It's Been a Wacky Year.... A Look Back on 2013

You guessed it. This is my annual look back at the year blog entry!

2013 was interesting to say the least, for all aspects of my life, real, online and the writing part of it.

My first completed manuscript, "No Regrets" (Book 1, formerly "Untitled 7"), went through several perking and editing cycles during the year, and in early November, was deemed "as perfect as I can get" and ready to submit to various publishers around the globe. Who got it, any interested parties and any rejections on that manuscript is strictly confidential and only a select handful of people know about any of it. I will only say anything publicly AFTER I sign any contracts and when and where I know it will be available for purchase. 

As a lot of you remember, my writing batteries were still in "recharging" mode at the start of the year, and I was having a lot of problems getting what was dubbed "Untitled 8" on the go at the time, and how frustrated I was with myself for not being able to get the story moving. In January, I had tried getting things moving with the RH rewrite/overhaul and that wasn't working, neither was getting "Untitled 8" (now "Book 2" or Family Portraits) off the ground, and I was going crazy. I finally got a new digital camera at the start of the month and started setting up a few things to create some original photographs with props for my own use and possible cover photos for Sandra Durham's second book in her Keyholder's Castle series (published on Amazon.com currently). 

Sandra's second and third books were published via Amazon.com. The second one, "Damnation and Trial" was published in March, and the third, "Destinies", was published in May.

Thankfully, concentrating on that and doing something creative helped, because the next time I opened that manuscript file, I noticed a few things that were throwing me off and decided to scrap what I was using to start it, and went with something else. That DID help, and I did start getting into it a little bit, although I wasn't sure how the story would go or how it would even end. Sandra was a godsend, by listening to me rant about my lack of progress and helping me with brainstorming ideas for the story during the first two months of 2013.

The end of January saw me becoming an aunt for the fourth time, thanks to my sister. I now have one nephew (age 16 1/2 at the time this blog was posted) and three nieces (almost 14 years old, 3 years old and 11 months old at the time this blog was posted), all thanks to my younger sister. Little A is one adorable girl, and she is a happy child, according to my sister and mother. I have met her, and love her to death, just like I love all of my sister's older children. I'm hoping to see them all soon, and may even see my mom this weekend, if things work out just right!

It wasn't until March was underway that, thanks to Sandra, Book 2/Family Portraits took off like a shot out of a gun. She had an idea zoom through her head and suggested it to me. The instant I saw her idea, I could actually see and hear everything that was going on during a few of the scenes and ran with it. Her idea IS in the final product and thanks to her, Family Portraits/Book 2's ending was conceived! I knew a few things that were going to be in the book but wasn't sure on what else to slap in until I saw that fateful message from her. When an idea is so good you can see all of it happening in your head within seconds, RUN WITH IT! 

Sandra's little idea wound up being the basis for most of the entire build up to the finale and everything else in between... Seriously! More on that later though...

Spring saw my dear son do something that proves to the world that kids on the autism spectrum CAN do more than "flip burgers" (quote from someone I cut out of my life about 7 years ago and who I will never let them back into it!)... He took second place in all of the grade 2 students in the Mental Math competition for our district at the Education Festival, which was held at my old high school. He went into Grade 3 with mostly As and Bs with a couple of Cs, and top math student in his grade!

It also saw me starting to write like a squirrel on speed as I started building up toward the gem that Sandra shot at me in March. As the school year started winding down, things were really moving with it. I was around Chapter 26 when school got out for the summer and although I was going batty, I managed to survive despite not being able to write a lot, even at night. The mosquito population was terrible this past year due to a lot of rain. We live between two lakes and that didn't help much either, so I wound up spending most of the time slapping mosquitoes and being so darn distracted that I didn't get much done in an hour, even with the scene RIGHT THERE in my mind. *SIGH* 

Even with the late night problems, thanks to my husband, I managed to get a couple of chapters out of the way in the first couple of weeks of summer vacation. I basically gave up on writing at night for the entire month of July and into August, until I knew the provincial bird population had dropped a lot. By the time mid August rolled around, I was into Chapter 29, and a lot further along than I had hoped to be in the manuscript that close to the end of the summer.

On August 19th, I officially launched my Facebook Author's page, my author's profile and a new look for my blog here. I had chosen my pen name quite some time ago - thanks to help from several of my friends, and it's one I really like! - so the name of the page and the profile were officially changed that day, and had a new banner installed on each of them. My new blog look is the same one I have now, with the sky photo in the background and the black font. It's the same photo I use on my Twitter profile, and the same one I used to create banners for my author profile and page, and my personal/real name profile in Facebook.

Two weeks later, I officially launched my author's website and in the months since then, I've added links to where people can find me - Twitter, Google+, Facebook and this blog, and a photograph of me so people know what I look like.

Son started Grade 3 with eagerness and has one of the teacher's assistants that he had last year, the one who was with him in the afternoons. Unfortunately, we also said goodbye to the TA who had been with him since Grade primary. We loved Mrs. O and although we miss her a lot, we adore Mrs. T as well, and like Mrs. O, she's great with our boy. Again, he's top math student in his grade, and working ahead in that subject. No surprise, and I won't be surprised if he's invited to participate in the Grade 3 mental math competition this year....

Whom Gods Destroy played at two venues over the summer - Benstock in August and Local Only in early September. I was lucky enough to be able to go watch them both times, even though I kinda missed most of their set at Benstock. That said, what I did see was great, and really enjoyed both concerts. They featured local music at both and I loved hearing other local musicians strutting their stuff! All of you who read my blog and know me, know that music is as vital to me as writing. I can't sing or play an instrument to save my life, but I love it and respect and admire anyone who is talented in that area of the creative realm!

Well, after Son went back to school, things once again took off with Book 2/Family Portraits. Even with having to get a new computer - thanks to my Vista one dying - by the time the first week of October was finished, I was into Chapter 36. Not bad for only a month's worth of writing PART TIME! 

Thanks to my mind running in overdrive for the next month, I managed to finish draft one of Book 2/Family Portraits on October 30th, quite a while before I expected it to happen. Like its predecessor, No Regrets/Book 1 - which starts off the series - I basically zoomed through the final ten or so chapters of it. Of course, having a lot of that written up already - the Gem that Sandra shot at me - did help, but there were a lot of things I had to wrap up, like finish that area and its aftermath, then get into the finale and finally wrapping things up so tightly that not even I could write another sequel... Unless I want to, of course. I'm not saying I will "never" write another sequel to this series, I'm saying "it's not likely". I said that before and wound up eating my words.........

Like I've said before, No Regrets/Book 1 did have a lot of unanswered questions that nagged at someone after they read it, so it's only natural that I would wind up writing a sequel to it, and finally get around to answering them. Thankfully, No Regrets hadn't been sent out to any publishers that are still in business today, so I could make all of the necessary changes in it that would make it line up with Book 2/Family Portraits a lot more. I was inserting a few things here and there into No Regrets while Family Portraits was still being written, but it wasn't until after Family Portraits was in its first perk cycle that things were really added to make things coinside a lot easier and better. I'm not saying what was added, those who have read the earlier drafts of that story know what was in there before and what is in its final, perfected draft. 

I used some of the squirrel on speed energy I had from not having anything to write to perfect the grammar, proofing, formatting and overall story in No Regrets, and that was finally stamped "Perfect as I can get it" on November 7th. 

In the weeks since then, I've not only gotten an idea for a new story that I've dubbed Untitled 9 at the moment, I've actually started it, even if it's only a page of stuff. That idea is a combination of two ideas from Sandra and another one of my closest writing friends (two other fellow authors), and although it hasn't really taken off yet, it may in the new year. Thanks Sandra and G! I do have a lot of material from researching, and need more, so I'm going to be doing that in between different things, like more photography and trying NOT to lose it each time I submit my work to a publisher!

Yes, we lost a few that were near and dear to our hearts, and we had a lot of ups and downs, but for the most part, I'd say that 2013 was a great year for a lot of us... I saw my mentor publish two more books in her series and saw her start the fourth one, saw another friend publish a collection of poems, met a lot of great people via various writing hang outs and other great places to put the feet up and relax online, and I was just surrounded by so many wonderful, loving and supportive people this past year. I'm so grateful to the divine and fates for every little blessing they've given me, and thank each and every single person who has been there for me, from the good times to the bad times. 

Yeah, 2013 may have been a wild ride, but I enjoyed it... Even if my brain was in a writing fog for a good part of the year! 

I'm hoping 2014 is just as fun, if not better. One of my new year's wishes is to get on with a great publisher and finally see my dream of becoming an author come true. I'd be flying really high if and when that happens!

Have a safe, fun and happy new year everyone! I'll be back with updates in 2014! All the best, to all of you, now and always.

~V.J~

It's Looking a Lot Like... Spring?

No joke. Right now, although there is ice on the ground and some snow here and there, outside looks more like March or early April than it resembles December and the first of winter here. Today into tomorrow, we're getting rain and freezing rain, and it's really confusing to me to see this kind of thing outside instead of snow falling. Although we've been in the deep freeze - or what's considered "below seasonal" for my end of Canada - it still doesn't feel like winter to me yet, even with the tree up and preparations for Christmas being well underway.

In other news, my brother in law's cat Tippy isn't doing so great right now. He's at the vet, with a feeding tube, and we're hoping he'll get better so he's home in time for Christmas... But it's not looking good, he's diabetic and that's complicating things. I ask that anyone who reads this keeps Tippy in their thoughts and if they want to, say a prayer to their chosen deity for him and my in laws. All of us love that cat a lot, and we would love to see him come home, healthy and happy.

Writing wise, not much has been happening with me... I haven't gotten into Untitled 9 yet and things have been slow in coming to me. 

That said, my mentor Sandra did get a copy of Book 2 and she's been trying to read it in between working on her fourth book and getting things ready for the holidays at her house. So far, only a couple of things have cropped up, and I have corrected them in Draft three of the manuscript, but she's only at the start of Chapter 14 at the moment. There's still a lot of book to cover, and I suspect I will have a number of revisions to do by the time she's finished. By the way, the current title of Book 2 is "Family Portraits"... Y'all will get why I chose that name when you read it. *wink*

Other than that, not much else is going on here other than the usual zaniness that happens for us around the holidays and me compiling the highlights of 2013 for my annual look back at the last year. Things are quiet in the writing arena for me so I probably won't be doing any more updates until the ultra long annual year end blog.

To all of my readers, friends, family and fans...

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas, or one of the other wonderful holidays December has to offer... All the best in 2014, everyone, and have a safe, fun and magical holiday, from our home to yours!   

Recharging and A Man in a Blue Box...

Things have been back and forth between the creative juices flowing and being "plugged" the last week or so.

Book 2 went into stasis three weeks ago today, and although it's fading from the mind a bit more, I'm still resisting the urge to open it. There hasn't been enough time for me to pick out any minor errors at this point, and I wouldn't mind finishing getting out of the mindset of the series before I look at it again. Hopefully my mind will be able to handle it by the new year. If not, I will put it back in stasis and leave it there until I'm ready to look at it without wanting to write another sequel or a side story based upon that particular group of characters.

I've been distracting myself with various things so I do not go near it. Thankfully, there has been plenty of things to keep my mind off of that manuscript and keep me out of it! The last few weeks, our sci-fi channel has had a lot of specials about Doctor Who on. I'm a huge fan of the revival part of that particular series, and have seen a few of the "classic" episodes, which were well done for their time. I've seen at least part of one episode from the first incarnation of the Doctor up, and both episodes that had Eight into them. All were well done and seeing classic DW stuff made me an even bigger fan of the show. I do admit my favorite out of the incarnations to date is Ten, played by David Tennant, but I love Eleven and so many other ones too. I'm really looking forward to Series/Season 8 of the revival and seeing the adventures Twelve goes on with current companion, Clara. I'm going to cry when Eleven goes through his regeneration, but the show must go on.

This past weekend, I didn't even think about writing at all. I was too absorbed in all of the Doctor Who specials that were on and finally, the much anticipated 50th Anniversary special hit the airwaves. I was offline while it was on, so I would not be distracted by random squirrels around the internet, and it blew my mind. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I clapped, then I did it all over again. I loved seeing David Tennant appear in his old role of Ten, and watching him and Matt Smith, who plays Eleven and the current incarnation, interacting, and seeing John Hurt as the War Doctor was amazing. They are brilliant actors, and all play their role in Doctor Who perfectly. It was probably the best episode ever in my opinion, and in the revival series of the show, there is no such thing as a "terrible episode" in my mind. The writers are very talented and know how to please us fans. It's always a fun ride with that show, if you ask me!

I adore science fiction, but can't write it at all... I do admire anyone who can, because their imagination is outstanding, and to come up with an entire world, species, and so on, is just amazing. 

Me, I think I'm kind of boring in the fact I prefer to write contemporary/modern day stuff. Oh well, if one person loves my work, that's the main thing, right?

Anyway, things have started a little bit with Untitled 9. I had set up the characters and some of the locations/sites for it a couple of weeks ago, and believe it or not, I have started Chapter One. It's only a page or so, but it's a start, and with some luck and some more time to get the writing batteries recharged, I'll be able to continue on in it. I also have a few more ideas down in the file for that, and know a little more about what's going to happen between the start of the story and its finale.

HOW one of the characters winds up in their situation at the start of it is still somewhat of a mystery. I do have an idea on how it happens, but the details still haven't been revealed to me as of this date. Yeah, one more "star" in that "constellation" has been revealed to me, but I'm still missing most of it, and most of the other "stars in the sky" right now. I just hope as time marches on, the "cloud cover and haze" will "lift" and more "stars" will be revealed to me so I can get absorbed by the new idea. I'm still not sure what's going to come out of it, but I do know if this one takes over the mind like the previous two manuscripts did, I'm in trouble.

Or, should I say "I'm in writing heaven"? *laughs* 

It still feels odd not to be eating, sleeping and breathing a story right now, but I'm optimistic another one will suck me in again soon, once the writing batteries are fully recharged, ideas start coming clearer, and now that I'm not counting down the days to the 50th Anniversary special of Doctor Who.

Have a great week, everyone! I'll post an update if/when things progress, or if I wind up doing something else creative wise in the meantime.

Here We Go Again....

It's official:

I now have a folder set up and the idea I got thanks to my mentor and another writing friend/fellow author has been dubbed "Untitled 9". I set up the folder this evening and now have everything I have so far added to it.

I have a feeling of deja vu, probably because a similar thing happened to me last year about this time... Anyone who has been following my blog over the last eighteen months or so will note that although I finished "No Regrets" draft one on October 19, 2012, I had the idea for Book 2 less than a month later. Yeah, it feels exactly like things did last year when I first started jotting down ideas for what was dubbed "Untitled 8" back then and what turned into Book 2 over time.

However, unlike last year, I'm starting from scratch this time, so in that way, it feels like I did when I first started developing ideas for the characters in "No Regrets" and where things took place, etc. This one is still in its embryonic stages and although I have a few ideas for various things and part of a scene somewhat "gelled" in the brain, I have a lot of things to figure out, like how to start off Chapter One for starters. Things may be slower with getting this idea off the ground for that very reason, but I'm sure with a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and tears amongst a lot of researching, days of wanting to bash my head against the wall, turning the air blue in here thanks to a lot of "choice words" and so many other things that make up being an author, I will get things moving in this one at some point, especially once Book 2 fades from the mind a lot more and the writing batteries come back up from being so drained.

It feels odd working on something fresh, brand new and unknown, but I hope that feeling goes away very soon and I'm able to get into it like I did with my first two books. Switching gears to a new story with an entire new cast of characters may seem daunting at first, and it is hard to do it sometimes, but I am determined to get moving forward with my writing again, even if it takes me into the new year to get things going with this new idea or another one. It took me three entire months to get into the groove of Book 2, and I'm not expecting much to happen other than the occasional idea popping into my brain before that time period is up this time around. 

I've started the Ideas for Scenes file for this one and will be starting a rough timeline tomorrow. I already know what will happen overall in the story, but am not sure on a few things... Like how the main characters wind up in their situations at the start of the book for example, and who the antagonists are/will be, and so on. Things will come to me over time, as the story is slowly revealed to me in my mind. More questions are in my head right now... Like how much time passes between the first word of the first page to the final word on the last page of it? How long is it before the leading couple get involved?... And so many others are starting to bounce around in there.

The questions are good things. They keep me thinking and wondering how a new story will unfold, and also keep me focused on finally seeing its full picture in time. Right now, it's sort of like looking up at the night sky, and only seeing one or two stars peeking through a cloud cover.... Slowly over a few hours, the rest of the constellation and later on, the rest of the stars are revealed to you. That is the best way I can describe something like starting a brand new story from scratch for anyone who hasn't tried it, or wants to try writing something, even a short story. 

I just hope the questions do not stop for this one, and I get sucked into it like I did with the previous two. With a little luck, I will be back at it sometime soon, and back to driving my poor husband, son and mentor nuts with seeing me being spaced out all of the time because my mind is so focused on the new project.

Have a great night everyone.