Category: The Blog

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Jenny gave a terrific review (A+!) of Beautiful Death:

As a reader, two key factors that influence my enjoyment of a book are the author’s voice and imagery. It’s easy to say that Beautiful Death excels in both but the total is much more than the sum of its individual merits. This novel is so good that I’m not sure I can do justice to it in my review.

Miss Burkhart’s confident and bold execution of the story is something I come to appreciate. No chunky paragraphs to introduce the characters or backstory for this author. The plot plays out like a rapidly shuffled deck of cards, with information revealed at exactly the right time. Emotionally rich and action-packed, Beautiful Death holds intriguing surprises at every turn, right up to its explosive climax.

You can read the entire review here. Thank you so much, Jenny!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Calling all Western fans…

Please name your favorite Western with two archetypical characters: the whore with the heart of gold, and the scarred gun-slinger. Naturally they fall in love at the end and redeem each other. Any recommendations?

I have this CRAZY idea that came to me sometime last night while I was trying to sleep. (Yeah, still struggling with the sleep issues, grrr) I just want to get a feel for this kind of story and see if it strikes a chord. Or if I’m just whacked out by a to-do list ten miles long and uneasy interrupted sleep…

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a question for you:

Is a “high concept” (oh, how I loathe thee) idea still considered high concept if a similar–but still different–idea has been recently released? Of course, in my writer’s arrogance, I believe my idea is way cooler than this other and couldn’t even get 50 pages into it, but part of my mind says, “don’t even bother now.” I know there are no new ideas, but there are fresh takes on ideas, and my fresh take has wilted a little beneath the harsh reality of this other release.

On to patience. I’m a strong believer that when one door closes, there was a very definite reason that door closed and another open door that I’m meant to find merely waits ahead. However, I don’t always have the patience I should. Yesterday, I really had to fight back my urge to immediately shoot out some agent queries on my project that got shot down. Only one no definitely does not mean the end of the road for this project, if I can get the execution right. The only weakness flagged in the “Dear Author” letter was pacing. Pacing I can fix by shuffling some scenes around and making something even worse happen in the “duller” scene I was using to establish character.

I revamped my query. I thought it was a really strong query. I wanted to send it so bad. Just one time, to someone I know could give a response in as little as 24-48 hours (”good” responses take much longer, but that form reject flies back quickly). But remember, I told myself, there’s only one chance to make a good first impression. ONE CHANCE. If she says no, then 20% of my A-list is gone. Is that a risk I’m willing to take already?

Then I’m back to the move and how much Revision Hell I still have to get through. If a positive request came through, am I sure I could fix the pacing issue in the first three chapters? Absolutely sure? When I still have a lot of other revisions to smooth? I know I could get the whole manuscript turned around quickly — but is that in my best interest, both my sanity and the project’s? This could be a big project…if I don’t screw it up.

Yet that big ticking clock keeps hammering away in my head, especially when I think about that other similar project…

So I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to send a query flying out. I got up early this morning for a change. And what do you know–I found a few more minor tweaks to tighten my query I thought was so fab yesterday.

So I hereby solemnly swear not to submit any queries until I get this second pass completely finished, which will give me time to tweak for a THIRD time if any requests for material come trickling in.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I really was last night.

Okay, I wasn’t fully asleep, but I was definitely in bed and I was having a hard time getting my brain to shut down. Pretty standard the last few nights–no wonder I’m so tired during the day. It’s not full blown insomnia, but I’m definitely losing sleep and going to bed early would not help.

While I was trying to relax and fall asleep, I started writing poetry in my head. Not for the first time, I wished I had a Stephen King typewriter mind-machine thing that could write down what I was thinking, because of course this morning I can’t remember more than the basic theme of the poem. Maybe I did dream about it, because it’s all rather vague, or maybe that was deliberate on my mind’s part. You see, in the poem, I was a ghost. I was there around my family, but nobody could see or hear me. I distinctly remember the impression of banging on glass with my fists, trying to get their attention, but still, nobody heard me.

*shivers* No wonder I’m tired this morning. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t remember the actual verses.

Revision Hell is put off until after the move is complete. There’s no need to rush now, as I got the ”Dear Author” letter yesterday.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Tracy was kind enough to let me write up a guest post for the Bookroom Reviews blog here.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

So we’ve been trying to match the paint color throughout this house so we could touch up all the knicks and scrapes the monsters left behind. First time, we took a small piece of wall (That Man planted the bedroom door handle into the wall, long story) to Lowes and had a quart of Valspar made. The paint lady thought the finish was flat.

When it dried, it was obviously not the right color or finish. Some walls looked okay until the light hit, with an obvious sheen difference. I went snooping out in the garage through several old cans and found what I suspected was the original 5-gal painter’s container. It was an egg shell finish, not flat. Back to Lowes, bought another quart in the same color.

This one was even worse. I didn’t need a light difference to see the obvious touchups.

The paint label was really faded, but I finally made out Sherwin Williams “Nomadic Desert.” We ran up to the closest store on Sat. and they had closed half an hour earlier. Sigh. Made another trip today but the paint guy recommended I bring in the old paint can because believe it or not…they have two kinds of egg shell paint. Sigh. Drove back home, picked up the nasty old can, and drove back.

Of course, I couldn’t just buy a quart of THIS paint — I had to get a whole gallon. *grumbles* However, it was totally worth it. I repainted all the spots tonight and I swear, I can’t tell where I touched up. The only spot I really need to work on yet is the monsters’ room. Evidently, Princess Monster likes to lay awake at night and scratch paint off the textured bumps. It might be easier to re-paint that whole wall…

I was a cleaning maniac all weekend. The master suite is almost move-out ready: cleaned, organized, kids’ toys picked up, etc. Packing up the bathroom essentials will be one of the last things we do. Both bookcases are mostly done with just a few scragglers that wouldn’t fit in the box. Today, I finished the monsters’ room. *dies* It was soooo messy. Everything is organized and for the most part, packed, except their most favorite toys.

I didn’t finish the storage unit like I hoped, but I got more cleaning/organizing done than I planned, which is good. (I didn’t have the van Sat. so I couldn’t make the large trips like I’d envisioned.) Slowly, we’re getting there. If nothing else, this move is forcing me to reorganize and declutter, which is a good thing.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Tracy at Bookroom Reviews posted a review of Beautiful Death:

Beautiful Death is a fast-paced science fiction, action, and romance book, all in one.

Joely has a gift of great imagination, including the apocalyptic future world that she created. I could even see this book as a movie.

Thank you so much, Tracy!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

The winner of Lynn Viehl’s Twilight Fall giveaway is….

BETHANIE!

Bethanie, please e-mail me your snail mail addy and I’ll send your copy!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Happy Independence Day, America!

Today was another major day of cleaning, packing, and organizing. I have one massive bookshelf entirely packed now, as well as several containers of toys out of the monsters’ room. We (that is significant) reorganized the garage to make it easier to get stuff out of the house and still park the van inside. I have a dedicated corner for donation items (already made one delivery load yesterday) and another corner for trash. That Man even cleaned out his closet and eliminated several bags of old shirts, etc. that I can donate.

A long sweaty day, requiring a second shower tonight after the local fireworks display (which was AWESOME–they shot them just a block or so away so it was like our own personal display while we sat in our driveway. Too bad we’re moving. *rolls eyes*)

Tomorrow, That Man is taking the monsters over to his parents’ house and I’m staying behind to continue the packing. My #1 task tomorrow is to tackle our storage facility and identify as much as possible for donation. Hey, we haven’t used it in nearly two years–maybe I can get rid of it now. Especially while That Man isn’t looking…

I even sorted toys tonight… Barbie, animals, books, etc. into containers with labels. They won’t stay that way for long…

P.S. and while no one is looking tomorrow, I do plan to reward myself with a little writing, too.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

It wasn’t exactly midnight…but around 11:30 p.m. last night we had a rescue mission.

Just as I was getting ready to go to bed, Princess Monster (she was allowed to stay up extra late since school is out. She *loves* staying up late by herself. I have no idea who she gets that from. *innocent look*) took the dog out for me and came rushing back inside.

“MOM, there’s a hurt bird outside! We have to help it!”

I’ll admit, even after seeing the little creature, I wasn’t sure what we coud do for it. When she’d first seen it, the bird was lively enough to hop around that at first she thought it was a frog, but it couldn’t fly. I didn’t personally see it with wings beating or anything, so I don’t know if it got hit by a car and a wing is broken or what happened. I hesitated to try and catch it, especially so late, with all the craziness going on as it is…

“Mom, remember the song about the nightingale?”

Oh, this monster knows exactly how to manipulate me. She reminded me of the Christmas song about the hurt nightingale which becomes Maria’s offering to baby Jesus. On the right day, it can make me cry. So I sent her inside for an old towel. While she was looking for a box (you wouldn’t think that would be so hard since we’re moving, but I’d used up nearly all the boxes I had!), I easily caught the bird in the towel. He didn’t even try to hop or fly — probably petrified to death.

I ended up using one of my larger boxes and carefully set him inside, towel and all. We got a little dish of water in case he was thirsty. The little guy made it through the night, and the two youngest monsters are enthralled with the little bird. Later today I’ll call our local conservation office and see what they recommend we do with him.

Here’s a picture of the little guy. I have no idea what kind of bird he is.

ETA: I talked to the conversation office and they recommended setting him outside beneath a towel to see if he was merely in shock. Once he recovered, he would simply hop out and fly away. I went out to the garage (with an eager troop of monsters) with another towel, opened the box, and the little bugger hopped/flapped out. Chaos ensued. We opened the garage door, and with just a little gentle shooing, little birdie flew out and across the street to our neighbor’s yard.

Yay! I think he’s recovered.

Of course, Littlest Monster had gone outside barefoot and stepped in the bird’s departing gift of poo on the garage floor.

Wailing ensued…