Jamie DeBree's Blog, page 61

Serial Novel: Falling in Public, Ch. 2

This serial novel is posted in draft form every Friday. To receive each installment via email, please sign up here.

Ch.1

Falling in Public

Chapter 2

Eddie took the mystery woman's hand and tugged her toward The AfterGlow as the crowd cheered behind the velvet ropes. The look on her face when she'd recognized him had done wonders for his ego, which had taken a beating this afternoon at the news of slow sales for his latest album. Briefly he wondered if he'd just rescued a stalker, but there was something unassuming about this woman's demeanor that seemed genuine.

As they entered the club, he watched her look around, taking it all in. The place was packed, and bodies writhed on the dance floor as the music pumped a steady bass beat through the dark room. Side-stepping a waitress on a mission, she moved farther into the room and he followed, not quite ready to let her go just yet. He closed the distance and slid an arm around her waist, leaning down to speak in her ear when she flinched at his touch.

"Relax, it's just me. What's your name?"

She looked sheepish, a faint blush tinging her cheeks pink. "Holly," she said, pitching her voice over the music. "Thank you for bringing me in."

He nodded, fascinated by her pixy face and the keen expression in her eyes. He knew he was staring, but he couldn't seem to help it, and when she was jostled closer by people mulling behind, he welcomed the feel of her body pressed against his. Her blush deepened as she pulled back, and looked around, clearly uncomfortable in the crowd.

"I have a table upstairs - why don't you join us? You can watch without getting run over." He breathed in her sweet, fruity scent, and barely resisted the urge to taste her neck before he straightened to look at her.

"I don't want to impose," she yelled, just before another group of people pushed her against him, hard this time. He pulled her close, more to protect her from the throng than anything else, but knew there was no way she could miss the bulge in his jeans. He put a few inches between them, but didn't release her.

"You're not imposing. Besides, having a beautiful woman beside me will keep the vampires away. Or most of them, anyways." She rolled her eyes, but a smile played at the corner of her lips, and he grinned, knowing he had her. "Come on." He took her hand again and pulled her behind him to a staircase off to the side. Joey and Mark were already sprawled on one side of the curved booth and Eddie motioned for Holly to slide in the other side so she'd be able to look over the railing. He slid in beside her, finally able to hear himself think.
"Holly, this is Joey, my drummer, and Mark, my bass man. Guys, meet Holly."

She held out her hand to each in turn. "It's nice to meet you both. I'm...well, not to go all fangirl, but I love your music."

"The girl with good taste," Joey said, smiling. "Winston's a sleezy kid. Good call brushing him off like that."

Mark nodded his agreement, and Eddie looked over to see Holly looking sheepish.

"I didn't mean to make a scene," she said lightly. "He's just so young..."

Mark nodded knowingly. "Hear that Eddie? You won because you're old, man." Eddie chuckled. He and Mark had been at this a long time, and they both were feeling the years creep up as all the new talent came on the scene. 

"No - that's not what I meant at all!" Holly looked from one to the other, her eyes wide. "I just....I mean, I'm not exactly young myself..."

Eddie laughed. "Relax, Holly. They're just messing with you. And you don't look a day over twenty, so you can't blame poor Winston for trying." He winked, resisting the urge to trace her tiny nose with his finger.

"Heads up, gang," Joey said, his eyes locked on something over Eddie's shoulder. "Incoming."

Eddie groaned, then draped an arm around Holly's shoulders and pulled her close. "I need a huge favor," he said, keeping his voice low. "I need you to sit on my lap, put your arms around my neck and kiss me."   
Enjoy this installment? Try Desert Heat, available now at:


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Writing Notes: Serial Scenes, Deconstructed

Today's topic is about creating
serial scenes – scenes that are meant to be served up one at a
time, with a certain amount of time passing before the reader gets
another. It's the same basic premise as a TV series, just on a
smaller scale.

I lay out my scenes in three parts:

- Orientation

- Plot

- Cliffhanger/Twist

Orientation is the beginning of the
scene, where you have a very small amount of time to re-orient the
reader into the overall story. You don't need this in a normal
scene, because presumably the reader has been reading continuously,
or can simply flip back a page or two for the information. Online
readers want to just jump right back in though, so I help them by
giving them an orientation line at the beginning. This also helps a
new reader who stumbles into a story already in progress. Join me as
I show Alex, one of my alter-egos, how to accomplish this (she's
working on her first serial novel).

After the reader is re-oriented in the
story, the action moves forward as it normally would (plot). It
builds up to the last few lines, when something needs to happen that
will bring the reader back for the next installment. This is the
Cliffhanger, and it has the potential to make your readers
practically salivate for the next installment. They may want to throw
things at you as well if you make them wait too long, so stay behind
the computer screen if at all possible.

A good cliffhanger is a plot twist –
something the reader didn't see coming. It adds conflict, and cuts
off just when the reader things she's going to get "the good
stuff". When I can't stand to stop writing because I simply
*must* know what happens next, that's where I cut my readers off,
so long as it's near the natural end of a scene.

Cliffhangers work in every scene –
not just serial scenes. They are a valuable device, so long as you
don't use one in place of "The End" in a genre where they
aren't commonly used. I guarantee you'll be lynched if you use
one at the end of a romance novel.

Writers - how do you construct your
scenes? Any tips to share?

Readers – do you notice when a scene
eases you back into the story? How do you feel about cliffhangers?

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Guest Post by Liz Borino - "Family"

Today Liz has sent Chris, one of her characters to chat with us about family. Pull up a chair and settle in...

Hi,
I'm Chris from Liz Borino's Contemporary Romances Expectations
and What
Money Can't Buy.
I grew up always knowing I'd get married and have a son. It was not
only expected of me, but required. If I did that very simple task,
I'd get $50 million. Then, I fell in love with my best friend,
Aiden O'Boyle. Life became less simple. More amazing, but less
simple. This is all covered in Expectations.
Long story short, I got my family. Certainly not the family my father
envisioned, but after what he put me through, I'm glad.

Anyway,
I have a sweet tempered son and a beautiful daughter. And, at first,
no idea whatsoever what to do with them. None. No, you laugh. I grew
up and it was just me and my twin, Matt. Our father had no siblings
so, no big family reunions, where we'd even be throwing a football
around with kids younger than us. The closest we ever came was the
kids younger than us in boarding school. I think I once helped one
tie their tie when they knocked on our dorm door. So, to say I was
unprepared is the understatement of the century.

Please,
don't get me wrong. As soon as Aiden and I got serious, I wanted a
family with him. Luckily for us, he grew up completely differently
than Matt and I did. He's from Ireland, and, yes, his accent is so
sexy. That wasn't my point at all, was it? No, but it is true.
Anyway,
he lived on a farm where he cared for animals, crops, his baby sister
when she was born, and even his mother. Side note to that one, his
father was physically abusive and, therefore, his mother often sick.
Great childhood, right?

Either
way, he knew what to do, which is an interesting imbalance since I'm
the one who stays home with them while Aiden works. It's the way we
wanted it. Aiden is too devoted to his job to give it. Wanna hear a
secret? I was absolutely terrified when he left me alone with them
the first time. No matter how many times he showed me how to change
them, or burp them just right, they're so tiny. Now, something
that's not such a secret? I love them to death. I had no idea what
to expect, but the only way I could love anything as much or more
than I love them is by having more, which I know we will. Aiden and
I, we make a good team. Our family is loving and complicated. It'll
never be just us. Matt and his girlfriend will have their baby soon.
And somehow, my father will fit in. But this time? It's on our
terms, not his.

Our
family is not perfect. But damn if it's not perfect for us.

Ready
to read more?

Expectations
depicts the struggle between what we desire for ourselves and our
familial obligations. The struggle is personified by Chris and Matt
Taylor, identical twins, who are trying to win their overbearing
father's approval and acquire their trust funds. Love, money, and
desire collide as Matt and Chris decide what's really important to
them. Amazon: http://amzn.to/gBh9M3
B&N: http://bit.ly/e7mwDj

What Money Can't Buy, the sequel to
Expectations, finds the two couples, Chris and Aiden and Matt
and Carley, eagerly anticipating parenthood. However, their personal
struggles continue. Though Matt overcame his dependency on alcohol,
new temptations present themselves. And with Carley on bed rest,
these temptations put a greater strain on their relationship. Chris
continues to deal with issues regarding his father. These issues
increase with greater proximity. When tragedy strikes, the best and
worst in everyone is revealed. Can they stick together, or will their
reactions tear them apart? Amazon: http://amzn.to/irWU75
B&N : http://bit.ly/lzDLqYhttp://bit.ly/e7mwDj

Liz Borino is the
debut author of Expectations and its sequel, What Money
Can't Buy published by Lazy Day. Throughout her education,
including a Bachelor's Degree from Hofstra University, she's kept
her stories to herself, but this only child is all grown up and wants
to share them with the world. Her roots are in Bethlehem, Pa, but she
loves to experience new cultures. As fun as that is, Liz likes
nothing better than curling up at home with a good book or her work
in progress.
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Weekly News & Goals 5/22/11

So there I was, minding my own writing
last week when my lovely cover artist – who you may know is also a
writer – started talking about audio books and how she'd like to
do that with her book. The conversation wound around to podcasts
(which I considered doing and may still experiment with), and then I
had to share the link to Xtranormal with her, because it seemed only
fair since we were talking about multi-media. Xtranormal, for those
who don't want to click through, is a do-it-yourself animated video
studio where you can type in text, tell your characters what to do,
and in a matter of 20 minutes or so you can have a very simple video
to share with friends. If you need a procrastination tool, head over
to the web site and play awhile.

Having a bunch of stuff to
procrastinate on this weekend, I decided to download the desktop
program to my computer and play awhile. The result is a new weekly
feature that will post first on the Brazen Snake Books blog, and
again on this weekly news post for those who are interested in what's
happening in my WIPs, as well as general news items from BSB. It's
pretty fun, I think, and I hope you'll watch if you have the
capability on your machine. The videos are also on YouTube.

I'm working on a video to accompany
the Weds. Writing Notes blog post – we'll see how that
goes. And if all goes well, I'll have something fun to post on
Saturday too. Stay tuned...

This week's W.I.P. Newscast

This week at The Variety Pages

Tuesday: Guest post by Author
Liz Borino's characters

Wednesday: Writing Notes –
Making a Scene

Friday: Ch. 2 of Falling in
Public

Saturday: ???

Elsewhere

Tuesday at FantasyRanchNovels.com - Ch.
2 of The Minister's Maid

Wednesday I'll be guest posting at
#Amwriting.org blog on organization for busy writers.

Thursday at Beyond the Words
I'll be posting on Creative Promotions (naturally)

Goal Reports

I didn't do too badly last week,
considering my day job was insanely busy and draining, which left me
less time/energy to work on writing stuff. All the serial chapters
went up on time, I got a little more done on my thriller short, and I
largely ignored the promo I was supposed to be doing in favor
of...ahem...more shiny things. Most nights I was in bed by 1:30am,
though I did miss a few, and I still haven't gotten back to my
Goodreads account (good grief!).

This week should be far more calm, so
I'm hoping to get a lot done. And a three-day weekend at the end –
woohoo!

Goals for the Week

Writing

5 serial scenes

2k on IYD (thriller short)

"Sweet" short story
outline/script 

Business

Formatting samples (must do!)

W.I.P. Newscast

Promo items

Daily promo

Personal

Keep laundry caught up

Catch up Goodreads records

Clean up in the yard if it's
nice next weekend

Start working on our bathroom
project next weekend (fix leak, paint cabinets)

And that's it – anything else is
extra. So...how are things shaping up for you this week? Anything fun
planned for the long weekend?

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Serial Novel: Falling in Public, Ch. 1

This serial novel is posted in draft form every Friday. To receive each installment via email, please sign up here.

Falling in Public

Chapter 1

Holly barely dodged another hit from the huge purple leather bag swinging around on the arm of it's oblivious owner. The crowd waiting in line at The AfterGlow had grown more restless as the night wore on, and now in the dim light and cool, insect-laden air a stampede of sorts seemed inevitable. She'd heard it was the hot place to be, and her agent had offered to call in a favor to get her through the door, but Holly had decided to wait in line with the "normal" people just for the experience. All night limos and expensive sports cars had been pulling up, various stars and popular people stepping out and waving to the line as they walked straight throught the front door. Occasionally they'd stop and pick someone out of the waiting throng to accompany them, inciting applause and the occasional squeal of jealously from the remaining hopefuls.

Three giggling girls jostled her from behind, the big purple bag pushing her out toward the velvet ropes. She watched another expensive sportscar arrive and smiled, thinking of the scene in her new book where the heroine would meet her hero in a line like this one, and he'd whisk her inside to his private table, capturing her heart just before he ravished her body...

"Excuse me. Miss?"

Holly blinked, drawn out of her daydream to find a rather imposing broad-shouldered guy in a black suit staring at her from the other side of the rope. "Me?"

He nodded. "Mr. Winston would like to invite you to join him inside." He held up the rope expectantly as she looked past him to see Sean Winston, one of the hottest young movie actors of the year watching her with a confident grin on his baby face. He knew she wouldn't say no. All the girls around her were screaming and yelling and shoving her under the rope, but she shook her head. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Her heroine would never settle for someone nearly ten years younger just because he was a star. At least not someone who clearly acted as young as he looked.

Holly looked up at the bodyguard, who seemed confused. "Tell Mr. Winston I'm sorry, but I'll have to pass." She glanced to her left and motioned to a younger, very excited blond in a scrap of fabric that almost passed for a dress. "I bet she'd be happy to...um...accompany him inside."

The crowd fell nearly silent as the bodyguard slowly lowered the rope and turned back to his boss. The star's lips pulled together tightly, and he stalked up to the rope, reaching under to grab Holly's wrist in an iron grip.
"Come on," he said, tugging her forward as the rope was lifted again. "I want you with me tonight."

Holly tried to free herself, yanking hard against him and digging her high-heeled boots into the ragged red carpet. "I said no! Let me go!" She pulled hard as flashbulbs went off all around and the crowd yelled insulting remarks. Those she caught surprised her. Apparently Sean Winston wasn't the only one who thought she was crazy for turning him down.

"Let her go, Winston. She's with me."

Holly fell backwards as Winston released her without warning. Caught by the crowd before she hit the ground, they propelled her forward again like a slingshot, under the rope and into a solid, wiry mass of muscle, leather and chains.

"Ow," she said as a metal something-or-other connected with the outer edge of one eye. Strong arms steadied her, and the same smooth, calm voice she'd heard before whispered in her ear.

"You can do whatever you want when we get inside, just play along, okay?"

She nodded, finally regaining her balance enough to look at her would-be rescuer. Her jaw dropped open, and she found herself utterly speechless as she looked up into the face of Eddie Pierce, one of her favorite rock stars of all time. He grinned, clearly amused by her reaction.

"I take it that's a yes?" Enjoy this installment? Try Desert Heat, available now at:


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Writing Notes: Where to Start?

When I sat down to write this post, it
wasn't unlike starting a new story, other than opening a new
document instead of a new scene file in yWriter. I started with a
blank page, typed the title, thought for a minute about all the stuff
I'd been planning to put in this post, and put my fingers on the
keyboard.

And I just stared at the blank page -
suddenly, inexplicably wordless.

This is a phenomenon I don't think
you can fully appreciate until you sit down to write something. It's
like watching that super-good looking guy across the room, imagining
what you'd say if you talked to him, how witty and funny and
charming you'd be. Then when he comes over and introduces himself,
you suddenly have a hard time forming coherent sentences, never mind
the whole witty/funny/charming thing you had planned.

I love
starting a new story, and nearly ninety-nine percent of
the time I have the entire first scene in my head before I get
started (none of my scenes are ever the same once they come out of my
head, but that's another blog post). Then I sit down to put that
first sentence into words, and I start questioning myself:

- Is this really where the story
starts?

- What led him/her to this place?

- Do we need the back story first, or
will it be okay to jump right in and sprinkle his/her past in along
the way?

- If I start the story here, will I
have enough story to hit my desired word count? (I always
disregard this question in the end – for me, it's a simple case
of insecurity/cold feet. There's always enough story, and word
count is flexible in my world anyway, so it's a non-issue.)

As you can probably imagine, it's
kind of hard to write with all that noise in my head. At the same
time, they're important questions to answer because I don't want
to redo it later (back to that no big revisions thing). So
inevitably, I end up opening the original idea file again, and
working out back story and the scene before the "first scene" so
I know exactly how the characters got to where they were when I found
them, and whether or not it's an interesting enough place to start
or not.

Once I have all that hashed out, I can
decide where to start writing. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), I
almost always go with a hybrid of my original "first scene" and a
decent helping of the back story I figured out while answering my
list of questions. This time when I go back to that blank page, the
words come pretty easily and I can knock out the whole first scene
without too much trouble.

Readers, are you surprised at what
it takes to start a new story? Have you ever tried to start one, and
frozen up?

Writers, what happens when you
encounter a shiny new blank first page? Are you so nervous/enamored
that you forget how to form a sentence, or are you witty and charming
right from the get-go?

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Weekly News & Goals – 5/15/11

I'm trying to decide what to do with
my newsletter. It's abundantly clear that I don't have time for
it on a weekly basis, and yet, I don't really want to just send
them out willy-nilly, because I know I
don't read half the newsletters I'm subscribed to, and I
really don't expect others do either. What's your favorite way to
keep up with authors? Newsletters? Blogs? FB? Twitter? Postcards
mailed out to announce the new releases? Do tell, fair readers...

The readers (all 2 of them – thank
you both!) have spoken...and Falling
in Public will be the next serial novel here. I'll post
the first chapter this Friday, and if you'd like to subscribe to
only the serial story, there's a new subscription link in
the sidebar. For now, the serial will be just one chapter per week on
Fridays.

Also, if you're so inclined you can
head over to the Fantasy Ranch Novels blog on Tuesday for the first
chapter of The Minister's Maid. That draft will also be
posted once weekly on Tuesdays.

India Drummond is doing a giveaway for
her new release in June – check out her post here on how to enter.
She's an excellent writer, so if you like urban fantasy with
romantic elements, you won't want to miss this!

And Carol Ward, my most excellent
editor has started both a new serial novel and a series called
Grappling with Grammar at Random Writings. I'd highly recommend you
check them both out!

This Week at...

...The Variety Pages

Wednesday: Writing Notes –
Where to Start?

Friday: Ch. 1 of Falling in
Public

...Fantasy Ranch Novels

Tuesday: Ch. 1 of The
Minister's Maid

...Beyond the Words

Thursday: Data Gathering

Goal Reports

I did pretty well on my goals last
week. All of the writing tasks save the 3k words on my thriller short
were completed, including turning The Biker's Wench over for
editing. I feel pretty good about the progress made on all my books
last week.

Business took a back seat again, but
that's the way it goes sometimes. I'll have to step that up this
week though. I do need to get a few things done. Last week I did well
to keep up with daily promo, and upload my books to the Xcite store.

As far as personal goals go, I was off
the hook for laundry as hubby worked from home and caught most of it
up. I got my three workouts in, and cleaned out the fridge/freezer,
but as far as shutting down work at midnight goes? Yeah, no. Same
with getting to bed at 1am. There's just so much to do!
Though I did take more time for reading this week.

Goals for the Week

Writing

5 serial chapters (TMM is done)

5k on IYD (short)

Start revisions on HPC (which
needs a new title...)

Business

Finish promo items

Finish samples for author services
packages

Daily promo

Personal

Quit work at midnight, bed
by1:30am (I'm not giving up on this just yet...)

More clean-up in the backyard

Keep up with laundry

Update my Goodreads account

That'll do for me, I think. What's
going on with you?
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Talkin' Serials & What's Next?

First off, it's come to my attention
that my blog email subscription doesn't always work. Which is
rather inconvenient if you're trying to follow one of my serial
stories via email. Obviously, I want to make this easy for people, so
I've decided to set up the serials with their own little newsletter
list.

The kicker is, if you want all
of my blog posts, you'll still either need to subscribe to the blog
and take your chances with the RSS feed, or catch the links on FB,
Tumblr and Twitter when they come out (honestly, that's how I catch
most blog links anymore, so I won't be offended if you just do
that). Using the "Follow on Facebook" button over there to the
left will ensure you get my posts in your FB feed, and "Liking"
my FB page will serve the same purpose.

If you only want the serial
novels, or if you want to ensure that you get them even if the other
feed is acting up, then you need to subscribe to the serial novel
newsletter to the left (where it says "Subscribe to Serial
Stories). The list for both Romantic Suspense serials (this blog and
the Fantasy Ranch blog) are the same, so no need to sign up twice.
There are separate lists for my erotica and thriller blogs that have
replaced the "subscribe via email" option in the sidebar for both.

As a perk for those of you who go to
all the trouble of signing up for the new list – Serial Story
Newsletter subscribers will get the week's chapter around midnight
(MDT) instead of 6am (my time – 8am east coast). And when the
serial story is done and ready to publish, newsletter subscribers
will all get a coupon for a free digital copy of the final version.

Whew! Got all that? If it's too
confusing, leave me a comment or email me and we'll figure out how
to get what you need without too much overlap if possible.

So with all that taken care of...let's
pick a new serial story! The Minister's Maid will be posted
once weekly on Tuesdays at FantasyRanchNovels.com – so head over
there (or subscribe to the serial list) for your weekly visit to
Fantasy Ranch. It seemed more appropriate to put it over there.

As for this blog, the serial will go
back to one day a week on Fridays, and I have two stories for you to
choose from. They're both stand-alone romantic suspense, and I make
no promises as to what the final length will be (Novellas? Novels?
Who knows?). Cast your vote either in the comments, on FB or Twitter,
and I'll announce the winner on Monday.  

*********************************************************

Story 1: Pass
the Pepper

Opening Scene: A nice
restaurant, and a first date. It's awkward, boring, and
uncomfortable. Which sucks, because this girl has wanted to date this
particular guy for *ages*. She asks him to pass the pepper, and he
does, but then gets a strange look on his face. She excuses herself,
and goes to the restroom to call her friend. She needs a 911 assist
like 5 minutes ago to save her from this excruciating date. When she
goes back to the table, he's gone. But there's a note on the back
of the paid check, held in place with the pepper shaker. Stay
away.

When his date leaves, he barely notices
– because he's lost in a past memory triggered by the pepper
shaker. Realizing what he's done, and that he's put his date in
grave danger, he pays the check, scribbles a note on the back of the
receipt, and anchors it with the pepper shaker before he leaves.

His date is a reporter…and after
three nights of becoming increasingly angry about that note, she
decides to confront him. Only he's not at his house. Or his job. Or
anywhere he should be. Finally she tracks him down and forces her to
tell him the whole story, and by then, it's run or be killed… (?)

Story 2: Falling in
Public

Romance or erotica writer goes to
Hollywood for the screening of a movie made from one of her books,
and several interviews/appearances for that. She figures that while
she's there, she may as well see the sights, and get some new
experiences in, knowing it will spawn new ideas. She decides to visit
an exclusive nightclub, and rather than having anyone make a
reservation for her, she decides to stand in line with the other
hopefuls to see what it's like.

This is the start of a stalker-story,
all wrapped up with misunderstandings, public insults, rock stars and
ultimately a near-breakdown. I actually have a full page of notes for
this, but if I showed them to you, it would give most of the story
away. 

*********************************************************

I've had both of these ideas hanging
around for the better part of a year now, and I'm excited to write
either one, so there's no bad choice here. What's your pleasure?

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Writing Notes: My Finishing Process

Before I get too jiggy with today's
notes, I'll just say right up front that this is my personal
process. All writers are different, and we all need to find our own
process, so your mileage may vary.

Why am I giving you a disclaimer right
up front? Because I don't work according to many of the "rules"
(or "guidelines" on kinder, gentler blogs) that are bandied about
for new writers still trying to figure out what works for them. I've
tried lots of things, and discovered what works best for me, and
that's all I'm sharing here – it's by no means a
definitive...well...anything. It just is what it is – my way of
doing things.

All that out of the way...when I refer
to my "finishing process", I mean everything that comes after the
first draft. For me, this includes four things:

Read through & minor revisions

Edits from my editor

Formatting

Proofreading

You'll note that there is no "second
draft" or "third draft" - I am not a multiple drafts writer. I
do one draft, and everything stems from that. If the rough
draft isn't good enough to only need minor revisions/edits, I trunk
it. This does mean I take greater care with the first draft, but I do
try not to let it drag on too long (TBW being a notable exception –
last year was a busy year!). As long as it ends up moving along a
definite plot line that is resolved in the end, odds are I can make
it publishable. It doesn't need to be a literary masterpiece – it
just needs to entertain readers for a couple of hours.

In an ideal world, I'd let the draft
sit for a few weeks before re-reading it. But I treat my writing as a
business, and as such I have deadlines to meet. TBW only got to sit
over the weekend, but that's the nice thing about working with
other people. They will (hopefully) spot all the stuff you miss by
going back too early.

So Monday I started going through TBW.
Starting at the beginning, I fixed any continuity errors,
characterization, scene shifts (serial novels tend to need more work
in that area), and cleaned up any grammar that jumped out at me.
Spell check was on too, so I caught my misspelled words as well. And
I formatted the document as I went through so my editor wouldn't
have a hard time reading. I identified just two largish issues I need
to deal with before I send it off – my setting map, and my ending.
I'll get those fixed tomorrow.

After my round of revisions/edits, I
email the document to my editor (TBW will be sent off either Thursday
or Friday). She'll have it for a couple of weeks, and send it back
to me all marked up with changes and suggestions using Track Changes.
I'll go through the entire ms again, accepting or rejecting her
suggestions, and making changes where indicated (note, I rarely
reject a suggestion or change). As I'm going through the document
this time, I mark my italics and simplify the paragraph/chapter
elements as much as possible to facilitate the next step.

At that point, I declare the book
"done". The only changes from there on out will be small things
my proofreaders find, and publication stuff (formatting, conversion,
print formatting, etc).

From there, I format the book into
various ebook files and one print file. Once I have all those ready
to go, I send out copies to proofreaders and reviewers (Advance
Reader Copies). Then I make whatever small changes the proofreaders
send back, and that's pretty much it. Voila, book done, moving on
to the next...

And now you see why the disclaimer's
at the top. I don't revise, revise, revise. I don't spend a ton
of time on a finished draft, and I don't waste any sleep over
whether it's "perfect" or not. I do the best I can, and then
move on to the next work.

So that's my finishing process –
what's yours? Do you have one? If not, what are you currently
toying with?

Weekly News & Goals – 5/9/11

The second week of May, and still dreary around here. I'm so ready for some sunshine, and I hope that wherever you are, you have more than we do. It would just be too depressing for everyone to have bad weather.

Despite the weather, we're definitely headed into a seasonal shift here on the blog. If you haven't been reading the serial novel, I finished the draft last Friday (hooray!). I don't think I can properly express how happy I am to have it completed after nearly a year's worth of drafting time. Because I'm on a deadline with it, I need to get the preliminary revisions done this week so I can hand it off to my editor. If you think that's fast, check out Wednesday's post on my Finishing Process, and why I'm accelerating things with confidence.

In any case, I won't be starting a new serial right away so I have time to get these revisions done. Instead, join me Friday for a discussion on serials, and vote for what you'd like to read next. The next serial here will not be a Fantasy Ranch novel...but I will be starting a new FR serial at FantasyRanchNovels.com in a couple weeks. You can pop over there on Tuesday for a discussion about that, and a sneak peak at the new paperback cover for The Biker's Wench.

I've also changed out the blog calendar to include the Fantasy Ranch blog and Beyond the Words, my publishing/marketing blog.

For the summer, I'll be scaling back to three posts per week – M/W/F. If you'd like to guest post on T/Th, or post an excerpt of your book on Saturday (all genres welcome), please email me to schedule a date.

This Week on The Variety Pages

Wednesday: Writing Notes – The Finishing Process

Friday: Talking Serials – What's Next?

Elsewhere

Tuesday: New Serial Announcement & Cover Art at Fantasy Ranch Novels

Thursday: Business Ebb & Flow at Beyond the Words

As an aside, my books are now available at All Romance Ebooks – so yet another way to purchase.

Goal Reports

Last week was rather productive, if I do say so myself. I did skip one serial post for my thriller blog because I was having a hard time with the plot, but it happens. I'm back on track now, which is what matters. Most importantly, as I mentioned above, the draft of The Biker's Wench is done, which really kind of overshadows anything else. There's nothing like the feeling of finishing a novel draft, IMO.

On the business front, I didn't make too much progress – day job issues pretty much stripped every extra ounce of creativity I had and after I got my words in, I just didn't have much left for business. I did get my books uploaded to All Romance, added some sample covers and an editing graphic to the author services packages, and started prepping the business cards for services.

As for personal goals, the only thing I really got done was turning in the loan application, and that took up a good chunk of time on Monday. The good news is, it's approved, so we'll be getting our home improvement projects done this summer. Very groovy.

Goals for the Week

Writing

4 serial scenes (for the erotica/thriller blogs)

3k words on IYD (thriller short)

Revise TBW and send off to editor

Decide on the next serial story

Business

Upload books to Xcite.com

Finish Author Services cards & order

Finish Author Services sample package

Daily marketing tasks

Personal

Stop all writing/business by midnight so I can have more reading time.

Be in bed by 1:00am nightly

Workout 3x

Laundry 3x

Clean out the main fridge/freezer (ugh!)

That's what I'm up to this week – any big plans on your horizon?
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