Archive for the ‘writing’ Category

So I’ve been doing The Artist’s Way, I said in my last post. I discussed a bit about Morning Pages and Journaling. One of the things that I’ve found is that when I do My Morning Pages my mind clears and I’m less stressed about writing. Lately, I’ve been feeling very iffy about my writing. Not in the, I’m going to stop writing, but less confident about it. It’s something that writers do go through. But when you’ve been through burn out and re-approaching writing you feel that sense even more so because it goes beyond being rusty. It’s like re-starting something you’ve put down after a long time of neglect.

I’ve been taking it slow but that doesn’t seem to help. When I don’t write my stress level goes up, but when I do write I’m not confident about what I’m writing. Am I going deep enough into POV? Am I giving the reader enough to connect with the characters? Does this sentence/phrase make sense? Will a reader get what I’m trying to say. One of the things that I really didn’t need until now was a solid base. I needed people around me to be honest about my writing. I’ve been talking to Cynnara Tregarth a lot lately but when I re-connected with one of my besties Shara Cooper something clicked. I felt more confident and a peace. I had a good feedback loop to draw from that helped me weed out the crap or the confusion to get to clarity.

Combine that with My Morning Pages and I feel more stable. More confident. It will take some time to get equilibrium but I have a good base around me. As I’m progressing with The Artist’s Way I’m also finding that it will help me really define my characters. As suggested by Missy Welsh in her fantastic post (see previous post for the link), doing a character interview. This was also suggested in The Artist’s Way.

Also, since my stress level is lowering my blood pressure is better. I’m losing weight but I’ve still got a ways to go. It’s a bit of a pendulum. Going back and forth but I’m getting there.

I still have to tell you my news and I have a bit more but I can’t tell you just yet. I know, I know TEASE! But it’s good news. But I have to say a big THANK YOU to Etopia Press and to you my wonderful Readers. Thank you!

 

Se

So I’ve started The Artist’s Way series by Julia Cameron to help rebound from the burn out I suffered last year. One of the ways to help is to do three pages written in a journal long hand. I’m hoping to update you on my progress with it. Hopefully it will help me refocus.

On a side note, I highly recommend reading the wonderful Missy Welsh’s Blog Post at Babes in Boyland about Breaking Through Unmotivated.

I’ll also be updating you on the contracts I’ve signed with Etopia Press.

I will say that this blog post is a start. I hope it continues.

Until Next Time,

Se

Good Evening Everyone!

I hope your weekend is going well.?There are three new polls. Two close on the 22nd, the third is on-going. ?Two have to do with the Authors After Dark Convention (Oct 23rd-24th) and the last one has to do with the Vampiropolis series. ?On Monday the Urban Fantasy Week kicks off and I can’t wait for you to see some of the wonderful posts.

I’m thinking of starting a guest blogging series called Sunday Spotlight where an author gets to spotlight their series, news, whatever. Not sure yet, still mulling it over. I still have to put up the Lizzie Lynn Lee interview and Artist Corner.

I also found out that Tease will be putting out Pixie on the 15th of October. *Big Grin* Can’t wait to share it with you.

Anyway, I have to go do a bit of writing. Have a great weekend everyone!

Se

P.S. I just wanted to give you a heads up. Ulta is doing a wonderful thing for Breast Cancer Awareness month. If you go into any Ulta store and donate $10 you can get a scarf or hat. $7.50 of that donation goes to Breast Cancer Research. If you decide not to get either the whole $10 will be donated. For more information go here:

http://www.ulta.com/store/breastcancer/

Please, click the Breast Cancer button on the left hand side, under the archives menu of the blog to help give free mammograms.

Hi Everyone!

Look three blogs in one month, wow! LOL.?A few things, first Changeling Press has contracted my next Dawg Town Story called First Snow which will deal with Robbie and Kitty. *Grin*

My writer’s block is over. Yaaaay, I’m so happy. I’ve also started a new story which I hope to finish soon and have turned into my editor ASAP. Just been dealing with a few things lately. Buut, I will be at the Authors After Dark Convention the 23rd-24th. I hope to see you there. It looks like it’s going to be an awesome gathering.

I’m putting together two bags as prizes. The first one is a pink plaid weekender bag filled with print books, promo and some awesome stuff. The other bag is a beachy/tote bag filled with promo, print books and stuffed animals. *Grin*. Hopefully I can get some cool swag at the Con to give away to you guys.

Now for a Contest that is currently going on. Check out Wick’d Reads for an awesome contest. I’m giving away the Tartan Interlude candle. Go here for the details.

Next Week I’ll have a whole bunch of fabu Guest Bloggers and the theme this week is Urban Fantasy. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

Soon the site will be getting another makeover and I’ll be getting a forum. I’m so excited. Once it’s up and running and everything is as it should be I’ll let you guys know. Squee!

I’ll be posting one or two new polls.

Se

Currently that is my avatar at the moment. I’m pissy.

I’m not at this point yet. —->

If that happens its time to break out the chocy and all my fav movies. Anyway, I feel like?my muse is screwing with me. She shows me hot and sexy scenes (a threesome no less!) and then runs away laughing. ?I just don’t have a beginning for my story I have sex scenes! I want a beginning damnit. I want to start at point A, get to point B where they meet and then have them get to point C and maybe D and then The End. I know how they get together, where they meet and how this whole thing happens but what I want is a good beginning and I loathe starting over which is what I seem to be doing as of late. I start a story, go back, redo the beginning and then move on.

It doesn’t help that I’ve been sick for the last month and I’m tired most of the time. And when you’re tired everything you write seems like crap. No natural rhythm. I feel off balance. I want to write not dredge through it. I want to get lost in the story, not growl at the screen, hit backspace and start all over again.

-Whine over-

So here’s a question for the writers.

When your muse throws you a curve ball and shows you the story in bits and pieces do you roll with it or fight to start at the beginning?

Or do you grab your muse, put them in a hammerlock and threaten to flog them until they tell you everything, no details spared.

(I tried threatening my muse with this: http://www.bootyparlor.com/good-girl-bad-girl-whipper-tickler.html she just laughed and bent over. My muse is sick I tell you! Sick…And naughty. )

Se

P.S. Thank You to Teeka, she gave me a good idea. *Grin*

Hi Everyone!

I hope your 2009 is going well so far. I just turned in edits for Blood Claim: Prelude and With His Mind. *Grin* I just found out With His Mind will be out Feb. 20th*, I’m excited about that. I got to play in the Sci-Fi/Futuristic genre with that story. Right now I’m working on re tweaking White Russian. The story, I felt had been missing something, so I had a friend read it over and she told me what she thought. The pieces fell into place after that. Now I just have to re-work things, finish it and then turn it into my editor. That still leaves Justice Unbound (Vampriopolis 4) and Fallen Lover.

I also got a two story ideas for shorts for Tease. I blame Tilly for one of them. LOL. Which reminds me I still have to do the Tagged 16 Random Things about me list. I’ll get to that towmorrow. LOL. I swear, when I take a break from White Russian. *Grin* I also started Blood Claim: Bound, the next book in the BC series. I showed the beginning to my editor and she loved it. Whew. *Grin* So that’s another thing I have to pile on.

This week I plan on staying inside as temps around here about to hit single digits. Brrrrr. If you’ve been poking around the site and you’ve been here when it first started or a bit after that you’ll notice I’ve begun updating and changing pages, that will continue. I am thinking of a new look. Not sure. I’ve very inspired by Renee George’s Cover for Melanie Unmasked, but only in red, black and white colors maybe some silver. *Shrugs* I want to do character pages for the books just you get to know them a bit better. I already have page? in mind for Jessye from Blood Claim. Just have to do Rysen and Kit’s page first. LOL

I plan on putting up a new poll about genres you may be interested just to get feedback. I would really like to get into Cyber Punk and Sci-Fi a bit more. I’d also like to do stories that have their insipration rooted in Anime. Dawn Montgomery did a fantastic story about a Kitsune and I’d love to do something along those lines. Okay, enough of my ramblings. Here’s the song that I’m loving at the moment:

Garbage: Milk

It’s really inspiring me for White Russian.

Hugs All Around,

Selena

Hi Everyone!

I just turned in my first round of edits for Pixie and finished up Catering to Hayley. *Grin* Now I get to work on tweaking Fallen Lover, then Justice Unbound and after that Her Chaos Dragon and then White Russian. I’m tired and we’re only in day 5 of the New Year.

Today starts the voting process for the LRC awards and Discovering Passion is up for Best Paranormal Book. Here’s the link to vote (You must be a member of the Group to Vote):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LoveRomancesCafe/surveys?id=2140905

Also, here are some new covers I just got *grin*

Blood Claim: Prelude:

When You Wish Upon a Pixie: Induction:

Catering to Hayley:

I’ll be uploading the images into the image rotator and giving the books individual pages.

Hope you like them. Hugs All Around.

Selena

I haven’t been updating you guys like I should. I’ll try to blog much more. I envy Savannah, she’s such a great blogger. *smile* Okay, here we go. Let’s try and pack as much into this as possible

Books:

Tartan Surprise is out which I’m so excited about, next up is Discovering Passion, in August ’08, which is Lida’ story from A Fling in Vampiropolis. I’ll get the exact date to you as soon as I get it.

In June I subbed a total of five books, three to CP and two to Tease and on July 1st I subbed a book to a new pub. I’m hoping they like it. I was really nervous about query letter and synopsis. I can write a book but blurbs, synopsis and query letters stress me out. But hey, they’re a part of the process.

For the last month or so I’ve been either tired, working my ass off to finish a book or suffering from writer’s block. Up until now, I haven’t written anything for a week which frustrated me a lot. But I finally managed to work on a story that I’m aiming to finish by Friday of this coming week. So far I’ve got 8k+ on it. It’s a ghost story, I’ve never done a ghost story before so this is all new to me. I hope I get it right.

My aim is to finish several stories by the end of the summer and subbing to at least two to three more new pubs. I know, a lot of work but at the end of the day, it’s worth it. I’m also working on making my Free stories downloadable, not the Friday Flash series though, not until that’s done. That’s about it on the writing front

Lori Foster’s Get Together:

I had fun at this event. It was so nice meeting so many people and seeing some people I had me at RT. The highlight seeing my twin from another mother, Ce! We were good I swear *shoots look over at Dawn*. Tell them Ce, we were well behaved.

I have to say Hi to Lena, Liz (good to see you again), Joy (you are awesome), Maggie, Kelly, Bianca (B!), Jacki (as always, you are fabulous), Maya, Marty, Tuesday (I’ll call you I swear. You are behaving right? lol), Laura K., Kelley, Jackie, Sierra (Big Hugs), Teeka (Teeka!), Kate, Camille, Flash, Renee, Shiloh, Rhonda aka SandDaz (sorry for the awkwardness), Anya, Ali and Aneka. If I forgot you, I’m soooo sorry, please feel free to yell at me later.

I loved the conference and had so much fun. Ce, Tuesday we sooo have to do an antho together. *grin* Tuesday, stop looking at me like that, you know you want to0, mwhahahaha! I definitely want to go next year. I also want to go RT next year as well. Shar, Ce you ready for that? I know I left a lot out but I can’t really remember everything. *sigh*

Birthday:

Well, I turned 27 this year. Yeah! My birthday started early when the fabulous Crystal Green/Chris Marie Green (she’s going to be at Comic Con and the RWA conference, I soos wish I was going), sent me a signed copy of Midnight Reign. I was in absolute shock. She is so awesome. I got a Birthday Card from Savannah (Big Hugs, babes). A lovely bag of chips from Tilly , (yum). *Grin* And yesterday, although late, I got flowers from Shar. She told me to expect a few more things. Goodness!

I pretty much spent the day wading through email, promoing Tartan Surprise and doing the chat over at ARe. *Grin* That chat was so much fun! I want to do it again. I’ll try and arrange another one maybe this month or next. A special to Thank You to Shar for staying up late just to do the chat. Another special Thank You to everyone who stopped by and spent my Birthday with me.

My birthday was made all the more special by Jambrea who showed me the book review she did for A Fling in Vampiropolis for Joyfully Reviewed. I was so ecstatic by it. That really helped make my Birthday great.

I got an ice cream cake the next day: cookies and cream ice cream with Devil’s Food Cake. A real ice cream cake! One that isn’t ice cream in the shape of a cake. Man, I want another one. LOL

I know it sounds like a boring Birthday but it was good enough for me. I like the simplicity of it. Not too much expectation which I’m good with. I didn’t go see Wanted like I wanted too. It was opening weekend which would mean dealing with too many people. I am hoping to go to see either Batman: Dark Knight or Hellboy 2 or both. LOL

Movies and TV:

What else can I add? Hmmm . . . nothing more, I don’t think. I’m watching the Twilight Zone, absolutely brilliant. I can understand why they wanted to resurrect the series but, sorry if it doesn’t have Rod Serling, I really can’t bring myself to watch it. The Twilight Zone is classic, brilliant story telling.

Speaking of TV, is anyone watching In Plain Sight? I’m loving that show. I also can’t wait for Burn Notice, Psych and Eureka to come back. I’m starting to enjoy So, You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew.

I’ve seen the trailer they’re running for Heroes next season. I love the series but I was left feeling as if the show is lacking something. Maybe it was adding too many characters or the sudden character shift (Uh, Hiro what about Charlie?). I’m hoping this season makes up for what was missing last season.

I can’t wait for Chuck to come back on air, I love that show. And NCIS, noooo, you can’t do that! OMG! I can’t wait to see what they do with Lost, that finally was just, WOW! Okay, can’t think of any other shows and I think I’ve started babbling. LOL. Later’s guys.

Hugs all around,

Selena


P.S. So what shows are you guys looking forward to seeing this summer or this fall? What are you reading? Any questions for me? *Selena now wonders if she’s opened up a can of worms* I’ll answer them if I can.

A Fling in Vampiropolis will be released on March 28th by Changeling Press. *Big Grin* In project news, my fabulous CP and bestest friend Shara Cooper is helping me put together a newsletter. *Grin* I’ve also started the first mini story after Green Beer, or interlude between Green Beer and Pot of Gold. *Grin* Hope everyone is having a Great Week.

Selena

I am pleased and excited to annouce that I have been offered and accepted a contract for my story A Fling in Vampiropolis with Changeling Press. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go insane now. LOL

Selena