Fingernails on The Blackboard

There are two words that writers often use that make me cringe like fingernails on a blackboard: Muse and Polish.

"Muse" is just one of those words I don't like. I'm not really sure why. I only know that there isn't a little person sitting on my shoulder or in my subconscious that tells me when it's in the mood to write. I choose to write or not to write. I'm either in the mood or not.

"Polish" elicits more of a personal reaction. I think New York Times Bestselling Author Lori Foster said it best, and I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her:

"My feeling is that if you polish a book too much, it'll be flat and shiny and smooth--and not too interesting. It's the little pits and bumps and whatnot that show voice and make a book unique from all the other super shiny, flat surfaces."

Back when I was starting to write for publication, I would edit my books until there was no life left in them. They'd be technically correct but boring. Finally, Lucy Monroe, a member of my local RWA chapter, pointed out to me that I was one of those people that should only do a few edits. The more I edited, the more I wrote my voice out of my story. Then I received further proof that "polish" is not a good thing for me to do. On a whim (something I do a lot), I had sent three chapters of a WIP to 3 agents. Those chapters had not been edited at all. I had 2 requests for fulls. If you're not a writer, believe me when I say that requests for fulls from good agents are a big deal. Unfortunately and the moral of the story, I didn't have the rest of the book written. ;) I won't do that again, and that's the subject for another blog.

What are your "blackboard" words?

Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Really good things have happened to my husband and me in the month of December. For starters, we went to Hawaii for a week and stayed with dear friends of ours.

Then we heard from someone that we thought was lost to us. That WAS the best Christmas present ever.

Lastly, is news I can't report yet. Hopefully, within a week I'll have BIG news to report.

Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

We're Back!!!

Yep, we're back in the Northwest. Back to reality. Back to life in general.

Back to work.

Back to riding. (I haven't been on my horse in two weeks!)

Back to finishing my latest manuscript, "The Gift Horse."

Back to waiting. (Waiting to hear from publishers as to whether or not they're interested in my last manuscript.)

Back to the animals--who were quite happy to see us.

Back to the Christmas season, which I honestly didn't notice in Hawaii, other than a few Christmas lights and some Hawaiian Christmas songs on the radio.

All in all, it's good to be back.

I loved Hawaii, but I still think that the Northwest is the greatest place to live in the world, and I'm one of the fortunate ones.