Hello, April!

Hee, hee!

What's so funny, you ask? Well, I was reading a friend's blog and really liked her idea so I copied the link and came here to post about it. Then I realized I haven't posted since the second week of March, so I wrote the title to welcome the new month, then realized it's April's blog I'm posting about.... I'm so easily amused.

Anyway, as always happens when I get to someone's blog, I tend to read back a while (maybe a lot of whiles) and I usually end up finding something that really resonates with me. This time was no different. April is a writing coach and in the few times I've talked to her about my books, she's asked some question that is so right on that it nearly takes my breath away. In the post I'm posting about April wrote about characterization - something I'm struggling with right now - and I really liked her ideas, so I'm going to use them. Boy, every shopping trip is going to be different from now on. :)

In other news, I'm currently reading Jack Bickham's Writing and Selling Your Novel which is a re-write of his earlier book, Writing Novels That Sell. The first chapter is about professionalism and how important it is to set writing goals, specifically output - a number of pages you will write each day - and sticking to that goal. So, of course, I set a goal. And blew past it today, even though I haven't written in ages - or perhaps BECAUSE I haven't written in ages. It's all dammed up in there and I finally put my butt in the chair and opened the floodgates. A lot came out. A lot of crap, I'm sure, but hopefully some fresh, clean ideas I can use later. One of the quotes I've run across in this book that I love is:

Good novels aren't written -- they're re-written. ~Jack Bickham

Words to remember.

Blogging - A Study in Perseverance

Here's how my blog entry went today:
8:15 am - see reminder, but ignore it to check email and pay bills
8:50 am - remember I was going to leave for work at 9:00 but I haven't even gotten in the shower yet; see reminder again and make a mental note to do it tonight

8:40 pm - as I'm reading through something I should have critiqued a while back, remember I was going to blog tonight - I even have a topic that's been brewing since Saturday (so why didn't I just do it then, huh?)
8:41 pm - open IE and go the the "Blog Sign-in" bookmark. Sad that I have to do that, but I used to waste hours trying to find the sign-in page through other peoples' blogs.
8:42 pm - ah, yes, my blog....I should check out Deepish Thoughts and see if anything's new since last time (yes!)
8:45 pm - now I need to check Lexi's blog and see what's happened. Oh, look, comments on one of her posts.
8:50 pm - Oh yeah, THAT'S who Avery Beck is.... cool, she sold another book! Neat website.
8:55 pm - Hmmm, website designed by Stonecreek Media.... I'll just go see some of their other work.
9:10 pm - There's Avery's site! Ooooh, who's Gregg Olsen?
9:30 pm - Wow. I should read one of his books. Hmmm, let's get back to the Stonecreek Media site and see what else is there.
9:40 pm - Cool. Murder She Writes - I should check that out. Oh, look. Allison Brennan blogs here. Last night at the ARWA meeting Jan Hudson mentioned Allison Brennan writes thrillers with some romance in them and I made a note to check her out. Let's go see her website.
10:05 pm - OMG it's 10:00 and the kids are still watching TV!
10:30 pm - Okay everyone's in bed. I should really go write my blog now. Right after I check out this one link.....