Progress Report #2

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
-- Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) US writer

I'm distilling. Yesterday I finished reading Sandra's book (oh, yeah, it's good) and wrote her a blurb. What's really cool? This was my very first blurb. Yes, I've done a few reviews, of both books and movies, but I've never been asked to blurb someone's book and then have it printed somewhere for the world to see. I always thought that would be the first milestone of my success - not just having the books in print, but being deemed worthy to blurb someone. Sigh. I've made it. I can move on to the next step now.

So, the next step is to get another book in print, right? Right. JT took a few minutes out of her vacation to stop by and give me a virtual kick, so this morning I'm diving back in. Gotta be ready for next week and the BMWs. Also gotta get this manuscript in some semblance of order so that I can move on to the synopsis, make sure everything jives, have JT comb through it and then send it on to one of my independent readers. Whew, I've got a long to-do list for this book, don't I? So what am I doing here??

Music to Write By: The CD player is cranked up, and I'm ready to go. Now playing - Wagner (that's pronounced VAHG-ner, by the way), Die Walkure: Ride of the Valkyries. Now that's what I call jump-starting your engine.

I'm going to go write a book now. You go read one. It's good for you.

=) JB

I can breathe ...

For the first time since Saturday, I don't have to work early or run any errands, I don't have a volleyball match to attend tonight, and it's not raining. Yet. We'll see what Ernesto does to us - although from all reports he's heading up the east coast, and we might get a little of the western fringes of him as far north (relatively speaking) as we are. Nothing like this time last year.

I won't lie and say I've accomplished a tremendous amount of work on the WIP so far this week. That's on tomorrow's agenda. My top priority at the moment is to finish reading my pre-release, electronic copy of Sandra Ruttan's Suspicious Circumstances. I'm not giving anything away - you'll just have to read my blurb when it goes up on her site (btw, love the new look, Sandra!). There are a few accolades from some of our fellow authors up there already, and hopefully we'll be adding mine in the next day or so. Let's just say Suspicious Circumstances is going to be a nice little addition to a Killer Year.

Front Page news! Well, of sorts. My review for Elizabeth George's With No One As Witness garnered a mention on the front page of Reviewing the Evidence this week. I feel special. To read the review, click here.

My mother-in-law is the queen when it comes to forwarding all those little funny email things. Most of them I roll my eyes at, but I thought this one was worth the effort --

For those of you distressed over the recent heat wave, here's a little something to think about!

Hilarious.

It's very quiet at my house. Almost too quiet. Where's that silly remote? Ahhh, there we go. Nothing like a little Toccata and Fugue to get your motor going.

I'm bound and determined that the next three days are going to be ultimately productive for me. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

In the meantime, read a book!

=) JB

Mean Streak

Little Bit and I are having a cup of coffee. Yes, I know, she's only 12, and 12-year-olds shouldn't drink coffee, what kind of a mother am I? Believe me, it's so diluted and loaded down with French vanilla creamer and sugar that you wouldn't recognize it as a cup of coffee at all. Starbucks, it ain't. Mine, on the other hand, is full strength mud, also loaded down with French vanilla creamer and sugar, but undiluted. Yessir, that's what gets me going in the morning. Not every morning. Today I made the coffee because the WGH is going to work later, and he must have his Java in the mornings. The Boy likes it, too, on occasion, just as light and sweet as mine but since he's 15 he gets the undiluted stuff. It's not like it's going to stunt his growth - the kid's already over 6 feet tall, for Pete's sake.

I feel guilty. Having met a particular author of a particular book I just finished reading, I'm really having a hard time writing the review for it, mainly because the book ... well, let's just say it didn't live up to my expectations. According to our editor, if a book sucks, we're allowed to say so. But I don't think of myself as having a mean bone in my body, so I feel guilty saying this book was awful when I really, really like the author. There's some discussion going around cyberspace about this - our expectations given our knowledge of an author and our disappointment when their books don't measure up. And I'm sure there are those out there who think the same of my books, and that's fine. It's a matter of taste. My first review was on a book I didn't particularly like but was well written, and I said those very words ("it's a matter of taste") in my review. This one's a little tougher. It's not that I think I'm so much better, not by a long shot. This woman has about 24 or 25 books out, which is a monumental accomplishment in this day and age. I just ... didn't get it. Sigh. I've written the review, and will probably send it in as is, but I'll probably feel horrible about it for a long time to come. I tried to be nice, really I did, but it was hard for me to find many positive things about the book, and for this I feel guilty. Okay, so I have a skewed sense of logic. I just find it hard to be objective about things sometimes.

JT is on vacation (a real vacation, not a working one) so I'm going to have to kick my own seat for the next week and get some work done on this endless rewrite. With any luck, by the time you get really tired of hearing about this WIP, it will be a finished manuscript.

Music of the Moment: Three Days Grace, Time of Dying. Surprised you, didn't I? It's The Boy - he's playing it on the other computer. I have yet to crank up the boom box, but will when I settle in to work once I'm home from the grocery. Ah, yes, real life intervenes.

Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB

Empty-Headed

I did something unusual this morning. While I was on my walk, I actually cleared my head and spent some time not thinking about anything - just enjoying the sunshine and fresh air and the sounds of the morning.

That doesn't happen for me very often. Usually my head is filled with all kinds of thoughts and worries and ideas that tumble around each other and get mixed up and jostled and ...

Sometimes it's good to just slow down and take a breath.

Last night's BMWs meeting was liberating. After much discussion (much, much discussion - thank you, ladies), I'm making some further changes to this manuscript that are going to give me a little more freedom and leeway with the plot and characters. Whoo-hoo!

Music of the Moment: Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 - Allegro

Tons of strings. Ya gotta love classical music. Okay, so some of ya don't gotta, but to each his own.

To all my friends in the blogosphere: I know I've been neglecting you lately, and I hope you'll forgive me. I'm going to catch up with you very soon.

It's gonna be a good day. Read a book!

=) JB

Funny, this doesn't taste like I remember ...

Is it just me, or did Post change their ALPHA-BITS cereal? I could have sworn these things were sweet when I ate them as a kid. Now they taste like Cheerios. Not that I don't like Cheerios, but when my mouth wanted this sweet taste that I remember loving a long time ago, it was a little disappointed with what it got instead.

Work in Progress. I have actually written two new scenes for the WIP in the last two days. Yay, me, to quote my oldest. The illustrious BMWs meet tonight, and I'm trying to piece together my "pages". JT and I realized today that we haven't seen each other in a month. That's just crazy.

I had lunch Saturday with the GP, whom I also hadn't seen in a while. What fun reconnecting is. She sent me a link to the most unbelievable thing I've seen in a long time. You guys have to check this out! Go to the bottom of the page and click on either the QuickTime or the Windows MediaPlayer link to see the video. It's worth watching, if only to wonder, "Would I be happy living like this?" Trust me, it's a deeper question than you might think. One of the GP's brothers lives in the country where this place is, for whatever he does for a living (my short-term memory has failed me yet again). It's astounding, really. Just watch the video.

I'm listening to my Classical Thunder CD again. We're up to Pines of Rome on Disc II. Great motivational music.

And on that note ...

Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB

Progress Report

It's been a little crazy around here the past few days. I'm happy to report that I did make some tangible progress on the WIP on Friday.

On a sadder note, The Tall One lost one of her classmates in a terrible car wreck Saturday morning. It's been a rough couple of days for my kids and their friends, and especially more so for the family of this young lady. It's a grim reminder of how short life is, and how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us. If you don't do anything else today, be sure to hug someone you love, okay?

Back to work. I've been working on an outline, of sorts, mapping out each chapter of the book as far as POV character and a little about what's going on with respect to the plot. I've found some holes that need to be filled, which is good because it means I can write something new and get motivated again.

Wish me luck!

Music of the Moment: Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger, 1882-1961)

My high school band director was a Grainger fan. I've been playing that CD I found with the two Holst pieces and the Vaughan-Williams piece that we played when I was in school, three of my favorite pieces of orchestral music. Sigh. I have so many, it's hard to rank them. Anyway, I'm letting the music filter into my system again. It renews me.

Do something to renew yourself. It's good for you.

=) JB

It's good to be me again!

I went for a walk this morning and had another epiphany about the WIP. Sometimes the best ideas come from the strangest places. Today, it was a group of construction workers.

Now, follow my logic here.

They're men. One of my characters is a man who has a dark and deviant side that only one other person in the world knows the full extent of. To write him effectively, I have to get inside his head. I have to think like a man.

I know. Scary concept.

As I was walking, I pictured having a conversation with one of these construction workers - an regular, hard-working guy - and I was dreaming up questions I could ask him that would help me understand how men think.

I started thinking about who this character is. He's a man who is leading a double life and hiding an unbelievable secret. And as I was mentally listing this character's various attributes, it occurred to me that I need to write a few more scenes that portray his "good" side, so that when the reader is shown his deviant side it becomes more of a contrast.

Well, duh.

Not an earth-shattering epiphany, by any stretch. But enough of one that I actually got motivated and excited about this book again, something I've been missing the past couple of weeks.

Now that my back is all nice and pain-free once more, I can settle down and get to work. Yesterday I made some tremendous progress, rearranging scenes, tightening up some timing issues, and making the whole thing flow a little more smoothly.

Today, I get to write new stuff, which will make the old stuff make sense.

Call me Hannibal Smith, but I love it when a plan comes together.

Do good for you things today!

=) JB

Who's the grown-up now?

My mother called me yesterday. She was having a moment. I won't go into details, but it involved my father, boiled-over mushroom soup and a lack of cigarettes. She's quitting smoking and I'm really proud of her efforts, but like all reformed smokers she has those moments where she just needs a cigarette. Since she didn't have one, she called me.

At one point during the conversation, she said, "You're not on your blog today."

Sometimes I forget that my parents read this stuff. That makes me feel a little like I'm 16 again and have to watch what I say, lest their image of me as their sweet, innocent daughter (which I have carefully cultivated over the years) be tarnished.

Heh. I know, you're all laughing right now. So am I.

What is it about our parents that even at 39 we still want to impress them? Look at me, I'm a grown-up.

Pfft. Sometimes my children act more grown up than I do.

Then there are days like yesterday, when that dose of reality hits you full in the face. My mother called me because she needed some kind of ... stabilization, maybe. Some kind of reassurance. She just needed me to say, everything's going to be okay, Mom. And I guess I did.

Holy cow. I am a grown-up.

=) JB

You guys are the best ...

I'm so touched by the outpouring of good wishes I've received over the past week. You guys rock, you know that? Thank you so much! (The back is better, by the way. Still not 100%, but we're working on it.)

I've been spending this morning trying to catch up on some things I've been neglecting for the past couple weeks - blog reading, Bible reading, book reading, email reading ... um, do I detect a pattern here? Just finished two more reviews for RTE (thanks very much to Phil Hawley for his lovely comment on my first review) and got those sent off to our illustrious editor.

The kids are back in school. Activities, festivities and sporting events commence this week (volleyball on Thursday, football on Friday). I love this time of year, the chance to do the "Mom" thing. The Boy doesn't think it quite right that I call myself a "soccer Mom" - I had to explain that the term is just a broad label for us stay-at-home Moms who cart their kids around all over the place. It sounds better than "taxi driver". Plus, saying "soccer Mom" is easier than saying "soccer-volleyball-basketball-band Mom".

My to-do list for the week includes resuming work on the WIP rewrite. I'm hoping I'll get motivated and get lots done while the WGH is off on his vacation.

Will keep you posted.

Read a book. It's good for you!

=) JB

G.M.S.T. Part 2

"I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."
-- Maya Angelou

So this week I suffered a minor setback in the Getting My Stuff Together department. The WGH hurt his back at work on Monday (first day back from vacation, how ironic). Not to be outdone, I hurt mine on Tuesday. Stupid, really. But I've been taking it easy this week, trying to heal. It's been a slow process. May even have to see the doctor tomorrow. I know, awwww. But feel no sympathy for me, good citizens - I'm fine, really. Not moving very fast, but fine. Really.

Only five down. I did take advantage of having to spend some time sprawled out on the bed with a heating pad on my back. Great position in which to READ. My New Year's resolution? Remember? A book a week for the whole year? I thought I was waaaaaay behind. Turns out I'm only five down. We're starting week 30, and I've read 25 books so far this year. That's actually probably a record for me, at least in adulthood. I probably read three books a week as a kid, and I know people who probably read three books a day now. But 25 books in 30 weeks is pretty darn good for me. AND, with the kids going back to school this week and the WGH on vacation starting Friday, I'm thinking I might actually get caught up on that resolution. Lord knows my TBR pile could use a little bulldozing. You don't even want to know.

My first "real" review. My first review for Reviewing the Evidence is up, and you can read it here. Not bad, if I say so myself. One of my fellow BMWs said my review was so vivid she probably won't read the book (she doesn't do dark). Toot, toot! (That's my own horn, there.)

Reviews for With No One As Witness and The PMS Murder for RTE will be going to our editor in the next day or two. I'll post the links when they're up.

For now, I'm making my G.M.S.T. list for the week. I'm kinda looking forward to having my act together again.

Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB

G.M.S.T.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.
-- Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) US pilot

G.M.S.T. stands for "Getting My Stuff Together", which is what I'm trying to do this week. Within the next five days, the kids will all be back at school (9th grade and under goes 1/2 day tomorrow, everyone goes a full day Monday, they're off Tuesday, then back full-time on Wednesday). Little Bit is supposed to be doing her laundry (she's not). The WGH is getting ready for his annual father-and-son (his father, not his son) fishing trip. In the next couple of weeks, I might actually be able to get back into the school-year routine I was so excited about this time last year: five or six hours in the morning to write, four hours to do the part-time job in the afternoon, three or four hours in the evening to read or do ... whatever life throws at me. Bliss!

Today's agenda consisted of doing a little work for my Sisters in Crime chapter. It's heck being in charge sometimes. There's the snafu with the bank account to deal with, plus we're cosponsoring a writer's workshop on Saturday and I'm moderating a panel. Fun stuff!

I finally finished reading Elizabeth George's With No One As Witness and will be writing a review for Reviewing the Evidence in the next couple days.

Next on the to-do list is updating my own website, plus continuing to push forward on the WIP, which is coming along nicely. JT has come up with a plan for the future of my career. I'm so glad I have her to keep me on track.

The CD player has been quiet for a while. We'll get it cranking again here in the next few days. For now, the only sounds I hear are the chachings of the ol' cash registers at the various and sundry stores at which I must brave the crowds to do the back-to-school ... argh, do I have to say the word? ... shopping. And we all know how I feel about that.

Read a book. It's good for you.

=) JB