My dragons be draggin'

My dragons be draggin’

Verdict on the post title? #lame. lol. Whatevs

So some writing updates for ya, I'm kinda stuck on whether to do a prologue or not with the dragon book. At this point the single scene prologue is turning into a multi-scene/pov 1st chapter that takes place years before the main/current story action. I think this stuff is needed and won't work as flash-back, but maybe that's becuase I'm in the thick of writing it. I may change my mind when I finished the manuscript and decide it's all backstory, or my crit partners/beta-readers may say keep it.

One thing fun thing about this book are some of the names: Balthazar, Vesper, Archimedes. It's a contemporary/alternative world, where dragons, fae, and shapeshifters exist out in the open with humans but be because some of these creatures are ancient, the old-fashioned/archaic names are perfect. :)

I’m going to nip out the gym for a bit and think about the scene I’m stuck on at the moment. If I don’t come up with a solution by the time I get back, I’ll either skip over it and come back later to write the details, or it may become clear that I’m stuck because I’m going in the wrong direction with the scene/story. We’ll see.

Lastly, I know some readers hate when authors refer to certain actor/model as the basis (in looks at least) for their heroes/heroines, but Imma gonna do it anyhow. Lol

Jason Momoa is just about perfect for my dissipated, brooding and almost feral Dragon King, Balthazar,

and Charlize Theron is great as the beautiful, cool as ice but vengeful, Vesper Goode, daughter of the assassinated Grand Wizard of the Greater Toronto Area and his lovely fae wife.

 

 

To be honest, no photograph of any model/actor has ever been exactly as I envision my hero/heroine, but these two come pretty close and serve as visual inspirations. ;)

 pps – I also need to get cracking on Jack Frost’s book so I can have it out in time for Xmas. The Werewolf who Stole Christmas is still getting steady interest and I feel pretty confident peeps who liked that story would check out Jack’s (who is a secondary character in TWWSC)

ppps – It feels good to be posting on my blog again. :D
Later gators.

Writing Progress

How did 10 days go by already since my last post?

Got a lot of balls in the air obviously, but the writing is moving along.

The outline for the Dragon book is done,done,done! I think I wrote 9 pages double-spaced on it. Can't wait (even though I have to) to start on it. The dragon book will most likely be subbed to my publisher.

Right now, I'm working on a 3 book idea. Contemporary Romances. All stand-alones, but same setting and  the heroines for each book are all friends. Aiming for approximately 200 pages for these babies. These 3 books will be self-pubbed. Really hoping I can have 2 up for sale by December.  Hero in book 1 is a red head.  And, he's hawt! Oh, yes, he is; don't you give me that look.

Moving On

If you’ve been  sorta/kinda checking in on this blog over the last couple of years, you’ve run across more than one sheepish blog post apologizing for an extended, yaddahyaddahyaddah, blahblahblah.. 

Anywho, moving on….

My job hunt is underway. Plans are being firmed up regarding taking some professional courses/training and I’ve got a great network of friends who are actively helping out with leads by working their own contacts/networks.  But a job hunt can only take up so much of your time. Suddenly I find myself hitting the gym regularly—lost 5lbs so far! The house is spotless. lol.

And Another very positive change that has happened is:  I find myself with the time and, more importantly, the mind-space to write, plot and make plans re my writing career and marketing , etc.

 

Right now there are 3 stories I’ve prioritized; a dragon shifter idea that I’m 99% done with the outline. As much as I want to dive write into this story, once the outline is done, I’ll back-burner it while I work on a couple of more pressing ideas:  

First - a sequel to The Wolf who Stole Christmas, using the ‘villain’ Jack Frost as the hero.  This one is priority 1 because it’ll be a short novella and I want it up for December. 
 
Next will be Rob’s story (Rob is the best-friend and business partner of Daniel, the hero from Felicity Stripped Bare). I’ve always wanted to write Rob’s story and came up with several ideas over the years that just weren’t right. Yesterday, the concept of his story just hit me out of the blue. I honestly can’t remember what triggered the idea, but it’s perfect. I just need to wrangle with the outline, GMCs, plot points, etc., but I *know* this is his story.   Now to re-read Felicity. *gulp* I haven't read it since it I finished the last copy edits, but I want to make sure I get the details right for this connected story. Will probably do a post on how I feel about that reading. *cringe*

Stay tuned for updates.
 

The Laundry Challenge

 

So…. I’ve been having a spot of trouble writing. 

The motivation  (I want to write) is there, but the inclination/discipline/habit – ie: butt in chair hands of keyboard—has been sorely lacking.  A lot of it has had to do with striving for life balance and juggling stress (particularly work related), but I’ve over the worst of that, so it’s come down to feeling meh about various wip projects and not pushing myself to get past that meh until I find the sweet spot where I’m in the writing zone and completely immersed in the story/characters.

There’s also an issue of family sabotage. I think a lot of writers experience this. You’re finally totally focused on your writing and… here come the incessant interruptions. Nothing can be found without your help. No argument settled without your input.  Mom, when’s dinner? Can you give me a lift to XYZ? We’re all out of ABC food, etc. With my son, he always seems to need some beta reading/critique feedback on some major sociology or poli-sci paper, or wants to share an anecdote just at the moment I boot up my laptop to write.

Love him to death and really enjoy our talks (if you’ve ever read any of my Casa Jaye posts, you’ll understand), but I absolutely need a minimum 30mins focused unwinding when I get home and then (would like) at least 1hr uninterrupted writing. I tend to conflate unwinding with online  surfing, which doesn’t help, but it’s the only ‘mindless’ thing I can do while he’s yapping my ear off. ;-P Just thought of a solution!  -- Going to start taking my shower earlier in the evenings, instead of just before bedtime.  That would give me my approximately 30mins of de-stressing. Then, gonna put my foot down about the 1hr (at least) uninterrupted time. The rest is up to me.

I also just ordered another Alphasmart. I’ve had a couple in the past and they really force you to focus on the writing. No surfing (not connected), no editing (because only about 4 lines of text are visible), just pure writing. It’s lighter weight than my netbook and will boot up and turn off quicker than the netbook. That should hopefully help with writing on my commute/lunch break.

So what’s the title of this post about? I’ve been off work since Friday and won’t be back till Wednesday. Part of my plans for this mini-vacation was to write. Guess how much of that I’ve done? Exactly. Managed to get a bunch of other things accomplished, but somehow this goal has fallen to the wayside (as usual). I have 4 loads of laundry to do today. Already have 1 load in the drier, and another just started in the washer. Each load takes approximately 1hr 20mins in total (wash & dry); plus there’s folding and putting stuff away. But I figure I can write in 30min spurts for the next 3hrs or so. We’ll see what I get done by the end of the day.

I’m going in…

Learning to ride the bike…. again

If you’ve passed by here semi-regularly, you’ve seen me post many times about trying to achieve balance in my life. There were a lot of stressful markers I was continually dealing with, including deaths,  relationship meltdowns, financial and health concerns, and a couple of really toxic situations with some really poisonous people.  You know, the usual.

Then things really went off track in the last year. lol.

Big changes at work, not the least of which was the very real concern that I’d stay employed. I did, but others didn’t.  There were others who, for all intents and purposes, got demoted.  I made a lateral move/transfer.

The good news is, I like my new department.  A lot of the negativity I’d been dealing with is gone because of the change and there are new opportunities here that I believe I’ll get great satisfaction in. BUT… there’s been a HUGE learning curve, so steep at times it feels virtually perpendicular.   And of course the shit in real life never stops happening, like in the space of a couple of days the basement started leaking during a particular heavy rainfall then the A/C died.  lol.

But I handled it and kept my sanity, something I doubt would have happened even 6 months ago with copings skills that had been severely compromised.   Extreme and continued stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression tends to do that.  

Anywho, the last 2 things that I’m still working on is regular exercise and writing.  The exercise I’ve had better luck with if only because I walk part of the way home every day after work (30mins).  The writing has been sporadic.  I’m beginning to think Mitch’s story isn’t really Mitch’s story.  This hero may be some other character and the connection between this story and Hunter of the Heart, is Alejandro. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m going to put it aside for a bit. I’ve been spinning my wheels on this story for too long. I’ll come back to it fresh. There’s another sci-fi/romance novella I want to write, and I just joined a yahoo writers group, where we post our daily word count.  Also, after exchanging several emails with my writing bud Samantha Storm, we’re going to do a fast draft (based on Candace Haven’s method) for two weeks. She can’t start until the 13^th but I’m going to get going today. 

In fact, since I have today off, I’ll write on the train while I head down to the gym.  

Oh yeah,  considering I’ve finally done up a proper blog post, albeit a navel gazing one, I’ll be scratching 3 things off today’s To-Do list. J

Plans were made to be broken

Yesterday I mentioned that the wip was going to be put on hold for a bit while I worked on something else. That something else was going to be short story for Kindle. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to get a quickie connected story out a few weeks/months before Hunter of the Heart releases in November to stir up some interest.

Not a bad idea, but just about every idea I had, once I gave plot/character development more thought became a problem. Either I’d need more length to tell the story adequately, or I ended up with something that had no organic HEA/HFN (unless shoe-horned one on). And for the non-HEA/HFNs, I would either have to plan the story out as a serial, or make the commitment to write the full story in the near future, with the non-HEA/HFN being prequel of sorts.

Since I got my iPhone and downloaded the Kindle ap, I’ve been reading a bunch of shorts/novellas from Amazon and I can honestly say a half-assed story, even if free, does the author no favors. I haven’t sworn off freebies or the cheaper priced books like some have, but I’m less likely to think “what the hell, it’s free. I’ll give it a try” now than I used to because *a try* = time invested in reading. All this is to say, I don’t want to just cobble something together quickly, just to get it up, if I feel I can’t get it done right.

Also, if I could come up with something straightforward, that’s one thing, but the planning/thinking about this possible short is just taking away too much time from my current wip. So, planned short stories are now kaput. The good news is, both short ideas will probably be developed for future installments in the series that gets kicked off by Hunter of the Heart. (Series in the sense of stories told in the same world, with a tenuous connection between characters, rather than one main protag/cast of characters with an over-arching/advancing main plot.

Yet Another Attempt

I can't believe it's almost been a month since a posted here.

Let's just say it a measure of how shitastic things have been going at work. I'm going to leave it at that.

I've still been doing a lot of reading and that's been going well. Found a couple of new authors to glom.

The writing unfortunately stalled out again. Partly because of work, but also because while I like the story idea a lot, I don't find dragon-shifter heroes inherently sexy (with the exception of Shana Abe's dragon shifter series). It's kind of hard writing about a hero when his shifted form is not appealing at all. I guess in the same way peeps can't get past the 'undead' blood-sucking vampire hero, or the 'hairy-monster' werewolf hero. Big, scaly, fire-breathing reptilian is hard for me to write.

So I've put that one on the back burner for now and I've gone back to my beloved werewolves. Not related to the submission I'm still waiting to get a yea or nay on, but I think this new idea will work. The hero is a werewolf and a detective. Initially the heroine was a psychologist and a succubus. There was a thriller aspect to it, but I'll be honest, I'm not up to doing the research on the heroine's area of expertise nor am I up to plotting out the twists and turns, red herrings, and the planting of false suspects.

You can call it lazy, I call it stressed-the-eff-out.

I just want to write the next story straight and have it focused two characters interacting, challenging each other, stripping each others emotional defenses and ultimating coming to the understanding they need to be together; that they love each other.

Got a few career ideas for heroine that won't be as challenging to write, but still integral to her character and the story development.

Weekend Long Blackout

It's a long weekend here in Canada. I've got housework, yard work, laundry, groceries to do. Also plan to hit the gym, but most of all I plan to write. The kid is up at the cottage, so there'll be no interruptions!

But lack of interruptions is only part of the story. I'm weak. If I work on the laptop I'll keep checking email, Twitter, blogs, etc., so I'll be working on the Aspire netbook. I've trained myself from day 1never to connect the wifi on the thing, unless prompted for virus protection updates, so I just make good progress.

It's 11:30 am now. I'll work until 3pm then go to the gym and run errands then do some clean up around here and *maybe* get a few more hours in on the writing. Will check in later (in comments).

How boring was that post? Should I add that I've had my nose buried in Susanna Kearsley's The Winter Sea all week? Really lovely read. Highly recommended. I thought at one point she was going to break my heart, but she didn't. I think I like this one almost as much as Marianna.

Check In

Got 5 pages (single spaced) done today. But it was all outline. I'm fine with that. Darn happy infact, now I have a clearer path re GMC of the characters, and a better idea of how the plot unfolds.

That outline might sounds pretty detailed, and in some ways it is, in others, not so much. I've got room to play, or change stuff around. Guesss I'm going to have to put a progress bar in the side bar soon.

I signed up for a mini nano with a group of writing buddies for the month of May. My word-count per day is ridiculously low (250) but i made my pledge during last week's madness at work, and I was lucky if I got that amount of writing done per day. Hopefully the outline will make a big difference with output regardless of workload. I'm really loving these characters, so far.

It's minutes to midnight and time to hit the hay.

Later,

When Opportunity Knocks.

There's going to be a Fire Alarm at work today. Remember those things at school? Thought those were a pain? I understand the necessity, but tromped down 46 flights of stairs along with rest of the workers/inhabitants in the entire building is no fun. I did it a couple of times years and ago, and decided, screw it. I'll find out an approximate time and take the elevator downstairs (along with and bunch of other peeps who also aren't into the herding thing.) find a quiet spot and do some writing on the lap top. I don't normally take the laptop (the Quickpad died) to work because I end up working through my lunch more times than not.

Hmmm... so how can I round off this very boring post? I'm happy with the wip. I don't think I'll be switching to something else. Yesterday in the middle of working through several files, I had a bunch of scenes flash through my head that I had to stop and scribble the bare bones of down on some scrap paper. And I *saw* the black moment(s)!

Last thing... there's a chance the TTC (Toronto Transit system) is going on strike. Oh joy! I really think they should be declared an essential service and not allowed to strike. Work to rule. Fine. Cripple the whole damn city with a strike? No. I'm not sure how the hell I'm going to get into work. I might have to take vacation days. How effing sucky will that be?

Catch up

I've been jumping from project to project, tweaking here, outlining there, writing a bit on something else, but I could never settle down to one thing because I couldn't really connect or get inside of the characters. A writer can always *tell* a story, and the more skilled you are, the more entertaining that story will be, and the less of a pain in the ass the crafting might be. But for me, I *think* I can tell when an author is really inside the characters' heads, the whole thing just 'clicks' on another level.

Or maybe it's because that's the way I write, I partly to write forward (the story/plot) but more importantly I think I try to write down (dig into the character). It might not show up on the page, I won't pretend to be that skilled (yet), but I'm trying. Where or not that digging shows on the page, it’s almost impossible for me to get anywhere with a story if I don’t have that ‘inside’ connection with the characters.

All this is a longwinded way of saying I caught the tail (finally) of a couple of characters (or maybe they caught me). I'd been struggling with the writing forward, when at some point I started writing down.

I'm hoping for 3 novellas that can be in a single author print anthology (at some point). We'll see. I’ve planned to write short before, and never been able to do it.


ETA: Once I settled on the wip, I wrote 4 pages between 9 pm and 11 pm last night. I didn't think it was anything to post about, but what the hell. Every little bit counts.


*

Changes & Opportunities

When I got my tentative release date for Felicity Stripped Bare, July 2008 seemed a ways away.

Not anymore. It's 8 months and counting down.....

Aside from wrangling with the writing, I haven't done much more than add a tagline to the blog header and make sure that the name I leave with any online comment is consistently 'vanessa jaye' in terms of approaching this writing gig with a soupcon more professionalism. But I have been planning to do more. To wit:

1. A (new) website. I've already contact one web designer and her questionnaire has been sitting in my inbox while I figured out what I wanted. I think I have a pretty good idea now and I've been meaning to get back to her for several weekends now. I'll do it this weekend for sure.

2. I didn't plan for this, but I'm very honoured to join the talented, witty and insightful ladies over on Southern Fried Chicas. I'll be guest blogging over there the first Wednesday of every month!

3. Speaking of guest blogging, I'll be having guest bloggers over here. I'm not sure how often, yet. Think I'll figure that out along the way. The hook is: the blogger can write a post on anything they'd like, as long as it in some way relates to procrastination. lol.

And on that note.... My first guest blogger is Dee Tenorio. She'll be posting tomorrow, just in time to coincide with her new release TEST ME. Check out Mrs. Giggles' thumbs-up review here, then come back tomorrow for the talented Ms. Deedle Dee's post.

Long-Assed Catch-Up

I had some stuff in mind to blog about re erotica/erotic romance, M/M & M/M/F, 3-or-moresomes, BDSM, and personal boundaries. But it's all still percolating in my mind.

The short version is, for the most part, my various levels on interest in all of the above have dwindled quite a bit. Excess and mediocrity tends to do that. Of course authors whose writing includes any of those elements but do so with skill and depth and whose writer's voice and characterization really work from me are exempt from that blanket statement.

Moving on....

I've been experimenting with working on the WIP in long hand. I bought a 400 page note book and some index cards and so far so good. I focused on plotting, brainstorming, GMC, etc at the moment so I can do a fast draft starting next week as part of the 70 Days of Sweat. Seems every time I get on the pc, no matter what my intentions, I end up wasting time surfing, emailing, planning Minesweeper or FreeCell/Solitaire. :-P Thank goodness I weaned myself off of MSN years ago, or I'd really be in deep do-do.

Anywho, I have chapter 1 & 2 outlined already, plus a whole lot of turning points, points of conflict etc. Think I have a theme. I'm thinking a little bigger with this book with the hope of it being the first in a series of futuristic romances. Series in the sense of stand alones taking place in the same world, with characters might or might not be connected/know each other.

Gonna throw this one out to the agents. *fingers crossed*Conversely, the ::coughcoughseveralcoughcough:: contemporary romance partials I have sitting on the hard-drive will be aimed at Samhain for now. Not sure where the Fantasy Romance is going yet.

With the kid just starting college this year, and just this past week informing me that once he finishes this 2 year course, he wants to pursue a 4 yr degree at University (gulp) I think it's time to man-up and buckle down with the writing.

Lastly, I have to really start thinking about marketing. At this point my big plan is to send out arcs and get reviews, and ::enter the slight whiff of hypocrisy:: set up a MySpace page with book trailer. ::shamed:: lol.

I'm still not a MySpace fan, but I can deal with it strictly as a sort of marketing/billboard site rather than an interactive/discussion site. Plus I'm sure at some point my publisher is going to ask me what are my marketing plans. Chats aren't for me--I've shown up for a couple o friends, but not even an autobuy favorite author will entice me into a chatroom. I'd rather read the (cleaned up) transcript afterwards. But I enjoy Q&A's. Not sure if I should start hosting some here, or contacting several of the sites that them already. Maybe I can do an article or two on craft, despite the evidence on display here, I can string together a grammatically correct and cohesive sentence or two.

Finally, a new website. Big Headache trying think how to show romantic comedy, futurist romance, fantasy romance ranging from dark to light in tone on one site. How do you represent that visually? I won't even get into the whole catch phrase thing. I’m trying out “Take an unexpected turn into romance” in the header of the blog. I think it works. Any thoughts? I googled it and no one else seems to be using it. :-P

A Couple of Things

Yesterday was fab. We're up to our eyeballs in leftovers, and I didn't even try all the dishes. For instance, there's an apple pie in the kitchen with my name on it. ;-)

And speaking of yesterday.... What the hell is up with telemarketers? No, I'm not talking about calling up my line (more on that in a minute) I mean some ediot came up to my door and rang the bell in the middle of Thanksgiving freakin afternoon, when any fool would know that peeps are working up a sweat in the kitchen all burners go and the oven on since morning.??!! What the hell do you think you are selling I'd be interested in on Thanksgiving freakin Day? Get. To. Steppin'.

Telemarketing has really crossed the line. There's plans for a national registry that you can put your name on so they don't call you (not sure it will have any affect on the doorbell ringers) but it's not in effect yet. Believe me, I checked. Did I mention the auto-f*kn-dialer that rings my damn phone several mornings (7am) a week? And They call as late as 7:30pm or later. Once one phoned at minutes to 9pm. I very calmly interrupted his spiel and asked if he realized what time it was? I told him the time. I think he heard the suppressed ticking time bomb of crazed rage in my voice because he apologized and hung up toot sweet. I don't want you selling me shit. Don't call my damn phone. Don't ring my damn door bell. And stop with the freakin flyers too. 95% of my paper recycling is flyers and invitations to open lines of credit. You can shove your low interest rates in your hemorrhoid hidey-hole.

And now that I've gotten that off my chest... I've signed up for 70 Days of Sweat (again). This time I'm really going to try the fast draft way. I'll spend this week hammering out the outline, conflicts, etc. Already got most of it in my head, just have to work out the hero's story a bit more. This might not be the story I should be working on. I should be working on another contemp to follow Felicity Stripped Bare, but everything is just striking me as meh. (That includes my reading too). So I'm trying something different.