New Novel Alert! Cindy James -- Their Highland Trust

Check out my cousin, Cindy James's, debut novel, "Their Highland Trust."  If you like time travel and steamy romance, this novel is for you! The story follows a strong-willed American research scientist, Eleanor Grant, and a hunky Scottish police officer, Conall Cameron, through the highlands and back in time on a journey they, and you, won't soon forget.

Beautifully written, witty and very hot, this book is an addictive read!  The novel is available in ebook and paperback at the following locations:

Amazon
Paperback -https://www.amazon.com/Their-Highland-Trust-Cindy-James

ebook -- https://www.amazon.com/Their-Highland-Trust-ebook

Barnes and Noble
ebook --http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/their-highland-trust-cindy-james


Also, be sure to check out Cindy James's author page (BiokmstWrites) to get information on this and future installments of the Cameron Laird Series!

Starting from Scratch

Anyone who writes knows that the most common piece of writing advice echoes the sentiment of a popular shoe company.  To paraphrase -- You have to sit down and do it.  It doesn't matter what else is going on in your life, if you want to be a writer, you have to devote a whole lot of time, and a little (or lot) of blood, sweat and tears.  It's what you might call Writing 101.

Well, I've been failing Writing 101.

About a year and a half ago, I relocated from central Ohio (Go Bucks!) to sunny, northern California. It was a huge move!  As I packed boxes and then unpacked boxes, I had visions of new sights and sounds stimulating my creative juices.  I thought views of the Pacific, rugged mountains, dry heat and new cultures would cause my imagination to kick into overdrive.  Once the house was unpacked, the children enrolled in school, a new job procured and new routines developed, I did thoroughly enjoy exploring the new place I was learning to call home.  I found myself constantly amazed by the beauty before me -- the clouds hanging on the mountain tops, the rugged cliffs which jutted right into the sea, the sunsets over the bays.  I met and continue to meet wonderful people and absolutely love my job as a Paraeducator in a special needs classroom. I've been happy.  I've been intrigued.  But most of all, I've been tired!

It's only after a year and a half that I'm starting to feel like writing again.  Until very recently, the thought of sitting with my computer on my lap after a full day of living and working seemed like a pipe dream.  I've missed writing. I miss my characters.  I miss the stories.  But stepping so far out of my comfort zone and having to completely learn a new place has just sapped my creative energy.  I think about writing all the time.  I come up with new angles and ideas for the stories I was writing before I took a break.  And it isn't as if I've written nothing.  On the rare occasion I've attempted to write, however, I generally end up asleep with my laptop perched precariously on the edge of my lap.

So here I am, finally, ready to give it a go again.  The biggest problem I've noticed as I revisit my old work is that it truly is like starting over.  I feel like I'm at step one as I agonize over word choice and question whether the story I'm trying to tell even has any merit.  Rejections sting a little more as I wonder if I would have done something different with the story a few years ago when writing was apart of my routine.  

I'm enrolling on Writing 101 again.  This time, I hope with a whole lot of work and a little more of that blood, sweat and tears, I'll get my groove back!

A New Year

After a long hiatus, I am back at it -- finally! 

2015 was filled with lots of exciting events -- a move across the country, a new job and little travel. Something 2015 was not filled with?  Writing.  My new digs, new surroundings and new day to day routines left me feeling excited and sometimes overwhelmed.  There were so many new things to see and do that my brain was exhausted and utterly devoid of creativity.  So many nights I sat on my couch, laptop perched on my legs with a completely empty Word document on the screen, taunting me.  I wanted to write and felt untold amounts of guilt for not tending to my stories.  My characters invaded my thoughts, begging me to tell their tales.  I'd hand write a scene here and there, or try my hand at a prompt, but, when it came down to it, the creativity well was dry.  I thoroughly missed it, but had nothing interesting to say.

Enter NaNoWriMo.

Every November I get the NaNoWriMo bug.  I don't know what it is about staying up into the wee hours of the morning, plugging away at a seemingly insurmountable word count that is so appealing to me, but I love it.  I did not hit my 50K words, but I did clear the halfway point and I was thrilled with that.  To go from not writing at all to making a serious dent in a story I've been kicking around for a few years made me feel great and helped me to start chipping away at the writer's block.  A few months later I'm back to writing and submitting short stories while still plugging away at my NaNo novel.  The creativity well isn't pumping at full speed yet, but it is definitely more than a trickle.  

Plan B Magazine Volume IV

Check out my new story, "Death By Fiction," in the e-book anthology, Plan B Magazine -- Volume IV!  The anthology, which features many great crime/mystery stories can be found at the following sites:

http://www.plan-b-magazine.com/plan-b-volume-iv/

http://www.amazon.com/Plan-mystery-crime-anthology-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B00KH4LDUA/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400723424&sr=1-4&keywords=plan+b+IV

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/440145

Con(viction) --- Anthology of the Con #2

Good news!  Gothic City Press, the publishers of the anthology, "Con(viction) -- Anthology of the Con #1" are at it again with a 2nd installment!  In case you are unfamiliar, the original anthology included fiction with a darker slant for people who attend cons by people who attend cons and included my story, "Decisions, Decisions."  The second installment, "Con(viction) -- Anthology of the Con #2" will include a follow up to "Decisions, Decisions" titled "Consequences."  Mark your calendars!  The the official release date of "Con(viction) -- Anthology of the Con #2" will be October 18th, 2013!

Kwik Krimes Anthology Available Today!

Do you like short stories?  How about stories of crime, mystery and intrigue?  Well, if you answered yes to either of these, have I got good news for you!  Kwik Krimes is available today on Amazon!  This anthology, compiled by author and editor Otto Penzler, features more than 80 crime stories   including "Death By Sobriety" by yours truly. So click on over (link below), and check it out.  Available in paperback, Kindle and audio formats.

http://www.amazon.com/Kwik-Krimes-Otto-Penzler/dp/161218300X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377032799&sr=8-1&keywords=kwik+krimes

Confessions of a Former English Major

I have always had a fascination with language.  Always.

From checking out foreign language books from the elementary school library to, as my husband likes to say, majoring in a language I already speak, language usage is something that I find interesting.  I'm that person --the one who silently corrects you in their head when you use the wrong tense or wrong word.  I also re-write my Facebook statuses, tweets and emails multiple times until I'm sure they say exactly what I'm trying to say.  In fact, you don't want to know how many times I've re-written this paragraph. I'm a geek. I know.

An advertising executive gave a speech my senior year of high school in which he suggested majoring in English if a career in advertising interested you.  A job where I get to play with words all day? Yes please!  I enrolled in college, set my major and plodded along, just waiting to graduate and start my new exciting career.  A few quarters in I began looking at starting salaries in advertising.  Realizing the pay was minimal and my college debt was not, I abandoned course and picked up a paying internship in recruiting.  Despite changing gears, I stayed with my major, set my focus on business writing and began studying the ins and outs of language.  Grammar classes, linguistic classes, history of language classes -- by the time I graduated, I felt I was one hell of a writer.  I knew all the rules and could write like the dickens when it came to a well thought out, dry and information packed business letter, email or directive.  Ok, time for the confession -- I'm not sure I can do that anymore.

I left the recruiting world, had a family and began writing fiction.  I couldn't be happier.  I sit on my couch and write whatever comes to mind.  Edit.  Rewrite.  Edit again. Submit.  I still get to play with words, but I don't have to follow rules.  I write what I want.  My characters generally aren't English majors.  They swear.  They stutter.  They use inappropriate grammar.  It's awesome.  And when I'm not writing dialogue?  I write however I need to in order to express a feeling.  It may be a fragment. It might be a run-on. The beauty of it is that it just doesn't matter as long as its well done and flows. 

When I began writing fiction, it was so hard for me to break the rules.  Each and every character sounded the same and had my passion for correct grammar.  It was horrible.  I actually had to concentrate on not being so stuffy.  I can't even tell you how long it took me to feel comfortable using contractions.  But once I broke free, there was no turning back. The freedom went straight to my head.

I didn't realize this was a problem until a few weeks ago.  I started looking at the Praxis prep books, just to see how much brushing up I needed to do before I test.  The math was of course a nightmare.  I can't tell you the last time I even thought about sine and cosine and I haven't taken the square root of a damn thing since high school.  I expected the math portion to be rough and was actually pleased that it wasn't quite as bad as I expected.  And then came the language portion.

Let me start of by saying it wasn't horrible.  As a writer, I know what sounds right and what doesn't. I can still pick out the correctly written passage or tell which part of the sentence is written incorrectly.  What I wasn't prepared for was how unsure of myself I'd be. Thinking it would be a breeze, I cockily sailed through the first few questions, never once thinking I'd be stumped.  Guess what -- I was stumped a few times.  Once I saw the reason behind the correct answers, it jogged my memory, but that didn't make me feel better.  It gave me yet another thing to worry about -- how will I do come test time?

The good news is that the second part of the language section went fine.  I'm sure part of problem was the fact that the last multiple choice test I took was over a decade ago.  And maybe all it took was a few reminders of some of the more persnickety rules of the language to kick my brain into gear.  Regardless of the reason, I'm thinking a few grammar books from the library may not be a bad idea -- once I return the geometry and algebra books of course.

In the meantime, I will continue writing my characters as they want to be written -- even if they refuse to use the correct verb tense or abide by subject/verb agreement.