My week in a Nutshell

I have so many blog posts that I want to write, but not enough time to do it. In fact, I have a sticky note by my keyboard with ten very different topics, ranging from Harry Dresden (wizard at large) to Doppelgangers to the KDP Select program on Amazon to how romance is becoming less romantic (I think I've written something similar before!) to the physics of exercise and to weight loss head games. And this is just a few of the totally random stuff that dumps out of my head!

I'll write on one topic only to think of three more that are very pertinent. Shoot, I have enough Weighty Wednesday blog ideas to take up two months, but I want to write them NOW. I need to get them written, because the longer I take to write them the less I remember what struck me as important about the topic.

Yes, I have the attention span of a gnat.

Over the holidays, I read a lot of books, many of them I'm itching to tell you about, er . . . but most of the topics aren't reflected kindly upon the author. I accomplished reading 50 books last year and have already finished 2 books for this year. The third one is seriously slowing me down with a heroine that is TSTL (too stupid to live) and lust instead of romance. Yes, my eyes have rolled so much that I was afraid they would get stuck. Guess I'm getting too old for the 'new' romances that authors are cranking out. I want romance to come back again! And I have to say that this is a sad, sad state of affairs in publishing when a story bought by one of the big NY publishers and is fully edited happens to be this sloppy.

Which leads me to the topic of writing my own stories and editing. I'm woefully behind with editing TROLL. Last December, I started red lining a hard copy of this story. It bled the first fifty pages with a variety of problems, and then around pg 60, it flowed better and the story improved. I have to fix the first 50 pages. Now that doesn't sound like much, but when we're talking middle grade stories,we're talking the first 1/3 of the book. Editing won't cut it. I'll have to rewrite it from scratch. I'll take the basic topic of the chapter and go from there with it.

I've been trying to figure out what was missing from this story. I knew the voice of Kyte wasn't quite right, but I couldn't figure it out. You would have thought I had the voice nailed, considering I had just finished editing FAERIE and rolled right into the new story, but I didn't. Part of the reason might have been that I was working off a logline, but not bullet point chain of events.

Anyhoo, I figured it out two nights ago, actually, two mornings ago. I woke up and was laying in bed wondering about her emotional state. Kyte wasn't angry. She needed to be angry. The first anniversary of her dad's death was coming up. This should stir up a hot bed of emotions in a pre-pubescent girl. Now I need to reread part of GNOME to get the exact time of year her dad was killed.

I think this is what was missing. But I won't know until I start writing this story again. AND I'm not even getting into having to change the sneak peeks at the back of FAERIE. Yes, I'll have to correct and republish that one!

My to-do list for this week:

• write four more blogs
• keep losing weight and set goal weight of 130 pound. Barely in the weight range for my height, but it's a great starting point
• keep walking
• start writing TROLL again
• Invent three more caramel recipes
• write mouth-watering description for my candy to post on Brenda Novak's For the Cure auction that will happen in May
• Oh, yeah, critique a sample from a potential CP (critique partner). I think I'll use her for my Mystic Elements stories.--I was dumped before we even traded samples. The  . . . erm, writer wanted a free glorified copy editor. I don't do copy edits. Put a crowbar in your wallet and pay for them. . . *sheesh*
• Crit another 20K from another friend. I don't know what type of crit she wants. I'll just have to ask when she sends it my way.

I think this is it, but you know how stuff and life creeps up on you and smacks you in the kisser when you aren't expecting it!

Later, Peeps!
Have a fantastic week!