Colds and Quilts and Edits and Things

"I think the hardest part of writing is revising. And by that I mean the following: A novelist has to create the piece of marble and then chip away to find the figure in it." ~Chaim Potok

Well, thanks to lots of tea, chicken soup, and zinc, I think my cold is on its way out (thanks everyone for your well wishes and home remedies). I hope so...I have no time to be sick.

Hey, if you haven't popped over there already, go and visit Dru's blog, and check out her latest quilt project! Actually, it's a wall hanging ~ an experiment with using actual book covers on the quilt itself (and there's more cool stuff to come besides the covers. Just wait). She's one talented lady, right??

Finally, Marianne mentioned her Samhain editor's process the other day, and I thought I'd share my experiences here, with my own (whom I love, by the way). With One Night in Boston, my editor sent me the first round of edits 2 months before my scheduled release date and asked for a week's turn-around. Those edits focused mostly on content/plot tweaking/sentence restructuring. The next round came about 1 month before my release date and focused mainly on any sentence/wording problems we'd missed the first time through. Then it went to a FLE (Final Line Editor) who proofed just for grammar and mechanical errors we both missed.

My scheduled release date for One Night in Memphis (according to my "Coming Soon" page over at Samhain) is July 8. I've yet to receive my first round of edits, though, which makes me a little nervous, since that's only 6 weeks away or so. Maybe the manuscript is SO brilliant that my editor figures it needs little revising. Right? ;) Or maybe she's swamped and knows we've worked together before and the quick turn-around won't be a problem. Either way, I'm hoping I'll see it in my email inbox before too long!

Writers Wednesday: An Interview with Beth Wylde

Welcome to Writers' Wednesday! Today I'm featuring erotica/erotic romance author Beth Wylde (yes, that means she writes the steamy stuff, so some of her links are R-rated...be forewarned). Enjoy!

Hi, Beth, and thanks for being here today! Can you tell us about your latest writing project or published title?

I've got several things going on. My first release from Torquere Press, Switching Sides, came out in April. It's f/f erotica. In May I just had another release, from Phaze, that was supposed to be for an anthology, but they asked me to lengthen it so it could be published as a stand alone title. It's called The Big Four-0h! and it is m/f/f/m erotic romance. I also just signed a contract with Phaze for an adult fairytale rewrite titled A Little Taste of Red. It's based on the Little Red Riding Hood story but it is definitely not for the kiddies or the faint at heart. Very steamy!

Congrats on your writing success - that's a busy spring! So what advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

Write, write, write. Then don't be afraid to submit. We all get rejections and that's okay but you'll never get anywhere if you don't try. Also(and I'm speaking from experience here) do your homework and check out the publisher before you submit. I've been caught in one that was closing and one very poor publishing house. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Check with other authors and people who have worked there. See if they are happy. If you get a lot of bad reports then steer clear. A bad publisher is much worse than having no publisher at all.

Very true! OK, what kinds of books do you like to read? Who is your favorite author?

Love paranormal and erotica and if they are combined then that's even better. I'm a big fan of the werewolves and the vampires. I also love the f/f stuff. I just started reading some m/m but what I've read I've enjoyed. I'd love to see more of the big publishers take on the f/f stuff. Not sure I have just one favorite. I love Kim Harrison and J.R Ward for the paranormal. I've also really enjoyed Cassandra Gold's m/m and Jolie du Pre and Megan Rose for the f/f writing. Cass is in my critique group and she rocks.

What do you find most difficult about writing? What do you find most exciting or rewarding?

Most difficult is definitely finding the time to actually sit down and type things out. My three kids and part time job keep me busy, not to mention keeping things together when I'm at home. I often write things out longhanded, the kids don't seem to mind me sitting down with a notebook but they hate to see me at the computer. Then at night I try to type things out or use my dictation software to save my wrist a little wear and tear.

The most exciting is finding out what my characters are going to do next. I often get the ideas for a story, the basic intro and stuff but from there on out I kind of wing it and the characters tell me their next moves. A lot of times the story goes somewhere I didn't plan to go but I have to give my characters free range or the story stops dead.

The most rewarding has to be getting a good review, especially when a reader emails me and tells me they loved my book. It makes it all worthwhile.

How do you balance writing with the rest of your life?

Not sure I ever do balance it but I do the best I can. The writing is something I love to do and something that I have to do too. It keeps me sane. I have all these ideas running around in my head and I have to get them out.

Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, what do you do about it?

I think all writers suffer from block at least once in their lives. My problem usually comes from trying to force the story. If I relax and let it flow where it wants to I'm usually okay but when I try to bend the storyline in a certain direction I almost always get stuck or end up hating what I wrote. I also have an amazing critique group that helps me out. Brainstorming is wonderful when you do it with people that understand you. If all else fails I walk away or switch to a differnet project until inspiration strikes again.

Fun question, now: what is your favorite movie? Did it inspire your writing in any way?

My favorite movie of all time is The Lost Boys. I watched it over and over again and I think that is what got me into the vamps and other paranormal characters so much. One of my favorite genres to read is paranormal romance or erotica.

Thanks so much for sharing your story with us today, Beth. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

I can be found online in a lot of places. For info about my writing, great chat events or sneak peeks at my stories check out my website:
http://beth-wylde.tripod.com/ or my yahoo group where I host monthly events and often offer up free goodies http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/

I have yahoo IM at b.wylde and email at b.wylde@yahoo.com

Links to my guestbook and other things such as my Myspace page can be found on my website.

My current publishers are Torquere Press: http://www.torquerepress.com/
and Phaze at: http://www.phaze.com/

Check Out My Banners!

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." ~Walt Disney


Another short post, but today's is a fun one:

Check out the animated banners that the lovely Judy from LASR made for me! {The "is" is cut off in the first one, but that's only because I don't know how to adjust the borders on Blogger :)They're perfect for posting on websites with click-through links to my purchase page, right? Here's hoping, anyway. I have featured author spots booked for 3 different websites, for next month...we'll see how that translates into sales :)

It's Monday Again? Really?

"I'd like mornings better if they started later." ~Author Unknown

OK, you've been warned: it's a crazy time at school, I'm feeling under the weather, both my books are releasing in the next 10 days and so I'm doing a ton of promo...and thus my blog posts may not be any kind of wonderful.

Sorry.

However, I wanted to remind everyone about my giveaway contests, one of which will happen this Friday, May 23, to celebrate the print release of Lost in Paradise, and the other which will happen next Tuesday, May 27 to celebrate the print release of One Night in Boston. Make sure to stop in and see if you're the winner!!

Remedies, Anyone?

"My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass." ~Leslie Grimutter

I teach.

I have lots of students running around with germs all year long.

Yet I don't get sick from September through May, ever. I go through multiple bottles of hand sanitizer. I work out. I eat well. I get my sleep.

But inevitably, sometime around the end of school (last year it was late June), I get hit with a nasty cold. I think it's the build-up of months of stress, perhaps. This one set in yesterday.

I hate them. I have too much to do, and no time to deal with feeling lousy. Yet here I sit, tired, stuffy-headed, achy.

So my question today is, what's your best remedy for the common cold? I take zinc and vitamin C, I drink lots of water, I try to get a decent amount of sleep. But does anyone have any other good ways to get rid of this thing??

The Black Moment

"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite." ~C.S. Lewis

Well, I've just started the final stretch of One Night in Napa (current WIP), which means tackling The Black Moment. This, of course, is the point in the story where Everything Goes Terribly Wrong and the readers thinks there is No Way The Hero And Heroine Will Ever End Up Together. Black Moments are usually challenging for me to write, though this time I feel a little more secure in the way the story's going up to this point, so that helps.

One thing I have to remember, which a well-published author once told me, is that my sentences and paragraphs at this point should be short. Lots of tension, lots of movement. No dilly-dallying around with lengthy sentences of description. So that's what I'm keeping an eye on. It's only a first draft, though, and I really want to just push through it. My goal is to finish by the end of this month (and really, I'm only 12K words or so from my projected word count), and since I began it totally from scratch on March 1, that will mean 3 months to completely write a 60K word first draft. I'm pleased. After that, I'll let it sit for a month or so, and then do a first revision. My end goal, I think, will be 65K - 70K words. That seems to be a solid length for Samhain novels, which is where I'll pitch it.

***
And speaking of new works, Marianne's Yellow Rose novella "A Change of Heart" released this week, over at The Wild Rose Press. I had the pleasure of reading this gem when it was in its first stages, and as usual, she's written a charming story with great characters. She's gotten some terrific reviews on it, too, so take a look!

TGIF!

Welcome to the Friday Feast (so glad my tired brain doesn't have to come up with a scintillating post this morning...)~

Appetizer: What is the nearest big city to your home?
Only the biggest, baby - NYC itself (about 65 miles southeast). This in itself can be both a curse and a blessing, however...

Soup: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets?
Hmm. I think I'm pretty good, though it REALLY depends on the situation, the people involved, and the secret itself. Maybe an 8?

Salad: Describe your hair
Too funny, since I just visited the salon yesterday. It's short (I've always had short hair, can't stand long), straight, on the fine side, and as of 24 hours ago, it's brown with blonde highlights and bangs. I haven't had bangs in a while, but I was bored (I get bored with my hair really easily), so I told her to cut some in. But now they're too short. How long does it take bangs to grow, anyway?

Main Course: What kind of driver are you?
Decent. Sometimes I speed on the highway, but I'm pretty good at not letting myself get distracted. I have an impatient streak with other, incompetent drivers, that rises up now and again, though...

Dessert: When was the last time you had a really bad week?
Oh, I couldn't say. My life is pretty good ~ I'm healthy, like my job, have great friends and a loving family, and am seeing my dream of publishing books come true. Anything "bad" is minor (knocking on wood as I type this...)

Have a terrific day!!