The Naked Truth

I've Been A Naughty, Naughty Girl

2011-12-02T04:14:00.000-06:00

I'm blogging over at the Whispers Author Blog today on how I made Santa's naughty list again this year.

Prizes will be awarded to those who leave comments at the end of the month!

http://whispershome.com/category/authors-blog/

Writing Craft: Five Ways to Breathe Life into Your Characters

2011-11-22T05:00:00.001-06:00

I am definitely no writing guru. I've only been published for a little under five years, but that's not going to stop me from imparting writing advice every now and then. Acting as if we know something about writing is a compulsion no writer can resist :)

Yesterday I blogged about Twilight and how I think one reason women respond so strongly to the series is because Meyer writes a character we can easily identify with. In romance, the key character is the heroine, the one you want your reader to cleave onto right away. If the reader doesn't connect with her and sort of "become" her, the reader won't care about anything that happens to her in the book. Your story won't be emotionally compelling. And why would anyone read a book they don't care anything about? They might as well read the back of a cereal box and save their $5.99.

Here are five ways to make your characters real and relatable:

Realistic Actions and Reactions
I judge several writing contests for RWA chapters and for RWA national during the year. One thing that marks a newbie like a bright red X is having characters who are actually caricatures. They do and say things that no sane person would with little or no provocation. They're bitchy just to be bitchy or go off the deep end yelling or screaming or crying at the slightest thing. For example, I once read a contest entry scene in which the heroine goes into her office and tells her assistant not to let anyone disturb her for a while. As I recall, she's not doing anything really private in there, she just wanted some alone time. Well, who should show up but the hero, demanding to see the heroine. The assistant tells the hero he can't go in and when he tries to push past her to see the heroine anyway, the assistant gets down on the floor and wraps herself around his legs, trying to physically stop him from entering her boss's office. Um...who would actually do that in real life? No one. And even though it was a secondary character behaving like a lunatic and not the heroine, the story immediately lost me because of this unrealistic reaction to a realistic circumstance. One caveat---if it's well-motivated, you may be able to get away with something like that. That wasn't the case here.

Invent A Backstory
To make your characters real for readers, your characters have to be real people to you. Some writers plot extensively and develop their characters before writing a single sentence using charts and graphs and questionnaires. Others just start writing and see how the character develops as they go. Whichever method you use, your character didn't just pop into existence the moment they hit page 1. Unless your character is an embryo when the story begins, your character has had experiences that shape who they are and how they act. They had parents, or not. They went to school, or not. They fell in love, got a job, had an injury, experienced a loss...or not. You don't have to map out every moment or your character's life up the the point you open your story, but you should know or discover some things that made them who they are. Realistic things like having lost a parent, having a job she hates or having lost the one man she ever loved make the heroine real and relatable and motivate her actions in present time. If you have your heroine just wrapping up an ugly divorce, something many readers can relate to, that's going to inform her actions when she meets Mr. Wonderful on page 32. She may resist the pull she feels because she doesn't want to get hurt again. Or she may jump right into the sack with him for some awesome toe-curling rebound sex. Whatever her reaction, your reader is more likely to follow you down that path because you've started with something real in the character's back story that the reader can relate to.

Give Them a Flaw or Personality Tick
Remember than girl from high school? The one who was model gorgeous, Valedictorian, super nice, volunteered at the homeless shelter on weekends, was captain of the volleyball team, had the perfect parents who she always respected and got along with and always had a great big angelic smile on her zit-free face? You hated her, right? So will your readers if you create a character who has no flaws. No one is that perfect and none of us can imagine being so. Everyone has some sort of personality flaw or quirk. That's what makes them interesting. Give your character something realistic that she has to deal with--like maybe she's a sucker for a bad boy or she is a compulsive shoe-shopper. Again, having flaws that many of us share makes her real and relatable and we can jump right into her skin when your story starts.

Use Astrology
I cribbed this one from a workshop Cherry Adair did at RWA. If you're having trouble breathing life into your character (if you write more plot-driven books, for example) try this: randomly choose a birth date for your character then go to a good astrology book, like one of Linda Goodman's, and look up their sign. Use the character traits and tendencies described in the book as a starting point for the character. This should jump start your imagination. It might also help your plot by adding a healthy dose of conflict. For example, if you're writing a character who is Special Ops and the astrological sign you chose at random paints a picture of a peace-loving individual, you have your work cut out for you. What motivated a pacifist to change into a person who would join the military and train to become an elite warrior? This is probably a psychologically complicated individual. Tortured, even. That's the good stuff. And starting with real character traits, shared by a whole group of people (if you buy into astrology) will help you create a realistic character right out of the box.

Try the Scene in First-Person POV
This is a technique I use quite a bit at the beginning of a book when I'm still getting to know my character, when I'm writing a particularly emotional scene, if I get stuck, or if a scene/character just seems flat. Most novels are written in third person point-of-view (he, she, they). But try this: close your eyes, think about the backstory of your character and the circumstances in which they find themselves currently. Become that character. Write the scene in first person (I, we, us) as if you were her. Step into her skin. What does she feel? What does she see? How does she react? You're writing it as is you yourself were experiencing the plot or emotions and giving honest reactions and observations to those stimuli. For example, if you were home alone and the power went out and then you heard breaking glass and someone walking around upstairs, what would you do? Probably grab your cell phone and dial 9-1-1 or run to a neighbor's house, or get in your car and drive to the police station. You would not light a candle and creep up the stairs ready to defend your home from an invader armed with a frying pan. That's not realistic, so don't have your heroine doing it. You'll lose your reader as soon as she disconnects from your heroine's too-stupid-to-live actions. Have her do what you would do in that situation and add complications from there, because unless you're a too-stupid-to-live heroine, many people will have a similar reaction to a circumstance as you and will be able to relate.

As a reader, realistic characters are the key to enjoying a book. I know if I'm thinking about the characters during the day when I'm going around doing my mundane things, the author has done a good job. I can't wait to get back into that world, that character's skin to see where we're going next. That's the kind of experience you want to create for your readers as an author because they'll be looking for your next book and the one after that. You've given them someone they can relate to and sort of "be" for a few hours. Children try on different personas all the time and I think we never really outgrow that desire. Books can take us there. We can be movie stars or maids, burger flippers or dragon slayers...as long as the author keeps it real.

What Romance Writers Can Learn from the Twilight Hoopla

2011-11-21T07:51:00.000-06:00

Entertainment Weekly reports that on opening night alone, Twilight Breaking Dawn pt 1 grossed 72 million dollars. I contributed my $7.50 to that total on Friday morning when I went to the 10:30 a.m. matinee and found it packed--not with tween girls, but with their moms.

Rarely do tween or teen girls like anything their moms like, so I've been fascinated by the Twilight phenomenon for the last several years, through the release of the last of the books (I didn't start reading until the last book was released) and through the first four movies. Obviously these books and movies have struck a nerve in two diverse demographics, myself included.

The books have flaws, there is no doubt about that. The writing is OK but not spectacular. The plots drag in places. Sometimes Edward's self-loathing and Bella's totally devoted love-sick teenager schtick deserves an eye-roll or two. And in New Moon, two hours of suicidal, sad-sack Bella is almost too much to take. He may be a vampire, but Edward is still just a guy. A girl who reacts to a break-up as Bella did in New Moon would have certainly been diagnosed with emotional problems long before Edward entered the picture.

But even with all the series' flaws, I could not put down those books. As a writer who would love to sell a fraction of the number of copies of books Stephanie Meyer has, it's worth examining WHY this fascination is so enduring (and lucrative).

After much thought, I've come to the conclusion that for tweens, it's the love story. Edward (and Jacob) are the bad boys we girls love to love. Then there's the whole forbidden love thing--humans and vampires are not meant to be together, since humans are basically just a tasty after-dinner treat. And then there's the sense of being "chosen" by the ultra-hot guy every girl at school desires but none has been able to reel in. Edward and Bella's love is the ultra teen-girl fantasy romance.

Ok, so why do women who have been there and done that and found that a lot of that stuff is hooey still flock to the movies? I think it's because Meyer has written Bella in a way that makes us remember what it was like to be that young and that naive and to fall in love for the first time. I haven't been a teenager for a long, long, time. But reading those books, it was easy to slip back into Bella's skin--the teenage me--who is having all these new feelings for a strange, unobtainable guy. It's our fantasy played out, too, without the burden of having to remember everything that comes after the fantasy ends and real life begins...babies that require 2 a.m. feedings, unpleasant in-laws, mortgages, sucky minimum-wage jobs, broken washers, dirty diapers, etc, etc.

So, as a writer, I have to say Twilight's appeal at its most basic level is about eliciting emotion in the reader and creating a heroine that readers can easily identify with. Twilight works in that regard for the tween fans and for those of us slightly more mature.

That, in effect, is the problem with Breaking Dawn. I could not help but think when watching it that surely tween girls were not going to "get" Bella in this installment. She has moved past their realm of experience with her marriage and subsequent pregnancy. First, I don't think tween girls can grasp the depth of love and commitment it takes to be a life-long partner to someone. There's infatuation and there's soul deep love and I don't think you can tell the difference until you're well past puberty and have experienced both--until you've loved and lost and loved again. Now, Bella did lose Edward in the second book, so she might arguably have an inkling. But the audience of 13-year-olds has not had that same experience.

Secondly, the love Bella has for her baby right from the moment she knows she's pregnant is way, way beyond the scope of experience for most teens. In fact, I don't think you could explain it adequately to anyone who has not had the experience of being pregnant and giving birth herself, no matter her age. I found myself wondering if all the tween girls in the audience at the theater would get why there was no way Bella was letting Edward or Carlisle or anyone else talk her into aborting her baby, even though giving birth meant almost certain death for Bella. A mother's love is fierce and boundless and eternal. That was all written into Bella's character and played out in the movie.

So now I'm curious as to whether reactions to Breaking Dawn will differ according to demographics. Will tweens lose interest before the second part of Breaking Dawn comes out next year since Bella is no longer a relatable character for most of them? Or will they see it anyway and love it as much as the others for some other reason? I rarely read commentary about Breaking Dawn being anyone's favorite book of the series. Is that why? Did Meyer lose part of her audience by allowing Bella to grow up past the scope of experience of her younger audience or did she hook them securely enough with the early books in the series that they're along for the ride anyway?

No matter what the ultimate box office nets are for this and the final installment of the Twilight movie saga, there is one thing that moms and their daughter will still agree on---the total hotness of Jacob's rock hard muscle-bound naked torso.

Oh, Yeah. That alone was worth my $7.50.

Free Reading Friday: Believe it or Knot

2011-11-18T05:00:00.000-06:00

"Believe it or Knot", my contribution to the Sextet's fourth anthology, Entanglements, comes out on Monday 11/21.

Here's the blurb and a little sneak peek:

When Las Vegas magician’s assistant Hannah Dunn convinces her boss and long-time crush Marcus Lorenzo to try a dangerous new act involving a bed, a blind fold and razor sharp throwing knives, she learns that losing control can have dangerous—and extremely erotic—consequences.

EXCERPT:

A folded sheet of paper fell out of the book as Marcus was talking animatedly about being chained in the bottom of a big glass aquarium and something having to do with piranhas. Hannah bent to pick up the paper. She opened it and her breath caught.

It was a drawing of a woman—her, actually—tied to a bed. She was wearing a skimpy red negligee that appeared to be see-though, and black stiletto heels. Marcus was standing to the side wearing no shirt and no shoes, just a flowing pair of black trousers.

Marcus had stopped talking, but Hannah couldn’t take her eyes off the page. Of herself bound to Marcus’s bed. Even if it was a stage prop. Heat radiated outwards from her core and she suddenly needed another very large drink of water. Marcus was an excellent artist.

“What’s this?” she managed to get out after a moment.

Marcus leaned in and spoke softly, almost hesitantly. “Something else I’ve been working on.”

Hannah looked over at him, but he was staring at the paper. “The assistant—you—would be tied down to a giant wheel that looks like a bed.”

“So I see,” Hannah said. She was suddenly aware that her bare were legs were just inches from his hands.

“Once you’re strapped down, the bed raises so that you’re vertical.” He flipped the page over to reveal the wheel, with her still tied to it. “After that, it’s basically a knife trick,” he said.

Hannah could imagine the effect on stage with the lighting, the wind machine and the fog rolling, along with some sensual music with deep bass undertones and a rhythm over top that suggested the act that would be on every one’s mind.

God. She was getting hot just thinking about it. Thinking about his hands sliding over the curves of her taught body, securing her wrists and ankles down tight to the bed so that she was completely at the mercy of his amazingly talented hands. And his mouth. And his body.

She cleared her throat. “Why haven’t we tried this?”

“Too dangerous,” he said, his voice sounding huskier than usual. He took the paper. “It’s a veiled knife throw. See?”

The knife thrower was to be blindfolded and upon closer inspection the wheel was to turn, making it almost impossible for anyone to hit the target without impaling the woman strapped to it.

“So? You’ve been throwing knives since you were 14.”

Marcus shook his head. Only three other acts have ever tried this, and the assistants always get hit at one time or another.”

“I trust you.”

“It’s not a matter of trust. It’s a matter of safety.”

Hannah thought of the picture again, imagined the binding around her wrists and ankles, of the hours of practice it would take, just the two of them, to perfect the trick. Time Marcus wouldn’t have to chase supermodels. And once they performed the trick, Marcus would never again have to worry about copycats. This wasn’t illusion. It was real and depended on Marcus’s dedication and skill.

“I want to do it,” she said, impulsively.

“What?”

“The trick. The veiled knife-bondage thing. I think we should do it. It will totally shake up whoever is snooping around, and as you said, only three other performers have ever done it. There’s no way anyone who doesn’t have your skill with knives can even think about stealing this trick. It’ll be yours and yours alone. Your audience will love it.”

Hannah looked at him, and their eyes locked. “We need to do this.”

“Once we do it, we can’t go back. You know that, right?”

Hannah blinked.

“Once it’s in the act, I mean. If it works and it’s a success, you’ll be stuck getting tied to the bed every night. Several times a night, sometimes.”

There was no mistaking the heat in his eyes now, or the way his voice had taken on the deep, raspy quality of a man in need.

“And hours of practice.” Hannah squeezed her thighs together against the sharp burst of red- hot need that erupted deep inside her. Years of longing, shone in her eyes, too., Sshe was sure of it.

“Every spare hour we have.”

“I think I can handle it.”

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Nanowrimo and Other Fast Draft Techniques

2011-11-17T08:09:00.000-06:00

If you're doing Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated), you should be at about 28,333 words by the end of today. That's a lot of words in just over two weeks of writing and there are several schools of thought on the technique of the fast draft.

The theory behind the fast draft is the writer doesn't have time to self-edit when she's moving that quickly. It's all about purging that story--getting it all on paper--then sifting through with a critical eye at a later point. I can see the merits in that. No internal editor telling you it sucks. No rewriting the same chapter over and over and over again, getting sucked into the cult of perfection. And at the end of the month, by golly, you've got something to work with. Writing "the end" is akin to a recreational drug high for writers. There is no other feeling quite like it.

On the other side of the aisle, critics point out that a book written in a month is pretty much crap. And because the writer didn't take time to think out the plot in his mad dash to the finish line, he will end up rewriting the whole book anyway if he ever hopes to publish it. Well, yeah. There's that.

I can see both points (I am a Libra, after all). In the end, I think it really depends on the writer and how she works. It's been said many many times that there are as many ways to write a book as there are writers. I think that's true. Each author approaches his creativity and his work differently. Writers' minds work differently. Our creative imaginations work differently and are inspired differently. That's why there are about a million books on writing out there. Everyone does it differently and then can't wait to share the "best" way to write a book with all the other writers who are positive this gig would be a lot easier if they only knew the secret to creating effortless Pulitzer-caliber prose the first time out.

Nano isn't the only fast-draft technique that has been proposed. There are book-in-a-week workshops, book-in-a-month workshops and a plethora of variations. If you're thinking of trying one of these, I think you first need to think about why you want to do it. What are your stumbling blocks as a writer and is fast-drafting going to help fix that problem?

For example, if you're the type of writer who cannot move on to chapter two until chapter one is perfect and you're only up to chapter five after two years of writing, you might want to give Nano a try. Your internal editor could be holding you back. If you are a dedicated plotter and never vary from your outline, but end up with a lifeless, dull story at the end, give fast, pantser-style writing a shot. If you're having trouble staying motivated to write everyday (who isn't?) and are blowing deadlines because of it, try it--Nano and other fast draft programs force you to immerse yourself in your book and focus on adding pages everyday. The more frequently you write, the easier it is to stay productive.

Fast drafting can be a good tool to help eliminate many writers' pitfalls, but it's not for everyone. Some writers get through the first draft and are pretty much done, other than fixing a few craft and grammar issues and doing relatively minor editing. They may move at at a slower pace getting that first draft down, but it's 80% of the way there when they write "the end". Their minds are already turned to the next story. They don't want to spend another six months working on a fast draft that needs extensive editing. The drive to tell that story is gone. Other writers may not be able to do the fast draft because they need an outline to know where they're going next. The fast draft technique may actually stall them out.

And you could, of course, use a combination of techniques to complete your book. Maybe you fast-draft parts of it you're not sure on, while taking care to set up things precisely in other parts. There's no right or wrong answer here. Whatever works is the right way to do it. I think that's a frustrating realization for many new writers. You can't study to write a novel like you study to pass the GMAT. It's more nebulous than that.

My outlook is that if you're stuck or burned out or if the idea of the fast draft approach appeals to you on some level, experiment with it. Writing is a creative endeavor. Making up characters and plots and dialogue and imagining "what if" is not like punching a clock at the widget factory. Changing things around from time to time forces your mind to go in new directions. That's creativity at its most basic and is the key ingredient for any form of art.

I think a lot of writers, especially if they're not hooked up with a writing group, often feel a little different from "normal" folks who don't have imaginary people running around in their heads or spend hours in front of the computer agonizing over whether they've correctly used the semi colon on page 143. Participating in something like Nano makes you feel a little less like an outsider--or at the very least, that you're not alone. Comforting or disturbing, there are 200,000 other Nanowrimo crazies out there who have your back.

The Legend of the Sextet (with a side of light BDSM)

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

nce upon a time, at a magical gathering called the Romance Writers of America Annual Conference, six friends got together over a pitcher of sangria at Cat Cora's restaurant on the Disney Boardwalk and decided to write some sexy novellas to publish as an anthology. They became known far and wide as The Sextet and after much discussion and a somewhat abbreviated quest, decided to sign contracts with their fairy god-publisher, Siren-Bookstrand.

In the months that followed, The Sextet's first tome, Sharing, was published, followed by Dirty Dancing and Occupational Hazzards. All was glowing reviews and dollar signs in the land of The Published. But one day, a very talented member of the Sextet received a summons from her agent and was forced to leave the happy group to work on other writing projects. Since "The Pentet" isn't nearly as catchy as "The Sextet", a new quest was begun to fill the vacant sixth spot. The five remaining authoresses roamed the land searching high and low for a replacement author to make their group a sextet once again.

At last, someone suggested a certain lesser-known but previously published erotic romance author and the five authors issued a proposition. The author in question was honored that such a noble and distinguished group of writers would think of her. She eagerly agreed to take up the pen and join their number.

The deadline for the next anthology, erotic tales of love and light bondage, was issued and the new author toiled long hours to complete her story on time. After a few short nights of sleep and long days at the keyboard, the author declared her story finished and submitted it just as the clock struck "deadline".

Finally, after a treacherous gauntlet of draft and revision, cover art and back cover blurbs, the five talented authors and this new author completed their task. All the land rejoiced and the fourth tome, Entanglements, went up for pre-sale at their publisher's website, where any fair reader desirous of steamy tales of love and romance, of laughter and of poignancy and of rope and scarves and silken ties may feast:

Elizabeth Raines ~ Trust
Type-A Angie Traylor can’t seem to let go—even when she’s in bed with the man she loves. Can Noah James use enticing methods to teach her to enjoy life and love and learn to trust?

Cheryl Brooks ~ A Delicate Procedure
Restraints are required when hunky graduate student Aidan Vidal asks Nurse Trish Davis, his neighbor and former babysitter, for help with a rather embarrassing problem.

Bethany Michaels ~ Believe it or Knot
When Las Vegas magician’s assistant Hannah Dunn convinces her boss and long-time crush Marcus Lorenzo to try a dangerous new act involving a bed, a blind fold and razor sharp throwing knives, she learns that losing control can have dangerous—and extremely erotic—consequences.

Mellanie Szereto ~ String Theory
Physicist Andromeda Fetter's experiments with elastic bands stretch her tempting colleague's imagination to the sensual limit. Will Gunnar Keyes unlock her inner vixen?

Annie Morgan ~ Lines of Communication
Three years ago, expert mountain climbers Rebecca Graham and Cameron Fitzgerald had a friendship and perhaps more. Until business severed their ties. Now partnered again, can she belay her animosity long enough to untangle the truth?

Niki Hayes ~ Tangled Metal and Emotions
Losing control is not an option for Lindsey Valentine, and she's not about to let an arrogant NASCAR driver--even one as sexy as Craig Westmoreland--railroad her new job. Craig's met his match with Lindsey, but when the two tangle, it's unclear who will lose control first.

Entanglements releases on November 21st.

Writing and Editing and Revising, Oh My!

2011-11-15T05:00:00.001-06:00

So I have lots of writing news to share. And many new book release dates and covers, too (yay!) Here's a brief run down, followed by my current release schedule:

Some friends who write under the group name "The Sextet" asked me if I would like to contribute to some of the anthologies they're doing for Siren Publishing. Of course I said 'yes' because writing with friends is fun, it was an automatic sale and I like writing short spicy stories. I've turned in two stories so far and I think we're going to shoot for several more anthos in 2012.

The awesome CEO at Whispers Publishing, where I have one of my first books, Ruby Magic, contacted me to see if I wanted an updated cover (they were redoing some of their early cover art). I proposed a new cover, new title and a sequel. She agreed and I'm working on finishing up the sequel now. I'm doing the new covers for those.

I got the rights back to some of my older books and have resold them to Whispers. I'm excited about this because two of the stories originally appeared in anthologies and now will be available as stand-alone e-books. I also did the covers for them.

So my current WIPs are 1) the Ruby Magic Sequel 2) a partial for a big house and an editor I would dearly LOVE to work with 3) The next Sextet anthology story. A lot of this happened over the summer (when I wasn't blogging--too busy!) so the releases are coming up pretty soon:

November 21 "Believe it or Knot" in the Sextet's anthology Entanglements
December 16 "Naughty", a short that originally appeared in "Merry SeXmas".

December 19 "Thrice upon a Yuletide" in the Sextet's anthology Mistletoe and Menage
February 24 "Hart & Souls", a short that originally appeared in "Samhain Scorchers"

I have a couple other projects I think could release in March and April, but don't have exact dates or info on that yet. All this is info updated regularly on my website, so if you want to know when my next book will be out, www.bethanymichaels.com is the place to go!

Tomorrow I'll be blogging about my first Sextet anthology, Entanglements, and posting some blurbs.

"P" is for Prioritize

2011-11-14T05:00:00.001-06:00

So the three people who happen to read my blog might have noticed that I've been on blog-writing hiatus since the summer.

You see, I learned long ago (ok, not THAT long ago), when I had four children under the age of four, that sometimes you're just putting out whichever fires come closest to burning your house down around you and everything else goes by the wayside. With the kids I figured out pretty quickly that I was not Wonder Woman (which was a shock to me at first) and could not possibly do everything by myself. There just were not hours in the day or hours of sleep to be all and do all. I was not willing to even try. I learned the magic "P" word and it's not the "P" word that appears in some of my spicier books--the magic, life-changing word is Prioritize.

My point? I got busy, blogging has not been a priority.

But I'm talking mostly good busy. Writing busy, work busy (I'm thankful to have a job and a paycheck) and busy with scouts and kids and family stuff. All good things. And so the blog has languished.

But lots of things are happening on the writing front and so I hope to resurrect the ol' blog and be here pretty much Monday through Friday unless I'm guest blogging elsewhere...which I will be doing quite a bit over the next few months.

Writing-busy = lots of good things

...which I will share in tomorrow's blog :)

Small Steps Health: Week 4--Treadmill Fail

2011-07-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

The goal for Week 4 was 15 minutes on the treadmill 5 times during the week. I was trying to build consistency in my exercise habits.

I failed. Miserably. I didn't get on the blasted treadmill even once. Not once. Ugh.

OK, so WHY did I fail. Was the goal too lofty? Was I too busy? Too lazy?

My knee was bothering my for two of the days, but that was no excuse to not do ANY walking. The kids had some appointments during the week and our new bed was delivered. But that was no excuse not to do ANY walking. Maybe I just wasn't committed to the goal. Maybe I just really loathe the treadmill.

Or maybe I just hit my usual 4th week wall--the point at which anything I am psyched about in the beginning starts to lose its happy glow and becomes difficult. It's not fun anymore. I'm still doing OK on the limited caffeine and limited sugar front, though, so that's a plus.

Honestly, I'm not sure what went wrong, so I'm going to call Mulligan and do this goal over since I think developing a habit of exercise is a key component to losing the weight and easing in to a healthier lifestyle. Week 5's goal will be, again, to hit the blasted treadmill 5 times during the week for at least 15 minutes.

I think it's important to have a game plan this go-round, so I'm enlisted my nag-nificent children to help pester me into making goal. I'm also going to plan to do this around the dame time each day. My daughter has basketball camp this week at 9:00, so I'll plan on dropping her off then coming home to the tread-hell and to write before picking her up at 11:30.

Ready, set, go!

Small Steps Health: Week 3: The Dreaded Treadmill

2011-07-18T01:59:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, I loved to play sports. I loved gymnastics when I was small. I took a few classes, but was mostly self-taught. I did flips and tricks on the bars at the school playground that no doubt would turn my hair gray(er) if I saw my kids doing the same things. I started playing little league baseball when I was in second grade and stuck with that until about 6th grade when I switched to softball and became my team's starting short stop. I played a little basketball, but by the time I was a freshman and I realized 5'4 was as good as it was going to get, and that I had a lot of stamina, but not much speed, I decided not to continue. I went canoeing, skiing, ice skating, hiking, camping and swimming for fun with friends and I loved pretty much any activity (except vollyball. For some reason, I always loathed that sport).

But now? The very thought of getting on the dang treadmill makes me want to do ANYTHING but strap on the walking shoes and get moving. I just don't wanna. I know the experts say to find something you like to do and do that for exercise, but realistically, the treadmill is right in my basement and doesn't require another person, equipment or travel. It's convenient.

But it still sucks.

I know it's something I need to do to meet my health goals. Exercise will burn calories, help my heart, help my stress level, and could even help me on the creative front.

But it still sucks.

Week #3's small step goal was 15 minutes on the treadmill three times during the week. I decided to multi-task and use the handy-dandy tread desk Hubby built for me and get some pages in while I suffered. The goal wasn't to bun calories so much as to just get in the habit of using the dang thing.

I had mixed success. By saying I was going to do it three times, it was easy to push it off. By Thursday, I hadn't gotten in even one session. So I dragged my butt on board and ended up walking quite a bit while working on my WIP. Friday I walked, too, but Saturday I didn't. Feeling guilty, I got up Sunday morning before the rest of the house was awake and got some time in, deciding to count it as my third time for the week.

OK, so I worked out three times. But the goal was to get in the habit of doing it, not rushing it all right before the weekly deadline. Consistency is my problem in a lot of areas in my life and clearly this is just one more of those areas (sigh).

In order to try to increase consistency, I'm going to make Week #4's goal 15 minutes 5 days a week. That way I know it's something I need to do pretty much every day and it will be harder, theoretically, to procrastinate, since I really only have 1 or 2 opportunities to make up my skipped day and still make goal.

The experts say it takes 21 days of doing a task to make it a habit, so I'm hoping that after a few weeks, it won't be so bad. And once this dratted Tennessee summer is over, I might be able to walk outside or do some hiking. That wouldn't be bad, either.

I want to be active. I want to like to be active. Maybe once I shed a few pounds and it gets easier to be active I'll enjoy it more. But until then I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and try to get through it.

Grammar Fail--Free Toads!

2011-07-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

I'm most definitely not a stickler for grammar, but I do expect sign-makers to have people on their teams who are. When they don't, the results are hilarious.

I was at a festival here in Nashville a few years ago and came across this sign, posted EVERYWHERE by the Park Police. It's one of my all-time favorites:

Small Steps Writing: Multiple Projects, Multiple Pages

2011-07-13T00:20:00.000-05:00

Going to conferences and talking to other writers, I'd often heard some talk about working on more than one project at once. This seemed impossible to me. When I'm in the story, I'm in the story. I couldn't imagine switching from one set of characters to another because I always felt like I needed to be right there with my characters as the story unfolded.

Going through the Great Slump of 2010 really made me open to trying some new things since it was clear what I had been doing up to that point had stopped working. So I decided to give this multiple projects thing a go.

And it is working beautifully!

Since I'm trying to get 5 new pages a day, it's a great tool. I wrote 30 pages on WIP #1 the first week, then got to a point where I needed to backtrack and re-evaluate a few things that could be a problem later. But I wanted to press ahead with 5 new pages. So I started working on WIP #2 during the second week. I didn't get as far in that one, far various reasons, but was insanely excited about how the story was flowing. AND while I was using my creative juices to create new pages of WIP #2, I figured out what I need to do to fix WIP #1. It's strange, but when I'm writing I get more great story ideas than when my mind is clear and I'm actively trying to think up new ideas. It's like once the creative gears start churning, more and more ideas pop out without that much concentrated effort. I just keep a notebook handy and jot them all down for later.

My main motivation for concentrating on one project is the fear of wasting time. With four elementary-aged kids, scouts, school, husband, house, and, oh yeah, a full-time job, I just don't have the time to waste. The hour or two I have carved out during the day for writing needs to be productive. I need to keep moving forward. I can do that with the multiple projects technique, even if it takes longer to complete one project.

For me, this multiple projects thing works on two fronts: 1) I keep moving forward, adding to my weekly page count and getting closer to "The End" 2) I'm more creative with both my projects, since creativity begets creativity.

Here's the other paradox. I don't know if I would have ever tried this if I hadn't fallen into a slump, but if I would have been doing this the whole time, the slump may never have happened. So what I'm saying, writers, is if your usual method isn't working, shake it up. Try something you never thought would work for you, something that sounds nuts and is totally contrary to how you work. It might just be the earthquake you need to shake free of your slump and get moving again.

Small Steps Health: Week 2--The Not so Sweet Sweets

2011-07-10T15:59:00.000-05:00

Week 1 went great and I was all jazzed up for my next goal--no sweets. I don't have much of a sweet tooth anyway, but still I knew it would be a challenge because I'm a stress-eater. Stress and work = candy machine. Stress and family= Little Debbie, cookie, ice cream or whatever else is sweet and easy to get to.

My rules were that I wouldn't eat sweet junk food like cookies and cake and that I would avoid food that was obviously sugar-based or full of sugar, like Kool-Aid or pancake syrup. I knew my obstacles would be 1) having kids in the house and 2) stress eating.

Result: About 90% victory!

I did cheat one day when I had bought the kids some mini-donuts as a treat. I didn't eat too many and I did resist all the other temptations (even an unattended birthday cake at work). I also kept with my limited soda rule. We went out to eat twice and both times I had lemonade rather than soda. I know it had sugar in it and I probably should have had water. But it was raspberry lemonade, so the fruit should cancel out the sugar, right ??

All in all, it was a good week. Goal number two is in the books and I'd call it a success. A small one, but that's sort of the point, right?

Week 3 is at least 15 minutes on the treadmill three time during the week. Exercise is always hard for me to find time for, but I think just requiring 15 minutes is good because it doesn't seem like such a large block of time to dedicate to the task. Plus, once I'm on, I'm always on more than 15 minutes.

I'm hoping that by getting in the routine of getting on the treadmill regularly, it won't be so hard to build up to more time and more days on the sucker. Maybe some day I'll even like it.

Right.

Small Steps Health: Week 1--Drink No Goo (or very little)

2011-07-03T02:01:00.002-05:00

Week 1--Drink No Goo (or very little)

I decided to make the first health goal on my Small Steps Plan to Success drinking less soda. There are several reasons. I'll call them the five C's:

1) Calories. Empty calories. There is absolutely no nutritional value in soda.

2) Chemicals. I drink the diet goo, so there aren't as many calories, but it's still goo, probably more so than regular cola since there are artificial sweeteners. I can't afford to eat organic and I'm not sure it isn't partly a marketing campaign on the part of grocery stores anyway, but who needs more chemicals in their body?

3) Caffeine. We night shift workers have enough trouble sleeping during the day without all the stimulants pumping through our bodies. I don't do coffee, but soda is almost as bad.

4) Cravings. Even the diet stuff makes you crave real sweets. I figured getting rid of cravings for sweets was going to be a key to week 2's goal of--you guessed it--not eating any sweets!

5) Cheap. They took the .25 pop machine out of the break room at work. I'm far too cheap to pay .75 for one can of pop!

Result: Victory!

I feel better being mostly off the caffeine.I've limited myself to ONE diet soda a day. Sometimes I don't even have that. I did it gradually, over the period of several days so that by the end of the week I was down to the one can per day. I had been drinking about 6, give or take. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms and I'm sleeping better during the day and waking up more rested. I also have not craved the sweets. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I think it's because I knew I was changing just one small thing, so I didn't feel deprived or anything by giving up the soda.

Achieving that first goal really made me feel more confident . It's a small thing and may not even register on the scale. That's o.k. I know it's a (small) step in the right direction.

My Week 2 goal is to eliminate sweets--cookies, candy, donuts, cake, sugary cereal, and stuff that's obviously sugar-based like pancake syrup. The potential speed bumps relate to the fact that I have kids. Kids like sweets. I don't feed them sweets a lot, but they probably have cookies or candy a few times a week, plus they eat breakfast cereal like you wouldn't believe! It'll be a challenge to resist during those times, not to mention the candy machine at work and the odd left-over birthday cake left there to tempt me.

But I know I can do it. So for Week 2, I'll stick with the no-goo goal and add the no-sweets one.

Small Steps Writing: Start Small, Enlist Help

2011-07-02T06:00:00.001-05:00

When I was a good little author (i.e. prior to 2010) I would often write 10 pages at a sitting, more if I was on deadline...but not every day. It was hit and miss and it often felt like a chore to go back to my manuscript and write more pages. I don't like chores, household or otherwise, and the more you don't want to be doing a chore, the longer it takes. I eventually developed a finely honed sense of procrastination. It became easier and more pleasant to have an excuse NOT to write than to sit down a do something I supposedly love to do. There were also some issues that caused a problem concentrating, fatigue and mild depression (i.e thyroid).

Since I want to one day list "writer" as my primary occupation on my tax forms, I knew I needed to break out of the habit of not writing. I have a project that should have been done a long time ago, for one.There's also a house I really want to sell to and an editor there I really want to work with. But I need a manuscript to send her!

So ultimately, my writing goals require consistency. But it's summer and the kids are home. Realistically, 10 pages a day is not going to happen unless I am totally focused on the writing. I suppose I could go for that, but my kids are only going to be kids for so long. I want them to remember their mom taking them places and having fun with them, not just sitting at the computer all the time, telling them they have to be quiet. Also, having allowed myself to get out of the habit of writing, 10 pages as a sitting seems just overwhelming and makes me want to avoid the task altogether.

So I decided I would write five pages a day Monday through Friday and on weekends if I wanted to or needed to catch-up. I knew I would struggle on my own, though, so I enlisted my kids. I told them that I really wanted to get my book done and I needed their help. We would not go to the park, the pool, the bowling alley, the library or any of our other typical summer fun places until Mom wrote 5 new pages on her manuscript.

I cannot believe how incredibly successful this has been so far! Every day when I'm sitting at the laptop, each of the kids asks me multiple times what page I'm on and if I'm done yet. It motivates them to leave me alone for an hour or so while I'm writing and motivates me to get done so we can go out and have fun together.

Last week I got 30 pages in--an amazing feat for me with all the obstacles summer vacation brings. At the current rate, I would be done with the first draft of my WIP in a little less than two months. If I take another month revise and edit, that's still a pretty good clip--a complete (category-length) manuscript in three months. I can live with that.

It's definitely a more pleasurable pace. Five pages is doable, whereas ten seems like torture. And like the treadmill, once I'm into the manuscript I often go seven or eight pages because I know I've met my goal and I can quit for the day at anytime.

The very best thing to come of this new approach is that I like writing again. I look forward to it and think about my story even when I'm not writing And all it took was a smaller page count goal and four little nagging voices. I'm hoping that by the time they go back to school, I'll be back in the habit of writing daily and the five-page goal won't be what drives me anymore. Writing time has become my "me" time again like it was when I first started writing. It's not something I have to do but something I want to do.

Five pages at a time.

The Ten Worst Things About Attending RWA

2011-07-01T02:00:00.006-05:00

Airport security
Overpriced everything
Sore feet
Long lines at the bathroom
Slow bar service
Strange bed
So-so luncheon food
Slow elevators
Stuffy conference rooms
Dirty laundry

The Ten Best Things About Attending RWA

2011-06-30T05:11:00.000-05:00

Seeing a new city
No cooking or cleaning
Fan girl moments
Hot hotel waiters
The Bar
Free books, free books, free books
No one blinks and eye when you talk about imaginary people as if they were real
Friends. (real ones, not imaginary)
No conversations that start "Mom, can you..."
Hundreds of authors signing books for literacy charities

What Do You Get When You Put 2000 Romance Writers in a Room?

2011-06-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

New York is being invaded by romance writers, agents, editors and other industry professionals this week while Romance Writers of America holds its annual conference in the Big Apple.

Conference is amazing. Workshops, pitches, luncheons, the Rita Awards, people (lots of those) and books. Tons and tons of free books. The line at the hotel's post office will be long by Thursday when everyone is shipping their books home, thanks to having to fly the unfriendly skies to get to NY. But they're FREE books. Totally worth it.

I'm home this year instead of at conference and I'm (mostly) ok with that. I'm an introvert and although I love the energy of all those writers in one place, it's exhausting.

For those of us at home, and I've been on Twitter enough to know there are a few, no worries. We may not be partying the night away in Times Square, but one thing we can do is take advantage of the opportunity to buy the conference CDs. That's a recording of most of the workshops presented this week. There's no way you could attend all of the sessions, even if you wanted to. And the rooms are often stuffy. And there are so many people packed in, it's difficult to concentrate on complicated craft sessions. I like the CDs because you can concentrate and take notes much easier at home, plus you can listen in the car, at work, on the treadmill or anywhere you want. And you can listen to them again and again. Lately I've been revisiting some of the 2006 and 2007 sessions I really enjoyed.

I took a peek at the workshop list for this week and here are the ones I'm most looking forward to listening to on CD:

Show Me the Money by Brenda Hiatt. Brenda maintains a data base of what kids of advances publishers are paying and what the earn out is on books from a particular house or imprint. VALUABLE information for authors, especially for those who are their own agents.She maintains a website with all this information.

Discovering Story Magic by Robin Perini. I've done this one before and done the online workshop. It's a great plotting tool and totally worth listening to a second (or third) time.

Buy This Book: Two agents, an editor and an author telling you how to sell your book. Um, no-brainer.

Publisher Spotlights. These I love. You learn, from the horse's mouth, exactly what the editors of a particular house are looking for and its current. Sometimes you get information that has not been released to the public. You get an idea of the personality and tone of some of the editors and their houses and whether this might be a company you'd like to work with. I think some writers are so hungry to be bought by someone that they forget this is a company you're going to be forming a partnership with. Make sure you're going to fit there. Some of my favorite workshops and spotlight from years past featured Kensington's former editors Kate Duffy and Hilary Sares. Both such funny, down to Earth ladies that I would have loved to have as editors. Unfortunately, Kate passed away a couple years ago and Hillary is no longer with Kensington.

Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood by Jayne Ann Krentz and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I think they do this Q & A style workshop every year, but it never gets old. It's good, solid advice gleaned from years of experience, tempered by a large dose of humor. Great fun and very educational.

Are You Insane? An Exploration of Abnormal Psychology by Sandy James. Sandy is my chapter sister, a great author and one smart lady. I'm looking forward to listening to her workshop because all of us are a little neurotic and we can always use a little help writing realistically neurotic characters.

In the Beginning by Connie Brockway, Eloisa James and Julia Quinn. These ladies could be doing a reading of the phone book and I'd still attend a workshop given by them. Any time you can get advice directly from NY Times Bestselling authors and have a chance to ask questions, DO IT.

All of you in New York, enjoy! The rest of us will be waiting for the CDs...and the embarrassing photos that your friends will do no doubt be Tweeting :)

Thursday and Friday I'll be blogging the 10 best things about conference and the 10 worst thing about conference.

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

2011-06-28T03:36:00.001-05:00

The past year or so I've been in a sort of slump. I haven't written as much as I'd like to, I haven't lost the weight I wanted to, I haven't gotten the house organized like I wanted to...the list goes on and on.

I was thinking about my fitness goals in particular during a recent visit with my family in Indiana. My brother set out to lose some weight, lost 30 pounds so far and looks great! He said something that clicked with me for the first time, though I've heard it a lot---small steps.

I'll repeat.

Small.

Steps.

Whenever I get on a health kick, I immediately start planning a calorie goal, an exercise goal, a goal to drink a certain amount of water per day, and so on and so on. The problem is, it's just too much at once and I invariably fail within the the first week. I don't have a lot of patience. I want to be at my goal weight NOW. It's just too overwhelming to think about all the things that have to happen and all the pounds that have to go before I achieve the big goal.

It's the same with writing. I want the book to be done NOW. It's too overwhelming to think about writing 200, 300 or 400 pages...and then revising them! And the editing them again! Whew!

I can write about 6 pages an hour when I'm in the "zone" (that's a post for another day!) so writing the first draft of a 250 page book should take around 42 hours. Then there is at least that much time revising and editing. All in all, I bet it's close to 100 hours of work from start to finish. Seems impossible. And it feels impossible when you're staring at the Microsoft Word page counter that seems stuck on the number "37".

But after talking to my brother, I realized that maybe the "small steps" theory can be applied to all the overwhelming tasks in my life. I started with the health goals, deciding to make one achievable health goal a week. Week 1 was getting out of the habit of drinking soda ('Pop' where I come from!). Week 2 I added a no sweets goal--no candy, cake, chocolate, cookies, etc. Week 3 is 15 minutes on the treadmill 3 times during the week. Week 4 will be eating one appropriately- sized serving at meals.

Guess what---it's week 3, I'm still on track and I'm making healthier choices outside those on my goal list. My one diet soda a day thing is working. I have only cheated once on the no sweets goal in a week and a half, and I am looking forward to the end of this week when I can say I've achieved my first exercise goal, too. Each small victory is giving me more confidence and motivation to move on to the next challenge. I'm not looking at the scale right now. I'm not setting weight goals tied to a specific date as I have in the past. I'm only focusing on one small step at a time because I know those small steps will eventually get me where I want to be.

As for the writing--I usually have periods when I write a lot and periods when I write not at all. That's no good if you want to write as a career. Plus I just feel better when I'm writing. I'm happier. I have a more positive outlook on things. I have fun!

It's summer break and my kids are out of school...not the most productive time for a mama-writer. But I made a small goal and the kids are now old enough to help me achieve it. My goal is five pages a day. About an hour's worth of work. I told the kids that we don't leave the house, we don't go to the pool the park or the grocery store until Mom's five pages are done.

Kids are very good about nagging and if they see me messing around online rather than writing, they start in until I open the manuscript and get busy. Best little motivators ever!

Writing in small steps like that is working. 5 pages isn't much. But 3o is. That's what I got in last week. There is no way I thought I'd ever be able to write 30 pages, work full time (at night), take care of 4 kids, the house, the husband, the hamsters, the laundry, sleep, eat and comb my hair. Never. But I did. And I judged five contest entries, went bowling with the kids, and finished my new website with all the feel-good-extra confidence I had from achieving my writing and health goals.

Small.

Steps.

Because, as I'm finding out, consistency is everything.

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

I'll be blogging every Sunday about my health goals for the week and every Saturday about the writing goals and how the small step thing is working for me.