We are a week past DragonCon and thankfully back to a normal routine and (mostly) caught up on sleep. Dragon was, as always, a great time. Lots of awesome panels, new friends, amazing costumes, and almost round the clock fun.  And I avoided Con Crud. Always a good thing.

Unfortunately the weeks leading up to Dragon did not go as planned. Life butted in and kept me from being able to finish all the things I wanted to get done. But that happens sometimes and all you can do is pick up where you left off and keep going.

Added to that, the novella I’m working on took a decidedly left turn and completely changed focus on me. One on hand, that’s good, as the novella will be much better when it’s finished, but that also means it won’t come out until closer to the end of the year.

Next week I’ll post a little bit about a new ‘method’ I’m using to outline/plan/prep for projects.  Have a great week!

Time is just flying by. Here we are near the end of May. School is about to end for us and everyone is ready for a break, although the summer isn’t looking much calmer.

Here is a quick status on what I’m working on:

I am almost, so close I can taste it, done with my novel. A few more rounds of edits and incorporating some comments from my beta readers and it will be good to go. When I get a little closer to the final version I’ll post an update with a synopsis. This one was a lot of fun to write.

I’m also working on a epic-quest novella I plan to put out later this summer. I have three short stories ready to go that will be included, just have to finish up the novella and run it through my editor. If things go well with this one, it will be the intro to a longer series involving dragons, teenagers with an attitude and more. More on that one later too.

Along with the two projects I have the usual family stuff planned as well. Vacations, summer camps for my daughter, and starting rehersals for her Irish Dance Studios December production of the Irish Nutcracker – Nothing like Christmas music in June.

Plus there might be a surprise or two along the way, and as always, DragonCon to look forward to at the end of August to mark the end of summer.

Good thing I don’t mind being busy!

Oh – and I’m also kinda looking forward to the Solo moving coming out next week too. Fingers crossed on that one. I’ll post my thoughts in a couple weeks after we get a chance to go see it.

The holidays are over, we are part of the way through January and this is the first time in almost a month I got the chance to just sit and write.  I wasn’t completely worthless through the holidays, I did some research, played with a few scenes here and there on a couple different things.

But what I mean by writing is sitting in the quiet, nobody around, and put words on paper.  It doesn’t matter if they suck.  I can fix them later.  I just want words on paper.   That was this morning was for – two hours of sitting with just me and the keyboard and typing.

It was wonderful.

I should clarify – it was me, the quiet and the dog.  On nicer days (anything above 35 and not raining) I sit outside to write while he runs crazy through the yard.  His barks and antics make a nice background to my typing.

Although this morning he surprised me a bit.  It’s been so long since I was able to sit outside and write he decided he wanted to play some as well.  I was in the middle of an intense argument between characters when a cold nose dropped a tennis ball on my keyboard.

Talk about getting pulled out of the scene.   Fortunately after a couple throws he found something else to chase and ran off again.

I think he missed the quiet writing time too.

So, this first morning fully back into the routine was a success.  Its good to be back.

It’s so nice to see it raining.  After a really long hot summer that just wouldn’t quit we’ve had almost a solid week of rain.  I can finally breath again, the dust and pollen has been pretty well drowned.  The cooler temps the rain brought in are nice.  Living in the south has its advantages, but 7 months of 90+ gets a bit old after a while.  For me at least.

I like to sit outside in my backyard when I write.  I can watch the dog run around chasing scents and the occasional squirrel dumb enough to cross into his territory.  On cooler mornings I wrap up in a blanket, and type away until my fingers go numb.

On rainy days like today I wrap up in my blanket and sit on my porch to write.  It’s not the same, but it’s not bad either.  Just a different perspective.  I can write longer – my fingers won’t go numb as quickly, and the dog just stares outside, annoyed the rain keeps him from his morning run.   Well, he could go outside if he wanted, but he hates getting rain on his hair, unless a squirrel is dumb enough to cross into his territory.

A steady rain falling through leaves is my music this morning, no need for itunes.  Time to get to it – a lynch mob is coming for my main character, it’s time to see if she can outrun them or if she has to talk her way out of the mess she’s made, if she can.

‘Till next time.

Good grief what a week.  Between a cracked windshield and water coming through the bedroom ceiling it has been one for the record books.  It was then further exacerbated by a crisis at the day job.   All this the week after we come back from vacation.

The windshield is fixed, the water leak not what we thought it was, and therefore not as bad to fix, and the crisis at work is under control.  But living through it all was rather painful.

I was never so glad to see Friday.

Fortunately this weekend I was able to take some time to decompress and de-stress.  I also was able to fit in some time writing and it always helps clear my head to by put of my characters through their own crazy situations and awful weeks.  That’s always a fun afternoon/evening.  🙂

Here’s hoping next week is a little less of a disaster – I don’t know if my characters can take me having another week like the last one.  LOL

Last thing I knew it was getting close to school starting. Now Halloween is over and the time changed again.  Good grief.

It could have something to do with getting buried in the day to day routine with school and work and trying to get a project finished. This latest project was really intense, But it’s now (fingers crossed there). Now it’s time to take a deep breath, clean out a few cobwebs and…start a new project. lol

I’ve also got some catching up to do around here; nothing major just a lot of little things on the to-do list.

For my next project I’ve got the framework and the main character set and ready to go so all I have to do is jump in and see where it takes me.

Hopefully not past Christmas.

As I sit here on this pretty Sunday morning I see Spring has well and truly sprung.

The blossoms on the pear trees have fallen and the tree is fully leafed out.  The dogwoods are in full bloom and my azaleas are about to pop.

The breezes have softened and the damp earth smells like new beginnings.

This is the perfect time to start a new project.  Looking out my windows and seeing all the blossoms and green where a few weeks ago it was all brown and forlorn.  For once the blank page beckons and encourages instead of worries.  It calls out to be written, to fill the page with bursts of colorful characters and sounds and scents of conflict and resolution.

Bring on spring

Welcome to my world.  Here you could find yourself transported to a different land where magic is a crime or discover your neighbor is a witch.  In either case strange things are sure to abound.  Stop by and take a look at some of the samples/shorts I have or feel free to leave a comment.  I would love to hear from you!