Ha. Not *that* kind of threesome, you pervs. 😉 No – I was thinking the other night about how difficult it can be to try to flip flop between writing multiple stories. I’d actually read part of the book there, Page after Page, some time last year. At the time I was in the middle of my procrastinator phase- I had just started writing and I couldn’t quite get my act together. One of those things where I was so tentative about actually getting the words down on the page.  Fear of success? Fear of failure?  (And maybe those are one and the same). So, yeah, I picked up a number of writing motivational books. Never finished any of them, because I already knew what my issue was – I just needed to suck it up and write the thing. The books were a sort of safety net – i.e. I couldn’t… Read more

Sort of. When I first started writing SotI, I knew how it would end. Didn’t matter to me how I got there, as long as I did. And while I envisioned that there would me more stories to follow, I didn’t pay much attention to the details. And yes, there are plenty of things that don’t get completely wrapped up in Book 1, just for that reason. And then when I pitched to Heather Osborn, she asked that when I sent the full I would also need a few paragraphs on the next two books. And I had to pause and think about that, because now I’m not just plotting out a single book, but an entire arc. And my original idea had been to have 7 books, since that’s how long Abby’s Contract is for, but I understand that an editor might not want to take that sort of… Read more

Just a short post for the moment, but wanted to share a few of the things I’ve found that have definitely made my writing life easier: 1) Get Drop Box – (and yeah, if you click on the link it’s a referral to me, but that’s ok, right?  You’ll *also* get an extra 250 megs of space, so everyone wins).  Drop Box is this nifty little program that you can install on as many computers as you like (and there are hacks for thumbs drives as well). You sign up for an account – 2 gigs of space for free and install the software, which makes a little folder on your desktop. You can put anything you want in there – docs, pics, whatever. When you edit and save, those same files are instantly updated on the website as well as any computer that has drop box running.  For me, it’s… Read more

Sent in my manuscript to the editor last night. I debated heavily on it, because as I noted before, I tend to get into this cycle of editing and changing. And I have to be careful of that. I mean, sure, there’s always things to fix, always a sentence or two that might be written better. The problem is that if I edit *too* much, then I run the risk of losing the original flavor of the scene. (And I’ve done that more than once).  Or I focus on a few lines here or there without paying attention to the surrounding paragraphs and then go back and realize I’ve started using the same words just a little too close together. *shrugs* So, I bit the bullet and sent it in – after only fixing up the most obvious. Based on the comments I received, she really liked the first couple… Read more