The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever

I’ve been lazy this week, but I’ve had good excuses.  No need to bore you all with the details, except to say that life, health and unbroken bones is precious and you should always take care of it.

What else have I been up to?  I handed in an assignment  (My writing for young adults class) prior to the school break and I was a little disappointed when I got it back.and was told that it was exceptional writing but my writing is like Enid Blyton in a world filled with Marcus Suzak’s and no publisher will ever touch me because I’m ‘old fashioned’.  Well I’m sorry, I don’t need to have my page filled with fucks and cocks to tell my story.  I don’t need it to be gory, I don’t need my 16 year old female characters to be party girl sluts,  if that is what makes me old fashioned, so be it, I’m old fashioned and I’ll deal with that. How do you deal with that sort of backhanded compliment/complaint?

In saying that I’ve almost tweaked my first sex scene in Rack Mates. and I’ve finished the first two chapters for A Blink In Time.   I’ve tweaked it a little bit, I wasn’t happy with some of the protagonists back story.  So now James is based at Midway Island instead of being on the Yorktown.  Britt will be a doctor and not a nurse.  LIttle changes but I think that it will help them later on in the story.  However on the word count front I’m ahead of where I wanted to be which is a real boost for me.

How has your week been?

Spoiler Alert:Everyone Dies in the End

This has been a good weekend.

Why? Not just because it’s Easter and I’ve had three days of peace and tranquility, but because I’ve actually been writing. 

I have no excuses anymore, I have a plan and I will force myself to stick to it, even on days filled with self doubt. I know we all do it, but the thing is not to listen to that inner voice and the doubts that have been planted and nurtured by supposedly well meaning family/friends.

Where am I at?

I plan to self publish at first. Why? Because I feel that is the easiest way for me to deal with starting in the industry. Long story short I know rejection is hard for everyone, but for my own emotional well being, I need to start this without a million rejection letters. I know everyone gets them and I know that for some people that only inspires them to fight harder, but after a lifetime of being told that you’re not good enough, can’t do this, why would anyone read that crap to receive a rejection letter would just make me shelve my dreams.

I don’t want to do that.

So the first time or maybe twice I’ll go the self-epub route and then see how I go.

What does that mean?

I have two projects on the boil at the moment.

A Blink in Time – A romance set on Kauai, HI with a time travel component. James is a USMC pilot who sets off from the USS Yorktown on the morning of June 7 1942. His wife, Florence a Navy nurse was killed on December 7, 1941. His plane was lost in bad weather and struck by lightning, barely able to control his plane he crash landed on an island. Brittany Kamealoha, an army nurse suffering from PTSD has retreated to her family farm to rebuild her life. She sees a plane crashing near her property during a storm and following her instincts she goes to help. What happens when James wakes up and finds that he is suddenly 74 years in the future.

Progress: 3400/60000


Rack Mates (working title) A Gay romance set during WWII. Lt Albert Dunbar, naval aviator, lost his partner SSGT Russell “Rusty” McManus had been killed at Ewa airfield during the Pearl Harbor attack. He’s desperately trying to find his feet and avenge his love on his new posting aboard the USS Yorktown, but rumours have followed him. Rumours of his ‘proclivities’ that make him a target for others. His new gunner 2nd Lt. Danny Covington doesn’t care about the rumors but that doesn’t mean he has to like him. When their ship is sunk and they are forced to crash land they are forced to work together to save each other.

Progress: 4000/50 000

Rainy Days and Mondays

 

Some people might be depressed by the amount of rain we’ve had lately.  Living in a tropical climate you get used to rain, thunder, floods and even droughts, but somehow it’s always warming to wake up and see the rain drops clinging to the leaves outside your windows.  The gray swirling clouds behind the splash of green.

Rainy days, which just happen to be Monday are the perfect day to snuggle back in your favorite chair, drag the laptop onto your knees and start writing.  It doesn’t have to even be good, just write.  The more you write, the better you get.