Alison Kent's Blog, page 35

Top Ten List: where my 1000 words a day go

As I'm supposed to be writing 1000 words a day, but I haven't been adding to my Scribometer, I thought I'd list the top ten places my words have been going.

1) A NEW and MORE EXCITING 241 word bio to replace the dull and boring 109 word bio I'd sent originally to the editor at HCI Books to be used for PR and the title plan for my VOWS story.

2) The first page of what I was hoping would be my VOWS story as I loved the characters and their journey and knew exactly how I wanted to start their...

Junk Hunks

This morning before @cuppacafe left for work, he and I took No. 1 Daughter's cat to the vet as it was time for her to go to Kitteh Heaven. She'd had several strokes since October, and two seizures yesterday, and she's in a much better place now. No. 1 had rescued Jazzy Cleopatra VooDoo Kitty from her hard life on the streets, and spoiled her rotten the last four years. She hadn't had to lift a paw for anything, and ruled the dogs with her iron will. They chase all neighborhood cats (and we...

DEADLY LOVE – a mini review

Welcome to the world of Francesca Cahill, crime-solver extraordinaire. Francesca is no ordinary heroine. She refuses to bow to convention, wears her heart on her sleeve, and is determined to right the ills and injustices of society. Deadly Love begins Francesca's mad escapades when the neighbors' little boy is kidnapped right out of his bed during a society ball. It is January 18, 1902. Francesca stumbles across the ransome note just as she meets New York City's newly appointed police...

Conference Tape Winners

I used Random.org to pull the winners' names for the RWA workshop tapes, and since I have threaded comment numbering, my own comments weren't included.

The winners are:

Dee Carney

Bridget

Carrie

You guys email me at ak@alisonkent.com with your mailing addresses and I'll get those binders sent out! Be back soon with more. Had an issue last week involving the UPS man, dog number two, and dog number two's teeth. Nothing torn, no damage – except to my mental health, so wasn't up to doing much of...

Some reader stuff, Some writer stuff

I found out yesterday that Kindle editions of my gIRL-gEAR series (from 2002, 2003 & 2004) are being released January 18. I linked below to the books' pages where you can read excerpts, and then to the Kindle pages if you're so inclined to buy.

All Tied Up – Kindle Edition

No Strings Attached – Kindle Edition

Bound To Happen – Kindle Edition

Striptease – Kindle Edition

Wicked Games – Kindle Edition

Indiscreet – Kindle Edition

That was the reader part. Here's the writer part. I've had these...

The swing of the new schedule

I mentioned on Monday that my goal this year is to write 1000 words a day every day (and I have a nice little graphic on the sidebar to remind me of that). That works out to 365,000 words this year, which is three single title novels plus the Vows project. And really, 1000 words? That's like 4 pages, and what pro can't manage 4 pages a day?

Oh, that would be me.

Part of the problem is that I'm working to fine tune proposals I've already written, so I'm cutting as much as I'm adding. On Monday, ...

Getting ready for a good year of reading!

After Christmas, I always go into Amazon and suss out the next year's books by my auto-buy authors. Sometimes I've got Amazon gift cards to spend, and I love later in the year to have the books show up when I'm not expecting them!

Here are the ones I've already bought.

1) From Robyn Carr: Angel's Peak, Feb

2) From Robyn Carr: Moonlight Road, Mar

3) From Harlan Coben: Caught, Mar

4) From Lisa Gardner: Live To Tell, Jul

5) From Tess Gerritsen: Ice Cold, Jul

6) From Kristan Higgins: The Next Best...

Today we get back to work

And writing is work, hard work, absolutely no doubt. Yes, it's fun to see cover art for the first time, to find something you've written in your local grocery store's racks or available for pre-order on Amazon. Yes, it's fun to hear from readers that they've loved your work, that your story got them through a hard time, that you made them laugh, or cry. But it's even more fun to hit send on an email to your editor with your completed manuscript attached. Almost as much fun as it is to attach ...

Hanging in Harlequin's Art Gallery

Google Alerts is an amazing thing. This popped in the other day, a link from Smart Bitches to photos taken at the Harlequin: The Heart of a Woman cover art exhibition. The bottom photo is from my March '09 Blaze, A LONG, HARD RIDE. Cool, huh!

*****

If you're a visual creative and need to see your story while writing it, think about creating a collage of items, whether exact or abstract, that appear in or inspire your novel, and keeping it close while you work. For many...

What @cuppacafe did NOT get for his birthday today…

Happy Something Something Birthday to Walt! What he did get were sweaters. And shirts. And whatever else he buys himself and calls a birthday present. Though it looked for about 24 hours that it might be a possibility, what he did not get was this.

He came home from work on New Year's Eve eve to find her in our front yard, wet and muddy and wearing a collar but no tags. He came in, checked about forty-five minutes later, and she was still there, camped on the front porch. It was dark and cold ...