Where has the last month gone?
Posted: May 17, 2017 Filed under: City of Sin, Demented Souls, Odds and Ends, Uncategorized, White Mountain Chanat, writing, | Tags: Demented Souls, editing, fun, Ruger, trips, WMC, writing Leave a commentI’m not entirely sure but I’ve been busy!
I picked up a part time job, this one from home and not nearly as demanding as the last one, which leaves me with more time to write and do all those author related things.
Oh, the Kentucky Derby was in there too, I went to Rillito Race Track in Tucson and worked that.
I’ve sent Revealed by Desire off to the editor, and gotten Ruger back (which is all submitted and ready for release next week!! YAY!!) I’m working on Redeemed by Desire and I’ve formatted and uploaded the finals of Released by Desire to all platforms, so it’s ready for it’s release in July. Oh, let’s not forget, I’m also working on the basic outlines for the next WMC book and the next Demented Souls book.
I’m planning my family party for my birthday next week (it’s a pool party at my moms,) a trip for some of the kids and my old man next month and my family camping trip in July… oh, have I mentioned that the old man is taking me to Hawaii for our 20th anniversary? That will be this year too… and it’s one more thing I’m working on planning.
I know there’s been more going on here but I’m afraid to think to hard because I’m already freaking out over too much. I’ll get through it, I always do.
What are you up to?
Busy busy week
Posted: August 12, 2016 Filed under: Demented Souls, White Mountain Chanat, writing, | Tags: Ruger, Super secret, WMC, work, writing 2 CommentsNot only has this been the second week back to school for one of my kids, it’s also the first week back for two of them. On top of that my oldest, the only one with a driver’s license (who doesn’t start school for another 10 days) has been out of town visiting family, and the old man has been out of town on business. So, I’ve been playing single parent and doing ALL the running around. Shopping (I haven’t done much shopping since the oldest got her driver’s license!) back and forth to school, etc. And I’ve managed to get quiet a bit done on Ruger as well. I’m also working on details for my next, and currently super secret project, as well as slowly, in the back of my mind, working out some of the details to the next WMC novel. (Who do you think the next WMC book should be about?)
I’m not saying it’s not been a productive week, just hectic. How has your week gone?
Home, for now
Posted: June 6, 2016 Filed under: Romance Novel Convention, Secret Project, Talk to Me, Uncategorized, writing, Leave a commentYes, Just as it says, I’m home from the Romance Novel Convention and exhausted. But I don’t get to rest (at least not too much) before I turn around and head off again, this time to go camping for a week.
How was Las Vegas? Amazing. I met a bunch of people and made some great friends, and on top of that, I learned just as much! (And I managed to get 23 pages of handwritten stuff done! Now I just have to transcribe it!)
My notebook will go camping with me and I hope to get just as much written next week, we’ll see. I’m continuing to work on Ruger’s story so I just hope he keeps talking to me.
How was your week?
Annual camping trip, pt 1.
Posted: May 4, 2015 Filed under: Secret Project, White Mountain Chanat, writing, | Tags: Anne of Green Gables, camping, fishing, snow, WMC, writing 2 CommentsSo we reached the camping area at about 5am on Friday morning. Hubby was disappointed to find that many of the campsites were taken, and the ones that weren’t were close to others. We finally found one that was moderately away from others and set up camp.. He left with the kids to go fishing at about nine. At which time I promptly laid on my bed, under the cover of two sleeping bags, and took a nap. I’d been up all night long without even a short nap and I was exhausted.
They come back from fishing at about two, and we started food and camp life, the whole time making a list of things that needed replacing or had been forgotten and Friday afternoon I made a trip into town with one child to get those things (one of the most important things was eggs. I have no clue how I managed to forget eggs, but living a week without them was out of the question for me)
Anyway, I made the trip with one of the kids (we only have 2 on this trip, left the two oldest with my mother so they could continue school work and not make the rest of us miserable. We got back after dark, at which time it was decided that we weren’t going to build a fire to cook dinner and instead made it inside.
Saturday, the old man took the kids fishing once again. Once they left I cleaned up and got some work done before my laptop battery died.. they came back, gathered firewood and we had dinner and smores before we came inside and played blackjack with the kids.
Sunday morning we got up to about six inches of snow on the ground. Since it was likely close to 100 degrees at home, this was a bit of a surprise for me… but the kids loved it. They bundled up and went out to play in it… ended up building a snow man that was taller than their father (he helped.) The battery on the trailer started getting low so I asked the old man to start the generator so we could charge it… and he comes back in. The spark plug wire on the generator broke. Not ideal. We talked about it a while, thought about it longer and in the end, he sent me into town to see about getting a new one.
I made the trip, with snow falling most of the trip, and sometimes sticking even to the road. I got a new generator, and a few other things I had put together on a list, and came back. the trip back was a bit more harrowing. The snow had been falling the entire time and sticking for most of it… There were more than a few miles where I crept along at about 25 miles an hour using the delineator posts as a guide to stay on the road. Mind you, we don’t have 4 wheel drive or snow tires. I did make it back, thinking the whole time that I couldn’t turn around and go back to town, because I would be leaving a kid and the old man here with no power and no heat but a fire (There are plenty of blankets and sleeping bags in the trailer, they wouldn’t have frozen but I kind of felt like they would.)
Monday was a little better. The sun came out and melted off most of the snow. We’re still worried about getting the trailer out come Thursday, but we’re hoping there’s no more rain/snow and it dries up enough to get it out to the paved road (about 2 miles.) Once it’s on pavement it will be nothing huge, but until then, we’re iffy… There are some other fishermen and some hunters around (tail end of bear season as well as spring turkey) who have 4-wheel drive. We may end up befriending one of them and asking the to help get the trailer out. We’ll see what the next few days brings.
In the mean time, I’m still working my way through the Anne of Green Gables books as well as working on the next WMC book. It seems fitting to work on them while up here (very near to the setting of them…) though I can’t limit it to only when we’re here or each book would take years! I’m also working on another story I have in progress. They are both going well so far.
What I’m up to.
Posted: April 22, 2015 Filed under: Choosing Happiness, Odds and Ends, writing, | Tags: Anne of Green Gables, camping, Choosing Happiness, Jonathan Crombie, reading Leave a commentI’ve spent the last three days franticly trying to get ready for a week long camping trip. I had nothing done when Hubby decided on Sunday night that we need to leave Thursday afternoon.
I’m mostly done now, with a list firmly completed for the things I’ve not yet managed to complete… In my free moments during the day I’ve been working on the final revision of Choosing Happiness (which is now available for Pre order, check your favorite retailer!) and in the evenings I’ve been slowly working my way through Anne of the Island. (I was driven to re-read them by word of the death of Jonathan Crombie, who played Gilbert in all the mini-series. He was my first real crush and I still love him in so many ways. Anyway, I started in the beginning with Anne of Green Gables on Friday, finished it the same day, read Anne of Avonlea on Saturday… then panic struck.) I’ll take the rest of them with me so I can finish them while we’re gone… I’m also working a little at a time on my two projects… I’m really liking the stuck on one switch to the other method.
I’ll try to make a trip to town and update you all on how things are going… Meanwhile, what’s up in your world?
I’d dance naked
Posted: March 6, 2015 Filed under: writing, | Tags: cover, editing, Melissa Stevens, new release Leave a commentaround the house but my teenagers have people over and it would embarrass them.
Why am I so happy? Because I sent book 8 off to my editor this afternoon! I also sent all the info to my cover designer too… know what that means? I have a title! How long should I wait before I share that with you?
The First Week
Posted: January 7, 2015 Filed under: Week in Review, writing, | Tags: 2015, beta readers, book, Melissa Stevens, writing Leave a commentof the new year has been good so far.
I’m still working on this rewrite, but it’s going well. I have a couple scenes I need to add and yesterday I had to do a total rewrite of another. This is my first rewrite of this story so there is a lot to fix. I’m sure I’ll go through this thing at least a half dozen more times before it’s done. But each one will be faster than the last and it will be better for all the work.
I have a couple more revisions to make, but before too much longer I’ll be ready for some beta readers, is there anyone out there who wants to do that for me? Just use the Contact Me page above and let me know. I’ll choose several when the time is right.
How Do You Outline
Posted: October 9, 2014 Filed under: Odds and Ends, writing, | Tags: Melissa Stevens, outlining, plotting, Scrivener, writing 1 CommentIt’s something I get asked often, and I mean often. How do I outline. Well, here’s my dirty little secret. I don’t. Not in any traditional sense anyway. Let me explain though…
First I write in Scrivener for Windows. I’m not saying that’s what you need to write with, but it’s what works for me and my style of writing.
I usually start writing with a couple of good characters, some background story in my head (and sometimes written in a notebook somewhere) a starting point and and ending point. So I create my Scrivener file and in the novel section create two “cards” I use each card as a scene in the book. I title each card with something that tells me what happens in the scene “X meets Y” “Car Crash” “Robbery” for example and start writing. As I work things start to pop into my head “A needs to happen before we can get to L point” so I’ll create a card and title it and continue with what I’m doing. I’ll often also leave several blank “New Note” cards at the bottom of the project so all I have to do is title the card and drop it where it belongs in the story.
Later I may decide that I need something in between scenes, and this is where I totally love Scrivener, I can drop a new card in there or take an already written scene from some where else and move it to a new spot in the book, as simple as drag and drop.
Sometimes I’ll be somewhere else, doing something entirely different (picking kids up at school, waiting at sports practice) and I’ll think up several things that need to happen in the book, I’ll make notes, and when I come back add in the cards for those scenes, with enough info that I’ll remember what I need to do when I get to it.
Am I saying this is how you should do it? No. I’m saying this is what works for me, what works for you?
Working Through Stuck.
Posted: October 8, 2014 Filed under: Odds and Ends, writing, | Tags: Melissa Stevens, stuck, working, writers block Leave a commentIt’s not uncommon for me to come to a point in my story where I’m not sure how someone will react, or what will happen next. But I have a fairly simple solution, one that may even work for you.
I ask questions about the situation. I’ll write the questions down in the notebook for that story. For example: How does __ feel about x. How does __ react to x. What needs to happen before I can get to x. Sometimes the answers start to come to me as I write out the questions… sometimes I have to get away from my desk and do something else, fold laundry, load the dishwasher, lay down for 15 mins and close my eyes, take a shower are some of the more common things I do. I don’t go do these and think about the story, I go do these and clear my mind. It’s the clearing, and not focusing on what the problem is, that let’s my subconscious get to work.
How do you work through the stuck? Let me know what works for you.