Too True...

This is too good and too true not to share...

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Grin-Tonic/How-to-Write/ba-p/6713

What are you really doing when you tell yourself you're writing???

IDEAL HIGH UPDATE

Taryn Young’s plans for an amazing senior year are over before they begin. Grieving the deaths of several of her classmates, she has no intention of taking her late boyfriend's place as student body president...until she finds out who is running in her place. If Chelsea Manor becomes president it means nothing changes. Ideal High remains less than ideal...and Taryn doesn’t want to let that happen. She owes that much to Blake’s memory.

As president, she butts heads with a principal who doesn’t want his school labeled, a bullied student who doesn’t want to be rescued, and a student body suspicious of her motives. Throw in a hot cowboy-type, who is totally not her type, and Chelsea with all her angst over the accident, and it’s not long before Taryn is wondering why she dragged herself from the safety of her warm bed where at least she could grieve in private.

Good news in the WIP department.

NOVEMBER: Sent manuscript to a professional editor and paid for a Content Evaluation. It was just what I needed...in black and white...the good, the bad, the ugly.

DECEMBER: Mulled over the evaluation while I shopped, wrapped, entertained, cooked, fed, played games, became a grandma, enjoyed...you get the idea.

JANUARY: Revised and set goal to be finished (and I mean in capital letters FINISHED, so, for reals FINISHED) by January 23rd.

JANUARY 22 at midnight Eastern (so 10 PM Arizona): Submitted manuscript to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest (ABNA).

So here's to IDEAL HIGH, all 75,984 words of it. We've spent a lot of time together over the years and, hopefully, this is only the beginning. I have no expectations for the contest, passing even the first round would be great, but it gave me a deadline and I MADE IT!

What goal have you accomplished?

Writing tip #23

(as discovered yesterday)

Beware the cooking of food items on the stove while at the same time editing your manuscript, lest you become too involved in said edit. It makes for a wasted, burnt food item and a very non-writerly, smoke-filled environment.

In such cases, one is forced outdoors which works if you live in Arizona and it's a beautiful, warm winter day.

What have you ruined, missed, forgotten because you were working on your manuscript?

Writing tip #39

While revising a novel in the bathtub generally makes for a very damp manuscript, it proves to be a productive use of editing time.

Where's the most unusual place you've worked on your manuscript?

2 WIDGET WINNERS!

Joyce DiPastena and Stacy Johnson are the winners of $20 worth of Vinyl Expressions Vinyl Lettering!!! I will be contacting you personally to get your order!

And while I have everyone's attention...please click on the sidebar widget to get all the information about the upcoming ANWA Writers Conference. It is open to the general public so please tell everyone you know that is interested in writing at all. We have something for everyone--fiction writers, copy writers, poets, magazine writers, blogging, news writing...the list goes on...