Dribs & Drabs ...

So, in my last post I mentioned pivoting from Best Laid Plots-Book the First to A Winter's Journey, hoping to rush through the edits and printing so that I would be able to take it with to When Words Collide next week (we leave Aug 14).

A very good chance that this won't happen, as the book needs more editing than I had anticipated. The first proof copy should arrive on Saturday, but in the meantime I have been going through our ebook copy to proof it. And there are quite a few edits and corrections to make.

We'll see if I can complete them by Saturday. If I can get that done, we can order the books and possibly have them drop-shipped to the hotel.

Challenge kind of accepted ... today was not very productive at all :( Hopefully, tomorrow will be better!

Later!

I've decided that Best Laid Plots - Book the First is actually NOT ready for publication yet :( So, I've put that one on hold for a bit and have switched over to A Winter's Journey to see if I can get it ready for publication in time to debut it at When Words Collide 2025 in mid August.

A tall order, for sure! It needs a thorough line edit, which I'll be doing with ProWriting Aid. Plus a new chapter, and some tweaking throughout. And beta reading by hubby and eldest daughter. He's already started that process, and has found a bunch of grammar issues that made me realize I hadn't actually put it through PWA yet! The new first chapter is done, but no doubt it will need further tweaking after it gets evaluated by Hubby and Eldest. My deadline for final editing is July 31st/August 1st. Then hubby will format it and send it off to get the proof copy sent back. Provided there isn't too much to fix in that, we SHOULD be able to get the physical copies shipped in time. Probably!!!

Switching to focus on WJ actually makes sense! BLP is different enough from what I usually write, that having it published first could cause some confusion among readers, who'll expect the rest of my books to be similar. Which they won't be (other than it's sequel, Book the Second). And the world that WJ takes place in is much more diverse, story wise. As my previous post mentioned, I've already got rough ideas for the three follow-up books in this storyline, plus a prequel that's about 50% written. And writing that extra chapter, I've come up with a rough idea of another spin-off story, maybe calliing it No Roses Here. Not to mention all the numerous ideas that I've been working on throughout the years that also takes place on this World.

I do know that no one is actually reading these blog posts - but they do help to get my thoughts in order! And someday there might be some people interested in checking out my ramblings!

Oh - and I have decided my role as I get older is as the absent-minded ditzy old lady! Which I am definitely well on my way to becoming!

Later Folks!

Lisa

As I write this, I am very close to the self-publication of both Best Laid Plots - Book the First AND A Winter's Journey! BLB-B1 has received an evaluation from an annonymous reviewer from the Writer's Guild - and while I definitely appreciated some of the thoughts and suggestions, I was also thrown off a bit at the stuff that was mentioned as needing attention, that had definitely already gotten attention! It's now sitting with another evaluator from Pete's Press, who will take a look at it once she's done with her evaluation of A Winter's Journey.

I may have mentioned in a previous blog (likely years ago!!!) that the second book I'd completed was A Winter's Tale. Well, I've never been too fond of that title, nor of the ending. I am hoping that Annabel will have some thoughts on the ending for me, but it was my hubby who came up with A Winter's Journey as the title. And I like it! Ties in with the prequel I am writing called The Journey Begins. When I asked my friend Carmela (so far the only one who has read it that really loved it!) what she thought of the different title, she said it could work, especially if any sequels follow the seasons in some way. And I figured that could work! Do a Spring, Summer and Fall story - maybe something like Journey Through Spring, Summer Journeys and Journeys in the Fall - or something like that. And instead of direct sequels, each would feature a jump forward in Hildy's timeline. For The Journey Begins, she's about 18. For Winter, maybe 28. So, 35 for Spring, 42 for Summer and 55 for Fall? And explore themes of family, etc. Lots of stuff to potentially work with! Plus the usual monsters, bad guys, magic and so on! The thing with Hildy is that, at the time of WJ, she is a Mary Sue, but she still has much to learn, even if she doesn't know it! So I am comfy working with her as written, and seeing her Arc continue to evolve through the other books.

The direct sequel to Winter's Journey, would be Two Old Coots and a Mess of Trouble! Don't have a storyline for that yet, other than the two characters (who are of course in Winter's Journey), following up on the mystery of the Trolls being there. Hildy might have a part in that story, but it would definitely follow the two old men. Maybe Jhereg as well.

So - hubby is assisting with the formatting of BLP and WJ, for the plan is to debut them at When Words Collide in Calgary, in mid-August. This year!!! I am presenting two sessions this year - A Map is Still Not a Journey, and Magic Makes the World Go Round - both of which I have done previously (this might be the 4th or 5th time for that one!), so not as much prepping this year!

So it seems to be all falling into place - provided we can make the 30+ days we have left work!!!

Till Later Guys :) Whoever you might be!

I am very pleased to announce that a short story of mine, "Trials of Spring", was selected to be in the anthology From the Ground Up, published by Pete's Press and edited by Annabel Townsend!

I have already received my complimentary two free copies, and had my youngest sit down and read my story. She is usually my most critical of my offspring where my work is concerned, so I waited with bated breath to see what her reaction would be. Sadly, she didn't smile or chuckle while she read it (which my editor assured me she had done when first reading it!), but did comment that it was "a cute story". From her this is high praise indeed! Of my three children, she was less interested in hearing my storytelling attemps in the car to and from dance class, whether it was one of my own stories or an abbreviated version of a book I had read that I particularly liked. Of my other two, the eldest loved every storytelling minute, became a voracious reader on her own, and as an adult a writer as well. She has published two novels through the small press imprint that she created, and where I had hoped she'd take Best Laid Plots and put it through the formatting process and publish it as well, she has since become a school teacher and no longer has the time :( And the middle child, while less obvious about enjoying my storytelling, she is currently at University across the country, finishing off her degree in English, and Biology, with the intent to teach high school when she'd done. I will be honest, and say that her AP English teacher might have had something to do with her love of English as a subject, but I'm sure I laid the groundwork!

Have I already told you that Best Laid Plots, Book the First, is currently with my local writers guild being evaluated? I'm sure I must have ... but if not, I have now! The Evaluator should be finishing up soon - they say to allow 6-8 weeks and they've had it since Sept 16th, so it's a bit overdue. I will follow up on that next week if I haven't heard anything by then. And if the verdict is that it needs more editing, then I have a few contacts that I met at When Words Collide 2024 that I will contact about taking a stab at that. I met them at a Writer/Editor Speed Mingle session, and in the brief time I had to sit with each of them I showed them the cover art, talked about the back blurb and a bit about the story. Each of them seemed interested and enthusiastic, so that's pretty cool!

Want to hear more about the back blurb, or even the awesome cover? Send me an email and ask!

Until next time,

Ciao!

Hard to believe this much time has flown past. March 1/22 was my last Blog entry. So I think that some updates are in order!

Iin the last year we've moved twice, which includes prepping three different houses either to sell or to move into. We're now settled, more or less. Still have boxes to unpack throughout the house, pictures to put up on the walls, and some finishing touches to our renovations to be done - painting, baseboards, and so on. But we're all moved in, and the other two houses are sold. Our two offices are set up and functional - one upstairs which my hubby and I share. And a larger one in the basement that's mine alone. That one has two of the four desks in that room all set up and good to go. The other two are landing zones of so much stuff ... And the craft supply storage room off of that office is almost sorted ... It's all a vast improvement over what I had as storage in the previous two houses, but it's still a work in progress. Like the rec room which is destined to be a VR game play area, which is still full of boxes. The library section is all set up though :) My hubby and I have recently started twice weekly yoga sessions, via zoom with our middle kidlet who lives on the other side of the country. Too soon to know if it's helping us with our limited strength (me) and flexibility (him). Did you know that being 60 sucks? But it's nice to see and talk with kidlet on a regular basis :)

I've got two more When Words Collide conferences under my belt since I last did an etry. Still planning on uploading the sessions I did for those two years to this website, something I promise every year, but have only managed a couple of times. There have also been people over the years who have asked me to email them my session notes, but that's something else which I've never managed to do. So, if you were one of those people - I'm sorry :(

In my last blog entry I mentioned that the person I'd hired to do a line edit of BLP - Bk the First hadn't been comfortable with the fantasy genre, and I was doubting if they'd done a good job or not. I am also thinking that it wasn't really line editing I'd needed. They had a few suggestions to make, but nothing that really made any difference. At this year's WWC, I took in a session called Witer/Editor Speed Mingle. It was exactly as it sounds, with authors circulating through the room to sit with editors and chat quickly (5 minutes!) about what project they are looking for assistance on. There wasn't enough time to visit all the editors, but the four I was able to talk with all seemed quite enthusiastic about BLP - Bk the First. I showed them the cover that Tora the Underdog had done for me, as well as the back jacket blurb I'd come up with. We all agreed that an evaluation subsidized by our provincial Writers Guild is the next step, then move on to hiring another editor. So, I've got the MS submitted for evaluation, paid the small fee, and am now waiting for an evaluator to be assigned. Progress!

One other bright note this fall is that I've actually got a short story accepted for a small anthology being planned by a local small press - Pete's Press! It will pay in a couple of free copies once it's published, but I'm pretty chuffed by it! I'll give you further details - such as publication date, and so on - when I know them!

Going further forward - always onwards, never backwards - I'll be working to complete the first draft of The Journey Begins. And working really hard at sticking to the daily work/life schedule I've come up with. Yes, another schedule. But the previous ones never really worked well. Hopefully this new one will be more sustainable.

I think that's going to be all for today ... I'll try to get an update done on a regular basis - maybe weekly? So - till then, Cheers all!

Oh Boy :(

We can have nothing but the best intentions, and still fall short.

To be honest, I didn't really get my plan firmly in place. And oh yes, there are "reasons". And excuses. Shall I talk about how August and September are the busiest time of year for the little store that is my day job? Or that in between, well pretty much everything, I've been organizing and preparing for a dnd campaign? Or planning for another guiding season? Or that we've also been dealing with covid in the house?

These things are all very true. But valid reasons and excuses don't put words on the page.

So I'm back at square one with following my own advice. Put the butt in the chair. And the words in the computer. At least five days a wee, in a minimum of 30 minute increments.

And that's still the plan.

Plus dealing with all that other stuff. Plus getting the sessions I did this year (and last year) loaded onto the website. In case there's anyone actually popping in to visit.

On the plus side, I've read three new books, and now that it's streaming, finally seen Love & Thunder. The books are because of being sick, but we always spend most evening watching tv or movies anyway. So that's nothing new. But I did enjoy L&T, even if it was a bit too campy in parts. Among other issues. I do feel bad that it's been so long since I've read anything for pleasure, outside of the weekly snippets that Ilona Andrews does as they do the rough draft of the latest Innkeeper. And I miss it. So that's something else that really needs to be scheduled. I should be reading instead of facebooking, although I do enjoy that as well, to some extent.

But it's all about priorities. And I need to be firm about mine!

So until next time!

L.

So - two entries in one week is pretty good for me! I was hoping to follow the first one with this entry a bit sooner, but it is what it is! SO let's dive in, shall we?

On Doing Better, specifically post WWC 2022, as well as going forward. One of the sessions I presented was on Being Organized, and another was on Time Management. And riding the high that came with the end of WWC, I realized I needed to Do Better at both those things. Actually - I have known that for a long time, but that wondrous high feeling is a much more positive way of feeling than the doldrums I've been stuck in for several months!

Let's look at where I need to Do Better. I talked about the following things as areas that a Writer needs to be organized about: Setting a Writing Schedule, Prioritizing and Tracking. I already have a couple of great spots where I do my writing, and it's not usually Writer's Block that holds things up for me. I figure I need to focus on Scheduling and Prioritizing, specifically.

So. Scheduling. I have come up with lots of schedules over the years, but I can talk about blocking off some time each day until I'm blue in the face, but for me it all comes to one thing initially. Discipline. I just need to sit my butt in the chair, and get on with it. Which is Perseverance. But I have to get past the Discipline part first. One tip that was mentioned in my session was to start small - baby steps. Try to manage just 30 minutes in a day. So I'm going to start there - 30 minutes in the mornings before I go to work at noon. If I can manage more, that's awesome! But all that I'll require of myself is those 30 minutes. Starting tomorrow - unless I can count writing this entry as my 30 minutes? No? Oh well :(

To jump right into that 30 minutes/day, I will need a project to work on. Which is where the Prioritizing component comes in. I have LOTS of WIP at the moment. I always do. So I need to figure out which one I'm going to focus on. Now, my session didn't go into details on HOW to Prioritize your WIPs, but I'll try to break it down here. For my benefit as much as anything else! First step - list it all. Then decide which one to go with, based on logic, practicality and How Much I Want To.

There's Best Laid Plots - Book the 2nd - the follow-up to Book the 1st which has gone through editing, and now is waiting to get looked at by Beta Readers. I do need to push to get that part happening, but that's a task that'll happen outside of my 30 minutes. This series is not quite like my usual writing, in that it's a borderline parody. Definitely trying to be humorous.

A Winter's Tale (I know - it needs a new title) - I had thought this one was "finished" as well, but I've always been unhappy with the ending. It's a fairly simple tale of a female fighter, who needs to get her friend and her family to safety when trolls are threatening the local area. During the winter. She gets them to a safe refuge, but then embarks on another search and rescue mission, and then another. Yes, she's a bit of a Mary Sue, but at this point in her adventures has been doing this kind of thing a very long time, and damn it, she SHOULD be good at it! She has a few flaws - of course - but they're more for flavour than anything else. The ending is quite weak, I think, with everything "neatly" wrapped up, and the character heading off to her next unspecified adventure. Which feels - unsatisfying to me. I've recently come up with a way to perhaps fix that ... adding a bit where she meets with one or two of the supporting characters (who are at odds with each other), to discuss the unresolved issues from the story, namely the trolls themselves. Questions that needed to be addressed really weren't, and this addition could do that. While paving the way to a sequel, featuring those two at odds characters, as they followed up and dug deeper into the issue.

The Journey Begins - this one is about half to two thirds done already, and features the MC from A Winter's Tale, but at the beginning of her adventures. She's still pretty accomplished in many ways, but still has alot to learn about stuff not directly related to what she's learned growing up. It also makes sense that perhaps this should be the first in her adventures that I should focus on towards publishing, rather than later as a prequel. Readers can be quite fussy about stuff like that. This prequel of hers should spread over three books, although book two and three are only very loosely thought out at this stage.

UnderCity Blues - this is the first in a police-type procedural set in a society set apart from the High Elvish society it serves. This one is a bit more planned, although not thoroughly plotted or outlined yet. And it's not really started yet, still mostly notes. My feel on this one is that it isn't quite done simmering on the stove yet. But it's a cool idea, and there's been lots of noodling on various aspects of this one in my downtime.

Sigh. There are at least three more I could list here, but I don't think that's going to be helpful. I think the logical choice is The Journey Begins. First draft is quite far along, and I've got good plans for the sequels. The Tracking part I've already got in place, more or less. I just need to start producing stuff to be Tracked!

So now I need to just get started on the new plan. Starting tomorrow, becuase as I finish this I realize I'm going to be late for work! Good thing I'm the boss!

Till Later!

Lisa

Oh Wow!!! First off - I can't believe how LONG it's been since I last did one of these little blog entries. I mean, I know I've been in a bit of a literary funk ... but six months??? Yikes! I promise, I'll do better!

Which brings me to my next point, Doing Better, Writing wise! And the Why, of course, is that When Words Collide 2022 just concluded yesterday - and all I can say is - WOW! I want to chat about that first, then I'll get to the Doing Better part!

For the third year the conference was virtual, which meant many things. Mostly, that it didn't include the long drive to and from Calgary. And a rather expensive hotel bill. It also included a few new things - first off, the organizers allowed professional and past partners to set up and be responsible for their own tracks of programming. Mostly publishers, big and small. And as such, they considered Prairie Owl Publishing - our own tiny little imprint - as a past partner! (So cool!!!)

Since the first virtual year, I have mantained a zoom licence, and kept it because it was handy for a few different things through out the year (mostly having to do with my volunteer Guiding life, but also as a way to connect with non-local family), so setting up the zoom links was old hat. Being told that we can fill a full track with however many sessions we wanted, well, let me say - Challenge Accepted!

The "Prairie Owl Publishing" track had scheduled - out of a possible 29 tracks - 13 sessions! Please keep in mind, that POP has a grand total of TWO individuals associated with it - myself and founder Amanda Witow. Of those 13 tracks we'd scheduled, we were directly involved with 12 sessions, one of which was a panel, which I moderated and Amanda was a panelist. When the idea of that panel (On Being an Indie Author) came to me, I reached out to S.C. Jensen - author of the Bubbles in Space series - and asked if she'd be interested in being on the panel, and maybe doing a session on her own. She was quite happy to say yes to both - and our 13th session was Sarah's How to Increase Your Speed and Productivity. To round out our panel, Amanda reached out to D.N. Brynn, the author of more than a few awesome novels (Odder Still and Once Stolen, just to name a couple!). And I must say, it was a lot of fun! So glad we did it!

There were, of course, some more negative challenges to overcome this year, most notably the presence of Zoom Bombers at most sessions :( What's a Zoom Bomber you ask? These were invidivuals just getting their kicks out of signing into a session with the sole purpose of being a nuisance, by interrupting with noise of all sorts. To be distracting. Like - really? Are you guys 12????? No - that's doing a disservice to 12 year olds!!! As a result, sessions right across the board instituted a few zoom rules to curb these guys - most notably Muting participants as they entered, and using Moderators who did some quiet gatekeeping of sessions, removing offenders.

My first session I had a volunteer from the group of legit participants step up to gatekeep - which was awesome! Thanks Val!!! After that, I tapped my hubby to be our Moderator, and he went a step further in that he removed the ability to Unmute themselves for all participants, as well as the ability to use the Whiteboard. One thing he didn't do was to remove the ability for participants to Rename themselves. But other sessions, who hadn't also instituted the universal Mute everybody and keep them that way rule, got hit by bombers who'd rename themselves to match another legitimate particant. That way, once they got noisy and rowdy and the moderator removed them from the session, the legit person got kicked out as well! We didn't have that issue as since they couldn't unmute themselves, there was no way they could be disruptive, so they just left on their own. Or stayed and enjoyed the session. Anything is possible, right?

Once the bombers were kept under control things got back on track and went quite well for us! Well ... that is, until covid reared its ugly head! Yes, even at a virtual conference covid was able to impact things when it got its hooks into poor Amanda :( I did what I could in taking on two of her remaining four sessions, but we did have to cancel the other two :( I won't go into all the unhappy emotions associated with being a mommy who can't really do anything to help her child ....... But I will say, that part really sucked :(

But other than that, the conference went really well! Which brings me to the Doing Better part!

Actually - no it doesn't! At least not right now. I think that will have to be rolled over into the next blog entry, where that will be the main focus!

And that's a Promise! So - stay tuned! Anyone want to run a side bet on how long it will take for me to write and post the next one???? Anyone? No????

Lol! Okay, my dear meeples ... my sweet cherubs .... my... friends. Yeah - that one works better!

Until later Friends! But not too much later .... maybe even tomorrow!

Lisa.

OK. So it's been awhile - almost two full months. Sorry about that. You should have said something.

Anyway - I'm back. And feeling ... bleh. Full blown Meh. Not sure why. Tummy issues certainly contribute. As does a pervading feeling of weariness. Not exhaustion - that would really suck. Just tired, most of the time. Which, as you know, is a major factor in why my productivity sucks.

The other day I inquired of the fb SF&F Writers Group about whether anyone else feels anxiety over the current binge mentality of readers. And got some interesting responses. The crux of which is that, particularly with a first book, that if it's part of a series, you really need the rest of it published - or at least written - to get any traction.

Which also got me realizing how LONG BLP has been in production, writing wise. 41 years. Seriously. I was around 18 when I started it, and now I'm 59. Sure - alot has been going on in these 40+ years - went to Clarion, got married, had 3 kids, worked at a variety of different jobs, even went to Uni for a few years. And in the meantime, story ideas kept popping in to say Hi, and asking for some Me time. And BLP kept being pushed to the back burner. I'd trot it out every now and then to work on it some more. There was the great transition to Word, which started around then chapter 6. I even submitted a chapter for perusual to the local Writers Guild for some promotion or contest they were doing. When I started getting serious again with it, I paid my youngest to transcribe the hand-typed early chapters into Word, so I could amalgamate them with what was already there. She even gave me some story advice about it, noting that it felt very dated. I found a cover artist who has done an awesome job of interpreting my 40 year old vision for the cover. And I've sent it to a professional editor, who has completed her task of line editing. In the meantime, I've also worked on LOTS of those other stories, including finishing one and starting a prequel to that, which is about a third of the way in.

But it has occured to me that if I don't get off my keister and WORK on it, I'll never get to working on Book 2 and 3 of BLP. And that just won't do. I really want it published, and sold. That professional editor was expensive (and I'm not sure yet if she was worth it. Lovely person, but fantasy really wasn't her thing, and I think she was thrown off her game by things she just didn't click with).

Which brings us to today. Still slept most of the morning away. And now need to head in to work, as I have, well, work to do there. But I have a tenuous desire to GET THINGS DONE. Writing wise. Which means committing to a schedule of writing in the mornings. I really don't have another 40 years to work on this. Probably not even 20. Talk about pressure.

It needs to be done. And definitely sooner, rather than later. So, I'll finish going through the editor's suggestions, and get things moving forwards. And start working on Book the Second.

But, well, uggg.

And that's all for now.

Happy New Year, to whomever might be reading this :)

Things on my plate for this January:

Finish prepping Best Laid Plots - Book the First to be sent to my editor

Work on my first Roll20 campaign, and first campaign in about 20 years.

Prep two trainings I will be doing towards the end of the month - not writing related (although one of them is Time Management, which I have done at When Words Collide. But these ones are for a Guiding Conference.

Speaking of my Guiding life - need to prep for our first Unit meeting of the year, which will be Monday the 10th. I also need to order our Spring cookies, and do a bank deposit for the Unit

Before Christmas, I sent out A Winters Tale and Best Laid Plots - Book the First to some people for Beta reading. My sister got the first story, and a friend got both. My sister's reaction was - varied. She liked some aspects, didn't like others, and didn't "get" the overall idea of a sword and sorcery story. Not surprising as Fantasy is not something she routinely seeks out. To her, Fantasy is all about fairies and myths, and is probably set on our Earth in the past, present or future. She is familiar with Xena - and thought my heroine should be more like her (which is weird, because she is a lot like Xena), but kept looking for celtic or gaelic references to orient by, which definitely aren't part of the story at all.

My friend, who got both stories, didn't really care much for BLP-B-1st - took her a few days to get through it. Liked some of the things, chuckled here and there, but overall it wasn't really her cup of tea. But WT - she absolutely loved it! Whipped through it in four hours (a habit she has if she likes a book). And has been gently nagging me for a sequel ever since :) And while the ending kind of hinted at a sequel, I don't actually have one worked out for this one yet. Prequels, yes. A trilogy, as well as a prequel to that. I'm about 1/3 of the way through book one of the prequel trilogy, and unfortunately futher progress has been sluggish. But I've finally named the horse, which I think I've mentioned in a previous post. The rest of the book has been loosely plotted, and the rest of the trilogy really loosely planned.

Now BLP-B-1st definitely has a sequel - 2 in fact, which have also been loosely plotted. So far though it's just notes jotted down and transferred into the Word file I have for most of the stories I'm working on. Haven't yet set up a Binder for it, although the section cover sheets are printed off and ready to go.

BUT.

I haven't actually written ANYTHING since well before Christmas. Sure, I did lots of baking. If you call 9 types of cookies lots. And made cabbage rolls. And did the rest of the usual Christmas stuff - shopping, wrapping, decorating, etc.

But no writing. And I am having a hard time getting back to it. Discipline has never been one of my strong suits (can you see the irony in me training Time Management???), but the hope remains that at some point I'll actually be able to follow the schedules and daily plans and actually be productive, but that day has yet to happen. But soon. Or eventually. Sometime!

And that's all I have to say for this installment! If I am able to start posting here on a regular basis, then that will likely mean I have started following my schedules and daily plans ... and that's all the New Year's Resolution I need!

Until next time!

L.