Zen Writing

New Blog, New Website, More Posts!

2010-03-06T09:50:00.003-06:00

This will most likely be my last post here. I've completely revamped my website and the premise of my blog. I've moved over to WordPress for both. I'm going to post on a regular schedule (4 days a week) with regular topics. The web address is the same (jenniferksights.com) but looks totally different. So please stop by and let me know what you think. I'm excited about this new creative venture!

World Literature

2010-01-25T21:01:00.005-06:00

I'm taking a world literature class at the local community college this semester. I tend to be a bit narrow in my reading, and I want to expand my horizons. Sure, I could pick a random book from the library and do this, but I do better with a structured class environment, at least as a jumping off point. Now that I am no longer forced to take classes to obtain a piece of paper that says I can finish what I start, I can learn anything. I can pick a subject that interests me, take a class, and when the class is over have basic knowledge with which to run with and learn more. In this class, I foresee myself finding authors from various countries who I enjoy, then finding more of their work to read on my own.

The assignment for this week was to read 2 short stories by Indian authors - "Pigeons at Daybreak by Anita Desai and "Dhowli" by Mahasweta Devi. I was more interested in "Dhowli" than the other, story-wise, though I enjoyed Desai's style of writing. I think I will seek out more writing from both authors to add to my ever growing list of "Books to Read Before I Die." (One of these days I'll type it up and post it on here so you can all make more suggestions.

In other news, I am greatly enjoying the online urban fantasy critique group I started and moderate. I received some extremely helpful feedback from my first submission, and helped me to see things that desperately needed to be changed or cut, but I was unable to see myself. I loved the crazy uncle character too much to realize he was extraneous to the story, and really needed to go. All he did was add confusion. So he has been cut, some things have been simplified, others expanded upon. That's how it goes. Now I need to make time to review the comments I received on my second submission. I should get to that this weekend sometime.

The Zen Writing Group meets Saturday, so if not before, definitely then I'll get to the edits. I am very much looking forward to that.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T22:09:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone had a safe and fun new year celebration. I spent mine with my sweetie, my best friend and her boyfriend. It was a pretty low key night, but I'm usually not big on going out on New Year Eve. Too many drunk wackos on the roads.

2009 was a year rife with ups and downs, though I must admit the downs seem to have outweighed the ups. It seems to have been this way for many, many people. Not sure what it was about 2009, but I am glad to put it behind me, and am hoping that 2010 will be much better.

The past few weeks have been exhausting for me, and I'm still recovering from it all (more in a later post.) So this post will be short, but I wanted to be sure to get my new year greeting out there to you all.

New Toys and Digital Organization

2009-11-30T00:03:00.002-06:00

My printer died a little over a month ago. So I braved the Black Friday crowds to get a new one. Normally $120, on sale at Best Buy for $65. I waiting till the afternoon, and it was a fairly painless process. Surprisingly enough, setting it up was also painless. I hate wires, so it connects to my wireless network. It's a scanner and copier too. One of my projects is scanning all my papers so I can get rid of them all, so I'm back to work on that tonight. I asked my accountant, and he said to keep 5 years of originals of tax documents, and scan the rest. I have my tax papers from my very first minimum wage job when I was 16, working at Lion's Choice. That's 14 years of tax documents. Yikes. Will be nice to get rid of most of them.

I also had all my photographs scanned a while back, and have finally gotten them organized into folder by event. I have a box of stuff from high school, and some old photographs of my family (as in, grandparents and before...I mean old photos) that I need to scan still. But slowly my pile of stuff I never look at it growing smaller. It's a great feeling. One reason is, I just feel better not having so much "stuff" around. Another reason, is it's good planning. What if there was a fire? If I have everything scanned, I can just grab my laptop, and my dogs of course, and run, and not worry about losing important stuff. Sure, there are a few "things" I'd miss, but for the most part, everything is replaceable except photographs and documents.

Another thing that drives me nuts is wires all over my computer desk. I had a wireless keyboard and mouse, but there was still a wire to plug the receiver into a USB port. I finally got a mouse with just a USB plug, no wire, and a bluetooth Apple keyboard. I'm loving my new, wire-free setup. My desk is so much more organized.

It's been a productive weekend of getting my digital files organized. There's still a lot to do, but I've made a dent in it. Not much writing was done this weekend, but sometimes you need a break. Tomorrow is the last day of NaNoWriMo, and I'm going to the final write-in, even though I'm done. I'll work on reading through Ravaged Heart and figure out where I need to go with that one. That will get me back on the writing track. My writing group is also meeting Saturday, so that will be another good writing day.

I'm going to scan 2 more things to get myself to a good stopping point, then head to bed. It's way too late as it is. Good night all!

Happy Thanksgiving, a little late

2009-11-28T15:42:00.001-06:00

I didn't get this up Thursday...was too busy sleeping and stuffing myself and putting up my xmas tree. Normally I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but I have to work this year, for the first time ever.

I found this great blog post by Neil Gaiman's personal assistant. Now before you jump on me, I'm not a scrooge. I love spending time with family and friends. But I also love spending time by myself. I thought this post brings a little perspective to how many of us treat the holidays. So I'm sharing the link to it.
http://blog.fabulouslorraine.com/2009/11/taking-back-your-holidays.html
So remember that yes, the season is about spending time with loved ones, but it was not intended to be about running yourself ragged, and it was definitely never meant to be about consumerism where you dig yourself a hole so deep to buy the latest greatest thing for your kids/friend/significant other. Spend time with them. But don't kill yourself, and don't go into debt for it. This year, I'm not spending much on anyone. I enjoy buying things for people, so a select few will still get a small item that says "I care about you, I was thinking about you, and thought this was totally awesome for you." Even my little cousins, who I normally spoil rotten, won't get much. They don't need anything, really, but they're kids, and they love getting stuff, so a few small things for them.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here's what I'm thankful for (in no particular order).
My family
My friends
My dogs
My writing group
Writing 50,000 words during November, even if I don't like the result
Having a steady paycheck
Having a roof over my head
My NaNoWriMo buddies
My Kung Fu classmates (even though I'm currently on hiatus due to lack of money)
My writing ability
Having enough money for food, heat, the essentials
Not having lost my vacant house to the bank (yet)
My parents' generosity, without which the above item would probably not be on this list.
My health
My cake baking/decorating ability
The life lessons I learned in the past year
Learning more about myself in the past year

Night of Writing Dangerously

2009-11-24T21:25:00.001-06:00

Every year NaNoWriMo hosts the Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco. (http://www.gifttool.com/athon/AthonDetails?ID=1891&AID=806) I dream of going one year in the not too distant future. This year St. Louis decided to host its own NoWD on the same day and time (well, ours was a few hours earlier to make up for the time zone difference.) Sunday night, we invaded MoKaBe's and took up over half of the upper level, consumed vast amounts of coffee, and wrote copious amounts of words. Well, some us wrote copious amounts of words. I hear others didn't write much at all and instead spent 6 hours socializing. I socialized, but also wrote 4112 words while I was there. This was on Ravaged Heart.

Our fabulous Municipal Liaison decided to make this a fund-raising event, but the donation was optional this year. We raised $121 Sunday night alone! How exciting is that?!

So why should you donate to NaNoWriMo? Why is it important to a bunch of crazy adults? Well, it's a non-profit organization. And the people who run it need to pay to keep the website up and running, and the electricity in their offices, and some of them even like to eat and pay rent. But to me, even more important than support us crazy adults who give a month of our lives each year to noveling, is to support the kids who do it. There's a Young Writer's Program (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/ywp) that encourages kids to write, and NaNoWriMo donates goodies to the classrooms that sign up for this. And, writers are also readers, so it indirectly encourages kids to read as well as right. That in and of itself is a very worthy cause to donate to.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

So, lots of fun was had by all. I realized, however, that I need to reread Ravaged Heart and make lots of notes in the process. There are parts I inadvertently skipped, and I think I started the novel far too late in the story time line. Where I am now, at somewhere around 50,000 words, is much closer to the end than another 40,000 words will allow me to be. So I need to start sooner, fill in some key plot points I missed. Reading and making notes will make that so much easier to do. So that will be my task for this week.

For all you NaNoers who haven't reached 50K yet, keep going! One more week. I know you can do it! For those of you who have reached 50K, congratulations! One more day until we can validate and get our purple bars. (How perfect is it that winners' word count bar turns purple once they're validated?) And for the rest of you who just think I'm insane for this, well, thanks for following me on my journey. I didn't reach my goal of 100K, but I'm starting to come to terms with that. I have words written - perhaps some will even be salvageable - and I have research done that will help on another novel that is in the early stages. A novel I get to be a collaborator on. Very exciting, yes? Yes. This one will be a side project, as I'm going to focus on a final round of edits for Divided Heart, sending out more query letters to find my agent, and finishing up Ravaged Heart. (Is that all?) But it will be there nonetheless.

What's that? You want to know what this collaborative effort is? A few days ago John came to me with an idea for a novel. Keep in mind I hadn't told him anything about my NaNovel, just that I was doing NaNo. So when he told me his idea, and asked if I'd help write it, I was surprised that it was about half of what I was trying to do with NaNo. He's writing it, but I'll help with research, ideas, editing, finessing. It should be a blast.

Oh yes, there's also the little matter of writing more poems and essays for the second volume of In the Moment (release date TBD...we need content first). So my writing plate is very, very full. I need to clone myself so I can send my clone to my day job, while I spend all day writing and editing.

Halfway There and My First Tattoo

2009-11-16T18:24:00.005-06:00

It's November 16, and I haven't posted in a while. NaNo, and life, have gotten in the way. Sorry all, but if I have to choose between word count for the day, and a blog, well, word count wins. So how am I doing? On Saturday I hit 50,008 words!! Officially I am a winner, but I'm still only halfway to my personal goal of 100,000. I'm still on track for it, even though I didn't write at all yesterday. That's the nice thing about having a bit of padding. Though that padding is all gone now, so it's back to the grindstone tonight.

Yesterday I had the joy of raking leaves from the yard of my vacant rental house. The front and back yard were covered with 3 inches of leaves. At least I'll only have to rake once this year. Sadly I only got the front raked, so once it stops raining and dries out again I'll have to rake the back. Seriously contemplating paying someone to do it, even though I really shouldn't spend money on something I am physically capable of doing myself right now. Vacant rental house = poor me (poor as in no money, not woe is me)

After raking, I went to the Old School Tattoo Expo (http://www.oldschooltattooexpo.com/) here in St. Louis. I've been thinking about getting one for quite a while, but honestly didn't intend to get it yesterday. I didn't even think any of the artists would have openings spur of the moment. But they did, so I got the tattoo I've been thinking about for over a year. A quill pen with an ink pot. I was nervous when I asked the artist (Jason from Designs by Dana - they're from Cincinnati, and very good) to draw it up. I came back 20 min later, and it was beautiful! He transferred it to a stencil (I forget exactly what they call the transfer they use...the transfer the outline to your skin so they don't freehand it on your body). Then he transferred it to my left shoulder blade. I went to the bathroom to look at it in the mirror, and I loved it! Then when I sat down I had to take some deep breaths to calm down. I was now very nervous! John said I'd be stupid not to be. After 5 tattoos he said he still gets a little nervous. It's a big decision, after all, permanently etching your body.

The outline was the worst. That hurt like a . There were times when I wondered if he was just slicing into my skin instead of tattooing it. But I took it well. No tears of pain leaked my eyes. I gritted my teeth and took it like a champ. Even Jason said I did very well.

Filling in was easy compared to the outline. Don't get me wrong, it still hurt, especially over particularly bony areas. But a little over an hour later and it was all over. Back to the bathroom to check it out, and it is gorgeous!! The next day and I'm still happy with it. No morning after regrets for me. I'm already thinking about what I'll do next. I have a couple in mind. These will be smaller than my first, and less complex. But they can wait a while.

So, I have my first tattoo. I have 50,000 words for my NaNovel. How is the novel going? Well, obviously the word count is there. Quality? Hmmm. I have my work cut out in editing, and let's leave it at that. I can't decide if I planned too much or too little. I think too little, because I keep finding myself stuck as to where my plot should go next. Another problem is my characters haven't come alive like they did for my NaNovel last year. I think after November I'll stick with that series. The characters are so much more alive to me. But there are still 15 more days. I might have a breakthrough yet. I still like the idea, the execution just needs some work. I must admit, I can't wait to get back to Ravaged Heart though. I never have gone back to the novel I put on hold for NaNo last year, and I was a little worried RH would suffer the same fate. No fear though, I'm even more excited to get back to it than I was when I had to stop writing due to this thing called life getting in the way for a few months.

One thing I know, this one (The Future is Past) will most likely get a new title. It changed so much from the original plan that this title just doesn't quite fit as well.

What's that? You want to see a pic of my tattoo? Oh, alright. Here it is. I'll post another one in a month or so when it's all healed and not so red and angry looking.

and PS...I hope my parents don't read this or my Facebook page before I get a chance to tell them. They're going to flip out anyway, and hearing it from me might make it a little easier. But they're away on vacation, and I'm too excited about this to wait to share it with all of you. Mom and Dad, in case you see this before I talk to you, I love you! Please don't be too mad. I thought about it really really hard. Promise. Look at it this way...at least I didn't get another motorcycle.

Comments

2009-11-07T13:13:00.001-06:00

Sorry all, I had to change comments so they're not open to everyone. You'll have to enter your name now. Got my first bit of spam commenting...definitely not something I want showing up here. Stupid spam bots.

Day 5

2009-11-05T19:39:00.003-06:00

20,464 words. That was 460 ahead of where I needed to be. Now I'm behind, because I haven't written a single word yet today. I'm getting to it. Really, I am. It's not even 8:00 yet. Plenty time. Technically I only need 3000 words to keep up, though I'd like to get more. It really shouldn't be a problem once I start writing. I'm just procrastinating right now. In my defense, I had a busy afternoon. Re-inspection of the house (it passed, yay!), grocery store, eat dinner, 20 minute power nap, feed the dogs, then procrastination started. So I figure, why not post a blog entry, then I'll have no more excuses to procrastinate. Except getting more coffee. :)

Last night was a write-in at a new place for us. Wired Coffee. It was great! Not freezing, like Barnes and Noble, great food, and fabulous coffee. Tonight I'm at home. Hopefully cute puppies won't distract me too much. Headphones will go on so the TV in the other room won't distract me (darn NCIS, I love that show. In fact, darn USA Network in general. They have too many good shows.)

Tomorrow I'm off to Chicago to see Emilie Autumn (have I mentioned how excited I am? And the other awesome thing about the trip - besides that it will be made with my best friend - is there are Dunkin Donuts in Chicago!!! I will be bringing home a bunch of donuts and a box full of Munchkins.) We're driving back after the show, so it will be a late night. Saturday taking my cousin out for her 11th bday to see the new Christmas Carol movie. Ugh. I don't want to see anything xmas related until after Thanksgiving, so sitting through a 2plus hour xmas movie, in 3D, with Jim Carey of all people, well, let's just say I REALLY love my cousin. Though after the late night, I might just take a nap during the movie. It might be better that way. When you have a version of A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart, do you really need any other? I thought not.

Now I'm really procrastinating by boring you with my babble. So I'm off to refill my coffee mug, then to start pounding out my words for the day.

NaNoWriMo Day 2

2009-11-02T21:56:00.003-06:00

Current Word Count: 13,731

I am 2 days ahead. Which is good, because I won't get much, if any, writing done Friday or Saturday this week. Friday I'm driving to Chicago and back with my best friend to see Emilie Autumn. Saturday is my 11 year old cousin's birthday outing, the only completely unavoidable obligation of the month. So I need 2 days padding to make up for the weekend. Missing the time writing will suck, but seeing Emilie Autumn will be so worth it. One of the most talented musicians I've discovered in a while.

Yesterday was filled with writing. Two separate write-ins, but unfortunately all the Bread Companies in the city closed an hour early, so we got kicked out at 7:00. I had 10,632 words by then, and planned to write more when I got home, but that didn't end up happening. But I have met my goal of being 2 days ahead. So I'm allowing myself a break to write this blog. I may try to write more tonight. I said I was going to write 4000 words tonight. That's because I'm not good at math and guessed that's how much I needed to get 2 days ahead. But more padding won't hurt. We'll see how long I can stay awake after taking a break.

Tomorrow will be another write-in. I do pretty well writing from home, but my super cute puppies can be a bit of a distraction. Tiberius sticks his head in my lap, begging me to pet him, and Emmy wags her tail at me looking super cute. It's impossible to resist. Just means I get my word count a little slower than I would otherwise. But they're totally worth it.

NaNoWriMo Day 1

2009-11-01T10:16:00.002-06:00

Started at midnight last night. First went to see Queensryche, got my picture taken with Lita Ford, and got her autograph. Waited in the cold for autographs from Queensryche, but they took forever coming out and I had to leave. Made it to the NaNo party with 3 minutes to spare. In 2 hours there was lots of writing, and even more talking. It was a little distracting, but I didn't put my headphones on and joined in the chatter. I still wrote 3449 words, though I'm not sure how good they are. We'll find out in December. For now I'll just keep writing. 5 hours of write-ins today, plus whatever I do on my own. To reach 100,000 words, I have to write 3333 a day. Already have that, so I should get a nice, safe pad of extra words today.

I got about 6 hours of sleep, woke at 9, cuddled with the puppies, made some scrambled eggs, checked e-mail and Facebook, am blogging, and will then get coffee and commence with more writing. Already doubt is setting in with "how on earth are you doing to write 100,000 words on THAT??" but I'm not listening. Just keep writing.

To all your NaNoers out there, Happy November 1st, and Good Luck! Don't give up! Keep writing, even if you think it's utter junk. Come December, I bet you surprise yourself with how much it doesn't really suck. (at least, that's what I'm hoping for!)

A Little Over 6 Hours...

2009-10-31T17:33:00.003-05:00

And NaNoWriMo 2009 will begin! I need to hop offline soon and get ready for Halloween festivities, but wanted to post one last pre-NaNo entry. Life has gotten in the way of all the planning I had hoped to do, but I have a general plot idea and have been working on my characters a bit, so I feel ready enough to go. It's the most planning I've ever done before writing a novel. I'll have a bunch of research to do come December to flesh things out and make sure I'm not just making random stuff up, but I've done all I can for the time being.

Tonight I'm going to see Queensryche. Then I'll head to the Municipal Liaison's house for her Halloween/Kick-off party. It will be social until midnight, when everyone will pull out the laptops and start writing, from midnight until 2AM. And I'm more excited about Daylight Saving Time than ever, because that means I'll get to write for 3 hours, not just 2. Then home to sleep, then more writing tomorrow. Write-ins from 2-4 and 5-8. I'm very excited!

Well, I'm off to get ready for the night. Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone, and for all you NaNoers, Good luck!!

Retreat Day 2

2009-10-25T08:07:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was fantastic. We started with breakfast, then wrote until lunchtime. I got research done, and finally figured out who my bad guy is, so now I can continue with my plot planning. We took a long walk after lunch, then more writing (well, research/planning for me.) After dinner came back to the room to do some of our old fashioned timed writings. I wrote a short story that I will edit and submit to some magazines, see if I can get it published.

Now we're almost off to breakfast, then more writing, then lunch. We have to check out by 11:30, but we talked about putting our bags in the cars and hanging out in common areas a bit longer to prolong the day. This has been such a fabulous weekend of writing and bonding, I don't want it to end.

Writing Retreat Day 1

2009-10-23T22:29:00.002-05:00

We got here about 3:00 and I couldn't be happier to be here. It's so beautiful with the leaves changing colors. It's very relaxing, and the food is delicious! We have a loft room with a balcony overlooking the lake. Perfect setting for writing.

One of the group has gone to bed, the rest of us are still awake. Sarah and Mary are talking about their iPhones. Sarah, our technophobe, recently got an iPhone and is loving it. I think it will ease her into the techie world a bit. Tina is working on her laptop, as am I. Once I finish this I'll go back to reading "Vampires, Werewolves and Demons" by Richard Noll. I've only gotten through the Foreword and Introduction, and Introduction to the section on demons so far. It's a gathering of psychological case studies of patients supposedly possessed (or suffering vampirism or lycanthropy, but I'm focusing on possession). Since my NaNovel will center around demons, some real life case studies will be an interesting, and hopefully information, read. I've also been reading up on the Key of Solomon, demonology in general, and will begin reading the Book of Enoch soon.

I picked the brains of my fellow writers for ideas on what the "bad guy organization" of my novel could be all about. It's quite a central part to the plot, so I need to get that figured out. I can't get any further in my plot until I figure out who they are and what their goal is. I have some ideas on who they are, and perhaps their goals, but am still not quite clear on it all. Hopefully I will be able to do enough research, and the correct research, to lead me to the answers to this conundrum before Nov. 1.

8 days to go....

My boyfriend tells me I got a package from Houston today, which should be my box of goodies from my NaNo swap partner. Drat!! I have to wait till Sunday to open it!

Leadership

2009-10-17T18:32:00.002-05:00

It's odd...if you asked me, I wouldn't consider myself a leader. I wouldn't consider myself a follower either, I'm more a free spirit. But I guess in a way I am a leader of sorts. If I see something that needs to be done, I'll take charge on it, because too many times I've seen things go undone because no one wanted to take responsibility. Sometimes potentially fabulous things.

What brought on this realization? The person teaching my urban fantasy workshop suggested that we start an online critique group amongst ourselves for once the workshop is over. I've gotten some great advice so far, and thought it would be a great idea. Well, a couple people have said, "Yeah! Great idea!" but so far no one has done more than that. So I decided to organize it myself. I want to see it happen. I know it will benefit me, and I'm sure it will the others as well. So I sent an e-mail to the list asking people to let me know who's interested, and I'll organize and I guess sort of run the thing. Not that I'm going to be an omnipotent leader or anything. I definitely don't want that responsibility. But if it takes me leading it to get it done, then so be it.

Me, a leader. Who'd have guessed? Not me, that's for sure.

Another Blog to Check Out

2009-10-15T16:10:00.003-05:00

Another NaNo thing I'm doing is mentoring a couple of newbies. What does that mean? Since I've done it before (albeit only once) I have an idea of what to expect, so they can ask me any questions, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability, and we'll also cheer each other on during November. I'm mentoring 3 newbies, and it's been a lot of fun so far "meeting" different people. One of them is even in St. Louis, another as far as England!

This is the blog of my St. Louis, um, mentee? What's the right word for that? I'm going with mentee, and yes, I know it's not a real word. It's very well done and her writing style is great. I'll pass along her warning that the first page has music, but the rest don't.

http://writeaway93.webs.com/

My NaNo Buddy

2009-10-10T10:58:00.006-05:00

Say hi to Tish, my NaNo swap buddy. I added her blog to my favorite blog list, but here it is front and center for you to check out. I love her sense of humor, and we're really getting along! Maybe someday we'll even get to meet in real life.... But for now, here's her new blog!

Plotting Pages

Musicians I Write To

2009-10-07T23:37:00.005-05:00

You get a bonus double post tonight. Aren't you lucky? :) (I've had this one mostly typed up for a few weeks now, just hadn't posted it yet.)

I can't write to music with English-language lyrics (Portishead seems to be the exception...they're one of my absolute favorites). So I look for either lyric-less, or foreign language. Lately my tastes have been leaning toward harder music. German metal bands are my favorite of the moment. First I'll list the bands I've been writing to since the start of NaNo, then those I write to in general.

Emilie Autumn - Unlaced (no lyrics, her other stuff all has lyrics. Well, Laced doesn't, but classical hasn't been fitting the mood for this book.)
Apocalyptica
Danzig - Black Aria and Black Aria II. Fabulously creepy.
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play instrumental disc
Nox Arcana
Midnight Syndicate

Also going to try Brian Eno and see how it fits for this novel. He hasn't come up in the playlist yet though. I also might add the Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack, since parts of my novel center around Jerusalem, and the music is beautiful.

Softer Music
Emilie Autumn - Laced/Unlaced album
mono
Sigur Ros
explosions in the sky
Godspeed! You Black Emperor
Mogwai
Dead Can Dance (but not the songs where the male is singing.)
Lisa Gerrard - I absolutely love her voice!
Azam Ali
Sacred Spirit (Native American)
Dream Catcher (Native American)
Troika
Ulrich Schnauss
Lord of the Rings soundtracks
300 soundtrack
Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
Conjure One - the songs without lyrics anyway
Pure Moods 1-4 (songs without lyrics)
Midnight Syndicate
Nox Arcana

Harder
Eisbrecher (German)
Oomph! (German)
Rammstein (German)
Moonlight (Polish)
Unreal (Russian)
Danzig - Black Aria and Black Aria II are instrumental albums

My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit

2009-10-06T23:12:00.004-05:00

There's a thread on the forums about your survival kit. I thought I'd post mine here on my blog so you can get a little look into my writing life.

MacBook (MOST IMPORTANT)
Scrivener (writing software)
iPhone/iPod
headphones
Moleskine notebook
Papermate Profile pen, preferably in purple
index cards for character profiles
thumb drive to back everything up
coffee - lots of coffee
water
Whoppers (my power food)
wrist bands or arm bands or fingerless gloves
hoodie so I don't get cold - can't write when I'm cold
backpack to carry it all
(optional depending on my mood) knit cap

That's about it. Though in reality, if I were stranded on a desert island, all I'd need would be, well, lots of notebooks and pens. I'd say all I'd need it my laptop, but when the batteries died, I'd be out of luck. So notesbooks and pens, and water. Though coffee would be really really nice to have.

And now I'm off to do more research. Or maybe character profiles. I'm feeling a bit lost as to where my plot is going, or even what it is. Maybe if I get a better idea of my characters it will help me figure out my plot.

Oh, I was going to print out the questionnaires and write them out but I can't. Why? My printer died. It sure chose a convenient time for that. (I'm not bitter, really.) I think I'll be breaking out the credit card. I don't print that often, but when I do, man, I need it. I'm feeling lost right now. (I said that above, didn't I? Sorry for the repeat, but it's the overall feeling at the moment.)

Workshops and NaNoWriMo

2009-10-06T18:47:00.002-05:00

This is better than Christmas as far as I'm concerned. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or NaNo) starts in less than 30 days. www.nanowrimo.org The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, during the month of November. Do you win anything? Not really, just the knowledge that you wrote 50,000 words, or more, and a group of new writing friends. This will be my second year participating. Last year I went in with nothing more than "a young detective goes undercover to investigate a cult." I knew the main character's name, and that was it. By November 15 I had my 50K. By November 30, I had 87,000. By December 1, Divided Heart was complete at 90,000 words. I've since edited it and started it's sequel.

This year I've done a bit more planning. I have a synopsis (though it very well may change once I start writing) and I'm working on character sketches right now. I even have a working title: The Future is Past. I can't wait to start writing it.

So every year on October 1, the folks who run NaNo take down the website, clear out the forums, update the site, then relaunch it to much fanfare. This year they took it down in the afternoon. We NaNo-ers waiting with baited breath. At 10:00PM central time, they updated their twitter feed saying the site should be back up in an hour. I was tired, wanted to go to bed, but was more excited for NaNo, so stayed up. 11:00 went by, no new site. At 11:30, I finally gave in to sleep. I had a dream that night I woke up the next morning and the site still wasn't back up! First thing I did when my alarm went off was grab my trusty iPhone off the bedside table and pull up the site. A sigh of relief accompanied the discovery that it was, in fact, relaunched. So I've since been chatting with other NaNo-ers and joined a couple of swaps.

The first swap I joined is where you get paired up with one other person, and you swap goodies, no more than $20 in value. What must you have to write? Candy? Stickers? Funky pens? Trade lists, and make a new NaNo friend in the process. I'll probably go shopping for my buddy this weekend.

The second one is a music swap. You get paired with 3 other random people, and you make a CD of 18 (if music CD) or 50 (if data CD - mine will be data) of your favorite songs for writing. I love finding new music, and sharing some of my more obscure tastes with others, so I joined 2 swap groups (the max). I can't wait to get my 6 CDs and discover new music.

So why is NaNo so exciting? It's the challenge of writing so many words in a month while holding down a job and managing a household. It's the fun of meeting new people, online and in real life. The fun of gather with the "real" people at weekly write-ins, talking about your stories, commiserating about writer's block or the monkey wrench your main character just threw into your plot. It's the slap-happiness that accompanies nights of little sleep while your story carries you through to the wee hours of the morning on an intense writer's high, or at the end of the month when you struggle to get those last few thousand words (though I haven't experienced the latter.) It's the joy of meeting up with the NaNo folks from last year, who you haven't seen since the TGIO party in December (Thank God It's Over) in October to drink coffee and talk about your plans for this year's novel. And of course the fun and celebration of victories and defeats at said TGIO party the first week of December.

The first NaNo even this year is this Saturday when some of us will meet and drink coffee and discuss our plans. I can't wait! The official pre-planning party is Oct. 24, when I will sadly be out of town. Sadly, because I'll miss the party, but happily because I'll be on my writer's retreat, a much needed weekend getaway with my writing group.

So yes, for me, NaNo is better than Christmas.

And now you wonder, why the heck did she put workshops in the title of this post? Because this month, in addition to preparing for NaNo, I'm taking an online Urban Fantasy workshop. I don't have much to report about it just yet as we've only had 1 lesson, but it's taught by Jeanne C. Stein, who write the Anna Strong vampire series. I've only read the first book, but it was fantastic, and I have the second sitting on my desk waiting for the time to pick up.

I'm also taking a cake decorating class every Tuesday this month. It's a very packed month for me, and November will be full of writing, writing, and more writing.

Writing Quotes

2009-10-06T18:23:00.000-05:00

Here are some of my favorite writing quotes, in no particular order. Well, the first 2 are 2 of my very very favorites, but the others are in no order.

"The Muse cannot resist a working writer." -Ray Bradbury

"Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul." –M.K. Simmons

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -Anton Chekhov

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." -William Wordsworth

"I do a first draft as passionately and as quickly as I can. I believe a story is valid only when it's immediate and passionate, when it dances out of your subconscious. If you interfere in any way, you destroy it. ... Let your characters have their way. Let your secret life be lived." -Ray Bradbury

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” -E. L. Doctorow

"Shut up and write" -Natalie Goldberg

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." -Ray Bradbury

"The coroner will find ink in my veins and blood on my typewriter keys." -C. Astrid Weber

"An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere." -Gustave Flaubert

"I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die." -Isaac Asimov

"If I were told I only had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." -Isaac Asimov

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London

"If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you." -Henry Rollins

“I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.”  –Frank Lloyd Wright

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”  -Mark Twain

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." -Mark Twain

"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." -Gene Fowlern

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition” - -Graham Greene.

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” - -Saul Bellow

"You have to write whichever book it is that wants to be written. And then, if it's going to be too difficult for adults, you write it for children." -Madeleine L'Engle

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for." -Ray Bradbury

Novel Slow Going - thank you life

2009-09-07T21:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to stressors in my life over which I have no control, Ravaged Heart is still going incredibly slowly...mostly because I've had a hard time making time to write, and when I do my brain is so scattered I have a hard time focusing on anything. I'm currently at 43,000 words, which not even half of what I want the finished novel to be. Yes, I know, write to tell a story, not to make a certain word count, but let's face it, novels typically need to be a certain length if they are going to be marketable. So I need about 90,000 words, give or take (preferably give) a few. I wanted to finish this before NaNoWriMo, which is less than 2 months away. I'm not sure that's going to happen. However, the weekend before NaNo begins is my writing group's weekend retreat, so I'm not giving up yet. A full weekend of writing should lend itself to massive word count.

Two weeks ago I printed out what I have written and read through it on paper. Sometimes helps to do that rather than read on the screen. Made some minor edits, but mostly just reread to refresh my memory and hopefully get the juices flowing again. I think it worked, but I'd know better if I had more time. There are scenes/plot points I need to add. I'm currently in the middle of a fight scene, so I should be able to pick up and keep going with it. Stopping in the middle of a scene often helps, because at least I can just continue what I was working on the day or week before, rather than starting a whole new chapter with a blank page staring at me.

I'm Global!

2009-08-13T21:38:00.003-05:00

I use SiteMeter to track hits on my blog. It's had hits from Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Brazil, and Germany recently. In the past it's had hits from England, and I think a few others I've forgotten. How cool is that! If you're one of these people, leave a comment if you want, let me know how you found my blog. Heck, no matter where you're from feel free to let me know how you found me. I'm curious and excited to hear about it!

Washington, D.C. part 2

2009-08-08T10:34:00.004-05:00

Friday we slept in and headed to the National Archives once we were up at about. We got there around 11:45, but the next showing wasn't until 1:30 so we decided to skip it. Then we headed to Ford's Theater, then across the street to the house where Lincoln died. Then lunch at ESPN Zone, then on to the International Spy Museum. That was really cool, but it was too crowded. They had interactive displays, and there were just too many people to get to play with most of them.

Since vacations are supposed to be relaxing, we went back to the hotel for a while and I took a short nap. Then we drove back to DC to Union Station where the Moonlight Monument tour was leaving from. We should have taken the metro again as we got a bit turned around, and traffic out there is ridiculous. We didn't have time for dinner before the tour as we had hoped. We had seen most of the monuments already, but it was cool seeing them at night all lit up. We got some great pictures of the nighttime view of DC. We also got to see the Vietnam Memorial which we hadn't seen yet. I had seen it 12 years earlier when I was there with school, but wanted to see it again. I found the name of someone my Dad had given me to look up, his childhood neighbor's husband. If you don't know how the wall is organized, they have a book at the beginning with everyone's name in alphabetical order. You look up the name, and it has a number next to it, such as 35W 61. that means it's in the 35th panel on the west side, on the 61st line. Very easy to find the name you're looking for. We also got to see the nurse's memorial.

Saturday we again slept in a little, then back to DC. We saw the Museum of Natural History, which was so cool. After that back to the hotel, grab the car, and head to Baltimore. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Again, traffic getting to Baltimore was ridiculous. The line at HRC was ridiculous. Hour and a half wait. But, while we were at the HRC in DC we bought a membership all access card, which gives you 10% off, and lets you skip to the front of the line. So we were seated in 10 minutes. The card doesn't, however, make the chefs cook faster, so we had a long wait for our food. Because we were running behind, and knew how awful traffic was, we didn't get to drive past Charm City Cakes. That was a little disappointing, but I'd rather have made it to the concert on time. We got there just a few minutes before Queensryche took the stage, so we made the right decision to skip CCC.

The Dream Theater Meet and Greet was at 7, so we unfortunately missed most of Queensryche, since we had to get in line by 6:45. What we did see was great though. For the M&G they first sent everyone through line to have their picture taken. Then we went through a second time to get something autographed. I got a Tshirt signed by the whole band. I was starstruck, and didn't say much beyond "hey, how's it going." It was almost better than xmas for us. So cool to get to meet our favorite band.

The next band up was Zappa Plays Zappa. It's Dweezil and others doing Frank's music. I was skeptical, but they were absolutely amazing. If you ever get a chance to see them, do it. They are all so talented. It was a great show. Then of course Dream Theater. We were second row center. Could almost reach out and touch them. So amazing. One of the best concerts of my life. They played a lot of their new music, and it was fantastic. It was the perfect end to a fabulous week.

Sunday we again woke early and started the long drive home. We made it home around 10PM, and while we were sad the trip was over, we were happy to be home with the kids again. Tiberius was super excited to see us, and Emmy had gotten noticeably bigger in the week we were gone. Kitty was Kitty, happy to see us but properly aloof at the same time, as cats will be. It was nice to sleep in our own bed with the kids, though if Emmy gets much bigger we're going to need a king sized bed to fit us all.

Washington, D.C. part 1

2009-08-08T10:32:00.001-05:00

I wrote this last Thursday while we were in DC. but since the hotel didn't have wifi didn't get to post it. This week has been crazy catching up on stuff at home, so this is the first chance I've had to get this up.

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This week has been fantastic so far. John and I woke up early Monday morning – earlier than I get up for work most days – and drove to Washington, D.C. We took our time, making stops for lunch, dinner, bathroom breaks, looking for an Amish Flea Market that turned out to only be open on the weekends. We made it to the hotel sometime around midnight. Nothing fancy, just a Days Inn, but it has a bed and a shower, which is all we really need. Not to mention a 7-11 across the street for Coke Slurpees and a Baskin Robbin’s/Dunkin’ Donuts next door. I miss Dunkin Donuts in St. Louis, and there are far too few Baskin Robbin’s.

Tuesday we slept in, then hopped a bus to the Metro station at the Pentagon and rode into DC. (We’re staying in Arlington.) From there we went to the National Air and Space Museum which was the one thing I really really wanted to see while we’re here. I’m a space geek, and getting to see all the NASA artifacts was absolutely amazing. Words can’t describe what an incredible experience it was for me. After that we walked around looking at monuments. Washington Monument – unfortunately all the tickets were sold out so we couldn’t go up in it. World War II Monument was incredible. Lincoln Memorial has way too many stairs but is impressive. Korean War Monument – did you know the statues’ faces are sculpted from photographs of real soldiers? Then on to Franklin D. Roosevelt Monument, Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Then back to the hotel.

By this time my left knee was hurting and I really needed to rest. It was also 90+ degrees that day and we were exhausted. We stayed at the hotel the rest of the night. I took a nap, we ordered pizza in and were just lazy.

Wednesday we woke up early again to make it to the Capitol in time for our 9:10 tour. I must say I was disappointed in the tour. We couldn’t take many pictures, we had to stand in one place while we listened to the tour guide talk, and it was very short. One nifty thing was we walked past the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate. Why is that cool? He’s the only person in the country who has authority to arrest the President. From there we stopped by our Congressman’s office (Troy Akin) to get tickets for the Senate and House Galleries. While there we commented on our disappointment in the Capitol tour, so one of his interns took us on a more in depth tour. That one was impressive. We got to see the old Senate chambers, which later became the Supreme Court chambers, got to take all the pictures we wanted, and just had more time in general to see more of the Capitol. Thank you, Mr. Aiken’s intern whose name I forgot for a great tour.

Before that, however, we had lunch at Tortilla Coast, a fabulous restaurant on Capitol Hill. After the second Capitol tour we went to the Supreme Court for a “tour.” It wasn’t so much a tour as a 30 minute lecture. We sat in the court and listened to a woman talk for 30 min. It was pretty boring and very disappointing.

By this time our legs and knees were showing signs of giving out, so we decided to get dinner then head back to the hotel. We walked to the Hard Rock Café, then took Metro back to Arlington, and spent the rest of the night lazy at the hotel.

Today it was up early again for a tour of the Pentagon. That was a good tour and very interesting. Our guides were great, had a good sense of humor, and very informative. We walked about a mile and a half just on that tour. Then we toured Arlington Cemetery. Kennedy’s grave with the eternal flame, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and changing of the guard. That was a very moving ceremony. Arlington House (memorial to Robert E. Lee) has a gorgeous view over DC. Our knees and legs were still tired and sore, so we went back to the hotel, grabbed the car, and went to lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery. Delicious food, I had lemon chicken and white cheddar mashed potatoes, but the beer wasn’t anything to write home about. Then we drove to Iwo Jima, then back to the hotel for a nap.

Feeling much refreshed after a nap and shower, we headed out to Blues Alley Jazz club to see Hiromi’s Sonic Bloom. Hiromi is a fabulous jazz pianist, and her band is very talented as well. The show was amazing, and I had fantastic crab cakes for dinner and a bottle of overpriced champagne. We opted to leave before the second set. I would have loved to see them play more but we wanted to walk around Georgetown for a while. We found the steps from The Exorcist and ran up them, then had a drink at The Tombs, the bar from St. Elmo’s Fire. It’s a nice, unassuming place that I could see myself hanging out at if I lived here. I had a summer tea, which is sweet tea with vodka. Most bars in St. Louis err on the side of caution (or stinginess) when making drinks, and you would never know there was alcohol in the drink. Not The Tombs. I could taste the vodka, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The drink was fabulous, but I only finished half. Then back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we’re going to see the International Spy Museum, Ford’s Theater, National Archives, then we’ll see from there. Going to take a Monuments by Moonlight tour tomorrow night.

Saturday we’ll probably drive down to Mt. Vernon and have an easy day. Queensryche goes on at 6:00 so we’ll hit the concert by then. The show is in Columbia, MD, about an hour north of Arlington and close to Baltimore. Since we’ll be so close to Baltimore, we’re going to make a side stop to drive by Charm City Cakes. Unfortunately they don’t allow random people to stop by and tour the bakery, which I completely understand, but if we’re so close I at least want to see the bakery of the man who inspired me for my second hobby (next to writing.) Maybe we’ll catch a glimpse of Chef Duff through the window. Then backstage at 7:00 to meet Dream Theater. So excited and can’t wait to meet them and see the show.

Now, it’s off to bed for me. The hotel doesn’t have wifi, and the network cable in our room doesn’t seem to work, so I might not get this posted until we get back to St. Louis. Night all.

Puppy Sleep Deprivation

2009-07-08T21:01:00.002-05:00

New puppies mean waking up a million times in the middle of the night. For the first few weeks Emmy had to go out every 2 hours. Which meant we were very tired. John and I take turns taking her out, but even so, when she wakes up whining to go out, it wakes me up whether it's my turn or not. So between that, and taking her out a half dozen times in the evening, it made for a very tired me. And she's just so darn adorable all we want to do is play with her. So no writing got done.

Then we had our monthly writing day 2 weekends ago, and I got back in the writing groove. I'm still not writing as often as I'd like, but at least I'm back to it. The monthly write-in was tonight with the people who do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) here in St. Louis. I wrote about 2000 words, but they were very hard-won words. I worry that when I go back to read them again I'll axe most of what I wrote. I have a lot on my mind right now, and my head just isn't in a good place. I know where the plot will go, but not how to get there, so I fought and fought, and had I now know it would be bad for my laptop, I would have banged my head on the keyboard repeatedly. It was one of those night. Thankfully they are rare for me, but when I look forward to something as much as writing days, and it is such hard going, it's very frustrating.

I also have to go to physical therapy 3 times a week for my knees. My left knee has been hurting for no discernible reason. My right knee hurts because of a partial tear to the PCL I got in a motorcycle accident 6 years ago. I figured since I was going to get the left one fixed up, I may as well work on the right one while I'm at it. So between a full time job, PT 3 times a week for an hour each, plus doing my exercises twice a day, Kung Fu 2 nights a week, puppy training class once a week, I haven't had a lot of time, and when I do, I've been pretty exhausted. It will pass though, and life will get back on track. Must stay positive.

Speaking of NaNo, it's 4 months away. That should in theory be plenty of time for me to finish Ravaged Heart, so I can start November with a clean slate and a new novel. Not sure what the next novel will be yet, but I really hope I get this one done in time. The point of NaNo is to start a new novel, and I don't want to put this one on hold if it isn't finished (at least a rough draft), but I want to be able to participate as well. So wish me luck and lots of inspiration between now and then.

And 3 weeks from now I'll be in Washington, D.C. Because of the aforementioned "things" on my mind, I am unable to make my trip to China. Too costly right now, and I have to pretend to be a responsible adult. DC will cost a fraction of what China would, so the last week of July that's where I'll be. Going to see Dream Theater and Queensryche on Aug. 1, and have backstage passes to meet Dream Theater, get autographs and a picture with them. So excited. I'm tempted to pull the old high school trick and hang a countdown calendar on my desk at work. Yes, I may have recently turned 30, but I rarely feel nearly that old. It's all the mindset. :)

Growing Family

2009-06-20T14:45:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday John and I went to Petsmart to get kitty litter and other miscellaneous kitty supplies. We came home with this:

C.A.R.E was there doing their adoption day. I've looked at many puppies at many Petsmart adoption days and always left empty handed. But it seems if I have some encouragement, that steel will goes right out the window. There was a cage with 3 puppies, 2 bigger than the other. We tried to pet the little one, but the other 2 kept pushing her out of the way. John told the volunteer that he wanted to see the little one. I knew this was a very, VERY bad idea. You can't hold them. If you do, it's all over. So he held her for a while. Then he handed her to me. Oh dear. Then he asked if I wanted her.

"We really shouldn't."
"But do you want her?"
"We really shouldn't."

It went on like this for a while. As it was going on, I was still holding her. I should have known better. But I had to try to be responsible. I failed. Finally:
"Do you want her?"
"Yes."

And it was all over. So yes, it was a bit of an impulse adoption. But I've thought about what it would take to have another dog, the work it will take, and all that stuff, so it's not like we're going into this blind. And we're very happy with her. Maybe even more important, Tiberius absolutely adores her. He's the best Big Brudder. She's 4.6 pounds, he's 86. He's very gentle with her. He lets her chew on his tail. And when she wakes whining in the middle of the night in her crate, he hurries over to make sure she's ok. He is thrilled to have someone to play with besides the cat, because while kitty will sometimes play with him, more often she runs and hides. Emmy is always ready to play with her Big Brudder. They love each other and get along great, and she's so sweet and adorable. So I'm very happy with the decision to bring her home. I'm also very exhausted. Waking up every 2-3 hours in the middle of the night to take her outside to potty is tiring. I can't even nap when I get home from work, because Tibs and Emmy are making too much noise playing, and I don't want to put her back in the crate since she's been there all day. So I catch a few mini-naps when she's sleeping and drink lots of coffee. I haven't had any time to write this week, but that's what comes along with a new puppy, and that's ok.

Emmy is sleeping under my desk right now and Tibs is next to my chair. Very cute.

Updates to My Website

2009-06-13T21:56:00.003-05:00

I added a page to my website. You can now read excerpts from some of my work. Right now there is one essay from "In the Moment" and one unpublished poem. I will add more as time goes on, and will post here whenever I do. Feel free to leave comments here about what you think.

http://www.jenniferksights.com/excerpts.html

On a separate note, Ravaged Heart is coming along nicely. The official word count right now is 16,000. I hope to write more tomorrow, but tonight am a bit too tired for anything besides technical website stuff, and even that has taken what is left of my brain power. I'm not a web designer, but I can take a template and tweak it to include my own content. However, I haven't found a good web design program for the Mac (I haven't looked too hard either though), so for the basic changes I've been making, I'm doing straight text editing in an .html file. Hurts the eyes after too long. So if you know a good free or cheap program for Mac, please let me know. Something similar to Dreamweaver would be nice.

Writing and Working Out

2009-05-27T21:36:00.003-05:00

I joined a gym. I decided I needed more activity than just Kung Fu twice a week. More aerobics. My cardio is horrible. I can barely jog a mile. So I decided to take an aerobics class at the gym. I'm in worse shape than I thought. Five minutes into the warm up I was huffing and puffing. But I stuck through the whole hour. It was a great workout. Keep this up and I'll be running a marathon in no time. OK, not really. I have no desire to run a marathon. But I'll be in better shape. The workout left me pretty tired. "They" always say not to workout before bed, because you won't be able to go to sleep. I understand the theory of the endorphins or whatever running through your system, but I never have that probelm. A good hard workout and I'm ready to pass out. I took a half hour power nap on the couch after a shower, then got to work writing. 1500 words. I'd like to write more, but I'm tired, and my head hurts a little. I think I'll play with the puppy for a while then see how I feel. But still, 1500 words is good progress. I still don't quite know where the novel is going, but every time I write it flows out easily, and I just can't get enough time to write.

Cutting Chapters Already

2009-05-24T22:52:00.002-05:00

I had about 9000 words on the new novel. I was trying to figure out how to bridge a time gap. Then I realized I didn't need the first few chapters and had to cut them out. So there went more than 2000 words. Wrote a little more, realized I could salvage some of what I cut, just in a slightly different manner. So after an hour of cutting, re-adding, and writing, I'm back to 8500 words. I also spent some time yesterday freewriting on what I think the main plot of this novel should be and have a much clearer idea of where it might go. I say might, because as Divided Heart showed me, my characters have their own ideas and take the story in entirely new directions that I never imagined. Can't wait to see where they'll take me in this novel.

New Projects

2009-05-18T19:36:00.002-05:00

I finished editing my paranormal novel, which now has a title. Divided Heart. I've sent out 6 queries so far, and received 1 rejection. That one came within less than 48 hours of e-mailing it, and said "please know that I give serious attention to every letter, outline, and writing sample I receive." When an agent receives dozens upon dozens of queries a week, I'm not sure how they can give that much time to each one in less than 48 hours. Oh well, nothing to be done about it. I'll just keep sending more. I have a very good feeling about this novel, and know it will be published.

I also began writing the sequel, which amazingly enough already has a title. Divided Heart was written, edited, revised, edited some more, revised some more, and it still didn't have a title. So it is surprising that this one had a title when I had only 1 chapter written. I don't even know what most of the story will be. I know bits and pieces, and more is forming in my head, but ask me to write an outline of it and I'll stare at you with a blank face. The first one had no plan until I was typing, and that's how I think this one will be too. But that's alright by me, I like being surprised by my characters.

Oh, you want to know what the title is? Ravaged Heart.

My writing group's monthly meeting was this past Saturday, and it was a very welcome meeting indeed. As always, I got a lot of writing done and received some very helpful feedback. We also discussed some business ideas. More details when they're ready to share. I can say we will be putting together another anthology of poems and essays. No publication date yet though, as it's in the very early stages of planning. Other exciting things were discussed as well. So stay tuned.

And now I'm off work on more query letters, and the new novel.

Editing 99% complete

2009-03-28T16:07:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading my novel aloud to myself. There is one chapter that needs a bit of tweaking, and one place I need to do a bit of quick research to clear up some facts, but I will have that done tonight. Now I'm ready to write the synopsis and query letter, and start trying to find an agent. WooHoo!

Respect

2009-03-28T09:00:00.003-05:00

Respect. Why is this so hard for some people? I went to see J.D. Blackfoot at the Sheldon Concert Hall last night. He is a classic rock legend (well, should be a legend anyway) who got his start in St. Louis thanks to KSHE radio. He is an incredibly talented singer and songwriter, and loves his fans. The show last night was incredible, but there were some incredibly rude, disrespectful "fans" in the audience trying to ruin it for everyone else. His early albums, The Ultimate Prophecy, The Song of Crazy Horse, Tokala, are rock epics. His later albums tend to be softer, acoustic, introspective, poignant and sometimes humorous looks at life. Two very different types of music, but neither is better than the other.

Last night he played some songs from his forthcoming album "The Story of Texas Red." The format of this album will be him telling a short story, then singing a song inspired by that story. Story, song, story, song. So that is how he sang the songs on stage last night. J.D. has a deep, booming voice that would make any storyteller jealous. He brought the stories to life, touched my heart with them. Well, some "fans" did not agree. They only wanted to hear the rock songs from his early years. They didn't care about story telling. So when J.D. was on stage relating these stories, they thought it would be alright to talk loudly through the whole thing. A couple times J.D. simply sat in silence until the quieted down, then continued on with the story. More restraint than I might have shown. This went on for 2 or 3 story/song sets. Finally someone in the audience had enough and shouted "Shut the **** up." Maybe not the most eloquent phrasing, but it got the point across.

J.D. is an artist. He puts his heart and soul into his music and stories. Just because he may not be playing the exact song YOU want to hear, please listen and show some respect. Or if you really don't want to hear it, leave the auditorium and have your conversation in the lobby.

One of J.D.'s best songs from his later years is "Missing You in St. Louis." It is about the Vietnam War and friends lost. The war was before I was born, and no one in my family was involved, but I can't listen to that song without tears coming to my eyes. Last night J.D. invited the Marine Color Guard to the show. Four brave men in uniform carried the Marine and US flags, and 2 rifles, and stood on stage during the song. A man in the row behind me talked the entire time. I almost turned around and told him to show a little respect for those who have risked and given their lives for our freedom. Again, why is respect so hard?

Finally, toward the end of the show, J.D. did something truly amazing. He took perhaps 15 minutes to talk about friends, family, and fans who have died in the past year. He had several empty seats in the audience in honor of them. He acknowledged each and every one, and their families who are still here and were in the audience last night. Again, this brought tears to my eyes, even though I didn't know any of the departed. After about 15 min of this, however, one restless "fan" shouted out, "Play some music!" I wonder if he would have been so rude if any of the departed had been his family?

The show was excellent, even if the "fans" were rude, disrespectful, and downright got on my nerves. I hope J.D. continues making music and sharing it with us for many years to come. I will go see him every opportunity I can. I only hope his so-called "fans" show a little more respect at the next show. Artists work hard pouring their hearts and souls onto the page, the canvas, their instruments, to entertain us. If they wander from the norm a little bit, please indulge them. Please show some respect for what they do. So much of what they do is for us. We should give a little back to them to show our appreciation.

Almost Finished Editing

2009-03-25T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have about 10 chapters left to edit. That sounds like a lot, but I write short chapters (usually 1500 words or less, which is only a few pages.) I will be able to complete that this weekend. Then it will be time to begin researching agents, write the query letter and synopsis, and send out queries. For me, the query letter and synopsis are the hardest parts of writing a novel. You have to condense the whole thing into 1-2 paragraphs (for the query) or 1 page (for the synopsis.)

I'm still trying to figure out a title for the novel, which I will have to do before I can send out any query letters. Tina wants to see a synopsis, since she's only heard a small part of the novel so far, and she's going to help me come up with something. Titles are my weak point in writing.

I've also decided the genre is urban fantasy. It isn't as heavy on the mystery aspect as I initially thought it would be, and the more urban fantasy I read lately, the more I realize that's what this one is. I think it's a pretty hot genre right now, so hopefully that will be in my favor.

Memories of Marie

2009-03-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

Today is the anniversary of my Grandma's death. I wrote this almost a year ago, and am posting now in honor of her.

Two weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, my Grandma passed away. It was two days before her 92nd birthday. She lived in a nursing home for nearly ten years, and the past year she was in and out of the hospital four times. Her death wasn’t entirely unexpected, but of course that doesn’t make it any easier. This was my mom’s mother. My dad’s father passed away when I was a baby, and I don’t remember him. My other grandparents died before I was born, including my mom’s father who died on December 23, and was laid out on Christmas day, when my mom was only twenty.

Grandma is the first person close to me in my family who has died. I’ve been to funerals before, but with one exception, they were all for distant family members I did not know. She and my mom shared the same birthday – March 25 – so the wake was particularly difficult because it was held on their birthday. This was the first wake at which I was part of the grieving family. It was an exhausting five hours, filled with the sadness of seeing my Grandma in the casket, the mental exercise of trying to remember the names of all my mom’s cousins who I have met in the past, but don’t remember, and the emotional exercise of trying not to cry too much, because if my mom can be so strong as to not cry, surely I can be, too.

I met Grandma’s good friend and long time neighbor for the first – and likely only – time. Grandma used to talk about Doris a lot. She didn’t drive, so Doris drove her on errands, to church on Sundays, shopping and Bingo. They even went to Hawaii together. It struck me as incredibly sad that I never met someone so important in Grandma’s life until her wake.

That thought brought forth full force the regrets that had only been poking through my heart until that moment. I wish I had spent more time with Grandma. There is so much I don’t know about her – such as why did she only have one of her two sisters in her wedding? – that now I never will. Sure, I spent time with her. We spent every holiday with her, birthdays, and I almost always went with my mom when she took Grandma to run errands. But I wish I had asked more questions, cared more about Marie and not just Grandma. Everyone keeps telling me I was a wonderful granddaughter, and Grandma wouldn’t change anything. Logically, I’m sure they’re right, but it will take time to believe that emotionally.

Grandma loved playing cards. She played Pinochle with her friends, and probably Bridge, but with me she played Kings in the Corner and Dummy Rummy, Crazy 8s and Old Maid. I remember giving Grandma manicures, filing and painting her nails. I remember one Christmas when I was in high school. Uncle Ron and Aunt Debbie (my mom’s brother and sister-in-law) gave me a basket from Bath and Body works. It contained a bottle of nail polish that perfectly matched the burgundy sweater I wore. I opened it and painted my nails then and there.

Every Easter Grandma got a large, rectangular communion wafer from her church, which we would break and share before Easter dinner – sometimes at Grandma’s house, sometimes at our house. I remember Easter egg hunts in Grandma’s yard, and sitting on her couch next to my cousin Matthew afterwards counting our nickels and quarters and candy, and maybe a dollar bill or two if we were lucky.

Every time Mom and I took Grandma on errands, she pulled out her coin purse to give us a few dollars before we left, and always told us to “tell Bill hello” if my dad wasn’t with us.

Grandma had a round ottoman in her living room. I liked to turn it on end, sit on it and roll across the floor on it. I remember a bowl of M&Ms on her coffee table, conspicuously void of any red ones, because of the scare that the red dye caused cancer. I remember playing with Grandma’s makeup. I never put it on, but loved to open the compacts and tubes of lipstick to look at the colors.

Grandma’s bed sat at an angle to the corner of the wall, and I would climb behind it during games of hide and seek.

The first time I did laundry was at the Laundromat near Grandma’s house – which is now a bakery near my house. I did not realize when I bought my first house it was only a few blocks away from where Grandma lived.

I remember when Grandma moved to the nursing home. I went with my mom to clean out Grandma’s house. We spent time looking through Grandma’s wedding albums, then the parents’ version of my mom’s wedding album, which Grandma had in a drawer. It was smaller, not the full album my parents have.

Grandma’s house was small – two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, eat-in kitchen, sunroom, and unfinished basement. I never thought about there only being two bedrooms, yet one boy and one girl in the family. My mom later told me the sunroom was her brother’s bedroom, equipped with heaters for the winter, and fans for the summer months.

It is these small memories to which I wish I had paid more attention, for most of those I just wrote, I only now remembered. How many other small yet wondrous memories will I never recall?

The funeral was harder than the wake for me. It was not so easy to hold back my tears. The day started at the funeral home, where we said our final goodbyes. We each took a flower from the casket arrangement and lay it in the casket with Grandma. The night before, at the wake, I tucked the birthday card I made for Grandma into the side of the casket. At the cemetery, I took a yellow rose from the arrangement to press and put into my memory box. After that we went to Our Lady of Snows Shrine for a family luncheon. Even through our grief, the food was excellent. Grandma would have loved it. She always loved food, and ate well until her final days.

I went to Grandma’s grave today. It was a brief visit, only a few minutes, but I wanted to stop by, leave a fresh flower (the arrangements from the funeral are still on her grave, wilted) and tell her I miss her and hope she’s proud of me. I do miss her, but I’m happy she is at peace now, with her husband Leo again after thirty-seven years, and know that someday I will see her again.

I want to end with a quote. For my 8th grade graduation, Grandma gave me a greeting card. Within the card was another card, the size of a credit card, which had a painting of clouds and a quote on it. I have carried this card in my wallet ever since, and will keep it always.

"Whatever you dream, dream with all your heart - Whatever you try, try with all your heart - and happiness will be yours."

Writing Day

2009-03-22T11:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was our monthly writing day at Tina's. As always, it was an awesome day, though we missed Mary, who injured her leg and isn't getting around very well at the moment. We talked, wrote, shared, ate. I got some more editing done. My self-imposed deadline of the end of March is nearing quickly. I think I will make it, but it will be close. No more TV for me the rest of the month. Well, aside from Ghost Hunters and Ace of Cakes.

As always my group gave me great suggestions for improving the chapters I read. They are wonderful at picking out the little things that just don't add up. Things that as the writer you are a little to close to to be able to find yourself. I am so thankful for my writing group.

We're still trying to plan our next weekend retreat. It's been a year and a half since we had one. We had it planned for the weekend of May 8 this year, but I wasn't going to be able to be there the whole time, if at all (it's my bday weekend) and Tina realized she will be out of town anyway. So it's back to the drawing board to find a date. It's hard to find a whole weekend when all 5 of us busy women are free. But we'll make it work.

My New Blog for Cakes

2009-03-19T22:38:00.003-05:00

I mentioned a week or so ago that I started decorating cakes. I started a new blog to show pictures of my cakes, and information about ordering cakes from me (if you live in the St. Louis area.) If interested, please take a look and feel free to leave comments. Thanks!

http://cakes-by-jen.blogspot.com/

Natalie Goldberg

2009-03-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

Monday night I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite authors, and my favorite author of writing books. Natalie Goldberg wrote Writing Down the Bones, the book that my writing group uses often to spark our timed writings. She has also written many other wonderful books. She was speaking at Left Bank Books to promote the paperback release of her latest book, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir.

Left Bank Books is a smallish independent bookstore in St. Louis. The place was PACKED. It was mostly women in the crowd, but there were a few men as well. Hearing Natalie speak and read from her book was amazing. She's such a neat person, and her real life personality is pretty close to what I expected from her on page personality.

After about an hour of speaking, reading, and Q&A she signed books. I had "Writing Down the Bones" and "Thunder and Lightening" signed. It was a very cool experience. If you ever get a chance to see her, GO! I hope to someday have the opportunity to participate in one of her workshops in New Mexico (where she lives.)

My favorite answer from the night was when someone asked Natalie how she gets inspiration for her memoirs.

"I fell in love with my life."

China

2009-03-05T11:54:00.000-06:00

I did it. I dropped my deposit check in the mail today. I'm going to China. Sept. 19-29. I applied for my passport last week, but had to wait for the next paycheck to make the deposit. Things are in motion.

Why China? Grandmaster Eric Lee is hosting a tour. My Kung Fu teacher went last year and said it was an amazing experience not to be missed. The price is right, my boss is letting me have all the time off work for it (though it will use all my vacation for the year), and I've never been out of the country. What better way to start than China, and getting to train at the Wudang Temple for a few days? Yes, the place where they filmed the final scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We'll visit Canton, Hong Kong, Wudang Mountain. The itinerary isn't set in stone yet, but that's the gist of it.

I'm really excited about this, and also a little nervous. I don't know of anyone else from my school who is going, so it's likely I'll be in a foreign country with a language I don't know and a tour group full of people I don't know by myself, mostly likely sharing a hotel room (it's about $400 more to get a private room). That's a little scary to me, but I'm looking forward to it. We'll have a tour guide the whole time, so language won't be an issue.

This is even more incentive for me to step up my own training, starting now. 3 or 4 full days, and I mean full, first thing in the morning to just before bed, training at the temple will be intense. I need to prepare myself for it as much as possible so I can last. An hour and a half class twice a week can be intense, so I really need to get myself in shape. Wish me luck.

Editing and Cakes

2009-03-04T12:08:00.000-06:00

I started reading my novel aloud to myself this weekend and made good progress on it - 15 chapters. I'm still happy with most of it, but haven't gotten to the parts that I know need some work yet. That might slow me down a bit when I get to those chapters, but that's what editing is all about.

I also got through 2 more chapters last night. I didn't get to do much, because I had a splitting headache when I got home from work so slept for a while. I also had Kung Fu last night. I hope to do some more editing tonight before Ghost Hunters comes on, but am not sure if I'll have time. I have a chiropractor appointment after work. Throw in walking my dog and doing a bit of my own exercise, and I might not. But I'll try to squeeze some in.

I also made a cake for a birthday this weekend. Back in the day, Target used to sell cakes. You could watch them decorate the cakes through glass. When I was 5, I wanted to be a cake decorator when I grew up. About 8 years ago, I bought a few books, some icing tips, and decorated a cakes for my mom's bday. It turned out nicely, but I didn't do any more decorating. Fast forward to now, and my addiction to Ace of Cakes. It's a show on Food Network about Charm City Cakes and Chef Duff Goldman. They make the most gorgeous, amazing cakes I've ever seen. I decided to try my hand at working in fondant. If you don't know, fondant is kind of like stiff play-doh in consistency, but you can eat it. So I made a fancy cake, and it turned out really well for my first try. I had a blast making it. Now I'm trying to think up every occasion I can to make more cakes! That's the bad thing about having cake decorating as a hobby...you can't just do it whenever you want to, because then you're stuck with a cake to eat!

So I had an idea that maybe I could do a mini part time thing from home making cakes for people. Nothing big, but a few people have already shown interest. One coworker wants me to make a cake for his son's bday. Maybe someday this will grow into something more, maybe not, but in the meantime, it's a creative outlet that won't cause me to gain hundreds of pounds, and I might make a little extra cash on the side. But don't worry, it won't keep me away from writing. Writing is still my number 1 love.

Gothic Workshop

2009-02-26T17:05:00.000-06:00

So far I really enjoy the gothic novel workshop I signed up for. This is the 3rd of 4 weeks. I admit I had no idea what a gothic novel really was, so I'm learning a lot. Through the exercies, I am forming the idea for another novel. It will have to go on the back burner after the workshop, though. Too many other projects are more vocal in my head.

I have set myself the goal of finishing the edits on my paranormal mystery by the end of March. If I keep my butt in gear, this is realistic. Unless I decide it needs major revisions, of course, which at this point I don't think it does.

Once I finish this (and hopefully have a title for it!) I think I will work on the rewrite of The Moonlight Cafe. That, or I will begin the second book in the paranormal series. I know how that one will begin, and it is ready to go. We'll see where the Muse takes me when these edits are complete.

Sick

2009-02-23T12:18:00.001-06:00

The past few weeks I've been sick a lot. It started with sinusitis. I thought it was the flu. Got some antibiotics for it and was laid up in bed for a few days, then spent another many days recovering and being tired. Then was better for a few days. Then got gastro-enteritis (I think that's how you spell it.) The doctor thought the antibiotics wiped out the good bacteria and let other stuff take over. Whatever happened, I was miserable. I was out of work for a full 3 days. So between all that, I got no writing done for a few weeks.

I planned on taking Sunday to work on my novel and begin the readthrough to myself. Those plans fell through. For reasons I won't go into here, my kung fu teacher, Matt, is starting his own school, along with another of the teachers, Kevin. They needed to move all their equipment out of the old school on Sunday, and since I have a pick up truck, I offered to help. It turned out to be an all day ordeal and I was wiped out by the time I got home, so no work on the novel was done.

I must say I am excited about the new school. Kung Fu classes will remain as they are, but there will be additional offerings such as Tai Chi. Lion Dance will not have such a grueling practice schedule, so I will finally be able to join that if I choose. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but have to weigh the time it takes with what I need for myself and writing.

Changing it Up

2009-02-13T17:44:00.001-06:00

When I started this blog, I wanted to keep it focused on my writing journey. However, that's not the only part of who I am, and when the writing is going slow, so does the blog. So I'm going to add some more variety here.

One new thing related to writing, though, is I signed up for an online workshop about Gothic novels. It's a 4 week course. While I'm not writing a Gothic, I thought it would be helpful with the paranormal aspects of my second novel (which I still don't have a title for. Argh.) This is the first online workshop I've taken, so we'll see how it goes. Writer's Digest has quite a few I'd like to take, but theirs are more expensive, so I wanted to try a cheaper one first to see how I like the format before committing a couple hundred dollars to a class. It starts this week, and I'm excited about it.

The other major part of my life (outside of my family of course) is Kung Fu. Not quite 4 years ago I started studying Shaolin Kung Fu. I studied for about a year and a half and made it to the 5th chamber, black sash. There are 35 chambers. I then decided to stop training. There were several reasons for this, the main ones being lack of time and a desire to devote more time to writing. It was a difficult decision, but was the right one at the time.

Last July, I decided to go back. My teacher welcomed me back to the school. Unfortunately, I had forgotten most of what I learned before so had to start over with my training. I feel I am now close to being ready to test for my black sash again. (Kung Fu works backwards from karate - you start with black and work your way up to white sash.)

Two nights a week now I have class for an hour and a half. My school is very intense. There is a lot of physical conditioning, which I need to work on more on my own time. I'm still weaker than I feel I should be. Horse stance is one of the fundamentals. Imagine sitting in a chair, but there's no chair. Now stay like that as long as you can. I bet you don't last long. To test for chamber 5, we have to do horse stance for 5 min. This is something I definitely need to work on more, as I can only hold it for a minute and a half. If I practice every day, and hold it for 5 seconds longer each day, I will reach 5 min in less than a month and a half. Now if I could just stay healthy long enough to have the energy for this, that would be something.

Re-dedication

2009-01-21T16:28:00.003-06:00

I'm re-dedicating myself to posting at least once a week. I added a new widget for my favorite blogs...blogger now has an official blogroll widget, so I transferred the list to that and added a few new ones to the list. Changed the quote of the week, updated my profile. Minor things, but they needed to be done. Next I'll work on revamping my website a bit.

There's a writing conference in Chicago the second weekend of February called Love is Murder...sounds about perfect for the paranormal fiction novel I'm editing right now. I would love to go, particularly because there will be a pitch session available, but my novel isn't quite ready to pitch yet, and I worry that I'm too late to sign up for the optional critique session. If I do go, I want to get all I can out of it. I'll probably pass and go next year.

Right now, I want to finish my paranormal novel (and think of a title for it! Just can't seem to come up with one) so I can go back to The Moonlight Cafe. I think it's sat long enough, and I'm once again excited at the thought of working on it. The thought of another major rewrite doesn't fill me with dread. But one thing at a time.

I would also like to work on some short stories for contests or publication (or both!) and maybe some nonfiction articles to publish. Not sure what the topic would be for the nonfiction or how to go about it, but I'd like to start trying to make a little money off my writing so I can begin my journey away from corporate american and towards a life lived with my passion.

Plenty to keep me busy, that's for sure!

Writing Day at My Place

2009-01-12T21:57:00.001-06:00

Tina, Mary, and Sarah came over Saturday for our monthly writing day. Sylvie, sadly, couldn't make it. We missed her! As always, we talked for a little while then got down to writing. I organized my notes. Had character notes, copied them to index cards for easier access and easier expansion as I learn more about my characters. Did some resarch too. I'm at the point where I can't do much else until I do a bunch of research and reading. I do need to do my read through out loud to myself.

After writing, we had lunch. I made a chicken casserole which surprised everyone, because I don't cook. I can, I just don't. Don't like cooking for only 1 person.

Then we shared from our novels. As always, I got some good suggestions to improve things.

I think I need to do some freewriting on some of my characters to get to know them a little better. The main ones are fine, but some of the slightly more minor characters need a bit of fleshing out, I think. I'll mix that in with my research so I still get to write stuff.

I also submitted the first chapter of The Moonlight Cafe to Firebrand literary agency. They're doing what they call "query holiday" until Jan. 15. Just e-mail the first chapter and they'll read it. If they like it, they'll respond by Feb. 1. If not, they won't. Yes, I need to revise it, but maybe they'll like it as is. Can't pass this up. You never know what might happen.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-29T18:03:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Mine has been absolutely fantastic. Extremely busy. Again, life interferes. I had last week and this week off work. I planned on doing lots of writing and editing. Well, mostly editing. That hasn't happened. My goal was to have the paranormal book edited by the end of the year isn't going to happen. Oh well. I've gone through the first round of easy edits, and now I have to work on the big stuff. Research, new scenes to add, all the time consuming stuff. Hopefully this week will be a little tamer than last, at least during the days that is, and I can make a dent in some of that. We'll see how it goes. I have been doing research on cars. Learning about extreme luxury super-cars, and now I have the bug. I watched a Top Gear marathon on xmas eve with my Dad, drooling over the Aston Martins and Mercedes. Discovered I'm a bit of a nut for Mercs. So at least that much has had progress. Must know what my characters drive.

Have a safe and happy new year!

Meeting with Editor Alice Pope

2008-12-19T12:27:00.003-06:00

Alice Pope is the editor of Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market. I was very excited that she was the one reviewing my manuscript. She had a lot of helpful ideas and feedback. Most of it makes sense to me, and because of that, I think I have another major rewrite. Maybe it's good I haven't sent any more query letters for Moonlight Cafe. (I got another rejection yesterday, btw. Still have one more out waiting for a response.) I wrote the contemporary storyline in first person, and the historical storyline in third person. Alice thought I had a better grasp of third person. She also didn't feel as if she knew enough about Vincent. So I think I'm going to rewrite it in third person, and add back the parts I originally had told from Vincent's point of view. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I'm editing my paranormal novel. Close to done with the first read through, but am coming up to the part that I think will need the most work. There are also things I need to go back and add, so even after I finish this read through, the first round of editing won't be done yet. Once it is, I'll read the entire novel out loud to myself. Then we'll see what I need to do from there. I hope that have the much done by the end of the year. Two weeks off will help.

I'm going to let Moonlight sit until I finish the above edits with my new novel. I had gotten to the point where I was sick of it and didn't want to look at it anymore. However, Alice's feedback and ideas have made me excited about it all over again. So a little more time away, then I'll get back to work on it.

Alice also asked if I'd considered writing a straight historical fiction. I haven't, but it's a thought. She very much liked that part of Moonlight Cafe. I'll let that sit in the back of my mind. I like the idea, but don't have a storyline. That's okay, I have plenty of other writing work and ideas to keep me busy for at least the next 6 months, if not the whole next year.

Conference Day 1

2008-12-13T16:18:00.003-06:00

Wow! Today was jam-packed with information about writing and publishing. I learned a lot about agents, query letters, revising, marketing, online presence, and publishing. I met some great people at the conference and did a bit of networking. One woman I met is in a writing group with a man who was published in the most recent "Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing" anthology. It was a great opportunity, and I'm so excited about what I've learned. I have a lot of ideas for my website and marketing for my novels.

Tomorrow is the one on one editing session. I found out I'll meet with Alice Pope, who edits the Children's Writers and Illustrators Market. I am very excited for the meeting, especially now that I know she is my editor! I'm also very nervous. This is the first time a professional has seen my novel; my baby. I welcome any feedback she can give me though to help make my novel and query letter better.

I'm going to post this and head off to dinner with Mary and one of the women we met today, Candace. Yum, Cheesecake Factory. :)

Welcome to Cincinnati

2008-12-12T20:18:00.003-06:00

I'm in the hotel in Cincinnati for the Writer's Digest conference this weekend. Tomorrow will be filled with seminars on various aspects of writing. Sunday we meet one on one with an editor from Writer's Digest. Mary and I got here around 7:30, well, 8:30 since we're in a different time zone now. Hung out in the hotel for a while, checked e-mail and whatnot, then went to Fridays for a drink and some dinner. I think we'll be off to bed soon. Have to get up early in the morning. Part of me wants to stay up and work on editing my novel, but I've been fighting off a cold this week and am very tired. I think I'll just go to bed and get some much needed rest.

More tomorrow on what I learn. I can't wait!

Excited Editing

2008-12-04T23:36:00.001-06:00

I just made a small edit, added 2 short lines to a chapter, that made a line I already had written work so much better. I didn't even realize how much it would improve the chapter until after I added the 2 lines for an entirely different reason. Very exciting when things like this happen. It's amazing how big a difference such small changes can make.

Another Dream Story Idea

2008-12-04T21:56:00.003-06:00

I had a dream last night that I believe will be the basis of the story for the next novel in my paranormal series. I wonder if they'll all come to me this way?

I started editing my novel tonight. Went to Barnes and Noble for a while to maintain focus away from the internet. Now that I've begun editing, it will be much easier for me to keep focus while I am home surrounded by distractions. I am making a lot of notes on things that I need to fix, backgrounds I laid out in the beginning that don't match what I have later in the novel, things like that. But so far I am very happy with what I have and haven't made any major changes. I know there will be some, but I haven't reached them yet. I also have a small Moleskine notebook I keep in my purse where I have a page for each character so I can make notes about things like hair/eye color, backgrounds, anything I don't want to forget, so I can easily reference it. I hope to finish editing this by the end of the year. I have 2 other novels waiting to be written.

Writer's Digest Conference

2008-12-02T18:58:00.000-06:00

Dec. 12-14 I will be in Cincinnati for a conference that Writer's Digest is hosting. It is limited to 50 people. Saturday will be filled with seminars. Sunday I will meet one on one with a WD editor! I sent in the first 50 pages of The Moonlight Cafe for critique, and an editor will spend 30 minutes going over it with me. I am so excited! Mary is going with me, so we will share the cost of the hotel and gas, though with her Prius, gas won't be a major issue.

I debated if I wanted to go or not. The workshop is $200, which isn't too bad, but hotel and driving...I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that money. Since Mary is going it will be easier. I'm glad I signed up. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity. I can't wait!

Draft is Complete!!

2008-12-01T23:38:00.000-06:00

The first draft of my paranormal mystery is complete!!! Yay!! Right now the word count is 90,890, but I think it's going to end up around 95,000-100,000. The final chapter is pure, utter junk, and I have a feeling that one is going to be a struggle, but that's why it's called a rough draft. There are several parts I need to flesh out, research to do, things like that, but I'm so excited to have the rough draft done! I sat down to work on it tonight thinking I had a LOT more to write and that it would take another week or two, but the words just started flowing and everything fell into place. I wrote the final 3300 words in an hour and a half. Again, much work is needed, but I'm excited. There are plot points I planned out that won't happen until the next book. New characters introduced themselves right up until the final few chapters, taking the story in new directions, and they will be fun ones to learn more about in later books. Now I need to think of a title. Hmm...

End of NaNoWriMo

2008-11-30T16:05:00.004-06:00

It's the last day. My final word count according to Scrivener is 87,562. When I upload it to www.nanowrimo.org for verification it comes in at 87,454. Real life has interfered the past 2 weeks and I have not written as much as I would have liked, though I am still very happy with my final word count. I still have no idea how long this novel is going to be when it is finished. There is one plot point I have barely touched on, so I need to come back to that. I think the main conflict is coming close to being resolved, though my characters could hijack it at any time. The writing has been slower the past 2 weeks than the first 2, but I think it is because I have been busier in the real world and haven't had as much focused time to write.

I took a break from my Nano novel (that is still untitled) yesterday to go through the edits Tina made for The Moonlight Cafe. I got it back from her a month ago but haven't looked at it yet. She had some very good ideas, subtle changes that make a big difference to the overall story. Now I need to get back to working on query letters for it.

I hope to have the Nano novel complete by the end of the year. A first draft, that is. I have 2 full weeks off around the holidays, so I will be able to get a lot of work done then. I'm very excited about that break. I was very productive over the break last year, when I only had a week off, so two weeks will be amazing.

Next Saturday is the TGIO party - Thank God It's Over. I look forward to socializing with my fellow Nanos guilt free. We socialize at the write-ins, but I always feel like I should get back to writing.

I guess my next task is to think of a title for this novel. I haven't thought about it at all, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to think of one. I'm not very good at titles though. I might have to consult Sylvie. She's our title queen.

Not Quite 70

2008-11-16T22:36:00.002-06:00

I'm at 69,588 words so far. 176 paperback pages. I'm still not sure how long this novel will end up. They mystery is slowly starting to reveal itself to me, but I don't know exactly where it's going yet. The writing has been a little slower. Social obligations set in this weekend. I wrote 2000 words Thursday evening, a disappointing count for me, then nothing till this morning. The time off was bad for my creativity. I sat at my computer this morning and pounded out a few hundred words, then was stuck. I walked away for a while, then went to the write-in. Thankfully words started flowing again, and I ended with a total for the day of somewhere around 7000 words. That's more like it, in my opinion. I stopped writing tonight at a cliffhanger between chapters. I know what is going to happen in the next chapter, but am not yet positive about the ones after that. I stopped here so I will have an easy start tomorrow, rather than having to start on a chapter that is cloudy to me. This way I can get the words flowing, and it will be easier to figure out what happens next.

Mission Accomplished

2008-11-11T23:42:00.003-06:00

Yes, it's been almost a week since I posted. I've been too busy working on my novel. I have reached the goal of 50,000 words and then some. As of now, I have 55,068 words!! (That's 139 paperback book pages.) I had the day off work today, so spent the entire day writing. I wrote over 11,000 words today. Amazing! I would love to keep writing, but I really need to get some sleep. Another cold is beating me down. I've been taking Airborne and Zicam for it, and bought some Mucinex tonight. This has been a bad year for me being sick. I'm officially tired of being sick.

But back to my novel. I think it's going to be at least 75,000 words, maybe more. I'm not really sure yet. There's still a lot of the mystery to solve. I don't even know how it's all going to work out, so it's hard to say how much longer it will be. New twists are revealing themselves to me every day. Very exciting!

Over Half Way Complete

2008-11-05T21:44:00.003-06:00

As of right now, I have 27,173 words of my novel. I went to the write-in tonight and spent about 4 hours there. Wrote approximately 7K words. I also chatted quite a bit while I was there. Part of me was thinking "shut up and write!" but part of the point of going to a write-in is to meet people and be social. I'm hoping to make some new writing friends by the end of the month. Not that I don't love my Zen Writing Group, but the more writers in my life the better. One girl in particular and I seemed to hit if off tonight, Becky, so we'll see how the month goes.

The bad thing about having the write-in at a bookstore...buying books. I bought 2 books tonight, but they're for research, so it's ok. What did I buy? "Italian Witchcraft" and "Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions." Vittorio is Italian, and the first one practically jumped off the shelf into my hands. I had to buy it. The other one was almost as adamant, as I think a more general pagan background would be helpful as well for my novel. I know enough to get myself in trouble, to think I know what I'm writing about, but have someone who is Pagan read it and say "no no no, that's all wrong." I've had Pagan friends, but never studied it much myself. I must admit though, Earth religions interest me, so I'm excited I can use my novel as an excuse to buy these books.

I'm exhausted. I had planned to come home and write some more, but I think I'm going to hit the hay early tonight. Maybe watch an episode of Ghost Hunters to unwind.

2/5 of the way there

2008-11-04T23:47:00.002-06:00

4 days into November. I should have 6668 words written by now to be on track for the goal of 50,000. I have 20,911 words!!! I have 8 more days to be at that point. This novel is ALIVE. It was so hard to tear myself away from it to go to kung fu tonight. I wrote from the minute I signed off work this afternoon until the minute I had to leave for kung fu, came home and wrote 2200 more words. I am hoping to reach 50,000 words by Nov. 15. At this rate, that will be easy. There is one member of the St. Louis Nano group who wrote something like 140,000 words last November. I don't think I'll get that much (stupid day job interferes), but I'm aiming for at least 75,000, if not 100,000. It's a little early to tell though. I'm not sure how much my novel will need. But at 20K words, there is still plenty of story to go.

I read Laurell K. Hamilton's blog every day. She often talks about having an idea of which way the story is going to go, but then one of the characters, or even a new character, walks on stage and says, "No, that's not what's going to happen. Here's the real story," and takes her in a totally different direction. I've often thought of how cool it would be to experience that. Now I have. There was a scene in which my main character, Elena, was supposed to meet someone. As she was waiting to meet this man for the first time, Vittorio (who I hadn't even dreamed of until that moment) came on stage and said, "HERE I AM. LET'S GO." and the story took a completely different turn that I was planning. I will admit he took the story into a much more romantic direction than I planned. I originally planned to have a hint of romance in this novel, but not much. Well, Vittorio blew that out of the water. But that's ok, it all works wonderfully. I think I'll be stepping away from the romance for a while. Unless Vittorio argues with me. He is quite enamored of Elena. (I'm not giving anything away.) And now I have reached the paranormal aspect, which is very exciting to me, and will soon get back to the mystery.

I've also found I need slightly different music for this novel. I listen to music while I write, but it can't be anything with lyrics, or if there are lyrics, they have to be in another language. Otherwise I get too distracted. Until now I've written best to very mellow things such as Mono, Enya, explosions in the sky. Now I'm finding slightly more energetic music works better. Sigur Ros (similar to Mono, but with a bit more energy), Nine Inch Nails Ghosts album, Native American drums, and Middle Eastern or Indian music are working quite nicely with this novel. I don't have much Middle Eastern/Indian music though, so if you know of any leave a comment and let me know.

Now I must try to wind down and go to sleep. 6:00 will come all too early. I'm still wide awake. Here's a little tidbit for you all. Once I'm ready for bed, I turn out the lights, but play a few games of Mahjongg on my iPhone. That helps my brain shut off so I can go to sleep. As it is right at this moment, if I simply lay down and tried to sleep, even as tired as I am (an hour and a half of kung fu tired me physically, writing 8000ish words tired me mentally), I would not be able to fall asleep for quite a while. My brain is still thinking about the novel far too actively.

So goodnight all. More soon.

Oh yeah, tomorrow is the first Crestwood write-in. I'll head over there after work, around 4:00. They said they expect to have people there until 9:00. I already told my writing group I might not make it tomorrow night if the novel keeps this intense flow. If it does, I just might be at Barnes and Noble until they kick me out at closing time.

SSM Rehab Foundation

2008-11-03T16:10:00.003-06:00

OK, this isn't writing related, but it's for a good cause. My best friend Renee is running a marathon for SSM Rehab Foundation on Nov. 16. On Wednesday, November 12, the Applebee's in Crestwood (Missouri) will donate 10% of all sales to the foundation. You have to have a flier for it, which you can find here:
http://www.jenniferksights.com/Dining_to_Donate.html
Print it out and bring it with you. I know the economy stinks right now, but treat yourself and your family to a good dinner out and help the cause. Thank you!!

Oh, and congrats on running 20 miles, Renee. 6 more will be no problem at all for you. Good luck!

On a Roll

2008-11-02T22:16:00.002-06:00

I had written 5700 words by the time I left for the write-in today. I wrote another 3500 in two hours at the write in, for a total of 9120. It's 10:20, and my grand total for the past 2 days is 11,660!!! I'm more than a fifth of the way done, and it's only 2 days into November. I'm so excited about this novel, and want to keep writing. I'm tired though. I've spent more than half the day writing. I took a short break to watch 2 old episodes of Entourage, and to run to Target for a few things. Other than that, it's been all writing. I need to get some sleep. My brain is tired, but energized with ideas at the same time.

Tomorrow I'm going to my parents' house for dinner. Tiberius will be happy about being able to run around in their yard. He is not very happy with me right now. I haven't played with him much today. But this story is so alive in my head, I can't type it out fast enough. As much as I hate to say it, poor puppy may just have to entertain himself this until this novel is done. Not entirely, of course I'll still walk him, but I don't want to do anything but write. Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow to make money. I think I'll bring my laptop to my parents' so I can write, but Tiberius can get some exercise at the same time. I'm sure they'll understand. I won't ignore them the whole night.

And We're Off!

2008-11-02T10:34:00.002-06:00

I woke up extra early yesterday to start writing my new novel. I wrote 1692 words (the NaNo website is super slow this morning, so I haven't been able to update my wordcount there for the widget on my main page http://www.jenniferksights.com/index.html). Then I went to Tina's for our monthly writer's day. It was just Tina, Sarah, and me yesterday. Sylvie is in Trout, and Mary had her grandkids. It was a great day. We did a bit more talking than writing, but that's always good too. I wrote another 2222 words there, for a grand total of 3914 for the day. That's 2 days worth of words! So I'm off to a good start. And I have all day today to write as well, so hopefully I'll at least double that, if not more. The only plans I have is the St. Louis Write-In from 2-4, but that will be more writing.

The idea for this novel came from a particularly vivid dream I had one night months and months ago. I woke up and thought, "That would make a great story! I must write that down before I forget it!" Then it sat in my ideas file. I pulled it back out for NaNo, figured out a basic plot, and off I went. Already 2 characters have introduced themselves to me I didn't know about. Plans for the main character are manifesting in my brain. And, are you ready for this? I think this might be the beginning of a series. It started out as a mystery. It's still going to be a mystery, but it's also going to have a paranormal undertone to it. That bit of plot came to me at Tina's yesterday, and I am extremely excited about that. I love the paranormal, and have wanted to write a book in that genre, but haven't come up with an idea yet. This one came about so naturally that it's going to be perfect. And then Elena, my main character, told me that this won't be the end for her. She has so much more to experience and learn, there's no way she's going away after one novel. How cool is that, that she's already starting to talk to me after only 4 chapters? She didn't say it directly, but the idea was definitely there in my mind. So a paranormal series has begun. Yay!

And now I can't wait to write some more, so I'm off. It's a beautiful Sunday here in St. Louis. You'd never know it's Nov. 2. It feels more like April. I'm going to take my laptop out on the deck and enjoy this weather while I'm writing.

NaNo and Query Updates

2008-10-30T12:17:00.003-05:00

I've been sick off and on the past few weeks, so haven't sent any more query letters after the first 4. I have received 2 rejection letters so far. That's expected, so I'm not terribly disappointed. When I get up into the dozens and dozens of letters sent, then I might start getting disappointed.

I went to a NaNoWriMo kickoff party last weekend. A bunch of people in St. Louis got together to talk about writing and whatever. No actual writing was done, as you're not supposed to start until Nov. 1. I met some new people and got ideas for keeping the writing going, even when you're totally stuck. It was a good time, and I look forward to the weekly write-ins during November (when people get together to write or discuss what they're writing.)

I've thought and thought about the idea I had and was planning to write. I have been unable to come up with a even a bad plot line to go with the basic idea. So, I scrapped that one for now (it would have been a mystery type novel.) I had another idea waiting in the wings thanks to my trusty "idea" file. I write down plot ideas, images, character sketches, whatever catches my fancy, for later use. I freewrote about this new idea to see what kind of genearl plot idea I could come up with, and was pleased with the results. This will also be somewhat of a mystery novel. I've never written anything mystery before, short story or otherwise, and have read some, but not a ton of, mystery novels, so this will be a nice change and interesting experiment.

In 28 hours I will begin my quest for 50,000 words in 30 days.

Querying Again

2008-10-19T10:27:00.002-05:00

I sent 4 query letters yesterday. These were to some of the big names I dearly want to hear from. Ann Brashare's agent, Meg Cabot's agent, Laurell K. Hamilton's agent. I want Ann Brashares agent. Her's went via e-mail, the autoreply said expect to hear back within 3 months. Wish me luck.

NaNoWriMo

2008-10-18T16:37:00.002-05:00

National Novel Writing Month. It's every November, and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That's about 1700 words a day. Don't edit, just write. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, the goal is to just write. In December you can go back and edit and make it better. I'm going to do it this year. The Moonlight Cafe is done, and I'm stuck on Discovering Family, so no better time to try it. I have a general, basic story idea that's been floating around in my head for over a year, so I think that's what I'm going to work on. I'm very excited about it.

Writing Day, Edits Complete

2008-10-04T17:53:00.002-05:00

Today we met at Mary's for our monthly writing day (though we didn't meet at all in September.) I was excited to have time dedicated solely to writing. I haven't worked on my novel at all since the last writing day. I haven't been in the mood for it. But it's so close to finished, I knew I just needed some dedicated time with nothing else to do but write. Today is exactly what I needed. I finished the edits I had listed for it. Sylvie read my novel and gave me the manuscript with her comments, and I finished the edits she suggested. Now it is complete. Tina, Sarah, and Mary are still going to read it, and I'm sure they'll have some great suggestions and I'll make some more edits when they've read it through, but it is at a point with which I am very happy. If I changed nothing else in it, I would be satisfied. I'm ready to start sending it out to agents. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the momentum for that. The sooner I get it out there, the sooner I can hope to get out of corporate america. I know it will still be a long time (most likely) until I can afford to live on my writing alone, but once it's out there at least I'll have a better chance at it.

August Writing Day

2008-08-24T22:30:00.003-05:00

Our monthly writing day was at Sarah's yesterday. Sadly, Sylvie couldn't make it, as she was a Trout Lodge. Everyone else was there, and it was a great day. I worked on my one page synopsis and query letter, and started rereading Discovering Family. The group gave me great suggestions for the synopsis (I didn't read the query, though I think it still needs a bit of work), and a few ideas to tighten things up in the novel. Soon I will be ready to begin my hunt for an agent once more.

The day ended earlier than usual, at 4 instead of closer to 5. We didn't chat as much in the morning before we started writing. I was a little disappointed in that, but it's ok. It was still a great day, and very productive.

I have 13 chapters written on DF, and finished reading them last night when I got home. I'm going to keep working at it, though I'm at a point where I'm not quite sure what needs to happen next. I know what the next major plot point is, but not quite sure how to get there. I've found before that free writing helps. I'll just start out with something like "I don't know what to write next, this needs to happen, but I'm so stuck..." and eventually ideas will start flowing and I can get going again. So that will be the next task on DF.

A wonderful side effect from our writing day is I discovered a salad I really like. Sarah made turkey chili (from a can, but it was excellent...have to ask her what brand it was) and a simple salad of greens, avocado, and dried cranberries. The cranberries made it for me! I'm trying to eat healthier, but am not a big fan of salads. The sweet cranberries made it so delicious, and gave it that extra something to make me really enjoy it. So when I went grocery shopping tonight I bought Mediterranean greens (mostly spinach, I think...I hate iceberg lettuce), an avocado, and dried cranberries, and some raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Wish me luck in my quest to eat healthier. And of course my quest to find an agent.

Need More Writing Time

2008-08-11T09:57:00.002-05:00

Since I finished my novel and gave a copy to Mary, I haven't written anything outside of writing group. I guess I needed a break, but I'm starting to feel restless. I haven't thought about what my next project will be, but I think it's time I do so. I think I'll start by rereading what I've written for Discovering Family and see where that is. I've also been pretty busy lately. I started taking Kung Fu again, so that takes up Tues and Fri nights. But, I don't have to leave until 7:30 for it, so I do have a few hours after work to myself. I think I'm going to start dedicating at least an hour of that time to writing (Tiberius needs time too.)

Virtual Writing Group

2008-08-04T19:52:00.004-05:00

Tonight was an interesting, fun exercise! Instead of meeting at the Zen Center, we had a virtual writing group meeting. Kim has moved to Austin, Kate had dinner with family and wouldn't make it in time, Sylvie and I were loathe to sit in the heat of the un-air conditioned Zen Center library, so we decided to meet virtually over e-mail. Someone would e-mail a topic, then we would write on that word for 7 min, then e-mail it to the group, then move on to the next topic. It was great fun! We didn't talk as we normally do, but got a lot more writing done. Normally we only write 2 pieces, rarely 3. Tonight we wrote 4 pieces. This will be a wonderful alternative during bad weather this winter. I greatly enjoyed the evening.

The Moonlight Cafe is Complete!!

2008-07-22T16:49:00.002-05:00

I wrote the last chapter last night. It wasn't the final chapter in the novel, rather one that fit somewhere in the middle. But it's really done! Some people from my writing group are going to read it through start to finish, so I'm going to wait to start sending query letters until I have their input. But for all intents and purposes, it's complete! Yay!!

Almost Finished

2008-07-21T10:52:00.002-05:00

I have one more chapter to write in The Moonlight Cafe. I hope to finish it this week, but I have a pretty full week ahead of me, so carving out time might be tough. But one more chapter. That's totally do-able. Then I'll have to rework my query letter, update my research on agents - I have a list of agents to query, but it's been a while, so I want to make sure they're still accepting queries - and start mailing out query letters again. Very exciting! Then I'll have to decide which project I'm going to work on next. Do I get back to work on Discovering Family? I hope it's not dead in the water; it's been so long since I looked at it. Do I start Vincent's novel? That's the one I'm leaning towards. Or will something completely different come to mind? Ah, the possibilities.

New Quote

2008-07-16T22:32:00.002-05:00

Yes, I've been remiss in updating my quote of the week. The last time I changed it was almost 2 months ago. I'm sorry. I have a new one there now. I'll try to get back to changing it every week.

You can tell how progress on my novel is coming by my blog posts. I've noticed that when I work on my writing more often, I also post more often. I have something to post about then, and since this blog is mainly about writing, that's no surprise. I have 3 more chapters, maybe 4, to write, and Moonlight Cafe will be done. I've written tonight, but not for my novel. I had a scene pop into my head I wanted to get down. I don't know what the scene is for. There's no plot for a story, just this scene or 2. But I wanted to write it down, and file it away. Sometime I'll use it, I'm sure. And no writing is ever wasted, even if it goes unused. I write because I love it, not because it has to have some deeper purpose other than pure creativity.

I'm off to finish the scene, then take Tiberius for a walk. Neither of us like this July heat, so I wait until the sun goes down to walk him. I also get up early in the morning to walk him, before it gets too hot (though this doesn't alway happen...those of you who live in St. Louis know it can be perfectly miserable at 6AM.)

July Gathering

2008-07-14T10:31:00.003-05:00

We gathered at Sylvie's house this past Saturday for our monthly writing day. We missed Mary that day, who stayed home rejuvenating from a tough week at work. Sylvie made the BEST sausages in a blanket and scones. We talked, ate, wrote, ate some more (pizza for lunch), and shared our writing. I had been feeling completely stuck on my novel. I finally printed the whole thing out and started reading/editing on paper. I read some new chapters on Sat, and the group gave me wonderful insight on what is missing, so I finally know what to do to finish it. I'm excited once again to work on it! I finished my read through yesterday, and marked a couple places where I need to add chapters.

I'm so thankful for our monthly gatherings. They always help move me along when I'm stuck, and the group lets me know what's working and what isn't. I've incorporated my edits into my computer file, and marked 5 areas that need additional chapters. Then, it will be finished!

Writing Days

2008-07-07T13:53:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday (the weekend before July 4, that is) was our monthly writing day at my apartment. It was, as always, a great day, and so fun to show off my new place to the group. I wrote a new chapter for Moonlight Cafe, did some editing. I have some fact checking to do, and bit more editing, maybe one more chapter here or there, but the end is in sight. We have another writing day at Sylvie's this weekend. Last month's was later than usual, this one is earlier, so they ended up 2 weeks apart. You won't hear me complain though! I've been having a bit of trouble focusing, so I need these concentrated writing days to see me through the end. I think this novel is almost done for me. I've been working on it for so long, doing rewrites and editing, I'm ready to see it complete, for real this time, and get back to Discovering Family. I just hope after being away from that one for so long it isn't dead in the water. Or I might keep that one on hold for now and start my next young adult novel. Hmm, decisions decisions.

In the Moment is Here!!

2008-07-07T13:46:00.003-05:00

Announcing In the Moment: Writing from a Spacious Mind. My writing group's anthology is finally here, ready for purchase by you, our loyal readers. :)

http://www.lulu.com/content/2346480

We've worked long and hard putting this together, especially Mary who did the formatting and publishing. Thank you Mary!

Tell your friends and family, and let me know what you think. I'm so excited about this!

Progress

2008-06-18T19:36:00.003-05:00

Saturday I sat on my balcony for several hours working on The Moonlight Cafe. It was a beautiful day, and I made a lot of progress. I still have a few more chapters to add in to flesh out the story, to make it more real, but the majority of it is there. The story is complete. The word count is a lot less than it had been, but it's all it needs to be.

Tonight I reread the final third of the novel, the part that was almost completely new. I made a few edits here and there, added a few things, but all in all I am happy with it. I'm hoping to have it ready to send out in a month. Or, to start sending query letters again, anyway. I am very excited. I can't wait to share my new chapters with my writing group next Saturday.

New Digs

2008-06-14T11:17:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. I'm finally settled in my new apartment. When I bought my house 3 years ago, I swore I'd never go back to apartment life. But now I like it! I'm on the third floor and have a wonderful balcony. I'm sitting on it right now. It's covered and shady, and I can sit outside even if it's raining. Tiberius also loves being out on the balcony, watching the people walk by below. He's adjusting quite well to his new home. I wake up early every morning to take him for a walk, since he doesn't have as much room inside to run around. And in the heat we've had here in St. Louis, I can't walk him in the afternoons because he doesn't deal well with it (and neither do I!) So he gets morning and evening walks.

I'm much closer to work...I only spend 20 minutes on my commute each day as opposed to a full hour or more, so that gives me more time for writing and everything else. I'm slowly getting back in the writing groove. Since our last writing day on May 10, I hadn't written anything until this past Monday. I managed 1 chapter. I've also written a little bit not related to my novel. Probably nothing that will ever see the light of day, but writing nonetheless. Once I finish this post I'm going to try my hand at another chapter of Moonlight. I must say, I can't wait for our next writing day, which is June 28. I get to host it this time! I love hosting it, and it's even more exciting this time because I'll get to show off my new place.

So today marks the end of my second week at the new apt. I spent the first week unpacking. It pretty much feels like home, but I left my computer desk behind, and need to buy a new one. It won't feel completely homey until I have my writing space set up. The room that will act as my office is extremely empty right now. It has my bookshelf and nothing else. I bought some chairs for my balcony yesterday, but still want to find a little table to keep out here. And here's the biggest shocker of them all...for the first time since I moved out of my parents' house seven years ago, I have cable. I even have a Tivo. It's pretty nifty, joining the 20th century like that. :) I haven't watched a whole lot yet, but having the Discovery Channel rocks! Just in time for "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" which started last Sunday.

Well, time to do a bit of writing. Now that I'm mostly settled, I should be able to write, and post, more often.

Congratulations Sarah!!

2008-05-23T08:36:00.001-05:00

One of the members of my writing group finished her novel on Wednesday!! Sarah has handed her manuscript to her editor for review! Way to go Sarah!

Writing and Music and Moving, Oh My!

2008-05-19T22:47:00.001-05:00

I know, it's been too long since I've posted here. I've had a lot going on. I'm moving in 2 weeks, for which I can't wait. I'll have more time after the move, because I'll be 5 miles from work (and everything else I do) instead of 30. That adds almost an hour to every day. I've been spending most of my free time packing and getting ready for the move. I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff. I'm going from a house to an apartment less than half the size. I also realized that this will be my 7th move in 7 years. That will cure almost anyone of the pack-rat mentality. Anyway, I'm going to try to make up for my lack of posting with a longer than usual post tonight.

Last Saturday was our monthly writer's day. It was an amazing day! I was the first to show up at Tina's. She opened the door in surprise and exclaimed, "Is today the day?!" We had originally planned to meet on May 17, but changed the date to May 10. She still had the original date on her calendar though, so wasn't expecting us. Her day was clear, however, and the spontaneity was fun. It also gave her the blessing of not having to spend the entire next week cleaning her house in preparation for us. Mary brought a copy of 'In the Moment' for us to proofread. We all went through our poems and marked any necessary changes. Mary will make the changes, and then it will be available for purchase! I'm so excited! This will be my first publication. As soon as it's ready for purchase, I'll post details here and on my website. The cover is gorgeous. Mary's husband Tony is a professional photographer, and did the most beautiful picture of a tree for us. The whole thing is beautiful.

Soon after everyone arrived, we got to watch a parade! The grade school down the street from Tina was having their picnic, and the parade went past Tina's house. We stood in her front yard waving to the kids and collecting candy. We gathered a bowl full by the time the parade had passed. Just as we were about to go back inside a tree in Tina's front yard showered us with helicopters! I can't remember the name of the tree, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about...the seed pods that spin down from the branches like a helicopter blade. It was like a snow shower, but of helicopter pods instead. It was gorgeous, worthy of a poem. Poetry isn't my strongpoint, but I just may have to give this one a try.

I only managed to write one new chapter of The Moonlight Cafe during our writing time. I know what to do for the rest of it, but the details aren't all solid yet. And with everything going on in my life, I had a hard time concentrating. I got an easy chapter done, but the next one wasn't as clear in my head, and my thoughts were scattering every which way like ping pong balls, never resting in one place long enough for me to form a coherent sentence. But at least I made some progress. And once I'm done moving, I'll have more time, and hopefully a calmer mind, to focus on finishing Moonlight.

Our next monthly meeting will be at my new apartment. I'm very excited. I haven't held our gathering since last...April, I think. It was supposed to be at my house earlier this year (February?), but everyone was sick, so it was cancelled. I love hosting our writing days, and will be excited to show off my new place in the process.

I'll continue my extra long post with a non-writing related subject, though it's still creative. Music. I got to see my favorite band this weekend - Dream Theater. Sadly, they rarely stop in St. Louis on their tours, but I love them enough to travel. I've only seen them in St. Louis once. This time around the most convenient location was Cleveland, OH. (translation: required the least amount of time taken off work.) Yes, I drove 8 hours to see a concert, and it was worth every gallon of gas. The show was amazing. I love music, especially live music. This is the third time I've seen Dream Theater, and I'm sure I'll see them many more times - as long as the keep putting out albums, I'll be there. This was the second leg of their tour for this album. I saw the first leg in Chicago last fall. This show was very different, but great. I hadn't expected the set list to change so dramatically. For me, one of the most energizing experiences is seeing a good live show (one of the most energy-draining is seeing a bad live show.) I went with someone who loves Dream Theater even more than I do, and it was an amazing experience. I've seen shows with people who are there just because, and it's great, but seeing it with someone who loves it as much, or more, than you do is an awesome experience. The energy of who you go with can add a lot to the overall experience.

In my last post I wrote about an "aha!" moment with my novel while I was out driving. I had another of those - I now call it a Big Bang moment - on the way to Cleveland yesterday. This was for a part I didn't even consciously realize needed fixing, but this idea just popped into my head, and everything became clear, and I know it will be smoother and more coherent. I can't wait to get back to work. I shall have to remember that, when I suffer writer's block, driving seems to be a catalyst for brilliant ideas.

About the only thing that has stayed the same in my life recently is my job. Almost everything else is changing. But with change comes opportunity and the chance for new experiences, and a lot of things seem to be falling into place, like 'In the Moment' nearing publication. I've had many moments of muddy thinking (that's the best way I can think to describe it) in my life, but lately I have been blessed with some clarity, aided by a lot of hard looking into myself and introspection. I've learned some tough lessons with this self-examination, but the lessons have been valuable beyond measure. I will keep these lessons in mind as I move forward.

Once I am settled into my new place I will post more regularly. I hope this tides you over until I make it on again.

Haircuts and Breakthroughs

2008-05-01T22:43:00.002-05:00

I was feeling restless tonight. I did a bit of cleaning, watched a few episodes of Wolf's Rain (a Japanime series I had never seen, but so far has definitely grabbed my attention), and it was only 8:00. I had to do something, get out of the house, but didn't know what to do. So I hopped in my truck and just started driving. I don't think I've done that since high school. Maybe college. I got about 20 miles down the state highway, driving through a small town and saw a sign for Great Clips. I was just thinking yesterday how badly I need to get my hair trimmed, so I stopped in and did just that. Back in the truck, somewhere around mile 30, I had a breakthrough for my novel. I finally figured out what to do with the character/story line that has been giving me so much trouble. I will cut it out entirely, and I know what I'm going to replace it with. I think the novel will work much better with this new idea.

I tried to find a diner to stop, grab a bite to eat, and jot down some ideas, but the only one I found had just closed. It was now 9:00. I turned around and headed for home, and stopped at the local 24 hour diner for some coffee and toasted ravioli. I jotted down almost 2 pages of notes, then headed for home. I probably won't have much time to work on it until writing day next Saturday (had I said it was this Saturday? It's next weekend.) But I have notes and am ready to go whenever I do have time. And even just the notes feel much more real, more alive, than the chapters I have written but will now cut out.

I'm not sure what gave me the idea, if my subconscious had been working on it this whole time, but I'm more likely to believe it was my restless, somber mood, Mogwai playing on my iPod, driving through dark country highways that did it. Whatever it was, I'm glad I took that drive. Cut out some chapters, write new ones, then I just might be done with this thing.

Stalled Writing

2008-04-23T22:41:00.002-05:00

I'm about 80% done with The Moonlight Cafe. There's one character that I'm trying to develop more, add more to his story. He's just not coming alive for me, though. I had an idea that I thought would help, but so far it's not panning out for me. I don't know what to do to make him real to me, to make me care about him. I'm stuck to the point where I'm contemplating cutting out the entire part of the book with him in it, and replacing it with something completely different. I'm not sure what to replace it with though. I'm going to do some freewriting on it to see if I can figure something out. If it weren't for this character's part of the book, I'd be done. I'd have to cut out 10 chapters or 43, and rewrite some others. A quarter of the book, gone, if I take him out. But maybe it would be for the best.

We had our monthly Saturday writing day a week and a half ago. I edited the chapters that are done, and tried to think of a way to make this character come alive. After that day, I decided to step away and let my subconscious work on it for a while. Still nothing, so I'm going to have to go back to my conscious mind to work this one out. It would help so much if I didn't have a day job. But that's not going anywhere anytime soon, so I've just got to work around it. Wish me luck.

Comfort Books

2008-04-15T21:51:00.001-05:00

I don't mean any in particular (though there are definitely books I have read countless times that bring me comfort. A Wrinkle in Time comes to mind first and foremost.) Right now I just mean that books are a comfort to me. I've been feeling a bit vulnerable lately. It's nothing bad, just changes in life setting me a bit off-kilter. It hit me full force at work today, so I decided to get up from my desk and take a walk. Border's is conveniently close to my office building, so I walked there to get a vanilla latte, one of my addictions. While waiting in line I noticed that the 4th book in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series was finally in paperback, so on a whim I purchased it. I've been waiting for it a long time, but I've been trying to cut out unnecessary purchases, and books have found their way into that category. There's always the library, right? Not to mention the stack of books I already own yet haven't read, and the other stack my parents have lent me. But that book called out to me, and I listened. So now I will have some comfort reading. Apparantly that book being right there by the cafe was the universe's way of telling me to sit back and relax for a while. Will I be smart enough to listen? Knowing me, probably not, but I'll try to go easy on myself.

Mac Problems

2008-04-10T11:56:00.001-05:00

After a rough couple of weeks, I finally felt light enough to get back to working on my novel. I worked on some editing on Saturday, then let my laptop go to sleep, as I always do. When I came back to it Sunday evening - nothing. I forced a shut down, restarted, nothing. So I packed it up, trekked to the Apple store, where they told me my hard drive was bad. They took it in, backed up as much of my data as they could (everything except my bookmarks - darn!), and replaced the hard drive. When I booted it up Tuesday night, I discovered that my network card was apparently missing, which meant I couldn't connect to the Internet to download any of the programs I use, including Scrivener, my writing program. Still no writing for me.

Let me pause to say I have my novel backed up, but because Scrivener is a Mac only program, I can't work on it on a Windows-based PC. Lesson learned - once a week I will not only back up the Scrivener files, but will also export the manuscript to a Word document.

On Wednesday, I took the Mac back to the Apple store. They had neglected to install the drivers for my network card. Fixed that, and everything appears to be working now. I decided to take this opportunity to upgrade to Leopard, finally, which took a couple of hours. So last night, still no writing. Hopefully tonight I will finally get everything back to the way it needs to be so I can get back to work.

In the meantime, I worked on an essay about my Grandma in my writing notebook. The first draft is done, and once I edit it and am happy with it I will put it up on my website (it's too long for a blog post.) So the past five days haven't been all wasted, writing-wise, just haven't made any headway on Moonlight Cafe.

And since my Mac is in upgrade limbo at the moment, I'm posting this from work on my lunch break. I've never felt so lost without technology as I have these past few days without my Mac. I have come to depend on that thing all too much all too quickly. It's wonderful when everything works, but when it doesn't, it's very frustrating.

Sad Week

2008-03-29T12:49:00.001-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a long, sad week for my family. My Grandma passed away early Easter morning. She would have been 92 on Tuesday, and had been in and out of the hospital the past year, so it wasn't unexpected, but it was still very sad. I haven't written anything in the past week, and this is going to be a short post. But I wanted to let you know I haven't disappeared. Grandma is the first close family member of mine to pass, so it's a new experience for me. I know she was ready to go, and I'm happy that she is in a better place now, but said for those of us left behind.

Writing Saturday

2008-03-18T23:11:00.002-05:00

Saturday was wonderful! Of course, our writing days always are. Tina and I went to Sarah's house - The Treehouse. It's beautiful, trees everywhere, hence the name. The three of us shared new chapters, but did more talking than writing (we didn't write at all.) But we shared, and got ideas to improve what we already had, and shared each other's wonderful friendship. It was a great day, and I, as always, can't wait for our next Saturday meeting.

And while this isn't related to writing at all, I want to congratulate my best friend Renee on completing the St. Patrick's Day 5K run in under an hour. It was her first run, so CONGRATULATIONS!!

New Chapters

2008-03-14T00:00:00.002-05:00

Between last night and tonight I have written 3 new chapters for The Moonlight Cafe. Let me say, for me, a chapter is short; on average, 3 printed, double spaced pages. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but 3 is a safe average. But even so, I think 3 chapters in 2 nights is a good accomplishment for someone with a day job. I'm happy with the progress, though will have more research to do with one of the new story-lines.

We are having our writer's day this Saturday with the 3 of us who can make it. I am very excited, and can't wait to share the new chapters.

Now I must be off to bed. It's past my bedtime.

Rewrite Part 1, Complete

2008-03-11T22:47:00.002-05:00

The first part of my rewrite - changing the point of view to first person - is complete. Yea me!

Almost Done, Sort of

2008-03-11T20:35:00.002-05:00

I have 6 more chapters to rewrite into first person point of view. I might finish it tonight. Then I get to work on the really fun stuff. Building character, adding a story-line or 2, describing little things to bring the story to life. I'm having a lot of fun with this rewrite, and think the novel is much stronger because of it.

Our monthly writing day is this Saturday, but with 2 of the 5 members unable to make it, we might reschedule. Part of me wants to reschedule so everyone can be there (though it will be a long time before Sylvie can make it - she is out of town a lot for the next few months), but part of me wants to have it anyway with the 3 of us who can make it. We missed last month due to most of us being sick, and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday. I will go with what the group thinks best. Though if we do meet, it gives me more motivation, because I want to bring new work on The Moonlight Cafe, not just rewritten chapters. We shall see.

And now, I'm off to rewriting those last chapters.

Take Time

2008-03-06T20:56:00.007-06:00

Driving to work this morning I realized how often I don't take time to pay attention to the simple beauties in life. There is a stretch of highway, just before the bridge, that is farmland, with trees edging the road. The trees are bare this time of year, stick figures reaching towards the sky. Yesterday morning, the view was stunning! The trees, the grass, everything in sight were covered in white. It looked like a completely different landscape, just from the snow cover. On top of that, there was a dense fog surrounding the bridge. I could only see maybe 50 feet in front of me. This added to the beautiful white landscape. I thought about how gorgeous it was. Yet by the time I had reached work, I was annoyed and cranky, and had completely forgotten about the white beauty. I let something as mundane as traffic overcome any sense of peace I had gained from just passing through the beautiful scenery. I didn't think of it again all day. It may as well have not happened.

Then this morning, I noticed how everything was back to normal on that stretch of the highway. All the white was gone, and it was once again a dreary, winter landscape. I remembered the beauty from the day before, and realized that I had forgotten all about it, as if it hadn't existed. It made me realize that I need to take more time to truly pause and admire the world around me and appreciate it. I too easily let the mundane aspects of life take over and cause me stress. I told myself that I must remember the beauty from yesterday, and think of it (or any other simple pleasures in life) when the world gets to be too much, and to step back for a moment and pause, take a deep breath, and relax. I told myself I must remember that, and to write a post in my blog about it when I got home. It must have worked, because here I am writing about it.

So when work, or family, bills, or whatever it is that causes you stress rears its ugly head, try to remember to take a step back, even if just for a moment. Think of some simple pleasure in your life. Take a few deep breaths. Always remember: "This, too, shall pass. "

Currently playing in iTunes: Tempest by Lisa Gerrard

More Snow and Dreariness

2008-03-05T20:41:00.001-06:00

More snow fell on St. Louis yesterday. Sunday saw temperatures of 70 degrees and above. By the drive home Monday afternoon it was sleeting. By Tuesday afternoon there was anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow on the ground, depending on where you lived. Today it was 40, and most of the snow has already melted. I am infinitely ready for spring. I like snow, but I'd like it to stick around a bit longer, rather than melting a day later and leaving the world in a muddy ruin.

The dreary weather has been affecting my mood, and my creativity. I've been pulling myself to the computer to write, and have made progress. I'm about 3/4 of the way through rewriting The Moonlight Cafe in first person. Once done with that, I will work on other changes, and additions, to the story.

On the evenings that I just haven't been able to make myself write, I've been catching up on my magazines. I have subscriptions to Writer's Digest and The Writer - must haves for any aspiring writer. I've gotten several months behind, so I've been catching up. I read these with a highlighter in hand, to mark areas of specific interest. Then I go back and copy these areas into a notebook for future reference. Sometimes it's ideas to improve writing. Other times it is a list of publications, contests, or agents.

I'm also going to take some time to work on some short stories, things that might find publication a bit sooner than a full-blown novel. I have a list of magazines I want to submit to. Nothing written yet, but I'll get there.

As I write this, my puppies are playing in my office. They're tugging a Santa hat that came off one of their xmas presents. Tiberius got a stuffed teddy bear wearing a Santa hat. The hat is all that remains, and it is one of his favorite toys to carry around. From the tiny ripping noises I hear, it might not last past tonight. The puppies are always good for a mile, even in the dreariest of weather.

Currently playing in iTunes: Ben Pode Santa Maria by Azam Ali

Rewrites

2008-02-24T13:35:00.001-06:00

I had an idea for Moonlight Cafe that I thought might make it even better, so rewrote a few chapters to try it out. I loved it, so am in the process of rewriting the entire novel. I'm about 1/3 of the way done. This rewrite is easier than the initial go through. If I work hard, I should be done in about 2 weeks. What am I changing? I originally wrote it in third person, mainly from Brenda's point of view, but with snippets from Vincent's point of view as well. I decided to try it in first person. It works a lot better, especially considering that I am going to write another book telling Vincent's story. I promise, it won't be redundant. It will show what Vincent did before and after he met Brenda, in the time between, and with a totally different view on their time together. But first I'm going to finish this rewrite. Everyone who has heard the change so far likes it a lot better, including myself. So querying agents has been put on hold until I am finished with the change.

Taking the Plunge

2008-02-16T22:19:00.001-06:00

I finally joined the rest of the online world. I've been protesting it for a long time now, but everything I've ready about marketing yourself as a writer says you need a couple of things - a website, a blog, and a myspace page. I set up the website. I set up the blog. I never really wanted to join myspace, but the more I think about it the more I see the benefit of getting my name out there and networking. So I did it. I set up a MySpace page. If you have an account, please add me as a friend. Let your friends know about it. Name recognition is key in the publishing world, so I'm going to get my name out there as much as I possibly can. So please stop by when you have time. Thanks!

http://www.myspace.com/jenniferksights

Dreary Weather

2008-02-12T18:26:00.001-06:00

I've been in quite a funk ever since Friday. The weekend was kind of rough, then the weather got bad. We had a "wintry mix" yesterday. That's code for a mix of all kinds of bad stuff. Sleet, freezing rain, snow, you name it. Took me almost 3 hours to get home in it all, which didn't help my mood. So I haven't written anything since Friday. But I'm going to change that tonight. Writing makes me happy. I enjoy it, and I love my stories. If I can escape to another world with my writing, maybe it will take my crankiness away, even temporarily. So I'm going to get back to work tonight.

Here's to hoping for some brighter weather real soon. Too many people have been sick recently, and it's too gray. Try to stay well.

Currently playing in iTunes: Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd

Peaceful Journeys, Freckles

2008-02-08T22:35:00.001-06:00

One afternoon in October, 1993, I was watching TV in our family room after school. I looked up at one point and saw my Dad outside on the patio. That was odd, I thought. He usually came inside through the garage, never went around to the backyard. A few minutes later I looked outside again, and he was kneeling on the ground with a tiny Beagle puppy. Oh, he found a stray. Poor puppy, I thought, and rushed outside to pet it.

Our Cocker Spaniel, Belle, had passed the year before. I asked my parents for another dog, but they weren't too keen on the idea. I almost didn't believe my Dad when he told me that tiny puppy was my new puppy! My parents told me I could name her. I couldn't decide, and finally settled on Freckles, because she had tiny spots all over her body that looked like, well, freckles.

Freckles was 2.8 pounds at her first vet visit. She was 8 weeks old my dad brought her home. He got her from a guy he worked with who had a litter of 3. He held tiny Freckles against his shoulder the drive home, and she howled the entire drive. He says his left ear is still ringing today from that drive home.

Our first year with Freckles was trying, to say the least. She quickly earned the nickname Devil Dog. I never thought a dog that tiny could cause such pain with her biting. We wore gloves when playing with her to protect her hands. My Dad resorted to buying leather work gloves from the hardware store. Freckles loved books, and we had to remove all books from the lower bookshelves. She tried our patience, and more than once my parents talked about getting rid of her. It would have broken my heart. In my freshman religion class, we started each day by going around the room and each person could say something they wanted to pray for. Several classes during Freckles' first year my prayer was that my parents would not get rid of my puppy. We stuck it through, and when she turned 1 she was like a different dog. Calmer, no more biting - tolerable and extremely lovable.

Four years later when I went away to college my parents gave me a wooden Beagle statue to take with me. I set it on my desk in my dorm room. When I transferred to a college in St. Louis and moved back home at the end of the school year, I kept the wooden Beagle on my desk in my bedroom.

Even though I only lived with Freckles her first 8 years (after that I had my own apartment), she was my dog. My parents never changed her tag, which had my name on it.

Last year Freckles started having health problems. She had to go to the bathroom often, and woke up several times in the middle of the night. After several months, my parents found out she had Cushings Disease, had a tumor on her spleen, and en enlarged liver. The vet prescribed medication to ease the effects of Cushings Disease, and referred my parents to a specialist for the tumor. They visited the specialist, but in the end decided to do nothing. Freckles was 14, and if they opted for surgery, there was a chance she wouldn't survive. They decided to make her life as good as possible (as if they hadn't already made it better than any dog could hope for!), as long as she wasn't in pain.

My Mom works from home, so has been with Freckles all day, every day for the past year, leaving the house as little as possible so she would be there anytime Freckles needed to go out, which was often. It was trying for my Mom, but Freckles wasn't in much pain, and still looked happy most of the time, so my parents stuck it out.

Last night Freckles had a very bad night. She couldn't get settled down to sleep, and was restless all night. She wouldn't eat or drink. This morning she was obviously very miserable. My parents debated what would be best. Maybe they'd wait till Monday and see if she felt better over the weekend. But they knew. They called the vet, and he squeezed them in for an 11:00 appointment. During this time, I was in a meeting at work and didn't know anything was wrong.

When I got back to my desk at 10:30, I had a message from my parents on my desk phone as well as 2 missed calls and a message on my cell phone. My grandma has also battled a slew of health problems the past year, and when I saw all the missed calls I knew that something was wrong with either my grandma, or Freckles. My mom answered the phone, but handed it to my dad because she was crying. He told me what was happening. I told him I'd meet them at the vet's office. When my dad asked me if it would interfere with work I simply said, "It doesn't matter. Family is more important than work. I'm going to take care of a few things real quick, then I'll be at the vet by 11." Thankfully the vet is only 15 minutes from where I work.

I cancelled the meetings I had in the afternoon, asked my teammate to take care of anything that might come up that afternoon, then went to find my boss to tell her I was leaving for the day. Ronnie was still in the conference room, talking with a few stragglers from the meeting I had just left. I didn't know one of the people in the room, and told myself I wouldn't cry in front of strangers. That didn't turn out so well. I told Ronnie (who also has dogs) what was going on, and started crying. Ronnie is a great boss, and told me to do whatever I need to do, not to worry about work, and asked if I needed someone to drive me to the vet. I told her thanks, but I would manage.

At the vet, we hugged and kissed and petted Freckles. My Dad gave her one last backrub, one of her favorite things. The vet and his assistant were very kind. After he gave her the shot, he whispered "Peaceful journeys" to her. My parents and I petted her until the end, and after. She went peacefully. Freckles laid her head on her paw, as she always did when she slept, and looked very peaceful when it was over. Now she's with Belle, our Cocker Spaniel, and Chico, the Chihuahua my parents had when they were first married. She can run and chase birds again. But we miss her.

She never went to the park. When we get her ashes, we're going to take her to the park I take Loki and Tiberius to, and we're going to spread her ashes there so she can be with my boys whenever they are running around at the park.

I love you, Freckles, and will miss you.

Currently playing in iTunes: Pie Jesu by Sarah Brightman

Freckles

Belle

Quote of the Week

2008-02-07T22:29:00.001-06:00

I've added something new to my blog. At the top you'll notice the Quote of the Week. Every Monday I'll post a new quote there, so stop by (at least) every week and check it out.

New Blogging Software

2008-02-07T17:59:00.001-06:00

I found some new blogging software for the Mac called MarsEdit. I'm on the trial version right now, and this is my first post with it. So far it looks pretty cool, and if it keeps up I'll definitely be purchasing the full version. It allows you to easily add photos, and even this:

Currently playing in iTunes: Wait for Sleep by Dream Theater

Very neat. I don't know what it is about Macs, but when I was on my Windows computer I never cared about nifty software. Could I access the internet/e-mail? Could I listen to music? Did the word processor work? Great. That's all I cared about. But being a Mac owner is turning me into a computer person. I find myself spending time looking at new software products, and Mac has a great Shareware community. Instead of Word, I'm now using Scrivener for writing. It's a great program that allows you to not only write your novel, but organize research, download info from the web for offline access, and store pretty much any file you could need (pictures, videos, research documents) in the project file for easy access. I highly recommend it.

I just need to be careful not to spend too much time playing with new programs, and detract from my writing time. But I doubt that will happen, I love writing too much to ignore it, and the novel I'm working on is too interesting for me to step away from for long. I just happen to have new "toys" to make the work even more enjoyable and easy.

But back to Scrivener for a minute. At one point I decided to find some writing software. This was before my Mac. I spent several hours searching for programs, downloading trial versions, trying to figure out how to use them, and uninstalling them when I couldn't figure it out. I finally gave up, realizing that was wasted time I could have spent writing. But once I got the Mac, a fellow Mac user - 2, in fact - told me about Scrivener. I downloaded the trial version, spent 30 minutes on the tutorial, and was ready to go. Easy as that.

So I'm going to get back to writing now. I'll leave you with a picture of my literary dog Loki, easily added with MarsEdit.

Soothing Rain

2008-02-05T17:21:00.001-06:00

It snowed last week, and is supposed to snow again tomorrow, but right now there is a hard, steady rain falling outside. Usually I listen to music when I'm writing, but not now. One of my favorite things is the sound of rain. I have a candle lit on my desk and am ready to go for the night.

The yard is soaked and muddy, the street in front of my house will soon turn into a swiftly running river because the storm drains don't work, but I don't care about any of that. The only thing that does bother me about rain is the muddy puppy paw prints that get tracked through the house if I am not fast enough to clean their paws when they come in from outside. With 2 dogs, about the only way to manage it is either block of the kitchen doorway, or only let one dog in at a time.

The rain is already slowing down. I better get to work before it stops completely. I hope you all enjoy the rain tonight. I will be busy writing.

Happy Groundhog Day

2008-02-02T20:34:00.000-06:00

It seems Punxsutawney Phil predicts 6 more weeks of winter. That would be fine with me if it would stay cold. But here in the Midwest the weather keeps going up and down. Snowstorm 2 days ago, and today I was out in just a sweatshirt. I prefer one or the other, not the constant change. Oh well, I guess I can't dictate nature. And I must admit, I love snow, and my puppies especially love it. They've been spending a lot of time outside running around in the white stuff.

I've been reading The Moonlight Cafe aloud to myself for a final check to make sure everything flows smoothly. I'm 10 chapters in (it's 43 total), and so far, other than some minor changes, I'm happy with it. I'm also printing out the final version. I have a hardcopy of an older version, but not the final. It's always nice to have a hardcopy backup in the case of a computer catastrophe. I'm trying to be better at backing up all my stuff, digitally and hardcopies, where possible. I started a binder containing my short story printouts, and have file folders for various versions of Moonlight and the beginnings of Discovering Family. I need to upgrade to Mac OS Leopard, and I want to buy their new Time Capsule for backups to make everything easier on me. Something for my To Do list.

Old Friends and New

2008-01-30T22:24:00.000-06:00

We had a pleasant surprise at writing group on Monday. Rick, one of the founding members of the group (though he hasn't come in several years) came back! I love his whimsical writing! And he brought along one of his friends who had never been to writing group. The Monday night group is growing! If Rick and Jordan continue coming, that will put us at 9 members! Wow! That means our meetings could run quite late, depending on how much reading, writing, and sharing we do. With the newer members we have started doing timed writings again, which I had missed doing. I don't know if we'll do them every week, but I do enjoy those very much. When I'm at home, I almost always work on my current novel. Rarely do I merely write whatever comes to mind just for the fun of it. That doesn't mean working on my novel isn't fun. Don't get me wrong there, if it wasn't fun I wouldn't do it. But the free-writing we do on Mondays is purely pleasure. Often something we write has the makings of something longer, but it might not. So here's to the growing group!

Ideas, Ideas, Everywhere

2008-01-29T09:14:00.000-06:00

I've been slowly making progress on Discovering Family. This one is going to take a while, I think. Partly just because it is going to be longer than The Moonlight Cafe, but partly because it starts in the late 60s or early 70s, before I was born. It is going to require a lot of research on the time period so I can make it feel authentic. It also takes place in a city in which I don't live. One I have visited before, but not lived in, so it will take location research as well. I guess it gives me a reason to take a trip back there, for it's a city I love. Vacation in the name of research. :)

I also had another idea pop into my head yesterday morning. What's that? Creativity on a Monday morning? I know, it's very strange. So I had to get the first 4 paragraphs down on paper before I logged into work. The first sentences were very loud in my head, and I wanted to get it down before it went away. So next time I go to look at it, I'll have a starting point.

So now i have 3 idea on which I want to work, in addition to others that are patiently waiting their turn, and a possible major revision to Moonlight. Yes, I'm already sending out query letters for it, and it is done, but that doesn't mean I can't keep playing with it, right? It might be a while before I find an agent. Out of 8 letters I've received 4 rejections. Oddly enough they haven't hurt. Maybe because they're all form letters, very impersonal. Maybe when I get a personal letter it will hurt more. As Tina has found, the ones that say "I like your novel, BUT..." are the ones that hurt most. Makes sense. We'll see.

So many ideas, so little time. I'm not complaining. I'd rather have this problem than the opposite.

Busy with research

2008-01-16T15:54:00.001-06:00

I've spent the past week doing a lot of research. It's not for my novel though, it's for something my writing group and I are going to do. The beginning stages are the hardest and take the most time, I think, but the research for it has taken away from my writing. That's ok, though, because I've been kind of stuck at a the current scene anyway and needed a break from it. Hopefully I'll get back into it tonight. If not, I'm going to work on some ideas for another young adult novel. One or the other, I will do creative work tonight. This other project is very exciting though, and I'm not at all complaining about the work on it. It's left me a bit wiped out though, which is why I haven't posted anything recently. The last time I got stuck on a scene I started freewriting about the fact that I was stuck, why I thought I was stuck, and where I needed to go with the novel. It helped. After about 2 pages of handwritten complaining, ideas started flowing. I will try that again tonight if I don't get anywhere.