Curious case of the cursed MS

by with 6 Comments Meg & MattStories

As much as I love my RWA Golden Heart® finaling MS, “Beauty and the Ballplayer,” I’m beginning to think it’s cursed.

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that I somehow lost the last 50 or so pages of B&B. It simply was gone from its Word document. Thank goodness I had a hard copy. All I had to do was retype — not completely reconstruct.

The MS has changed since then, of course. I finished the revisions detailed on all those Post-It notes on May 21.

On Monday, I received an agent request for the full. I took my GH sisters’ advice to read through the MS one more time before sending it off — and am I glad I did. Somehow, the version of B&B on my flash drive wasn’t the most recent version. Scenes that I’d deleted were still there and new additions were nowhere to be found.

Oh, the horror! My heart skipped more than one beat.

Luckily, I was able to boot up my wonky computer and retrieve a more recent version from the desktop. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that even that one didn’t contain the completed new draft.

Aargh!

I just spent four-plus highly caffeinated hours at Starbucks, rewriting a scene near the end and then editing out the rest of the things that needed to go to live up to the revised version.

I’ve also learned a very valuable lesson. This time, I e-mailed myself a copy of the completed revisions — both as an attachment and in the body of the e-mail. I’m not going to get caught without the most recent version again.

I’m famous?

by with 3 Comments Golden Heart prepMusings

Okay, not really famous … but my name is listed in the latest issue of RWA’s Romance Writers Report.

That’s right. I got the issue that lists all the Golden Heart® and Rita® finalists.

Blurry, but it's there — I promise!

There I am, right at the top of the Contemporary Series list. (Note to self: Continue entering MSs with titles at the beginning of the alphabet.)

Seriously, it’s a thrill to see my name printed alongside of all the other finalists’. Even though, as a reporter, I see my byline in print often (no longer every day, because I do more page design than writing), it’s different when my name is attached to my fiction. Don’t ask me why — I just know it is.

The countdown is on: In less than 20 days, I’ll be on a plane on my way to NYC. I can’t wait to get there and meet everyone! Win or lose, we’re all going to have a great time in the Big Apple.

Getting ready

by with 3 Comments Golden Heart prep

Although not much writing got done this week, I’ve been busy doing all the other little things that need to be done before I leave for New York in — gulp — less than a month.

Thursday night after work, I designed the business card I’ll be handing out at RWA Nationals. (That’s it on the left. I like how it matches the blog.) I still need to have it printed, but that may or may not happen this payday. I’m having it done through  my office to save on shipping — one of the perks of having a company called “Direct Impressions Business Services” in the back shop.

Friday morning, I went shopping. No, I still don’t have a bra or shoes for my Golden Heart awards ceremony gown — but I now own a nice pair of dress pants (on sale for about $10 at Kohl’s), a casual dress ($26-ish) and a cardigan ($9 — love those 80% off sales!)  for the meeting rooms I’ve been assured are C-O-L-D. Tops, along with the shoes and bra, might have to wait until next payday, too.

Friday night, I ordered the address label sticker for the back of the business card — the one that lists my manuscript’s title, “Beauty and the Ballplayer,” and its status as a 2011 Golden Heart finalist. (They were fairly cheap, at just a little more than $5 total for 140 labels and shipping.)

I also did some research on transportation from the airport to the conference hotel. Turns out that a cab ($45 one way) is not the way to go. A van is less than $40 round-trip. I found out it’ll take more than an hour to travel 15 miles, though. The hotel website says JFK is 15 miles away, but the shuttle service leaves from the airport just before 7 a.m. and doesn’t arrive until 8:20.

So my travel preparation is going swimmingly. If only my revisions were going along half as well. My balky computer has thrown me for a loop … and me with about 50 pages left to get through in my first revised draft.

Then again, maybe I’m just using my poor, ailing Mac as an excuse to avoid revising. I’d rather be working on a new story.

It’s a disease

by with 5 Comments Musings

My computer was giving me fits Saturday night, so I spent the time I should have been writing today cleaning out my car.

What can I say? Procrastination is a disease. 😉

I’m fighting a bigger disease, though. After decluttering my car, I took a bunch of the books I’d accumulated to the used bookstore. I decided that, as much as I might want to, I’m never going to have time to read certain books — so they might as well not continue to clutter up my living space.

While I waited for the staff to evaluate my offering, I browsed — where else — in the romance section. Big mistake. I found not one, but two books to add to my already massive TBR pile. (And, with time and an unlimited budget,  I probably could have found several more.)

So even though I got rid of about five books, I ended up adding two more to my stacks.

I also spent a couple hours last night browsing on my Nook, adding books to my e-wish list for the next time I have money to go on a buying spree.

I already have enough reading material to last me for years — especially at the rate I’m reading these days, and I’m browsing for more?

It’s a disease, I tell you. A terrible, wonderful disease. I can’t wait to go to RWA Nationals, because I hear there are free books up for grabs.

What’s a few more books added to my TBR pile, right? I’ll have time to read them … someday.

Return of Mr. Happy?

by with No Comment Musings

While I was checking my blog stats Tuesday morning, I saw a tidbit that made me laugh out loud:

Someone found my blog by using the search term “Mr. Happy story ideas.”

Since that’s the pet name one of my heroes uses for a certain part of his anatomy, I can’t help wondering if the searcher found more than he/she bargained for!

P.S. In case you missed it, here’s a link to the original post where Mr. Happy made his first appearance on the blog.

Staring down revisions

by with 4 Comments Meg & Matt

You already know I spent my vacation procrastinating. This is what I was avoiding doing:

Looks daunting, doesn't it?

Each one of these colored squares represents a scene in my Golden Heart®-finaling manuscript, “Beauty and the Ballplayer.” The yellow ones are turning points; blue are scenes that can stay the same; pink must be deleted altogether; and green are new scenes that must be written.

I drafted this Post-It plan after sitting down with my friend Mallory, who’d volunteered to read the story and help me “fix” it. (This was after getting a couple of rejections from agents who said the same thing: The writing was good, but they didn’t connect with the characters).

Little did I know she planned to make me re-plot the whole thing!

Well, not really RE-plot since I never plotted it out to begin with. Did I mention I’m the epitome of a pantster? I write scenes in order, but I often don’t realize certain things about my characters (such as Meg’s issue with her controlling father) until I’m well into the last third of the MS.

On the second day of my vacation, Mallory and I sat at Barnes & Noble and came up with the turning points. After that, it was up to me to figure out which scenes would stay and which would go.

I was gung-ho about the project, and finished the Post-Its that night. Then I packed up my posterboards and took them to the Boyfriend’s. I attached them to the wall (where they still are, because I forgot to bring them back with me) and stared. And stared. And stared some more.

I could drown under the weight of all those little colored squares — or so I thought. Now that I’m examining the photo again with a few weeks’ distance, it doesn’t look so bad. There are:

  • 16 scenes to be deleted
  • 9 new ones to write
  • too many keepers to count. (These, too, will need some tweaking, I’m finding — but tweaking I can do.)

Really, that’s not so much. Dare I say I’m feeling like Superwoman? I can delete long passages with a single keystroke … draft new scenes faster than a speeding bullet …

Okay, probably not faster than a speeding bullet — but first drafts of nine new scenes won’t take more than 48 hours’ work, tops (probably less).

I have this Wednesday off. Let’s see how much I can get done.

P.S. To avoid serious plot problems with my next story (the companion to “Beauty and the Ballplayer”), I think I’ll be plotting those turning points in advance.

See? The slow learner CAN adapt to new ways of doing things. 😉

 

Best-laid plans

by with 2 Comments Golden Heart prep

I believe it was Robert Burns who coined the saying about the best-laid plans of mice and men often going awry. John Steinbeck borrowed part of it for his “Of Mice and Men.”

Not that I’m trying to compare myself to these literary greats (yet), but I can definitely say that the best-laid plans for my vacation went way off track.

I had two whole weeks off work. I planned to shop for my GH awards ceremony dress, work on fixing my finalist MS so it’s ready for a judge request and do some plotting (and maybe even write new material) for Dave and Melinda’s story.

Only one of those things got done. I found a dress. That was it — I didn’t even get matching shoes or the proper undergarments. In two weeks of not having to go to the day job, the revising, plotting and writing just didn’t happen.

I spent a lot of quality time with the Boyfriend — and spent even more in the kitchen, whipping up delicious Atkins-approved meals. (I recommitted to a low-carb diet while on vacation.) On days the Boyfriend left to work or play tennis, I spent more time playing online than working.

I did actually sit down to rewrite once or twice, but didn’t spend long enough with the MS to get much accomplished.

As you can tell, I also ignored the blog. My last post was written on May 2. May 2? How am I going to build an audience if I only blog every two weeks?

I promise to start doing better, y’all — both with my writing AND the blogging. I want to write for a living … it shouldn’t be this hard.

Shopping success

by with 9 Comments Golden Heart prep

Too bad it’s not this easy to win the lottery.

Wait a minute. Did I just say easy? I’d hardly call three shopping trips in search of the perfect awards ceremony dress easy.

On two separate Friday mornings, I hit six stores in Flagstaff. Unfortunately, I didn’t find much — one extremely expensive (and beautiful) gown.  Since I didn’t want to pay $300 for a gown I didn’t completely LOVE, I headed to Phoenix on Saturday.

Bigger city, more places to shop … and better prices, right?

Thank goodness that did, indeed, turn out to be the case. I visited three stores in Phoenix — a store in the mall and two bridal shops.

What is it about bridal shops? At the first one, all the dresses — even the supposedly huge ones — were too small. (The same thing happened on Friday at the bridal shop in Flagstaff. Dresses that, as size 3X, should have fit me … didn’t. I couldn’t even zip the darn things.)

I had better luck at David’s Bridal. I tried on several gorgeous dresses before deciding the one I liked best made my butt look big. It’s big enough already — it doesn’t need help from the dress.

In the end, I headed back to the mall and bought the very first dress I tried on Saturday morning. Keep in mind, this was after a day of driving all over Phoenix, looking for something I liked better. (At least I had a chauffeur. My roommate went with me, and her husband tagged along to go to Lumber Liquidators. He drove.)

GH gown. Obviously, I'll be wearing a different bra — and taking off the chunky black watch. And doing something with my hair.

This beauty was $165 — and I got a discount because some of the beads/sequins are loose and need to be tacked down. I was able to pay for a couple of pairs of shorts for this summer with the savings.

Even better, it matches my blog. I was looking for a purple or red dress in keeping with my blog banner. Success! 😉

The savings didn’t stop there, though. This same store was selling cocktail dresses buy one, get one for $1, so I spent $55 on two short dresses to wear during other conference events. I believe there’s some kind of party one night.

Looking at the photo, I see I need to start toning my arms, though. Shake Weight, here I come! 😉