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Category: Writing

Posts in which we talk about the writing craft and process

Tuesday Deadline Deadlock

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So this week I am on a very tight deadline. Basically, I have been trying to write a book in about a month–after writing a book in about two months. Over Christmas. This I do not recommend, but it is one way of making sure things get done. 🙂 This week I’m trying to get as much done as I can toward the March 27th deadline so I can take Saturday off for St. Patrick’s Day, so there is no room left in my head for blogposts. I have NO idea what to talk about.

But my friend Kathy Wheeler has a great blog post up about managing time, and making time for things that are important to us. So I’m borrowing a topic from her and telling you what I’ve been doing lately…

1) Writing (obv), while not taking breaks to eat Peanut Butter Eggs (the joys of deadline+Easter candy time) and watch Dr. Oz in order to freak about about new germy things I never thought about before

2) Thinking about washing some of the laundry that has mysteriously spread out from the laundry room onto the kitchen floor, but it will probably have to wait until I turn in the book. By then it will have taken over the living room too, and swallowed up the cats

3) I did make time to go to yoga class. When I skip it (which I’m always tempted to do) I get all twisted up into the shape of my desk chair, and then there is also the matter of the Peanut Butter Eggs, so exercise is always a must. I don’t want to finish the book, only to find that my favorite “going out and celebrating” dress no longer fits…

4) Almost setting fire to my kitchen. Unlike Kathy, who managed to get the gas stove under control, I tried to broil a steak in the oven and heard a strange crackling noise. When I opened the door, you guessed it, flames shot out. Luckily I put it out quickly, but the house smelled for days afterward, the dogs have only quit giving me scared looks, and I realized everyone is happier (and safer) when I just get Thai takeout. Yay for shrimp pad thai and chardonnay!

And the pic–well, that will probably be me, giving in to exhaustion when I hit “send” on the WIP!

What have you been doing this week?? What are some of your time-management tips?

Posted in Former Riskies, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Replies

Tuesday Doings

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So, what have I been doing this week?  Watching lots and lots of Olympics, certainly.  Who knew how interesting the trampoline could be?  Who even knew there was a trampoline event at the Olympics??  I’m also loving Kate Cambridge’s colored jeans and cute striped tops.  Plus, how hilarious is this Jezebel article about the top ten reason why Ryan Lochte is the world’s sexiest douchebag?  Good times….

But I am also trying to finish a new book, a Regency for Harlequin.  Wrapping up a story is always the hardest part for me.  Beginnings are fun, easy–the book is so shiny and new!  The characters haven’t made me mad or veered off on weird pathways yet!  Even middles aren’t bad, because I usually know what I’m trying to say about the characters at that point, we’ve gotten to know each other better and I see the shape of the plot clearer.  But endings–ugh.  For one thing, I always think I am closer to The End than I actually am, and it always takes much longer to get there than I plan.  Stuff doesn’t want to get solved, or it gets solved too fast.  When I feel frustrated, I turn to my Inspiration Board.

I actually have a cork board hanging on the wall next to my desk, where I stick things like postcards, book covers, scraps of fabric, whatever catches my attention.  (Also lots of pics of my 2 year old goddaughter being incredibly cute).  But now I’ve also started inspiration boards on Pinterest, to which I am completely addicted.  Yes, it’s yet another way to waste time online (like I needed another one of those!), but I also like looking at images that help me get a concrete idea of my book in my mind.  Plus there are always pics of cupcakes on there somewhere.  (You can follow me there at AmandaMccabe)

So what’s on my Pinterest board for this book?

This is the heroine’s house, called Barton Park in the book.  It’s an important part of the story–she moved back there when things went bad in her marriage, to live quietly with her sister and try to make sense out of what went wrong with her husband (and why she still loves him).  It has to be once-grand but now sort of shabby…

This is the garden maze, where important plot events happen…

This is the hero, Hayden, who is now sorry for what he did to lose his wife and now has to find a way to get her back…

This is the heroine, Jane, who at first doesn’t want to take him back…

See how fun this can be??  I also have boards for my Mary Queen of Scots book “Tarnished Rose of the Court” and the new Elizabethan mystery series, as well as a Wedding Ideas board.

What would be on your Idea Board?  What are you watching on the Olympics??

Posted in Former Riskies, Writing | Tagged , , | 6 Replies

Writing Retreat

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So this weekend I was off with 3 writing friends on a retreat to an adorable Victorian cottage in Eureka Springs!  (no pics at the moment–we spent most of the time wearing sweats and messy hair as we wrestled with our WIPs…).  It was a wonderful time, with lots of work done and lots of wine on the big front porch in the evenings.  I am in the middle of my newest project, the first in my Elizabethan-set mystery series (coming out from NAL next year!!), and this was a great way to get a few thousand words ahead.  Plus it was fun!

So I started wondering if authors of the past did something like this.  All I could remember was how in high school a friend of mine (another future English major) had an old, grainy VHS tape of a movie called Haunted Summer, about the time Byron and the Shelleys (and others) spent a few weeks together at Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where a dare on a rainy night gave birth to Frankenstein.  This is what IMDB says about that movie:

 In 1815, authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley get together for some philosophical discussions, but the situation soon deteriorates into mind games, drugs and sex.

My own retreat was not nearly so interesting….

As I looked around this morning trying to find more info on this famous writing retreat, I found a great article from the NYTimes’ travel section–it’s really fascinating and makes me want to go to Lake Geneva right away:  Lake Geneva as Byron and Shelley Knew It

Where would you want to go on retreat?  What authors would you take with you??  (I think Byron and Shelley would be fun, but probably not so conducive to getting much work done!  I might go with the Brontes…)

Posted in Former Riskies, Writing | Tagged , | 7 Replies

Spring Fever

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Happy Tuesday, everyone!  What are you doing this week??  I got my latest Harlequin Regency romance turned in (yay!!) and am getting caught up on a few things before diving into the next Elizabethan mystery.  Things like grocery shopping and running the vacuum cleaner, which always fall by the wayside when a deadline looms.  Among my projects–a fun round-robin story my local RWA chapter is doing with a St. Patrick’s Day theme!  Stay tuned for more info on that….

I am also announcing a winner!  The winner of a copy of A Stranger at Castonbury is…Emily!  Congrats!  Email me your info at amccabe7551 AT yahoo.com….

LadyAndMonstersCoverIn between taking a few naps and watching some DVDs that have piled up while I was working on the book (including all of season one of Girls, I have also been dreaming of spring.  Like many places, winter has been dismal here, with more gray skies and snow and freezing rain than usual.  (I also just read The Lady and Her Monsters, about Mary Shelley and the writing of Frankenstein, which included some depressing details of 1816’s Year Without a Summer.  It hasn’t been that bad here, but still…).  So I’ve been perusing garden catalogs and spring fashion websites (already bought some shorts at J Crew!).

 

 

If I was in the Regency this is the outfit I would be wanting to wear now (from my Regency Pinterest page!):

RegencyYellowDress RegencyParasol RegencyBonnet

And we could go out for a nice drive on a sunny afternoon:

RegencyPhaeton

What are you looking forward to this spring???

Posted in Former Riskies, Frivolity, Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged , , | 3 Replies

Real Things

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RealJaneCoverThis week I am still buried in revisions, as well as a broken hot water heater (oh nooo!  It just shows me I could never have handled actually living in historical eras–I need my hot showers).  But I am also reading a great book, Paula Byrne’s The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, which I’m enjoying a lot.

This book isn’t just a straightforward biography.  Each chapter begins with an object from Austen’s life that evokes a key moment in her life or work.  It’s a fun structure that paints a portrait of a witty, socially and politically aware woman whose books are very much of their time as well as being so timeless we love her characters still.  Some of the objects are the topaz cross necklaces her brother gave her; her laptop desk; an Indian shawl; a royalty check; a barouche, etc etc.  I started looking around my desk to see what I might have that could be in a comparable story about my life.  (No royalty check at the moment, alas!)

MyDeskInstead of an Indian shawl I have a pink hoodie hanging on the back of my chair…

Instead of a vellum notebook, I have a Hello Kitty notebook from Target…

Instead of a quill pen, I have a Disney princess pen with a feathered skirt–it writes in yellow and blue ink…

HKBookSpeaking of Hello Kitty, I have a reading HK I got from a McDonald’s Happy Meal!  I had to stop this post for a minute to make her move the little book…

I have stacks of research books, little slips of paper with random notes written on them, and an Eiffel Tower cocktail shaker I got as a wedding present.  Not as nice as Austen’s little table maybe, but at least no one will interrupt me to feed the chickens or do some embroidery!

 

 

What’s on your desk?  What items would evoke your world?  And on a whole different note–I am trying to plot a Christmas short story and am having a hard time, since tulips are blooming outside my window and I’ve been shopping for shorts on J.Crew.com.  What do you love to see in holiday stories???

Posted in Former Riskies, Jane Austen, Writing | Tagged , | 2 Replies