Yes, I'm still here

Hello everyone,

I know it's been a little while since I've updated things here and I'm sorry about that. Just seems like when it rains it pours. Harlequin rejected my partial but gave some very good feedback about where I went wrong so I'll be working on that. Then my Grandma went in the hospital and that's kind of stressful. At least the weather here is finally starting to dry up a little. I actually see sunshine out the window! What a wonderous thing.

As for my writing efforts, I've decided to take a new tack. Instead of pantsing, I'm actually plotting. A couple of my CP's suggested a book called "First Draft In 30 Days" by Karen Wiesner and so far it's really good. The idea of the book is to do certain things each day using the guideline given and by the end of 30 days you'll have an outline so detailed and developed that it'll double as your first draft. So far it seems to be working. I have a lot of great info and it's making me think about things that I'd never really considered when writing- things like sub plots and such. So I'm not getting a lot of actual story writing done, more outline/plotting stuff.

Do any of you use a specific or modified method of planning for a book? Where did you learn your technique or is it something you developed based on your personal writing style?

Daily Prompt #4

Set your timer for ten minutes and show me what you come up with. Post your results here or on your own blog- just make sure that you leave me a note here to let me know to go look at your blog :o)

Setting for your story:
In a big city traffic jam

Starting phrase for your story:
There was only one way

Four words you must include in your story:
Apples
CD
Paint
Cabin

YAY!! A not rejection!!

I got an email from The Wild Rose Press today regarding my book His Daughter's Keeper. They want me to do some revisions then send it back to them. I was really excited when I read the email because I was afraid it was going to be a "We're sorry but we're not interested." but it wasn't, they are interested!! Yes, it could have been better, something like, "We love it exactly as it is and we want to buy it." but I realize that's asking too much. I'm okay with revisions.

Why English Teachers Die Young

I got this in an email today and thought I'd share it. I got quite a giggle out of it.



Why English Teachers Die Young - actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.


1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse with out one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil's, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Daily Prompt # 3

Set your timer for ten minutes and write something using the guidelines below. When you're finished, post your results here as a comment or on your own blog and let me know about it so I can read it.


Setting for your story:

in a castle

Starting phrase for your story:

She always assumed that her umbrella would come in handy, she just didn't realize that

Four words you must include in your story:

Stubborn
Crispy
Super Hero
Delicate