It's all good...

LOL...The goals are set--and number 1 on my list is to make sure, each month as I write out my schedule, that the goals are realistic. I love writing. I think I have the best job in the world. But every once in a while I tend to get a little ahead of myself. Tonight I'm caught up. Well, almost. I have one more short crit to do for a crit partner, but that won't take long. Then I can sit down, watch TV for a little while, and go to bed knowing I've finished all I set out to do today. Tomorrow I start Christmas shopping for the kids. I have all day while they're in school, and I'm hoping to get it all done. Being someone who's generally still shopping on Christmas Eve, this would be a major accomplishment. *g*

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?

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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

Newsletter is out!

The latest issue of my newsletter is available tonight. The new format matches my website, and looks a lot nicer than the plain text. To subscribe, click on the link to the left. In other news, I've started a chat group for readers to get together and talk about reading, writing, life...whatever they feel like chatting about at the moment. *g* To join, click here. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone. Happy Halloween!! Lis

What I've learned from writing a series...

1. That quite a few reviewers will pick up a book in the middle of the series, without having read any of the previous books, and give the book a so-so rating based on the fact that they missed out on backstory since they hadn't read the other books. I really, really appreciate the time they took to read the book and write reviews, but IMO it's hard to offer an objective opinion when you don't know the whole story. 2. That I need to keep more detailed character description sheets. Going through books 1 and 2 to get descriptions for characters in book 5 can waste a lot of time that could be spent writing. *bg* 3. That they're really hard to write. Keeping all the little details straight was tough for me, being a pantser. LOL All in all, it was a fun experience. I plan on doing it again--with a series connecting to Dark Promises--but after that I'd like to take a break and write single stories for a while. *g* Lis

The blinking curser...

Blogger's block--I think I still have it. Not much has been happening lately on the writing front, so I don't have much to write about here. Writing has taken a backseat since family life has been on the hectic side. My oldest son is going to his first school dance tomorrow night. I swear I'm not ready for this. And soon he leaves on a field trip--and will be gone for 4 days! He's really excited, but mom's having a little bit of a hard time with the whole thing. *g* Being a typical middle-schooler, he can't wait to get away with his friends for a while, even if it is in an educational setting. Lis

Blog slacker

That's me. *g* I guess I've had blogger's block--haven't been able to think about what to write. I'll have a long post later today or tomorrow, just wanted to check in and let everyone know I'm still around. Lis

Question for readers

Okay, I know there are some of you out there. *g* I'm going to be revamping my newsletter soon, and I'm curious what kinds of things you like to see in an author newsletter. What makes you keep reading? What features do you want to see? Thanks in advance! Lis

Website updates

I just finished doing a bunch of them. Tarnished and Grave Silence are listed on the bookshelf page, this month's contest is posted, and the blurb of Divine Intervention is up on the coming soon page. October newsletter number 1 is going out tonight, with a special Halloween contest announcement in it. If you aren't a member and want to join my newsletter list, click on the link to the right or see the sign-up box on my website. Lis :)

Divine Intervention

I've been offered a contract with Loose Id for Divine Intervention, a paranormal ms I've been working on off and on for a year or two. I'll be getting a blurb up on my website and in my newsletter soon. Lis

What kind of novel?

I saw the link for this quiz on Maria Brown's blog and I couldn't resist taking it. EROTICA! - Wet, salty and delicious You are driven to excite the reader into a literal froth with your literary talents! You are a connoisseur of the carnal side of humanity from Kink to high-speed BJs in the front seat of a speeding jag! Sex is GOOD. Penthouse and the Internet after dark are your inspirations! What Kind of Novel Should I Write? brought to you by Quizilla

More on story writing

The post about outlining has me thinking. How do you write your stories? Do you write them from beginning to end without editing? A chapter, written and edited at a time? Do you write the scenes out of order and string them together? Myself, I write the book in order, unedited, up until the second to last chapter. Then I go back and do the revisions, write the last chapter once I know the story is going the way I want it to go, and then give the book a final pass to check for the ever-present spelling and consistency errors. Every once in a while a scene jumps out at me and needs to be written out of order, but usually I go from start to near-finish without stopping to revise. Lis

Outlining

I started outlining a year or so ago, when my editor asked for a synopsis of what I was working on next. Having an outline worked well for that book, and I was able to finish it in less than a month. A former pantster who never outlined anything before writing, I decided to start outlining everything I wrote in hopes of making the story easier to write. But lately I've noticed a flaw in that system--when I outline, I don't want to finish the book. My critique parter described this perfectly--with the outline written, it's like the story has been told and there's no real urgency to write the book. I know outlining works really well for a lot of people, but I'm not one of them. As much as I tried to make myself more organized by plotting the story before I start, I generally find myself unable to write the story once I know what's going to happen at the end. So, I'm back to my original system of just writing and seeing what happens as I go along. I still envy the people who are organized enough to be able to write an outline, though. *g* For all you writers out there, do you outline first or write as you go? Have you ever tried it the other way? Lis

Recommended read and my new baby

Night Creatures was selected as a Recommended Read at The Road To Romance. Thanks Tracey!! This afternoon the kids and I bought our new baby. Brady, a green cheek conure. We have to get the cage set up, and then we'll be picking him up next weekend. Lis