Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 42

A Chat about That

I want to talk very briefly about “that”. No, I’m not talking about something dirty I can’t say so I have to use the word “that”. I’m actually talking about the word “that”. I remember when beta reading for some writers, I had to point out the overuse of the word “that”. I’ve finished proofing Vampires’ Curse to get ready for print, and OH MY STARS! Could I have used “that” any more times? Grrrrr. Now there were a few instances where it made sense to use it for clarification, but most of the time it sounded clunky and made the sentence NOT flow as it should. Most of the time, we don’t need that word. I did notice, since this is a compilation of three novellas, I used it fewer times in the third novella and used it most in the first one. So that means I was getting better at catching it. I even use it in my blog posts sometimes when I don’t need to. I think it goes back to English class or something, because there’s some reason my fingers want to type that word. And it’s perfectly proper and acceptable in every place I used it, but it wasn’t NECESSARY. So for this current WIP, although I know I caught most of them, I’m going to do a “find” on the word document for the word “that”. I wonder how many I’ll find that I don’t need? (I think the previous sentence needed the “that”, LOL.)

How about you? Do you use “that” more often that you need to?

Sunday Update 8/12/12

It’s 58 degrees outside. 58! We haven’t seen a temp that low in months. I think the high is supposed to be around 87. I’ll take any temp under 90!

Word count was pretty good this week. Mon-2092, Thurs-1057, Fri-890, Sat-1678. I’m getting close to the end of my WIP. Just a few more chapters. (My chapters are short.) I think I’ve figured out the riddles, thanks to Anya Kelleye and her father. The next chapter I write should involve the riddles unless I think of something else I want to insert. And I think Anya and I have agreed on a cover for it. I’m so picky, I don’t see how she puts up with me. I ended up ditching a picture she had already bought for the cover. It just didn’t work for me. Seriously, when you find a great cover artist who you can work with, you’ve found a treasure, trust me.

I finally finished final proofing on Vampires’ Curse, so as soon as I make the changes, I’ll be ready to format for print. Then I can tell Anya how many pages it is so she can finish the cover.

I got the material cut out for a blouse and the bottom layer of my skirt.

I’ve been a busy bee. I didn’t mention all the boring housework and laundry. Plus the day job. Wait…I guess I did just mention it. LOL

How was YOUR week?

I Want to Be Crafty Again

That title could conjure up all kinds of ideas, couldn’t it. LOL

I used to co-own a business with my best friend. She wove beautiful baskets, and I made eggshell ornaments. Later, I added beaded jewelry to the mix. We used to always participate in a craft show here in my town. She would travel from Indiana to here for the show each year. When she died in May of 2011, it took most of the wind out of my sails. I did one more show, with help from my dear friend (and cover artist) Anya Kelleye. I had all of my friend’s baskets, and we were trying to sell as many of them as we could. It was sort of a bittersweet time…I missed her terribly, but doing the show was a tribute to her memory. And it helped having Anya there. After that, though, I lost all desire to craft anything. That’s slowly changing. I’m trying to get into sewing. I want to start making jewelry again. I’m not so sure about the eggshell ornaments. That’s still hard for me because that’s what we started out with, and I’m not sure I could decorate an eggshell without tears. Plus, it’s much more time consuming than jewelry making, and I don’t have a lot of time. The desire to MAKE something is coming back. I just need to fit it in with all the other things I have to do. I just need to get organized! I’m planning a big giveaway when I release my current WIP, and there will be jewelry involved. And swag. And a book….

Do any of you do crafts besides your writing? What do you do?

Wednesday Update

I was actually going to post about something else today, but then I realized it was the day for our ROW80 midweek check-in. I’ll do my other post tomorrow, I guess.

I had a a really kick butt word count on Monday (I’ll post actual numbers on Sunday). Last night, I wanted to write, but several things hindered me.

1. One problem was my hands. I’ve mentioned this before. My hands used to bother me a lot, but for the past few years, they have been much better. In the last few months, they’ve started hurting again, right in my thumb joint. I don’t know what has changed, but that Dragon software is looking better and better.

2. I needed to establish how much time it takes to get from point A to point B traveling at a certain amount of knots (this is on a ship), so I had to do some research. Luckily, I found the time frame I had already written in works fine. Whew! And I’m still stumped by the riddles I need for the challenges. I could write the scenes that come after the three challenges, but I’m a very linear writer, and I just CAN’T. It’s like reading a book out of order.

3. I also spent some time with my mom and her computer. If I don’t write early, I get too tired to write. But as much as my writing means to me, my mom is more important. She comes first. And she’s one of the biggest supporters of my writing, as well as one of the most awesome people I know.

I tried proofing Vampires’ Curse (I NEED to get this in print as soon as possible!) last night, and I got through a few pages, but I was trying to do it on the living room couch. There was a Big Bang Theory marathon on some channel that my husband was watching, and Sheldon just always creeps in when I’m trying to do something. He’s just so FUNNY, I can’t help but listen. The reason I’ve been writing/proofing in the living room is because the chair in my office is just too uncomfortable to sit in for long. I’m really needing a new chair, but I’m putting off spending the money. But I’m going to have to soon.

What’s up with the rest of you?

Sunday Update

I didn’t get quite as many words in last week. Life happened, but it’s okay. I still got a fairly decent word count. Mon-719, Thurs-745, Sat-1733.

I was going to cut out patterns and possibly material yesterday. However, I couldn’t find my good scissors. They weren’t in my old cross stitching stuff, which is where I thought they were. They weren’t in my jewelry making stuff. I don’t know WHERE they are. And you can’t cut material with crappy scissors. So I guess I’ll be buying new ones.

I saw a GREAT movie on Netflix, recommended by Susan Bischoff. It was Fire with Fire about two teenagers in love. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Go watch it. (Don’t get it mixed up with a more recent movie with the same name.)

What have the rest of you been doing?

What I’m Reading and Watching

A few days ago, I finished listening to the audio book of Dark Lover, the first in J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. At first, I was skeptical. THIS was the series that everyone was talking about? What was so special about it? I didn’t think I would continue the series. Then, about halfway through the book, I got hooked. I don’t know how it happened, but it suddenly became more than what I thought it was going to be. So now it looks like I’ll get a Black Dagger Brotherhood audio book every month when I get my credit. They are too expensive to buy at full price, but with Audible, you get a credit each month for something like $14.95, so you can get $25-$30 books for much less.

I got an email from Audible saying they had some audio books on sale for $5.95. Much to my surprise, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor, was included in this sale. I had heard Kait Nolan talk about how good it was, so I thought I would check it out; at that price I couldn’t go wrong. Oh my stars! This book is SO good. I’ve been listening to it for several days now (to and from work) and I love it! The narrator is really good at doing different voices for the characters. Folks, you NEED to read this book.

Netflix is full of awesome. (Although, there are a few movies and series I can’t find on there, I do realize they can’t have EVERYTHING.) I’ve found many things to watch. Lately, I’ve been watching Star Trek. Yes, the original series with my hero Mr. Spock. But last night I wanted to watch a movie. I just couldn’t figure out what I was in the mood for. Then I found it. Labyrinth! I love this movie, and it had been a long time since I had seen it. Yes, I still think David Bowie is hot in this movie. If you haven’t seen this one, check it out. The Jim Henson creatures are great!

What have you read or watched lately? Has anything just blown you away? I want to know!

What’s Important in Life?

I totally forgot it was check in day! LOL.

I only wrote a little over 700 words on Monday because I was trying to figure out locations and riddles. I was doing RESEARCH.

Yesterday, I didn’t write at all. I came home all ready to make a nice dinner and dessert for hubby and me since he was actually working first shift this week (he’s usually on thirds). I got a text from a friend of mine saying one of her friend’s house had burned down and she needed clothing. I’m one of the few people who has a key to the church building and she needed access to our clothing room where we keep donated clothes that we give away. My first reaction was aggravation. I admit that. Hubby had to eat dinner alone, and I had to warm mine up later. And I knew I would be there awhile and probably wouldn’t get writing done. But then I started looking at things differently and was ashamed of my initial reaction. There would be other dinners with my husband. There would be other days to write. But here was someone whose house had burned down and was in need. What’s more important? My petty little aggravations or someone who needed my help? I’m almost in tears writing this. The gratitude shown by this lady in need was worth every minute I lost. And what did I lose, really? What’s important in life? The things you do or the things you DO? Does that make sense? I sit here feeling humble and blessed. I sit here annoyed at my “almost” selfishness. I sit here thankful that I did the right thing. I couldn’t have asked for a better night.

That is all.

Setting For My WIP?

Many of you know I’m really struggling to find three riddles for the challenges my two main characters have to face. Now I’m struggling with the location. I’ve known all along that I was going to have to decide where they were going to have to travel to obtain the “object” they have to have. The whole time I was writing this book, I’ve been trying to decide where to have them go. Here’s my dilemma. Should I use a real place or should I make one up? I was going to “pretend” there was another little island past Bermuda, but my husband asked me “What if someone checks to see if it’s a real place?”. But why does it have to be? Authors make up places all the time. Why CAN’T there be an island past Bermuda? What do you guys think? Is it okay to make up islands?

As far as the riddles go, I’m about to go crazy. I’ve even looked on riddle sites to see if there’s something I can adapt to challenges. But most of the riddles are silly or simply won’t work. I’m to the point where I’ll offer to acknowledge someone in the front of my book if they can help me with the riddles. LOL.

My writing of this story is about to stall because I’m getting close to the point where I need the riddles/challenges. Maybe I’ll dream something tonight.

Sunday Update 7/29/12

I’m a little late with my check in today. I usually try to do it before church and then take care of my sponsor duties in the afternoon, but I just ran out of time this morning. I always make a good breakfast on Sunday mornings, and I got way behind. LOL

My goal is to write about an hour (or until my hands give out) five days a week. I was plagued by the dreaded headache on Friday, even going home from work early, and Saturday I still had the headache plus I had to help my mom with her computer that decided not to boot up properly. Grrrrr. Anyway, on the three days I did write, my word counts were good. Mon-1875, Tues-1281, Thurs-1532. I timed myself on Thursday to see how long it was actually taking me to write. I wrote during my lunch hour, and I had to eat, so I knew I wouldn’t have a whole hour to write. I always read the last chapter I wrote the time before first so I can get my head back into the story, and that took five minutes. So, basically, I wrote over 1500 words in about 40 minutes. I thought I could only write about a thousand words an hour, but it had seemed lately I had written more. Apparently, I’m getting faster. Who knows if that will continue, but I’ll take it for now.

I’m trying to get back into sewing. I was lucky to spend time with the lovely Susan Bischoff last Saturday, and she was able to help me pick out patterns and material. My plans were to write and sew (or at least cut out the pattern!) Saturday, but with my oldest son and his wife coming into town for lunch, then my mom’s computer problems, AND my headache I didn’t get to do either. I want this skirt and blouse, darn it! My biggest goal for this week is to BE MORE EFFICIENT AND GET STUFF DONE.

How is everyone else doing? Any snags last week?

Wednesday Update 7/25/12

Nothing earth shattering has happened since Sunday. LOL. Good word counts the past couple of days. No exercise…my walking partner is on vacation…I’ve been a slacker. I haven’t felt very well, either, but I suspect exercise would make me feel BETTER. Silly me for not doing it.

I’m 2/3 through proofing Vampires’ Curse for print. A word about that. If it were just for my benefit, I’m not sure I would even put anything in print, although it’s nice to hold my book in my hands. But there are still readers out there who want a print book. It’s for them that I do this. It would be free if I didn’t want expanded distribution, but I pay $25 to do that. However, I make only about 50-75 cents per book when bookstores (other than Amazon) or libraries buy it (versus about $2.75 if readers buy it from Amazon). Is it worth it? I haven’t yet decided. I hate to limit where readers can buy my books, but it will take a long time, if ever, to make up that $25. It seems I spend a lot of time and money sometimes doing things to benefit other people. But…I sort of feel like that’s one reason we’re put on this planet. What do the rest of you think? Should I stop paying for expanded distribution? What would you do? It’s free to distribute to Amazon, since Amazon owns CreateSpace. But I have almost as many sales from the expanded distribution venues. I can’t decide what to do with this latest print book.