Hints

Since I've been stringing you guys along, I guess it's only fair if I give you a little more information on what I've been working on behind-the-scenes.

 

*It involves Alec and Elspeth.

 

*It is a gift to myself for having completed a 100K+ word novel, and motivation to continue with rewrites and attempts at publication.

 

*I am not the only person working on this project.  In fact, I'm not even the one doing most of the work.

 

*I cannot imagine writing another book without doing this kind of project.  Before or after it is finished, I can't decide.

 

*After the "big reveal" (hopefully tomorrow) I plan a series of posts walking through the entire process step-by-step.

 

*If the book is ever published, I can use this project for promotion.

 

I really hope you guys think this is as cool as I do.  As long as I'm happy with it (and I am so far!) I guess that's the most important thing.  But I'll feel kind silly for all this secrecy if everyone's just like "oh, that's it?"  *g*

I've Been Tagged

Carol tagged me.  Since I'm still waiting for Tuesday, here goes...

 

The rules:

a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

 

Hmmm...I've told a lot already but I'll see if I can come up with anything new and interesting.

 

1.) I've never lived anywhere outside of Kentucky.

 

2.) Despite my best efforts, I cannot speak with a Scottish accent.  (Cockney, yes - thanks to Monty Python.  I can even manage a passable Irish.  But no' Scottish, alas.)

 

3.) I changed majors - from chemistry to physics - halfway through college, and chose not to take the single remaining chemistry class that would have gotten me a chem minor.  (I did minor in mathematics, and was 1-3 classes away from additional minors in history and psychology.)

 

4.) I am a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician as of March 28th, 2008.  (Ask me about car seats - Precie already did!)

 

5.) The first book I ever wanted to write was a Star Trek (Originial Series) novel featuring a Chekov, Uhura, Sulu, and a new Russian lieutenenant named Natasha.  I was in 7th grade.

 

6.) I am related to both Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S Grant.  Also Henry Clay (by marriage) and Mary Todd Lincoln.  I am eligible to join the DAR because my great-great-great-great(?)-grandfather, Benjamin Berry, fought in the Revolutionary War and recieved a share of a 5800 acre land grant to settle in Kentucky.

 

Tags: Cindy, Beth, Jo, Brooke, Shaylin, Aerin

Project Update

I've had no word since Friday.  So I don't know if it will be today after all.

But I asked for a lot, and what I have so far is really incredible.  Worth the wait, in my opinion.

Off to church now.

Sunday

Yeah, I know it's Thursday...I guess Friday now.  And as Nina (not Claire or Rachel, hehe) was so kind to point out, it was Friday in Australia over 12 hours ago.

But Sunday's the new Friday, or so I've been told.  Remember, I'm not the only one in on this project.  And it's going to be sooo worth the wait.  To me at least; I hope everyone ends up as excited as I am.

I'll try to tide you over with a hint: remember I said I needed to "reconnect" with my characters?  Well, I'm connecting!

In case you missed it on Facebook

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*deep breath*

Okay, that's the prelim squee.  Expect (at least) another one tomorrow sometime.  Still counting down to Friday...

Best of Both Worlds

Oh, this is too good.

 

Behold, the Smart Bitches, they have combined two of my loves, the LOLcats and romance novel cover snark:

 

LOLCover Snark - A Contest

Their examples are fricking hilarious.  I can't wait till the comment string of entries gets roaring...

 

(Warning: may contain material of a crude or offensive nature to some readers.  Also completely OMGWTFBBQ if you aren't fluent in LOLspeak.  For tips on the latter, check here.  And for total immersion - the quickest route to fluency - try here.)

It cuts both ways...

I've gotten quite a few messages saying I'm driving people crazy with the waiting for Friday.  *g*  Well, I'm pretty excited about it and I hope you'll think it's as cool as I do when the time comes.

 

But never fear.  Though I am reveling in the anticipation of a big reveal, the anxiety cuts both ways.  See, I'm not the only person involved in this project, and it involves waiting on my part, too.  Which I have been doing since Monday.  To the point of constantly staying logged into my e-mail and pouncing on any new message as it arrives.

 

So far, nothing, but I imagine those of you in this hemisphere might hear my "squeeeee" when what I'm waiting for comes through.

 

Until then, patience, young Grasshopper...

 

(Oh, and I didn't make it over to the workshop last night, partly because I was miffed at my MIL and had to go have a nice vent with the other good ladies at the BabyCenter carseats board, and partly because I decided to skim through my DVR'd episode of Dancing With the Stars and see who got the boot.  And then I got sucked in by The Deadliest Catch - now THAT's reality TV.  But I'll be a good girl tonight.)

In Progress

The surprise is coming along nicely.  First step is done, and I'm ready to see how the next turns out.  Intrigued?  Hehe, don't worry: you'll know Friday.

 

And I'm actually getting really jazzed about rewrites.  I'm spending my evenings learning Liquid Story Binder so I can get comfortable enough with it to try and do everything in there.  The features (if I can figure them all out) like storyboards and timelines and dossiers should come in really handy.  Oh, and the automatic saves and change-tracking and word counting, and all that.  *g*

 

I think I'm going to head over to the Forum's sister workshop tonight and cash in some long-held critique credits (from NARC...now FAKING IT...did I mention "long held"? hehe).  I hope there's not an expiration date on crits!  It should be enough to let me get my first five chapters or so up, and then I'll see how that goes and decide whether or not to keep critting in order to run all 34 chapters + epilogue of OHN through the workshop.

 

I also submitted a short (750 words - boy, that was tough to keep down!) synopsis and the original rough draft of my first 5 pages to Barbara for the Next Level Workshop on revising fiction.  I *know* I'm not happy with the first 5, and told her as much, and I basically threw the synopsis together in an afternoon in order to submit it to her.   She hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'm hoping the slap-dash passed muster.  I think if I am able to participate the course will really do me good.  Nothing like paying a fee and working under a deadline to keep Jenny motivated.  *g*

Happy Dance

I got a bit of good news today!  Actually a couple of different bits, but I'm going to have to keep them on the down-low for a while.  Don't worry, you won't wait long for at least one of them, if everything stays on schedule.  Needless to say, I'm very excited!

 

And no, I don't have an agent or anything.  *g*  Ha-HA, like the MS is anywhere near presentable right now.

 

BUT last night's post cleared my mind and finally gave my lagging momentum the extra jolt needed to get working.  Work I did, and work I will.  Rewrites, here I come (for real this time!)...

Catharsis

Okay, I've had this growing burden for the past couple months and I just have to get it off my chest: I'm pissed at myself.  PISSED.  (And for my international readers, I mean that in the angry sense, not the drunken one.  *g*)

Why?  Mainly for completely avoiding the Firsts Workshop and missing the opportunity of a lifetime as far as being at the point where I needed exactly that kind of advice.  I dunno, maybe I just wasn't in the right "place" mentally or emotionally with the story to get as involved as I needed to be.  But I just can't accept my own excuse.  And I feel that terrible triad of shame, anger, and guilt for the shortcoming.

The guilt, I think, is largely responsible for my hesitancy to re-enter the Forum and get back into the writing world.  Visiting CompuServe and seeing all the posts from the Firsts Workshop - and all the posts referencing those posts - would be one slap in the face after another.  "See!  See what you missed out on!  See what you SHOULD have been doing?"

And of course those spin off into feeling utterly lost and adrift with regard to rewrites.  I'm growing to despise even the memory of my opening, because I know in my gut it's not "right".  And I know that in the (sub) genre I'm writing in It. Has. To. Be. Right. or an agent won't spare my story a second glance.  And I've already run through 6-7 different versions of just my first 300 words or so and I'm not satisfied with ANY of them.

So who needed an intensive firsts workshop more than anyone?  Me!  Who's paralyzed because she didn't participate?  Me!

I do of course realize that most of the people who were the instigators/major participants in said workshop happen to be my friends and [probably] reading this blog, but I'd feel crappy to ask you do to it all over again with me when I had the golden opportunity and dropped it.

There's always the sister workshop, but not everyone whose opinion I value and would have wanted participates over there.  Still, some help is better than none, I suppose.  And I'm considering doing an intensive revising workshop, but it co$ts and for all that I make decent money, we're still a single-income family on a fixed budget.  I can't justify dropping $400 here for a commissioned portrait (hence my determination to raise the money on the side) and $700 there for a writing workshop.  Especially since I work 50-55 hours a week as it is, so the "free" (ha) time available to try to earn extra cash is practically nonexistent.  My big moneymaker research study fell through, and spending 4 precious hours a week donating plasma for a spare $45 or so will take for-ev-er.  I'm running out of options.

But I do feel better at least publicly owning up to my mistake of not participating and acknowledging the trickle-down effect it's having on my writing.

And I actually did venture on to the Forum this evening.  I skimmed some threads and looked for something to catch my interest but I think I need to reconnect with my characters before I can get back to actively writing.  I let them go off on a honeymoon of sorts, after finally getting their HEA, and I need them back fresh and vibrant in my head.  If Jas ever has enough time to get back to his commissions, I think the portrait will go a long way in that regard.  Until then, I've got my "soundtrack" playing - I swear, this music is inextricably linked with the book now, since it was on a continuous loop my last few intense days of writing - and I'm visualizing the characters and just trying to get back into the "zone".

The silver lining in all of this is that I finally feel motivated to do something, anything, to move forward on this book again.  My other "distractions" are much less of a temptation to me even tonight than they were this afternoon at work.  Just don't anyone send me Flair on Facebook; that stuff is addictive and time-consuming.  *w*

Fortune Cookie

A vendor brought lunch in for our department today and it was PF Chang's (posh Chinese).  I had trouble opening my fortune cookie and the reason ended up being I got a "triple" fortune.  I guess the machine that cuts the strips missed a couple cuts.  Anyway, here's what they said (in order):

 

Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success.

 

You are a lover of words, someday you should write a book.

 

Doors will be opening for you in many areas of your life.

 

I swear, I'm not making this up.  Guess I'd better get on those rewrites, huh?  Sounds like I'm going to get published.  At least, that's how I read it.  *g*

My Haunts

So, when I'm not blogging - which is pretty often, lately - where am I [spending inordinate amounts of my day] online?  Here are my main haunts:

 

CompuServe Books & Writers Forum

(I know, I've been MIA since February sometime...but I'll be back soon.  Once I can get over my fear of being ovewhelmed by all the catching up I have to do!)

 

BabyCenter Car Safety Tips

(Aka "the car seats board" - I'm back on there now that I'm a CPST.)

 

China Adopt Talk

(I keep telling myself "you've got 3 years...give it a rest until then" but I'm like a moth to flame with adoption stories!)

 

Archwired.com Metal Mouth Message Board

(For adults in braces.)

 

I Can Has Cheezburger

(Nothing like LOLcats to brighten your day!)

 

Other places I might pop into:

my local playgroup's message board (you have to be a member to see it)

Facebook (about once a week or when I get a notification)

iGoogle and/or GoogleReader (LOTS of time here!)

local news websites

MSN.com (I know, the Evil Empire! *g*)

Laws of [Writing] Motion

I realized today that my writing momentum is very much governed by Newton's First Law (humor me, I'm a physicist).  To wit: when I'm clipping along, I keep clipping along, and it takes a lot to slow/stop me.  But conversely, when I've stopped writing for whatever reason (even a planned break), it is really hard to get moving again.

I should be well into rewrites.  In actuality, I'm only halfway through the lists I made a few posts down.  I partly blame the return of Dancing With the Stars, my only reality TV guilty obsession.  I largely blame sheer exhaustion.  Every night after Little Boy goes down, I feel like collapsing, myself.  Quite a few times this past week, I've passed out cold on the couch and slept HARD from about 8:30-9 pm until DH finishes his schoolwork and wakes me for bed.  At first I thought it was just the past 18 months (creeping up on 2 years!) of sleep deprivation - from the book, not my son! - catching up to me, but then I realized I haven't been taking my vitamins/iron supplements for a little over a month.  I'm borderline anemic and I start to notice when my iron levels drop, so maybe that's it.  I made sure to pick some up at Wally World tonight and took them already.  Hopefully they'll kick in soon.

For now I'm off to work...yes, you read that right.  We've got a patient starting tomorrow that requires QA (quality assurance) tests on his treatment plan beforehand.  But I couldn't get on the accelerator this afternoon because our service engineer had to replace some parts that should have come in Monday.  He said it would be a 5 hour job.  So, witness me, heading back to work at 10 pm to do 2 hours worth of tests and hopefully be home and in bed not much after 1 am.  I love my career, I really do, but sometimes...

Breaking the Silence

I do still exist!  But I'm practically offline this week (I haven't checked my e-mail in 48 hours, if you can believe it of me) as I am taking a weeklong course to become a car seat "tech" - the official term is Child Passenger Safety Technician, or CPST.  So I'm away from the computer all day and by evening I'm brain fried. 

I can't say for certain when I'll get back to writing full-time, though I am getting closer with every day and each thing I can mark off my list (see goals post below).  For now, ask me about Emergency Locking Retractors with lightweight locking latchplates and how that would affect the installation of a convertible child restraint with a rear-facing tether.  *g*

I can't believe I missed it!

Talk Like a Physicist Day

 

Way cooler than pirates.  *w*

 

Ah, well.  Only another 357 days, 8 hours, and 19 minutes.  I'll be prepared next time...

Strike!

Oops, I didn't get the memo.  But that's okay, I haven't been working for 2 months anyway...

Novelists Strike Fails to Affect Nation

My favorite quote: "While the strike has been joined by an estimated 250,000 novelists—225,000 of whom have reportedly stopped in the middle of their first novel..."

Ahaha.  *g*  I've got a lot of work ahead of me, and I may not ever get published (though I certainly plan to try) but I. By. God. Finished. My. Novel.

Still fighting crud, though it's devolved into just a constant sniffle/runny nose and occasional cough with concomitant hoarseness.  Card party tonight with church friends.

Still working on a beta read.

Crud

I has it.

 

Starting yesterday morning I had a sore throat.  That's always how it begins with me.  That got worse and by last night had morphed into sore throat/upper respiratory congestion.  Today it's sore throat/upper respiratory congestion/runny nose/sneezing/occasional cough/low grade fever/general malaise.

 

Joy.  Looks like o.j. and ginger ale (virgin screwdriver? or would that be a virgin mimosa? at any rate, it's an excellent drink when you're sick).

 

Thankfully my workload has been light, and I plan to leave at a relatively normal time this afternoon.  Don't know how much use I'll be tonight, though.  It always happens when I get motivated to "do stuff".

 

Unrelated note: the previous post was my 300th post.  Wow.

 

Oh, and I got notified today that my results weren't consistent enough to remain in the NASA research study, so now I have to find another way to finance half of my portrait commission.  Pooh.  At least it seems I've got time to do so...  I'd really hoped to avoid resorting to plasma donation (too much time) but it's a plan B if I need it.

Review: The Perils of Pleasure

The Perils of Pleasure

Julie Anne Long

 

First off: don't be fooled by the title OR the cover of this book.  They seem to be stock romance novel title and cover, and they seem to have relatively little if anything at all to do with the book itself.  (Not the author's fault, of course.)  Good thing I read the description, or I might have passed it over entirely.

 

The premise is:  Colin Eversea has been framed for a murder he didn't commit, but as he is about to be hanged he is saved by a "clever - and beautiful - mercenary" (per the back cover copy) named Madeline Greenway who was hired to rescue him, but who then becomes a target in her own right.  The two of them have to join forces and clear his name while figuring out who tried to kill her and why, and who set him up in the first place.  And of course they fall in love along the way.

 

Plot.  It was a bit convoluted (as others have complained) but I feel like I was able to follow it pretty well.  (I liked the very first Mission: Impossible movie, too.  Before Tom Cruise got weird.)  Most of the resolutions made sense, though one of the big reveals - perhaps THE big reveal - was a bit underwhelming.  I felt it needed more closure, but maybe she was leaving room for subplots in future books. 

 

Writing style.  Well, my first impression was that I liked Long's voice.  She adds snappy one-liners and quirky, witty observations that were fun to read.  Some parts read as a bit over-written, though (prologue included), and I did wonder why all the working-class characters in the book seemed to speak with Scots accents, rather than Cockney.  And the head-hopping...I guess I've just trained myself to think in very strict third limited and so the head-hopping, which felt clumsy to me at first but may very well be legitimate third-omni, threw me a bit until I just got used to it and let it slide.

 

Characters.  I did come to like Colin, perhaps because we spend so much time in his head, but elements of his character didn't jive with me.  As others have pointed out, his professed love for Louisa didn't ring true (though he does realize his delusion at the end of the book, which ameliorated my annoyance somewhat).  And he seems an honorable sort, despite constant - and I do mean constant - references to his reputation as a rake.  Again, his own confessions and personal realizations make that easier to stomach, but still, it feels like the author felt the romance hero should be a rake (for the sexual experience, maybe?), when she really wanted him to be honorable, and we were just told he was a rake over and over to make us believe it.

 

I wanted Madeline to be a little more badass and sure of herself than she was.  C'mon...beautiful, clever mercenary?  She is very...competent, but even that wasn't consistent, as she didn't realize she had bad gunpowder at first but we're supposed to expect she's a crack shot and knows firearms in general for the rest of the book.  Don't those kind of things go together?  And we were kept from knowing her past for a long time, I guess to make her more intriguing but really just making her a more distanct character.  When her past life and how she became a mercenary (a slightly misleading term for her, btw) is finally reveal, it too was a little underwhelming.  I did come to feel more for her as a person - the thought of losing my husband and/or young son strikes fear deep, deep into my heart - but I remained unconvinced.  I guess some parts of her didn't live up to the idea of her I formed from the back cover copy.

 

But I did believe in how Madeline and Colin's relationship developed - even if it was on a condensed timeline under stressful circumstances - and I was glad when they got together in the end.  (But still, more loose strings: what about the farm in America she scrimped and saved to pay off?)

 

Overall I consider the book an enjoyable escapist (hardy har) read.  I will certainly look for and purchase books by this author in the future, but she hasn't yet impressed me enough to make my "permanent keepers" shelf.

 

Recommended?  Sure.

The Return

...and I'm back.

 

Didn't mean to drop off the face of the blogosphere like that, but my computer time at home was incredibly scaled back - usually just long enough to scan my blog subscriptions, check my e-mail, and respond to anything urgent (and if you're waiting on a detailed reply from me, I've been saving it until I had the time to answer fully, so that's why you haven't heard anything at all) - and at work I haven't had the time to do much of anything besides, well, work.

 

But I'd given myself until after Little Boy's birthday party to do other things, and so I have been.  We almost didn't have Little Boy's party - a late snowstorm and almost a foot of snow put the kibosh on Saturday's plans - but thankfully almost everyone could make it up Sunday instead after they got the roads clear.  So, much fun (and pizza and cake) was had by all, and now it's time for me to once again get BIC on a regular basis.

 

I'll be easing into it, likely for the rest of this month, as I also have some other commitments to catch up on.  Rather than post a set of goals, I'll put up my list and mark things off as I go:

 

To-do list:

 

Finish and post promised review of book

Finish long-overdue beta-read

Beta-read short story

Finish writing up proposed changes for OHN

Transport OHN into LSB for rewrites

Rework first page/first five pages (AGAIN) and post on Forum for comment

Catch up on Forum posts and Firsts Workshop

Respond to e-mails

Update blog

 

Non book-related:

 

Clean out aquarium

Send care package to brother

Get motor scooter serviced for riding season

Write to sponsored child in Columbia

Attend CPST class March 25-28 (yeah, I'm a carseat safety nut)

Liquid Story Binder - Get it 66% off today!!!

(Yes, I'm back.  I'd planned - still plan - a blog post discussing what I've been up to and what my plans are now, but for the moment I just wanted to get this out there...)

 

Thanks to an anonymous tip comment on my post about Liquid Story Binder XE I found out that it is being offered at 66% off today ONLY.  That's $16, folks.

 

Check it out HERE.

 

I'd been planning to purchase the full version sometime soon, as I really delve into rewrites.  Now I'm glad I waited.

 

For those who wanted Scrivener but mourn their lack of a Mac (heh), this is your answer.  And really, for $16 you can't beat it.  I highly recommend you go buy it today.

 

And for the record, I'm getting no kickbacks for this message.  Just a good deal.