Silly on Sunday

Maybe it's because I slept last night. Or maybe because I haven't had any caffeine yet. Either way I'm feeling kinda silly today, so I figured I'd give you a few things I bet you didn't know about me.

1. I have two long parallel white scars angling across my forearm from a bad mopping incident. Lying to myself and saying I liked the quiet, alone time, I used to clean houses before I decide to seriously pursue publication. The houses were pretty, mostly upscale cottages on Lake Michigan. One of the last times I cleaned I fought a mop and the mop won. The sponge head broke off and the metal it was screwed to ripped across my forearm. Then, I had to clean up the blood with cleaning rags. Yippee.

2. The gold band on my left index finger is my Dad's wedding band. After he passed away it was the one thing I said I wanted. I got my creativity, my work ethic, and capacity to love beyond faults from him.

3. I have a stuffed animal addiction. Wanna make me happy? Bring me a stuffy.

Prompt writing

Y'know I used to HATE prompt writing. Hate hate hate it. I avoided it forever. Then I started following a YA author, dropping by her blog, and Follow Friday-ing her Twitter. Well, my friend Michell Zink has a weekly writing prompt she calls Thursday Night Write. She posts a picture for inspiration, and the picture to the left was this week's pic. So...here's what I came up with:

Chelsey Street should ring with my hurrying footfalls. The fog swallows all sound, sucking away my harsh breaths as if I’m not even here. As if I’m already dead. And, with Joshua walking calmly away from me, I may end up that way. Frozen, a Phoenix no more.

Joshua knows what he’s leaving. Me. Our tangled, tortured summer months. Our past lives, too. And he’s leaving me to the one soul he’d always tried to protect me from.

“Josh!” I scream, but he never looks back. “Don’t leave me,” is a useless whisper.

My heart aches with every step he takes, and clenches when the fog erases his presence as if he’d never touched me. In the space of one breath, the night shifts from heartache to breath-catching panic. Chills icier than the October fog pour down my skin and I know I am not alone. Aric is close. That familiar pressure dances on nerves I didn’t know I had until I met him, until he awakened something ugly and sharp-toothed in me.

Shreds of thoughts cut through my mind, pretty poison. The same siren call that rings in my soul, flows in my veins and always, always misses my heart. Joshua is there, my talisman against the darkness.

Aric’s beautiful forever is a bitter hollow promise. Forever without Joshua is eternal torment, and yet he left me, unwilling to engage in a fight we’ve fought before. A fight that left us both dead...

I'm thinking this may become a scene for a book I'm plotting with my daughter. ^_^

Inspirational pics

Tricia Rayburn, author of Egmont's SIREN and the upcoming UNDERCURRENT posted a blog today about what gets the creative juices flowing, and include some gorgeous pictures you can see HERE.

So, I decided I'd do the same, and show y'all the spot that always makes my writer's heart sing. Below are a few of my favorite pictures of Polly Falls, a private cottage in teeny weeny Shamrock, WI. The falls aren't very high, and we spend a lot of time sitting on them in the hot weather. There's such an essential energy in the water and singing through the stones...it's SO worth the 8 hour drive. Just thinking about it makes me itchy to go back!

So, I hope you enjoy the pictures, maybe feel a little inspired yourself.

Oh, by the way, that's my own little YA inspiration at the bottom, not a water nymph ~_^

THANKFUL THURSDAY meme

Over at The Oasis for YA, where I co-blog with some other fabulous writers, we're starting a meme.

Gratitude is one of the major positive forces in the universe and the more you show, the more good you will have in your life to be grateful for. Did you know that? The universal symbol for gratitude is a spiral, and once you realize it, you will see it everywhere... Go HERE to see what I mean.

So, without further preachyness I give you a few of the things I find to be thankful for today:

I'm grateful for the rotten cat who constantly pesters me to hold him, because when I do I'm forced to take a little break.

I'm grateful for no news on the submissions front, because (at least right now) there are no rejections to bring me down.

I'm grateful for the partially empty cupboards and fridge, because even though my day-before-groceries choices are limited, I still have choices.

I'm grateful that even though I still haven't had "the call", I get to do what I love every day and explain it away as my job.

I'm grateful for my friends, far and near, because they bring joy to my life in ways I never expected.

I could do on and on. Can you? Visit the Oasis and see what others are Thankful for.
Jump in the Spiral, and share your path!

PENSIVE

(Picture snitched from icanhascheezurger, of course. ^_^)

Have you ever just been...moody. Maybe pensive is a better word. Like the kitteh up there, I haz a ponder.

Which way to go?

Maybe it's symptomatic of being a WIPaholic. Eventually, there will be a moment where you wonder, "Do I stay with this one? The market is overloaded with this genre now. Do I write this other one that's unique and fun and a challenge? Do I try this other idea?" For me it goes like this: Dystopian? Revamp old paranormal? New guy's POV paranormal? Time travel? Shiny new idea that's not formed yet? Oy! Too many ideas!

I used to worry that I'd run out of story ideas. That's clearly not the case. So, I worry that those ideas are all just in the wrong genre at the wrong time for the market. Which leads to the worry, will I ever be published that way I'd like? It's the worst place to be and makes the liquor cabinet look really pretty.

I'm not sure where it leaves me, really. What I know is I crave to plunge head first and lose myself like I did with RESONANCE, and FORESIGHT before that. Anyone else battle with the ponders? I can't be the only one.

A TOUCH MORTAL contest!

No, I'm not having a contest or giving it away because I don't have it yet. (Not sure I'd part with it if I did :oP ) Anyway... Over at the Oasis for YA, I blogged on TBR Tuesday. My suggestion was for everyone to check out A TOUCH MORTAL by Leah Clifford. You can check out the post HERE which I highly recommend. There's pretty, pretty backmatter and publisher blurbs.

AND, Leah is having a contest to win a signed copy!! (squee) There's lots of swag, too but I want THE BOOK! Click HERE to check out her contest--which is what I did, and why I'm about to tell y'all something crazy I did. And if you know me, I am SO not a crazy-stuff-doing person.

Craziest thing:
I'm a born and bred Michigan girl and anything above 80 degrees is pushing evil in my cool lake water opinion. So, what did I do? I spent a summer in my late teens in Little Rock, with my oldest sister.
One sweltering afternoon, I sat wilting in the Arkansas heat alone in my sister's house. She'd gone house hunting out of state with my military brother-in-law and left me at there house with a to-do list a mile long. Painting. Cleaning. More painting. Oh look! More cleaning... Well, I was damn tired of paint brushes and cleaning products, so I decided to head to the craft store a few miles away. Mind you, I am a tad bit directionally challenged, and due to being a big chicken, I also didn't have a driver's license.
Non-wilting craft projects are equal to emergencies, right?
Well, that's what I told myself, since my sister had left the keys to her car "for emergencies."
Craziest thing I've done? Driving a car, without a license, out of state, with no one around to bail my butt out of jail if I got caught and no insurance in case I caused an accient.
Was it worth it? Hell yes. I didn't get caught--though I did fess up when my sister returned. And, I felt liberated! I picked up a craft to keep me busy. (Yes, I'm a nerd :oP) Plus...I felt LIBERATED!!

There. Confession's over. Do you think I'm a heathen now? *snort* Now, go on and enter that contest!!

That's YAmore blogfest

My Oasis for YA sisters and I are throwing a Valentine's weekend swoonfest! So, for your That's YAmore reading pleasure, I give you a bit of a longer first kiss scene, because like my friend Heather says, it's all about the build up...

My pulse quickens when she steps from the bathroom. The light halos her curves as she stands barefoot in this grungy motel room looking like a goddess in nothing but scrapes, bruises and my spare T-shirt. Suddenly, I want to crush her to me and cover her up. She’s too damn pretty to be in this place, with a guy as tainted as me.

“Come here, Zain.” She curls a finger and I stand, kind of numb, wanting to follow her and thinking I don’t deserve it. With a sigh, Zoe steps to my side and takes my hand. “You’re bleeding again. Let me clean you up.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I shift a glance from my shoulder gash to her temple. “You are too.”

“No big deal. It’s just a scrape—” She shoves me onto the bathroom counter and stands between my knees. “Your cut’s worse, and I don’t want you bleeding on my only shirt when you kiss me.”

“Your only shirt?” I can’t stop myself from tugging on the hemline and brushing her skin. I pull her closer, just a few inches of air between us. My heart rate ratchets up a notch. Kiss her? That’s the stuff of dreams, not dirty no-tell motels. Still, the temptation…her curves, her lips… “Who says I’m going to kiss you?”

“Me.”

Smiling and peeking at me through her eyelashes, Zoe crouches to fish through the cabinet beneath my butt for the first aid kit. Tingles follow her fingers over my knee when she puts the case on the counter. Her hip, and the cotton of my shirt, brush the inside of my thigh when she turns back to me. God, sitting here and not pulling her to me is going to stop my heart—again.

“This is going to sting,” she says, and pats an alcohol soaked pad over the cut on my shoulder. I suck in a sharp breath, but that’s all.

“So…” I look into her eyes and fight the magnetic pull between us. “You wouldn’t feed me in the hospital when I was broken and bandaged, but you’ll play in my blood?”

“Zain?” Her eyelids dip, giving her a dreamy expression, but her voice is alive with fire.

“Yeah?”

She presses the gauze pad to my cut, and I can’t help but wince.

“Shut up.”

I snap my lips closed. We’re inches apart and I want her too bad to touch her. Zoe’s free hand rides up my thigh to the hem of my boxers, then skims the fabric and slides up my stomach and chest to my cheek. She’s so close all I see are her eyes, and her breath warms on my lips. The distance, this closeness, is too much and not enough. I lift one hand from its tight grip on the countertop, and rest it on the curve of her waist, pulling gently with my last two fingers touching her bare skin.

Her eyelids close in a slow fall. The tension in her hand increases as she pulls my face to her.

The first gentle brush of her lips is a feather-light electric shock. The T-shirt rides up her back when I cinch her to me and deepen the kiss. She inhales through her nose and abandons my cheek to bury her fingers in my hair. Sliding my hand up her back, and my butt off the counter, I stand and we’re a tangle of arms, legs and hands that don’t know where to rest in a dingy bathroom. The moment couldn’t be more glorious. I’m kissing Zoe Morgan!

The gauze falls to the floor when Zoe throws her other arm around me. The soft press of her chest against mine is enough to make me want to hold my breath, and Zoe to me forever.

Then, all too soon it’s over. We break apart at the same moment, both of us breathing hard. I twist a finger in the hem of my T-shirt where it brushes her hips, and she licks her bottom lip, red and little puffy from kissing me.

And here's links to my CP's That's YAmore posts:

Heather Howland
Jus Accardo
Katy Upperman

Or, you can click HERE to take you to the home post and the big link link.

WHEW

Wow! What a week. It's only Wednesday and my mind is feeling squishy.

Most everyone here knows I'm writing YA romance and that my agent has submissions out. What y'all might not know is I also occasionally write erotica under a pseudonym for Samhain Publishing. Well, that penname has a release this May, a dark, gritty urban fantasy, and I just finished the first round of edits for the novel. Three character POVs, all werecreatures and all in past tense, very adult language.

VERY different from the YA I've been working on.

And today I wrote a scene out of sequence for The Oasis for YA's That's YAmore! blogfest starting this Friday. This scene was a major departure from adult romance, and the regular YA...this was a kissing scene from a teen guy's POV! Teen guy, check. Kissing, check. Present tense, checkity check check.

From a murderous werewolf, an uncertain werecat, a kickass hybrid in past tense to a romantic teen guy in present tense. All in one day! Drop brain in blender and hit frappe. >_<

Looks like a movie night. My mind needs to unwind and reboot to single teen POV.

WARRIOR WEDNESDAY: New WIP

As I'm sure y'all know by now, I've been writing YA for the past year and a half-ish. Three books so far, all with female lead characters. (And all the while, I've been itching to write one from a guy's POV.) Well, my son and his friends had no interest in reading girly stuff. When I said I might write a 'guy' book, the requests/suggestions for scenes/plot elements came pouring out. Car chases, car explosions, building explosions, hand-to-hand fight scenes, weapons, smoking hot babes...

Little did they know, I'm aiming for a bit different audience. I'm thinking more along the lines of Beautiful Creatures, The Replacement, even I Am Number Four--basically guy's POV, but still some romance.

Of course, I plan on working those suggestions in. Sounds like a damn good time to me!! Then while those ideas were stewing around, I watched a Twitter Pitch Fest held by a few agents. It got me thinking, so I boiled the concept down to a single, 140 character pitch, and I was off and running.

So, I sat down and roughed out the first chapter of a guy's POV with a concept I've also been dying to play with. I cleaned it, honed it, teased out a thread to follow, then tested it on a couple YA guys. 17 and 18 respectively, and they both said they want to read more. (I know what you're thinking, "two isn't a good representation," but they are big readers and would've told me if it didn't read right for them as a guy character.) So... Woot! Their thumbs-up was a great encouragement to keep on with the story. My new CPs are busy, and I'm not sure they'll want to look at a partial, so I'm flying blind for a while.

And having hug fun getting in touch with my masculine side. *snort*

Um... WOW.

Right now, I'm LOVING January. RESONANCE is in the hands of editors, a few of them at dream publishers (squee!) and there's movement on the FORESIGHT front in a way I never dreamed possible. Okay, scratch that. Yes, I did--kinda. Those who've read my writing now I'm a vivid image writer, I like to make readers SEE... I'm not talking the "big screen" kind of SEE with this, though. And, nothing's certain. And, I'm sure there's a crapton of stiff competition. But um... WOW. Just to think FORESIGHT is where it is, being considered for what it is is fricking AWESOME!

Man I can ramble, can't I? I really should be writing. Dystopian? Boys' POV para? hmmm Time for the WIP Roulette!

*spins imaginary dial* Alrighty, peeps, time to be productive.

FIRST LINES

Yesterday was a carnival ride. I was strapped in, helmet on, and totally missed the fun of the YA Highway and their Favorite Lines Road Trip. So, I'm grabbing for the straws dangling off the end of that wagon and posting some of my first lines...

From RESONANCE (out on subs):
I sat in the shadows of the auditorium wishing I could throttle Shaina Weston.

From A SLIGHT CASE OF DEATH (Work In Progress):
Death is not how I planned to end my night.

From DRENCHED (in revisions):
If Purgatory is between Heaven and Hell, my seat in Advanced Chem was Purgatory Central.

And from TRANFERENCE (Work In Progress):
(set up to favorite line)

Alarm sirens wail above the ration line in the town square. The breathy shriek pierces my ears and a shudder slides down my spine. The peal pitches higher, and my fight-or-flight instincts dump adrenaline in my veins. I should stay in my place. I should act like the rest of these Commoner puppets.

Doing what I should will be the death of me. (favorite line)

Now I really should do something productive. Yesterday was a total wash in the productivity department after some news from my agent. It still boggles my mind, but I think I've calmed down enough I may be able to write!

Monday's Muse

This week I'll be spending some quality time with with a hot late-teens blond--in my dystopian WIP! Thanks to my friend Heather Howland I have this inspiration pic of the romantic hero in what's tentatively titled TRANSFERENCE. His name is Aaron Auchul, and he's a SEER, an Official in the government police force gifted with the psychic ability to see where people are and what they are doing.

Aaron's sarcasm is honed to as sharp a point as government-issued knife. His lean, likes to think he's mean, but Aaron has a small problem. Seventeen year-old Isilen Temple, criminal by birth and Aaron's next target, is the one person he cannot see with his mind and she refuses to be silenced without a fight.

The chemistry between the characters is rife with all kinds of tension, and has been damn fun to write. so once the housework is done, I'm opening a file and going to get lost!

Because DH says I'm a split personality...

The silly little school girl in my is dying of want for this:

While the big fat meanie in me is dying of giggles over this:

WARRIOR WEDNESDAY

Well, things have been interesting. A few little emails from my agent have been hitting my inbox. Not only is RESONANCE out there in query stage, some editors are asking to read it! *cue the butt dancing in the typing chair*

Some OMG-ing and a ridiculous amount of pacing has ensued. I'm trying to be calm. Really I am.

Thankfully, my teen beta had dropped by the other day to start hashing out the sequel (tentatively titled DISSONANCE). Which is also the reason for today's blog post title, WARRIOR WEDNESDAY. It is my goal to turn my chicken scratch notes and gobblety-gook to the left into something cohesive and followable. The storyline is shifting darker, some secondaries are shifting into more major rolls, some minor plot elments figured out, couple major plot elements not.

Pour the coffee and back away slowly. This could get ugly.

I'm not sure how other writers do this part. Mine has varied story to story. The dystopian idea came out like Athena fully-formed. The original idea for RESONANCE was a little tinkering. This one looks like its going to be a tinkerer too.

And that's all the time I have, Hubby is home with vension to package up.
Tootles!

THIS AND THAT

First, let me say...

HAPPY AND BLESSED NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO VISIT HERE!

The holidays are over. While the gatherings with family and friends are always nice, I'm kinda glad to see it finished. No more running around. No more sewing--unless I want to. No more cooking for parties and such.

I've critted two books for my Savvy CP's: LEAVE ME BROKEN by Heather Howland and WHERE POPPIES BLOOM by Katy Upperman. Both are amazing in their own way: LMB is a gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster ride that leaves you aching. WPB is sweet and spooky, and the prose is so engaging I might just read it again. Then, there's Jus Accardo's GATEKEEPER and Oasis girls' stories to read, too. Plus, there's books to write and books to revise. Busy, busy, busy.

AND RESONANCE IS OUT ON SUBMISSION!

Squee!! (queue the stalking of my inbox for news) The book is different from anything I've written, or read and can't wait to see if editors love it as much as beta readers and CPs have. And with that I'm going to succumb to the headache pounding inside my skull and turn this computer off. Much love!

CHRISTMAS CRAFTS 2010

Today's finished project:
This snowflake boy is a Christmas present. I designed the pattern a couple years ago, and just had to make him agin this year. He's so CUTE! Made of white fleece, fiberfil, red winter patterned fleece, lock eyes, corduroy nose, french knot mouth. (picture's not the best, but I'm not hiking in the snow for the good camera)













Another project this winter:
A denim stocking with rustic-looking patches appliqued from
Christmas print materials. The cuff is fleece, with embroidered ribbon trim. This was a gift for our favorite teen friend, so she'd have a little Christmas in her college dorm room.

Fixing what's broken

Have you ever clung to a one-eared teddy bear? Refused to throw away a favorite toy just because it was broken? Yeah, that's me. At least with stories. I queried widely with my first YA, and received rejection after rejection. (Stupidly figured out months later that my agent for my adult romance works with YA, too O.o)A few agents loved aspects of it, but had issues with how the plot was handled, etc. I sniffled. I sobbed. I cooed to the poor broken thing, then packed it in gauze and put it on a respirator.

Well, thanks to talking with Heather Kinn and Heather Howland, I've come to an angle to fix what's broken in DRENCHED. It will take scrapping huge hunks of it, reworking the over-all story arc, basically a COMPLETE rewrite. Am I masochistic? Guess so, because I'm really really excited about this!

AVERY AND THORN WILL LIVE AGAIN!!
THANK YOU, MY HEATHERS!!

SATURDAY SINGALONG

My newest writer pal Jus Asscardo is talking songs that stick in your head. Last week she gave me a new addiction, Say You'll Haunt Me by Stone Sour. This week, however, she picked one I listen to often. Along with Stone Sour I've been listening to a lot of Papa Roach. I guess it goes along with feeling just a little combative...

SATURDAY SING-A-LONG

Earworms. Your favorite song. Your character's favorite song. The song that just FITS the scene you're writing. Well, my online pals and I are posting our Saturday Sing-a-longs and this is the song that's been on repeat while I wrote two chapters' worth of the dystopian:



Isi does what's necessary and hurts someone in the process... Lands her butt in jail, even. So this one really fits.

Other Saturday Sing-a-long posts:
Heather Howland
Jus Accardo

The struggle

Ethereal feel, delicate strokes of words, rise and fall, bittersweet atmosphere of high stakes, heartaches and heart-touching romance.

VS
Dark, sharp-edged phrases, fast paced from the start, more action less romance, and the type of tension only a love/hate relationship can give.

HELP I'm addicted to the cracktopian!