Panster or Plotter?

Am I a panster or a plotter? I am actually a mix of both. I do a light plot for my books and then I write by the seat of my pants trying to make sure I hit on the points I have plotted out. Sometimes I don't always get the point in one book but over an expanse of books. (Yes I know I have only published two so far.) But I felt that if I crammed every point I was trying to get across into the first book you would have missed out on meeting so many characters and getting to know them.

Am I always a light plotter? No. In fact most of my stories came about because I had a scene pop into my head and then jotted it down and then just kept adding to my collection of scenes and ideas. Then voila! I have the makings for a story.

I know some of you are probably following a lot of writing vlogs. I know I do. And I could probably talk about each of my blogs with you on a vlog but I hate having my picture taken and the idea of by caught on camera sends chills down my spine.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you that are celebrating this week. I know with extended family and job schedules that it isn't always possible to celebrate on Thanksgiving Day. For those of you that have to work today (like myself) I hope you all stay safe and have a happy holiday.

If you haven't checked out my Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or Amazon page the links are below.

Facebook: https://goo.gl/1dGxyK
Twitter: https://goo.gl/oiFkHS
Amazon: http://goo.gl/5hz1ep
Goodreads: https://goo.gl/1WxuI4

Just Not Shaking It

Ever have one of those days where you just want to take your pen or other pointy object and shove it into someone's eye or even your own eye?

That is how I feel today. I have been in a bad mood since work started and I just can't seem to shake it. I've taken a shower, watched funny videos, eaten ice cream. Nothing seems to help. I want to work on my next book but I think that this wouldn't be a great time to do that. Maybe I should write a  murder scene.... From the view point of the murderer...  Nope. I don't even want to kill off imaginary people.

The only thing that made my day was when I put a dollar in the Coke machine and got two bottles of Coke. Now to make it even better and I can definitely say this will never happen again. One said Someone Nice and the other Someone Naughty. I gave the nice one to one of my BFFs and kept the naughty one.

If you haven't checked out my Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or Amazon page the links are below. I hope you all are having a great day, at least a better day than I am.

Facebook: https://goo.gl/1dGxyK
Twitter: https://goo.gl/oiFkHS
Amazon: http://goo.gl/5hz1ep
Goodreads: https://goo.gl/1WxuI4

Who's Ready?

Who's ready for book 2 of Millersburg Shifters? I know I am! Book 3 is slowly making an appearance on paper. Dirty rat bastards refuse to talk to me. So I am jotting down notes on what will be going on in book 3.

Plus that bloody fox keeps driving me nuts. You will be meeting the fox that has been pestering me at every turn soon unless he keeps it up and I end up writing his story before I am ready to.

Anyway now that my rant about my characters is over (for the moment) let me tell you about a personal goal I am hoping to achieve with book 3. I am hoping to bring in a larger crowd that will like the Millersburg Shifters. So I guess my request is that if you have friends who likes to read casually suggest my books. or send them to my Facebook page or Twitter page.

Or you can hook your friends up with a copy this holiday season. Hey just saying. Unfortunately I am not far enough along in this series yet to feel comfortable doing a giveaway. Though to give you all a heads up I will be doing a giveaway after book 3 comes out.

So if you don't have your copy of Triple Threat or your pre-ordered copy of Taming An Alpha then now is the time! I suddenly feel like I should be holding a giant sword and leading an army into battle.

Onward ho! Faster Peanut we must keep up with our army! Damn your short legs! Damn my short legs!

Yes I am insane.....

It is okay to say it. I have fully accepted that I will be getting one of those hugging jackets. I want mine in black with pink and purple accents. OOOH can I also have matching shoes and hair bows?

Sorry. Hmm. Yea. Check out my books. Or my other blog where I usually keep my insanity contained.

The Wait is Almost Over

Taming An Alpha is done!!!!!! YAY!!!! There is even a few surprise scenes and a bonus chapter that my wonderful betas didn't get to read. This should be available to buy by the end of the month if not sooner since I have noticed Amazon is hinky like that.

If you haven't gotten your copy of Taming An Alpha then you can get it here: http://goo.gl/USvAzw

FYI I am totally jumping up and down with joy that I am done with this book. This is the second novella length story I have finished and my second complete piece of work that I have ever published. Yes I have published before but I wasn't completely happy with them like I am with this one.
Oh and during my revisions one of my characters for another book wormed his way in and tried to steal the show. I wouldn't let him.Just watch for his tootsie roll! ;)

Yes I just totally did an emoticon. You'll understand when you get to that particular part of the story.

The Story Inside

There is less than a month until Taming An Alpha launches. Are you as excited as I am? If you haven't gotten your copy of Taming An Alpha then you can get it here: http://goo.gl/USvAzw

But that isn't what I am going to talk about today. Yes yes I know I should be self promoting but I feel that I sometimes go over board and that's all I talk about. That isn't what I want to do. I want to reach out to my readers and let them know that I don't live on a pedestal.

I have a friend that I love like a sister and I've known her since middle school. She didn't think she was a very good writer, or could even write at all. But I told her that she needed to get her story out onto the page and then she could worry about grammar, sentence structure, and everything else. That all she needed to do was focus and get it out. I believe she was over thinking it and stressing herself out. I know I do this.

Getting your rough draft out is the first step. It isn't going to be perfect that's why they call it a ROUGH draft. Once that is done then you can begin the journey of polishing your jewel. But be careful not to over do it or you take the life out of your story. I have done this. I am sure that I did do this to Triple Threat. I over analyzed and took the life out of it. Good comparison: book 1 looked like it had been stabbed repeatedly and was covered in red markings, book 2 had a few cuts and red marks but didn't look like I had killed it and soaked it in red ink.

Why do both drafts look so different? Because when I edited Triple Threat I thought I had to edit it to the point of no return when in fact I don't. I sent out Taming An Alpha to my betas before I even began doing edits. You know what happened? They loved it. They pointed out minor fixes and places I needed to do a little nip/tucking but overall it was a good read.

Now that I have digressed lets get back to what I had been trying to say. To all the people that have a wonderful story idea but think they can't write or not good enough to get published. You won't know that you can do it until you try. That's part of the process.

You have to have confidence in yourself and tell yourself that you can do it otherwise you'll just let a wonderful story idea wither away. Even if the idea is just a fan fiction but you don't want to deal with all those horrible nay-sayers. I'm sorry to say that dealing with them is also part of the process. Am I saying have a stiff upper lip as they bully you? Hell no! But not everyone is going to like your story.

Should you just type up your rough draft and then throw it out there for everyone to read? No. You need to think of your story as a child. Would you send a child to school covered in dirt? No. Don't send your story out into the world before you clean it up. Edit it, revise it, have someone beta read it. Or pay someone to edit it for you if need be. But remember that you have to take the first step and get your story onto paper.

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween!! I'll be spending my night burning the midnight oil and working on my rewrites and new scenes. Though I'm not going to lie and say I haven't spent the day pigging out on candy. And I may have creeped everyone out at work by dressing as a heartless psychopath. But hey I am who I am.

If you haven't gotten your copy of Triple Threat you can find it here: http://goo.gl/P0cLGF
And if you haven't preordered your copy of Taming An Alpha you can get it here: http://goo.gl/USvAzw

I am hoping to have everything done by the end of next week and you guys might even get your copies early.

Tomorrow starts Nanowrimo and I usually participate but this year I won't be but I will be giving everyone that is lots of support. I will be working on one of my mystery projects next month and I have even had a zombie story lurking in my mind, though I'm not sure if I want to write it some of the scenes that have been going through my mind for it are heart wrenching. Maybe I just need to rewatch The Walking Dead....

Ok I'm going back into my own little world.

Happy Halloween!

Slaughtered It

There is a HUGE possibility that I may have over edited my first book. I have gotten a few good replies from my beta readers about book 2. And I pulled out my lovely copy of book 1 and compared my editing notes between the two. Book 2 has a few cuts and bruises while book 1 looks like it has been slaughtered.  So there is a big possibility that once I am done with the series I will be going BACK over book 1 and 'fixing' it AKA changing it back. I am almost done with my edits I have a few more betas to hear back from and then I can begin the wonderful process of rewriting and then submitting it.

Next month is Nanowrimo! I usually participate but I won't be this year. I already am jotting down notes and beginning my outline for the next book in the Millersburg Shifters series. But I am not sure which characters I want to write about.

You can't just change your characters! Yes, yes I can. My outline is constantly changing from what I originally jotted down. I even have a new character that I didn't know was going to show up. Yay more character descriptions....

I have also noticed that I seem to love the word so.... I have edited it out I don't know how many times now from my books and blogs. And the word anyway.... I am not a very prolific word person. Which makes no sense what so ever.

Whatever. That's what a dictionary and thesaurus is for.

But I am very excited. One of my friends has decided to write her own story and so far I am loving what she has researched and outlined. I can't wait for her to finish it so I can read it. I may see if she has any of it written by the time book 3 comes out so I can pop a preview in there for all of you.