Thunder and Roses Reaches 87k

Thunder and Roses is well past the length of any book I’ve written to date. Ditter Kellen and I have been working around the clock to get this monster done, and the light is RIGHT THERE! We are three chapters away from The End and both of us will be happy to see it done.

We love the characters, the world, the bad guys you love to hate, the snark…but Ditter and I have been hanging out with these guys nonstop since December. It’s definitely time to part ways with the characters for a while. LOL!

Time to tell you how I’ve done this past week:

Thunder and Roses is at 87k.

Raven’s Daughter hit 7.5k this week.

Silver Tongue Devils has been plotted. It reached 1k, but I won’t count it until I’m actually past the first chapter.

My favorite dialogue from this week’s unedited writing (courtesy of Jimmy Strickland, shifter you’d love to hate, and Tonya Rose, our snarky kickass heroine.):

“It’s time to end this.” [Strickland] licked his blade. “Tell me who you work for.”
“Myself. No one else.”
“Why did you break into Westmoreland’s office?”
“The lounge was out of creamer and I knew he hoarded the best shit.”
Strickland grinned and stalked closer, keeping her within sight of his one good eye. “Okay. Sure.” His free hand partially shifted to sharp claws. “I like this game.”

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See you this weekend for

Writing Goals and ROW80

The content below is on the Personal Writing Challenge page of this site. As that page will change each quarter, it’s important to keep track of past accomplishments and failures. Yep. The word “failure” was used.

Only in failure can you find out what doesn’t work, you know.

It’s not the end of the world. So welcome to another Round of Words in 80 Days challenge! I’m a month and a half behind, so you’ll have to forgive the late intro. April was CampNaNoWriMo so I was hyperfocused on it.

In these next 45 days or so, I’ll be very busy. Word count updates will happen on Wednesdays and Sundays per the challenge rules. If you’re following along, I assume you have some interest in writing. Feel free to ask any questions.

…or leave a comment that my content in boring…if you don’t tell me, how will I know?

It’s May 2013. 2012 was a debilitating one for me as a writer, and I have a lot of time to make up for. I had a series I let fall to the wayside during my difficult transition from military to civilian life and my creativity shriveled to nothing. With two intercontinental moves in less than two years, gaining new family members (saying goodbye to a few as well), and moving to full-time writing status, I became overwhelmed.

I met Ditter Kellen and the amazing According to Ditter book group right when I thought I was making the worst decision of my life (full-time author). It took some time and effort, but I finally got back on the path. Now I’m here, with you, sharing my writing journey.

I’ll do each challenge by quarter so the easiest way to keep track is to become a part of A Round of Words in 80 Days. They have a wonderful motivating team of writers who encourage one another throughout the quarter. Once Upon a Time I was a Sponsor. Once I get back on track, I might do so again.

So here are the goals for the rest of this ROW80 event:

May

Thunder and Roses (complete and submit)

Raven’s Daughter *WT (complete and submit)

Silver Tongue Devils *WT (complete and submit)

June

Shift the Night (Complete and Publish)

RD2 (Complete and Submit)

Hunger 2 (Complete and Submit)

*WT: Working Title, a title that may change before submission

Nothing to See Here

Well. I’ve learned a few things this week.

1. I cannot focus when I have multiple projects going on. Two weeks in a row was a dismal failure.
2. Writing two novels at the same time is like playing heavy metal and club music at once. Completely out of sync and annoying as hell. Besides, I don’t want them to sound the same. They’re completely different story lines, and I caught myself reusing phrases in both. Ugh.
3. The weekends are no longer my catch up days. Since SuperChef started his job, it’s now MY job to keep the kids occupied while he tries to get his recipe blog updated and get new recipes out. When I had the EDJ, he kept them occupied so I could write when I could. It’s only fair.

So what now? I had about 1500 words or so on Friday. That was awesome. Nothing to write home about yesterday or today (so far). All I can do is write off this week as a learning experience, and continue pounding out the words.

To make up for the past two weeks’ experiment, I’ve decided I’m going to spend this week completely focused on No Dragon, No Problem. I’ll get it edited and out. Then move on to one of my works in progress. That’s it for me, guys. I hope your week was far more productive!

Keep Writing!

Dawn

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Another V-Day down!

Two out of Four ain’t so bad…

This week was a tester week for me. I had four solid goals…rewrites for A Familiar Kiss, complete No Dragon, No Problem, Chapter Two for Enraptured, and Chapter One for Feral Hunger.

So how did I do?

• I made it to page 45 of 111 on A Familiar Kiss. Not bad. Didn’t make my V-Day goal, but this one is being quite the bugbear.
• No Dragon, No Problem completed. YES! I had a little mini dance. Edits for this puppy will start on Monday.
• Enraptured and I are working through our problems today. Chapter two is an all action sequence, so I’ll be able to complete the chapter!
• Chapter one for Feral Hunger completed. YES!

So what craziness conspired this week? LOL! V-Day week seems to consistently be self-doubt week of the year (four years running). I thought I’d made a huge mistake doing this full-time (I’m not wishy-washy, I promise! Just worried about family finances). So hubby goes out and gets a job just like *snap* that. First time in the history of ever for either one of us. Wow, right? So I could focus again, and then Kim Knox did this AMAZING post this week that just snapped me out of the fugue.

You guys suffered through a crazy Q n A for the Platform Campaign. Turns out I’m a happy hooker (crochet joke) with a sword cane obsession, and am the great great granddaughter of a notorious moonshiner who changed his name to protect his family. Oh…and La Freak by Chic was the most popular song the day I was born. Subtle. Very subtle (so much better than Rod Stewart’s Do Ya Think I’m Sexy which would have been on my due date).

I poked fun at writer superstition that makes us afraid to say when our writing days are good days.

So what am I looking forward to this week?

I like having four objectives a week. It’s another test week so I can make sure I’m doing what needs to be done. If I can’t meet four goals this week…well, I may have been a bit more ambitious than I want to admit.

So specific writing goals:

• Continue hacking away at A Familiar Kiss. Once I’m done with that, it’s set it up for submission, send it off, and begin edits on No Dragon, No Problem.
• Finish Beauty’s Beast (formerly Thief)
• Complete Enraptured Chapter Three
• Complete Feral Hunger Chapter Two

That’s a little over 23k this week to accomplish. We’ll see how I do.

Monday is a holiday here in the states, so I’ll get done what I can. Tuesday the kids go back to school. Wednesday is the final load of furniture from Alaska (YAY!), and I have to meet with someone. Thursday and Friday are base stuff. Next Monday is my official last day in the service. I’m not sure if we’re actually going to do anything, but I know I’ll be happy.

Goals for the week:

A Familiar Kiss Rewrites (Pages, not words)

Beauty’s Beast

Enraptured Chapter Two and Three

Feral Hunger/Primal Intent Chapter One and Two

Until we chat again, keep writing!

Dawn

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I love a great day

What do we do when our days are terrible? We lament them, rage at them, and pretty much tear every single thing apart. Every moment of that day must have conspired to destroy the great words we were going to write! I’m one of those annoying realist types who takes a hard look at my output for the day and judges my efforts vs my results.

If the words aren’t coming, I switch to another of the wips (works in progress) on my list (but don’t start another one! that path lies madness…and procrastination). If I still can’t write, I give myself a good time frame to get wordage down. Usually using online stopwatch or something. If, by the end of that time, the words still refuse to come…I go for a walk. Or for a swim. I’ll take a notebook with me and a pen, and just go somewhere. Eventually my mind will settle and I’ll begin writing on my wip. It can be on bleachers at a gym (but not naked in the women’s locker room, sorry guys), at poolside, or on a bench somewhere. I’ve learned to carry pens that don’t run (sharpie pens anyone?) so the water thing isn’t such an issue.

On the very worst days…nothing comes. And that, in romance, is tragic. Bad joke. Sorry.

But what about those glorious days where the words pour out like a river of wealth and sweet nothings (or kickass antics, and slaughtering of the bad guys)? Why don’t we cheer for those days? Because of superstition.

Just like the kickoff kid (American football) who won’t wash his kicking sock because it helped him with a game-winning point three seasons ago, we writers are afraid of the back-stabbing great day. You see, if we talk about that day, if we dare express our happiness and joy, it will abandon us. Talking about it makes it go away. Washing a sock would prevent a foot from aiming straight (probably true, since a three-season unwashed sock would pretty much stand on its own by then). Not hitting a sign on the way to the field would enable a loss. Is it possible to lose if you hit the sign anyway? Well…yeah…but if you DON’T hit the sign, a loss occurs because of that fact! And any win would be the kiss of a good luck fairy.

So what do I think about all that? I’m Irish-American with a good dose of Shawnee superstition thrown in. Trust me, I’ve got my issues. So why this post? I’ve ha a few great writing sessions a week. There. I said it! Say it with me…because like super sales on divine dark chocolate candies, you WILL have another opportunity, another great day! Do I get slammed with BS, annoying flashes of idiocy, unforeseen circumstances and drama that derails me? Yeah. Of course. What do I do about it? Deal with it. Give myself permission to write crap, and get on with it (no one is tougher on me than I am).

We are getting over the hump in the Round of Words challenge. Now’s the time to dig in. It’s the time when the euphoria fades, and you start to self-doubt. That’s perfectly normal. So what are we going to do about it? We’re going to keep putting fingers to keyboard, pen to paper, voice to microphone and keep going. Why? We’re writers and that’s what we do. We make the impossible, possible. It’s time for the real work to begin. The AIC mentality. Ass-in-chair. Not glamorous. But necessary.

So…to all the new followers of this blog…we can do it. Why? Because, well, we can. That’s all there is to it. Persistence is only bad in stalking. And that’s just with restraining orders in place (tongue-in-cheek bad joke. Don’t shoot me!).

Go forth writing brethren! Let’s kick some ass this week! And be damn proud of your good days!

Keep Writing!

Dawn

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Rest

It’s another check-in day. We’ve been unpacking boxes, rearranging furniture, and all the crazy that comes with moving. My nighttime writing sessions have been a no-go since I’m usually too exhausted to stay awake. I finally had that day or two of rest I’ve needed since this adventure began back in January. Three days in a row of sleep for 12 hours at a time (which may or may not be due to having MY BED back -and/or- bone weary exhaustion). Yep, I think I’m finally rested. Last night was a seven hour sleep fest so I’m definitely back on track.

So what did I accomplish this week?

• Got the kids all their shots and back in school (YES!)
• Won a contest for a $25 Amazon gift card. OMG how awesome! Thank you Evanne!
• Unpacked most of my bedroom. I now have a desk and place to write YAY!
• Worked through a plotting issue with A Familiar Kiss
• Submitted Destitute and Undead to Entangled Publishing (the pitch win)
• Became a Coffee Time Romance author (so cool!)
• Thief‘s outline was completed.
• Entered another pitch. Will find out next week if it’s selected by an editor for an online live pitch session
• No Dragon, No Problem is at 6323 of 20k (started it on 3 Feb, I need to get in gear!).
• Created my author page on Amazon.com
• Joined up with the Platform Building Campaign
• Updated my website, the books section on this one, and my work in progress page
• Only produced 3k words this week (thank you #1k1hr on twitter!). Not good, but I’m giving myself a break and calling it a planning/spring cleaning week

You know, I think that’s enough for any writing week. No wonder I was so tired.

So what’s on the agenda for next week?

• Complete A Familiar Kiss and get it to my editor by the end of V Day
• Complete No Dragon, No Problem
• Complete Chapter One of Feral Hunger/Primal Intent (the title gods are debating on this one)
• Complete Chapter Two of Enraptured

What are the goals for the rest of the month?

• Complete one chapter ea on two novels per week
• Submit Chloe’s Kiss to the submission call
• Finish and submit Thief and A Clockwork Conspiracy (this one’s tentative)

Guess I’d better get on the ball. I’ll be running several #1k1hr throughout the day, every day, from my twitter account. You’re welcome to follow along. I use Tweetdeck so I can create a #1k1hr column. This shows me any time another group is running.

Goals for the week:

A Familiar Kiss Rewrites

No Dragon, No Problem

Enraptured Chapter Two

Feral Hunger/Primal Intent Chapter One

That’s it for me!

Keep Writing!

Dawn

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Whirlwind

Bwahahahaha. Despite Journey’s anthem, I’m going to have to stop believing…in a week without some near-catastrophic event that sends my family into a frenzy of panic. Some days I’m the center of the storm, trying to keep everyone calm. Other days I just want to curl up in a ball and wake up four months from now when this work to writing transition is finally complete.

Did I mention that I got a TON of writing done this week (despite the odds, I might add!)?

Sunday was a no-go writing-wise. We had to shop for new school supplies since our stuff had yet to arrive (shopping in a mega-mart on Superbowl Sunday? WHY did I think that was a good idea?). Monday was a ton of paperwork, and delays on getting the kids into school. Monday night I wrote until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So far, so good, yeah?

Tuesday. Oh Tuesday, you’re becoming my Monday. I’m starting to hate you like I hate sesame seeds when they stick in my teeth. Three appointments for three different kids, only to find out that the school district was confused about how an out-of-state school transferred discharge paperwork (Anchorage ISD faxes discharge paperwork to the next location instead of allowing the parents to hand carry). But I digress. In the middle of this adventure, I get a phone call from the moving company. Our large house shipment is here (a BED! YES!). They want to deliver tomorrow (YAY!) but don’t know if they can do a split delivery (Uh Oh!). Some phone calls need to be made, etc.

Long story short…movers will be here tomorrow delivering ONLY the stuff we need and storing it for 90 days until we can have the large stuff (like the outdoor freezer, lawnmower, etc) put in our own storage (YAY!).

You’d think this would trigger happiness. Contentment. Excitement? Nope. Complete domestic meltdown. Kids want to skip school (NO!) to stay home and (get this…) “help.”  Husband is acting like a loon b/c he has to take the kids to their schools tomorrow while I wait on the delivery peeps. The house has to be clean (come on guys! We are STILL living out of suitcases!).

Kids and husband are squabbling…and for what?

Nothing. No reason what-so-ever. Everyone is ready for this move to be over. No one more than I, I assure you. Throughout this process I’ve done my best to keep quiet. Not complaining about the folding chair and makeshift desk, or lying in sleeping bags on the floor, or the insane drive to and from Dallas for our car.

So tonight…I told them to be quiet. Stop worrying. I had it under control. They weren’t allowed to say another word about their stuff to parents or each other. There was some serious grumbling going on, but it died off after a few hours.

“After all,” I said, “It will all be over sooooon.”

With that cryptic remark, I gave a creepy, hollow laugh and stared at each of the boys, in turn. They then decided the stress had broken me, so I was left alone to write. Ah bliss.

So that leads me to my mid-week update for A Round of Words in 80 Days.

What have I worked on?

• I sent in my submission for Entangled Publishing’s pitch contest. Didn’t receive a confirmation email so I’m not sure if I should stress or not (Destitute and Undead ended at a little under 15k. Glad I rechecked the edits before hitting send. I was a little heavy handed with the commas).
• I’m 5200 words into book 1 of my WTF Dragon series (blame Kim Knox for this one. She said go crazy and let loose. It was a dare, and you know how I am about those!).
• Received my first reader review for Primal Hunger. So awesome! I got 5 stars out of 5 on the Ellora’s Cave site. So cool! Heidi said she was hoping Primal Hunger would become the start of a series. I get to say I got the green light on it, right?? LOL. So yeah, you’ll see more of the *Hunger-verse in the future.
• Tore apart A Familiar Kiss (yesterday’s post showed how that went down ). I should have that puppy to my editor by V-day.
• I’ve become a coffee time romance author! They’ve asked me to post on the blog, and I can’t wait! I’ll get all their widgets and stuff up on my site this weekend. I also set up my amazon author page. Love you guys for suggesting them for me last week!
• Final outline of Thief. I needed a different arc to make it more contemporary.

Goals for the rest of the week:

• Decompress
• Unpack
• Set up my office/bedroom
• Finish No Dragon, No Problem (WTF Dragon #1)
• Start Thief
• Try to ignore my stress over Destitute and Undead‘s submission. LOL!

I hope this post made you laugh (I know I was laughing). Reading it out loud to my family brought out some pretty awesome chuckles, so I think it’s a win with them too.

Dawn

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*Note: the Hunger-verse is a tongue-in-cheek series name. I call it the Sheon Wars, but that’s not as lighthearted.

Aha! Lightning DOES strike twice!

Remember when I was sighing in contentment about finally being settled? I was so happy to be out of hotels and done with traveling.

Then lightning struck…again. The first time was when we had to move out of a hotel (with only 12 hour’s notice) because of an overbooking incident (several other families were in the same boat).

The second strike happened yesterday. My husband wakes me up to say (very cheerfully) “Our car is here, honey! We just have to drive 5+ hours to pick it up!”

Long story short…today is another road trip. In less than 5 hours we’ll be on the road in a rental car to drive from San Antonio to Dallas where we will pick up our car (hoping it’s all good from Alaska), turn in the rental, then get a hotel room for the night. We’ll return sometime Thursday evening.

So…once again, yours truly is packing up the writing goods and hauling it off to the ends of the Earth. I had just got settled (one day…I had one. single. day.), and now BAM! I’m happy to be getting the car. Really. I’m just not looking forward to another long trip this close to so many others. On the bright side…we’re packed!

Looks like I’ll be finding a nice obscure table in the first floor of the next hotel so I can snatch some writing time.

Okay, mini whine-fest over.

On the writing front:

• Destitute and Undead is now crawling at 6k. Too many distractions. I’ll kick it in the butt during today’s trip.
• Spent a lot of time on promotion for Primal Hunger. The 3rd of February can’t come fast enough. WOOHOO!

That’s it for me these past couple of days. I’ll catch up on your blogs this weekend.

This is a BLOG HOP. Click HERE for other awesome Round of Words in 80 Days updates.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

What do I know?

Wow, is it Sunday, already? This week has FLOWN by.

I’ll post the writing goals and my results for the entire week, then finish off with the Montgomery moving *ridiculum (for those who are willing to read that far…I commend you!).

First of all…welcome to all new subscribers to this blog. I’m pretty stoked since I had NO idea you could subscribe. Hope you find this week’s summary to be entertaining!

Summary writing events January 23-28 2012

• Began 2nd week as a full-time writer
• Received release date for Primal Hunger (Feb 3, 2012)
• Entered (and won!) pitch contest held by the lovely Rockville 8 and Entangled Publishing.
• Plotted 2nd Hunger Book
• Thief was started (then set aside for the pitch win submission)
• Sketched out Kitchen Witch Story

Had a ton of you guys stop by and leave comments/questions this week! I hope I answered them to your satisfaction.

Writing Goals for next week:

• Writing 5 hours per day
• Complete polishing of pitch submission and SEND IT IN
• Complete Thief

Now if you’re still interested in how the move went, please continue….but be warned…it’s not pretty.

When we last left our crazy globe-trotting author, she was about to embark on a lovely jaunt to cattle country to cause mayhem and mischief. How did it go? Let’s find out…

Well…horse ranching is quite the adventure…especially when you have three dogs, four cats, a pony, and some longhorn cattle thrown into the mix for fun. Did I mention that one of the minions proved determined to pet said cattle? And that he tried to trot the smallest one out there on their own? No? Well…let’s just say the mayhem was ridiculous (and I lost about fifty years off my life!). One kiddo proved pretty allergic to something (he was wrapped up in blankets and playing nickjr on my laptop for most of a day and night while I had to keep him from scratching…then there was eye goop…ugh).

I helped out with some Quilts for Kids projects, took some pictures, and oohed and awwwwwwed over some of the quilts that had come in. SuperChef bailed on cooking after only doing it once so yours truly had to fill in. About halfway into our ranch adventure, a very large dog by the name of BIG BOY (he was a small horse, really) decided he was my lap dog. Since I love dogs, it wasn’t a hardship for me, but he WAS playing havoc on allergy-boy and any writing I needed to get done. So we had a discussion. On his level. Didn’t work so well.

Saturday morning found us loaded up in the truck and sent off to our apartment. Oh heavenly apartment, how I’ve longed to lie against your carpeted…bosom? Hmm. Oh yesh. No furniture. But it’s not a hotel, ranch, car (or other vehicle), friend/stranger’s home or cardboard box…all of which were either a part of this adventure or very near.

So here we are, in lovely San Antonio. This week began with my birthday, finding a place to live, being moved out of our hotel (b/c of mismanagement several families were displaced), setting up at a ranch, and now here…in our apartment.

This trip lasted from January 13th to January 28th. What a crazy adventure.

So what do I know? I know I’m looking forward to boring.

This writer is about done-in. So it’s to bed for me.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

*Ridiculum: A series of ridiculous events, usually occuring within a short period of time. Also called a Ridicularia and Ri-dik-ki-doodle. Related to Ridi-cardia…a heart attack triggered by the ridiculous. Beware the Ridiculum. BEWAAAARE.

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Another day older…

So yesterday was my birthday. YAY! I ate at one of my favorite restaurants and got an apartment! Woohooo!!!! No more living out of our bags. Soon-ish anyway. Can’t get in there until next week, but we’ll be good.

On the writing front:

• Plotted 2nd Hunger book (due to new publishing schedule, it got pushed up from March).
• Started my Beauty and the Beast (Thief)
• Entered an online pitch
• Sketched out a Kitchen Witch story (Back by popular demand)

Found out that my first novel will be out February 3rd! Awesome. Ebook first. Print a year or so later. Love it!

Checking out Sunday’s goals:

• Found a house! WOOHOO!
• 5 hours of writing per day: Nope. I’ll be honest, stress over the house searching thing made Tuesday almost useless.
• Finish up my final outprocessing for January tomorrow…more to follow in February
• Cook dinner four times this week…tonight starts my cooking schedule.

Due to tons of questions, I posted my Work Day Schedule HERE. So far, I’ve hit those goals every day but Tuesday.

I spent Monday and Tuesday nights at Writerschat for Changeling Press and Ellora’s Cave. So much fun! Didn’t promo a single thing, just hung out with some pretty awesome authors. Had a great time.

This is a Blog Hop! Check out other writers HERE.