Different Kind of Cover Love

I mentioned last week (or maybe the week before) that I was agonizing over the premise of a free read I wanted to put up on my site for Valentine’s Day. The good news is I’ve finally figured things out, I’ve got the scenes up on my storyboard and I’ve started writing it.

I’ve also been working on a cover for it. Me! I’ve never really done anything like it before so it was a bit daunting and exciting at the same time. I was pleased with how it turned out for the most part, but after some good feedback, I’ll be going back in and playing with the text a bit.

I don’t think I’ll be switching my focus to graphic design anytime soon, but it was a fun project.

What about you? Have you ever tried your hand at graphic design? How did it go? Is it something you’d like to pursue?

Crafty

I was hoping to post pictures of the new furniture in the living room. Alas, the fact that I'm not fluent in German yet has created a bit of a problem. I thought for sure we'd asked for assembly but apparently it was lost in translation.

There's not much to actually assemble except for putting the decorative top and bottom on one cabinet and all the drawer pulls and such. We also need to move the sofa back a bit so maybe tomorrow.

I think I've mentioned before that my part time job is at the craft shop on post. I scheduled a tote bag class for September. I needed a few extra hours on my time sheet (I'm required to work 20 hours per week) so today I spent time making the sample tote bag to display in the shop. It turned out pretty good.

It's a new pattern and the first time I made this particular bag. Luckily I've had some experience because there at the end, the pattern kinda left me hanging. I made it work and made notes so I could recreate it when I'm teaching the class.

So, now time to turn my focus to writerly pursuits. Hope you all are having a great day!

Mission Accomplished

So you may have noticed that I wasn't around last week. It was an unscheduled leave of absence due to me being sick as a dog and not on the computer much at all. If you will recall oh, so long ago (read a week ago Thursday) I mentioned wanting to finish the first draft of Out of the Shadows and spend some time sewing.

I'm pleased to report that after keeping my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keyboard, I did it. I wrote over 4k words that day and finished the first draft.

You'll notice that my word meter shows me 15k short for the total. I may still reach that 80k goal. I guessed on the total length. I originally thought 100k but I don't think I'm that wordy. Some of the scenes didn't come together for me as I wrote. I couldn't find the right words, etc. So I got the gist of the scene down with the dialogue. Now I have to go back and flesh those scenes out, adding description, internal dialogue, action, etc.

Plus, I've also changed the story arc since I started the book. That means that I have to add a bunch of stuff throughout for that. All in all, I'm confident that I'll reach the 80k goal or darn close to it. As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do, but now that the whole story is down on paper and I know what's going on with it, I'm hoping it will go quickly. I'm giving myself 4 weeks to go back in and add all this stuff.

I don't really know how long it will take but I'm going to be pushing myself these next two months to accomplish my goal of having it finished in time for RWA national conference so that I can pitch it to an agent. Today is the day for me to make my appointment so wish me luck that I can get in with my first choice.

By the way, I did reward myself with some time to sew and I made a couple of fabric journal covers. Here they are below. They fit over a composition notebook. They were fun and easy and I think I'm going to offer them as a class at work.

So what have you been up to? Please share your news!

Come Monday

I think I had mentioned my experiment – to work on OOTS during the week and a novella idea on the weekends? Well, that's changed a bit. See, a group of us are working through the book, The Weekend Novelist, and I thought this would be a good way to increase productivity. If it worked. Well, a novella isn't big enough. I need an actual novel-length idea to work on. OOTS is the first of a series of 5 and I didn't want to use the second in the series for this workshop as I'm hoping – no, planning – to have the rough draft done by Christmas.

So I'll be working on my urban fantasy mystery for the project, from here on out known as TWN. Wish me luck. We read the introduction this weekend and I skipped ahead a bit to see what's in store for us for the next 2 weekends. It's a different process than I've used in the past, but I'm interested to see how it will work. As for OOTS, I finished chapter 17 last week so that leaves me 3 more chapters to finish the first draft.

On another front, my philosophy class is going well. I finished 3 of the 11 lessons this past week. It's quite interesting. If all goes well this week, I can probably schedule my midterm exam soon. I need about 2 weeks lead time so that should be about right.

Oh, the weather has warmed just a bit. Hubby got the patio furniture put together and we grilled sausages on the grill Saturday night and the neighbors joined us for a nice evening. My blood is still thinner than the Germans, though. After it got dark, I needed a couple of jackets to ward off the chill. The neighbors? Just a light jacket. Anyway, here's a picture of the patio furniture.

How was your weekend?

I've got the itch

I'm feeling that itch again. The crafting itch. I'm working on a quilt for my nephew's birthday. I'm already late with it so it's imperative that I don't work on any other sewing projects until I finish this one. But, oh, how I want to.

I've got a list in my head of things I want to make and it's already too late to make some. Well, I can still make them but they would be put away until next year. There was this cute chick in the egg wall hanging. Sigh. I'm dying to try my hand at a laptop bag. I got a new laptop at Christmas and it's bigger than my previous one, which barely fit into my laptop bag. So, of course, my new one won't fit at all. I know what I want and I'm coming up with my own pattern, using techniques from some previous purses I made. I also picked up this gorgeous Asian-inspired fabric. I can see it now. Okay, getting ahead of myself.

I'm also a crocheter. I'm currently working on a little something, okay a big something, for my friend's birthday, which has already passed. See a trend here? She reads my blog so I can't say any more than that but I'm about 2/3 done with it. Waiting in the wings is this adorable pattern I found for a baby blanket with jungle animals on the borders. My brother and sister-in-law had twins a couple months back and she decorated their nursery in baby jungle animals. It's perfect and of course, I have to make two, so…

Amid all this twitching, I'm still writing. Submitted Blood Diamond and playing the waiting game with that one. I'm back to Out of the Shadows and finished chapter 13 and almost done with 14, probably today. Plus my part time job and oh yeah, I just signed up for two college classes last week. I only need 3 to finish my degree so hopefully the third will be offered for the fall semester and I can finish it up. Then to continue on. So, I'm finding that I need to re-evaluate my time management and figure out how I can fit everything I want to do in with everything I need to do. I'm sure it's possible, I just need to be disciplined. Kinda like writing. Hmm…

What about you? Do you have enough hours in the day? Is there something you'd like to do, but have trouble fitting it into your schedule? How do you handle your time management?

What’s on my mind today

Yesterday was just one of those days. Hubby went in to work late, so he threw off my morning routine. Since I worked the part time job ALL DAY yesterday, the morning is when I would have normally posted on my blog. Yeah, didn't happen. Then I didn't get home until after 7, cooked dinner, tired with no motivation. You get the picture. So I was a bad girl.

I had hoped to have my revisions done and to my critique partners yesterday. Didn't happen. So today, I'm working all day, like a fiend, to finish up. I'll be crafting my synopsis this weekend on a long bus ride. That should keep me busy for a while, right?

I started a hat yesterday. I found the pattern online and worked on it for 2 hours. Almost finished it so since it was slow at work last night and since I do work at a craft store (yeah, not a lot of job opportunities on a foreign military post but the people are great and I get to indulge my hobbies), I finished it up. Here's the picture that the pattern designer posted. My hat is in black wool. Awesome.

I'm so amazed by Facebook and how easy it can be to connect with old friends and colleagues. A friend of mine from over 10 years ago found me on Facebook. So I added her. Then I get a look at her friends. OMG, some of them are people I knew way back when. So I sent a 'Remember me?' to them. How fun.

If I finish today, I'm heading into Bayreuth, a college town and the closest large city to us, to head to the yarn store there. I'll take some pictures and post them. I'm preparing for a trip this weekend. More details on that tomorrow.

So I'll leave you with a poll. I will be posting a new German recipe soon so please vote for your preference. It's on the left at the top. The poll will stay open until midnight PST (if I've figured out the time difference right).

What's on your mind today?

The siren call of plot bunnies

I think I'm crazy. Yesterday I posted about finishing my first draft of Blood Diamond and outlined my revision process. Today, I want to chuck it all and start a new project. And not a project I've already written down the bones. No, I want a new and shiny.

Is this a reaction to the hard work that goes into revisions? Maybe, but I've been struggling to stay on board with my blue diamond jewel for a couple of weeks now. Just a couple more, that's all I need. Then I need to get back to Out of the Shadows. It has languished long enough. I need to have it finished before RWA National convention so I can pitch it. I know this. It has to be the next project I work on. I'm halfway through the first draft, for crying out loud.

But those damn plot bunnies.

Yes, those great ideas for stories that multiply faster than rabbits can procreate. They're calling me. Resist, I must resist. Seriously, I think this is my subconscious trying to subvert me again. That ol' fear of failure so don't actually finish the project again. I recognize this. So I resist. I write the bones of these great ideas to ponder another day. Another year, actually, since I have my projects lined out for me for the rest of this year. And I will fight through my fear once again.

So, it's nose to the grindstone, get my revisions done. I can slap a few notes down to appease the plot bunnies. I will have Blood Diamond ready to submit by March 31. I will.

Do the plot bunnies plague you when you are close to finishing? How do you fight them?

Breakthrough

As I mentioned before, I'm working on a romantic suspense set in the Republic of Congo. I finished chapters six and seven last week, leaving my hero and heroine caught by the warlord chasing them. I knew what I wanted to happen at the end, but I was stuck trying to figure out how to get from the end of chapter seven to the end.

Monday, I sat in front of the computer, trying to sling some words down but no matter what I wrote, it wasn't right. I was at a loss. So what to do? My first instinct is to email my blue diamond buddy, Rachel, and get some input. We've been working together on this submission call. I've helped her with Ring of Lies. She's helped me with Blood Diamond. Remember that technical difficulty I mentioned yesterday? Yeah, no internet. So no asking for help until yesterday.

So, no ideas, no avenue for help. What's a writer to do? Take a break, of course. I put my manuscript aside. I read a couple of books I've bought recently. I watched some TV shows. I basically did just about anything but work on Blood Diamond. Then this morning in the shower, I had a breakthrough.

As I'm shampooing my hair, I'm thinking about how my heroine is a doctor, dedicated to saving lives and helping those less fortunate. Yeah, those damn characters just won't leave me alone until I tell their story. I thought about what she could do that would torture her…er…I mean, let her grow and help them get out of their situation. Then I thought about another seed I'd sown in another chapter, and an idea started to form. Enough of one, anyway, that some quality time with my manuscript will help flesh it out.

So, the moral of the story, when I'm stuck and I can't work through it right away, the best thing I can do is step away completely. My subconscious will do the heavy lifting.

What do you do when you're stuck?

Creative Tunnel Vision

I'm off from the part-time job today and before I lose myself in the Congo, I spent the morning working on a quilt. I started it right after Christmas, hoping to have it finished in time for my nephew's birthday. Turns out, that was a little too ambitious as his birthday was four weeks ago and I'm still working on it.

I mention this because (you knew there was a reason, right?) I find that when I'm writing, I write. No other craft allowed. Right before Christmas, it was flip-flopped. I worked on gifts for family and friends, sewing and crocheting my heart out, and hardly wrote a word. I get this tunnel vision and when I'm involved in one creative pursuit, it's like I'm unable to express myself in any other form of creativity.

I'm trying to combat this strange focus because 1) I like to sew, quilt and crochet and love to give homemade gifts, and 2) I'm trying to find more of a balance between writing and the rest of life. So, on the days I don't work at the part-time job, I've decided to devote a few hours in the mornings to the sewing machine - at least until I have the projects earmarked for gifts finished. And that list isn't short.

What about you? Do you have more than one creative outlet? Do you find yourself, like me, battling one-thing-at-a-time-itis? How do you keep the balance in your life?