Flipping Bookworm

Looking at the New Year   This year began with a release on January first. And I also began the seventh book of the Moon Child series. The rough draft is going well. I don’t know how other writer’s work though sometimes on my blog, they are able to tell me a bit about it. I am a draft writer and the rough draft is one only a writer can love. I belong to a critique group and reading five to ten pages of what one is working on aloud is done. When I read the pages of a rough draft, the critiques come fast and furious. “There’s no emotion.” “I don’t understand the setting.” Or “Just where are your characters.” These questions will be answered in subsequent drafts. I have one for plot, one for setting, one for characters and one language. There are times when I wish I could be one of those writers who gets everything down at once. They revise each scene as they go and don’t continue until they are satisfied. I’ve tried this method and I found the story never was written. I need to know ...

I wrote this story many years ago. At that time my children were young and I was into reading stories to them. They always asked me to write them a story and so I did.   The Urn of Fate Pedro tossed a stone down the hill and sighed. He felt a tugging at his woolen scarf and turned to stroke Blanca, his pet merino sheep. “Si, Blanca, soon it will be time to go down but I must think now. Jaime’s coming for a few days. Can you imagine, he’s to be my special friend until next Christmas?” Pedro put his arm around Blanca and she settled beside him. Christmas hadn’t been good this year. Pedro frowned as he remembered how excited he’d been when his grandmother, Abuela, had picked up the Urn of Fate and started to draw names. Pedro had held his breath. Last year, Tio Carlos had been his special friend. Tio Carlos had given him Blanca and had taught him many things about being a shepherd. This year, Abuela had drawn Jaime’s name to be Pedro’s special friend. Pedro wondered what Jaime would g...

Learning new things can be a real hard and interesting challenge. Lately I’ve been trying to master Book Bub. I’m not sure I have but lately I’ve received a number of new followers. I invested a little bit of money and have new followers every day. I’m going ot do the same for December, I think. I keep trying to recommend books but haven’t done well at that. The problem is time. I have several posts saved to do different things there. I’m not sure what will come of this. I would rather be writing. I even have a tee shirt that says that and I wear it frequently, especially when something takes me away from my chair and clipboard. As it’s almost Thanksgiving, I will say I’m thankful for having a great publisher and a lot of co-writers whose books I enjoy. There’s also the aide who comes in five morings a week to get my invalid husband ready for be. There’smy granddaughter who helps around the house, my six other grandchildren who I don’t see as often as I would like. My children are part...

After You’ve Sent the Manuscript Off.   After you’ve sent the manuscript off to the agent or editor, what do you do? Wait patiently for a report of start something new? Since this is my latest release, I’m already well into the next story. Different sub-genre, This afternoon, I spent time with a friend who is fairly new to writing thought she has published several books. As we sat at a table in the mall waiting for people to ask questions about our organization, we talked about writing. One thing she said gave me pause. She said she’d finished the edits on the book and sent it off. I asked her if she had started something new. She told me this was the first time she’d been able to do that. Usually when she sends a book out, she sits and waits to hear from all the agents or publishers before she starts on something new. This sent me thinking about the other new writers I have known. Some of them have written that first book and sent it out. THEN THEY WAITED and waited. A few of them...

Fantasy vs Contemporary   I recently finished a contemporary romance and am now working on a fantasy. Bothof these books are either part of a series or part of a trilogy. Been thinking about what happens in my head when I enter these worlds. What changes? When writing contemporary stories, I’m familiar with the world. Much depends on finding a location for the stories but… I generally use a fictitious town I’ve created. One for each group of stories. I seldom use places that exist. Once I did and that was Santa Fe but I only used enough to give a sense of being there. When writing fantasies, the worlds are completely made up. Here is where creativity and research comes into play. There are features in ancient civilizations that can be turned into fantasy worlds. So the difference between the two is working with the familiar and with the imagined world. The characters’ names and language are things that can be different when going between contemporary and fantasy. I try to make the...