February Report - March Goals...

Enter Fire and Ice Contest as well as Chocolate Rose. Look at mystery contest and Great American Novel contests.
**Fire and Ice; Chocolate Rose and Kiss of Death - All done. Missed the Great American Novel contest. Frankly, I just forgot. Goal MET!

Send off my Idaho cowboy story to the targeted line. I LOVE this story. I hope the editor loves it as well.
**My package is setting on a desk in Canada.

Volunteer to give a coffee talk presentation for our local chapter. Generational Characters. This one is harder. I’ve got a topic, some of the research material, and the date. Now to just write the darn training.
**The presentation went really well. Now I have to write up an article for our chapter newsletter. Ongoing goal for March

Send off a short story to Women’s World. This is a tight market. 800 word stories have to be emotional, tightly written and satisfying. I’ve learned my draft is way over the story limits and my challenge is cutting word length.
**Got February's story written and send. And as of today, I've got a start on the next one. Ongoing goal for 2011.

I am guest hosting a debut author on http://www.newkidonthewritersblock.com/ on the 18th. This is my first blog party so I'm hoping people will show up.
**Lot's of posts, fun questions, and a very happy debut author. I'm doing this again in April with Elizabeth Lynn Casey's release -- Deadly Notions. SO this is one of March's goals as well.

So - Write a new short for WW. Finish - Writing Characters Across the Generations article. Host blog for ELC's new book.

And... write 20000 words this month. That's less than NANO. And more than what I've been doing. I wrote 35000 words in November. So, it's doable but a stretch from where I am now.

I'm also going to send out at least five queries on my cozy mystery.

So that's it. My living dangerously goals. Next month, I'll be working on some networking strategies to prepare me for the local confernce and practice for nationals.

And now for a word from our sponsor...

Actually I was going to update and post new goals but the day job is calling. So today's blog is going to focus on two things.

A grin... I was chosen as this years winner for the Jeannie Gray Golden Friendship Award. The essay on my version of paying it forward will be posted on Friday over at New Kids at the Writers blog (http://newkidonthewritersblock.blogspot.com/). So stop on by and let me know what you think. I'm honored to have been chosen.

A groan...I got a denial from a life insurance company for coverage because of my health history. Breast Cancer, the gift that just keeps giving. I guess the 'C' word just scares them. It scares a lot of people. They don't want to gamble on the number of years in my life. I'll just have to prove them wrong. (grin)

And, I'm showing off the professional photos I got in January. I'm looking all serious and writerly in this one, don't you think?

Learning to adjust to reality

Failure. I hate failure, but I'll admit my falling now, then at the end of the month, we'll just skim over this.

Friday night was the work event I was planning on attending. Apparently my body had other plans. I had a horrible toothache. Heading to the dentist tomorrow so wish me luck - filling good - root canal bad.

So I failed.

So I'm adding a new living dangerously goal for February. I am guest hosting a debut author on http://www.newkidonthewritersblock.com/ on the 18th. This is my first blog party so I'm hoping people will show up.

Now, back to writing.

January report... And Feb goals...

Sign up for Missouri writer’s conference. This April conference is with in driving distance – no need for overnight accommodations and they have fiction and essay presenters who I can learn from and one of my dream agents taking pitches. And I get to meet a cozy mystery author I love.

**Done - and paid for. I'm excited about this conference!

Send off a short story to Women’s World. This is a tight market. 800 word stories have to be emotional, tightly written and satisfying. I’ve learned my draft is way over the story limits and my challenge is cutting word length.

**I've sent one and started a second. This is going to be an ongoing goal to send one a month.

Commit to attending RWA nationals. Still working out the money bugs on this one. But as Kevin Costner’s character learned in Field of Dreams, if you plan it, it will come. (Paraphrasing just a bit.)

**Off Topic - I watched Field of Dreams last night. I love the part where Holly Hunter is taking on Censorship. Still working out money, but commited to go! NYC, here I come.

Volunteer to give a coffee talk presentation for our local chapter. Generational Characters. This one is harder. I’ve got a topic, some of the research material, and the date. Now to just write the darn training. You would think since I used to do this for a living I wouldn’t be so nervous.

**I presented on this during my day job so I've got a better idea where the session will go, but no training package yet. Soon. This is a continual goal - challenge for February.

So with the two ongoing goals, I'll add the following:

Send off my Idaho cowboy story to the targeted line. I LOVE this story. I hope the editor loves it as well.

Enter Fire and Ice Contest as well as Chocolate Rose. Look at mystery contest and Great American Novel contests. Contests are a double edge sword for me. I love entering, but not finaling is a downer. So maybe I'll just final in all the contests I enter this year... Yay!

I'm attending a work potluck/party next week. In the Living Dangerously style, I'm going to talk to all level three managers in attendance about something besides work. I'm scared already. (grin)

So there you go. February challenges to keep me busy.

What's going on with your challenges? Did you keep your new years resolutions?

The Year of Living Dangerously – Cahoon edition

A few months ago, the PRO liaison for RWA issued a challenge. Make 2011 the year of living dangerously in your writing. She suggested trying a new market, sending your work out to agents and editors, or try writing a new genre.

I’ve been thinking about this challenge a lot. How can I stretch out of my comfort area and take a chance? And this is what I’ve come up with for now. I’ll update this list as new challenges arise.

Side note: I was listening to a speaker on making plans. She said you only have to plan three steps. Three. Because by the time you have accomplished those three steps, new pathways have opened up and it’s time to plan three more. Three that you might not have known about before you took those three steps.

January living dangerously steps:

Sign up for Missouri writer’s conference. This April conference is with in driving distance – no need for overnight accommodations and they have fiction and essay presenters who I can learn from and one of my dream agents taking pitches. And I get to meet a cozy mystery author I love.

Send off a short story to Women’s World. This is a tight market. 800 word stories have to be emotional, tightly written and satisfying. I’ve learned my draft is way over the story limits and my challenge is cutting word length.

Commit to attending RWA nationals. Still working out the money bugs on this one. But as Kevin Costner’s character learned in Field of Dreams, if you plan it, it will come. (Paraphrasing just a bit.)

Volunteer to give a coffee talk presentation for our local chapter. Generational Characters. This one is harder. I’ve got a topic, some of the research material, and the date. Now to just write the darn training. You would think since I used to do this for a living I wouldn’t be so nervous.

But I guess that’s what the year of living dangerously is all about. To stretch. To grow. And to take chances.

What challenges have you taken on lately?

Snow Day 2011

We got a storm last night that covered our area with three inches of snow. At least. So after riding to the store with my dh, I decided to avoid the roads (and the accidents) and stay home from work. I had a day to pretend I was a full time writer.

I don’t think I did very well. Not for what could have been an eight-hour day of writing, but I did get another big scene done for my work in progress. I read some work for a contest I’m judging. And I dug through my email, getting stuff deleted, answered, and filed. I realized I get over 200 emails on a weekday. And that’s in my personal emails, not counting what I get in the day job.

But maybe I did all right. I did some planning on the cozy mystery that I’ll be starting to write as soon as The Bull Rider’s Brother (BRB) is done. I’ve got the first scene started in my head. A Cambria business owner comes knocking on Jill’s front door needing help for her son. Or maybe that will be a later scene….the order of the scenes will come, eventually.

I was lying in bed Saturday morning and realized I’d missed a scene in BRB. And all of a sudden, a new character popped into my head and messes with my hero. Which he deserves. And then to add the new twist, I had to change the POV orders for my heroine and hero for the last two chapters.

Sometimes I feel my characters are in charge and I’m just doing their transcriptions. Especially when I’m at the end of the books. When I really know my characters and what they would do. How they live.

So maybe I didn’t get more words down because my characters were taking a snow day as well. Or maybe they thought I was still at the day job.

The picture in today's blog shows the woods that run behind my house. Where the deer hide.

When is losing, winning? Or how is a raven like a writing desk?

I mentioned in my last post and on a thousand Facebook status updates I was doing NaNoWriMo this year.

50000 words in thirty days. Or 1667 a day. And you have to start a completely new project on November 1st. No finishing up a manuscript you’re let’s say four chapters into and have been for three, four years? Since the November you started this puppy?

Sounds easy? It’s not.

The problem wasn’t finding the time to write, although several days I didn’t even seem to find five minutes. But keeping the energy level up and going so you could get lost in the story and let it flow from your fingers. Keeping your mind in the game to use a sports analogy.

So what happened? Where did I wind up? On November 30 – I had 35000 words on a brand new series contemporary I’d been THINKING about writing since July. Now I have two thirds of the book done. In a month. 20K more, and the first draft will be complete. That’s my December goal. Which isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. Especially with it already being the 8th.

What did I learn? Thirty minutes gets me 500-900 words. I can do 2000 words on a Saturday morning and then go back for more. Writing on my lunch hour, thirty minutes before work, and then thirty after and I can reach that 1667 a day. And when I found myself 100 or so words short of the daily goal when I finished a scene or chapter? I stepped back into the manuscript and started a new scene or a new chapter.

Nike’s motto. Just do it.

This week I’m working on revising my first chapter and writing a synopsis for a deadline of December 15th. And buying a house and moving.

I don’t think I’m going to have the luxury of just writing. But I’m going to try to find those small quiet times where I can sneak in a few minutes. A few words.

The house in the picture is part of the old brewery in Highland, IL. Tunnels ran under the owner's houses so they didn't have to walk the block to the brewery. And no, it's not the house I'm moving into.

Writing mania.

I've been absent. Sorry. Taking an in depth crazy class in how to write crazy fast called NaNoWriMo.

And getting my entry ready for Golden Heart.

And finishing, sending off, and getting back a rejection (already?) on a spring sweet novella. Anyone know another market besides Samhain?

But today I'm up gain over at New Kids on the Writers Block talking about entering the Golden Heart contest this year.

Stop by if you have the chance.
http://newkidonthewritersblock.blogspot.com/

I'll check in later this month.

New Kids on the Writers Block

I'm over at New Kids today, talking about what scares me. Stop by if you have a moment.

http://newkidonthewritersblock.blogspot.com/

The picture here and at New Kids is from St. Louis's Lemp Mansion. A real haunted house. Did you know St. Louis is also the site were the real exorcism of the Exorsist happened to a little boy from Maryland?

What’s going on in my world?

A lot.

I sent my cozy off to the St. Martin’s Traditional Mystery contest yesterday. Murder Me Book is the story based off a picture of an old run down house in Cambia, California. I’d been visiting the tourist towns when I visited my sister ten years ago. The village had glass blowing shops, antiques, artists, ice cream shops, and this really old house that had seen better days. What was I drawn to? The old house.

As I was writing the book, I got the idea that the home was the site of one of the first discoveries of gold starting the California gold rush.

Great idea. Unfortunately the Gold Rush started in Sacramento. Miles from where I’d placed my little town.

Then I decided to add a Spanish Mission. More research, but this time, I had better luck matching the history of the area to my fictional novel.

I’m also pitching the book to Carina Press on Wednesday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sound intelligent and my book sound interesting enough to grab the editor’s attention. Then the cozy will be out to two different publishers. And I’ll be waiting.

I’m still waiting to hear about my romance set in Idaho that I pitched this summer at nationals. The publisher has a partial of this story, so if they love the partial, they’ll ask for the full. Or send me a revision letter. And I’ll work on the book some more.

My first finished manuscript is on the laptop, being revised. And I have a second book in this Finding Mr. Right series that I’ve started. Events and Adventures was the chapter I sent to the Mills and Boon New Voices Contest. Although I wasn’t in the top ten, or listed on the follow up list, I’d like to think my story was number 51 out of 850. Tough competition that.

Finally, I’m working on a novella. I’m about half way through and I have a deadline of November 1st for the next half. This one is set in my new hometown of St. Louis and deals with the Forest Park and Cancer Center, places I spent a lot of time a few years ago.

In between, I’ve been judging contests and have to prepare more work for two additional contests.

And the day job’s been keeping me busy. Very busy.

Juggling a lot of projects in the air. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. But chasing a dream takes dedication. And a lot of work.

The Year of Me

Last year when I turned…mumble, mumble…on my birthday, I made myself a pledge. That this would be the year of Lynn. I’d do what I wanted the entire year.

And for the most part, I’ve followed that guideline.

I joined RWA and the local chapter, MORWA. I’ve attended most of the monthly meetings, even though I sat in the car before my first meeting alone and thought about turning around and driving the hour back home. Getting out of the car was the best thing I’ve done for my writing career yet.

I’ve read my work twice at our CORE meetings. It’s a critique group where you read fifteen pages then eight people tell you all the things wrong (and right) with the piece. My voice shook my first reading. And I learned, I don’t like conflict. On the page that is.

I flew to Seattle to see my only son get married and to meet my new daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Of course I had to stop at Pikes Market and get a reading from the fortuneteller in the box. Good things are coming my way.

I finished two manuscripts and started learning all I didn’t know when I started editing.

I went to Florida (first time) and attended the RWA National Convention. Being around people who live, breath and think writing for four days was amazing. I lived through my pitch session and got a request from my targeted editor. Now the submission is on her desk and out of my hands. And control.

I sold five short stories to the confessions market. Four to True Love and one to True Experience. Breaking into this market really boosted my confidence about the future of my writing and paid for the above-mentioned trip.

In and around all of that, I lived. I walked the dogs when the weather was nice. My hubby took me to the Grafton Winery and drank wine while the DJ played adult contemporary. We took a trip to Hannibal to see the Mark Twain cave. We drove to St. Genienve and saw a tiger exhibit. We went to a Red’s game and soon will be cheering on our favorite drivers at a Nationwide race.

I think this year on my birthday; I’ll set the same goal. To make this a Year of Lynn. I’m excited to think of all the adventures I’ll be able to report next year.

Getting a Do Over

With my birthday coming up next week, I’ve been pensive, thinking about my life and what I’ve accomplished so far. I was never one of those chicks that said I want to be a doctor and then followed through… I wanted to be everything. Fashion buyer, wife, mother of twelve, lawyer, judge, social worker…

And my life has kind of followed that path. Randomly choosing jobs, not careers. Until ten years ago.

I took a class in the MFA program. I can’t remember the official title… something about learning to work in a publishing environment, but in very big words. The class really was a way to get graduate students to be journal assistants for the university’s literary journal. Main job? Read the slush pile.

I. Loved. It.

Each week we took a pile of stories and rated them for inclusion in the journal. Some, okay, most were bad. Really bad. But some stories had a glimmer that took you away from every day life. Then we discussed what worked and what we were doing on our marketing project. I learned a lot about mailing lists that semester.

I left class each week energized and feeling attached to the world. Something I’d learned to muffle during my marriage. To be happy with something besides my husband was a sin. Yet, here I was, divorced and so happy I bounced walking to my car.

Stephen King says that when you’re doing the think you’re supposed to do you act like a Geiger counter on radioactive crack. (Or something like that…paraphrasing here.)

Writing is my radioactive crack. Now why didn’t I find out that piece of information when I was in high school?

Today's picture is my new granddaugher Lily. It's her first day at school.

Conflict is not picking a fight with your husband...

So today conflict is on my mind.

Yesterday my RWA Chapter hosted the funniest speaker I'd ever heard on romance, Jade Lee. I almost didn't come to this meeting. I didn't know what I'd learn from a historical romance writer whose focus is in Chinese history.

And it's a long drive.

But I packed my meeting notebook into my purse and headed out. And boy, was I glad I did.

My notes are kind of scattered, but here's a few things I learned.

1- Hot sex does not equal happy ever after. (Even though it helps - Jade did demonstrate this point with a teddy bear and a stuffed monkey. The video will be on U-tube soon...)

2- Characters have to change. AND the hero/heroine has to be the reason they change. The one has to make the other better. Think Jerry McGuire and "You complete me."

3- Characters have to have a fatal flaw. This is probably the hardest thing for me to write. I want my people to be oh so nice... but they where's the story. Where's the angst? Why would anyone read more than the opening line?

4-Save the Cat. Your main characters need to do something heroic the first time the reader meets them. Show their good side, even if it's hidden, for most of the book.

and

5-Build an imagery set around your characters. Jade talked about using colors, or animals, or elements. This one I'm going to have to work on some more. But it makes sense as a writer. If I know my heroine is a fire character, she's going to wear red, she's going to react before she thinks, she's going to be hotheaded and maybe stubborn. So even if I don't know what's going to happen in the scene, I know how she'll react.

So thank you Jade for explaining writer terms in a way I could infuse them immediately into my own writing. Now, I have to excuse myself... I have some characters to torture.

The picture is outside the Seattle Aquarium looking at the docks. My son assures me this is not the ocean, but it's the closest I've gotten in ten years....

Time after time

Today I want to talk about time management. Or my lack of time management. I know the drill. Make a list. Prioritize the list. After reading a truck load of books and taking the coveted Franklin workshop, I know how to get things done.

So why do I always feel like I'm overwhelmed? The answer is simple. I think I can do more than I can. I can pay more bills than I have money. I can write a manuscript, edit a first draft, and develop new story ideas all at once. I can clean the house in a single day including giving the dogs a bath.

And somewhere in there, I can fit in a workout so I'll lose some weight and increase my health factor.

I am superwoman.

But I'm not.

I blame my need for perfection on growing up in the 70's. I wanted the career and the family. I knew I could do everything. And sometimes, I can. But sometimes, I wonder if I've taken on more than I can handle.

Those are the nights when kittens roam through my dreams and I'm unable to keep them all safe.

Standing in the middle of the street, I throw my hat into the air. Is Mary Tyler Moore right? We might just make it after all?

The picture today is of the hot springs where Roosevelt visited. The waters are suppose to have a healing property. And of course, there's a ghost. The original hotsprings can be found in. Okawville, Illinois.

New Voices Contest

Stop on by the New Voices contest and take a peek at my new story.

Vote early, vote often... (grin)

Here's the link: http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/27-Events-and-Adventures

Hope to see you there.

Living on the other side

Today we explored our little town of Alton, Illinois. We found the confederate cemetary and the civil war cemetary. The civil war cemetary also has the Lovejoy Monument. Elijah Lovejoy was the newspaper/minister who lost three presses due to his anti-slavery editorials. Then the mob took his life to quiet him.

Our little town is also the site of the Lincoln Douglas debate. We have a monument to the Gentle Giant, the tallest man on record.

The picture on this post is all that's left of the Alton confederate prison site. The prison was a death camp for confederate soldiers, losing eight to ten inmates a day to unsanitary conditions. It's on the hill overlooking the river. The prison was closed July 7, 1865 and the prisoners transferred to Jolliet. Over the next twenty years, the prison was torn down and the stones used to build many of the houses and churches from that time. Many are thought to be haunted.

Could it be the ghosts of confederate soldiers trapped in the quarry stones?

I took lots of pictures so we'll see if a fuzzy spot shows up in any of the shots.

I'm blogging over at New Kids on the Block

The subject? Revisions, the never ending story. Or what I've learned through writing three books.

Stop on by.

http://newkidonthewritersblock.blogspot.com/

Lynn

Welcome back...

I guess that's a welcome back to me. I'm committing to posting once a week so check in frequently.

So, what's been up since December 2008? A lot.

I've sold four short stories to True Love and True Experience magazines. These are fun to write. I'm currently writing a Christmas story which is hard since the weather has been in the 90's plus humitity here.

I've joined RWA, joined a great chapter - MORWA, and went to my first national convention. Amazing program. Lots to do,things to learn and people to meet. I got a fan girl pic with Brenda Novak (from Sacramento, CA) - She writes romantic suspense and is a motivational guru for writers. I learned so much about surving the business from her presentations at nationals. And she's a Utah native.

The cancer thing is doing fine, thanks for asking. My doc says I get to have a well baby check next year rather than the scary oncology appointment. Yay!

I've sent a partial (three chapters and an outline/synopsis) to Harlequin American last month. This is the book I pitched at nationals. A pitch is a ten minute appointment with an editor (in this case I got two for the price of one...) where you tell them all about you, your writing background, your book, and why they should buy it. Kind of like a nerdy sorority rush on steroids.

I'm very proud of the book. It's set in the Treasure Valley. A reader from the area will recognize locations such as Meridian Speedway, Murphy, the Boise foothills, the BSU campus (Go Broncos) and maybe even the small farm where I grew up. I hope the HAR editors love the story as much as I do.

I'm working on a new romance manuscript for submission to an e-book novella. This is a shorter book (20,000 words) and is set here in St. Louis near the hospital where I spent so much time a few years ago. But the story is focused on the amazing park that is across the street. Forest Park was the sight of the 1904 World's Fair and is home to the zoo, the art and history museum, the science center, and miles of running trails. It's amazing.

What's been up with you guys?

Christmas Letter

Happy Holidays :

If 2007 was the year of cancer, 2008 was the year of fun. Or as much fun as we could have and still deal with all the residuals from the cancer. I slept a lot this year, but not as much as last year! We played a lot of darts during the first of the year. I brought my first trophy home from Vegas this year, 2nd place in Cricket Doubles. We would have taken first but we played our next to last game at 12:30 pm and didn’t play again until 3AM. So sleep became more important than darts.

During the summer, we quit darts and going out a lot. We bought a new car and talked about going fishing. (We didn’t.) Next year we are heading to Idaho for our summer vacation. I’d like to take a short road trip around the area, like Kentucky. I’ve never seen Kentucky or Alabama.

On our last full day in Vegas we took the plunge and got married. It was a beautiful ceremony in a chapel that had been built around a series of stained glass they had salvaged from a church being torn down in Missouri. So we had some of our Idaho friends as witnesses and a touch of our new home in the chapel to help start our new life. We talked about stopping at the Grand Canyon on our way home and counting the drive as our honeymoon but we ran out of daylight and vacation time.

One of our Idaho friends stopped by on Halloween during one of his trucking runs so we went out to play darts and then to hear a band at a local bar. Going out on Halloween is always interesting but the next morning I sure felt my age.

Work was good for both of us this year. Jim switched companies when they merged and is now a happy member of the SM & P locator team. He really likes his new supervisor and co-workers. And he wasn’t sent out of town all summer like he was last year. I was promoted to senior license coordinator and came really close to being hired by the corporate training department. Although it was a disappointment at the time, later this year when they laid off seven people in that department, I realized it was a blessing. I am editor in chief for Fleet Op’s newsletter and working on that has enriched my workday.

I have had several successes in my writing career (hobby?). I was published in True Experience in October with an essay about losing my hair during chemo. (It’s funny, really!) I also finally got my copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Divorce and Recovery where I wrote The Tool Box under a pen name.

Avoiding writing

It's November and there are a lot of writers out there trying to write the great american novel in 30 days. I'm hiding. Trying my hardest not to write.

Now I'm not doing it conciously. I'm sneakier than that. Like right now. I told myself I was going to write a scene in Paris or Bust. Just one scene, nothing earth shattering like an entire novel. But what am I doing? Updating this blog instead. This weekend was suppose to me my big push to get the other three chapters done before my friday meeting with my writer muse. (She's a real person, really)

So I'm going to cut this a little short and see if I can get started. Just a paragraph. Maybe only a sentence but something that moves the storyline down the road just a little. And then I have two new assignments. One story that I really have to finish. And three chapters due by Friday. Do I know how to procrastinate or not?

Later.