Day Three of NaNoWriMo Ends

Three days of writing, thinking, planning, and adjusting preconceived notions, have provided me with 6425 words, loosely four chapters and a pretty good idea of where this story is heading.  The mystery is afoot, one clue is in hand. The key to the clue is missing. The meeting of minds is commencing. The inane doxology of ice cream has been spoken.

Did you know that post it notes were invented in 1980? There was no valid use for the weak glue until four years later when the 3M inventor’s friend decided to use it to hold his pen in place on his choir book.  Yes, that’s the holy grail of this researcher’s treasure hunt.

I have not quite gotten to the one little blurb I presented myself with last month for inclusion into the book.  Yet, it is only three days in. what did I expect?  After a flying start, an overwhelming night, and a night of sleep, things started to get on an even keel today. Since it was a day scheduled to spend some time with the editor on the Shepherds book, I didn’t even approach NaNoWriMo writing until 8:00 pm.

Is that a real word or a southern phrase?

Still working on the plans for #MysteryThrillerWeek.  I am loving the ideas for the event, just need  more bloggers and authors involved.  Make this event helper happy, sign up and let us see that interest. You can find us at mysterythrillerweek.com, at Goodreads.com, and at Facebook.com . come join the fun. Get your name out in the public eye, have reviews provided, meet your fellow authors, meet publicists. This event is for and about you.

NaNoWriMo Official Banner, Personal Invitation, and Buddy Request!

Preparing for NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo begins in a little over 15 days and I am scrambling to get my reviews posted. The slowest part is getting all the fabulous books I have scheduled read. I read pretty fast, but I still am struggling.  Of course, if you know me by now, you know that when I struggle to complete a project, I blog.  Not the most productive way to handle a deadline, but it is how I roll.

So my calendar is packed with books and review dates when I catch a cold that settles in my head. Oh yes, I am talking about a massive eye pressing sinus  headache for 5 days.  5 days without reading a book.  As you can imagine, that puts me way behind schedule.  So I have been scurrying about with a book on the computer, one of the Kindle, and a paperback in my hand.   I am catching up so I have not lost faith in my trusty calendar.

Yet I am rolling around several ideas as to how I want to NaNo this year. I have begun the sequel to The Path of the Child. I am 3 chapters in. I guess less than 10,000 words. So I can set those to one side and concentrate on adding an additional 50,000 words through the course of November.

Another potential plan is to write 2 smaller books that are my secret projects I mentioned recently.  I am only afraid there are not 50,000 words between them.

Idea three. Start fresh with no plan, like I have done with the past 3 NaNoWriNo years.

I am not sure if I work on all three project, will I become unfocused? Will I miss my goal? If I start something new, what will happen to That Path to the Past?

All relevant questions that I am asking myself.  Of course, I know I will still have reading time, but I will not have a calendar packed with a review or two a day like October and September were.

I am curious as to your ideas, input, and thoughts, on my dilemma. I know I will be participating, I will be striving for 50,000 words. I am just not sure what to work on. Any feedback will be listened to and appreciated. I

Any and all  feedback will be listened to and appreciated. Help a girl out?

Write ideas, comments, and feedback below.   If you play along and help this girl out, I would be so appreciative. Wanna be a buddy? I am on NaNoWriMo site as Vicki Goodwin.

First Writers Group Meeting Was Today!

A few days back I mentioned that I had asked my local library on Facebook if they knew of any writers groups in the small town where I live. John answered my inquiry and told me there were several, one met every Friday at the library. He said I was welcome to join. So today, being Friday, at ten o’clock, I found myself in the conference room with five printed pages of my work in progress. That is the price of admission, you see, reading aloud five pages of your WIP.

Indie Author Day is October 8, 2016

I am slow on the uptake and just found out about Indie Author day. Today I spoke to one of the librarians at my local library and they did not know about the special day either. John at the  Clark County Library said he would look into it. I hope they are able to find a way to celebrate it with the people in the county. For a state by state and county by county listing of participating libraries, you can click here.

Speaking of Libraries, this week I will be attending my very first writer’s group this Friday at 10:00. If you know me by now, you will know that I am a bit timid,and I do not leave my house much.  I fly solo like most writers and enjoy my alone time with the computer, my books, and my notepads. So attending this is my big step out into this wide world of other writers. I was asked to bring five pages of written material with me from a current work in progress or something else I was writing. I was also asked to bring 2 copies of my book for the library to have in their local author’s area. How exciting is that?

But, I digress, back to the topic at hand.  Indie Author Day. I am so excited that there is a day celebrating all the indie authors. Some of the indie authors are becoming quite well known. Authors like,  Ana Spoke, have sold thousands of copies of  Shizzle, Inc. and continues to create even more books, like Indiot,  in her Isa Maxwell series. Colleen Hoover has also made quite a name for herself in the Indie market with her books,  Finding Cinderella and Maybe Not. There is a real market for Indie books and it is a wonderful thing that Indie Author Day exists.

So check with your own local library and see if they have anything special planned for October 8, 2016. Libraries are for so much more than just borrowing a book. There are adult reading groups, adult writing groups and at our local library, there is a local  history group. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet people that love books, history, and reading as much as you do.

Struggling with Cover Concept

How is it that I can write a book, rewrite it and make it 30% longer and more in-depth, yet I can’t come to grips with my cover art. I want it to capture the essence of my book. I do not want it to look like a dog and pony story. I want it to look like what it is. A romantic comedy that happens to share the love of dogs and working with horses.

After three months of thinking, pondering, searching through pictures, I am no closer to deciding on my cover.  Is it always so hard? Was I just blessed with the concept for my first book so easily? It came to my mind and I knew exactly what I wanted to show on the cover. This time, not so much.

Oh! This struggle is real. It is almost painful. My brain hurts and it is making me unable to focus on the other two books I have in progress.

Any helpful tips from others that have faced a similar dilemma?

I need a gif of a person pulling out their hair right here.  Instead, I will simply post this along with a picture of my pups that might be on the cover if it didn’t make it look like it is just a dog story, when in my mind, it is so much more.

My goodness, aren’t they pretty! 

Now, I’ll bet, everyone can see why I ended up with such a bland cover on my first book before I reissued it. Help a girl out in the comments below, please?

 

Funny Moments from the Beta Reading Process

When I started writing this latest book, The Shepherds of Donalds Park, I knew who two of my main characters were going to be.  They were going to be based on my own adorable and hilarious Australian shepherds. That made my job a little easier. I mean I had the prototypes sitting beside me, right?

You would think so, but the funniest part of having people read the story  has been that the beta readers believe I write using made-up words.  I do not claim to have invented these words, I am blaming my grandmother, Mama Kate. I know I heard her tell me, “Don’t make a cake of yourself.” Yet, every beta readers so far questioned this term. After much Googling with no success, I might add,  I have removed it and decided, this was a make-believe term for acting foolish. Now I just call the silly dog, foolish. Making a cake of herself actually made me laugh more, but I am rather easy to start snickering at odd sayings.

This one phrase made me question some of the more adorable colorful words and phrases my grandmother said. I am now wondering if an A-Ankle is really a rear end.  She always said, “Be careful you are going to fall and bust your a-ankle.”

This makes me wonder if she made them up or if my Great grandmother Mama McConnell, was  in fact, the initiator of these odd terms.  I never saw my 103-year-old great-grandmother as comedic. Well, not as comedic as my grandmother. I want  to defend her little MamaKateisms, yet, in a majority rules frame of mind, I will remove the sayings and replace them with time-honored euphemisms.

Do you know any odd little sayings that Google has never heard of? I obviously will try to sneak them in if my Beta readers will allow. Let me know in comments.

The Shepherds of Donaldson Park Away From Home For the First Time

Friday began a week of loneliness and insecurity. My little book that has been my constant companion since April 1st is spending the week at four beta readers houses. My little secret project with its lively characters and over the top bad girl behavior is now out being read by strangers.

Before this happened a little curmudgeon in my head kept telling me, throw it out, it isn’t funny, You are going to be sorry if you publish this thing. I do not get along with my mental curmudgeon . I find him overly mean and bitter.

I am a funny girl, how dare I have a mean curmudgeon living in my head. Anyway, I digress, The time came for someone other than me to read and evaluate the shepherds and their people.

Off they went in various forms to be judged, weighed, and measured and hopefully laughed at. Hopefully to be found with redeeming qualities. It is hard to let your little book that has been your closely guarded secret out into the world. But nevertheless, off they went. I am a wreck. I want to defend each little mistake, each little confusing bit of dialog, but I put on my big girl pants and wait to hear where I wrote effect instead of affect and that particularly  annoying word “Then” too many times. I know some of my grammar issues, not all. I wish I had a better grasp on grammar, so I didn’t have to rely on another person to tackle it.
Me, I have stories in my head, several stories at a time, with a complete cast of characters. It is a beehive of activity up there. I have beta readers and editors to help me with the details. Out of it all, I hope you find the lovable story of two people and their three shepherds as fun and alive as I find them in my head.

This is a big step for the Shepherds. I packed them up and sent them out, knowing they would come home a better representation of themselves. After all, isn’t that what we all do with our babies at one time or another?

While the Shepherds are away, I will work on their cover. Oh yes, the curmudgeon has something to say about that too.

I sincerely want to thank the four Beta readers for agreeing to put their seal of approval on my precious story. I hope they will come back with lots of little tips on making it a better product. I am truly excited to be this close to publication.

By the way, anyone that made it down to this point, let me tell you I have another super secret project in the works.shh…  It is totally different and I have an illustrator working with me. Guesses are accepted and appreciated. Thanks for reading all of my posts and let me know you saw this final announcement. This project will take me through Christmas and is very dear to my heart. I can’t wait to tell more about it.  I started the newest project Wednesday. Super excited to be writing.

August Wrap Up: Spreadsheets, Excuses, Ideas, and Missteps

September 1, 2016:

Autumn is in sight and great things are on the horizon. Today is my sister’s birthday! Happy birthday, Cheryl – Anne!

But today, to get September started with a bang,  I’m going to celebrate several August events. The final tally for word count in August was  68,381. that is about 15,000  off of July’s word count.