Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tinsel Time

....nope, it's not Christmas. At least not here in the high desert. In fact, we're sweltering in heat, wind, and fire warnings.

But, for the last week, it's been cold and snowy and Christmasy in New York. Which is where my contemporary romantic suspense, Tinsel Time, is set.

Now, when I started outlining and writing this story, it was supposed to be about the elves hiring a body guard for Santa, getting him to the North Pole, and then getting him in bed with my heroine, Tinsel. But, darn it all, no one cooperated. Not even Santa.

But, I'm really happy with the way the story turned out. Once I get it a bit more polished, I'll post some teasers.

It was one of my days to go to the library today. I got in over 2000 words and typed THE END to the first draft. I've also been making lots of notes over the last week, so I now know what tweaks I need to make to the story to get it to gel from beginning to end. The only thing, I think I need to add a bit more sex. . . so there might be an additional scene under the tree on Christmas day (oh, la, la!)

I hope to have it polished up and submitted in time to start the BIAW challenge on Main Street at Cobblestone Press. It's to be a story of ships passing in the night. . . then wham, bam, crash, boom. . . love. . .

And somewhere in there, I want to work in one more In The Cards proposal.

Hey Santa! I know what I want for Christmas this year~ 25 hours a day, or an extra day in the week, or a clone, or...

9 comments:

Yolanda Sfetsos said...

Yay! So cool that you got the first draft done. Good luck with the revision.

And don't those characters love to take things in their own direction? It cracks me up, but hey, if it makes the story better why complain. :)

Lenora Bell said...

You go, girl! It sounds so fun.

Unknown said...

For a second there you had me worried---thought Santa was stepping out on Mrs.Clause. That would be naughty, not nice.

Anonymous said...

Hey Santa, I'll take an extra hour too!

Unknown said...

Wow you wrote the first draft in one week! How the hell do you accomplish that and any tips on outlining? I suck at it.

BTW...don't hate me but you've been tagged. Visit my blog for details and you can blame Misty for tagging me. LOL

Misty Williams said...

LOL. Shonna! :P

WTG on the first draft! I'm with Shonna I want to know how to do it as well? I can't sit down for longer than 5 minutes without my kids screaming or coming to me. LOL.

Ericka Scott said...

My secret weapon this summer has been my birthday gift. My hubby gave me babysitting for 4 hours 2 days a week. I escape my domicile and go to the library with my alphasmart! Unfortunately, my babysitting is coming to an end after next week. . . my sitter is going on vacation for a month. Oh well...it was great while it lasted.

As for outlining...I use Randy Ingermanson's snowflake method (it comes up first if you google it). I love his method.

And realize, this story was only 12K. . .although I still feel like I ran a marathon all week!

Anonymous said...

It's cool, and kinda fun, when you're writing a holiday book when it's so far away from the holidays, huh? :)

Unknown said...

12 K is a lot for a week in my opinion. I'm not lucky enough for the baby sitter thing, but I'll check out the snowflake method. Thanks.