Books, authors and friends

A book launch is an exciting moment for any author. It's a time to celebrate the culmination of months or even years of hard work, and what better way to make it truly special than by sharing it with friends and local artists?

I've known these two lovely ladies for quite a few years now. Rosalyn Eves and Heather b.Moore are both remarkable writers, amazing mentors and superbly intelligent. 

Heather and I attended Rosalyn's book launch for her newest book, An Improbable Season. Rosalyn told her audience that she wrote this book for herself. Plus, she wanted to try this genre. 

This story is her first attempt at a regency romance, and she did very well! If you like regency, you'll enjoy Rosalyn's book!

Opening:

Oxfordshire, late February 1817

Charis Elphinstone was missing.

When Thalia, Kalliope, and Charis set off to Regency London for their first Season, they know exactly what they want. 

Thalia means to make her mark among the intelligentsia and publish her poetry. Her sister, Kalli, aims to take high society by storm, with parties and gowns galore and a proper husband at the end of it all.

 Their cousin Charis hopes to earn her place among the (nearly exclusively male) scientific elite. But it doesn’t take long for things to fall apart. Kalli finds herself embroiled in scandal and reliant upon an arranged marriage to redeem her reputation, Thalia’s dreams of becoming a great poet are threatened by her attraction to a charming rake, and Charis finds herself an unexpected social hit—and the source of a scientific dilemma that her heart might not survive. 

Can these young women find their happily ever afters in this turbulent London Season?

Monday Motivation ~ Madeleine L 'Engle WRITE

Monday Motivation ~ William Faulkner

Monday Motivation ~ Stephen King READ

Monday Motivation ~ You sublime fool

From Words & Deeds

Monday Motivattion ~ Joss Whedon

Monday Motivation ~ E.B. White

Monday Motivation ~ Anne Rice WRITE

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

N.K. Jemisin

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Letter to me

I have no idea why the cat decided to sleep on this chair, between the tongs. I think cats can sleep anywhere. They don't make goals and probably don't think ahead more than a few moments at a time.
Here's what their schedule might look like:

• Get in the house
• See if the humans are eating
• Beg for food from humans
• Indulge humans with a string game
• Tired of string game
• Find a warm spot to sleep in
• Wake up to loud noises
• Humans making food
• Beg for food from humans

And around and around. Did I miss anything?



It's the halfway mark, half a year! How are you doing on your goals? Do you need to reevaluate them? Have you finished your writing or editing? Here's a great idea for today:




Write a letter to yourself telling you what you need to improve in the coming 6 months.

Dear Taffy,

If you haven't queried the WWI book, do it now.
If you haven't finished editing It's Not Me, finish it by the end of the month.
Have a piece of chocolate.
Enjoy the summer.

Love, You and Me

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Ray Bradbury

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Editing

I'm watching you, always watching. Get back to work!

Ugh.
I hate editing. Self editing. My story baby should be perfect the first time I type it out! Agents will clamor for it, it will soar to the #1 spot on any best seller list and the money should be rolling in.

That's what happened to no writer anywhere.

This writing and editing is journey I should try and enjoy and some days I do more than others. Some days I'm stuck and some days I sail. But when I'm stuck, I try a little editing and most times that helps me see the flaws and weaknesses to can fix.
At the ANWA conference, Lisa Mangum touched on how she edits. What to learn from the best? Here's a few tidbits:


1. Change your document to a different font, like Verdana. This will get help your brain turn from the creative writer to the analytical editor.

2. Use Chicago manual of Style to make a list of the small things you need to add, like title page, copy right, dedication page etc.

3. Run spell check

4. Look at the small details like:
     one space between sentences
     double space lines
     Use an asterisk for scene break
     Make sure chapters are numbered
     page break before each chapter opening

5. Read it! Print it out and read it out loud.

6. Test it. Send your manuscript to a critique group and/or beta readers

7. Read it again.


Good advice and ideas!
Do you anything you would add to this list?

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Writing Prompt

Hiding from the humans

Our cats are not always on their best behavior. Fat Cat likes to bite toes, especially bare toes. In the summer he will wait under the deck stairs and grab onto ankles and bite toes. Last winter we had the lid off the toilet trying to figure out if it was broken or frozen. I balanced the lid on top but not fully on. From the other room we heard a loud crash then two frightened cats raced through and up the stairs. Apparently, one of them thought it was a good idea to get on top of the lid to drink out of the toilet tank and unbalanced the lid. Crash. The lid broke into five pieces.





Have you ever read a book told from the bad guy's point of view? Have you ever tried to write one? I think novellas are perfect differing POVs. Maybe you'll want to write one based on your villain.
Here's the writing prompt today:

Rewrite a fairy tale from the bad guy’s point of view.


What would the story be like from Ursulla's point of view? Or President Snow's?

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Reverse Outlining

There's a lot you can do when you edit a picture. Take the two examples above. The first picture shows two cats on a green blanket, possibly in a garage. There's a lot of detail that really isn't necessary. After cropping, the second picture shows just the one cat and his whiskers and sleepy eyes.
The same type of editing works for writing. Less background detail (i.e. info dumping), close up detail (character's flaws, etc) and focus (insights, hints, foreshadowing).

I had the good luck to attend ANWA's (American Night Writer's Association) Time Out For Writers Conference in February 2015. And lucky enough to go to Phoenix where it was 70 while back home it was 30. I even got a light tan line.
But I digress...
There were many classes I really enjoyed, but the one from Lisa Magnum's stuck with me so I want to share it with you. I really needed a new way of editing and this helped tremendously.


Reverse Outlining

1.    Examine each chapter

a.     Who is the star?

b.     What new info is learned?

c.      What action is taken?

d.     Does the plot move forward?

2.    Follow every character’s thread

a.     Where do they begin?

b.     What are the events that trigger change?

c.      Is there a logical progression to their development?

d.     Where do they end?

3.    Summarize main theme

a.     What symbols have you used to communicate the theme?

b.     Are there areas in the manuscript where you can strengthen without being obvious?

I opened a new document and went through each chapter for step #1. It was eye-opening and very informative. Here, let me show you part of what I did:

Ch 5 letter

Emma is affected by weather. Keeps busy cleaning.

Major Henry gets a dance going. He chivalrous. William G. Henry

Nielson is Major Henry’s soldier and plays the fiddle.

*** does Dr. Peyren play the fiddle earlier? Or talk about it?

Priscilla is affected by Major Henry. She dances with patients.

The asterisks are ideas or missing information I want to add. After I worked on this chapter, I italicized this so I knew that I had finished the work.

After I finished step #1, I would do #2, then #3. This editing only took me a couple of days but I felt like it upped my story and made it better. 

What do you do to edit? 

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ Just keep going

How's your writing coming along? Are you meeting your writing and editing goals? 

Don't give up!

Even though you think your writing sucks and your characters are flat, you are the only human who can write the story that is in your head. You are the only person who can get those characters onto paper in the story they are suppose to be in.

Don't let their stories die in the trash or on a dusty jump drive. Write the story. And if no one is suppose to read it, at least it will be there, waiting for your children or their children. Someone will read your story and love it as much as you.

Just remember...

You

Are 

Awesome

Type in this link for proof:

http://iamawesome.com/

And if that doesn't help, here's a picture of a furry cat to give you a smile and help you forget your woes for a few moments.

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines ~ letter to agent

The nice things about cats is they are so unassuming. Give them food, a sunny floor and some attention and they will be yours...at least for the day. Let me think of ten things I like about cats:

1. Cats are content to be left alone.
2. They don't eat all their food at once.
3. They purr.
4. Cats like to snuggle.
5. No. Drama.
6. Our cats catch mice and snakes and small dogs.
7. They don't leave little "surprises" everywhere.
8. They eat insects.
9. Cats are sneaky.
10. They are quiet animals.


Have you ever done the assignment where you have to write ten positive things about yourself? Why is that so hard? Could you write ten positive things about your writing? I bet you could!
Here's a writing prompt for you:


Write a letter to your perfect agent telling him/her how wonderful you are.

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

I need to remember this advice!

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

This is how I feel today with my writing. Lazy.
Please have a good writing day!











Writing Prompt!

Here is an interesting writing prompt.

Create a character with personality traits of someone you love, but the physical characteristics of someone you don’t care for. 

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

No Feline guests today. Only cool bloggy winners!


Do you have a favorite writing blog you go to or get their newsletter? I really like K.M. Weiland. I also like to listen to her podcasts when I'm working out. I bought her outlining book too and have used it well!

I took ALL this content off of Write to Done. I read their blog too!

Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2015 – The Winners

We’re delighted to announce the winners of our 9th annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Competition!

It’s exciting to see such an array of excellent blogs for writers.

Make sure you visit all the ten blogs to get to know the new top crop of writing blogs.

How were the winners selected?

• Initial qualification: A site must have been nominated more than once by multiple individuals. If someone nominated more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted. Valid nominations needed to include the URL and give a reason why the nominated blog should be considered.

• Contest criteria: In order to be considered, a blog needed to be a writing blog. In order to qualify, at least 50% of posts needed to be about writing and not about freelancing, business, publishing, promotion etc.

• Blog-based analysis: Reader involvement: Average comment numbers per post account for 15% of the total score. Number of nominations account for 15% of the total score. Average number of shares on social media per postaccount for 15%. These three blog-based factors make up 45% of the final score.

• Quality of posts: Educational, useful, engaging and discussion-creating posts were rated higher than self-promoting posts. The quality of posts accounts for 55% of the final score.

And the 10 winners are …

Goins, Writer

The blogger behind this blog is Jeff Goins. He has created a vibrant place for writers to gather.

Positive Writer

Bryan Hutchinson has created a dynamic blog with a positive vibe and has built a substantial readership in a relatively short time.

Tara Lazar: Writing for Kids

Children’s fiction author Tara Lazar has turned her blog into a lively resource for picture book writers.

Helping Writers Become Authors

Katie Weiland’s blog is a great place for fiction writers. If you want to know how to write your novel, this is where you can find in-depth advice.

The Write Practice

Created by Joe Bunting, the Write Practice is the place to go if you want to kick-start your writing practice.

 Live Write Thrive

This blog by C S Lakin is a haven for writers of fiction. If you’re looking for advice about plotting, or how to overcome tricky grammar problems, Susanne Lakin’s blog is the place to search.

Terrible Minds

Novelist Chuck Wendig’s blog is an excellent example of how to create an author platform. He’s created a lively blog with many useful tips for fiction writers.

The Write Life

The tagline of this blog is:  … helping writers create, connect and earn. This interesting site is run by Alexis Grant.

Jennifer Blanchard

This is a zesty blog with great information. Jennifer’s blog is focused on helping writers create novels.

Fiction Notes

Experienced writing coach, author and publisher Darcy Pattison has created an appealing author platform with a blog for fiction writers.

There you have it:  the ten top blogs for writers in 2015.

Congratulations to all the winners!

I’m really excited about this line-up of writing blogs, aren’t you?

The badge of distinction: If you’re a winner, please display the badge you see below on your site and link the badge back to this post.

Readers, be sure to check out these awesome blogs!

And please help spread the word. Click on the social media buttons to share this post with friends and fans.

We’ll be inviting the winners to guest post on WTD so that all our readers can get to know and enjoy these excellent bloggers.

Please add *your* congratulations in the comments.

About the author:

Mary Jaksch is Editor-in-Chief at Write to Done. Grab her FREE report How to Write Like an A-List Blogger. Mary has helped thousands of students successfully create outstanding and profitable blogs at  A-List Blogging and is the blogger behindGoodlife ZEN.