MORWA meeting!

I had the best time today at the chapter meeting. The subject of the day was The First year after “The Call”  Megan Kelly and Kimberly Killion were giving the presentation. They have to be the funniest women I know. They had us all in stitches, and I learned a lot as well. I was nervous yes, but they made it easier.

I finished my galley for Grace Under Fire. Now I wait to hear on the release date.

Still haven’t sent off Going Once, Going Twice, Dead. I’m procrastinating because I’m a big chicken. Bawk…bawk.

Love, love, love my granddaughter.  She is a dollbaby and I adore her.

Anyway, I have two critiques to get done. I’d better get on that.

Jerri

No release date yet, but I have a cover!

For Grace Under Fire, which I totally love. Take a look!

I should have a release date soon, and when I do, I’ll post it. I truly love this story. I love the hero, Cord. He’s a brooding hunk of a guy who doesn’t think he’s worthy of Grace , the heroine, or any woman for that matter. I can’t wait to hold this book in my hands–I’ve waited a long time.

I’m getting ready to submit the book I just finished and I’m nervous as heck. What if they don’t like it? What do I do with it then. I have my Jungle series just sitting around because I don’t know where to submit them. Action-adventure/category. Shrugging. I’m at a loss.

On a personal note, my grandbaby is getting cuter everyday. We were over there last night and I just wanted to hold her forever.

Have a great day!

Jerri

Hit two milestones on Thursday!

Yes, that’s right. Two of them on Thursday morning. First, I finished the first draft for Going Once, Going Twice, Dead. Second, and the most important, I became a grandmother for the first time to the most beautiful baby girl. I may be bias, but she has to be the cutest thing that ever existed. Emma Christine weighed in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces–20 inches long and simply adorable. I could hold her forever but I don’t think my daughter would let me.

She is as cute as a bug in a rug. Isn’t that a weird saying? Why would a bug in a rug be cute? Anyway, she’s my heart and I couldn’t love her any more  if she were my own.

I had to spill out my heart–I promise it’ll never happen again. Well, I’ll seriously try to control myself from now on.

So, that’s all I have to say for now. Have a great weekend!

Jerri

About to hit 20,000 new word mark!

I have to tell you, it feels really good to be writing on a regular basis–I feel like a writer again. I’ve come to realize that I’ve been a slacker the last six months, and if it kills me, I’m going to continue the 1,000 words a day. As soon as I finish Going Once, Going Twice, Dead I think I’ll go back to my jungle adventures and finish the last book in the series Undone. Hunt probably thought I’d forgot about him. Then after that book, a secondary character in Going Once is calling for his own story. Yeah, yeah, I’m definately getting ahead of myself. One book at a time.

Yesterday my daughter had a doctors appointment. The Doc said the baby seemed big and that he’s afraid she might have trouble having a normal delivery. She is having another sonogram on Friday. I guess we’ll find out  what’s going to happen then, unless she goes into labor before Friday. I seriously hope she doesn’t have to have a C-Section.

Note: I am going to talk about character types some day soon–just haven’t had much time to get anything together on it.

Anyway, have a wonderful evening!

Jerri

MORWA meeting!

Yes, I managed to talk myself into going to MORWA again–with a nudge from my husband. I was late to Coffee talk in which Jeannie Lin had a presentation on Pitching your story at conferences. It was very interesting and informative.

The chapter presentation was done by Angie Fox,who talked about the bare bones of writing a paranormal. What she spoke about could be applied to any genre, so I learned a lot there too.  Next meeting will be shorter because they are having an anniversary party. I’ll go to the meeting but I’d feel weird about going to the anniversay event since I just joined.

As far as Going Once, Going Twice, Dead, still moving along at a nice pace. Had a few surprises last week, but good ones. I’m moving into the black moment and I’m looking forward to it–I so love to see my characters suffer. LOL

No baby yet. But I’m okay with that. This gives my daughter more time to get ready for her. She has no idea how much her life is going to change once she does arrive.

So you all have a wonderful Sunday. I’ll be spending a lot of the day cutting the grass.

Jerri

Slow and Steady finishes the book!

I’m amazed at how fast a book can get written when you’re writing over a 1,000 words a day. I’ve hit the 100 page mark and I’m thrilled. I have less than half to go and I can’t wait to write THE END of this book.  I even know how I’m going to end it.  ; – ]

In the next couple of days I’m going to discuss  type on heroes. I’m reading a book on character types and what distinguishes one from the other.  Do you know what  type your current hero is? How about Heroine?

Yesterday my daughter was about  a  centimeter dialated. So, this baby could come any time. I’ll keep you p0sted on that.

Talk to you all soon!

Jerri

0ver 9,000 words and counting!

Going Once, Going Twice, Dead is moving along nicely. I’m over half finished now. I have about 20,000 words to go and I plan to finish the book by next month–then get it shining to send out. I’ve written the synopsis but I strayed from the plot a little so I’m going to have to rework it as well. I got past the part in the book that was the killer for me–the love scene. They really are the hardest thing to write for me. I love writing action-suspense, but that love scene just kicks my behind.  I think it makes or breaks a book.

One line from GO,GT,D I wrote today:  She was going to pay for this with her life, but not before he had his fill of her.

Today I’m going to wade into some revision on Untouched. The book is done. I just need to do the last run-through. Make sure there aren’t any loose ends. My hubby went back to work today so I’m on my own again, so hopefully I can get a lot of revision done. It’s hard when you’re running here and there. I was lucky I got my words written for the week.

No baby yet, though my daughter was having contractions on Saturday. She’s going to be in her 38th week tomorrow. She could have this baby any day now. I’m getting nervous because this is my baby having a baby and I can’t stand to see her in pain.

Anyway, have a great Monday!

Jerri

1,000 words a day, and more!

For the last 4 days I’ve been on the 1,000 words a day program, and surprisingly it takes very little time to do. Why haven’t I been doing this all along? Because I’m lazy when it comes to writing. I’ve treated it as a hobby, but I’ve decided that for people to take me seriously in this business, I need to take myself seriously. So, since Sunday I have a little over 4,000 new words in Going Once, Going Twice, Dead. Dane and Simone have lead me in a direction that I think will help keep me going for quite awhile. I hope to have this book finished by sometime next month.  Meanwhile, I’ll still be working on revision on Untouched and Unplanned.

Someone asked me the other day how many stories I’d written. I had to sit down and write them all down.  These are the stories I’ve finished. Because I have a few in partial completion, but I’m not counting them. I’ve written 13 full-length novels and 4 novellas. Only 4 are published–one going to be in the near future. But what does that leave? Okay, my first book was an ode to fan-fiction, but the others had strong story lines, I just need to rewrite them. That thought used to scare me, but it doesn’t anymore. It’s not all that hard to revise a manuscript. I’m finding that out with Untouched and Unplanned. So, even if I couldn’t come up with any new story ideas, (which I can) I’d have books to fall back on. I’m thankful for that. I hope to see them all in print someday.

So on to the homefront. My husband is on vacation this week, and we’ve been spending a lot of time working outside, when it isn’t raining. Trying to get the homestead looking fab. Going to do a little bit of landscaping if it stops raining.

My daughters baby has dropped, which says to me, she’s about ready to be born. I am so excited about being a Grandmother. I can’t wait to spoil my granddaughter completely.

Anyway, enough for now. Have a great Wednesday.

Jerri

Too many irons in the fire!

That’s what I’ve got going with my writing. I’m, working on too many different stories.  Revision on two and writing a new story and struggling to finish another. I really think you can have too many characters running around in your head that its hard to focus on any of them. This is me right now. I started a new spy story that I think will be a novella. I’m doing rewrites on my Men of the Jungle series. Then I have my romantic suspense, “Going Once, Going Twice, Dead” that is about half done. Which one do I work on? I just don’t know. Maybe I’ll let you decide. I’ll give you the first lines of each and you can tell me which one I should focus my time on.

1. Untouched–Travis Kane lifted the box from the attorney’s desk and gave it a good shake, not at all surprised to find it sounded empty.

2. Unplanned–Dana Rutherford stared open-mouthed at the stick between her thumb and forefinger, the pink plus sign forming on the indicator sending her heart into her stomach.

3. Going Once, Going Twice, Dead–Christ almighty!  In the ten years Dane Reynolds had been in Homicide, he’d never seen anything like this, and that was saying something.

4. The Spy Who Snagged Me–From an acquaintances theatre box, Gil Bartholomew viewed his target, a tempting vision that made his groin twitch.

Which story should I finish first?

The baby shower was a blast. Everyone came and had a good time. I don’t think there is much my daughter needs now. She’s ready for her daughter to come. So am I.

Have a great evening!

Jerri

I did it–I survived my first Chapter meeting!

I was scared. I’m sure they could all see that. The ladies I did talk to were really nice. First we had Coffee Talk. In the meeting we had  Janette Kenny as speaker and I really enjoyed her presentation. I learn a few things I didn’t know and that made going well worth the uncomforable feelings I had about it.

I’m working on revision and I started something new as well. It’s a secret agent type story. I have so many things going–I need to finish at least one of them in the next month. I do know working on one thing at a time is best but right now I just don’t seem to be able to do that. I’ll write all I can and finish them all hopefully this year. Goal for the rest of 2009–finish everything I’ve started.

Today hubby and I are off to get everything for the baby shower. I’m just thankful that its not going to be a formal thing–casual and laid back. I want to enjoy the day as well. My daughter wasn’t feeling well yesterday–having a lot of Braxton Hicks. I told her not to have the baby before the shower. She said she’d try not to. She had a doctors appt today. We’ll see if she’s start dialating or not.

Anyway, have a great Tuesday!

Jerri