Hangar 18: Legacy | Jennette Marie Powell

by Jennette, December 19, 2012

It’s WANA Wednesday, with suspenseful reads and romance!

She’s here, and she’s bad… CC MacKenzie celebrates the release of Run Rosie Run, the latest in her Ludlow Hall contemporary romance series.

A wise man once said, ‘Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it…..’

Pastry chef Rosemary Gordon had worked hard her whole life to be successful… Now the wedding cake business she runs with best friend Bronte was winning awards life should be perfect…

But Rosie has a deep, dark secret…

And the steadily bubbling chemistry with Bronte’s brother, Alexander Ludlow, has suddenly become way too hot to ignore…

More info at: http://ccmackenzie.com/2012/12/12/shes-here-and-shes-bad/

Alicia and Roy Street have released their popular Dance ‘n’ Luv Boxed Set of three contemporary romance novels plus a short story. The Dance ‘n’ Luv series shines a spotlight on women of the dance world. Not necessarily the stars, but the unsung heroines, the dilemmas they face and the men who capture their passions.

Snow Dance – Divorced Broadway dancer moves to a peaceful fishing village for solitude and instead encounters a needy teen, a pesky ghost and a fisherman who makes her believe in love again. While complete in itself, this 13,000 word story is also a prequel to the novels.
Kiss Me, Dancer – A rollercoaster of a ride between a dance instructor and a divorced dad. Can she save her studio without losing her heart?
Touch Me And Tango – Ballroom dance star Tanya broke Parker’s heart when they were teens and seeing her again brings back all the fire and fury–plus a secret danger that will change both of their lives forever.
Stars, Love And Pirouettes – Two careers, two men. A ballerina faces the choice of a lifetime. Will her heart show the way?

bemineforxmas-400x600jpeg They also sneaked in a short Christmas story that released a month ago, and somehow I missed it! So if you’re looking for a fun holiday-themed read, check out “Be Mine for Christmas.” More info at: http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/bestselling-author-alicia-street-looks-at-her-first-year-as-an-indie-epublishedself-published-author

Finally, Diane Capri‘s Fatal Distraction has been out in ebook for a while, but is now available in paperback!

Relentless victims’ rights advocate Jess Kimball and Jack Reacher both deliver justice when the legal system fails. Reacher waits until trouble finds him and then he does whatever it takes. But Jess pursues legal justice and draws lines she will not cross. How can she win against killers who refuse to follow the rules?

Three years ago, beloved Florida Governor Helen Sullivan’s world shattered when her only son died in a senseless car crash, killing his best friend, too. Helen quickly discovered Eric’s crash was no accident and lured the killer to her son’s funeral to be caught.

When the shooting ceased in the small country church, Helen believed her nightmare was over. Instead, she’d unwittingly escalated her duel with a cunning and patient assassin.

Now, investigative journalist Jess Kimball is driven to find the horrifying truth. Is the Central Florida Child Killer guilty? Or is the real killer still out there? More info at: http://dianecapri.com/books/fatal-distraction/

ROW80 Wrap-up: The challenge doesn’t officially end until Thursday, but I now blog on Wednesdays, so I’m posting my wrapup here. This week’s goal was to get Times Two, my Saturn Society boxed set, formatted for upload to Smashwords. That’s done, and I went one better – it’s already published there! Look for an announcement when it’s available in other channels.

All in all, this was a very successful ROW80 for me! I finished edits for Hangar 18: Legacy, which is now with my editor, and will release sometime in the next few weeks. I also won NaNoWriMo by writing a completely new book! This one really stretched me creatively – it’s YA, which I never thought I’d write, and contains no speculative elements. Even more surprising, it came in short! But I filled in some holes I’d normally save for revision, hitting the 50,000 word mark for a NaNoWriMo WIN! Finally, I did well with my fitness goals this ROWnd – always a plus!

The next round starts on January 7th, and I’m going to be a sponsor! That means if you’re doing ROW80, I’ll be cheering you on even more!

What is WANA? It stands for We Are Not Alone, a guide to blogging, social media and networking for authors by Kristen Lamb. It’s writers helping writers, whether or not we’ve taken the course, and proving that we really are not alone!

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.

What about you? Do my WANA friends’ books sound good, or what? If you are doing ROW80, how did you fare this round? I’d love to hear from you!

by Jennette, August 26, 2012

When I was a kid, I didn’t like Sundays very much, because they were boring. Even in college, at least starting out, I wasn’t crazy about weekends because I wasn’t a partier. My attitude on this changed by the time I graduated, and once I entered the work world and got a social life, I’m all for weekends.

For those of us with a traditional 8-5, Monday-Friday paycheck job, weekends are when we catch up on stuff around the house, spend time with family, and maybe once in a while, get to spend time with friends or do something fun just for us.

And once in a great while, we get a little gift of pure blessing: a day when we don’t have to go anywhere or do anything other than what’s on our own agenda.

I hardly ever get those days. But yesterday, I did, and I totally cranked on my ROW80 goals! Here’s what I did this week:

Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways – Done. There wasn’t much to do beyond reading, in relation to my current WIP
Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions – Done!
Get It Together exercise 7 & 8 – Done!
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
Format a friend’s book for print – Done, as much as I can until she decides on what trim size she wants and gets me back cover copy, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
Complete Saturn Society short story – revision started!
Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways (Lesson 11 is how to prepare a submission for traditional publishers – been there, done that, and I’m done with that, so I’m skipping it)
Short story – revisions, first pass
Request beta reads for short story
Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need
Critique a chapter for another writing friend
Prepare another friend’s business cards for printer

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Have you had a catch-up day lately? Are you someone who likes a day where you don’t have to go anywhere or do you get antsy staying home all day?

by Jennette, August 19, 2012

I ‘m back from my much-needed, thankfully-brief break.

Between a quick trip to Chicago and courting burnout, I did not accomplish very much, writing-wise, the last couple of weeks. My to-do list was overflowing and overwhelming, and even if I’d decided to ditch the to-do list, it still would have been lingering mentally. So taking a little time off from posting goals seemed the better option.

And it paid off. After venting a little bit, I ended up getting quite a bit done these past couple of weeks:

Finished first draft of short story
Got three interval workouts and two short workouts in last week, two intervals and two shorter workouts this past week
Picked up my new author photos from my photographer – very happy! I’ve begun updating my online profiles with the new headshot. Some of you may have seen it.
Finished web design/copywriting side job and uploaded to client’s web host
Finished several projects promised to friends – a book cover design, a business card design, and started on print formatting for another friend. These are all things I’m doing in exchange for editing, beta reads, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – haven’t made much progress on this lately – need to pick back up.
Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – first draft done!
Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – haven’t made much progress on this either – will get back into it this week.
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (Got it back from last beta reader – t’s going to need a lot of edits.)
BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways
Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions
Get It Together exercise 7 & 8
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
Format a friend’s book for print (this is a beta reader – she’s helped me; this is how I’ll return the favor)

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80?

by Jennette, July 29, 2012

I blogged on Thursday how fragmented my time has become, and the more fragmented, the less I get done. As you might infer from that, the motivation’s still lacking, but this week, it’s not for lack of trying. It seemed whenever I planned to spend an evening buckling down and getting some of my goals knocked out, something would come along to derail that. One night it was an unplanned dinner out (I was hungry, so no problem there, but it took longer than eating in would have). Another night, a friend dropped by. This isn’t one who doesn’t “get” the need to do the writing, but someone I hadn’t seen a probably a good couple of years, so it was worthwhile to spend an enjoyable evening with her. I just didn’t get any progress made elsewhere.

I did get my author photos taken last week, and that seemed to go well. Looking forward to meeting with my photographer to see what he’s come up with!

Two more scenes on short story – got about half of one scene done.
Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways – Nope
Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises – Nope
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got two interval workouts done, that’s it
Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host- Nope

I really don’t like that list with no green on it, but that’s how it goes. Time to take a step back.

One of my commenters on my “Fragmented” post mentioned that illness is life’s way of making us slow down. So that’s what I’m going to do this week, along with some other plans that would make it difficult to get much done. So I’m mostly taking the week off. Any progress on any of it will be a bonus!

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Ever feel like you need to take a break? What do you do, especially if the break cuts into your goals progress?

by Jennette, July 22, 2012

Motivation was low this week – I’m not sure why. I had other, little things that piled up – and I was motivated to do none of it. I did manage to force myself to do my writing, which was exciting because I haven’t written any significant amount of new material in almost three years.

I know part of what made that hard to do was fear. But I pushed through and made myself get something down, even though it’s probably not that good. Thank goodness for revisions! Here are the details:

Two scenes on short story -Done!
Lesson 9 on How to Think Sideways – Done!
Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 8 exercises – Got 5 & 6 done.
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done
Track exercise & consumption 5 days – No. Going to rethink this one.
BONUS: Web design/copywriting side job – the client got back to me Tuesday or Wednesday, and I got part of his changes made. So not bad.

Not as much as I wanted, but it’s something.

On another note relating to one of my overall goals, one of my beta readers for Hangar 18 wasn’t working out, so I asked someone else – a coworker who is also retire USAF. He gave the book a quick read and got me a bunch of feedback the NEXT DAY! And it was good info – wow, did I miss a lot of details! He even offered to give it a more through read, to which I said, sure! Have I said lately how my coworkers are awesome?

So Hangar 18 is at least moving forward again. I am also getting new author photos taken later today, and I’m a little nervous. Here’s what else is on deck for this week:

Two more scenes on short story
Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways
Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host
BONUS: Additional writing on short story

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Got any suggestions for motivation, when you’re having trouble meeting your goals?

by Jennette, July 2, 2012

I didn’t even manage to make a final post for the final check-in last round; I’ll use “being in France with only occasional Internet” for my ~~excuse~~ reason. At any rate, trip preparations, my mind being elsewhere, and last-minute things I had to do around the house prevented me from making much progress, so my report would have been pretty much the same as the one prior.

But it’s a new round, time for new goals, and a fresh start! I’m having trouble getting back into the swing of things, even though I was only gone a week and a half, so I’m going to start out easy. In the last round, I also learned (again) that I need to limit my goals to things that are 100% in my control. My two beta readers still have Hangar 18, and I don’t want to rush them, so I’ll make that goal conditional.

I’m also adding something new, and not writing-related; I guess you could call it worst case planning. My parents are 70 and pushing-70, and my husband’s been after me for years to find out where they keep their personal papers, powers of attorney, health care wishes, etc. in the event that something happens to them and someone needs to make decisions. It’s not a pleasant topic and one that no one wants to discuss, so I keep meaning to do it if something leads in to it, but that time’s never come.

Then it occurred to me that my husband and I need to have this stuff collected together in case something happens to us. Thing is, it’s even more certain than taxes, will happen to everyone eventually, and no one knows when. So I found a book that looked like a good guide to organizing all this info and walks you through doing a little bit at a time. Baby steps! So completing those exercises will be my goal this quarter, and if I like it, I’ll suggest it to my parents when I hand my information to them.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways
Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive)
Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology I’m hoping to participate in – kind of scary because I haven’t written short fiction since freshman year of college, and that wasn’t very good
Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week
Work back into tracking exercise and consumption
BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (if I get it back from the beta readers sometime this month, and depending on edits needed)
BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

And here’s what I’ll do this week to work toward them:

Research online for short story
Come up with synopsis sentence for short story
Review How to Think Sideways exercises for ideas to work in to short story
Complete Get It Together Chapter 3 & 4 exercises (the authors suggest doing 1 & 2 last)
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Have you collected together “life plans” and info for your family?

by Jennette, June 10, 2012

I kept my load light again this week, knowing it would be a busy one with two web design project to do outside of my day job. But Wednesday, I still wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I re-evaluated how I was spending my time. Surely there was something in there, somewhere I was spending too much time taking “breaks” to play Solitaire, etc.

But there wasn’t. That night I accounted for every 15 minutes, and only one 15-minute segment was spent on a game break. Otherwise, every bit of it was spent plotting my next book, exercising, reading/answering email/blogs/social media, or working on web design (two hours there).

Sometimes there really isn’t any extra time, and we have to admit that we can’t do it all without sacrificing sleep (not a good idea, health-wise or productivity/quality-wise, for me). Here’s how the week went:

Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways – almost! But not quite.
Initial design for the builder’s website – started, but not enough to show him. Hopefully tonight!
Publish and host the massage therapists’ website – Done! And she loves it!
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week – uh… no. Maybe next ROW80.

Here are the overall goals:

Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – not going to happen, but since I’m delaying the release, that’s OK.

Next check-in will be my last for this ROW, as I don’t do Wednesday check-ins. So here’s this week’s plan:

Finish Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
Initial design for the builder’s website
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – are you on track for your overall goals?

by Jennette, June 3, 2012

I knew I’d need to go easy on the goals this week. I did manage to meet all of my pared-down goals, so it all worked out. It wasn’t easy – I had a push on one yesterday, and it was hard to motivate myself to do my workout, but I did it!

Complete Lesson 6b of How to Think Sideways – Done, although I sort of cheated on a couple parts. One involved reviewing my WIP to the point I’ve done it, and I haven’t really started it yet, so that one was a gimme.
Cover design for Times Two – Done!
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts. Done!

Times Two Box Set, coming this summer

Hangar 18 is not going to be ready for release this ROW, as it’s still with beta readers. I’d planned to release either it or Times Two, but decided to participate in a promotional opportunity in mid-June that doesn’t make a release feasible. So I’m changing my goal to get it formatted and ready for release, but won’t hit Publish probably until mid-July. So here are the overall goals:

Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – on track!

This week’s going to be another tricky one, as I have taken on a couple of side web design jobs. One is for my massage therapist, whose site I designed several months ago, but who didn’t provide me any content until yesterday. The other is a new site for a builder who did a second-story addition for us about 10 years ago. So with working those in, here are the plans:

Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
Initial design for the builder’s website
Publish and host the massage therapists’ website if she gets the rest of the content to me
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring?

by Jennette, May 27, 2012

On the gerbil front, things are just peachy! We removed the divider on Monday, and things were a little touch and go as there was a lot of chasing and confrontation to establish who was the alpha, mostly between Sandy (our older gerbil) and Finn. They were still at it when we were ready for bed, so we replaced the divider.

Later in the week, it occurred to me that a cage cleaning might help, as the bedding would have had more Sandy-scent on it than the young gerbils’ scents. It did the trick, and we now have a happily-slumbering pile of gerbils in the corner of the tank!

I also added to my menagerie yet again the other day. Last Christmas, I asked for a fancy, lighted 5-gallon aquarium and other stuff for a betta fish. One of my coworkers has one at the office and her fish is so fun to watch! I got a couple things, but didn’t receive the aquarium until my birthday a couple weeks ago. So Friday we made another trip to Pet Supplies Plus, where I bought food, gravel, and the tank’s occupant.

I chose the fish that got the most excited when I reached for his cup, a pretty red betta with iridescent blue highlights. Boy does he love his new home! He zips around in it all day. Thus, his name: Zippy. He sits on my desk, so hopefully he’ll bring a little “zip” to my writing process.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much of that this week, and even less in the fitness department:

Complete Lesson 7 of How to Think Sideways, plus Lesson 6B, which I missed last week. – Lesson 7 done, still working on 6b. It’s more time-consuming than I expected.
Cover design for Times Two – started, but not done.
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts. I can blame migraines and too much running around, but that’s just an excuse. Going to do better this week!
Track exercise and consumption – uh…. no.

I checked with my beta readers for Hangar 18, and that’s not going to be ready in time for the deadline. So my focus there has switched to Times Two. Overall goal progress:

Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
Release Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) as an ebook – on track!

For this week, I’m going to go a little easy again. I have a Memorial Day party later today, and a Readers con this coming Friday and Saturday, both of which will be fun but make it hard to track food. So I’m scratching that for this week, but still going to try to get my workouts in. It does, however, mean less time to work on my writing.

Complete Lesson 6B of How to Think Sideways
Cover design for Times Two
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring?

by Jennette, May 20, 2012

First of all, the baby gerbils have names! It took us until Thursday to come up with the ones that both my daughter and I said, “Yes! That’s it!” We took Ginger Calem‘s suggestion for the lilac gerbil, and named him Finn, short for “infinity,” which is how far he’d run on that wheel if he could. Thanks, Ginger, and to everyone else who offered suggestions!

Reggie and Finn (curled up sleeping) in a rare moment of stillness

The spotted Siamese boy was trickier. It turns out, he likes the wheel too – when Finn stops long enough for him to get a turn. He’s also calmer, and friendlier – when we hold him, he often purrs. (Finn has a couple of times.) My daughter thought with how pretty he is, he deserved a regal-sounding name. After several “nah, that’s not it,” I came up with Reginald – or Reggie. She liked it. So today we’ll remove the divider, and see how Finn and Reggie get along with Sandy.

And how did I do with ROW80? Not as well, I’m afraid. The various celebratory dinners and such cut into writing time. It’s also been nice out all week, so that cuts into motivation as well. However, it’s a new day, so I’m going to do better next week!

Complete Lesson 7 of How to Think Sideways – Got about halfway through. This was a long one.
Follow up with beta readers for Hangar 18 – Done! One is almost done, waiting to hear back from the other.
Write two guest blogs I promised – the one from last week, and a new request – Done!
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Nope. Got the three intervals in, which is the more important.
Track exercise and consumption – Not even close. This was a lost cause with it being birthday week. I’ll do better next week.

Overall goal progress:

Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 (1-4 done previously) – on track!
Release Hangar 18: Legacy – OR – release Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) as an ebook – on track!
Bonus: Both of the above – on hold until other goals accomplished

For this week, I’m going to go a little easier. This coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, which means extra socializing, and we also have my daughter’s choir concert to attend one evening.

Complete Lesson 7 of How to Think Sideways, plus Lesson 6B, which I missed last week.
Cover design for Times Two
Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
Track exercise and consumption

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring? Do you have any big plans for Memorial Day weekend?

Life and Love in Four Dimensions

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