Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 196

Surprises

Today, I decided to organize some of my notes for my Vampire/Demon world. (The one I've written about in Blood Feud and Demon Kissed.) I used OneNote, and while I know the basics, anything beyond that is new territory for me. We don't use this program at work and I haven't had time to mess around with it at home. But I just finished up my latest short story on Aug 30th, so today I decided to just do it.

After some fits and starts, I started to figure things out. I transferred all my files into...

Adventures In Suburbia

Tuesday afternoon, I heard a siren. I thought briefly about getting up and looking out the window, but I was in the middle of something and it didn't last long. Deciding that it was on the freeway, I went back to what I was doing.

A while later, I went out to get the mail. And saw 7 fire trucks and assorted police vehicles blocking the street!

Yes, that siren I heard was from a fire truck. I'm assuming the other emergency vehicles didn't run their sirens because I would have gotten up and check...

Disorganized With a Happy Ending

Once again, my lack of an organizational system is costing me time and stress. I carry steno pads with me in my tote bag. Yes, plural because I filled one notebook, but I haven't finished writing those books. I haven't even written proposals yet on some of those books. And until I am done with them, I'll never know when I might need those notes. It's actually a pretty good system because I'll Post-it flag each idea with a different color and it's easy to find what I'm looking for quickly.

If I...

Break Out the Dancing Hobbes!

If Hobbes is dancing, you know what that means--another story is finished and turned in! I just emailed Shadow's Caress, my next short story for Nocturne Bites into my editor and agent. Woot!

Story Talk

I'd love to talk about my stories more. Not just writing them in a general sort of way, but about the characters and their pasts and their stories. But then I think, well, what I'm writing now won't be out for months (it's a short story) and the full-length books I write can take a year or more from when I turn them in to when they appear on the shelves. So if I talk about what I'm working on right now, a reader would have to wait forever for that story.

The simple solution would be to talk ab...

Light Warriors Over Arc

One of the questions I get fairly frequently is about my Light Warriors series. People want to know if there's more tying the books together than the fact that at least one of the characters is a Gineal troubleshooter. The answer to that is yes.

If you've read the four Light Warrior books, (In the Midnight Hour, In Twilight's Shadow, Edge of Dawn, and In the Darkest Night) then you know there's something just a little different about each of the heroines.

It isn't mentioned in Ryne's book (In t...

Urban Fantasy - Paranormal Romance Crossover

I did a Twitter chat on August 21st about Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy and how they crossover. The transcript is up now if you'd like to check it out.

UF Chat

Your Way Is the Right Way

When it comes to writing, there are plotters and there are pantsers. Plotters are the people who do detailed outlines and know what's going to happen throughout their story. Pantsers sit down and write without a roadmap. Most writers fall somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum.

One way isn't more right than the other. Writers have to do whatever works for them. If you need an 80 page synopsis and no surprises before they start, do it. If the idea of 3x5 cards paralyzes you, don't ...

Adventures With Computers

I really wish I didn't have this topic to blog about. Unfortunately, my iMac had a major meltdown this week. It didn't seem like a big deal, not at first, but it sure ended up being an ordeal. As I'm typing this, I'm erasing my hard drive.

Yes, all my programs, all my files, everything is being wiped out. When the erasing is finished, I'll reload my operating system and keep my fingers crossed that everything works when I'm done. This is my last hurrah, my final stand before I'll be forced to ...

Mini-Adventures In Commuting

A writer's imagination can be an interesting thing. It's why we can take someone being 10 minutes late and build it into an epic tale that leaves us worrying about the tragedy that befell our friend. It's why I battle a tendency toward hypochondria. When it comes to symptoms, Google is not my friend. And this morning, something happened that has my brain spinning.

It was dark when I left my house to go to work. I have to take a few side streets to reach the highway and one of them is major eno...