Early Saturday musings…

Well it’s Saturday morning and I’m up. I had planned on sleeping in this morning, but my body refuses to sleep past six and the characters in my mind speak loudly.

As I sip on my coffee and ponder the days activities I wonder. What do I wonder about? Well, I wonder what would happen if I put the manuscripts that need to be finished aside and start a totally new one that’s plaguing my mind? Why is it when a writer has a manuscript deadline, there’s always another story getting in the way.

I’m going to push the new storyline aside until at least one of my manuscripts is finished. Of course I will feed the musing with a quick outline to make sure the storyline stays fresh inmy mind. Hopefully that will make the musing step aside for a little while at least.

What are you up to this Saturday? Something wonder filled or maybe a house cleaning, or possibly working on your beloved manuscript? As for me I’ll be doing a little of both. My house needs a good scrubbing and my manuscript screams for attention, so I’ll work on both.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Monday morning chill in the South

There was a definite chill in the house this morning as I crept out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make the coffee. It felt good to wrap up in a throw as I watched the news and waited on the coffee to brew. My son actually wore a hoodie this morning. I love this weather. It will bring on the Fall transformation of beauty in the trees.

I’m working on several manuscripts. I can’t seem to stay put on one particular one. Hopefully this morning I can focus on just one. Hopefully my Christmas editions will be ready in the next couple of weeks.

How do you stay focused and away from the other characters and stories crowded your mind? Sometimes a deadline can put a wall of to the over crowding, but most of the time theses stories and characters just keep right on pushing their way through. Let’s just hope I can stay focused for the hour I have before going to the office.

Today’s question: Does anyone else have several manuscripts playing inside their head? What are you working on today?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

2nd Cup of Coffee and Cool Fall Morning

I just love this time of the year. It’s so cozy curled up in the corner of the couch with my throw and coffee. I feel invigorated. The leaves are on the verge of change and the air is so clean. It’s amazing what God has given us.

I am nursing my second cup of coffee as I type this post. Yes, I’m still on vacation, so no hurry to shower and get dressed. I actually typed 4000 words yesterday. It was a very productive day. I have my outline beside me now and am pumped about today’s word count. If you’re a writer you know what I mean. It’s fun when the story is just spilling from your mind to your fingertips. The only problem I have is I want to get to the happenings of chapters ahead of where I am. Funny thing about a story is it unfolds sometimes in a crazy order. I can see the last act so clearly and it guides me through the middle story which leads you up to the final words.

I’ve taken some advice from a fellow blogger and writer that has helped so much with this manuscript. I am so guilty of editing and proofing as I go. It’s a slow process when you do it that way. I’m bad about going back and rewriting parts or correcting spelling or grammer. As she said in her post, don’t do that until the first draft is complete. It does hinder your rhythm as you work. If you stop and go several times your brain gets in a fog. I typed yesterday continuously and refused to go back and edit even though at times I wanted to sooooooo bad.

How do you write? What’s the pet peeve of your writing? If you have a finished piece of work and need some help with the polishing, go to the Horseshoe Publishing tab at the top of my page and check out our polishing services. Your hard work needs to be out there, so get it polished and shiny and ready for the public to ooh and awe over it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Friday morning coffee & doughnut…

It’s Friday people! Get excited. The weekend is only a couple hours away or if you’re one of my friends across the pond it’s really close 🙂

As I sit and sip my coffee watching the sun start to beam through the window and dance across the floor I smile. The air is crisp and clean, the world is beautiful and it’s Friday.

I know my posts have been sporadic and I’m sorry. With tax season in full swing and this old cold, allergy thing I’ve had, it’s been a crazy week.

Hopefully this weekend I can work on one of my manuscripts. I’ve been having writing withdrawals. It’ s been almost a week since I was able to work That doesn’t stop the characters and plots from running around in my head. They keep poking me and telling me to pay attention to them. Well, if all goes well I will give them my full attention tomorrow.

So if you’re a full time writer I envy you and if you do as I do and juggle writing with a full time career, then hope you get to write this weekend.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Starting new book brings on frustration…

How many times have I spoke about the many books going on in my head? Well add a new one. Why is it being a writer messes with your head? You see something or hear a song or even just trip over something and suddenly there it is. Well that happened to me this past Saturday.

I was sitting on my couch looking at my book sites when I was suddenly drawn to my book page. My Christian romance “With All My Heart…” has done fairly well and I’ve received some good reviews. Suddenly my heart started pounding and my mind whirling. Even before I finished “With All My Heart…” I had an idea for book two. This is a series called “Lean On Him” and the whole series is based on leaning on your Faith. Finding the answers through Him.

So there I was starting a new word document and before I knew what was happening I was 2000 words into the new book. Amazing how it just poured out of my fingers. My son sat beside me on the couch laughing at me. He said I was going to tear up the keys on my laptop. I didn’t even realize I was so immersed in the writing.

Here is a very unedited excerpt. Let me know what you think. I can take it good or bad.

Randy came back to the current from his daydream. He felt her weakly try to squeeze his hand. He looked up and saw her looking over at him. Her eyes were only barely open. He stood up and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Hey baby. Do you need anything?”

“Only you here with me.” She tried to smile but failed. “You look tired. Why don’t you try to rest?”

“I’m not leaving you. I will be here for you if you need anything.” He felt his heart hammering in his chest. It was odd the feeling he had. It was as though he knew this was the last time they would talk.

“Randy, will you hold me. I just need you to hold me tight. I’ve missed your bear hugs.” She looked up at him and made another attempt to smile.

“Anything for my girl.” He leaned over and gently pulled her into his arms. She tried to put her arms around him but she was too weak. He hugged her as tight as he could without hurting her. It was heavenly to hold her in his arms. He’d missed this too. She was his heart, his soul mate. What would he do without her?

“I love you so much.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

“I love you too baby.” He felt her tears dampen his shirt. “Don’t cry, it will only make you start coughing.”

“I just needed this time with you. Will you do something for me?”

“You know I will do anything thing for you.” He pulled back so he could look in her eyes. She settled back on the pillow.

“I love you and I’ve enjoyed every moment we’ve had together. We have two beautiful girls to show for the love we’ve shared. I want you to be happy. Promise me that you’ll love again. I don’t want you to lock yourself in the house. I want you to find love again and to marry a woman to help with the girls and to love you. This is my daily prayer.”

His tears came in a steady stream now. “Rachel you’re my love and my heart. How can I love anyone like I love you? I can’t even think about that right now.”

“I know, but I want you to think about it later down the road. You and the girls need a good woman to take care of you. Promise me you will open your heart to love again. Promise me.” She squeezed his hand.

“Ok Rachel. I promise that if my heart feels love again I will think about it. Nobody will ever take your place.” He reached out and stroked her cheek feeling the wetness from her tears.

“I will feel better knowing you’re happy again.” Her heart was heavy knowing they would not grow old together and do all the things they’d talked about.

“I’ve been happy enough with you to last a lifetime. I’ll have the girls to keep me busy and happy.” She’d made him quit saying things like ‘you’re going to be fine’ or ‘don’t talk like that.’

She felt her breathing get harder. It was only a matter of time now. “Baby, it’s getting close, I feel it.”

“Do you want me to get the doctor? Are you in pain?” He went to get up but she pulled at his shirt.

“Don’t leave. Let’s just be here together. I’m not in pain. I actually feel like I’m relaxing.” She looked up at him and saw her eyes were more rested than she’d looked in over a week.

“What’re you feeling?” He wanted to make sure she was comfortable.

“I’m having a little harder time breathing. I feel a little heavy in my limbs. But I’m so at peace.” She did smile that time and it was the most beautiful smile. He noticed that her heart monitor was acting weird. The beats were getting further apart. Her breathing became a little more labored.

“Baby, let me call the nurse. She can give you something for the breathing.” He reached for the nurse’s button but she shook her head.

“Don’t Randy. Let’s just have this moment together, not with nurses and doctors. Just us.” She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep shuddering breath.

“Ok, if that’s what you want. I love you so much. You’re my soul mate. I know God made us for each other. Nobody can take your place.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. His voice was breaking up with emotion.

“I feel the same way sweetheart. I will save a place for you in Heaven. I know that one day we’ll be back together. That’s what’s so wonderful about being saved. This is not goodbye. It’s just ‘see you in a little while’.” She closed her eyes again and a single tear slipped from one eye.

He got up and maneuvered himself so he was lying beside her and he pulled her into his arms. She laid her head in the crook of his arm. He savored every moment he could with her.

Quietly she spoke, almost so low he had to listen hard. “Randy, I love you and I’ll see you again my love.” She got very still and he noticed her breathing slowed. He knew it was close.

Then the heart monitor alarm went off and he knew she was gone. He leaned his head down and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll see you again my love.” Tears burst from his eyes as he held her.

Well, that’s just a snippet of a portion of the manuscript. As I said it’s a very rough draft. I will tell you this, I cried for most of the writing so forgive any smudged letters 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How do I finish this when that is in the way?

I have a problem. I’ve got a manuscript that I should have finished a month ago 🙂 That’s only part of the problem, well it’s still going, the problem is that I have 5 other stories crying out to be finished. Every time I get my head back into the current manuscript my mind goes nuts. Yes, I said it, my mind goes nuts.

To someone that’s not a writer this may sound like a great problem. You may be saying that’s great that you have so many stories waiting in line to be completed. Well, here lies the problem. These stories don’t want to wait in line, they want to break in line. They’re getting down right ornery. They’re taking up my sleep, my extra time and most detrimental my writing time.

Oh well, the life of a writer. I guess that’s just the problem with having an overactive imagination, which if you think about it, that’s the key to being a writer. Sometimes my imagination runs away with me 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless you.

Losing a character…

I wonder sometimes why I write when I’m tired. I sit and stare at the screen and totally draw a blank. Sometimes I’m sitting in my accounting office and get the urge to write a paragraph or two but have no time. I quickly jot down the idea and go back to work.

Have you ever forgot your main characters name? Did you wonder why? While working on my latest manuscript I noticed something wrong when I started editing. I had to laugh because it was so ridiculous. Or was it? I had a child named Chance, which was to be after the father, but somewhere in the middle I started typing Chase and it stuck. Boy that was a fun edit. I could have did a find all entries for Chase and replace, but I learned a really hard lesson about hitting that replace all button. 😦

I have started putting a legal pad beside me when I write. As I introduce new characters I write down a short bio on that character and keep it beside me. That way I don’t spend half my precious writing time looking back for a characters name, hair color, or age.

My editor laughed while reading one of my manuscripts. She said ‘I thought your main character had blonde hair’. She smiled and made a note to change that entry. I just groaned and watched her grin. She knows me well.

I have a horror of missing one of these details in my final read through. What if I publish a piece with a critical character flaw? Oh well, I guess that’s why I have an editor to look after me. I definitely need it. 🙂 If you’ve encountered this problem, try the legal pad bio system. So far it’s worked for me. ◊

As always, good writing and May God Bless.

Writer’s frame of mind

What’s up with my writer’s brain? The book “Rekindled Flame” that was supposed to be completed in December is still in the process. What started out to be a novella has turned out to be a novella on steroids. It’s funny how you think you know how the manuscript will go and then all of a sudden you’re going into a more advanced manuscript.

Got to rant for a moment on reviews. As I’ve said before reviews rarely make me upset, but I’ve received a couple that seem to be from the same person. It’s like a reviewer stalker. They’re appearing on all my books and say basically the same thing. What’s funny is the review does not fit the book. I’m not sure what the reviewer is trying to accomplish, but I do know that they need to actually read the book so that the review at least matches. I don’t get mad or upset about ugly, nasty reviews, but I don’t appreciate just downright vicious ones that come from a person that evidently never read the book to begin with. Oh, well, enough of that. Whew, got that off my chest. Now I feel lot’s better 🙂

Was pleasantly surprised when a delivery was made yesterday. It was my newest novel. I ordered copies for giveaways and family. It was “The Winner Is Love”. It’s so exciting to hold your work in your hand. Seeing them on the internet and computer screen is one thing, but to actually hold it in your hand is so rewarding. I was very pleased with the cover. My editor designs my covers and she’s awesome. She get’s exactly what I want and totally blows me away with the finished product.

Well, it’s Friday and school started back today for my son. It was a wonderful Christmas break. We spent some good mama-son time together. It was sad to put him on the bus this morning. The house is so quiet without him playing his drums (Santa had a brain issue). Well, it’s back to normal in the office and tax season has begun.

As usual, good writing and May God Bless You!

Books…Books…Where from here?

I’m in a whirling dervish and can’t seem to stop it. Well it started like this. I had 12 different manuscripts started. A little over ambitious I know, but sometimes an idea comes to me in the middle of the night and I just have to write it down. Well it goes down hill from there, but I usually have a couple of chapters written before I know it. Then another manuscript catches my brain and I go back to it.

I had an idea for a Christmas novel. It kept poking me in the brain begging for release. I had to let it out. What else could I do? Well I put the others aside and started that one. I promised the others I’d return real soon. Well, then I decided that the 2nd book in the “Flames of Love” series would be a New Year’s book also. Thank goodness that one was already in the works.

As I worked on “The Winner Is Love” which is the Christmas novel, it occurred to me that these characters could not just go away at Christmas. Yep, here we go again, there will be a part two. My brain has it in for me. It is determined to make me insane. I’ve got only a couple of modifications on this one and it will go out this week. Maybe I need one of those gadgets that you speak into and it types what you say. But the catch would be to talk to one computer and type on the other. Boy that would turn out terrible wouldn’t it. My brain can only really do one thing at a time. Never could chew gum and walk, sad but true.

As always, good writing, stay sane, and May God Bless you…