It’s a Blog Hop!
Posted on January 4, 2018 Leave a Comment
When I posted on Wednesday for #IWSG, I forgot to add in the Blog Hop. Details! haha….
For those of you who like to do Blog Hops, or if you just are curious, here it is:
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Writing on a Schedule
Posted on January 2, 2018 5 Comments
Schedules are funny things. We have them for so many aspects of our lives: work, deadlines, appointments, school, etc. We keep our lives orderly by keeping a schedule, but does keeping a schedule keep us happy? For some people a schedule is a heavy weight hanging on a thin thread ready to crash down. For others, it is a salvation that steers the ship through each day.
I was recently asked, “What steps have you taken, or plan to take, to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?” My reply every time is, “Nothing.” I hate schedules so when someone asks if I have one for my writing I really cringe at the thought of making one.
It isn’t that I can’t meet deadlines. Give me one and I’m there. Need a story tomorrow about widgets in the 20th Century? I’ll have to you early. Want a blog post about modern kitchens by January 30th? You’ll have it by the 25th. Ask me to creatively write on a schedule? Well, that’s a different animal indeed.
Writing creatively, on a schedule, is like asking a painter to have their masterpiece done by Tuesday. And, by the way, they have to paint on Wednesday from 6:00 am to noon and Friday 5:00 pm to midnight. Final touch-ups have to happen on Sunday, leaving Monday to let it dry. Really?
Creativity doesn’t happen on a schedule. It is more like a flow of energy that comes in waves and currents like the rapids and eddies along a river. It trickles through pebbles during dry spells and when the rains come it turns into a raging force that can’t be stopped just because it’s not on the schedule.
No. I won’t be making a writing schedule for 2018, but I do have some deadlines I want to keep. The Manx is long overdue for completion, and I have too many other projects zinging around in my head that are dying to get onto paper. So, my plan is to get The Manx finished, submitted, and published, without a schedule (dare I say this?) by the close of 2018.
BAM!
Many thanks to the Insecure Writers Support Group for their continued inspiration and support. You all keep me writing!!
Another thank you to our wonderful co-hosts for the January 3 posting of the IWSG who are Tyrean Martinson, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Megan Morgan, Jennifer Lane, and Rachna Chhabria!
It’s Almost Over, Saying Goodbye to 2017
Posted on December 6, 2017 8 Comments
What many people may not realize about being a writer is that it can be nerve wracking. We writers pour our hearts and souls into what we do, and if there is a single misspelled word we feel failure. It is not an easy job, but one that we all feel crazily compelled to do. We can be an insecure bunch of people, but we are not in it alone.
I am a member of The Insecure Writers Support Group, and every month we are given a question that we can answer in our IWSG post. These questions may prompt us to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. This month, the last in a very long year, our question is:
As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?
The only thing I would do differently is to wrap my entire family in bubble wrap. Without going into detail, let me just say that seeing the inside of nine emergency rooms in twelve months is more than anyone should have to go through. (No one died this year, so there’s that). To say the least, this put a huge crimp on my writing progress. Getting a story out has been the last thing on my to-do list.
It wasn’t all bad though. I did manage to complete a couple of short stories, several blog posts, and I wrote everyday for NaNoWriMo. My debut novel, The Manx, is shaping up with characters that are living and breathing entities in a brilliant world. I also attended two writing conferences (PPWC and RMFW) where I reconnected with writers across the country and re-energized my creative battery. I also had the pleasure to meet one of my favorite authors, Diane Gabaldon.
At book signing during RMFW2017
My advice to anyone who is in the thick of life’s challenges? Get through it anyway you can. Writing does not have to be at the top of your to-do list, but sometimes it should surface to the top just so you can have a few moments of sanity. It is okay to let the words fall by the side of the road while you are trying to maintain a straight direction with four flat tires.
Say goodbye to 2017 because 2018 will be a better year. It has to be.
Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for the December 6 posting of the IWSG, Julie Flanders, Shannon Lawrence, Fundy Blue, and Heather Gardner!
The Enhanced Series
Posted on December 4, 2017 Leave a Comment
My favorite kind of reading are multiple books, and T. C. Edge has a ten book series that I was excited to get to reading. Book One, The Enhanced, introduces us to a future dystopian earth where genetically modified humans (the Enhanced) live in the upper-crust of society while the rest (Unenhanced) live in the outskirts and are subjugated by the Enhanced.
The series follows a 19 year old orphan named Brie Melrose. She lives in a group home with her best friend, Tess, an over-sized clumsy boy, Drum, her caretaker, Mrs. Carmichael, along with several other kids with varying degrees of attitude. Brie finds herself under the scrutiny of the Sevants (the highest level of the Enhanced) which is exactly where she does not want to be.
Without giving any spoilers I won’t go into any further details about this first book, or the other nine. (If you are desperate to know, you can go to the author’s page and dive in.) I will, however, review this series as a whole, rather than taking each book one at a time.
Overall, I liked this series. T.C. Edge has developed a world that is similar, yet very different from our own. For the most part it is a believable place, and the characters are well developed. The story itself carries the reader through with plenty of action and unexpected twists and turns.
I did find myself skim reading a lot of the later books where the main character (Brie) has extensive internal debates and analysis of the world she lives in and the people she is close to. It became overly repetitive and if it had been condensed, ten good books would have made five fantastic books. I also took note of several misspelled words (this is in British English so I am not referring to those differences) along with grammar issues. A few more beta readers might have caught these. There were a couple of major issues that were not resolved by the end of the series. I may have missed something from skim reading, but because they were big holes I would have expected more than a few words to wrap these things up.
With that said, I do recommend these books. The story is a good one and the world T. C. has built is believable. Of the entire series my two favorite books were the first, The Enhanced, and the tenth, Renegade.
Here is the full list of The Enhanced Series:
- The Enhanced
- Hybrid
- Nameless
- Assassin
- Avenger
- Defender
- Captive
- Invader
- Renegade
**One final advisory word to the youngest readers; these books do have intense battle scenes which may not be suited for the more sensitive reader.
Blood on the Tracks & Dead Stop; Book Review
Posted on November 7, 2017 Leave a Comment
![Dead Stop (Sydney Rose Parnell Series Book 2) by [Nickless, Barbara]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dKfaI-XZL.jpg)
![Blood on the Tracks (Sydney Rose Parnell Series Book 1) by [Nickless, Barbara]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51s-7YftR5L.jpg)
I just finished the second of a three book series by award winning author Barbara Nickless. Blood on the Tracks and Dead Stop will set your heart pounding. Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell is a railroad cop facing grizzly crimes, while fighting an internal battle from her stint as a mortuary specialist in Iraq. With her K-9 partner, Clyde, she takes the reader on a wild ride solving gut wrenching crimes along the railroad lines in Colorado.
The Sydney Rose Parnell Series will put the taste of grit in your mouth, and the feel of grime on your palms. It will keep you guessing to the last pages. Nickless weaves a tight cloth that leaves no lose threads for the reader to reach any conclusions too soon.
Blood on the Tracks Awards:
- The Colorado Book Award, presented by Colorado Humanities & the Center for the Book.
- Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence for mainstream mystery.
- Colorado Authors’ League Writing Award for genre fiction.
- A Suspense Magazine Best Book of 2016.
The third installment, Ambush, comes out late in 2018.
I am excited to get my hands on Ambush……….I pre-ordered it on Amazon.
Author Barbara Nickless with a proud furry friend.
NaNoWriMo – 2017
Posted on November 1, 2017 17 Comments
It is that time of the month again where I join with other writers to discuss the “dark side” of being a writer. Actually, that might be a bit of a strong term, but it will do for now. On the first Wednesday of every month Insecure Writer’s Support Group (#IWSG) posts one or two subject questions so we can talk about our doubts and the fears that we have conquered as writers. We can discuss our struggles and triumphs then offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling with their own writing.
This month’s question:
- Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?
Let me explain NaNo for the readers who are not familiar. The full term is NaNoWriMo which is short for National Novel Writing Month. During November of every year, writers around the globe sit down to write a novel in thirty days. Sound easy? NOT! The goal is to crank out 50,000 words in a mere thirty days, and if you want one day a week off you have to manage 2,000 everyday of the month. It is, to say the least, an insane challenge.
On to the questions. Do I finish NaNo? I have only participated once before and it kicked my butt out the door by day 10. November is just plain HARD. It is a month when my job intensifies and life just pulls in too many directions. I am trying again this year so I’ll let you know the results. Needless to say, nothing has been published ——
YET.
Thanks to the awesome co-hosts for the November 1 posting of the IWSG, Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton, MJ Fifield, and Rebecca Douglass!
Pop’s Story
Posted on October 30, 2017 Leave a Comment
I recently completed editing my great grandfather’s autobiographical manuscript about his life as a railroad man in the early 1900’s. It was inspirational to read his words and be a part of something he started to write so long ago. He wrote everything in longhand and, in turn, my great aunt would put the words to the typewriter. Correspondence was by snail mail so each leg of the writing was done over weeks and months rather than the minutes we enjoy in today’s electronic world. There was no spell check, just a dictionary. Errors were erased and retyped, or the page was just pulled out of the typewriter and thrown away.
Research, and his manuscript, have taught me a lot about the railroad business of the early 1900’s. It was a mix of brutality and joy with a little despair mixed in. Grand-“Pop” was a civil engineer who found the lay of the land and supervised the workers to lay the track, and with this unique perspective he wrote about events that happened nearly a hundred twenty years ago. He loved this work that it took him through hostile lands both here and abroad. He fought swamps and deserts, along with rebels and farmers. He went so far as to be a founding father of a small town just so a railroad station could be built there. He had moxie.
I am working on my own novel based on some of his stories. I find it challenging to try and put words into his mouth for fear of painting him with the wrong palette. Even after reading and transcribing his memoir, I still worry. To put words in his mouth brings him back down to the human plane when, to me, he is larger than life. I ask myself if he would say something like what I’m writing? How would he look at his men after they berated a Chinese laborer? What did he actually say to them? What would he be thinking as he lay nearly frozen to death in the north woods? How did he get across the muskeg, on foot, so many times?
My great grandfather passed away in the late 40’s. To know him and what he might say is lost to time. I hope that the character I have created for him lives up to him at least a little bit. Only when I join him in the afterlife will I know who he really was. So, until then my imaginings will have to do.
#IWSG – A Writer’s Retreat
Posted on August 4, 2017 Leave a Comment
The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. I just learned about this fun group from Shannon Lawrence, who is a fellow writer and blogger. Just the title of the group screamed that I needed to check it out. This group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh so writers could virtually gather to express their thoughts about writing. It looks intriguing so I have joined in.
Our co-hosts today are Christine Rains, Dolarah @ Book Lover, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Yvonne Ventresca, and LG Keltner!
The question for this month is: What are your pet peeves when reading/writing/editing? Let’s take a look at these one at a time because each one raises a different set of Pet Peeves for me.
READING: When I read a book that has gone through all of the gyrations to reach publication I have high expectations. My number one issue is misspelled words. I can accept a couple, especially in a manuscript of 100,000 words, but when I see multiple instances of spelling errors my hackles start to raise.
A manuscript goes through the mill before publication, and if an author has done due diligence it would have been seen by the author, spell check, critique groups, beta readers, editors (line and content), publishers, early prints, and then reprints. By the time a book is into the mainstream it should not have spelling errors.
Editing: When I’m editing my own work my pet peeve is that I’m too hard on myself. I do endless comparisons of my work to great writers I aspire to write as well as. I remind myself that they have their creative greatness and I have mine. If I find myself being too hard on me, I set it aside and come back later when I’m not thinking of a Jane Austin novel.
WRITING: In this area I tend to not be too hard on myself. The entire process of writing is, in of itself, a process. Like all writers, I start with an idea then progresses through a vast journey of discovery. When I first started to write I thought, “This will be easy. I just put words to paper and, voila, a book appears.” I laugh at myself. Just getting started was a huge learning curve, and today I continue to learn my craft. If I had to name one thing that is difficult for me it would be to write everyday. Getting in a few days a week is a thrill, and I hope one day life will allow me to write daily.
As a reader, what are your Pet Peeves?
#IWSG
@TheIWSG
Among the Lesser Gods, by Margo Catts
Posted on July 31, 2017 Leave a Comment
Among the Lesser Gods by Margo Catts
Among the Lesser Gods explores the question, “If we make a decision in childhood how does that shape and mold our present?” This lovely story is set in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. A young woman, Elena Alvarez, has made many bad choices in her life beginning with a deadly fire at the age of five. She begrudgingly completes college and is in an unwanted pregnancy. Now, her grandmother invites her to stay with her for the summer and care for a family who has suffered their own losses.
Margo Catts’ debut novel is beautifully written. Catts shows how a young woman comes to terms with her past through living in the present. The story pulls the reader in, weaving a delicate tapestry of joy, sadness, elation, devastation, and fulfillment. A great read.
Star Struck
Posted on May 23, 2017 Leave a Comment
On May 15th, 2017, Margo Catts launched her debut novel, Among the Lesser Gods. Normally I would be writing a review of her book – which I will be doing soon – but today I am writing about my experience of being “Star Struck”.
I have always felt that every human is just a person no matter their social or economic status. As the old saying goes, we all put our pants on one leg at a time. Shirts only go on one arm at a time, and skivvies are in the same category. We all wear them (ok, some people feel skivvies are too binding) and we all put them on essentially the same way. Thus, Mark Zuckerberg and I are on the same playing field in the basics of life. I’m sure that if I met him on the street he may look familiar to me, but I would not really recognize him, much less be star struck for him.
But, on that evening in May, I was struck by Margo. Her book launch was at the Tattered Cover, a bookshop where friends gather to sip tea and talk books. It is cozy. When I arrived, Margo had already started her presentation to a group of about 40 adoring fans. Up to this point I had only known Margo during our critique group and at her home for coffee. I met a new side of her.
Her presentation had everyone laughing and crying. Her slight nervousness gave her a down to earth eloquence. She spoke of her inspiration for the book and how her curious mind took a tiny article about a fire and turned it into a wonderfully moving novel.
After her presentation we all clutched our copies of her books to wait for a few moments with the author and have our copies signed. I ended up toward the end of the line, and was able to chat with several of our writing friends to pass the time. I watched as each new person smiled and had kind words for Margo, and in turn she generously shared hugs and laughter.
I wondered what they all were saying. “Great job Margo!” “Loved your book Margo.” “When will the next book come out?” “I couldn’t put it down.” The compliments just flowed and Margo beamed. My turn finally arrived and I walked up to the table grinning from ear to ear and my mind just went blank. I stood in front of Margo with this smile, and I couldn’t get any words to come out of my mouth. I really was star struck. I was (and still am) so proud to stand in front of this wonderful author. Margo Catts, my friend, was now a published author and I was beside myself with awe. I finally was able to push out a single word…WOW. That’s all I could say in that moment. I went around the table and gave her a hug and whispered, “I’m so happy for you.”
As soon as I got home, Margo’s book was put where all of my signed copies go – in a book cabinet that holds all of my closest friends (that is, book, friends). I never read the signed copy of a book. That one gets put away to be treasured and I purchase a second copy to dog ear and love. Thank you Margo, for making my first star stricken experience a great one! I can now go back to my regular life putting my pants on one leg at a time.
Kathie Scrimgeour, Fine Art 