2012 in Review

I was beginning to think that 2012 would never end.  It hasn’t been the best of years.  But, then again, the last several years haven’t been all that great.  But, I can say, I am still on the proper side of the dirt.  Whether some people like it or not, I survived to see another turn of the calendar.

I didn’t make many goals except for one; get Society of Night and Lies ready for the great agent search this March.  I have up to chapter eight edited, but there’s still another twenty to go before this manuscript has hit the last edits I’ll be doing on my own.  After this one, I need willing vict… err volunteers to beta read for a full copy/line/whatever edit to find not just the gross grammar errors but inconsistencies and plot holes that need a lot of filling.

So far, I’ve found a few on my own and even a few things which did make a lot of sense once I sat back and looked over what I had and asked a few questions.  That meant I needed to rewrite an entire chapter.  Probably one or two, but a few adjustments should save me a bunch of rewriting all together.

I knew when I started it that Black Friday 2 wouldn’t be complete before the end of the year with my focus being mostly on SoNL.  At least that one is coming along well and the characters I’m focusing on through Karina are developing very nicely.  This one, Karina will be stepping up more to help her people.

Considering how things have been as far as work and writing, it has been a quiet year with a few high points.  Visiting K.T. Hanna at her home was among them.  NaNoWriMo was another and I had fun even though I couldn’t make it to the Kick-off and the final write-in/TGIO.  Two and a half stories to pass the 50K mark with only a day to spare.  That was cutting it close.  But, I cut it even more fine a few times in previous years.

On the subject of health, both Dave and I finally got the proper doctor care we need to get our health back onto the proper track.  Dave needed it the most and the medication he’s on, plus regular visits to the doc are doing wonders.  He’s lost some weight while I’ve maintained.  Thankfully, the primary concerns I had weren’t anything big to worry about, but I do have to be on medication and keep track of my blood sugar.

My year ended on a sad note, however.  December 2012 marked the loss of an old high school friend.  He was a part of our group even though he rarely sat with us at lunch or in the mornings before school.  His brother used to be my boyfriend and later, fiance, but even that relationship ended.  We were still friends afterward, but, by then, I was moving on into a dark spiral my mom was more than happy to see me shed a little while later.

With 2013 looming closer by the minute, I look back at this past year and shake my head.  Things could have been better.  They definitely could have been worse.  Now, looking ahead, I’m setting myself some new goals.

First goal: lose some weight.  I finally have a work out I like and have fun with.  It’s something I can do with my son and doesn’t require me going to a gym or killing myself trying to run laps.  We finally got the game Just Dance 4 and the dance workout option it definitely puts you through your paces and is high energy.  For now, 10 minutes at a time and we’ll slowly build up to a half hour or more.  Even mom is getting in on this and Dave will follow eventually.  Just the normal dancing really makes you sweat with the high energy steps they want you to do.

Second goal: start setting back some money to buy a house one day.  May not be this year or even next year, but we’ll get that nest egg building so we can get us something nice and with a lot of space and a yard for Colin, his friends, and any pets we may have.

Third goal: start submitting SoNL, take part in Pitch Madness, and work on making a killer query letter.  Try to finish Black Friday 2 and begin rewriting SoNL 2.  Before I can submit SoNL anywhere, I need the actual book name.  Society of Night and Lies is the trilogy name.  Beta Readers, please step forward and help me think of something, please!

Fourth goal: Return to my old blogging schedule where I post something each day.  Three days for random topics, and four days each focusing on a different novel I’m working on.  Sundays will still have excerpts and Mondays or Wednesdays will be my #Writemotivation posts.  If it gets spammy, tell me and I’ll tone things down a notch.  The last thing I want to do is become one of those people who get blocked (or zipped) on Twitter because of too many posts of nothing but the same thing like a broken record or babbling about who knows what just because it pertains to the book or the topic of the day.

Let’s start this new year with a smile and bright hopes for an even better future.

Oh!  For those that have wondered about my Twitter handle… it doesn’t mean I think I’m an okay author.  It means Oklahoma Author.  My usual net handle, Sabbath Silverclaw, is kept for certain forums only.  Now you know.  ;)

Sunday Excerpt #fiction #fantasy #amwriting #excerpt

I’m sorry there was no excerpt last week.  With it being so close to Christmas, I thought everyone would be paying more attention to the last minute business of getting the shopping done, gifts wrapped, or, like me, getting the tree up and decorated.  At least it was for a good reason and I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday that was as quiet and easy going as what mine was.  :)

Tonight’s excerpt comes from one of the stories in my compilation, Trysts of the Hearts.  In Wish of the Heart, Anuket finds what she has been longing for, someone strong and just wild enough to keep things interesting, but someone who would love her for her, not because she worked in the Temple of Bast or that her parents were well known in the kingdom of Belleau.  Little did she know that the wish she made while polishing one of the statue avatars would be granted.

Anuket was a beautiful woman but had no idea just how pretty she actually was. Like her mother, she had fur as black as night , long black hair she kept tied back into a braid, and crystal blue eyes that looked off into nothing. Her slender body had curves that made many women jealous with a firm bosom and wide hips to match. While not tall, she certainly wasn’t short by any meaning of the word with a long tail she could use like another appendage. Although she was a mix of both panther and wolf, she took after her mother. It took a trained eye to notice the few wolfish features like the shape of her ears and the extra fluff along her tail, and the way her muzzle looked. It didn’t matter to her, she never saw her own image except through shared mental contact with certain priests.

Summer for her meant extra cleaning during the day and long walks in the evening with her brother or parents. There was always somebody with her to make sure she didn’t get lost with all the reconstruction going on around their home. Summer also meant, for her, that the garden was in bloom and the scents of flowers and fresh grass called to her constantly. Many times, she’d be out there sitting on a bench just enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face and scenting the breeze beneath her favorite willow tree.

Life was good for her and she longed for nothing more than someone to share her days with. Just after the summer solstice passed, she started having dreams. Dreams about a young man who would sweep her off her feet and show her things she had only been told about. Someone who wanted to be with her because they loved her, not because she was beautiful or worked in the temple. Though the idea never interfered with her work, she was distracted and entertained thoughts on where to find the mystery man in her dreams. She felt as though those dreams were a promise from the goddess that she wouldn’t be alone forever.

Anuket’s brother already had a mate, a sweet canine woman who adored him and gave him three boys and had another on the way. She was happy for him and always enjoyed her little nephews, but she wanted a family of her own and felt the pangs of loneliness more often than not.

One morning, while in the main chapel polishing the avatar statues, she was talking to them. She was all alone in there, knowing it was just her and the two living statues, which were currently asleep. Or so she thought.

“Oh Darkwing,” she sighed, “sometimes I wonder why I have to be alone. Why can’t I have someone to live out my life with? You and my brother are so lucky to have mates who adore you and have given you children. Someday, I would love to see my dream come true.”

She paused in her cleaning as if to admire her work and held the cloth in her paws gently. “The man in my dreams is so daring and kind, you know. So very handsome.” A soft, wistful sighed slipped through her lips while she turned her thoughts inward. “I know I will never be able to see him, but I know what he looks like and what his aura feels like. Is there such a man out there for me? Someone who would take me away and show me what life outside the temple is really like?”

In her heart, she wished to find the man she was dreaming about. A lion who wouldn’t take no for an answer and did more than just protect her from the world, but encouraged her to experience all that life had to offer. Once she resumed cleaning, she whispered, “I wish he were real. I don’t want to be alone any more.”

Although the avatar was sleeping, he heard the heartfelt wish and took it to his mistress, the goddess Bast. The great cat avatar looked like a feral panther with bat-like wings; fierce and strong in his own right. He looked up at the golden cat with shining yellow eyes that bore no pupils and spoke to her with a booming voice, “Mistress, your willing slave comes to you with a wish from one of your children.”

Speak, my son, and tell me this message,” the goddess said gently while she reached to pet her avatar. “Who is it that has sent me a message.”

The cat purred, pleased with the attention he received before answering. “The daughter of Kupumzika, your song mistress. Anuket has wished for a mate to spend her life with. She has grown lonely and I feel she is missing too much in her sheltered life.”

I see,” came the soft reply, “She has been promised someone who will give her what she wants and respect her every desire. I think you know just the right one to send to her.”

Tilting his head, the feline asked, “Who mistress? I know many young males who would be pleased to court a beauty such as Anuket.”

Bast smiled then motioned to the row of statues not far from her. “One of your own sons. Didn’t Amur-Re voice wanting to be like the mortal cats and live as they do?”

Darkwing looked over at the ivory statue of his son. His brow furrowed then he nodded. “Yes, but if he were to live as they, he will also die like they do and grow old.”

The goddess nodded and sighed, “Perhaps. Anuket has been blessed with longevity like her parents and brother. We can make sure your son will live as long she does and have his own talents to use.”

He walked over to the statue of his son then rubbed his cheek against the strong muzzle. “I love my son, mistress, but won’t he be difficult for her to tame? He is wild and carefree and doesn’t take much to following rules.”

I know, but I think she has what it takes to settle him down,” the golden feline said gently, “Give him this chance. If she can teach him to be less reckless and how to care for more than just himself, then he will be allowed to stay with her until she dies, then, he will be given a choice; to die with her or to return us as a full avatar.”

Darkwing nodded then nudged his sleeping son. “As you wish, mistress. I hope she can perform miracles.” He doubted that someone as calm and patient as the woman who kept him in pristine condition in the temple would be able to handle his son. “Wake up son, the avatar said sternly, “we have a mission for you.”

Last week started my campaign to help raise funds for my church, Light of the World Christian Fellowship in Tulsa, OK.  For details, go to this post,  http://candacegauger.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/help-the-light-of-the-world/,  and follow the links provided.

Help the Light of the World

Last week, I wrote a post about my plans to donate my royalties from Black Friday and other novels to be published in 2013 to my church.  This is something I intend on sticking to with all my heart and soul.

This is a church without a home.  Light of the World Christian Fellowship has rented, leased, or borrowed space from the library, warehouses, other churches, and even the VFW.  We have even had church at the downtown building of the Salvation Army.  Though we are small, our hearts are huge and we all yearn for a place to call ours.

Today was our last service at the VFW, and our new home will, with a lot of luck, will be at the Beams of Light Church on Harvard near 15th.  But, even this is temporary because it is another church’s home.  It is only by their blessing that we will be able to set up there and use their facilities.

It is with Pastor Greg’s blessing that I do this small donation.  It is my sincerest hope to give as much as possible back to the one church I not only feel comfortable with, but also helps so many homeless and families in need.

In order to do this, we need money and the ones who do have jobs, who can give even a little bit don’t have much to give.  We are few in number in this church and the ones who do need this help need it badly.  That is why I am donating my talents and time to doing everything I can to getting this church one more step closer to having that place to call home so we can not just feed these wonderful and blessed people, but give them a place that is warm and welcoming.

Now, I know last week I started this campaign, but I didn’t give a goal.  My goal is to raise at the very least $2500.  But, naturally, I would like to be able to give more.  With everyone’s help, we can give double, or even triple this amount.  Better yet, multiply it by ten or even twenty!

I cannot not do this alone.  I need your help to spread the word, share this post and make it go far.

Karina, the narrator and one of the main characters of Black Friday would do anything to protect her people and give them a home they would all be comfortable with.  I am willing to do the same.

Book signings?  Yes!  Promotion?  You got it!

None of this is for me.  It is for a church worthy of having that place to feed the hungry and give spiritual warmth to anyone who wants it.  Let this dream become a reality and the miracles it can spawn grow bigger with each and every day.

With Pastor Greg’s permission, I will also set up a Kickstarter for those who want to give but don’t want to buy a book.  It will have to be done in his name and we’ll brainstorm with the church what we can give at specific goal points to those who help us reach them.

Only you can help us.  Only you can make this miracle happen.

For a Good Cause

For the year of 2013, any royalties I earn off this book, and others which will be following soon in 2013, will be donated to the Light of the World Christian Fellowship in Tulsa OK. This is a church that helps the homeless and needy. They give them a hot meal and resources to help them get what they need to live happy and healthy lives.

Light of the World Christian Fellowship is a small church with very limited funds, but we have a big heart. Pastor Greg Bilbruck is a big and very loving man who believes that the smallest things can do the most help to those who need it. I firmly believe he is right.

Links to sites selling Black Friday can be found on my Facebook Page or, you can go directly to the indie publishing site at www.xlibris.com/BlackFriday. Whether you like the book or not, please help me help this church by purchasing a copy.

Thank you everyone in advance.

(This is not a ploy to get more attention. This is to help those who desperately need our help as Christians and fellow human beings. Thank you)

Please share this post with others so we can raise money to help those in need.

Sunday Excerpt #excerpt #amwriting #fiction

Now that the fever that is NaNoWriMo is over and I’ve had some time to recoup from the massive effort to write so much in such little time, I am returning to making my Sunday Excerpt posts. There is no telling which story I will use from week to week, but don’t be surprised if something new and different shows up.

Today’s excerpt comes from an old story I call Changing Times: A Vampire’s Tale. It chronicles the end times of the human species, the return of the mythical species, and the birth of the furry races. It also tells of how magic first began to appear in the world as it settled back into the natural order of things and why there are so few hints or legends that survived the ages.

This story is written in a diary format. The speaker, or author as the case may be, was a woman who stumbled into the life of a vampire during her rise to fame as a country rock singer and witnessed the fighting and battles that brought the end to the world as she knew it and a sort of release from the darkness and evil that followed her since she was first turned when the god of the vampires was finally defeated.

When I finally went back to join my friends, Adam was gone. He had left soon after we returned, and was never seen again. With only two left, I wasn’t going to risk trying to find him. He was on his own in the dangerous world. All that he left behind was a single note, which I found weeks later, and the ring he always wore. He knew what he was going to do.

It was just me, the lead guitarist, and the fiddle player left in that lonely haven. Together, we made the best of the situation and lived in relative peace with each other. That soon became much easier one night about a month after Adam disappeared into the night.

Under the light of the full moon, I and my two friends were outside enjoying the last of the warm weather before the snows drove us back inside when a strange woman appeared. She was dressed strangely, like out of a pyramid hieroglyph, and what really stunned us, was that she had a cat’s head instead of a human face. Something about her told the three of us that she was no ordinary illusion.

For a time, she spoke with us, asking us why were in such a remote place, if others were with us, and other questions we thought strange, but could not stop ourselves from answering. When she was through, she knew we were alone, and our comrades were either missing or dead. Her answer to all of that was to offer us a new life, so to speak, since she couldn’t remove the vampire’s curse. We were all curious, and heard her out. She and her brothers and sisters were going to remake the world. Not destroy it, but change it. Those that survived the wars, and the cleansing would be changed into some other creature, so long as it wasn’t human, or human related according to her.

Bar-B-Que and Gifts

… Or An early surprise and the smoked meat buffet!

I thought today deserved a post about something I, and pretty much everyone else, loves; receiving gifts and succulent BBQ.  Well… not everyone likes BBQ, I can tell you that, but there’s enough people out there that this would be something to talk about.  But, we all enjoy gifts of any kind, whether it’s for a holiday, birthday, thank you, or just because.

What brings this up, you ask?

Today was the day my store, Wal-Mart 576 in Tulsa, OK, had our “Christmas Party”.  Because it was held in-store and only the food was catered, I had to put the quotes around Christmas Party.  Not a very good party.

Anyway, our food was catered by ‘Billy Simms BBQ’ which is based here in Tulsa.  About all I can say that is memorable is the place was started by a former OU football player.  The food, while good, was okay, but nothing to get excited about.  It is well worth a mention for the catering and what they offered to all of us hungry associates.  No one likes tospend money on lunch or bringing in food every day.

There was the standard pulled pork, bologna, hot links, chicken and different sauces to meet everyone’s tastes.  I had the mild sauce which was a little on the sweet side.  The sauce was good.  Billy Simms could market this if they only added a bit more seasoning to it then the entire US could fall in love with it.  Sadly, it didn’t quite meet the hype I’ve heard but at least it was good.

In my book, Billy Simms’ BBQ gets a 3.5 stars.  They’re good, but they could do a lot better.  Maybe take a few pointers from Dad’s BBQ in Pryor to make it really sing.

Oh, but that just brings us to my favorite part.  On accident, I got one of my Christmas gifts early this year.  I gave Dave the links to the two books I wanted most and they are available on Kindle, as well as hardback and paperback.  Naturally, I got the Kindle version and downloaded the Kindle for Android on my phone.  He also has access to my wish list on Amazon, so there’s plenty to pick from to make me very happy.

The books I want are “Writing Fight Scenes” and a book on how to write facial expressions (sorry, the title evades me right now).  If you can’t tell, I got Writing Fight Scenes.

I will admit I need some help writing fight scenes and this book is good.  It breaks the fight scene up into two categories; gritty and entertaining.  Gritty fight scenes are short but give details on the blood and gore, violence and emotion.  Entertaining scenes go more into the acrobatics and showmanship and tend to be long with a lot of details of the characters and how they are moving within their landscape.  Believe it or not, Princess Bride was referenced for entertaining fight scenes; especially where Inigo fights the Baron.  Saratoga was pointed out for examples of gritty fight scenes.  Even better, there are YouTube links so you can go check them out.

The author even goes to explain some about the weapons, the different basic, types of swords, magic, daggers/knives, and even hand to hand combat.  There’s also a breakdown of the different stages within the fight itself and gives ideas on how to build suspense to the actual fight.

Five chapters in and I now know that my fight scenes aren’t the best because I’m missing a few key elements, but the action movies that I love have enough in them I at least have a grasp of what is needed to make them decent before I got this book.

I really love this book.  It is one of many that I need to help improve things.  It is also proof that a few re-writes are in order to improve a few things.  :D  For the curious, you can see my wish list on Amazon by looking up my username of SabbathSilverclaw.  There’s plenty of selections to pick from and you may find an idea or two for yourself in there.

Belated NaNoWriMo wrap-up and #writemotivation #fiction #fantasy #amwriting

November ended over a week ago and boy did it end with a bang!  The furious writing and hectic hours made for a very tired author.  I’m still trying to recover from the long hours.  That’s the good part of it all.

The bad side?  There’s no bad side in any sense of the phrase.  I have two decent stories (if you call porn decent) and started on another before hitting the 50K mark on the 29th. Yes, I made it with a little over a day to spare.  Thankfully, that allowed me to enjoy the final write-in and TGIO party a lot more.  I will say this, I was the first to leave the TGIO party.  I would have stayed until the end, but being a mom and a crotchety old woman, I had to get home and get some sleep.  Still, it was fun and I came home with a small prize which I will be using often.

It was fun, even if I couldn’t attend the write-ins like I wanted.  What I got out of this year’s Nano was a potential compilation of stories centering around my character, Leofa, and her business, The Rabbit Hutch.  I want to finish Trysts of the Hearts first then maybe focus on Leofa’s stories.  While Trysts will be published on Smashwords, Leofa’s stories will only be seen, and distributed, over at FurAffinity.net due to content.

Usually, I post a set of goals for the month at about this time.  Thanks to the rush of NaNo and Christmas coming, I’m going to take a break from writing and just sit back and enjoy the season and maybe write when the mood strikes.  No rush to meet goals or worries over anything else.  Come January, I’ll be working hard on finishing the edits and rewrites on SoNL then perhaps get some help to get it ready for the spring Pitchfest.  I intend on having SoNL ready in March for agents and/or publishing houses.

Black Friday 2 will be the next novel to be prepared for publishing.  I’m debating sending it to an agent/publisher or just keep the series with Xlibris.

No matter what, I’ll be back to blogging Sundays, Mondays or Wednesdays soon enough.  Aren’t you glad I didn’t fall off the face of the internet?  I know I am!