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Sunday, November 16, 2008
"Indelible"
I finally completed the second draft mid-week. I feel like I completed a marathon, but it was a very enlightening
and profitable ride along with my characters. I honed their motivations and refined my plot. I discovered
things I didn't know before I took this second journey. I know the third draft will go much faster and smoother.
This last one was like taking a pickaxe to Mount Rushmore.
I'm exhausted but exhilerated. The chapter-by-chapter has yet to be completed, the synopsis is raw and I am still
rolling tag lines around in my head, but I do firmly believe the mountain is behind me.
It's the mole hill I still have to tackle.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The End of "Indelible" Is Almost In Sight
I'm battling my way to the end of the second draft. It has been a long road--longer than I expected due to other
commitments, like my day job, my editing job, and all those other necessary interruptions to my writing life.
I have 3 more chapters left to revise, then I'll finish the chapter by chapter summary and complete the synopsis.
I added 2 more chapters, will pull one out on the third draft (critique groups sometimes convince you to do what you don't
want to in order to clarify something for them before it's really necessary,) and feel a lot more secure about my characters.
Their motivations have been fortified, their interactions cemented and the framework shored up.
Sometimes, writing feels more like building a house. The framework has to have a strong foundation or it won't
hold up under pressure.
I'm going to celebrate when I get to the end. 475 double-spaced pages. It's a really big book.
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Hobbies:
Travel. Anywhere, at any time. Two years ago I spent New Year in New York with a friend who
lives in Lower Manhattan; took a trip with my son to Death Valley, Bishop and the Alabama Hills in the Spring; spent a
long weekend with friends in a cabin in Mammoth late summer and 5 days in November visiting friends in Houston.
Last year, I returned to Houston unexpectedly in February due to a very dear friend's illness, visited more close friends in
Spokane, Washington in April and took a research trip up to Maine for the 3rd book in the "Rose Tattoo" trilogy, "Maine Issues"
(working title,) and then Salem and Boston for pleasure/business in September. This year, my son came with me up to
Portland Oregon as we both have wanted to check it out for the last couple of years. EPICon made it a business trip
with 2 days of pleasure on either side. We drove the Columbia Gorge and hiked to a waterfall. We had dinner in
Chinatown. It was too early in the year to go hiking up to Mt. St. Helen's or visit some of the other attractions.
The only day we had to drive to the coast, rain was forecast. We may just have to go back...
Other hobbies: Hiking and camping with friends in the Sierras. I've even learned to fish.
Reading (of course!)
Researching (why do people think research has to be boring?)
While growing up in England, I read everything I could get my hands on. The bookshelf my parents
gave me became overloaded with everything from the classics through mysteries, romances, science fiction and even horror. I
not only read, but began writing and won a novel contest while in high school.
My other time-consuming interest became travel. After trips to Italy and the South of France during childhood,
I took a cruise around the Mediterranean with my godparents, visiting Malta, Portugal, Egypt (I saw the Pyramids and
the spectacular Cairo Museum,) Turkey, and Venice, Italy.
After that, I decided to immerse myself in the French language by living in Paris. There I met two friends
who even today remain among my closest. We traveled from Paris to spend the summer in Florence, Italy, and
then with one of them, I went on to visit Portugal and Morocco extensively, then on to Spain, where after touring from one
end to the other and spending a summer on the coast in Marbella, I met my future husband in Madrid and stayed four years
before coming to the U.S.
I've continued my globe-trotting ways by crossing the continental United States twice and living in six States.
Now the divorced mother of two grown children, I currently live in Monrovia with Taffy, the Canine Escape Artist.
Throughout these years, I not only benefitted from enriching, colorful experiences I've since woven into my
novels but also learned how to communicate effectively in three languages and how to be flexible and productive, whatever
the challenges.
My writing started with a 500 page historical (that resided somewhere in the bottom of a closet until my last move,
when it finally went into the shredder,) and then progressed through romances to mystery and suspense. I've also
published short fiction and non-fiction articles and completed the first draft of a screenplay for "tweens" (ages 11-13.)
Always looking for new challenges, while living in Boston, Massachusetts, I produced, wrote, directed
and edited two documentaries that aired on cable access (NewTV13.)
My e-published short contemporary romance and romantic-suspense novels are hopefully only the beginning.
I have many other stories to tell, and I'm a prolific writer, so expect more from me in the near future.
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