Moira Keith

Those very lovely words were recently typed as I reached the end of book one in my wolf/fae trilogy (or as some people like to call it… the No Furry Faeries Trilogy).  This book has been two years in the making and even though I am now working with my internal editor and preparing myself for some feedback from various sources, I am feeling very pleased with myself.

I think each book is an accomplishment, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. I am very hard on myself when it comes to most things. Paranormal stuff… forget it, I am like a damn lunatic. I have very high standards for myself when I write in this genre because I read it myself in my limited spare time. Since it is my favorite to read, I am obsessively critical of my paranormal stuff.

This is probably true of all of us. Surely we each have little areas where we are more critical of our work or performance in than others. Care to share so I can stop looking over my shoulder for the men in white lab coats?

While I anxiously await your answers, here is a sampling from the unedited version of my book, whose title is remaining under tight wraps for now. It is one among many moments I have a fondness for. This moment takes place after my heroine, Kiara, has a wee bit of a rough day. ~

A drink and the normalcy of humans should have been enough to calm my nerves, or so I tried to convince myself when I pulled the H3 into the parking spot and entered the dimly lit Irish pub.  I should have stayed home, but instead I perched myself on a stool at the bar. So much for my date with Ben and Jerry.

Sláinte!

With that deviant behavior! One of the best lines from the movie Empire Records.

Okay, really there is reason behind why I even mention that line. As in most cities, you can drive around and see a multitude of fashion statements out there. Piercings decorating the teens at the bus stop or the people at work. (I kid you not) See the bump on girls courtesy of Snookie from Jersey Shore fame, some people can rock it, some can’t. Not everyone is meant to be a Guidette, sorry. Emo fashion in full swing with the dark clothes and skinny jeans (which I don’t get as a fashion statement for guys). It makes me think back to the days when I loved Skater Boys. Oh I was a sucker for almost any guy who hung out at the local skate shop. Oh the point? Right.

So really, I was just thinking about how such behavior and fashion statements make their mark on the books we read and write. I mean, I have a picture of a Emo girl that is destined to star in my first young adult book. So lay it on me people! What deviant types did you lust after? Or do you imagine yourself writing about?Give me all the dirty details.

Okay, time for another installment of HDH. This week I have been thinking a lot about heroes and what we find appealing in them. For the most part we know it goes deeper than looks. So many characters in movies are worthy of their hero status but today’s HDH takes the cake on many levels. Whether he is a downright hot Wolverine, a period character swept into present times, or…well hell I just like him and his acting. So when you are done drooling, tell me some of your fav heroes.

And I said so, that’s why! (Sorry does that take you back to childhood or what? )

There are times when the urge to whip and/or beat my characters into submission takes over. Why you ask? When I sit down to write I usually try to have a well thought out plan of attack for a story (no, not plotted out as I am a true pantster at heart) and character details worked out all the way down to the color of toe nail polish. Sometimes the direction I want to take my characters in isn’t always where they want to go. It can be fairly devastating to realize that they can be just as stubborn and pigheaded as their creator, not a trait that lends itself well to productivity. Can you believe the audacity of some characters? I mean really, you do your best to bring them to life on paper and then they turn around and get snarky with you. Sheesh!

I struggle with trying to keep the flow of my story going where I think it should, but some times that is impossible. When my characters dig their heels in about something, I find there is little I can do but listen to what they have to say. After all, it is their story I am trying to tell. Doesn’t make too much sense to argue with them does it?

So after a beer or two and a few heartfelt conversations, I think we have finally reached an agreement. A little give and a little take on both sides. Okay, admittedly a little more give and take on my side … did I mention they were really, really stubborn?

If you are a fellow writer, please share your character’s stubbornness… come on you know you want to. If you tell me that they obediently roll over like a dog and do all that you ask I am truly going scream, so be honest. No character is perfect.

Sláinte!

Of course I have to promote this… after all, my publisher does put out some awesome titles. So go forth and vote for your favorites among my fellow authors! Details are below.

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I am seriously addicted to my computer. Well in all honesty, I am addicted to the internet and MY computer. Why did I stress ‘my’? Well because I have access to computers, they just aren’t my own. There is just something about the ease of access to things on your own system. Granted, I do so greatly appreciate my folks allowing me to utilize their computer, but my writing is saved on my laptop. At least the most recent version is anyways. So what am I going to do? Forge ahead as best I can because go figure… my computer decides to go on the blink right about the time I manage to figure out (or so I think) where my story block occurred and how to fix it.

Thanks to a good friend, I will now not only back up to my external hard drive…but to other programs such as google docs and…hmmm I forget the other one. He backs his writing up to both… religiously..like every five minutes as he confessed to me the other day. Apparently not a bad thing to do.

On another front… Kiara and Devlin are finally beginning to make sense to me. Their story still needs a ton of work and at 200 pages that very thought is a bit daunting. Though I try to make the story less about the romance between them, it seems unavoidable. The romance is a key element in the story. I can’t escape it…no matter how much I would like to. That does not mean that there will be an unending amount of mushy gushy sentiments….let’s get real here people.

However, the direction the tale is taking is good and I am confident that the ending will work out the way I see it in my mind. Now if I could just nail down all the little details that make up the mythology in my book and life would be blissfully sweet. Sigh. That being said, it is time for me to get off the computer. Past time in fact. The story will not write itself nor

will the characters do as I will them to. Well off to writerdom!

Sláinte!

Yep. I was having serious issues with her and getting yelled at from all sides because I was really trying to keep her on ignore. However, I am a bit lost in my WIP. I need to reacquaint myself with the story. Which means I have to go back and read through it. This usually is where I get into trouble.

I figured…no biggie. Just pop that puppy on the eReader and get to it. No keyboard=no editing right? Wrong. First thing my little editor starts doing is  screaming at me to fix a blaring hole in my scene where I had accidentally hit delete. I listened. Then thought… WTF am I doing?!

This is only going to lead to more frustration and procrastination on my end. Must be strong. Resist the temptation. I feel like a drug addict suffering withdrawals. It is hard not to run to the keyboard each and every time I see a little blip or the internal editor starts screaming at me.

This is a battle royale to see if I can manage to overcome my wench of an internal editor. Maybe I can lock her up. I doubt it though. I am going to try to reign in this compulsion, but if you should find me curled up in the fetal position, cradling my laptop and muttering “My precious”… you know what happened.

Sláinte!

There are so many things going on in my life right now and I have let myself get distracted from the one thing that truly relaxes me. Part of that is due to my continual head butting with the characters of my paranormal story. I managed to rope a nice 15k into the story, but have once again reached a stalemate with my hero and heroine. It was suggested to me, that there may be a slight issue of fighting my voice. That perhaps if I wrote what came to me rather than what I desired to write, I wouldn’t continue to have this problem.

Time and time again, I have divulged my desire to write paranormal. My story ideas seem to be limitless, but my biggest project to date has given me grief for more than a year now. Contemporary romance was not the genre I had envisioned writing, yet it is what I wrote and sold. Now with my frustration mounting and my desire to just write continue to plague me, I find myself looking back at a Buckling Down spin off story I had planned.  Justin Trent will get his story and it may be just the outlet I need at this point. I am tired of trying to wrestle my characters into submission. Hopefully, this will renew my muse.

And to my loyal support group who has helped push me along this far and is anxiously awaiting and routing for the paranormal, I do apologize. However, in order to do my hero and heroine justice, I need to step away from it for a bit.

Sláinte!

The gauntlet was thrown. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was. You all know I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for my fellow author Teresa D’Amario. HUGE. Well I had mentioned that I needed to find my motivation. Being the wonderful person she is, she found it for me. She challenged me to a duel. A fight to the death. The woman with the most words wins (and not this blog post does not count). She threw off the gloves and let me tell you, it was not a pretty battle. There was hair pulling, bitch slapping….

This was me about two hours in—–>

Okay so it wasn’t all THAT, but it was fairly intense. The challenge she gave me was that we would both write. Whoever had the most words written at the end of the night prevails. Becomes Queen of all that is Writing (sparkling crown not included) and will rule for all of five minutes. Well actually, the winner would get fifty pages of their work critiqued by the other. Pretty sweet deal right? Inspiring and motivational? Most definitely.

How did I make out? I have to start by telling you it was a nail biting experience. I had lots of distractions. My loverly sister was visiting and staying the night, there were midnight margaritas, Practical Magic, and did I happen to mention a video of a grown man replicating the baby dancing to Beyonce’s All the Single Ladies (which had me in tears)?

Who won, right? That’s all you want to really know, isn’t it? Don’t know yet. My word count started at 62,096 and it finished at…. well I will update you on that later. I am an author still hard at work, just taking a mental pause and writing this. Check back and update the number before I turn in for the night.

Update – Ending word count for the night 64,101. Not too shabby.

That is how I feel at the moment. Torn between two projects. As many of you know, the story formerly known as Chosen (which has yet to be renamed), has continually been the thorn in my side. I am in love with the characters, the story line…in fact there is very little I do not like about it. Well I digress, there is one thing. The fact that I can’t seem to finish it! So as I fight like the devil where that story is concerned, I put it to the side for fear of killing both it and my love for it.

Meanwhile, I brainstorm an idea with a friend. Fall in love. Decide to plot. It is working well. But the need to actually write pulls at me. I refuse to put pen to paper or fingers to keys until I really get the plotting stuff somewhat completed. Then the guilt hits. Why am I working on something new when I can’t finish what I was already working on? I truly have no business doing that. It’s no wonder I have anywhere from twenty to thirty partials on my desktop. Seriously, that is no joke.

So I have compromised. It was the best I could do with a divided heart. I will continue to plot the young adult book and not pen a word at this point, but I will also give in to my need to write with the other manuscript because it is just shy of 60k and that is a lot of work to just put to the side. Maybe the plotting will help renew my interest in the other. Maybe it will hinder me more. Who knows. All I know is… maybe if I hadn’t been so willing to share bits of my story prior to now, people wouldn’t be bugging for the finished version of it and I wouldn’t feel so guilty for putting it to the side. But as they say… I made my bed and now I must lay in it. Well I am getting nothing done at the moment. Time to get back to work.

Sláinte!