RING THE ALARM! #ROW80 ROUND 3 HALFWAY POINT

I feel like a little kid, running around shouting "WWEEEEEEWOOOOOOOO WWWEEEEEEEWOOOOO." :) I can't believe we're half way to the end of the A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 3 (#ROW80). I am so very thankful for the program of like-minded authors, with very different goals, urging and encouraging each other through blogs, tweets, and other positive messages.


I have been away for about two weeks because my family's move to Connecticut from South Carolina just jumped up the timetable by 2 months! No worries, I'm not letting it derail me! :)


So where am I in regards to publishing my first novel, CANCELLED? Am I about half-way there? Yes. Yes, I think so. 


Whoa. That's pretty cool, isn't it? I did have a few changes to the itinerary along the way. I am still editing, but it's finally going really well. I now have two chapters I'm very proud of, and now that I know what that takes, it will be easier with the other 26. My reader website has most of the major components I wanted, and just need the outlines filled in. 


How am I still going to make it by September 22? Well, one time saver is I am formatting for an e book as I edit, stripping each chapter of all formatting before pasting it into the final document. Another is rather than give my pre-readers a month to read, I'll just give them the book when it comes out. That way they can leave a review on Amazon etc. if they so choose. 


There is still a big unknown and that is my move to Connecticut. I will lose regular Internet on September 2, and probably won't regain it until the middle of September. Yikes! I am going to need to plan around that, but I can do it. I'm hoping to make a final print of the manuscript for a last look for typos and the like. That will be very good to do, unplugged. :)


What about you? How is your mid-point in the #ROW80 process going?


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.


Other FANTASTIC A ROUND OF WORDS IN 80 DAYS PARTICIPANTS! Check out their blogs and leave them some encouragement!

It's Going to Be Okay

First, a HUGE congratulations to my friend Tonya Kappes, author of Carpe Bead'em and The Ladybug Jinx. She is celebrating 1,000 sales today in only 9 weeks. She is part of the amazing writing community at The Writer's Guide to E-Publishing, a site I highly recommend for the latest scoops in the indie world and great old-fashioned camaraderie! (If I type 'the' in my address bar, that's the site that comes up, I go so often!)

In other news, it was a meh kinda week for the writing ego of moi. I keep freaking myself out because I am NOT like other writers in style and tone. For example, I read a tip lately that only "new writers" describe what a character is eating. You know, what's wrong with a little realism? Especially when you use it for characterization. In Chapter 2 (old Chapter 3) my MC is eating a pre-fixe lunch of a terrine with lemony asparagus followed by a salad. His stepmother's boyfriend (who MC did NOT know existed, let alone was tagging along on their Christmas trip to Paris) is eating the same thing. Although the terrine is a soft, meat-loaf consistency, the boyfriend is using the American convention of smashing every bite with the side of his fork, leaving his knife perfectly pristine on the table next to his plate. And he's talking with his mouth full! And you know what? I'm keeping it! 

It gets so confusing. It's a conversation at a lunch table in a swanky 4-star Parisian hotel. How could I not comment on the food? Here's the truth, people eat, sleep, talk, and have sex. Somewhere in there they also work. What's wrong with a little realism to balance the fantasy of a love story? My characters eat: different foods and in different ways. My female lead skips lunch by eating a granola bar when she's stressed and my MC calls her out on it. One of the scenes in Confessions of a Shopaholic that sticks with me most is Becky trying to cook a curry. I can't cook a curry. I don't even know really that I like curries. But I enjoyed the comedy of everyday life. When I read Sophie Kinsella's book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, I loved it so much BECAUSE it was unlike any other book I had read up to that point. 

This morning I read Konrath's piece about authorial intent. Just be deliberate, he says, and too bad for the people who don't like it. Alright. I agree. 

With that, I am going to work on polishing my new Chapter 1 (original Chapter 1 was cut entirely into the deleted scenes bin) which is my old Chapter 2 and have it up on my reader site for Sample Sunday. I also need to get the back cover copy to my awesome cover artist. I was stressing over that, but my paperback will never be sold in stores, so really, what does it matter what the back of the printed book says? For that matter, I am going to heavily subsidize my printed book pricing to promote my ebook, so maybe I will just break the mold entirely. Why not make my back cover of the book a letter to my readers, thanking them for buying this book, a nice picture of me, and encouraging them to email me for a free copy of the ebook? My business is best in electronic media. The more people I can convince to read my books in electronic formats, the better off my business and the businesses of my colleagues will be. 

Wow, I feel like a major DUH!!!! is coming on. Off to work on new and improved back cover copy. 

"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Printing My First Draft

Proof I wrote for 5 months

 I am on a pauper's editing budget. I can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for editing. Not on this book. Hopefully by Book 2 I can send my book off for editing, if not then definitely Book 3.

I *know* the book needs editing. That isn't an issue. I am going to do my very best and use as many quality assurance skills I can to help improve the methodology.

First, I outlined my plot. I tried to check my story for holes before I ever wrote a word. Okay, before I wrote more than a few scenes. Writing a few scenes helped me feel the tone of the book, which helped in story boarding. There's layers to editing and I have two editing books that list them. Things like plot, setting, characterization, dialogue. Each chapter will get each layer. The book as a whole will get each layer. I am going to make it the best writing I possibly can.

This is how THICK 225 pages is!!!

Here is where I will print again****

Then come the pre-readers. I am thinking about doing a typo/grammar mistake contest with my 5 pre-readers. Whoever finds the most issues gets a $25 Gift card. And everyone gets a signed copy of the paperback. No idea if they will go for this or not....

Then I will check for typos, each chapter, out of sequence, as many times as it takes until I don't see any more. Not over and over again right away. It will be more like Chapter 3 is checked, I find 2 typos, I mark them. I check other chapters. Then, I come back to Chapter 3, I find another typo, so it will get another run, and just do this systematically until I run out of chapters failing the typo check.

Then I will layout. If I catch anything in the layout, I will fix it. Then print the layout (maybe, unless it's cheaper to buy the mock up from Amazon....).

And that's the best I can do on a shoe-string budget. All in all, I should publish this book for about $500 in expenses....




*** Next time, although this is gorgeous, I'm going to just opt to have the pages printed and hole punched for the first draft. That way as I edit I can print at home and insert them. That should cut the cost from $21 to about $15 or less.

"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

#ROW80 Check In #2 When Plans go Awry, You Adjust :)

I am blessed in that I have had many opportunities to travel. My mother always says it's because I was born on a Thursday (Thursday's child has far to go). This journey of writing I am on is already coming with adjustments. This non-coffee drinker has been drinking the stuff! (well, half coffee, half milk, a little caffeine goes a LONG way in my system).


The first trip I ever took that went horribly awry was a school vacation to Walt Disney World when I was in 6th grade. We went by bus from Virginia Beach, Va to Orlando, FL. On the way home, the bus broke down, stranding us at the Georgia Welcoming Center. A bus full of teenagers for 8 hours? The staff at the Welcoming Center was NOT very welcoming. But, we bought their entire supply of candy, and nearly emptied out the vending machines. And we played a good deal of card games. The center sold decks with pictures of Georgia on them.


Since then, I've gone to Paris with my husband....with him in a wheelchair. Want to know how handicapped accessible the City of Lights is? The Louvre. That's about it. Oh, and the train station in La Defense has an elevator. No other train station has an elevator, so I carried the wheel chair up and down the two flights of stairs while my husband played Hop-along Cassidy up and down the stairs. Did I mention this was our honeymoon? Yep. He broke his ankle in three places two weeks before our wedding. 


Then there was the 10 days in Japan in 2007. Going home, I didn't really consider how difficult it would be to move all three pieces of my luggage through Shinjuku Station during rush hour in the morning to get to the airport in Tokyo (I was staying in Yokosuka, where the Navy base is). It wasn't like Paris where people offered to help me. No, instead I just cried as I couldn't get all of the pieces up the stairs in time to make my train to make it to the airport in time to catch my flight. I was about to fall into despair when Eureka! I just pushed the pieces out the door and hailed a taxi. It was $150 in U.S. after the exchange rate, but I made my flight! 


Anyway, every journey I've ever made is never perfect. From the cross-country moves to San Diego and back to the East Coast, visiting my husband in Australia and Hawaii, and the multitude of times I've traveled to middle-of-nowhere Texas, I've always had to improvise. This Round of Words in 80 Days is no different.


I am sad and disappointed to say my first draft still isn't finished. However, I'm not throwing in the towel. Far from it. I have adjusted. The story planning of my next novel is going to become something I do whenever, not necessarily this week. It's not absolutely vital to me getting CANCELLED out the door. I am also very, very close to a completed first draft. 

In fact, today is Sunday, and the day I have the most time to write. Friday and Saturday I had social obligations for my husband's work. But today, he's going to watch the baby and I'm going to get a book finished!


So if your #ROW80 journey isn't going 100% to plan, fret not. This is a pretty long trip, 80 days. And if a few days aren't what we expect it will be okay. Looking back, we're going to remember the successes, and the setbacks won't matter.


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.


Be sure to read a check-in from one of my friends also participating in Round 3 of a Round of Words in 80 Days.

A ROUND OF WORDS in 80 DAYS

I'm going on a trip.......beginning the Fourth of July


Inspired by A ROUND OF WORDS IN 80 DAYS, I have joined Round 3 and making it my journey to self-publish CANCELLED.


The rules of my trip are simple: I have destinations. These are outlined in my ITINERARY. I must get to each destination BY the date listed. What are those small pictures? Those are my stamps, and my passport will be blog posts on Sunday and Wednesday to update. When I make a destination. BAM! Stamp goes in the post!

Now, no trip starts willy-nilly, you have to pack important documents! To make this work, I need to finish my last 4 chapters of my manuscript this weekend. This means butt-in-seat #wordmongering. But I can do it! ::in case there is a snafu getting travel documents going, I don't start editing until July 17::




What kind of trip would this be without SOUVENIRS? My souvenirs will be freedom to work on my reader website during my journey. I have a number of souvenirs I must collect, such as behind-the-scenes information, recommended reading lists for readers of other indie writers both in genre and out of genre, etc. But my luggage is rather small (see ITINERARY page), so all SOUVENIRS must ship on SEPTEMBER 14 (one week prior to book release), making my reader website ALIVE!


I do need company. Traveling alone is boring. I will be commenting and encouraging others on the list of ROUND 3 participants. I also need a few pre-readers to get my edited copy on AUGUST 18. These pre-readers will have until SEPTEMBER 8 to get me any feedback to put into my final manuscript, eternal appreciation, a thank-you with link in my THANK YOU page, and an invitation to guest chat or blog on my reader site. Plus anything else nice and spiffy I can think of between now and then.


If you are interested in being a pre-reader, please email me at EAWWRITES on gmail. 


It's real, boys and girls. My book is coming. My little heart is pitter-pattering. It's going to be grueling, and I can't do it without a little help from my friends.


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Watch Out Wednesday! Writing Goals and Life

"All I'd say is though my choo-choo jumped the track, I'd give me life to bring him back..."
- Musical Chicago, We Both Reached for the Gun


I get derailed. We all do. we're chugging along and then BAM! one little switch isn't thrown the right way and our train is off the tracks.


I missed my manuscript deadline of May. It put me in a funk. I got over it. I picked up my train and shoved it back on that track. Other times, I don't derail; I just have to stop in my tracks. I have a 2-year-old. She needs Mommy at least twenty or more times a day, right now. Not in a second once I save my work (autosave is my friend), but as soon as she reaches on her tiptoes and pulls a knife off the counter, or climbs on the couch, or bumps her head. She's 3 feet tall without the maturity that comes with that height (she was 23 inches when she was born). She just turned 2 last week.


I've adapted. My train is like those rollercoasters that shoot you off at 60 m.p.h from the get go. I can go full speed, come to a complete stop, and pick right back up. Before you say "Wow, wish I could do that" there are tradeoffs. I can't do long, uninterrupted sessions. I go nuts. I get stuck. I need the chaos to jam it out. I also hesitate to get on the rollercoaster, because once I'm on, I'm on. Whoosh! That isn't always a good thing, depending on the timing.


This week was my first week really getting back into writing/keeping my house. It's Wednesday, and so far I am proud of my Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. But there is still much to do, as always.

• I am 4 chapters away from completing my manuscript. That's 12 #wordmongering sessions.
• My author photos are done!
• My cover is nearing completion.
• My reader website is coming together, slowly. But that's okay.
• I need to punch up my first two chapters so I can post them as samples.
• I joined A Round of Words in 80 Days starting July 4, that will help me get my second book done while I'm editing/promoting CANCELLED.
• I need to make a goal for those 80 days, which is harder than you think. Something I can measure and check in on Sunday and Wednesday on status.
• I need to make some stickers/badges. I've done well in #wordmongering and pictures are pretty.

"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Professional Author Photos!!

Today was one of those days where I love that I am a writer. A good friend of mine, and absolute genius behind the camera lens, Kristen Channel played in Downtown Summerville and at the Stony Landing House to get my author photos! If you live in the Charleston area, I HIGHLY recommend you hire her for your author photos.


Below is just an awesome sampling:


After a few wardrobe issues, I finally settled on a simple black top and gray slacks. Those shoes killed my feet! So no one can say I don't suffer for my art! :)

We started at 7:30 in the morning and were finished by 9. The temperature in balmy South Carolina raised from 80 degrees to the low 90s by the time we were done. Don't ask me how my hair held up, I haven't a clue!

I feel like a real writer now that I have professional photos to stick in my "media kit"/ promote my books with! Kristen was great, letting me make funny poses and ridiculous faces to help loosen up. It was tough to try to remember "suck in the Mommy pouch, neck long, chin down, SMIZE, keep eyes open, don't be just straight up and down, etc. But we did it, and it was not just a great morning with NO kids, but a great morning of feeling like a beautiful woman again.


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Day 10 - Cover Concept Complete and Writing, Writing, Writing

There it is. That's the concept. The photo of the wedding invitation still has the Dreamstime watermark because I haven't 100% chosen the specific wedding invitation I want to use. But the gist is there. I am still toying with the idea of making my own wedding invitation for Johnathan and Alexis, and slapping the cancelled stamp on it. 


I am relieved. I think the cover concept works and once finished, it will be eye catching. Cancelled? What's cancelled? 


Now to get back to writing. Chapter 7, here we go!

"Imperfect Timing" arriving Fall 2011. Johnathan Michaels, a robotics engineer, jeopardizes his engagement with his business partner when a previous one-night stand surfaces, carrying his child.

Day 2 - Story Board complete

It's pretty. I love the splashes of neon note cards. Pink represents my three major disasters. Orange are "point of no return" scenes, so I know this is a big turning point for my characters. For example: the night two of my main characters hook up in the hotel room above the benefit dinner they're attending (just found out tonight they steal 2 bottles of champagne from the event O.o.O it's fantastic when the characters whisper in your ears as you're planning stuff out). Yellow and green represent two separate subplots that fuel the main plot. The yellow is the sub plot that ultimately helps Johnathan make the decision about what kind of father he's going to be to his unborn child, and the green leads him to the lifestyle he ends up in.

I love having the road map made out of office supplies. Something about using office supplies like a bulletin board, multicolored push pins and note cards. I tried using a spreadsheet like it was suggested in Writing Fiction for Dummies, but it felt too cold. Writing each notecard out made me feel like I was touching my story, giving care to each little scene, making sure it fit in the right spot. There were a few casualties. I cut an extra romantic weekend (I think one per novel is sufficient), and some things were demoted to honorable mentions in more important scenes.

I didn't forget about my publisher work today. I'm lurking on a number of indie author blogs and getting a feel for the community. I have solved the dilemma of "genre" finally. This novel is a Romance --> Contemporary. Since my stepson told me last week that I had make sure my main character Johnathan have someone he's with at the end of the book. When I asked him why, he said "Because the baby needs a Mommy." He's so cute! So the ending changed quite a bit, and now it's fairly happy, I don't have to worry about failing the formula. Instead, I just tweak it a bit in that my main character is male! and it's a toss up until the end which female lead he ends up with! Even then, everything isn't perfectly, sappily resolved and I don't think it really can be given the storyline.

I'm about 98% sure my storyline is in place. I give myself 2% chance of something happening as I'm writing it out. I know I should write a synopsis now, but instead I'm going to charge into writing copy. I already have rather large chunks completed in various parts of the story (mainly pink and orange cards) but they need editing and tailoring to the rest of the story.

In performing the checks listed for "Is your storyline solid?" the results made me feel more confident in my ability to design a storyline. For every single main character (I have 3 major characters, 4 mid-level characters, and 3 or 4 pop ins) the major and mid-level, there is a clear story arc with a dilemma goal and story question. I didn't even plan this, it just happened as the story developed. For example, there is a clear point when Johnathan decides to propose, when Alex resolves her freak out over the baby by trying to take control of the situation, the point where Anna (the stepmother of Johnathan) realizes she needs to own up to the past about Johnathan's father and he tells her he's too busy right now with his own drama, it doesn't matter what happened twenty years ago (oh, but it does.....).

So tomorrow? Character dossiers (which I'm NOT particularly excited about...we'll see how that goes). I think I'm going to work on a scene or two tonight so I can throw it in the "raw material EDIT" folder.


"Imperfect Timing" arriving Fall 2011. Johnathan Michaels, a robotics engineer, jeopardizes his engagement with his business partner when a previous one-night stand surfaces, carrying his child.