Monday Meanderings - September 13th

A lot of stuff going on this week.

First Meandering ...

The Sweet & Sassy Anthology: Castle Collection which includes my novella A Savage Ghost is now available for preorder here. It's a whopping $.99.

This collection includes:
Dangerous Truth (by Cindy M. Hogan)--a mystery/suspense tale set in Belgium
All By My Selfie (by Jo Noelle)--about a cursed hunk of a Scotsman set in (of course) Scotland
A Savage Ghost (by moi)--includes an Irish ghost stuck in a castle moved to the state of Washington
The Ghost of Dunlow Manor (by Paige Timothy)--has an author who's hunting her muse and finds it through an unexpected source
Rose of Sherwood (by Kaye P. Clark)--is an historical tale set when Maid Marion was a girl.


Second Meandering ...

Got a retreat this week, and I'm teaching a class on foreshadowing in the Harry Potter series. Once I got into preparing my presentation, all I wanted to do was go back and read the books!

Did you know Scholastic, in celebration of the 15th anniversary, has a new set of covers?

What do you think? Since some of mine are falling apart, I mind need to buy new ones. Maybe.


Third Meandering ...

I'm part of a cool promotion to celebrate the release of Drawn Into the Mist--includes a chance to win a Kindle HD7. It's also available on preorder for only $.99.

After a battle with a small coven of vampires at the homecoming dance, Chuck Mc Williams is confident and prepared to use his newly found magical powers.

However, Kelsey Llewellyn, Chuck's date from the dance and an undercover elfin vampire hunter, has disappeared back to faerie. The vampires marked her as their next acolyte and sapped her elfin defenses. Returning to the village of her birth she is protected while the elfin elders work to restore her powers. 

Chuck is confused and emotionally desolate. When the vampires make an attempt on his life he decides his only option is to go to faerie for help and his own protection. 

Doug, a vampire who owes Chuck a favor, agrees to send him to the land between the human world and faerie by magically drawing him into a painting of a castle. He warns Chuck that he has drawn other things into the picture which will both help and hinder his efforts. 

Adventure begins again for Chuck as he is drawn into the mist.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fourth Meandering ...

You ready for the 20th Annual International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Saturday? Argh!

What's in it for you to celebrate, you might ask?

Hint:

Will you get a dozen donuts free by dressing as a pirate on Saturday?

Pirates, Pantsers, and Plotters

And don't be forgettin' today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. 

Argh.

Ye can learn more 'bout it here.

'N if ye need help translatin' into scurvy pirate, here be a few resources:

Here, here and here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

From PowerPoint

I've tried. I really, really have tried.

I sit down at my computer. There story's there in my mind, and I'm going to do an outline. Just a simple outline. Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. I can do that. Right? It's simple.

I stare at the monitor, my fingers poised.

Nothing.

I stand and stretch, get a drink, and come back.

I can do this. I'm organized and orderly in every other aspect of my life. For heaven's sake, my DVDs and spices are in alphabetical order!

The monitor stares back at me. The keyboard mocks me. Nothing comes. I've been at this for an hour, an hour of precious writing time and I have nothing to show for it.

Like a junky needing a fix, I have to do something, get it on paper. The story's there. It wants out. I've been dreaming scenes for days. Too many days. If I don't get it down, I'm going to lose it. I'm old that way.

From PowerPoint

Fine. What is I just write a little bit of the story? The beginning. Just a little and see if I can force an outline of some kind out there.

And I write. And write. And write.

It's thousands of words later, and I'm jazzed. The story's coming. I'm getting those scenes I've been dreaming about down finally.

Other things are happening that hadn't occurred to me before, taking me down different paths than what I've been dreaming about.

And I like the way it's going!

For me, once I'm actually in the writing, my creative juices just flow like crazy. It's like they feed off the starting ideas and blossom out like yeast fed some sugar (all right, I haven't have breakfast yet).

So, that's my problem. I keep hearing from authors who outline who talk about how much easier writing is if people will just plot things out first. I'm happy for them. I'm astounded I'm not one of them.

I don't just jump into a project blind. I have a psychological profile I do up for my main characters which helps me establish backstory and motivations. At lot of that stuff, however, grows as I write. Characters become important I hadn't even considered creating when I imagined the tale.

I use Dan Wells' 7 point story structure format. It's simple enough that I can get some basic stuff down that I know I want to happen without pinning me down too much.

I tried to outline once using 3x5 post-it notes. Got 35,000 words into the story and went in a completely different direction with the tale and negated all the rest of my cards. Stopped the story cold and it was months before I picked it up again.

For me, the writing happens in the edits. The sooner  I get it down on paper, the sooner I can do the real writing.

What about you? Are you a plotter or a panster? What's appealing to you about your chosen style?

International Talk Like a Pirate Day ... And Birthdays

Don`t be forgettin` today

be

Hermione Granger Weasley`s birthday

Source

AN'

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

So what  about ye? Will ye be celebratin'?

 

Ya scurvy cur who ortin' t' be keel hauled!