Wednesday, November 28, 2007

It's over!

YAY! It's finally over. November is officially over for me today. I finished the NaNoWriMo contest with 2 1/2 days to spare. LOL!


Now I just have to whip A Birth at Dawn into shape for the readers. I'm still aiming for an early 2008 release date so stay tuned. :-)


Saturday, November 24, 2007

My NaNoWriMo Update.....

Well, I've been busy this week with children at home and Thanksgiving to host and I didn't have much time to write at all. Luckily, I was ahead of schedule so I had the room to skip a few days of writing. Thankfully!

Today I spent half of the day with my MP3 player plugged into my brain and my fingers glued to the laptop keyboard. I just passed the 40,000 word mark today (40, 014 to be exact)!! Woohoo!! I have 9,986 words left to write and should finish off half of those tomorrow.

I'm very excited as this is my first year doing NaNoWriMo. I knew that it would be a huge challenge, but it has been more than I expected. Has that stopped me? No way! I had something to prove to MYSELF and I refuse to disappoint myself.

My carpal tunnel may be acting up. I may be burning through batteries for the mp3 player. I may be ignoring the husband and making him tend to the children and dog. I may be ignoring the laundry. BUT, I'm almost done! YAY!!

I hope all of you find something to be proud of yourself for. Have a great night!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

New Holiday 2007 Contest!

Today I'm announcing my new Holiday Contest. It will run from November 22 to December 24th and I will be drawing the winner on December 25th. Winner will receive a $20 Amazon Gift Certificate. To read all of the details check out http://www.christiesilvers.com/contests .

Monday, November 19, 2007

Wow, Thanksgiving already?

I just can not believe that it's already the week of Thanksgiving. I've been so darn busy this month that the days kind of slipped away from me. I will be hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for my family, as well as Christmas Eve and Day this year. PLUS all of the normal "mommy duties" that are associated with the holiday season... gingerbread houses, Christmas cookies, wrapping gifts, finding the right gift for the in-laws (even though DH should be buying his parents' gifts) and then sitting down one day and remembering how much I miss my own dad during this time of year.

For some reason this year seems so much more hectic and busy than years gone by. Ooohhh, and I started working on my Christmas card list today too. You realize just how many friends you really have when you start making out Christmas cards. My hand was aching from addressing envelopes and I only made it through half of my list. But, I do love the holiday season.

My youngest daughter will be three in January and she is at the most perfect age for the holidays. At this age their little eyes are full of wonder and excitment of the unknown. I can not wait to see her expression when it's time to unwrap all of those colorful packages.

We will be putting up our tree and decorations Friday. Then we'll all get dressed up and sit in front of the fireplace and take our yearly family photo. I'm big on family photos. I have over a dozen full photo albums lining my bookcase from the last 13 years. I just can't imagine how many will be there when I'm old and grey. LOL!

OK, enough of the mushy, family stuff. Now onto the book stuff.

I am flowing nicely for NaNoWriMo. I should reach my 50K by the weekend if my children have mercy on my this week (the older two are out of school all week and, therefore, have all day to enjoy the tortured screams of their 2 yr old sister).

My cover artist is working away at the new cover for this book and I can't wait to see it. She is so talented!!

Hmmm, what else? Well, I have run out of my own copies of A Midnight Infatuation. People keep buying them up until I am no officially out. LOL. I'm totally not complaining, just making a mental reminder to order more stock.

I will be announcing a new contest at the end of this week. So be sure to check that out. It will run until Christmas Eve and the winner will be rewarded with a $20 Amazon gift certificate. Who doesn't love free stuff?

Oh, make sure that you sign up for my newsletter. I'll be sending it out around Dec 1st. You'll find tips on cooking that perfect Christmas ham, creating your own wrapping paper, deciding between paper and e-cards and even a few crafts. I'll also be announcing my SUCCESS or failure of NaNoWriMo and maybe we'll be lucky enough to debute the new cover of A Birth at Dawn: Book 2 of the Alex & Fiona Series.

Ok, I guess that's enough rambling for today. I feel badly when I log on here and realize it has been a week since my last update, so I end up over-compensating. Hopefully things will go back to normal after November is over. :-)

Good night & have a happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Still going strong...

I'm still here, and alive. LOL. I have been busy writing my NaNoWriMo novel lately. I've discovered a nice surprise and a not so nice surprise.

First, the nice surprise is that I write much faster when I'm wearing headphones and blasting heavy metal into my brain. It blocks out all of the surrounding people, sounds and distractions. Why didn't I think of that all those months ago when I was writing A Midnight Infatuation?

Second, the not so nice surprise is that the letter "P" is trying to go out on my laptop keyboard. You have to press it harder than I normally do and therefore I end up with a whole lot of words missing their P's. I find that very annoying.

Other than that, I'm doing quite well. I should hit 20,000 words today in A Birth at Dawn, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happens during the rest of my day, of course. I even have dinner planned out so that I won't have to spend more than fifteen minutes throwing it together.

So why am I on here and not writing, you ask? Well, a girl needs a break from her vampires and werewolves every so many chapters (<--I had to backspace to add that p). You have to step back and make sure that your beloved characters are going in the direction that you want them to be going in. Sometimes they surprise us and, no matter how many outlines we create ahead of time, they end up going where THEY want to go.

I absolutely LOVE when my characters take over the writing. For those of you who have never experienced this, it is AMAZING. You finish a scene and then look back over it in awe. Like, did I REALLY write that? That came from me? WOW!

All books have a natural flow about them. Soft scenes mixed with hard scenes. Funny scenes toying with sad scenes. Intense scenes mingling with light-heartened scenes. All of these add to the overall feel of the story. Just like real life. You have your up days and your down days, your happy days and your sad days, your days filled with nothing but excitment and the days where you just know you will die from the boredom. Books are the same way.

I thoroughly enjoy writing the sex scenes in my books. They are fun and exciting and provocative. But, I enjoy writing the action scenes even more. The more intense and fast-paced they are the better. My fingers move just as quickly over the keyboard as the action flows in the story. It seems that the more intense the action, the faster I write and the faster the scenes flow through my brain.

But, a book can't be nothing but sex and excitement. You have to have some backstory; reasons for the action, love and decisions for the sex. Those parts are the hardest for me to write. I know what goes there and I know what I want to say, but I tend to write a lot slower during those moments. They aren't exciting. They are informative. I know all about my characters, but I have to let the readers know about them. If only every book came with the knowledge that I already have of my characters. Then I could just write sex and action all the time. LOL!!

Ok, that's enough of a break I suppose (<-- I had to go back and add one of those Ps too). I better get back to work, after getting my demanding toddler something to drink.

Best wishes to everyone who participating in this exciting endeavour.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

My Apologies...

Wow, it's already Wednesday evening and I haven't posted on here since Sunday. I do sincerely apologize to all of my loyal readers out there. I hope that you will forgive me. :-)

It has been a busy week and it's only Hump Day. I've dealt with all of the normal wife and mommy duties that pile up on me everyday, but I've also been working on my NaNoWriMo novel--which is subsequently also Book Two to my Fiona & Alex series. There's a wedding in the works and then everything erupts into craziness. This will be a great "episode" to their lives together.

If you haven't already purchased your own copy of Book One: A Midnight Infatuation, then you better jump on it. You'll want to read it before reading Book Two: A Birth at Dawn. They will fit together like a great pair of gloves. :-)

Speaking of Book Two, I am quickly coming up on 10,000 words of the 50,000 I'm aiming for by the end of November. I'm about 1,000 words behind the daily average for seven days into the contest, but I'll make up for that plus some if tomorrow I have as great a writing day as I did today. This is certainly an interesting and exciting contest. I keep looking at my word count over and over again. I have to remind myself to STOP and just write.

Oh and don't let me get started on the editing. NaNoWriMo is only for writing. You should waste your time editing or rewriting. You're suppose to write and only write--editing is for after the contest is over. Unfortunately, it is very hard to NOT edit as you're writing. I've already taken out particular scenes and then had to remind myself not to do that anymore. Editing is for December. Editing is for December. Say it with me, editing is for December! LOL!

Alrighty then, dinner is done, the kids need to eat and take baths, the hubby will be home from work in a few minutes and I'm the only person who can pull everything together... apparently. Soooo, I will go now and get busy and hopefully I can finish up some more writing after the girls go to bed later.

Have a great evening!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

My Monthly Newsletter

Hello again. I just wanted to add a blog post about my monthly newsletter. I send it out once a month, usually during the first week of the month. These newsletters include little tidbits of information about me, my books, my articles, my sites and whatever else I want to share with my friends, family and fans. If you're interested in receiving my newsletter you can sign up below. I'll be sending out my November issue tomorrow.










Get Our Newletter


Saturday, November 3, 2007

NaNoWriMo

Wow! It has finally begun. I can't believe that November is here and it's time for the NaNoWriMo writing contest. This is my first year doing it and I've been anxious to sign up and get started since I heard about it in the spring. I was right there in line signing up as soon as they allowed us to in October.

Unfortunately, I'm not as fast as some people when it comes to getting their 50,000 words written. I have three kids, a husband, a dog and my house to tend to....plus my own sanity. Therefore, all of those things have to come before my writing. I get NOTHING done on the weekends....NOTHING! All of my writing is done during the weekdays and late at night. The weekends are days for my family and friends.

Today my husband woke up, looked at me and asked "So what are we going to do today?" Made me want to smack him in the forehead like on those V-8 commercials. LOL! My hubby works an hour from home and he has to drive an hour to and from every weekday. He whines and complains about all that driving, but on the weekends--when he could be resting--he wants to go, go, go. The crazy man!

Anyway, my days are always busy so it's no wonder that I haven't written a word on my book in 2 days. It's crazy, but at least I know how it's going to be this month. I'll have to stay on top of things during the week and then let the weekend go where it may.

Good luck to those of us doing NaNoWriMo. I hope that we all have great success with our stories. :-)

Thursday, November 1, 2007

They had fun!

My girls had a blast last night. They brought home far to much candy, but everyone had a blast. The toddler decided to have a meltdown before bed last night, but that was to be expected with all the sugar running through her little system and because she was up later than usual. In the end, she proceeded to demand that she NOT wear a diaper to bed. I expected to be aakened by a soaked 2 year old, but was happily surprised to find her sleeping DRY this morning. She's been daytime potty trained for a long time, so one diaper a day is great, but wow it would be great to have her nighttime potty trained too.
Anyway, for your viewing pleasures, here is a pic of my girls in their Halloween bests and even one of myself. I've gone red and I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it's fun to change things up every once in a while. LOL!