Cool Beans!

A talented and insightful blogger whom I greatly admire, Writer Reading, featured a comment of mine in one of her recent posts. My comment was in response to her question, "How do other writers keep going?"

Check out my response here.

Thank you, WR, for featuring my comment! I'm glad it was useful. I love visiting Writer Reading for many reasons, not the least of which she makes me think. And composing my comment in response to her earlier post helped me articulate -- and reiterate -- to myself why I walk this Writing Path.

Make a Wish Meme

I was tagged by Julia for the Make a Wish Meme. This is a fun one! And I didn't have to think long about my wish, *grin*.

First, here are the rules for the meme:

1. Think about what it is that you want more than anything, what your heart's desire and fondest wish is, and what it is that you would wish for if you were to see the above wishing star flame across the night sky.

2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic below.

3. Use a graphics program of your choice and place your wish on the picture.

4. Post the Make A Wish Meme and your wishing star on your blog along with these rules.

5. Tag as many people as you like so that there can be wishing stars all across the Blogosphere and ask them to please link back to Linda at Are We There Yet so that she can see what wishes others have made and share those wishes with others.

Here's what I came up with...



And in Heart's Chalice-related news, I broke 60K last night! Moving right along. I expect the rough draft to wind up rather long, but I promise, it'll be a reasonable length once I put it through the revision-spit-and-polish wringer.

For the Make a Wish Meme, I'm going to tag Wylie, Dorothy, and Maya.

New Look: Finis!

Finis... at least for now!

First time I've designed a custom header for TN Text Wrestling. I'm pleased!

What does everybody think?

Because of spam comments, I've enabled comment moderation. I hated to do it, but it's necessary. I will not tolerate spam on this blog.

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And...*drum roll*... my friend Wylie Kinson's latest novella Law of Averages releases today from Ellora's Cave! SQUEE!!!!! It's a marvelous read: well-written, sultry, romantic and fun.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I'll be switching to a new-new template; I can't figure out how to fix the font color problem for posting comments on this one (the "moon" template). It requires an extra bit of code, and I found what was supposed to be the "fix" according to the author of the template, but I can't get it to work. In fact, I made it worse -- you can't even see the comment link on the main page now.

So instead of fooling with these pre-made templates, I'm going to go to a standard blogger template where it's easy to change colors on the fly and for which I don't have to know CSS -- just don't have time to learn it; have way too many other things to do and not enough hours in the day. And I'll design my own custom header.

A standard template with a custom header is the best choice for me anyhow; I'll get sick of this moon template at some point and want to change it, too. If I stick with a standard blogger template, I can change things much easier when I want to and still have a unique look with the custom header.

New Template!

I just had to do it... got sick of looking at my old template, pretty though it was. I don't have my link lists / blogrolls rebuilt yet, though -- hoping to get that done tomorrow.

What do you think of the new look?

Three Rough Drafts

Wow, a post about writing? I bet y'all are saying, "I thought this had become a hiking blog." :)

Nah, not a hiking blog, but the blog of a writer who loves to hike.

Anyway, Seventy Days of Sweat Round Three ends on May 15. I've racked up 114,000 total words, half of which I had to scrap in order to restructure Heart's Chalice, and half of which applies to the rewrite.

The rewrite is going well. I'm still feeling out aspects of my story. Currently, I'm writing it from the protagonist's point of view. But I'm thinking of writing new chapters from other important characters' points of view to add richness to the story. Texture -- I love texture! But texture and layering take time. I intend to take the time I need.

Which brings me to the subject of writing challenges. When I finish rough-drafting Heart's Chalice, I'll have three rough drafts on my hands: Heart's Chalice, House on Bear Branch, and Beast of Stoney Creek (House on Bear Branch and Beast of Stoney Creek are working titles; I'll probably change both of them because they're cheesy). I don't need any more rough drafts, so I'm steering clear of writing challenges until I get my current stories revised and polished.

I'm glad I participated in Seventy Days of Sweat (all three rounds) and NaNoWriMo: they kicked me out of that awful writing slump I fell into last year. Before the slump I'd been productive; the writing challenges helped me become productive again and to rediscover my own comfortable and productive pace.

Here's what I hope to accomplish by the end of this year:

1. Finish rough-drafting Heart's Chalice.

2. Let Heart's Chalice simmer as I polish House on Bear Branch, get it beta-reader ready and submission-ready. I've found it's good to let a story simmer on my mind's back burner at regular intervals. Gives me a fresh eye for revisions.

3. Start querying for House on Bear Branch as I revise Heart's Chalice. Yes, I'm focusing heavily on Heart's Chalice; I have a good feeling about that story, and it gives me fodder for additional novels. One of its characters, in particular, is hollering, "Write about me next!"

4. Let Heart's Chalice simmer again as I revise Beast of Stoney Creek.

5. Let Beast of Stoney Creek simmer as I get Heart's Chalice beta reader-ready and submission-ready.

6. Begin querying for Heart's Chalice as I get Beast of Stoney Creek beta reader-ready and submission-ready.

7. Begin querying for Beast of Stoney Creek; do further revisions on all three novels as necessary, begin rough-drafting a new novel.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when I have three horses on the Query-Go-Round.

Mystery Flower

Here's a gorgeous flower hubby and I found on Saturday's hike, near one of our favorite trails. It was the only one of its kind that we could see.



Exotic-looking, isn't it? We have no idea what it is. Anybody know?



Hubby and I ordered a field guide to North American plants so we can identify the beautiful foliage that's springing up (pun intended) all over. We look forward to receiving the book and learning as much as we can.

Added a bit later: Bunnygirl identified the flower for me -- it's a Ladyslipper! Thanks so much, Bunny!

Broke 50K!

I broke 50K with today's o'dark thirty writing session, and I've practically sprained my arm patting myself on the back. I'm steamrolling with this story now, and oh, it feels good! All the hard work I did on restructuring is paying off a millionfold.

Wildflower pictures! I've got your wildflower pictures right here (from my last hike, of course):











It won't be long now until the rhododendron (mountain laurel) is in bloom. It will be gorgeous -- I can't wait!

And the precious little Harley Wrens have left our carport, ready to embark on their lives. It was an honor having them with us.