Monday, May 27, 2013

Today You Will Start The Week Well.



Last week I finished the first draft of my current work-in-progress, THE HERO NEXT DOOR. Why is this significant? Because I had very little time to write each night, as a result of the new job and the baby and all that stuff. In fact in my entire life I have never had this many demands on my time and my focus.

I have beaten my chest in the past over my ability to finish manuscripts but this is different. I come to encourage, not to boast. I was worried about my productivity taking a massive dive once fatherhood entered the equation, so accomplishing this much feels really good, and you need to feel it too.

As the member of this writing group with the least amount of kids, and least amount of marriage under my belt, I'm hesitant to crack a whip on anyone to write more than they are--and that goes for you too, dear reader. The longer life goes on, the more complex it becomes, and the more our focused is divided between various things that it seems we have to do. Nobody is blaming you for that.

And yet, I am here to encourage you to believe that you can and will do more. It's like James A. Owen says, what we really want to do with our time is reflected in how we actually spend our time. (That's coming from a dude who climbed all the way to where he is with a broken hand and every medical card in the deck stacked against him.) If he could do it, you have to believe that you can too.

Set a definite, concrete goal for writing this week. And not just for writing, but for taking control of your schedule. Set a goal for how much time you are going to cut out of the other activities that occupy your attention, and don't let anything interfere with that time. Get your spouse on board, shut your phone off, disconnect the Wi-Fi, and get to work.

Because you can do it. And you will.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

LTUE: posting the presentation & Writing for Charity updates

Holy hiatus, Batman! It is great to be back on the blog. I have also discovered that I can post from my phone...I know I am not an early adopter of this technology:)

So LTUE was fantastic!! Meeting great people is always an awesome part of any writers conference. New Inker, Ryan Uhrey, came while all the other Inkers were either busy or out of town. I was invited to give my "Likeability 101" workshop but since we didn't have a projector the poor class had to deal with just me an no fun visuals. Never fear the presentation is on Prezi.com. You can visit Prezi.com and search public prezis enter "Likeability."

I also want to give a shout out to the "Dark Days" Tour traveling around the West Coast states right now. Dan Wells, one of my favorite authors and friends (despite his spotty memory), is on the tour with his new installment in the Partials series, Fragments!! Because Dan has been living in Germany for nearly a year it was great to see him again. I also picked up some new books from new-to-me authors. Check out all the ladies on the tour.

Writing for Charity will be held on Saturday, April 27th. More information and registration will be opening soon. All the inkers are hoping to be there and if you missed the workshop on how to build relationships in the publishing world, you can catch it at Writing for Charity. So excited for this fabulous conference. It is one of the most affordable and talent packed conferences in Utah!!
Hope to see you there. Updates will be posted here as well as links to registration as soon as it hits the Writing for Charity blog.

Let us know if you have had a great experience at a writers conference in the last year. Post a comment!!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Little More Testosterone

When Sir Kirk-A-Lot moved away to chase new dreams, we added a few new members to the group. And boy have they changed the group.

Not drastically. But enough to be noticed.

You see, we added Graham and Ryan. We went from 1 man and 5 women to 3 men and 5 women. The conversations and writing style have added a new flavor--the flavor of grease and dirt. :)

Of course, they've had some learning to do as well. Donna is working on a Regency. The men made comments which were clear they had no clue about Regency. We had to teach them a bit about that glorious world.

Change is always good and its great to have new voices and new perspectives. It just makes me giggle.

Happy writing.