Paperback Princess

Hello!!

A quick one this week! I mentioned last week that IF THE SHOE FITS was trickling into retailers in paperback form, and now I can safely say that it's available at most online retailers.*squee* How do I know? Well, first I checked a few places, but more importantly, I also ordered myself a copy. I was pretty impressed, too. I was a bit leery as the paperback is issued via print on demand (POD), but I needn't have worried. I ordered the book on Tuesday last week via Amazon UK, and it arrived a mere two days later. And the quality is fab, too, which is obviously important. Here is my daughter reading it... and it just tickles me no end every time I see this! It's like release day all over again!

The drawback with print on demand is that I have to buy my own copies for giveaways and signings, but my plan is to buy a couple of copies every month, which I will use for online giveaways, and maybe set up a small signing event in my home town.

In other book news, my publisher, Crimson Romance, has teamed up with Amazon.com to offer their entire 2012/2013 backlist titles at $1.99 each for the month of February! So now would be a great time to fill your Kindle with goodies! And an unexpected bonus is that it seems the sale has also extended to other Amazon domains, too. I spotted IF THE SHOE FITS at the bargain price of £1.24 on Amazon UK, and my fellow Crimson authors have reported slashed prices in other countries, too.

In more personal news, I've managed to lose 4lbs in my first week of dieting. Yay! Hopefully I can keep up the momentum. *fingers crossed* I've a long way to go, but this first week's results are definitely encouraging!

That's it for this week, so short and sweet it is. I want to mix things up a bit for my blog posts, so next week will see less of the book stuff, and more of my personal brand of craziness. You have been warned! *snort*

Ta-ta for now!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!!

Hello, it's only me!!

Yes, I know it's been a while, but I'm still around. Never has there been a more apt blog title than 'Princess of Procrastination'...(and that's a major understatement).

People who know me know just how notoriously BAD I am at keeping up with stuff. I'm pretty sure I have a defective gene when it comes to keeping to a schedule. There are lots of genuine reasons for the lack of blog posts (my full time job, health stuff, lack of inspiration etc), but mostly it's just a case of good old (or bad old) procrastination. I've taken some steps to try and help with this, though.

Book One of The Furry Tale Chronicles

The biggest step was deciding to lay to rest my other blog. I had the best of intentions when I created my Furry Tales Chronicles blog. I wanted to keep my book stuff separate, and continue with the sillies on THIS blog. Trouble is, I can't keep up with one blog, never mind two, and knowing I was neglecting two blogs just made me feel a bit overwhelmed. I'll be posting a short note over there to redirect anyone who stumbles across it over here. I had deleted it initially, but then I realised that the web address is advertised on my publisher's website AND in my 'about the author' notes in my Crimson book. (Duh). But after my little note, there won't be anything new posted over there.

You'll notice that I've added some page tabs at the top of the page. These are just to include the information that was listed on my other blog (see, I did the job properly!). I'm going to do my very best to blog every Monday or Tuesday over here. My usual silliness, most likely (of course!), peppered with personal stuff, and book related stuff as and when there is anything interesting to tell.

Of course, it is January, the month where most people decide to give themselves a kick up the butt, so it's probably no surprise that I decided NOW to be a bit more proactive in my fight against procrastination. But despite 2013 being a GREAT year for me (two books released - yay!), it was also a bit of a sucky year as well. My health hasn't been great, my writing projects received little to no attention, my finances have been skewered, and I've struggled to keep my episodic depression at bay.

I'm determined to do better this year. I want at least one more book under my belt by the end of 2014, and hopefully I can get another novella released, too. I've already been working on SOUL IDENTITY (my epic fantasy), which I plan to publish under my real name when it's eventually finished (most of you know that I publish under a pen name for my romances). And the second of my Furry Tale Chronicles book is well under way. Looking good, so far!

Wedding Wake up call: My son, my daughter, me, & my step-daughter.

My last bit of personal stuff for today is a public declaration of my intention to lose weight this year. You may remember that I lost a whopping 42lbs a few years ago. Unfortunately (as so often happens with us chronic dieters), I put every last pound back on again. *sighs* I did make an effort last year and managed to lose (and keep off) 14lbs, but I gave up far too quickly. Today is the day that I start my new plan. Doctors would tell me that I need to lose 45-50lbs to fall in the 'healthy range', but I'm hoping for a more realistic loss of 30lbs for the time being. That would be put me at around the same weight that I was three years ago, and you know, it felt... nice... not too thin, but definitely not fat. I was recently a bridesmaid for my sister in law, and it was looking at the pictures that gave me the kick up the butt that I needed. Of course, I knew I'd put on weight, but there is nothing like seeing a picture of yourself where you think you look OK, and seeing just how big you've become, to shock you into action. Oh, I know I'm not monstrously huge, but if I'm cringing at the picture, then it's a sure sign that it's time to do something.

I'm not brave enough to publicly announce my actual weight, but I will be giving a weekly update on pounds lost (and not gained, hopefully) over the next few months. Accountability helps.

My Christmas novella, released in December

My last bit of news today (sorry for the extremely long post, but you know, it has been a while *snort*), is that IF THE SHOE FITS is now available in paperback! Yay! I'll get to hold my first book baby in my hands! So far it's only popping up in the US (I've seen it both at Barnes & Noble and Amazon), but it should be showing up in the UK (and other countries, via Amazon) over the next few weeks. I'm tentatively thinking about putting my self-pubbed Christmas novella, MEET ME HALFWAY, out in paperback, too, but at the moment that one is still only available through Amazon's Kindle. I'll let you know if and when that changes!

That's it for now! I'll see you next week, when I'll have some news about promotional stuff for IF THE SHOE FITS. *grins*

Princess Promo: Paws and Print

Most of you know that I am probably the most disorganised person in Blogland. I think the lack of organisation skills goes hand in hand with being a procrastinator (as well as being easily distracted, because I'm also away with the fairies most of the time). Anyway, well over a month ago, I decided that I needed to have a regular spot for guests. Something promotional. Something that could highlight a person (or a website) who deserved a little Promo Love. Now, I'm not going to lie, my version of a 'regular spot' will most likely differ from others, in that I will of course become sidetracked, forgetful, and fall foul of my procrastinating. But the good intention is there, and whether I post once a week, or once a month (which is far more likely, let's be honest here), 'Princess Promo' is now officially one of my post labels, *nods*

This first promotional post is special for a couple of reasons.

While searching for possible reviewers for my debut release, I came across Erin, who is just fabulous. She is fairly new to reviewing, and her website is also a recent debut. Erin is wonderful, and I'm not just saying that because she read my book and told me she 'adored' it. As soon as I saw her website, I knew that I needed to make her my first highlight in my promotional posting effort.

Her website is called Paws and Print, and you should definitely go and check it out. First, isn't that a wonderful name for a website? Two of my favourite things in one title, and the alliteration is also cool (I love me some alliteration!). I may be wrong, but I'm going to hazard a guess that the 'Prints' is referencing the fact that Erin is a reviewer. And her review policy is AWESOME. As well as offering the usual read, review, and post reviews at Amazon and Goodreads (par for the course for any reviewer worth their salt), she also states quite clearly that she is an 'upbeat' reviewer. Let me show you what she says...

On Paws and Print, I will review books that I have purchased, requests from authors and those I receive from tour companies as part of a promotional tour. No matter the source, all the reviews include my own opinions, and are not influenced by outside sources. 

I post honest reviews, which means I will let you know the good along with the bad. Keep in mind, I enjoy many kinds of books and I believe that nearly everything has an audience (even if it's not me). I always try to keep my reviews truthful, but upbeat. If I am reviewing something I truly don't enjoy as part of a promotional tour, I may withhold a paw print rating. 

All my reviews are cross promoted on Facebook & Twitter. They are also reprinted on Amazon and Goodreads. 

Ratings 

I utilize the same 1 through 5 rating system used by Amazon and Goodreads. Most often, you will find 3, 4 and 5 star reviews here, as I do not like to post negative reviews. 

3 Paw Prints--It's a good book, worth reading. I enjoyed this book, but there is probably nothing that makes it stand out. It is not the type of book I would be reading over and over (most likely). 

4 Paw Prints--I really liked this book. It is something I am recommending and probably worth a second read. 

5 Paw Prints--These are the special books, the ones I truly love. These are the books you will likely find me talking about, purchasing for friends and giving away to others.

Isn't that fab? One of the scariest aspects of seeking reviews is the fear that you will get flamed. Erin's policy takes away most of that fear (though not all, because for me, I will always be scared of reviews *snort*). Right away, I knew I wouldn't be dithering over requesting a review with this lady, and trust me, normally I dither for a long time before I fill out a request form.

But then I saw what her website was really about, and I immediately knew that whether this lady loved or hated my book, she deserved a little promo love. You see, the 'Paws' part of her title is referencing her wonderful intention behind the website. 

I was going to explain in my own words, but again, I think I'll just copy over what Erin has on the page, because I really think it needs to be read exactly as she phrased it herself...

Shop Mission 

The Paws and Print Shop is going to be our avenue for supporting rescue pets. You will find a wide variety of custom crochet items and ready to ship items. Each month, 15% of our sales will go to support local rescue charities in the form of a monetary donation or by purchasing goods needed by the shelters. While I support charities in the Philadelphia area, I know that pets all over the country need our help. So, if you have a favorite charity in need of a little love, please send me an email at erinlindsey(dot)maurer(at)gmail(dot)com. 

In addition to monthly donations, we will also feature items just for your pets. Currently, those are our pet bandanas, but more items will be added. For each item sold, a duplicate will be made and sent to help rescue pets in need.

Now, tell me that's not fabulous. Really. I bet you can't. *nods wisely* Seriously, this just warms the cockles of my animal-loving heart. What an awesome idea for supporting the many animals in need of rescue, love, and support. Not only is Erin donating much needed dollars from her proceeds, but she is duplicating every order she receives and donating the spare to an animal in need.

It's just all around awesome. So please, spare a moment and pop along to Erin's wonderful website. And even if you don't buy anything, spread the word. This lady has started a wonderful project, and I think it deserves to be recognised.

Here endeth my first official promotional post. I hope it does what I wanted it to do. Spread the love, people, spread the love...

Pimping my Pal & Begonia Bribing

The Pimping...

I talk to a LOT of people in the online community. A LOT. I've been active online for around nine years now, give or take, and I'm far more outgoing online than I am in real life. Online, I can let loose the crazy person inside and have virtually no fear of being given the raised Eyebrows of Doom. Well, I probably still get the Eyebrows of Doom, but because I don't see it, it doesn't matter.

My first online home was HPANA (The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator), which sadly shut down a while back so I can't provide a link. I was deeply engrossed in the Potter fandom and picked HPANA as my online outlet - and it literally changed my life. I started writing shortly after joining the site, and I can honestly say that without HPANA, I wouldn't currently be biting my nails about whether my debut novel is selling or not.

But I digress (something I do an awful lot, but embrace because one of my earliest online friends advocates digression as a religion).

Anyway, what got me actually writing was plucking up the courage to join the fanfic community on HPANA. I stumbled into the Fan Fun forum one day, and I was happy to find lots of lovely Harry Potter stories that I could lose myself in while I waited for book six to arrive. I started my own writing with a pretty mediocre fanfic called 'The Wedding', which was a novella length story about Ron and Hermione's big day. I'll be honest, it was crap. And I do mean crap. But people seemed to like it, and when I started the sequel (Harry, Ginevra, and the Rocky Road of Romance - yeah, that really was the title *snort*) I had a pretty strong fan base. In fact, I would say that 'Rocky Road' is a good comparison to my current novel, as the wacky and crazy tone is a pretty close match.

The Watery Tart

Anyway, as well as the crazies, I also attempted a couple of more serious stories. One of them, 'Lily's Choice', was the first, and it was a fanfic based on my theory of Harry's mother, the deceased Lily Potter. This was the story that brought me more interest, and one of my biggest supporters was Tami. From day one, she was just fabulous, and when she started posting her first fanfic, 'The Other Prince'(the sublime story of Snape's mother, Eileen Prince), well I of course had to read right away and offer my support in return.

Let me tell you, 'The Other Prince' was more than sublime, it was brilliant. And it was very obvious that Tami was a gifted writer, who would one day end up being published. And not only did we support each other's stories, we also became friends. Real friends. Tami just has zany humour, and we really clicked because I am the same way.

When Tami started posting her second fanfic, 'The Best Laid Plans (Sometimes Go Awry)', I was on board right way, and it was just as fantastic as her first story, though the tone was very similar in many ways to my 'Rocky Road' story. We both told a serious story, but we both infused our work with crazy scenes.

By now, we were big mutual fans, and it was the start of a real friendship. When HPANA shut down, we were sad, but we still contacted each other. We had Facebook. We had our writer's group (made up entirely of HPANA members, by the way). And we actually met in real life a few years ago, too, which is pretty amazing seeing as Tami is from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I am from little old Cardiff, in Wales (our writer's group met up in Cardiff several years ago when the opportunity arose to showcase some of our drabbles [100 word pieces of fiction] at a Cardiff art gallery).

Anyway, ANYWAY... basically, we mind melded virtually from the start. We just share the same humour, and sometimes even share the same thought, wacky though that sounds. There are only a handful of people I can say that about, and these are the people that I call my best friends. I have a few of these people in the real world, which is awesome, but for me to have that in the online world, too... well it's nuts. I don't know where I'd be without my HPANA buddies. The website may have gone, but the friendships have remained.

The Bribing...

Well it's not really a bribe, but the fabulous Tami (aka Alyse Carlson) has a book baby birthday today!! Her second cozy, 'The Begonia Bribe', has just hit the shelves!! *throws confetti* I'm so thrilled that Tami took her writing to the next level, and so proud of my mind melding friend. Her first cozy was a BEST SELLER!! And I'm pretty sure that the follow up will rocket too. *nods* Here's the deets, and HUGE CONGRATS to my friend, the awesomest Watery Tart in the world! *glomps Tami*


The Blurb:

Roanoke, Virginia, is home to some of the country’s most exquisite gardens, and it’s Camellia Harris’s job to promote them. But when a pint-sized beauty contest comes to town, someone decides to deliver a final judgment …

A beauty pageant for little girls—the Little Miss Begonia Pageant—has decided to hold their event in a Roanoke park. Camellia is called in to help deal with the botanical details, the cute contestants, and their catty mothers. She soon realizes that the drama onstage is nothing compared to the judges row. There’s jealousy, betrayal, and a love triangle involving local newsman—and known lothario—Telly Stevens. And a mysterious saboteur is trying to stop the pageant from happening at all.

But the drama turns deadly when Stevens is found dead, poisoned by some sort of plant. With a full flowerbed of potential suspects, Cam needs to dig through the evidence to uproot a killer with a deadly green thumb.

by Alyse Carlson

Available at Amazon, and pretty much anywhere that sells books. So, you know, go buy it. *smiles winsomely*

Tara vs Tara vs Tara

Original image

 I'm a self-confessed ditherer. I keep doing OTHER stuff - not even important stuff - rather than work on my next book. Now that I actually HAVE important(ish) stuff to do (like get as many of the 56 blog posts ready for the April A-Z - I signed up BOTH blogs... I keep having to remind myself about that. *shifty*) I have decided that now is the time I should work on the next book. *rolls eyes* Ah well, at least I managed the first week of posts for both blogs before I got sidetracked (though half of those were already done, in all fairness, so it's not such a great feat).

See, I had an idea pop in my head for the opening scene, and once it was there, it had to get out. This is not the first time this has happened, and I know from experience that if I don't get it written right away, it will poke and pester at me and drive me nuts.

This time, though, I am determined to keep going. In the last... year?... I have started the next book three times (not including this time), with varying degrees of success when it came to continuing with it. One draft was under five thousand words, little more than a chapter or two. The longest was over 25k, but I ran out of steam.

Now, a normal person would have backed these files up and revisited them, and I did. At least, for a while, at any rate. But during one of my (thankfully) infrequent dips into The Pit (I suffer with episodic depression), I went on a purging spree and deleted virtually everything from my laptop. Regretted it the following day, obviously, but when my Inner It comes for a visit, she's mouthy, pushy, and pretty hard to stand up to.

Anyway, as I said above, I have started the follow up to If the Shoe Fits, and this time I will email any and all progress to my sister for safe keeping. Just in case I have that Purge Urge again.

I'm also currently having numerous conversations with my multiple personalities about the title of my next book. The conversations are sort of like this:

Serious Brain Tara: It needs to have a beast in there somewhere. But not a beauty reference. Don't want it to be too bluergh. I want something snappy.

Serious Brain Tara #2:  Yes. How about what your friend suggested? To Beast Or Not To Beast?

Serious Brain Tara: Well, I like that, but I worry that potential readers might think it will be similar to a Shakespearean story, and really, I think the talking cat might shock them.

Serious Brain Tara #2: I see your point. What about Truly, Madly, Beastly?

Serious Brain Tara: Hmmm. Not loving it, but it's a start.

Serious Brain Tara #2: What about words that rhyme with beast?

Serious Brain Tara: Yes, that's a good idea! Feast! There's one! We could play with quotes that have feast in them!

Serious Brain Tara #2: A Beast for the Eyes, maybe?

Serious Brain Tara: Not enamoured, I have to admit. What other words rhyme with beast, anyway?

Silly Brain Tara: Yeast!

Serious Brain Tara & Serious Brain Tara #2: *blank stare*

Silly Brain Tara: I got it!! Beast Infection!!!!

*dies* Sometimes, I scare myself, I really do...

See you Monday, for the first April A-Z post!

April Antics

Well, I did it, despite telling myself I wouldn't. I signed up for this years April A-Z challenge. *points at badge on the right* This will be my third year, though I failed last year, and didn't quite make it all the way through the alphabet. Still kicking myself that I never managed X. Y and Z, but there we are.

This year, I'm not going to do limericks. Well, there might be one or two, but I don't want to restrict myself. With my debut novel scheduled for release on April 29th, I really think I should take this opportunity to use the challenge as a sort of promotional lead-up to the big day. Still not sure how that's going to work, but I'll just do what I normally do and make it up as I go along... *shifty*

In other news, I've been participating in 'March Madness' - a sort of WriMo event hosted by my writer's group, except rather than the conventional 'write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days' challenge, it's more of a 'finish a project that's been bugging you' sort of thing. We like to bend the rules, you see. Me being me, I bent the rules further by choosing NOT to finish a current writing project, but instead work on a brand new novella.

This novella was in response to a specific submissions call by an e-book publisher, and despite the deadline being March 15th, I shocked and stunned myself (and probably my fellow writers) by writing, editing AND submitting my 20k effort in under a fortnight.

Clearly, somebody took over this Procrastinating Princess during the process.

Now I am putting most of my efforts into promoting If The Shoe Fits, but hopefully I can channel the Writing Fairy that took over me in the first half of March, and produce a decent word count on my next furry fairy tale before the end of the month.

Then it's April A-Z madness! Along with finding out whether my novella has been accepted or rejected on or around April 15th, followed by release day for my talking pussy-cat on the 29th.

Crikey, April will DEFINITELY be a crazy month...

Also, keep your eyes peeled on The Furry Tale Chronicles blog... there's going to be an update - with cover art reveal! -  post sometime this week!!

Image borrowed from here...

UPDATE!!! And Laura - blogger at Daily Dodo and Chick Lit Love - has just posted my first official promotional blog visit. Yaaaaay! Thanks, Laura! Check it out here: Dithering Debutante.

UPDATE #2!! I'm nuts, but I've also decided to blog through the April A-Z over at The Furry Tale Chronicles, where I will make up for not posting rude rhymes on here by limericking over there...

Published Princess

What's that? Published Princess???

Yes, you read correctly! I have no idea how it happened - it really is a mystery to me! - but I appear to have gotten myself a publisher for my innuendo-filled Cardiff tale. *is still recovering from shock*

Now, if you are one of my Facebook friends, you will already know this (as I announced it yesterday), but this announcing thing is fun, and surely it deserves a post of it's own on here. *nods* I'll be updating the Cardiffella Blog over the next few weeks with news as and when it happens, but for now, I'll just quickly say that in a little over two months - April 29th to be exact - my prudish pussy(cat) will be unleashed on the world!!

My pussy is going to be famous! Well, sort of...

Who'd have thought that my feline fairy godmother would make it, eh?

More to the point, who'd have thought that a Procrastinating Princess would ever kick her own butt enough to keep querying her innuendo-filled novel? This is why it's a mystery, you see...

Those of you in the know will remember that I wrote Cardiffella way back in 2009 during NaNoWriMo (you know, that crazy event where you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November). It was great fun - what with the pussy jokes and the obligatory mention of wobbly sausages - but it was also NUTSO when it came to doing it. Particularly since I wrote it between three computers, not a one of them in full working condition. Between the three, there was just about enough to make ONE decent computer. Of course, they all died on me several times (and obviously came back to life), and between THAT and the 'boken keboa' (that was extremely fwuztwatin, let me tell you), it was a truly heroic effort.

But anyway, it was done. And I was proud of myself for not putting it off and actually finishing it. So proud, in fact, that I let it sit on my hard drive for over two years before doing anything with it. *shifty*

Last year I managed to talk myself into fixing it up so that I could submit it to a publisher. I formatted like crazy so that it looked nicer; I cleared up the (thousands of) typos, took a few words out (and added a few here and there). Finally, in September, I sent out two queries. Not being delusional (well, actually, I AM delusional for the most part, but you know what I mean), I figured there was no way it would be accepted (which it wasn't). But more than anything, I wanted a little feedback as to what would be needed to make it publishable, and I wanted the feedback from someone in the publishing game.

To my surprise, although it wasn't accepted, it actually did rather well - making it as far as the acquisitions team, no less. It failed at the final hurdle, which was, while disappointing, also extremely encouraging. Now, this happened in the last week of January - so a mere few weeks ago - and I thought to myself, well, if it made it THAT far, maybe I should just keep submitting. I told myself that I would submit it to another four publishers, and if I didn't get any feedback, then I would work on it some more before submitting again.

At no point, you see, did I think that it was going to be accepted.

So I sent out to another four publishers and heard back from one on the very same day. They told me it was a 'fun idea', and that they 'loved my voice', but as they were already working on  a similar series, they would have to decline.

*sigh*

But you know, that was even more encouraging than the previous rejection. I mean, this time the editor had given me a little feedback, even if it was only a few words. I was resigned, but still feeling pretty good. Surely I'll get a 'revise and resubmit' soon, I thought.

But - shocked and stunned as I was - I got much better! Last Thursday I got an acceptance, and I signed the contract over the weekend. Pretty cool, huh?

As I said, I'll be giving more details on the whole she-bang over on the book blog, but I just HAD to swing by my Procrastinating Princess blog to formally 'come out'.

Onwards and upwards, my friends, onwards and upwards!

Image self-taken.

A Birrov This 'n That

So I fort I'd stop by, like, and give alirrle update on wot's 'appening at the mo. I iz pluggin away at me novel for BuNoWriMo, and thow the spiffy lirrle icon on me page says five fousand and summin, I iz now just past six fousand wordz. I just avent bovvered to update it again, like, coz it'd be pointless when I still 'as sum writin to do tonight, like innit? Me suspensful yoof story iz cummin along nicely, achully, and I iz well chuffed that the idea peers to be workin.

Az well az writin for me novel, I iz also workin' on a lirrle story for me clarts and clits at Spar (the place where I works, like innit). I iz mixing me work peeps with Pirates ov the Carrybeeun, and calling the story 'Pirates ov the Sparrebeeun', coz I is mad like that. I iz 'aving a right larf writin it, too!

Also, I iz well chuffed like, coz this iz blog number seventy-nine for two fousand and leven, which is bluddy bangin coz that means I av fishally beat last yer's blog count already like, and itz only the buginnin ov June!

In ovver news, I iz also chuffed coz I lost anovver five poundage of weight, which is very good indeed, like innit? Course, I bluddy put on ten poundage since Chrismus, so I iz only loozing wot I gained, but still, itz a step in the right direcshun, innit? Youknowzitmakezsense!

And thatz abou all I av for this yer update. Nuffin much else 'appenin yer in the Kair ov Diff, cept for the unusually nice wevvar, but I iz bettin the sun will go back behind the clowds almost before I finishes this yer blog post, so itz pointless givin it more than a breef menshun.

Anywayz, thassall for today, clarts and clits, I'll stop by in a coupla dayz or so wiv a propa blog post, but until then, later peeps!


Original image borrowed from here, but tweaked a bit by moi.

Blog #195

"Blog  #195". A catchy title, that. I have a love/hate relationship with titles. Well, it's more a sort of I can Think Of A Title Really Easily/ I Can't Think OF A Title For Love Nor Money kind of thing, actually. The thing with titles is that they need to be short and snappy, and also allude somehow to the story/blog post etc that they are heading.

I have no fixed pattern for deciding on titles when it comes to blogging. Sometimes I have a title worked out before I sit down to type, while other times I finish writing the piece, check for typos etc, find pictures if I need them, then spend x amount of time trying to think of a header.

When it comes to stories, however, I have two solid habits. When writing a longer length story - my two attempts at novels and my novel and novella length fan fictions fall into this category - I need my title right from the off. Generally I have a good idea where the story is going, and what the most important theme or aspect is going to be, and having my title fixed firmly in my mind helps me to stick to my theme.

Shorter stories, however, are a different kettle of fish. I don't think I've ever written a short story with the title already worked out. Usually I finish writing, then read through it to see if I can think of something snazzy to call it. I think short stories are more in my comfort zone because they are, to a certain extent, unplanned. All of my short stories tend to be written in one sitting, and usually I have no idea how they will end, I just wait and see where the muse takes me. Hence the No Title Until Finished habit.


But what I want to know is, does having a title up front make any difference to the story? Does it make you more focused? Are you more likely to stick to a plan if you have a title? Or do you feel the story needs to be finished before it can be given a name?

I think with blogs, it doesn't really matter so much, but if you are naming your book - something you have spent months, or even years, working on - it matters a great deal. Like naming a baby, naming your novel is a personal thing. I had the names for my children settled long before I gave birth to them, just as I named my longer stories/novels long before they were finished (or even written, for that matter). Some people might feel they can't name their baby (or book) until they see them face to face. Everyone's different, and one way is no better than another.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on titles...

Image permission.

Making Plans... Sort Of.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I don't 'do' plans. Really, they're just not happening. It's not the making of them that is hard - I've made countless plans over the years - it's the executing part that I have trouble with. *shifty*

I'm in the process of following a plan at the moment, and so far I'm not doing too bad with it. In order to have a finished manuscript by the end of the first week of June, I decided that one chapter per week in my 'polishing and tweaking' schedule should do it. I've been leaving it till the weekends, but so far I'm good. I should be going through chapter three this week, and I am on target. Whether I stick it out for another ten weeks is another thing, but we shall see.

I'm also doing better with this blogging malarkey. I haven't been blogging every day, but that was never something that I intended anyway. Realistically, I'm hoping for between 150 and 200 blog posts per year, that way I am blogging for around half of the 365 days. I've amassed 41 (including this one) posts for this blog this year, and four on my Cardiffella blog, and we are nigh on three months into 2011. If I stick to this pace, I reckon I should do it. But in order to keep at this pace, I will need to blog every day for at least one month out of every three.

So, with this in mind, I'm not officially joining next month's A-Z blog challenge (I seem to do better with these things if I don't formally commit), but I am going to have a go. There is the NaBloWriMo in October to cover my post-a-day for the last quarter of the year, so that's good. I predict a request for, er, requests, that month, obviously. And as for the month of blogging daily in the July/August/September section of the year... well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Hopefully I'll have some exciting news to post on my other blog that will fill up some posts, but I'm not counting any chickens just yet.

As for this blog, I am nearing my 200th post (yay!), and am beginning to think about what I will do to mark the occasion. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but for a procrastinator, 200 blog posts is huge. Not to mention the fact that I have been blogging off and on now for eighteen months, itself an achievement for someone who usually 'forgets' about writing commitments.

And there we have it, my 'sort of' plans for the near future. It's a ramble to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I haven't surprised anyone there...


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The New Year Thingy

Wow, a new year already! I don't know what happened, but 2010 passed in a blink of an eye. Or so it seemed. Anyway, I'm not one for making new year's resolutions - well, I make them, but never stick to them - but I do like to at least have a few goals to aim for in the coming year. A goal is much better than a resolution in my opinion, mostly because resolutions are sort of stressful. You are promising yourself that you WILL do something. With a goal comes the same promise, but it somehow seems to put less pressure on you. I know, they are technically the same thing when you think about it, but the wording makes a lot of difference. *nods* Plus it helped me fill a paragraph. *shifty*

Anyway, in continuing with last year's great result of dropping - and keeping it off! - 40lbs, I'd like to lose another 20lbs this year. I'm much happier with myself at my current weight, but that extra 20lbs would make me ecstatic. I have no illusions about how hard this will be. The less weight you have to lose, the harder it is to shift it. And whereas last year I did little more that eat smaller portions at mealtimes, and cut back on my bread and junk food intake, this year I will have to calorie count and exercise to be able to lose those excess pounds.

I'd also like to improve on my blogging frequency. I have scheduled posts to write for my writing group's blog (Burrowers, Books & Balderdash) which I usually manage to do - even if I'm late doing them - but my poor Princess Of Procrastination page has been badly neglected this past year. I'm not sure yet how often I am aiming for, but almost anything would be better than last year's abysmal blog count.

Lastly I want to set some writing goals. I want to try and punch out the sequel to my modern twist on Cinderella, and also get back to working on my fantasy novel. I'm shying away from editing for the moment, mostly because I hate doing it and it tends to make me procrastinate even more than normal over my other writing stuff. I set three goals for editing Cardiffella last year, and failed each time, so no editing goals for the moment. They're obviously a bad influence on me.

That's it, really. My new year thingies. Not resolutions, of course, because you know that I don't do them. *winks*

*is plodding along*

Yup, it's slow going, but I am plodding along. Of course, it's Saturday, and I did say I would blog on Friday, but seeing as it's WriMo month, and I finally had a bit of luck with the writing yesterday, I think I can get away with it. *winks*

It's been a funny week. I got off to a good start by pumping out a thousand words as soon as the clock struck midnight and it was officially November the first. Great! Start as I mean to go on anallat, yes? Of course, this is me, and nothing is ever as straightforward as that, so there was bound to be something to cock up my good intentions.

Yup, my hubby got hit off his motorbike early Monday afternoon. He seemed fine, and I breathed a sigh of relief, not least because he had already camped at the local A&E department a fortnight before after being 'glassed' at the local pub, and then knocked down by a car as he was chasing the person who did it. (Knocked down, if you can believe it, by one of his friends (!!!) who was on his way back to the pub to help break up the consequent kerfuffle). Anyway, twenty stitches to the arm, and several cuts and bruises later, hubby was home. All good. I figured the Smith family was done with the A&E for this year, after all, one visit to the emergency department is quite enough, thank you very much. *nods*

Monday evening arrived and I was getting ready to pump out some more words on my NaNo. The kids had been fed, the house was tidy, school preparations had been done for the following day, and I had a lovely take away pizza to sustain me. Hubby was doing his best to eat his meal, but found that he couldn't lift his arm very well. Trip number two to the A&E, here we come. Several hours later, we finally get home, with severely bruised shoulder and ribs, and a broken thumb to add to my hubby's injured arm (which, by the way, was infected from the glassing incident).

That was quite enough drama for one day. I was tired, it was late, and I figured Tuesday would be a better option to get to my writing.

*rolls eyes*

Yup, Tuesday was no good either as it turned out. My daughter woke up with a stomach bug for company. Cue two days of multiple changes of clothes, excess use of toilet paper, and repeated speeches telling my daughter that no, she can't have anything to eat because her belly will never get better if she doesn't give it a rest. The problem with stomach bugs is that often you don't actually feel ill as such, you just can't eat anything. And seeing as my daughter loves her food, you can imagine how difficult it was. If I heard say "But I'm starving!" once, I heard it a hundred times.

Anywho, Thursday arrived, my daughter returned to school ( after a hefty breakfast *snort*), and I thought to myself Yay!!! Shortly followed by... oh bugger. Stomach bugs tend to be catching you see. Yeuch.

So yesterday was the first day that I actually managed to do some work on my NaNo, which is why I got sucked in and decided to keep writing as long as the words flowed. Hence the slight change in my blogging schedule. I'm still a bit behind, but I have decided that I am not doing anything today apart from write, so hopefully I can catch up a bit. I won't hit my personal goal of 17,500 words by tomorrow night, but the recommended target of almost 12k by the end of day 7  (according to NaNo standards) should be doable.

And so I am plodding along.

*is struggling*

Yes, it's only day three of NaNoWriMo and already I am behind. I'm around 2k behind at the moment, but I really wanted to be ahead at this point, so my personal goal for today is ever further away.


It's so typical. I took two weeks off from work specifically to get ahead, yet I am already struggling to stay on top of things. Of course, I spent all of Monday evening at the A&E with my husband, who managed to get himself knocked off his motorbike earlier that day. Several x-rays confirmed bruised ribs and shoulder, and a broken thumb, so he is fine all in all, but the worry and the annoyingly long wait to be seen by the doctors really scuppered up my first day of NaNo.

Still, I thought I would catch up yesterday and today. No problem. I hadn't bargained on my daughter getting a stomach bug though. *rolls eyes* Honestly, I think I've spent the majority of the last two days trying to explain to my daughter why she wasn't allowed to have anything to eat.

Anywho, quite apart for the lack of time at the computer, I'm just really struggling to get my first few thousand words down. I know where I want to go, and I know what I need to cover in the first few chapters, but somehow everything I type doesn't sound right. I've made the mistake of deleting paragraphs at a time because I'm not happy with them, which is absolutely the wrong thing to do with a WriMo. Last year I just kept typing, even though I knew there were hundreds of mistakes, and more than a few sections that were definitely shaky. I need to get the same attitude going for this year, because if I keep deleting large sections of text, I'm going to end up with nothing.

So, I have given myself a little pep talk. *nods* No more deleting!! No more wasting time correcting spelling and typing errors!! (Yes, that's how much I am dithering - I am checking for typos. So not like me at all). And no more worrying about whether a sentence could be phrased better!! Just. Keep. Typing.

See you Friday, when hopefully I will have a blog titled *is storming ahead*.

*crosses fingers*

*is informing through rambling*

Just a quick one today (er, blog that is) so that I can tell you that I've managed to start writing for my NaNo novel. No really - I did. *is shocked and stunned* I'm only just past a thousand words, but I should hit my personal goal of 2.5k by the end of today. *nods firmly* I have to work at a slightly faster pace than the official 1,667 words a day if I am to win, you see. I'm currently off from work and won't return until the 14th, so a few extra words a day are essential to make up for the second half of the month where I know I will be tired and less inclined to write. I figure 13 days at 2,500 words is what, 32,500k? That'll leave me 1,030 words per day to write for the remainder of the challenge, which sounds infinitely more preferable to 1,667, right? I don't think I can finish the story in 50,000 words, mind you, but I'd love to have 50k under my belt by the end of the month. I'm thinking the novel should be hitting 80-90k as a finished product, but there's no way I'm getting that many words down in thirty days...


Anywho, I should also mention that after last month's effort of blogging every day *is shocked and stunned about that too*, I'd like to keep to a semi-regular blogging schedule if at all possible. I highly doubt that every day is doable - especially seeing as it is me we are talking about - but I figure three days a week might be a nice compromise. Possibly Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Lastly, asterisks are back. *nods again* Of course they are! I can't blog without asterisked titles during a WriMo month, can I? That would be unthinkable! Inconceivable, even!

Lastly, if anyone would like to Buddy me on the official NaNoWriMo site, you can find me under the moniker of Tundiel, and my novel is titled Soul Identity. Go ahead and add me, there's always room for more slags and clarts on my buddy list. *smiles winsomely*

It's All About The Purple

I find it interesting that two of the five subjects that my fourth 'topic suggester' picked link really well with the first original novel that I started writing (emphasis on the 'started' there as that's about as far as I got). Among the suggestions that Weesa gave me was 'purple' and 'imagination'. Obviously I'm not going to ramble about imagination today because I need to keep that for a couple of days' time, so today it's going to be all about the Purple. *nods*

My story premise for 'Soul Identity' (the tentative name that I came up with about a century ago) was pretty simple. Everybody has something unique inside them that identifies who they truly are, and this certain something is central to how they live their lives. Everybody has this, but there are some who have a stronger version (for want of a better word), and it is these people who end up shaping the way we live.

Now, my story was fantasy based, so of course I needed legends and back story for my characters, plus I had to have the essential good vs. evil dynamic that most decent fantasy novels contain. I don't want to go into too much detail because I have a sneaksy feeling that I may end up working on the book for next month's NaNoWriMo (and be classed as a rebel for doing so), but what I found really interesting (as I mentioned above) is that Weesa picked out two of the really strong themes from 'Soul Identity'  - how mad is that?

The purple is pretty easy to explain. My main characters are related to each other, though they don't know of this until late in their childhoods. One is kept locked away by a benevolent old man, and the other is brought up by loving parents and a godmother. Although they have completely opposite experiences of childhood, they are both almost identical in looks and temperament, and recognize their kinship as soon as they eventually meet.

But where's the purple? I'm getting there...

Being fantsay based, it should come as no surprise for you to learn that these children  (both girls, named Cassiopeia and Andromeda, by the way) have a mystical history, and are, in fact, the key to saving the world (obviously!). Naturally there is legend and folklore that tells the story of the coming of two girls who will defeat the evilness of the world, and of course they will have to suffer through many obstacles and sacrifice a great deal before they can to what they're destined to do.

What do you mean, that sounds familiar? Of course it sounds familiar! All good fantasy novels have the hero/heroine venture on some sort of quest and end up having to save the world - it's the tried and tested formula. *nods*

But where's the flipping purple?!?!

Alright, alright, I'm getting to it...

Both my girls have piercing lavender eyes (is that not a shade of purple? *winks*) and are the main identifying attribute that alerts those in the know that they are the girls that were spoken of in legend. To compliment their unusual eye colouring, they both have vibrant violet hair (ooh look, another shade of purple!). Obviously this isn't the norm even in a fantasy based world, which partly explains why the one child is locked away, and why the other will be seen to go to great lengths to conceal her true colouring. It's all about the purple indeed.

It's also a pretty moralistic tale, with plenty of action, a little mystery, a pinch of magic, and a great big whack of emotional punch, because when I am not being nutty and delusional with talking cats and modern-day fairy tales set in the Kair of Diff, I actually think my true writer's voice belongs in angsty, dark and emotional story telling.

This, I hope, is what I want to bring to 'Soul Identity', and hopefully I'll be Bringing It throughout next month's WriMo challenge.

Writing Tips From An Unqualified (but enthusiastic) Writer

Moving into the second half of my October blog challenge, and it's the turn of my HPANA buddy Weesa to suggest the next block of topics. Her first prompt is 'Advice for beginner writers'.


This one makes me a bit squirmy as I don't really feel that I'm in a position to offer advice. Sure, I've been writing for around five years now, but I'm not published, and I know I could improve in a number of ways. Still, there are several things that I believe would be useful to aspiring writers out there who are just starting out.

1 - My biggest piece of advice is to read. And when I say read, I mean reads lots. Read copious amounts, really. As much as you can, in every genre possible. The more you read, the higher your vocabulary skills will be, and you will also get a good idea about what does and doesn't sell. Look for plot patterns, see how foreshadowing works, look at the pacing. Dissect as much as you can and break the novel down into sections. If you can see how things work in a published book, it will help you with the layout in your own book.

2 - After you have read a good selection of novels, pick a genre that you enjoyed the most. If you really enjoy reading fantasy, for example, chances are you will enjoy writing fantasy too. Find your comfort zone, and test the waters by writing a short story first, or even a poem. You'll soon know if the genre you've chosen is working for you. My first original novel idea was fantasy based, and I spent three years on the thing and never passed five chapters. Fantasy is my favourite genre, so I really thought it should be the genre that I should write in. Then I went through a phase where I read a bunch of chick lit novels and I decided to have a go at writing one for last year's NaNoWriMo challenge. One month and 50,000 odd words later, and I had a working novel on my hands. Sure, it needs editing and what not, but the bulk of the writing is done. Goes to show that your first genre choice may not be your genre at all, so don't despair if your first choice doesn't work for you.

3 - Have a go at writing some fanfiction. I dipped my toe in the writing pond by writing fanfiction for Harry Potter (you can find all of my Potter stories in the Fan Fun forum on HPANA under my pen name Tundiel Mehtarion). My earlier attempts are a wee bit embarrassing, but I like to leave them up because I think you can really see how much I've improved over the years, and that is something which encourages me. Fanfiction is an excellent way to hone your writing skills, and also has the added bonus of feedback when you post it online.

4 - Blog. As often as you can. This is one of those things where I am saying 'do as I say, not as I do'. My blogging habits are sporadic to say the least, but I am trying to do better. If you really want to write, then you need to get into the habit of writing daily, even if it's only a couple of hundred words. It does work, but you need to be strict. I initially blogged almost every day for the first two months, and this was the time when I wrote my chick lit novel too. Since my blogging dwindled, so did my writing in general (in fact I slipped back into my terrible habit of not doing anything at all *shifty*). The whole reason I'm writing this blog today is because I decided to challenge myself to blog every day in October, partly because it's National Blog Writing Month, but also because I want to enter the NaNoWriMo next month, and this is an excellent way to get myself back in the habit of writing daily.

I also advise you to READ as many blogs as possible, especially any that are to do with writing in general, or are published by authors. You'd be surprised at how much you can pick up just by reading a handful of decent blogs every day, There's a wealth of knowledge out there, and all we have to do is read. *nods*

5 - My final piece of advice is to have fun. Seriously, enjoy your time at the keyboard (or with your pen, if you write by hand). If you really enjoy it when you write, there's a very good chance that people will enjoy reading your work.  And channel your emotions. Sometimes I am laughing like a mad woman when I am writing, or I am sniffing back tears. These are the times when my writing is at its best, and I'm pretty sure that what I am working on is more than half decent. If it seems like a chore, then your writing will come out flat, but if you are enjoying yourself, and have your emotions engaged, then your energy should  (in theory) seep into your work.

That's about all I can think of really. As I said, I'm by no means an expert at this writing malarkey, but these five tips are usually what I tell people if they ask me for advice. Hope some of you find it helpful!

Tomorrow I shall be talking about The Purple. Indeed.

A Procrastinator's Plan

Tami is being very sneaksy with the suggestion for today's topic, because she just knows how terrible I am for not sticking to a plan and getting stuff done. I think she's definitely giving me a massive kick up the butt - which I direly need, no question - and forcing me to commit myself to a workable plan that will enable me to have my book ready to submit sometime in the next century or so. *shifty*

According to Tami ( who I usually listen to because she is a wise Watery Tart without a doubt), putting your plans out there publicly gives you accountability. Normally I would agree with this, but with me being the most lazy of writers, and with 'procrastination' as my middle name, it doesn't always work.

It definitely worked with last year's NaNoWriMo challenge. Announcing my desire to embrace the madness on my new(ish) blog page meant that I needed to keep going if I didn't want to look like a prune. I really shocked myself when I completed it, so heaven knows I probably shocked my nearest and dearest too.

However, announcing a plan of action on my Facebook page several months ago didn't work. My 'Five Month Plan' is way past its deadline, and I haven't completed all of the tasks by a long shot.

So sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. Lets see what happens this time around....

Tara's Plan For Actually Sticking To The Plan That Will Get Her Book Published (otherwise known as Get Your Lazy Butt Into Action).

October 2010

Complete the October blogging challenge. Repeat after me: Writing daily will get you back into the right frame of mind. (Not really book related, but as a motivational tool, highly useful).

November 2010

Enter this year's NaNoWriMo. Okay, so this has nothing to do with editing and polishing my first novel either, but I'm hoping to finish the WriMo as before. With two books under my belt, it would be absolutely disgraceful if I didn't do anything with them, so hopefully this will shame me enough into doing something about it.

December 2010

Bad, bad month for doing anything remotely useful when it comes to writing and/or editing. Christmas sucks up all of my time, but in the unlikely event of finding a few spare hours, I will diligently read through both (*crosses fingers that there will be a second novel*) manuscripts and make some notes on what I like and don't like in readiness for...

January/February 2011

Yikes! 2011??? Anyway, New Year's resolutions will definitely be to work my butt off on editing and polishing Cardiffella primarily, and my goal is to spruce it up and have a readable book to send off to Burrowing buddies by mid February. In the interim, I'll work on my query and synopsis.

March/April 2011

Hopefully I will have gotten feedback from several people by mid March, and this is when I will undertake the final edits and what not in order to have a finished - ! - manuscript to send off to some select publishers that I have in mind.  First queries and sample chapters to be sent off by the end of April at the latest. *glares at self*

May 2011 will arrive at some point (obviously), and I really, really hope that I can get there with everything ticked off on my 'to do' list. Crossed fingers, toes, and anything else that might help would be appreciated, because I have a feeling that I'll need it.

*dies*

Punctuation Fluctuation

I'm just going to dive right in and pretend that it hasn't been three weeks since I last blogged. I'll also ignore the fact that I only blogged three times last month. (That's just so you know that I know how lax I've been).

So, punctuation. The fluctuation part of the title is mostly because it rhymes, but it does sort of make sense too, because I have good days and bad days with punctuation....

Let's just say that me and Punctuation are not exactly the best of friends (I'm not on great terms with Grammar either, but that's another subject for another day). I don't know why I can't get my head around it, but I've never been able to grasp all those bothersome punctuation rules. I can understand the basics, but when we get to the more complicated stuff, I'm lost.

Yes, there is complicated stuff with punctuation. Those of you who find it easy may laugh at this, but it's true. Take apostrophes (I wish somebody would take them, then shove them where the Sun don't shine). Most of the time I get them right, but I know for a fact that when it's a choice between its and it's, I probably pick the wrong one. I've read many explanations about how to decide which way is right, but I either get lost amongst the invariably long words that are used to explain the rules 'simply', or I actually 'twig' when I read it, only to forget all about it by the time I sit down to write something. It's just one of those Black Spots for me, and I don't think there will ever be a time when I don't struggle.

Those apostrophes bugger me up when it comes to names too. Well, not all names, just those that end with an 's'.  I mean, is it James's or James' (for example)? And what about those tricky plural words? I type as I speak usually (well, I don't go the whole hog and type in Taff speak all of the time, only on special occasions *wink*), so if I was saying 'everyone is there', I would naturally take out the 'is' and say 'everyone's there'. But should that be 'everyones' there' or 'everyones there' or 'everyone's there'??? Heck if I know.

And those.... er, I don't even know what they're called, but those series of full stops when a sentence trails off. There has to be a name for them, but I'm on the Heck If I Know fence again. Now, I actually know where these are supposed to go, so that's not the problem. But how many are there supposed to be? Three? Four? I usually go with four, but whether that's right or not is another thing. It's (its?) actually not as bad as it used to be, because when I first started writing a few years ago, there would likely be anything between three and ten full stops whenever I used a sentence that trailed off....

Moving on.

Colons. Ugh. *dies* I never use them if I can help it because unless I'm listing something in the middle of text (which is extremely rare), I really don't know where they're supposed to go. I'm mostly OK with semi-colons, but colons confuse the heck out of me. Oh, and while I remember, when I type 'OK', should that be OK, O.K., or okay? There's that fence again.

One thing I have grasped, is when and when not to use a full stop during speech. Microsoft Word used to drive me nuts because it kept capitalising (capitalizing - z or s? That's another thing that bothers me, those pesky z and s quandaries. I think that might be a spelling thing and not a punctuation thing though, so I won't blather too much about that one today) the words directly after a spoken piece of text. Leanne (my fellow Burrower, who actually inspired this blog post today, by the way, because she fixed up my punctuation errors in my blog post for Burrowers, Books & Balderdash - thanks Leanne!) explained that I needed to put a comma before the closing quotation marks if I wanted to put a 'he said etc' afterwards. Well, she said it it in a far more technical way than that, using several big words that went over my head, but I got the gist of it (shocking the heck out of me), so all was good.

And as for those quotation marks, should it be one or two when typing speech? Or does it really matter? *falls off the fence*

So yeah, me and Punctuation have a strange relationship. Probably not ideal for someone who is frantically trying to polish and edit a novel for publication, but there we are.

Timeslip

Why is it that the older you get, the faster time seems to pass? This is a puzzle that has made me think a lot over the last few years, with each year passing making me puzzle over it more. As a child, the time between birthdays and Christmas etc seemed eternal, whereas even though we are now only midway through July, already I am panicking about Christmas 2010. I know, it's five months away for crying out loud, but from experience I know that those five months will soon be behind me and the joy (stress) of the festive season will be upon me. Its nuts! I have a birthday coming up (unfortunately), and it honestly doesn't seem like it has been a year since my last one. Looking back on it is like looking back at a day from a couple of weeks ago. What's up with that?

I noticed that time seemed to speed up when I hit thirty.  I mean, sure, the years went a little more swiftly in my twenties when compared to my childhood, but a year still felt like a relatively long time. But when I reached thirty, suddenly a year felt about half as long as it should be. And it also seems that time appears to go faster when you have things to do. Back in February (I think it was February anyway, it may have been last week for all I know), I made a five month plan with regards to my NaNo novel. I fully intended to edit  the messy bits and add another ten thousand words so that by the end of this month I would be ready to start trying to sell it.

Now, I have made decent progress on it considering how much of a procrastinator I am, but it is far from done. Of course, I can take off a couple of months because I was back on forth on different meds for my depression, and most days I didn't know whether I was coming or going. Definitely not the right frame of mind to be in when you want to edit a novel. But I was finally given meds that worked, and over the last three months I have gradually got better, and although I know I am not completely back to normal, I am not nearly as bad as I was.  So allowing for adjustments due to the meds thing, I guess I could say that the last ten weeks or so should have seen a lot of work done on my novel.

Well, I have worked on it, but not nearly as much as I should have. I keep thinking to myself that it is only March or April, and then stop short when I realise that we are now in July. Logically I know it is July, but it just doesn't feel like it is. The time going faster as we get older thing is definitely part of that, but the whole Being Out Of My Tree for the first third of this year has also added to the problem.

I'm still determined to get Cardiffella edited and ready for submission by September though. I have this funny feeling that September should be a good month to do it, and being a bit of a stickler for 'funny feelings', I want to go with my instinct.  I just hope that September doesn't arrive before next week or something, because at the rate time is slipping by me this year, it really wouldn't surprise me....

A New Start

The start of a new month, the start of the second (and better) half of the year, the start of the summer proper, and the start of a new project. Not to mention that I'm writing an entry for Rowan Coleman's Short Story Competition, which, funnily enough, has the theme of - you guessed it - 'a new start'. That's a fair few new starts for the month of July, is it not?

I really like July. *sighs happily* It's my birth month, so while I hate getting older (which, by the way, seems to accelerate as the years go by), it's still nice because my birthday is the one day of the year where I get to be treated. This year it's even better because it will fall on a Saturday, and somehow birthdays are always nice if they coincide with the weekend, yes?

Anyway, I wanted to blog on the first of July mainly because my writer's group is currently in the final stages of setting up our blog. We go live on the 5th, and as one of the contributors I have the dubious honor of having THIS blog on the blogroll. Now, as we are aiming to be entertaining, helpful and professional, I figured I didn't want my most recent blog title 'advertising' me. Somehow I don't think *is a failure* quite gets across an image I'm happy with.

Anyway, the new blog is really exciting for me personally because I get to work on a permanent project with my writer's group (The Burrow, for those of you who aren't experiencing Deja Vu). We work on projects several times a year, but this time it will be something that will be ongoing, so I get to enjoy the whole 'group working' thing on a regular basis. It will also hopefully open up a wider network for The Burrow as a whole. We've been 'together' for several years now, and have gone from a small forum thread to bigger and better things. We have a fabulous website which showcases our work (those projects I mentioned before), and are well on the way to becoming the authors we all aspire to be. We've gone from writing fan fiction, to displaying drabbles to images in an art gallery, to debut novels, and although it's been a long road and we're mostly all still travelling, one of us has secured a publishing deal (the fabulous Tami, of Confessions of a Watery Tart). 2010 is looking to be our best year yet, obviously!

Another new start for me this month is that I am back in the land of employment again. I returned to my previous job last week, and although it's only three days a week mostly (except when there's overtime, which already I am doing *rolls eyes*), it's going to suck a whole lot of time up. All my shifts start at 6am, which means I have to be up at 4:30am. *dies*. One of those days is a Sunday, too, which is already my worst day of the week.  Of course, this means that I have to go to bed earlier the night before each shift (which cuts writing time). I also end up going to bed earlier on the actual day of the shift too, which means that five nights a week I am losing at least two hours of writing time. As I tend to write the best during the late evening, this is a major loss.

On the other hand, because I do NOT want to spend the next x amount of years counting newspapers and cashing up tills, it is incredible incentive for me to crack on with the serious job of editing Cardiffella. I remember thinking two years ago (which was when I resigned) that I couldn't wait to be unemployed so that I could concentrate on my writing. Of course, being the Princess of Procrastination meant that the actual writing didn't really happen. Sure, I have written over the last two years, but it's definitely been far from the daily habit that I initially hoped for. I have dithered away a good few months, procrastinated for a couple more, avoided almost completely for three months or so, and wasted time on Facebook and what-not for another few months. Less than half of the last two years (heck, probably only as little as three months or so, let's be brutally honest here) has been used for the writing that I was so intent on accomplishing.

Life gets in the way of course, so I'm not going to take responsibility for stuff that's been out of my control, but even if I ignore the last six months, that's still eighteen months that could have been used much better. The funny thing is, I'm actually a little bit glad to be working again, despite the sucky hours. For some strange reason I seem to work better when I don't have too much time on my hands. I think the thought of being 'free' from employment went to my head, and instead of doing what I should have done, I ended up doing anything and everything else, just because I could.

So....  that's a new month, a story about a new start, a new blog, a new life routine, and a new incentive to get my novel ready for submission. Lots of 'news'. Or lots of news, whichever way you want to look at it.

Keep an eye out for the new blog next week. I'm sure myself and my fellow Burrowers will all share the link not only on our blogs, but on our Facebook profiles too. We've all shared details of our writer's group on our individual blogs before, so it will be lovely to have you visit an off-shoot of The Burrow where several of us will contribute. Maybe you'll get to know us a little better, and hopefully we'll help and inspire as well as entertain.

Happy July 1st everyone!