ROW80 CHECK-IN

Okay. I've reassessed the situation and have determined I have a problem. Not a huge problem. Just a problem with daily goals.

Tangent:
When my oldest was a toddler and saying no to as many things as she could, her pediatrician told me not to worry about her daily intake of food, instead, look to her weekly consumption.
Oooh. Way less frustration and worry.

Full Circle:
My daily goals keep getting sabotaged, I'm not naming names...alright, by me mostly, still, that's beside the point. Sabotage, that's the point. No, that's not the point. Goals are the point. What can I get done in a week, not necessarily a day.

Realization:
Daily goals are a good idea with a bad outcome.
Weekly goals are (might be) a better fit.

New Weekly Goals:
4 hours edits and revisions on GONE BLONDE
7 new pages written for BETWIXT

Phew.

THINKING THURSDAY, POSITIVELY.

My Critique Partner reminded me I shouldn't stop my positive thinking when it comes to my writing.

Of course I shouldn't. But I hadn't even realized I was doing it. It's the sneakliest kind of negative thinking -- the accidental negative thought.

You'd think I'd know better. I was served positive thoughts along with my Captain Crunch since I was 5 years old. My mom has been a speaker and writer of positive thinking for a gazillion (count 'em) years http://joankennedy.com/ this is why it threw me for a proverbial loop that I was yucking up my thoughts with negativity.

I think I know why I was doing it though. It means too much to me. The writing. I was protecting my psyche...I wrote a character who voiced this: What if God had a wicked sense of humor, and only gave you a passion for something you had no talent for?

I actually don't believe God would do that, yet, sometimes, I live it.

So, now I'm going to start on purpose positive thinkingabout my writing -- intentional and specific.

I am a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Thank you.
I make more than enough money to support my family with my writing and I love it. Thank you.
Or maybe I should start with something like this:
I enjoy the whole writing process. Thank you...very much!

I'll update as needed.
So, what trips you up?

ROW80 Checking In...Hello?

Okay, so, not an auspicious start.

GONE BLONDE: Looked at some things that I wanted to change...thought about changing things. Set it aside.

BETWIXT: Wrote (and by 'wrote' I mean hacked) almost a page.

See what I mean?

I do have a couple blogs written, long hand in notebook at home.
Sheesh.

Hope everyone else did better. I have high hopes for this evening.

A Round of Words in 80 days!

Hello Jules Verne. Alright, not quite. Yet, still exciting. I'm setting my goals for the next 80 days of writing, and you could too. Here's how: A Round of Words in 80 Days

A challenge that understands I have a life. Thank you!

So, my goals, and I do have them:
Revise GONE BLONDE one hour a day
Write BETWIXT one page a day
Write MY BLOG three days a week (cheating w/ music videos is alowed)

There they are...for now.
I'll post updates and first chapters soon!

Short and Sweeeeeet

So, I'm hanging around not minding my own business, when I learn of a pitch session with Loose Id editors on twitter! Get them interested in your book in 140 characters...could I do this?

http://www.loose-id.com/

Yeeee-ees, I think I could. I have a book -- a little rough maybe, but beginned, middled and ended. Hadn't looked at it in a couple years -- I wasn't writing contemporary hothothot romance any more. But I knew my characters and I knew the basic primal instinct.
(Great blog on that is here: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ at Kristen Lamb's blog.

Here's what boiling your plot down to 140 characters does for you -- it gets you to what matters. Okay, so this story could easily fall into: well, first, she'd sad, and then she finds a note and then she's sad. Oh, and then there's this other guy, and he's mad -- and they both need a vacation, and she decides to change her hair...not very interesting. I know.

I love my characters -- and wanted to do them justice, so here it is:

Eva needs vaca from :( self she's GONE BLONDE! Sun, sails, & mystery man sex! Uh-oh, his xwife did her dead hubby. Did he know?

Short story shorter: an editor asked for synopsis and 1st three chapters. I'm thinking positively about this -- because, no matter what it is a positive thing.

Tell me your good, cool news!

PRETEND BOYFRIENDS

http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/

The link at the top will be enjoyable to anyone longing for an old fashioned kind of guy. Or if you need ideas for a hero for your next historical romance, or Steampunk story. I think he's my favorite.

While looking through my mom's pictures, I stumbled on an old photo of a very handsome young man, thinking it may have been an old boyfriend of hers, I asked, "Who's this?" With lot's of inflection on the 'this.'
"It's your grandfather," she said.

Ooh. And d'oh! And uuuuwe.

Hopefully none of these pics are your grandfather, or, er, great grandfather.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

After much consideration, or, at least, a bit of consideration, I have decided to actually have a point to my blog.

I know.

Anyway, instead of me rambling on about my brilliant life or whining about stupid ideas for writing, I'm going to concentrate on the things I find fascinating, besides the myopia of my day to day life.

Here's my list:
Steampunk and Gaslamp -- anything, books, tv, movies, costume, gadgets. And I'm not going to let the fact that I'm not any kind of an expert hold me back. I loved Steampunkish stuff before I ever heard of it. Hello 1960s Wild Wild West.

Paranormal Stuff and Parapsychology -- because I dig it, and I lived in a parapsychology study center from 1968 -- 1971. Seriously. I'll write about that too.

Friday Miscellany -- cool stuff, cool music, cool sites. And maybe ramblings. You didn't really think you were getting away from the ramblings, did you?

And probably some other stuff as I think of it...