Excited about this weekend. YA author Kelly Creagh will be at the Barnes and Noble at the Summit on Saturday and J.R. Ward will be at The Bookstore in Radcliff.
Also, fellow Lyrical Press author Nicole Dennis' Dragon's Sanity cover is up for Clash of the Covers at Embrace the Shadows. Please show her some love and give her a vote. (I won last month.) :-)
Let's see. Progress on my three short novels... I've added 2069 new words to the Zaphkiel story and plotted the second half of the book. So far, I've written 3064 words for Cathedral Girl. The first chapters of Serpent Fire are currently under revision. I keep waffling between the idea of having the main character be a reporter or a NTSB agent.
I'm also working on short story ideas to submit to magazines and anthologies. Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a quagmire, but I keep telling myself to push forward.
On to today's topic. I'm leaving one of my writing groups. While members were supportive when I first joined, lately this doesn't seem so. I hope I'm wrong, but I've sensed disapproval over what I write. For those of you who don't know, many of my stories have M/M relationships. Anyway, there's been a gradual change, for lack of a better word, in some members' attitudes and I've decided maybe it's best to move on.
There are other reasons why I'm reluctant to stay, but I won't go into details. While I hope this is a temporary situation, I also have to consider what's best for my writing career. It's not as if there aren't other, more supportive groups. There are. And it's not even an issue of people being supportive or approving. I'm not so naive as to think everyone should love my stories. But I see no point in being part of a group that could negatively impact me.
I'm not upset about the situation. Like I said, I may return. In the meantime, I'm going to focus my efforts on writing and submitting. Ultimately, it's not any writing group that determines my success. It's me.
Paranormal Suspense/Urban Fantasy
Showing posts with label BIAM Writathon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BIAM Writathon. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Open Topic Thursday: Getting Ready for BIAM Writathon
First, thank you to F.D. Davis for being my guest blogger this past Tuesday. Hope you enjoyed her article on writing speculative fiction.
Yes, that's my cat with my husband. She likes me but she adores him.
On to today's topic: the Book in a Month Writathon. This is a twice yearly writing challenge via Anne Marie Novark's Yahoo group. In April I wrote a m/m contemporary romance. This October the goal is to write Cathedral Girl, a NaNoWriMo project I started but failed to finish. What I like about this particular challenge is there are no rules except one: Write and write a lot. If you're interested in checking out this invitation only group, go to http://annemarienovark.com/?p=151
I need to get ready for NaNoWriMo. I have Liquid Story Binder and I'd like to use it to prepare the third book in my Angels of Death series. I'm a software junkie. I admit it. I have Dramatica Pro, Power Writer, and Power Structure to help me plot my stories. I use Dramatica Pro the most because I'm used to it.
NaNoWriMo is about the only time I become a pantster. I usually start with a title, a vague sense of plot, and a well-intentioned plan. It goes something like this: I promise to start plotting my book on October 1, which gives me a whole month. But I don't. And October 15 rolls around. It's okay, I convince myself. Two weeks is plenty of time to create character GMCs and plot turning points. So I let a few days slip by... And suddenly it's October 30 and I haven't done a darn thing except think of a few names. November 1 arrives and I'm sitting with my fingers poised over the keyboard thinking, "What the hell do I do now?"
Armed with what little knowledge I have of my story, I write. After all, I know I'll be revising it. During November I'll plot the version of the story as it will be rewritten. The idea is to get it down. A little unorthodox, but it works for me. The original version of Death Sword is nowhere near the almost-final version. Names changed, character motivations were altered, etc. The essential plot remained, but I rewrote 99% of the book.
Cathedral Girl will be a little easier to write as I've already plotted it and done character GMCs. Like Death Sword, it probably fits in the category of urban fantasy. And yes, it involves angels.
I also need to revise my Zaphkiel short novel. I want to submit it to a small press that is on the approved publisher's list of the Horror Writers Association. (I plan to become a member but I need to meet certain criteria.) The question is whether I'm going to keep it at the current word count or expand it. Most likely, I'll expand the story, which seems to fall into two parts. So that's another project...
What about you? Anyone doing BIAM Writathon or NaNoWriMo this year?
On to today's topic: the Book in a Month Writathon. This is a twice yearly writing challenge via Anne Marie Novark's Yahoo group. In April I wrote a m/m contemporary romance. This October the goal is to write Cathedral Girl, a NaNoWriMo project I started but failed to finish. What I like about this particular challenge is there are no rules except one: Write and write a lot. If you're interested in checking out this invitation only group, go to http://annemarienovark.com/?p=151
I need to get ready for NaNoWriMo. I have Liquid Story Binder and I'd like to use it to prepare the third book in my Angels of Death series. I'm a software junkie. I admit it. I have Dramatica Pro, Power Writer, and Power Structure to help me plot my stories. I use Dramatica Pro the most because I'm used to it.
NaNoWriMo is about the only time I become a pantster. I usually start with a title, a vague sense of plot, and a well-intentioned plan. It goes something like this: I promise to start plotting my book on October 1, which gives me a whole month. But I don't. And October 15 rolls around. It's okay, I convince myself. Two weeks is plenty of time to create character GMCs and plot turning points. So I let a few days slip by... And suddenly it's October 30 and I haven't done a darn thing except think of a few names. November 1 arrives and I'm sitting with my fingers poised over the keyboard thinking, "What the hell do I do now?"
Armed with what little knowledge I have of my story, I write. After all, I know I'll be revising it. During November I'll plot the version of the story as it will be rewritten. The idea is to get it down. A little unorthodox, but it works for me. The original version of Death Sword is nowhere near the almost-final version. Names changed, character motivations were altered, etc. The essential plot remained, but I rewrote 99% of the book.
Cathedral Girl will be a little easier to write as I've already plotted it and done character GMCs. Like Death Sword, it probably fits in the category of urban fantasy. And yes, it involves angels.
I also need to revise my Zaphkiel short novel. I want to submit it to a small press that is on the approved publisher's list of the Horror Writers Association. (I plan to become a member but I need to meet certain criteria.) The question is whether I'm going to keep it at the current word count or expand it. Most likely, I'll expand the story, which seems to fall into two parts. So that's another project...
What about you? Anyone doing BIAM Writathon or NaNoWriMo this year?
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