Category: The Blog

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

Whew boy, I’m just flying. *snort* 809 words, 16,944 polished. I started the evening off by cutting several paragraphs from that new section I added (foreshadowing became big dark glob) and then connected it to the old draft. The next few sections *should* go quicker because I don’t foresee adding anything new, but who knows.

Packed 5 more kitchen boxes (2 were small, spices, etc. that I won’t be using between now and the 18th) and finished cleaning the garage out. This holiday weekend, I’ll be cleaning out our storage unit to donate as much as possible (hey, if we haven’t used it in almost 2 years, why keep it now?) and then moving some of this clutter out of here so I can keep working. I’m also doing some touch-up painting, crossing fingers that the matched paint actually matches and doesn’t look horrible…

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

Only 803 words tonight, but they’re new words for a brand new scene that I need using the new character I added yesterday. NSR is up to 16,185. Plus I packed 4 boxes of kitchen stuff and set aside 2 boxes of yard sale/donate items. Yes, it’s official. We’re moving.

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

It’s no secret that I adore both Lynn Viehl’s blog and her books. I’m celebrating, because Twilight Fall releases today!

I’ve been a Darkyn fan since the beginning with If Angels Burn. While I can’t afford to give away the whole series like I did for Evermore, I did buy an extra copy of Valentin’s story that I’ll put up for grabs this week while I’m in Revision Hell.

Because I blew my postage budget with the last contest, I can only afford to send this copy to US residents. (I do regularly have contests for anyone on the planet, but not this time, sorry!!) Simply comment on THIS POST ONLY by midnight CST Friday, July 4th to be entered, or you may e-mail me once at joely AT joelysueburkhart DOT com with “Lynn Viehl” or some other identifier in the subject so I can easily find you if you fall into my spam folder.

ETA: As always, I do not retain your name or address if you enter.

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

So much for going to bed early. *growls at self*

NSR is up to 15,376 polished words. I added a red herring character which required a little research, and then wove him into chapter 4 before moving onward. I’m still going at a snail’s pace but oh well. I’ll take it!

Not planning on any early writing tomorrow, but maybe I’ll wake up early. Heh. Oh, the delusions I create for myself…

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

…is up at All Romance Ebooks here! Also, look for the “Girl on Fire” ARe ad in the July issue of the Romantic Times, and you’ll see Isabella’s lovely cover.

Watch for a review at Book Room Reviews later this week, and I’ll also be guest blogging with them Monday, July 7th. Tracy just had a wonderfully crazy weekend reading books like a madwoman for a Read-A-Thon. Now that sounds right up my alley! Maybe next year…

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

Yeah, I know I missed a bunch of days, so this technically isn’t “three” but life happens. In fact, life happens a lot, and if this month goes the way I suspect, I’ll be extremely lucky to get any revisions done at all. But I made a commitment to myself when I shipped NSR out, and so I must work on it as much as I’m able.

This morning, I got up early before work and took a survey of where I am. I managed to add about 4K since I started Revision Hell. Not much at all. However, I smoothed several things that were bothering me. Eliminated some redundancy. Dropped a few more hints early, weaving them in hopefully seamlessly. I re-arranged some sections that were out of order.

Some good changes. I’m back to the Evil Day Job today and will just have to see how the week progresses. My sleep/writing schedule is in tatters right now, and I’m sure if I flip back to this time last year, I’d see the same thing. With the summer hours, I want to stay up late, but the kids are out of school, so they stay up late, which means I don’t get started on MY stuff until even later. If I’m not careful, I’m up until midnight every night, and I start work at 6:30 a.m. Not good. I really need to be in bed by 11:00 if possible, but that hasn’t happened yet.

You’d think it would be easier to get up Dark & Early with the sun, but it’s not, because my body wants to stay up late. Ideally, I’d move to a D&E writing schedule and leave the nights completely open to chance, but I just can’t seem to get up that early. I’m going to experiment this week and see if I can get to bed earlier. Unfortunately, that might cut into this week’s progress. If I oversleep in the morning, and make myself go to bed early, then I won’t see any numbers on the writing.

I’ll just have to see what I can do.

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

BUST.

I should have remembered that a day of vacation–with That Man and the monsters underfoot–means no writing time whatsoever. I tinkered with NSR a little, maybe a couple of hundred words, but I’m seriously behind. At this rate, I won’t really get a good start until Monday.

I started reading a VERY high concept book that was VERY disappointing (not by anyone I “know” on the blogosphere, so nobody worry!). I couldn’t even make it 50 pages. What a waste of a good idea.

We watched The Bucket List, which made me bawl. Not a feel-good bawl at all. That Man’s got the new-ish Rambo movie Tivo’d too, which he’ll probably make me suffer through tomorrow.

On the bright side, at this rate, I’ll be EXCITED to return to work on Monday.

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

I was hoping to get through my entire planning stage last night – each scene of the story documented in a notecard — but it just didn’t happen. Too much drama on the home front. So today I’ll get as far as I can on revisions, and go back and forth with smoothing/fixing to reading ahead and documenting the rest of the story.

Notecards are important for me, although I still haven’t found the perfect way to handle a story yet. Color is highly important when I’m putting a story together, and notecards in the right colors are difficult if not impossible to find. This story actually works pretty well with the neon orange, green, and yellow standard cards since it’s Mayan. These colors would NOT work at all for the Blood and Shadows world (black, red, white). For those stories, I use white notecards and switch back and forth between colored pens. A pain, but it worked enough. The colored cards make it much easier to see the balance of story without flipping through to see the color of ink I used.

Why is this painful process necessary? For me, I need to SEE the story complete in my head like a plotted-out graph or equation. Going back to my numerical analysis background, I don’t like a plot point to deviate too far off the curve (Story) I’m approximating (writing). Maybe that point should be tossed entirely and a better approximation written instead. I also need symmetry and balance, so when I have too many orange cards (Jaid’s POV) in a row, it screams to me that I need a green one (Ruin’s POV) in between. The physical cards and colors help me see the symmetry and shape of the story I’m building in a way that a flat file cannot.

I’ve also been making notes of things to fix as I go, mostly a failure to give the story a strong sense of PLACE. Once the characters converge in my made-up ruin, my setting takes over (because it’s MINE), but up until then, the story could take place anywhere, in any season. Not good. So I’ll definitely work on that in this pass. I chose Texas as the starting point because I’ve lived there. I might as well make use of my memories, even though only a chapter or two actually take place in Texas. (Austin specifically, and we never lived there, but I think I can make it work.)

I’ll update throughout the day with my progress.

• Fixed the setting, sense of place/time/season in chapter 2 with a little paragraph. 64 very important words.
• Cut 180 words from the beginning of chapter 4 – I need to insert a scene in Ruin’s POV instead.
• New 448 word scene in Ruin’s POV to kick off Chapter 4.
• 807 words in Jaid’s POV.

Today’s goal wasn’t met but I got off to a decent start. Hoping for better tomorrow.

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

Larissa managed to pull off something only Lynn Viehl and Laurell K. Hamilton have done recently. She made me read a book in ONE SITTING.

I picked up Pleasure Unbound over lunch today and then dared to flip through a few pages while I was cooking dinner. I didn’t really know what to expect as far as the demon angle was concerned. They’re not my favorite paranormal creature by any means. Although I’ve enjoyed Larissa’s work before, I didn’t expect to be sucked in so fully. My eyes are killing me, but the book is finished and I just had to blog about it.

Hells bells indeed! What a great read. Very sexy, definitely. I especially adored the relationship between Eidolon, Wraith, and Shade, three brothers of the Seminus (incubi) demon line. Tayla is an incredible heroine, and the conflict and sexual attraction between her and Eidolon just burns on the page.

A mentor once told me that to write a great romance, the conflict had to be extreme. Like if the hero was a firefighter, the heroine had better be an arsonist. In Pleasure Unbound, Tayla is a demon slayer, a member of the Aegis. As far as the demons are concerned, the Aegis are the murderers. When mutilated demons begin showing up at Underworld General Hospital (UGH, giggles), of course Eidolon suspects the Aegis of foul deeds. Naturally, he looks upon the injured human slayer with suspicion, but he’s a doctor first, demon second, although he has a hard time remembering that once his incubus nature takes over. Tayla and Eidolon have very solid reasons for hating and fearing each other, but their relationship develops anyway.

Other than a few little POV shifts (I’m a purist, so I don’t like shifts mid-scene), I was treated to a fun, engrossing story. This is definitely a world I’m looking forward to vising again!

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

Welcome to Revision Hell!

(Hellacious link courtesy of Larissa Ione)

Goal: Take last year’s NaNoWriMo novel (Night Sun Rising) and expand/polish 63.5K to 80K and prepare for submission by July 31, 2008.

Planning: I have 10K already pretty well polished. That leaves 70K to get through. Obviously, I need to expand since the first draft is short, but through description, plot fixes, and character development, I don’t think 15K will be a problem. Uh, but I have to actually WRITE it.

I have 38 days counting today. Today and tomorrow are planning days. I’ll read through what I have, make notes, do research (e.g. what does Santiago Atitlan look like?), and identify key holes I need to fill. By Thursday, 6/26, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running.

My daily goal is 2500 revised words, up to 30 days. That way I’ll have several days free to make up missed time and for holidays (That Man’s birthday is in July; God help me if we have to move). That number is pretty intimidating, but I’m going to hope for the best with a big showing Thursday and Friday since I’m on vacation. If these were NEW words, I couldn’t make it; however, I have some good solid scenes I’ll be able to cut and paste from. Hopefully it’ll be enough.

So, are you ready to join me in Revision Hell?