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Halloween Free Read

Happy Halloween, everyone!  I thought people might enjoy a short, creepy free read today, so I worked on a secret project this weekend.

A word of warning:  I’m not a graphic artist like Dawn, Deena, Silvia, or Soleil.  So while I did purchase stock to make a cover, it’s not “art” or anything unique.  However, with My Beloved Sis’s help, I think I made something simple yet appropriately creepy.

This is my short story, “Broken Angel:  A Zombie Love Story”  previously published in Drollerie Press’s horror anthology, Things That Go Bump in the Night.  We were in a DP chat (back in 2007 or 2008) talking about zombies (like we always did!) and someone ::cough, Deena, cough:: challenged me to write a zombie romance.

I wouldn’t really call this “romance” but it is a love story and it definitely involves zombies.  I hope it makes you shiver delightfully this wonderful Halloween!

Click on the cover to dowload pdf.  I’ve also created epub and mobi for Kindle (although I haven’t tested the Kindle version yet – Littlest Monster ran off with my Kindle).

P.S. I might load this up to Smashwords and Amazon as practice for the Shanhasson books coming soon, so Broken Angel may not be available for free very long!

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Timed Writing

The last few months I’ve been doing lots of busy work — but not much writing.  Edits, yes.  Promo, absolutely.  Arm loads of mailings.  As many guest blogs as my poor brain would hold.

But actual words on the page have been few and far between.

It’s not that I haven’t tried to write — I’ve got several WiPs begging for attention.  I just always find something else I’d rather do, which is really unusual for me.  I’m not blocked — I just can’t get started.  I write a sentence and then find myself staring off into space.  What’s up with that?

I don’t feel burned out.  I was stressed out last month for the Evil Day Job, but Oct. has been much better.  It could be PRSD – Post RELEASE Stress Disorder.  Or is that R=Review?  I’ve never had this slowdown last so long after a release though.

I think I just need a kick in the pants.  It’s easy to get into a rut and do the same thing, over and over, even if it’s no longer working.  It’s easier than trying to find something new.  New might be scary or a complete waste of time, I reason, so I keep plugging away, spinning my wheels.

With NaNoWriMo just around the corner, I still don’t know what I’m going to do.  I’m leaning heavily toward making myself finish my current projects and then move into Mal’s book.  I know that means I probably won’t hit 50K in Nov — it’s just too hard for me personally to work on projects already started that are too small.

However, I really feel like I need to FINISH.  These projects have been hanging around way too long and I need projects finished, polished, and submitted.

On an unrelated topic, I mentioned I’ve been trying harder to follow FlyLady routines.  One of her central ideas is to set a timer and work only for 15 mins.  Don’t try to tackle every single thing that’s wrong — just start small.  Finish something.  Move on.

So I thought, hey, I need to do this with writing.  If nothing else, it’ll get me moving again.  After work today, I set the timer on my iPhone for 20 mins and opened my ZCR file.  I’ve been opening and closing this file for days, adding only a sentence or two but that’s it.

With the timer ticking away, I got started.  It was sort of like blowing cobwebs out.  It was rough and not too pretty, but I did get words.  Almost 600 words.  More words than I’ve written in weeks added up.

Yay!  So that’s my approach for the next few days.  I’ll set a timer for 15-20 mins and see what I get.  I have all next week off from the Evil Day Job, and right now, I plan to keep working on my current projects.  Whether I’ll “officially” join NaNoWriMo or not I don’t know yet.  It’s more important to me to get my engine rumbling at full speed!

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RBW Week 17

No huge losses to report (which is why I didn’t post last week).  In fact, I’m showing a gain today.  Sigh.  It could be that coconut pie and real Susie Qs I had Sat. night in Joplin…  But I’ve been very good and on plan since.  I actually “felt” thinner today…until I stepped on the scale.

That’s the pitfall of daily weighing.  The scale can change our perception of how we look, even though we feel better, stronger, thinner.  I’m determined not to let that one pound gain affect me.  We had a great time Sat. night and I immediately got back on the horse with my plan.  I didn’t eat ALL my food that night — just until I was comfortable.

I haven’t really tried any new foods lately.  I’ve been trying to keep a meal plan and shopping accordingly.  This time of year we love chili, ham & beans, stew, chicken & noodles, etc. so that’s what I’ve been making.  Of course I choose very lean hamburger when applicable.  I’m also using lots of fresh garlic, onions, and coconut oil to combat fall colds.  I don’t know that it’s helping exactly, but we haven’t had any colds either!  *knocks on wood*

I say this to illustrate why Weight Watchers has worked so well for me.  I’m eating normal food my family eats too, our favorites!  Without guilt.  Sure, there are healthy “diet” foods I choose to eat that they won’t touch with a ten foot pole — like Kashi Go Lean cereal and Fage nonfat Greek yogurt — but in general, we eat the same thing.  I just make more veggies for myself and make sure I don’t eat more than my single serving.

I’ve already started Thanksgiving preparation for next month (we host That Man’s family, my dad, and my beloved sister).  I’ve got 4-6 quarters of frozen homemade chicken broth ready to make stuffing and noodles.  I’ll be watching the circulars over the next few weeks to see when turkeys first go on sale.  I might buy two and freeze one — we all love turkey, but hardly ever eat it.

I’m still failing in the exercise department.  Grrr.  I’m taking the entire week off next week from the Evil Day Job (for NaNoWriMo, if I officially join), but I’m determined to use those days to establish a work out routine that I can stick with once I return to work.

Anyway, a long-winded post to say that I’m still hovering around 55 pounds lost for the year.  One pound away from a new decade on the scale — not counting that pesky one that decided to join me today!

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The Rose of Shanhasson’s New Cover

When I decided to self-publish The Shanhasson trilogy after getting my rights back, I contacted my friend S.J. Noir, who recommended several artists open to commission.  I was looking for a very specific ART look — similar to what Deena had done at DP with that gorgeous custom look.

However, I wanted these new covers to focus on the men in the series.  *winks*

I settled on Silviya Yordanova and I couldn’t be happier with how Rhaekhar turned out.  What do you think?

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A Sad Day for Drollerie Press

If you haven’t see the official announcement yet, Deena has been very sick for over a year and has decided to close Drollerie’s doors.

I’ll always be grateful to Deena for being the first publisher to give me a shot.  She taught me so much as my editor on those first books!  And her artwork was stunning.

I hope and pray that she’s able to recover enough to enjoy her life once more.  Thank you for dreaming Drollerie, Deena!

I’m working on having new covers made for all my DP books and I’ll self publish them over the next several months.  If you stumble across this site and just can’t wait, please email me (joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com) and I’ll happily get you a copy.

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To NaNoWriMo or Not To NaNoWriMo

That is my question this week.

I want to participate in NaNoWriMo very much.  I even scheduled off some nice vacation to help my success.  But in reality, maybe I shouldn’t even try.

I learned last year that trying to handle two shorter projects for the 50K goal just won’t work for me.  Once I finished one project, I had a mental “break” and I couldn’t ever get started on the other in time to hit the end of the month race.  I really struggle to work on more than one project at a time, too.  Once I’m in the zone for A, I find it nearly impossible to do anything at all in B without losing the edge on the first project.

Plus, the projects in my queue right now just are not good NaNoWriMo projects.

Phantom, in progress.  (First mark against it – I already started it).  Targeted length 35K.  (Too short)

Zombie Category Romance, in progress.  (ditto).  Targeted length 25k.  (ditto)

Lord Regret’s Price, not started, premise in my mind, but no plotting done.  Targeted length, 30K.  Sigh.

New project I’ll call “3 Aliens“, vague premise, cool idea but no character names, no worldbuilding, no plotting.  Target length < 30K.  Sigh.

I could go on and on with the shorter projects, all in various stages of work, from premise to some plotting to even started and filed away for whatever reason.  NONE of these will work for NaNoWriMo.

The only project in my queue that would work for NaNo is Mal’s book, tentatively Mine to Break.  However, I have absolutely no plotting done and no real characterization other than the little bits I know from Victor and Vicki.  The length is right though and with Vicki coming in May, I’d really like to get Mal in the pipeline. 

So I continue to waffle back and forth about what to do.  I don’t like leaving two projects in the unfinished file for yet another month or so, because that increases the likelihood that I won’t finish them.  I have to strike while the iron is hot, and it’s already losing its glow just a bit.  Phantom is all plotted out on the wall — but I don’t have the burning desire to work on it.

I’m taking Jenna’s tarot class starting this weekend and I’m hoping that I’ll figure out what to concentrate on.  Otherwise I may have to bow out of NaNoWriMo this year.

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Good News Monday

After several days off last week, it’s back to the Evil Day Job grind tomorrow, and this week is jam-packed with basketball tryouts, Upward evaluations, and parent-teacher conferences.  So I’m starting the positive thinking early!  My good news this week…

  • We got rid of That Man’s ancient unreliable car and replaced it with a used Durango.  He looooooves it and we can all fit inside easily, instead of crammed wall to wall in our old Intrepid.  It was sad to see the old red car go — we bought it in MN 13 years ago before Princess was even born.  200,000+ miles later, it was time for it to rest in peace.
  • We stuck to the meal plan very well last week — here’s to another week.  With my plan in hand, I was able to escape Wal-Mart today for just over $114!  * I think it’s a record*
  • I’ve been working harder at FlyLady routines.  Each day this past week, I kept the dishwasher unloaded and ready for dirty dishes, so my sink remained clean and it was super easy to get dinner prepared each night.  Baby steps!
  • I finished The Bloodgate Warrior synopsis!
  • I’m making one last final pass to BGW before submission.
  • NaNoWriMo is just around the corner and I have no idea what I’ll be writing yet.  Lots of things to choose from — it’s just a matter of getting my muse loosened up and ready to go.
  • I shipped out all my packages last week!  If you’re still waiting on me for something, please let me know.  I might have missed you accidentally!

What’s your good news this week?

 

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Review: Golden

A new reviewer (to me!):  Riane of Kinky Book Reviews gave Golden a shot:

A few days ago, I had never heard of an author by the name of Joely Sue Burkhart. A friend recommended a book that had recently come out by her, so I decided to check it out. It took me a couple of days before I got a chance to sit down to read the book. Now, I wish I had started it earlier.

 

This is a relatively short book. It was a fast but enjoyable read for me. There are some twists and turns that I did not expect. The sex scenes were quite good and fit into the storyline. The characters were interesting. The book was set in China which was different for me.

Thank you, Riane!