More books I've read...

I read the Tilling Passions Series by Nina Pierce. The Tilling sisters each have their own story and face their own problems. The hot sex(Lots of very hot sex!) pales in comparison to the relationships built through steadfast support of each other. The family loves each other and it's apparent from page one. It's no wonder each of the girls bring that foundation to their lovers. A definite must read for any romance fan!


Blind Love is Julie's story. Unsatisfied by the ruling of a dear friend's death a suicide, Julie begins her own investigation. What she finds is internet porn, lust, greed, and pure sexual satisfaction in Demon's arms. Demon has his own concerns not the smallest of which is the fear of baring his soul, his real self to Julie.

Together they work their way ever closer to each other, ever closer to hapiness or to losing each other forever.


Love's Bounty is Deirdre's story. Sour on matters of the heart after being burned by relationships with both sexes, she wants to be left alone to dig in the dirt with the work she loves, landscaping. Invited to a party by an old friend, Deirdre soon finds herself with a new job and a sexual attraction to a man she barely knows. Allowing herself a night of pure pleasure, she can't get Ayden out of her mind.

Ayden can't get her off his mind either, especially since she works for the alleged drug dealer he's investigating. Is he ready to use Deirdre to get to his target? If it all goes south, can he keep her safe?


Arranging Love is Meghan's story. She is a florist and engaged to Peter. Lately though, he seems distant and running out of town a lot for work. She is beginning to suspect there is much more to the trips than business.

Peter is searching for something, longing really and he thinks he found it in the Dominatrix from Boston. Does he dare to share his desires with Meghan?

Books I'm reading...

I have heard for years that Janet Evanovich is laugh out loud funny. I picked up one of her books, the first Stephanie Plum book. My friends were right! There are parts that are laugh out loud funny. I liked the bumbling nature of Stephanie, she walks in to ask her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman, for a filing job and walks out with bail jumper to find.

Throw in a wide variety of characters and the genuine feel of a neighborhood and you have a series of books for people to enjoy. I'm reading the ninth in the series. The language is realistic. The sex is talked about, but left off the pages of the story. I recommend the series for those looking for a fun romp.

Writing Programs

Hi all. I guess the first thing I should define a few things before I start.

There are two kinds of writers. Outliners and Pantsers and yes, their names tell you exactly how they write. Many writers have debated for years about which approach is better. No one has ever found a satisfactory answer.

Outliners make an organized list of what happens in their books. They make sure all the important clues are properly in place and the story flows in an arc that increases pressure and removes choices from the hero and heroine. All of it builds to a fantastic climax in the story and hurries quickly to the end. If they happen upon another idea, they think it out to it's conclusion to see if it works into their outline and if so, how much of a pain is it to adjust their outline to incorporate the changes. If not, they don't use it. If so, they know where to look for changes that need to be made.

Pantsers write their stories by the seat of their pants, on the fly, as they go along. They have characters in mind and a few scenes they want to write and make up the rest as they go along. They don't feel the encumbrance of an outline to stick too. If something pops into their head they go off on tangents. Sometimes these tangents work out, sometimes they don't. If they do, then the pantser runs back over the entire story and edits to make it ring true through out the story.

Now maybe you can see the debate over which way is better. I don't believe there is a real solution, I don't think one is needed really either. I think everyone's brain works differently and as long as a method works for you, it's all good.

Now I will say I'm a pantser. The one story I outlined, sits at 30,000 words has been there for more years than I care to admit. I'll get back to it eventually. Some of my best story lines come from the spur of the moment. What I don't like however is all the editing that comes later. My first book took six months to write. Eighteen months to edit enough to send it to the publisher and another round of edits with an editor to whip it into shape above and beyond the eighteen months.

It's a lot of work. Writing is work no matter which way you do it. Whether it's make it up as you go along or using index cards to keep things in order, writing is hard work.

I have found a couple of programs that I liked enough to buy. I downloaded the free trial version of each to play with them before I bought them. I've used trial versions of others, but they were difficult to use and I felt like it stripped my creative license for my own story. The programs I liked my husband bought for me for my birthday. I have started using them. To be honest, I hate all the editing I make for myself. I've deleted as many as 40 pages of writing to make the story flow nicely. I need structure. The two programs I have used, gives me the structure without sucking my creativity from the story.

Character Pro 5 is a character building program. There are canned answers that you can use, or edit a little or not use at all. It incorporates the major character archetypes. There are a huge series of questions to allow you to get to know your characters. A few years ago, I used it to try with a couple of characters I'm writing their story slowly. They are powerful characters for me and the end of a series I've had in my head for years. Anyway, here is the link to the character sketches I posted here a long time ago.

Archives

Quick Story 5 is a story generator. You can set you book up anyway you want. Three acts, 4 acts, sequences, or no structure at all. You can design your own structure. There are canned plot points that you can use, edit, or discard and use your own. I did find that if you use your own, the program puts it into the unstructured mode, so select the generate plot point button once, then add your own and then chose your structure. Then choose a basic or full plot. I found that it's a ladder with which to build my story. Once the ladder is full, I highlight the whole thing and put it into word. Each step on the ladder is a scene and all my chapters and scenes are laid out. Changing things around isn't difficult either. Now you can write in the program too, but I haven't done it yet since I really like Word.

Here is the link to these programs. The character software is on the right and both together aren't over the top expensive either. Both programs together costs $89.99. I've seen some programs for as much as $400. Yikes.


Quick Story 5 and Character Pro 5

I'm done with the story... with some rewriting...

Hi all! It's been a few days since I've posted, but I've finished... really finished the book I was working on. I rearranged some of it to make it cleaner and I like it better. Now I let it rest. I need to give it another going through for grammar and overused sentence structure and word usage. Then off to the publisher... scary as it is to do so.

I fully expect a rejection. Why send it in? Because sometimes the editor tells you it needs work here and here and here. These are good rejections since you can resubmit the story when you're done, but more importantly, I can learn where my weaknesses are and how to but them behind me.

I will keep plugging away. I love writing too much even when I get frustrated.

Hubby bought me a couple of writing programs for my birthday. I've only started to use them. They are kind of neat, but company just came in so, I'll talk about it tomorrow!

Editing...

Hi all! I'm busy editing a story. I've spent two solid days reworking word usage and sentence structure to get rid of my over used words. I'm on page 30. That's right, 15 pages a day. Uggggg! I write first drafts MUCH faster, could be why I have to edit so much??

Anyway, there are some serious weak spots in my story. The hero, a highly trained professional, makes a mistake that a rookie wouldn't make. It hasn't set well with me since I wrote it and it really doesn't fit. I have to be more creative and come up with another scenario.

Another problem is the plot is a bit thin. My list of suspects is thin, only one or two and they become suspects rather out of the blue. I'm going to add a few more suspects including the heroine. I'm also going to have them more of a build up to being suspects. It's a great change that will make the story a bit longer and since it's on the shorter side, so longer is good as long as it improves the story.

I figured out what was wrong with it while I was at my MERWA meeting on Saturday. The guest speaker was fabulous. She has done many things in her life not the least of which is write nine books for Harlequin Intrigue. She was wonderful to listen to and made some really good points about writing suspense.

Thanks Joyce!

Here is her website.
Joyce Sullivan

So tomorrow...

I am going to my MERWA meeting. What's MERWA? The Maine chapter of the Romance Writers of America. I don't attend regularly, but it isn't because I don't want to. Always and I mean all the times I don't make it has been because of scheduling problems at the last minute on the home front. One of my other goals is to make it to every meeting. No excuses. I always learn a lot and it's nice to hang out with other writers who don't think you're nuts when you talk about the voices in your head. They inspire me to reach for my goals not matter what.

I need the inspiration.

I have not been writing much because real life gets in the way. I haven't felt like writing. If I try to make myself write when I don't feel like it, well let's just say, it's worse than crap. So, instead, I don't write. I get out of the habit and end up playing computer games instead. I have two MS that are done, well one has to be redone in a major way, just have to give it a final run through for grammar and word usage... I hate my habit words and do not particularly care for eradicating them, but editing is part of the process, so I will.

I have two that need rewrites but are also essentially done. This would be enough to keep any normal person busy, yet not me. You see my ADD brain skips from one to the other and then I make afghans (four friends are having babies and I have to get these done)and do plastic canvas (I have two wedding presents to make still) and I will get it done before summer is over.

Oh, did I mention that I'm going to be teaching Language Arts as well as math next year? Looks that way, so I'm reading some of the books there are classroom sets of to see what I can do with them. Ya, I really ought to start a blog about teaching, but maybe some other time. I have enough to do already! lol

Anyway, so I'm off to my meeting tomorrow and I'm really really looking forward to it. They are doing major construction on my main route, so it'll take me a lot longer to get there. I have a friend who lives four or five hours north of here. I'll have to ask her how she got to the meeting since I'm sure she uses the same way I normally do.

When I get up in the morning, I'm going to do at least one chapter of the finished MS (Titled Shaken for now.) I have to get rid of all the that's and walks and narrow the he's and she's down to only the absolute necessities. I'll have to vary my sentences, which is hard for me on rewrites since I see it the way the first draft falls. I have to think more about the words and less about the picture I'm trying to show. It's exhausting work, but it pays off in the end when the book is sold.

Okay, I'm off to bed. I have to get up early to start the rewrite.

Ugggg...

I told you I finished the story... I lied.

I use a website to see what words I use too freguently. Now it's handy even though it drives me nuts since I know I use some words too much, but there are words that sneak in anyway. Ugggg... The website won't do a whole novel at a time, but I can do a chapter at a time. It will list the 50 or 100 most frequently used words, again you tell the program how many. You copy and paste the chapter into the box and wait for the results. Copy and paste the results into a file, then do the next chapter until you have done the whole MS. You can set it to ignore small words like I, he, the, her, and so on. You can set it to report those words as well.

I alsways run my MS through, well the first few chapters anyway and I accumulate a list of words that need to be edited out of the MS before I send it off. I did the latest MS. That, walk, there, killer, then, should, could, would, well they always creep into my stories. I look for them, I eliminate all I see, yet there are still more! Uggg... lots and lots of editing to do yet again.

The first draft is the love affair. The second, third, and forth drafts are the real work. I wish I could remember who said that, but I can't at the moment.

Oh, here is the website.
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