Book giveway!!

I'm posting at SFR Brigade blog today and I'm giving away a box of books, all science fiction romances. If you leave a comment there today, you'll be included in the random drawing for the books--14 in all.

Summer Book Challenge report

Although I wasn't able to complete the first draft of my summer book challenge book, a science fiction romance called A Pirate's Honor, I'm pleased to announce that I'm 68,936 words along.

All I have left to write is the black moment and ending. I should have no trouble completing this by the end of this month.

So, that said, my goal for September is to finish and write 'the end' to this draft.

I'm looking forward to putting this manuscript aside for a bit, so I can work on a few short stories and novellas for a change.

Still plugging away...

I started writing the first draft of my science fiction romance, I'm calling A Pirate's Honor, on June 1st. And while it's been hectic this summer, I managed to complete 59,286 words as of yesterday. My word count goal is about 80,000 words. A little more than 20,000 to go.

I've mostly been writing on weekdays and not every day, depends on what other tasks and complications arise, but that's a lot of words for a couple of months work. Of course, once I've finished the draft, I'll have to put it aside for a few months and work on something else. But I do look forward to writing 'the end'.

And to accomplish that feat, I've place my butt in my desk chair every afternoon for days on end. I bring up the file, read the last couple of pages I wrote the day before, confer with my plot sheet and write.

It's been working out so far. I've had no blocks or stoppages, except to work through plot points in the murky middle of the story I haven't yet worked out, but it seems to be going smoothly so far. One scene feeds into another. I hope to have the draft completed before the end of September.

For writers out there, how do you keep going when working on the first draft of a novel?

Writing on my own time

Now that my latest manuscript's been rejected, I decided to devote all my writing time to the first draft of my science fiction romance. My plan is to write at least 1000 words each weekday and try, if I can to stretch it to 1500. I also have to continue to plot out the middle of this story. The beginning and ending are plotted out, but there's a lot of middle I'm still not sure of.

But I like working at my own pace for a change. And since it's summer, once I get my word count done and do at least a little bit of plotting, I can spend a little time before starting dinner to pleasure read.

My current read is Linnea Sinclair's Finders Keepers. I'm about 80% through and really hate to have to put this one down. So, if dinner gets held up...oh, well.

But it's really nice to have some downtime each day for a change. The past few weeks have been deadline hell!

Been totally neglecting the blog...

... but it is summer, we've just celebrated a major American holiday and I've been swamped with non-writing related work. Have to make money, after all.

But I'm all caught up and thought I'd post about my latest project. I'm working through the first draft of a science fiction romance, I'm tentatively calling, A Pirate's Honor. The first title for this work was Moons of Cynara, but I realized I was heading in the wrong direction and had to put it aside, then come back to the manuscript with a new vision.

I'm about 25,000 words into the draft, but still have a way to go. I hope I can complete or nearly complete the draft by Labor Day. We'll see.

Things have been non-existent on the writing scene for the past few weeks for me, due to lack of time, but now I'm free...at least for now...to get back into this new project.

Of course, the life of a freelance writer is full of distractions. Hopefully, I can stay on course, unless I get a new contract. That would be a welcome distraction.

Ready to take on new writing goal!

It's nearly the end of May and for the second year in a row, I'm ready to start a summer book challenge. The goal is to write the first draft of a brand new novel.

Last summer I completed the first draft of Cassidy's War, the historical romance manuscript I just resubmitted to my editor after finishing up a revision request. This summer, I want to write my first science fiction romance. I've tentatively titled it, A Pirate's Honor.

I was plotting out this book off and on while working on other projects and while I have the beginning and end all plotted out I'm kind of stuck in the middle. But I have enough plotted out to get a good start, so the plan is to start writing and plot the middle out as I move along.

The challenge starts on June 1st, so for this upcoming week I'm going to try to complete the first draft of a short story. Then starting in June, my book will be top priority, unless I get a new contract of course. But that's completely up to my editor.

Have to clear the decks...

I'm starting an online workshop on Monday that I hope will help me figure out the fuzzy middle of my new science fiction romance. I've decided to change the title from Jason's Honor to A Pirate's Honor. What do you think?

I still have to finish up the revision on Cassidy's War. I'm a little past the half-way point, so I've decided not to work on any new projects this month. I'll have enough on my plate.

Hopefully, I'll finish that revision and get it back to my editor before the end of the month. My goal is to start writing the SFR on June 1st as part of a summer book challenge. Don't know if I'll get the entire first draft completed by Labor Day, but I hope to have most of it in the bag.

New ideas are busting out all over!!

And I couldn't be more happy!

After putting all my other projects aside to complete the revision on my newest historical romance, following a rejection, I learned I'd made a sale of a short contemporary story to a magazine.

That was the spark that sent ideas for other stories I want to write swirling through my head. I decided I just had to spend this morning getting them down on paper. The first is a premise for another contemporary story geared to the same magazine. Then I wrote down an idea I've been toying with for a time travel novella. It would be follow-up to my time travel romance, Erin's Rebel.

Next, the science fiction romance that I'd put aside to focus on the revision. While I'm still outlining this one, I've been having a hard time coming up with the slam-bang opening I wanted. I did write a tentative one, but it just wasn't right. I've also renamed this one Jason's Honor, because the original story has changed from first conception. After writing down my new story ideas, I got an idea on how to open the sci-fi. I spent the remainder of the morning writing the first 1000 words of the new opening and I like it.

I'll post the unedited version of the first page here. Tell me if it captures your interest.

Chapter One

Sharp, blinding white-hot pain shot through Kyra Mackenzie’s skull as she made a vain effort to lift her head.

What the hell happened?

Rolling over to get a better view didn’t help. Knife-sharp pain in her shoulder jolted her from where she lay flat on the decking. The cockpit of her shuttle now twisted into an unrecognizable shape. Her pilot slumped unconscious or dead, still strapped into his seat.

She lifted herself on her good arm, dragging her frame over to him.

“Carlos?” She grasped his wrist, willing him to be alive. “Carlos!” The ensign didn’t stir, but she was able to pick up a pulse, thank God.

She shook her aching head in an effort to clear it. Her last memory was of the pirate ship, the Gracie Lind, bearing down on the shuttle, ordering them to return to their ship. She’d contacted the Darius, but before she’d gotten an answer to her hail the pirates had fired on the shuttle, sending them into a downward spiral. Despite her pilot’s best efforts, he was only able to slow their inevitable crash.

It's a beautiful day!

Finally, after months of bone-chilling, buried in snow, or drowning in buckets of rain weather, we're experiencing our first real touch of spring. The temps are supposed to rise to 72 degrees here.

And it's making it all that much harder to stick at my desk and work. But I put in more than a solid hour of plotting out my science fiction romance story. For now, I'm calling it Jason's Honor, although that might change. I have the general plot worked out and for now, am working on a scene by scene outline. Although I have a lot of blank pages right now, the beginning and end of the story are really starting to jell. Just have to work on that darned middle.

I've also been working on an idea for a short comtemporary romance and ideas were flashing through my head early this morning, while I was busy with my workout and household things. Just have to sit my butt in the chair with my pad and write them down. That little story is starting to come alive too. It always seems the ideas come when I'm doing non-writing related things.

Revisioning

With so many new releases out in a short space of time, I've been spending a great deal of my writing time on book promotion.

But I need to take some time to actually work on writing, otherwise, I'll have nothing new to promote in the future.

I did recently submit a short story to a magazine, but now have to wait to see if they're interested. I also wrote two full-length manuscripts that I have to revise.

The first one is my first science fiction romance that I'm calling Moons of Cynara. Don't know if that title will stick, but for now, I'm going with it. I recently reread that manuscript and I do have to add at least 7000 words to get it up to my planned minumum word count of 80,000 words. So, I'm trying to see what I can add to flesh out the story. I may also change some of the basic story to enhance the original plot. I actually feel this part of the process is just as creative as writing the first draft.

I'm hoping I can complete this revision in the next couple of months, so I can get started on revising the first draft of my post Civil War romance. I haven't looked at it since I finished the draft in early September.

With two full-lengths to revise, I realize I've got my work cut out for me. For all you writers out there, what is your favorite part of working on a story? Is it the first draft, the revision or the final edit? And what part to you hate the most?

For me, I think the revision stage is my favorite, because I feel like I'm improving and enhancing my basic story.

When Life Throws You For a Loop...

I haven't posted here for awhile because of things going on in my life right now. Although writing is very important, family always comes first. But things are starting to settle a bit and I'm trying to get back into my ongoing writing projects.

I'm still working on the first draft of my science fiction romance and am editing a short story, a Civil War Christmas story, that I have to get done and submit by April 1st. So, while family comes first, I think I'll be able to get a handle on those two projects.

The great thing about writing romance fiction is I can get away from real problems for awhile, while I explore adventures with my characters, whether they're in the past or future on a far off planet.

Writing is my therapy.

Diving Back In

Since I've finished up several projects, at least for the time being, the time has finally come for me to dive back into my science fiction romance, Moons of Cynara. I started off by reading what I'd written so far of the first draft, almost 200 pages.

I thought I'd cringe when I reread the beginning of the story, but I find I really like these characters and world I've created. Of course, I just couldn't resist a bit of revising and editing as I read. And today I added 1285 new words to my word count. It helps that I have the entire story plotted out. When I got to the last page, I didn't have to try to figure out what came next.

For tomorrow, I'll try to write at least another 1000 words, then just keep adding on. The best part is, I'm having fun.

End of January

Just realized it's already the last day of January. A good thing in my eyes, since it means we're just that much closer to spring. I had to look over my January goals to see what I've accomplished. Of course, I did get sidetracked by that galley for Confederate Rose, but that superceded all other goals, because now I've got that September 2009 release date.

Although, now that I've looked, I see I neglected to post my goals for January. I just have a list of what I want to accomplish this year. So, I'll list what I did get done this month.

1. Finished galley work for Confederate Rose and got my release date of September 25, 2009.

2. Finished revising my short vampire story, Sweet Redemption. All I have to do now is give it a final polish and send it back to the editor.

3. Wrote most of the first draft of my short Civil War Christmas story, The Christmas Ball. I'm working on the final scene now. Why, oh why, do I have such a hard time writing those final scenes?

4. I'm re-reading the partial first draft of my full-length science fiction romance, Moons of Cynara to reacquaint myself with the story. I'd written the first 200 pages before I had to stop to work on the Confederate Rose galley. And I just can't resist doing a bit of editing as I go along.

Looks like I did accomplish a lot this month. My goals for February will be to:

1. Finish up and re-submit Sweet Redemption.

2. Finish the first draft of The Christmas Ball, take a two week break from it and revise.

3. Start back on the first draft of Moons. Not sure how many pages or words I'll have time to write for it, since I'll be working on it between other projects, but if I can complete another 100 pages by the end of the month, I'll be happy.

2009 Goals

So, what do I want to accomplish in 2009?

First of all I want to finish the projects I'm working on at present.

• complete outline for short Christmas story
• write first draft
• revise and polish, then submit by April 1st
• complete first draft of science fiction romance, Moons of Cynara
• after a long break from it, I'd like to revise, polish and search out publishers to submit to
• submit partials to selected publishers
• revise short vampire story, Sweet Redemption and resubmit to editor
• finish proofread of galley for Confederate Rose
• work with editor on contracted anthology story
• start on promo for Erin's Rebel close to the release date of July 17th

Well, that's my list for now. All of these are projects already contracted or in development. It looks like a lot, so I'll see how it goes.

December Goals

A little late, but here goes.

1) Get my word count for the first draft of my science fiction romance up to 40,000 words by the end of the month.

Since my word count now stands at 26, 673, I only have 13, 327 words left to go.

2) Complete the outline for a short American Civil War Christmas story by the end of the month.

I've already gotten a start on this one too.

And my contracted edits are out of the way, so I don't see any problems in completing these two goals. I'll let you know how I did and also list my 2009 goals at the end of December.

November Goals Update!

Well, seems I've outdone myself on this one, despite tons of distractions this month. My goal was to complete the first 20,000 words of the first draft for my new sci-fi romance story. And by November 30th, my total word count ended up at 21,568.

A great start!

Working On Something New

I've started the first draft of my first ever science fiction romance this week and have already completed the first 6030 words.

After writing historical and paranormal/historical, writing sci-fi just feels like fun. That's not to say I'll stop writing those other genres, because they were a lot of fun too. It's just that switching my gears brings out a fresh feeling to my writing.

What do all of you out there think about switching genres? Do you think it's a good thing for writers to stretch their wings?

November Goals

About time I post my writing goals for November. Since I'm in the middle of galley proofs and edits for Erin's Rebel and Confederate Rose, I'm only listing one goal for this month.

1) Start first draft of my new science fiction romance, Moons of Cynara.
My goal is to write the first 20,000 words this month.

Be back at the end of the month to let you know how I did.

Monthly Goals

Well, I managed to meet my October goals, one by a hair.

1) Edit, proofread and submit Sweet Redemption, my new vampire story.
I've done this and am just waiting to hear back from my editor.

2) Finish outline for Moons of Cynara, my first science fiction romance.
Also finished. I actually didn't finish until November 1st, but it's close enough.

Be back with my November goals.

October Writing Goals

Okay, figured out what I want to accomplish writing-wise for the month of October.

1) Edit, proofread and submit my short vampire story, Sweet Redemption.

2) Finally finish the outline for my full-length science fiction romance.

I think I can work both these projects in among the work I have to do with all my contracted stories. So, we'll see how I do.