Rebecca Goings's Blog, page 2

Just Sit Down and Write!

A lot of would-be authors, and even some published authors, mistakenly believe that writing a story is muse-driven.  They cannot write unless the muse is upon them, pouring forth with their creativity, and shutting out the world for a time, almost as if they've received a vision from On High like a prophet of God.

While we would all love to write in such a way, there are times when you stare at the flashing cursor on the blank screen for hours.  There are times when you literally write a line or two and sit there to think about what to do next.  There are times when you actually avoid your project because you just don't know where to go or what comes next.

But what a lot of authors don't realize is that writing is a j-o-b.  If you want to  make any money at this gig, you've got to EARN your income.  You can't wait for the miraculous muse to sprinkle her manna from heaven.  Sometimes, you've just got to sit down and make yourself write!

Write…what?

ANYTHING!

For me, to break through my writer's block, I need to loosen my fingers along with my imagination.  The way I do this is to decide whose point of view the new scene is in and jump in.  Begin with their thoughts of what happened the chapter before.  Move the plot forward with some internal conflict.  Get into their head.  Once I do that, I find that the floodgates open and I can write again.

But sitting down and just doing it takes discipline.  I avoided my current project for a few days because of this problem of not knowing where to go next.  The main plot of the book was finished, I only have some wrap up to do.  But it's the end of the book that can sometimes lull for an author.  Either they love the book too much to let it end, or the excitement of the plot is over and tying things together with a pretty bow can be a chore.

Today, I decided to just sit down and write.  See where it took me.  What transpired was, perhaps, the most tender and pivotal love scene in the book.  They'd already *said* their I love yous earlier on, however, what I wrote was a scene where they "showed" their love for each other in soft caresses and sweet sighs, with no words to speak of.

I challenged myself to make it different, as after you've written X amount of books, you begin to have a pattern to your writing style.  I didn't want it to be a throw-away love scene that you could cut and paste into any of my other books.  And what it became was probably my favorite scene from the book.

You never know where "just sit down and write" will take you.  But everyone on the planet has only 24 hours a day.  Some of us struggle to find the time to write, while others have loads of time on their hands.  But one thing's for sure.  The successful authors are the ones who just sat down and wrote, regardless if the TV was on, regardless if the kids were playing, regardless if the DH is home.  True, we all have responsibilities to take care of, but when those are all said and done, anything less than just sitting down and writing is an excuse NOT to write.

Nine times out of ten, we'll NEVER get that coveted time alone, that quiet time, where we can pour forth our muse.

And let's face it — even if you DO get that quiet time…how many of you are playing online rather than writing?  **raises hand**  Oh, I'm guilty of that, believe me.

But there comes a point in every writer's life where they have to suck it up and just DO IT!  Perhaps, like me, you'll find yourself writing the most inspiring scene of your book. 

~~Becka

Along Came a SPIDER…

Okay, so I was off by a week with THE SPIDER PRINCE's release date, but it was an error in your favor! 

THE SPIDER PRINCE is now available for purchase!

Book IV of the Desert Princes of Jikkar

He vowed never to love again. Then he met her.

Amani Bantish has been passed over five times for marriage. She fears she has no hope for a husband until finally, the Spider Prince accepts her as his bride. Not for love, but to bear him an heir.

Two years ago, Ziyad Bihar lost his first wife, Karis, and their unborn son under the hooves of a raider's horse. No one else could possibly compare to the woman he'd once loved, therefore his new bride will not be his princess.

But Ziyad cannot deny that the more he gets to know Amani, the more he fantasizes about his minx of a wife. Yet his loyalty to Karis pulls him deeper into his despair. When Amani's life is threatened by the very man responsible for Karis's death, Ziyad realizes he must fight for the woman he loves, or risk losing it all again.

http://www.carnalpassions.com/store/product.php?id_product=75

OR

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thespiderprince-514001-140.html

~*~

Don't miss my favorite prince in the Golden Desert!!!  Woohoo!

~~Becka

Where Have I Been?

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates to my blog.  A few weeks ago, my baby daughter accidentally spilled coffee all over my laptop.  It was still under warranty, thankfully, but that meant in order to fix it, the entire laptop needed to be sent off to TN.  UGH.  I waited about two weeks to get it back, and when I did, I learned the only things that hadn't been replaced were the monitor and the hard drive.  WOW!  It's like getting an entirely new computer.  I was amazed and thankful that I didn't have to buy a new one!

I can't tell you the different levels of heart failure I went through when I saw that coffee on my laptop.  First, it happened in slow-mo, with a long, drawn-out, "NOOOOOOO!!!"  But of course, it's one of those things you can't stop from happening.  I felt like Helen Keller without my computer, even though DH sacrificed his work laptop so I could have a computer at least.  But it didn't have MS Word installed on it, so I couldn't write, nor could I do my edits on THE JACKAL PRINCE, and it was killing my inner child!

BUT, I finally have my computer back, and I've been working on edits and writing.  YAY!  I got my first round edits turned in on JACKAL, Book V of my Desert Princes.  Book IV, THE SPIDER PRINCE, releases from Carnal Passions on Wed., February 16th!  You definitely do NOT want to miss that book, it's my favorite out of all the princes. 

My current project, HEART OF A SCOUNDREL, is almost finished.  Right now, I just have wrap up to do and then clean it up before I turn it in.  My publisher thinks it's title is too clunky, and has suggested naming it simply to SCOUNDREL.  That will most likely be the book's finished title.  But I've had great fun writing this one.  It won't be too long, probably a few thousand words past 40K, but it's a great little story, I believe! Hopefully you won't have long to wait before you can read it. 

DH and I have been taking care to eat better and measure our food portions, not to mention getting out and exercising more.  Since January 1st, I've lost 16lbs!  It's very rewarding to see the scale go the other way, considering I lost about 65 lbs before I had my baby daughter, then promptly gained it all BACK!!  Ugh.  So I've got to lose all of that AGAIN before I see any "new" progress.  But this time, I've been very good about not sneaking food or cheating.  Every week to two weeks, DH and I have our "cheat" days, and that helps a lot.  Couple that with low calorie Skinny Cow ice cream desserts, and we're doing just fine.  I don't even miss eating like I used to.

The thing is, whenever we cheat, I feel like I have a gut bomb in my belly now and I pay for it a few hours later.  My insides just don't like to eat greasy fatty foods after being fed good stuff for awhile.  So I don't always like to cheat because of how I feel afterward.

My goal is to lose enough weight so that I can buy an affordable treadmill for home.  Ironic, right?!  They do make treadmills for fatties, but you've got to shell out the dough.  The moment I can get down a bit, I'm going to buy myself an affordable one.  It's just easier than packing up five kids and walking around the neighborhood.  It's very hard for me to get the proper speed I need to get my heart rate up and calories burned when I've got to keep five eyes on my kids.  So right now, I'm more focused on MOVING more rather than speed and cardio.  Once I can get my weight down enough with diet and moving more, I can focus more on speed and cardio after I buy a treadmill.  And that IS the goal.  I can't wait to strap on my iPod and just WALK (or jog) without having to worry about the kids lagging behind or when am I going to exercise if the baby has to nap kind of thing.

Anyway, I'll keep you updated on my progress.  That's it from my end.  Hope y'all have been doing well!

~~Becka

Vote Desert Princes of Jikkar as Best Series 2010!

If you want to vote the Desert Princes of Jikkar as the Best Series of 2010, go to this blog and leave a comment:

http://tinyurl.com/4bv4nsb

The more comments I get, the better my chances!  The one with the most votes isn't guaranteed to win, as the reviewers of Love Romances and More also will have a say in this vote.  But if you'd like to see Tariq, Qadir, Khalil, Ziyad, and Siraj get some recognition, please vote for them–until January 30th!

Woohoo!!!

~~Becka
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themagicofromance

Nod for Champagne Books Author of the Year 2010!

Hey guys, I just got this in my inbox!  Didn't win anything, I'm just a nominee, but I still get a cool graphic!  Been nominated for the Author of the Year 2010 from Champagne Books!

AWESOME! 

The winners of the Annual Champagne Book Awards will be announced April 1st!

~~Becka

Reflecting on 2010

2010 was a productive year for me.  It brought a string of rejections that I was able to turn into sales.  BLACK ANGEL, RIDE THE LIGHTNING, THE FALL OF JERICHO, & RENEGADE were all rejected, but were snatched up by Champagne Books and Cobblestone Press.

It brought the return of my BEAST series (OMG Mac..*drool*) and the introduction of a new erotic series about Desert Princes, which people seem to like a bit. 

I was discovered by eBook pirates, but I'm not complaining — too much.  Since I've been "discovered", my sales have gone up, so I suppose once they read one book they like, they buy the rest.   And unbelievably, my fantasy novella, KINDRED, did amazingly well in sales.  Better than I ever thought it would do.  I don't know what it was about that little book.  Dragon shifters?  Word of mouth?  I don't know.  But it was a pleasant surprise for me.

I spent the rest of the year finishing that Desert Princes series (it was so much fun!), and I've finally begun a new Western, the sequel to IN YOUR ARMS, a book for Shirley Bloom.  It's also erotic, entitled HEART OF A SCOUNDREL that I'm about halfway through currently.

I decided about halfway through the year to quit chasing the Golden Carrot of NY publishing.  Not because I didn't think I was good enough, and not because of my rejections.  But because I truly believe eBooks are the wave of the future, and more and more people are buying Kindles and Nooks every day.  If I can be the Best Darn eBook Author I can be, then score!  I would love to be well-known as a best selling eBook author.  Wouldn't it be awesome to get as well-known as a NY author, but NOT be pubbed in NY?  I think it would be pretty darned sweet.  So that's my new goal in my writing career–write as many books as I can, reach as many people as I can, and become a Big Name without the springboard of NY.  Anything can happen in five years…

(….so tell your friends and help me make this a reality!  lol….)

And then I had my whole wrist debacle.  UGH.  I still don't know what's going on in there.  I think for now, there's nothing more doctors can do for me.  But it took the entire year to come to that conclusion.  However, I did score surgery on my wrist that helped me tremendously, so it wasn't a complete failure.  But I can work throughout the day without my brace on 24/7.  That's a win in my book.

It was a wild ride, 2010.  Up and down, rejections and sales, and too much dang time waiting on doctors to find out what the heck was wrong with me.  Let's hope 2011 brings all kinds of great tidings!

~~Becka

Welcome to the Rest of Your Life

I forgot to tell you guys I went to the rheumatologist right before Christmas.  I do not have RA, thank goodness.  However, she did say I'm "double jointed", the non-technical term for joints that hyper-extend further than they're supposed to.  Athletes and gymnasts are well-known to be double jointed to do the things they can do.

What does that mean?  Well, it means hyper-extending a joint can do more damage to the cartilage/ligaments than it might a normal person.  So when I pushed up off my cushy couch over a year ago and twanged my ligaments that lead to the TFCC tear, they most likely hyper-extended and "laxed" a bit.

She mentioned to make sure I keep my muscles toned, as a tighter muscle pulls on the tendons/ligaments and thus reduces this laxity.  What does that mean in the long run?

According to her, wear my brace while doing heavy lifting or more intense chores, or whenever my wrist hurts.  Possibly at night when I sleep, too.  And tone my arm muscles more so they pull tighter on the ligaments.

Basically, thank you, drive through, and welcome to the rest of your life.

Now, there's not much I can do about my wrist other than wait and see if some new problem pops up.  Which will most likely be arthritis.  I always knew I'd have problems with this wrist one day.  Looks like my time of just sucking it up and living with it has come.

It's not gonna keep me from writing, tho.  No sirree.

~~Becka

A Prince and a BEAST, in PRINT!

If you want to get your hands on Tariq Sayed or Mackenzie Bishop in print, now you can.  Carnal Passions and Champagne Books have both released print versions of these two books!

You can find THE VIPER PRINCE print here:

http://www.carnalpassions.com/store/product.php?id_product=67

And MARK OF THE B*E*A*S*T* print here:

http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=390

Woohoo!

~~Becka

Cover Art for THE SPIDER PRINCE

The cover art for Book IV of my Desert Princes series, THE SPIDER PRINCE, has been revealed on my Desert Princes blog!  If you'd like to see the Spider and his wicked awesome black and silver cover, hop on over to:

http://desertprinces.blogspot.com

and have a gander!

~~Becka

Christmas Photos Rant

DH and I were a little "late" doing our Christmas cards this year.  We usually like to get them out by the 15th of December, but this year we were lazy/busy and didn't get them done in our usual timely manner.  But, since we know friends and family love to have pictures of the kids at least once a year, we knew we had to do them.

My hubby has a nice camera, so we got everything ready and took photos of the kids.  After he put them on an SD card for me, I was on my way to get them processed for our Christmas cards.

I had some grocery shopping to do, as well as some Christmas shopping, and I had to get the photos printed.  This past summer, Walmart just opened a Super Walmart in my neck of the woods.  I love Walmart, and since I could do all three of my errands in one place, I decided to do a one-stop-shop and go to my local Wally's.

One hour photo was great.  I chose what I wanted and selected my prints.  Did my shopping, got my pictures after an hour and was on my way.  I should have looked at the photos before I left the store.  When I got home, the group shot had the kids' foreheads chopped.  ACK!!  Are you kidding me?  The pics were perfectly cropped on the SD card, why were they weird in the prints?!

SIGH

This means I have to go back out to Walmart.  And it's not that close, it's about 5 miles away.  Okay, well, DH has a prescription to fill and I did want to get some Christmas gifts for the kids while they're hanging out with Daddy.  So, later that evening, I go back out to Wally's to get these other errands done — and to have them fix my prints.

Bad idea.  BAAAAD idea.  See, I probably would have gone to Target or Costco to get it done (they're both closer) BUT, I spent too much $$ on these prints AND I couldn't find the damn receipt.  *sob*

So I get there, and the lady informs me she can do it in a few minutes.  But while she puts my bad prints aside, someone comes up to the counter with a request to pick up a package at the site-to-store counter, which just so happens to be — wait for it — the one hour photo counter!  Ding ding ding!

So the ONE lady working the one hour photo goes in the back to look for this person's package.  She's gone for a good five minutes.  While we're both waiting, a line begins to form.  The lady comes back, and begins helping all these people in line, who all just happen to be — wait for it — site-to-store customers!  What does that mean?  It means they order something online, and they pick it up at the store.

Apparently, site-to-store trumps reprinting my bitchy prints, because this lady keeps helping everyone in line, supposedly waiting for a break in the insanity.  But none comes.  Person after person is lining up for pick ups at site-to-store, and she disappears time and again for more packages, all the while saying, "I'll get to you in a moment" or "I'm so sorry, I'll be right with you."

LIES, ALL LIES!

After about a 1/2 hour of waiting, I finally just say, I'm going to come back.  She looks relieved, still having a long-ass line to take care of for site-to-store.  I'm rather pissy, because customer service lady told me it would only be maybe 5 minutes to reprint my photos.  So I leave, do my other shopping, and return, only to have the lady tell me she couldn't print the photos without chopping off the foreheads and she'd have to have her manager do it.  When does the manager come in?

The next day.

I take a deep breath, surpress my inner bitch (because I haven't eaten yet, and anyone who knows me knows I will bite your head off and chew on your neck if you look at me cross-eyed when I have an empty stomach), and agree to the terms.  ONLY because I have to come back to Walmart the *next* day to pick up another prescription (they didn't have it in stock) and to return a book I'd bought there previously.  And also because I understood the lady behind the counter wasn't the brightest light on the tree.

"We'll call you," she said.  Lies.  All lies.

So the next day, I decide to call first, and of course, the photos desk doesn't answer their phone.  I noticed this when the lady had been helping site-to-store the previous evening.  She ignored it.

I'm going in!

I get there, and of course, the prints haven't yet been reprinted (it's about 19 hours later, mind), BUT, the manager is IN.  Yay!  She informs me she can include the foreheads, but she'll have to crop their chests.  UHM…no one effing cares about their chests — DO IT ALREADY!!!

And omg, more site-to-store people.  GO THE EFF AWAY!!!

Boss lady says, "This'll take 5 minutes, just wait, we'll be done in a flash."

Lies.  All lies.

So I'm waiting.  The boss is looking for packages, it seems she's training a newbie OR this person is a few weeks in, because they had a somewhat deer-in-headlights look about her.  After 10 minutes, boss says, "Sorry, we'll get to you in a minute".  After another 15 minutes, she explains, "I'm so sorry, but we had a huge greeting card order to print before I printed yours, and I didn't know until it came through."

WHAT?!  So tell me to go shop or something, don't tell me to stand there and wait because it'll be "5 minutes".  But now that I've already waited this long, the greeting card order is now finished.  And the boss decides that's a good time to… leave.  I don't know where she went, but she left, she might have gone on break, decided to do something else, I don't know.  But she left my reprints in the hands of deer-in-headlights lady.

I wait another 20 minutes.  And by now I'm right pissed.  With nothing else to do, I take one of their "suggestion box" slips and proceed to write a rant — front and back of the slip — of my saga.  I slammed Walmart for the bad prints for one, for making me wait for two, for lumping site-to-store with one hour photo for three, and telling them I will NEVER order prints from them again OR do the site-to-store option, because I also witnessed THOSE people waiting for 1/2 hour 45 minutes for someone to find their packages in the back.  I told them BOO, VERY BOO, Walmart!!  I even left my phone number.

I will LOVE to talk to someone if they call me.  I doubt they will.

I understand it's Christmas.  I understand lines will happen.  But my GAWD, Wally, the Customer Service ladies were doing NOTHING at their counter, make THEM do the effing site-to-store!!!  Why does it have to be one hour photo that gets the shaft?!  And if the photo reprints were as easy as chopping a sliver of their chests to get their entire heads, then why didn't the first lady know how to do that?!

It was an epic FAIL all the way around.  If I were a bitchier lady, I would have been vocal, I would have been ranting — in store — I would have demanded my money back, even though I didn't have a receipt.  But I'm very non-confrontational, and I do understand when things get busy and hectic.

But I what I expect is some modicum of decorum from ANYONE involved in this debacle to tell me to go shopping — this will take awhile.  Don't tell me it will be "5 minutes" and then leave for your g'damn lunch break.  Don't tell me you have everything under control and then proceed to IGNORE me in favor of site-to-store.

Moral of this story folks, because I gotta share this with you so you aren't stuck in the same FUBARED SNAFU — NEVER get your pictures printed at Walmart, and NEVER do site-to-store.  I told you, Walmart, never again would I utilize you for these two services.  And now, I've educated my readers.  Hope you're pleased with yourself.

~~Becka, who is NOW releasing her inner bitch