Whimsy 7.17.13

Welcome to my

Whimsical Writer's Wonderful WIP Wednesday!

STATUS:

project: BREAKING ANGELINA
series: Paranormal Investigation, #1.5
status: No longer almost done. Maybe 50% at 24K words *sigh*


As TJ and I approach the ending of BREAKING ANGELINA, we are analyzing the story for holes and areas where the plot / characters / world can be flushed out. The result is that we are adding two more plot threads. Our novella will likely be a full length novel at 50K words.


EXCERPT:
“What do you want tracked down?”


“A siren. I want to kidnap a siren.”

He snorts. “A sweet, little vanilla mortal like you, kidnapping a siren? Just asking for trouble, aren’t you, angel?”

I lift my chin.

“There are only three sirens in this world. Something that rare is going to cost you extra, say ten grand.” The way his eyes flash golden makes me take another step back, a chill runs through me. I feel like a mouse staring into the eyes of a cat.

I swallow back the lump of fear in my throat and raise my chin again. “Ten-thousand dollars? How am I supposed to come up with that kind of money?”

“Not my problem, princess. If you figure it out, you know where to find me.” He steps in close, backing me into the wall. His muzzle turns to my throat. Is he going to rip it out?

I can feel his breath on my skin. My bladder suddenly feels very full. He sniffs at my neck like a dog. A great big, scary dog.

“And now I know how to find you. Take care, sweet thing.”

He turns back to the bar and I run. His laughter follows me into the night.

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Want to join in my weekly meme? If you have a WIP, just perform the following steps:


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Writing as a Team

TJ and I are polar opposites, always have been. He's loud and outgoing and doesn't take crap from anybody. I'm quiet and shy and am easily mowed over by those with louder mouths than mine.


His strengths complement my weaknesses, and visa versa. Whatever we're doing, we have an odd way of fitting together our unique ways of seeing the world.


So when we started writing together, we had our ups and downs. He makes my plots more complex, thinks through all the character backgrounds, and asks hundreds of questions about why I planned it such-and-such a way.


We swap the documents back and forth, each of us adding to what the other one has put in. Sometimes he completely scraps my ideas and rewrites the scene entirely, but it always ends up better.


For me, writing first drafts is the most difficult part of writing. Planning, editing, formatting, uploading, marketing--I enjoy all of those parts of the publishing process, but the writing of the first draft is excruciatingly painful. I run out of ideas or my plot lines feel stilted and the dialogue is forced and the characters don't make any sense.


But now that TJ and I are working together, I move at a much faster pace. I write for about week and then I get stuck, so I pass it back to him and he writes for a week or so. When he sends it back to me, I have all sorts of fresh ideas to add to the story to fill it out.


Best part is the conversations we have. We have long discussions about the world, the magic, the characters, the plots. Of course we often talk ourselves into circles and can't remember all the things we decided.


Right now we're working on two projects at once--BREAKING ANGELINA (aka B.A.) and TAKING CHANCES (aka T.C.). B.A. is almost done, maybe 5 more scenes to write (it had been two more scenes, but we recently decided to add 2 more story threads to the bigger story line.


Although B.A. will be finished first, T.C. will actually be released first because B.A. is a side story about some side characters within the world. We want you to get a better grasp of the main characters Emma & Jason before we delve into the side stories.


So here's too many more books and years of writing together. I can't even begin to say how thankful I am for my new writing partner.

Whimsy 7.10.13

Welcome to my

Whimsical Writer's Wonderful WIP Wednesday!

STATUS:

project: BREAKING ANGELINA
series: Paranormal Investigation, #1.5
status: ALMOST DONE!

Of course, that was the status I gave last week. We really are almost done, but we keep coming up with a few extra scenes to flush things out.

And in the meantime, we've started putting more effort into TAKING CHANCES, which we actually hope to put out before BREAKING ANGELINA.




EXCERPT:

I snag a pastry from her plate. “Angel, you called me, remember.”


“Can you really get me—” She glances around and lowers her voice. “—you know, what I want?”

“If you’ve got the money.”

I catch the reptilian scent again, stronger now, laced with magic. Familiar, but the stink of magic makes it hard to place.

Biting her lip, she leans close to me. “I only have about seven thousand.” She scoots a gym bag towards me and then wraps her arms around her stomach.

“I don’t work for so little. We’re done.”

She wipes an eye and looks away from me, sniffing. “You said you’d take an…alternate method of payment.”

“Cold, hard cash, angel.”

“Wait, I’ll pay you in other ways.” She grips my sleeve, panic written across her face.

My heart wrenches, and I pause, kicking myself for being so soft even as I do so. “And how do you expect to do that?”

Cheeks flushing prettily, she motions me closer to whisper in my ear. “Today, all day, I’ll do whatever you want. In your bed,” her voice is silky soft, her breath hot against my skin.

My face burns. I’m not into one-night stands. The wolf part of me is too strong to think it’s a good idea. It can only end badly.

But lately, everything I do ends badly.

It’s been so long, so very long.

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Want to join in my weekly meme? If you have a WIP, just perform the following steps:


1. Write your own blog post
2. Send me an email to ask for the linky script
(email address on the right-hand side bar)
3. Paste it at the end of your blog post
4. Add your blog post URL to the linky

Homeschooling Stress

stress. Stress. STESS. The pull your hair out, bite your fingernails, squeeze the stuffings out of a rubber ball, hope-we-don't-get-arrested-for-truancy kind of stress.


At the end of each school year, we have to get our school work assessed by a teacher. Every summer I go through this: Did we do enough? Do we have enough documentation? Are the kids learning enough? Did I cover everything I was supposed to?


But this year is worse. We have to get a new teacher to do the assessment as our friend who helped us in the past is too busy this year. New teacher, new ideas, new personality. Will she be critical or helpful? Will she frown at our efforts and tell us we failed?


Anyway, I’m really PROUD of this year. The kids have grown by leaps and bounds. Spider Girl #1 is an intuitive learner, picks up everything so easily that she flies through her work, but we've been working on her attention-to-detail skills. Spider Girl #2 has gained in confidence and has some new study habits that have helped her grow. She got 100% on her last spelling test. Spider Girl #3 is finally READING!


Plus, I finally found the organizational structure to get us through the school year. See, I’m the LIST ORGANIZING NUTSO!!! I make daily schedules and plans…

MONDAY: History, Math, Reading
TUESDAY: Science, Math Spelling
WEDNESDAY: Blah, blah, blah
THURSDAY: Whatever, whatever, whatever
FRIDAY: Blah, whatever, party

…and after 1 week, TJ & Kids abandon my careful plans. Since I’m still the working mom & TJ manages the day-to-day homeschooling tasks, I can’t be there to keep them on schedule.


Half way through the year, I gave up on my schedules. I just made a master list of each girls required work for the week and they check it off as they get it done. THEY can decide if they want to do History on Monday or wait until Friday.


Problem is, it took me half a year to figure out this checkbox system, and so our first half of the year was not as productive. Although it is summer, we’re still catching up on Science reading, worksheets, & experiments. Plus the kids still practice their instruments and play math games to keep their skills sharp.


So here’s hoping we don't get arrested for truancy!

Authors Blog Hop

1 Winner will receive an
eBook copy of DAUGHTER OF THE GODDESS!

The Heart.
The God of Love seeks a bride who is pure in heart and full of life—full of soul. Instead of a woman, he finds a child with laughter in her heart. Waiting for her to grow up, he befriends her, pretending to be nothing more than a blue-eyed boy with wild, tangled hair.

The Soul.
Left on the temple doorstep, a young girl turns the lives of the priestesses upside down . . . until one summer day before her eighteenth birthday, a traveling oracle tells her she is to marry a stranger in a foreign land.

The Nightmare.
An ancient demon—half-man, half-snake—wants to destroy anything the gods love. When she was a child, he haunted her dreams, but now he stalks her across the countryside. If he catches her, he’ll devour her

1 Winner will receive an
eBook copy of PLAYING HOOKY!

Valentine’s Day.

And Emma's 21st birthday.

Just another college day full of classes and more homework than is humanly possible.

…until Jason, her best-friend-since-kindergarten, shows up to take her out for the day.

Like old times: the two of them on a wacky adventure, playing hooky from real life. With his lopsided grin and tickets to a circus full of misfits and monsters, he introduces her to a whole new world—one full of magic and mystery—and turns her reality upside down.

Except nothing goes as planned, and they end up running through the city to find a missing siren before someone brews a love potion with her blood.

Sirens and love potions, witches and elves, and Valentine kisses. Nothing will be the same for Emma again


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Whimsy 7.3.13

Welcome to my

Whimsical Writer's Wonderful WIP Wednesday!

STATUS:


project: BREAKING ANGELINA
series: Paranormal Investigation, #1.5
status:  ALMOST DONE!


This week we've also worked on TAKING CHANCES outline and preliminary notes for each scene plus dialogue and action.


EXCERPT:

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Want to join in my weekly meme? If you have a WIP, just perform the following steps:

1. Write your own blog post
2. Get the linky code here
3. Paste it at the end of your blog post
4. Add your blog post URL to the linky