Joely Sue Burkhart

I’m sincerely thankful to all the experienced authors on the internet who take the time to pay it forward.  Who write helpful, entertaining blog posts.  Hey, after blogging for years now, I know it’s not easy to stay interesting, informative, and positive day after day. 

One blog on my daily read is Lynn Viehl, aka PBW.

For a chance to win a copy of The New Writer’s Handbook 2007 containing her article Strange Fruit, simply comment on this entry about someone who’s helped you in some way, who provided an encouraging word when you needed it, or shared a bit of knowledge that resonated with you.  This contest is open to anyone on the planet commenting by Friday, August 3rd, midnight CST, even if you won something from me before. 

I typically draw the winners on Sat, but Middle Monster is having her tonsils out this weekend.  We just found out yesterday.  So I’ll extend the drawing period to sometime on Sunday when she’ll hopefully feel up to helping me draw a name out of the hat.

Edited:  Don’t forget to write a PBWism!

Whew, what a weekend!  I wrote 7400+ words, a tremendous amount for me at least.  The Alien Goth Romance first draft is done.  Tonight and tomorrow, I’ll run through some edits and then ship it off.  I typically like at least a few days to let the story cool so I can edit it sharper, but with the deadline fast approaching, this is the best I can do. 

A note about 70 Days of Sweat:  even though I had to slam through the weekend to finish, if I hadn’t been grinding away, getting my 500-1000 words a day for the last few weeks, I’d have never made this deadline.

As for Spires of Secrecy, I think it stays pretty true to the gothic romance of yore.  With some spec touches.  *wink*  Dr. Evan Linkyn was inspired by Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre.  He’s a jerk to pretty much everybody; he suffered great tragedy; he has blind hatred that the heroine loves to poke at; and he’s suspected of grisly murders.  While Amee Fallon is playing the role of a Xenographic Society member sent to annoy Linkyn, she’s actually an undercover cop torn between proving his innocence despite the mounting evidence and her dedication to justice.  Meanwhile, creepy things happen and the murderer might not be human–or even alive–for that matter.  Fun stuff.

Whatever happens with the anthology, I’m just pleased that I finished the story in time.  And cramming by the deadline helped me catch up with Sven!

Once the edits are done and the story shipped off, I’d like to take a look at the Beautiful Death opening again.  I hate having a story sitting on its arse in the stable eating its head off.  I’ve simply been too busy to do anything with it and haven’t sent a new query out in months.  I might look at upcoming contests and their definition of “published.”

Then, it’s back to The Fire Within.  Once I get back into it, it should fly, too.  I’m in the final 25-30% and the dragon shit is about to hit the fan.

Oh, and the Zombie Romance.  Which I’m thinking will be a twist on Phantom of the Opera.

How about you?

Today’s plan is to finish the first draft.  I scanned through the entire document quickly and fixed three loose threads I identified yesterday, adding a whopping 186 words.  Now for the real work, finishng the Red Coat scene and moving to the resolution of the story. 

Spires of Secrecy, starting at 11,303 words total.

First draft word count:  14038. 

I need a stronger ending, some pithy one-liner or something to come full circle.  Not sure what yet.  Hopefully inspiration will strike tomorrow while I’m revising.  But for now, I’m done!  I’m gonna make this deadline!

I have 7 loose sections remaining in this short-ish story.  It’s already 6600+ words, and I average about 1K per section.  So yeah, I’m like halfway, and the story’s due 7/31.  *panic!!*  On the up side, I’ve got up to 17,500 words to tell this story, so the size is right on.  I just need time to write it!

Here’s a breakdown of the remaining sections only, and I’ll document my progress for Sven this weekend.  I WILL FINISH BY THE DEADLINE.  Somehow.  Alien Goth is too cool to not at least submit for consideration in the anthology.

Edited:  Well, I’m already editing my block, because I’m not quite ready to move to The Inner Sanctum section.  Added “aaa” below, a bridge to the rest of the block.

Theme Songs:  Bring Me to Life, Sweet Sacrifice, and My Immortal by Evanescense

Notes:  Yikes, I hope the other sections aren’t as long as the first!  Good stuff, though.  maybe a little too infodumpy in places, but Link is at last explaining some of the mystery, and Amee’s secret has come out.  Quite charming, I hope.

Closing notes for the night:  I’ve got two heating pads going, one for my back, one for my neck.  My eyes are killing me.  But I’m extremely pleased with what I’ve got so far.  I locked myself in my office after dinner and only emerged for short breaks.  I sat with That Man and watched a brief cooking show so he didn’t feel totally neglected, and then helped put the monsters to bed.

I’m in the big love scene of the story, The Red Coat section.  Ah, I love it when a seemingly innocent little item becomes suddenly very important.  I love tying things together like that.  When I wrote that opening scene (below in Friday Snippets), I had no idea how important that red coat was.  At first, I chose red on a whim.  Then it became a silent stab at Dr. Linkyn’s pride, tying to his backstory in a significant manner.  And now, in the final sections of the story, it’s an instrument of love and healing.  Cool stuff.

I should be able to finish the first draft tomorrow.  Yay!  There’s at least one thread I need to go back and fix that I noted tonight (at the beginning of the Inner Sanctum section, I need that red coat deposited in a significant manner).  I’m pretty sure I know how the big mystery plays out.  We’ll see tomorrow. 

No new words last night.  Sigh.  I ended up giving the first 14 pages a nice solid edit to smooth and tie in some elements I discovered in the middle of the story.  The deadline is ticking and I have a big chunk of story to do yet.  *panics*  Plus Littlest Monster threw up after dinner last night and complained of a headache all night and this morning.  Let’s see how she feels the rest of the day.

We had company briefly today, a very nice visit, but of course we had a cleaning marathon.  *sheepish*  The front two rooms of the house look pretty good; just stay out of the bedrooms. 

I’ll update later tonight once I get some good progress made.

First Update:  Finished editing the whole thing, roughly 23 pages, 6617 words.  I have half a dozen pages of scribbled notes and brainstorming for the final third to half of the story, but it’s all jumbled.  I’m going to take a little time before dinner to organize my thoughts and notes so I can fly through a few scenes… hopefully rather quickly. 

I was going to start a Maya Fantasy short story for this week’s snippet, but I decided to show the story I’m currently working on for a speculative Gothic Romance anthology.  I’m busting my fanny in hopes of finishing this thing by the July 31st deadline.  The story is supposed to include more modern speculative elements, but still hark back to the great gothics.  This is my attempt at “alien goth.”  First draft only.

Spires of Secrecy

Amee Fallon took one last breath of warm air and raced down the shuttle’s ramp. Frigid wind screeched across the launchpad, slicing her to the bone. The shuttle groaned in the unceasing gale. No wonder the landing had been so rough.

She huddled against a low wall and scanned the landing area. Empty. Barely peeking over the wall, she gasped and choked on air so cold her teeth ached.  Her nostrils felt freeze dried. Wind whipped tears from her eyes that froze into ice trails on her cheeks.

Massive black spires stabbed the sky, gnarled by millennia of winds and weather. Two parallel lines marched toward higher structures deeper in the alien city. Ice blanketed the ground and striped the black rock.

Not a sign of life anywhere.

Ducking back down, she cursed the fashionable—and not very warm—coat she’d selected as part of her disguise. Anger churned her stomach. So Dr. Linkyn didn’t want anyone snooping around his precious dig. Surely the egotistical xenoarcheologist could have sent someone to meet her before she added to the body count on this horrible planet. Besides, death by exposure wasn’t his M.O.

Maybe a long boring stint on a cruiser bound for the latest colony in the Ito quadrant wouldn’t have been so bad. No one in their right mind would choose to live on this ice cube. Another mark against the famed and presumably insane man who’d lived here nearly ten years.

Stay and freeze before proving he was the murderer; or walk and hope she found some shelter in the twisted alien ruins. Her teeth chattered so hard her head rattled, and she knew her body temperature was dipping rapidly.

She wouldn’t last much longer.

Before she died, she wanted to nail the bastard who’d already killed at least five people.

Leaving her bag on the ground, she tucked her face deeper into her ridiculously frivolous red coat and began walking toward the alien ruins.

5 Stars from Ecataromance:

Wow! Let me say that first off, this story was fantastic! Joely Sue Burkhart has woven an intricate tale of love, loss, curses and sacrifice. Chanda’s pain and rage are made abundantly clear and only with Jalan’s strength and love does she discover what she needs to heal. The world of Keldar is a strange and barren one, and is at times confusing to read about but still so fascinating. I truly enjoyed Survive My Fire as it easily drew forth my emotions. Chanda’s pain, her devotion, and her anger, especially as the dragon, were intense and appropriate. Yet Jalan’s emotions were just as strong. Although stoic, he truly felt love and heartache for Chanda and the sacrifice he had to make. I’m blown away by the way this author desribes their feelings and brings to life this desolate world.

Read the entire review here.  Thank you, Trang!

You Know You’ve Got MONSTERS in the House When… I have three GIRL MONSTERS ages 8, 5, and 4. Don’t think they’re monsters? Here are some of our tales.  1. You follow a cookie and Pop-Tart crumb trail to Littlest Monster and Middle Monster sneaking a snack under the bed.  Giggling of course.   2. You find candy wrappers stuffed into the corner of the closet. 3. There are chocolate hand prints on the fridge.  The stove.  The wall.  The couch… 4. Littlest Monster has a haircut that is a cross between a skinhead and a mohawk.  Evidently, Middle Monster aspires to be a hairstylist. 5. The dog has also received Middle Monster’s attentions, receiving a poodle cut with the poofs in all the wrong places. 6. Out of two dozen pairs of shoes, you can only find ONE shoe of each pair.  7. Littlest Monster doesn’t care and wears two different shoes.  One is a dress-up shoe with a heel; the other is a flip flop. 8. You rent a backhoe, dump truck, and a Bobcat to excavate the monsters’ lair. 9. Markers are for face paint and body art.  And especially murals on the wall. 10. GLUE is absolutely forbidden.  That’s why the tape dispenser and stapler are missing from my office. 11. You find little gifts left for you.  Awww, is isn’t that sweet.  Like Barbie shoes and Legos hidden in your shoes.  Ouch! 12. You have to remember to check that a certain monster is wearing PANTS before heading out the door. 13. Same monster thinks nothing of standing outside on the deck nekkid.

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PBW is giving away a signed copy of the 2007 New Writer’s Handbook containing her inspiring article Strange Fruit.  If you don’t win her contest, I plan to give away an unsigned copy next week, so stay tuned!

I still haven’t taken any pictures of my haybale garden.  My apologies.  I must admit that for a few weeks, I really thought it was all going to die. 

My Dad came down and was stunned at how brittle and stunted my tomato plants appeared.  They weren’t dry, because I water them nearly every day and the hay is an excellent insulator.  I finally managed to get the bugs under control (thank you SO MUCH to Maude for Neem oil recommendations, although I had to special order it!).  I had one measely little green tomato on one of four plants after several weeks, and that was it. 

No new growth. 

Plenty of water.  Plenty of sunlight.  Plenty of dirt.  Finally, it came to me (again, thanks in part to Maude).  Food.  The plants weren’t getting enough food.

See, I used “poop dirt” according to the monsters, and in my ignorance, I thought that would be enough.  I bought some Miracle Gro and began feeding the plants regularly.  Immediately, the plants perked up and grew about six inches seemingly over night.  I’ve since picked three zucchini!  Of my very own!  I have two tomatoes ripening on two different plants, with lots of blossoms yet to develop.  The zucchini plants themselves are like bushes.  Truly, I planted too much on my 4 bales.  The basil is nearly buried beneath zucchini.

I was hoping to get a summer’s worth of tomatoes, but I had to learn the proper growing tricks.  Water and light just aren’t enough, no matter how hard you work at it.  No matter how dilligently you chase away the bugs and pull the weeds and nurture those tiny plants.

Is there something in your writing life that’s missing?  Are you working hard, doing everything you can think of, but your story is stunted and brittle?  You might need to feed the well, so to speak.  Take a walk, read a good book, sip some wine, enjoy a good movie, study some art. 

In other words, don’t forget the Miracle Gro for your inspiration!

Ann gave me one a long time ago, and to my great shame, I forgot to give out the awards!  Now May has given me one because “Dragons Rock It Harder.”  *grins*  So I nominate the following:

(I’m assuming Ann and May are exempt for this round, otherwise I’d nail… er… nominate them again.)

Anna Black, because surely Cowboys Rock.

Molly, because she’s my beloved Sis and she’s got some rockin’ movie reviews

Rhian, because she said that my “Dragons Do It Hotter!”

Jess, because she’s bodyslamming Sven to the ground!

Maude, because she’s also Rockin’ Sven every single day

Rock on, Ladies!

Pesh is a friend of my Beloved Sister, and talk about blushing while reading this:

Survive My Fire is a relentless page turner. Get comfy before reading this one. Once you see the first page, you’ll be barreling toward the last. Joely Sue Burkhart’s voice is rich and refreshing, intimately detailed with a flow that never gets bogged down under the beautiful tapestry of her fantastic world. As romances go, there is passionate lovemaking, duels of heart and mind, sexy hair, and lickable physiques, but this is not a typical romance. Honestly, how many romance heroines have to choose between allowing themselves to be ravaged and eating their heroes for breakfast? Joely’s characters are as intricate as her world. They are strong without being arrogant. They’ve been wounded before, so while they approach love at a cautious distance, they succumb to passion with the same desperation of their water-deprived lands. Anyone who reads Joely’s work will know she is lucky to have found this brilliant author who has so much more waiting in the wings for her readers.

Thank you so much, Pesh!

I made my report to Sven yesterday at Alison’s.  Considering the release last week, the mad rush to get everything done in time, I truly am happy with whatever words I get.  However, I really want to bump that measely 400-600 words a day up to double that! 

This week, my priorities are:

• Gothic short story by July 31st.
• steady progress on The Fire Within.
• zombie romance (I’m a sucker)

I have the day off today, and although the monsters are home, I’m hoping to get some significant writing done.  I’ll check in at the end of the day!

Count so far today:  3461 words in Spires

Come chat with us here!

Edited:  What a blast!  Except somehow I got challenged to write a zombie romance.  And you know me and those challenges…..

Between reading Anna Black’s delightful story “The Branding of Miss Charlotte Babington” in Cowboy Lover and Christine’s debut “The Bond That Ties Us,” and Imogen’s “Falling,” I am really behind on my Sweating goals.  Luckily, I have tomorrow off, again, so maybe I can get a few days made up.  I sure hope so!

P.S. I have an Open Blog Night entry up at Romancing the Blog.  Come talk about Romancelandia with me!

Drollerie’s Book Shop is open!  I bought a copy of Imogen’s Falling and gobbled it right up.  Lovely!  A Necklace of Rubies is on my list after I sweat with Sven for a while.

We’re still talking fairy tales at May’s blog.  She has an exclusive “severed hand” excerpt of Survive My Fire up, and she says some incredible, wonderful things.  ”Her voice is like crack.”  Giggles.  Thank you so much, May!

If you love fairy tales — the original fairy tales — come on over to May’s and talk with me today.  Prizes are involved.

Please be patient–there’s still a few bugs getting worked out of Drollerie’s Book Shop, but we’re very close to being live!

My Dad and Beloved Sister came over last night bearing hugs, cheers, and lovely wine.  We went to dinner at the IHOP, which might sound like an odd “congratulations” dinner selection, but there were several factors involved.  It’s really hard to get in anyplace in Springfield on a Friday night that late (7:00 by the time we arrived), and the monsters just didn’t believe the stories I’ve told about Papa and pancakes.

Until he ordered pecan pancakes, with an extra side of blueberries.  And peaches.  And used blueberry AND maple syrup on top.  I rest my case.

That Man shut himself up in the bedroom while we celebrated because we were too loud and refused to have a glass of wine with us.  Oh well.  We celebrated anyway.  I love you so much, Sis, and Papa From Mexico.  Thank you so much for celebrating with me.