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.

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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Off to the Ranch!

It’s strange how things work out. Our hotel overbooked so several families (including mine) have to find lodging elsewhere. I contacted a friend of mine (she’s in charge of Quilts for Kids in San Antonio). She knows a lot of people in the area, so I was hoping she could give us a hand about where to go. To my surprise, Ms. Barbara invited us out to her horse rescue ranch for a couple of days.

The kids are excited. I’m THRILLED. DH (SuperChef) is relieved we have a roof over our heads.

It’s the Montgomery way to pitch in and help in any way possible when someone gives you a kindness. So I’ll be spending the next couple of days cutting bits for Quilts for Kids, tending the horses, and helping to keep things tidy. The kids will help with the horses and dogs. SuperChef will be cooking up a storm. It’s the least we can do for Ms. Barbara’s willingness to take us on at the last minute.

And I’ll be researching my next book. Did I mention cowboys? Must have slipped my mind…

I also have some pretty awesome news…an editor from Entangled Publishing requested a full on a short novella. And get this…it was an online pitch contest. I NEVER get chosen on these things. How awesome is that???

Keep Writing!

Dawn

Sunday update

It’s check-in day for a Round of Words in 80 days.

How did I do this week?

• Became a full-time writer on 16 January
• Edits completed for Primal Hunger, my first novel (and EC book!)
• Sweet Simone completed (short story aimed at Cleis Press’s Bondange Anthology)
• Moved to Texas from Alaska this week (Took four days)
• Lived (and still living…) in a hotel room with three kids and a husband (without a vehicle until 9 Feb)
• Said goodbye to the military (and many great friends I’d made in the service)
• Re-evaluated my January goals
• Read three books from some of my favorite authors

You know…I thought I’d done pretty crappy this week. When I look at all I’ve accomplished, I’m not so disappointed. I suppose this is a prime example of why accountability is so important to a writer.

Today will be non-fiction focused as I have deadlines to complete. I’ll also be creating my 2012 writing challenge spreadsheet. I know I’m behind, but I had a LOT going on. At least I’m doing it in January instead of September like I did last year.

January’s new goals:

• 5 hours writing per day
• Complete all final outprocessing requirements for the military (insurance, dental, etc)
• Find a house
• Cook dinner four times a week (I have to write it down or I’ll get sucked into writing…SuperChef will be cooking the other three nights).

January’s Writing Goals

• Medical Mystery partial (still untitled)
• Thief started (Modern day Beauty and the Beast novella)
• Marked (tattoo story for EC’s theme)
• Texas History novella fleshed out (Sexy mayhem in the pioneer town of Austin, Texas)

Pushed out to February (the month where my brother enters the Marines, and I am officially retired from the USAF)

• A Familiar Kiss (need to print out the ms to work on it)
• Fox Hunt (short menage in the wilds of Alaska)
• Nexus (Sexy cyber novella)

Pushed out to March and Beyond

• Enraptured (hot and wild fantasy adventure romance)
• Feral Hunger (Book 2 in the Sheon Wars trilogy)

I think that’s about it, don’t you?

Oh, did I mention that my birthday is on the 24th of this month? What a start to 2012.

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3 and 6

Some days life feels like a train, moving along at max speed, tracks clear, and the sun is shining. Other times it’s blocked rails, blizzards, and miserable conditions. We spend so much time focused on our destination, that we never take time to enjoy how we get there.

I’m so desperate to get all my paperwork done that I haven’t taken a breath in about the past three days. The engine’s chugging along at max speed, and I’ve avoided most derailings with a little ingenuity (duct tape) and gentle persuasion (baseball bat).

It’s also three days until I leave Alaska. And six days until I’m a full time writer.

Enraptured

AFK

4 and 7

Until now, my life was made up of numbers. Numbers of year in the service, in rank, on station, since my last PT test, exam, etc. Evaluation reports. Feedbacks. Orders. I was always so sure of the numbers…always knew what they meant and how they affected every aspect of my career.

As my military career winds down there are only two numbers that stand out. Of course I have my retirement date, and my approximate date of household goods arrival. I also have the ever important number of the DD214, which states how honorably I served my country and where I did so.

Those are passive numbers, however. Numbers that have no direct impact on my family (yet). The numbers that I’m talking about are the numbers 4 and 7.

Four days until I say goodbye to military service, flying away from one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Seven days until I am a full-time writer.

If I can get through the four, the rest will be cake.

Nothing like a little life insanity to really things in perspective.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

Time Flies, 2011 in Review

I’ve heard it said that a mother’s work is never done. This month has flown by! Here we are, three days from the new year. How did it happen so quickly? I’m currently working on Enraptured, a co-written series with the incredibly talented Lacey Savage. It’s coming along nicely. A Familiar Kiss is near completion. My goal is to have it and Nexus to my editors before the New Year. Primal Hunger’s cover is still phenomenal and I’m so thrilled to see my name on an Ellora’s Cave cover. Just amazing.

January brings me to Alaska with my family after a 15 month deployment. It’s hard knocks for a while, and injuries make recovery difficult. There are some pretty bad moments for a while, but I channel all that fury and uncertainty into the series that would become the Rift Wars. My injuries put me into a medical evaluation system. Lots of red tape and paperwork to sort through.

February and March are touch and go, health wise. So many medical appointments and briefings. I learn to adapt to a new lifestyle, and find alternative sports options. My sons and I realize we are really great at archery. I learn to ski, and Rift Wars becomes an obsession. I’m now writing several hours a day. Oh how I had missed writing…

April rolls around and I get back into the writing game. Send out a few submissions, receive amazing feedback (but no bites), and realize that my writing had changed significantly since my return from overseas. My work was darker and less apologetic. I receive some amazing fanmail that keeps me going.

By May and June the family helps me realize there is no going back. My life had altered, and we had to figure out what was going to happen next. I need a new career. After talking it over with SuperChef (husband), we  come to the conclusion that it is now or never. Time to get moving again on the writing train.

In July, I contact Lacey Savage about a crazy book series idea. We iron out the details and decide to go for it later in the year. So I set my sites on a publishing company I’d wanted to be a part of from the beginning: Ellora’s Cave. First novel submission is a feedback rejection, and I immediately begin working on the next submission.

By August,  Primal Hunger is submitted to an editor at Ellora’s Cave and a full is requested in less than a week. Insert OMG and Squee fest. My second novel submission ever, and it’s showing promise. Now to get it all polished up and pretty. My annual Holiday short submission is away to Changeling Press and approved. I love the winter contest they have every year.

September: The Other Klaus is written, polished, and submitted. I start working on Feral Intent, a sequel to Primal Hunger. The Other Klaus is accepted. WOOHOO!

October/November blend together in excitement and incredible change. Primal Hunger is accepted (and title is changed from Primal Heat to Primal Hunger). Contract information is completed, and I get to announce to the world that I’m an Ellora’s Cave author!  SuperChef celebrates record-breaking traffic on his recipe blog. He’s getting some serious acclaim from several incredible cookery sites. I get notice of a pending retirement. My career as an Airman is almost over. With that comes an emotional rollercoaster of epic proportions. Fourteen years. <Poof!> The family and I agree to settle down south where the weather is less intense. We settle on San Antonio, Texas.With two days to spare, I complete NaNoWriMo for the second time, ever. I get together with Lacey Savage and we work out all the details of our trilogy. We decide to start working on them the second week or so of December. Not a bad month…

The insanity doesn’t stop! I begin work on Enraptured. December 10th, The Other Klaus releases. I forgot how much I loved release day. December is tense while I transition from the military (OMG the paperwork…I forgot how much I’d had to sign to come IN. Getting out is just as crazy!). We’re still in the process of packing up a house for the move, house hunting, etc. The first three weeks in January will be just as intense, as we’ll be moving a household from Alaska to Texas. Family meltdowns and worries collide in some pretty potent mixes. Some of the best parts of the month: Christmas… just incredible! I also got to have a wonderful writing session with the fabulous Leila Brown! The Other Klaus came out! And I was just naughty enough to get a little extra in my stocking this year.

Throughout the year, I celebrated a ton of wonderful releases by my great critique partners, Kim Knox and Lexxie Couper. Don’t believe me? Check out Kim’s Smokin’ Hot Planetary Bodies series, or Lexxie Couper’s Sizzlin’ Ty the Sexy Dragon novella.

So what’s in store for 2012?

January will be busy. Enraptured will be finished, edits for Primal Hunger are expected, we’ll be moving to Texas (yikes!), and looking for a house. Internet will be sketchy, but that’s why the book gods created Barnes and Noble. My oldest son and I are getting our hair dyed something ridiculous, and I’m getting my fingernails done in funky tips as a retirement gift to myself.

In February I have two books releasing from Changeling Press. Will give you more information as soon as it becomes available. I officially retire as a Technical Sergeant of the United States Air Force at the end of the month. The kids get back into school. The new life officially begins. Despite the change in income and such, I expect it to be much like the old life…only more writing. And no more asking permission to go on a road trip. Or filling out paperwork if I want to go to Oklahoma. Or sending other men and women to war in my place b/c my body can’t do it anymore. Hmm. So far, I see far more positives than negatives. Enraptured should be polished up and submitted. By then, we’ll be working on the final book in the trilogy.

I have five books planned through May. Primal Hunger is slotted to release some time early 2012.

May your 2012 be prosperous, awe-inspiring, and non world-ending.

See you in 2012!

Keep Writing,
Dawn

Travel and TMI

 All content © Dawn Montgomery 

TMI: Too much information. In your worldbuilding, I’m sure you’ve created amazing things. Wonderful inventions for travel. Unbelievable magical items. In your world building notes, you should definitely expand on these items, explain how they work or whether your character knows how it works (that could be part of the fun, a la the Greatest American Hero).

Your readers (me included!) don’t want to see the explanation, however. Think about real life. I use a microwave. Do I, as the average user, have ANY idea how a microwave works? No. Do I need to know how it works? Nope. If it breaks I take it to a repair shop where HE/SHE has to know how it works. If it can’t be repaired, I buy a new one. Easy, right?

So how does this tie in with Travel?

Glad you asked…

Travel can be any mode, whether walking from place to place within a home to telekenitically launching a space craft to another world. Some of my most memorable reading moments involved unique travel ideas.

Barron Harkonnen from the Prelude to Dune Trilogy, Dune, and Children of Dune. He was so obese that he required anti-gravity units called suspensors. This caused complications that eventually ended in his death.

Who desn’t remember the icy cold of between in The Dragonriders of Pern” target=”_blank”>the Dragonriders of Pern series? It was mentioned on several occasions that one never got used to the cold nothingness of between. It was imperative to the movement and survival of the dragons, so was, therefore, integral to the plot.

If your character uses teleportation as an every day occurance, unless he or she has an unusual fear of the physics and mechanics involved, your character wouldn’t explain in his/her head how it worked.

I don’t get in my car and go through my checks in individual thought. Years of practice has me adjusting my seat, putting on my seatbelt, starting the car, and verifying that there are no warning signs (low oil, low gas, check tire pressure). Years of habit has me doing that automatically. If the car breaks down, or shows a warning light, I know what has to be done. Have your characters react to an issue, not bore us to death with details.

Too much information is a pace killer in most books.

TMI and travel go hand in hand. Traveling from one point to another is a great transition piece. If no plot point exists on this trip…why are you making it? Don’t force your character to sit at a train window and stare at the endless expanse of marigolds and sunflowers. If she’s noticing this, it had better in some way affect the storyline. Perhaps she had only seen desert land before. It would be a comparitive statement for character development. Perhaps she’s looking out the window to avoid being recognized, but sees the reflection of the man she’s running from in the window.

Do I care that the bullet train runs on magnetic propulsion? No. Not until the magnetic resonance is destroyed, causing the train to crash. Would my heroine know what had happened? Maybe. It would be speculation until she finds out how the specifics (and here’s the killer…she (and the reader) may NEVER find out how it happened).

In Seduced in Shadow, I needed a way for my heroine and villain to cross over into the human world. There are a lot of options. A magical gateway, a dream sequence, a hidden door, or even a spell. Perhaps there is only one time a year that the doorway opens. Maybe when it does open, you have to exchange something. When the human comes through, a magical item must pass over. Equal exchange (one of my favorite rules. For every action an equal an opposite reaction must occur…even in magic).

Getting from one point to another in your story is a very important part of world building. Description should flow easily, and just like with location before, it should add to the overall storyline.

One last little note: remember the advice of the great Orson Scott Card, call a rabbit a rabbit. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, don’t call it a gildersnaff. Your readers are intelligent enough to know that your characters are speaking their own language.

Worldbuilding, an introduction

Creating Characters

Worldbuilding: Creating Rules

Choosing your location

A special thank you to Kim Knox, my workshop beta reader. Up next, the world building conclusion.