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Showing posts from October, 2010

NaNoWriMo - Do You Have It In You?

I have decided this year to take the plunge, dig deep and put my nose to the grindstone this November.  I have officially signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and am meeting the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I might be crazy, but the idea seems like a good one right now and while I'm sure I'll be kicking myself right around November 27th for attempting this feat I feel that the last two months of editing and re-writing my first novel have prepared me for the upcoming 30 day adventure. I've come up with the basic premise for my second novel, a radical change from the first one I wrote which is based in present-day USA.  The next one will move forward to some unknown time in the future with radical advances in technology and a vengeful return of Mother Earth to make all things right in the world.  I'm looking forward to writing it, and the challenges I know it will bring since the entire novel will be smack-dab in the midst of ...

Keeping On Track With The Re-Write

Now that the editing is done, I have found myself smack-dab in the middle of re-writing my novel.  With deeper dialog, expanded chapters and better descriptions, the novel has grown in length and there's hardly a page of my first draft that hasn't been scratched out and written over. As life does, it got in the way early in the month and I thought I'd have to scrap my plans for re-writing this month.  Luckily, a good friend of mine offered me her home for the weekend and I was able to type through the first 80 pages of the novel in a weekend.  Now that I'm back on track, I feel much better about being able to complete the project by month-end.  I need to finish the re-write and get some copies printed for another round of editing by my reader friends so that I can move on to my next project.  I'll blog more about it next week, but if you haven't heard about NANOWRIMO ( http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ) and you've been sitting on an idea for a novel, November is...

The Rewards of Being Your Own Boss

There are a lot of drawbacks to being self-employed (that mortgage payment isn't going to pay itself, you know); but hopefully if you are blessed with a strong work-ethic, a solid idea of who you are and what you stand for, the ability to promote yourself and a healthy dose of luck then you can become successful at whatever you are doing and create a career that is brimming with rewards. It does take a lot of guts, resolve and door-knocking to make it outside of the "typical" work environment, but the feat is not impossible if you have a plan, keep a steady schedule and give yourself a chance to make it.  I've had an entrepreneurial spirit since I was very young, and I've made many attempts at owning my own businesses with varying degrees of success (and some pretty substantial failures). I would be lying if I said that I was able to single-handedly solve the world's financial crisis with the earnings coming in from my various blogs and online articles.  T...

Keeping Busy (a.k.a. Trying To Avoid Thinking About Contest Results)

Back in August I entered a writing contest for Glimmer Train, a quarterly publication for short-fiction stories.  Immediately after submitting my entry, I went to work on other projects knowing that the results wouldn't be out until sometime in October.  I was so busy with other goings on that I all but forgot the short story I submitted and the excitement of knowing that somewhere a judge would be reading my words and comparing my story to other new writers. Surprisingly, that all changed October 1st.  Although I'm still as busy (busier, in fact), I suddenly find myself wondering when I will find out how I did.  I hope that I placed in the top 25 authors... honorable mention would be just fine by me as I could always use another pat on the back to solidify why I walked away from a steady job to begin with. I'm going to try to forget the contest, and let the results come as a surprise whenever it is that they are announced.  Whether or not I win, the truth i...