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emaginings: Had To Write Today

May 17, 2013 by Linda McLaughlin in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as emaginings, Linda McLaughlin, writing

As usual, I had trouble coming up with a topic for today’s blog. You’d think I could plan ahead, but no. Couldn’t think of anything yesterday so I procrastinated. Then today it hit me. I HAD TO WRITE!

I’ve launched two reissues in the last couple of months, ROGUE’S HOSTAGE and LADY ELINOR’S ESCAPE. There’s a lot of work involved in self-publishing, revisions, edits, cover art, etc. And more work involved in a book launch. It seems like all I’ve been writing lately is blog posts and I just couldn’t stand it any more. Today I had to write.

I’ve been half-heartedly working on two projects, trying to fit them in in between blogs and tweets and what not. One is a sexy novella as Lyndi Lamont, and the other is a Western historical romance set after the Civil War that I started and abandoned years ago when conventional wisdom said Westerns wouldn’t sell. That’s no longer true, if it ever was, so…

Today I delved back into the Western, and it felt good to get reacquainted with my characters. I’m doing some revisions, but the story seems sound, at least so far. The main thing was, it felt good to write again, even if it is just revising. Promo can suck up so much time, esp. when you don’t have a big publishing house behind you. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae and forget to write.

So my apologies for this rambling, possibly incoherent blog post. But you see, I had to write today.

Linda McLaughlin

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Juggling Act

May 6, 2013 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Alpha Force, Harlequin Nocturne, Linda O. Johnston, Pet Rescue Mysteries

I love to write–but I love to have written even more!

Over the past week, I’ve been juggling between a few stories Iâ€™m working on. For one, I have to complete a proposal for a Harlequin Nocturne romance that Iâ€™d suggested some time ago. I had fun getting back into that story and into Alpha Force mode. Alpha Force is my Nocturne miniseries about shapeshifters. Love them! I wrote a rough first draft and Iâ€™m now editing it.

Plus, Iâ€™ve come up with some ideas for a couple of new mystery series. Iâ€™m also working on proposals for them. And, yes, Iâ€™ve done rough first drafts, for one of them, at least.

I must have a lot of characters occupying my brain, since I do have to call on them, usually one at a time, and have them speak up even when Iâ€™ve been working in a different genre. They always come through for me and tell me what comes next on the page. Itâ€™s a good thing Iâ€™ve been at this for a while.

How about you–do you have more than one character or type of story in your mind at a time? If so, how do you handle them?

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

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Missing a Meeting

April 6, 2013 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Family, Killer Hobbies, Linda O. Johnston, writing

I unfortunately wonâ€™t be at the upcoming OCC meeting. It sounds wonderful, but Iâ€™ll have family in town. And family comes first! Especially since the visitors will include my little grandson, whoâ€™s ten months old. He, and my son and d-i-l, live in Chicago.

I saw them just over a week ago, too, on a Florida trip that I blogged about in my weekly Killer Hobbies blog. Great trip, one on which Iâ€™d intended to do a lot of writing. But despite the best of intentions, I spent more time with family than writing. Since then, Iâ€™ve pretty much caught up on what Iâ€™d hoped to accomplish, which makes me even happier that I did what felt best at the time.

Will I get much writing done next week? Maybe not. But Iâ€™ve fortunately met the most compelling of my deadlines, so I can afford to have fun and spend time with family.

So how about you–does family come first, or your writing, or your day job, or other obligations? Or are you able to juggle them all so nothing is ignored?

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

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SoCal RWA and OCC

March 6, 2013 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as California Dreamin' Conference, Linda O. Johnston, SoCal RWA Conference

This weekendâ€™s OCC meeting will be a prelude to the first SoCalRWA chaptersâ€™ joint conference, California Dreaminâ€™! As you probably know, it takes place on March 15-17 at the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Ana.

Iâ€™ve belonged to two of the four participating RWA chapters forever–OCC, of course, and also the Los Angeles Romance Authors, LARA. It should really be fun to get all four chapters together so their members can extol the individual virtues of each chapter while we all do what RWA does best: encourage romance writers to write!

Unfortunately, because of some deadline issues, I may not be there for the entire conference, but Iâ€™ll attend as much as I can. Iâ€™ll definitely be there on Sunday, at least. Thatâ€™s one good thing about a local conference. Thereâ€™s more flexibility in attendance. And Iâ€™m really looking forward to whatever Iâ€™m able to participate in.

In any event, if youâ€™re going, Iâ€™m sure youâ€™ll have lots of fun.

Oh, and by the way, Iâ€™m also attending the RWA National Conference this year, too, in Atlanta. Do you get the impression that Iâ€™m a conference lover? Well, youâ€™re right–and Iâ€™m not even mentioning (much) the mystery writersâ€™ conferences Iâ€™m attending this year.

How about you–do you enjoy attending conferences?

–Linda O. Johnston

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Our Next OCC Meeting

February 6, 2013 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as cozy mysteries, goodreads, Harlequin Nocturne, Linda O. Johnston, PAW, Pet Rescue Mysteries

Our February OCC meeting is next Saturday. Iâ€™m really looking forward to it–as usual. But my reasons are a little different from why Iâ€™m usually filled with anticipation.

First, thereâ€™ll be a drawing for me to provide a critique of someoneâ€™s first chapter. I always enjoy doing things like that–contributing a little bit, I hope, to encouraging someone to keep on writing.

And then thereâ€™s our program. Our all-day speaker is Patrick Brown, the Author Program Manager for Goodreads, and he will be talking about how to promote your wok on Goodreads. I need that! Iâ€™ve been a member of Goodreads for a while but havenâ€™t adequately utilized it. I did give one book away on Goodreads once, and I receive emails on updates about people whoâ€™ve friended me on Goodreads, but I know that there are a lot of aspects of the site that Iâ€™ve never used, or have used incorrectly.

Yes, Iâ€™m one of those people who use social media, but only a few things like a page on Facebook–the â€œfriendâ€ kind, not the â€œlikeâ€ kind. I blog a lot, weekly on Killer Hobbies and monthly here at A Slice of Orange. This month, Iâ€™m also starting to blog on the 18th of each month at Killer Characters–or at least my characters are. Plus, Iâ€™m currently doing a lot of guest blogs to help promote my two new releases. And I post now and then on a wonderful blog thatâ€™s run by some delightful and talented OCC members: Writers In The Storm.
But I donâ€™t tweet, since Iâ€™m sure Iâ€™d spend too much time on Twitter. Goodreads, if I knew how to use it better, might be another good resource, though, so Iâ€™m really looking forward to learning more.