Jenn Windrow's Blog, page 5

SOLD!!

I started this blog a couple of years ago. A way to document my journey as a writer and to remind myself how hard it was to travel the publishing path. I’ve had my share of ups and downs, the goods and the bad, and the pee your pants moments mixed in with the I-never-writing-again moments.

It’s been two and a half years since I took my first writing course, three since I joined my first writers group, and forever and a day since I put my first word down on paper.

All of this to get published.

And it happened.

I’ve signed my first contract with Muse It Up Publishing and I couldn’t be more excited. I entered a pitch contest a few months ago through Savvy authors and had 3 requests for Struck By Eros. I sent them all in, and received a contract offer from all of them. In the end I decided on Muse It Up for several different reasons, but mostly because when I went to their website and spoke with their authors I liked what I heard and saw.

Things are just getting started, but I am looking forward to doing the edits and seeing my first official cover and eventually after I’ve worked hard, having my first book release day.

And even though I made it and have a book coming out, that doesn’t mean that my journey is coming to an end. In fact it means that it is just getting started.

I WON!!

I won the Golden, well Struck By Eros won the Golden Pen!!  Such a good feeling to know that an editor from a huge publisher looked at my words and story and idea and loved it enough to place me first.

2014/2015 is going to be a good year. I can feel it!

Favorite book of 2014

Did you have a favorite book that you read this year? I did. Find out what it was at…http://www.readerlicious.com/articles/my-favorite-read-of-2014-jenn-windrow

What’s on your 2015 reading list?

Check out my top 5 over at the Desert Muse’s…

Taking the bad with the good

I’ve been writing full time for almost two years now. In other words it’s been two years since I’ve taken this seriously and stopped playing around.

I’ve grown, learned, failed, and triumphed.

Some days are fantastic, amazing, the stars are aligned, and I can’t imagine doing anything else but writing.

Some days are crappy, tortured, the world is against me, and I wonder why I do this at all.

As a writer I have to learn to accept the bad with the good. So far in my career there has been way more good than bad, but once in awhile something that kills my self esteem creeps in and destroys months of good. A nasty review from a judge in a contest, a rejection form an agent, a bad writing day where the words don’t flow like they should. Those little things taken my already fragile emotions and stomp them down, making me want to stop.

I. Won’t. Stop.

I’ve worked to hard, come to far, to let someone else’s opinion of my characters or my writing steal my happiness. So to the Negative Nancies out there. You can try to discourage me all you want, but it won’t work, you just don’t matter.

Happy Times

Struck By Eros placed in the Golden Pen Writing Contest! This one caused me to snoopy dance all over the horse arena at the monkey’s competition. The Golden Pen is the pre-contest to the Golden heart, which is one of the biggest writing competitions in the romance genre. All three judges said my manuscript was worthy of being a Golden Heart finalist, and that is the goal this year. I want to final in the Golden Heart, I want this puppy to be seen. I want that agent and book deal. I have good feelings about this year!

Struck By Eros is a finalist

My second novel, Struck By Eros finaled in the FCRW Beacon contest. On to the editors and agents for the final placements!

Just Bleed

One of my favorite writing quotes is by Ernest Hemingway, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

Today it’s on a computer, but the idea is still the same. Bleed. Bleed all over that page. Write down that story that has been dancing in your brain, that world that you’ve developed, those characters who are a part of your soul. Put them on the page, make them come alive.

But then what?

Then you take those words, that story, those characters, and place them in the hands of a judge for a contest, or send them out to an agent, or even worse publish them and wait for the reviews. You take that bit of yourself, that very personal part of you, and you show the world.

And hope the world accepts you.

You wait, questions and insecurities rattling around in your mind. Will they love it? Hate it? Laugh at it? Have I wasted my time? Those questions eat at you until it whittles away at your heart and drives you mad.

This is what writers go through, how they think. They put their heart on the page, their soul into the words, and then they let the world see it all. They expose themselves, stripping away the armor that protects them, barring it all.

But why?

Because they love the art of writing. It’s not a job, it’s an obsession. An itch that needs to be scratched. A hole that needs to be filled. But most importantly a story that needs to be told. They share a part of themselves with the world, a spark of their imagination.

So, next time you’re reading a book, something that grabs you and won’t let go, a story that you are so immersed in that you forget to cook dinner, or to pick up the kids from school, or let the dog in, remember that behind that story is a writer. A writer who shared a part of their inner self with the readers. And thank that writer for not giving up, not letting their insecurities get the better of them, for putting words to the page every single day to bring the story to the world, to write that story for you.

Because that writer, even though they may have been scared or afraid or insecure, in the end was brave.

And then this happened…

My little vampire novel is having a good year. Makes me smile knowing that I have come so far in such a short time.

The Writing Process Blog Hop

Welcome to the Writing Process Blog Hop!

I was tagged by Christina Delay, a super talented writer, and one of my amazing critique partners.

You can view Christina’s writing process here.

Now to my questions and my answers.

1. What am I working on right now?

After many years, I’m actually embarrassed by the number, I finished the final edits to my Urban Fantasy, Evil’s Unlikely Assassin, and find myself in querying hell, so technically I am still working on it. Here’s a blurb about that story.

Vampire Alexis Black is on a mission – to rejoin the human race. Too bad she has to kill her own kind to complete it.

Coerced into signing an ironclad contract by an Angel-with-an-attitude, Alexis is stuck with a Jekyll and Hyde personality, an insatiable hunger, and a vampire-hating human sidekick named Reaper. The deal: hunt down and assassinate at least one vamp, werewolf, or creepy crawly, every night, for fifty years. In return she gets back what was stolen from her – her humanity.

But when a revenge-seeking bloodsucker threatens her city, Alexis must risk everything to ensure there’s a humanity to return to. Since her vampire nature is her greatest weapon to defeat the monsters that threaten her friends and future, Alexis must choose to accept her inner beast or watch those she loves die.

Because sometimes it takes evil to fight evil.

While I wait for the agents to get back to me, I’m writing a paranormal Romance called Struck By Eros. It’s a modern day retelling of the story of Apollo and Daphne with a wicked little twist. I’m really excited about this story, and the series potential, so I plan on having the first draft done by the time I go to Immersion in September. Here’s a quick blurb on that one.

Five months ago, Cupid waylaid Noel Chase’s life by saddling her with Grayson Adler, a couldn’t-be-more-wrong-for-her match, and forcing her to be his mini-me on earth and play eHarmony to the lonely, shy, and desperate. All Noel really wants is to spend her days with Len, her fiancée, but when Len turns out to be one of the soul mates she is supposed to match to another woman, Noel pleads with Cupid to let her end up her one true love. But Cupid doesn’t play fair, and Noel is forced through a series of trials to see who is waiting for her in the end, Len, the man she thinks she loves, or Grayson, the man she know she loathes.

That blurb isn’t as polished as the other since I am still writing it, but you get the idea.

2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?

My voice helps me stand out from other writers in the paranormal genre. I’m sarcastic, funny, and my heroines are all really dark. They’re not coming from a world where only good things happen to them, they are coming from a dark place, where bad things happen, and they are put into a set of circumstances that they didn’t choose, and don’t want. In other words, I don’t write characters that are likable from the start, but soften as they grow and learn to deal with the crap that life has thrown at them.

3. Why do I write what I do?

It’s funny that I am getting this question right now. After I finished Evil’s Unlikely Assassin, I pulled out Struck By Eros to start working on it after a long hiatus. Both stories are paranormal which is what I read too. But then I had a moment of crazy and dusted off an old Contemporary romance that I started eons ago. I wrote 3,000 words and found it very unexciting to write a story that didn’t include some kind of other worldly creature. The whole time I wanted to throw a vampire in there, so that it would spice the world up. I guess I write what I do because I enjoy all the fun ways that vampires, werewolves, and vengeful little gods can wreak havoc on people lives.

4. How does my writing process work?  

It all starts with an idea, usually a first paragraph that summarizes the story, just a tiny spark that takes over my brain and won’t let me feed the kids, do the laundry, or clean the house, until I flesh it out.

I scramble for the nearest notebook and play with the idea, turning it into something more, something that I can write about. I have five notebooks full of different ideas right now, so I this happens to me a lot. Then I write, and write, and write. I write to get the words out of my head, the idea on the paper, and the story into something manageable.

Once the first draft is done, I print it all out, because I have to work on a hard copy, pull out my highlighters, and apply Margie Lawson’s editing system to the whole thing, this takes more hours that I want to admit, but it is one of the best tools that I have found. Once everything is highlighted I can see where I am weak, what is missing, and how to fix it. So, I go back and I edit again! And edit again! And edit again. I think you get the idea, I edit a lot!

Then I sit and read it out loud, listening for beats that are off, words that don’t flow, and stumbling blocks. Once the reading is done, I sit and go through my millions of sticky notes and make all those changes.

Once I’m happy with the manuscript, I beg my Readerlicious girls to read it, give me comments, tell me that it doesn’t truly suck, or that it does. Once the comments are in, I go through and yes. Wait for it…edit again, and fix everything that they found. Then I ship it off to my kindle and read it like I would read any other published book. Hopefully, after I’m done reading it, I’m still in love with the characters and the story, if I’m not then I rinse and repeat the whole editing process.

It’s head pounding insane, but you know that you love writing when you look forward to that amount of work every single day.

This is my process, not glamorous, or unusual, but it works for me.

And the blog hop continues. Next Monday, you’ll get a chance to meet the two authors I’m tagging: Sandy Wright and Vaun Murphey..