I just reached the 5000 word mark on my current WIP.  I’m writing again!  And darn, it feels good.    I know I said this already, but I’m very pleased with it so far. 

The words are finally flowing again.  For a while there, I was beginning to wonder if the desire to write was ever going to strike me again.  I just couldn’t find that spark of creativity I needed.  Real life was interferring. 

Well, real life is still around and keeping me as busy as ever, but the desire to write is back.  And all is right with my world! 

Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings — healthy, happy children, a loving spouse, paid bills, a warm bed, and flowing words.  Does life get any better? 

Nita 

Mission accomplished. 

Here’s a few pics.  There will be lots more.  My daughter is meeting friends at the park to take pictures together with a much nicer backdrop.  LOL

We had just started fixing her hair when I remembered that I wanted to take a “before” shot.

Here’s the after:

I can’t believe it’s her senior prom already.  My baby girl is all grown up and will be graduating in 3 weeks! 

It’s a good thing she’s decided to stay at home and go to a local college.  I’d be a basket case right now if I had to even think about her moving away.

Nita

My western story is now at 3200+ words.    I know that’s not much, but considering it’s the most I’ve written since NaNo in November, I’m really pleased with it.  I’ve got the beginning of an outline, too.  And I really like what I have so far.  I think it’s going to be  my best novella yet. 

I probably won’t have time to write any tomorrow.  We’ll be doing my daughter’s hair, nails, and makeup for the prom.  And taking pictures, of course. 

I’ll try to post some pics here tomorrow night.

Nita

It’s Wednesday.  We’re half-way there! 

Still no word from the publisher.  I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I really feel good about this one.  It’s been two and half weeks now, so I should probably hear from them within the next few weeks.  Waiting is always hard, though. 

I’ve been really busy lately.  My daughter has senior day, prom, and graduation coming up and there’s been lots to do.  My son plays tennis for the school and they’ve had a lot of matches lately.  So there hasn’t been a lot of time to work on that western, but I have managed to add a little more to it.  It now stands at about 2,000.  And I’m really pleased with how it’s started out.  Yay!

I’ve been doing some editing on it — I know, I know– I should save the editing for later, but I needed to examine the characters and setting a little more.  I’ve gone back over the dialog to make certain I really have a handle on my characters.  And I’ve switched up a few of the facts and added a line or two here and there after a little research to get the time and place established. 

Now I guess it’s time to make an outline of important events in the story.  I usually get more writing done if I have a guide as to what I’m supposed to be writing.  LOL  I do fine with the first chapter, but after that, I don’t do well flying by the seat of my pants. 

Well, back to work!  Hope you all have a great day!

Nita

It’s been months since I really WANTED to write something, but last night I had the inspiration that’s been missing for a while. 

On MySpace, I saw a post from an epub requesting submissions for westerns– short stories, novellas, and novels.  I’ve had an idea for one for a long time, but I’d only written a few notes about the plot idea.  Well, last night the kids had gone out and the house was quiet, so I sat down and gave it a go.

I wrote over a thousand words and I am really pleased with they way it’s going.  I think I may be on to something here.  :)  Anyway, I think there will be no problem with the short story.  I may even get a novella out of it. 

I would have worked on it some more today, but I promised the hubby I’d go fishing with him.  We haven’t done that in a very long time.  It was gorgeous out today, too.  I caught six fish!  Hubby caught seven, but I had the biggest.   

We really enjoyed ourselves.  Now that the kids are getting older, we are already feeling some of those “empty nest” symptoms.  The kids are always off doing their own thing.  So now that there’s more time for just the two of us, we are trying to remember what we did back when we were dating.  LOL 

I’m hoping to get some more writing time this evening and tomorrow.  I’ve got lots to do, but maybe I can get a few hundred more words done.

Nita

Wow.  Has it really been six days since I posted?  I guess it’s been a busy week.  And I haven’t really had any news to report. 

Okay, I confess… I’ve been spending a lot of my free time on MySpace.  It’s so addictive!  You know I have to check to see if any of your friends have left a comment.  Do I have any friend requests?  Has anyone added me?  You know it’s only thoughtful and polite to send all of my 239 a little note to say hello.  Right? 

And then there’s all the fun you can have making your own comment pictures. 

How ’bout this one?

I’ve been spending way too much time on this stuff, I know.  But it’s so much fun! I guess I really should get back to writing, huh? 

In the mean time, join me at MySpace!

 

  Nita

I’m so happy for my CP!!!  She made the finals in Passionate Ink’s Stroke of Midnight contest!  WooHoo! 

Go Seeley! Go Seeley! 

Her manuscript Where the Wolf Lies, is in the historical division.  I’ve seen the judge’s scoresheets, too.  Wow!  The were some great comments.  Here’s one about her hero:  “Luc is hawt! Wowsers…Let me say that again - Luc is soooo sexy!”   

She got this cool little button to put on her blog and her MySpace.  Check it out:

Isn’t it awesome?  Click on the button to see a list of all the finalists.

Congrats, Seeley!  You deserve it.  I’m crossing my fingers for you.  I hope you win!

Nita

happy feet remix

I don’t really care for rap music, but this is really cute. I had to share.
Nita

“If a man does not know what harbor he is seeking,
no light will be enough to guide him.”

It’s been taking sooooooooooo long to find an agent.  And too many of the big publishers won’t even accept unagented submissions.  I realized Friday morning that maybe I needed to reevaluate what I really want from my writing.  This is what I discovered:

1.  I want to write for the joy of writing.  No, I don’t expect to ever make a living at it, but it would be nice to supplement my income.

2.  I want to have my work published, and I’d like it available not only in ebook form, but print as well.  Too many family, friends, and readers/potential readers complained when How Faerie Dust is Made was only available in ebook. While I do believe that ebooks are growing more popular every day, I don’t want to eliminate the possibility of selling to the thousands of readers who prefer the traditional paperback. 

That’s the two most important things.  Well, guess what?  I don’t have to query hundreds of agents who take weeks and months to get back to me in order to achieve what I want.  Although it would be absolutely awesome, I don’t need the big guys like Harlequin, Avon, or Berkley to publish my work.  If the goal was to make a living at writing, I might need to wait for the big houses to give me a chance, but that’s not the goal. 

So….

I queried a small publisher on Friday.  Years ago I considered submitting to them, but at the time they were pretty new and very small.  Now they’ve grown quite a bit.  They have print-on-demand.  They even distribute through Amazon and Fictionwise.  They’ve been around for more than 5 years.  I checked… They have no adverse postings on Preditors and Editors.  I’ve also spoken with another author who has three books published with them.  She seemed quite satisfied. 

I emailed my newly polished query letter for A Real Husband – the one that includes the information about the 3rd place win in the Romancing the Tome contest.  I hit the send button and thought to myself, “Okay.  It may be a couple of weeks, but let’s see if they’re interested.”

Within about an hour I received a request for the entire manuscript.    Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the immediate response.  Friday evening I made the submission. 

Now I just have to wait and see if they like my manuscript as well as they liked the query letter.  LOL  I’ll let you know when I hear from them!

Nita

Hoping everyone has a wonderfully blessed Easter!

Nita