The Ghost and the Goth

Another recommendation, The Ghost and the Goth, written by Stacey Kade. I'm a slow reader and I had this book read in three days. It's delightful, very humerous, suspenseful, and a bit of a love story. Click here for a review of it on the authors website. And don't you just love the cover?

Some changes made

I've been reading, reading, reading lately. Isn't that the first rule of writing. Makes sense. Since I'm trying to write in a different genre, I'm consuming YA books and I'm enjoying it so much. I love my kindle, but you know, I enjoy reading off my netbook just as much. Of course there is nothing like holding the book in your hand, but what do you do with it when you're done? I keep them. I know, I should recycled and share, but I just don't. So, I like that I can just archive my books. If I want to re-read them, I just go into the archives and pluck them out. There's no storage involved.

Not only am writing in a new genre, I'm writing in first person pov. It takes some getting used to, doesn't it, for those of you who have switched around. I think it might be a little easier, too. It's kind of hard, sometimes to do the show and don't tell thing in third person pov.

The other thing I'm trying is to write is spurts. Intellectually, I know when writing a first draft you don't worry about content so much. It's much more pleasant to just write, right? The problem becomes, I start getting panic attacks about the plot. So I put it down until I come to my senses again. It doesn't take long, just a few minutes, but it seems to work for me.

Those are my words of wisdom to you today. It's so nice to talk to you all.

Rushing Spring

If you put up springy backgrounds, spring will come faster. I'm about ready to get a countdown widget, anything. Not that I heart spring so much, actually it comes with hazards, you know, tornadoes ans thunderstorms, and it's just a violent time of year, but then summer comes pretty fast after that. I'm really looking forward to my next birthday and that's in September. I think I'm going to throw a blog bash. I have a secret, it's a wonderful secret and you can't know what it is, yet.

I just finished Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's insanely good. It's a YA book about a teenage boy, tyler, who is in trouble. Just like most teens, he's trying to fit in. It starts off with him on probation for spray painting graffiti on the school. He figured he'd be considered a hero for this. So now he's doing community service by taring the school roof and digging holes for a landscaping business in between visits to his parole officer.

He's got the hots for a girl out of his league. She just happens to be the daughter of Tyler's father's boss and her brother has been bullying Tyler all through school. But due to all the strenuous labor Tyler has been forced to do, he's bulked up.

The girl becomes interested in Tyler and they go to a big party. She gets waisted and tries to seduce Tyler who decides to do the proper thing and not take advantage of her. She blows him off and disappears for a long time. Tyler drives her and her brother home because they are too drunk to walk.

Long story short, Tyler gets in trouble for taking pictures of her in various stages of dress.

Tyler has issues with his father as well, but I'll leave the rest for you guys to find out.
I came away wishing I could write a book like that and determined to do so, just as soon as I figure out how, exactly.

Habits

They say, "They," those much smarter than me. They say that if you repeat something three times, it becomes a habit. Maybe it's 3 weeks, anyway, I realize now, that my ROW80 goal should have been to blog more, like every day. Maybe no one reads it, that's okay, there's a habit to be made here, and I want to illuminate you with my vast knowledge. By-the-way, you guys are great. You cheer me when I'm down, share your ample supply of knowledge, and you're just all around good peeps. I thank you for that.

Okay, so I'm going to try, for three days in a row, to blog something. It might be a paragraph on the proper way to brush you teeth while balancing a notebook on your lap and putting your makeup on-- simultaneously. Or the woes of a novelist just trying to get from Monday to Friday with dignity and, more importantly, sanity.

I am meeting my ROW80 goals, but not in the way I had visualized. I'm more just working on my novels than writing them, but it's still progress.

You all have fun and stay good.

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Play Fling, by Amber Scott

Play Fling by Amber Scott is a love story and a fantasy well worth it's price. Millie is a cupid in training who is assigned to find an aging devorcee, Brooke Munkel, true love, but she misinterprets Brooke's feelings for her ex-husband and works to reunite them, nearly disrupting Brooke's relationship with another man, the man who turns out to be Brooke's true love.

Ms. Scott captures you from page one with humor and takes you on an emotional journey that lasts until the last page. I strongly recommend this book.

ROW80 Goals - It works

For someone who doesn't make goals, I'm finding they work. The ROW80 challenge is easy. Just thirty minutes a day and I've got 500 words on paper. Do you know how many works that's going to be at the end of 80 days? Don't calculate, let me tell you--80,000 words. So, though thirty minutes sounds like a small goal, it's huge. I see a new goal in my future--psst . . . maybe I'll raise it to forty-five

Getting closer to publishing. It seems like there's always a delay. If anyone thinks publishing a book is easy, they're wrong. Even after you've closed the file for the final time, after all the proofing and editing, and falderal, as my mother used to say, there is other stuff. Like understanding the terms of royalties. I don't have a head for business, mostly because I don't do numbers. No comprehend. So I have to rely on someone else to do the research. That's where I am now. Waiting for the research. Everything is almost ready, just write my blurb and submit my book.

I'm excited and scared. What's the worse that can happen? No one reading my book, unconscionable. Everyone hating my book, unconscionable. I'm being silly.
It's my first book, I've got two in the works.

It's also hard to stop visiting my characters. Characters are people, you know. I miss them, I liked them and put them through terrible ordeals. But they only live within the confounds of the front and back covers.

I've ramble enough. I like to keep my posts short for my ADD friends out there. Take care, see you next time, and God bless.