Mad-ly Writing

I’m feeling slightly more crazy than normal right now… why?  I just haven’t had a lot of time for writing lately, what with the Husband being home for the first time in 6+ weeks and him wanting to do things nearly all the time.  And then getting sick enough that I couldn’t sit without becoming, er, sick.  (I think you can use your own imagination for that!)

So that’s why, not only am I late for updating, but I don’t really have much to say either.  I am however feeling much, much better today than I was feeling yesterday, and the Husband’s gone again for a few weeks (back to work) and I’m back at the computer and trying to get back on schedule. 

With any luck I’ll be able to purge my mind over the next few days, quiet some of the loudest voices that are demanding attention, and be able to feel slightly more sane than I do right now.  ;-)

For something to new to see - check out what's happening over on my review and discussion blog, or my other writing blog.

Getting Back In To Things

Surprise! Amazing I know, but yes… I’m back again with an update.  It’s probably going to be short but it’s an update. 

I’m trying to put all my blog updates onto a schedule this fall so that I don’t end up with one blog having updates all the time, while my other blogs stand lonely and, more or less, dead. If, and I really stress that if, things go according to what I’ve worked out for myself, then you should see at least one update a week here on Inside My Mind.  Actually you should see about an update a week on my reviews blog and my other writing blog too. 

[Me? I’m keeping my fingers crossed…]

About that other writing blog I mentioned… Becoming Dawn is a new blog that I’ve started that is going to showcase the contemporary writing that I plan to do – it may be romance, mystery, suspense or just plain old fiction (which, let’s be honest, includes all of the aforementioned aspects).  Because that writing will contrast somewhat sharply with what I generally write I’ve decided to write it (and publish) using a penname.  To see more on this, or to find out what I’ve got going in that direction please feel free to visit Becoming Dawn anytime.

For the writing that I talk about here and whatever I may showcase or spotlight here on Inside My Mind, I will continue to use Lacey Ferris, or LD Ferris.  It’s just easier for me to separate that which I write as fantastical from that which I write as reality if I ‘separate’ the authors’ identity.  Even if I and everyone else know that they are actually the same person.

So what did Lacey write this week?  Hhmm… She wrote this blog.  Which granted isn’t much but I’ve had kids going back to school, extra-curricular’s to organize and schedule, and started on a cleaning sweep through the house.  Exciting, huh?  LOL – I was sort of a boring but busy woman this last week, and everything that I was doing seemed to revolve around someone else.  This next week is mine though… right?

I am diving back in to The Gifted soon though.  So, realistically I should have another one or two character profiles that I could put up soon. (Click here to see the first of the character profiles for The Gifted.)  And I’ve been thinking of trying to scour through celeb pictures online to try and find faces that come close to what I’m seeing in my mind.  I haven’t decided whether I want to do that yet though because I’m always scared that I’ll slack at describing them because I’m thinking to myself ‘it’s the girl/guy in the picture.’

I’m still working on the edits for The Chosen too.  That story is by far the most done and closest to being complete.  It still has a ways to go but with a good 60,000 words I have it at that point where it’s comfortably uncomfortably waiting for me.  I’m going to have to turn my focus back to it soon though, I think, because I actually had another dream about my characters there and what they’re telling me now is something slightly different from how we began.  I’ll manage to straighten it out though, I always do.

And Immortals is merely waiting for me.  Once I get some more out of Gifted and Chosen though it’ll be full bore ahead on this one, especially since it was only meant to be novella length in the first place.  And yes, my immortals are growing as impatient with me as my witches and shape-shifters are. 

Can’t you hear them yelling?

“Hurry up and tell the bloody story Lacey!”

I guess I better listen.

Talk to you again soon… (next week if all goes according to my plan!)  

Tootles! Lacey :-)

The End (of Summer) is Near...

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For this year.

Last time I wrote here I complained about how different, how 'bad,' summer was going to be - as an adult and a parent. I wasn't wholey wrong. Of course, I wasn't entirely right either. Having to adjust and re-work schedules or, in my case, completely forget having a schedule was a pain in the ---, well, I'm sure you get where I was going with that. Yet it also gave me a sense of freedom I hadn't expected.

As a stay at home mom I always have a certain degree of freedom when it comes to what I do, and when I do it, but this was a different. If I wanted to take the kids swimming in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday, I could, there was absolutely nothing to stop me. If I wanted to go camping for 2 weeks straight, I could. And if the kids wanted to go away with family for any length of time, and that family was able to take them, they did. It was actually sort of... Nice.

But, like the title says, the end is near. The kids go back to school next Monday (in less then a week!) and we're back to the extra-curricular schedule within a week of school starting too. And now, I've decided to go back and do a few classes at the local University as well. It's going to be stressful and busy, and all of us are going to have to stick very closely to our new schedule or it's going to be chaos.

I can't wait.

Of course, as I've been debating the last couple weeks over whether I should be going back to classes or not, I've had to consider the extent to which I was willing to allow my writing to be, shall I say, inconvenienced. I've talked to some other authors, some friends, and they've all told me very similar things.

Writing is a full-time job. As such I should treat it as a full time job and therefore devote that amount of time to it. At least I should be doing that if I want to "succeed." I don't disagree with that.

But I've also been told, and taught since I was a child, that all knowledge is power. If I can use what I'm learning in my classes to help me with my writing I'm not really abandoning the effort then, am I? The actual number of hours that I'll be able to spend writing may decrease, that's pretty much a given, but my classes may work for me rather than against me. Especially if they are the 'right' classes.

I've also had to consider how much I was willing to allow school and writing to detract from the time I'm able to spend with my kids.

It's a hard decision to make. But I made it. There are some things that no matter how much I read about and research, I'm never fully going to be able to figure out on my own. In that way, I need the classes. And where it comes to considering the kids... well, I've had to make a few allowances there. I've compressed the time I'd be busy in school to two days a week. I've made sure that I'm there while my oldest is at her school. That leaves me with the other two. For them, I decided that spending a bit more time with Grandma and Grandpa, or Auntie, really won't hurt them. And they are more than happy to keep them.

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So I'll try a semester. I'll keep writing on the days when I'm not at school and spend time with my kids when I'm not doing either of those. Weekends are going to be extremely important for all of us, I think. But I'll make it work. School plays into my writing. The writing plays into supporting my kids. And the kids are the most important thing.

I will make it work. I have to.

So the summer is at an end, but something else is just beginning. Again.

So... How's It Going?

I just love to hear this question... eight times a day... from the same person.

I know that people are curious, especially the people in my family, but come on, do you really think things have changed that much in an hour?... or even in two?? And with you calling, or texting, me all the time do you really think that I'm actually getting anything done?

Deep breaths.

Yeah, it's been one of those days. Actually it's been one of those weeks. I have a lot of respect and a great deal of affection for my mother but not even I want to talk to her that many times a day. Especially not when my brains already blocked and "the writing" (as she's calling it) hasn't been going super smooth. She's being supportive, which I really do appreciate, but sometimes I wish that she could be a bit less obvious in her support.

Overall the current work-in-progress is moving along... albeit slowly the last couple of days, but it is moving and I guess I can just be grateful that things haven't slowed to a stand still. I am grateful. Extremely grateful, actually.

I got a great note from someone today though that really put things in perspective. It didn't say anything that I haven't heard before but I think, maybe, I just needed to hear it all again so that I could remember that the battle is half the fun... Here's what Shay said:

"I spent eighteen months on my book, including the second rewrite. I thought it was great, gave it to a good friend who read it and explained why it would never get published. I was knocked back, gutted, but took on board what he'd said, actually agreed with him, and now I'm giving it another go. Most writers say that the first book is a stepping stone, a learning experience, and the writer gets better with each book. Unless lucky, the first won't always get published. But that just made me more determined to keep trying until I get that first one right. I want to get published mainstream. I've heard its a really long difficult road. But the process of writing is so satisfying, in this case, the destination isn't the be all and end all. The challenge of getting there has to be reward in itself or whats the point?"

So the answer to the question of the day???

It's going.