Onward...

Every writer hits a few rough spots in the road. Some may be internal (no new writing ideas). Others may be external (family or job issues). And a few may be health issues (medication or illness).

But the time comes when the writer must move forward or give up. Writing is one of those creative crafts that recede the longer you wait between the working stints. Once you stop, it's increasingly harder to start again.

Personally, I'm a putterer between sprints. I research. I mull. I play mental 'what if'. Occasionally, in desperation I write a jump start--a short exercise with new characters, new scenes.

Then, the day arrives when I sit at my computer and write. That is not to say it isn't a struggle. As I get older, the words sometimes elude me. I KNOW the correct word, but can't dig it out from my memory. When I'm rolling, every halt to pin down the right word is another road block.

Why do I do it? Because nothing gives me that sense of accomplishment and fulfillment like writing does. The creative process is hard. But when I go back, when I reread my work, I'm amazed that I wrote that. I don't recall putting exactly those words and those ideas together and the very notion that I'm a published writer serves to lift me and encourage me.

I spent some time this last two weeks rereading the stories that precede my current works in progress. Part of that is simply because we forget what we wrote. Oh, not the main sense of the story, but the details. Actually, we forget a LOT of the details. For instance, I've used Shadrach as a secondary character's name in three different series! I didn't remember that.

I was also rereading them to assess how difficult it would be to revise two short stories I have the rights for so they would fit in other series of mine. I think I can do it. And I liked those characters enough I want them to have a wider exposure than they received the first time around. I believe they just weren't in the right place at the right time.

So the time has come. Now I have to 'put up or shut up'. And I find I'm not ready to shut up.

anny

Cooking the Books

Word Count-
Monday 23rd 10,519
Tuesday 24th - 11,152
Wednesday 25th - 12,825
Thursday 26th - 15,895
Friday 27th - 16,902
Saturday 28th - FLE project
Sunday 29th - Read a book
Monday 30th - Revamped Website http://www.annycook.com/
Tuesday 31st - 18,424
Wednesday 1st - 20,183

Okay, caught up to today and I'm still writing so I'll post that later. This is for the naysayers that wonder if I gave up. No, I'm still panting along with my tongue hanging out. Will finish this book if it kills me. In the meantime, some fine soul can do the arithmetic and tell me how many words I wrote. I make it as a little less than 10,000. Ack! I need more, I need more.

Where are all the words when you need them? What if you could put them in a pot, stir 'em around for a bit and pour in whatever shaped pan you needed? Say... a heart for romance, or a six-shooter for a western, or a space ship for sci-fi. See? Wouldn't that be easier than sloggin out the words in front of a computer, getting carpel tunnel syndrome and a widening butt?

I have an acquaintance who couldn't quite get that writing is work. She used to drop by when ever, park her butt in a chair and say to me, "So, what's new?" Well, duh, what do you think? It pains me to admit it, but I finally quit answering the door or the phone. One day she asked me about it. "I was standing in your hall and I could hear your dog barking...?" So I very firmly replied that I never answered the phone or door when I was working on a project. And actually, that's the truth because of her. So I guess she really did me a service after all.

Anyway, I digress, as usual. Sometimes, the words just aren't there. All the BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard) in the world won't amount to a hill of beans. Then it's time to go do one of those jobs you've been putting off for months. You know the ones...laundry, dishes, vacuming, making the bed. I find that the minute I hit the bedroom and start messing with the sheets, that all sorts of dialogue and scenarios come welling up. Wonder why that is?

That never happens when I'm doing dishes...

Anny

What do you want?

Word Count - 1,261
Previous - 7,523
Total - 8,884

On the author chat loops this last week, there has been much discussion regarding the differences and similarities between being a print author and an e-published author. I suspect the most passionate of all the debaters are those authors that hope to one day make the leap from e-publishing to print with a NYC publisher. I wish them the very best. Yes, I do.

I, on the other hand, don't have any such ambitions. Perhaps if I were younger. Perhaps if I were hungrier (literally). Perhaps then I would have deep seated ambitions to grab at that shiny brass ring.

But the truth is much simpler. I'm perfectly happy doing what I'm doing where I'm doing it. I like writing what I'm writing. And apparently, I have a knack for it. On one author's blog, she discussed how erotic romance wasn't really "her" so she had decided to withdraw a book from the publishing schedule and would write something that was more "her". Lucky woman to find herself and her niche. Even luckier to realize it and have to courage to stick to it.

That's what I'm going to do. It seems that I do fairly well writing funny erotica. What an oxymoron. But it seems to work. I wrote another book that was just as good...just as creative...just as interesting--to me. Readers hastened to tell me the book was really, really good. But as my friend told me bluntly, "It's no Chrysanthemum. It's not funny." Heh.

Let us hope a lot of readers read it anyway. And maybe those readers who found Chrysanthemum just a tad over the top will, like the baby bear, find that Dancer's Delight will be just right. If those series don't quite do it, I also have a series about a bunch of shape shifting angels...

The beautiful thing about writing for Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press is that there is room for all my weird crazy oddball ideas. So far, my editor, bless her heart, hasn't fired me back an e-mail asking if I've lost my tiny mind. That's exactly why I'm content to hang out where I am. It's my niche. My place.

I don't begrudge anyone with greater ambitions. Every single writer has to assess their own goals and plans. Without a long term plan, they won't reach their goal. Part of the rise to success is just plain luck. But most of it is hard work and planning. That's something most of the newbie authors are only now understanding. Writing is the least of the career. It's the easiest part... it's the rest of it--promo, website, blogging, chatting--that takes careful planning so that the writer has time to write!

I have my hands full doing what I'm doing. Thank goodness!

Anny

On the Balance Beam

Word Count 1,133
Previous - 5,177
Total - 6,310

I did a little better today. Went shopping. Saturday junk at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. Then we made a run to the Office Depot where I had several copies made. I'm developing a relationship with the young lady that runs the copy department. She's the one that made all the prints of my covers for me so that I could frame them. By this time, she's taking a proprietary interest in my work. Always good to have your copy lady on your side.

Came home and wrote for a little while. Then we went downstairs to my friend's place and I autographed the cover sheet for Dancer's Delight for my friend, Jane. She seemed to be especially pleased because part of the dedication is for her.

Back upstairs and we had dinner. More writing. More puzzling over the way the story is careening off the trail. Went back and read the relevant parts from Chrysanthemum and Honeysuckle just to make sure that they all mesh together.

Wrote some more.

Checked e-mail and posts for anything that I needed to answer. All are DEAD quiet. So probably everyone else is actually writing.

Wrote some more. Husband made me coffee to keep me awake. Getting late so I'm taking a break to write my blog and then I'll go back to writing. I'm annoyed that I can't get the cast of characters to get with the program...any program. Pansy's acting like a ditz. Bart can't seem to keep his glasses on. And Gerald is...being Gerald.

Tomorrow I have to spend some more time cleaning my "work" room which is actually a catch-all room until we finish with the rearranging in the apartment. You know that room--"what should I do with...?" "Put it in the workroom." Except we are fast approaching the point where there will be no more room in the workroom.

Such is the glamorous life of a writer. Work, write, write, eat, write, work, sleep, write. That's how it gets done. Nothing exciting there except when you finish a chapter that seemed to take forever or when you re-read it three days later and realize that it's really good. Or the very best is when you re-read a couple weeks later and say to yourself, "Did I really write that? Wow!"

So tomorrow will be another day. Sleep well, my friends.

Anny

Life of a Writer

Word count - 512
Previous - 4,665
Total - 5,177

Well. Sigh. I did a little better today. Tomorrow, I foresee a writing marathon. I did a LOT of writing today. None of it was on the work in progress (Daffodil) except my paltry 512 words listed at the top. That means that I have considerable writing ahead of me to make up the missing words. When you get behind on writing, it's similar to getting behind on your car payments. Seems like you never catch up.

I did have a great time on the Cerridwen Chat Loop today meeting other authors and some of our readers. One of the writers, Janice Bennett, and I had an impromtu writing contest where she wrote a few sentences, then I wrote a few, in a nonsensical tale about a blue man disguised in a pink bunny suit who meets up with an injured man in a Santa suit. It was going pretty good, but then we had to stop and go back to work. Too bad.

I posted quite a few segments of Behind the Covers--Characters interview Anny Cook. Those seemed to be popular. I think it's because Dancer and Eppie are funny and smart. I've carried them around in my head for a very long time, so it's really neat to finally see their story published.

Readers, friends, family, even fellow authors sometimes ask, "How do you think this stuff up?" I have to tell you, I truly don't know. It just seems that I start with a very simple idea and my brain says "What if...?" Before I know it, I have some weird story line that's going places I never dreamed of it going and I'm not in the driver's seat anymore. Actually? I don't think I've ever been in the driver's seat.

I can't imagine how I could write if I was a plotter. I know what would happen. Right from the first paragraph my characters would refuse to listen, refuse to follow the script. By paragraph two, they would be ripping the script to shreds and there you have it. Confetti. Since I don't believe in wasting paper, don't want to vacuum up confetti, and don't have the energy to wrestle with my characters, I pretty much let them do what they want. I know. Bad parental skills. Sigh.

Take my current story for instance. I had settled on who the bad guy was. And then today, I found out he wasn't a TOTAL bad guy. Man, don't you hate it when bad guys have redeeming qualities? It is such a pain in the patooty to deal with bad guys with redeeming qualities. See if they're totally, totally bad, then you don't feel bad if you kill them off or whatever, but shoot! When there's something good about them, then you can't just knock 'em off.

And my good guy? Well he's a heck of a lot more stubborn than I counted on. He's gonna be big trouble, I can see. Trying to get him to stick with the program is like trying to lasso a cat. I sure hope Daffodil has more steel in her spine than I've seen so far. She just might surprise us all, though. Just maybe she's one of those "still waters run deep" kind of women. We'll see.

Anyway, that's the way it goes in the life of a writer. You live with a whole host of people inside your head, carrying on conversations while you're trying to talk to your husband or people on the phone. I know sometimes they all think I'm deaf when I shake my head and holler, "What? What did you say?"

It's because of the noise in my brain.

And I bet you just thought I was odd.

Anny

Dancer's Delight Released

Word count- 196
Previous - 4,469
Total - 4,665

Well, didn't do so well writing today as I spent time promoting my book and doing laundry. Tomorrow will have to be better. It has to be, simply because the laundry will be done. And I will be rested. We have one of those memory foam pads on our mattress. Yesterday something was spilled on the bed. Changing bedding was simple, but the pad had to be cleaned and dry out. So last night I slept on a rock hard slab of a mattress. Or rather I sort of slept, waking up this morning feeling like I had slept on a slab of rock. Out of sorts and aching in most of my joints, I spent the day posting excerpts on the Cerridwen Press chat loop http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cerridwenchat/ and checking our author loop for information about the RWA. I recommend you checking out the chat loop for some great excerpts and a series of mini-interviews my characters conducted.

If you're not involved in the writing profession, you've probably never heard of the RWA (Romance Writers of America). You might think of it as a professional organization for writers--romance writers specifically. This week is the yearly gathering. I believe it's called a conference. And at this conference they unveil changes and/or improvements for the coming year or future. It seems that this year's changes were not popular. Enough said on that subject. I merely explain this so that you know how I spent the day.

Then around three o'clock my husband arrived home and we went off to the laundromat to do several mountains of laundry. By the time we finished, it was seven o'clock. Time to fix dinner, eat, check e-mail and write my blog.

I admit that I was getting to the dreary "let-down" stage you reach when a much anticipated event is over. Sort of like Christmas after you open the presents and are left with a pile of shredded paper and ribbon. So it was a very pleasant surprise to receive a late e-mail from a friend who accused me of being an evil woman. It seems that she started reading my book.

And became so involved that she never got around to her own writing. She was waiting for her PDA to recharge so that she could finish it. So I'm torn between being thrilled that the book captured her and terrified that she won't like the ending. How schizophrenic is that?

I have to say, though, that it was the perfect ending to my day. I'm smiling. And everyone should go to bed with a smile on their face. Everyone. So to my friend--Thank You! You know who you are. And if it means that you like my book, then I'll happily continue being that Evil Woman!

Anny

The Seventy Day Writing Challenge...

So I joined a writing challenge. Four to six pages every single day for the next seventy days. Hmmm. I betcha I get a lot of stuff done. There's nothing like a challenge to get your ideas flowing. The challenge begins today and runs through September 20. Oh, boy.

No excuses. The way I understand the challenge, I have to post my total word count every Wednesday. If you miss one day of writing, you have to make it up another day. But I figure if I post it each day on the blog, it will motivate me to keep on task so beginning tomorrow, I'll post my output--words and pages. We'll see how this goes.

Housekeeping stuff... Remember that Monday's are the Mini-Review and Interview. Tomorrow's guest author is Jenyfer Matthews. And I will be reviewing her Cerridwen Press novel, Here to Stay. You won't want to miss out on this chance to get to know her.

On Thursday, my second book, Dancer's Delight will be released by Cerridwen Press. I can barely believe that I'll have two books! Two! So on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll also post a couple of short excerpts just to give you a sneak peak.

My friend and fellow writer, Amarinda Jones, reviewed Chrysanthemum on her blog yesterday. Wow, I'm really impressed with myself. I'll probably need a hat a couple sizes bigger after reading that review. (And don't worry Amarinda. No charge for this one!) If you'd like to read her review, you'll find it at http://amarindajones.blogspot.com/.

Since I'm going to be very, very busy for the next seventy days, I believe I'll just finish this with a wish for restful sleep and happy dreams.

Anny