Gwen Gardner's Blog, page 31

NaNoRevMo and the Rough Stuff

Badge by Tara Tyler
This is just a quick post to say that instead of NaNoWriMo, I'm doing NaNoRevMo. It's being hosted by Jenny Morris. If you want to join, the easiest way to connect is on Facebook, where we check in everyday.
What is NaNoRevMo, you ask? It's short for National Novel Revision Month.
Instead of writing 50K, we're revising what we're working on. In my case, I'm revising/editing/rewriting my 50K novel.
What are my goals?
Edit the first draft of my novel, A Guilty Ghost Surprised. It's only 50K, but will be longer once I go back and add setting, description, and everything else I left out when I zoomed through it during BuNoWriMo.
Daily goal: 1667 words
Words to date: 13,500
So far, I'm ahead of schedule. But, the rough stuff is coming up! My first draft is so rough, I wonder what I was thinking! And the disorganization. I did some rearranging, and I'm not even sure if it works.
How rough are your first drafts?
What are you doing this month?

I'm Thankful For My Readers Blog Hop

Tara and Vikki are holding a Thankful blogfest!  And of course, in the U.S., this is Thanksgiving month, so the timing is perfect.


It's easy. Just a thank you to your readers! And readers can be critique partners, betas, blog readers, published book readers, library patrons, or just the reading public in general! It will be awesome for us all to give thanks at the same time and hop around to revel in the love!
For anyone on twitter, the thankful hoppers will be tweeting thanks using the hashtag #thankstomyreaders for additional fun.


To join or check out the rules, go HERE:

I am grateful to so many people. First and foremost, my critique partner, blog tour partner, and friend, Angela Brown. Where would I be without you? But really, there are way too many people to thank to just select one peson.The bloggers I follow, and the ones who follow me, have all taught me something, have contributed to my knowledge of writing, editing, publishing.
I learned it all from you.
I'm in a happy place because of you.
And so I wrote this for all of you.
A Gazillion Thanks: A Haiku
How to thank just one?An impossibilityToo many to thank
You supported meGuided, directed, cared, with...Selfless thoughtfulness,
Gazillion thanksTo every bloggy peepGazillion thanks

Get Your Partner's Survival Badge

The Partners in ParanormYA blog tour has come to an end and Angela and I are starting to wind down and catch up on some much needed rest. It was quite the epic tour for us. But don't think we didn't notice you were with us every step of the way! We survived this tour together.

So in honor of our survival, I made some badges. They're not quite the caliber of Tara Tyler's awesome badges, but they come from the heart.

For those who followed, read a post or two, made one or two comments, please grab a survival button for your sidebar.










Plus, we're over at Angela Orlowski-Peart's blog for sort of an after-tour stop. We hope you can stop by.
AND
The Big Swag Giveaway is still going on over at Partners in ParanormYA. You have a couple of days left to get in on the prize.
AND
The Healthy Writer's Club is today. I've posted about my week over at Run Gwen, Run!

It Was The Best of Times and Winners

"It was the best of times, it was the worst  best of times..."
Okay, I took liberties with Charles Dickens' quote from A Tale of Two Cities. I had to, because the Partners in ParanormYA Blog Tour was absolutely, positively...

  "the best of times"!
Today marks the end of our tour! It's kind of sad - but not. Because it's not really the end, but the beginning. The beginning of our careers as writers and authors. More books are planned. Another PIP book tour is in the future. But that's only part of it. There's a world full of possibilities, full of branches and paths that lead to more interests and opportunities. Angela and I will have more adventures together, but not all of them. I wish all the best for Angela, and I know she wishes the same for me.
Thank you, Angela Brown, for the best of times! It's been such a fun and exciting adventure through self-publishing with you.

Thank you to Tara Tyler for hosting us yesterday and for creating and donating all our awesome banners and badge!
And to all our hosts and followers, your support and kind words have meant the world to us. The blogging community rocks. Thank you all so much!

*****
And so where are we on our last day?
We are being interviewed by Natalie Aguirre over at Literary Rambles .
With our paranormal angle and all, it's really kind of fitting that our last day of the tour is on Halloween.
And by the last day, I mean not really today, but Friday. Because we sort of added another stop onto the end of the tour, because on Friday, we'll be over at Angela Orlowski-Peart's blog talking about paranormal abilities and realms.

*****

Week 3 Winners are announced!

Shannen Aleene Romein - $10 Amazon gift card, Givin’ Up The Ghost ebook and 2 Personalized bookmarks


JC Martin – Neverlove ebook and Personalized bookmark

Jennie Bennett – 10 page critique and 50 page critique

Mary Preston – Personalized bookmark

Stephen Tremp – Personalized bookmark

Congratulations to the winners! You will be contacted soon :-)
  AND

The Big Swag Giveaway is still going on, too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Talking With...Tara, Bears and Wolves

Today the Partners in ParanormYA are over at Tara Tyler Talks for a very different sort of interview. Do you like bears? How about wolves? And dogs? Yeah, it's different like that.
And speaking of Partners in ParanormYA, our teens, Abby (Neverlove) and Indigo (Givin' Up The Ghost), are getting ready for Halloween tomorrow - but they may need help finding the decorations. AND
Many thanks to Dianne Salerni for hosting me and Angela yesterday. We hope you enjoyed our real life case files!
Are you excited about Halloween? Doing anything special?

Monstrous Monday and Real Case PIP Files

Today is Monstrous Monday!(For PIP blog tour update, please scroll below)
This is a blogfest / bloghop hosted by Tim Brannan at The Other Side.
To see the official rules, join, or follow the participants, go HERE.
It's simple. Just post your favorite monster. One you like, love or hate. It could be from your own novel or someone else's or from a movie - anything! 
I don't care for the really scary monsters, because, well, they're scary!
But I do adore the Fun-Scary monsters.
And so today, my feature monster is...
Sally!
From The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Why do I luurve her? She is just so sweet - and talented.

She can cook...


If she falls apart...


She can sew herself back together...


She can sing...





And that's why Jack Skellington loves her, too!

Are you participating in the blogfest?
What is your favorite monster?

**************************
Now, on to more blog tour information...


Thank you to Tyrean Martinson for hosting me and Angela last Friday. We appreciate your hospitality ever so much!
Today we're over at Dianne Salerni's blog talking about Real Case Partners in ParanormYA files. That's right, real paranormal stuff that's happened to us.
And of course, we still have our blogsitting teens over at Partners in ParanormYA, holding down the fort. We hope they're behaving after last weeks revenge scheme against the Devourer (Neverlove) and the Dark Shadow! (Givin' Up The Ghost).
There is still a giveaway going on over at PIP, so please stop by.

Getting Even With Evil

Haunted banner by Tara Tyler!


TGIF!

and

Thanks to the lovely ladies who hosted us yesterday,
Linda Jackson and Michelle Pickett.

Today, Angela and I are at Tyrean Martinsons blog talking about the love scenes we cut from our young adult novels. Why? Because they were, well, too hot for YA. At least our YA's.  

AND

You are not going to want to miss the shenanigans our PIP Blogsitting teens are up to today. You know how the Devourer busted them last week by sending me and Angela the USB showing the unauthorized party they had? Well, they decided to get even with both the Devourer (Neverlove) and the Dark Shadow (Givin' Up The Ghost). If you want to see how, go through this portal . And please don't try this at home.
So how about you? Ever have to cut a hot scene? Or get even with evil entities? Want to share?


Week 3 is nearly over, but you still have time to enter the giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
And you can still win the Big Swag Giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fashion Intervention and Interview

Banner by the lovely Tara Tyler!

Thanks so much to Maria Zannini and JC Martin for opening their blogs to us yesterday. Your hospitality was much appreciated.

Today, the Partners are at Linda Jackson's blog being interviewed, Laverne and Shirley style. So which one's Laverne and which is Shirley? You'll have to stop by to see!AND
We'll also be at Michelle Pickett's place for a fashion intervention (and we're not saying who) by the most fashionable nineteenth century ghost madam I know, Franny Bishop from Givin' Up The Ghost. She'll be joined by Indigo and Abby (Neverlove) in a brand new show you won't want to miss, called Franny 911. 
AND
Our teen characters, who should be blogsitting at PIP HQ, are down in the seedier part of Blogtown. What are they doing there? To find out, enter through this portal.
What are you wearing right now? Ever have a fashion intervention?

A Not-Thought-Out Adventure + Other Stuff

Lovely banner by Tara Tyler!

Happy Wednesday to my PIP Peeps! And a lovely hump day it is.


The lovely JC Martin is interviewing both me and Angela Brown today. It would be so lovely if you stopped by.

AND

We are also at Maria Zannini's blog talking about how to disperse with certain creepy creatures.

AND

If you've been following our blog opera over at Partners in ParanormYA, those crazy teens of ours are on yet another not-thought-out adventure.

Have you ever been on a not-thought-out adventure?

Cookin' Up Crazy


Banner by Tara Tyler!

Happy Tuesday!

We have winners from Week 2 Giveaway!

JC Martin - $10 Amazon gift card

Martha Campos-Arana – Neverlove ebook

Carolyn Brown – GUTG ebook

Angela Orlowski-Peart – 10 page critique

JC Martin – 50 page critique

Angela Orlowski-Peart – Personalized bookmark

Fiery Na – Personalized bookmark

Dee Dee Brinkman-Griffin – Personalized bookmark

Nick Wolford – Personalized bookmark

JC Martin – Personalized bookmark

Congratulations to the winners and Thank You So Much for participating! You will be contacted soon about receiving your prizes:)

*****

Today, Angela Brown and I are over at Nadja Notariani's for a bit of excerpting - I think.

But if not, our teen delinquents from Neverlove and Givin' Up The Ghost are cooking up a crazy plan over at Partners in ParanormYA while they blogsit for us.

~Thank you so much to yesterday's hosts~

Cherie Reich

AND

EJ Wesley

We appreciate your hospitality so much!

And there are still two giveaways!

Visit Partners in ParanormYA for the Big Swag Giveaway and for Week Three Giveaway.