Crisis of Faith

--writing faith, that is.

For some reason, this week has been rough for me. I think it's because so many of you are doing NaNo and producing some truly impressive word counts--one online friend wrote over 11K in 3 DAYS! I must say my fingers would be bloody stumps if I had written that many words. But more power to her, and all you NaNo over-achievers!

I was putzing around with my suspense and managed to get stuck. . . again. I knew where I wanted the story to go, but I just couldn't get it there. So, I started looking at my books about writing craft--trust me, I have a lot--but one caught my eye. It isn't a craft book, but I stuck it there because of the impressive bibliography, it's Michael Crichton's TIMELINE. I opened it and read the first page. Love the story, it's on my desk for another read. And this morning, I was doing my usual blog-hopping and read Donald Maass's post on Writer Unboxed. Wow! What an eye-opener!

THIS was why I was stuck writing Rosewood Manor (RM). RM has the potential to be a HUGE conspiracy book, BUT I'm not at the point in my writing career to write it to it's full potential! I keep wanting to shove it into a romance, but it isn't. So, for the moment, RM is shelved. I still love the story--and the ghost--she is my Aunt Mary, so I have to like her! I'll return to this story when the time is ripe and I'm a better writer.

Onward to some better news!

Last week, Lori Brighton, held a first paragraph contest with her Kensington editor as the contest judge. I found out that one of my good friends didn't final, so I figured why bother looking if she didn't final. Well, when I hit the 'L's in my blogroll, I pulled up Lori's post. What do you know?!?
DEMON CONNECTION was listed as a finalist, #7 on the list! Whee!

I don't suck as a writer!!

So I had to send in my first page to Lori. Uh, I looked in my file--Nada. I looked in my sub files--Nada. I checked my recycle trashcan that I always forget to empty--Nada. At this point I was having a major freakage attack, but finally found it! Yay! So, with minor tweaks, I sent it on it's way.

Now, my mission is clear: tweak Demon Connection so it will be ready if needed. And if it doesn't make the next round, then it will be ready to query.

Write On!