Another week, another chpater

Wow, what a week. It was wonderfully productive and I feel like I'm mostly back on track.... mostly, I'm not sure I'm ever completely on track :)

Last week's goals
Write daily
Check! I was able to sit down and write some considerable words this week. I finished a chapter of Outlaw Born and it felt wonderful. Not for my poor MC Ben, he's having a rough time. Made me feel a smidge guilty writing him into it, but just a smidge. 

Write one article
*Buzzer sounds* FAIL The article was started but... not completed. 

Finish the book I’m reading
Ding ding ding! I finished the book I was reading, and started two more whoo hoo. I love falling into the pages of a great book. 

This week hopefully will be another productive week with lots of words, reading time, and other accomplishments. I've got my daily get'er done lists all set to for the next two days so I'm already off to a decent start.

This week my primary focus is going to be completing another chapter and developing a bit more depth into the secondary characters riding with my outlaw. Even though, these guys and gals aren't major players I feel like it's important to get to know who they are as well.

Who and what your secondary character is can affect the major character. If a secondary character questions the hero it could possibly cause the hero to rethink his or her situation. A secondary's difference in opinion might change the hero's decision to act or how he or she takes action. But these characters can't just suddenly have such a strong opinion. It doesn't feel genuine or true to life to suddenly toss them into a scene with such powerful views when they're a complete stranger to the reader.

Having a fully fleshed out sidekick to your hero or heroine can add more dimension and reality to your story. NYPD Blue was a great example of this. (yeah I know it's a tv show vs. book characters but that's what I'm watching as I write tonight lol) Detectives Andy Sipowicz and John Kelly are the main characters in the first and second season, but the secondary characters in the squad around them impact their many of their work and personal decisions. Sometimes in a big way.

Secondary characters aren't just there to move things along, they can be tools to further the reality of your hero/heroine and novel world. Who knows maybe one of the secondary characters in your novel will be  your next novel's hero.

How do you use those hero sidekicks? Have you ever started to like your sidekick better than your hero?

This week's goals 
Write daily
Write one article
Get rid of at least one box or bag of clutter.

Have a great week and good luck with your own goals!

Visit other Round of Words in 80 Days blog hoppers! To find out more about ROW80 click HERE

Creating the Write Routine

The last of 2014 was insanely busy and, of course, the holidays helped things get even wonkier. Now it’s time to get back into sync by creating a better routine.

A routine doesn’t have to be rigid or really scheduled. It’s really about building or rebuilding habits.

A daily routine can start out as a simple to do list. The list doesn’t have to be completed in any certain order or at specific times. It can be adjusted for those moments when something spontaneous pops up. (Just like our Row 80 goals)

Start with a list of five daily tasks. Everyone can accomplish a list of five things in a single day. Yeah, there are *those* days we’re lucky to get one, but that’s okay too. Back to our five things…..

Make your list of five tasks as they pop into your head. Now look at your list and highlight two that are most important. Those are your priorities. No matter what else gets thrown at you each day you are going to get at least one of those priority tasks accomplished.

After about two weeks, you’ll find yourself working your tasks in around whatever pops up in LIFE. Goals will be easier to meet and all will be back in sync.

There will still be times when everything gets whacked out of sync. As long as you can get back on the horse and restart you’ll be able to stick to a comfortable and easy to follow Write Routine.

Quarter One Goals

Establish a Write Routine

Write a minimum of 500 words a day

Write one article a week

Read a book a week

This week’s goals

Write daily

Write one article

Finish the book I’m reading

How about you? How do you establish or maintain a routine with writing and life?

Visit other Round of Words in 80 Days blog hoppers! To find out more about ROW80 click HERE

8 Sentences from Outlaw Born

Getting back into the groove of a story after a long absence can be both stressful and exhilarating. You get to fall in love with the characters again and rebuild that bond with your story when you read prose and begin to reimagine the plot. I hope you enjoy this set of 8 from Outlaw born as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Blurb:

Orphaned young and raised by a preacher's family Benjamin Mason became a good man. He wanted to forget and erase his real father's legacy of blood and violence from their name for his own son.

Then tragedy struck. The law wouldn’t give him justice, so he would take it. After all, wasn’t he born to be this kind of man, an outlaw filled with hell and vengeance in his blood? Ben Mason is outlaw born.

8 Sentence Excerpt: 

Charlie watched Ben hold his shoulder as he set the sight in place and take aim. “Lieutenant, are you hit?”

Ben moved back, cord in hand. “I’m fine.” He let go of a deep breath as he nodded to the men. “Ready! Fire!”

He pulled the cord. There was a hiss as the powder ignited. A second later came the blast, sulfur and smoke filling the air. The ground shook under their feet. Ben shook his head to combat the ring in his ears from the explosion.

To read other great Weekend Writing Warrior excerpts go HERE

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Get Hooked on Tingle

Happy Wednesday! It's time for Book Hooks blog hop Book Hooks is a weekly meme hosted by Marketing for Romance Writers as part of the MFRW Authors Blog. The authors in this hop are showcasing one of their books or works in progress. Be sure to check out the list of participants links at the bottom of this post, and don't forget to leave a comment would love to hear from you!

Get hooked on Tingel 
Tingle is a collection of flash fiction with a darker edge of the paranormal, suspense, and horror genres to make a readers spine tingle and provoke the senses and emotions.

An excerpt from one of Tingle's stories The Rosary

 He took a deep breath to clear the distraction his focus on God as he continued to pray.

A soft giggle broke the silence; Father McKenna opened his eyes and fell backward with a startled breath. A young woman stood behind the stone cross her arms wrapped around it. Her petite fingers covering her mouth to stifle her laughter. 

Her eyes were dark sunken into her face as though it had been a hundred years since she last slept. McKenna could feel darkness in her. “The church is open for prayer. The rectory is private, my child.”

The girl, no thing… pushed from the stone, her tongue slowly moved across her bottom lip. “Child? Priest… you’re not even old enough to be my father.”

McKenna stilled as she stood over him. His eyes couldn’t focus on her face, dizziness fell on him.

She… it, bent to bring her face to his and sniffed at the air before him, then again at his neck. McKenna’s pulse jumped as she moved closer, her lip curled wickedly. “I smell fear on your skin. Is your faith not strong enough?”

                                                      Get your copy of Tingle

Visit other participating authors and get hooked on more books!

2015 The Year of the Book

It’s 2015 and I’m sitting here wondering where 2014 went so quickly. Also where is my hoverboard? Maybe I’ll get that later, but right now I’m reflecting on my New Year’s resolutions.

I’m not going to make any promises to go on a diet, start jogging in the mornings or stay away from chocolate. (That’s just insane! Chocolate and Lattes make the world go round.) No, I’m going to make 2015 the year of the book.

This year I’m pledging to read more. I’ve taken up three reading challenges this year. I’ve pledged to read 50 books for the Goodreads 2015 reading challenge, 36 books for the Library Reading challenge, and 12 books for the Historical Romance Reading Challenge.

It does seem like a lot of books doesn’t it? Thank goodness the challenges kind of cross over each other! :-)

Why sign up for a reading challenge at all? A reading challenge can introduce you to a new genre, a new author and inspire you to pick up a book instead of play couch potato. You can meet new people who have the same passions as you and most of all… It’s FUN! 

So I challenge you to find a reading challenge that fits you or even create one of your own and sign up. There are challenges for all genres and types of literature. So discover awesome books this year and join me in the Year of the Book!

The first book I’m reading this year is The City by Dean Koontz. What are you reading? Have you joined any reading challenges?

Want to join in on one of the ones I have? Just click here My 2015 Reading Challenges or click on the tab at the top of the page. You will find the links to those challenges.