Good Books | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, June 7, 2015

Isis and friend get some human greetings

I’m happy to report that last week’s pattern of getting stuff done has continued (and no funerals).

I’m continuing to declutter one cabinet or cupboard in the kitchen each evening, and am making progress there. Yesterday, I cleaned out the refrigerator, which hadn’t been done is waaaaaaay too long. Not going to say how much, because my mother reads this blog. 🙂 That took a good bit longer than fifteen minutes, and now, I know some of my writer friends are thinking, I must be trying to avoid writing, or just “why???” Actually, I’m not trying to avoid writing; I’d rather work on that. But it was getting to the point where I was afraid my daughter would call a HAZMAT crew when she returns from Germany in a few weeks, so I cleaned it. (She mentioned that when she was home for spring break–back in March.) The good part? It’s like having a new refrigerator! DH said now when he opens it, he wonders, “is this OUR refrigerator?” then opens the freezer, and thinks, “yep.” That’s today’s decluttering task, and should take a lot less time, since there should be no spilled gunk to clean.

Isis had some more play dates–in fact, her friend is over now, as I write this:

This is the typical speed of a doggy play date

I did some book covers this week, one for Athena Grayson’s Huntress of the Star Empire series, this time a bundle of the first three novellas. The second cover was for another writer friend whose small press publisher went out of business, and who kindly gave its authors their rights back. I’ll show the cover here when she releases the book, as it’s currently not available at all.

What I read this week: Unleash the Moon by Zoe Winters, and Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 11 by Athena Grayson. I picked up Unleash the Moon when I ran out of Huntress episodes, then had to finish Into the Savage Country, which I discussed last week, because it was a library book. Finally, this week I got back to Unleash and finished it. As with all of Zoe Winter’s books, it was an enjoyable read, although this book felt a little anticlimactic after Forbidden, the prior book in the series. Still good, and still worthwhile, this book is the conclusion of her Preternaturals series.

Huntress just keeps cranking up, leading to the next, and last book in the serial. In this episode, the intense action of Episode 10 lets up, as the Huntress begins to come to grips with who she really is.

ROW80 Update: My goal last week was to get the prequel short story in my series reformatted (my publisher wants to upgrade the interior look of their older ebooks, and I do this for them as a contractor), and get it and the first book to my publisher. Did that, so this week’s definitely a win! So this week, my plans are to reformat the next one and get it to the publisher, with some additional mailing list setup stuff as a bonus.

What about you–how has your week been? Have you read any good books lately? Do you ever stop reading one book, then come back to it after finishing another, and if so, why? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

by Jennette, May 11, 2015

This has been a good week for the writing–enough to make up for the last, lousy week. I spent about two hours on Sunday trying out the Pomodoro method, as suggested in Write Better, Faster. One thing I liked about that book was that it also gave suggestions on applying the efficiencies therein to other aspects of writing beyond the first draft: outlining, editing, and publishing tasks like cover design and formatting.

Monday was Dog’s Nite Out at the ice cream shop. Isis was so eager for her doggy cup that she almost launched herself into the window when we went to order!

Isis orders ice cream

She also saw her Rottie friend there who we met last month:

Isis and rottie

And she made some new friends, a pair of Irish Wolfhounds, and an Ibizan (in back, in the photo below) who was also named Isis!

Isis makes new friends

What I read this week: Blind Temptation, by Stacy McKitrick. I was mostly focused on my own writing, so have not yet finished this book, but close! This is a really different vampire story in that the vampire is a girl who was turned as a teen, so that’s what she looks like, even though she’s over 300 years old. The hero is blind–a totally capable and lovable guy, and a nice change from the typical “alpha” male that typically is found in vampire books. How his sightlessness works with the romance was well-done, and effectively demonstrates the theme. It is book 3 of a series, but these each stand alone and do not need to be read in order. If you like vampire romances but enjoy something a bit different, definitely get this one! Disclaimer: this was published by my publisher–hey, they have great taste! 🙂 But I bought my copy.

ROW80 Update: My goal was to finish writing in the revisions for three chapters–I did five and finished the book! So this week’s goal is to type in the changes, and complete this draft. This coming weekend will be a busy one, so I’m hoping to get 10 chapters. That may be a bit ambitious, but with the Pomodoro method to help me stay focused, is doable, I hope!

What about you–have you ever tried, or at least heard of–the Pomodoro technique, and if so, how did it work for you? Have you made any new friends this week, in person or otherwise? What would you do if that was looking in at you through an ice cream shop window? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing or not? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, April 12, 2015

It’s been a good week, despite rainy weather for most of it. Much better than cold! And though I wasn’t able to send some of that rain to our friends in southern California, it did leave just in time for the weekend. I also made some good progress with my writing, so good all around!

The rain did let up enough on Monday for us to take Isis to Dog’s Nite Out at Ritter’s Frozen Custard. As always, she enjoyed her complimentary cup of doggie custard (vanilla with a dog biscuit on top):

Isis eating custard

After she finished, she wanted ours. Failing that, she made a some new friends:

Isis at Dogs Nite

You can do my nails now

The goddess in all her glory

Later in the week, DH took Isis to Wash Your Dog, where she got the goddess treatment: a warm bath with Black Sheen shampoo, then a blueberry facial! (No, I’m not making that up.) Finally, our friend who works there gave Isis a pedicure and the “Furminator” to loosen shedding fur.

DH learned last week that dogs are welcome at Lowe’s, at least the one near us, so he took Isis there this morning to get a new trailer hitch for his truck. He found out that taking Isis is not the thing to do if he expects to get there, get what he needs, and get out quickly, because it seemed everyone in the place wanted to stop and pet her, and talk to him about her! Of course, Isis was eating up all the attention!

I have also been working on my website, mostly behind-the-scenes stuff that most won’t notice (I hope). One thing I did was add an anti-spam plugin, and wow is it ever effective! This is a self-hosted WordPress site, and spam now does not even get through to Akismet. Only problem is, with a recent update, it’s a little too effective, and a few legitimate commenters have been unable to comment. The developer has been spending a lot of time trying to fix this, but we’re having trouble pinning it down, since neither he nor I have any problems. It’s really hard to fix something when you can’t reproduce the issue, but I really don’t want to stop using this plugin because it’s SO good otherwise. So if you try to comment, sign up for my newsletter, or use my comment form and see an error message, I would soooo appreciate it if you could email me to let me know. If you don’t mind, please visit www.whatismyip.com and send the big number in the blue box to jen at this domain. (The number will be in format ###.###.###.###). Email can be a little wonky too, and will sometimes bounce with a “mailbox is full” error when in fact it’s not. Something else I need to work out, in this case, with the hosting provider. In addition to that, I need to do more tweaking to speed this site up…

What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 7 by Athena Grayson. This series just keeps getting better! This episode had some nice twists, especially a secret the hero found out about the heroine that even she doesn’t know. I also spent some time this weekend designing the covers for episodes 10-12. Those will post here when I read them!

ROW80 Update: This was a good writing week. I worked on my WIP 5 out of 7 days, and completed two added scenes for over 3,000 words. This week, I’d like to finish another two scenes, from one that needs more material and will become two. I swear, when this book is finished, I need to get a goddess treatment for me! I’m thinking Square One Salon and Spa… 🙂

What about you–do you give yourself an occasional god(dess) treatment? If you have a dog (or were to get one), would you bathe him or her yourself, or go somewhere like Wash Your Dog? Did you know you could take dogs into Lowe’s? Read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please let me know in the comments–I’d love to hear from you! (And please email me if you can’t comment!)

by Jennette, April 5, 2015

Hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a good one! We went to my brother’s, where there was plenty of good food, and good times with family.

Isis tried to make a new friend, but he wasn’t interested

I also had put together a pretty Easter basket for my college kid, then forgot to take it to the gathering. D’oh! I think my brain’s still a bit fried from what I’ve been working on all week: making this site mobile-friendly. It took some doing, since this theme wasn’t originally intended for mobile, but I like this site’s look and wanted to keep it, so I got it done. So now you can pull it up on a phone or tablet, and won’t have to wait for all the big graphics to load, and there’s now a simplified menu just for mobile users that slides out from the side. If you try it out and see anything wonky, please let me know!

I also have some exciting news: the cat story anthology I designed the cover for is now out! Cats on the Keyboard: Real Life Cat Stories by 14 Historical Romance Authors is a collection of true cat stories, written by cat-loving historical romance writers, and compiled and edited by one of my writing friends and editors, Michele Stegman. Enjoy the stories and take a look at the excerpts from each author’s book. (I was included because I write historical time-travel.) Since I don’t have a cat, my contribution to this one is how my parents ended up with their cat, Q.T. Pi. It also includes a sneak peek from my current WIP and upcoming release, Time’s Best Friend, which features a dog. Best of all, Cats on the Keyboard is free on BarnesandNoble.com and Smashwords.com. If you’d like to get it for free on Amazon, please visit its page, click “Tell us about a Lower Price,” and enter the Barnes & Noble link above, so they will lower the price to free. If you prefer to get your ebooks from iTunes or Kobo Books, it will be available at those retailers soon.

If you gather from the above that I didn’t get much writing done, you’d be right. I decided to take the week off and just get the mobile website done. I did do some reading though.

What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode 6 by Athena Grayson. Getting better and better! I also finished–pretty much–an interesting nonfiction book I started for research several weeks ago, The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan. The subtitle pretty much says it all: “The Untold Story of the Women who Helped Win World War II.” What I especially liked about it was that it focused on all the behind-the-scenes people who did all the un-glamorous jobs at Oak Ridge, but who all contributed to the cause. I especially liked it because I learned not only about who worked on “The Project” and what it was like, but also about the ordinary lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary time. My kind of thing!

ROW80 Update: It’s time for Round 2, and a new set of goals! Well, mine aren’t really new, as I didn’t get as much done last Round as I’d hoped, so the major goal from Round 1 are pretty much being rebooted for this Round. That would be to finish the WIP and revision, and get it to the beta readers. Ideally, it will be published by the end of Round 2, but since my saying it seems to have a way of making it not happen, we’ll just hope for the best. Also, publishing it is not fully in my control, as there are editors, my publisher, etc. I also spent a lot of time on the marketing workshop this past Round, so my other main goal for this round is to put what I learned into place. Getting the mobile-friendly website design implemented was the first step there.

What about you–if you celebrate Easter, did you have a good one? Do you like pet stories? (If so, go get Cats on the Keyboard!) Got any pet stories of your own to share here in the comments? If you’re participating in ROW80, or even if you’re not, what are some of your goals for these next three months? Please tell us about it below–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, March 15, 2015

As you can guess from the title, nothing major has happened this week, but there were several other things going on. For starters, we’re finally getting some nice weather here in southwest Ohio, with some sunny and some rainy days in seasonal temperatures in the 40s and 50s. I especially love the first few days when it’s warm enough to drive with my windows down! We had two or three of those last week, and more to come this week. It’s also been good weather for this:

Isis ball 2

…although the field in the photo has been kind of soggy with the snowmelt and recent rain, so not too much throwing the ball in there yet. My husband is a good, devoted dog person who will walk Isis no matter how cold–it has to be a blizzard, a torrential downpour, or a foot of snow on the ground before he skips the dog walk. I, however, am a fair weather walker, but this week has been nice enough even for me. In fact, that’s probably what I’ll do this afternoon.

My husband got Lasik surgery yesterday, and has nice, clear vision now. Well, at least in one eye–the other isn’t quite there, but he called the doctor and goes for a follow-up tomorrow. The doctor didn’t sound too concerned, so here’s hoping that’s a good sign. Not wearing glasses will be a nice little change for my husband.

I also went to a write-in yesterday with some local writing friends and my new laptop that came last week. It worked like a champ, and connected to the library’s wifi right away! I got half of a new scene written, plus enjoyed some social time with my writer friends.

My other main focus in writing is an online marketing course I’ve been going through this week. That’s been taking a lot of time, but good stuff that I think I can actually use. To that end, I’ve been making some small changes in my website. Most of those have been on a copy that just runs on my computer, but if you look at my Books page, you can see one change I’ve implemented here. My next task is to make a more mobile-friendly version of my site.

What I read this week: I finished Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode Four, by Athena Grayson. Another thrill-ride that has me looking forward to the next installment! This episode features a new cover design I did for Athena a couple of weeks ago, too. After finishing that, I read the short stories and serial segments in Smith’s Monthly #9, and started on the novel therein, which I’ll discuss next week.

ROW80 Update: I did not make as much progress here as I’d hoped, partly due to spending more time on the marketing workshop, and partly because one scene I needed to revise actually was three scenes, two of which were new ones I had yet to write. I got both done, but along with those, only revised two chapters, in addition to one more new scene I did know I needed. So this week, I have one more new scene to write, and would like to get the rest of the revisions done for two more chapters. I also want to get through one more segment of the marketing workshop. I have a couple of things going on later this week, so that may be pushing it–we’ll see!

What about you–are you getting any nice weather in your part of the world? Any recent changes in your life, big or small? How are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward, whether writing or not? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, March 8, 2015

No, not mine. Well, not my birthday, but I did get myself a present, and it came this week: a new laptop. I do most of my writing on a big ol’ desktop computer (actually, I have two–one for writing new words, and one for everything else), but the laptop is nice when I want to go somewhere to write, take on vacation, etc. For this, I had a netbook that I bought in 2009. But the netbook was really showing its age, and last time I took it to a write-in, took so long to start up, find Wifi, and find my flash drive, half my writing time was gone.

laptop-inspiron-3000-magnum-pdp-module-1 So I came home and ordered a fun little 2-in-1, a laptop that can fold back on itself and function as a tablet. It weighs the same as the netbook, and cost a bit more (but still very reasonable), but wow is it faster! And so much fun to use both with the keyboard, and as a tablet at other times. I now know why I hardly ever used the netbook–it was too slow and un-functional. This computer is useful for when I’m sitting on the couch and want to look something up, or just surf the net. Even better, this particular computer was on sale at the time, and came with a free 7″ tablet. Can’t beat that!

And birthdays? There were two, and both fell on the same day, March 4th. One was my Great-aunt Marie (yes, I’m named after her), who turned 98. No photos, because she’s always hated having her picture taken! My family went to her house and had a nice, quiet celebration with her and her grandson, who lives with and takes care of her.

The other birthday was our dog Isis! She turned one year old. Now she’s no longer a puppy! Of course, she hasn’t looked like a puppy in a long time. Isis got a trip to the pet store, where she got to pick out several squeaky balls and got a box of treats. She also went to the vet to be weighed: 88 lbs. of cute! We took a photo to compare this year to right after we got her, with the same toy:

IsisYear1-Year2.-smjpg

What I read this week: I finished Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode Three. Wow, what a ride this story is turning out to be! And it works perfectly as a serial–each episode concludes its own action, but ends with a cliffhanger or big question that definitely makes you want the next one ASAP. I guess it doesn’t annoy me because I expect it–and that’s a big part of being an author: fulfilling reader expectations. This one does it all: a fascinating world, with complex characters that we learn a bit more about with each episode. If you like science fiction with some romance mixed in, get it now!

ROW80 Update: My goal was to get edits written in for 7 chapters this week. I knew that was a bit ambitious, and it turned out I was right. I got five chapters written in, but the last two turned out to need more work than I anticipated. So I’m going to back down to five chapters this week. Those five chapters include two completely new scenes, so I’m going to shoot for getting everything else done during the week, then getting those done on Saturday, when I attend another write-in. At least I know my computer won’t take 1/2 hour just to start up!

What about you–have you gotten yourself a present lately? Even if it’s something small–mine usually aren’t this “big.” Any recent celebrations, or ones coming up? Have you read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might be working on, whether writing or otherwise? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, February 22, 2015

You should be paying attention to meeeeeeee

Last week, I mentioned that I went to a write-in. I got 350 words written. Would’ve gotten more, if my sloooooowwww netbook hadn’t taken half of our meeting time to start up, and connect to Wifi, or recognize my flash drive. Not cool. I don’t do write-ins often, but it was fun, and I’d like to do something like that more often, so when I got home, I ordered a new laptop, a little 2-in-1 that can double as a tablet with the keyboard folded all the way back. It was on sale, and the special deal included a 7″ tablet for free. The laptop’s not due until March, but the tablet came on Thursday. My dog’s thoughts to the right… given what she did with my daughter’s tablet, I’m keeping this one away from her!

Isis waits patiently for her walk.

One thing that is definitely getting old is the snow and cold. At work, we have a whiteboard used for announcements. The only thing on it since after Christmas:

“It’s cold!”

Yeah. I don’t know who’s NOT tired of it, except maybe ski slope operators and enthusiasts. Although, I am grateful we have not been dumped on like Boston or other areas. I am also grateful for my winter tires!

Isis doesn’t care about the cold, and still expects her walk. OTOH, once out, she doesn’t seem to mind when DH cuts them short.

I spent much of the week collecting the information and reports I needed for our tax accountant. It was not difficult, because I keep everything in Quickbooks and in general am pretty organized with my filing. But it does compound, given the fact that we bought two rental properties and established a holding business for each, which means DH and I now own five small businesses when one adds in my writing. O.o Luckily, our accountant makes house calls as a matter of course and a little (or even a lot of) snow does not deter him–in fact, he was early to our meeting yesterday. There were just a couple of additional items I needed to look up for him (hence the reason he comes to his clients), and then he was on his way, taking a big load off of me.

Huntress2ebook300 Huntress1 What I read this week: Huntress of the Star Empire, Episode One: “Hot Pursuit,” and Episode Two: “Captivated” by Athena Grayson. This is a romantic science fiction story, and another new thing for me: it’s the first time I’ve read a serial as it’s released (or soon to be, as the case is with Episode Two), and it’s just what I expected: fast-paced, lots of action, and a complete story thread in each episode, but with other threads (and the main story) left hanging. (Which, since I expect it, doesn’t bother me.) Interesting characters, lots of sexual tension for the romance fans, and fascinating worlds for the sci-fi fans, this series has it all, and I can’t wait for the next installment! I’m also doubly glad I had the opportunity to design the covers, because it means I get the story segments in advance. Episode One is out now, with a new episode to come every Thursday through May.

ROW80 Update: My plan for this past week was to get two chapters of changes marked in; I was able to get three (having a work holiday helped). This week, there’s not a lot going on, so I’m shooting for four, with a stretch goal of six.

What about you–is it cold and snowy where you are? If so, are you sick of it? If you’re in the U.S. (or an expat), have you filed your taxes yet? Have you ever read a serialized novel? If you have, do you like them? If not, would you try one, or wait until the whole season (or novel) is out? And whether or not you’re a writer, how are you doing toward whatever goals you might have? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, February 15, 2015

On Monday night, I participated in a panel discussion at the Dayton Metro Library on romance novels and writing, along with Athena Grayson, Stacy McKitrick, Catherine Castle, and C.D. Hersh. There wasn’t a huge crowd, but the ones who did come asked some very good questions, and it was a lot of fun! Some examples of their questions, with my answers:

Q. Why and when did you start writing?

A. I’ve always loved to read, and decided to write when I read a really lousy romantic suspense, and figured I could do better. But I’ve always wanted to write. I used to tell myself stories to go to sleep at night (maybe that’s why I don’t sleep well to this day), and started actually writing in high school, and took a creative writing minor in college. It just never occurred to me to actually write for publication until I read that bad romantic suspense novel back almost 20 years ago.

Q. Where does “write what you know” come into fiction writing?

A. Most of it boils down to universal, human emotions and experiences, that don’t matter whether you’re in Dayton, Ohio today, or in the past somewhere else, or in a fantasy world, or in outer space. Some of it is “write what you want to know” and research it. But it’s not a matter of limiting oneself to writing about one’s own, actual experiences and knowledge, because for most of us, that would make for some pretty boring fiction! They also asked us to each read a passage from one of our books where we illustrate this, which was fun to hear and do.

Q. My daughter writes, and has written two complete novels, but struggles with revision because she hates it. Any advice?

A. (Athena and I answered this one in stereo, LOL) “Then don’t!” We directed her to Dean Wesley Smith’s website. Smith encourages writers to trust their own voice and only revise if required to by an editor, a la Heinlein’s Rules. Instead, just pass a work on to a trusted reader, and address any problems they find, then go to a copy editor and proofreader if one is self-publishing. This writer’s mom was really happy to hear that revision is not necessarily a must for all writers.

One more question: why does my dog always stuff her toys under the furniture (aka the ball graveyard)?

Of course, the panel was time to coincide with the week of Valentine’s Day, which brought up its own questions from my husband a couple days earlier:

DH: So, what do you want for Valentine’s Day?

Me: Uh… same thing you got me last year?

DH: Good, because that’s what I want too!

Then we both had a good laugh, because we don’t get each other anything!

Which was just as well, because I spent Valentine’s Day–at least a couple hours of it–with my writing friends. It was writers’ group day, and we had a “write-in.” Or more accurately, a couple hours of socializing alternating with some actual writing. Always great fun!

What I read this week: Ghostly Liaison, by Stacy McKitrick. This was a really fun and different contemporary romance/romantic suspense, featuring a matchmaking ghost. The ghost just wants the heroine’s help gaining justice for her own death so she can move on, but in doing, ends up helping the heroine do some moving on of her own. While it’s a light read, it still deals with some emotional issues such as moving on after personal loss and accepting love. While it does have a paranormal element, it’s not heavy-handed, and this book is something I think readers who don’t normally read paranormal would still enjoy. Highly recommended!

Huntress1 I also mentioned last week that I designed a cover for another writing friend. Well, as it turns out, Huntress of the Star Empire Episode One, by Athena Grayson, will release this week! It’s a science fiction romance, about a female bounty hunter who’s after a psychic–which is illegal in their star system. Athena saw that this story lent itself well to the serial format, and has good break points throughout, so she is releasing this as a serial, with one episode coming out each week for the next twelve weeks. I’m about halfway through the first episode (I got a preview copy, :D), so will blog about it next week.

ROW80 Update: I’m still making progress on my revision, though not as quickly as I’d like. I realized one reason this book has been challenging is because it takes place in two historical time periods, not contemporary and one historical time, as my other books have. So there’s more research. And I tend to leave blanks and leave these details to fill in at the revision stage. This helps me do only the research I need, but still takes time on the back end. So with the panel on Monday night, and a lot of paperwork to do on Tuesday, that cut my week short, and I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. This week I need to collect all the tax info for our accountant, but I don’t have anything else going on (that I know of), so I’m going to shoot for getting two chapters revised.

What about you–do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? If so, what did you do? If you’re a writer, what would your answers be to the questions our library guests asked? And whether or not you’re a writer, how are you doing on whatever goals you might be working toward? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, January 25, 2015

It has mostly been a quiet week around here. I’ve been making good progress on my writing (more on that below), and my daughter went back to university today. Isis has also been quiet and laid back, so we were starting to leave her out of her crate when going out for a short time, like to dinner. That worked out fine a few times, until last Sunday night she decided to chew up the AC adapter to the daughter’s Nintendo WiiU system.

We were not amused, and Isis got a good scolding. After that, she went upstairs to pout, as dogs do oh so well:

Naughty Isis

But within a few days, she’d made up with DD, and even allowed her to use her as a lapdesk while she watched the turtle:

Isis lapdesk

For DD’s last day before going back to school, one of my friends from college and her partner came over for our annual belated Christmas get-together. We always do this a few weeks after Christmas, so we can get each other stuff we didn’t get–great fun! Afterward, we spent a few hours at Carillon Historical Park, which is the place to go for Dayton history and to see what’s so cool about it. They live in Columbus and had never been there, and my husband hadn’t since he was a kid, and everyone had a great time. Then we went to dinner, which also turned out to be something special as it was Restaurant Week, which was a great chance to try something new and tasty at the Hawthorn Grill. Everything was wonderful, and we all went home stuffed (and with several take-home boxes)!

What I read this week: Smith’s Monthly #8, which included the novel Life of a Dream. A really enjoyable issue, especially with the way the same character from the first short story ended up being one of the main characters in the novel, which took place some 15-20 years later. Amazing how a story that takes place in a nursing home can end up so positive and uplifting, and also very entertaining! Parts of the novel also took place there as well, and the same is definitely true for it. What’s interesting is reading it after reading about his process in writing it. This novel actually started out as four connected short stories, and it was obvious when reading it. Not in a bad way, and maybe it wouldn’t have been so much if I hadn’t known that. Just interesting, that’s all.

ROW80 Update: My goal last week was to do an overall scene review, then begin the markup for revision. The scene review went quickly, since I did a lot of notes on that after writing each scene, and I also grouped them into chapters. As for the markup, I tend to write fast first drafts (yeah, I know, this one didn’t feel fast, but it was), and jot notes where I need to fill in some research detail or whatnot. There are a lot of these since it’s a time travel, but one where the time travel is between two historical periods, not one contemporary and one (or more) historical, with one main character from each. So I have to make sure both time periods are accurate, and both characters say things appropriate to his/her time period. The good news is I got through 7 chapters, so making good progress there. So this week’s goal is to get the markup done through Chapter 20, or the end of the book (Chapter 25) if I’m extra-productive.

What about you–have you tried anything new or fun lately, whether it’s someplace to go, or something to eat, or something else? Read any good books lately? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing-related or not? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, January 18, 2015

This has been a mostly uneventful week, one of those that we all need every now and then (at least I do, preferably more often). It started out with me adding a plugin to my website that will enable users to get notification of subsequent comments on a post by checking a box, so now if you want to do that, you can! This plugin came with a bunch of other stuff I spent way too much time messing with, my favorite means of procrastination. Oh well.

One thing I did do a lot of–more than usual, it seemed–was throw the ball to Isis:

OK, I brought you the ball. Now what?

I do not care if you happen to be eating. Throw the ball, now!

It has been one of those weeks where I feel like I was busy for most of it, yet I don’t feel like I got a lot done. So for now, I’ll move on to What I read this week. I finally got around to trying out a New Adult romance. I’d been wanting to try reading one of these for a while, but have always been put off because they are almost always in first person present tense, which I detest. Once in a great while, I can get past it with a great voice or really gripping story, but most of the time, it just serves to remind me that no, I’m not actually there with the narrator as the story events occur, and takes me out of the story immediately. So when I ran across this one on a blog, and for some reason decided to check it out on Amazon, I found that it was in past tense, and wanted to do a happy dance. I didn’t, because I was at work, and was also too tired to do any thing more than chair-dancing. But the premise looked interesting, so I bought it.

AtAnyPrice The book was At Any Price by Brenna Aubrey. This is a book that big NY publishers offered a six-figure deal for at auction, that the author turned down to publish independently. And it is easy to see why they’d want it–it had an interesting premise (college student auctions off her virginity to pay for med school and mom’s medical bills) and a voice that did a good job pulling me in (in past tense, thank you!). It also has a very current feel, with obvious appeal to younger readers (main character is getting ready to graduate college, is into gaming as a hobby, and blogs about the latter). Like in YA, these characters did some stupid impulsive things, or sometimes refused to talk about stuff they should–things that seem obvious to those of us their parents’ age, but can remember engaging in the same kinds of stupid at their age. I liked these things, because it kept the book interesting and helped make the characters real, but what made it really shine was the emotion.

This book was in first person, which I’m normally not fond of in romance because I like to see both characters’ points of view. However, it totally worked in this book, because a lot of the conflict came from the female protagonist not knowing what the guy was thinking.

One thing that surprised me was to find that the follow-on to this book is about the same couple. It was surprising because At Any Price had a very satisfying ending, and felt very complete with no unanswered questions, to the point I’m not particularly compelled to get the second book. But I very well may anyway, just because the emotion was so well done, and to see where the author goes with it. My book Time’s Fugitive follows the same couple as its predecessor Time’s Enemy, but while Enemy ends satisfyingly (I hope), it definitely leaves some unanswered questions. At Any Price is free on Amazon right now, so if you’re curious as I was, this is a good time to give it a read!

ROW80 Update: My goal last week was to go through my WIP and find all the notes about where I needed to add or change something in another scene, and move those notes to where the changes would need to go. It didn’t feel like I did much, but I did get that done (and identified two more new scenes the book will need). This week, I want to go through the whole book and make sure each scene holds together (protagonist, antagonist, conflict, setting, and something that changes), and then begin the in-depth markup of the first three scenes, more if possible.

What about you–how was your week? Have you ever read a New Adult book, whether romance or another genre, and if so, how was it? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!