October Goals

This has been a random month. Writing the end to Decoy was both exciting, and like pulling teeth. I’ve been kind of bouncing around, not really steady, so in a large part this month has been frustrating. I wanted to get more done than I did, but I did what I set out to do. I knew heading into September that I needed a breather. I needed to focus on fewer projects and get other, non-writing things taken care of, like finding a new place to live! And work!

Overall, September was a great month that went by far too quickly. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while because of FenCon, and it didn’t disappoint in being an eventful month!

September Goals!

• FenCon critiques.  There are 18 of them to do. Very time consuming.
• Finish the additions to Decoy and set aside for at least a week.

What I did…

• FenCon critiques – all of them.
• Decoy’s ending is done, but now I want to write a new beginning!
• Finished writing a novella I haven’t mentioned.

Yes, I randomly wrote a new novella/short novel! The workshop was an interesting experience. It was good, but I think I need to focus my feedback on my audience instead of settling for feedback, period.

Okay, October! October is an unfortunate month. It’s right before NaNo, which is always a drain, so I like to take October easy, at least as far as writing goes. I hope to get revisions on at least one project done and loads of reading. I’ve seriously been slacking on my Book Addicts duties and I need to step it up.

I don’t quite know what I want to write for NaNoWriMo, but I hope to get the project ironed out over the next month so I can work on it during November.

October Goals!

• Write new beginning for Decoy.
• Revise on Decoy.
• Plan for NaNoWriMo.
• Read. Lots.

Well, that’s what I have going on. How about you?

Weekly Check-In

This was a good week, even if I didn’t write tons and tons.  There were a lot of life things I had to take care of, like, where the heck am I going to live?  I need to move and since the house drama fell through I need to look for a new place and I really don’t want to!  I looked at a bazillion houses and I don’t want to look at anything else!  But, I’ve found a great place that will give me room for an office area and a big living area, so it’s all good!

Blogging.

I’m being a terrible blogger.  I had a series idea that I was going to do, and never wrote it.  I’m thinking about including another blog mem with my weeks blogging.  Any suggestions or thoughts?

Okay, updating this.  I’m going to start blogging on Sundays, doing the Sunday Salon where I discuss or talk about a book I’m reading.

Critiquing.

I’m almost done with my FenCon critiques!  I’m super excited about this.  The workshop submissions have been all over the place.  It’s a good experience critiquing a wide variety of manuscripts.  I’d suggest doing a workshop that involves a lot of critiquing at least once.  It might not be your thing, but it’s a good learning experience.

Revising.

This week I’m starting another revising project.  It’s been written, I’ve gone over it a little but I haven’t really dug into it.  That starts this week.  Thankfully it’s a short project so it won’t take too long, maybe a week or two depending on how long I have to focus on it, and then I’m off to critique partners and stuff.

Writing.

This last week I finished my zombie story!  Decoy is officially done, and a full length novel.  I’m super jazzed about this and I hope everyone else loves it as much as I do.  It’s a heck of a long way from being done-done, but having the rough draft completed is a big step.  I know some things need to be changed and I want to weave in a few things I tossed in at the end.  I’m super hopeful!

What I read.

• Dark Sins by Stephanie Draven
• Cindra’s Bounty Hunter by Paige Tyler

What I’m planning to read…

I plan.  A lot.  Last month I barely read at all which was a not good thing.  It was partly because I didn’t have time to do everything so reading slipped and I didn’t really feel like it.  I know, it was scary for me too.  Now I’m back to reading and I feel like I’m dehydrated for words.  I have a lot of books on my shelves but it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so I thought I’d share with you what I plan on reading!

• Toby Daye series by Seanan McGuirre – I’ve already read books 1-3, and need to go buy the 4th book in the series so I’m up to date on what’s going on.
• Burning Down the Spouse by Dakota Cassidy – Um, it’s Dakota therefore it will rock.  Hard and with much laughter.
• Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix – This book has been sitting on my shelf for a few months, and it’s been on my Want To Read list for longer.  Since Black Heart Loa was just released, the second book, it seems like an opportune time to read them, huh?
• Archangel series by Nalini Singh – I was ‘saving’ this for a special occasion, but ya know what? I want to read them.  Badly.  So I will!
• Skeleton Crew by Cameron Haley – It’s urban fantasy and gangs and the first book was pretty cool.  This fits under both want to read and researching material.

So that’s eight books I want to read in the near future.   Most of which I already own.  Hurray!

What are you reading?

Fourth of July Weekend Plans

I have none.  Well, I do, but they don’t involve going out and doing anything.  Some stuff is keeping me home-bound for the weekend and really – that’s okay!  I’m realizing that the France trip is coming up far too soon, if you follow me on Twitter you know I’m about to  buy a house and then there are all of the normal ins and outs of life as well.

So for this weekend I’ll be revising and working on a super secret new project.  And probably watching a lot of documentaries, because they’re my new TV of choice. Oh, I might read something or even get caught up on Dr Who!  That’s fairly exciting.

What are your plans?

#ToBeReMo Kick Off!

I forgot to mention this, but today kicks off another edition of #ToBeReMo organized by my friend Suzan.  For the official sign up blog go here.  Unlike December, I’m going for Moderate, reading 4-6 books.  My brain is too fried from the Savvy Boot Camp to do too much this month.

I need to read young adult books and research material so I won’t be that interesting.  However, Mira Grant’s Deadline and Ilona Andrews Magic Slays are on their way to my apartment right now so there will be some awesome reads in store.

So what are you reading?

Reading outside your comfort zone.

Last year I set a goal for myself to read outside of my comfort zone.  I discovered that there were things I liked reading that I wouldn’t have had I not looked outside of the norm for myself.  There were also things that I didn’t want to read again because – I just didn’t like it.  And that’s okay.

A lot of my abnormal reading centered around exploring romance genres.  Before I was okay with romance arcs, but I rarely read anything where the romance played center stage.  And now look at me.  I’m a romance junkie, wholeheartedly.

I was reading a romance wherein the heroine wants to explore some of her fantasies.  She makes a point in saying that the books she’s read up until those adventurous phase of her life kicked in allowed her all the control.  She could continue reading or she could put it down and never go back into that world or the situation again.  Now, the character had some specific curiosities and reading the book I found myself thinking that I would never read those kinds of books!

During one of my rereading phases I picked this book back up and read it and when I got to the particular exploration part again, I still had the same thoughts but I also stepped back and asked myself: Is it fair to make this kind of judgment if I haven’t even read anything like that?

Nope, it’s not fair.

So I’m reading some genre erotics and see what I think.  I’m calling myself out.  In the past I’ve read some erotic books, but they were by accident or for review.  (Yes, there is a difference.)  The difference is that I’m selecting them.  I’m also going to read a mystery.  I cringe at the thought, but the mystery plot device plays into so many other genres that I shouldn’t have that kind of a knee jerk reaction.  I’m sure that I’ll add something else to this pile of things I should read, but those are the two that I have had the most bigoted response to reading.

Here are some recommendations from my reading so far:

• Alien Revealed by Lilly Cain (Carina Press title)- This is a longer sci-fi novella.  I was skeptical when I read about it being about aliens and I expected to  DNF.  I was wrong!  The race and universe building were really good and I’m genuinely interested to see if there is more that explores the alien race.  It has plot, it has spies, it has sexiness, aliens with mental powers and natural tattoos, and it has very light bondage.  Not what I was expecting, in a good way.  (Note: there is a second book in coming out June 13th called Naked Truth that features two characters introduced in AR.)
• Anything by Julia Devlin – I met her doing #1k1hr sprints on twitter, and I’ve read all but one of her ebooks.  Her books, they sizzle.  You can tell through the descriptions what the couple’s thing is.  Pride and Surrender, mostly just downright sexy, one kink bit.  A Whole New Light isn’t for the faint of heart.  It explores the sub/dom dynamic.  Riding the Rail is another sexy one, the characters seem to have a thing for public places.
• Wizard Moon by Michele Bardsley – super funny, but this is not for the weak of heart.  The story is quite naughty, but told with Michele’s trademark humor and snark.
• The Bottom Line by Shelley Munro – The heroine explores her interest in spanking, and hilarity ensues, and then tragedy.  Very light kink, lots of funny.  I need to look through her other books.  Her writing was fun, and she’s from New Zeland and her characters play rugby.  Um, heck yes?  Rugby games are way fun!

Is there a genre you don’t read, or topics that you refuse to read about?

Weekly Update!

The last few weeks my updates have been very brief.  I think that it’s been a product of how dissatisfied I’ve been with where I was in my WIP.  I’ve been sloshing through the murky middle and questioning myself so much that I wasn’t really feeling like writing much at all, but now that I’m to a place where I’m excited about what I’m writing – I’m excited about writing anything and everything!  So, here goes…

Blogging.

I’m working on three different monthly series.  Fiction writing as therapy, goals and antagonists.  I’m not sure when I will post them or in what order.  I’m working on getting some other people involved who have some more experience in these areas than I do.  I’ll need to get cracking on these sooner rather than later, but I’m still working on all my craft projects for March.  Yikes! So much going on and so much to do!

Revising.

Nada.  Next month will be ALL about the revisions and self-editing.  I even signed up for a self editing class (mostly because my clone-mother Suzan did, lol).  I’m excited about this because I hope to be focusing on Blood Bound by then.

Plotting.

Because there’s so many people working on their stuff for Warrior Writer Boot Camp, I offered to table my submission last week, which is my 2nd Antagonist for my horror story.  His name is Jonah and he’s pretty cool.

In other news, I’ve been watching shows about psychics and other kinds of paranormal investigations.  The style of the investigations is interesting.  Some focus on dealing with them from a religious stand-point, where others just want to catalogue th experience and move on.  I think I should write up some short articles about it and save them for later posts perhapse.

One of the psychics/mediums/sensitives that appears on both Paranormal State and Psychic Kids, Chris Coffey, is going to be in Dallas.  He’s hosting some kind of two hour thing that costs $50.  If you pay $100 you can go on a ghost hunt after the event.  I’m really tempted just because he conducts himself as a professional and my hokey meeter doesn’t mind him.  I did google local paranormal investigators and I’m curiously cautious about contacting them for some interviews and discussing how they conduct their investigations.  I’ll save that for closer to my plotting phase.

Writing.

After last weekend, I’ve had a lot of success writing.  There were a few days when I only wrote a few hundred words because of time restraint and everything else going on, but overall I’ve been powering through my draft.  It’s been really exciting since I hit the high point in the middle.  I think it’s really important to get into the habit of daily writing.  Right now my goal is just to write some each and every day.  Even if it’s only a few hundred words, it’s still moving forward.

Project: Formerly Fat Club: Casual Love
Genre: contemporary romance
Type: novel
Progress: I’m super excited about the story right now!  I was dwindling a bit before I hit last weekend, but achieving that high point in the story really made me feel more excited about the story.  I’m on to writing all about the complicated first steps in a relationship and I’m genuinely excited every day about the time I’m going to sit down and write.  The weekend was really productive, but judging from how far I am into the plot and the word count, I’m just going to have to accept that I started the story way too far in advance.  I’ll be blogging about tough judgments in your manuscript later today, but I’m not letting this get me down!  Just means I need to write more, and be very serious about my writing time.

What I read.

I’m really, really, really excited about a lot of books coming out late spring/early summer.  The ones I’m currently jonesing for the most are Dark Enchantment by Anya Bast, the third in her Dark Magic series, and Kiss of Snow, number like nintybillion in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series.  I’m supposed to be reading for April Book Addicts stuff, but all I’ve wanted to do this week is re-read stuff.  This is dangerous, as all the dabwaha voting is going on makes me want to reread all these awesome books like The Iron Duke, Byou Moon, There Be Monsters, Lead Me On, the Kate Daniels books, and I’ve been holding out on even starting Nalini Singh’s Archangel series!  I could spend about two weeks rereading all of these books because they rock that much.

And don’t ask me what dabwaha stands for.  It’s like Fantasy Football, but for books.  so it’s like Fantasy Book Stuff… Um, ignore me.  You pick which books you think will win over other books and starting March 16th we start voting on rounds.  It’s been so much fun to watch people trash talk on twitter.

• Wicked Enchantment – Anya Bast
• Sweet Enchantment – Anya Bast
• Stroke of Enticement – Nalini Singh
• Lead Me On – Victoria Dahl
• Wanderlust – Ann Aguirre
• A Whole New Light – Julia Devlin
• Riding the Rail – Julia Devlin

Was I thinking?

So as I sit here, contemplating my to read shelf and what things I want to make sure get read, reviewed, or just enjoyed in the near future – I asked myself this question:

Why don’t I include what I’m reading in my weekly update?

Yeah?  Why don’t I?

I review books for Book Addicts, but I also read a lot of stuff that will never make it into the review rotation just because of the sheer bulk of it.  I read fast, and I read a lot.  Granted sometimes my focus is reading instead of knitting or writing or whatever, you get the point!

And, what you read often has an impact on what you write.  I’ve been looking for urban fantasy type books with a desert setting.  Reading is research and serious business!

So next week I’m going to incorporate reading goals and progress into my update.  Since I’m going to the effort of making this post, I’m going to share what I want to get read this week!

1. Accidentally Catty by Dakota Cassidy – I’ve already read this once.  I need to do a re-read for review purposes.  I have a pitiful review because I thought someone else would snag the book to review and I wasn’t going to fight over it, but I’m reviewing it!  So, I need a reread!
2. Deadly Fear by Cynthia Eden – This is in the mail as we speak.  I’m insanely excited about this book, and also need to read it ASAP for reviewing.
3. Sweet as Sin by Inez Kelly – Suzan recommended this and I bought it, just haven’t read it yet.

I have a little breathing room right now before I need to focus on review reading for April, so I really should take advantage of it, but I crammed three of the Kate Daniels books in over the last four days, so I need to get some other things done as well.  Should I get through those three books this week, the next ones on my list are steampunk, zombie noir, and urban fantasy – woohoo!

What are you reading?

Whew!

Well alright, there’s been a lot – and then not a lot – going on. It’s been sort of a huge sweeping pendulum.

Last week I sent off my novella to Samhain, which was both a huge relief and a thrill. I like what I turned out and though I’m not sure that it fits what they were looking for, I know I took a chance and I’m okay with that. I’m toying with extending the plot in the case that it is not accepted and submitting it elsewhere.

I’ve also been doing a lot of reading. So far in January I’ve read like 30+ books. What. The. Heck. Where do I find the time?

My revisions are starting slowly as far as Gate Keepers is concerned. I really should have done more on it this week, but I didn’t and I’ll have to double time it this week.

And, as of this weekend, I have a new project to work on, well, two really. One is something I started last year but never followed through on, and the other is a new idea.

Brief update, yes, but I’ll be doing a monthly check in soon!

Hellllooooooooooo!

Okay, work trip to Florida was uh-mazing, and now I’m home and wondering what the heck to do with myself. Well, one thing I need to do is organize my TBR shelf in accordance with what I need to review for the upcoming months. Yeah, it’s so hard being me.

So with that said, I’m going to bullet a list of books that I’ll be reading in the near/immediate future.

First up, I need to read the review books for February, which are the Chinooks Hockey series by Rachel Gibson. There’s a few I’ve read and will need to reread, but currently I need to read True Love & Other Disasters and Nothing but Trouble.

After that, I need to decide what books I’m actually reviewing for February. I’m off the hook for the series fix in March so really I just need to organize the new releases I want to read and what books are on my TBR and I’m all set! So here’s what my list looks like at the moment:

• True Love & Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson
• Nothing but Trouble by Rachel Gibson
• Never Again by Michele Bardsley
• Deadly Heat by Cynthia Eden
• The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers
• Demon Angel by Meljean Brooks
• Pegasus by Robin McKinley
• Lost Hero by Rick Roidan
• The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick
• Half Past Dead by Zoe Archer and Bianca D’Arc
• Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
• The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
• Mister Monday by Garth Nix

So, considering this list, I’m thinking I might start the Keys to the Kingdom series with Mister Monday next, but after a shower, some food and Torchwood.

Tomorrow I’ll probably do some serious writing thinking, but today is about, well, not writing!