right and left english

I'm coming to a scene in my novel where the hero teaches the heroine how to shoot pool.

The problem: I know almost nothing about pool. But I do like pool and have always wanted to learn more about it.

The answer: Write a scene about pool. It's the one sure way I'll make sure to get it right.

And so we must research.

I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to this stuff because I actually enjoy research. I have tons of books on my resource shelf with topics ranging from palmistry to castle construction. Why? I want to include these subjects in my novels and I don't want to sound like an idiot. In fact, I'd rather sound like an expert. Even if it is on Viking grooming tools of the 11th century.(Yes! They DID groom themselves, despite popular belief!)

So back to pool. The internet is a magnificent mecca for research. I found a couple detailed websites on pool, a billiards glossary of terms, and even a tutorial on YouTube of how to play. I'm stoked with the amount of information I have and how easy it was to find. It took me about half an hour to find, save and sort through the important bits. I'd say I rock, but I think the internet gets props on this one. Now, I'll be much more confident in writing the scene and my readers will believe my hero is an awesome shot. Who could ask for anything more?

Daily Total: 1018
Grand Total: 13626

a long day

I'm proud of myself. I almost came home from a particularly long day at work (where I wasn't even able to think about my novel, let alone write a few lines down) and gave up. Giving up entails vegetating in front of the computer and/or TV and doing nothing, except breathing...and quite shallow breaths at that.

Now don't get me wrong, every once in a while, a day of going comatose can be fun and necessary, however, I had begun to let those days outnumber all others.

But not today.

Today I sat down and set my nifty little timer and told myself 10 minutes. I'll write for 10 minutes and I will call it quits. Because something is better than nothing. Well, I kinda know how I work and if I sit down and do my 10 minutes, those 10 minutes turn into another 10 minutes, and another...until as I mentioned in previous posts, I realize I've been writing for about an hour or more. And that happened today....

I spat out a respectable 903 words today for a grand total of 12608. I love seeing the numbers pile up.

I also decided that my goal is 120,000 words. I'm writing a stand-alone romance and one where I'd like to have some well-developed characters, intricate plot and subplot lines and a set up for two other novels in a trilogy if the mood strikes me. So I gotta have the words to make all this happen and happen well.

I'm confident.

I'll talk a little about my current project in my next post. For now, I need my beauty sleep.

it's geek to me

Let me start off by saying that I broke the 10000 mark, and am now at 11705 words!

Did you congratulate me? Yay! Thanks!

Anyway, moving on to the topic at hand. Let's talk about geeks. Well, handsome geeks, or geeks we all love. As I was thinking about who to include in this tribute, I found myself choosing guys that were not just geeks, but actually quite funny as well. It made me wonder if it's geeky to be funny? There is probably something to that, since personally, I equate humor with intelligence and wit. I also noticed that the men I chose have taken on a undercurrent of "cool," despite their geekiness. Maybe it's just me. Decide accordingly.

Here are my choices:

Matthew Perry has been a favorite of mine ever since Friends. As the character Chandler Bing (in every TV or movie role he's been in) he's cute, sexy, funny, and pretty geeky. Even the few extra pounds he put on when battling his drug addiction didn't take away from him stealing the show. Now I ask you, Could he BE any hotter??



My next geek, may be a little older, but definitely wiser. His charm is more subtle when it comes to his humor and yet he is still delicious as a hunk and scientist. William Peterson as Gil Grissom on CSI, made me want to watch crime drama for more than just the gorey death scenes. Humana Humana!



And if you don't watch this next geek on the Office, you're missing out! Not only one of the funniest shows ever, it has a great love story between Pam and Jim. John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, is the one of the best geeks of the year. With his lanky gait, kind eyes, and wicked sense of humor, he's one geek I'd love to meet at my office.



There is just something about the "geek" that is so intriguing and attractive as a hero. I think it's because they are the closest archetype we have to the real thing. Most of these guys you can imagine working at your office, analyzing your blood at a lab, or grocery shopping at your local market. And knowing they are out there makes us all the more excited to fall in love with them.
So get out your spectacles and calculators for these guys will surely sniff out your smarts.

nearing 10,000

If anyone told me I would have been a couple hundred words away from 10,000 on my novel in just a few short days, I would have punched them in the mouth. Isn't that a line from a Pink song? I wouldn't punch anyone, but I might've pushed them in the chest really hard saying "Get OUT!" a la Elaine on Seinfeld.

But it's true, I'm at 9786 words. Today, I wrote 1149 words. And as I look through my outline, I'm hardly into Act II! All this means is that I'm going to have a lot of "extra" stuff to revise. Which only makes me happier. I'd rather have too much than too little any day.

So I hope you liked my little tribute to British men that I posted yesterday. Tomorrow, I plan to do a tribute to the geek, one of my favorite heroic archetypes.

Ciao for now!

my brit obsession

I should have been born in England. I know this because I love anything even remotely reeking of Brit-land. Decaying castles, pints, James Blunt, Rimmel eyeliner..... the list goes on and on. And I don't think I could live without English comedy, the perfect blend of wit and silliness. Monty Python, the Office, Absolutely Fabulous, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?, or in a pinch...Austin Powers; they all make me wish I wasn't just a wannabe wanker. And speaking of wankers....

I thought I'd pay tribute to some of the fine English men that have inspired a bit of my writing and a couple fantasies, too. :-P

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite classic novels, but it was Colin Firth that made Mr. Darcy that much more memorable AND delectable! Bridget Jones is one lucky chippy....



Who could forget the sneaky Professor Snape from Harry Potter, Colonel Christopher Brandon of Sense and Sensibility, or Metatron from Dogma? I sure can't. Alan Rickman's voice can creep down your spine electrifying each and every nerve-ending until you're transformed into a puddle of liquid goo.



And of course, the masterful, Clive Owen. This photo doesn't show it, but he's not the typical classically handsome hero. That said, he easily fits the heroic prototype with his raw masculinity. Gotta love the man's eyes of steel!



Anyway, if these guys don't make you want to take a tour of the British Isles, then go back to Canada, aye.

Oh and "Long live the Queen!"

Disclaimer: Use of British slang may not reflect accurate British usage.

more steps

Another step has been stepped...upon...or whatever.

1218 words today! I told ya I'd get better with time.

True, it was a slow day at work so I got about 400 words done there, but even with a nap and dinner under my belt, I still managed to crank out 800 more words at home.

The grand total so far: 7834 words. I am officially kicking butt.

Did I mention the word progress meter? I plan on purchasing it from Holly's site tomorrow. It will give this lovely blog it's first piece of added html! And it will prevent me from spouting boring numbers for content.

Speaking of content. I need some pictures, or videos. Note to self: Find some cool shite for my blog tomorrow.

another fine feat

I did it again. I wrote! Woohoo!

835 more words.

I need a drink, or some ice cream to celebrate.

I continued on with Holly's Ten Minute Magic....and I think....yes, I think....that it is indeed magic. If it can psych me out enough to put words on paper (or screen) then it must be magic.

Oh Oh it's maaagic...You knoowooohhoohhh....

Anywho, I'm coming along nicely. Like a scrumptuous glazed ham.

To pork and beyond!

OK, enough of this silliness. I'm out.

i'm back

I have a habit of doing this. Creating a blog and then letting it go until I forgot where the blog was, what it was about and how to retrieve it.

Not this time. I wrote it down. On something permanent. Yep. I'm learning.

I had to post today, because I'm moving forward and I feel good about it. And well, I read that one of my gurus, Holly Lisle, says that creating a blog formalizes your goals and makes you more responsible for getting the things you want done. I'm hoping she's right.

I've got goals, but nothing specific as of yet. That will come as I see how this new system I'm implementing works. Today, it worked. And quite well, may I add.

Holly practices Ten Minute Magic. Which means she does almost everything in ten minute increments. What this does is break down big things into manageable and focused periods of time to move yourself forward on a project, or anything you'd like to complete.

Today I wanted to try this out. I had laundry to do, scheduling to input and writing to complete. So I set my nifty little computer timer to ten minutes and did the laundry until the timer went off, which was plenty of time actually to get the load folded and the next batch loaded into the washer. I set it again and did my scheduling. The timer went off and I was done with that. Then I gathered all my story notes, read through them and set up my computer to begin where I was next in the story. I set the timer. In ten minutes I had two paragraphs. Ok so it doesn't sound like a lot of words, but it's two paragraphs more than I had written in a month. Put that in your perspective and smoke it! I ended up setting the timer roughly 10 more times and got a couple loads of laundry finished and guess what?? 876 words written! If I can do this daily, I can get 22,776 words written by May 17, which is the next Cactus Rose meeting (my local chapter of the Romance Writers of America). I put a dollar into their goal journal, saying I would get 20,000 words written on my manuscript by the next meeting. More importantly this is another couple of steps to getting my novel finished. Hooray!

What I'm hoping will happen is that I'll get faster in my ten minutes and more prolific, getting more quantity as well as quality done. I won't get my hopes up. But I am a dreamer.

Anyway, I had to tell someone. And you're it.

Also, if you had a moment, check out Holly's site. She's got lots of cool things there in regards to writing...free plotting courses, helpful writing tips, great character, plotting, world building, etc. courses for a fantastic price and a newsletter that comes out every week detailing what she's working on and a section where she answers questions from people like me. I like her because she's a real person, making a decent living as a writer. www.hollylisle.com

Until next time...

all about me

It's time.

Yes, it's time to do this.

Blog.

As an aspiring writer blogging is inevitable and some may say, a necessary evil. Maybe that's too harsh, but for me, I think it's now a must.

I write romance and hope to have my first novel completed by August. That means I need to put myself out there; shmooze, if you will, via the internet highway. Every writer I know seems to have a blog and for good reason. They have books they need to publicize. Heck, they need to publicize themselves.

Which is why I'm here embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. The pursuit of a dream. To become a writer.

At 30, I've decided I can't hold out any longer. I pushed this whole writing business into the back of my mind, where it sat, sometimes impatiently, until one day last year it reared up and forced me to look at my life. And then I got depressed.

Don't get me wrong, I've done some....stuff, been some places, made some friends. But I wasn't aiming towards anything in particular. I have no career, just a series of unrelated and unsatisfying jobs. I have no home, just a place that I stay because I haven't the means to go anywhere else. And I have no purpose, other than to keep hope alive that one day I will. Pretty sad, huh? Yeah, I thought so.

So, I did some serious soul-searching and this time listened to this writing thing. I realized I had enjoyed and excelled at writing since I was able to read. And read I did for the majority of the time I spent alone as a child. I could lose myself in books, escaping from reality, or sometimes, improving upon it. I even wrote a romance in 7th grade. I still have it, though I pity the person who comes upon it when I'm dead and gone. It really is bad. But hey, it's complete. From then on, I've written poems, essays, synopsi, character charts and outlines of stories that burst forth from my brain and dare I say, heart. But these have never gone the way of my first attempt - actual completion.

I'm getting closer though. And determination and motivation is slowly chipping away at all the crap - insecurities, procrastination, etc. - that prevents me from being more productive than naught. So, I'm optimistic. I think romance writers kinda have to be, since our livelihood depends on a happy ending.

Thus, my adventure begins and this blog is here to see it come to fruition. It could also help with the next mega obstacle called publication.....the after effects of promotion.

It's time.

Welcome to the adventure....I mean, my Blog.