Why today of all days?

by with 2 Comments Musings

My cell phone doesn’t get that many calls. Aside from calls from the Boyfriend, and occasional calls from the roommate, it mostly remains silent.

That’s fine 364 days of the year. But there’s one day that I want the phone to ring: Golden Heart finalist call day.

In 2011, my call came bright and early, waking me at 8 a.m. So when I woke up 0f my own volition at 8:20 this morning, I was kind of already resigned to not finaling this year.

Add this to the fact neither of my entries has managed to final in any other contests this year, and I was even more convinced it wasn’t going to happen for me in 2012.

Then I checked the RWA website and saw there were only four finalists in my category. Knowing contemporary series had to have more than 40 entries, hope ticked up a notch.

I jumped in the shower and then drove from the Boyfriend’s to Flagstaff in time for  the massage I booked to keep my mind off waiting for the phone to ring. Best idea ever. For a blissful hour, I enjoyed being pampered and didn’t think about the GH (much anyway). Really. Hardly at all.

After the massage ended and I’d paid, I glided bonelessly to my car, relishing a few more moments of not stressing out. Only then did I allow  myself to check my phone.

Imagine how shocked I was to see a missed call from “blocked.”

My hopes immediately skyrocketed. I started driving myself crazy, wondering if I could be wrong … if I would be joining the 2012 GH class after all. I tweeted my frustration at missing the call. I text-messaged my chapter president. I e-mailed my critique partner.

Then I tried to go back to my routine. Yeah, right. Like anything captured my attention besides willing the phone to ring again.

It happened as I was walking into the bank. My ringtone was sweet, sweet music. I snatched up the phone and checked the display. Yes, “Blocked” was calling again. I answered with a smile on my face and hope threatening to choke me.

“Hello?”

Silence on the other end of the line.

“Hello,” I repeated, increasingly desperate to hear those magic words.

Still nothing but silence.

An edge of anger crept into my third “hello” before I disconnected the call, disgusted with whoever decided today would be a great day to phone me from a blocked number for no reason at all.

My CP says it was probably just a telemarketer. The Boyfriend assured me he gets blocked calls all the time.

Tell me I’m not the only one who thinks telemarketers should be banned from calling between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on March 25 (or 26 if the 25th falls on a Sunday).

Anyone know any lawmakers who can make that happen?

 

My take on time management

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Let’s get something straight: I might not be the best choice to talk about time management.

As I sat preparing the remarks about time management I was supposed to deliver — less than 12 hours before I was set to deliver them — I certainly felt like a fraud.

Then I remembered there’s a lot on my plate. I work 40-plus hours a week at the day job, spend quality time with the Boyfriend, run a growing weight-loss blog and have just started working out regularly again, thanks to my entry in an online bootcamp class.

Despite all that, I still manage to write for one to two hours most days of the week. In the past year, I’ve not only done some pretty heavy revising on two manuscripts, but also written first drafts of two more. I also attended my first RWA Nationals, took on the vice presidency of my local RWA chapter and edited/laid out six issues of the chapter newsletter.

What’s the secret, you ask?

Not so fast. First, a look at the things that keep me (and others) from writing:

  • Commitments to work/family/friends. I admit, I have it easier than writers with children/spouses who expect dinner on the table at a certain time.  If I decide not to stop writing to cook a meal, the only one I’m hurting is myself.
  • Procrastination. Self explanatory, right?
  • Social media time-sucks. Twitter and Facebook, I’m looking at you. Pinterest too. It’s all too easy to fritter away an hour — or more — pinning, tweeting or reading all my friends’ status updates.

Let’s tackle the last one first. Author Jody Hedlund recently wrote a blog post on three ways to keep social media from taking over your writing time.

The other two can be managed by making writing a priority.

Yes, it’s hard to juggle writing with all the other responsibilities of day-to-day life. But if you’re going to be a writer, you have to make time to write. It’s non-negotiable.

I’ve gotten pretty good at making time to write. In fact, I’m so good at it that other things — like my talk on time management — fall by the wayside. 😉

What are your tips for effective time management?

 

March already?

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If it weren’t such a cliche, I’d ask where the heck the year has gone. It seems impossible that March is already upon us — and not just March, but mid-March. What happened to January and February?

Lost to a haze of working, working out, reading, tweeting, writing and rewriting, I suppose. With the help of the Rubies and their Winter Writing Festival, and my critique partner, I’ve been busy pummeling Brad and Erin’s story into submission shape. It’s getting closer … I just hope it gets there soon.

The only thing I haven’t been doing is blogging (here, anyway. My weight-loss blog is flourishing. I joined Romance Biggest Winner 2 and am taking part in an online boot camp, both of which provide plenty of fodder for posts over there.)

In about two weeks, Golden Heart calls will be made. Will I get one? I kind of doubt it, since neither of my entries has done well in other contests this year. I’m not counting myself out yet, but I won’t be surprised if the phone doesn’t ring.

No matter what happens on March 25, I’m firmly committed to querying, submitting and writing my not-so-little heart out. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Link love redux

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There’s no shortage of reading material on the ol’ information superhighway. Here are a few of the links I’m loving right now:

— I wish I’d seen Nathan Bransford’s post on the art of being unsentimental about your characters months ago. Might have saved me from having to muse about being too nice. Then again, maybe not. My characters do have flaws (and I think they’re fatal-ish) … I just don’t want to make them miserable.

— From Writer’s Relief, via the Huffington Post: Proof that you’re never too old to start writing. Their slide show on “late blooming authors” includes one of my childhood favorites (Laura Ingalls Wilder).

— I stumbled on a link to Jane Friedman’s 2 Ways to Make the Most of Goodreads. Someday, I hope to be able to use the tips. Until then, I’ll try to post more detailed reviews of the books I enjoy.

— From Roni Loren comes a post on the 3 Core Components of a Blockbuster Blog. Since one of  my goals for this year is to grow my blog, I read this one with interest. I loved her take on the reasons people read blogs — to be informed or inspired, to be entertained and to connect — and will strive to ensure future posts do one (or more) of the three.

Ye-ouch

by with No Comment MusingsOSNB

No doubt about it, writing is hard.

First off, it’s not easy to make the time to sit down in front of the computer. Life — in the form of work commitments and family time — so often gets in the way. Yet we do it week in and week out. Why? Because we love what we do, hard or not.

Getting the characters in your head to behave on paper can be even more of a challenge. My characters, at least, have a penchant for doing exactly what they want instead of what I’d like them to do. I implore, beg, plead and sometimes resort to trickery and still they take off in their own, often unexpected direction.

But the hardest part of writing, by far, is revising.

I know, I know. Plotters will argue that having a road map before writing would eliminate the need for so much rewriting. That may well be true. Alas, I am a pantster through and through. More than half the time, I start scenes with no clear idea where they’re going. They begin as a way to work in a particular line of dialogue or funny situation.

That’s how I wrote my first manuscript — and is no doubt why it’s giving me fits in this, its fourth revision. As I go back in to beef up the “scandal at the hero’s school” conflict (completely nonexistent in the first draft), I’m finding entire scenes that no longer have a point and will have to be excised. Good scenes … funny scenes … but they just don’t fit.

You know what they say: If it does not fit, you must —

Wait a minute. How’d OJ’s lawyer get in here?

But seriously, folks: A scene that doesn’t work anymore simply must go. On Saturday, while sitting at a table in Starbucks, I ended up hacking two scenes — about 2,000 words total. Hence the “ye-ouch” in the title of this post.

It’s painful — really and truly grueling, to strip moments I love from my story … to “kill the darlings,” as it were.

But if it strengthens the story and leads to a publishing contract, I’ll get over the hurt. (Don’t tell Brad and Erin, my hero and heroine, I said this, but it’s even kind of fun to torture them a little bit.)

Spreading some link love

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Over on my other blog, I regularly collect links to share. Sometimes they’re articles that challenge me. Other times they just make me laugh — something we all should do more often. But they’re always worth a read.

I’ve been saving up a few writing-related items. Enjoy!

— Someone I follow on Twitter recently tweeted a link to a Shelf Awareness article on “where the readers are.” Curious, I had to click over — and was surprised to see Washington D.C. at the top of the list. Politicians read? You sure can’t tell from the crap that comes spewing out of their mouths. (That’s as political as I’ll ever get on this blog. Promise. My opinions about the state of the nation have no place in a blog dedicated to romantic comedy.)

— When I spotted a link to Roni Loren’s post on the three things you can do now to prepare for published authorhood, I was intrigued. Was it really back in November? How time flies when you’re writing/rewriting up a storm! The tips apply now as much as they did three months ago, though, so I don’t feel too guilty for sharing it a little late. Number three, finding balance, is a particular favorite of mine … probably because it’s one I still struggle with constantly. Sounds like I need to get it in gear before I’m published, though.

— My NaNoWriMo friend and sometimes beta reader, Jamie Raintree, is embarking on a new group blog adventure. Called Hugs and Chocolate, it promises to “inspire, motivate, and inform writers of all levels about different aspects of the publishing industry.” I can’t wait to see great things from this group. Maybe they’ll ask me to write a guest post somewhere along the way. I’m hoping to start doing more guest blogging in 2012.

— Former uber-agent and author Nathan Bransford shared a post from Chuck Wendig at TerribleMinds: the 25 things writers should know about agents. Great laughs in there, along with some reminders that agents aren’t demigods bent on destroying the dreams of wannabe authors, just professionals who love books.

— Books from my Starcatcher sisters are (finally!) starting to make waves. Sara Ramsey’s debut Regency romance, “Heiress without a Cause,” was released last week. Montlake published Robin Perini‘s “In Her Sights” not too long ago, and Harlequin Intrigue will release “Finding Her Son” in March. Mark my words: The 2011 Golden Heart finalists have lots of fantastic stories to tell.

Too nice?

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I’m afflicted — cursed, if you will — with being that most heinous of attributes: Nice.

Too nice.

Some people — normal people — might think nice is a good thing. And that is, indeed, the case when you’re dealing with fellow human beings. A little kindness can go a long, long way.

But when you’re an author trying to make life difficult for your hero and heroine, a nice streak as wide as the mighty Mississippi just gets in the way.

Trust me, I know. That’s my CP’s main complaint with the MS she’s reading for me right now — and it was the main point of one of the agents who gave me detailed feedback on my 2011 Golden Heart finalist.

Obviously, it’s a problem for me.

I think it boils down to this: My characters are like old friends (some of them very old, having been knocking around my head since the mid-1990s). As I wrote in a guest post on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood last spring, they’re folks I’d enjoy meeting for coffee or dinner.

And because I like these people, the last thing I want is to see them suffer.

But suffer they must. In the words of my CP, I need to  “Make them wiggle. Make them squirm. Make them unhappy. Uncomfortable. Put roadblocks in their way. Conflict is what drives a book and keeps the reader wondering how they will ever end up together.”

I can see her point. There’s not much keeping someone reading if they know the hero and heroine are meant for each other halfway through the story, is there?

That means I have to accept that torturing my characters — as much as I hate to do it — will make the story stronger in the end.

So I’m taking off the gloves. Now I just need to figure out how to channel the meanest person I know.

In defense of the e-reader

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In my other life (my day job), I’m a page designer and sometimes writer. I used to write a weekly column called “Adventures in Cooking,” which eventually became the basis for my weight-loss blog, Adventures in Weight Loss, Cooking and Life.

My job duties have shifted and I don’t have as much time for column writing anymore, so “Adventures in Cooking” fell by the wayside. But after reading our features editor’s eloquent defense of the printed page a couple of weeks ago, I was compelled to craft a response.

That response, headlined “In defense of the e-reader,” ran Sunday in the Arts & Living section of the Arizona Daily Sun.

The highlights?

1. Easy access. I carry my Nook — and phone — with me everywhere, so I can read anywhere, anytime.

2. Endless variety. I can read anything — anything at all. Romance dominates my collection, but I also have other options, like the Klingon Dictionary (downloaded for research, not because I’m a geek).

3. Saved space. When I traveled to New York City for RWA Nationals last summer, my e-reader — loaded with a bunch of reading material — went with me. Having several books on one compact device eliminated the need to pack five or six tomes to keep me occupied during the flight. This both lightened my bag and freed up more luggage space for the important things: clothes and shoes. (As a GH finalist, I needed a fancy gown. Being indecisive — and unsure how many other fancy events I’d be attending, I packed three.)

4. Price. While the device itself wasn’t cheap, there are a lot of low-cost books in cyberspace, available with a simple click.

5. Privacy. I can be in the middle of a steamy scene without anyone being the wiser. (That’s a huge perk, since some of my favorite books are super-steamy.)

Perhaps the column explains the huge bump in page views for this blog today? Otherwise, I’m at a loss. Why did I get 97 hits when I usually get about 10? My site stats page is no help at all.

A writer’s Thanksgiving

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With today being a time to give thanks, I thought it’d be fun to reflect on some of the things I’m thankful  for in my writing life this year.

  • My Golden Heart final. Having “Beauty and the Ballplayer” final in the GH did more than open new doors. It introduced me to a group of supportive sisters. (Hi, Starcatchers! Even when you don’t hear from me all that much, I treasure the time we spend chatting, whether it’s on our loop or  Twitter.)
  • The chance to go to RWA Nationals in NYC. I learned a lot at the sessions I was able to attend, bought the CD so I can listen to the ones I had to miss and was inspired by more than one keynote speaker. My credit card didn’t fare nearly so well, but that’s another story.
  • Chatting with some of the authors whose books I’ve been reading, and loving, for years. That was a great experience, if a little surreal. Even greater? Realizing that they pull their pantyhose on one leg at a time, too. Wait — does anyone ever wear pantyhose anymore?
  • A great RWA chapter. The ladies of NARWA are cheerleaders, sounding boards and, above all, friends.
  • Finding not one, but two CPs. The relationships are still new, so we’re feeling our way — but I’m hoping they’ll lead to more success for all of us.
  • Time to write. Whether I’m writing alone or with chaptermates and other friends, I cherish time with my trusty iBook. (I am, however, ready and willing to upgrade to a new MacBook Pro as soon as I win the lottery … or sign a book deal that advances me enough cash to augment my paltry “buy a MacBook” savings account.)
  • Starbucks. You knew I couldn’t leave the Bux off my “what I’m thankful for” list. I spend so much time there that all the baristas know me by name. I should probably count that as more curse than blessing, no?

Yes, my writing life has truly been blessed in 2011. Here’s hoping 2012 will be just as great.

Hard truth

by with 4 Comments Golden Heart prepMusings

What do you do when one trusted friend tells you to scrap the first chapter of one of the stories you plan on entering in the 2012 GH?

If it’s a chapter you love, chock-full of hilarious lines and
you’re not ready to hear the fateful directive to “chop it,” you seek a second opinion.

And when the Starcatcher sister offering said second opinion concurs, saying that she, too, thinks the beginning makes both hero and heroine look less-than-heroic …

Well, you bite the bullet and cut your beloved first chapter, which began life as a prologue to begin with. (I should have known that no one would be fooled by my slapping it with a “Chapter 1” header.)

It wasn’t easy to cut a chapter that starts out like this: “When Melinda’s now-ex-fiancé admonished her to grow up, she doubted playing tonsil hockey with a man old enough to be her father was what he’d had in mind.”

Okay, maybe a wee bit of “ick factor” lurks in that beginning. (Thanks, Anna, for putting your finger on that one. It may be why I didn’t final in the Rubies’ first line contest this time.)

Finally, I was willing to admit to myself that the pages didn’t paint either of them in the best light — even though they you see right away that Mel was overexaggerating Dave’s age.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as painful as I expected. I plan to work in some of the funnier bits as part of the backstory — and when this novel makes it to publication, don’t be surprised to see Dave and Melinda’s “how it all began” pop up on the blog as an online extra.

I will survive my MS’s massive surgery — without too much bleeding, I hope.

I’m glad to have friends who’ll tell me the cold, hard truth — even when I’m not quite ready to hear it.