New home

I'll be closing this blog in a few weeks. Please join me at my new home: Meg Allison, Author, where I've combined both my blog and my website into one. :)


Meg Allison
Indulge your senses...

My new enabler

My family gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I've been having so much fun! I haven't read this much in ages, even though I have plenty of books in the house. I also love the games.

I have found the Kindle is a wonderful device. Will I give up print books completely? Probably not. Those are still my first love. However, there are some great things about ebooks and having an actual reader.

1. Instant gratification. Want a book? Press a button, confirm, it's there. Wow. :)

2. Hides my tbr pile. No one complains about all the books taking up room on the table; dresser; desk; etc. No puzzled looks when I bring another one home and add it to the heap. They can't see what's on my Kindle. (hehe)

3. Discovering new authors and stories. This is my fave part of all! So many writers; so little time. I love being able to browse, read excerpts and reviews, and then buy a book I might not notice otherwise.

4. Cost, of course. I'm a thrifty person, aka cheap. I love free books. I love cheaper books. Yes, I'll pay more for a writer I know I love, but I'm a bit conservative with the unknowns out there. Ebooks are usually a less expensive way to take a chance on something/someone new.

Yeah, I really like my Kindle Touch. It's fun; it's a diversion; and it enables my reading addiction perfectly. ;)

~~Meg Allison

Indulge your senses...
www.megallisonauthor.com

Rainy, Rambly Mondays

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down."

Sound familiar? Maybe not, if you're under the age of ... maybe 40? LOL! It's a line from an old Carpenters song that was very popular years ago. A song I always wind up singing along with -- on those rare occasions that I hear it played -- because I remember most of the words. Nostalgia times a hundred, in this case. :)

I remember songs from way back -- from catchy jingles, to Christmas carols, classic top 40, and classic rock. True confession: I even remember most of the School House Rock songs. I can recite the Preamble to the Constitution only if you let me sing it. ;)

Anyway, I've been wondering if that might be the reason one of my short stories seems to be catching on at Barnes and Noble? Do readers see the title and immediately think of Counting Crows? (It's titled for the group's popular song, Accidentally in Love.)

The song inspired the story, actually. I had two characters in mind, and the setting, since it was part of the Blue Plate Special - Pops' Girls series. I listened to that song played over and over and over, ad nauseum, while I wrote. I hummed it as I did laundry. Sang it in the shower... so much so that dd2 begged me to stop. LOL! And it was from her CD. ;)

Songs frequently inspire my writing. All my characters have at least one 'theme song'. All my stories have a sound track.

Which might be the problem with my recent writer's block -- besides being lazy, that is. ;) I haven't really set a sound track up for this story. I have one song set in stone, but I haven't listened to it lately. I think I know what my next step should be.

Meanwhile, I have a dark, rainy Monday outside my window. Instead of letting it get me down, I think I'll let it inspire me, instead.

~~Meg

The editing dilemma

I'm working on the next story in my Harris Grove series. These are the final, refining edits -- and maybe a little re-writing. I really don't like this part.

The main problem? I wrote the story quite a while ago -- and with a particular audience in mind. Now that audience has changed since that publisher closed its doors. My style of writing isn't precisely the same, either. It's not a drastic change, but it isn't the same.

Every time an author writes, they refine their style or voice. Which is hopefully what I've done. However, I also have a slightly different voice when I write comedy over suspense. I have to get back into light and funny mode. Not always an easy transition.

Now, back to the story at hand: Table for Two. It's light; funny; sweet. Yeah, I'm really not sure it completely works. It seems too old-school. Too 1950s? No, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I can't backtrack when it comes to voice. I want to keep refining until I just can't find anything to change. I want this story to reflect that.

But this story... I don't know. I like it. I'm finding it a challenge. And at the moment, it's kicking my butt.

Wish me luck!

Blogging today...

At Beyond the Veil ... please click and read. Comments aren't required. ;)

Coping with rejection

It seems the complete story of Gabriel Bonnett and Beth Murphy will have to remain a mystery to Sentinels' fans. Unfortunately, my editor wasn't impressed with draft two of the book.

Like most writers, I've experienced my share of rejections. It still stings a bit, but you learn to cope and move on. You have to -- the only alternative is giving up. But what do you do once that "no thanks" letter couched in apology arrives? How do you deal with your disappointment? The self-doubt? And just what the hell do you do with the thousands of words you've written and now seem to have been a waste of your time?

This time around it hasn't been quite the dilemma that it once was. Honestly, after a certain period of optimism, I was somewhat expecting the R -- shorthand for 'rejection letter' in this business. I'm not sure why... but somewhere along the line I lost faith in this particular story.

And no, it wasn't a "nice" R with loads of compliments and such regarding the strengths of the story. By the tone and what was said, there didn't seem to be even one thing that appealed to her about Gabriel and Beth's romance. Pity. I really like those two characters.

Do I take it personally? Um, a little...but not deeply. I think the big problem here was I had reworked it to death. It lost any spark it might have had in the beginning. It wasn't the story I really wanted it to be. Also, it really might have been better as the first story -- or later in the series. Pre-quels are a very tricky animal. So maybe that's part of why I'm not taking this R quite so much to heart as others.

That, and previous experience. BTDT, as the t-shirt says. ;)

Still... here comes the self-doubt. Although I'm over 11k into the next Sentinels book -- now bumped up to that coveted #2 spot -- I stutter to a halt when I begin to write a scene. Am I making the same mistakes with Samantha's story as I did with Gabriel's? Are my character's goals, motivations, and conflicts (GMCs) as clear-cut and riveting as they need to be? Does their relationship have enough spark...a strong chemistry? Is the action paced well? Fast but not too rushed?

Yes, self-doubt can be a crippling thing when it comes to writing. It brings your muse to a screeching halt. It makes your hands freeze over the keyboard and your thoughts shut down as if someone hit a switch. It can also turn you into a chocolate-guzzling lump, sitting in front of the television watching all day marathons of NCIS...

But I digress. (ahem) What I really want to know is: How do you deal with rejection? How do you tame that demon self-doubt and send him back to Hades where he belongs? Please share ... I have another book to finish.

Now what?

Hopefully you've been writing down your story. I've actually had a really good week in that department -- all but three chapters in SHATTERED are completely revised; wrote over three-thousand new words for book three, AT SECOND SIGHT.

Compared to my recent attempts at working, this is fantastic, trust me.

Now that you've started writing, what's next? Well for most of us there's a point -- sometimes more than one -- when we get stuck. This can be in the "sagging middle" or some other area in the story. The trick is to not let it get you down... and to keep on writing.

My experience as a writer has taught me that there are different levels in my creative process. The one I love happens much too infrequently. It's when words pour like water from my fingertips. I can visualize the scene; the dialogue; the sensual information without a hiccup. It feels as if someone is dictating the story from one word to the next. I love "the zone"...and it's during these times that I'm most productive.

The other extreme is "pulling teeth" writing. That's when it feels like I'm digging every other word from the bottom of some deep pit in my brain. One sentence is a struggle. An entire scene is almost torture! Sometimes this is the point where I give up and close the document. If I can feel it's going to be a "pulling teeth" kind of session, I often won't even try. But that's the worse thing you can do.

The best way to get past the hiccups in your writing is to keep on trucking. ;) Write as much as you can -- even if it's very little. But write something. The only way to finish is to DO IT. The bad days will pass and when those little road blocks come down, it is such a rush!

On writing... where to begin

A year or two ago I wrote a few posts regarding the how-tos of writing. I decided to offer my own two cents on the subject after a book signing where quite a few people asked me some basic questions: How do you write? How do you get published? It seems a lot of people are wannabe writers. I've decided to offer advice once again with the hope that I can find something useful to say. :)

But how do you get to "wannabe" to "being"? Sounds almost philosophical. ;)

First I'll ask this: Do you want to write? No... Better question: Do you need to write?

I've found that most writers do so because they have something to say--something they just can't bottle up inside. They have stories playing out in their minds, with plots and characters in a wide array of settings. My first scenes in a new story often resemble a movie trailer, but it doesn't have to be visual image in your head. Everyone is different and therefore the creative process varies.

The first step towards becoming a writer is very simple. If you have an idea: write it down. Don't worry about the words you use, at first. Don't worry about imagery, form or synonyms. The main thing is to get your idea, your story onto paper... or the computer screen.

Once you write down as much as you can, then you can go back and make it pretty. But even then, you should always limit how much time goes into editing. Save the bulk of that for the final rough draft.

Now don't be impatient. I said to write down the idea. My beginnings are often a scene or two -- sometimes from the middle of the story. Sometimes I don't even know where the image is going to play. But you have to get that idea down on paper before you lose it. You have to start so you can finish.

So get moving! The world has plenty of room for great stories. We want to hear yours.

Now while you're doing that... I have some work of my own to do. ;)

to be continued

Book of the Month

DREAM WALK has been nominated as April's Book-of-the-Month at Jennifer's Random Musings. It was a lovely surprise -- many thanks to whoever nominated it. :)

All the nominees are listed; polls for both the e-books and print books are down the page at the right.


**NOTE: My website is undergoing some construction and is temporarily unavailable. I'll let you know when it's back up and running.**