Kick Off of Nano

Today is day 1 of Nano. I am 100% ready. I have my long winded outline all written out in my purple notebook sitting next to me on my desk. Now that picture above is of my cat Olli. As soon as I sat down to start writing, there he was sitting on the keyboard. I managed to write around 500 words with him resting his head on my wrist.

I am so excited! I'm hoping this is going to be a great year. My RWA chapter is all excited and we have a lot of members joining in. We have our own Nano Yahoo Loop where we can all cheer each other on.

My muse has finally come all back. Oh yes. It couldn't have come at a better time. Good luck to all of you who are participating in Nano.

Happy Halloween

You're never too old to dress for Halloween!

New Jersey Conference

Tanya Goodwin and me taking a swim after a hectic day of workshops and pitching our books!

This past weekend, I attended the “New Jersey Put Your Heart in a Book”. A new conference in a different state...perfect! There were, however, a few obstacles to get over before the conference officially began.

Tanya picked me up on Thursday morning. After a quick lunch at my house, we were off. We quickly settled into our rooms. Next it was time to meet Tanya for dinner. We planned on looking through the workshop schedule, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Now you know the weekend was not going to go by without a couple of incidents. Like…a brief plumbing problem. Now you must be saying it is impossible, especially after our Washington story, but it’s true. After finding out that Tanya had the only toilet in the hotel that had a tank in a tank element, which of course kept getting clogged with just a fragment of a toilet tissue, she was moved to another room. Our journey began.

Next came a simple request. A small table. Well, after dinner, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the table was delivered to Tanya’s room. A banquet table. So our journey continued. We both brought the table down the hall, onto the elevator, with Tanya hanging over it to push the elevator button. Oh yes, another wonderful scene. You just can’t make this stuff up. And let’s not forget another false fire alarm. What’s going on? Two conferences, and two false fire alarms causing chaos. I just rolled over and said who cares.

Wow. Once we got over those obstacles, we were in the home stretch.
We breezed through registration and met up with Carolyn Gibbs, Lis Eng and Cathy Greenfeder for lunch. Everything was going well until I wound up with a sore throat and fever. But that didn’t stop me. I was off to the workshops. First up was “How to Cook up a Suspense Novel” with the husband and wife team of Jim & Nikoo McGoldrick writing as Jan Coffey. From there I strolled to Kathy Kulig’s “Screenwriting Tips for Building a Novel”. Oh yes, dialog is the most important ingredient.

The Golden Leaf Book Award Ceremony was awesome. Our very own Anna DePalo won for her short contemporary novels “The Billionaire in Penthouse B”.

The rest of the conference was filled with parties (the blender) and socializing with friends, new and old. Former member Irene Weissman rocked the house, telling us countless stories of inspiration.

We rocked the house at the after party singing Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. We had a great time. I was proud to be there representing our New York Chapter. I left with renewed hope, dreams and inspiration.

Walk It Out

Back to School! Hmm…not a bad idea for all of us. Come on lets face it, all summer long, the moment we saw the combination of sun and hot weather, we were no where near our computers. Now, it’s time to get into some sort of schedule, along with the kids. The key is structure and a schedule. You would think that with me being home all day that I would be pumping out thousands of words. Absolutely not. I am guilty of dilling and dalling all day long doing…nothing. But I did add some structure in my life during the past few weeks, and plan to expand that into the fall months.

Now you ask, how do you find time to write, let alone think? I have the perfect solution which I’ll walk you through. It will not only open up your mind to endless possibilities, but will keep you trim and fit.

Walking. I find walking is the best way to relax, and get my muse flowing. I walk no matter the weather. I’ve been known to walk during a snow storm. Even if it’s around the block, or walking during your lunch break, use the time to clear your mind and let your characters take over. I always carry colorful index cards with me and a pen, usually sticking out of my ponytail. Believe it or not, this is how I write my outlines. I walk it through one scene at a time. I stop, write my thoughts and continue on my journey.

I’ve used walking to get through some of the toughest scenes that I couldn’t find a resolution to. I have to admit that walking is my salvation. It works wonders for every aspect in my life.

Now, I am going to offer you a challenge. With NaNoWriMo only three weeks away, I challenge you to spend the week putting together a character sketch of both your hero and heroine, include physical and emotional traits. Give your characters a background, a career. Pick your genre and setting. Write a one sentence hook that would describe your book. Believe me, you will be thankful that you created that one liner before you begin your project. I suggest you grab a pair of sneakers, lace them up and get your imagination walking. A simple walk around the block will clear your mind, waking it up to endless creative possibilities.

Revisions

I'm in the editing stage of my current work in progress (WIP) Roses. I'm working on another name. I'm one of them that need a title in order to write. Crazy, isn't it? During the next couple of weeks I am going to continue editing and will be ready to submit to agent/editors. But in the meantime, I am working on an outline for book two of the Mystical Wonders Series. I will keep you posted as I go along.

50 and Loving it!

I'm officially 50 and loving every minute of it. When they say it's only a number, they are absolutely right. Who says that romance ends when you become an adult. I feel that I'm not only writing from experience, but I'm writing from a different perspective. There is a fine line between romance and lust. Sure we all turn our heads when we see a gorgeous man, however, as you get older you seem to look beyond the looks and find that romance can be so much more.

Writing romances at 50 is a challenge because most of the novels out there are targeted towards women in their twenties. My writing techniques have changed as I've grown and I will continue to write Women's Fiction with New Age, Suspense and Romantic Elements for women of all ages.

Nano - Day 6

It's day 6 of Nano and it can't get any more hectic than it has been the past few days. I have to be out of my mind with the list of things I have on my plate, but a little at the time, I am crossing them off. Just when things get crazy, a phone call from a friend gets me right back on the track.

The story that I'm working on I've tentatively titled, The Boardwalk. It revolves around a forty-five year old woman, who loses the love of her life to cancer. I incorporate real life situations that happen to us middle-aged woman. Some things are so bizarre that they are unbelivable, but believe me you don't have to be young to have crazy things happen to you.

Nanowrimo Eve

Isn't that a gorgeous sunrise? I took the picture this morning down at the South Beach Boardwalk in Staten Island, New York. This is where all my brainstorming takes place. The only reason why I love this time of year is because I can watch the sunrise every morning.

Tonight is the eve of Nanowrimo and I'm getting all excited. I have my sixty page outline and character sketches all ready to roll. I wish I would be able to stay up tonight until midnight to start, but unfortunately after being up from six o'clock this morning, I know for a fact that I will never make it as my eyes are already rolling shut at eight o'clock.

I look forward to working on my new project. My fingers are itching, however, I promise not to cheat. Damn...middle age is a beautiful thing.

New Jersey Romance Writer's Conference

Just got home from the NJRW Conference and came with the drive to write...write....write!!!



Saturday was highlight with great speakers. I started the day by going to a special presentation by New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward. She had us in stitches as she told her stories and urged us all to write what's in our head. Let is all roll. If you haven't read her erotic paranormal romance series of vampire books called, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, you sure were going to make it a point to purchase and read the whole series.



Our breakfast speaker, New York Times bestselling author of historical regencies, Eloisa James shared her life's experiences, coming from a family of poets and how she wrote what was in her heart despite the fact that her mother didn't like romances.

By lunch, Keynote Speaker Lisa Scottoline entertained us with her family stories that she turned into New York Times bestselling novels. Her underlying message is to use every day experiences and turn them into fiction.

By the end of the night, we all met at the Conference After Party and danced the night away. I even got up, microphone in hand during the karaoke portion of the night and with members of the New York City Chapter, we serenaded everyone with New York, New York by Frank Sinatra.

It was a great weekend. Can't wait until next year!!!

Life Begins at 50

Can it be that I'm going to be 50 in 4 months? Damn...where did all the years go by. It feels as if it were only yesterday that I was sitting in the movie theater for 3 showings of Saturday Night Fever with my best friend Liz.

Back in the day we were considered "Glitter Chicks" as our hair was perfectly teased and our clothes were only worn straight out of the dry cleaners. However, my love of writing has been around before the days of disco and the New York Mets clinching the 1973 National League Championship.

I still love the Mets, and my first manuscript I ever wrote by hand is still sitting in my closet and revolves around baseball players. I will never throw it away as it is a part of my childhood that will always be alive in me.

Now, over 32 years later, not only did my priorities change, but my writing style did too. I thought I was the bomb and knew everything there was to know about publishing and finding agents. Well...how wrong I was. I have enough rejection letters for the past 32 years to wallpaper the walls throughout my house. I joined Romance Writers of America's New York City Chapter and what I've learned has been not only invaluable, but has changed my quality of writing.

I decided to change my style of writing because I was tied of reading about twenty something women finding the love of their lives. I am a mature adult, (maybe in age but not in mind) and being part of the baby boom, I realized that life started for me when I was in my forties. I have a different set of priorities and at 49, I feel emotionally and physically stronger than I have ever had in my whole life.

To me, there is more to writing than sex, sugar daddies and boy toys. I want to creative a story that the baby boomers could relate too. It took me all these years to realize that there is so much more to sex than the multiple orgasms. (Not that I would ever complain about that.)

I was married, now divorced and raising 2 kids on my own. (Who am I kidding. My son is 19 and my daughter 16, and both are on going on 30, so they think. LoL) I was mom and dad and spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the car. If I wasn't at my daughter's softball game (she's her High School Teams MVP Pitcher), then I was at my son's gig, (he's a musician/songwritereither) on Staten Island or at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan. I realized the books I wanted to read about were the ones about woman starting over and finding love.

That's what inspired me to start this blog as a way to channel others to share their thoughts on life in general, how they juggle a career and kids (grandchildren), and when they find time to write.

I feel that life begins at 50. We are the new 30, however, we're a little more wiser.

I'm going to be starting Nano November 1st and I'd love to hear from other women who are juggling families, career, and their writing.

The weekend is upon us, and I'm going to use it to work on my outline for Nano. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.