Writing = Puzzles

I had the pleasure of going on a weekend writer's retreat with my fellow Toronto Romance Writer authors - JK Coi, Leah Braemel, Christing d'Abo and Kimber Chin. Much fun was had, words typed, brains stormed, wine drunk, chocolate consumed...

Over a week later and I'm still reflecting on how different we all worked, how we structure not only our writing time, but how our stories unfold.

While I write this, my son is sitting on the floor doing a puzzle. We usually do them together, me in the lead, so he follows my method: I begin with the four corners, then find all the edge pieces. Once those are in place, I like to sort the pieces by color so that I can quickly identify which part of the puzzle they belong. Then I start filling in the middle.
Left to his own devices, my five year old started from the bottom up.
The bottom up!!
Imagine that. It makes no sense to me, but he's plugging away and by the time I'm finished this post, I'm sure he'll be done.

Back to writing...
My method, what seems to work for me, anyway, is to get the four corners down, so within the rough outline (no, not synopsis... this is more of a mind dump) I identify the hero and heroine, their internal and external conflicts, how it affects them within the framework of the story.
Then I figure out how the hero and heroine meet, a few critical turning points and an ending (or at least a glimmer of an ending). Voila - my frame.
Then I begin - usually with 'Chapter One', but not always! I often write the critical scenes or turning points (the sorting of the colors) then go back and fill in or further flesh out the plot that lead to the critical scenes.

Other writers in the group write in a linear fashion -- from Chapter 1 to The End. Something like what my son is doing with his puzzle (he's finished, btw -- every little Spongebob piece in its perfect place). The beginning to end method makes the most sense, doesn't it? It's logical -- can't argue with that -- but this method doesn't work for me because if I come upon a part I don't know what to do with, I get paralyzed, unable to move past that point. (I know, I know, stubborn like mule.) I feel like I don't have an aim.
I'm strange like this. Y'know how some people go for a walk? "Hey - let's go for a walk, get some fresh air, some exercise."
This isn't me. I need a destination or it seems like a pointless task. Tell me to walk to the mailbox, to the store for a paper, to the closest Tim Hortons for a coffee, and hell ya! The fresh and exercise is a bonus. But just to go for a walk... uh un.
(I get it, btw, why people do, so don't misread this as me being judgemental --It's totally me being strange!!)

What works for you? Are you a corners and border first, a one end to the other, or a grap a piece and see where it fits?

It's so dark in here...

I'm such a bad blogger lately, eh? What can I say.... all my brain juice is being used on the current wip-from-hell, Jump Zone, that was supposed to end about 20k words ago... but is just NOT.
The good news: I finally figured out how to end the sucker.
The bad news: I still have many thousands of words to write.

The other bad news (or good news, depending on your pov...) I'm taking a blogaday (blog+holiday) for a month or two. I'm going deeper into the cave taking only a candle, match and my laptop. And maybe a bag of chips (or twelve).

Before I go...
I must give a big shout out to Leah Braemel who not only had her first book released from Samhain -- but also remained #1 on their best seller list for two weeks!! You can learn more about Private Property HERE.

Another shout out to Christine d'Abo for her recent release All Bottled Up from Samhain AND her uber-hot Ellora's Cave book The Bond that Ties Us (a must-read) is coming out in print. Double WOOTS!

Whew, I'm getting hoarse from these, but there's just much good news!
Another WOOT WOOT goes to Amy Ruttan who's first book of a five book series, Enchanted: The Fey just came out from Linden Bay. I haven't read it yet, but if it's got Amy's name on it, you can be sure it'll contain some hot stuff ;)

AND - last but certainly not least, the talented Thomma Lyn sold her novel Mirror Blue to Black Lyon Publishing!! Let me tell you... I've read the book and it's amazing. It's about damn time someone recognized her awesome literary talent. Keep your eyes on this one... it'll be a late spring release and you will NOT want to miss it. Trust.


Happy writing, happy reading and bye for awhile!

Enquiring Minds Want to Know: How do you bust stress??

Isn't summer supposed to be a lazy time to kick back, relax and enjoy the sunbeams?
Yeah, well... I'm doing something seriously wrong because I've been in frantic mode since mid-June.

I had a nice long chat with my TRW (Toronto Romance Writers) buddy Christine d'Abo over dinner the other night and she's in a very stressful place as well, for different reasons. I've got ten years on Christine so tried to share some of my own experiences in handling stress in the workplace, which is ironic since she's already much better equiped to handle it than I was ten years ago!! Also, I've gotten myself into my own personal stress-rut so who'm I to dole out advice?

So give it to me people... WHAT DO YOU DO when feeling overwhelmed, can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, or find yourself in circumstances that you don't have the power to change? Other than self-medicate, I mean ;)

I used to loose myself in a good book, but I just can't find the time to crack a novel, let alone Christine's latest release (The Bond that Heals Us, second in the Bond series... so freaking good!!) and even THAT'S stressing me out!! What the heck kind of supportive sistah-friend am I that I can't find three or four hours to jump into the Davin/Sara story that I had been chomping at the bit for?! *bows head in shame*

On a sort of related topic, Leah Braemel brought up the subject of writing and hobbies on her blog today, so go visit and share your thoughts.

Book News, Movie News

In books...

Christine d'Abo's The Bond that Heals Us is now available from Ellora's Cave.
It's the long-awaited sequel to last year's The Bond that Ties Us. I can't wait to dive back in to the Eurus Colony and see what awaits the lovely Dr. Sara when she meets a smokin' hot alien named Davin. Click HERE to buy.

In movies...
Saw the movie Baby Mama starring SNLers Tina Fey and Amy Pohler. I was a little worried that they'd showed all the good bits on the trailer, so I didn't have particulary stellar expectations from this one. Surprise! The movie was better than the trailers. It was 1 1/2 hours of laughs with some 'ah shucks' sweetness and a touch of romance. Very enjoyable. I especially liked Greg Kinnear's role -- is it just me, or is he highly underrated as an actor? Oh, and he's very hot in that 'husband next door' kinda way. Okay... that was creepy, but you know what I mean, right? He's more 'average' than hunky, yet he totally does it for me as a beta-dude. *sigh*
I posted more about Mr. Kinnear at Six Degrees of Sexy. In fact, I gave him the esteemed honor of being our Humpday Hunk!!

I'm eager to see Iron Man. Has anyone seen it yet? Let me know what you thought in comments!

Finally - COME BACK TOMORROW, May 9th, because I'm doing a Law of Averages contest. Anyone who comments gets thrown into a draw for a prize!!

The Steaming Sexies

Three of the Sexies have new books out, and their releases just happen to coincide with my 3-day break from writing. Well timed, ladies ;)

Here's the blurb for Red Garnier's Stroke of Midnight (LSB):

Some wounds take a long time to heal…

A summer in their family Aspen cottage sounds just like the thing to help Elena Wolverton get over a tragic accident. Her body needs to recover, and so does her soul.

Elena’s sister Vivian brings a friend along for the week, and Porter Rowe is the stuff of dreams. The stuff of Elena’s dreams; awakening her to longings she hasn’t felt before.

Elena knows a man like Porter could finish with what’s left of her, break all that remains. Or he could help her forgive, forget, and have a second chance at happiness.

Contains: multiple partner sex F/M/F, oral sex, graphic language.
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God I love the disclaimer! The ones on my books say: "Contains: SEX, but nothing daring or envelope-pushing by any stretch of the imagination." :D

I read this scorcher last night and I have one complaint -- It's TOO SHORT! Elena is an endearing woman and Porter Rowe is fantasy-material. Well done, Ms Garnier. The outside temps in my area may have dropped, but the thermostat in my bedroom went WAY up!!

BUY IT HERE and then pop over to Six Degrees of Sexy to enter Red's contest.

Tonight I shall lay me down to sleep with Renee Field and Christine d'Abo's release Sweet and Spicy Spells (EC). Here's the blurb (I'm closing my eyes to cut and paste 'cause I love reading a book when I having absolutely NO idea who's who or what's what):

Two sisters, two brothers — and a whole lot of sexy spells.

Kisha hasn't been able to cast a single correct spell. Not a good thing when you're a witch. Kisha has two days to master her powers and Foster is the wizard who's been sent to help. To kick-start her system, Kisha has to discover the uninhibited joys of orgasms, and Foster is more than happy to use his "wand" for the task.

Priscilla is perfect — tall, busty and beautiful. All Hallow's Eve coincides with the annual Cauldron Cup where Priscilla has to defend her title. What she isn't expecting is Zack Kane to zap back into her life after five years. Passion flares as spells and clothing fly.

When the siblings uncover a plot to assassinate the members of the witch council, they must put their differences aside to save the council…and themselves.

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I don't think its premature of me to say it's HOT, cause it's coming from Ellora's Cave, or that I love it already because Renee and Christine are very talented ladies, so

BUY IT HERE!