Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Setting goals part 2

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to my longterm goals--probably more thought than I should given that I've never really been much of a planner. *g* It's not so much about the number of books I want to have published, or the number of manuscripts I want to have out for consideration. It's more about where I want to go, as a writer. One of my critique partners writes romantic suspense. Another writes contemporaries. Another writer friend writes cool paranormals. And what do I write? Um...just about everything. I haven't been able to nail my writing down to one or two things yet. For small press publishing, this isn't too much of a problem, but I'm currently looking for an agent and, for that kind of stuff, I'd probably want to stick with one genre. So part of my goal for the next year (along with a way-too-long list of books I want to write) is to really think about where I want my writing to go, and nail this whole thing down to one or two genres. Mind you, this isn't a New Year's resolution--I can never keep them so I don't bother to make them anymore. *g* I'm starting in December. For the writers out there, what are your goals for the coming year? For the readers, I'm really curious to hear from you. What do you think about authors who write in multiple genres with the same pen name? Does it bug you or do you like it? Would you rather they used different pen names for each genre?

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Same Time Next Year...

Is the title for my new super hot, super short story recently contracted with Changeling Press. Thanks to my amazing, wonderful editor *g* who came up with the title. Since it's a Christmas story, she's aiming at having it released in December. Same Time Next Year is about a man and woman who love each other, but are separated by forces beyond their control. Every year, at Christmastime, they get one night together. It was a fun story to write, and I hope everyone enjoys it. I'll post a blurb on my website soon and I'll have an excerpt in my November newsletter.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

NaNoWriMo update and setting goals

First: My interview with Sharon Cullen is up on my website. Sharon is a really talented romantic suspense author. Be sure to check it out. As for NaNo...haven't written a word on that book all week. I've been working on a contemporary novella and a super hot, super short story. I'm still hoping to get the NaNo book finished by the end of the month, and I'm still on target for the 50k word count. We'll see what happens. I sat down over the weekend and wrote up my list of daily, weekly, and monthly writing goals to carry me through until February. I find that it helps keep me organized and on target if I treat it like a work schedule. Every day, 6 days a week (or 7 if I have a hard deadline), I have a list of things I need to accomplish before I go to bed. Anything writing-related goes on my goal sheet--usually 2 chapters per day, critiques for my critique partners, organizing files and updating my website. It keeps me on task--and also gives me a reminder of what I've accomplished each month. That way if I feel I haven't had a productive month I can go back and see what I've done and make the necessary changes for the next month. Probably overkill *g*, but it works for me. For the writers out there, do you set goals? If so, how do you do it?

Thursday, November 17, 2005

The sagging middle...

I hit page 50 in my current wip--a contemporary novella that will finish at about 100 pages, and couldn't go any further. I tried a few different directions, but ended up deleting the pages. So today, instead of sitting at the computer, staring at the blinking curser and hoping something will come to me, I've decided to start reading through the wip from the beginning to see where I hit the snag, and see if I could fix it. This turned out to be a good thing, since I think at least some of the problems have come from not having a good enough grasp on my heroine. Also, I tried to work the story around the title I'd picked out, rather than titling it after the story was done, and I think that led to problems as well. Although I like the title, it doesn't really match the story, so as I go I'll be making those changes, and hopefully that'll jumpstart the flow again. On the writing front, I've had some good news over the past few weeks. My editor at Cerridwen Press wants a chick lit novel, Lost in Suburbia, I submitted a month or so ago, and Ellora's Cave has offered me a contract for my story, Blind Date, for the Ellora's Cavemen: Dreams of the Oasis anthologies. I've also started submitting a YA chick lit novel to agents, so wish me luck. *g* Lis

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Books in Print

I'm in the process of updating my website to reflect this, but here's what I have available in print now: Dark Promises: Midnight Dark Promises: Demonic Obsession Dark Promises: Shift of Fate Dirty Pictures And here's what's coming soon in print: In Moonlight, an anthology with JC Wilder and Liddy Midnight--December 2005 Dark Promises: Flesh and Blood--January 2006 Nothing Personal--March 2006 Grave Silence--May 2006 Dark Promises: Tarnished--May 2006 And in June 2006 my quickie, Dream Stalker, will be part of an as-of-yet untitled print anthology. Lis

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

A cool link

It isn't writing related, but it's an excellent resource for anyone with curly hair. Naturallycurly.com. The forum is an excellent place for product recommendations and advice. And be sure to check out Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey. Excellent advice and a great program to follow for those of us who have curls. Also, I've recently sold a contemporary/chick lit novella to Samhain Publishing. I'll post info about the story to my website soon. Lis

Monday, November 07, 2005

I'm such a dork sometimes

The things I get excited about... I went out today and splurged on a new coffee maker, and a new vacuum--a Dyson. I'm amazed at how much dog hair that thing picked up, and after I'd used the old vacuum yesterday. NaNoWriMo isn't going for me at the moment. lol I didn't get anything done over the weekend. I'll be making up for it later this week. *g* Lis

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

NaNoWriMo...

Well, I started a day late, but at least I started. *g* It should prove to be an interesting month. I've got 3400 words in so far today--not a lot so I'm really going to have to push it if I want to make the 50k goal. Lis