CampNaNoWriMo Totals

Whew! It's the first day of May, and I'm thrilled. I enjoy the beginning of each new month since they always feel fresh with possibilities.

Last month I did CampNaNoWriMo, and I set an ambitious goal of 60,000 words. I'm pleased to say that I reached my goal! Woohoo!

I ended April with 60,002 words. 43,601 of those were toward a novel I wrote The End on last night, and 16,401 of those words were on On Thin Ice, the second book in my Super Powered series.

For more stats, since I love them, this is my progress on my goal of writing 1,000 words a day.

84926 / 365000 words. 23% done!

This month, I'm switching gears a little and lightening my writing efforts a little to focus on editing what I wrote last month. I'm also hoping to read more this month.

How about you guys? What are your goals for May?

Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance Reading Challenge

Here's my list for Book Chick City's Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance 2013 Reading Challenge. I'm so glad they combined my two favorite genres. Hopefully I'll have better luck than last year and the year before! I'll be updating this list each month as I complete new novels. Let me know if you're participating as well!

To Be Read:

1. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews
2. Dark and Stormy Knights Anthology
3. On the Prowl Anthology
4. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
5. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
6. River Marked by Patricia Briggs
7. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
8. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
9. Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
10. Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton
11. Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
12. Edge of Destiny by J. Robert King
13. Stripped by Julie Leto
14. Wynter's Captive by Milly Taiden
15. Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig 
16.    
17.  
18.  
19.  
20.  
21. 
    

Completed (in order of read):

1. Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein
2. Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck
3. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Naughty New Years Blog Hop + Winner Announced

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all started it off naughtily! ;-) If so, let's see if we can keep that vibe going all year.

Hmm... Naughty New Years... My naughty New Years resolution for 2013 is simple. I want to write a lot more sexy werewolves. Yum! I'm not setting myself up for failure with that one. *grin* My non-writing resolution is to read more this year. Yep, you guessed it, I'm looking for sexy werewolves. Know of any?

Skin Deep

Passions sizzle even between a feline and a wolf...

Angelique had no idea her black panther tattoo would force her to abandon the love of her life—Connor O’Reilly—but she’s determined to keep him safe no matter how much it hurts. Her tattoo doubles as her feline familiar: loving, protective, dangerous, and with a life of its own. It’s also her deepest secret and draws enemies who desire its power for themselves.

Connor has no idea why Angelique left him, but he’s determined to win her back. As a werewolf, he has secrets of his own. Now his alpha is ready to force him to pair with an ex-girlfriend he can’t stand unless he can find Angelique and claim her as his mate. But even as their secrets threaten to keep them apart, hidden enemies seek to destroy their chance at love forever.

So, how about you? What are your naughty resolutions for 2013?

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Also, the grand prizes for the hop include a $100 gift card to EdenFantasys and a digital gift basket of 10 erotica books. All comments across the blog tour are entered. For more information on that, click here.

Writer Wednesday: Goals Part 2

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Welcome back to Writer Wednesday! I hope you're having a great holiday season. I know I am.

Last week's Writer Wednesday post discussed looking over 2011's goals and seeing how you did with them. This week, we'll continue with goals but focus on planning for 2012.

First of all, one thing I've learned is that I don't do well with having like 16 goals on my list. I tend to only accomplish half of them, no matter what they are. Maybe I should've been more fierce about my goals, but I think more often than not that I just dump the kitchen sink onto the list and decide I'll figure out what I'll do. Not a great way to go about goal setting. *grins*

This year, I'm going to write down only what I really want to accomplish. If I accomplish more than what's on the list, that's awesome! But I think it's important not to get sidetracked. Like I said last time, things may come up that we don't expect, and if they do then adjust the goals and continue forward. For example, I'd had in mind that I would write, edit, and query a few novels this year, but I was accepted to Changeling Press and instead have been writing novellas.

So, how do we figure out what goals we should be working toward? That's pretty simple. Where do you want to be a year from now? Five years from now? Got that picture in your mind? Good! Now plot how you'll be able to get there.

For example, if you want to be published, it's important to learn your craft, write a book, find some good critique partners, do research about the publishing industry, write a query letter, and query agents (and/or editors). That's not something you can accomplish in an afternoon, so then you'd break it down into steps.

1. Read three books on writing.
2. Finish a book by (insert date here) by writing X words a day.
3. Join a writer's organization (like RWA) and meet other writers to become critique partners with.

... and so on.

Here are a few links I've come across about goal setting. Enjoy!

Getting Out of Your Own Way – Goal Setting for the Writer by Theresa Meyers

Marrying Marketing and Writing Goals by Monica Valentinelli

From NaNo to Submission: a 90-Day Plan by Suzanne Johnson - True, this one doesn't necessarily fit into goal setting, but I think it's useful to see other people lay out their goals.

What are your goals for 2012?

Writer Wednesday: Goals Part 1

(Since it's so close to Christmas, I'm cross posting this and Part 2 with Castles and Guns. :-))

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

I know it might be hard to think of this, especially if you've still got some Christmas shopping to do *raises hand*, but the end of the year is almost upon us. One of the things I've begun thinking about as New Year's Eve approaches is what I've done this year, how effective I was, and what I'd like to do next year. I'm getting a jump on my goal setting since one of the things I've learned about myself is I'm better with a plan.

I honestly think it's important as a writer to have goals and to know where we're heading. Sometimes you just might not end up where you'd planned, which has been the case with me. There are quite a few things on my 2011 Goals list that I didn't accomplished, but then again, there are also several items not on there that I did. I could easily say that if I'd stuck with what I'd planned, I probably wouldn't be where I am, but that discussion is for a different day.

So, what's first? I'd suggest going over your 2011 goals list and see what you've written down. Where are you in comparison?

• Look at where you are goal-wise today. Are you unpublished and finishing up your NaNoWriMo project or polishing a query letter? Published and working on a proposal for a new book? Right now, I'm an author on an upcoming deadline.
• What's something you have accomplished this year? Did you finish your first novel? Find a publisher? I'm published and slowly getting the hang of social networking! :-)
• What's something you haven't accomplished that you wish you had? For me, I didn't read as much as I'd have liked to, and I ended up not working on a couple projects I was looking forward to.

Now that we've looked at that, we can start thinking about next year. What are we hungry to say we've completed in 2012?

What goals have you accomplished this year (or are on track to complete)?

Back on Track

I posted this yesterday at Castles & Guns.

I've had high hopes for the year, and so far things are going all right. Aside from the illness being tossed around like hot potatoes in my household. Argh!

Anyways, January began strong in my mind. I started writing a novella, editing a novel, and focusing on a healthier lifestyle. It began well, but I had a hard time working on editing and writing the novella. Fitness though, went great. Then stress hit hard at the end of January due to editing the novella for a submission deadline, family coming into town, etc. Things fell apart with what I was doing.

February basically was about stabilizing and dealing with my stress and family, as well as attended DigiCon at SavvyAuthors. Now it's March. Part of me feels like the year is starting to get away from me. With the beginning of March, I decided to get things back under control. I'm back on track with working out and eating better, and I'm starting to get it together again with editing too. Although, I'd much rather be writing. *grins*

Anyways, the point of the blog is it's a new month. If there are things in your life that aren't going as well as you'd hoped, there's time to get back on track. Don't feel like the year is messed up just because two months have passed. There is still a lot of time in the year to make this one great.

I read an article recently about dividing the year up in quarters. January-March, April-June, July-September, October-December. I think that's a great idea. The article said focus on smaller, specific goals and not trying to do something huge within those quarters. Want to write the first draft within April-June? Edit in July-September? Heck, even lose 10 lbs or read 5 books in a single quarter.

So how are you doing with your goals this year? Any that you're getting back on track with?

So far, so good!

This year has started pretty well! I'm a decent way into the cyberpunk romance novella I'm writing (and loving), and well, I've started editing my post-apocalyptic paranormal romance novel. I know I need to buckle down with it if I want to get it edited by my hopeful due date. Also, my desk is somewhat clean, and I've already started figuring out what projects I'd like to accomplish throughout the rest of the year. Woo!

Pretty soon, I'll be putting in an update with my webmistress so you'll actually see new content on my website. What a shocker! lol That's another good idea for this year, not leave my website so sad and not updated. I think that depends on the progress I make with getting published though. =)

Hope everyone else has had a great start of the year so far as well!

The Year in Review... and Looking forward to 2011

Happy New Year everyone!

Wow, I can't believe that the year is almost over. So much has happened this year. I've made writer friends and critique buddies. Revised a few different WIPs. Read 26 books. Co-founded the awesome blog, Castles & Guns. And I wrote two books! I also finally delved fully into the world of querying agents. I'd queried in the past, but it hadn't been anywhere close to the scale that I did in 2010. And okay, I haven't found an agent yet, but I'm certain good things will be happening within the new year. So much awesome stuff has happened recently, things that have kind of been building blocks toward better and more.

Yes, years end brings optimism for a more successful upcoming year, but that's great, especially when one acts and makes a plan to stick to what they want to accomplish in the new year. I've formed my New Years Resolutions more like goals and have tried to decide what I really want to achieve in the upcoming year. With my "goals list" for 2010, I wrote down quite a bit of stuff I didn't get to. Maybe because I didn't work as hard at the beginning of the year as I did at the end of it, but I also think I acted more like throwing in everything and the kitchen sink, and I decided later what I really wanted to pick out of it. The bad point is it's easy to get overwhelmed and think I'm not getting much accomplished, even if I got a decent amount of stuff done.

Anyways, so what am I trying for in 2011? I'm going to read at least 24 books. I want to write and revise at least 3 novels, write and revise some novellas, query the novels and novellas that I write and revise, possibly attend a conference (I'm torn between it and a Caribbean family vacation cruise.), and keep up and get better with social networking.

So what are your goals?

Horror & Urban Fantasy 2011 Reading Challenge

Edit: So I didn't do great this year. There's always next year!

Okay, so here's my list. As with the Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge last year, I'll be updating this as I complete new novels, which won't begin until 2011. But I can't wait! Let me know if you're participating as well.

To Be Read:

1. Dark and Stormy Knights Anthology
2. On the Prowl Anthology
3. Touch of Darkness by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
4. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews
5. Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
6. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
7. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
8. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
9. Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance
10. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
11. Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
12. The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis
13. Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein

Completed (in order of read):

1. Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas
2. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
3. The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton
4. Vampires and Other Monstrous Creatures by Julius Pemberton-Smythe
5. Night Life by Rob Thurman
6. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
7. WebMage by Kelly McCullough
8. Touch of Madness by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
9. Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green
10. Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton
11. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

A New Reading Challenge on the Horizon

Okay, so I had a plan to broaden my reading to step outside of urban fantasy and work on some of the many other genres of romance books I have. Contemporary romances, historical romances, romantic suspenses, etc. Guess I'm doing the exact opposite of that! I found this other awesome reading challenge hosted by http://www.bookchickcity.com that I can't resist. This year, I've been participating in the Speculative Fiction reading challenge, which worked nicely since I read quite a few paranormal romances, a romance with steampunk elements, a dystopian, a horror, and, of course, urban fantasies. I read some new authors, and so this year, I'll probably read the new releases by my favorites as well as delve into older ones by authors I found and liked this year. Woo!

The button is on the side with the sexy, redheaded vampire. If you'd like to sign up, go to http://www.bookchickcity.com/2010/11/sign-up-horror-urban-fantasy-reading.html.

I'll put up the beginnings of my reading list in a day or so!

Updates

This month, I'm going to try to get back to my rhythm of posting blogs and participating on twitter, etc as I'd planned throughout this year. I've also gotten back to going to the gym, writing, etc. Here's for getting back on track (again, lol)! Things are now starting to stabilize a little, which is a relief.

I've registered for the RWA National Conference. Woohoo! It'll be my first one. I'm sad that Nashville was flooded since I'm originally from there and spent most of my life there. I'd planned on going to the conference in Nashville initially, but with a few hefty expenses arising, I reluctantly decided it wasn't going to be feasible. Now that the conference is in Central Florida, I'm able to go for sure, and I'd be stupid to not go.

On a sidenote, I've added Bob Mayer's blog to my blog list. He has a Warrior Writer class that I took online at the beginning of the year, which was awesome. Very good information.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. =)

The Reading Blitz Continues...

And surprisingly, I've already finished reading my "reading quota" of the month so far with it being just over the middle of the month. Wow! I'm a little surprised. Those two books being Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews and Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur. Both were great. I actually finished Full Moon Rising last night during the wee hours of the night. This year I've been trying to read more, and I made an insane goal at the beginning of the year to read at least 24 books this year, making it two books a month. Though I really have a stack of 30 sitting in the TBR pile. I've actually read 8 books so far (7 spec fiction and 1 historical category romance). I'm amazed by that number, especially considering it's only April. My husband reads very fast, so I get frustrated by my lack of being able to speed through pages since I have a ton of books. And there are always new ones coming out. It makes me very pleasantly surprised that it's one more goal that I've been keeping with this year.

Rising up from the depths...

So things have been pretty interesting around my household recently, and my sleep schedule has been all over the map. I've barely been able to get near my computer to put in updates and other things here. It's crazy. On a happy note, I'm going to be going to Disney World on Thursday! Woohoo! I'm excited about that. It'll be hubby's first time going to the Magic Kingdom. Random... yes. lol

I also finished reading Ilona Andrews's Magic Strikes about a week ago. It was REALLY awesome. I honestly can't wait to read the next one that comes out in a couple months. Now I'm reading Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur. It's going to be the 8th book I've read so far this year, and the 7th speculative fiction book. I'm surprised that I've been able to keep up with my goal of reading as well as I have been. So far, I'm liking it.

My guest blogger last week didn't end up sending in her blog, but this week, I have with Morgan Wyatt on Friday. So make sure to come back on that date and check her out.

I've done it...

I finally signed up for a Twitter account. *takes a couple of deep breaths* Don't think I'm going to be tweeting 20 times a day, but one of the reasons why I signed up is to follow others that have insightful things to say. It also seems great to be able to relay short messages instead of having to think of a lot of things to say for a blog entry. And finally, it'll be a way to network with others, which is a goal of mine for 2010. I'll put up a Twitter button to my blog soon, so watch for it. =)

It's February already!

First off, Happy Groundhog day! Every February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his burrow to see if he can spot his shadow, and if he does see his shadow, then there is six more weeks of winter, according to folklore. If he doesn't see his shadow, then spring will come sooner. Well, not surprisingly, he saw his shadow, and with all of the wintry weather going on in the Southeast, I figured winter would continue.

It's surprising that we're already into February. It seems like not long ago we were starting a new year, let alone a new decade. January was a productive month for me with getting my website updated, second revisions on an urban fantasy novel completed, two books read (the latter of which was Sweet Revenge by Anne Mather, a 1970 Harlequin Presents), among other things. I already have goals for February, which I've been working on. I'll make sure to keep everyone up to date on that as well as get back to doing fun, paranormal related blogs again.

Well, I'm going to get back to working on my urban fantasy's sypnosis now. I hope everyone is having a great month.

Editing again

Crawling out of my blogging hole again to say hello and update. I've been working on my urban fantasy novel that I finished in 2008 and revised the first draft last year. It needs to go through another draft, so I'm taking charge and getting it taken care of at the beginning of the year. Then I'll be able to work on sending it out to agents throughout the rest of the year. Woo! I sent it to a few last year, and that's one of the reasons for the third draft.

After finishing my most recent novel, I'm okay with editing again, which for a while I thought was an absolute chore. I've figured out that I do like writing more than editing, but they both have an important part in the process that writers have to go through to get their books on shelves. I think I'm finally developing my own process. And, boy, is it about time! I have my page count to the side (yes, it says words, but it'll have to do.)

I've written out my goals for 2010, and with how things have been going so far, I think it's going to be a good year. =)

Reasonable word count goal = Win

I've been keeping with my word count goals, and writing at least 1k each day. I had initially came down from doing National Novel Writing Month thinking that I would write 3,000 words per day, but I quickly found out that is not a good day-to-day pace for me. Somehow November has a magical way of pulling very high word counts from me, but outside of November, my pace is not as hasty, which probably is a good thing. So, I'd said to myself, I'll do 2,000 words a day, but still I couldn't quite push myself to do that (especially since my computer is in the repair shop aka Geek Squad right now, and I'm either using my husband's computer or writing longhand).

Dropping down my word count goal to 1,000 words a day (seven days a week) has been good for me right now. It's enough that I'm making progress each day, but it's not enough to take away from time with family or to stress me out. I can make it each day because if I overshoot my word count goal to something that I can't consistently do, then I would just end up stressing out and beating myself up when I didn't hit my goal. That would make me procrastinate, and I'd not really want to write, which would drag me out of the story and then I'd be in a bad spot creatively.

Making goals is important, and everyone should make goals that push them to succeed. Just remember not to make ones that you can't feasibly meet. There's a better chance that you will freeze and end up not achieving your goals. =)

It's March!

Hello everyone! It's March, and that means that we're three months into the year. YIKES! It seems like just the other day we were bringing in the year on New Years. Where has time gone? I'm not sure, but with it being the beginning of a new month, I decided to look at my goals I mentioned to all of you at the beginning of the year to see how much closer I am to them.

And well, there's a couple that seem to be moving in the right direction! With my novella for instance, I've gotten a rejection letter and then sent it out again. I should be hearing something any day now on it. *huge grin* I'm actually trying to be patient, but not overly so! hehe

I've been reading more. Hooray! I know, I know... as an author, I should make sure to read a lot, and I have been reading a lot of non-fiction/writing tips, but now I'm finally starting to get back into reading novels more often. And I'm loving it!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about this year. How about you? =)

February goals

So, I went over my goals and have decided that in February I'm going to do the Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days program by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. It's in book format and has great worksheets to fill out as you progress and good things to think about each day as you continue to write.

Today I'm in day 3 and completing my At-A-Glance draft. My goal for this month to is complete I.T., the sequel to my novel, I.V., which I'm still working on revising. Argh! But, perhaps taking a step back from I.V. and working on I.T. will help give me more objectivity and get me back into the creating mindset.

Drive by blogging...

Okay, okay... so here I am... doing a little drive by blogging regarding something I'm quite thrilled about! Today at The Deadly Vixens we have an interview with RWA Seattle's President and published author, Shelli Stevens, as she explains what it's like to be an RWA chapter president and an author.

Also, as you can tell, it's the end of the month. Yikes! Where did January go? I still have the rest of today to make my February goals and try to get as much done on my monthly goals as I can, and tomorrow, I'll see what I've achieved and/or made progress on. I hope you've accomplished all you've wanted to this month!

Anyways, I'll see you over at The Deadly Vixens. *winks*