Signed Cover Art

If you'd like to receive a signed cover art postcard, email me at isobael at gmail dot com. Include your name and mailing address and I'll get them in the mail to you.

April 29, 2009

Good morning...

After a well timed kick in the pants by a friend (She knows who she is so I won't need to say her name), that made me tear up and sniffle, I went and took a nice, hot shower to relax and regroup.

After that shower, and a good scrubbing with my favorite body soap, Caress' Exotic Oil Infusion: Moroccan (I just LOVE the scent!!), I took a notebook, my favorite pen, and went to bed while the hubby continued to watch TV.

This gave me a good half hour of alone time in which I sat down and wrote down a "bullet list" for the story I'm writing. I can't seem to do outlines before the story as then it makes me feel I'm writing to a formula and then I'm constantly fighting myself as I write. So, I write a list of things I want to happen or explain for that chapter in a list. An author friend, Yasmine Galenorn (you can find her blog here), uses the term "bullet list" for it, so I think I'll "appropriate" the term as well. =)

Anyway, so I wake up this morning with a renewed vigor for writing "Jaguar Lord" and "Moonlight and Magick".

April 28, 2009

Writer's Dilemma...

There are days I think my writing is...useless. Especially when I get stuck. I'm wracking my brain trying to find a way to push it forward and come up with nothing, end up deleting major parts of the chapter to rewrite it so it can go forward...and end up writing myself in a corner again. And this is just chapter one!!

Then, when I do finish the chapter, I go back and proofread and edit...finish it, go back and re-edit...with the hope that I: a) caught all the mistakes, and b) didn't just edit the chapter too much and ruin all of my hard work. Is there such a thing as too much editing and when do you know you've reached the perfect, or close to perfect, editing and can move on?

THEN...I have to start on chapter two, worried that I edited chapter one to death and what if I left something out that should have been there and now people are confused, or did I give away too much in the first chapter? Should I take something out and tease the readers instead until later on or would that be too confusing and distracting from the plot?

Of course, that worry is distracting me from writing. Add in a hubby who just rolls his eyes when I say I'm writing and a kid who can't shut up...I end up going to take a hot shower just so I can think of what to write next...

Then I get distracted with thoughts and ideas of another story I'm either already working on or want to start working on, which ties in with the story I'm writing now...

You know...if I could somehow combine these stories, I might actually break 100,000 words and write a novel...but no...I can't seem to do it. All of my work are short stories.

I'm beginning to think I'm insane. LOL. Or at least, getting there very quickly.

April 10, 2009

Ghosts...

Some of you might already know that I'm very into the paranormal. Ok, that was an understatement and a half. LOL.

Anyway, when I'm not reading or writing or watching movies about vampires, shapeshifters, or ghosts, I'm researching about them.

One of my hobbies is recording EVPs. If you watch Ghost Hunters at all, you know Grant is ALWAYS explaining what EVPs are. Electronic Voice Phenomena: the recording of disembodied voices that are picked up using a recording device, be it voice recorder or video, but not heard by the human ear.

Anyway, my first trip out was during the day. I've been to the cemetery before, many times, as I have family buried there. I decided to take a brand new digital voice recorder my hubby bought me. It was freakin' hot out! Almost 100 degrees that day, so me and the Pixie-Brat (my daughter - that's her online name) only stayed for a couple of hours.

When I got home, I spent three times as long going over the recording, tossing out the iffy, keeping the clearest ones. I was very surprised that my first trip out resulted in that many clear catches. Anyway, I put them together in a slideshow "movie" and posted it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLyp3_e0E4

Does anyone else record EVPs?

Does anyone believe in ghosts? What experiences have you had?