Quick Update in Skye Land

September 7, 2010


Not more than a few weeks since my last post, that's better than I expected. :D

Landscaping took a back seat to the Great Garage Clean Out. And joy of joys…much headway had been made. The trash people are gonna love me on Friday. : )


My middle kidlet is playing golf for the junior high team this fall. So far he's doing pretty well. He's in the sixth grade and doesn’t actually go to the junior high yet, but he meets the age requirement and they needed at least three more to make their team. Needless to say, he's beyond excited and having a great time.

Last month was kick ass for me regarding word count. I exceeded my goal by 5,000+ words. That means for September, I'm going to make an attempt to focus on the manuscripts I've got more or less complete and apply a spit shine to them before submitting anywhere. Hopefully my screeners will have time to take a good long look at each one and give me their thoughts and suggestions.


Speaking of screeners, I should make my next post about them. As previously mentioned, I have four rockin' women who do a truly mag job of offering up constructive criticism. I'll try to make introductions next time. Should probably clear it with them first. ;)

I think that's all for now. Another quick update, but I figure if I keep doing them, I'll get on a more regular schedule.


Catch everyone on the flip!

Cheers!

~Skye~

Another Launch from the Skye Port

Still weeding, gardening, landscaping. And I started the garage clean up project also. It's so weird how I can sit in front of my monitor on a daily basis and piddle with this manuscript or dabble with that one…and not get a bloomin' thing done.



But send me out to the yard or into the garage and when I get back…CREATIVE MANNA!! LOL


I'll honestly admit it's not like that every single day, but I think when I take the pressure off and just let my brain have some breathing room, things start falling into place. And like many others, I go through creative bursts where everything seems to just flow and come together in the exact way I want. I love those times.


Then you have those days where it's like fighting to get anything out. For myself, I still plug away, maybe not loving what goes on the page, but at least it's some type of progress. I find brainstorming sessions will help get me out of those ruts.


I'll type out ideas, jumping ahead in the story or, occasionally, random scenes that may end up going somewhere else or in another manuscript. Outlines seem to help also. If I'm stuck and I haven't outlined anything specific, I'll start one. Or…if I have an outline I'm working with, I'll revisit it and ask myself why the words have stopped flowing.


And wow…enough of that blather. Let's get to another detail session. :D


This time it's for Bucking Convention.

Quick Drive By Update

August 8, 2010

Probably only a quick update this go round. Been swamped under with non-writing projects galore, mainly landscaping and cleaning. I know, right? UGH!

I also have three kidlets that love to get in on the action. Er, well, maybe not love, but at least lend a helping hand. The younger two got out of working this past week for their VBS. They had a big finale on Friday evening and it was spectacular. My kids' ages range from 17 down to 8. My middle one is 11. He's at the age where he'd probably rather do something else than go to VBS, but he has enough friends there that it's bearable for him. The youngest one has too much fun with all the crafts, singing and dancing that she'll be good to go for another few years. And let's not forget the refreshments.

I have to say the ladies who head that up went above and beyond. The theme for this year was High Seas Adventure and the women came up with some truly cool treats for the crew. One night the kids were supposed to be eating clouds so they made blue jello with marshmallows and whipped cream. Awesome, yes?

After the program on Friday, they had extra items made up so the parents could see what each day's theme was. This was on top of the huge spread of cookies they laid out. Seriously…my hat's off to everyone who makes VBS happen each year, but a special tip of the brim goes to the refreshment team. :D

And that's it for now. We had a busy weekend and I'm brain dead so I'll post another Not Quite Ready for Prime Time offering in the near future.

Until then…

Catch everyone on the flip.

Cheers!

Another Launch from the Skye Port

June 17, 2010 (Yeah...the date? When I actually wrote this post. LOL *sigh*)

Ugh, real life went insane again. Okay, not really real life itself, more like I had the insane urge to clean up my yard/garden/landscaping crap around the house.

Needless to say it's taking WAY longer than I thought it would. But something great did come out of all the hoeing, weeding, pruning, transplanting stuff…lots and lots of head time with characters. Seriously. I sometimes forget how being occupied with something else can open up the floodgates of creativity.

Imagine how many awesome ideas I can come up with when I hit my next project:

Cleaning and organizing the garage. LOL

And that's enough about Skye's real world. Let's head on back to the Imaginary Universe. I promised to begin sharing some details of what I'm currently working on and I'm thrilled to get started.

I'm hoping to give some info about each project…like whether it's a single title, part of an anthology or series, a shorter novella or a full blown novel. But first, I should probably talk about ratings. Here's a quick description of mine:

Tame – Sex? What sex?

Sensual – The sex isn't overly explicit

Spicy – Sex is pretty smokin'

Super Hot – Pretty explicit, no holds barred, head board banging sexy sex.

With those in mind, I also tend to be all over the map with what I write and sometimes what I think will be a tame type of story can take a turn for the wild and end up going Super Hot. So keep that in the back of your head as you follow updates on the WIPs. :D

And now for the fun part!

Here are some deets on an Almost Ready for Prime Time manuscript. What the hell is that? Quick definition: it's a complete manuscript, more or less in final draft mode. I have four wonderful chicas who screen my work and tell me whether it's good to go or if it sucks balls and needs major revisions. (I need to do a post on these truly wonderful women and come up with a kick ass name for my awesome group. :D )

Anyway, I have one more screener I'd like to get this one out to before I start the submission process.

So, here goes…

Launch of the Skye Pad...I hope.

May 21, 2010

The name is subject to change, but I wanted something to differentiate between a promo post and a blog post. Probably not necessary, but hey, it helps keep it all straight in my head. : )

And argh! Again I have a huge span between posts. : (

The time hasn't been wasted though. The sages are being very, very kind to me right now and I'm definitely taking advantage.

That said, one of my goals for 2010 was to post no less than monthly on my author's blog and that just hasn't happened.

I'm going to make it happen.

I don't think I mentioned it last time, but I've developed a system for keeping everything straight. It helps me make sure I hit my word count goal and now I'm going to add a place for blogging. When it pops up at me, I'll know it's time to post something. : )

Problem solved for the win! LOL

Here's hoping anyway.

And for now, I'll sign off and put something else together – a taste of everything I'm working on and hope to find a home for publishing wise.

Until then…

Cheers!

Skye

Monthly Update??

Boy, it's been a long time again.

Sales for Surviving the Trap are about where I expected them to be. I'm looking forward to the book hitting the third party sites. :D

The great news is that I have one more completed manuscript in rough draft form. I've sent it out to my critique queens and can't wait to see what they have to say.

I also have -- I kid you not -- 18 WIPs!! That's the most I've ever had going at one time. The sages are being very kind to me right now.

And since they are, I thought I might provide some brief descriptions of each one? Or maybe do some more character interviews. Those were so much fun to do for Trap.

They might just get me to remember to post and update more frequently, too. :D

Look here for an update soon.

Cheers!

Skye