Lost in the words…

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Good morning! The week is half over. I realized that I haven’t put a post on here in several days. But my head had been in my current manuscript.

So, with that thought, have you ever got lost in the words? I’ve been busy catching up on my word count. For about a week I didn’t write much and my word count suffered. If you’ve read many of my blogs you know that’s important to me. I have a set word count on the calendar and if I miss a couple of days, well, I go into a frenzy to get caught back up. But when you miss more than a couple of days, it’s almost impossible to get back on track. Notice I said almost impossible.

The characters have been running around in my head, forcing their way out. So, Sunday afternoon I sat down and let the characters take over. Let’s just say, I almost caught back up to where I should be. Hopefully this morning I will get back to task and be on track.

As a serious writer, you have to stay focused. Unfortunately, life slips in and things come up that interrupt that focus. When that happens, I sit back, look at my deadline, then divide it out by the days left. That gives me a new goal that has to be met. Which usually means a higher word count per day until I’m finished.

And as you know, I always have a couple of manuscripts in the works at all times, so get back to where I should be, I’ve put all of them aside to get back on track. The funny thing about doing that, the characters of the other manuscripts scream loudly in my head. Does that make me certifiably insane? No, that just makes me a writer!

Hope everyone is well and staying on track.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Sunday Morning Reflections…

Zee Monodee

Yeah, I wish I was sitting here right now, but I’m not. Here in Georgia, it’s really hot and humid, which means you go outside for just a few minutes and you feel sticky. So, I choose to stay in as much as possible.

SO, on to today’s post. I’m working on the last book in my ‘Lean on Him’ series and it’s hard. As a writer, I become comfortable with my characters and my series. Although most of this series doesn’t contain the same characters, but it does contain the same message about Faith and how it can heal you. This one is like a soul searching piece of work and sometimes when we dig too deep, it reveals something about us.

Have you ever written a manuscript and it made you think, really think? I love when a manuscript touches your heart. That means it will touch the reader and that makes me smile.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and stay cool.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Friday Ramblings…

So, it’s Friday! It’s a three day weekend!!! Everybody is excited about three days off work, but as a writer, we get excited that it’s a three-day writing palooza. Yes, I said palooza!

I sat down at 5:30 this morning, yes, I was up that early. Menopause will be the death of me, but anyhoo, I was up looking at my writing schedule and figuring out my word count for the three day weekend. Well, let’s just say I’m behind on one and ahead on another. So what does that tell you? Yep, I got so into writing on one manuscript that I totally avoided the other one. That’s not good because that puts me behind schedule. Of course, after I thought about it, if I finish one of them early, I’ll have time to finish the one lacking in word count. Yea!!!

Ok, so I’m a little giddy about the thought of writing for three days straight. It’s a writer thing. When we get a chance to write without our day job getting in the way, it makes us writers smile.

And if you wonder if I have holiday plans, yes I do. I’m heading to my mom’s lake house for the 4th, but I’ll be home writing and outlining for two days!

What are you up to on this long weekend? Working on anything exciting?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

My Characters are fighting me!

Ok fellow writers, you know what I mean when I say, ‘My characters are fighting me!’ It’s the craziest thing. You’ve got the outline, it seems to flow pretty well. The middle and ending are completely figured out in my head, but my characters are not flowing well in the front.

What do I mean? Well, let me explain myself. I’ve worked on the first couple of chapters, but they don’t seem to work. My characters are very familiar to me because this is the 2nd book in a series, so it’s not that. It’s having all the characters together at one time. Which is crazy, right? Every time I start working on it, everything seems off.

So, what do I do? One thing I’ve done is put it out of my mind completely, well not completely but out of sight. I’m taking a little break from it, then will go back fresh and start in the middle where the story is the strongest for me. Let’s just hope the front part comes to me as I write the middle and ending. Thank goodness for Scrivener!

Do your characters give you problems? How do you handle them?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

But one good thing about this one, the cover is beautiful and completed! Here’s a sneak peak!

Lacey's Choice front cover

Sunday morning thoughts…

series ad

As I sit here sipping my coffee, waiting to dress for Church, I need to be working on my latest WIP, but this morning, just thinking about it is enough. Then my thoughts went to my two pirates. With a full publishing schedule through the end of the year, writing another pirate book is not on that list, but what if…

So, what does this mean, well, it means that if the pirate that’s niggling my writer brain wants to come out, I’ll have to work really hard to squeeze him in. As always, I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll finish one of my projects early, then I’ll start a new pirate romance. My fans seem to fall in love with my pirates, so I have exciting news for my pirating loving friends. These two pirates will be coming out in one book soon, really soon and here’s the cover for that book union.

Full Cover

Yeah, I’m loving this cover for the series compilation. It’s so gorgeous! So, for my fans that love my two favorite pirates, here’s a special edition.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday. Go out and do something fun.

As always, great writing and May god Bless You…

Feeling the heat…

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Good Thursday morning! I hope that you’re staying cool in the heat that has moved in. Summer is coming in like a lion. Here in Georgia, it is hot and humid. I call it murky. So, stay inside if you can and ride it out.

Now on to today’s post. Have you ever been working on a manuscript and it just wasn’t coming together? I’m in that spot at the moment. The manuscript is at a dead stop. The strange thing is, I can see the middle and the end just fine, it’s the first part that’s giving me the hiccups. I don’t know why, but it’s making me feel the heat in more ways than one. I have to say that this is the first manuscript that’s baffled me.

You may be saying, maybe it’s time to put it aside, but I can feel this one deep in my heart. It’s driving me crazy. If I couldn’t see the middle and last, then I’d give up for a while, but the characters are pulling at me. This book is totally outlined, but the first say four chapters just don’t sound right. So, today I’m starting work on the middle and end, hoping for some inspiration for the problems plaguing the first part. Let’s hope it helps. I just can’t see dropping it totally.

I wouldn’t call it totally ‘writer’s block’, but maybe ‘partial block’. Has this ever happened to you?

Some of you have been asking about the publishing contract I signed last week. Well, it’s going well. The manuscript is in editing and will be returned to me shortly for my side of the process. I have to tell you, Solstice is on the ball. They’ve already created the cover, which I’ll post as soon as the time draws near. It’s a great cover and I can’t wait to start posting it everywhere. The blurb is in their hands now. All that’s left is my author photo, which will be taken today, and the acknowledgements page along with the dedication page. I’m working on those. It’s been a busy couple of days as I’ve worked on getting everything to them on time. And yes, I’m still smiling broadly.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How many words?

Good Wednesday morning! It’s looking to be a warm one here in Georgia. Thank goodness I’m working inside.

As for my writing, one of the things I struggle with is how long should my manuscript be. When I set up my writing schedule, it was important to know what count I was shooting for. As I looked at the work in question and worked on the outline, my mind went to many questions and I’ll share them with you now.

Can my plot sustain itself into a 50k+ book or only a 25K novella?
Will my story hold together and is it long book worthy? (Some books are best left short and sweet)
Do I have enough of the book in my head to make the book work?

I know the questions sound similar, but they’re totally different. My plot has to be strong enough to sustain a book. If not, all I have is a couple of pages of short story. Then you have the story that goes into expanding the plot, is it strong enough to make a big book or a novella. I’ve had manuscripts before that I started out wanting a 50K+ book to come out of it, but soon I figured out that if I went past say 25K it would lose some of its strength. And who wants to read fluffy filler that is only used to expand the word count.

The biggie, and of course, if you’ve read my blogs long enough, then you’ve seen me talk about this before, is the story in my head strong? Most of my books come to me start, middle and finish style. If I can’t see the end of the book, most of the time I won’t schedule it until I do. If I can see the end, then I pretty much know the story has some merit, for one reason, then I know where it’s head and what it will take to get it there.

So, when you sit down to start a manuscript, do you have an idea on word count or is it a fly by the pants sort of thing? Since I’ve started scheduling my books and my writing time, I have to keep the status quo, but I was one of the pantser’s for several years.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Writing the First Draft…

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Writing the first draft is something we as writers need to do. Yes, I struggle with this one. My OCD brain refuses to keep from editing my first draft. But every writing course or professional editor will tell you that the first draft should be just that, a draft. So I’m working on this with my new manuscript I started this weekend, Lacey’s Choice.

You may be asking, is it going well? NOOOOOOO!!!!! My brain refuses to leave a bad sentence, misspelled words, or even a wrong name. I’m struggling with this, but I can say it helps me write faster. The one thing I have to do is force myself not to look back at what I just typed. Why is this so hard for me?

So, do you have a messy first draft or a very meticulous one? My editor and assistant always laughs at my first draft because it’s always clean. She tells me all the time, give me some misspelled words or something. LOL! Yes, I’m struggling to be a sloppy writer 🙂

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

Getting the word out!

Ok, it’s Monday, are you ready for the work week? Me, not so much, but got to get moving. I’ve been asked so much lately about my advertising strategy that I’m writing the post to get the word out. So here goes:

When I first started publishing my books, I had no clue about marketing my book. Four years later I’m starting to get the hang of it. I even have a website where authors can advertise their books for a minimal fee and I use what I’ve learned on that site.

This is what I’ve learned that works, it really works:

1: Use a service such as Hootsuite to make many posts, even while you’re sleeping. I especially like to use this service when I have a new release coming out soon. I usually set up several posts and have them go through my WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook pages. I do different posts for each time slot, that way I’m not overusing the same thing.

2: Twitter is a really cool marketing tool. I actually see a bump in sales when I do Tweets during the day. Make sure to be creative with the 140 characters. I use my buy link and a savvy, short piece from the book. It really works people, but you have to actually do it for it to work 😉

3: Facebook Ads: This I love and see lots of results. Facebook has made it easier to set up. One thing I love about this is you don’t inundate your friends and family with book ads. These ads go to where you want them too and go to people that aren’t friends on Facebook. I’ve gained many new fans from a simple Facebook ad. You can set up any price you want to and even the length of time you run the ad is up to you.

4: Website: Every author needs a website. There are so many places you can set up a website now, it’s amazing. but if you don’t want to go to all the trouble of setting up a professional author website, then get in touch with me, my company Horseshoe Publishing does this.

5: Blogs: This is very important to authors. It gives you the chance to talk about anything, but I suggest leaving off political topics, only for the reason of making someone angry. Blog about your life giving readers a look at what you do other than writing. It’s amazing the response you’ll get.

So, these are only a part of my marketing agenda, but I’m short on my word count this morning, so I have to get back to writing. My assistant gives me the evil eye if I get too far behind on my schedule.

One last reminder before I go, if you don’t have the time or drive to do any of these and want help, check out my new advertising site www.freshfromthebook.com and for a minimal fee, we’ll get the word out for you.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

TBT – Moonbeam & Roses

Moonbeam & Roses New Cover

Moonbeam & Roses came out in July 2012! So I’m throwing back four years… This book pulled at my heart strings. It includes romance, drama, and healing of the spirit all in one book. As I wrote this book, I wondered how I would take the traumatic injuries that the heroine had.

Here’s a little excerpt to give you an insight into Moonbeam & Roses:

As Wes came up behind her, she suddenly felt different. Her heart was suddenly fluttering wildly. It had to be the beauty of the night sky and the scent of the honeysuckle vines growing along the fence outside the barn. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “What’s on your mind? You have been unusually quiet tonight.” She turned and smiled up at him. “I guess my mind is on this beautiful night. The stars are so bright.” She leaned her head against his chest, thinking how nice it was to be here with him. She looked up into his dark eyes. He was devastatingly handsome, with his dark hair and rugged face, not to mention the black Stetson. He was definitely a cowboy to the bone.

Wes was also studying her face. She was a beautiful young woman. Her blonde hair was just past her shoulders. The moonlight reflected off it like moonbeams. She had hazel eyes so gentle; a man could drown in their depths. For the first time he was focusing on her like a man for a woman, not just a friend. He looked deep into her eyes. Slowly he lowered his mouth to hers and gently kissed her lips, careful not to linger for fear of losing control. When he lifted his head, she was smiling. “That was nice, but what did I do to deserve that?”

He laughed and hugged her close. “That was for being my friend and listening to my problems. I need to talk to you. Let’s walk down to the house, I need a drink.” He took her hand and they walked to his house. What was up with him? Serious was not one of his common emotions. When they were settled on his couch with waters in hand, he turned to face her.

“I have some news.” He paused to take a drink before he continued. “I received a call last night regarding a job in Montana. It is a great opportunity for me. I will be training horses for a large ranch. They will supply me with a house and stables for my horses.” He watched for any emotion on her part. “Sara, I told them I would take the job. I will leave in two days.”

For those of you that read my current work, my writing style has changed some, but the feelings behind the words are the same. If you haven’t read this one, then check it out. It’s available on most ebook and paperback sites.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Don’t forget about the fun giveaway I’m running…It’s in my posts…