A Prepublished Novel in the Process of Revisions and Rewrites

Monday, March 30, 2009

April Blog Event coming April 1st to a blog near you:)

A TISKET A TASKET, PUT ROMANCE IN YOUR BASKET

Spring is in the air! Bees are buzzing. Children anxiously await the big morning where they can graze on candy all day. What about mom? We've got a treat for you! Come join a group of romance authors in celebration of spring. Enter to win a prize a day as well as enter to win the grand prize. All you need do is begin at Silver James' blog on April 1st. Silver will host the day's contest and provide the link to the next day's location. Don't forget to enter to win the grand prize! Here's the dirt...

A TISKET A TASKET, PUT ROMANCE IN YOUR BASKET Grand Prize:
To enter to win prizes from the authors donating treasures to the grand prize (see each day's post for what an author is donating to the grand prize), find the four Easter eggs in the A TISKET A TASKET, PUT ROMANCE IN YOUR BASKET blog event.



You will be searching for the pictured Easter egg. Just visit all of the authors' websites, locate the 4 eggs, make a list of their locations by pasting the urls to the website pages in an e-mail, then send the entry to happyendings2007@aol.com by midnight CST on May 1st, 2009. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced May 2nd at http://blog.skhyemoncrief.com. Tip #1, subscribe to http://blog.skhyemoncrief.com to learn if you're the winner! And don't worry. If you start in on the blog event late, just head back to Silver James' blog on April 1st at http://www.silverjames.com/ to begin your website search for the Easter eggs. Don't miss the fun! See you next to the burgundy tulips.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spring has sprung and my muse still evades...

Bet you thought I disappeared into cyberspace, huh? Well...although I love to keep my blog updated with interesting information about the craft of writing and my life antics, I don't really have much to say.

Why you ask? Hmm...

Lately it seems things have been a jumble of events and issues out of control. Sometimes life continues to toss challenges your way and you wonder when the duck and run will stop. With our economy in the crapper and trying to manage two full time jobs, it seems there is not much time for my muse to run free so I'm thinking it may have just run away, LOL

I don't know about you but I come home from one job only to begin another(not to mention the normal family activities) and by the time I put my time in on all that, I am so exhausted a gallon of expresso couldn't jolt me into action.

Good news, though! My book signing is this coming weekend:) Yay! Craft related activity. May just be the thing to get me back into the groove.

Below I've pasted a copy of event information:

Multiple Author Book Signing Event
April 4, 2009
At
The Serenity Garden Tea House
316 Valette Way, West Palm Beach, Florida
Information and Reservations: (561) 655-3911.
Please reserve your spot in advance. Walk-ins welcome.


Mary Ricksen, Time Travel Romance
http://maryricksen.com/
Patrice Wilton, Contemporary Romance
www.patricewilton.com
Jianne Carlo, Suspenseful Spicy Romance
www.jiannecarlo.com
Traci Hall, Young Adult/Paranormal Romance
www.tracihall.com
Mona Risk, Contemporary Romantic in Exotic Setting
http://www.monarisk.com/
Dayana Knight, Paranormal/Erotic Romance
www.dayanaknight.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Writing and Life's Pesky Interuptions

How do you get back into your muse when life throws one situation after another at you? Like pesky little gnats one interuption after another. Emotions tested, anger, grief, happiness, joy, frustration. What's a writer to do?

I have found life is just that, a continuous string of events. Some good, some bad. It's what we do with them that makes the difference. Every experience we go through is fabulous fodder for writing.

For example:

The article I put up yesterday. Curious information, but WOW! what an idea for a story. I'd never heard of the theory that vampires came into exhistence by chewing on the shrouds of the diseased dead. As well, I'd never heard the thought that by putting a small brick in the mouth of a suspected vampire's mouth it would stop the entity from biting! What a perfect new twist to a story.

With all the interesting things going on in my life the last few months its been very hard to sit down and explore story ideas but now that things have calmed down a bit and emotions are getting on a more even plane, I think there are some ideas I'd like to explore. One is the above mentioned.

Another thing I plan to do to get my imagination running again is check out as many paranormal documentaries as I can. Watching movies, checking out the latest releases-books and movies is always good for descriptions and imagery as well. Mind you, you never want to copy someone else's imagery description--THAT WOULD BE PLAGERISM!--you just want to see how another author handles a scene or action.

I like to watch movies and TV shows and then try to describe, in writing, what is going in a scene such as the shift from human to beast or even a backdrop like a moonlit dense forest scene. I experiment with words and senses to get the feeling of being dropped right into a particular scene.

I love when I read a book and its like I stepped into another world. You know, when you put the book down you need to take a moment to readjust to the 'real' world again. It's that feeling when you wake from a surreal dream and it takes a bit to lose the effects of the dream. A talented author can do the same by using the right words and description. That is my main goal in writing.

But, I digress from my point yet again. Getting back to my muse is all in how I process the experiences of life. How I process and capture the emotions of situations I've gone through and then take all that to create my characters' emotional curves, characterizations and situations tossed upon their shoulders.

Writing is observing what goes on around you and capturing it in the use of the utmost perfect wording to transmit those emotions, images and experiences to grab the reader through page-turning prose.

This is where journaling or dictating comes in. I often will jot down a scene, description, an action I observe or some event that happens for later retrieval. I have recently begun to carry a dictaphone with me. You never know when an idea might stike or you are in a situation where you just can't whip out a pen, paper, or laptop, *grin*

So yes, I've finally gotten past a lot of obstacles that life has tossed my way and hopefully, will get moving on several projects that lay waiting for me to complete. And some great ideas for new project ventures.

I'm off to get ready for work. I hope these thoughts are helpful and inspire you as that really is my goal:)

Talk soon,

D~

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Vampire or Myth?

Good Morning!

I found this interesting piece on AOL News last night. Check it out:)
VAMPIRE REMAINS FOUND IN MASS GRAVE
March 9) - A skeleton excavated from a 16th century Venetian grave site may be the earliest example discovered of a body being treated at the time of its burial as a vampire.
A small brick deliberately lodged in the mouth of a dead woman is a key link to vampire legend, reports NewsScientist.com. The "vampire tomb" was unearthed by archaeologist Matteo Borrini on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island, in a mass grave of victims of Venice's 1576 plague.

During the Middle Ages, many believed that the plague, or "Black Death," was caused by "vampires" chewing on their shrouds after death. According to Borrini, grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them from spreading the disease this way.
Borrini, of the University of Florence in Italy, says that the partial corpse he exhumed offers the earliest "exorcism evidence against vampires" to have been forensically examined.
NewsScientist reports that this claim is disputed by at least one other: Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas says he has found similar skeletons in Poland and that while Borrini's finding is exciting, "claiming it as the first vampire is a little ridiculous."

To check out the complete article and some images of this particular find follow the below link:

Vampire in mass grave

Monday, March 9, 2009

Ugh! The Blasted Spring ahead time change once again!

I don't know about you, but I really hate the time change. Why do we even have to deal with it? Some states don't even acknowledge it! Even some towns in my own state ignore it. I say, let's petition to abolish the darned thing!

Ah...

Okay...

I feel better now:) Though I'm still half asleep.

Stepping down off the soapbox and wanted to thank Linda Nightingale for dropping in to talk about her newest release, Black Swan. I wish her all the best with it. Thank you, Linda!

Also, I wanted to put one last call out for Dana. Does anyone know her? She won a free download of Eternal Obsession and never checked in with her email address. If Dana doesn't claim her winnings by this coming weekend, I'll draw another winner from the comments of my blog posted on Valentine's Day, February 14th.

One more announcement I'd like to make this morning. My very good friend, Michele Flagg has just released her book, Retribution! this weekend at The Wild Rose Press. It is a wonderful first book to a planned series, The Champion Chronicles. By all means, check it out! Michael is so hot:)

Hey! Do you think we can get Michele over hear to talk about her new release? I think I'm going to work on that. I'll keep you posted.

Off to the day job now.

Talk to you later.

D~

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Bea's first week in her forever home:)


Well, as you all know I took a much anticipated road trip last weekend. I met and brought home Miss Bea. She is everything we wanted and so much more.

My newfound friend and co-conspirator, Barb, proprietor of MidFlorida Sheltie Rescue, advised she thought Bea might be a handful. Bea displays a lot of pent up energy and needs work with leash and her commands. But to my surprise this dog is the most loving, playful, adorable lapdog you'd ever want to meet. She is a bit anxious but every day she looses a little more of her fears. She no longer has to compete with the breeder's evironment of 17 other dogs and now has all the love and attention she'll ever want or need. Thanks to Barb, her rescuer, and our ability to adopt her, she has found her love-filled, happy forever home:)

Bea is no longer petrified of the leash and walks, albeit, in a somewhat nervous fashion with me but at least she doesn't go into a stubborn sit which I had to literally drag her or lift her butt from the ground every five minutes, LOL and she is going into her backyard on her own without being carried out in a state of panic. This world is all new to her but every day she loves it a little more. Freedom! Who wouldn't love that. All her eleven previous months brought her was life in a kennel. Every noise, whether a plane overhead or birds flitting and chirping in the trees utterly startled her. Free run of the house is I think the most amazing for her. She constantly sniffs her way around, constantly checking new corners of house and yard out.

Commands are going well. Not perfect yet but she understands what is being asked of her. She is a very intelligent little girl. All in all her transition from kennel to home is going very smoothe.

Now I will get back to the craft of writing with Bea close beside me supporting my muse in quiet companionship and welcome playful breaks.

D~