Open Mic Wednesday 7/21/10
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
It’s Open Mic Wednesday. What’s on your mind?
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Books by Kaye Dacus
Novel in Progress
Follow the Heart*
Book 1 of The Great Exhibition Series
Due May 1, 2012
first draft completion goal date: 01/31/12
*working title
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Middle Tennessee Christian Writers
I’d like to do some freelance writing, and I think Home Life (LifeWay- SBC) would be a perfect fit. Here’s hoping one of your blog subscribers sees this, has a connection, and agrees with me :0)
The best connection is to just start submitting (also, connect with our cousin Jeff Land on FB if you haven’t already–he works in the Sunday school literature department of LifeWay and may be able to give you some direction about submitting to other areas of LW).
Also, the humidity is on my mind. It’s so humid here your sweat doesn’t even evaporate. In fact, you’re lucky if the moisture in the air doesn’t condense onto your body.
I know what you mean by humidity. It’s been crazy hot & humid here. I’ve had to hibernate indoors because of the poor air quality. No fun being pregnant in this heat!
Congrats on the baby, Shelly! Sorry about that mid-summer pregnancy for your sake, though.
Yesterday even the breeze was hot and humid. I was SO glad we did our outdoor stuff on Monday!
the humidity lately is driving me nuts. it’s like it sucks all the life right out of you when you walk out the door and into the ‘cloud’. yuck.
It was horribly humid in Charleston. Came home to the news here talking about the “high” humidity in Nashville—which felt very dry to us as we unloaded the car. Though, it is about 100 degrees here today, so I haven’t yet ventured out, though I do need to make a run to Kroger here shortly.
It must be humid everywhere! I’m in central Maine and I feel like a soggy sponge.
I HATE humudity!!!!! It just weights me down when i’m walking and makes me feel sticky all the time.
I’d rather have the california heat that i grew up with than the ohio humidity.
11,000 words in the past week. How can anyone watch tv or read? Do you have trouble wrapping your mind around other stories when your so focused on your own?
That’s exciting, Carla! How many hours a day are you putting in?
I always find time to read because I have to take public transport to work. Plus I have to read a wee bit in the evening. I’m a morning person so my best writing time is before three. Of course, I don’t always get to use that time, but that would be my ideal. After that my mind just gets mushier and mushier so I’m better off refueling with a good book then writing drivel.
Kav, I don’t even TALK to people before 3am. I prefer not to acknowledge that it exists, to tell the truth….If I’m awake at that time, I’m trying desperately to get back to SLEEP!
I’ve been reading a lot lately, but most of it is done right before I go to bed. I have VERY little time during the day or in the evening to read. ‘Course if I’d turn off the TV (or if my family would), I’d have lots more reading AND writing time!
LOL. No, I meant 3:00 p.m. My brain turns to mush mid afternoon so I best writing time is as soon as I get up. I’m an early riser and dog walker so I would say my ideal writing time would be 6:00 a.m. – noon.
I find as long as it’s very good writing, and very good tv, it fuels my writing and inspires me. Unless I was under the gun with a deadline, I couldn’t be one of those writers who stop reading and watching tv and movies while they are writing their own work. But I do try to be selective. Still, to each brain its own method. Whatever works is what’s best.
Now that I’ve finished watching the available seasons of Bones on Netflix, I’m about to go on a TV/movie fast until August 1 so that I can get Ransome’s Quest finished (I need to write at least 7,000 words a day to get it done). However, I find that watching a one-hour scripted show or listening to one disc of an audio book helps me to shut down my brain better at night so that I can fall asleep.
Kaye, Lord bless you! I’ll be praying for you to meet your goal. I know you will!!
Lori, I think I want a Kaye Dacus writing super power (see Lori’s blog).
If I go right from the computer to bed I have a hard time shutting my mind down, and so many times I’ve had to hop back up and write down that new idea or problem solved. Maybe a little TV would be a good idea, but reading is harder for me because the words start looking like my own ms.
Regina, I will take 6 -12 hours a day when I have the opportunity (and deadline). I usually take a few side tracks for research, but most of that is all done. It takes a few of these sessions for me to come up with a few thousand words that I’m fairly happy with. I’m a lot slower at it than Kaye, for sure.
I have read everything I possibly can to prepare a proposal for a YA novel. I am planning on two workshops in the next two months, maybe three. The problem now is finding an agent that will accept a proposal. The market is so tough. I’m trying to keep my chin up, but it’s more than a little scary out there. Any advice anyone?
The best thing to do is to connect with agents at conferences. That way, you know if your personalities mesh and you can get a better feel for what they’re looking for.
My agent, Chip MacGregor, has been writing on his blog about searching for agents recently:
http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/main/2010/07/basic-information-about-agents.html
Thank you again Kaye! I have run into some confusing info about agents. I have spent hours each night perusing and studying agent websites. Some of the information seems contradictory at times. For example, an agent’s website may indicate he or she is not interested in a certain genre at that time. However, the conference website might indicated that the agent is interested in obtaining a couple of authors who write a particular genre. No doubt personal contact is the best way to go. I have visited Chip MacGregor’s website on many occasions, and it is full of fantastic information. I am going back there right now to see what I missed. I wish the August workshop were tomorrow.
I’ve been using my OneNote program to flesh out my new story. It is an amazing tool, Kaye, and has helped me really SEE my story better. I’m working on character charts right now and trying to figure out my H&H. How long does it take you to figure your characters out?
I’m using One Note as the place where I’m brainstorming my next contemporary series proposal (which I’ve put on hold until I get RQ finished). It’s been great to have the different tabs and pages to be able to separate everything out without having to put it all in individual Word or PowerPoint files like I would have before—and it’s all right there. And because I set each notebook up as a shared notebook (to be used by me on multiple computers), so long as I start up my laptop while my desktop is still on, I can have One Note sync the files so that I have the most updated information on whatever computer I’m using.
Oh, I forgot to mention! I am giving a copy of Ransome’s Crossing on my blog today. (if you don’t already have it).
http://www.sherrindak.blogspot.com
Thanks, Sherrinda!
I love reading! So many books so little time!!
I had no books to read, then all of a sudden, 5 came in at the library so now I have to choose which one to read first! lol
I know what you mean. When I am looking for a new book I can’t find any, but when I am not looking I find all of them! I have 7 books on my shelf ready to read now!! Fun!!
Do you all normally read books straight through or do you start one, then get distracted by another? Soon you have seven books with bookmarkers in them.
I have to read them straight through without starting a new one. It would take me forever to read a book through if I had seven of them going! Since I work full time, I only get to read right before I go to bed, so it usually takes me a week to get through a book, instead of my previous 1 or 2 days.
I start with one, read that for about a day and then next thing you know i’m reading like 15 books!! How did that happen?
I don’t do a lot of reading anymore, so if I start a book, that’s most likely the only book I’m going to be reading—unless it loses my interest, and then I might pick up something else to start.
I sometimes read more than one book at a time. For instance, last week I was reading Nightshade by Ronie Kendig. I went out on Friday night to eat dinner, and bought The Gathering Storm by Bodie and Brock Thoene. So I ended up reading both of those books at the same time. Right now, I’m just reading one book.
How did you research someone working on a ship in England during the 1800″s for Ransome’s Crossing? Was there ever a case of a woman working on board or was that just your imagination at work? Well written I felt as though I was on the ship.
You can see some of the research I’ve done by looking at the posts I wrote before both Honor and Crossing released (go to http://kayedacus.com/books/books-the-ransome-trilogy/ and scroll down to find the links for the posts under each book’s description).
There were women who both lived and served aboard ships back in the 18th and 19th centuries, though their stories are not overly publicized and are more anecdotal than historical. There were women who lived aboard the ships—officers’ wives, mostly, some of whom did pitch in during battles and help out with the ship’s surgeon or even helping gun crews load the cannons.
I read about this video online and watched it. What a treat! These people are great!:) They also look like good book characters.
That WAS a treat – thanks, Sylvia!
Yeah, I enjoyed that video. You see people laugh like that on television sometimes, but I didn’t know real people could do it.
In response to Sylvia M.’s question- I used to be able to read multiple books at one time and keep track of all the plots, but it seems to be harder and harder to do! Probably best just to focus on one…
Kaye,
Your beautiful books arrived today! Thank you so much! You were so gracious to sign them and say such uplifting things. Now I can give the copies I bought away on my blog. I was hesitant as I love your stories and didn’t want to part with mine (selfishly, perhaps). Funny thing is that I didn’t even know I’d entered your book giveaway when I left a comment that day. A fine surprise, indeed:) Bless you.
I am SO GLAD you archive your previous blogs. I just read about your road to publication. It sure helps to know that the feelings I have right now are somewhat normal. You always seem to have it together. You never seem nervous. For DAYS now I’ve been too afraid to submit my registration to the ACFW conference. I’m terrified. I’ve saved almost all of the pennies I’ve made from freelancing so that I would have money to spend on my “big dream.” Now I have found it. I don’t know if I’ll know what to do once I get there.
Me too! I refer crit partners to this blog all the time! Keeps me from having to go to the trouble of writing out what I mean about deep third, etc, and from seeming like a lecturing know-it-all.
Wow…I knew I was busy yesterday but I can’t believe I missed an Open Mic Wednesday post. Time seems to be getting shorter and shorter these days.