Changing It Up...

So now that I finished writing, I took a moment to really look closely at my website. And you know what, it looked way too bubble gum for me. I thought... I look like I'm a fourteen year-old Bubble Yum fan!

So, hubby helped me out by making me some swirls. I'm a swirlie sort of girl. And I spent a few hours tonight messing with the site and made some changes! So take a look and tell me what you think. Just click here!

I'm off to our chapter meeting tomorrow for a talk about "The Male Perspective" by... a man. Should be interesting.

What are you up to this weekend?

April

The End.

Aren't those wonderful words? I think so. I wrote them late last night! Finally, I am at the end of my wip! WOO HOO!

I think I'm gonna party like it's 1999. Oh, wait... 1999 went by a long time ago. You get my point.

In honor of my hero and heroine's blissful happiness and my euphoric glee over not having to sort out their "issues" anymore, I figured I'd do some fun research and share a few pics. Come on, you were all expecting it. Admit it...




And here's another just because I feel like a reward :-)


April

Hop, Skip, & Jump...

Edited to add: Hop over and congratulate Karen on her sell!

Back to your regularly scheduled blog post:

I'm so close! Only 3000 words away...

Despite going to bed last night much earlier than usual for me, I got 1000 words done.

My poor heroine and hero are in a terrible mess. They're both upset with each other. Poor girl thinks he's just like every other creep she's ever met and poor guy has too much pride to realize he could make it all better if he'd just explain himself. But like most men, he doesn't think he should have to do that. She should trust him explicitly even if she's been given good, yet deceiving evidence to think otherwise.

I'm not sure I'll get their mess straightened out if 4000 words, but going a little over never hurt anyone. Right? :-)

That means I'm just a hop, skip & jump away.

It's been nice, because as with my last ms, I'm finding that I write more per day once I'm near the end. But apparently that's not the same for everyone. I've heard other writers say that they write slower towards the end because they're sad to see it end.

So, my question is this: do you find you write faster, slower, or just the same as you near the end of a story?

April

Non-Blog

It's late and I decided to blog despite not having an idea of what to blog about. Which is probably a good indication that 1. I shouldn't be blogging and 2. There will probably be a picture at the end. I just can't help myself.

I forced... I mean coerced... I mean persuaded my cp to enter a writing contest. It's Romance junkies 2006 writing contest. She was reluctant, but I didn't want to do it alone and I got her to see the light of day. Plus, it's good for her. She hasn't entered a contest before. Thanks, Cole!

Anyway, I encourage everyone to take a look. They've had a small technical snafu so the first batch of entries aren't up yet. But if you're at all interested, you should enter. You're supposed to change the name of the work and your name, to protect the names of the innocent... I mean so that it won't be a popularity contest. Which is probably good. Because I don't know that I would hold much ground in one :-).

But if you don't want to enter, you should check out the entries and vote. Each Monday (once they start posting them) a new batch of entries will go up. Readers vote on their favorite. The first round runs through September. When the readers have picked their favorites, those go on to be judged by a panel and the top three from there go on to be judged by Kara Cesare of Penguin (Signet/NAL).

Last year's winning entry was co-authored by Michelle Styles and Kate Allen. And it sold!

So take a look and vote vote vote!

Ok, that post had a small semblance of reasoning. And since I don't want to overload you all with yet another picture. I have been sharing quite a bit lately and I don't want anyone to become faint of heart, I'll skip the picture. This time.

So, anyone enter the Romance Junkies contest before? Anyone going to enter this year?

April

Backslide...

I guess the past two or so days has been a bit of a back slide for me. And that really stinks since I'm so close to THE END!

But work took over my life on Friday and then some of my hubby's relatives decided to make an impromptu visit Saturday night, which led to a rage of cleaning after I finished catching up on my left over work from Friday. Sadly, his relatives were not able to make it into town early enough, so they ended up passing up the visit. But hey, at least the house is clean.

Well, maybe not the entire house. Our office still looks like a tornado hit it. Which may be appropriate since hurricane season has started and we already have a tropical system in the gulf. We've been working on "cleaning out" the old office area and then we're going to move it around a bit. It's been a slow process.

So I decided to get back into the groove and get some writing done today. Which of course means that I need some inspiration. I loved the comments on the questionable picture in the previous post, by the way. I'm still on the fence about that pic.

Here's one that I hope will inspire us all...


How was your weekend? Anything productive done?

April

Not All Pictures Are Equal...

For the first time in months, words are streaming on the wip. Which is fantastic because I'm nearly to home base. I promise to blog more about all the "act" stuff I learned weekend before last soon.

In the mean time, Karen's recent blog post about body parts made me think of a picture I have that I can't decide if I like or not. Anyone who visits with any frequency knows I like to share pictures :-). Her post was about favorite body parts and she has a HOT picture of a guy's back. You simply must check it out.

And I recalled that I have a picture of a guy's... back too. He's a rugby player. With great, muscular legs. And we all know what those muscles are good for... But I digress. I've considered sharing it before, but there's a particular "issue" I have with it. Maybe it's the fifth grader coming out in me. But after I get through oggling the legs and my eyes move up on his body, I always snicker. So I thought I'd share it today and see what you all think.



Drool, snicker, or gag? You decide...

April

Aw, Shucks...

Thanks everyone for your sweet words of comfort and encouragement.

You know, something I have enjoyed over my last year or so of blogging is how great the writing community is. Writing is such a solitary activity. But the internet has permitted writers to build a fantastic network of support and interaction. There are so many benefits to this community. I can't list all that I have learned from my fellow writers, I can't be thankful enough for their support. And without that interaction, I may be sitting on my couch eating this:


Instead, I'm back up and writing today, and I even seem to actually be more motivated to work. Maybe it's because I no longer feel like I'm "on hold." So instead of the cake, I'm sitting at my desk, writing and looking at this:

Ok, I can't write and look at the same time. So I'm trying to do more writing than looking :-)

What's your favorite thing about being part of the online writing community?

April

Don't Open The Mail...

For the past week, I have been hovering over my in-box, awaiting a reply from the editorial assistant I emailed inquiring as to the status of my submission that had been in their office for six months.

And every day for the last week I've gotten nothing. Until today...

Today I received a very nice email apologizing for my not having gotten the letter they mailed out on February 7, 2006, explaining that they were passing on my ms. I'm actually not too upset. Which surprised me a lot. Maybe it's because my cp got some good news yesterday and I'm still flying high over that. I don't know.

What I most regret is that I don't know if their letter they sent in Feb had any feedback or input at all. Which would be most helpful. My guess is that in ten years, the package will arrive and I'll have no idea what it is. It's just the mail way.

So, I am taking a brief break tonight and jumping right back in tomorrow!

April

Blurbs and Cheese...

As some of you may remember, I, like many others am in the midst of having a nervous break down over going to nationals :-)

Last week, during a particularly gripping panic, I was dwelling on "blurbs" and trying to figure out what in the world they are. It hit me that it sounds sort of like something a two year old does after eating mac and cheese. And while that may sound particularly disgusting, I realized that feeling is exactly what I get when I think of blurbs, so it's also fitting.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally delved in and wrote a blurb. Well, that's what I'm calling it anyhow. Maybe once I've run it through the grind mill a few thousand times, I'll even share it publicly.

The point here is that I'm celebrating having written one. Note that I didn't say a good one. Just that it was one. And I didn't have to eat any mac and cheese to do it.

And as always, I am rewarding everyone for my achievement. Here:

(It's another pic of Mr. Silent. He's still not sharing any info. Just brooding. But hey, I can't complain. Not much anyhow.)

What about you, do you like writing blurbs? Do you have a good example of one to share?

April

Websites...

I used to have a website. Some of you who have been visiting for a while may even recall it. I liked it, but it never really felt right. Then a problem came up with the coding and I took it down.

I had done it in all html using Notepad. All self-taught html. So, most of it was done the long handed way and I was really limited as to what I could do.

I'm happy to announce that I am finally back on the web. It may not be perfect, but it's a presence. Take a look at my new website! I found a nifty web page maker program thanks to Fiona!

It's pretty simplistic and I'm sure my graphic designer hubby will have plenty to say about that! But it's a start.

So let me know what you think. Too much pink and purple? Anything wrong standing out at you?

April

update: hubby came home and took a look at the site. And of course, he felt overwhelmed by the pink and purple. He recommended some changes with the header to make it black and white and in his opinion better. Ok, it does stop the tooth ache of the bubble gum look a little. So I guess I owe him a thanks ;-) And I've implemented the changes!