The Evolution Of a Story—The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Hey, guys, good to see ya again...welcome!!!

Well, it’s blog day and...once again...I have no stinking clue what to write about.  I know...you’re shocked.  (NOT)

Okay, when I draw a blank, I sometimes look at memes to draw inspiration.  Hey, don’t judge.  It’s been a rough month.  I had a book to write and, of course, life ran me over and I didn’t start the damn thing until three weeks before it was due.  YIKES!  So, here I am, the night it’s due to be uploaded, and I’m still formatting it...and doing random edits in between adding a Table of Contents, beefing up a love scene, and trying to come up with something clever to blog about.

No problem with focus here.  LOL  And I’m pretty sure the clever blog topic thing ain’t happenin’.

So I found a meme a couple of days ago which depicted exactly where I was at the time.  I had moved from Box 1, where my story was hilarious and I loved it, through Box 3, where I decide it might not be as hilarious as I thought but it’s funny.  Then it’s sorta funny, seemed funny at the time, and now I’m in Box 8, where it’s not a damn bit funny.  NOOOOO!  My humorous romance sukkkks!

I’m freaking out, I’m out of time, I can’t fix this mess, I’m going to hide in a very dark closet.

So, I call on my muse.  The bitch shows up in a cheerleader costume, with pompoms.  She is repetitive...she is annoying...and she is freaking useless...


Seriously? 

But I’m still trying.  I tell her to up her game and see if she can’t do something that will actually...I don’t know...help, maybe?!  This is when the snotty little witch turns sarcastic, and tries to shame me into writing the story.

NOT helping!

Yeah, that still didn’t work...sounded too much like an old boss I had once.  

Then the deadline really got tight when I had only a week left and I was only five chapters in.  That’s when my muse finally came up with a method that would work...

Not nice, but effective...I always did work best under pressure.  LOL

Now I’m a couple of days down the road and I’m in Box 10 where I’m starting to think maybe it really is a little funny.  My hope is that by the time the story hits the internet shelves, I will be in Box 11 or 12, and the damn thing will be back to H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!  Fingers crossed!!!  If you’re a writer, you’ve been here.

Okay, through all of that, I persevered and the story is written...and it’s fun...I think...I hope!  But you’ll have to be the judge of that when it comes out on the 19^th.  So stay tuned for more announcements and excerpts from this masterpiece.

I survived the process and managed to defeat writer’s block...which is where your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you. And no matter how hard you try, they won’t say a stinking word.

But there is always another story to write, always another plot to create, characters to wrangle, and more writer’s block to overcome.  So if you see me out and about at the mall, remember...

So be nice!  I’m under deadline, under pressure, and hanging by a thin thread.  LOL And I may be looking for someone to kill off in my next story...don’t be THAT person.

That’s my story, stupid and silly, and I’m stickin’ to it.  So hang on real tight now, ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!

Love ya,

Kayce

Old Friends

        My house phone rang the other night. Usually, it’s just sales calls or something like that—have you gotten the call from Windows Help Desk, telling you that your computer(!) has contacted them and there is an issue? Yeah, I get a lot of those. I admit I’m not very nice when they call and my entreaties to not call me anymore get me absolutely nowhere, but I digress.

         My phone call the other night wasn’t one of those. I was pleasantly surprised that an old friend I hadn’t talked to in a long time called just to chat. She and I have that kind of relationship where even if we don’t talk for a while, when we do, it’s just like we talked yesterday. I’m sure you have friends like that, too.

She and I shared an apartment (actually two of them) before each of us married so after we caught up (you know the drill…family, work, health, etc), we launched into “Do you remember...” and we were off, reliving the days our youth, admitting now (in hindsight and much, much older) that some of the things we did were a little….crazy.

Oh, we weren’t bad. We were just young and naïve in so many ways and we took chances that as older adults we never would. Case in point: when we moved from one apartment to another, it was only two blocks away…so we ended up carrying things up the street because they wouldn’t fit in my car. Like what you might ask? Her hope chest, a kitchen table, my grandmother’s rocking chair, and various other things. Yup, we toted that stuff from one apartment to another. In the dark. In Patterson, NJ. Like I said, a little crazy, but fun (and a very long time ago….wouldn’t do that now….probably couldn’t do that now).

         We both remembered (how could we forget?) how broke we were and how I had a little clicker to calculate how much we spent when grocery shopping because we just didn’t have the money if we went over budget. And it was a tight budget, but back in the late 70s, you could get four boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for a buck! To this day, when I see that familiar box, I think of her (and that little red clicker at the grocery).

We have a history, a shared experience that taught us so much. We left the conversation with promises to call each other more often, which I plan to keep because I think of her often and I can’t help being so thankful that we’re still friends after all these years. I'm still smiling!

As always, happy reading (and visiting with old friends),

Marie

PASSION'S POISON by Lexi Post now at a lower price & at more retailers!

Passion's Poison is now available on Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Amazon, Amazon AU and soon to be available in all Amazon countries!

I am so thrilled by this that I also lowered the price! This full length, contemporary paranormal book is now only $3.99.


Beatrice Rappaccini is tired of the one-night stands that keep her alive. Tired of the illness she causes when she releases her sexual poisons into her partners. But when she meets Zach Woodman, everything changes. Desperate for what she can’t have, she puts her heart and life on the line, ignoring the anonymous letters warning her to stay away.

Zach Woodman, logger turned chainsaw artist, has the perfect life, but no one to share it with after the deaths of the women he loved. Fascinated by the sexually experienced yet naïve Bea, he promises himself he will end their hot relationship before fate takes another beautiful woman from the world.

But he discovers Bea has no idea how to have a relationship, and he is perplexed by her strange behavior, hippie mother, six fathers and her request to give him every man’s sex fantasy. It is only when he might lose her that he realizes he must make a decision that will break his heart either way.

Buy Links so far:

Amazon  

Barnes & Noble 
iBooks 

Kobo 

Amazon AU 

An Excerpt can be read on my website since it's too hot to post here. http://www.lexipostbooks.com/30-2/  

I hope you enjoy this tale inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" and that it warms you up during this cold weather :-)

Always, Lexi 

www.lexipostbooks.com

No Strings Attached: A Lexi Carmichael mystery, Book 8 by Julia Moffett

 A fun novel with Lexi Carmichael continuing her unasked-for involvement in an international cyber attack.

Lexi did what she was supposed to.  She gave a presentation at a hackers’ convention, complete with computer nerds and smart-asses.

After a draining question and answer, she needed a quiet place in a busy hotel bar.  Finding a table marked “reserved” with no one there, she took the table.  There was a reason she shouldn’t have sat at this table.

Wrong place at the right time.

Let’s just say this is where it gets complicated.  I won’t tell you what happened at the table, the car chase and shots aimed her way really gets in the way of her planning her best friend’s bachelorette party. 

Lexi is too busy to deal with any of this and she needs to call on friends at NSA for the first problem (that would be the car chase) and hopes to pull off the party she’s in charge of and has no idea what to do except have games relating to getting married!

Another thing I like to do when I read a well-written and engaging story is to read about the author.  Julie Moffett has an extensive education throughout many countries and has experienced many avenues of life we all say we’d like to do “someday.”  Definitely a fun read:)

 

Happy reading,

Dawn