The End

Hello I'm back. No, I'm not ending the blog. I'm signaling the end of revisions and rewriting on my manuscript. It's in the mail to the GH and also to Silhouette. Yesterday I didn't feel pumped about the send off. After sweating over the story for 2 months I should have felt like cheering, or collapsing with relief, but all I could do was sigh and hope that this time I've done enough of the right stuff to get "the call". If not, it's back to the drawing board again!

So, now I turn my attention to the next book, a sexy, juicy story of blackmail. I'm going to try a little something different with this story. I'm going to attempt to write the last third of it before I write the middle. The reason I'm doing this is because I seem to write the story start to finish and end up revising the beginning and middle when the conflict meanders off the beaten path. I figure if I know where I'm supposed to end up, getting there will be easier.

I'm not sure it will work, but I'm eager to give it a shot.

I made it to Karin Tabke's 7th round. From 74 we are down to 35. My fantasy story is hanging in there amongst some really good writing and creative storytelling.

I've also decided to try for the Harlequin Presents contest. The winner will get an "editor for a year". I could learn so much in that time. The contest opens January 1st and runs through Valentine's Day. I have the perfect story to submit.

Back to work for me. I have lots to do and as usual not enough hours in the day!

Goals and Conflict

I have received a lot of great advice from the contests I've entered. So, it's time to give back.

I volunteered to judge and received a batch of entries yesterday. As I read them, I was reminded how important goals and conflict are to our stories. And I think this picture illustrates the tension between our characters striving for what they want more than anything in the world and the obstacles that stand (or lay) in their way.

On a side note, I hope the photographer had a big lens and was standing downwind because these cats seem awfully close.

Today's Goal: Finish my rewrite
Yesterday's Achievement: I registered for North Chicago RWA's Spring Fling in April
What I'm Grateful For: I made it to the next round of Karin Tabke's opening lines contest


Happy conflict!

Crafts for Christmas

With Halloween over and Thanksgiving approaching, I do believe it's time to start thinking about Christmas. In no time at all, the snow will be flying (actually my daughter saw flakes of that horrid white stuff yesterday) and people will break out the twinkling lights and decorate their trees. And what every tree needs is a tampon angel. I can see eyes lighting up all over the country. Where can I learn to make this you ask. Right here at Tampon Crafts. Have fun and let me know how those projects turn out.

Almost there

I've been working on a major rewrite for the last 2 months. I've taken 2 Writer U classes as I worked. I'm hoping I've fixed the problems with the last version of the story (and not created new ones in the process). I entered the story in the GH last year and have reentered it this year. After I entered it in the GH, I threw it into a bunch of contests to test the water. It didn't final in any (until I made some changes), but it scored in the top quarter of the GH with all the problems that hadn't allowed it to final in any of the other contests, doing a lot better in the GH than the manuscript that had been beating it all along. So, now that it's won a couple of contests and been looked at by countless individuals that know way more about writing than I do, I figure it will probably end up in the bottom quarter of the GH. LOL.

Whatever happens, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've improved in the last year. Shame on me if I haven't. At least I know I've met lots of great people, both on line and in person, and that I've been helped and I hope I've helped a little in return.

Now all I have to do is let go of this one and move on to the next.