Where I've Been and What's Next

Trying to get back into the groove of things this week. I've been gone for the past TWO weekends. First, I went to visit my BFF in Tennessee. We have known each other since kindergarten. She has watched me go from little girl to teenie-bopper to punk-rocker to grunge-industrial to work-out obsessed to college science nerd to married with kids....most of it long distance since she moved right after high school graduation. She was also the very first one to know about me writing Finding Angel (even before my husband, yep), and she was my first beta-reader. And a dang good one--because she loves me enough to tell me the truth!

Here we are, right before I left to come back home. Beastie 2 traveled with me, so she took the photo. I think I may have a professional photographer on my hands, if she's this good at taking pics at nine years old:

 She also took pics of Barbi's many cats....

The gray and white one is Shakespeare. Yes, if you have read Finding Angel you will recognize him :). And the other is his brother, Yankee Doodle. I have a feeling he's going to appear in a book somewhere, too. He's....unique. ;)

This is Mia. She liked to hang out in the guest room with me :).

And this is Macey Grace, who was Beastie 2's favorite:

And here is Beastie 2, after the trip, in the airport, when we found out we would be stuck there for a few hours because our flight was delayed due to weather....

Funny how the real pout becomes a silly pout when Mommy's trying to get a picture of the real one ;).

A few chaotic days at home, and then the family turned and headed to St. Pete Beach for the weekend, to spend some time with other friends:

That was the view outside our seventh floor hotel room.

And this is Beastie 2 and her friend, who I found out wants to be a writer. How cool is that? She skateboards, too, and I got to see a video of her doing her thing. Cool kid :).

And here is Beatie 1 (on the left) with his bud. This was pretty much the view of them most of the weekend:

He's going to be so mad at me for posting that picture, but it was about the only one I could catch of him. They were either in the water or noses in their Nintendo DSs. 

And now we are back home. It is time to get our homeschooling rolling again. (Can you hear the kids in the background boo-hissing?) And time for me to get back to editing the sequel to Keven Newsome's next book in the Winter series. So far, it's a great story! Not that I am the least bit surprised. If you have not read Winter, well, what's the hold-up????

As for my writing, I've taken these last couple of weeks off completely. My brain was nearly fried from all the editing, after finishing Seeking Unseen and rewriting so much of it! Much-needed break. Updates on that project should be coming up soon. Still hoping to make a Sept 1st release, but I have a feeling it will be a bit late. Not much to finish, but we do it RIGHT at Splashdown, not rushed, so just hang on a little bit longer...

The "Me" Factor

I've written about 25,000 words of a novel that I started several months ago. The project has been very stop and go, as other things need tending, like art projects and short stories, and pretty much life in general. One of the things that has stopped my progress on this particular work is what might be called writer's block. I say "might" because I know it's not.

Early on in the writing of this novel, I was sending chapters to a crit partner of mine. Shawna has always been very honest with me about my writing, which is something I love about her. If a scene or whatever falls flat, she tells me. If my wording is wonky, she tells me. If I'm putting too much in or leaving too much out, she tells me. At one point, I had sent her a chapter and she told me it just wasn't working.

"Not powerful enough. It's missing something."

After some thought and a few emails back and forth, she finally figured out what was missing.

"You," she said. "Everything that makes your writing yours is what's missing."

I'd been focused on trying to write a story I thought would sell to a particular publisher that would be opening for submissions soon. I wanted very much to be taken by them, and I found myself holding back because this story has the potential to turn rather dark. I was trying to not let it because I didn't think the publisher would go for it.

And the story suffered.

When I went back and wrote as "me" it all started coming together.

A similar experience just happened this week. A local sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention is coming up, and they are taking submissions for designs for the official con t-shirt. I decided to give it a shot. The problem, again, came about when I tried figuring out what *they* would want. Everything I sketched was awful. I crumpled up page after page.

And then it hit me--do something I would like. Don't worry about them. If my design is meant to win, it will. If not, I've done the best I could, rather than a bad attempt at what they're looking for. Immediately, the design came together.

I have no idea yet if either of these projects will be selected, but I am satisfied to be putting my all into them. It turns tedious story-telling (or drawing) into a flow of creative energy when I let go of preconceptions and go with what is in my heart.

Do you ever find yourself stuck on a project because you get side-tracked by thinking more about the person on the receiving end?