Showing posts with label muse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label muse. Show all posts

My muse is not amused

Okay, of all the excuses, er, I mean reasons that authors have for not finding the time to write, getting a new pool installed is probably one of the lamest. So go ahead and scoff at me.

For the last few months, construction crews have turned my back yard into a disaster zone. That's because with a new pool comes a new, er, larger, deck. And, oh, did I mention they first had to excavate the old pool?

Yeah, it's been a nightmare. 





















But then came the excitement of the new construction!











And then, day by day and week by week, things started to take shape.











We’re not done yet, but hopefully by June I’ll be able to go for a swim! And by June my muse will be amused at how much time I’ll have to write J

How about you? Any major projects that sidetracked your writing for a while? Share!

Jenna



Life Happens

Writing is not a full time occupation, at least not for most authors. Most of us don’t have that luxury. We have to juggle day jobs, our own families, sometimes elderly parents, outside commitments or events, all while trying to steal a few precious minutes to work on our books. (Usually it’s in the dead of night when everyone else is asleep.)

Can you tell I need to vent today?

Sometimes writing is just impossible. I came close to strangling my husband last weekend when he said to me, ‘Hey honey, we don’t have to be at my boss’s annual BBQ bash for an hour yet. Go write.’

IT’S NOT THAT EASY!

The muse can’t be summoned at your whim. An author needs time to unwind from real life, block out the world and looming life deadlines (like that mandatory BBQ bash) and get into the “zone” of writing the story. I need to submerse myself in my fictional world, enter that magical door and look around. That’s the ‘Oh yeah, I remember this!’ moment when we can finally start to write.
That moment doesn’t come easily.

Just now, my husband ran out the door saying, ‘I’m going to see my dad. Be back in an hour. Then we really have to start working on our income taxes.’

Crap! Instead of screaming, I sat down to write. But then I realized I had this blog to finish (another deadline) before I could concentrate on my latest futuristic romance, Programmed For Power, book three in my Tau Cetus Chronicles.  So I guess Theus, the powerful premier of Tau Cetus, will just have to wait.

And I don’t like to make him wait.

Sometimes I fantasize about divorce. Having all my time be my own. Having time to write, to do what I want to do, not what everyone else needs me to do.

Then I realize that fiction might be my passion, but family is my priority.

And that’s as it should be.

Still, sometimes I’m reminded of that old saying, “Sometimes I just sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.”

Oh, for the luxury of just being able to sit and do nothing!!!

Nah, I’d probably be bored out of my mind.

Sigh. Life happens. But I guess that’s what makes it so interesting.

Until next month,
Jenna



Rats in the Attic! And the Muse and Me are in Time Conflict!

Okay, so the termite inspector came out to do his annual check and yes! No termites! Also, and this was so great, so exciting, the puppies didn’t even bark at him! They greeted him and were still shy, but they didn’t bark and misbehave! They even held it so that I could take them out to potty when he left. That’s a BIG deal.
Tanner and Jaguar blanket (640x427) 4
Tanner tuckered out.
The bad news is–hey, without bad news, all the good news is just boring, right? Who wants to hear about all the great news? That everything is going along fine? We want conflict, right? We want to see that someone else has problems so we feel better about our problems, right? Of course. :) That’s what makes life interesting. The conflict. The drama.

Okay, so I’ve got rats in the attic. So says the pest control guy. I KNOW I get mud daubers in the house constantly in the spring through the fall. I know I have a lot of places that things can get in. Never seen a mouse or evidence of mice in the house, though when my parents lived here, the first few years, they had a terrible problem with them. I have snakes in the house. So maybe that’s why?

Anyway, he said that on a little bit of decking in the attic, he could see rat prints in dust, and their droppings. And that there’s a little bit of chewing. So I’ll have to check this stuff myself, document it, and share it. With you. Isn’t that what friends are for???

I’m finishing a book first. I’ve GOT to finish this. Eleven days and it has to be turned in. I have a ton of stuff stacking up in the meantime. Call of the Cougar–need to proof the audiobook for one.
So what’s happening now is my Muse and Me are in time conflict. What this means is that it wakes up at times that I want to sleep. Sure, I hear the puppies stirring a bit, and that’s probably what really wakes me, but then my Muse decides to go through scenarios in my book. Not only that, but it tells me all the things I should have done during the day or when I get up. Like, Hey, did you put the clothes in the dryer last night?

Shoot! Nope. But if I get up to do it right then and there, which I would if I didn’t have puppies, I would wake them, and they’d want to go out.

Now, the problem with that is for the last two nights, I’ve actually put them to bed at 7 pm, then I continue to edit, or write, and they wake up the next morning at 5 am. It’s great! But it means I can’t turn on the light or get up without “telling” them that it’s time to get up. And I want them to learn that 7 pm to 5 am (or later) is their bedtime.

Oh, and you know I do lots of research for my books, so I’ve talked a lot about the phases of the moon in this one, and so I was looking at the phases, making sure I got it right, and wow, guess what I found???? The werewolf diet. Hey, sometimes I can’t even make up stuff that great!

Anyway, so I’ve got to figure out a way to talk about it in the book, that makes it seem seamless. It’s not just an urban legend. Some actors supposedly followed it–Madonna, Demi Moore, according to Grazia. It’s also known as the lunar diet or moon diet. It has to do with fasting during the new moon and full moon. But what’s interesting is that when I was at The International Wolf Center, they fed the wolves only once a week. That’s normally how they eat in the wild. They’ll have a dead deer, for instance, (often road kill and someone will drop it off at the center), and once it’s gone, they don’t get fed until the next week. So it’s really appropriate to call the moon diet a werewolf diet, even though it’s not based on the phases of the moon. Anyway, food for thought.

I now officially have wordcount on A SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble, and then had to turn in the cover sheet specs including the blurb. Now I’m still writing the book, but it’s getting closer to being done. I printed out the first 100 pages, again, and am making more corrections. But I still have to finish writing the book.
Max Rubberbanded in Black and White
Max Rubber Banded in Black and White

I love all his black and silvery tips and hope he gets to keep them as his hair grows out. I was able to pull more of his hair back, but this morning I found Tanner chewing on something, and yep, Max’s rubber band.

When I was coming in from one of my trips outside with the puppies, I saw that the daffodils had bloomed! The day before, I noticed they were getting ready to. It’s amazing how fast they open up when I’m not paying attention. Also, freesia has bloomed!
daffodils before blooming (640x427)
yellow daffodils (640x427)
freesia (640x427)
And all kinds of weed flowers are popping up! And my rosebushes are leafing out.
And white stuff on the roof. 
Roof covered in white stuff (640x427)
Okay, back to the book.  Nose to the grindstone and all that sort of thing.
It’s getting closer to being finished! And that’s the main thing!


Tanner stealing away from Place
Tanner stealing away from Place
Tanner stealing away from Place
Tanner stealing away from Place
Learning to Place.
Learning to Place
The funny thing  is when I say Place, Tanner is the first to get there. But then….he’s the first to leave.

Have a great Saturday!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com
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