Driving Around Without a Map...

I've never use an outline. Period. I know in my head where I want the story to go. I usually have an idea, I know the ending, pretty much (but it can change slightly to suit), and I may have a beginning. I will flesh out the characters before I start. Or sometimes they simply come alive on the page. I've often wanted to just go down a country road without knowing where it went just to find out. I'm an adventurer in that respect.

I've been working on a short story, lately. I'm going to offer it to Dark Moon, eventually. It's their "women's" issue. I thought the title "Mother Knows Best" would nail down that this is a woman's story.

I don't normally write short stories. There's a reason. I want to go on and on with the story, get into every one's heads as to what they are doing and make the plot twist and turn and... well, that's impossible to do with a short story. The novel and short story may seem similar to some, but they are very different. You have to tell a story within so many pages--like five or eight or ten. We're given a 6,000 words max, so I've got more than enough pages to play with.

I knew the story long before I began this or decided to write this for the anthology. It was a section taken from my first vampire novel, and saved in a discard file. You never want to absolutely delete all your hard work. These may offer you new ideas for new stories.

It has taken me a few weeks to pound out more than the three pages I struggled with at the beginning. I've now got 8 pages. I'm not pushing myself, because I can't work under that sort of pressure. I don't tell myself I have to write X amount of words or pages in a day. I'd rebel. I'm in charge of what I do, where and when and I've got the keys to this car and when I say we go, we go.

As I began this short story, I knew it would involve a vampire (of course), and a teenager who meets him, and there would be a rival. The rival would be her friend. But, after I lingered over this idea, I liked the old jealousy rage story less and less.

While I fiddled in facebook, and took on a new blog (actually it's not "new", just that I am now captain of the ship, so to speak), I allowed my mind to wander. Give it a break, because I had just been working on edits for the third book, and I think I was tired and needed a little fun time. (keys to the car, remember?)

The story sat at the bottom of my desktop. Once in a while I'd have something to add, and that was about it.

Then...I don't know, but maybe I relaxed enough, let the wind blow through my hair. Had a little fun choosing new backgrounds for a couple of blogs (like this one???), and working with another writer friend who is teaming up with me on the aforementioned blog.

I was at another blog I follow earlier where they spoke of giving yourself permission to do this or that when it gets a little scary when you write and wonder about things. Giving yourself permission to relax, maybe take a walk, get away from the manuscript for a while, helps me. I think we writers put too much pressure on ourselves when it comes to getting something done. Deadlines and so forth. If they work for you. Fine. But if you feel as though you've driven yourself into a wall. Stop it. Give yourself permission to sit back and not write but have a little fun.

Go for a ride.

Once Upon a Time...

I was sitting in the backyard this past week, enjoying the sunshine, warmth, birdsong, etc. I usually have my journal with me.

It reminded me of some distant moment in the past--possibly 9 or 10 years ago. I was struggling with getting anything published. I couldn't even get a lousy poem published! I made up my mind to work on poetry first. It seemed the easiest for the moment. Keep in mind I had been writing over 25 years by this time, trying to get a book published/accepted by an agent.

So, I'm sitting there just the other day thinking about how I felt at that far distant time. I was very frustrated, moments of depression overwhelmed me. I figured this was an impossible dream.

That year I did get a poem published. You wouldn't think it would be so hard, but it was. I found a very nice place that gave budding writers a chance. It was nice to have my work accepted. Everything I sent Ruth Brookshire, editor of Weeds Corner was accepted. I published with her journal for 4 years. The pay was little, and then she had to ask people to subscribe. I understood. I simply moved on.

But the novels I tried to get published was not gonna happen. At that time I didn't understand the industry. I understand it better today--how it works--but it got me no closer to finding an agent. The last straw was when I was about to turn 50. You go through menopause, ladies, the injustices of life simply get to you and you decide to take things into your own hands. I was sick of waiting for rejections. Enough was enough.

I decided to self-publish my light fantasy, Spell of the Black Unicorn. I paid to have my book printed up. I formatted the whole thing and drew the picture for it. I was very excited! Finnally my book in print, and there I am in this picture signing them for people in a bookstore, no less!

That was in 2008. Things moved very quickly in the self-publishing industry after that.

Even though I wrote the sequel, I sure couldn't afford to get that done too. Even with $50 off they offered me. I had to move on. Again.

I next worked on my vampire novel. It was something I needed to do--I had always written one and tried to get it published--and so wrote it and tried to find someone who would take it. I thought I had until they offered to edit it for me for $$. The amount was much more than I would have paid to have it self-published. I declined and tried everywhere again. I tried agents again. Stupid me. Hadn't I learned? Agents really are fussy, and it really irked me I had to go through this again. I went an posted the first chapter in sites.

Then, someone saw my first chapter on a site I used to belong to.  He said he found nothing wrong with what I'd written, and to send it to him. He turned out to be my publisher, Wilfried Voss of Copperhill Media, a micro publisher, but a publisher all the same. He saw something in my writing or style and took me on. I've given him my second book, and that's been published. I'm about to send him my third, but I need to get my editing done!

So theres my story behind how I struggled for a very long time--30 years. I did NOT quit. I kept on hoping that someone would find my work interesting enough to take it.

Sure am glad I didn't quit. My husband wouldn't let me anyway. He told me to keep on writing because I LOVED to write, and forget about what anyone else thinks. And that's a good thing to remember. Of course now with being so easy to get your books into smashwords or amazon, I guess it's no big deal. But I didn't want to try and do this all by myself at that time. I'm not sure how I'll feel later. I want to take my rights back for Spell and get it up on some format myself as an ebook so that I have more control of the price and not have to take royalties.

So, here I am, I should be editing my third book in the series. I just wanted to stop in and write about my thoughts on how time goes by and you think back to how things were and look at where you've been. Sometimes things just work out when you least expect it. It's hard to wait things out, but sometimes, in the end, it is all well worth it.

Notes, Editing, and More Notes

You are in the mid-stream of edits on your novel, and something hits you as you're reading through. Oh! I forgot to mention Steve's appearance in here so that it won't be a big surprise at the end.

So, you have to make a note of this.

Later on, while washing dishes, you think of something you might want to change in the WIP. Note time!

Do you do this? I've had to keep a notebook while working on edits to a WIP. It isn't quite the same thing as while I'm working on writing the novel. Edits are different. These are bits and pieces that occur to you as you're working along. It's not too late to change anything in a WIP. I've edited out whole chapters, and characters in novels. I did that with my first vampire novel, Vampire Ascending.

NOTEBOOK:

I will write the date at the top of a new page each day, and make notes as to what pages need a little added attention. I like to write down where I've ended too, and if there's anything special I need to go back and do on any given page. I'll also make note of having finished a whole chapter--something to celebrate later because editing is really menial and you can get bored fast. I'm in the edits process where I've high lighted words that are repeated too often, or phrases which are signature of my lazy writing. I've posted about this over on Lorelei's Muse, so I won't go into detail here.

The notes will help you keep in mind things that need to be worked in. I actually have a separate notebook on just little things that need to be added to the work. This helps me keep it all in one place. I might have a line that sounds better than one that's already in there, and I have to jot it down while I'm thinking of it or it all disappears with time. Also, this spot might be back in a section I've already covered, or somewhere ahead, and I keep this notebook handy for when I need to refer to it.

Like I've been taught, edits take as long as they take. To tell yourself you'll do them in a few weeks time is really not a good idea. You might submit it for publication, and later think about something you might have left out, over-looked, or something will cause you to have sleepless nights. And I hate sleepless nights! If you aren't going through your work multiple times, then you're being careless. Hopefully a final edit by your publisher, or your own editor, will catch the things you've missed, but don't leave it all up to them to catch. It might be sent back with a note about needing more editing by you. It's a good idea to get your WIP as polished as you can before pushing it out of the nest.

Happy Editing!

*Sigh* Fed up with Facebook Groups

I belong to (have been added to, I should say), a number of facebook groups. (I have since quit 2, because it was more than I could handle.) I like finding out about other writers, their books and so forth, but really, I don't buy anything on-line, and if I buy a book it's going to be something with actual pages and so on.

Yes, I've tried to read books on my computer. I hate it. When I read I want to sit in a comfortable chair with an open book in my lap. If I'm at work, or somewhere I need to have distraction like at the dentist office, I can easily put a paperback book into my purse.

But the one thing I've noticed about these writer's groups on f.b. is you get a lot of people posting about their books, and the deals (some of them are just giving away copies)--which is fine, because it is their group, after all. If you post anything at all, it gets washed down the page by several other people putting up news about some of their stuff. I don't post that much in them. Once in a while I grab someones attention about a blog post. Unless I have some sort of news about my book (a sale, for instance), I've quit posting about my books in these facebook groups. It's useless.

Why? Because if I get any attention right now, it might be from another author, and I do enjoy finding new people to interact with on here, but realistically, I might have one sale per month from doing this. It peeters out after a while and everyone has checked into your book and have bought it, and if they did--that's the end of the run.

I think what I'm saying is this--if you join several of these facebook sites and think you'll grab a lot of readers, maybe you'll gain a few, but that's about it. If you are lucky to get someone who wants you to be a guest at their blog, that's great. I've gotten a number of people out there who have offered me a spot on their blogs (I didn't even have to ask). This is much more worth the bother of getting on these places than trying to "sell" anyone your book. You can make friends there, and some will help you promote your book, but if you think that this is the way to sell lots of books, think again. It isn't really going to help you sell many.

Also, the time in which it takes (for me at least), to "share" something on one or several of these places, it comes out to me having spent maybe 15-30 min. wasting my time. Some people who have created these facebook groups and have invited me (you) to them post hourly. And it becomes somewhat of a competition between your stuff and their stuff. I find it worthless for me to even bother some days and ignore the posts. Usually it is only about a sale on their books. Rarely is it something that is interesting to me, as a writer.

I've created my own groups, but other than my own fan page, I'm not trying to hard-sell you anything. And my fan page is stuff about my blog, or my books. I'm not going to hard-sell it to you. I think someone continuously doing this is like holding a megaphone to your ear. "Alright already! Yes, yes, your book is award-winning. I get it already!" *crossing eyes*

I'm going to investigate getting some real ads out in real newspapers (yes, there are still some out there in a localized area), and reach some REAL readers--not writers. If you want to have sales, you need to reach people who read books as their passion, and in your genre. If you continuously post in groups or even on your own blog, eventually you run out of people who have yet to read your books.

Don't get me wrong. The social media is good for what it does for us, but what I've found is that people who don't blog don't know about you/your books. They might go on-line to Amazon, but they may never know about your books unless you do it the old-fashioned way and advertise. 

I've quit two groups, and am thinking of quitting one more, because the competition is really against me getting noticed. So... I think I'll go and do that now.

Have a good Sunday, everyone!

Taking a Breather

Not from writing, but from some of the other stuff.

As you all know I was to have a book signing yesterday at B&N, which I had canceled. So glad I did.
I now will be talking to a local grocery store manager about having one in his store. I didn't approach him, but friends of mine did, which surprised me. I had intended to talk to him about it, but never found the time, or he wasn't around for me to breach the subject. But now I've got an appointment to go and meet with him this week! So exciting!

Last weekend I posted about choosing a title for my next book.  A number of you swung by and made your comments and suggestions and I thank you for that. I was surprised I had so many of you stop by here on the blog, and also at one the facebook groups I belong to, as well. I want to have an official vote on the titles suggested to me soon. We'll see how this goes. Hopefully more people will vote for their favorite one. I still intend on giving the one person who's title wins a free book (either ebook or book), if their suggestion wins.

I'm also amazed when I go to one of my facebook sites (usually it's the Lorelei Bell one), and someone new has come and liked it. I've had 5 just this week and I believe all were people who had read my book, because I don't know any of them. One lady said she "loved" my books and is looking forward to the third one. She inspired me to get back to work on the third book. (I had been working steadily in the fourth book but, hey, that one is at least a year away from being ready.) I was taking a break from the third book so as to approach it with fresh eyes and to find some repetitions, lines that weren't working and so forth. This may not be my final edit. It may take one or two more before I'm ready to send it to my publisher.

This morning, I slept in. Very nice to do that. My husband woke me up, kissed me on the head and said he didn't want to have coffee without me. (Awwww).

So, I'm signing off for now. Hope all is going well with you guys out there too!

What's In A Name...

Or title? How many of you labor over a title for your books? Sometimes it's hard, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm debating on the title for the third book. It has changed from one thing to another. You know how you have to slap a title on your WIP, and you stick with it up until the moment you are just about ready to give it to the world (or your publisher).

I have the title "Beyond the Black Veil" on this third instalment. However, I've seen a title out there called "The Black Veil" and I don't want to have it so closely related to someone else's title, esp. if it's another vampire novel. It's almost impossible to find a different title now a days, but you always try.

The title came to me because of what happens in the book--Sabrina goes Beyond the Black Veil when she steps through a portal and is in a totally different world and the explanation is that they are beyond the black veil, which is also the networking of black holes into which a person travels in order to go from one world to the next. She is able to go between worlds, because she is the sibyl, but other humans aren't able to escape. Vampire's also are stuck there.

Okay. Sure that works. But I'm still not crazy about the title because there might be something better.
Here are some ideas to ponder:

I have creatures called Dreadfuls which are part of the main plot. I'm trying to think up a way of incorporating their name into a title. These Dreadfuls are not ghosts, but Sabrina slowly realizes they are similar to demons. They cause sickness in humans, and within weeks they die terribly. When her Dagger of Delphi kills one it has no physical body, but disintegrates. She suddenly is in demand to rid their world of these Dreadfuls because there are only so many humans, and their are dying.

Vlad Drakulya is also in this story, and even though he has a role in the book, it isn't really about him, either. But I sort of like the idea of using his name in the title, but then again so many titles out there with "Dracula" in it.

The Plot Idea:
Sabrina is trying to locate her missing cousin in this third instalment, and has by chance come across a portal which opens up briefly and snatches humans to this world where vampires rule. These humans become their Blood Dames/Doms, and also serve to reproduce other humans or also can pro-create with the vampires. They are also stuck in the late 1800's. I wanted to mix things up a bit, have Sabrina in another world during nearly the entire book, and this book was born a few years ago. She becomes romantically involved with Drakulya's son, Jett who is engaged to Princess Penelope. Jett happens to be a psychic vampire who feeds on... sex.

If anyone has ideas, leave a comment, and if I use your idea you will receive the third book free with your title as a thank you--when it comes out, of course. So, maybe that is enough incentive. Even if your suggestion is changed slightly and I use it, I will still give you a free book. How does that sound? Any of you need further information, let me know. I have been placing scenes up once in a while at Lorelei's Muse. I'll probably be doing teasers from it now and then this spring, so be looking for them.

Thanks in advance!