Let's face it. We've been terrible neighbors. We borrow sugar and never give it back. We never stop over for a chat. We barely wave when you walk by.
Our landscaping has become an embarrassment. Our lawn is overgrown and the weeds have overtaken our flower beds.
It's okay, there's a solution.
Until WOC, we're taking a break. (From our blog.) A writing hiatus.
erica's writing (an awesome mg ghost story with a mc whose strong voice could be enough to scare off the ghosts causing his family trouble) and critiquing christy's ms
christy's editing and sending work out to helpful cps chapter by chapter, (you want this story).
While we're away from the blogosphere, you can come and see us at the WOC forums! Because even though the formal events don't get underway until Aug 16, the writing forums are open NOW!
Stop in, register by logging in, and check out Writeoncon2011. You can introduce yourself and meet MANY other writers, post your query, synopsis, and first pages for critiques, and/or sign up to find another critique partner for your writing!
Hope to see you there soon! Once we have manuscripts we're proud of, we'll be back here AND we'll stop by your place for a visit. Until then, happy writing! And we love you!!
8.08.2011
8.05.2011
Oh, manure!
(why is it that every time I'm going to be gone and decide to pre-schedule my post, it doesn't post. dang blogger)
Okay, so I'm travelling a bit this weekend. Nothing big, just a trip to my parent's TO DROP MY KIDS OFF FOR A WHOLE WEEK!!!!! Let's do a happy dance, shall we? We shall *dances*.
Okay, so I'm travelling a bit this weekend. Nothing big, just a trip to my parent's TO DROP MY KIDS OFF FOR A WHOLE WEEK!!!!! Let's do a happy dance, shall we? We shall *dances*.
I really do love my kids a lot. But my kids don't see my parents often, so this is good for everyone!
So, anyway, today I'm cleaning my whole house in an attempt to see exactly how clean just my husband and I can keep it for a week without the kids. I figure, pretty clean. BUT - I don't know my exact plans for the week, either, so I'm leaving you with a short story and continuing on my cleaning adventure (really, how do 2 kids create this kind of mess????).
Usually I save my "this would only happen at my house" stories with Christy, but this time you get it, too. Consider yourself warned.
We live on a farm, right? One with beef cattle. And there are these handy little devices called electric fences that keep them where they need to be, away from us. Only once I looked out my basement window and a cow was RIGHT THERE. Luckily it was one that I've raised from birth and all I had to do was walk out to the pasture and she followed me. And once we got a call at like 10:00 at night that someone saw our entire herd (which at the time was probably only around 15 cows) walking down the road in single file - and once we found them, they were in a corn field munching away, but my husband sat in the back of the pickup and yelled "come, boss" while I drove home, and through weeds taller than the truck in the complete dark, and HOLY COW THEY FOLLOWED US. (pun sort-of intended).
BUT - overall, they stay put. Then came two days ago when my husband said there were tracks in our driveway that looked suspiciously like cowprints. He went and counted our cows (we now have 26 here and 7 at another farm - let's just say there's a bull and breeding stuff going on and leave it at that) and they were all here. So one got out, walked in our driveway, and got back in. Because it never stops raining here in WI (seriously, our woods are now nicknamed "The Rainforest"), the fence posts are starting to lean, so he found the problem and fixed it ASAP.
Then, (I know, you're riveted) yesterday I had to mow the lawn. It takes about 2 hours on a riding mower (which desperately needs to be retired. or turned into scrap metal) and there are a bunch of obstacles in my way. Not the least of which is my son's Fischer Price swingset. As I went around it (this is the action part of the story, people), I was watching my back left tire to make sure I cleared the slide. Then the tires started spinning. I was going nowhere. Then I saw why.
There was a huge cowpie. Right at the bottom of my son's slide. And I was spinning a tire in it, flinging it everywhere. Did I mention HUGE? How about EVERYWHERE!? Put it together and you get: HUGE POOP EVERYWHERE.
No, I won't post a picture of a cowpie. But you do get this:
Sorry I made a doodie. Kisses!
It's a thrill a minute here, folks. A. THRILL. A. MINUTE.
Have a great weekend!!!
8.04.2011
Recent Kindle Clippings
Here's another round of Christy's recent Kindle Clippings.
Since I've been immersed in WRITING DAYS as of late, I haven't read or blog hopped. And I'm sorry for that (the blog hopping part) because I really haven't been doing my part in keeping up with you and your lives and your writing. I look fwd to being able to get back to that in the future.
I'm especially excited for Writoncon this year since that's when I met so many writers last year and hope to see you all there this year. I'm hoping for the critiquing forums again so I can see all of your work and we can help each other out with queries and first pages!
Now that my first draft is done, I took a little time to find where I'd stashed my Kindle only to find it dead. Not as dead as erica's was, but dead as in needing a charge. Once it was ready to be fired up, I read my plot book, WRITE GREAT FICTION-PLOT AND STRUCTURE by James Scott Bell (A must have for writers. Seriously!).
Here are a few of the notes I took:
-Great Quote: "I don't have a name and I don't have a plot. I have the typewriter and I have white paper and I have me and that should add up to a novel." -William Saroyan
-The quote fit in with the chapter because you should not write what you know, but write who you are. This will help you to be original.
-Novelist and writing teacher, Barnaby Conrad said, "Once you get a characer with a problem, a serious problem, plotting is just a fancy name for how he or she tries to get out of the problem."
-When plotting, use the LOCK system. Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knockout (ending)
-"Not every idea is of equal value. To find the best plots, you need to come up with hundreds of ideas, then choose the best ones to develop."
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW.
It felt really good to revamp my Christy page at the top of this screen. Look up. See it? Well, I changed it to reflect where I'm at with my writing.
It felt good to announce the burial of Solstice. Liberating. I love being able to move on.
Espcially with Fixing Shelby getting herself ready to query. To see my second draft of her query, click here. You'll also find her loglines. (I DO know I'm supposed to set it aside for months before editing and revising, however, with WOC coming up, I wanted to get it ready. In all fairness, I wrote the first 3/4 a year- 6 months ago...so really it WAS set aside. Yeah?)
Since I've been immersed in WRITING DAYS as of late, I haven't read or blog hopped. And I'm sorry for that (the blog hopping part) because I really haven't been doing my part in keeping up with you and your lives and your writing. I look fwd to being able to get back to that in the future.
I'm especially excited for Writoncon this year since that's when I met so many writers last year and hope to see you all there this year. I'm hoping for the critiquing forums again so I can see all of your work and we can help each other out with queries and first pages!
Now that my first draft is done, I took a little time to find where I'd stashed my Kindle only to find it dead. Not as dead as erica's was, but dead as in needing a charge. Once it was ready to be fired up, I read my plot book, WRITE GREAT FICTION-PLOT AND STRUCTURE by James Scott Bell (A must have for writers. Seriously!).
Here are a few of the notes I took:
-Great Quote: "I don't have a name and I don't have a plot. I have the typewriter and I have white paper and I have me and that should add up to a novel." -William Saroyan
-The quote fit in with the chapter because you should not write what you know, but write who you are. This will help you to be original.
-Novelist and writing teacher, Barnaby Conrad said, "Once you get a characer with a problem, a serious problem, plotting is just a fancy name for how he or she tries to get out of the problem."
-When plotting, use the LOCK system. Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knockout (ending)
-"Not every idea is of equal value. To find the best plots, you need to come up with hundreds of ideas, then choose the best ones to develop."
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW.
It felt really good to revamp my Christy page at the top of this screen. Look up. See it? Well, I changed it to reflect where I'm at with my writing.
It felt good to announce the burial of Solstice. Liberating. I love being able to move on.
Espcially with Fixing Shelby getting herself ready to query. To see my second draft of her query, click here. You'll also find her loglines. (I DO know I'm supposed to set it aside for months before editing and revising, however, with WOC coming up, I wanted to get it ready. In all fairness, I wrote the first 3/4 a year- 6 months ago...so really it WAS set aside. Yeah?)
8.02.2011
Inspirational Tuesday
A lot of our friends have been talking lately about their successes - hooray!! First drafts are completed, edits are simmering, queries are started, agents are being acquired, books are being published - it's been a busy summer!
We all find inspiration in different ways. Christy's blogged a couple of times about Taylor Swift's music and how it helps her write her YA books and I've read other bloggers say the same thing about music. Not me, though - I tend to find story ideas in the shower (where I don't have a radio) or the car (where my radio shorted out months ago and I still haven't gotten it fixed) and write in the living room with my kid's watching TV next to me (although Disney and Nickolodeon do have a lot of songs....half of AND was written to the SpongeBob theme in the background).
Inspiration can also be found in pictures (or places, but not all of us can travel the world, so thank goodness for Google images). Here's a few that I have looked at that really motivated me to want to write (nothing ever makes me want to edit, although I do it. begrudgingly)
(and thanks for the well-wishes about the secret agent contest over at Krista's blog this week. I felt like the agent thought my query and first page were good, but didn't end up requesting pages. *sigh*)
I'll leave you with these. Happy writing!
We all find inspiration in different ways. Christy's blogged a couple of times about Taylor Swift's music and how it helps her write her YA books and I've read other bloggers say the same thing about music. Not me, though - I tend to find story ideas in the shower (where I don't have a radio) or the car (where my radio shorted out months ago and I still haven't gotten it fixed) and write in the living room with my kid's watching TV next to me (although Disney and Nickolodeon do have a lot of songs....half of AND was written to the SpongeBob theme in the background).
Inspiration can also be found in pictures (or places, but not all of us can travel the world, so thank goodness for Google images). Here's a few that I have looked at that really motivated me to want to write (nothing ever makes me want to edit, although I do it. begrudgingly)
(and thanks for the well-wishes about the secret agent contest over at Krista's blog this week. I felt like the agent thought my query and first page were good, but didn't end up requesting pages. *sigh*)
I'll leave you with these. Happy writing!
wouldn't this be a great place for a writer's retreat?
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
-Thomas Edison
8.01.2011
And Then There Were Two
Or not.
(and if the spacing is all wacky on this post, it's not for my lack of trying to keep my lines spaced out the right way. grrr to blogger.)
I (christy) have news for you. Well, really just updates on myself. But I'm excited to share with you!
I have two (recently) completed novels. (Only I've decided to bury one of them.)
My writing history:
October 2009 Solstice's first words were written. (I didn't know what genre it was then. I called it Fantasy Romance.)
May 2010 Solstice's 116,000th and final word was written.
September 2010 Solstice's rewrite began. (Shortly after I began calling it Parnaormal Romance.)
August 2010 Fixing Shelby began. It's a contemporary YA novel. In fact, I announced it in this post. (I was really dorky then. It was before erica helped me out.)
February 2011 Solstice's rewrite was complete except for the three chapters from another character's POV.
June 2011 Solstice's rewrite was complete except for a couple of scenes that need to be plugged in. (I started wondering if it was Sci-Fi.)
July 30, 2011 I decided Solstice should never be queried or see the light of day. BUT, since the protag's story really began with her great-grandmother and the journal she kept (holding the family's secrets), I decided to keep my concept, but start at the beginning.
SO I wrote 8 pages of notes plotting the novel out and developing my characters. IN FACT just in case it ever goes anywhere, I've plotted out the complete trilogy, books 2 and 3 having my old protag from Solstice, Dawn. HOWEVER I will never rewrite Solstice again. By the time I get to book 2 in that series, it will be fresh.
The problems with Solstice were:
-My original idea for it was contemporary. Completely in reality.
-It evolved into a mess of complications during the first writing and I was afraid of fantasy. I was afraid to be creative. I felt silly creating fantasy worlds and making characters have bizarre and awesome powers.
-During the rewrite I added in even more complications to my characters and the plot.
-I could never nail a query or a logline. BECAUSE I was never quite certain what the main plot was. HECK, I didn't know what genre the dang thing was!
Book One (a stand alone novel) will be told from Dawn's grandmother's (as a 17-year-old) perspective, BUT it will take place in the present. NOT in the 1920s. IF Dawn ever gets to tell her story, it will be 2067. WHICH may help book three with the dystopian feel I'd always envisioned for it.
SO my newest protag is Marian Hudson. She's going to have spunk. And love cheese. (Har har. erica, that was for you! ;o))
In addition to my 8 pages of notes, I wroteseveral a query and a one sentence pitch (which needs work). Just to help me when I'm ready to get writing.
Seventeen-year-old inter-dimensional Transporter, Marian, fights against time and a rogue Themuran council-member after he infects her friends and family with an incurable disease while hoping to rally rebel Transporters to help him take over the Earth dimension.
July 31, 2011 Fixing Shelby (the unedited version) was completed at 49,000 words!!!!!! This one I will query once the query is written and critiqued and once the novel is edited and beta-read.
AND just in case an agent likes it and wants another YA contemporary from me, while in church I thought up another one with a protag named Leslie Adams. I'll leave the details to that one a secret for a long, long time.
(and if the spacing is all wacky on this post, it's not for my lack of trying to keep my lines spaced out the right way. grrr to blogger.)
I (christy) have news for you. Well, really just updates on myself. But I'm excited to share with you!
I have two (recently) completed novels. (Only I've decided to bury one of them.)
My writing history:
October 2009 Solstice's first words were written. (I didn't know what genre it was then. I called it Fantasy Romance.)
May 2010 Solstice's 116,000th and final word was written.
September 2010 Solstice's rewrite began. (Shortly after I began calling it Parnaormal Romance.)
August 2010 Fixing Shelby began. It's a contemporary YA novel. In fact, I announced it in this post. (I was really dorky then. It was before erica helped me out.)
February 2011 Solstice's rewrite was complete except for the three chapters from another character's POV.
June 2011 Solstice's rewrite was complete except for a couple of scenes that need to be plugged in. (I started wondering if it was Sci-Fi.)
July 30, 2011 I decided Solstice should never be queried or see the light of day. BUT, since the protag's story really began with her great-grandmother and the journal she kept (holding the family's secrets), I decided to keep my concept, but start at the beginning.
SO I wrote 8 pages of notes plotting the novel out and developing my characters. IN FACT just in case it ever goes anywhere, I've plotted out the complete trilogy, books 2 and 3 having my old protag from Solstice, Dawn. HOWEVER I will never rewrite Solstice again. By the time I get to book 2 in that series, it will be fresh.
The problems with Solstice were:
-My original idea for it was contemporary. Completely in reality.
-It evolved into a mess of complications during the first writing and I was afraid of fantasy. I was afraid to be creative. I felt silly creating fantasy worlds and making characters have bizarre and awesome powers.
-During the rewrite I added in even more complications to my characters and the plot.
-I could never nail a query or a logline. BECAUSE I was never quite certain what the main plot was. HECK, I didn't know what genre the dang thing was!
Book One (a stand alone novel) will be told from Dawn's grandmother's (as a 17-year-old) perspective, BUT it will take place in the present. NOT in the 1920s. IF Dawn ever gets to tell her story, it will be 2067. WHICH may help book three with the dystopian feel I'd always envisioned for it.
SO my newest protag is Marian Hudson. She's going to have spunk. And love cheese. (Har har. erica, that was for you! ;o))
In addition to my 8 pages of notes, I wrote
Seventeen-year-old inter-dimensional Transporter, Marian, fights against time and a rogue Themuran council-member after he infects her friends and family with an incurable disease while hoping to rally rebel Transporters to help him take over the Earth dimension.
July 31, 2011 Fixing Shelby (the unedited version) was completed at 49,000 words!!!!!! This one I will query once the query is written and critiqued and once the novel is edited and beta-read.
AND just in case an agent likes it and wants another YA contemporary from me, while in church I thought up another one with a protag named Leslie Adams. I'll leave the details to that one a secret for a long, long time.
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