Monthly Archives: January 2012

Where the heck have I been? (First breathing moment in two weeks!)

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Holy cow. I think it’s been two weeks since I updated my blog. Actually, a little more than two weeks. That is sort of inexcusable. In spite of that, I have a good excuse.

You see, I got my first round of line edits on The Sixth Fold (working title) back from my Carina Press editor. And may I say I love my new editor almost (well, maybe as much) as my old editor? She’s fantastic. The changes she suggested, while nothing drastic, smoothed the storyline out tremendously. I’m really excited about it.

I didn’t expect it to be as hard to edit The Sixth Fold as it was, however. You see, I’ve never edited a manuscript as long as this one. It’s nearly 90,000 words and believe it or not, when you get past about 50,000, you start to wonder if what you’ve written in the second half of the manuscript matches up with what you wrote in the first half. I’m not a writer who often makes a lot of notes, but if I’m going to write longer works, I may have to! At one point, I even started wondering if I had made my heroes eyes blue or green at the beginning of the book. It’s these little details that get you.

Suffice it to say that every time I sat down at the computer over the past two weeks, I edited. I simply didn’t have enough energy for anything else. Last night I sent off the last of those edits back to my editor, who will now try to figure out if what I did was actually fix my poor manuscript or simply apply bandaids. And if I did fix it, what else can we work on to make this the best book I’ve ever written?

So now I’m back and conversely, I have more energy than ever. I guess all that steady work over the past couple of weeks sharpened me up a bit. I plan to pull out WEEDS AND FLOWERS and get to work on the “second edition”. Once that’s up, I’ll put it up on Amazon for you to download and enjoy at your leisure. I also plan another giveaway on February 14, so stay tuned to get your free copy, hopefully typo free!

Where did I go wrong? The musings of a frustrated author…

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So I’ve been beating my head against a brick wall over my latest work-in-progress since November. I started it for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) got to the 42,000 word mark and realized I couldn’t make it any further. I kid you not, I could have written 8,000 more words of crap and finished the 50,000 word novel but I realized what I was writing would never be publishable. Ever.

So I started over.

It takes a lot to throw out almost 40,000 words of hard work, even if you know it’s crap. I did it. I started a rewrite. I made it almost to 50,000 words and hit the same roadblock. This time I threw out about half of it. Started again. A few days ago, I thought I’d figured out where it went wrong, cut out some of the scenes, rewrote some. It’s better now, and I think I can keep plugging along, but damn. It’s hard. I’m starting to wonder if I’m beating my head against a brick wall for no reason. My editor at Carina Press says I’ll have her line edits in a few days. Maybe I should just wait, get myself into editing mode. Maybe I should work on the second edition of WEEDS AND FLOWERS.

I decided to pull out a novel I finished a few months ago. I love this novel. I tentatively titled it DUCKS IN A ROW, and it’s about twin sisters, Cady and Cam, who are experiencing completely different problems in their lives but find the answers to them together. I read it. It’s got some problems and it needs a little TLC, but to be honest, I couldn’t actually believe that story came out of me after all the problems I’ve had with my current work-in-progress. It’s one of those stories where I’m pretty sure those characters actually came to life and told me their story.

Like my other novels, I feel like this one has magic in it.

So what to do? Put away my current w-i-p and all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve put in it? Start a new story? Get this old story ready to go and put it out there to be accepted or rejected as the publishing world sees fit? I think I’ve made up my mind. I’m happiest when I’m writing, but I’ve been through this before, too. Sometimes you just have to accept that the story you want to tell isn’t going to work no matter how much life you try to breathe into it. I’m hoping this one is just comatose and might wake up one day.

Excerpt from DUCKS IN A ROW:

“We’re not having an affair.” Cady glanced over her shoulder, keeping her voice low as her sister cleared the table.

“What would you call it?” When Cady didn’t answer, Cam set the plates she’d brought into the kitchen aside and faced her. “Did you kiss him?”

“It wasn’t like that.” Cady bit her lip. “I mean, yes, but—”

“But nothing.” Cam shook her head, turning on the water in the sink to rinse the dishes before handing them to Cady to put in the dishwasher. “Kissing’s more intimate than sex, if it’s done right. Did he do it right?”

Cady couldn’t help a little smile at the memory, and that was evidently all her sister needed. She shook her head. “See? You know what I mean then. Cady, you’re going to regret this.”

“I know.” Cady faced her sister and turned off the water Cam had absently left running. She glanced at the stairs her daughter had gone up a few moments before and the closed study door. She could hear Neil’s voice on the other side. Either he’d gotten the call he was waiting for or he’d grown too impatient to wait any longer. She sighed and looked back at Cam. “I already do. Not just for me or my family, either. For Will. He should have a family, somebody he could love.”

“So why the hell are you doing this?” Cam grabbed her sister’s arms and shook her. “Why are you taking this chance with your life and his?”

“I love him.” The words felt right in her mouth, even while she knew how wrong it was to say them.

Cam stared at her, then sank into a seat at the kitchen table. She stared at nothing while Cady finished the dishes and made two cups of coffee. When Cady sat across from her, Cam accepted the coffee automatically.

“Are you okay?” Cady peered at her sister anxiously. Cam looked so pale in the dim light.

“I just can’t believe this is happening.” Cam shook her head. “You’re really in love with him?”

Cady nodded. She took a sip of her coffee. “And you don’t have to tell me how wrong it is. We both know. We didn’t mean to—it just happened.” She reached over and touched the glittering diamond on her sister’s hand. “Like that, actually.”

Cam pulled her hand back, covering the ring as if it were too precious to be subjected to the current conversation. “That has nothing to do with it. What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?” Cady raised her eyebrows, leaning back in her chair.

“You know damn well what I mean.” Cam made an impatient movement as if to push something out of her way. “Are you going to have sex with him?”

Cady winced. “Geez, Cam. Way to couch those words in gentle expressions.”

“It’s sex even if you call it making love. It’s giving something intimate to someone besides your husband.” Cam’s expression challenged her sister. “And you didn’t answer the question.”

Hit me when you see an opening…

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Did anybody else ever play that game when they were kids? My brothers and I played it all the time, pretending we were boxers and yelling at each other, “Hit me when you see an opening!” Of course, we all got hit a few times, and it usually degenerated into a serious scuffle that prompted my mother to send us all outside to play.

Can you tell I was sort of a tomboy?

Anyway, that’s the way my schedule has been recently. If you want something from me, hit me when you see an opening. Unfortunately, I’ve let my blog fall by the wayside, too, and that’s no good. Anyway, to keep you up-to-date, here are a list of my activities so far this year:

1. Received and sent back a contract to Harlequin Enterprises. That was kind of a thrill. I’m now officially a Carina Press author!

2. Am working hard on my currently untitled work-in-progress. I recently started over for a third time! Ouch. That hurt. Couldn’t be helped, though. Every time I got to the sex scene between the hero and heroine, I just couldn’t make them do the deed. They haven’t fallen deeply enough in love. They like each other, but they’re not there yet. I’m really hoping the third time is the charm. I’m now 25,000 words into it and by rearranging and rewriting some existing scenes, I’ve salvaged some of the 50,000 plus words I’d already written. I do hate throwing hard work away!

3. Have gotten a few typos from readers of WEEDS AND FLOWERS. I have to say I’ve been sort of blown away (in a good way) by the reception my little novel received. I happen to love that story, but it was a gamble whether any of you would feel the same. I plan to give it a careful going through with a fine-tooth comb for the last of the editing mistakes and issue a “second edition” sometime in February. Be on the lookout since I’ll have another “free day” once that’s done.

And now I need to go buy a new vacuum cleaner, make a doctor’s appointment, call the bank, and draft a “room mom” letter for my son’s class. And any other of the myriad things that I put off because they get in the way of my writing.

Maybe if there’s an opening, a breathing moment will hit me!

A.J.’s Back: Announcing ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH!

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Congratulations to my friend A.J. Brown, whose story collection ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH is available in ebook form today from Dark Continents Publishing. I’ve never put together a short story collection, so I got A.J. to tell me a little about how it’s done. Welcome, A.J. Brown!

BREATHE: First off, congratulations on your new book! This has been a long time coming, and I know I’m not the only one of your readers who’s thrilled about it. Tell us a little about the stories in ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH.

A.J.: Thank you, Michelle and I’m happy you’re as thrilled as I am.

During the summer I submitted a few stories to Dark Continents Publishing. Though they didn’t accept it at that time, they liked one story in particular, “The Woodshed”. Then in early December I was contacted by DCP about submitting for an e-book release slated for early January, either a novella length story or several stories totaling around the 20-30 thousand word mark.

I submitted four and they took three of them. I think they chose the best three. They all seem to fit together in one way or other. I’m excited to see what the readers are going to say about it.

BREATHE: Two of your stories (“The Woodshed” and “‘Round These Bones”) have already made the journey into the published world but you chose to rework them for this collection. What do you think it was about these stories that made you pursue them?

A.J.: Actually, only “The Woodshed” has been published, but I still reworked both of the stories. Many people thought “The Woodshed” was good when it was published. It received some really good reviews. That was in 2008 and I’m a much better writer now than I was then. To be honest with you, I think everything I wrote before this year is crap.

What made me rework these stories (and about six others as well) was reading Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s not your typical writing tips book. It has an intimate feel to it. It has a challenging feel to it. In On Writing King mentions telling the truth in your lies, in your fiction. Not only that, he also said that the journey for the writer should be the same as the reader (per se). In other words, if I don’t enjoy the journey, then neither will the reader.

That went hand in hand with what I’ve always felt about writing: let stories breathe and they live—literally live—and the reader can feel those stories and get lost in them. I hate the cookie cutter stories, where everything is tried and true and no one is willing to take chances. So, I went back and looked at “The Woodshed”, saw holes in it, saw a lack of emotion and character and I felt like the very thing I loathe: cookie cutter writers.

I went back and rewrote the entire story, keeping parts, scrapping others. Then I did it again and again and again until this version came out. Even then, I had missed something crucial that the editor pointed out to me in the editing phase. Thankfully, we got that sorted out.

As far as “Round These Bones” is concerned, it was bad. Really bad. It was barely alive when I read it. I cringed and hoped I could make it better. I got rid of ninety percent of the original story and completely rewrote it. I let the story lead me instead of me leading the story. It was fun revisiting it and discovering where it should have went to start with.

BREATHE: How does “Phillip’s Story” fit with the other two? What made you choose it to complete the anthology?

A.J.: “Phillip’s Story” is a completely different piece. It’s really two stories in one and actually has a somewhat happy ending to it. It’s also a story that I wrote in one sitting and the first original I wrote after spending three months rewriting several pieces. It just took off and then the idea for the second part came to me and it went from there. It’s my favorite piece in the collection.

BREATHE: Tell me about the process of putting together a story collection. Did you choose a theme for it?

A.J.: When determining the stories for this collection I narrowed it down to six that I really thought were good and that could fit together as a group. I whittled that down to five and had several readers take a look at them. In the end, I went with the four I thought were the strongest and DCP picked up the three best ones.

As far as a theme, I didn’t realize there was one until my friend, Paula Ray, mentioned it. I had completely overlooked a crucial element of the collection: a title. So, when I was asked for a title I drew a complete blank. I have a title in mind for a future collection, but it is definitely theme oriented and I didn’t want to use it for this one.

I gave a synopsis of all the stories to a group of my writer friends and Paula immediately came back with the stories having one common connection: torment and discovery. Then she added, “How about Along the Splintered Path?”

I’m not going to lie, I have sweated about this since the offer came to submit again. I want this to be great. I want the readers to enjoy it. You understand how that is, Michelle. The readers are the most important people in a writer’s world—without them, we are nothing. Period. So, having the opportunity to do this is huge for me.

BREATHE: You know I have to ask: Are there any particularly interesting character names in these stories?

A.J.: Michelle, I’ve been following your blog and I see that you’ve done another Rose is A Rose series—I think you should do one of these each year to see how things change for writers.

As for my characters, there is definitely an importance to Phillip’s name. It was the only name that felt right. The same goes with Hollis Williams, one of the other characters in “Phillip’s Story.” To me Hollis was the type of name that said he could be a big fellah, maybe a little goofy or not all together there, which is what I was going for. The tragedy that is Hollis Williams is a vital part of the story and I gave his name a lot of thought. Of all the characters in the collection, those two names are the most important.

Buy ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH now!

Type AJ Negative

2011 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

New Year, New Book, Free Book! Send Me A Typo Offer.

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Happy Free Book Day! Seriously. Well, free Kindle download, anyway. If you’d like to read WEEDS AND FLOWERS, today is the day to do it. It’s available today only at Amazon.com for free download. Go check it out: WEEDS AND FLOWERS.

I re-read it yesterday. At first I couldn’t put it down. I was blown away by my own literary awesomeness. No kidding. Then I got into a couple of rough spots and had to wince a little. I sort of wished I’d re-read it (again) before I jumped right on it and published it. So I decided to offer a deal to you guys who suffer through my rough self-editing. Send me a typo from WEEDS AND FLOWERS in the next week and I’ll send you a copy of one of my other (professionally edited) books free. Or you can choose to receive my as-yet-untitled romance due out from Carina Press sometime this summer. Just specify which book you prefer and what format you’d like it in (for Nook, Kindle, etc.).

And enjoy your New Year, by the way!