Editing, writing, editing, writing

by | Dec 29, 2007 | Uncategorized

Gotta turn in edits. Proposal on top of ’em. The two sort of go together because things interlink. I’ll post some sort of New Year looking back/looking forward type thingie when these are off my desk.

I picked up the new Julie Garwood, Shadow Music, and will be doing a review when I’ve read it. I’m one who has been wildly excited about her return to historicals, and I’ve seen some very disappointed reader reactions online about this book. So I’ll discuss it here after I read it. I do wonder if readers expected her to write the way she did ten years ago, and if so, that may be coloring perceptions. I don’t expect that. Styles shift, writers grow, and there’s no going backwards. But I do expect a good read and I’m confident enough I’ll get it to pay the hardcover price tag.

Thursday? *blink blink*

by | Dec 27, 2007 | Uncategorized

Been busy writing today. Also herding small people, making breakfast, lunch, sorting laundry, and other business. I’ve made great progress on my to do list and also on organizing my goals and workflow for 2008. So. Deep thoughts as the New Year approaches: you really have to define your own success, and redefine it often.

I wrote a business plan for my fiction career five years ago, and in that plan I projected selling to Harlequin Blaze. You will note that hasn’t happened. But I ended up in the right place for me, and I achieved my goals, if not the way I imagined I would. So a degree of flexibility always has to be involved when you set goals. You can have a goal that could be met in multiple ways. When one way opens up, even if it’s not what you expected, it can be the perfect opportunity for you.

I keep revising and revisiting my business plan, and setting new goals, but still things change. Markets change, opportunities come up, priorities change. So every year it’s time for an overhaul. And usually around the six month mark I find myself revising my goal list again, to adjust course for the rest of the year.

One thing I’m making a priority this year is getting ahead. I need to be working on future proposals, future books, not just the ones that are due next. I didn’t allow nearly enough time in the schedule for that last year, and I’ve seen how painfully that can bite me in the butt. I started to move in that direction this fall, but it’s the kind of thing you have to keep at and slowly the results start to accumulate.

Lots of steps towards goals are like that; little changes, little daily or weekly efforts that eventually lead to big results.

Best Christmas present

by | Dec 25, 2007 | Uncategorized

I got the best Christmas present a writer can get yesterday. No, it wasn’t under the tree. It was one of those gifts that fall into your lap from time to time; the right chapter one for Wicked Love, which I have rewritten repeatedly and still failed to get right and now I see why. I finally got the first few pages right, but then I kept trying to go forward in the wrong time and place. I move about 60 miles in space and jump ahead in time, and voila, what really happens in chapter one is revealed. It happened when I took my Christmas nap. I guess if you’re a writer you get scenes instead of visions of sugarplums, but I’m grateful. Sometimes it really does pay to sleep on it!

I also woke up this morning with bits and pieces that fill in gaps in Wicked Hot which I can now sneak in before it goes back. Sometimes a day or two off is enough to let these things percolate up.

I hope everybody out there had a good Christmas, and for the writers, may the muse drop those little gifts into your head! For a readerly gift, visit PBW to read Worthy, Willing, and then foam at the mouth along with me waiting for the finale Wanted, which she hopes to have up for New Year’s.

Oh, and here’s a musical gift. It starts out one way, but hang in there. Must have sound for this.