The Next Big Thing!

Over the past month I've been given an award by three wonderful bloggers.  Honey at Stories to Share, Victoria at Writ of Whimsy and Zan at In the Shade of the Cherry Tree. 

Now I get to answer some questions about my WIP

What is your working title of your book?

The working title is Rusalka after one of the characters but that will be changing.  Tittles are hard and I rarely name anything this early in the process.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Again, I'm not sure. (Please don't leave, I promise I'll answer one of the questions)  I was thinking on several things and everything just kind of fell into place like when you shake up a Boggle tray.

What genre does your book fall under?
Fantasy, and probably YA.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I don't have a clue.  I don't watch TV much and don't really know who anyone is.  I would want someone who loved the story and was passionate about the character though.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When Raisa is chosen to wed the crown prince her worries of being a good ruler fade into insignificance when she finds she must first save her betrothed who is ensnared by the Rusalka.

Yea, it need some work but I'm still discovering the story. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I hope to go the agent route but first I have to write the darn thing.


How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I've got 30K words so far, and have been working on it three months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I was reading a lot of Juliet Marillier before I started.  She may have influenced this book a little. 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
So far I'm loving this book.  It's all about overcoming your fears and insecurities, finding the best parts of you  and loving them. 


So there you have it.  Because I'm a chunky pants writer I don't generally talk about my books this early.  I rarely know much about them myself.  

What are you writing?

On the Road

I'm over at Leave it to Livia today with a guest post about the movie watching experience.  Come hang out with us.  I'll bring the popcorn! 

False Start Friday

Suze over at Subliminal Coffee has started a new event, False Starts Friday.  The idea is everyone posts the beginning snip of writing that didn't go anywhere.  I think most people have a few of these on their computers and it's fun to pull them out.  Go here for the linkey list of others participating and it's not too late to sign up! 

So, here's one of my starts that didn't go anywhere. It's obviously not edited but have fun. 

I had two mother figures in my life.  Unfortunately, neither of them were my mother.  Don’t get me wrong, mother was there, gliding in and out of the house between charities, spa treatments, and self improvement.  She often told me that by making herself a better person she would be a better mother.  I could have told her to be a better mother she had to be a mother in the first place.  But I didn’t.  For one if she had hung around more it would have made my life much more uncomfortable. 

Not that she was mean or nosy.  We just didn’t get along.  I always felt awkward and uncomfortable around her.  Just as I felt when I got older and had to start attending charities and spas with her.  She never could understand why I wasn’t interested.  I like the ideas of her charities, but the reality was a bunch of rich women trying to buy the title of “most generous”.  And all of the causes were rich people causes.  They wanted to help( less helpful charities here)  I tried to explain that there were children without food, let alone a computer or cell phone, but they didn’t listen. 

So every month I would go with mother to another dinner or extravaganza.  Until I had spilled so much food or tripped over so many decorations that cleaning and rental costs were taking too much away from the donations.  So mother stopped taking me. 

I was happy with that.  All I wanted was to curl up in my window seat, which was a rather plush and comfortable thing with lots of pillows, and read.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  As a child I had bribed my nanny to bring me any book she could.  I had to pay her my allowance to do it.  She was scared my mother would find out and she’d be fired.  Mother had very strict ideas of what a lady should read.  I tried to explain that mother wouldn’t fire her.  She would give me a lecture.  Like she always did when I did something she didn’t like. 

We would go into the den so she could sit on a leather recliner.  Not that she ever relaxed in it.  I would be told to sit on the upright wooden chair and she would talk about deceit or lying, insensitivity or competence.  Talking on and on about how disappointed she was in me while I curled smaller and smaller into myself, saying yes ma’am and no ma’am all the while feeling no bigger than a fly.  Finally she would say, but you won’t do that again will you?  And I would agree to anything, including letting her name all my children with horrible names like Maxmillion or Ermintrude just to get away from the self loathing. 

It seemed that every time we talked she was telling me how I should be different some way.  She thought she was being a good mother, teaching her daughter.  But that’s why I never shared news with her, never shared my life.  When I was little someone else filled that role.  

It's Me!

Hey, I'm being interviewed over at Myself as Written.  I'm completely flattered and humbled that she'd want to interview me and I'm hoping you all head over and check out her wonderful blog!

Lady Bugs

It's lady bug season again.  Every spring and every fall we get flocks (swarms?) of ladybugs coming into our house.  They like to congregate on the ceiling but the cats are going crazy chasing the few who choose to zoom around the room.

This is one of their hangouts.

They're really quite distracting. Especially when they drop off the ceiling into your hair, down your shirt or onto the keyboard. Add some blistered fingertips to the mix and we've got writing issues.  Still, I'll persevere int he face of these overwhelming distractions to keep up the writing. :) 

What are your roadblocks?

Rest Stop

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments on the last post.

So, how was your first day of whatever version of NaNo you were doing?  I know people are going to be scarce on blogging this month but if you need to relax and let your mind veg I hope you drop in and tell me how it's going so far!

We're thinking of and praying for those hit by Sandy, and hope that you are surviving. 



To all who celebrate, have a happy All Hallows Eve!