I have an interview at Yolanda Renee's blog

Good morning, everyone!

I'm so excited to start off the month with an interview. The fantastic Yolanda Renee asked me a bunch of questions about writing and life. Come find out what I'm currently working on!

Friday Five for January 31, 2014

1. I finished the 3rd draft of my WIP. Yay! Right on schedule with my goals for this year. It's been sent to my CPs and betas. Now I wait. Is anyone done reading yet?! Waiting is the hardest part. Best I get started on the revisions for my superhero WIP.

2. I sent my short story for the Untethered Realms anthology to be revised. Ahead of schedule. Though I didn't write it this month. I can't count it as one of the short stories for my goals this year. Novels come first this year, though. And querying. Yikes!

3. Oh! That reminds me: thank you to all of you who left tips on my Wednesday post about querying. Those were really helpful. I have a specific publisher in mind that I want to try first. If I have no luck there, I'll make a list and start sending queries out in small groups.

4. I have a parent-teacher conference this morning. Why do I feel so nervous? I know my son is smart, sweet, and well mannered. The other day my husband was playing Flow on his iPhone and the boy wanted to give it a try. He picked it up right away. A genius! Then later in the day he threw a fit to take down the bathroom because the ice cubes I gave him to play with in the tub were melting. Yup. I have to keep reminding myself he's just 3.

5. I'm doing all right for my goals this year. I get an A+ for revising, but only a D for managing to balance writing and networking. Yet I get a B+ for relaxing before bed and going to sleep at a reasonable hour. I've only had to have one nap this month. This is a huge improvement over last year when I wanted to nap five days of the week because I was so tired.

It's Friday! Woot! Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy writing week

It took a little longer this month to start on my revisions, but I had a good week with two awesome pantser moments.

The first was with the short story I did for Auntie Tara's short story prompt. I wanted to do something Greek and something with pirates. I think I spent too much time reading about ancient Greek pirates than I should have, but research has always been one of my favorite things. I had no idea where I was headed with the story until near the end. I love when my stories surprise me. It means it's likely to have the same effect on my readers.

My second great moment was with the new first chapter I wrote for one of my WIPs. I needed a first chapter with action rather than the conversation that originally started it. I had a vague idea of how to begin it, but after about 400 words, it all became clear. Dramatic magical attack in public and the frantic scramble to defend without letting the public see. A cool introduction to the protagonist and her sidekick, and a way to let the reader see how magic works in that world. It's a rough chapter, but it has the essentials I need. The rest of the novel has been plotted. So it should be a good steady pace from here on to the end.

To top that off, I have my idea for the A to Z Challenge. I'm really excited about it!

It's almost February. I need to think of another short story idea for next month. I would really love for it to be a shorter short this time around so I have more time to revise my novel. We've an extra writing day next month with it being a Leap Year!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Revising, planning and deciding

This week I'll be doing some more revisions on my latest WIP. Hopefully I'll get the majority of it done before November. I might send out my first query for it on the weekend. The cover letter and synopsis have been worked over about ten times now. Are they perfect? No. I don't think I'll ever get a cover letter and synopsis perfect, but they're good. Much better than what I started with.

I did some planning for my NaNo novel. I usually don't plan ahead and I'm finding it difficult to do so. I gathered a list of names and monsters from the net. This will keep me from searching for something online when I should be writing. I have all the main characters named, described and generally settled into the plot. That really means I know who the good guys and bad guys are. I know the general overall plot. I know how it will start and how it will end. The middle, well, I have no idea. I tried to plan out each event, but after the first five, my muse smacked me with a stop sign. I'm not allowed to know until I get there. That's how it usually goes with my writing. I know it might drive some people bonkers, but I like the surprise. I like just writing and seeing where it takes me. Do my stories make sense that way? Yes, they do. Somehow I'm able to keep everything together. Sometimes I'm jealous of the plotters, because it seems it would be much easier in the long run. Yet I'm happy to be a pantser. (I really wish there was a different word for that!)

I still haven't decided on a Halloween costume yet. I went out this weekend, but there wasn't anything that caught my eye that I could afford. I thought about just going in a silly outfit as a character from someecards with a little poster board around my neck with the sarcastic saying. Ah, those ecards make me laugh!

 

 My other idea was making a big poster with a hole cut out for my head and design it as a MySpace page for a zombie. When I don't get enough sleep, I look like the dead!

Finally, please come by on Halloween when I'll have a special treat for you.

Titles can be so elusive

I finished my first full edit of my latest WIP. I think the story flows well. It's a fun tale. I don't take myself too seriously and that's exactly how I wanted it to feel. There's things I might need to add or change, but I'll wait until my critique partners have a chance to read it. No one else has read the manuscript yet. I know how I want to make my readers feel, but whether it's accomplished that or not, I won't know until I get someone else's opinion.

I still don't have a title. I need something flirty. Something with a key or curse and lion or sphinx in it. The Key To A Lion's Hunger. How To Make A Lion Roar. I don't know. The few others I've thought of are far too silly and dirty. Yes, those two are the nicer ones! Sometimes stories make it difficult for me to name them. Usually when that happens, I just name them for their protagonists. It won't work for this book. Verena is a lovely name, but it doesn't tell anyone a thing about what the story is about.

I'm going to let the manuscript sit a week. Then I'll go back at it again with fresh eyes. I have a dark fantasy short story and the premiere of True Blood to distract me until I get back to it.