Of Ink and Quille

With only a week left for voting on the Second Annual Reader's Choice Awards for one of my favorite fan fic groups I've really been pressed with time. This is the second year that I've organized and run these awards. This has been a major undertaking, and not something that is as easy as one might think. I've learned a great deal in the past two years, and not all of it has been pleasant. I was rather shocked by the responses I got from some. These awards were designed to showcase the skill and talent of the authors for a specific group, yet a lot of people figured it should be for anyone who had a story. Now, I have no objections to highlighting talent. Heck if we didn't do that we wouldn't have the Oscar's, what I do object to is when people refuse to participate because they don't archive their work in one place - which just happens to be the place that's hosting the awards. Which isn't to say that I don't think all the excellent author...

Just thought for today I'd do something fun, so here it is. Recently, my husband was gifted with about twenty pounds of Halibut (Fish) and we decided to do something a bit different. Instead of simply deepfrying it or pan frying, we decided to smoke some. Here is what we used: Maple Syrup Brown Sugar Sea Salt Hemlock wood chips Cedar chips Coat the fish in syrup, brown sugar and salt. Let sit over night, remove all excess brine. Place on cedar chips in a smoker, with the hemlock chips at the heat source. Apply indirect heat. Let smoke for at least twenty four hours, check sparingly. Sounds strange? It isn't. Turned out really good! Try it!

This is for the 2006, Reader's Choice Awards for WRbeta. I won Best Series for a set of shorts last year. The link to the award is: http://pics.livejournal.com/wolveriness06/pic/0000b59s/

Have a book coming out? A guest Blog happening? A good article on the craft of writing you'd like to share? A peom or short story you want to market? I'm looking into putting together a free email based newsletter that deals with marketing of your book. If the interest is high enough, I'm going to try and have one published in time for June 1st. Please note, this is simply a free, no money exchanged, newletter for those who are interested in the craft of writing. I don't have any ads for it, or anything like that. It's based upon submissions only! If you're interested, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

There are moments when I wish we had two computers in our house, one for me and one for my husband and son. Here I am slogging away, cursing my goalsetting in an attempt to get the last chapters edited before I submit a query letter and low and behold, they've found a fishing game. Needless to say, out came the red pen, the table got cluttered and I sat down with my manuscript. Having restrictions on your time or your access to the computer can put a serious bug in your hat when it comes to things like writing that all important novel. I can honestly say, there have been moments when real life and the constraints there of, have made me want to throw everything away and just forget it. The truth is, you can't. Some people paint, others sculpt, still others - and I'm including myself in this category - need to have an outlet that allows those thoughts, plans, dreams to escape. I spent years building worlds within my head, creating an escape for myself and others because it...

Expectations? What are they? How do they work? Everyone has them, and sometimes the one who has the most unrealistic expectations is you. I set goals for myself, a chapter a day, 15,000 words per week. It shouldn't take long to get to the 80,000 word mark, right? I forgot the things that make up my day, my life. When I started writing my novel I was working 40 + hours a week, raising a highly energized child, dealing with an immature husband who I neglected to tell I was working on a book to sell and not just fan fiction...needless to say, my expectations of myself did not get met. So here it is nearly two years after I started my novel and I've learned that goals are great, they help me get on track, but they aren't my written in rock statements. So I set my goals with a more realistic idea in mind. I've got four hours a day I can get onto the computer without an interruption, and in those four hours I can get a fair chunk of work done. I'm okay with that. Four hou...

When I first got the idea to write a manuscript to sell, which is much different than writing a manuscript I have no intention of anyone from a publishing house seeing, I had a gross misconception. As I've said before, I've written for years in all lengths, formats, and categories. A saleable manuscript is easy...hehehe...sure it is. I found out that it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and time. You don't just sit down, write a hundred thousand words and send it off. Nope, you have to be sure that what you're getting out of your work is what you're putting into it. It didn't take long to get 100,000 words, but were they good ones? Did they help the story or just bog it down? I've discovered there is a difference. You can type up a story in a month...is it ready for pubication? No, not in my humble opinion. Regardless of your expeience, an author can't assume anything. Misconceptions have a way of hampering and even disabling a writer because they g...