my books

A Tale of Two Manuscripts

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First draft of Drama King is done. Complete. Finished. Melva and I agreed during our video chat on Monday, and then I promptly crashed. Monday was also the day that A Heart Most Errant is now safely in the hands of an independent editor. Over the next two weeks, there will be editing, formatting, cover design, and then my baby will come back to me and it will be time to think about the next steps.

Storm says nap time is now required.

For Drama King, that will mean going over the whole thing in fifty page chunks, filling in some places that need plumping, tying up loose ends, working on a lot of transitions, but we did it. We. Did. It. Once we send that to our editor at The Wild Rose Press, who holds right of first refusal (or acceptance!) and we see how that goes. We are also laying the groundwork for the third Love By The Book book, Queen of Hearts. After that, we do know what comes next, and we are feeling pretty good about that. Add to that the fact that we are reviving our website, including some upcoming workshops. Super fun.

With A Heart Most Errant, having book one off in the hands of an editor, that means that it’s time to think about book two…which I never thought about before. I normally think in terms of standalones for historicals, but the market at present is heavily geared toward series, so now I get to do a new thing. That’s both exciting and scary, and also gives me a really good reason to reread some favorite medieval romances (and discover new ones) and honestly say that I’m doing market research.

Speaking of standalones, Her Last First Kiss is going to require some surgery, because when things flat out won’t move past a certain point, that means somebody is trying to drive the story in the wrong direction. (Me. That person would be me.) It’s not a big thing, but if it’s derailed a story I love for this long, them maybe it probably is. Le sigh. But one story at a time, which is why this is not titled A Tale of Three Manuscripts. That, I am sure, will come soon enough. Which is okay. It feels good to be moving.

Today also sees me in the middle of the Historical Romance Readathon week, with my nose in two anthologies, and, hopefully, I will be able to finish them both. Not that I don’t like either of them, because I like both, but because it’s been an annoyingly insomniac week. I have a new weighted blanket that should help a lot. It’s also super cozy for reading, with a bunch of pillows and a cup of cinnamon tea.

Feels pretty good, after this past year, to report favorably on two projects in the same post. Maybe a deep dive into reading some historical romance will help with the whole coming up with new medieval stories thingamabobble, and see how other authors of historical romance decide on how to pick the next connected project.

Comments, concerns, tips, all happily accepted in the comments below. Comments int he comments…yeah, definitely reading time.

Typing With Wet Paws: Happy Mew Year Edition

annabowling 2 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers, and Happy Mew Year! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. We are all doing well here, and happy to have 2020 in the rearview mirror. I have as of yet made no moves toward the Christmas tree, though that may be because it is on the kitchen table, and I am not allowed on the kitchen table. Still salty about that, buy next year, maybe they’ll have the tree on a coffee table. Then, I’ll have news.

We had a really nice Christmas and New Year. Now we are getting back to the business of regular life. Well, with one exception. Since my humans love me very much, of course I got presents. The wrapping paper was super fun. I played with it all morning. I even got gushy food. There was one present, however. It came from Aunt Mary, Uncle Brian, and cousins Andrew, (Leah, who will get married to Andrew in a little while) and Aiden, who is a fur cousin. He is a dog, but I am okay with that. I really have no words for it, so here:

Does anybody notice the resemblance?

Please note the absence of nose arrow. That is how you can tell us apart, although our blacks and oranges are on opposite sides of our face. So that’s another way. Also, she doesn’t talk much. Like at all. Aunt Anna says that’s because Esme (her tag says she’s called Esmerelda, but we are calling her Esme, because she is smol) is stuffed. Hmpf. Honestly, I have never seen her eat a thing. I would also like to be stuffed. Which I have been, as Uncle Rheuben got some people tuna, specifically to share with me, and I think that speaks highly of him.

Anyway, Esme lives in Aunt Linda’s room, since I usually want to be around Aunt Anna. There were plans on the agenda to get a photo of “the twins” (which we are not) but calico said cali-NO. I don’t hate Esme, but she’s going to have to put into this relationship, know what I mean? Yeah. This was as close as Aunt Anna could get.

Hm, this does prove that I am now not the only one who can leave black, white, and orange fur sheds at the scene of an…um…incident. Like maybe with a hypothetical Christmas tree on a hypothetical coffee table next year. Okay, she may have her uses. She can stay.

In the getting back to day to day business, things are also going pretty well. Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva will be finishing Drama King oh so soon, and then begins the first round of edits.; And the second round of edits. Then submission, because their editor at The Wild Rose Press already said they could send it. Then if they want it, there will be more edits. Aunt Anna actually likes that part, Aunt Melva not so much, but it all gets the book to you, so it’s all good. If the publisher doesn’t feel the book will be a good fit, then they have other options, which would also be good, and they have a nice slate of stuff to see them happily writing through the new year.

They will also be reviving melvaandanna.com, because there is new stuff coming. Not only the very soon writing of THE END to Drama King, but their first video workshop of the year in February, and being the authors of the month in a book club in March. Then they will start on Queen of Hearts.

Aunt Anna is also, as I have said before, super excited about getting back to historical romance. She’s throwing around a lot of terms like “pirates” and “medieval” (but not medieval pirates. At least not at this point.) and picking out what projects would be fun to drag out from the mothballs (I don’t know what mothballs are, but I like balls. They’re fun.) There are notebooks and papers and ideas, and I am on point for assisting her every step of the way. By assisting, I usually mean sitting on whatever notebook or planner she has opened most recently.

One of those planners is her reading journal, which is what you see above. She’s still working on the setup, so it’s a work in progress. The printables are from Jesenia Printables (she got the Reading Set and loves it very much) and she plans to get them printed professionally rather than letting her printer and visual impairment duke it out over home printing.; Plus this will allow her to print extra book pages and record everything she wants to record. She also wants to make a different paint chip bookmark in colors that more closely agree with the pink/black/white color palette, and this time skip the stickers. Probably also round the corners, because she is fancy like that.

Along with recording how many books Aunt Anna reads this week, she is going to keep track of the genres/subgenres that she reads. She would like for historical romance to be the biggest category, but then also keep track of how many of what sort of historical romances she reads the most. Of course that is centered on what books she has access to, because one of the sucky things that happened in 2020 was being permanently parted from her classic romance collection, except for two boxes of favorite favorites.

So far, she has read three books out of a projected ninety, putting her two books ahead of schedule, though we are in the earliest of days. These three are all YA, two of which have strong romances, and two are scary. There is some overlap. She is currently reading a historical, with more on the way, so things will balance out very soon, Also, she has made a couple hours in the evening set aside for reading, and I am definitely here to do my part and sit on her to ensure feline paralysis, which goes really, really well with reading.

I t hink that’s about it for this week, and my sunbeam is here, so catch you next week.

Headbonks!

End of Book Daze

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2020 has been a ride, for sure and for certain, and perhaps the wildest thing of all is that, right now, I am furiously scrawling ink and pounding keys on my very last scene for the hero’s POV on Drama King. Yikes. This feels surreal, and about dang time. Wow. It’s not going to be the final scene of the book, as that honor goes to my amazing writing partner, Melva Michaelian, who I know is going to knock it out of the park and give me all of the feels.

The end of a book is a weird place to be. For the reader of a romance novel, there may be some sniffles, maybe a heart clutch, some laughs, depending on the sort of book, and/or situation, and, at the end of it all, is the tried and true, happily ever after. We know this couple is going to be together for the rest of their lives and they are very much okay with that. For the writer, there is all of that too, but a whole lot more.

Self-doubt is part of it for sure. Did we forget something? Are there dangling plot threads? How can we make this scene unique to these two lovers, to bring their individual arcs and their arc as a couple when this is literally the defining thing that makes a romance that makes a romance a romance. Okay, one of two. (1) the love story is the central focus, and 2) there is an emotionally satisfying and uplifting ending.)

Originally, I’d had the outline for the blog post I wanted to write here, spotlighting one of my planners for the coming year. That will still happen, but I have to get out of the fog first. Then I have some thoughts on the Bridgerton series on Netflix. I haven’t seen the series yet, and I didn’t originally plan to, but I don’t feel I can join the conversation without watching at least the first episode, to experience it for myself. I have not read the Bridgerton books proper, but I have read the four prequels about the previous generation, which was…okay. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, but those don’t have anything to do with the series, which I definitely want to watch while alone, and take pen and paper notes, because this could be a Thing. A good Thing. I hope. See self doubt above.

The end of one book always means, at least for me, the start of a new book. This time, it’s a return to Her Last First Kiss, which was put on pause, due to things like bedbugs, homelessness, shingles, anxiety, depression, and helping to clear out my bestie’s childhood home when her mom moved to a super nice apartment. We also ended up moving into a super nice apartment, which is my favorite place I have ever lived, so that’s pretty swell.

Melva and I had decided we wanted to wrap Drama King before the end of the year, because we both need a win, individually, and as a team, and it looks like that is actually going to happen. Huzzah. There are emails and DMs flying back and forth, and a good deal of my initial composition takes place from the safety of a blanket burrito, with spiral notebook and felt tip pen (and feline assistant providing soundtrack and extra warmth.) I have growled at family members to get out of my air space (yes, exact words) so that I can get the darned thing finished.

Today, that’s exactly what happened. Housemate conveyed Real Life Romance Hero to his place of employment, and promised to stay away until it was time to convey him back home again. There may or may not be prepared food coming with them. If not, RLRH will be cooking. I will not be cooking, because I know myself, and I will be, by that time, a wrong out washcloth, sad that I wrote my last scene for this book, and triumphant that I wrote my last scene for this book, I won’t say that I will miss Jack and Kelly, because Melva and I will be spending a lot of time with them as we edit and get them through the end of draft two.

It’s also time to look ahead to laying the framework for the next Love By the Book story, Queen of Hearts, with my first shot at writing the heroine of our couple. Heather is the sister of Dominic, the hero of Chasing Prince Charming, and I look forward to helping to guide her to her own happily ever after.

Love By The Book, #1

Once this scene is off to Melva, it’s time to turn my attention (after a nap!) to setting my writing goals for 2021. I’m treading a line between ambitious and realistic, and will probably end up somewhere in the middle, with a few stumbles along the way. It’s times like this when I remember my high school gym teacher, Ms. Napier. We weren’t close. I was probably a bane of her existence, as I loathed physical education as much as she loved it, and she loved it as much as I love writing romance. Even so, it’s her voice that comes into my head at this stage of the game, as it were. I can see the finish line. I can’t quit if I can see the finish line.

Where’s your finish line for 2020?

Typing With Wet Paws: December is a Lawless Wasteland Edition

annabowling 3 Comments

Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. It’s also the end of December, right before Christmas, and the humans are okay, but draggy. It also doesn’t hurt that on Monday, everybody’s schedule got thrown out of whack when the front door froze.

too much soft focus?

Yep. You read that right. Uncle Rheuben went downstairs to head to work, and the doorknob wouldn’t turn. At all. So Aunt Linda tried it. Then Aunt Anna tried it. I would have tried it, but A) I don’t have thumbs, B ) I don’t know how to open doors by the doorknob, and C) I am not allowed downstairs (plus I don’t know how stairs work anyway.) That meant Uncle Rheuben had to make phone calls. He called Mr. Kurt, the property manager, and Mr. Quentin, the maintenance human. As it turned out, Mr. Kurt was on vacation, but Mr. Quentin was right outside, blowing snow and he called a locksmith, and then the humans were no longer trapped in the house. Uncle Rheuben’s boss gave him the day off, because trapped in the house because of a frozen door is a pretty good reason that doesn’t have a lot of arguments.

That was also the day Aunt Linda got her days on and days off mixed up, so I ended up having everybody at home, which was super cool. It was also when Aunt Anna completely gave up on getting anywhere near the keyboard that day, though it was going to be a big writing day. She knows when it’s time to just roll over and go to Plan B. Thankfully, Uncle Rheuben has mad cooking skills, so he made super melty grilled cheese and other human foods, and that went a long way in smoothing things over for everybody. I am allowed to sniff human food, but not eat it, because I am a kitty and kitties eat kitty food.

Anyway, we do have a Christmas tree, which, as of now, I am content to view from a safe distance. It hasn’t made a huge impact on me yet, but does that mean I am not hatching plans that would indicate otherwise? I can neither confirm nor deny that.

Portrait may consist of: This be night, plant an' indoor
better picture coming later

Update: I have no comment on the single Christmas tree light bulb that turned up in Aunt Anna’s and Uncle Rheuben’s bed. There are a million reasons a lightbulb could be in their bed. I mean, at least five. Why does everybody always suspect the kitty?

Anyway, we had a big, big snow. Probably a few cats deep. I wouldn’t know how many, because I am not allowed outside. I am okay with that. Outside is cold, and snow is white, and I am partly white. If I for some reason lay on the snow with my belly up, nobody would see me. Aunt Linda got a nice neighbor to help dig her car out of the snow. People around here are helpful like that. Aunt Anna went to Aunt Linda’s work pl,ace, where we used to amp in the summer, to put out some dry food for the ferals who live there, but she couldn’t get to the actual shelter, because there was a *lot* of snow, and she couldn’t see where she was goings, so she left some as close as she could get. They’ll find it.

Aunt Anna had meant to go to Goodreads and just move the fluffing goalposts already for her challenge for this year, but then she saw that she was farther head than she had thought, with eighty four out of ninety books read, and that’s only six more books, which is only one more than five more books, and five more books is a totally do-able thing, especially when she has a soft, purry calico reading buddy (aka me) to spur her along. This means that if she focuses on things she can read very quickly, like graphic novels/manga, novellas, or rereads, she can totally make her original goal, despite what 2020 has thrown in her direction. By now, it has become a point of honor.

New doings are also in the works with Buried Under Romance, in the new year, with more reviews, and editorial content, because that editorial content stuff is what Aunt Anna lives for when it comes to book blogging. She is even dusting off her classic interview questions from the very first book blogging gig she ever had, because those interviews were a whole lot of fun. We could all use more fun. For me, that means cat toys, both commercial and found, but humans, you do you.

With the reading goal set in place, the attention now goes to the writing aspect, and part of that falls into the lawless wasteland that is December, when we’re all tired and want to dive into our new planners and the new year and all that. That, Aunt Anna is looking forward to tiredly, but looking forward none the less. She and Aunt Melva will be done with Drama King by new year’s, and after that, they will be starting a fun side project, and Aunt Anna can have some brain space for historical romance, which she has sorely missed.

Aunt Anna also wants to thank the fabulous Kathleen Underwood, aka cover artist for the original publication of Orphans in the Storm, for the nudge to mention Aunt Anna’s Lion and Thistle Discord channel. She is Snowbound Mermaid over there, and apparently the numbers that go with that are 5324. Drop on by and help her natter about reading and/or writing historical romance.

Basically, the humans are kind of cruising until the holiday is over, and I totally respect that. I also will be keenly interested in the wrapping paper that will be mine, all mine, on Christmas morning, plus string and boxes. Stay tuned for a cat’s eye view of Aunt Anna’s favorite day of the year. I’ll be taking notes.

Headbonks!

Historical Romance Writing for 2021

annabowling 4 Comments

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be having a video chat with my contemporary romance writing partner, Melva Michaelian, about getting Drama King to the first draft finish line. January is for a fun new co-written project and a revamp of our joint website, then moving on to the discovery draft of Queen of Hearts. I am looking forward to all of that, and also looking forward in 2021 to getting back to writing historical romance.

I will admit to a certain amount of trepidation about getting back into Her Last First Kiss after so long away, but the last year wreaked havoc on the writing life and life in general. I know I am not the only writer to go through this. I am also very much looking forward to getting Bern and Ruby to their Happily Ever After at last, even if there may be a slight detour along the way. Part and parcel of being a historical romance writer, which I very much still am.

Thanks to the year in which my historical romance is set, there are only three ways I can get my hero and heroine legally married. Option one is an absolute no-go. Options two and three are both possible, and I did have a preference, which I thought was the only choice, but…maybe it’s not? This is one of the reasons I am on the search for historical romance writing buddies to brainstorm/critique. Maybe this will mean joining something like the Hearts Through History online organization. That sounds like a lot of fun. If I am not moving forward in a work where I want to move forward, that means there is a block in the way, and I need to know what that block is, in order to find a way around it.

Photo by Andrea Davis on Pexels.com

Her Last First Kiss is, at present a standalone. That’s the format I prefer, but the market does not at present share my preference. Which is okay. A Heart Most Errant is headed to an editor in 2021, the first of a projected trilogy, with maybe a short story to round things out. Plunder will be the start of a generational trilogy (my favorite form of series) and dealing with one of my favorite tropes: pirates. This got me thinking that it might be fun to plan on a few mini series all themed around certain tropes or settings. I don’t know if I have it in me to write Regency, Victorian, or western, but I am totally here for other tropes like highwaymen, maybe Highlanders, Restoration, Tudor, Stuart, etc. I wouldn’t totally hate it if there were an overarching family or two. We’ll see how that goes. Also a bunch of Georgian standalones that maybe could connect, or there could be a Georgian standalone series? :shrug:

One of the best things to come out of my You Tube binge of 2020 was a statement from one favorite You Tuber, the phrase “when I was writing the script for this video…” I don’t remember which You Tuber, but that got me excited. Writing. The. Script. Writing. I had a brand new spiral bound notebook with heavyweight paper and a bucket full of ballpoints, which now live on the kitchen table. There’s something about writing everything down in rough form first – blog entries as well as fiction.

How much of a difference does it make? Actually, a lot. That kind of surprises me, and kind of doesn’t. I am using the heck out of the margins, in a different color from the text, as a note to self to look for notes to self, etc. Is it some kind of magic? Well, no, but I think it’s going to make going forward and keeping a regular blogging schedule – here, on MelvaandAnna.com and on Buried Under Romance, which is also going through a 2021 overhaul.. It’s also an added impetus to keep searching in the storage unit for my AlphaSmart or procuring a new one, as well as looking into testing out some speech to text, because that feels like it might make things get from brain to screen all the quicker.

2020 has been a flaming dumpster fire roller coaster ride, and there are no gaurantees about 2021 being better, but it is looking pretty good, and these are all things that I can control.

Good Question, YA Novel

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Not sure what it was about yesterday, but I ticked three, count them three books off my Goodreads challenge backlog. Okay, two of them, I had started earlier, and one of them was a forty minute audiobook prequel to a new series, but it still counts. Two of the books were historical romance, one paranormal, one not, and the other one was a YA romance, the latest installment in my favorite YA Christmas romance series. I will admit that is a pretty much niche market, but stay with me here, I’m going somewhere.

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I will never not love these books

Disclaimer: I highly, highly, highly recommend the Dash and Lily series, but do not start with Mind the Gap. Get in on the ground floor, with Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares. There’s a smart, grumpy YA hero, Dash, who is full of the bah humbug, and Lily, our spunky YA heroine, lives for Christmas and dogs and family ties. There’s a red Moleskine notebook, a clandestine correspondence, an underground Jewish rave, a madcap tour of NYC, all the holiday feels, and every bookworm’s fantasy of being locked in a bookstore overnight. Oh, and true love. Also, the cover looks like this:

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Start here. Seriously, start here.

When I first met Dash and Lily, their first book was a standalone, and I didn’t think it needed any more installments. (I stan standalones, but that’s another post) but Twelve Days of Dash and Lily won me over, when Christmas-loving Lily loses the joy of the season, and it’s up to Dash to bring back her sparkle.

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I will never doubt these authors again

Okay, so the question. First, a little backstory. I am not going to retell any of the books, because read them, read them, read them, read them, read them. I will, however, say that if there is one city that rivals a perfect location for Christmas magic than NYC, it’s London. Congratulations to Ms. Cohn and Mr. Levithan for knowing the one thing that would entice me. (The only city that could top that would be Jerusalem, but this isn’t that kind of book.) Dash is at the wrong university, Lily is finding that maybe she doesn’t want her gap year to close, and they aren’t kids anymore, but young adults (new adults?) so questions of The Future are now coming into play, and mommy and daddy can’t help them now.

There are older relatives, of course, and one of them actually does ask one really good question of both Dash and Lily, which applies to them both as individuals finding their own ways, and as a couple. What is the question? It’s an easy and profound one:

Don’t think about it, the relative urges Dash and Lily. Just answer. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Lily comes up right away with “dogs,” and for Dash, it’s “books.” For Anna (no, there is no Anna in this book. Okay, there is one, but she’s been super dead for a super long time, and she is only mentioned once. It’s me. I am the Anna. I will be surprised if you did not get that already.) there was similarly no hesitation. Romance novels. I love romance novels. I have ever since I stole my very first historical romance novel from my mother’s nightstand when I was a very precocious eleven. I knew then and there that I had found what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and usually, I follow that with “so far, so good,” but, eh, 2020.

To recap for the new followers (hi, and thanks for following. We are thrilled to have you. “We” is me and Storm kitty. Plus my imaginary friends, um, I mean characters.) 2020 was full of anxiety, depression, homelessness, and assorted other non-delights. I told Real Life Romance Hero that I am staying up on New Year’s Eve because I want to watch 2020 die.

Things are better now. We have a gorgeous, cozy apartment that gives me historical romance cred because it started out life as part of a carriage house in the nineteenth century. It has the pink fifties bathroom of my dreams, updated exactly enough to straddle retro and timeless modern classiness. I have an awesome calico kitty who is my mews and purr-sonal asisstant, I am married to the love of my life, and our best friend is our housemate. All of this provides a really good foundation to transition out of survival mode and into who I want to be now.

Which brings us to Dash and Lily’s question. What do I love? Romance novels. I love the happily ever afters, I love the history (even my co-written contemporaries have historical touches here and there.) I love the character journeys, and the whole complicated dance from strangers to you and no other-ness. :happy sigh: I love reading these books and I love writing these books and I love talking about these books. I love the authors and the covers and the readers and the history of romance fiction and the swag and the community and…yeah. If I ever got locked in a bookstore overnight, I would like it to be The Ripped Bodice, the first big time all-romance bookstore because trust me, I would not mind one iota. Second choice is a good old fashioned UBS (used book store) that is romance friendly, with a substantial stock of pre-1996 titles.

Even though I have read voraciously in above niche, I still haven’t read exhaustively, so there are still many adventures ahead. As well, of course, as all of the fabulous new books coming out literally every month, people. Every. Month. Plus my own stories, historical and contemporary and who knows what else? One thing I can tell you, though: they’ll be romance.

Hi. I’m Anna. I write romance novels and about romance novels. I also love stationery. Come to my place, that’s what you get. Welcome. Now sit right next to me and tell me all your favorites.

Typing With Wet Paws: Mid-December Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This is also getting ever closer to Christmas, which is probably going to be pretty exciting for me, because it’s my first proper Christmas with these guys, and everybody’s first in this apartment. The aunts went to the storage unit earlier in the week, and had second thoughts about doing the archaeology needed to get to the existing Christmas tree, since it’s in a box near the back. In other words, behind heavy stuff. Instead, they plan to buy a new one probably this weekend. Maybe a tabletop version, even though Aunt Anna has a lot of lights at the ready.

What she did pick up at the unit, though, was the rest of her pen collection (well, the most used ones, anyway) and I helped her sort through them and get them put away.

one of the many jobs of a purr-sonal assistant

There is a high possibility that I will give Aunt Anna a pen for Christmas. Last year, I gave her a lightbulb, but that’s only because we were visiting Aunt Linda’s family, and we were shut in the guest bedroom and that was the best thing I could find. Aunt Anna loved it, though, so I guess I did good anyway. There is also a possibility that I know something about where her morning pags notebook and brand new kraft paper notebook are (she is pretty sure they are together) and could surprise her when Christmas comes.

Pile of Assorted Novel Books
thanks for the picture, Pexels

Aunt Anna had a great chat with Miss Lisa over at Buried Under Romance, and they are super excited about lots of fun stuff they have planned for 2021. For now, there is the most current Saturday Discussion, and Miss Lisa’s review of the newest Christmas romance from Jenna Jaxon. Click those links if you want to take a look.

As for the whole Goodreads challenge thing. Sorry, Aunt Anna, we have to go there. It’s time. As of right now, Aunt Anna has read 77 out of ninety books, putting her seven books behind schedule if she wants to make it to her goal by the end of the year. That means she has thirteen books to go, with twenty-one days to go. Doable. There may be some fussing, because the big reader energy is still not back yet, but she has a few ideas.

  1. Move the goal post. As in get in there and change the number to something more manageable, like 80 (or even 77, where she currently is) and be done with it. There are bigger fish to fry, after all. Mmm, fiiiiiiiish.
  2. Push through, everything else be, um, danged. Get to that arbitrary number no matter the cost because there is a reputation to uphold.
  3. Audiobooks. All the time. Even when writing and stuff like that.
  4. Novellas. All the novellas. Don’t care if she wants to read them or not, they’re short.
  5. Say the fluff with it and not even try. Losing isn’t the end of the world. It’s 2020. There are naps to take.

Yeah, she’s not going to do that last one. It’s going to be one of the others. Which one would you pick if this were you in this situation? Drop your answer in the comments. I will say that she is getting more reading time since she still has to share the computer with Uncle Rheuben and that means she doesn’t get a lot of or sometimes any Sim time, so reading is more accessible. We’ll see what happens. She’s not thrilled with being this far behind after being that far ahead as she once was, but hey, it’s 2020. These things happen.

Uncle Rheuben’s desk

Before you ask, that is not a flatlay. That is just how his desk usually looks. He’s a tidy dude. There is usually a laptop there, but since it isn’t working, it’s in its box for the time being. Hopefully a short time, because computer sharing makes Aunt Anna a little loopy, if you catch my drift.

That did not, however, keep her from having a great video chat with Aunt Melva. They have set a goal to be done with the first draft of Drama King by Christmas, which is super exciting. After that, there is going to be a poopload of editing but Aunt Anna likes that part, so it’s all good.

That’s probably about it for right now. Aunt Anna wants to get to the big business at hand for her Capitol Region RWA chapter, because it’s member appreciation time, and she gets the super fun job of shaking virtual pompoms in everybody’s direction, reading off all the great things they’ve done in this sucktastick year. She normally does that in person and gets to hand out treats and presents. That’s going to be a little different when done virtually, but I bet it will still be fun, especially with a very high chance of a calico photobomb.

Headbonks!

Better Writing Through Computer Games?

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Wednesday’s post is here on Thursday this week, because A) I came down with a rotten winter bug, last week’s “cold” actually the first stage of ick, and B ) Real Life Romance Hero’s laptop, less than a year old, abruptly stopped working, so we have had to share the single desktop. Not a lot of writing done this week, which is understandable because all power to shield, and better living through pharmaceuticals. One of the first things I want to do when I am climbing out of this stuff, is play Sims. Right now, that means Sims 4, and by playing, I mean largely refining my custom content to a fare-thee-well.

How does that relate to writing? Glad you asked (because somebody is probably asking. If not, you get my input anyway.) There’s no “right” way to play a life simulation game, and the methods of playing such are infinite, the same as telling a story, which is basically what I like to do with my games. It’s all storytelling. There are times when I blithely ignore what the game wants, er, suggests I do, and wander off the path to do my own thing, focusing on the aesthetics and letting my story brain take the wheel.

Everybody starts with the same basic stuff: the base game. It looks like this:

The Sims 4
how it all started…

Now here’s one of my recent screenshots:

what I’m doing now

What’s the difference? Well, a boatload of custom content, for one. I think the only things in this picture that aren’t custom are the archway, the window, and the washing machine that’s almost in frame. Jacqueline, a Sim I have made in Sims 2, 3, and 4 versions, (yes, she is kind of probably going to show up as a heroine in a future novel, but she will have a different name, and will likely be historical) has custom skin, eyes, hair, makeup, eyebrows, and I spent longer than I would care to admit tweaking her facial features with not only the in-game options but custom presets. This picture is her taking a selfie, which she can do with her smartphone, a game feature, further tweaked by an in-game filter option, and ReShade, which adds post-processing to create some serious mood. Or vintage mood, or bright, cartoony mood, or, or, or, or…yeah.

Right now, my current neighborhood is all British New Build houses made by other players, which I download and decorate down to the tiniest bits of clutter, to best reflect the residents. It’s all character and worldbuilding, and I love it. Next float in this parade is to take one of my screenshots and edit it further in a photo editing program, maybe add some design elements and/or text. Now that I have a ne printer, this might turn into stickers that I can put into my planners and notebooks, etc. There aren’t a lot of words involved in creating Sims and their environments, but here’s one thing that does happen when I spend a good chunk of time playing around with this: I want to write more fiction.

I didn’t expect it to be like that, but maybe it’s not such a surprising thing. As above, it’s character building and worldbuilding. Sims have their own wants, which I can fulfill or not, and deal with the consequences. I can override all of that and make whatever I want happen, within reason. Sometimes without it; Sims actually have things called “whims” that affect their moods, which affects how likely they are to do what the player wants them to do. This isn’t entirely unlike how it goes with writing. There’s also the times when things will just…stop, due to a glitch. Possibly a bad piece of custom content that doesn’t belong in this version of the game, or got shafted due to incompatibility with a patch, or I forgot to tdownload a mesh, or any one of a few dozen things. Maybe my aesthetic has changed, and so the custom content or even dfaults that I ha been playing with for years aren’t going to work anymore.

That means diving deep into my files and ripping out what doesn’t fit with my current methods/desires and replacing it with stuff that does. Trying new things, rising perhaps to a few challenges, or knocking it down and starting from scratch, though I am setting myself the goal of sticking with a single save for a certain number of generations, which is not unlike oh, say, finishing a book.

Right now, Melva and I are focusing on finishing Drama King, and I am loving that. Still, I have my notebook for Her Last First Kiss set up and that’s probably going to be next, because I miss historical romance like I would miss my own right arm. The only way to stop missing that is to get back to it, and, like searching for Sims content, this is going to mean reading a lot and poking around and seeing what I love, love, love, now, and if that means changing a few things that I have already done, so that I absolutely cannot wait to get to that keyboard and get to Bern and Ruby’s HEA, breathless, worn out, but still with enough energy to pump my fist in the air because we did it, fates be danged.

Not at all a bad way to wind up one year and start another, the way I see it.

Typing With Wet Paws: Let’s Get Moving Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This past week was better for Aunt Anna, anxiety-wise, but there has been a lot of adulting, a very warm hotel room that would be quite cozy in winter, but it’s not winter (don’t worry, the owner/manager is on the case, and it will be back to normal soon; he is only making sure the place will be warm in winter.) and the newest thing: we may be able to get into New Apartment *sooner* than we had expected. Not official yet, but a strong possibility.

Coming back from bad anxiety can take a while, and it’s more a bunch of baby steps in the right direction until, oh hey there, she’s writing again. A lot of it was playing Sims while listening to You Tube videos. For this past week, a lot of it was from the channel Heart Breathings, which is where author Sarra Cannon shares how she does what she does. One of the things Ms. Sarra said was that having beautiful stationery makes her want to look at the pages more, which is exactly how Aunt Anna feels.

so we’re doing this now…

I should mention that the pages you see here are not from Heart Breathings, but from Aunt Anna’s Writing Helps Pinterest board. She did print out a bunch of stuff from M. Sarra’s board, though, and will talk about that more later. Big life changes affect writing a lot more than a human might like, so trying new things may be a good way to get back into a routine that works best for the writer a person is, now.

I should also mention that, at this time last year, besides not knowing me yet (we call that the Dark Ages) Aunt Anna thought the Happy Planner line was silly and ew, plastic discs. Then she got two for her birthday, and now she loves it, especially the notebooks,. and has found a use for every size they offer, from big to micro. She likes metal discs better than plastic, which is fine by me, because I think the plastic ones will be perfect for playing with in the new apartment. We all know that’s going to happen.

Anyway, there is a questionnaire she printed about how to reconnect with a story after time away, and boy does she ever need that one. Some of those questions are hard, but also look like they can pinpoint what went wrong and how to fix it. For Aunt Anna, a lot of the time, the big stumbling block is “I don’t know.” We are working on that and while it’s kind of scary, nothing can be as scary as the year just past, so she’s up for the challenge. NaNoWriMo is not a go but it’s not off the table, especially in an unofficial capacity. Right now, she’s counting progress in “units” which she will explain later, and seems to work pretty well so far, and, most importantly, does not need to be perfect. She is also kind of salty that she thinks she might like to try a writing group again, but NY is still taking precautions, so maybe online groups might be a good idea.

As you can imagine, this is one of those drive-by posts but Aunt Anna wanted to show signs of life, and it is Feline Friday, after all. More details to come as she has them, including a review of how these new tools work for her and the way she writes now.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Second Week of September Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Usually, Aunt Anna helps m out with the snappy tittles, but she had a rough anxiety week, so I will cut her a little slack. Do not worry; Nurse Storm is on the case, with my patented paws-on brand of purr-apy. That kind of makes up for the anxiety I caused her by chewing through her CPU’s power cord last week. I did not get zapped, which is good, but I am no longer allowed behind the computer, which is bad (according to me.)

Moving along…and speaking of moving, that is what is taking up a lot of Aunt Anna’s brain at the moment. Things went well with the apartment th Aunts saw, and the property manager likes them, so things went to the next level. That level is applications and deposit, and the property manager said to call him for something called a walk through. I like the sound of that.

Aunt Anna’s Goodreads reading challenge has been holding steady at six books ahead of schedule, That big lead from earlier comes in very handy in times like these. She does have a list of books she wants to read, and TV/Movies she would like to watch, when things are a bit calmer. Since both reading and watching are sedentary activities, I am all for them. I will try and sneak in a purr-apy session or two. I’m clever like that.

Anyway, the stats look like this: Aunt Anna has read sixty-eight out of ninety books, which puts her at seventy-six percent of the way to her goal. Not too shabby, especially in the midst of all the chaos going on.

For those wondering about Buried Under Romance, Saturday discussion is back, baby, and keep an eye out for new reviews, bound to make many TBRs get all that longer.

Aunts Anna and Melva’s favorite one-year-old

Hard to believe it’s been a year since these two crazy kids were unleashed on the world. For those thirsty for the next Love by the Book story, Aunts Anna and Melva have been chugging ever closer to Jack and Kelly’s HEA. After that, time for Heather and Rob in book number three.

Aunt Anna’s figure-out-historical-romance-stuff notebook
(and extra paper because she will need extra paper)

As for historical progress, Aunt Anna found one interesting thing about her manuscripts that are complete and/or near enough to completion to count as such. Most of her stories fall into the following three time periods:

  • Medieval
  • Georgian (up to 1799)
  • English Civil War & Restoration

This doesn’t mean she isn’t interested in writing other eras, because she is (she will be all over the Tudor era someday) but for now, that’s a concentration that’s too strong to ignore. Apart from the medievals, and the pirate trilogy, the others aren’t directly connected, but — could they be? Is similar time period a strong enough connection for you as a reader?

zzzzzzzzzzzz…..

I already covered the most important me part with the stuff about the computer cord. I am not too pleased that I am no longer allowed to sit behind Aunt Anna’s computer, but they are getting me some new toys to make up for it, so I guess I still win. You can see how fitfully I sleep over this. Guess that’s about it for now, and there is a sunbeam calling my name, so say it with me…

Headbonks!