Archive for the 'Writing' Category

February 14, 2007 | Writing

I live in the Midwest, Chicago area, and we’ve been hit with snow. For a lot of you, you say ‘So What? Join the shovel committee’. Well, I’m originally from Virginia and even after twenty-six years of living here I’m still adapting. As a writer, I know well the story about how Nora Roberts got started. It was winter, cold, and she was snowbound with her kids. It’s a great story and we unpublished writers use it for inspiration. I was thinking about Nora as the snow keeps falling, and falling, and falling around here. We’re not exactly housebound, but it is an opportunity to work on my novel. Edit some more, polish it and get it the frack out of this house. I figure that’s what Nora would do. However, I don’t know, and I’ll have to ask her at the next Romance Writers of America Conference, if she had access to cable while she was snowed in. I mean, if the power died and the cable went out I’d have to first find other living arrangements and then without anything else to do, I could write. However, that’s not the case, the cable is working, and Law and Order, NCIS, Law and Order Criminal Intent, and Law and Order SVU still come on. So, what I have to rely on my staying put at my desk and working is pure sheer will and a Nora saying. “I can fix a crappy page but I can’t fix a blank one.” Which brings me to the second part of my blog.

I can’t bake. I’m not talking about a box of prepared cake mix. Oh that I can do with the best of them. I’m talking about baking from scratch, like my mother use to do. At Christmas she would bake German Chocolate cakes, using real coconuts she’d crack open, use the milk and grind the meat. She’d melt chocolate. It took me until I was almost thirty to eat her cake, mainly because I didn’t like coconut. Trust me, I still don’t particularly care for coconut, but I had no problem eating it in her cakes. She also make pineapple cakes from scratch. Those I’d eat heartily, which could explain my fat cells now exploding at my advanced age. No instant, canned fruit. Yeast rolls were also made with real yeast, hot water and the smell of bread rising was yummy.

Now what does baking have to do with writing, Yasmine? Well I’ll tell you. You have to have the basic ingredients for baking. Same with writing. If you’re going to bake a cake, from scratch, you know you’re going to have to work at it. You can’t rush, you have to study what you need and purchase the items because you can’t stop in the middle of mixing and run out to get it. Some ingredients require research, it may not be available at your local grocery store. So you have to figure out where to get it. Same with a story setting. It may be local, or exotic, or another world you’ve created but you’ve got to set the scene. When you decide what type of cake you’re going to bake, you should set all your ingredients out on the counter. Your story has to have a heroine and a hero and they are your main ingredients. They’re the base of your story. Plot is the other ingredients, sugar, salt, flavorings. If you’re using a receipe, it’s been tested before you bake your version, so you can follow the written directions. We read books on how to write a romance, and when we first start out, we do it by the book. The more we write, the more we discover our voice and vary the receipe to suit our strenghts.

Say you’re baking a butter pound cake, of course you may prefer to use a bundt pan, and you may want the cake to have a tart lemon taste. Are you going to use real lemons? Take the time to slice and squeeze them or are you going to take the fast route and use lemon juice and extract? What if your family wants a chocolate pound cake? Are you going to use real chocolate, melt it and add it to your cake? What’s your objective with writing your story or baking your pound cake? To please your family, tempt an agent or publisher, or for your own enjoyment? The more you experiment with your writing and your baking you may find you have a talent for making cakes that are decadent, rich, and ‘can’t enough of it’, i.e. erotica. Or you may have a talent for baking cakes that are delicious, memorable, and made from a receipe that will be handed down from generation to generation, so your name will always be associated with it. Jane Austen, Terry McMillian, Octavia Butler, Josh Whedon.

So my conclusion is, I may be snowbound, like Nora was, and I will continue to use her as an example to keep writing. I may not be able to bake a cake from scratch, although after reading that last paragraph, I make have to try it, but I will keep creating, editing, polishing my work, and meanwhile bake cupcakes and watch Law and Order.

January 23, 2007 | Writing

The last time I blogged, me, myself, and I were discussing how to be on the same page instead of running around in different directions. It’s taken some time, apparently one of us forgot to blog, but we’ve worked out a very good relationship. I decided we would blog once a week, the topic must be writing related and sometimes personal, depending what’s going on. Me wanted to add links of all the great shopping sites she and myself were hanging out, while we were supposed to be writing. I think the Fedex guy loves me.

Someone had to take control, bring our focus back and make our deadlines. I voted to give that responsibility to Molly Herwood, but me and myself, dismissed that bright idea. So, we’ve reworked our writing schedule, making it primary, every fracking day for four hours. We have set hours but we discovered our weight was increasing faster than our page count, since we took a sabbatical from tennis for a couple of months. So, we agreed to return to tennis in February and still make sure to get our four hours of writing in. Myself has a list of agents and publishers we’re submitting our query to in February. Of course, I was the last to know. No one wrote it down on our desk calendar. But apparently we will make that deadline.

We also collaborated on submitting a story to Amber Quill. We joined forces made the deadline and will know by March first how we did. Sloane, Beth, and Virginia liked the part I brought to our critique meeting. Trust me, I don’t think they’ll ever look at cucumbers the same.

Sometimes my unedited pages resemble the writing of a deranged housewife. Oh wait a minute, that’s me, or all of us. Never mind. But there are words on those pages, words that are good, terrible, and just plain stupid, but they’re something I can work with. Now that I’ve outed myself to my friends and family as a writer, my ego won’t let me back down. Damned, another personality to deal with, the ego. Let’s try to keep the id out of this, okay.

Okay, so once a week blogging will occur. I’ll be back next Tuesday. Also, this year I’m going to do something new with my favorites page. Last year I interviewed authors, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know when it premiers.

Keep Writing

December 5, 2006 | Writing

Today is Tuesday, December fifth. Nineteen more Christmas or Holiday shopping days left and twenty six more days until January, 2007. I don’t know about you, but retailers in Chicago started Christmas around Halloween. I intend to spend a very quiet holiday with my family. We’re going to see Blue Man Group and I’m excited. I’ve also accumulated quite a few new DVDs, so we’ll be hanging out watching movies. I also bought the first three seasons of Smallville.

This is the time of year when we look back at what we’ve accomplished and make plans for next year. I posted my 2006 goals on the wall of my writing room, fulfilled at least three and got one I hadn’t expected. I didn’t get an agent or find a publisher, BUT, I have almost completed the first draft of the first book of a paranormal series and a submission to a black romance anthology (thank you Dyanne Davis) was accepted. I’ve made new writing friends, gained a writing change coach, Molly Herwood, through an online class taught by Margie Lawson and my critique group just keeps getting stronger and stronger. My tennis team is envied by other teams at our club and I value their friendship. They’re invading my home this Saturday for our annual holiday party and I’m thrilled they’re coming over. Party Time!

To prepare for 2007, I’ve started doing the following. I’m cleaning out my writing room, throwing out old papers, giving away old magazines to a school’s recycling bin, brought a Franklin Covey calendar system, purchased paper, ink print cartridges, pens, dusted my desk and bookcases and started developing my list of writing career goals. I’ll add different goals from now until the last week of December, finalize them and post them on my wall.

I’d like for you to share your 2006 and 2007 goals with me and I’ll post your responses here. Then in December, 2007 we’ll come back and see how much success we’ve had and what we’ve learned. Yeah, I mean to keep track.

So, if you’re willing:

1.What was one of your goals for 2006 and did you accomplish it or not? If you didn’t, are you going to move it to 2007 and what are you going to do to achieve it, this time?

For me: my 2006 goal was to finish editing my interracial romance and find a publisher for it. Well that didn’t happen. I discovered I write paranormal with multicultural characters and now that romance is being sliced and diced to be put in a separate fantasy series.

2. What is one of your goals for 2007 and how are you going to go about accomplishing it?

For me: My first goal is to send the first three chapters of my witches paranormal to agents by the end of January. The first draft is almost completed and I’ll spend January editing and getting my critique partners to look it over.

3. What are you doing to prepare to dedicate yourself to your writing career in 2007, now?

For me: Like I said, I’m cleaning my writing space, getting my writing schedule set and most important making myself believe writing is my career, so I can act like it.

Also: I need a name for my writing space. When we moved two years ago, I claimed our living room. Hey, no one every sits in the living room when you have a family room and big screen tv. I’ve decorated it, pictures, lots of books, music, computer, printer, and it’s my space. Any suggestions?

Email me at YasminePhoenix@aol.com., with your goals and suggestions for naming my room.

November 22, 2006 | Writing

You know, we all talk about getting ‘the call’. To be published, how exciting it will be. Well, I’m going to be published! Not my book, it’s not ready for public viewing, but by January, 2007 it will be. I’m going to be published in a black romance anthology.

About four to five months ago, a published author friend, Dyanne Davis, sent me an email telling me to submit a short story for a black romance anthology being put together. Dyanne didn’t have to tell me once, she had to tell me three times before I pulled out a story idea that’s been rambling around in my head for some time. First off, short stories are harder than novels. How do you cram an entire plot, develop characters and have a happy ending in such a short word count? It took me a few days and Sloane Taylor even looked at it, although I don’t know if she remembers doing so. So after a few days of editing it, tighting it, mumbling and grumbling over it, I sent it in. Rejection is such a mother and I didn’t think I’d be accepted. Then Monday, November 20 I receive an email from Kim Louise, a co-editor and contributing author for this anthology, telling me I was going to be included in the collection. My short story, The Red Dress, made it through two review rounds. I stared at my computer screen for at least five minutes – stunned. I’m still stunned and excited.

My story is about a magical red dress available in a consignment shop. The dress calls to women who are experiencing self esteem and romance problems. Once they put the dress on, no matter what their shape or size, they begin to feel beautiful, because the dress conforms to flatter their body. The dress also helps their self esteem. If the woman, while wearing the dress, experiences emotional doubts the dress will constrict, pinch or do whatever it takes to make them dismiss the thought. Once the woman’s issue(s) has been resolved, she is compelled to return the dress to the shop so it can be cleansed and prepped for the next woman. Needless to say, it’s a paranormal and no, I don’t know where such a dress shop is located. However, if I ever come across such a shop, I’m wearing the dress first.

I chose the color red because it is a vibrant color. When you wear red you’ve got to be willing to have your physical flaws for public viewing. We wear black because it’s so forgiving, hiding bumps and lumps. Women have many hangups about their size and shape. Advertising doesn’t help. Add to those woes, women trying to find a soul mate, will sometimes behave in ways detrimental to their our self esteem and well being as a person.

I tried to write the story with a moral for women, and with JGirl in mind. If you truly believe in yourself, set your standards high and don’t let others intimidate you because you don’t wear a size three, you won’t so easily settle for someone who can’t appreciate your inner beauty and you won’t lower your values just to have any man.

I’ll keep you posted. The anthology is going to be published by Parker Publishing, LLC and will be called Soul Love: The Ultimate Collection “Celebrating African-American Romance Fiction”