Almost Halloween...

Well, here it is almost Halloween and I'm no further along on the WIP than the last time I checked in. Amazing.

However, I do tend to visit many of my characters around holidays. It's actually kind of fun to look at the holiday through the lens of another. For those that have either read Soul of Evil or Tales of Bedlam, or have encountered the characters... well at least Nick... you'll understand why he'd come to mind this time of year. Those that have encountered him in some form or another would assume that this would be a favorite holiday for him... what with the dark and spooky and all. As Nick would say, assuming is tacky.

Dark.. I'll give that. He's a biiiig fan of dark. Spooky, not so much, though he does tend to smile scaring the hell out of someone. No, he's not a nice guy! He actually looks at Halloween from a slightly older stand point. It's a celebration yes, but it's also a time that he tends to reflect a bit. Yes, yes, in that dark broody way.

Of course there is a party and it's true to Nick. Elegant, expensive, classy and with a surprise for dessert. Yes, Nick knows how to dance... sheesh. Yes, people do clamour to attend it. He's oddly popular. Least you think him all dark, let me paint a picture for you.

He'd be dressed in deep green, creams and copper. Velvets and silks. A eye catching sight as he glides easily through the guests, glass in hand. Light from hundreds of candles reflect off his hair and add a sparkle to his eyes. Music playing delicately in the background.

Get the picture? Not the dark, spooky image I'm sure you had in mind.

However, even I cannot see him handing out candy to kids. It's not he has anything against kids, it's that he's not fond of candy frankly.  I also have a hard time seeing him attempting to carve a pumpkin. I think there would be a fair amount of hissing and lip curling frankly.

I, on the other hand, am going to be passing out candy tomorrow night. We don't get a lot of kids at my house, so the few that come by will get a handful. The weather and the fact it falls in the middle of the week kinda bone the holiday.

Who knows.... maybe some of the other characters will drop by... I never know.

Just popping in...

The spirit is willing but the flesh... not so much. Frankly with life being what it is I haven't gotten a lick of anything done on Restart. I mean nothing.

I'm now at the point where I look at myself and ask if I am really a writer... or if I just want to be seen that way so badly that I've deluded myself.

Aren't writers... real writers I mean... supposed to like writ frequently? At least every other day or so. That's sure what it seems like it's supposed to be. Me... I have all this life stuff going on... work and family and stuff. I never seem to be able to let my mind relax enough to actually go into creative mode any more.

So.. am I a fraud? Am I deluding myself? Who knows.... frankly at this point, who cares. I suppose eventually I'll get back to the writing... not that there is a major rush... I don't have people beating down my door for my work... hell... sadly my own family hasn't even read my first book.

I feel I'm a ... I dunno what... fraud I guess is the only word. I'm sharing this and it'd be nice if someone out there in cyber-space commented.... maybe gave me some hope or something, but I'm not holding my breath.

Another long gap I know...

Between life and the muse wandering off, things creatively have been quiet. This morning however feels different. I don't mean that there is this sudden uncontrollable urge to put 5,000 words together, but... I think I hear the Muse tip-toeing back.

She creeps in on feet of gentle silence and pale fog. She waits in the calm peace of home. She whispers softly in the calm gaze of cats. Yes, she is definitely nearby.

I woke up this morning, stretched, winced and got up. Typical morning stuff. Not a thought of writing or anything like that in my mind. I made coffee, fed cats and did post-op exercises.So far so good. Then it hit... I wanted to go get Krispy Kreme donuts for all of us! WTF? Oh well, why not, right? It was fun dressing and quietly slipping out of the house whilst the troops slept. A short drive, no traffic and decent tunes on the radio. Fantastic. I end up getting a dozen donuts (okay I had a generous, weak moment) and headed home.

Funny the things that trigger creativity. Taylor Swift on the radio... followed by Nickleback. I dunno.. just sort of got me mentally relaxed I guess. A sense of peace as I snuck... well tried to sneak... back into the house. Husbands can smell donuts apparently even in a deep sleep.

I touched base with the household... a.k.a. informed the teenager of the donuts. Note to self: possible alarm clock message for teenager. Through all of this the whisper in the back of my mind strengthened to write. With second cup of coffee in hand I leaned against the front door frame and just looked at the misty silence that is rare on our street.

So, here I now sit, writing this post and smiling. Teenager is back in its den, husband has yet to re-stir himself and the cat has taken over the watching out the door, and I... I write this little thing. It's a start... again.

I dunno... I write these bits of things in the vague hope that they will help someone along their own writing journey, or more realistically because I want to write, even if it isn't my WIP.

Back on track...

Well, that was a fun break. Time to get writing again though. The past couple of days I've actually gotten work done on Restart. Amazing, I know.

It's been hard to get back in the swing though, with so much going on around me. First there was end of school year and camping. Followed by several doctors appointments and wondering when things would arrive from the East. Then there was... oye! I think we get the picture. Needless to say a good portion of those things are resolved. My house looks like I'm moving (though in or out is hard to tell) and I still have pending things but... I can write. Which means I've done all the outside stuff I can.

It's nice to get lost once more amoungst the streets of Seattle and in building this story. I forget how relaxing it is. Oddly, if I get nothing else done during the day, if I have made some progress on the story then I feel like I've done something good.

Dusk is falling as I write this. I look outside and see the growing purples of the evening and I am content. It wasn't much writing, only a page or so... but it was writing. In the end, that's what really counts.

As Scarlett O'Hara would say... "Tomorrow is another day."

Notes on Camping

Every year we go on vacation, just hubby and I. This year we got to use the in-laws camper and stay at a KOA. While we take the laptops, we don't as a rule spend too much time on them. However, the writing bug bites where it will soo... I began to note briefly some of the more interesting events over the five days of vacation. I also began some vague sketches, but am just too tired and lazy to scan them and include them. Maybe later, however I have added in links to some of the interesting things as I could find them. In any event, what follows is a short summery of our advantures.

Camping - Five days of hilarity?

Day 1 - Setting up (Mon)
Arrived at about 1 pm. Camper went up fine. Getting the pilot light lit on the other hand took a bit more time. Two hours later mission accomplished. The awning was wet and slightly mildewed! We had a bit of a problen with the power and it looked like we weren't going to have heat until I went and looked at the box and realized we had to flip Both breakers on! Ate a late dinner of steak and beans and went to bed with heat!

Day 2 - Water water everywhere! (Tue)
OMG! Are you serious? Sitting outside this morning and noticed things dripping. Went in and looked in the tub thing and discovered that the fawcets had been turned on and the tub had like three inches of water in it! This of course soaked everything that had been stored in there! Spent morning hauling wet stuff out of it, draining the tub and in general bitching. Finally departed to explore town and get universal remote and shower shoes. Spent most of the day in Port Angeles, wandering, shoping and eating. Rescued a dragon, bought colored pencils and had fun. Returned late afternoon and went to the hot tub, then showers. Was joined in early evening by several caterpillars.

Day 3 - So far so good? (Wed)
Woke early to sunshine. Planning on going to rainforest and Hurrican Ridge today. However, ended up doing rainforest and Dungeness Spit instead. Both were totally awesome. No flaws or crazy escapades. Well.. sort of. Once more Dungeness Spit tried to foil us. Needed exact change.. only had a fiver. Tried to see if someone could break the fiver and ended up basically being snuck in..LOL. I have three small rocks from the Spit and got to stare into Canada. Oh! Saw a black slug in the rainforest! I mean pitch black! It was kewl looking!

Day 4 - Oh wow..(Thurs)
Today was.... amazing. We drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Forest. For half the drive up we were stuck behind this bloody tour bus, which to it's credit made fairly decent time but still. Once it pulled into a turn out we made better time. I wish I could describe the scenery on the drive up, but I REALLY had to keep my eyes on the road. We got to the visitors center and... and... I have no words for the sheer magnificense of the Olympics. Vast, regal, proud, free... the words are too small to encompass the sheer vastness of them. Due to what we wore and the snow we dared
not hike all the way to the top of the ridge. We saw black-tailed deer, some as close as a few feet. The drive back down the mountains was more of a coasting. I want to go back. Back at camp we found neighbors. Boo, hiss! Went to hot tub for a bit, then built a fire, roasted hotdogs and just relaxed. Tomorrow is last full day.

Day 5 - And the end... (Fri)
Woke up late-ish. Sun shining and warm. Today is the day to loaf about the camp site, which we did. Made pancakes, the last two eggs and the last piece of bacon. Later went to pool and hot tub. I kept my hair up so I didn't have to wash it again. Took some time to study how water moves. It's... advanced. After swimming, came back to camper and laid in the sun for a bit and studied the little pine tree by our site. Also saw more caterpillers. It's been a nice day, warm and sunny. It's evening now and the clouds are drifting in. Planning hot sandwiches for dinner and then to start the packing process. We depart tomorrow morning. It's been fun.

Day 6 - Home again, home again (Sat)
Rained like mad overnight, but stopped before dawn. Somewhere around 2 or 3 AM someone pulled into the spot next to us. They backed in. Huge camper thing. Noisy truck. All I could think of was "Please don't hit my car or this camper." They didn't and I went back to sleep. Finally got up at 7 ish and began packing. In the course of closing up the camper we saved three or four caterpillers! Yay! Got on the road by 10:45 ish. Didn't actually get into house though till 4:30 ish. Lunch with folks and a bit of shopping on the way home delayed us. House was still standing when we arrived.
Cats and child glad to see us. Lots of laundry and memories. Note to self, do this agin.. but without the floods and breakers and such.

Break-through?

For a while now I've been "stuck" as far as making real progress with Restart. Oh I've prodded and dabbled with dialog in some sections, but no"brilliant" ideas.

It's the serial killer aspect. My mind doesn't work that way. I know this. I've been researching and reading and thinking about it for months. Frankly I wasn't getting anywhere, but as it's a fairly large section of the story I felt it rather important to make some sort of progress toward it; which I hadn't.

Yesterday, just before I had to actually stop playing around and get ready to go earn a paycheck I took a last shot at it. Actually, I decided to see what a timeline of it might look like. Don't know why I didn't think of doing that before.. I'll chalk it up to grief. In any event, so I start with the timeline thing ad it brought up an interesting question in an interesting way... what is the "average" number of victims for a serial killer and how often?

Back to the web I go.. but its a vague question and I'm really no further than I had been. Again I realize that I just don't understand enough about serial killers to do one justice. As I sat there frustrated a thought drifted through my mind... wish there was a template for one...

Ahhhhhhhhhh....

Just realized

For all my blathering about Restart, I've yet to put up a synopsis, or at least the working one. I posted it to my writers group, but nowhere else. Probably because at the time I didn't have any place else.

So, I'm going to fix that and hope that my idea doesn't... well, let's not borrow trouble eh?

I'm introducing a host of new characters: Peyton, Thaedra, Galena and an as yet un-named serial killer, plus a host of minor characters.

I've set it here... in Seattle! Hey, they say write what you know and I kinda know the area, so it counts!

So, once more into the breach dear friends!

The general synopsis goes something like this:
  
Peyton DeLaChat liked Seattle. He liked the weather, the scenery and the blissful obscurity. It helped that he'd visited the area before he relocated there. Getting settled was easy, even with no real plan in mind other than reinvent himself. Preferably with as little drama as possible. When women from the area's battered women shelters are being found dead, it wasn't personal, just news. When one of them from his daughter Galena’s shelter is one though, it becomes personal. When he encounters a woman from an old family, who's hunting a drug cartel for fun, life gets distinctly unsettled and annoyingly dramatic.

Well here it is, Sunday evening, the end of a fairly quiet weekend. I've got a clean house and clean clothes and clean dishes. What I don't have is a sense of having gotten a darn thing done! It's annoying. I want to write.. to spend time with my charactures and just see what happens. Sadly, life has a funny way of happening.

I started a new job last week. Working with kids who aren't as up to speed in reading, writing and 'rithmatic, as they used to say. Good kids, but hard work too.

But I digress.. So I haven't gotten writing done. That doesn't mean I've been idle. I've been promoting where I can, tweeting and the like. It's going well I guess.. kind of hard to tell. I did make Soul of Evil available via LuLu  this past week... well okay... late last night. I wonder if I can make the time to create a promo poster for the books?

Oh! My small triumph.. both Soul of Evil and Tales of Bedlam are available through Barnes & Noble!! I feel important now. If you got to te website and type my name in both books show up! It's exiting.

Maybe this next week I'll get work done on Restart. I'd like to. I miss hanging with the charactures in it. They are a much lighter bunch than in Soul. Well... yeah a much lighter bunch, even in their darkest moment they are lighter.

So, Sunday night and the start of a new week. Anything could happen.

Tales of Bedlam Mary Rice

Tales of Bedlam Mary Rice The link is via trindiebooks.com! Lovely people over there! I woke this morning to a delightful  email from Shawna, informing me of my books inclusion on their site and that it was featured for today!

I stumbled across them while looking for ways to promote both books actually. I saw that they handled books that were offered through kobo.com (another neat place) that were free. Hey hey hey says I, I have one of those. So I filled out the little form and really didn't think muc more of it, as I started a new job this past week (more on that in another post folks!) The email this morning brough a smile and a small tear to my eye.

So, to those that are looking for more exposure... for their books!... sheesh.... give trindiebooks a shot. To Shawna and the rest over at trindie a huge huge thank you!!

More hard work

Okay, maybe not hard work as in sweating but still... I'm trying my poor hand at promoting via Twitter. It's an interesting experience... which I'm enjoying, least anyone take this wrong. :) However... all Twitter and no writing do make progress umm...  well... not happen.

To be fair though since I messed my back up this past weekend I haven't felt like much, except pain killers. I've learned that even thinking about writing when one has taken Vicodin just doesn't work. Hey, sharing my poor wisdom here...

I also am suspecting I've hit a pausing point yet again, where I stare at what I've written thus far and go "Uhhhh..." I hate when that happens.. I really really hate it.  What makes it more annoying to me is that I'm writting this in sections. So I look at each section and still get nada! Least you are thinking one or two, let me clarify that it's more like four or five (I think I've lost count). Bleh!

Perhaps later, or.. oh wait, no this weekend, which is busy... umm... well bother. I guess for now I'll go back and poke more at Twitter and tweets and such until something hits me.

Just stuff

Well for one, I changed the look of the blog!  In case you hadn't noticed I thought I'd point that out. It fits this a bit better. Next... after careful thought I've decided to do another print run of Soul of Evil, via CafePress. It's far more expensive to buy it in hard copy than digitally, but it isn't costing me a thing either way, except time.

Soul of Evil - Hard copy

Share the link...tell people about it.. heck, a comment here would be wonderful!

End of shameless promotion! I've actually done some real work on Restart...yay me! More dialog, furthering the story and researching resturants. The last I should do personally, buuut... a little hard to get into Seattle right now, so it'll have to wait.

I've also been poking at the cover a bit. I don't know that I'm thrilled with it. Again, I'd value your thoughts and/or comments on it.

I'm back?

Writing isn't always about progressing a story. Yes, I just realized this today. While I'm not back to the point of dazzling dialog, I have managed to define a timeline for events.

Time is weird. When you sit down and just pound out stories, you don't consciously think about the length of time it takes events to happen. It's only when you start cobbling them together that you have to go, "Wait, which came first?" At least for me that's how it happens... well for this story at least. When I write the story, I see it happening at the speed that I think of it in, when the reality of it could be weeks or months. It's just weird to me.

So, for the record, as it stands now the events in Restart take about two years! Sounds like a long time, but look at your own life and think about how much has happened in the past two years.

Hard to get back

Well... it's officially a "dry spell". I managed to write one sentance in the past week... I think. I rarely find it hard to slip away to visit with my chars, but recent event make visiting with them difficult at best. I can't even think of what else to put here.

Last weekend was the memorial for my father, who passed earlier this year. I don't know what else there is to say on that. It was wonderful and painful all at the same time. A lot of memories and kind words; and family. We also took a day and went sight seeing. Hey, hubby hadn't seen D.C! One day just isn't enough though... in case you were wondering. The reason I even mention this is that we visited the Lincoln Memorial; which I'd never seen.While there I picked up a book of quotes by Lincoln.

They aren't flowery or overblown. They are simple.. mostly.. and very powerful. They impart truths in a stright forward way that makes a deeper impact upon a person. Some of his words can be applied to many walks of life, not just politics or war.

So... here we are... trying to find our way back to words and ideas and writing. I'll get there... there is no deadline, except for what I impose upon myself.

The little things...

It really is about the little things in life, especially with writing. Since I've been using Smashwords and re-formatting my work for ebooks, it's been a roller coaster ride. I hate roller coasters frankly.

This morning though; as I struggle back from a touch of stomach bug; I go and check my Smashwords and lo and behold... Soul of Evil is FINALLY in the premium catalog. So, in a couple weeks Soul of Evil will be available also through Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple and Diesel! To me that's a big deal.  I'd like to pretend I'll be humble and say I don't expect it to fly off the shelves, so to speak... but I do hope sales pick up. I do have to try and be realistic here.

So, with the small triumph singing along my veins I brace myself for a long flight, some sad dealings and maybe eventually a bit of writing on Restart.

Really?

Funny how you think something is going to happen and then POOF! Nothing happens the way you thought. If life were like writing, well... okay maybe not.

I thought... hoped... that I would get progress made on my latest project, which I've given the working title of Restart. Instead I spent the first three days of the break not feeling well and engrossed in reading. Spent the next couple days with a screaming migraine. That took me to the end of the break, Easter and here we are. It sucked!

Actually though I did get some progress made. I added a whole two pages! Might not sound like much, but you try writing with a migraine! Anywho... I'm pleased with some of the dialog and that at least the scene is moving forward.

So maybe... maybe the break wasn't as bad as I first thought. Huh...

Hope?

Well, we are on the edge of Spring Break. That means writing time... I hope. It's funny, when I have no time, the urge hits, when I have nothing but time... eh. This writing thing is mercurial at best. To be fair... I haven't exactly pushed myself to write either.

Funny how that happens. I'll write, write, write... ignoring everyone and everything and then... POOF! I'm engrossed in reading something and the urge to write slips to the back. Then it flips back. Perhaps this is part of the creative process for me? I am pretty sure that I've heard or read somewhere that the good writers are also voracious readers.

So what am I reading? One of my favorite authors, Jacquline Carey.

Anyway, Spring Breaks have traditionally been productive times for me. The foundation for Soul of Evil was done over a Spring Break for instance. So I'll cross my fingers and hope that this one will be as well.

Frustrating!

Gah! It's one of Those sorts of days.. where all I want to do is stay in my fuzzy bathrobe and write like a fiend! Instead, I have to force myself to get dressed and actually go out and... work! :::gasp:::

I never know when this will happen... but I do know it rarely happens on say.. a weekend. Noooo.. it hits during the week! So, here I sit, happily writing this, glancing at the clock and wishing I could just call out and stay home and write. Mind you, I'm no sure what exactly I want to write... the Muse is rarely specific... but I am definately feeling the strong urgings.

Do I need the money? Yes and at the same time, not really. I mean.. money is always delightful and it's not like I'm raking in big bucks from my humble writings so far, but at the same time, my income isn't the only one and frankly... my car insurance is paid for the month and the kitties have food. Gas money... there's the rub!!

Seven minutes to make a decision. Did I mention I am not keen on deadlines?

What to do with...

I like St. Patrick's Day.. I do. I'd like it bunches more if I hadn't one something kinda silly this year. Along time ago... in a fictional tavern a young man met a young woman and they fell in love.

Cliche I know... but it happened, and I wrote part of it along with many friends. See, here I go getting all sad and stuff. Okay, so unlike so many stories that start that way, this take ended with the woman dying and the man going off to go quietly insane for a period of time. Yeah... So I actually re-read some of that stuff yesterday, including (I know, I know.. dumb ass..) the scene where the woman died.

Now I can hear the thoughts... they're just fictional characters, so what. Because, those events were written by real people and were a shadowed cover for real life events. No I didn't go insane.. sheesh...  however, the sadness still lingers a bit.

So where was I going with this again? Oh yeah... so I have all this stuff drifting through my brain as I'm trying to have fun and laugh and what all. I have no idea what the heck to do with it!!! I want to... write more on it... or publish parts... something. I can't in good conscious publish a lot of it because I haven't been able to talk it over with the original author (she just had a baby! Congrats to her!).. I don't have a lot of the files to just go on with it... and as sure as there are little green apples I'm NOT writing out the death scene!

So where does that leave me? Not a damn clue. Some days the Muse sucks!

When life happens

Life does happen even to the most dedicated of writers. Things like taxes, relationships, births, deaths etc ... The trick is to find a way to not get so lost in them the we can't find our way back to writing. Sometimes it takes a while, but some times... sometimes it's the very act of writing that gets us through those times. For those that the act helps, it doesn't matter what you write, as long as you write.

I'm a weird hybrid of both. There are some life events that writing gets me through the pain and helps to heal (where do you think Tales of Bedlam came from?), and then there are other events that are so painful that the mind just shuts down to process them. For me of late, well... I've poked at the current project and made some progress I guess... but I'm not on a deadline, so I can allow myself the time to just slink through the greiving process and write as the Muse dictates. I'm good with that.

Weather, distractions and other ramblings

It's snowing. A week till spring and it's snowing! It's just too bizarre.  It's also horribly distracting. I keep telling myself to get to work on the latest project, but all that runs through my head is that it's snowing. Well, maybe not All... but mostly. The rest is pondering how assorted characters would react.

I do that a lot. Look at things or events in my life and wonder what or how any of my characters would react or handle them. If I'm very lucky a small grain of those thoughts stays with me long enough for me to jot it down and start to build on it. I have  so many little snippets of thoughts written down it's a bit disturbing actually. Many of them with dialog.

Speaking of which, for some reason people that have read my stuff are impressed with the naturalness of my dialog. I'm still not sure why. What is so hard about writing dialog? For me it's like breathing. I'm siting some place with the characters and listening to them talk. Doesn't everyone do that? No? Huh... Maybe it's that my characters stem from deep in me and I'm close to them.

That's one explanation I suppose... Well, I should wander back to hanging out with a few old friends and see what they have to say.

And so it begins...

The perception that publishing your writing as an eBook is easy needs to be erased! Until recently I though formatting my writing to be printed was a tedious process, but with this last round of adjustments and re-formatting I am changing my mind.
It probably wouldn't have taken as long, but the stupid phone keeps ringing. Okay, the first call was personal family stuff. Necessary and I wasn't about the run them off. The second call though... I am grateful to my friends who sort of understand that I sometimes just need for them to shut up and go away.
So, this round of edits is done and now we wait with baited breath and crossed fingers. I'll deal with the other ebook later.

In the begining...

I'm not much on this blogging thing. I just get so wrapped up in life and stuff I guess that I forget. Therefore, if my posts are sporadic and rambling, well... yeah. My hope here is to share some of my creative process and perceptions. Only time will tell if there is any interest in that huh? Maybe I can find some sort of daily prompt to write about?