It’s almost here!

The start of NaNoWriMo ‘15 that is. Are you ready? I am. I’ve spent much of October working on characters and settings, figuring out just what the plot twists are (at least some of them) and where I think this story is going. You know me, it’s a romance, but it’s never just a straightforward boy meets girl, there’s always some difficulty they have to deal with and get around to make things work. I won’t say I’m not busy, I am. but then that’s a way of life for me these days. At least this year we’re not making 60 plus pies for the old man to sell at work (for work profit, I got nothing out of it.)

I’ve got my scrivener all set up and I’m ready to get busy. But first we have a kick off party on Saturday (oh, yeah, did I mention I’m co-MLing for my area this year? The prep classes went amazingly well, now we just have to get through November.)

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Are you ready?


I did it!

The first draft is done, before my deadline too! Now I’m focusing on NaNoWriMo Prep. I’m once again a NaNo ML so I’m planning for my book and giving a series of classes to help others to be ready for NaNo. Oh, and research. Research is my friend these days. I’m looking at doing something totally different for NaNo this year so I’m trying to get all my research done ahead of time, or at least gathered and ready to check when I run across a question.

Are you planning on doing NaNo this year?


Things aren’t going as quickly

as I would like. Not because the story isn’t working or my characters aren’t talking to me, but because my life is too busy. I have too much going on to spend as much time working with the friends who live inside my head as I would like.

Too many kids, too many sporting events, too many weddings and family reunions. Well, at least too many to get the story out as quickly as I would like. Not that I would trade any of it (well, maybe the sports crap in the heat) but I’d like more time to get my writing done too.


That part where it just clicks

and the story starts writing itself? I love that part. When the characters take over and things start appearing on the screen before you’re even aware of thinking them.

Or when it’s bedtime and you’re lying in bed and can’t sleep for the ideas and details that just jump into your brain. That’s the stage I’m in with this WIP. I’m loving it and hoping it lasts because I’d love to finish this by the 15th so I can move on to plotting out my NaNo book.


And summer begins….

At least summer break. The kids are out of school, and my extra has gone to spend some time with her sisters. The old man is gone for a couple weeks with the military and I’m hoping to get lots done in between trips to the swimming pool and getting the trailer ready for our next trip.

I’ve got a list of projects to work on and an announcement coming soon. Stay tuned!


Annual Camping Trip Pt. 2

Tuesday was better, it was warmer and the wind blew, not enough to be miserable but enough to help the roads dry out some. There were a few sleet storms in the afternoon,but nothing accumulating.

Wednesday was pretty dry, the wind blew enough to dry out the roads a little more. The old man took the kidlets fishing, and they brought back a few, not a huge catch but respectable. We built a fire, cooked had s’mores and it was a good day. I got a lot of work done.

Thursday we decided to head home. The old man got up and took the brats fishing.. I packed up most of camp, got some writing and more editing done… packed up more of camp… They came back with the family record of fish..he was 19.5” long trout (rainbow I think but don’t quote me..here’s a pic.)

20150429_135500

We didn’t have a scale to weigh it before it was cleaned and beheaded… but without a head and guts it weighted 2lbs exactly. We figure pre-cleaning it was at least 3lbs. The 9yo was thrilled… the 40 was over the moon. The 13yo was tickled (officially the 9yo caught it, it was his pole, but he couldn’t reel fast enough to land it, his dad had to help.)

So we headed down off the mountain and I went to Tucson. I had to pick up the older girls and work on Saturday… So we spent part of Friday in the pool, it was a great way to kick back and relax. Saturday evening I came home. I was glad to sleep in my own bed. I needed it.


Annual camping trip, pt 1.

So 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.


2015 Week 2.

I know, I have such creative titles.

I finished the first rewrite of my current project a couple weeks ago, now I’m working on the second go-round and I’m eyeball deep. It’s going well, but it’s absorbing.

The kids went back to school today after the weekend. I thought the weekend was gonna make me crazy. Not sure why this one seemed so long… It’s gonna be an even longer one next week with the holiday *sigh*

I did make a special stop at the dollar store today to get some candles.. It’s really odd, I know, but I’ve discovered I work better when I have a candle burning in my line of view while I work. I don’t know why but if it works why argue with it?

Do you have any odd things that help you work?


The First Week

of 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

It’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?