Kait Nolan | Sadie Hart

All has been going just dandy on meeting my daily goals for the ROW80 this week. I’ve hit every day so far (a little over 1k each day), except today, but I have to do some quick packing and head off for an emergency dog sit for someone… computer less, internet less… gasp! Maybe with a notebook…

I do want to give a huge thank you to Sonia Medeiros for awarding me with the Versatile Blogger Award. I’m still completely blown away by it and I feel really lame only being able to get out a fast thank you, instead of a formal blog post, but it WILL be coming! But wow, thank you, thank you, thank you. And surrounded by so many other amazing writers and bloggers out there, I can’t wait to pay it forward!

Wednesday Reads

Decided since I’ll be computer less for a few days, I’d post my wish list of books I hope to crack into very soon.

Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson – How could I not? Search and Rescue dogs have a special place in my heart, it’s something I’d love to be able to help with someday. I think what those dogs and their handlers do is amazing, and I can’t wait to read this story. But the purpose is two fold, it’s also research for a series I’ve been planning…Not exactly SAR dogs, but some pretty cool paranormal pooch sidekicks. Like you all didn’t see that coming. :-p

The Wish List by Gabi Stevens – Looks like a cute, fun read and I’m a sucker for Fairy Godmothers. Put it in a paranormal romance and you have me sold. That and I love the cover and good covers never hurt!

And one that’s been on my Goodreads ‘currently reading’ list but I’ve yet to actually get the chance to crack open? Kait Nolan’s Forsaken by Shadow. I started it once on the posts in her blog and fell in love. I love Embry, she’s a strong heroine, and Gage is totally drool worthy. It’s about time I get to finish what I started! So that’s first up for me!

I am definitely the kind of writer that thrives on sitting down with a blank screen, picking characters out of thin air and running with them. I love the thrill. Ask me to sit down and try and do that and just plot… and I wilt. Several friends have tried to get me to plot… and I admit that I never really saw much difference in how many plot holes I had on those that I had mapped out ahead of time and those I hadn’t… so I chalked it up to something that I saw no point in.

However, when sitting down to tackle my current novella WIP, Unfinished Business, I wanted a game plan. And after reading Susan Bischoff‘s wonderful short story in the Kiss Me, Kill Me Anthology, I stumbled on her awesome Blueprint for outlining. Holy heck. I’ve been doing it wrong!

Okay, so not quite. There’s not really a right or a wrong way to plot… but I’ve been doing it wrong for me. For the way my brain thinks. Her blueprint isn’t exactly how my brain thinks, but after working through it with Unfinished Business and some prelim work on the first book in the series that follows my novella… I realize that what she’s laid out is the closest thing to the way my brain develops an idea. I love it. Love it!!

I am altering it right now with a current novel-length project I just started – it completely side swiped me and sucked me in… but since I had nothing immediately ready to go once the novella is done (and it’s very close to being done), I’m not complaining. If I find a way that not only helps me be coherent, but doesn’t have me whining all the way through the plotting process… I’ll definitely share. Yes, I whine my way through the blueprint. Partly because some of the concepts are ‘new’ to me (as in I definitely don’t think about them ahead of writing :-p). Still, this is an awesome tool. I wish I’d stumbled on it earlier.

Now the true test is going to be if I end up with less plot holes, or if I’m just hopeless all the way around.