ARC winner!

Yippee! I am very excited to have won an advanced copy of Own the Wind by Kristen Ashley through Goodreads. I am a huge Ashley fan. She writes gritty romances with unique story lines and characters AND started as a self-published author. Even with bad editing, her stories always proved a good read.

Now, I believe she has an editor and has republished her work. Own the Wind is her latest story in a series about a motorcycle club called Chaos. This is the second book to Motorcycle Man.

When the UPS man dropped off the book yesterday, I felt like a dog at the dinner table. Treats! My daughter was so excited for me, that she ran downstairs to draw me an award. It's a gold medal with her initial and mine...and a picture of an open book. What a sweet heart.

Advanced Reading Copy - Own the Wind by Kristen Ashley

Here is my first critique without even opening the book:

Just looking at the cover, my husband asked me, "Is the guy supposed to be a poser?" I told him the hero was probably a tough biker dude. Husband said, "No tough biker dude would wear shoes like that." I studied the cover a little closer and have to agree! Pants are not worn or frayed enough and the boots are not scuffed. I like the cover layout though. I'm looking forward to cracking this baby open.

Right now I am reading manuscripts by two of my writing buddies. I'll peel back the covers on Ashley's latest hopefully next week.

Looking forward to it.

Map Time

Town Map

Project 51 of 365

Town Map - detail

I went to the Western Washington Scrapbooking Retreat last October and won a big door prize: a photo album, extra top-loading sheet protectors, 12x12 paper, stickers, ribbon, and double sided tape. How lucky!

Since I don't scrapbook pages for photo albums, I briefly wondered about giving my prize album to someone else. Instead, I had an idea to use the album as a way to organize my fiction writing ideas. I made a couple pages dedicated to interesting first and last names that have potential for sprouting into new characters.

Then...I've always been interested in maps. So after having drawn up the initial pencil sketch for my fictional town, I decided to collage it and make it an official part of my compilation.

Needless to say, I dedicated some serious hours to researching various components for my map, cutting out buildings, getting the streets lined up...and, the biggest time consumer of all, stamping the names with my ultra tiny stamp set I recently bought from Office Depot. I loved it! Tinkering at its best.

Office Depot Stamp Set

Nimble Fingers and Strong Vision Need Apply!

Amazingly enough, I have not lost a stamp yet, although many have sprung off my tweezers and bounced hither and yon around my studio. Thankfully, I have light colored carpet and can spot them somewhat easily.

Now, I can't wait for new characters to move into my fictional town so I can whip out my stamp set and help them get settled. I'm crazy. I know.

More Square Bears

Square Bears

Cat and Bunny

Project 49 and 50 of 365

The green fabric used for the cat's body is from a valance I had in my living room windows in my old house. See? Why throw fabric away when it can be used again? The other remnants used probably came from the bags of old quilting pieces that I bought at a garage sale. I accessorized the two square bears with scraps of ribbon and vintage buttons. Ya know. Old stuff.

Each square bear has a sewn and stuffed heart inside. Awwww.

The other square bears I made, a dog and a panda bear, are here.

Square Bears

Square Bears

Dog, Panda Bear and Heart

Project 47 and 48 of 365

The girls missed a birthday party their friend was having at Build-a-Bear in the mall last weekend, so I thought a fun project could be to build our own! I looked up some easy ideas on Pinterest and found some stuffies called Square Bears. Cute and easy! A great way to recycle those ribbon strands, fabric scraps and left over buttons. 

The dog is all new fabric that I've had in my bin for a long while. The plaid ribbon was on a Christmas present last year and I removed the wire, ironed it and stitched it into place. I recycled my dog's old collar tag from our previous address and flipped it over to write "Jack" on the backside, now front.

The panda bear has flower-shaped turquoise buttons that I cut off a ratty pair of kids pants, the ribbon is a sample from my design days at JanSport, Inc., and the fabric pieces are left over quilting scraps that I bought at a garage sale.

I really enjoy that so much history is incorporated into our projects. That dog collar is going to be very sentimental one of these days.

The girls stuffed their animals with pillow bunting from random throw pillows and added celestial hearts that I stitched together for added measure.

Two more square bears are in the works...a green cat and a rusty red rabbit.

Check out these sites for other ideas:

Noodlehead

The Handmade Home

Dibujos Flickr

Western Washington Scrapbooking Retreat 2012

It's that time of year again!  Like minded souls meeting at Fort Worden in Washington to create with paper. This year was very low key with only about 85 participants, less than last year. It was also earlier than last year. We met the last weekend in October instead of the mid-November time frame.

I was sick right before so I had a hard time planning and packing for this annual event. I also didn't feel like volunteering for anything. I just brought my paper and dove in without a plan.

It turned out nice! I felt better once I had gotten there and was settled...tissues to my left, tea to my right. I had signed up for the card swap and dug right in. Fourteen cards were needed to participate and I new I wanted to use my new honeycomb paper.

"Happy Everything" - Front

Project 45 of 365

"Happy Everything"

Back and Front

I didn't get as much done this year, but I had a great time regardless. I finished my card swap cards on the first day, Friday. On Saturday I did some writing in the morning and finished about four pages in my latest chapter book, then slowly poked around my bins for a Christmas card idea. For some reason it took me two  days to make eighteen cards, but there was food to be eaten, laughs to be had, and creativity to be reigned.

Ornaments

Project 46 of 365

Oh, and before I forget, I won a really nice door prize! A top loading 12x12 Photo album with paper, double stick tape, brads, stickers, extra album sheets, all tied with two strands of ribbon. Sweet!

Here are the cards I've done for the past couple retreats:

Happy Birthday Cake (2011)

A Single Daisy Can Be My Garden (2010)
Just a Note (2009)

Story Map

Town Map

Project 44 of 365

I've been writing and writing...and writing. I'm loving it! Now that I have my characters figured out, I start to see story arc's where before I saw blank paper. I'm just going with it.

My first story is done with one major revision under my belt. I have sent it to another peer group for review and will learn their feedback at the SCBWI retreat set for the beginning of November.

My second story is finished with no real revisions made, except for in process. I still have the last chapter to share with my regular writ crit group, then I will turn it over to a friend who is an exceptional editor. 

Now, I'm two chapters into my third book. At this time I was wondering about street names and how long travel would take between two set points. 

I had been using The Sims 2 Double Deluxe EA game to create my characters and their families. Then I was building some of the houses to match layouts with what I was envisioning. I laid out the town and added commercial lots...but then I found it tedious to flip back and forth between the game and writing. I also cannot label things, like street names for easy organization.

So, even though the game has helped me to this point, I had to turn old school and just draw out a map. I got a little carried away researching cool surnames and started adding them to my neighborhood. That's the creative mind for you...leads you down a rat hole when you least expect it. At least now, I have character last names at the ready :) 

Fiction Notes!

While trying to find editor names to put on my query letters, I found another gem. Darcy Pattison offers some great insight into writing and submitting!

Cynthea Lui also has a list of editors that may or may not be up to date...a starting point at least!