Labor Day Replay
September 5, 2021 by Tracy Reed in category WritingHappy September and Happy Labor Day. I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. I apologize for replaying a post, but I’m on a deadline with The Good Girl Part Four. Interesting thing about this post is it talks about the series I’m working on…The Good GIrl. I’m also working on a couple of things I hope to share with you next month. Au revoir.
OOPS…I ALMOST DID IT AGAIN (September 2020)
Happy September. I’m pretty sure you already know what I’m going to say…I can’t believe we are nineteen days away from the first day of fall.
Hope this makes you laugh. I was all set to talk about my experience with the review program at Hidden Gems. It wasn’t until I found my misplaced copy of my August post, did I realize that’s what I talked about last month. I had written three hundred plus words which I had to scrap. Now I’m stuck with either rehashing an old post or writing something new. I’ve opted for the latter, but find myself clueless.
The crazy that is going on in the world has sort of zapped my creative energy. I never expected I would still be working on my book. A few weeks into 2020, I had a writing plan or production schedule. I also inflicted a little self pressure to complete and publish it by a certain date.
Now that we are almost six months into the pandemic and shelter in place order, I find myself dragging. I love the subject of my book, except for the hole I think I plugged. It’s challenging continuing a series. Now that the book is complete and I’m doing another read- thru, I find myself referring to the other two books, when all I had to do was keep a series bible. Add series bibles to the long list of things I need to do.
Week before last, I reluctantly emailed my editor asking for a new editing slot. I’m pretty sure that was a given seeing I’d already missed the date.
This has been a challenge moving on to the next project. In my mind I’m already writing the next book, but that will have to wait until this one heads to the editor.
I really think what’s happening is I’m not sure this is the best time [or year] to release book with an alpha billionaire. Or is it? Maybe I’m overthinking that readers don’t want to read. Maybe readers really want to read romance where there are no health boundaries [i.e., Covid 19]? Maybe they want to escape to a world where things were like they used to be. I feel confident in admitting I haven’t got a clue how to write a romance with masks and gloves. Social distancing would be easy. That would involve traveling back to a time where manners and courtship were the basis for romance.
I believe it’s time for me to get out of my head and get my butt in the chair and write. I need to tell stories that make people feel good. So they can escape the crazy around them and fantasize about what was and how it might possibly be in the future.
Here’s my new plan as I head in to the fourth quarter. Send The Good Girl Part Trois to the editor by the end of this month. The second goal is to put the book up for pre-order on all platform except Amazon. This is a plan I can still live with.
Stay safe and see you next month,
0 0 Read moreA Bad Moon Rising
August 13, 2021 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing tagged as bad moon, details, research, writing craft
By Dianna Sinovic
It must have been at least one in the morning, the inkiness of the night now washed out by the full moon cresting the horizon. Sophie sat up and felt around her for her shoes. She’d been stargazing on the hill, the grassy spot beyond the embrace of the forest. With the moon up, the stars would soon fade until they were too faint to see. Sometimes she felt like that, diminished, dismissed.
Except that the full moon doesn’t rise at 1 a.m. or anywhere near that time. A full moon appears as the sun is setting, giving its full face to be illuminated.
Jeremy was hopelessly lost, and night was falling. He was walking on what seemed like an endless plain of snow, every direction the same. Zipping up his jacket until it was at his chin, he wished he’d remembered his watch cap. Already his ears felt numb. The sun was now just an orange glow on the horizon, and in the eastern sky, the slender form of a crescent moon had risen. He headed in that direction.
Except that a crescent moon doesn’t rise at sunset. A slender crescent is either in the eastern sky as the sun comes up. (It often shares the sky with the planet Venus, the “morning star.”) Or it’s in the western sky, following the sun down.
It’s easy to get the sun’s position correct when you write a scene. It rises in the morning and it sets in the evening. And on sweltering summer days it’s usually right overhead.
But the moon follows a different time keeper. And authors who don’t check the phases of the moon before adding them to their fiction risk yanking the reader out of the story. I have been stopped cold in otherwise compelling scenes by a moon depicted in a way that could never happen.
It doesn’t matter where in the world you set your story, the same astronomical parameters apply. (OK, the poles are different, both for the moon’s and the sun’s appearance.) The details aren’t hard to master. There are websites (NASA is an example) that will spell out the phases of the moon for you.
So when you’re fact-checking your draft, don’t forget to check the moon. Us astronomy geeks will thank you.
Of course, if you’ve set your story on another world, none of this applies. Instead, just be consistent with the rules of that world or universe. Double moons might be a nice touch.
Books by BWG
A Paris video memory from my student days in France that made it into ‘The Resistance Girl’ by Jina Bacarr
August 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Paris novels, Writing tagged as Forties fiction, France, historical, Paris, romance, video, writing, WW 2What favorite memories have made it into your stories and books? Let me know!
Bonus video:
UPDATED:
The WW 2 letter that inspired HER LOST LOVE (CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN): re: Veronica Jorge’s wonderful comment about my story! Thanks, Veronica!
Back to School and Good Books
August 10, 2021 by Tari Jewett in category Writing tagged as back to school, booksThis time of year, always makes me nostalgic. The end of summer means the beginning of a new school year, and while my kids are all grown, I still remember when they were small, taking them shopping for back to school clothes, backpacks and lunch boxes, and all of the other supplies needed for a good start to the school year. Late summer days also remind me of my own childhood, back to school shopping for brand new pencils and notebooks, deciding which dress I’d wear on the first day of school, and the anticipation of seeing my friends again after a long lazy summer.
I still indulge in back to school sales. Nothing gets me more excited than a stack of brand new spiral notebooks, and some new blue pens. And of course, there’s always shopping for the grandchildren!
Warm summer days, are also perfect days to read. As a little girl I’d curl up under a shady tree, or lay on the cool tile floor of our basement family room with a stack of books, and read until my mother called me for dinner.
Now that I think of it, that would be the perfect thing for me to do right now, curl up with a good book. I’m recovering from knee replacement surgery on my right knee, and waiting for surgery on the left, so share the best books you’ve read this year in the comments! And feel free to share your back to school memories! And just because it makes me happy, here’s a picture of my 12 year old grandson, reading to our newborn grandson.
The Confused Author AMA by Kitty Bucholtz
August 9, 2021 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as Ask Me Anything
Today, I’m in the middle of a 3-day, all-day mastermind in my business coaching program. Yesterday, a few people asked questions about how to get started writing their book to go with their business, and how to publish it. One person who had already published a book said, “I’m a confused author! I still have so many questions. You should use ‘The Confused Author’ for one of your podcasts or blogs, Kitty.”
Not a bad idea. 🙂 I was already planning to start a monthly Q&A/Ask Me Anything using YouTube Live at https://www.youtube.com/kittybucholtz. You can ask your questions, or send your friends over to ask theirs, at the post I’ll create beforehand each time at https://www.facebook.com/writenowworkshop/ or drop your questions in the comments below. I’ll go live on the first Wednesday of every month at — carefully check for your time zone! — 6am Pacific Time (Los Angeles), 9am Eastern Time (New York), 2pm British Time (London), 3pm Central European Time (that’s me in Sweden), 11pm Australian Eastern Time (Sydney).
I’m happy to talk about anything — fiction, nonfiction, marketing, etc. — and I promise to tell you my opinion, share other resources with you, and let you know when I don’t know the answer. I’m happy to try to find it for you, but I’m not one of those people too embarrassed to not know and who will make up an answer. 😉
If you or someone you know would like to join me on Wednesday, September 1, I would love to see you there. And if you’d just like to show me love by joining to support me so I’m not alone, I’d so appreciate that!! 😀
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