Writing Amid the Holidays - eep!

(posting for Sophie Jordan again)

This is the time of year when - before I became published - my writing faded to nonexistence. As a wife and mother … um, as a member of the human race, I was simply too busy. Too busy cooking, baking, decorating the house, sending off Christmas cards, shopping, shopping, shopping, wrapping, wrapping, wrapping. Oh, and the travel -- the fun driving across the state to events and gatherings hosted by both sides of the family.

Of course, none of this has come to an end. It still goes on as life tends to do, but this time I am a contracted author that can’t take a month off. So, I’ve come up with some survival tips. Well, really one critical survival tip. Never schedule a delivery date in December. Believe it or not I have done this very thing for the last three years! For the first time, I don’t have a book due in December this year. Whew. The relief! I didn’t know how tranquil things could be. I’ll never schedule a December delivery again if I can help it.

And yet that doesn’t mean I’m commitment free. What I’ve done is plan for the “lighter” albeit necessary writing chores this month. For example, I have an outline due. It’s something kind of fun actually. Amid the chaos, clutter and stress, I’ve got a notebook open that serves as a beacon of escape. I’ll dive into it and jot down scene notes and let the vision of the story unfold without a lot of worry about whether that word is right or wrong. Every writer needs time to breath, decompress … to just let flow what flows naturally. Basically, this month I’ve give myself permission to do that. I hope you’ll do the same … take a moment to enjoy yourself, eat a few cookies (in my case a few dozen!), relax (ahem, read a few good books) and look around yourself, take in everything that you most appreciate in life and simply exhale. That’s my plan! Happy Holidays!

Happy reading,
Sophie Jordan

Mince pies and other imaginings

Writers tend to think of ourselves as creative people (and we tend to hope that our readers agree!). The desire to share our creative spirit is usually what drives us to write in the first place. I like to think of reading as a creative process, too. Unlike watching movies, where pictures are displayed for our eyes to absorb, reading books requires us to imagine the pictures. Wouldn't it be amazing to know not only what the pictures in the writer's head were when she wrote the story, but also what the pictures in different readers' heads are when they read it? Out there in the world are thousands of readers with my spaceship in their heads! And none of them look exactly like the one I created in my head and tried to put into words on a page.

The writers I know have other creative outlets, too. From painting to scrapbooking, their imaginations find expression. Several of them seem to have an obscure obsession with knitting. I always loved to draw, although I can't say my skills have improved since I was a teenager. These days I've modified that hobby to suit the digital age, using 3D and 2D graphics programs - last week I made Christmas cards featuring our baby daughter photoshopped as a mischievous elf.

I also like to cook (although I'm not very good at it), especially at Christmas. My specialty is decorated cookies. This year I've been a bit more creative than usual by seeking out new recipes for mince pies* instead of sticking with the old family standard. By seeking out, of course, I mean googling.

When you're not exercising your imagination with the help of the latest novel you're reading, where does your creativity take you?

*Mince pies appear to be largely unknown among Americans, in my experience. They're little pastry tarts filled with mincemeat, which is a sweet concoction of spiced dried fruit and vegetable suet. Serve at Christmas time only, with brandy butter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Congratulations to Jo-Ann Larkin for winning the signed copy of How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire! Please contact me at kerry@kerrelynsparks.com so I can get your mailing info. Many thanks to everyone for leaving such wonderful comments. I'll be back on Dec. 25th, Christmas Day, to give away more books!

When all of us Supernatural Undergrounders were picking days to blog, I randomly selected the 25th of each month, not realizing I would land on Thanksgiving. You're probably busy visiting with family and/or friends and wrestling with a turkey and mounds of food. (I am, too!) So let's keep this short and sweet--

I wish to thank all those who read my books. When the first book released in 2005, only two books were under contract, and it could have ended there. But you discovered the books and liked them! It wasn't till I started writing the third book that I realized I had an actual series going, and that was when we named it the Love at Stake series. Thanks to you, the series has continued, and the tenth book will be released next March! I am so grateful to you all! Please take time out of your busy day to leave a comment, and I'll pick someone at random to win a signed copy of the book that started it all-- How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire.

And may you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving!

SNOW ON THE BRAIN!

We don’t get a lot of snow in Seattle. Wait, let me rephrase that: When we get ANY snow in Seattle, the entire city shuts down! Schools close, flights are canceled, drivers panic and freeways literally shut down.

That’s where we are right now. The city is layered in fluffy white snow, the roads are sheets of ice, and highs today are predicted to be around 20 degrees. WE ARE CLOSED FOR BUSINESS!

But this is what it looks like:

At our house that means hot cocoa for the kids…and for the grown-ups (Bailey’s included):


It also means a little something we like to call The Alex Express, in which our dog becomes a reindeer, pulling the kids around the neighborhood on their sled. (Usually the kids are done before the dog!)


And because I’m feeling festive and cheerful (and possibly a tad frostbitten), I’ve decided to do an ARC giveaway for my upcoming release DESIRES OF THE DEAD!

All you have to do is leave me a comment about your favorite (or least favorite) thing about the snowy weather, or tell me if you’re one of those folks who don’t get snow where you live, by midnight Pacific time November 25th (that’s Thanksgiving if you’re in the US). One commenter will win a signed copy of DESIRES OF THE DEAD. This one's open to International entrants too!

And be sure to check back to see if you’ve won.

*** Contest is now closed ***

*** And the winner (chosen by random.org) is: A.J. ***

CONGRATS, A.J.!!!


Happy Snow, everyone!

Reading for stress relief

Greetings from Downunder.

This time of year in the US seems a little weird to us in Australia. Holidays galore! I mean, you have Halloween which is massive, then just around the corner is Thanksgiving and then blammo there’s Christmas. And that doesn’t even begin to go into other celebrations – Ramadan, Hannukah, Festivus…

From festivuspoles.com Why yes, I do love Seinfeld :)

While we also have the main religious festivals, we don’t have Thanksgiving (our major national holiday is Australia Day, in late January) and Halloween is starting to take off here but it’s no where near as massive as it is in the States.

So three major celebratory holidays within two months. I can’t say I envy you. Just thinking about Christmas and all the organising involved in that is enough to give me the shivers. Having to do it two more times between October and December – right now, I’m very happy to be Australian.

So I guess the thing to think about now is – how to deal with that stress? People will recommend a lot of things – eat well, exercise, get plenty of sleep, meditation, chamomile tea…

For me, one of the things I do when I’m stressed is reach for a book. Not just any book – generally you won’t find me reading a new book at this time. No, I grab the books that I love – books that make me feel good, books that require not a lot of work, books that I can sink into and forget about the world.

My all-time favourite for stress relief is Warrior’s Woman, by Johanna Lindsey. It was the first book I’d ever come across that combined my two favourite genres – romance and speculative fiction. I know the story really well and it holds no surprises for me. I can grab it, open it and I’m there with Tedra fighting the barbarians and then falling in love.

Other oldies but goodies include pretty much anything written by Judith Garwood and Amanda Quick.

There’s a few other books that I’ve read this year that I think will fall into the re-read for stress relief category. Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate are a fun read, and I'm in love with Sarah Rees Brennan’s Demon Lexicon series.

What about you? As you go through the stressful times of preparing for the holiday season, what are the books that you can grab that will save you – if only for a short time.

NaNoWriMo Madness

by Merrie Destefano

CONTEST WINNER:
CONTEST IS CLOSED!

The WINNERS are Sullivan McPig—who will receive a signed copy of AFTERLIFE, and Kimberly B—who will get to choose a book of her choice, as long as it was written by a Supernatural Underground author. CONGRATULATIONS!

I have your e-mail addresses, so I will be contacting the winners shortly.

Meanwhile, thanks to ALL of you who commented. And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who has been participating in NaNoWriMo. You still have time to get in some words today!

Just an FYI, I ran everything through a randomizer program to find the winner.

ORIGINAL POST:
I had my first exposure with NaNoWriMo [the National Novel Writing Month] a few years ago, when one of my dear friends decided to participate. We were also members of the same writing group, so I heard about her preparation and progress on a regular basis. I thought she was nuts. Write a novel in one month? 50,000 words?


Since then, I’ve heard more about NaNo and I guess I got used to the craziness. Lots of times as writers we do things that border on insane. Rewrite manuscripts. Kill off characters. Change an entire book from third person to first. Forget to pay the electricity bill because we’re so immersed in our story, which just so happens to need that pesky thing called electricity to write. I hate it when that happens.

And so, I had been toying with the idea of joining NaNo this year when fellow Supernatural Underground alumni, Tera Lynn Childs, tossed down the gauntlet. I mean, she very sweetly and politely invited me to join. So I did.

Gulp.

Now, mind you, I still need to pay the bills and do copyedits on my second novel and edit a freelance book. My dogs need to be walked, my house needs to be cleaned, and my husband would like it if at least once a day I came out of my office and talked to him.

And I am bending the traditional NaNo rules a bit. I decided to use this 30-day period to resurrect a book project I started over the summer. Back in June I was waiting for the editorial letter for my second novel, so I had a little bit of free time. In 24 days I got 100 pages written. So, I’m working on that project, with the hopes that I will get another 100 pages finished by the end of November and then finish the novel by the end of December.

Right now, I’m at 38,000 words and 158 pages. This NaNo thing seems to be working for me. Although I must confess that I need special tools to help me from time to time. Flying monkeys always seem to work best.


I decided to share a couple of things that I’ve used during NaNo. Mainly these help me write quickly and more efficiently when I’m short on time, like I have been this month. Here they are:

1. SCENE SHORTCUTS:
This technique was adapted from chapter four of the book, Novel Shortcuts by Laura Whitcomb. In my version, I create a separate Word document and quickly—the key is in doing this quickly—write down everything that I want to take place in my next scene. I include dialogue, emotions, setting, anything I can think of. Then when I finish, I use this as rough material to create my scene. The weird thing is, many times this fast, quick overview of what is supposed to happen ends up being dead on, almost perfect. This also really helps to break through writer’s block, something I have suffered with more often than I’d like to confess.

2. WRITE OR DIE:
I just discovered this program about a week or so ago and it’s killer. I love it! You can use the free version of Write or Die online or you purchase the program (that’s what I did) for $10 and download it onto your computer. You write inside this program, instead of Word or Scrivener. You get to set the parameters, which I really like. So you decide how many words you need to write and set the timer. Then you write. If you stop for too long, your screen will darken from white to red, and then a dialogue box pops up and reminds you to start writing. Meanwhile, as all this is going on, you can see a red bar on the top. It grows longer as you run out of time. I hate that red bar! But it gets my adrenaline flowing. The first day I got Write or Die, I tested it. Here are my results: I wrote 8 pages in 62 minutes. For me, that’s just unbelievable.

So, for those of you who knee-deep in NaNo, don’t give up! Keep going. I heard that the novel, Water For Elephants was a NaNo book.

Here’s my question for the day:
Who’s doing NaNo and what are you writing?
If you’re not doing NaNo, have you ever heard of it before? And if so, do you think all of us NaNoites are nuts? (We kinda are, but we seem to be enjoying ourselves.)


Tell me about your NaNo adventures in the comment section below and I will give away two prizes to two different people this month. One will get a signed copy of AFTERLIFE: THE RESURRECTION CHRONICLES and one will get a copy of A BOOK OF THEIR CHOICE WRITTEN BY A SUPERNATURAL UNDERGROUND AUTHOR.

Game Rules:
To enter to win, please post a comment below and include your e-mail address. Entries without e-mail addresses won’t be included in the giveaway. You can earn points by:

+1 Posting in the comments section
+1 Linking to this post on Twitter
+1 Linking to this post on Facebook
+1 Linking to the Supernatural Underground blog on your own blog/website
+3 Following me on Twitter
+3 Following me on Facebook

Just post the total number of points that you’ve earned in your comment. Contest ends Tuesday, November 30, at midnight. Winners to be announced in this post Wednesday, December 1.

A Time of Tradition

Happy November! Laura here, and with Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I thought now would be a good time to talk about giving thanks.

For most people, this time of year is a time of traditions. A time to gather with friends and family, share some awesome food, and maybe--if you're really lucky (or not so much so depending on your likes) a day watching television and taking football naps. Our household is no exception, allowing me to pass down those traditions my parents shared with me when I was little.

When our children were small, we started a new tradition. After all the food was on the table and before anyone got to take a bite, we go around the table and share what happened throughout the year that we're most thankful for. Usually, for them it was, and still is, that they've survived to see their latest birthday. Okay, good kids, but yeah, not the brightest bunch with their decision making sometimes. For me, it's usually giving thanks for my husband. Awesome guy who has helped me achieve my goals and given me those children I sometimes want to smack upside the head for their poor decision making skills :)

This year, my most thankful moments are split. Professionally, we've had so much to be thankful for. Two books already written and two more now under contract. An awesome cover (no, sorry, still haven't been given the okay to share this but believe me, as soon as we can, we'll post it!). An amazing agent and editor and a writing partner who without her, none of this would have been possible. And, in a little over five months our first book will hit the shelves. That's a lot of good happening to one person, or in our case, two. So how can anyone be thankful for anything more?

Well, for me, it's on the family side. In May, that great man I'm always thankful for suffered some sudden health issues. One minute, he was having a routine test run, the next he was scheduled for open heart surgery. Thankfully, he came through the operation, but that horrible moment of learning that my hero isn't Superman after all, even though he always tries to be, taught me something very important. One tick of the clock can really change your entire life. Traditions are great, but why does it have to be a set day on a calendar to make us appreciate and give thanks for the things we have?


My new tradition is making sure each day I give thanks for the things in my life. It doesn't matter if it's something little like I wrote 3 pages that didn't need a massive amount of editing. Could be that an entire day went by and I didn't have to dance on my head to get my toddlers to listen and stay out of the bathroom unless they have business to attend to--and that does not mean cleaning cars in the toilet! Some days it's simply that I got dinner cooked on time, baths given without flooding, and bedtime arrived while I still liked them all :). On tough days, it might even be nothing more than that in all the chaos, I found one thing to laugh about. Regardless of how big or small the event is, it's worth a nightly mention to let them know I'm proud of them, love them, and yeah still want to smack them.

So what are your traditions for this time of year? What special things do you and yours share that you'd like to be passed down for generations to come?