Editing has begun!

I just received confirmation that my manuscript is now finally entered editing! It starts with grammatical editing, then goes to conceptual editing in May. It is such an amazing feeling!

Less than a week...

Starting in April my novel begins editing. I can't describe how I'm feeling right now, there aren't words. I am very excited but also extremely nervous. This month I've tried to work on the sequel but for some reason I can't focus on it. So, instead, I bought two books on Amazon.com. oh well, I guess being sick didn't help :-)

New Book

I just picked up a new book the other day Iris Johansen's Dead Aim.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys political thrillers.  It caught my attention in the first chapter and hasn't let me go.  I have never stayed up until 3 am reading a book simply because I had to know what happened.  She is an excellent author and a real inspiration to all aspiring authors. 

It's been a pleasure reading her work and now I'm hooked.  I have to pick up all of hers! 

The Right Music...

As an author, I find that the right music is the perfect inspiration.  I know I can't work without the right music.  I don't know if others feel this way but I have a song for each character.  If I know I'm going to be writing about a certain character or need to write in that character's voice, I have to put on "their" song.  As one of my characters is in their mid-fifties and I'm in my early 20s it's sometimes difficult to know what song would work for him.  My other characters are around my age so it is much easier to listen to music and relate it to those characters. 

It's easier to get into the head of those characters when I'm listening to a song that I can honestly say, "Ooh, I can hear him/her listening to this..." It's actually really fun.  :-)

Written Word

So I've known this for a long time but it's been a big problem recently.  I don't always take my computer everywhere I go but I take a notebook.  Well ideas come to me all the time, standing in line at Starbucks, driving to the grocery store, or especially in a boring lecture in class.  I write them down on corners of papers or sometimes on full sheets and sheets of notebook paper.  That's not a problem, right?

...........

Wrong!!  Trying to move on from a scene because I've already written it down, only to discover that I haven't imputed the ideas or dialogue into the computer, super frustrating!  I'm searching and searching all over the place for "that one scene, I know I've written" only to find it in the bottom of my backpack crumpled.

So recently this has been a major problem and now I'm sitting at my computer wanting to move on from a scene but I can't until I put it in the book.  So what do I do?  Instead of plowing ahead I'm sitting here checking Facebook, writing my blog, and listening to music.  Hahahahahahahahah

Oh well, they do say admitting to a problem is the first step to recovery, right?  Wish me luck! I'm full speed ahead!

Next Chapter

So I'm working on my novel, research research research. I love doing research but sometimes I feel like it's 90% research and 10% writing.  Writing a novel set at the turn of the century 1900 is hard.  There seems to be a lot of information from 1800-1890 but then the info drops off until after 1910.  Does anyone have any good resources? 
Well I've got to get back to writing. 
Stay tuned!  :-)

New author's rant ;-)

Hello World!

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog.  I'm a new author, with a novel being released later this year.  I figure this is a good way to rant ;-) I'm working on my second novel right now it's difficult to work on it before the other one has gone into editing. But my characters are such a large part of my life I feel like I'm just writing a friend's life.  As soon as my title has been confirmed I will tell you all about it.

Well, I hope I've done this right.  And as they say on TV: "Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode." :-)