Category: Writing

Observations on the writing life

Story Bibles

One thing I cannot do without while writing my Toke Lobo & the Pack werewolf series is my story bible. I wish I’d kept it up to date a little better than I did. I’m correcting that now.

The story bible is a 3-ring binder that contains all the pertinent information about the series in one place:

  • how the characters are related to each other
  • hair and eye color; build; etc.
  • who plays which instrument in the band
  • pack status
  • all of my wolf, werewolf, and country music research
  • casual mentions of people in one book who might actually show up in another–example: in Moonlight Serenade, the character Luke mentions his cousin Drioni is the band’s webmistress. My first draft of Luke’s story mentioned Drioni was related to another character. Oops! Glad I thought to check that.
  • The physical sensations a human experiences when in the energy field of a shifting werewolf.

I have read series where the author changes something three or four books into the series, and I always find that discombobulating.

Solution: a story bible.

 

 

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I am on vacation from Day Job this week. That does not mean I am not working. I am. So far, I’ve written 20 pages every day since Sunday. That’s a lot of words. And in my local RWA chapter, every 20-page day is also a purple rose in our annual end-of-the-year rose ceremony. Twenty pages is about 5,000 words.

I’m also re-reading a favorite summer book — one I forgot to include on my summer reading list the other day. The Happy Summer Days by Sue Kaufman (perhaps best known for Diary of a Mad Housewife) is another book I tend to re-read  each summer. I came across a quote in it that describes what’s been going on with the writing:

If only she’d come some other time instead of now, when she had stumbled onto one of those periods creative people dream about–mind all lost, world receded, only cramping muscles, a dryness of the mouth, reminding one that time has passed and passed and one has worked enough.

And that is how I’m spending my summer vacation.

 

Patio – Writing Garden Update

I am officially on vacation. My vacation plans for this year are to sit on my patio, stare at my writing garden and write.

Unfortunately, my plans didn’t come together quite the way I envisioned.

For starters, the patio extension still isn’t complete. Even after I told the Vanishing Landscaper I needed it done by vacation time.

2015-07-02 17.12.41

 

And the writing garden still looks mostly like a mud hole where a pool used to be.

2015-07-10 19.33.33

But I do have new patio furniture, and today I purchased plastic wine glasses for patio use. A couple of weeks ago, I purchased three solar lights for the area. I found citronella candles in the basement. I’m ready.

I’ll make do–because it’s summer and warm and sunny and my current work-in-progress is flowing almost faster than I can type it. But the patio – writing garden fantasy persists.

Dessert & Discussion

 

ocpl flyerThe public library system in the city in which I live recently reached out to me to kick off their adult summer reading program, Dessert & Discussion. I was thrilled to accept. The first program is on the topic of romance. Not only am I a romance author, but I am current president of Central New York Romance Writers, a chapter of Romance Writers of America.

So, if you’re in the Central New York area on Tuesday, June 30, I’ll be hosting a discussion on the romance genre at the Paine Branch Library on Nichols Ave in Eastwood. We’ll be starting at 6pm. Stop by to share your favorite romance titles and hear what other readers enjoy!

 

AlphaSmart: The Writer’s Dream Machine

In 2000, I bought a miracle machine. It was called an AlphaSmart. It was a portable key board with memory for 100 pages in 8 separate files. It ran (forever) on 3 double A batteries. It weighed next to nothing. The screen showed only 4 lines at a time, but could be read outside. It came with cable to hook to a computer to upload what you’d written into a file. And you didn’t have to worry about hitting a save button. “Alph” automatically saved everything. The unit was more portable than a laptop.

alphasmart

Other authors discovered AlphaSmart. In the Reno airport in 2004, after the RWA national conference, I overheard an airport employee saying he’d never heard of them until that week, and it seemed all these women were traveling with them.

I used Alph for years. I had to replace a couple of keys, the space bar, and the batteries, but entire books were written on Alph. Eventually the LCD screen popped a vessel or something a couple of years ago and the liquid crystal bled across the viewing window. The plastic holding the metal springy thingy for the spacebar broke. The “B” key split in half and fell off. The company had been sold, the new owners no longer sold replacement parts, and discontinued making the Writer’s Dream Machine. After nearly 10 years of slave labor, my original Alph had to retire. My $200 investment had been a great one.

Last year, one of my critique partners was cleaning out her office. She had an AlphaSmart she’d rarely used and offered to give it to me. I hemmed. I hawed. Eventually I caved.

Why did I hesitate for even a second?

I can pound out a page before I leave for work in the morning; another page is written on my lunch hour–all without waiting for my laptop to boot up. There’s no Internet distraction. I can sit on my patio-in-progress and just write. I still have an index card I wrote out years ago with a page conversion table on it: 0.6 Alph pages = 1 “old-fashioned” 250-word page; 1.2 = 2; 1.8=3; and so on.

Other authors I know still use their AlphaSmarts. I’m glad I rediscovered the joy of mine.