#writemotivation Goal Check 1 and 2

Or is that 1 and a 1/2?  *shrug*

Anyway, there isn't much to report for last week or this week.  The main reason being is that training at work has me staying late; after six or seven in the evening but until after nine if I'm not very lucky.  The first few days were fine when we left at around four in the afternoon on a long day.

But, when we started actual field training, in which I made a nice sale at the first appointment (YAY!), I didn't see home until after dinner.  Call nights, when we go through referrals and leads sent in by the many unions around the state, to set up appointments the next day we could be there until nine which is the mandatory time when we HAVE to stop.  The 'No Call Law' made to prevent telemarketers and bill collectors from bugging you at all times of the night kicks in.

Before you say it, no, I am not a telemarketer nor am I soliciting life insurance.  Yes, I want people to buy (Mostly because I don't want to see them going through the hell I do because of no insurance more than for the money), but I am not pushing for sales.  I honestly do have some wonderful stuff that is no cost and very useful to the average person.  I wouldn't be calling them unless someone they knew pointed me in their direction.  At the beginning of that chain is someone who is/was in a union that started the ball rolling.

The company I'm with deals with unions and associations and will only go to people outside of them on a referral basis.

It is really a very niche market and AIL is running with it all the way.  I have to learn a lot about this niche and perfect my presentation before I'm allowed to step out and bug people on my own.  ;)

So far, I'm enjoying it and encountered only a couple of people who irritated me.  One was an elderly woman whose husband was injured and laid-up for a while.  The dramatics she put on (That so tired sigh with the back of her hand against her forehead and the mock pained glances toward her husband) were way over the top.  It was easy to tell she didn't want us there.  I could hear it in the tone of her voice and the clipped answers she gave.

Her husband was giving her those looks of 'would-you-stop-the-drama-before-I-kick-your-butt' kind of looks.  He was listening and being cordial.  He wanted us there.  I found his expressions amusing and, to be frank, if I were him, I would have said something about it with us there.

The one whom I have trained with the most in the field, and who helped me make that first sale, is a sweet gentleman.  He's patient and gave many good pointers which I've used.  He's young and married, but he's supportive and guides.  My boss, who I've also trained with makes me nervous and is far too much the alpha male.  He expects perfection out of the gate even though he says he doesn't.  His body language and attitude in general says otherwise.

If you've been in retail and fast food for as long as I have, you pick up on those or the job will chew you up and spit you out on the streets.  The same reasons why I don't like people is also why I enjoy the job.  Working is my only social time with others.  (I don't count write-ins as work.  That's fun-social which I need more of)

Tomorrow, I'll be in the field with a girl is, more than likely, half my age.  She's pretty, vivacious and bubbly without being annoying.  I can imagine her being a cheerleader in school with her get-up-and-go attitude to getting the job done.  She and I had one preset appointment each then we hammered out the rest (for eight appointments total) in an hour and a half.

So, that is what I was up to for the last week or more.  That will explain why I haven't done anything on my goals, too.  They're bad excuses, but they are true.

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahlgoode/

1) Write two chapters to “Black Friday 2″. (Two chapters a month sound reasonable enough to keep this one around)

I did get started on this one around the first.  Sadly, nothing was written at all in the last few days of July.  The way things look, until I can do presentations on my own, I won't be able to do much unless I manage to get home early or on a Sunday.  When school starts, I won't be doing anything after midnight so I can get up at six to get Colin off to school.

2) Work on "Dark Crystal" contest submission

The same on this one.  The only exception is, I just cannot come up with anything.  I have the premiss but the story isn't there.  I do like the character, however, so I may use her in one of my fantasy stories at some point, or see her cameo in a current work in progress.  Nothing at all last month either, so this one will probably be dropped until I can focus more on my writing again.

3) Work on edits/revisions for the last half of SoNL

I started re-reading this one to get an idea of where it's going.  This one, after I get the first half back for revisions, is going to be going through the wringer in a few other writer's groups I found on Facebook.  A few are critique and help groups for just such problems.

4) Keep trying to exercise twice a week

This one I can say I have been doing.  There is a lot of walking involved plus some extra on the side just to help keep my knees and rump from getting sore on call nights at work.

5) Work on edits for “Black Friday” for republication.

Some has been done, but not enough to put it in the green.  I need to do more than a word or two to call it progress.  But, at least there is some progress to speak of.

6) Study the craft of writing.

This one has been easy to do.  I've managed to read through four books on writing.  I've gone over speaking and dialects, show and tell, how to write a scene, and how to show emotion and action.  There's still more to read and many more books to buy when I have the spare change again.

7) Get art and items prepared for August Elks Swap in Pryor.

This one could not be done.  I had to work and Saturday's appointments were all in Bixby, OK.  A lovely little town with such a cozy friendly atmosphere and countryside that makes you want to kick off your shoes and go running through the fields.  *sigh*  When I finally build a house, it will probably be in Bixby on several acres of land.  I saw a plot there I would love to have, now, but there's no money for it and terrible credit to get it.

The September Swap will be out of the question for now.  I'm going to aim for November (Yes, during Nano) so I'll have some set back and plenty of change to get supplies I need to make soap.  Yes, you read that right, I'm making homemade soap.  For now, using a premade base until I can get the things I need to make it from scratch without ruining the good cookware.  There will be more than just homemade soap.  I'll delve into lotions, oils, bubble bath, and liquid soap as well.  Basic bar soaps are all I have for now.

Sunday Excerpts #fiction #fantasy #amwriting

After many long weeks, I am finally posting an excerpt.  I know I made an excerpt post a couple of weeks ago, but that, doesn’t count.  Still, it must have good.  A few of you liked it enough to hit the like button.  =^.^=

This week’s excerpt is coming out of my next novel, Society of Night and Lies.  This comes from the end of chapter eight when Jason finds out why Sabrina has him trapped in the bedroom of the apartment she and her associate Mindy areusing as a safe house.

“Who would guess that I would love growing things and seeing what they could do together or on their own.  My studies showed me how to mix teas and powders to make people well or sick.  I learned which plants could harm, and which could kill.  He encouraged me to learn everything I could and experiment.  He went so far as to make a rooftop garden for me and set aside one of the unused rooms so I could experiment with the different plants.”  A long sigh escaped her as she slowly turned to face him, her eyes sad and filled with unshed tears.  “Little did I know that he would use what I learned to get rid of a few people.”

Jason’s ears stood straight up, straining toward the feline while she spoke.  He could hear the excitement still in her voice when she first started her tail.  He could hear how much she loved studying plants and their properties.  But, he wasn’t prepared for the sense of betrayal he saw in her eyes and the tears resonating in her voice.  His heart went out to her in that moment when she looked at him.  “Who is this man you’re talking about, Ree?  What did he do to you?”  Other than give her an easy life where she could spend time doing what she loved.

Blinking several times, Sabrina stared at him.  Though it never showed, she hated the very person she mentioned.  However much she regretted her decision to follow him into the lap of luxury and learning, she couldn’t deny that she did have a few moments when the silver lining could be seen clearly through the training.  Still, the tight control in her voice could not be hidden when she spoke.  “The man who ordered me to kill you, Gerin van Houne.”

To say he was stunned would have been an understatement.  His jaw hung open and his eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets as he leaned forward in his chair.  The grip he had on the arms of the chair had his knuckles as white as his teeth.  Little more than stuttered gibberish was uttered in his astoundment.    “No fucking way!  THE Gerin van Houne took you in and taught you all you know?”  He just managed to speak around the sputtering and spit.

She watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he worked his jaw and went into a tizzy over what she just told him.  In fact, she was strangely calm while she watched him pace the few steps between the bed and the window.  All she did was watch him, waiting for him to make a wrong move toward her and wondering if she could hurt a friend.

“That would be him.”  She narrowed her eyes slightly when he came a little too close with his wildly flailing hands.  “The philanthropist everyone fawns over when he decides to step out of the shadows.  The public doesn’t see the darker side his students get to see.  He’s… to put it simply, not what he makes himself out to be.”

He stopped the moment she spoke and stared at her.  All he knew about Gerin van Houne he heard in the news and from the few dealings his parents had with him before they died.  “I can’t believe that.  There’s no way.”  He looked at her, seeing the grim determination written in the tilt of her ears and the slow swish of her tail, even the creases of her expression held same seriousness.  “And yet, you were taught by him?”

With a slow shake of her head, she relaxed and motioned for him to sit again.  “He didn’t teach me, per sé.  He paid to have me taught.  Gerin has in his employment several high ranking teachers to show his ‘children’ how to fight, kill, and dig up any kind of information on anyone.  If there was anything we needed, we had the contacts to get it and as quickly as we wanted it all because of him.”

Revisions... Finally!

Finally, after several months, I’m working on the revisions for SONL.  I should have been done with all of them by now and working on my query letter and synopsis to send off to agents and publishers.  This is one story I just know is going to be well received by practically anyone.  For one thing, the story line is far better than Black Friday and more than just the furry community will like it.

There’s action , humor, and suspense, and a tiny smidgen of romance (not with the leading characters), and sadly, death.  This book has two of the secondary chars biting the bullet, literally.

Basically, what I’m doing is putting to use some of what I’ve learned from the books on writing I’ve received.  I’m working on Chapter seven, it needed some work and padding for the scenes to make better sense.  Then!  Then I’ll go through chapter eight and make it so Sabrina isn’t giving away her past too easily.  Jason doesn’t need to know everything, just a few things.

Keeping this one short.  It’s 11:30 and I need some beauty (yeah right) sleep to get through work tomorrow.

Week in Editing #amwriting #writemotivation #fiction #edit #sonl

It has been a busy week.  This past weekend was rather lazy except for the work I did on my Sunday post.  That post was an accomplishment in itself.  I turned two paragraphs into a page, maybe a page and a half, which sounds and definitely works better with the scene.

But, because of that huge revision of the scene, what is now chapter eight will become part of chapter seven.  It continues the conversation, but it’s being shortened from three or four pages down to a page or so.  If Sabrina is part of a secret society, or once was, she wouldn’t be divulging quite so much information, even to someone she considers a friend.  Mindy, her best friend in the Society, even though she doesn’t fully trust her at this point, knows all about what is going on.  Actually, she knows more, but I didn’t say that.

I offer this comparison for everyone.  First, the original two paragraphs:

“You follow me, drug me, twice, and now have me captive. I’m not sure I can trust you, right now, Sabrina, but…” and he let the pause linger while he chose his words very carefully, “… since I don’t have much of a choice, I’ll listen then decide later if I believe you or not.”

With a nod, Sabrina said, “That is all I ask. So that you fully understand why I am doing what I’m doing, I’ll start at the very beginning. It all began during the Great War, when I was just a little girl of about eight years or so…”

Now, the link to the revised conversation; http://candacegauger.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/sunday-excerpt-excerpt-amwriting-fiction-sonl/.  To get the full conversation (most of it anyway) you can find it at this link; http://candacegauger.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/.

These are set to open in another window so you can see and compare better.

To me, the revision sounds better.  Jason isn’t giving in too easily and Sabrina doesn’t sound like a pushover.  She is given a bit more attitude and shows she cares for him as a friend and wants to see him live.  It also shows she’ll do what she needs to do to make sure he understands.

I can sum up the current chapter for the curious.  It tells about Sabrina’s youth at the end of the Great War, how she lost all but her cousin Shyleah, and entered the Claw and Fang where she learned to be an assassin before meetings her various beaus.

The first draft had her with seven boyfriends; some which became husbands if briefly.  That’s way too much for such a young lady who doesn’t have a sex fetish or anything  Sabrina is a proper lady in many ways.  The seven were trimmed down to three which were spaced further apart to give her ‘healing time’.

There’s no way she’d talk that much.  She’d keep it short and to the point and give Jason just enough information, plus let him know of the characters he needs to worry about other than his twin brother, Devin.  Which reminds me, I need to make a small revision to add a talk with Gerin where he tells her the particulars of her mission to get her cousin back alive.

There’s a lot to add and change in the next to last draft.  If I can get a few people in my NaNo group to do a full edit to point out areas needing further work and suggestions to tighten and polish it up, I’ll be ready to start querying agents.  (That’s next year at the earliest.  March, I hope)