Sickness = No Muse

I started to get sick yesterday and couldn't sit in front of my computer for too long without getting dizzy and feeling weak so I didn't get much writing done and got absolutely no work done for my day job. Today I don't feel quite so dizzy and weak, but I'm still feeling awful and I want to write but nothing is coming to me. I have 21 days until my goal deadline so I have plenty of time to write the last 20,000 words, but I feel guilty when I skip writing for a day or two. I think this sickness has sucked all of my creativity right out of my brain. Hopefully tomorrow it'll come back to me so I can knock out a good chunk of the remaining words needed to finish my book.

Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter

Gena Showalter is one of my all-time favorite authors. Her books are hot and sexy and every time I finish reading one I find myself salivating for another. Twice as Hot is (as the title describes) the super hot sequel to Playing with Fire. If you haven't read either of these books I highly recommend them! (as I do ALL of Gena's books!)

About the book (taken from Amazon):

Belle Jamison is finally starting to feel like a normal girl again. Her job as a paranormal investigator is going well, she's learned to control her supernatural abilities (mostly) and she's just gotten engaged to Rome Masters, the ultra-sexy operative who once tried to neutralize her!

But planning a wedding is never easy, especially when the bride keeps accidentally torching her dress, the groom returns from a dangerous mission with selective memory loss and the man responsible now wants Belle for himself. With Rome's ex determined to win him back and a new band of supervillains on the horizon, it will take all Belle's powers—plus a little help from her trusty empath sidekick—to save the day, salvage the wedding and prove that true love really does conquer all. 

About Gena (also taken from Amazon):


Gena Showalter sold her first book at the age of 27 and now, four years later, is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thirteen books, with eleven more on the way in a thrilling blend of genres: breathtaking paranormal and contemporary romances, cutting edge young adult novels, and stunning urban fantasy. 
Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine, MTV, Seventeen Magazine, and have been translated in French, Italian and Korean.  The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called ?a star on the rise?. 

For more info on Gena and her books visit her website

Writing Contests

Obviously, I'm not at the point yet where I will be entering any writing contests, but since, at some point, I would like to enter one (or two or three), I'd like to know how beneficial they are to a writer. Besides the fact that entering writing contests could give you the chance to have your work read by editors and, therefore, possibly get you a partial or even a full request for your manuscript, how do they help further your writing career?

I've read on several agents' blogs that if you include the fact that you won so-and-so contest in your query letter it does nothing to sway their decision one way or the other about you or your manuscript, and that a lot of agents just plain don't care if you've won contests before, so how do they really help you? Do you get detailed comments on your contest entry about your writing or do you just get a standard form rejection? How do they work? Which contests are the best to enter if you're writing YA books? Should you wait to enter contests until your manuscript is polished and as perfect as it's going to get, or is it okay to enter before that point (but not before you have a completed manuscript) in the hopes of getting comments and critiques about what you could do differently?

Like many other areas of writing and publishing, this is something I'm going to have to do some research on. However, if anyone can answer some of these questions for me, it would save me the confusion of reading varying information about the subject elsewhere.

On another note, I have surpassed the 50% point of my first draft. My words remaining total is now less than my words written total. I am struggling a bit with where to go with this last half of my book, but I'm getting there I guess. I'm still within my finishing goal date so I must be doing better than I think. At least, I hope so.

Wish by Alexandra Bullen

I recently won a copy of Alexandra Bullen's debut novel Wish on this blog. It came in the mail Friday and I immediately started reading it. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in just under a day. Here's a little bit about the book:

For broken-hearted Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone... until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn't just look magical; it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back.

With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can't solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again.

WISH asks the question: If you could have anything, what would you wish for?

I loved this book. The characters are believable and the story is one many teenagers can relate to in one way or another. Violet helps Olivia to see that she can live life and have fun and that she doesn't need magic to make that happen. It is a sweet story about learning to let go and move on, about first-loves, friendships, and family.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a sweet read.

Visit The Official Wish Site to find out more about Alexandra Bullen, Wish, and for a chance to win $1000.

The Body Finder Trailer and Contest!

Check out this awesome trailer for Kimberly Derting's upcoming release The Body Finder.


Also, stop by her blog for a chance to win an ARC of The Body Finder as well as other cool stuff.

Busy Days

I haven't written a blog post in a few days, not that very many people are reading anyway ;-) Things have been so busy for me lately. My oldest daughter turned nine yesterday. Nine, people! Considering I was 19 when I had her, her turning nine makes me feel old. She's in third grade and LOVES to read. L-O-V-E-S to read. She's reading books that are above her reading level, which makes me so happy because I was the same way when I was her age. I've loved to read for as long as I can remember. I always had a book in my hand, and she's the same way. She's such a great kid and she's nine.

I've also been working quite a bit more at my day job and today I just acquired a second day job, so I will be one busy bee, but the money will be nice. I haven't been letting all of this cut into my writing time, though. I am creeping up on the half-way point of my goal and every day that I write I watch in amazement as the 'words written' total and the 'words remaining' total on my counter get closer and closer together and, before long, the 'words written' total is going to surpass the 'words remaining' total. Keep watching. You'll see. :-)

I'm still looking for book recommendations btw. See my previous post.

One more thing, I would LOVE if I had more blog followers if only to make me feel a little less like a loser. ;-)

If you had $100....

If you had $100 to spend on books, what books would you buy?

In another month or so when I have some extra spending cash I'm planning on buying a bunch of books so what I'm really looking for here are some recommendations. I'm looking for mainly YA, but if you have other recommendations that's cool too.

I started getting sick yesterday and today it hit me full force but I still managed to hit my goal of 20,000 words this weekend. Yay me! And that was also while chasing around my 4 rugrats while my husband worked day shifts both days this weekend. Needless to say, I have no energy and I feel like I've been run over by a dump truck. So, I'm going to down a couple Tylenol PMs and hit the hay. I'm looking forward to reading your recommendations.

Have a great night and a wonderful Monday!

Unexpected Twists and Turns

I was writing yesterday and my story took a turn that I hadn't planned on. It's like my fingers took on a mind of their own and went crazy. It just came out. I think it's going to work and, quite possibly, may even make my story a little better. I didn't outline my story ideas or anything before I started writing. I was just watching TV one night and this idea popped in my head so I ran to my computer and typed up the ideas before they had a chance to leave me forever and then things just kind of fell into place. I was picturing each scene in my head, hearing the dialogue, but never once until yesterday did I see this unexpected scene come up.

I have to say I'm getting nervous about my book the further I get into typing it. I'm scared that it's going to be complete crap and that I will have wasted all this time. Then again, I realize that even if it is crap, I haven't really wasted any time at all because I hear that the more you write, the better you get. It still scares me though, because I don't want it to be total crap. I want at least some part or parts of it to be good. I am determined to get this first draft typed up and go back and revise the first chapter or so that I know I need to fix, before I let anyone's eyes see it. I'm afraid if anyone sees it before I actually complete it and criticizes it in any way (even if it's constructive criticism) that I'm going to get discouraged and quit before it's done. So I have to finish it first and then I will take that scary step of letting someone actually read it. Ugh. I'm getting nauseous just thinking about letting someone else read it. Has anyone else gotten sick to their stomach at the thought of someone reading their book for the first time?

I'm looking forward to cranking out a few thousand words this weekend. I really had to slow down on my writing progress through the week because I was so busy with my day job and was only able to write in the evenings after the kids were in bed. My plan is to hit 20,000 words this weekend, which means I will have to type just under 5,000 words. I think that's manageable.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*Update*

I got a little more than 1200 words written tonight which brings my total up to 14,000. I am now more than a quarter of the way to my goal!

A Better Day

Today was a much better day for me. I still haven't figured out why I was so tired yesterday but, thankfully, I woke up fairly refreshed today and I don't think I've yawned at all. I spent from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. today working my day job (with about an hour break in there) and I need to spend some time with the rugrats this evening but once they hit the sack tonight, I'll be back to writing. I'm hoping to get a couple thousand words typed tonight.

Those of you who work regular jobs, when do you write? Do you schedule in your writing time each day or do you just write whenever you find the opportunity throughout the day?

And for those of you who don't work regular jobs, do you write all day or do you still find yourself having to squeeze in some writing time whenever possible?

I think through the week my writing time will mainly be at night after the kids are in bed but it all really depends on how much work comes to me each day for my day job. Some days it's more, some less (today was a more day. I like those days. But on less days that will give me time to squeeze in some writing). On weekends, I have pretty much all day/night to sit and write so that's probably when the majority of my progress will take place.

I also find it easier to write when my husband isn't here (he interrupts me just as much, if not more, than my kids do). He works nights so that's another reason why most of my writing will take place at night. Peace and quiet....Until my characters start talking to me. :)

Sleepy Monday

My kids went back to school today (well, three of the four) so once again it was just my husband, myself, and our 2-1/2 year old home today. It was nice to have quiet again after two weeks of nothing but noise. I had been hoping to use the opportunity to get a lot of writing done but that didn't happen. I worked my day job (I'm a medical transcriptionist and work from home) and then did some housework but I have been so tired today. I mean, so tired that I have had to force my eyes to stay open even while I'm walking. I did just manage to get about 400 words written but I am stopping temporarily for the evening to watch some TV for a couple hours, and then I will write for an hour or two before I go to bed. Tomorrow will be a better day provided I actually get a decent night's sleep tonight.

I'm still tossing around title ideas but not having much luck coming up with something original or something that stands out against all the other titles floating around out there.

Just keep swimming....Just keep swimming....

So. Tired.

My brain is fried at the moment so I'm going to go watch TV for a couple hours.

Titles

Book titles is my topic for today. My WIP is untitled right now but I have been thinking a lot about what title I could give it. Yesterday I did a little research on how others have come up with titles for their books. I was lurking on the forums at Absolute Write and found a couple topics about titles. I read that some people come up with their title first and then write their story around the title. Some people wait until their first draft is complete before coming up with a title. Some use a phrase found in their book as a title...How do you come up with the titles for your books and when?

The plot in my book contains a cursed amulet so I was considering using The Amulet as a title but it just sounds so generic and plain to me. I'm gonna keep thinking on this one.

10,000 Words and No Kissing

So, I've done it. I've typed just over 10,000 words. Here's to hoping the next 10,000 come just as easily.

Lots of writers are participating in No Kissing day on their blogs by posting a no-kissing scene that they've written. I wish I could participate as well, but there's no way in hell I'm posting anything I've written so far on my blog as I'm only in the first draft and I'm sure it sucks big goose eggs right now. I do want to say how much I'm enjoying reading the scenes, though, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

I hope everyone is enjoying this second day of 2010!