Changing the Game

I've said this before, but I'm a very Type A person. Which is weird, because I'm also really creative and go-with-the-flow on lots of things. But I'm very focused and driven when it comes to setting and meeting goals. I love goals. I set deadlines, and create to-do lists. I know that it's important to break a big deadline down into steps, and I love to celebrate accomplishing one of those steps. When I'm writing a first draft, I usually set a daily word count goal. Something like 750 or 1,000 words a day, with the intention of finishing the draft in about 75-90 days. I've often written even faster first drafts, my record being six weeks (and that's with a full time job, a kid and other responsibilities). It's worked really well for me.

Until it didn't. I've been working on my Zyan Star series, trying to get books two and three done, with the anticipation that my agent could sell my Huntress series at any time, and I'll need to shift my focus to that. So I want to get as much done on Zyan as I can before that happens. I'm on the third book now. But the second book was a struggle honestly, and the third was starting out that way. Part of it is me learning to write a series. And part of it was just me putting too much structure and pressure on it. Which brings me to that thing we all know as writers, but still surprises us (or at least me): every book is different. And sometimes you have to change the game.

So I hid my word count from view. And I'm writing each day until I feel done. Sometimes this is probably just a couple pages (and obviously I'm guessing here since I can't see). And sometimes it's a lot. The story is flowing much better now, and I've put in several really great writing sessions where I felt like really good stuff was getting onto the page. I was getting way too hung up on word count, and writing to meet that instead of letting scenes unfold naturally. Since I've rebooted my process, it's going great. 

Do you change things up from time to time? What ways have you found to change the game?

Leather and Oil and Learning When to Let Go

Hey now, Fifty Shades, this isn't that kind of blog post... go take a cold shower and come back. As some of you may know, in addition to writing, I am also an equestrian. I have a horse that I'm training, and as we speak I've just finished cleaning his saddle and bridle. My bedroom is filled with the lovely scent of leather and saddle oil (which by the way is AWESOME for the hands), and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

I've had these two passions since I was a kid. Like, five years old. I loved horses and I loved books, and I would write stories about horses. And then later stories that mimicked the high fantasy I grew up on (Tolkien, Dragon Lance, Tad Williams, Tamora Pierce, etc.). I've gone through stages with both where I took a break for a while, but they've always been woven into the fabric of my being and always will be. I consider myself very lucky to have such unshakable direction in my life.

For the last five years, writing took the main stage, and while I had horses, I was terribly remiss in doing anything with them other than keep them as fancy lawn ornaments. My current horse, Max, was born at my house and so for many years was too young to ride. And then he got old enough and I procrastinated. But last year I got a divorce and moved into an apartment with no room for an equine, so I had to start boarding him at a farm about 20 minutes away. Over the last year, I've made more progress with him than I have in the last five. Funny how things work out that way. I think what I missed was a support system of other horse friends, and I needed to regain my mojo. I had a totally untrained horse on my hands who has a pretty dominant personality, and I'd lost a lot of my own boss-mare attitude. So, I've been finding it again and Max and I are doing awesome. 

On the other hand, my writing in the last year has been fairly slim. I've played around with a bunch of different projects, and nothing has quite grabbed me. I'm very Type A about certain things, and am used to slamming out full novels in 6-12 weeks, so this was very disconcerting to me. But then I had an epiphany the other day: it's okay to let go sometimes. I know I can make deadlines. I've written four complete novels. Last year was a year of transition and finding a new balance. And it's okay to slow my pace a bit.

Do you balance more than one passion in life? What are your thoughts on the ebb and flow of your focus and inspiration? 

Thriving in the Darkest Hour

I read an awesome blog post by Robin LaFevers the other day on Writer Unboxed. It's about how a writer can not only survive but thrive in that "almost there" phase before they get an agent and a pub deal. It spoke so deeply to me, because I've been in that "almost there" phase, or the "Dark Night of the Soul" as Robin put it, for well over a year now. I was a semi-finalist in one online writing contest, and won my age category in another popular online pitch contest, but the agents that requested ended up passing. I got very complimentary feedback from an agent that loved my writing but had something too similar, and requests to submit my future work from a couple others. In essence, it's been an extremely frustrating period of near misses. A period of good, but not good enough.


Reading Robin's post was like a beacon in my dark night, and inspired me to keep at it with gusto. Not that I was thinking of quitting, but it enabled me to smell the roses again. In her post she talks about using this phase in your pre-career to really amp up the excellence in your craft. So, being the list freak that I am, I decided to list out what I felt were the main elements of a story, with the sub-elements that make a novel delicious. My goal with this is to take an honest look at how I stack up in these various areas, both overall and for each book I've written, since each book is of course a unique creature. Here's the list of elements I came up with:

• Character
  • Depth, details, uniqueness
  • Motivations
  • Emotions
  • Relationships
  • Dialogue
  • POV
  • Character voice
  • Arc
  • Antagonists
  •  
• Plot
  • Concept – new or archetypal?
  • Scenes
  • Pacing
  • Tension
  • Hooks and Cliffhangers
  • Turning points – inner and outer
  • Twists/surprises
     
• Voice/Style/Skill
  • Writer’s voice/style
  • Skill with words, mastery of craft
  • Structure
  • “Feel” of the story
  • Ability to immerse reader
  • Subtext
     
• Worldbuilding
  • Description – range from lush to minimal
  • Visual and full-sensory experience of reader
  • Details – whether real or fantasy world
  • Setting as character 

So, writer friends: have you experienced a dark time in your writing career? What do you think of the list above - what did I miss? How do you self-evaluate?


I'll let you know how my self-evaluation process goes. I've been reading writing craft books and I have some other exercises to experiment with. Whatever you're up to, I hope the summer is unfolding beautifully!

Balance and A Happiness Project

Brave new world. That phrase pops into my head a lot lately. As some of you know, I recently underwent a huge change in my life. And in addition to getting adjusted to my new life, working at least 40 hours a week, raising my son, and attending to my writing schedule, I've been trying to get serious about exercising and train my horse. Along with having a social life again. Yes, I'm totally Type-A :)


So that's the first part of this post: balance. Ignoring exercise and my horse for the most part, in the past I could usually get 1,000 words written a day. Which pumps out a first draft in about three months. And that's nice, but it's not a race. My horse is almost five and not yet under saddle, and of course my health is important. Over the last couple months it's been two steps forward, one step back trying to get a consistent schedule going to balance this all out. I'd exercise five times a week but only visit my horse once and write too little. Or I'd write more but exercise less - you get the point. I've been trying to find that sweet spot where I get a respectable amount of forward progress in all three without stressing out too much.


What I've come up with that I think will work is: M/W/F = exercise days, and T/Th = horse days in the evenings after work. I'll also write 500 words a day, including the weekends. That's a small amount, but it adds up pretty quickly. Weekends I can always add more in any of the areas as inspired, plus social time. And the good thing is that my son is twelve now, so he likes to exercise with me, and he can do homework while I write, and he likes to come to the barn with me, too. So, we get to spend time together while I'm working towards my goals.


As if all of that isn't enough, I've really been feeling a need to focus internally as well. I'm a very external goal-oriented person, and for the past many years I've let go of most focus inwardly. I'm not a religious person, but I am spiritual, and to me that simply means working towards peace and happiness so you can spread that as you go through life. So, I've been doing some simple things to work on inner me: a few positive affirmations, contemplating areas where I need to grow and learn, being more grateful for what I have.


Then today one of my coworkers mentioned that she's doing this 100-day happiness thing where you do at least one thing every day to make you happy - meditate, eat a pastry, whatever. You can post a picture every day of what you did for your happiness on Twitter, FB, Instagram and a couple other places. This really resonated with me, so I decided on my own little twist to the project: I'm going to tweet for 100 days the special things that I feel gratitude for that day. I'll leave out the standard things: being alive and healthy, my son being alive and healthy, roof over head, etc. Just extra fun stuff. It may be one thing. It could be several. I'm going to use the hashtag #dailygratitude, so hop over to Twitter if you want to join me! I'm starting tonight. I also found a cool website about a different happiness project here.


So, lots going on! Life is overflowing with opportunities to evolve. What kinds of things have you been working on lately? Here's a final fun link to a great song, and you can check out the 24-hour dance marathon that went along with it here. TTFN!

Love List!

Recently while on Jaye Robin Brown's blog, she featured Love Lists, a list of things you love about your book to hone your focus during the ups and downs of the writing experience. Love Lists were originally created by Natalie Whipple (read more on her blog). I had heard about Love Lists a long time ago, and Jaye refreshed my memory, and I fell back in love with the concept. Anyways, I thought it'd be fun to share mine for my latest WiP. Share some of yours in the comments below, or do your own post and let me know! Hope everyone's having a kick-ass weekend so far!

• White stag
• Time travel
• Golden bows
• A kiss beneath a fall of stars
• Computer hacker/finder of lost children
• Astral hounds
• Masquerade ball
• Countless dimensions
• Airships and flying cities
• A dead tree and the daughters of Death
• Horses with purple eyes
• Lunar base
• Dragon fire bond
• Unexpected betrayals
• Ever-changing sky
• Harp music
• Forest through the eyes of a silver fox
• Clocks
• The horned Ferryman
• The Seeker and the Huntress

P.S. - If you love my love list, I'd love for someone(s) to read my first couple chapters and provide honest feedback. I'll swap crits with ya. So much love :)

Gratitude and Other Random Introspection As the Year Draws to a Close

I've just finished probably my fifth plate over the last two days of Thanksgiving food. I LOVE TG food, especially my dear Tofurkey. It makes this vegetarian a happy girl :) Anyways, I've been remiss in blogging lately so I thought I would post some random notes/thoughts on what I've been up to and what I'm planning as the year winds down.

• The first being, how IS the year already almost over? How did it happen? Last night I saw the first Christmas lights and it was shocking, even though I know it's almost December. Time is flying.
• I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. While I'm going through a big transition in my personal life right now, there are so many things I'm grateful for. I won't bore you with them, except for one: I love my writer friends SO much. Fellow bloggers and Twitter friends, I am always astounded at your awesomeness and I've known some of you for years now, and it makes me happy.
• Speaking of bloggers, I rarely blog anymore, but am on Twitter almost daily. So, if you're one of my blog peeps that I am not following on Twitter, please send me a message and I'll add you to my daily list. My handle is @aachamberlynn (or just click to find me!).
• I am currently editing the book I got sudden and crazy inspiration for and wrote in 6 weeks. It's pretty rough. I've got a big edit to-do list. But I've been working hard and I'm hoping to have it query ready by January.
• I'm also going to submit a short story I wrote earlier in the year to some lit magazines and hope I can find a home for that. I might do that this weekend.
• I have a busy schedule of fun concerts, art shows and parties to attend in December, which is unusual for me, so I'm excited to branch out and be a butterfly for the month!

So, as the year wraps up, what are you aiming to finish up? What makes you happy and grateful? Do you find yourself gravitating more to Twitter than the blogosphere? Whatever you're up to, I hope it's awesome and makes you sparkle inside and out. TTFN, writer friends!

A Super Fun Chat with Novelist Lisa Ann O'Kane

Today I am so excited to share my blog with my writer friend Lisa Ann to talk about her new book deal. Here's a bit about Essence, being released in June of 2014 by Strange Chemistry:

Neutrality is the key to longevity.

This motto has governed 17-year-old Autumn’s life in the mid-21st-century Centrist cult, which believes that expressing emotions leads to Essence drain and premature death.

But Autumn’s younger brother’s death casts her faith into question. While sprinting through a park in violation of Centrist teachings, she encounters Ryder Stone, an Outsider who claims Essence drain is nothing more than a Centrist scare tactic. She agrees to join his Community, a utopia of adrenaline junkies living in the abandoned remains of Yosemite National Park.

Autumn learns about sex, drugs, and living life to the fullest. But as she discovers dark secrets beneath the Community’s perfect exterior, she realises that this illusion of paradise could be shattered…


Cool, yes? So stoked for it to come out! And without further ado, here's the interview:

AC: I understand that camping out in Yosemite for the summer was part of your inspiration for Essence. What would you say inspired the unique rules and concepts of the Centrist cult in your book (the concept of Essence, etc.)?

LO: I have always been intrigued by the psychology of cults, so I jumped at the chance to create a main character whose entire upbringing was shaped by one. I picked San Francisco as the hub for my Centrist cult because I remember the public outcry that ensued in the aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake in 1994. Some groups actually believed the earthquake was a manifestation of God’s anger, and they said San Francisco was targeted because it was a haven for perversity.

I wondered what would happen if a group of San Franciscans actually took this message to heart. I drew from Theravada Buddhism and the concepts of the Four Noble Truths, and I created the Centrist cult and its Essence theory—which advocates living a life of neutrality and warns that your emotions have a finite limit. Once you use yours up, they’re gone. You’re gone.

Imagine how scary it would be to believe you might run out of Essence and drop dead at any moment. That’s what my main character Autumn faces when she finally decides to break free from her Centrist upbringing.

AC: Super cool! Love the tie to Buddhism. Okay, so who is your favorite character in Essence, and why?

LO: It’s hard to choose, but I’m pretty partial to Ryder Stone, the Outsider who first convinces Autumn to leave the Centrists and join his community of free spirits and adrenaline junkies in Yosemite. He’s a very complex character, and he fought me every time I tried to pigeonhole him. (I literally had no idea how the story was going to end until I finally gave up and let him lead the way!)

AC: He sounds fun! I love it when characters are bossy like that :) Next: what has surprised you most about your publishing journey so far?

I am finally beginning to see the publishing industry for what it is: an industry. When I first started this journey, I pinned all my self-worth on the success of my novel. If an agent or editor liked it, that meant I was a good writer. If they didn’t, I questioned my entire identity.

Nowadays (thanks to time, experience, and many, many rejections), I understand that agents and editors can like my work—sometimes even love my work—and still reject it. Maybe it isn’t a good fit for their list, or maybe they already have a similar novel. Maybe the market is saturated, or maybe it isn’t saturated enough. Maybe they love my novel but realize it doesn’t have mass appeal, or maybe they just don’t love it enough to stake their reputation on it.

Regardless, rejections are often far less personal—and far more subjective—than I would have ever imagined. This is good news, and it’s bad news. When agents and editors say, “It’s not you, it’s me,” they usually really mean it.

AC: Excellent point! Now, tell us something fun and/or random about yourself that has nothing to do with writing.

In the past thirteen years, I have lived in sixteen different houses in ten different cities in five different states in two different countries in two different hemispheres. I have accidentally surfed with great white sharks in Australia, and I have been stranded on a cliff in Death Valley and marooned in northern British Columbia when my truck hit a patch of black ice and flipped six times. Despite this, my three biggest fears continue to be Ferris wheels, odd numbers and wooden utensils. (Sad, but true…)

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me, Alexia, and thanks to everyone for stopping by to visit. I had such a blast writing Essence, and I still can’t believe I get to share it with you!

AC: I have mega wanderlust, so that sounds amazing! Thanks so much for stopping by today! So, to learn more about Lisa Ann and Essence, check out the links below. Her Pinterest board for Essence is super fun, so don't miss that!

Website

Blog

Twitter

Pinterest

Adventures with Neil

I am very psyched to share about my trip this last weekend to Atlanta to see Neil Gaiman on his last U.S. book signing tour. This was my second time being in the physical presence of my favorite author. The first was in 2011 at World Fantasy Con in San Diego, which you can read about here.

The adventure started out by picking up my friends Ann Marie and her boyfriend Lee and driving five hours from Florida to ATL. We got to the site of the event, a small women's college, about three hours before Neil was scheduled to talk and went to grab something to eat. When we got back like thirty minutes later, there were hundreds of people in line ahead of us. We had to wait in the blazing sun for over an hour to pick up our tickets, but it was a very pretty and magical looking ticket indeed:

 

After that, we had to get in the longest line I've ever seen, which spanned like half the campus, to wait to get into the building. This is the line when we got to the back (though it's missing about thirty people on the left side), and what you can see below is only about a fifth of the whole thing. Can you see how far it stretches into the distance???

 

 

We finally got in and sat in the balcony at the back of a large auditorium. Neil spoke at about 7:30 and as usual was smart and charming and super cool. He read from Ocean at the End of the Lane and then had a brief Q&A, though he refused to answer more than three Dr. Who questions. My favorite answer? When asked how he approached a writing project, he said, "I just sidle up next to it and say Hullo."

 

This is the gorgeous building we were in:

 

 

After Neil spoke the serious waiting began. We had about six hundred people ahead of us to get our books signed. Finally, after midnight and eight hours of waiting total (eight!), we got our books signed. And it was totally worth it. Neil was so friendly and made a point to talk to everyone even though he'd been signing for hours. He said he liked my shirt, which just about made me giggle like a school girl, and I asked him about something he'd said he was working on when I saw him in 2011, and then we were through and it was over, and I didn't regret one bit of the waiting.

 

Here is a pic of me and Neil, with most of my makeup melted off from waiting in the Georgia heat and a beam of light cutting across my head:

 

 

Silly as it sounds, I feel changed every time I see Neil. It solidifies my aspirations as a writer, and helps me dream of the future. I want to be the cool author with an eight hour line. I want to travel the world and make good art and inspire others. I want to free the imagination of countless readers and change how they see the world every time they pick up one of my books.

 

So, yeah. It was a pretty rad weekend :)

 

**Update** LOL, I just read my old WFC 2011 post where I talk about waiting ONE WHOLE HOUR to get Neil to sign my book. Oh, perspective...

 





Glorious Bookstores

While I was in Colorado I had the pleasure of visiting two of the three Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver. It's a locally owned business, but the store is even bigger than your average B&N or Borders (before they went out of business). Each location had mostly new books, but a small used book section as well. And awesome gifts and greeting cards (such as the 'Yay Unicorns!' magnet I got) (oh yes, I totally did). AND a yummy cafe with coffee and tea and scrumptious treats to eat.

But what was most fabulous was the books. Tens of thousands of books with gorgeous, touchable covers and pretty white paper and glorious black ink. Books in little nooks and crannies, on all different levels (at least two stories in each store), which were so much more creative and magically arranged than the chains I'd been to before. I thought, please let there not be a day when bookstores don't exist. I get the lure of e-readers. I wouldn't mind having one for traveling. But I will never lose my adoration for old-fashioned books I can touch and smell and worship in a way that electronics will never hold a candle to.

Here are a few pics of Tattered Cover, though they don't do it any justice at all:

 

 

Ahhh, I'm going to miss Tattered Cover. So, what are your favorite bookshops? Either in your town, or ones you've visited...

Come into my web said the writer to the... other writers

I was originally going to blog just about Pinterest, and the fun inspiration boards I have for each of my books. But then I realized there are probably plenty of you I haven't connected with on Twitter and/or Goodreads, too! I sure am spread all over the tinterwebs like jam on bread (blackberry jam, in case you're wondering).

So, here's a brief description of why I love each of these internet playgrounds and my linkage for each:

Pinterest!

A lot of people wonder what the heck Pinterest is all about. I think of it as a place to collect shiny, pretty things, like a raven's nest. Except organized. It's basically a huge collection of pictures, many of which have links to recipes, workout routines, and other cool stuff. You "pin" the pictures on pinboards you can name however you wish. Warning: it is insanely amazing and thus a dangerous time suck.

Land Without Dreams inspiration board (my MG fantasy)

Martinis with the Devil (nickname: Noir - adult urban fantasy)

Countless (adult urban fantasy)

I have a bunch of other boards, too, but those are my book boards.

Twitter!

Twitter is the perfect place to post random stuff in between blog posts. And I love random. You can have fun little conversations with people. And it's kind of liberating and challenging to have to limit each tweet to 140 characters.

Click here for my Twitter profile

Goodreads!

I used to get overwhelmed trying to remember all the books I wanted to buy. And then came Goodreads! Now when I see an awesome book whilst not in the bookstore, or having already depleted my readerly funds, I just add it to my Goodreads list. I also had great fun initially setting it up and trying to remember all the influential books I've read throughout my life.

Click here for my Goodreads profile

So, how about you? Let me know what you're into other than blogging so I can hit you up.

Exciting Blog Updates, Present and Future

Ahhh! Woooh! What's happening? Who am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Okay okay, calm down calm down get a grip now...

For those of you who have seen The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a wonderfully weird and hilarious movie, you'll recognize that quote from the whale. If not, you can click here to watch it. Don't say I didn't warn you about the weird part.

Anyways, what is the purpose to this blog post? Well the purpose of this post is to explain the purpose of my blog. Since I've now been blogging for a smidge over a year, I've had time to get used to this whole blogging thing and wonder, what is the purpose of my blog? What do I really want to do with it?

First, I really want to be more active in helping to promote by published blog friends, whether they've published traditionally or non-traditionally. I've discovered that the writing community is such a supportive place, and to me, supporting each other is what all of this is about, more than just having an online journal. So, I created a new page, called Awesome Books (see link in menu bar at the top of my blog). I've added a few peeps who haunt my blog on a regular basis: Jennifer Hillier, Jai Joshi, Talli Roland and Alex Cavanaugh. They've all published great books (Jennifer's is coming out in a few weeks), and I've included a brief blurb about each of them. If you also blog stalk me and are published and would like to be added, please let me know! Unfortunately with a full-time job and kids and working on my WIPs I don't get to do as much blog hopping as I like, so I've undoubtedly missed news about someone getting published.

As for forthcoming changes to my blog, I'm going to be creating a monthly Urban Fantasy newsletter, and will probably add another page to my blog that's kind of a writing toolbox, with links to my fave resources on editing, querying, publishing and the like. I may also start doing a monthly feature on a non-profit or global issue. I'm not sure exactly when I will roll all of this out, but updates will be coming soon! I may have a contest to come up with a name for the newsletter and ask for feedback and what kinds of things people would like to see (new releases of the month, agent profiles, etc.).

So, that's it! It may not be the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything, but it makes me feel good and I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

Too Inspired?

Is there such a thing as too much inspiration? Probably not. Inspiration is always good stuff. But I do find myself torn between two story ideas right now.

I have been planning for the last half year or so to write something that little dude can read. Something whimsical and fun and without all the angsty sexual tension that's in my current book. Wait, in about everything I've ever written since the age of 14 or so. So, something clean, probably more middle grade than YA.

But, there's also another story leaping about in my head, an adult story with a very loud voice. This one really speaks to me more clearly than the other one, but I already told little dude I was going to write one for him this year.

Soooo, I decided to start on the MG because that was the plan all along, and I'm not going to go back on my word. I actually starting writing a story about seven years ago that I had originally planned with adult characters, but realized is exactly the whimsical stuff I need for a younger audience. So, I'm going to adapt that one, minus the romance I'd initially planned. Though I may cheat occasionally and work on the other adult story :)

How about you guys? What do you do when you have competing stories? Do you ever skip between age categories?

Daily Inspiration: Ghosts and Murder, but not Zombies

So, I know I said I was going to talk about children's fiction today, but I changed my mind. We writers are allowed to do that, right? The old bait and switch, or something like that.

Anyhow, I just got back from Savannah, Georgia a couple days ago. Hubs had signed us up for a midnight zombie tour, which sounded like a barrel of monkies to me. I thought it would be cheesy and fun and you know, about zombies. How silly of me. Apparently the tour guide is more sneaky than us writers. So, here I am at a few minutes 'til midnight standing next to a huge cemetery, in the dark (yeah, funny how there's no light out at that time), and this dude starts telling all this creepy historical stuff about how Savannah is the most haunted city in America and the city's built on the remains of 17,000 bodies, etc. Yeah. And I'm thinking, when the heck do we get to the cheesy, touristy zombie part?

Let me tell you a secret. I'm not even that embarrassed to share it. I believe in ghosts. Really and truly. I've known too many people that have had unexplainable things happen to them. So, I'm standing there in a dark cemetery, and he's talking about all the camera failures and people passing out and bringing ghosts home with them after this tour, and I start to get really freaked out.

Then we go walking about visiting lovely places where lovely events happened. Like when he had us follow him into the middle of this park and then says we're standing on the bones of 1,100 slaves less than four feet below us. And how it's a portal to ultimate evil or something and women that come here start getting followed by these shadow creatures that make your life miserable. Yeah, women, because we're more psychic or something. Of course, this tale can't be complete without kids getting murdered by their parents and dropped off roofs to be impaled by wrought iron fences. It was a barrel of monkies, alright. And no freaking zombies!! Not a single mention of them. What the heck, right?

Needless to say, I had a hard time going to sleep that night since I had been told I might wake up to find the shadow thing had followed me home. Oh, what fun. But, all in all the trip was good, and I have lots of good fodder for a book.

So, do you guys have any creepy stories that have inspired your writing? Or un-creepy vacation tales that put you in the writery mood?

What Puts You in the Mood?

The writing mood that is... get your head out of the gutter!

Of course, we all know that sometimes we have to write even when we're not in the mood. Otherwise, we would never get those WIPs finished! Kind of like romance, it's not always sunshine and rosebuds for our writing projects. And we just have to push through and do it anways.

But just for a moment pretend that it's one of those glorious times when your mind is overflowing with great ideas and you can barely type fast enough to keep up with the awesomeness pouring out of your artistic soul. How did you get to that place? What put you in the mood to create some awesome works of literature?

For me, typically it's when I've come up with a new idea or scene and it's been ruminating in my head for the whole day (or more), so that when I finally get to sit down and write it flows easily. Countless was actually the result of eight years of mulling, but no time to write with my son being so young, and working and taking classes. So when I finally graduated, I threw all the time I had been spending on classes into the book and the first draft was done pretty quickly.

If I want to get myself in the mood, I'll sometimes play some Vivaldi or drink a glass of wine. I write better when it's quiet (except for the classical music) and I'm not interrupted. I've heard of people that train themselves to get in the groove by always lighting a scented candle or listening to a certain song or sitting in a certain place.

How about you? What puts you in the mood?

Winter is here!

It is freezing in Florida.  So says the native Floridian who's never lived through a 'real' winter.  Seriously though, it makes me very unhappy when it doesn't get above 40 degrees in the middle of the day and in the morning when I have to feed my equine friends it is 20 degrees.  Yuck.  And we don't get any nifty snow or anything.  Those of you that have survived colder temperatures are welcome to chastise me :)

On to writerly stuff, I have received a delightful award from the super cool Joann Swanson!!  Thanks, Joann!  Joann is one of the Killer Chicks, and I haunt her personal blog and the Killer blog on an extremely frequent basis.  Both blogs have really great writerly topics and plus Joann's has ravens (or are they crows?) which I love.

So, award recipients are asked to share 7 things about themselves.  My last sharing was random stuff, so this time I decided to do a theme on my writing life.  Here goes:

1) I started writing at such an early age I can't remember, but it was roughly 5 or 6.  I wrote a poem about a white Christmas pony, which was specifically designed to manipulate my parents. It was unsuccessful.
2) The first novel I started writing was when I was about 12.  It was also about horses.  I never finished it.
3) The third (I think) novel I started writing was when I was about 14 or 15.  It was high fantasy, because I was big in my Tolkien/Tad Williams/Dragonlance phase.  It was pretty unoriginal but I got to about 150 pages I think. 
4) I started a bunch of other books and wrote a lot of random poems (one was about being pissed off at traffic and eating peaches in my car) while in my teens.
5) Life intervened!  I became a young mother and didn't do much writing as I spent my early twenties chasing after a very rambunctious and completely awesome kid who I'm proud to call my son.  He is almost nine now and reads 300 page middle grade novels.  Yes, I'm totally bragging.  He rocks.
6) My current WIP starting percolating in my brain a really long time ago.  Like 7 or 8 years.  I finally started writing it about 2 years ago, finished the first draft about 10 months ago, and have been editing and getting rejected by agents ever since.
7) I've started the second book in the series, as well as a couple other future projects which I switch to when I get bored or need a break from my main WIP.

I guess that was sort of a timeline really... anyhow, here are the new recipients of the Versatile Blogger Award - they all have lovely blogs which I encourage you to stalk:

Nomes at inkcrush
Lisa at Read, Write, Repeat
Maria at Read, Write, Romance
David at The Cosmic Laire
Ivy at The Happy Whisk
Writing Nut at Writing in a Nutshell
 
For those of you that didn't see my last post, I was in a tizzy about this really cool agent auction over at Miss Snark's First Victim.  People got to post their first 250 words and be critiqued by fellow writers and agents, and then the agents bid for pages, and it was super fun and informative.  Would anyone be interested in doing a similar thing here, posting your first 250 words and getting feedback from everybody?  Obviously there won't be any agents so it won't be as exciting, but I thought the feedback could be helpful.  Let me know your vote!
 
Finally, I just wanted to apologize ahead of time if I am not visiting everyone's blogs as much in the next couple weeks or so.  I have been insanely busy at work, and even though I met my deadline that I was sweating about last week, I am consistently finding myself in a zombie-like state upon arrival at home and probably will be like that until the end of the year since this is our busiest time. 
 
Stay warm writer friends!!  Use the mind numbing cold to drift on new planes of thought and have inspired feverish writing sessions!

Lavender Sky

Happy Wednesday! Today I've been exercising my brain trying to think of something to post. Which kind of led me to thinking about how inspiration strikes us writers. For instance, today I was inspired by the sky, which was a perfect lavender color right before nightfall. Not too pink, not too blue, just the right shade of pale, smoky purple. And earlier in the day I started wondering about history and how funny it would be if someone just made up fictional characters or fictional events, and wrote all these stories that they passed off as real happenings, just to screw with people centuries later who read about it.

I also sometimes get ideas for my books from dreams. Yes, I do realize I sound like a Stephenie Meyer copycat - but it was happening to me way before she was dreaming of sparkly, muscular immortals (I know because I read one of her interviews. Or maybe more than one.). As for characters, those are easiest for me. They just kind of pop into my head fully formed - what they look like, their personality, everything. While sometimes I realize new things about them later on, for the most part they show up ready for action.

So, how you do get inspired? And what do you do when it happens (do you carry a notepad, tape recorder, etc)? Three cheers for inspiration!!