Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I feel really stupid...

Ever done something that made you feel utterly stupid? Like the biggest bonehead walking? I did something today at work that my manager expressly told me never to do. It's hard to explain it was in detail, but basically I did it because I didn't think it would make that big of an impact. Boy, was I wrong. It became apparent not even five minutes after I did it, and it had a ripple effect throughout the entire day and is still not fixed.

I burn with shame and embarrassment. No one can ever be as hard on me as I am on myself. Even now I abhor the idea of going back to work tomorrow and facing my manager. I feel so stupid and with that stupidity comes the restlessness I feel at the moment. It's 2am and I should be sleeping. Only I can't.

On the bright side, the restlessness allowed me to complete the entire MS round 3 edits of my newest novel Chasing Seth. Everything went pretty smoothly. There was a lot but it was mostly punctuation, which I admit is my biggest downfall. I either use too many commas or not enough. I've gotten a bit better I think. At least from when I started!!

I guess I should go lay down and try to sleep. Blah. But, I shall leave you with a pretty picture to send you all off to sleep to hopefully dream of hot, sexy men! :P


Sunday, August 14, 2011

Editing Nightmares

Okay, so on my most recent accepted novel the first round of edits was super easy. It took me a couple of hours to knock out. But the second round was not so easy. Apparently one of the editors found that my story had a few similarities to someone else's and they were concerned. The plot line and characters itself were original and such, but a few key points in the story seemed to run parallel with another author's. This led to a large amount of revisions being requested.

I had to change quite a few points and add additional information to some of my characters and their background. I didn't really mind that at all. Because the more unqiue something is, the better right?

My biggest pet peeve over these last two novels that I've had to edit is that the 2nd editor asks questions that make it appear that they have not read the entire story. There were several questions in this round of edits that made me go.... *blink* *blink* LOL. Are you serious?

Is it a pre-requisite for editors to make comments off the cuff but not ensure their facts are straight before challenging the writer?

I'm also of the belief that you don't have to detail out every single little thing because then the reader gets bored and loses interest or it's like... why would the reader care about something so trivial? Let me show you an example: Who owns this log cabin the character seems to be in? (Paraphrased, not exactly as it was worded.)
The question seriously made me *facepalm* because what reader is going to stop in the middle of the scene and go... hmmm.... I wonder who owns that cabin they're in? Is it his? Is it a friend's? That really bugs me that I dont know!

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I had to vent that out there. I've had stories that I have picked up to read and dropped back within the matter of a couple of chapters due to TOO much detail. I was reading a young adult series set in Ireland about faeries. The writer went into so much detail about the scenery the main character only saw in passing that I couldn't help but get bored. It was every page. They would describe the designs on a tree or the way a leaf was bent. No joke. I think I still have the series but I never finished it. I wish I could take it back. -__-

Let's hope the new revisions are enough to ease the editor's mind and not trigger the thought of plagarism in the reader's when they read it.

As always, here's a sexy picture for your enjoyment. :) Aren't they gorgeous?


Thursday, August 4, 2011

Newest Free Read Update & Some Minor Rambling Thoughts

Hey everyone! My newest update to my Free Read - From Fiction to Reality is up on my new website!! Click Here <----------

You can send me an email from Contact J.R. or comment here when you're done if you liked it!



I'm excited that I managed to complete my free reads post! Woo! I like the way it's coming out. :D

I have one work in progress that's about halfway through Chapter seven and I am looking into the idea of actually revamping a story that I have written in the past which is almost complete but still has a bit left to go. It was an extremely unique story, at least to me, and I think it may fascinate some who have a love of the underwater world. But that's all I'm going to say! LOL.

September seems so far, yet so close. I dont even know what to do for my birthday this year! And I have a short story and a novel coming out next month. But the novel may be delayed or at least pushed to the end of the month since there's a minor hiccup we reached. I have a lot of work to do this weekend! Oy! Just thinking about it is making my head hurt! Editing is probably my least favorite part of the process, but it's a necessary evil of course.

A friend of mine is really awesome! She is making up flyers for both of my books that are already out and handing them out in her LGBT community along with a bunch of the bookmarks I sent her! She's amazing! I was shocked when she offered to make the flyers, but when she told me that one of the centers she goes to is going to have an actual meeting where she is going to hand out my flyers and talk about my books floored me! You couldn't ask for better advertisement than that could you?? I want to do something really nice for her, but I dont know what. She lives in Michigan and I thought maybe feeling her out to see if she likes flowers or maybe sending her a gift card for her and her husband to go to a nice restaurant. :D Any suggestions?

Well, my lovely readers, I will leave you with this mad sexy picture and hope to see your comments about my newest update to From Fiction to Reality soon!