I’ve neglected the blog again. I’m not even sure why I keep it other than the fact it’s a distraction when I don’t want to be working…like now. Lol

I’m in edits at the moment (which I loathe) on a story that will be released, Aug. 3rd. It’s book one of a 4 book series. I’ll talk more about it when it gets closer to the release date. I don’t want to jinx it yet. 😉

I rarely talk about anything here other than my writing so today I thought I’d share a few facts about me and my real life. You know, the boring stuff people always like to know.

* I just celebrated my 40th birthday this year!
* I’m a wife of 21 years. I married my high school sweetheart, if you can believe that.
* I work a regular 40-hour a week job, one of which I enjoy.
* I have 1 daughter, age 20, who has moved out on her own and gave me this nice office I now sit in. (the new office is in her old bedroom)
* My son, 19, still lives at home. He’s a self-taught guitarist and I love listening to him play. He plays by ear but writes his own songs as well as playing others’ music.
* I have 1 grandbaby, Hayden, who is a special needs baby. He’ll be 3 in July and still cannot talk. He’s missing a gene and they believe that is the reason he can’t speak. He’s learning to sign and I must admit, that is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Every week he learns a new ‘sign’ and we all learn it as well.
* The only sibling I have is a sister, who is 1 yr. younger than me. We’re the same age for 12 days out of the year. Her bday is April 3 and mine is April 15.
* My great uncle, on my father’s side, ran with Al Capone.
* I caught the writing bug in 2002, getting my start in fan-fiction. My first published story was in 2005. I’ve written a total of 8 complete novels and 7 novellas, all of which are not published. Yes, I’m a slow writer, but you already knew that. 😉
* I’ve lived in North Carolina all my life. I’m a 4 hour drives away from the mountains AND the beach.
* My ultimate vacation spot would be Greece. My husband will not fly, so I doubt I’ll ever be able to visit.

So…there you go. A few facts about me that you didn’t know. If there’s anything I haven’t mentioned and you’d like to know, don’t hesitate to ask. Chances are, I’ll answer…unless it’s too personal, of course. 😉

Since finishing the new office my muse decided he needed a break. O_o Like the 2 week break he had while I was painting, ripping up old carpet, and waiting for furniture delivery wasn’t enough for him.

Before starting the office, I was working on an old story…one I had stalled on a while back and left. It was flowing again and coming along nicely. Then the office refurb came up and the muse took a vacation. 2 weeks later and he still hadn’t come home to play. I opened up another story; read it all from beginning to end and BAM…my muse came rushing home!

I managed a good 1,300 words last night. That’s more than I’ve written in the last month, sadly, and the flow hasn’t stopped yet. I may actually get this story finished before 2010! It’s due to release in August *bites nails* We’ll see how that all works out.

I’ve been purposely ignoring the Internet for the past couple of weeks. Every time I release a new book I always get very melancholy for some reason. I’m not sure why but it’s been that way from the beginning…even back when I wrote fanfic.

I decided to take a little break and do something I’ve wanted to do for years and now, here I sit in my Brand New Shiny Office!!

My daughter moved out a few months ago to start her own life and her bedroom has been sitting empty ever since. I decided if I was ever going to get that office, I would have to do it myself, so I did.

My new office is a very pleasant, pale yellow trimmed in white. I have a new bookcase to house my numerous books; a new ‘L’ shaped desk to house all my junk, and for the first time ever, a high-speed connection! I just need to get all my things hauled up the stairs and we’ll be ready to write again…I hope. Hehehee

It feels odd to be up here and not surrounded by clutter. My desk used to be in my bedroom, shoved into a corner with all my crap just piled up on the corners. Now I have all this space, bright walls and plenty of light. I keep looking around, seeing all the changes and would be intent on just sitting here, staring at it all. But that isn’t it’s purpose. I created MY space to write. A place to call my own. A place where my imagination can run wild. Let’s hope it all works!

So, what do you think? I gave the blog a makeover. I liked the other layout but all the gray was starting to depress me. lol This one is bright and cheers me up a bit. After the week I’ve had, I need some cheering up.

Have you ever said something or done something you regret afterwards? I’m not talking, “Oh I wish I wouldn’t have said that,” and move on…I’m talking, wishing you hadn’t done it to the point it makes you physically ill. Well, that has been my week. Something happened at work this week and I made a wrong decision. I’ve regretted it ever since. I’ve lost sleep over it actually. I get sick to my stomach if I dwell on it too much. I’m not sure what will happen but if the shit hits the fan, so to speak, I’ll have no one to blame but myself. *sigh* It’s been a lesson I won’t forget though. Don’t say anything until you’ve thought about it first.

It’s not so much what I said, but the repercussion of what I said. I think that’s why it makes me sick. One stupid mistake will cause me so much trouble. Like life isn’t hard enough. Worst part is…I did it to myself. Much easier when we can blame our grief on someone/something else.

Nothing I can do about it now but wait for the fallout. I’ll probably be a nervous wreck before all is said and done. As if I wasn’t crazy enough. LOL I’ll just add this to my list of, Stupid Life Lessons.

I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. I’m not the first person to do something monumentally stupid, right?

My first published story, A Touch of Heaven, was released in 2005. My second, a short story for Whiskey Creek Press Torrid, was released in 2007. My third, Destined Hearts, in 2008. Three years and I have 3 stories to show for it. I guess some could say I don’t have what it takes to make it, but I would have to disagree.

I love books. I love to read and I read a lot. Traditional books as well as eBooks. One thing I’ve noticed about eBooks and the authors who write them is the frequency in which they release them. I’ve seen authors with new releases every other month, some even every month. My hats off to those select few for doing something I cannot.

I’ve had stories that take me an entire month just to plot out. Others take months just to organize my thoughts. I often wonder how writers produce a well thought out manuscript in such a short period of time. I’ve always said, “I’m a slow writer.” But I have to wonder if its not so much as I’m slow as others are just fast.

I spent 5 months editing Destined Hearts. Not to mention the years it took to write it. I would get hung-up along the way and put it aside. It actually took me from the first word to the last, 5 years to write. If I broke that down into actual writing time, I’d be safe to say it actually took closer to 6 months. So a good FULL year to write and complete a full novel.

I’m in the process of writing a new story. The release slots get snatched up so fast at Alinar you have to plan ahead. I’ve already taken a date, August in case you’re wondering, but I’m not really sure I’ll be able to make it. I have 5 months to write a complete novel and edit it. To some, I’m sure they could write several in that time frame, but not me. I’ll be lucky to get my first draft done in that time.

I know in the eBook world getting your name out there is key, but I have to wonder if in doing that, authors are really growing as writers. Anyone can slap words on a page and call it a story. Even I can do that, but does it mean it’s a GOOD story?

The majority of problems I find with eBooks are they aren’t as well written as traditional books. Not every eBook, mind you, but the ones I’ve purchased left much to be desired. I actually have 3 that I never even finished reading. The plots were so rushed they were unbelievable. Your hero and heroine can’t meet and the next day be madly in love. It just doesn’t happen like that in the real world, so why would I want it to happen in a fantasy world. Books filled with so much sex it reads like a “How To” guide turns me off a story too. I like sex in my books as much as the next person, but after reading 20 pages of JUST sex, I get bored.

I love a good story but I want it to BE a good story as well. Books that are thrown together on a whim just to sell copies or get your name out there only hurts the writer in the long run. They get sloppy, don’t see the bigger picture, and let their readers down.

I guess one could say an author who produces 20 books a year is a better writer than one who only produces 1 or 2 a year, but I’d have to disagree. I would much rather someone take the time to delve into a character, and take the time telling their story, than fly through it to get to the sequel. It’s okay to slow down and enjoy the process. There are no mad dashes to the finish line. It’s all about the story and giving your readers the best you can is far better than rushing through it and losing the most important parts. Writing a damned good book!

It seems I’ve neglected my blog as of late. Anyone who reads it regularly knows by now I’m apt to do that. Can’t help it. I always have so many things going on, making time to blog just isn’t high on my list of priorities. Heck, I haven’t even filled out my taxes yet and I HAVE to do that! LOL I respond well to food, so throw a girl a cookie once a week and I may hang out here more often. grin

Not much going on in the way of writing. My muse is refusing to work on the story I wanted to do next. He won’t budge. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but no. He wants kinky sex and lots of it. What’s a girl to do? I have an old story I wrote a few years back that I never finished, and that is what the muse wants to play with, so we’ll be getting to work on that soon. Maybe that will satisfy him. Who knows with him. Uh, I’m referring to Benny…my muse. I’ve named him, obviously, and his personality is unpredictable at best. He’s a fat lazy drunkard who has to be enticed to work. He runs off quite regularly and I spend more time trying to find him than I should and when I do track him down, he refuses to do anything. I can usually lure him into writing with the promise of sex…from the characters! Not from me. LOL I guess we’ll just have to see how things go in the next few weeks.

My day job will hopefully be better by mid-April. I work 2nd shift…3:30 to midnight. It sucks beyond the telling of it but I’ve been promised a move to first. My replacement is being trained now. I’ll have better hours once the move is made but that nifty title of ‘supervisor’ will be gone. Oh well. I’ll gladly trade it for a normal life. I feel like a hermit most days. I sleep and work and not much else. I write on the weekends when my domestic goddess duties don’t drag me away. Or my husband. He’s jealous of my computer. Go figure.

I played with my new novel during the edits of Destined Hearts. It was the only thing to keep me sane. Edits suck the life out of you. They aren’t fun by any means. They’re quite depressing, actually. You have to find a distraction and writing is the best distraction I can think of.

The new novel is an older story I started a few years back and got ‘stuck’ on. I never used to plot. I just sat down with idea in hand and wrote. It’s always worked but with the new novel, it didn’t for some reason. It’s probably why it sat dormant for so long. I played and fiddled until I hit a brick wall and couldn’t move forward. I let it sit but those characters kept whispering to me. They wanted their story told so I did something I’ve never done before. I made a story outline. A real one. LOL I have the story all plotted out now. I can see it from beginning to end with a glance through the cards I wrote it on. (Each scene is written on a different index card – thank you Holly Lisle *wink* )

By the time Destined Hearts was finished and published, I had a complete outline and a few thousand words. This past week, I hit another wall. I just could not get past the current scene. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So, I let it sit. I’ve watched more TV this past week than I have in the past month. I rarely watch TV. I haven’t for years.

After trying to think of ‘something’ to put down I glanced up at one point and sitting there in front of me was my index cards…still bound together like they were the day I finished writing them. I realized then I hadn’t touched them. Not once in writing this novel had I looked at those cards. I grabbed them, tossed away the rubber band and started skimming the scenes. Guess what I found? I was trying to write from memory. NOT from my outline. The point I was ‘stuck’ on led in to another scene. A scene I had forgotten about.

My muse came rushing home then. I read the card several times, closed my eyes and saw my original vision and now, I sit here with 9 new pages to my credit. 9 beautiful pages after a week of nothing.

There’s a lesson in this for me. Stop falling into bad habits. Stop trying to write on the fly and use the new knowledge I’ve gained. I’ll get this story finished and it won’t take me five years like the last one did. LOL I’ll have it finished by years end. It has to be. It already has a release date. August 2008. *bites nails*

The dreaded ‘loss of inspiration’ that usually follows a finished book has left me floundering for the past week. It never fails. Whenever I finish a book, I find it hard to start another. Oh, I’ve started another but writing it is like pulling teeth. I can’t seem to get motivated. The desire is there, somewhat, but opening the manuscript accomplishes nothing. I sit here staring at the blinking curser. What I wanted to work on isn’t doing anything for my muse. No, he wants to write vampires and I really don’t want to do that yet. The vamps were later. About 4 books later to be exact. I’m not sure I can get the muse to do anything until I work on it a bit. Maybe a few chapters will please him enough to get back on track.