The Story Behind GOOSED! OR A FOWL CHRISTMAS

Goosed! or A Fowl Christmas is the second book I wrote, way back in 2005-2006.

I was new to writing and the world was wide open. I wrote about what I liked, and I like birds, especially waterfowl, and most especially, ducks. I had just read "Small Miracles", a Regency Christmas story in which the animals talk, by my favorite author, Barbara Metzger. (I love Barbara Metzger. Her stories are always wacked-out funny.) The month was December, so I wrote a funny Christmas tale about a conniving goose whose personal agenda dovetails with my hero's and heroine's romance.

There are plenty of birds here, as well as a fox. The animals all talk to each other, the humans blissfully unaware of the action taking place under their noses. But Christmas terrifies the goose, and for a very good reason. :)

Like all my other stories, this one is a comedy. Goosed! is near the "wacky" end of my humor spectrum.

I rewrote the book because I've learned a lot since 2006. Show vs. tell, Point of View (POV)--in 2006, I had never heard of this stuff. Converting my mostly "telling" story into "showing", and also adding new scenes lengthened the book by 50 per cent. I also fixed lots and lots of POV errors.

The human story of Goosed! is also a love triangle, and, sadly, one of the seekers of the heroine's hand loses. The original version of Goosed! didn't contain this subplot. The loser is the hero of the first book I wrote, in 2005, and the next one in The Feather Fables series. I back fit some of his story into Goosed.  I also have to rewrite this book, which I call my magnum opus, and I plan to publish it sometime this year.

So, there it is: Goosed! or A Fowl Christmas, Book 1 of The Feather Fables, sweet Regency romance, full of birds and comedy, and with more fun on the way.

Available at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Also available at the other Amazon stores

Barnes and Noble

Nook UK

Smashwords (note, all formats are available on Smashwords)

Apple iBooks

Kobo

Thank you all,
Linda

Genesis of My Book Titles

A title is a strange beast. Its function is to incorporate the entire story in a few words without giving any surprises away. Impossible? Maybe. But titles, like covers, are marketing tools. A good title is important.

How do I come up with the titles of my Regency comedies? Well, sometimes they come to me, and sometimes they don't. I usually start with two or three titles and then pick the one I like the best.

Lady of the Stars started out as The Stars Are the Same. Since the story is a time travel, the original meant that the stars, and hence other things, like love, are unchanged in both the past and present. But that's not exactly descriptive and hardly obvious. The final title refers to the twenty-first century heroine's time-traveling role in a legend involving the hero, and also to her occupation of astronomer. I had to think about the title for months before I came up with the final version.

Pumpkinnapper came to me in a flash as I thought about a Halloween story about a pumpkin thief, AKA a pumpkin kidnapper, contracted to pumpkinnapper. The original version was Pumpkin-Napper.

Mistletoe Everywhere started out as The Magic Mistletoe. The mistletoe is indeed magic, but the first title gives too much away. I changed it to its final form, which is also very descriptive, because the hero sees mistletoe over the heroine, mistletoe only he can see.

The original title for Gifts Gone Astray was Gifts Awry. The original sounds like the gifts are malformed, but they're not. The final encapsulates the story of gifts going to the wrong person.

An Inheritance for the Birds started out as Ducks in the House. The story is about pet ducks and an inheritance with slightly crazy terms. Since the ducks live in the manor house in the story, Ducks in the House sounded appropriate. The final title captures the inheritance, the involvement of birds (ducks), and the pun alerts you to something weird and funny going on.

A Similar Taste in Books was originally Love and the Library. Love and the Library would have been a good title because the hero and heroine meet in a library. But they also like the same books, especially Pride and Prejudice, which is the book that brings them together. So, I went with A Similar Taste in Books for the story.  The hero in Book 1 has three friends, and each will also find his love at the library over a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Love and the Library is now the name of the series. I'm thinking of the title A Shared Interest in Numbers for Book 2, since the hero and heroine are mathematicians.

I have to work on the titles, but somehow, given enough time, I eventually think of something I like.

Thank you all,

Linda

Gee, This Writing Is Hard Work

When I took it into my head to write a romance, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Maybe that's why I did it. I can't imagine working this hard if I had known how much effort writing is.

I love romances. I've read lots of them and when I finished one, there was another in endless supply awaiting me. Until I ran out. How could I keep myself in romances? Why, I could write my own. So I decided to give it a try.

The secret is: it takes more than a try. It takes lots of tries, and I mean lots. Writing is not for the lazy, the procrastinator, or the person who lacks perseverance. Especially the last. When someone asks me to describe myself in one word, I say persistent--that's French for "too stupid to give up".

I've spent a lot of time warming my desk chair as I write and rewrite. Someone told me most writing is rewriting. I believe it. Sometimes my stuff comes out pretty good, and sometimes it's pretty terrible. So I rewrite. A lot. And I find that even the parts that sounded pretty good to begin with improve with rewriting.

So I write and I rewrite, and in between I try to think up an idea for a new story. I've taken courses on writing and on the Regency, which is the era I set my romances in. I've entered contests and lost them. I just lost another one. I doubt I’ll ever win.

I sent my first story, Lady of the Stars, to The Wild Rose Press. Lady started life as a contest entry. I lost--no big surprise there. But the editor who read it told me how to improve it and said to resubmit. I resubmitted twice before she gave me the contract. Like I said, persistent. Or maybe, stupid.

Now that I have a contract (I have three: Lady of the Stars and Pumpkinnapper are currently available, Mistletoe Everywhere comes out on November 3, all from The Wild Rose Press), all I have to do write some more stuff. Right? Wrong. Now the dreaded PROMOTION rears its ugly head.

If you think writing is hard, wait until you try promotion. I have a website. I contribute to nine blogs. I'm on myspace, facebook, twitter and those are only the big three. I'm almost up to triple digits on the number of yahoo loops I belong to.

The bottom line: Is anybody reading my story? I have no idea.

OK, after all this, why do I continue? Because I think my stories are good and someone else may like them, too. I'm probably fighting an uphill battle because I don't write much sex. But I'll continue. At least for a while.

Like I said, persistent. Anybody for stupid?

Thank you all,

Linda

The Amount of Work Involved

Writing is work. The saying is obvious, but how much work is it?

I have a general idea by looking over the number of copies in my story folder.

For every story I write, I keep a computer folder named with the story's title. The story itself is a Word file, again named by the title. At the end of a day when I make substantial changes, I save and number a copy.

For Mistletoe Everywhere, my Regency Christmas novella, version one is the original idea, at 3000 words. The final version I sent to the publisher, at 26, 600 words, is version seventy-four.

Now for the length of time the writing took. I generally write all day on Sunday, with some time, usually not much, during the week. I started Mistletoe Everywhere in June, and finished in mid-September. Then I let the story sit for a month to allow me to see it with fresh eyes. As I reread it in October, the story sounded good to me. I made some changes, mainly replacing words I repeat too often with better words.

Then I tackled the query letter and synopsis. They took two weeks. At the end of October, I sent the fifth version to my editor at The Wild Rose Press.

So, from when I started to when I sent in the query, the total effort was about five months, seventy-four (74) versions of the novella, and five (5) versions of the query and synopsis.

The editor will now send me her edits, and I'll work on the story again for at least another month. I don't know how typical this amount of work is, but I've worked a lot.

For the authors out there, how many versions do you write before you send your story in?

Thank you all,
Linda

NaNoWriMo at 48,104 words, December RWR, and Pumpkinnapper cover

Several things today.

First, my NaNoWriMo count is 48,104, according to Microsoft Word. I'm going to push it to 50,000 tomorrow and then leave it. I planned the story to be 90,000 to 100,000 words, so I'm about half done. I've outlined the rest and I'll flesh it out later.

Second, I was supposed to guest blog today at the Simply Romance Reviews blog, but their last post is for November 17, and I have no idea what's going on. More info when I find out.

Third, for those of you who belong to the RWA, check the inside front cover of the December issue of RWR for The Wild Rose Press ad. My cover for Lady of the Stars is on the bottom row. I received my copy yesterday, so yours should arrive soon. The ad looked great on the computer proof they sent us, but on glossy paper, it's beautiful.

And, last but not least, I just received my cover for Pumpkinnapper. Another gorgeous cover from Nicola Martinez, who also did the Lady of the Stars cover. Pumpkinnapper's expanded blurb and excerpt are on my website on my Books page.

Happy Thanksgiving. And now for my Thanksgiving joke (Don't groan too loudly). Thanksgiving: The one day in the year we give thanks for turkeys.

Thank you all,
Linda

NaNoWriMo - 27,115 words so far

In the first eight days of NaNoWriMo, I've written 27,115 words.

As I reread some of the words I've written, I wince. One scene written two ways. Another scene that needs better motivation. Bulk words, I say to myself, words cranked out, not final words. First draft.

Did my other stuff start out this bad?

Probably worse. Even as I reread my NaNoWriMo entry, I do have POV correct, and I no longer write sentences that start with "This is" or "That is". Progress of a sort, I suppose.

Last year I took Shannon Donnelly's Show and Tell course offered by the Published Authors' Special Interest Chapter of the RWA (PASIC). She said most of writing is rewriting. You write down what you can, messy as it is, then go back and layer in emotion, showing, descriptions, etc.

And fix the spelling. Probably half my words have typos.

But now for the good news: I'm more than halfway through. This week I have other things to work on, so I had to get ahead. Next time I won't report a really high word count.

I'll end with some shameless promotion. On Friday, November 14, I'll be blogging at Between the Lines on "Where To Find Romance--In a Book, That Is".

Thank you all,
Linda

NaNoWriMo Starts on November 1

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Aspiring novelists can join the fun at the website and attempt to write 50,000 words in November. Now, the words don't have to be good or even spelled right, but they do have to be written.

I have the general idea of my story, along with a kind of synopsis/plot--all of fifteen double-spaced pages. Not much, but more than a pantser like me usually begins with.

The task seems almost hopeless now, but when I start, the words usually gush out. If anything, I wind up with lots extra. And however far I get by December first, which I intend to be all 50,000 words, I will have a first draft.

This novel will become Part One of my Regency comedy trilogy. I named the trilogy The Feather Fables because all the books deal with birds. I began Part Three, wrote Part Two, then returned to Part Three. Talk about going backwards, but I had to start somewhere. Parts Two and Three both need a lot of editing because when I wrote them I knew next to nothing about writing. But I did finish. Both are entire stories.

I didn't intend to write a trilogy, but with my reuse of characters, the books developed into one. Part Two is a Christmas fantasy containing a goose who understands English. Part Three has almost no fantasy elements and stars an ornithologist with an embarrassing secret. The ornithologist is present in all three novels, but doesn't achieve his happy ending until the end. Frankly, I adore the guy and want him around as long as possible.

Getting back to Part 1, my hero is fairly unusual--a were goose. A wise woman transforms the hero into a goose because he's acting like a fool.

When I told my husband the premise, he said to turn the hero into a turkey.

A turkey won't work because the story needs a large bird that can fly fast for long distances. Besides, the hero isn't a hopeless case. He starts out as an idiot but changes along the way and a goose isn't quite as unredeemable as a turkey. But, wow, a were turkey, now there's a concept.

Part 1 also contains supernatural spies, a lady mathematician, secret codes and evil shapeshifters.

And only 30 days. Progress reports will follow in the weeks to come.

Thank you all,

Linda

The Muse Conference Ends Today

The Muse Online Writers' Conference is a free week-long online writers' conference conducted every year by Lea Schizas.

It's composed of chats and forums on topics of interest to writers not only of fiction, but also non-fiction, poetry and screen-writing. This year's conference has fifty-three chats and sixty-four forums, by my count. I may have missed a few. And seventy-eight handouts.

What an undertaking. Authors, agents, publicists, editors and publishers, all lending their expertise for FREE to help others. And so much great information. I admit I acted like a kid in a candy store and signed up for practically everything. I did all I could this past week, but I'll still be spending the next month copying all the additional information the presenters wrote in the forums.

And if you missed this year's conference, don't worry. Registration for the 2009 conference opens on November 1, 2008. You can sign up here.

Now for some shameless promotion (did you really think I'd forget?). The conference is free, but it does require money to run. If you have a few pennies, donate them to Lea at this link. She'll put your money to good use. And if you have more than a few pennies, that amount would be even better.

A grateful thanks from this newbie to Lea Schizas and all the other generous people who donated their time and talents.

Thank you all,

Linda

More Shameless Promotion (Does She Ever Stop?)

Do I have a choice?
From what I can see, authors have to promote all the time. But it does take a toll on your writing.
Just this past week, historical romance superstar Loretta Chase left the Word Wenches blog so she could have more time for writing. As sorry as I am to see her go, I understand her dilemma. Although she is a wildly popular author, she has to keep writing books people want to buy. Good writing takes time. Writing blog entries can suck up a lot of that time, and you're not getting paid for it.
Lest we forget, the purpose of a writer's blog is to sell books. In my August 10, 2008 post I talked about how saturated the web is with blogs. They may not be as effective now as they once were, and an author could hurt herself if she lets her book suffer because she spends her time blogging.
But I'm a newbie, and I have to learn about promotion. Six months ago I knew next to nothing about it. Then I had this blog, but hadn't yet written a post. I didn't have a website, or know what myspace was, or how to upload a picture. I still have to work on the pictures, but I'm a whole lot farther than I was.
I'm trying. I certainly hope some of this stuff works.

Thank you all,
Linda

Word Count II

Now for electronic word count.

Here's the only explanation I have for figuring out electronic word count. It comes from the free course Roses Write Fifty Books that sisters Delilah Devlin and Elle James of Roses Colored Glasses give every year.

b) If your targeted publisher uses the computer word count, you have to know how many words you average per page. To figure that out, open a document you are working on that is near completion (can be a fully fleshed-out chapter). Check the word count (in MS Word you go to "Tools" then "Word Count"). Take that number and divide by the number of pages in the document. That will give you your words per page. When you look at the publisher page count, say, 50,000 words, you divide 50,000 words by your personal words per page number to get the number of pages you have to write to complete that story.

OK, now I have a WIP that MS word says has 20,031 words in 60 pages, so my words per page is 333.85, or 334. So, if my publisher wanted 50,000 words, I would have to write 150 pages.

Now, I'm not sure if this calculation includes the first page of a chapter, which usually starts partway down the page. If it does, it assumes that the first page of a chapter also contains 334 words, even though this page is not completely filled with type.

Author Monica Burns also has a Word Count spreadsheet on her website that tracks progress on your WIP in both Courier and Times New Roman. You plug in your word count, and it tells you how many pages you have.

I find her spreadsheet a little confusing, because in this spreadsheet, TNR assumes 285 words per page and Courier assumes 250 words per page

Now, if I use this TNR calculation, my 20,031 word TNR manuscript would contain 70 pages. So I think I'll stick with the Roses calculation.

I'm confused, too. As in all cases, check your publisher's Submission Guidelines.

Thank you all,

Linda

Word Count I

How simple can a concept be?

Word count is the number of words in your document. Microsoft Word, which I use, has a handy dandy little tool that counts the number of words in my manuscript. And I use that count when writing to an agent or publisher.

Wrong. Word count, as strange as it seems, is not necessarily the actual number of words in your manuscript. For paper, word count's meaning is mangled to mean how many vertical lines can fit on a page. Publishers want to know how many sheets of paper they need to print your story.

For example:

"Hi, there. How are you?"

"Hi, yourself. I'm fine."

And

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. These are the times that try men's souls. Today is the first day of the rest of your life

Have exactly the same word count. Why? Because both snippets take up two vertical lines on the page.

The print industry standard is a one inch margin on all sides, twenty-five lines per page, Courier or Courier New 12 point, widow and orphan control off. A page printed in this manner is considered to have 250 words on the page, or ten words per line.

Oh, and you start a new chapter about two-thirds of the way down the page, and this page also counts as 250 words, even though there are NOT twenty-five lines of type of the page.

Now, my example up there is not done in Courier New 12 point, and it does not have the one inch margins and is not spaced twenty-five lines per page, but you get the idea.

I write using Times New Roman (TNR) 12 point, but with everything else as above. When I want to see how many pages it is in Courier New, I just Select All, then change the font.

Look at all this information. Takes up only a half page of explanation, but it took forever for me to find it out. I wish somewhere they had something to explain to us newbie writers how to format our manuscripts. A caveat is always look at the submission guidelines. The trouble is, I did look there, but those guidelines didn't explain this stuff, either.

I wrote my first WIP in single space, TNR 12, until I had 100,000 words by the Word word counter. Formatted in the print format above, my WIP came out as 120,000 words. I've read that transferring electronic word count to paper word count can increase the word count by 15% to 20%. In my case, it was 20%. I could have saved myself a lot of work if I had known what I was doing.

And now that I've thoroughly confused you with paper word count, next week we'll talk about e-pub word count.

Thank you all,

Linda

Contests II

As you read this entry and look at the titles of my previous posts (please do!), you may ask, Where is Contests I?

Contests I is cleverly disguised as And How Did You Become an Author?, the story of how my losing contest entry, Lady of the Stars, got e-published.

I’ve entered other contests, and I haven't won. Close sometimes, but close is like the Olympic athlete who comes in fourth—not good enough, even if the spread is only a few points. I’ve received some very high scores, but not high enough.

Sure, I'd like to win a contest. Winning would feel very good. Having an agent or publisher read my partial would be even better.

What’s going on? Is my stuff junk, or does it not fit the scoring?

I've heard various comments about contests. Here’s author Elizabeth Boyle’s take on contests on Romantic Inks. Hint: She isn’t too crazy about them.

Some say winning means you can write what a contest wants. A contest looks at the story elements. You may have a great story, but it may not be saleable, or saleable to New York. As an example, I know a write who finaled in the Royal Ascot, the contest held by the Beau Monde section of the RWA. Her agent couldn't sell her book to New York because the publishers didn't want a blind heroine. Her book, Blind Fortune by Joanna Waugh, was e-published in July by Cerridwen Press.

Others swear by contests, and yes, some contest winners do get published. Most of the Golden Heart winners do. But then, the Golden Heart is a well-known and respected contest. There are tons of other contests out there, and how do you tell?

Try seeing who the final judges will be. If there's one who you want to see your work, try.

Contests are also good for getting a critique. Again, you have to be careful. I've received some great critiques. And I've received at least one terrible one that was essentially fill-in-the-numbers on the score sheet. A waste of money, that contest was.

But I wouldn't go overboard. I know one writer who boasted she'd just finaled on a particular manuscript for the eighth time. Eighth time? At about $25 a pop, contests aren't cheap. If I had finaled even once, I would have sent the manuscript out to an agent or editor.

Because, after all, writing is not about winning contests, it's about getting published. Winning a contest can feel very good, but it's not a book contract.

Thank you all,

Linda

Shameless Promotion II

Last Wednesday, August 27, I participated in a promotion event "Fall Into A Good Book" with fourteen other authors in the Latte Lounge at Coffee Time Romance. We posted excerpts, had contests and answered posts. And there was lots of activity, right up until the end.

It was a lot of fun, but also exhausting. Whoever thinks you're not
working when you're sitting down is dead wrong.

Still, I wonder if all the activity helped sell any books. Were lots of
lurkers watching? I hope so, because it appeared we fifteen authors
were talking to each other.

I base my observation on our contests. After I had sat for a while with
only two entries, I entered as many contests as I could, just so the
others would have some participation. All told, I received five contest
entries, each one from a participating author. Did the others receive so few?

I think so. I won six contests. Six out of fifteen?

One problem may have been access to the Latte Lounge. One author
told me several of her friends tried to get in, but couldn't.

The Latte Lounge is a forum, which is similar to a Yahoo group, but
haslots of graphics available to enhance your posts. All in all, a very
nice place to post. But it's not a Yahoo group and using it may require
a little practice.

Or maybe no one was interested. I grant you, there are lots of books
out there, and everyone wants a piece of your time.

So, I'll have to wait and see if posting on loops and forums helps to drive sales.

But if you're interested in reading some great excerpts from our Fall Into a Good Book event, click on this link. You don't need to login to read.

Thank you all,
Linda

Shameless Promotion

Buy my book! Please!

How shameless is that? I apologize for the outburst, but I'm still bouncing around from excitement. I've just received the release date for my very first published book. The Wild Rose Press will release Lady of the Stars, my Regency time travel novella, on January 7, 2009.

My Christmas present, a little late. But not if you use the Julian calendar, because January 7 using our Gregorian calendar is December 25 on the Julian calendar. Here's the calendar conversion link:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

So, I really do receive my Christmas present on Christmas. Just depends on what calendar you use.

Now for some more shameless promotion--here's the Lady of the Stars blurb:

Caroline knows something is wrong the instant she steps into that unusual gazebo with two doors. But when a man she never thought to see again appears outside, she flings caution aside and plunges through the back door, crashing into an unknown man--and 1817.

A voyage through time? Impossible. Richard refuses to believe the strange woman's outlandish tale. Still, the lady is lost and alone, and he helps the stranded wayfarer.

But as attraction flares between these two lonely people, Richard's family legend grinds to its ultimate fulfillment--will it bring them together, or tear them apart forever?

And while we're talking promotion, on Wednesday August 27 from 5-6 PM EDT, I will be in Coffeetime Romance's Latte Lounge. I will post an excerpt, answer questions, and have a contest. Come and join me, especially since I have a whole hour, which I didn't expect, and I have to fill it up somehow.

How's that for shameless promotion?

Thank you all,

Linda

I'm a Published Author, Right?

Maybe, maybe not.

My first published story, Lady of the Stars, will be out soon from The Wild Rose Press. According to the Romance Writers of America (RWA), I’m a published author because an RWA recognized publisher (non-subsidy, non-vanity, which means I will get royalties) is publishing my novella (about 25,000 words—the RWA defines a novella as a work between 20,000 and 40,000 words).

Sounds like I meet all the definitions.

However, there are other definitions.

The Wild Rose Press is an e-publisher. E-publishing is the newest game in town. I think eventually e-publishing will outpace print publishing. But—and this but is a large one—it may not happen anytime soon.

Right now, e-publishing makes up a miniscule piece of the publishing market—the percentage I heard is 1%. Yes, that number is correct--one per cent. An e-published book is a best seller if it sells 100 copies. A print book can sell that many copies in the first half hour it’s on the shelves. So, as far as the print world is concerned, I’m small potatoes.

If you notice, I've said nothing about whether or not I have a good, well-written story. It all comes down to the money. As an e-pubbed writer, I do not have the audience a print–pubbed author has, translated into not as many people will buy my book.

Which is why I’m here blogging, trying to convince people that my story is good, and you should buy it.

A very good blog on publishing trends is Maya Reynold’s blog at

http://www.mayareynoldswriter.blogspot.com/

And, no, Maya isn’t paying me for the plug.

Thank you all,

Linda

To Blog Or Not To Blog, That Is The Question (My Apologies to the Bard)

We authors have to blog, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

Published authors say you have to blog. It's part of promotion.

It's also part of getting an agent's or publisher's attention. When you send out that query letter, the first thing she (I'm assuming romance agents and editors, and most of them are female) will do is click over to your blog to see how you write. Forget that she has your letter if front of her. A letter is formal, on-your-best-behavior writing, and it should be. First impressions are important. Even if you live in jeans, you wouldn't go to a wedding wearing them. A blog is, or may be, a better indicator of how you really write.

But here's another take on blogging, as a form of online promotion, on Romancing The Blog

http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2008/07/25/the-bottom-line-on-online-promo

According to this article (written on a blog, natch), blogs now saturate the web. How will anyone find mine? Either I spend all my time flitting from blog to blog, or I write a book.

I grant you, I don't spend too much time on my blog, only about an hour or so week. It probably shows. And even with that minimal effort, I spend half the time cajoling it past Blogger's html, which doesn't like the header information Word puts into the master file. Ah, the wonders of technology. This week I'm trying OpenOffice. Let's see if it helps.

So, to blog or not to blog? I think I'll keep it up for a while.

And for us newbie authors out there, lose the "that" as the subject of a sentence. I'll remind Shakespeare the next time I see him.

Thank you all,

Linda

How I Started--Writing, That Is

Why did you decide to write a book? Have you always had the creative spark burning inside you?

Not quite.

I've lived most of my life convinced I didn't have a creative bone in my body. Maybe I still don't. But then, you don't get your ideas from bone. At least not often. I hope.

I've read romances on and off for a long time. But after I spent a couple of years drowning in romance novels, I found it harder and harder to find something I liked. My favorite authors can write only so fast, and the second string I was left with, I didn't like.

What to do? I can write better than that, I told myself smugly. (Rule number one for new authors--lose the adverbs).

So I tried. And, lo and behold, I had ideas. Whether or not they were good ideas was beside the point. I wrote something.

And I wrote. Sometimes I was on a roll, and sometimes the Flood of Creativity was dammed by the Beaver of Writers' Block.

But I kept at it. Why? Stupidity, maybe. I have one novella, Lady of the Stars, under contract. I have two full length novels I'm rewriting, and a half-finished Halloween story. I have something.

Now if I can just keep the momentum going. At this time, my writing career and my website are in the same condition--Under Construction.

Thank you all,

Linda