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By Leslie, September 21, 2011 2:30 pm

Oh yeah…

We gots us some news.  Way back last winter one of my peeps and I decided to try our hand at writing a category length romance. These are the time-tested Harlequin-type stories that are beloved by generations of women.  I love romance but really never tried my hand at writing this popular genre. So, I did.  I’ve been taking NY Times best-selling author, Lori Wilde’s mentoring class at SavvyAuthors. Lori writes some of the best Harlequins around. Really, check them out!  What a surprise to find this neat genre and have a world of books to read, not to mention write.  I figured I had this great opportunity, why not learn from the best? So, I did, and so my first category-length romance, The Internet Millionaire’s Copilot  was born.

Copilot, as I fondly call it, is a 50,000 word (category length) romance about the love affair between a socialite-turned-relief-pilot and an internet entreprenuer.  Nice!  I finished Copilot a couple of months ago and began working on the other books in the series which focus on the interesting people who populate high tech startups and the men (and women) who fly their corporate jets.

So what’s the news? Well, Copilot finaled in the Greater Seattle RWA’s Emerald City Opener Writing Contest in Category-length romance. HOLY MOLY!  Was I ever blown away.  I mean, wow!  Anyway, Copilot is now being reviewed by the final judge, Melissa Jeglinski from the Knight Agency.  Well, I could not be more thrilled!

Oh, BTW, since Copilot is seriously on a roll, I also entered it in the Mills and Boon New Voices contest.  You can read and comment on the first chapter of Internet Millionaire’s Copilot here. Not to mention a bunch of other books by talented new writers!

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By Leslie, August 22, 2010 6:19 pm

A few weeks ago I entered A Fault in Time into a contest at SavvyAuthors.com. I was hoping to get some feedback. To be honest, I was feeling a little wobbly about my baby. Gulp.

For new readers, A Fault in Time is the work in progress that was started in a LibertyHall MidSommerMadness camp last summer, achieved first drafty status in 2009 NaNoWriMo, and has been my baby and albatross through FIVE..(5) full, bottom to top revisions.  You cannot say that I am shy about taking a weedwhacker to my words. (hehe alliteration..I am feeling spunky).

So two weeks ago, much to my astonishment, I was told by Liz over at SavvyAuthors that my baby had made it to the final round. Whhhuuuuuttt? No shit?  And there was a lot more cussing and some hyperventilation.

The judges’ comments were useful, wonderful, and insightful and I felt truly happy! They liked it! They saw where it could be better! YAY!

So today, you could have nearly dumped me over with a fracking feather….A Fault in Time (OK, the name, she sucks.) won in her division. *&())()*(*(*@#$^  Lordy Lucy– and the agent who read it wants to see more? For real? Now I’m extremely grateful to this amazing person for wanting to look a my manuscript, and if this is as far as it goes, I will still be happy. Because I know that I have a shot. I really effing do.

Who knew?  Evidently my most amazing husband who just smiled and said, “Of course.”

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By Leslie, May 29, 2010 3:50 pm

I am a tool

But a damn sharp one. And today I rounded that most wonderful of goals Draft 4 success.

San Francisco….now called A Fault in Time (catchy, eh?) is complete in fourth draft and approaching query readiness. OMFG.

Nearly ready does not mean ready. Oh my lordy no. I have not angsted over this puppy enough. Want to know how I know? Look at the colors on the image to your left. See all the greens, oranges and dark blues? Those are scenes that are in 4th, 5th and even above! Nicely polished happy scene-lets.

Pink is a lowly second draft and bright blue is third. So! while the overall story is complete in the fourth draft I have some scene-lets that I’ve recently added. Some are very small transitions to fill plot details and some reflect changes that I made when I turned one of my characters a little bit darker.

But I keep track of them so I know what has been really edited well and what words are still pretty fresh and crunchy.

I am still wildly happy about this, because this kind of editing goes pretty quickly for me. We’ll see what the beta readers say.

lol.

So what the hell is a scene-let? I’ts not a true scene, but I break out action in a finer granularity, makes it easier for me to write. Not a true scene in the Robert McKee screenwriting defintion. In fact, I guess mine are actually beats, but I hate to use that because it has other means as well. Sigh, overloaded terms.

“Scene”: A group of beats which result in an action through conflict in continuous time and space that turns the lives of the characters around into another direction.

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By Leslie, May 22, 2010 8:07 am

Wow, June is right there… And it’s still raining in Northern California, where I am pretty sure my exorbitant housing prices entitle me to full rain cessation on May 1. HEY PEOPLE, WE HAVE LAWS!!!

So while I scrape the moss from a amazingly wet winter off everything I own, I’m making a list of the things I am going to do this summer:

1. Camp in my Airstream Trailer. Yes, Yes Yes!!!! No phone, no interwebs just me and a huge slabs of granite, a  remodeled trailer kitchen, and my computer for week(s) of writerly productivity. OK, Chris (the DH) can come too. And maybe the kid. If he’s good.
2. Pen my YA SciFi in the June SavvyAuthors Boot Camp with my friends in the Savvy OR! 30 days or Bust!
3. Query what was called San Francisco, and is now called A Fault in Time to my list of agents.  OMG its nearly ready – who knew!!! All growed up and has a name, even!
4. Walk my neurotic dog, Kyra, every day. Yes, damnit EVERY DAY. slacker….
5. Tend to my house.  I’ve been in a writer’s frenzy and well, lets just say it could use some tending. But hey, I’ve nearly FINISHED  a book that is queryable!!!
6. Kayak with aforementioned nutty dog.
7. Streamline the Newsletter production for the SavvyAuthors.Com Newsletter – I’m the editor.
8. Read many, many, many books.
9. Write and submit more Flash!
10. sleep.

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By Leslie, April 7, 2010 11:29 am

At approximately 10:38 this am I typed the last line of the third draft of San Francisco. Now weighing in at just over 77,000 words I am geeky enough to be able to report a plethora of statistics! Ooooooh! I love those. But not in this post; here I just get to wallow in what I did.

I write using three tools: Scrivener, SuperNoteCard and Excel.

Program #1: Scrivener.

I use it for writing scenes and organizing the text of my manuscript. It is simply amazing and if you write on a Mac is well worth checking out.

This is a snapshot of my novel laid out in Scrivener. I also have folders for research, blurbs, synopses etc. There are ways to link and set priorities and statuses. I’ve organized each scene as a single document in a folder that corresponds to a chapter. I can drag and drop to reorder. A very cool feature is the flip side of each text document is a note card for my scene notes.

I love Scrivener! Lots of people do, I would say this is one of the most popular writing tools for the Mac and one that my PC friends often envy. Although I looked at Liquid Story Binder the other day and that looked pretty cool.

Program #2: SuperNoteCard.

Which for me picks up on the outlining and organizing where Scrivener takes off.

With very useful index cards and cross references.

But, hey, Isn’t this just a duplication of what you are doing in Scrivener…

Well, yes and no. Some of it is duplicated.  But, I tend to write very sparing scene summaries in Scrivener and flesh them out in greater detail in SNC and this is why:

Each SNC card contain attributes (Factor, Categories, and Flags)  that can be assigned and tracked across multiple cards. Links in a chain….Plot links in a plot chain…. character points along a character arc. nudge, nudge. Get where I am going?

I use factors for actors, locations, events, things and categories for plot poi

nts,  character points and POV in a scene. Flags are for when I need to do something.  I color code so i know what draft a scene is in. Very pretty.

The last tool in the arsenal of Leslie writing is the lowly Excel Spreadsheet.

I blogged about my 1ooK month in march, and as of today I am 864 words off my month’s goal but that’s okay.

Here is the spreadsheet for draft 3. I keep the color coding the same through the three programs. Makes it easier for me. It’s pretty clear that even in draft three there were scenes that were written totally from scratch. I find that more and more if I have to do a serious rewrite, it’s just simpler to toss out the old after making notes of the good stuff and begin with a fresh page.

OK Leslie, queen of the writing geeks what are you planning to do with all this?

1) The Excel spreadsheet is simply project management 101 housekeeping. You are way more likely to get to where you want to go if you know where you are and you track your progress.  I must plan. I must follow a plan. Just me, I guess.

2) Scrivener is where I write. I love, love, love this application! I would not write in THAT program for all the tea in wherever tea comes from. I write each scene in full screen using reverse contrast mode that is easy on my eyes and blocks out all those annoyingly fun blogs, tweets and IMs. Except my buds at the Savvy WaterCooler chat room..that beeps. LOL.

3) SuperNoteCard will help me with my structure. Everything, and I do mean everything that is in the story is in the SNC deck. So now between drafts three and four one of the scheduled activities is to complete the mapping that I started in January. I’ll map each character and plot arc along the timeline of the book, mapped against each scene. Then I can drop in the actors, locations and events and make sure I have not missed anything, that the POV scenes are balanced and that the MacGuffins are all properly stashed.

I’m also planning to get a beta read or three on this draft. It’s done enough! Time to see what the people think! Gulp.