I'm going on a retreat!!!!

I'm going on a retreat! Holy crap, I'm going on a freaking writing retreat! In March! In Texas! I get to finally meet my internet friends! I get to meet big-name authors! (and share sleeping quarters with them, but let's not get creepy) I'm going on a retreat! I'm going on a retreat!

Wait, what happens on a retreat?

WHO CARES! I'm going on a retreat!

Seriously though, what happens on a retreat? Also:

Drafting V. Revising

I hate drafting. Ok, so maybe I don’t hate it, but writing the first draft is by far my least favorite part of writing a book. Now revising? Revising, I love. Allow me to share my possibly weird philosophy on that.

Writing a book is like painting (bear with me on this one). You get the idea in your head to paint a room. You know it’s going to look fantastic, and you’re excited about it. It starts out kind of fun—hey! You’re listening to music, you’re sipping a coffee, you’re painting, woo!—and then it’s not fun anymore. Your arms feel like Jello and you’ve only done one wall. But you persist, a) because you’ve started it so now you have to finish it, and b) because you know it’s going to look freaking fantastic when you finally finish. Still, you can’t see the finish line yet and most of the joy has been sucked out of it. On top of that, you’re questioning if Darkest Grape really was a good paint color choice. Probably you should have gone with the Naples Sunset, or the Purple Wine.

This is the first draft.

But then? Then you finish, and you get to pull all the tapes off the windows and replace the furniture to the room, and put the art back up on the wall, etc. And it’s just so fun! And satisfying!

This is revising. The point of writing where you finally get to see the book take shape into (hopefully) something great.

So there you have it. I love revising.

How about you guys? Which part of writing do you like the best/least?

Things That Are Awesome

-Still NaNoWriMo. Sure, it’s kicking my ass big time and I sort of hate it. But then I look at my word count (words I don’t even think suck!) and I know I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far without the good kick in the pants that NaNo’s given me.

-Katy Perry’s documentary, Part of Me. I never ever would have considered watching it except that two people I trust said they’d watched and loved it. It was fascinating and strangely touching. I’m a bigger fan now than even before. (Fun fact: Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night inspired a party scene in HEXED!)

-My son’s new bedroom (If I do say so myself!). Those damn stripes took 12 hours to accomplish so I think I earned some bragging rights.

-Cover news! Nothing I can share right now, but things are happening for the cover of HEXED. Exciting things that I can’t wait to show you guys!

-Awesome writing advice from an awesome author.

-The hilarious things that my adorably awesome two-year-old says:

         -At the DMV: ‘Excuse me, I was wonderin, is that yo pen?’

         -Before I flick his bedroom lights on in the morning: ‘Turn on the lights. I can’t see a fing!’

         -Running around naked. “Look at me! Look at me! I’m naked!’

         -In the bathroom at Starbucks, when a lady enters. ‘Do you need to take a poo?’ *face palm*

         -In the bathroom at Starbucks, when someone flushes a second time. ‘Two flushes! Momma, she flushed it again!’ * double face palm*

-Turkey and the giving of thanks! Happy Thanksgiving, my American friends :)

How to have a successful writing day: I cracked the code!

With NaNoWriMo in full swing, and many people (myself included!) getting burnt out by the push to reach the daily word count, I thought it might be useful to put together a few tips to help my fellow writers forge on through what I call ‘the saggy middle’, when it’s no longer exciting, the finish line is nowhere in sight, and the urge to google kittens doing cute things is almost overwhelming. Here they are:

-Do not check your email on a minutely basis even though you’re not expecting anything, ‘just in case’.

-Probably if you want to get work done, you shouldn’t write in bed with an electric heating pad on high.

-Do not download episodes of Entourage for ‘L.A. research.’ Similarly, do not spend hours watching music videos on Youtube for ‘pop culture research’.  

-Do not engage in lengthy twitter conversations about peri areas and panties.

-Ignore the urge to clean the toothpaste smudge on your shower curtain until after November 30th. Or at the very least, get someone else to clean it.

-Do not stand in front of the mirror for half an hour contemplating whether your wrinkles are Botox-worthy

-Do not google kittens doing cute things. Just don’t. (Oh fine, if you must have a kitten fix here's some kittens watching tennis.) 

-And for the love of god, don’t blog.

I think we can all agree this has been a very helpful post. You’re welcome. 

In which my book gets a new title

A bit of history, for anyone just joining me: For a while now, my editor and I (and anyone I even remotely know, including the twitterverse, my lovely blog followers, and any partygoers unfortunate enough to sit next to me) have been trying to come up with a better title for my book. While I originally loved THE WITCH HUNTER’S BIBLE, I had to agree with my editor that the title didn’t really match the tone of the book, which is fun and exciting and girly (Hey, she said it!).

Well, months of anguish, hair-pulling, and garment-rending later, it has finally happened. WE HAVE TITLE. So from henceforth, THE WITCH HUNTER’S BIBLE will now be called…

HEXED

Eeeeep! So excited! I love my new title, and I really hope you guys love it too.

Me, Elsewhere

GUYS!!!

My blogging routine has been interrupted by that thing called NaNoWriMo, but those in Michelle Krys withdrawal (HA!) fear not, because the wonderful Amy over at Chasingthecrazies has interviewed me for her W.O.W feature (Writer Odyssey Wednesday). I’m honored to be featured in this awesome series alongside fellow YA authors Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood, and Lauren Kate, author of the Fallen series, to name just a few people.

Click here to read a bit about my journey from nurse to soon-to-be published author. And if you’re not already following Chasingthcrazies, you should do that too!