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I'm at the annual continuing medical education conference that I go to. I'm required to have 20 hours per year in order to maintain my medical license. I go to the same one every year. It's very good. This year, I've learned all kinds of cool stuff about diabetes (there's always more to learn about this), Parkinson's Disease, concussions, menopause, thyroid disease, and several other things. And it's not even the end of the 2nd day!

I've also written about 3000 words. Maybe 2000 in Earthquake and 1000 in Rarity. My chapters are usually around 1500 words, to give you an idea of how long that is. Common was about 55,000 words total, and Wildfire was around 80,000. It doesn't sound like a ton, but it is.  Every word brings me closer to the end of the book.

I've finally gotten over the "start of the book" hump in Rarity, so I think it'll be a little bit easier to write from here on out. The middle of the book is usually easy to write. There's always writer's block, of course, but the middle is usually pretty smooth sailing. The end is.... I'm not great with endings, as you know.  I find it easy to get there, but difficult to get them exactly the way that I want. I'm not surprised by the "it just ends" reviews I've gotten. But the beginning... It's so hard. It has to get you interested. It has to make sense. It has to set up the rest of the book: the characters, the tone, the pace, the plot... You know that in Rarity that it's going to start with the midwinter ball.  I've known this for a couple years.  But how did Catty and Lora get there? Did the craziness happen right away? Was it mellow? Who's in the scene? How long is the scene going to be? Well.... Now I know. At least partly.

I've also been scouring Shutterstock, which is where I've been getting my cover photos. I have the image for Earthquake that I want to manipulate.  It will have the same lightning circle overlay as Wildfire. I've been talking to the photographer who took the cover photo for Common. We may or may not come to an agreement about more photos with the same model for Rarity and other Lora Fletcher books. I'm excited either way. The cover is usually the last thing I do, but I'm a planner. I like to have everything just so from the get go.

I'll send out another update on Sunday hopefully.

School's out for summer...

At least, it is at the university where I teach!

And you know what this means?

Oh yes.

More time to write!! ::happy dance::

Tomorrow night, I head out of town for a conference. What do I do for 9-10 hours a day at this conference? Well.....

I write.

I do pay attention.  If the speaker is good, I'll stop writing.  If a subject is interesting, I'll pay attention tot he speaker.  But many of the topics are very dry, so....

I write.

That is all.

It's been awhile...

I just looked and it has been nearly a month since my last post. Apologies for that. I am still here.  It's the end of the semester and the powers that be have deigned that half the semester's points must derive from assignments due with only a couple weeks left in the semester. Or something.

My students both love and hate when I grade essays. I am a hard grader, but I give a lot of feedback. They know it's coming when they find out that I write, but some of them still haven't figured out the simple things. Like spellcheck. I definitely give credit where it's due though.

In a week and a half, I will be done teaching until the fall. I'll be at my annual CME conference. I will get a ton of writing done.  Plus there's the summer.  The snow birds go back north. My clinic gets slower. The boys play fewer sports.  More time for writing.

On that note... I'm off!

You know you've hit the big time when...

...you discover your book offered for free, illegal download on a well known pirating website.

I am not rich. I am an indy author. I write because I love it and the voices in my head insist that I share their weirdness with the world. The small amount of money I have made from Wildfire and Common isn't going toward my mortgage or anything. It has paid for ISBN's (they are the numbers that identify a book and they are not cheap), photoshop membership, shutterstock membership (you like the covers? I made them myself using stock photos I purchased the rights to and made fancy in photoshop), my un-fabulous website, and a few other little things. My laptop is old and dying, so I am using the royalties to buy a new one. Get the picture?

I am not trying to get rich off my writing.  But to find my work offered for illegal download? I work long hard hours to bring you works with reviews that are titled, "MEH." I am being ripped off by folks who won't fork over $2.99 for an ebook or the monthly KU membership subscription.  I am now offering a formal apology to all the musicians I illegally downloaded from in the late 1990's before Napster was converted from free to fee.

It sucks.

The worst thing about it? There was a forum post on the website where several people were giving virtual high fives to the OP who uploaded my blood, sweat, and tears.

I'm currently trying to get the book removed, but time will tell.

On a happier note, I did get some writing done last week.  My brother will be happy to know that Lora is back in action. Wildfire fans will also be excited to hear that Sara is also whispering in my ear again. Yay.

I love fan mail!

That is all.

First review by a blogger!

If you're interested in reading it, here it is: http://shootingstarsreviews.blogspot.com/

I have been really excited about the reception Common is getting.  It has largely been positive. The majority of complaints have been that it ends abruptly, and it does.  But if it seemed super finished, why bother getting the next one! ;) but yeah. I am definitely aware of that, and they should be more finished in the future as the plot gets more exciting. The interest Common is generating is also putting Wildfire in the spotlight a lot more. It is also getting mostly positive reviews. I'm so excited people are reading and enjoying my work.

I also got my first fan mail. Super cool! Very sweet you took time out of your day to let me know what you enjoyed in the books.

Next week is my boys' spring break (and spring break at the university where I teach), so I will be spending some time writing. We're also painting the interior of our house, so hopefully that won't take up all my "free" time. I never have enough time for everything!!!

I was going to add something else, and I have totally spaced it.  Well, I'll post again if it pops into my head. If it doesn't, it probably wasn't that important anyway!

Writing again

After a couple weeks of no writing and just stalking my author pages, FB page, and Amazon's various marketplaces, I have started writing again.

I've made some progress on Earthquake and even Rarity, which surprises me because usually the last thing I want to look at after ending a project is more of that project. I also have been plotting out a series about aliens.  It's early stages for that. I mean, I have more Lora and Sara to write!  Don't want to involve Leah just yet...

I was reading to my son some of what I've written. He did not like Common, but he is excited to tell his daddy what my rankings are for it. He was surprised to see the sheer volume of plots and stories that I have on my laptop. Not all ideas become stories and not all stories are finished. I've never finished a series before, so I have a bit of an uphill battle. It's funny to see non-writers realize this.

Anyway.... I read the new Jaymin Eve/Jane Washington collaboration, Trickery, and I loved it. They're both talented writers. I've also been reading Siobhan Davis, Rachel E. Carter, and Jojo Bonsu. I haven't been really disappointed by a book in awhile, which makes it hard to put them down and write my own!

Speaking of distractions. The Cubs are playing in Surprise tomorrow. I will be there cheering them on, as always.  Go Cubbies!