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Showing posts from June, 2005

What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...

Nothing much

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.30.2005 Really, nothing much has been going on with me. Which is a good and a bad thing. Good because there's no additional stresses in my life. Bad because there's not much going on in my writing. Sigh. The novella is taking its time in "ripening." I wish it would hurry up. I shouldn't speak about it in the third person. It's all me. The motivation isn't there. Maybe because work has been same-o-same-o--minor stresses and general tiredness. Or that could just be my excuse. I am writing some, just not as much as I'd like, not as fast as I'd like. I need to get my butt in gear. On another note, I've been listening to workshop CDs from the Mt. Hermon writer's conference while I drive to and from work. It's been fabulous. I've learned so much, refreshed my writing knowledge, gotten new ideas. I think I'm going to try to buy more workshop CDs. Some confere...

Been a while

Captain's Log, Supplemental Oh I need to toot Heather 's horn on this one. I had sent my suspense proposal to my agent, but Heather emailed me a late critique--and it's a good thing she did, because she caught a glaring error in the last chapter that no one else saw. It wasn't a story-killing mistake, but it would have given the ending a bad taste, and I personally love the ending on this book. So thank you Heather! You rock! Also, my friend Cheryl finaled in a bazillion RWA contests. Congratulations!!!

Been a while

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.25.2005 Okay, it's been a while. Not much going on. Plotting--or is it plodding?--away at my Chicklit novella. The hardest part has been coming up with TWELVE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATES for my main character. It was scary considering the sheer number of Mr. Wrongs I could think of, except they had to be (relatively) well-rounded Mr. Wrongs, not just a divorcee who lives with his parents, or a hippie from Santa Cruz . Since my heroine interacts with them on a date, that means she 1) saw something in them initially to want a date, and 2) sees something alarming enough to terminate the acquaintance immediately. :) I recently got free books--I entered a book review in Mary Gardner's monthly drawing and won all three books in Liz Curtis Higgs' Scottish historical fiction series. I'm so stoked--I've been wanting to read them, but couldn't quite justify spending the money. Diet: Umm, maybe let's not go there. Oh wha...

Can I Live

Captain’s Log, Stardate 06.11.2005 Got this link to a music video from Mary Griffith . This is so powerful, it really hit me maybe because I wrote about abortion (indirectly) in my suspense manuscript, but also because abortion makes me so sad. http://www.nickcannonmusic.com/index_main.html Nick Cannon starred in the movie “Drumline” (which is totally COOL, I loved the drum compositions and choreography).