

A week ago, I got a contract for my latest novella, a regency romance about a couple who both enjoy making music. A Facebook plea resulted in a mavelous title: Love's Refrain. Along with the contract was a lot of other paperwork, and in one, I had to provide a tagline, sometimes known as a logline. It's basically a one or two sentence summary of the book's essence. For some reason, that's where I got stuck. It took two days to come up with a short (25 words or less) description of what the story is about.

Author Lynn Cahoon runs several blogs, and among them is one called The Log Line Blog. Each day she features a different book and its log line. Authors are invited to submit their books to be included in her lineup, and today she's featuring my latest release, The Calico Heart, written with my awesome writing partner Stephanie Michels.  I'd like to encourage you to look at the books she has featured and leave a comment or two. Each comment puts you in the drawing for a monthly prize: a $20 Amazon gift certificate! You can get an awful lot of ebooks for $20, so go on over and leave several comments on the books featured in May.

Here's the link: http://theloglineblog.blogspot.com/

I'm Hard at Work on this - Oh look!

My psychologist daughter says that I am not ADHD, but I've always had a hard time sticking to what I should be doing. Right now I SHOULD complete two manuscripts, both sequels to books I've already written. Both stories are outlined and at least 50 percent complete. I need to finish them so that I can submit them and do the promotional dance necessary for keeping my name in the public eye. And I need to finish them so that I can cross them off my to-do list and feel the sense of completion. Whatever.

But as my profile says, I'm happiest when I'm starting a new project. And my publisher threw out a call for submissions of a specific type of story. And the deadline is in three weeks. I thought about it for about ten minutes and a germ of an idea entered my head. And before I knew it I was plotting and planning and researching. A new Scrivener document is started and I've got the first chapter written. Knowing me, I'll have the ending finished by the end of the week. Which means I will have two weeks to write everything in between.

Meanwhile, my two sequels are screaming at me, "Why have you abandoned us?" Sometimes I feel like I'm back in my mom-with-young-kids stage, when I'd be reading with one kid and the other one would need something right now. I'm amazed that they've both turned out to be fairly normal. And then there's social media. I spend WAAYYYY too much time finding out where everyone is, what they're having for dinner, songs that they're thinking about, and the general health of everyone I know and everyone they know. I also get a lot of email I don't need, and in order to find the emails I do need, I have to keep deleting the junk ones, and dealing with the writing business ones as soon as I open them.

Maybe there's a chance my books will all get finished, and they'll be great. But that means I'm going to have to concentrate on writing, and not getting distracted by—

Oh, I've got another email! I wonder who it's from.

The "I've Always Wanted to Write a Book" Conference

I am getting excited about the "I've Always Wanted to Write a Book" Conference hosted by GRRWG (that's Grand Rapids Region Writers Group) coming up in October. This is my first writers' conference since being published, so I'm going with the goal of promoting, rather than searching for a publisher. There is going to be a booksigning event, and I hope to participate (that's paperwork in my "to do" pile).

It's going to be a great time! Even though the conference is a whole 13 miles from my house, I'm spending the night at the hotel, so I can mingle with my writing friends. We'll have some great speakers, and a lot of give-aways (otherwise known as SWAG – Stuff We All Get).

I wanted to add something to the goody bag, so I made a bunch of pseudo-book thongs out of stuff I already had. I used my business cards, some ribbon, and some paper cutouts (they're cheaper and easier to handle than beads). On the back of the business cards I attached a sticker (address labels from Vista Print) featuring a picture of my book cover. I hope people like them! The picture above isn't a great shot, but you get the idea.

So anyway, if you've always wanted to write a book, go to the GRRWG blog and register online! Here's the link:

The BIC Method

This week I'm getting a lot of BIC time. That's a technique I heard about from another writer. The acronym stands for "Bottom In Chair". The B actually stands for something else, but that's what I'll call it. Anyway, the BIC technique is crucial for finishing my writing projects. Unfortunately it's also an easy way to waste time.

I'm participating in a Writers' Retreat at Grand Valley. It's offered for faculty members three times a year, and even though I'm an adjunct, I've managed to snag a spot every year. First priority is given to full-time faculty who are writing their dissertations or other scholarly writing projects. If there aren't enough takers to fill all the spots, the opportunity is opened to the rest of us. We're each given a six foot table, a place to plug in our laptops, fed lunch, and given all the coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and snacks we can consume. It's a wonderful opportunity!

So far this week I've finished a short story, revised two chapters on my six-year-old work in progress, and started a new project. Just like at home, where I have a dozen craft projects in various stages of completion, I tend to jump from manuscript to manuscript. I always thought I was ADD!

On the down side, with internet access here, I've also racked up a lot of facebook time, as well as game time. I have to really watch that. But I try to limit myself - I don't allow myself to play a game until I've written at least five hundred words. Or I don't check facebook more than once every few hours. That seems to help. And my compulsion to write every day at 750words.com helps to ensure that I do actually write SOMETHING.

So I guess the BIC method works for me, as long as I put limits on myself.

Please come back tomorrow for my Sweet Saturday Sample! I'm joining over two dozen writers who will offer a glimpse into their works.

Putting Myself Out There

I'm continuing to network and meet other authors. Most of the meetings are virtual. I joined a facebook group of authors from my publisher, Astraea Press. It looks like I joined at a great time. Someone came up with the idea of posting short excerpts of our writing on a regular basis, and linking our blogs together so that readers can hop from blog to blog, sampling our writing and perhaps finding an author or two that they like. The idea is that readers will purchase some of our publications. And our blogs will get more readers, too.

The discussion resulted in the creation of "Sweet Saturday Samples". Each week we sign up to join, and each Saturday we post our samples. You, as a reader, can go to the "Headquarters" from which you can choose an author (either a familiar one, or one at random) and read the sample from her blog. When you're finished, leave a comment if you like, close that window, and then you'll be back at the main page from which you can choose another author's work. Last week twenty-four authors participated. I know I got more traffic than usual at my blog, because I had nine readers leave comments!

I'm excited about this new adventure. Since my body of written work isn't large, it's going to keep me on my toes. I'm going to have to share excerpts from things that haven't even been submitted, let alone published. But I'm hoping to get a lot of experience form this. It's going to keep me accountable, and it's definitely going to keep me writing! And that's what it's all about.

Give it a try tomorrow! Go to www.sweetsatsamples.wordpress.com and enjoy a great weekend of reading. All the excerpts are supposed to be G-rated, and should contain a warning if the book itself is not. Have fun! Be sure to leave comments if you enjoy what you read.

A New Challenge

Tomorrow I am going to start writing a new book. I still don't have my first book done. Or my second, or my third. But I'm going to start another one. Why? Because I have been challenged.

For the second year, my writers' group is issuing a challenge that we call Winter Nano. It's loosely modeled after the National Novel Writing Month, which occurs in November. Most of us have too many family obligations to participate and complete a novel in November, so we decided to do this in a slower month. The challenge is to write 32,000 words in 28 days, or 1143 words per day. That's a lot of writing, especially since most of us have jobs and/or school to take up the bulk of each day. But we're taking it on.

Last year, I completed the challenge by doing a lot of planning. I outlined my story, decided on not only the characters' names, but their issues, and wrote it all out. And then when the time came, I simply followed my outline, fleshing it out into actual scenes. And the writing happened. I loved it!

So this year, I'm working on a sequel. I have characters, and a conflict. I'm not sure it's a strong one, but I'm adding to the outline each day. And tomorrow I will open a blank document and start writing. I hope. At the end of the month I will have three stories completed, and needing editing. I'm about halfway done preparing the first one for submitting. (That was supposed to be done by January, but life got in the way - I'm still doing it!) And then if I get on a roll, I'll work on the second, and then the third, and then somebody will love all three books and publish them!

Dreams are wonderful. Making the dreams into reality requires work. Right now I've got the momentum, and that makes me happy. Wish me luck!

It's the Year of the Rabbit!

This is the Year of the Rabbit. It follows the year of the Tiger, and I understand this is supposed to be a year of calm after the tempestuous Tiger. Sounds good to me! I can use some calm – it’s a great setting for writing.

The Year of the Rabbit is also providing writing material for me. So far I've written a blog post for my writing group about it, and I dreamed up a theme for my monthly Scrapbooking club. It’s my turn to host, so I’m going with the Year of the Rabbit theme. So it's on my mind as I write this post. I'm gathering stuffed rabbits to decorate the place, preparing rabbit themed treats (fresh veggies and a carrot cake), and making rabbit door prizes.

I'm thinking rabbits. And I'm trying to get some writing done. Rabbits are prolific, so maybe that will apply to my writing this year. I’m trying to get things prepared for my writing group’s annual winter challenge, in which we each resolve to write 32,000 words in one month. That’s 1143 words per day, for 28 days in a row. I’ll have to hustle like a rabbit to get that done!

As I write, I'm sitting here in my recliner, dressed in my flannel jammies, my thick winter socks and slippers, and a nice beat-up dingy cardigan around my shoulders. I'm like a rabbit, burrowed in to my home. But unlike the rabbits, who sleep in their burrows, I'm at work. I'm using the time to keep my mind busy, creating worlds, thinking, dreaming, expressing.

It's cold outside (at least here in Michigan), but inside the fires are burning, and there's work to do.

Time to Get to Work!

Enough is enough.

I have been slogging away at this manuscript for over five years, and it is still not finished. So I now have a new writing goal. I will finish this novel by Christmas. I will write the words “the end” and move on to another project. I’ve got several choices, thanks to my writing group. And I will finish a second project by March 31. I will finish a third project by June 30.

In July I will go to New York City to attend the National Convention of the Romance Writers of America, where I will suck in my pride and pitch these novels to agents and editors. And hopefully I will get somewhere. I need to turn this “hobby” into a bigger, more vital part of my life. If I want to be a writer, I have to write. And I have to write things that people will read.

I will keep my daily musings in my 750 Words a Day rantings, and I will post my innermost thoughts about the creative process here on my blog, but I need to get my books done so I can find out if my stories are any good. Maybe I’ll be disappointed and won’t get anywhere, but I have to try.

And if nothing else, I’ll get a chance to visit the Big Apple.

The Right to Write

This week I’m attending a Writer’s Retreat at GVSU. I’m privileged to be here among the learned elite of the university. The retreat is intended for professors who are completing doctoral dissertations, but unused seats are allotted to us lesser faculty/staff members who are working on other writing projects. I applied for an empty seat and got it. So here I am, sitting in front of my laptop, in a large quiet room full of other people doing the same. We’ll be here from 8 am to 5 pm every day, Monday through Friday.

I have a plan. I know what I need to research to make my stories authentic. I have specific goals for each day so I don’t spend time each morning wondering what to work on. I have my own laptop and a comfortable cushion for my chair. I have my favorite “working tunes” downloaded on itunes, and my headphones. The university is going to feed me lunch each day and keep an endless supply of munchies, water, coffee and tea available each day. So my physical needs are covered.

The only thing I need to supply is my creativity. And that’s the scary part. I’ve been working on this historical novel for five years. The contemporary novel has been brewing for almost a year. What if I never finish them? What if I finish them and they’re awful?

I guess I need to console myself with the idea that the only person I really need to please is me. Even if nobody else likes my writing, I’ll have completed a life goal of finishing a book. And that’s something to be happy about.