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Update: September is Still On!

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A quick progress update on the status of my in-progress romance novels as we all sleep off the holiday either at home, because we’re lucky, or back in the office if you’re like me and have to work today.

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  1.  The first draft of Gabriel’s novel is complete!

Okay, yes, it’s a first draft. And yes, it’s very rough. Most of my first drafts are. But it’s done, and it’s a lot longer than most of my first drafts. We’ll see how that goes later when I start revision.

 

2.  I received and read through the feedback on Seducing the Ice Queen.

My Beta reader was fabulous, as always.  She helped me identify a weakness that, when I’m done fixing, will make the hero more fleshed out and the story stronger. Helped identify a few other areas that need to be cleaned up, too, but I’m starting to feel a lot better about this WIP.

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3.  I am making the changes to Ice Queen now, and I hope to have them done before July 21st.

They are good suggestions, but not easy ones. Still, they’ll make the story better.

 

4.  I’m thinking about cover design for Seducing the Ice Queen.

If you’ve seen any covers you think would be inspirational, please send them my way!

 

5.  I’ve been toying with the blurb for Seducing the Ice Queen.

I worked with a professional to write the blurb for To Love a Prince, and she gave me some tips on how to build one. I’m planning to map out her advice, have a cocktail (her recommendation), then tackle it on my own. I still think I’ll hire her again to help me with this one. I really liked working with her. Yes, she wrote the blurb, but she taught me a lot, and I figure it’s an investment in both the book and my own skills

Things on my “To Do” List

  1. I’m waiting to hear back from my editor.

    It’s my first time using this editor, and I’m both nervous and excited to work with her. Once I get her comments, I will start working on another edit. Depending on the extent of her comments, I think I will still be track for a September launch date.

  2. Alexander and Katherine

    These are two new characters floating around my thoughts. I hadn’t planned on writing this story next, but they are rather insistent. Their story is already taking shape, and I’m not sure it will be ignored.

    AlexKath
    Maybe. If he’s lucky…

Update: Creative Endeavors

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While I may have posted a bit about our home remodeling adventure, I am still working very hard on my creative projects.

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I first saw white doves instead of smoke. Not sure what it says about me.

I’m on track to have the romance novel about Daniella and Callen ready by this fall. Yes, the same Daniella from To Love a Prince. She needs her own happily-ever-after.

 I finished my fourth round of revisions on this story and sent it to my editor and beta reader earlier this month. This is my first time using this editor, but I got her name from a blogger friend, so I am hopeful. My beta reader is amazing, and she’s done a better job than paid editors I’ve used.

I am both excited and nervous to hear back from them. It’s always hard to let your baby go. Yes, it’s not perfect. Yes, their honest critique will make it better. It’s still hard to hear, even if it’s needed changes.

While I’m waiting for their edits to come back, the short story I wrote about Sir Gabriel didn’t shake him out of my head. Rather, it wove him deeper into my thoughts. So, rather than work on the novel I’d been planning, he’s getting his own story. I’m 100 pages into it already, so it’s going to be a full length novel rather than a novella.

 I’ve started to think of stories for Eli and Auburn’s children, but I’ve put those plot bunnies in a pen for now.

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The creative joy of the plot bunny.

I think I will save them for a future series called the Sleeping Dragon or the Dragon Wakes.

 I still have several more story ideas for future novels in the Knights of Valor series, and I’ve had more ideas for the the series I started that involves dragon brothers and their riders.

Ideas aren’t my issue, but time sure is! The day job is quieting down as we head into the summer months, so hopefully I will have more mental bandwidth for writing and editing.

My goal is to release one more book this year and three next year.

Yes, I put that in writing. Hold me to it!

 

 

The Day After

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Yesterday was release day for my debut novel.

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For those of you giving it a chance, thank you for taking the time to look at my work and giving me the opportunity to at least try to entertain you. It’s what all those years of work is about.

And if you get a chance, I would really appreciate it if you’d stop over  and leave a review. Reviews are hugely important for indie authors. It’s how we get our work noticed, and how we get Amazon to take us seriously.

And thank you again.

 

 

 

 

How to Not Set Goals

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Goals are important. They are how you turn dreams into reality, breaking down the ephemeral into manageable tasks.

But I set my goals a little too aggressively in March.

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Every year at the day job.

Sometimes, when you are so focused on achieving something, you can forget other obligations.

I released a book in early April. You can check it out here. It was the culmination of a lifetime goal.

I started writing my first novel when I was ten. I still remember the teal blue spiral notebook that housed that first book. I had planned to publish it before I was twelve, because I was awesome.

How I wish I had the confidence now I had then!

As excited as I was to release this book out into the wild (and nervous), it was a lot of work. On top of that, I was trying to write 1.5k words a day on a new WIP, work a demanding full time job, and be a parent and spouse.

Yeah, some things fell down.

I will never be Mom of the Year, but I could’ve been a lot a better.

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Sadly.

I will never be a perfect wife. Ever.

I will never be tracked as a “superstar” where I work. I just won’t put in enough hours, which is interesting when I think of all of the hours I’ve poured into writing novels.

But, I do need to figure out a better way to fit writing into my life. I love telling stories, though the act of writing itself is work. Hard work.

But I have this tendency to throw myself fully into whatever I’m doing when what I need is balance.

So, I’m sorting through that at the moment.

I finished a story I think of as Logan and Rita. Catchy title, I know, but it’s a fresh first draft. It’ll get better. I promise.

Now, to put my editing cape back on. And by cape I mean my comfy jammies with the most amazing LL Bean slippers. I need to figure out a pace I can manage with my children, spouse and job.

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But he still gets there.

Not sure what that is yet, but I’m not giving up on my Winter 2018 time frame for How to Love a Duchess.

 

 

 

Understanding Stress

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I may have been in a bit of mood the other day when I wrote this post.

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Sarcasm Level: Master

But, if I put away my skeptic, I can admit that I think it’s important to manage stress. But to manage it, I need to understand what stress is. And I do want to better deal with it, especially as stress kills creativity.  Hard to write Romance with dead creativity.

So, I did some research.

In a nutshell, stress is a physical response. Your body thinks it’s under attack and goes into fight or flight mode. Your body releases a whole bunch of hormones preparing you for physical action.

Despite what we’ve been told, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. During our hunter-gatherer days, this helped us escape from predators or defend ourselves and our tribes.

Where the issue comes is that our bodies haven’t adapted to modern life.

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Not if I want to sleep…

A boss with an impossible deadline triggers the same fight or flight mode as a lion trying to eat you. With a lion, we need the physical response to either flee or fight back. But this is not the best reaction in a modern environment. Here, we’d be better served if we our physical response was focused calm so we can at least try to make the deadline.

So, in addition to our evolutionary response not helping us in this situation, it also means we don’t have the opportunity to burn off those stress hormones. Not a lot of running while trying to piece together that report the boss wants. This is what causes the jittery feelings and racing heartbeat.

So, how do we deal with it?

The one thing that’s helped me the most is learning that the racing heartbeat and other aspects of stress are frequently caused by a physical hormonal response. These hormones need to be burned off, and I’ve started doing that by walking.

I try for at least a 30 minute walk at lunch, and this has helped tremendously. I burn off all my pent up stress hormones and come back to the afternoon more focused.

Sometimes, this isn’t enough, and I take a brisk walk through the halls. Other times, I’ll walk out to the lunchroom and back. Something, anything, to get me up, get me moving, and burn those stress hormones.

Now that I know stress is physiological in nature, it helps me deal with it.

My bigger issue is when I don’t have an outlet. While we are now in daylight savings time again, it’s dark when I get up in the morning, it’s dark by the time I get dinner on the table at night.

Better though than two months ago when I seldom saw the sun.

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This means walking before work or in the evenings is a no-go at the moment.

I’m still trying to figure something out, especially with the kids. I have a treadmill and an elliptical in our finished basement, but it’s an act of Congress to get down there. Including the negotiating, pleading, and filibustering.

But I am working on it. I started making a play space for them downstairs so that they have something to do other than pester me while I’m trying to listen to an audiobook and burn some stress.

 

What do you do to deal with stress? Do you find it easier to cope with stress with physical activity?

Top 5 Reasons Science Says Why We Lack Patience

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Throughout life, we’re told we need to have patience. It’s a virtue, after all.
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Does make me wonder…

Patience is especially touted for authors when what we want to get paid to tell stories. Instead, we must be patient and:

  • Write romance novel after romance novel, without any promise of being published or paid. But be patient as you have to write a lot to get better, and it takes a large back list before (read if) you can quit your day job.
  • Commit to social media to increase your presence, but be patient as you have to invest a lot of time before you see any rewards.
  • Commit to blogging to connect with other writers and potential readers, but be patient because it takes a long to time to be “found”.

 

If anyone had told me any of the above about “breaking into” my day job, I’d have laughed at them so hard I’d have had to wipe away the tears as I changed majors.

One thing I’ve learned about virtues from raising my own children is that they are not the natural state of human beings. They are something sought after, something you aspire to achieve.

The amount of self-help articles out there professing to teach patience is impressive. But one thing I’ve learned is that the more articles there are to learn how to do something, the harder that something is and the less likely those articles are to help. Google “how to tie a shoe” versus “how to lose weight” and you’ll see what I mean.

So, why is patience so hard?

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I think I’ve actually said this.

Patience is putting off something you want right now for the promise of a bigger reward later.

Think of your dog. He doesn’t care if you promise him three treats tomorrow if he doesn’t eat the one balanced on his nose right now. He’s going to eat the one on his nose as soon as you turn your back. You see this across animal behavior, and as this study shows, humans aren’t that far off from our canine friends.

So, I turned to science to understand more.

Top 5 Reasons According to Science Why We Aren’t Patient:

 

1. Evolution

Our instinct is to seize the reward now, and resisting our instincts is hard. Check out any infant or toddler. We believe survival favored those that took immediate rewards. It wasn’t like there was a grocery store a mile away that we could stop at after work and get a tub of triple chocolate ice cream whenever we wanted. You took what came your way when it did.

 

2. Uncertainty 

If you’ve been taught throughout life that waiting gets you better things, you might learn to wait. But if you’ve been taught that people aren’t going to follow through, that you can’t trust them, then you’re more likely to grab for the sure thing. All those stories about “living like you’re dying”? They are a case study in lack of patience because you’re uncertain how much of a future you have.

 

3. Age

The younger you are, the less patience you seem to have. Toddlers and impulse control, anyone? But life teaches us (most of us, anyway) to control those impulses. The more life experience you have, the more patient you become. Until you’re facing your own mortality, and then you’re back to point two above.

 

4. Conceptualization of Future Self 

Ever stay up way too late knowing you were going to regret it in the morning? Being impatient has a similar root cause. The inability to connect your current self to your future self. The more you can visualize your future self either suffering (after staying up too late) or enjoying a large reward (after exhibiting patience), the more likely you are to choose the path that benefits your future self.

 

5. Sense of Time

You know how time flies when you’re having fun, but put you in a corporate tax class, and minutes seem like hours? This has actually been proven by science. What this means is you have to be even more patient to get something you’re waiting for as time will seem to go even slower than if you weren’t waiting.

 

As I look through this list, the only thing that really seems within my control is working to visualize my future self. To know that if I keep working at my writing now, that future self will be happier.

I can apply this to things other than writing. Like parenting. Losing my patience with my children gives me a momentary outlet for my frustration, but my future self pays for it with more intractable children and a damaged relationship. Not that I should give into them, but losing my patience is not the right choice.

 

How about you? Are you patient? Impatient? If you’re naturally impatient, anything you do to try make yourself more patient? Does it work?