#atozchallenge: Anthology of an Anthology

This April it's all about the 2014: A Year In Stories project I'm participating in via Pure Slush Books. (You were warned here.)

What is the 2014: A Year In Stories project?

A twelve-volume anthology, a volume per month, throughout 2014. The writers involved were assigned a specific date of the month, and they each write a story every month that takes place on that date. Mine, for example, is the 1st; my stories take place on Jan 1, Feb 1, Mar 1...

Yep: today is April 1st. A story of mine is happening. Interested? You can read it in the April volume's Amazon sample. You can also read Stephen V. Ramey's review here. (He reviews the day's story every day, and has been doing so since January 1st. A round of applause for Stephen, please!)

#MyWritingProcess -- You've Been Tagged!

The wonderful Shane Simmons has tagged me in the #MyWritingProcess hop... Which involves, as you might have so perceptively guessed, talking about this thing I do: write.

What am I working on?

The 2014: A Year In Stories project, of course. And I'm behind. I delivered the August installment a couple of weeks ago--the same installment that was due at the end of January. I'm still working on the September story, which was due at the end of February. October will be due exactly a week from today, and I haven't even started (obviously, since I haven't finished September--you see how this becomes a domino thing?).

I love this project. More on that during April, but for now let me just say it's an honor to be included.

I also have a novel in its thirty-something-th draft that needs--well, complete rewriting, I think. Should've done that last year, the rewriting, but instead--because I'm lazy--I thought I could just add and tweak and take out. I did; I cut it from 110K+ to 55K, then added another 50K (a different 50K).

Yeah. It's a mess. Which is why it needs complete rewriting. I mean from scratch. The weird thing is I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Writers. Strange, strange people.

Ooops

It's Thursday. THURSDAY.

Do you see where this is going?

I forgot about the Monday Accountability Report. No wonder I get nothing done.

So--fast and easy. Last week's goals were, for Project #1, to finish editing 13 scenes (I finished 7), and for Project #2, to finish the final draft of the March story (finished the first draft).

Goals for this--ahem, almost-over--week:

STOP PROCRASTINATING

Accountability Week 3

I'm beginning to dread these #writemotivation posts. No, no epic fail like last week this time--I actually got quite a bit of writing time in. More than the allotted 4 hours a day most days.

But little to show for it.

So I'm celebrating--I stuck to the schedule (sort of), got into the discipline of sitting my meager butt down in front of the keyboard and starting. But I'm also moping, because in spite of this schedule and this discipline, both of which cost me a psychological arm and a leg, progress is slow.

Accountability Week 2

So since I found #writemotivation via the awesome Damyanti (and thanks to K.T. Hanna for inventing it! I'll join the Roll Call in Sept, I promise), I moved these accountability posts to Monday. Hope you don't mind.

Epic fail this past week. Epic. Zero words written. Nada. Oh, we're counting emails? Okay, then log in my word count at +/- 1,000 for the week.

Accountability Week One

Project 1--The Novel (A Mantra for Cats and Other Runaways)

This, my first novel, is finished... But perhaps it's a good idea to define "finished." The story is complete, from beginning to end. I've revised and re-revised, over and over. When I thought it was perfect, I pitched it at a writers' conference and got seven out of nine agents interested (one of which later turned me down). At said conference I met an awesome editor to whom I sent the MS (after another round of revisions). She came back with some powerful insights, which led me to a) cut the MS from 104K to 52K, and b) add entirely new material that heightened the stakes, made them clearer, that brought the word count back up to 103K.

*Sigh*

Writing? What writing?

I actually am writing--you know, besides the sporadic nonsense post here. But these posts are the model of regularity compared to that other writing.

What can one do, right?

Well, no. That's the point. I refuse to become another of those wanna-be writers that have five unfinished novels under the bed, which get dusted every now and then, get a couple of chapters reworked until said wanna-be runs out of steam.

My Next Big Thing

I was invited to participate in the NEXT BIG THING blog hop by the awesome Vanessa Wu of Intense Sensations (read her awesome Big Thing post here; awesome short story collection of lesbian erotica)--thank you, Vanessa! 

Ten questions about the current / new WIP: check. 

1) What is the working title of your current/next book?

Okay... I'll go with Novel #1, A MANTRA FOR CATS AND OTHER RUNAWAYS. I've been working on revisions for over a year, so that definitely makes it "current" :D

WIP Update

It's coming close to the one-year anniversary of me typing THE END on this WIP of mine on August 15th last year. As a pantster I knew I had tons of revision ahead of me, that THE END was merely the beginning... But I never imagined exactly how much, or how tough it would be.

Six Sentence Sunday (March 25)

Jeez, people... This is the last SSS for March. Where's the year going? Happy Spring for you all, and thanks for visiting!

Taking up where we left off last week... Remember that "brown paper package tied up with string"? Sorry about putting that song into your head again :)

The paper crackled as I folded it back. There, nestled in sand, sat three small shells, delicate and intricate. 

“Michael, they’re beautiful! Where did you get them?”
“I found them,” he said, “and since I was thinking of you when I saw them, they’re yours.” 

Acapulco beaches are notoriously empty of shells--finding these must have taken some serious luck.

So there you have it--Michael's little offering. Cute or dud gift? What do you think? Are you the type to prefer to receive (or give) diamonds and gold, or would seashells melt your heart?

In any case, it's not all Michael brought back for Alexia :) See you back next week!

Thanks for your visit, and remember to visit the other Six Sundayers for more fun snippets. Have a great Sunday, y'all!

Six Sentence Sunday (March 18)

Another Six Sentence Sunday!

I'm skipping forward into Chapter 12, because I'm afraid after all this time you might have forgotten about Michael--the American that crash-landed into Alexia's life a few days ago, in the narrative timeline. He and the other American students spent the weekend in Acapulco, but Monday evening they're back.

He stopped just before we stepped outside. “I brought you something.”
He withdrew a little package from a pocket in his cargo pants. Brown paper tied with string.
"One of my favorite things," I said.
"Huh?"

Looks like he needs to brush up on his Sound of Music trivia :) Next week I'll do my best to choose six sentences that show Michael's gift.

Now--off we go, you and I, to visit the other Six Sentence Sundayers. Happy Sunday, everyone!

Seven

I've been tagged by Gwen of Fulfilling Dreams for the Lucky 7 Meme--thank you, Gwen! Got to confess, I don't know what a meme is. Yeah, I know--what world do I live in, right? And honestly I was never curious enough to even Google it. But--this is fun!


So what do I need to do?

I, uh, dropped the ball

February was a crazy month. Yep, my first writers' conference, my first experience of pitching to agents. Since the beginning of January, I worked hard on getting the WIP (Restoring Experience) into the best shape I could in order to pitch it at the conference. I read articles and books on writing, pitching, and querying that I should have read months ago. It felt like cramming for SATs. Then, at the conference, a brilliant editor (Alan Rinzler) asked me to send him my book, so for a solid week I did nothing but revise, revise, revise (yes, again) to get the MS ready for him.

Six Sentence Sunday (Feb 12)

This might be my last SSS... sniff... for the month. Yeah, just the month. But it feels like withdrawal, man! I'm flying to SFO for a writer's conference this Tuesday, and my dushi boyfriend is meeting up with me after to stay for another week of sightseeing--he's never been, so we'll probably be doing all the touristy stuff--and shopping for BOOKS! Yes, we're both avid readers.

So--without further ado, another snippet from Restoring Experience, the novel I'll be pitching at the conference (for practice only--one can dream, of course, but every time I read through I find more stuff to add/take out, improve, tighten... You get the drift). You can read last week's post here, and previous SSSsnippets here.

“No, you’re holding it upside-down,” Dan said, laughing, and turned the picture back around. 

“What is this?” I pointed at the burner-vent thing. 

“That, Lexie, is a stove.” 

“What’s a stove doing in the bathroom?” 

“The bathroom is off the kitchen--see the doorway here,” he pointed, “and the bathroom is through there.”

Ah--poor Alexia. All those dreams of living the artist life in a loft with wooden floors and rafters, a view of "history crumbling at the street corners"--dashed against the reality of European bathrooms :D

Thanks for stopping by, everyone, and I promise to do better rounds this week--last week, what with shaping up the last five chapters of this novel and refining (yet again) the first five, I went dark. But I do appreciate your visit, especially your comments--every time one of them pops up in my inbox, I feel like we connected, somehow. And that feels great.

Remember to visit the other Six Sundayers, and happy Sunday, everyone!
G

Six Sentence Sunday (Feb 5)

February, people. The year is flyin', I tell you. This week flew by so fast I forgot to sign up for SSS until Thursday--oops :) If you scrolled down the list far enough to find me and make it here, thank you :)

We pick up where we left off last week--Alexia's looking at the pictures Dan, her boyfriend, is showing her of the apartment he found for them in Milan. It's been a long-standing dream of theirs to live there for a year or so while Dan works on a master's degree in graphic design. The excerpt is from my WIP, currently undergoing serious re-re-revision, RESTORING EXPERIENCE.

This was not the loft with high ceilings I’d pictured. It was bland, as impersonal as a hotel room and only slightly larger. The wallpaper looked crackly, old. Two tall and narrow windows let in subdued light. 

The third picture showed what looked like a bathroom, but I was probably holding it upside down. I turned it, but the objects refused to fall into a recognizable layout--something in a corner looked suspiciously like a stove burner, but it had to be a ceiling vent of some kind.

I promise next week we'll skip ahead to some action again :) Thanks again for the visit, and remember to visit the other Six Sundayers--excellent writing all over.

Happy Sunday!

Sweet Saturday Sample (Feb 4)

Welcome back to Sweet Saturday Sample, and thank you for stopping by Quiet Laughter. I hope you enjoy this little bit from my first novel, Restoring Experience. This excerpt is from Ch. 23. Although it's definitely rated no higher than PG-13, it may not necessarily be "sweet"--there's despair in yonder lines below. You've been warned :)

Six Sentence Sunday (Jan 29)

Welcome, Sixers! Thanks for stopping by--it's so good to see you all :)

We pick up where we left off: Alexia's boyfriend, Dan, is showing her some pictures of the apartment he found in Italy for them. It's not a permanent move--he's a graphic designer, and wants to get a Master's in Milan. Dan and Alexia have been dreaming of this a long time.

But these snapshots I held in my hand didn’t belong in the dream.  The first picture was taken outdoors, a 70’s cookie-cutter-style block of apartment buildings painted a faded brown. Could be yellow—it was hard to tell under the city grime. The area looked like a modern suburb; no haughty architecture, no history crumbling in the corners. No, only chain-link fences, meager vegetation and overcast skies. 

With a straight face I flipped to the next one, the interior of the apartment.

I do apologize--six sentences wasn't enough to show the inside. Next week!

Happy Sunday, everyone, and remember to visit the other Six Sundayers. Some awesome blogs to keep coming back to: Zee Monodee, Natalie R. Owens, Jen Burke, Monica Enderle Pierce, Cindy Dwyer, Siobhan Muir, Dan H. Kind, Sue at SassySpeaks, and many others!

Sweet Saturday Sample (Jan 28)

Another Sweet Saturday Sample! 


The novel I'm sharing from, RESTORING EXPERIENCE, is Women's / Literary Fiction, and it's rating as a whole would never make it to PG-13 :D But this excerpt is mild, mild, mild. I hope you like it, and I look forward to your comments.


Title: RESTORING EXPERIENCE
Blurb: It's the summer of 1995 in Mexico, and 22-year-old Alexia is discovering possibility--at a steep price. She takes a step away from the conservative values and expectations that define her life, reveling in the exhilaration of freedom—of choices she never imagined she had. But choice implies decisions, and decisions entail regret: every untrodden path, even as she takes that first step away from it, is already an embryo of regret. 

Sometimes, we're just not ready to learn the lessons life throws our way. And sometimes there are no second chances.

Write 1, Sub 1--Jan Week 3

Ouch. Only three weeks into the challenge and I already failed. For the past three weeks I've been rushing to revise the MS I'll be pitching at the writers' conference in San Francisco next month, and this week I decided I'd sacrifice short stories for editing. I did cut away around 8K words, which is really good--still another 2K to go, and some chapters at the end to rewrite, but I think I'll end up with around 102K. Long, I know, especially for a first novel, but it's doable. Better than the original 113K, at least :D

One publishing success: a story I submitted to Pure Slush was accepted and published yesterday. Technically I guess that success should go in this week's W1S1 accounting, but in case I forget, here's the link:

http://pureslush.webs.com/pianosonataincmajor.htm

I got some great feedback from people that read it--it's short, around 600 words, so if you want to take a hop over and leave a comment, here or there, to tell me what you think, it'd be most appreciated :)

Six Sentence Sunday (Jan 22)

Thanks for stopping by today--hope you're having a great Six Sentence Sunday!

Here's this week's snippet for you, a bit further down the same scene from last week, where Alexia and Dan, her 7-year-boyfriend, are talking about the apartment he found for them in Italy--the fulfillment of a long-standing dream is about to come true, and Alexia is surprised she doesn't feel more excited.

“I got some pictures of the apartment.”  Dan fished in his shirt pocket and produced some snapshots.  “Now, don’t be disappointed,” he said, holding them back as I reached to take them.  “It’s small, not even close to luxurious.” 

I laughed, trying to pry his fingers from the photos.  “Poverty is the mother of all art, right?"

Next week you'll get to "see" the photos through Alexia's eyes :)

Take a stroll over to the Six Sentence site for more authors and more snippets of great works. You'll find me for sure at Zee Monodee, Natalie R. Owens, Monica Enderle Pierce, Cindy Dwyer, Melissa Mackinnon, Siobhan Muir, Krystal Wade, and many others. Enjoy!

Happy Sunday!