The fantastic Erin Funk tagged me in the 7-7-7- challenge. How does it work? Post the 7th line on the 7th page of your WIP, followed by the next 7 lines. Then, tag 7 other writers to take part in the challenge too. This challenge was deceptively hard.Good thing I had several projects to look through. The scene below is taken from PHOENIX RISING. During this scene, my character is in jail. (Not for the first time either.) Over the din of conversation, Walker picked up the clang of a steel door in the distance. The only time it opened was when a guard brought food in, but it was too early for that. And if it weren’t, it would be only one pair of feet with a cart. Walker clearly heard two pairs. One of which had a definite limp that he knew all too well. Rage overtook Walker’s fear as his master’s mocking laugh echoed against the walls.  “I’m serious, Ianos. You should consider it as an alternative to… you know.”  Walker barely registered the officer that stopped in fro...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer accountability series that is hosted by  Jaime Morrow ,  Katy Upperman ,  Alison Miler ,  Erin Funk , and  Elodie Nowodazkij . We set goals for the summer and check in weekly. Happy July. I'm getting at this later than normal, so let's cut to the chase, shall we? How I Did Last Week Send out at least 5 more queries. Done and done and done. 15 total. Work my way through Workshops 5 and 6 of PLANNING YOUR NOVEL. Done. I even started workshop 7. Outline major plot points for PHOENIX RISING's sequel . So incredibly done. I have 50 plot cards waiting to become a shiny draft. Read. I did this at least four times, which is great since the last 2 weeks reading has been nonexistent. Get in at least 15 minutes of exercise daily. Eh. I walked an additional 15 minutes most days. That counts. My Goal(s) For This Week Send out at least 3 more queries. Complete Workshop 8 of PLANNING YOUR NOVEL. Read. Figure out wha...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer accountability series that is hosted by  Jaime Morrow ,  Katy Upperman ,  Alison Miler ,  Erin Funk , and  Elodie Nowodazkij . We set goals for the summer and check in weekly. I must say that without this weekly accountability thing, I would not be as productive as I have been. So thank you, ladies. Honestly. You're making sure I kick myself in overdrive every week. Still, I'm shocked it's already the Week 4 check in. Shocked, I say. How I Did Last Week Send out at least 3 queries. (Honest.) Overachieved. I queried SIX. Do some work on the SNI: either research setting possibilities or another chapter of PLANNING YOUR NOVEL. Overachieved. I'm 99% sure that The SNI will be set on the Oregon Coast and I worked 1/4 of the way through the next chapter of PLANNING YOUR NOVEL, which is Workshop 5. Update master Scrivener template to include some more worldbuilding and character exercises. Done. My Goal(s) For This Week ...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer accountability series that is hosted by  Jaime Morrow ,  Katy Upperman ,  Alison Miler ,  Erin Funk , and  Elodie Nowodazkij . We set goals for the summer and check in weekly.  How I Did Last Week PHOENIX RISING is all revised. As is the query letter. It's all shiny and ready to go. I selected and read two complete books last week too. ( SENTINEL and THE RETURN by Jennifer L. Armentrout) The only place I fell short was walking to work three times because... life, but that happens from time to time. And it's not like I didn't walk an equivalent on the days I didn't walk to work. So, yeah. My Goal(s) For This Week Send out at least 3 queries. Begin THE SECRETS WE KEEP by Trisha Leaver Work through 1-2 chapters of PLANNING YOUR NOVEL for SNI. Walk to work at least 3 times. (Honest) My Favorite Line From My Story "Your dad ended a war. What other kind of truth is there?" It's such a simple statement,...

For the last year, I've struggled with how to get blogging back into my writing routine. It's been hard prioritizing writing and all kinds of internet-y stuff, so I've focused on what ultimately counts -- the writing. But I missed blogging (and you, Lurkdom). So I worked on a new schedule that incorporates blogging at least weekly. Lucky for me, Ready. Set. WRITE! popped up right after I worked out my new schedule. Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer accountability series that is hosted by Jaime Morrow , Katy Upperman , Alison Miler , Erin Funk , and Elodie Nowodazkij . We set goals for the summer and check in weekly.  Every Monday, I'll share my progress on the goals that I set down today using the following headers: How I did on last week’s goals. My goal(s) for this week A favourite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised The biggest challenge I faced this week Something I love about my WIP Now... GOALS! Goals f...

It's been a long few weeks, Lurkdom. I've reread my WIP about six times and now have 13 pages of revision notes to implement. In addition to the crazy amount of notes, I also have a 3 page long task list of things this revision must accomplish. My revision process will hit the triple digits hours-wise. The first thing on my task list was to create a timeline of events. This step may sound like a procrastinator's task, but when your story includes a ticking clock device, it's important to make sure that everything works within that time frame. (It's also important that events that happen on a Friday actually do happen on a Friday.) What PHOENIX RISING currently looks like. Here's a snapshot of my timeline as it currently stands in my WIP. Not all the dates/days are specified within the story, so I had to guess a few things. The problem with that is that there's way too many unknowns. Then you develop the problem of large gaps in time. (If you don...

The following has been shamelessly poached from the following people: Kiersten White , Pam , and Quita . (Though I did first see on Kiersten White's blog and thought, "Hey, this is a wicked good idea. *I* should do the same.") Credit Title: Phoenix Rising Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 330 Chapters: 20... ish Word Count: 66,500 Draft Time: I've done two drafts, totaling about 3 months. But I did spend a lot of time being proactive and outlining and letting the idea germinate in my brain. Origin: I had the idea of everyone talking about the new boy on campus, but there had to be a reason why he was drawing so much attention. I definitely didn't want to do another YA contemporary so close to finishing revisions on my last one and NaNoWriMo was coming up, so I thought it was time to do something different. I read a lot of paranormal and UF, so that seemed to be the logical choice, but I didn't want to deal with the usual suspects found in t...

I finished my Mad Libs draft of Phoenix Rising in December 2009 and then let it sit for a looong time. The incubation period had nothing to do with me not loving the project, but everything to do with life and that other monster, Falling to Normal*. While I worked on Falling to Normal and then nanowrimodraft10*, Phoenix Rising percolated some more. I edited and still wasn't confident on sharing it with people. Yet. Hubby went and actually read Mad Libs draft 1.1. Much to my surprise, he even had feedback**. So I took his feedback and thought. Then, in support of procrastination, I decided I'd try doing a shrunken manuscript. A what? It's this thing I read about on Darcy Pattison's website and several other blogs. What you do is you take your project and condense it down to thirty pages. The goal is to get a visual look at the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript. I'll admit that it sounds convoluted and pretty confusing. I had to reread the directions...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic : What is the strangest/weirdest thing you've ever researched? It's been established that I'm easily distracted . Even with my love of Wikipedia and the Googles, I never hop on there for hell of it. I start off with a purpose. Sometimes it's to prove Hubby wrong, like how many hits came from Bush's Sixteen Stone*. Most of the time, though, it's for research. While revising Phoenix Rising this month, I've researched the following topics: contents of an aphrodisiac behavior under the influence of ecstasy how to kill with magic** how to become a ninja*** Do you like asking Google random questions? What have you discovered? * The answer is five. ** Apparently you can only do this in Harry Potter. *** ...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic : If your WIP or favorite book were music, what song(s) would it be? For my WIPs, I don't have any set songs, but more like set musical styles.When listening to music, I go for the auditory aesthetic* and less on the lyrical content. It usually takes me months (sometimes years) before I pay attention to the lyrics. For FALLING TO NORMAL, I listened to a lot of 90s rock. Even when I updated the setting to present day, the soundtrack didn't change. Candlebox and Alice in Chains will always work in Cheyenne's world, no matter what. Favorite Candlebox Song : You Favorite AIC Song** : Nutshell For PHOENIX RISING, I've been listening to a lot of atmospheric, prog rock. Don't question, because I can't explain. I've balance...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic : Invent your own magical creature. You mean the Wild Beezus isn't one? He's white with blue eyes and yodels with a nose that twitches like a bunny and ears reminiscent of a mouse. Witness my photo as proof. * waits* Okay, since none of you believe the fuzzy picture is a magical creature, I guess I'll have to share what I have. In my current WIP's world, I deal with magical beings, but the main ones are established beasties like golyms and chimeras. I have created something, but don't know what it should be called. So, in addition to this being Road Trip Wednesday, this is also a contest to name the beastie. The rules: Read the description. Comment with a name and leave your email address. Contest will remain open ...

Happy Mass Marketing Day, Lurkdom. Instead of ranting about how much I hate this holiday, I thought I'd be productive and participate in Stina and Christina's Just Kiss Already Blogfest . The rules are simple: post a 250-word scene where actual kissing happens. Then read and comment on at least three other participants. While trying to find something for this, I realized that I don't have a lot of kissing scenes in my writing repertoire.* Because of this, I'm sharing a scene from my recently finished WIP**, Phoenix Rising. So if it's still a little rough, that's why. Kyla wanted to go home. She should’ve never made the initial arrangement in the first place. Should she call Janice and tell her she wouldn’t be coming home tonight? What would she say? “I’m paying my debt of gratitude to the police for not hauling me to jail.” She was over her head. The water stopped running. A moment later, the bathroom door opened. “Found your way back here already?” A...

Finally, the day has arrived for the... When reading this page and all the others, you should focus and answer the following three questions: 1. Would you turn to page 100? 2. Why or why not? 3. Based on what you read, how likely would you buy the book? In true Page 99 test fashion, I'm giving you anything about the story except the genre. Oh and I'll give the title as well. Phoenix Rising Urban Fantasy "Eating dinner." Walker tore into another portion. He felt barbecue sauce smear across his chin and with sick amusement bet it looked like blood. "You should be out finding that girl." Walker could now hear the irritation in his voice. Good. "The redhead? She's in my seminar." "That's some of the best news of the day. Tell me: have you conversed with her yet?" Walker didn't answer; he was too busy worrying a stubborn piece of meat off the tendon. Ianos cuffed him off the back of the head. Walker let a small...

We've survived the first week of 2011, Lurkdom. *throws confetti and high fives all around* I'm slightly distractable today, not to mention that work has kicked my keister. That the 9-5 job has decided to do this on a Friday is awful because I can't keep my head on those projects when it's buzzing with these writing projects: Four For Friday: Literary Irons in the Fire Edition 1. Falling to Normal Current status: out for critique. I sent my contemporary YA out for another beta read, and, quite honestly, I hope this is the last time I need to. There's things that need fixing and I trust that someone who's kick ass and loves cookies can help. 2. Phoenix Rising Current status : revising My current WIP is an urban fantasy that came from my first NaNoWriMo attempt in 2009. My goal is to have this out to beta readers by April. To do that, I should invest in more caffeine. 3. Untitled YA Project Current status: taking notes What was originally going to...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's question: If you went to high school with your characters, would you be friends? The short answer of "no" has nothing to do with my characters as people, but everything to do with high school Alicia. If I didn't know you, I was quiet. If you were popular, I sure as hell didn't break the social structure and talk to you unless forced into a project together. If you were lower than me on the social structure, I ignored you. High School + Alicia = Misanthropic Bitch  It wasn't until I headed to college that I broke out of that shell and talked to pretty much anyone* and developed friendships with people that I wouldn't have done as a high schooler. Now that the disclaimer portion of RTW is out of the way... In FALLING TO NORMAL, Che...

Last month, a super brave Sarah Enni gave up her first page for a beta read . We loved the experiment so much, we've decided to make it a monthly thing. This time around, I'm the one up for crit with my urban fantasy WIP, Phoenix Rising. So go check out what the beta club has to say. Sarah Enni Raven Ashley Kate Hart Cory Jackson Meredith Primeau Windy Aphayrath And if you're interested in joining Round 3, drop a comment on any of our blogs or Twitter. And, it's Zombie Thursday to boot! Definitely come back later to see what Miranda will talk about. I'm betting DragonCon. ____ Last.fm hit of the day : Dawn of the Dead* by Murderdolls * Last.fm knows it's Zombie Thursday too, I guess. REMINDER - Music Month is still happening. The best comment of the week gets a mix CD.