Gail Wagner's Blog, page 8

New Stories

I recently made St. Patrick's Battle available on Goodreads.  It gave me an idea, why not write a bridging short story for all of you while you wait for Sea of Despair to come out.

So what story would you like?  Give me some ideas!

Go Ahead, Give It a Try

I love to read but I dislike spending a lot of money on books I don't know if I'm going to make it past the first chapter.  That's why I love that Amazon lets you download a sample of the book before you buy.

Since Army of Sorrow is now available on Kindle, you can download the first 22 pages for free!  That way you can figure out if it's something you'd like to keep reading.  So, even if you're not sure it's for you, go ahead and download the first bit and see if you like it!
And for your convenience here is the link!  :)

Still Pinning

I've discussed my unhealthy addiction to Pinterest recently.  Despite my obsession, I have learned several things about myself from it:

I would much rather eat than cook...I love good food, just not the work involved to get there.  It's not that I can't cook, I can.  I'm just lazy when it comes to food prep.  I'm trying though.I have what my mom calls champagne taste on a kool-aid budget.  I'll pin an outfit, go look it up and then have a heart attack over $3000 purses (or even $100 jeans!!).I am overly ambitious of what I have time to make.  Sure I can make my daughter's entire back to school wardrobe but I do not have the time! I can only decorate so much for each holiday.  Holidays are about time with family and if I spend all my time worrying about details I'll miss out on that.  Again that time thing...Mentally I'm a much more organized person than in reality.  That one's pretty self explanatory.  I love organization things but they usually don't get used at our house.I want to travel.  Honestly I already knew this but seeing all the beautiful places makes it that much worse!I have an obsession with costumes.  I would dress up everyday if people wouldn't look at me like I'd flipped my lid.  It's bad.  I LIVE for Halloween when I get the chance to go all out!  I even had a costume party for my Sweet 16...in January!  Everyone had to dress up as a favorite Disney character (I was Ariel)...even the boys! I have to learn I can only do so much and just because I'm good at it or even just like it doesn't mean I have to do it.  This is a hard one because I believe if God gave you a talent you should use it.  I used to sew professionally and have won several national sewing competitions.  It stressed me out sewing for other people so I stopped.  I like to make jewelry...again, trying to please others was too much so now I only make it as gifts.  I would love to learn how to be a photographer but I'm not the photo taking kind.  I mean I'm bad!  Really the only photos in our house are the professional ones we've had taken over the years and what few people take and tag on Facebook.  This also explains why any pictures here are from my phone....Some of these I already kind of knew but after nearly 7,000 pins they're glaringly, painfully in some cases, obvious.

So what about you?  Have you learned anything about yourself from Pinterest?

Finally!

So I've been dying for my book to make it to Kindle.  It did today!  I've been asking my publisher for months now how long it takes.  She told me 3-4 months...

What she didn't tell me was that was how long it took the publisher to get it to Kindle.  Grrr....they sent it last week to Amazon and Amazon only took a week.  Gotta love red tape.  *sigh*

But to end on an ecstatically happy note:  It it now available on Kindle.  Nook should be coming soon.  :)

Plugging Away

So I sent off Sea of Despair to my beta readers this week.  I always get jittery when I have someone read my books for the first time.  I'm not delusional enough to think that everyone is going to love them but still, I'd like more to like it than hate it.

I've started a new as-yet untitled book set here in NM.  The funny thing is that I came up with the idea for this book four moves ago when we still lived in MO and had no idea we would end up here....how's that for fate?

I'm having a difficult time with a title for this one.  Well, honestly, I usually have a difficult time titling my books.  It took over a year before I came up with one I liked for Army of Sorrow.  Of course with that one I knew it would be a trilogy and so I wanted the titles to work together.  This new one is the first ever stand alone book I've attempted.  I just have no clue.  Maybe when I get a bit farther along you  guys can help?

Pinterest Rehab...

Hi, my name is Gail and I'm a Pinterest addict.  There it's out in the open.  I don't remember when I joined but I'm pretty sure I was the first of my friends because I had to join the hard way...aka I had to put in a request.  No nice little friend invite me, no I had to wait two whole weeks before I could start pinning.

I have enough recipes pinned that I could make a new one for well over a year and never repeat.  Enough decorating ideas for an entire subdivision.  Enough outfits to fill all the closets in said subdivision.  And enough projects to keep me busy for the next century.

Don't get me wrong.  I love it but sometimes it's overwhelming.  I have this grand vision of what I want my house to look like (my own house...not the crumby rental we're in right now) and what each meal and holiday should entail.  I get a lot of really awesome ideas though...even if I can't use ALL of them.

I have a really awesome friend who agreed to start making things with me.  Since then we've started making something each month.  Last month we tackled one of the pallet projects.  This is what our inspiration looked like:


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Looks simple enough, huh?  It was....until we realized we would have to free hand that dandelion.  Fun times.  Anywho....curious how mine turned out?  Ta-da!

Not too shabby in my opinion.  (Please excuse the manky carpet...crumby rental, remember?)  So this friend and I are tackling one of the Halloween wreaths right now.  Hopefully it will turn out as well.
By the way if you want to follow me on Pinterest click here.  So, have you done any Pinterest projects?

Opinions Anyone?

I have recently started a new book (an entirely new world, stand alone book!).  I'm having difficulty with naming some of the supporting characters....yes, sometimes it's harder than naming my own children!

It crossed my mind that perhaps some of you might enjoy helping with that.  So how would you all feel about me doing some kind of contest where the winner gets to choose a name to put in the book?  It could be your own or one you like, whatever (no wonky ones please!  I am not a celebrity and do not enjoy completely bizarre ones!).  I haven't decided what I should center the contest around.  I need followers here and likes on Facebook so perhaps when I reach a certain number of those I'll put draw from everyone who got people to follow/like etc?

Any ideas?  I'm dying here!  :)

Help Wanted

I know I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was looking for a few more beta readers.  I am nearing the end of my first round of edits and will be needing some input soon.  I have a few readers that have been with me since the first (terrible) draft of Army of Sorrow but I would like a couple more opinions.

I have gotten a lot of questions and volunteers but I feel the need to explain what this would entail.  First of all (and I feel silly even having to mention this but...) you have to have read Army of Sorrow.  This is not one of those series you can read out of order.  You will have no idea what is going on if you haven't read the first one.

Second, you must be a quick reader.  I would like it back within two weeks.  This is a fairly short draft, but if having a deadline will stress you out this is not for you.

Third, though you do not need to be a grammar guru (though heaven knows I need one!) you will need to  be able to pinpoint problem areas.  For example if I contradict myself at some point in the plot or if a character suddenly changes names halfway through the story (yes I have had that happen).  Also if you are confused because I didn't put in enough info.  I know this story inside out and sometimes something I think is obvious is not to other people.

Fourth, the point of this is to make the story better and I need to know the things that don't work but I also need to know what is working.  So let me know which parts you love or if you like a scene/character but just need more.

Lastly, and again this is one of those things I feel silly having to point out but I want to make it clear.  You CANNOT share this manuscript with anyone!  I don't care if it's your significant other, best friend, mom etc.  Also, please don't tell people about it either.  I don't want the surprises ruined for others.  You are welcome to tell people how awesome you think it is!  :)

Part of being a beta reader is me being able to trust you.  This is not a finished manuscript and I don't want a lot of people reading it.

And on that note I have to say: This is a draft...meaning it is not polished at all and the finished one may be significantly different.  The upside for you is that you get to find out what happens way sooner than anyone else!

So if after all that you are still interested, please let me know.

I am only looking for a few so if you don't get chosen please don't take it personally.  There is always the next one!  :)

Sick Day

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows I catch everything...sometimes twice.  This week I had a shingles breakout.  I had it in high school and now it pops up every once in a while when I'm particularly stressed or my immune system in low.

Anyway, the thing with shingles is that I can give people chicken pox if they haven't had it or haven't been vaccinated.  Fun times.  So I spent the week quarantined to the house.  I have amazing friends who brought my family dinner so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

While I was confined to bed I worked on Sea of Despair and I am ecstatic to report that I finished the first draft!  Yay! (cue the Hallelujah chorus!).  For me, getting the first draft out is the hardest part.  I enjoy the editing (yes I'm aware that I have that backwards from most people).  I also tend to stress about my word count.  Not that I have too many words but that I don't have enough.  I finished draft one at around 45K.  That's not much.  Of course I do have a TON of things to add into the beginning so that will definitely add to it but still.

This is the third novel I have finished so I can now cross another thing off my 30 Before 30 list!

What can I say, I have to be contrary in everything.  It's just my nature.  So now that I have the first draft done I can start thinking about Halloween.  I asked my kids what they wanted to be this year and the Monkette informed me that she wants to be Christine from Phantom of the Opera.  Is it strange that I'm giddy that she picked something so different?  She managed to talk her 10yo brother, the Monster, into going as the Phantom.  I asked her what dress she wanted and she said the one she sings in.  So I will be trying to recreate this:
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As for my Monkey...no idea.  I saw acute Perry the Platypus costume on Pinterest, maybe I can talk him into that.

I have decided to go as Red Riding Hood, steampunk style!  My hubby usually just goes with whatever I decide so he's going as either the Woodsman or the Wolf.  I'll figure it out.

So what about you?  What are you planning for Halloween?

Chocolate Success...Cake Failure?

So here is a picture of my first from scratch cake.  I must say it tasted divine!  Not too sweet, perfectly moist.  I don't know if you noticed...it kind of fell apart.  Yeah...so that was my fault.  The directions clearly stated to spray the cake pan and line with parchment.  I didn't.  I thought spraying would be enough.  It wasn't.
Now I know better.  I did change one small thing.  I don't drink coffee so I used Pero instead.  It's a roasted barley coffee substitute.  I just made it up extra strong.  Despite the mishap, it is definitely going in the "to make again" pile.  I got the recipe from Emily over at Paperseed.  Click here to see it...as well as how beautiful hers turned out.

Hmm...maybe I should have been more specific: make a cake from scratch that looks as good as it tastes.  I may have to try a few more times.  Darn!  Good thing I have several friends that like chocolate!  You may find me on your door step with cupcakes in hand.

Once again excuse the poor photo.  A decent camera is on my wish list.  Till then it's my trusty phone, but in its defense this was taken in the kitchen of our rental which has TERRIBLE lighting!

Anyhoo.  Check one off my list!  Maybe I should have put something on it about learning to take decent photos.  That's a thought.