Category: Writing

Observations on the writing life

Time Saving Tips: Family Meals

Here’s one of my favorite time saving tips. I formed this habit when the Chromos were younger. Working a demanding full-time Day Job and raising a family didn’t leave a lot of time to sneak in writing a sentence or two, so anything I could do to streamline “chores” was a help. Even with the Chromos mostly grown and gone, and a less demanding Day Job, I still tend to use this system

I keep a large, dry-erase calendar on which I color coordinate the family’s events, in the kitchen. I am purple, TV Stevie is blue; Y-Chromo is green, X-Chromo is red. I plan our weekly meals around this calendar and post them on a dry-erase board on the refrigerator. I write my grocery shopping list from this menu. Now, when I get home from work, I don’t have to think about what’s for supper, who’s going to be there, etc., because the menu was planned around everyone’s schedule. The only snag is when I forget to take the chicken out of the freezer in the morning.

I also save “major” cooking for the weekends. Week night meals tend to be ready in 30 minutes or less. I also try to make them “dishwasher” friendly. (I don’t put metal pots and pans–what my mom calls “tin dishes”–in the dishwasher.) Every minute I can save is a minute I can write.

Writing Props: Color, Light, and Janet Fish

Color and light are very important to me. They always have been. I write better when I’m happy, and color and light delight me.

Many years ago, my husband and I attended an exhibit of modern art at the local art museum. That’s where I ran into Spring Party and an artist named Janet Fish. The way the artist depicted light through colored pressed glass captivated me. Awed me.

A couple of years later, leafing through a catalog from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I discovered a poster of Spring Party was for sale. My budget didn’t allow me to purchase it at the time. But I did cut out the photo from the catalog.  And from the next issue, too. I still have one of those makeshift bookmarks. I keep it on my desk at Day Job.

Ten years later, while my Day Job office was being redecorated, I was told I could pick out any artwork I wanted. I called the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see if they had any Spring Party posters left. I was ten years too late.

My husband purchased a coffee table book of Fish’s paintings for me. I keep it handy in my home office. There is a pullout of Spring Party that I will stare at for hours.

What Janet Fish does with color and light is what I want to accomplish with my words.

Goal Check/Goal Set

Time to check my goals for 2015.

Writing:

  • Finish 3rd werewolf book–done, under contract, 1st round of revisions completed.
  • Search for home for Baseball Books–sold one to Loose Id, have a second one ready to go.
  • Novella for anthology with my critique partners–done; final polish done
  • 2 writing retreats–done
  • Critique at least 1x per month–yes
  • Finish & submit proposal for another sports romance: no.
  • maintain and refine my writing space–mantained
  • 30 minutes actual book time 5 days a week–I would say my average for this was 75%

And here are my hopes for 2016:

  • Omega Moon Rising publication
  • submit a second baseball book
  • progress on the critique group anthology
  • 2 writing retreats
  • critique at least 1x per month
  • finish 1st draft of “other” sports romance
  • Maintain and refine my writing space
  • Writing Weekend get-aways whenever I can
  • “Standby” novella for publisher anthology opportunities.

Hope you have a safe, happy, healthy New Year!

Holiday Gifts Part 1

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A few weeks ago I asked other authors if they could give the world any gift at all this holiday, what would that gift be. The response was so overwhelming, I had to split the responses into two blogs. Here’s what they had to say.

KERRY ADRIENNE (The Guardian of Blackbird Inn):  Compassion and understanding for other people’s differences.

YOLANDA ASHTON (A Will for Love): A guaranteed Salary/Wage that will ensure the ability to take care of loved ones comfortably.

MARIE BOOTH (Dying for a Bite): An extra dose of compassion and an urge to help people and animals in need.

ANNE B. COLE (Souls Estranged): Hope.

CRYSTAL DAWN (Cassandra, White Wolf Matriarchs):  Peace with a side of goodwill to all. Even for just the season it would be a beautiful thing.

ALINA K. FIELD (Rosalyn’s Ring):  A peaceful world, peaceful communities, and peaceful homes, and for each man, woman, and child, I would give wisdom to see blessings, and a heart filled with gratitude, “not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others

REBECCA HEFLIN (Ship of Dreams): Tolerance.

KIRA HILLINS (Take You Away): Bringing superheroes to life. With all that’s wrong in the world, we need them. 😉

EMERALD LAVERE (The Wikomsette): Empathy–each person would have the ability to truly see and feel life from the perspective of others. I believe that would result in understanding, compassion, and the ultimate gift…peace. Hugs are good gifts too! 🙂

VIKI LYN (Lover’s Trill: A Magical Christmas):  Universal inclusiveness and acceptance.

CAROLE ANN MOLETI (The Widow’s Walk): An end to terrorism in all its forms.

J. LYNN ROWAN (Better Than Chocolate):Lasting tolerance and understanding between peoples of all races and religions.

RYAN JO SUMMERS (Chasing the Painted Skies): Knowing the internal peace of knowing we are at the right time and place in our individual journey. Life is not always easy, especially for those who are really living it, but it should always feel right inside our hearts. I wish everyone could capture at least one of their dreams in their lifetime. I wish everyone could feel true love at least once, even if just for a short time. May all find time to enjoy the pleasantness around them, wherever they are, if by choice or design or fate.

CAROLINE WARFIELD (Dangerous Weakness): Eyes that could see people as God sees them, each be loved in his or her own way, all beloved no matter how different from one another.

Time Lines

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One drawback of being an organic writer (a/k/a “pantser”) is the timeline of a story.

I’ve been deep into revisions of my third werewolf novel, Omega Moon Rising. In one spot, my editor asked me, “Has it really only been a week?” My initial response was, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Then I realized she had a point. I know the story didn’t happen over an extended period of time, but there had to have been more than a week between the events to which she referred.

::sigh::

So I opened up an Excel spread sheet and created a calendar of sorts, using the phases of the moon. Moon phases are extremely important to werewolves. What if I had messed all of that up, too? Fortunately, I had not. But I did discover some really long chapters. I needed to tweak a word here and there to clarify the amount of time that had passed. Whew!