Category: Writing

Adventures in writing

Are we still blogging in this, the Year of our Lord 2022?

Why am I having the urge to blog? Every once in a while I remember this space, and how dedicated I was to it back in the day. I started WOAW nine years ago, posting every other day, unashamed, not caring about whether my words would be judged, or if people would think I’m nuts. It was fun.

Writing was fun and I miss that. Now it feels like work sometimes. Don’t get me wrong–I love that since I’ve started this blog, I’ve been able to publish books. I love that my stories have resonated with a few people, and mostly, I love that I’ve met so many wonderful friends through writing and publishing.

Now, though, writing feels different. Like I’m supposed to be serious now, so I can’t blog about The Love Boat, or some dumb dream I may have had about The Rock and a baguette. Like any free time I have to write must have the publishing goal in mind. No more silliness. Instead I try to market and it’s exhausting.

But looking back on these stories–especially the posts about my kids and their antics when they were little–makes me so happy. My boys are 18 and 16 now, and I love having these little vignettes about the things they did in every day life that I would have surely forgotten had it not been for WOAW.

I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. I’m on Twitter. I don’t share much there, though. Once in a while I’ll post a picture of the boys, but I don’t tell the stories that I used to tell. I don’t document my life the way I used to.

Not that my life is so exciting, because it’s not really. Finding things to blog about has been more and more of a challenge, as I put up this serious-publishing-author-person wall around me. There’s a filter on everything. But here, maybe if I tear down that wall a bit and go back to writing the nonsense of my every day life, the benefits will be twofold–first, I’ll get to write for fun, and second, I’ll continue creating something my boys can read someday .

We’ll see how it goes. There may be typos. There will definitely be grammar errors. But I’m going to try not to care and just enjoy.

Love, Jess

Writing Prompt, Day 3!

Write something that revolves around movement.

Welcome to Day 3 of the Writing Prompt excitement. Something that revolves around movement…

Since the lockdown due to the pandemic, I’ve added a couple of new talents to my repertoire. First, I’ve become an expert bread-maker. I have a great no-knead recipe that comes out delicious every time. The family loves it.

But also, I’ve been running. I started on March 20th, with a couch-to-5K app called Fitness22. As of today, I have 66 runs. This may not sound like a big deal, but to me it’s huge. I’ve never been a runner. I have a somewhat diminished lung capacity due to surgery on that I had when I was a kid. But when the Coronavirus came around, I wanted to start building up my lungs and airways in defense and figured I’d give it a try.

I love the half-hour of running every other day. After working from home, being confined to the house and tethered to the laptop, the movement is therapeutic. Being outside, even with this New Jersey heat, is invigorating. When I’m able to finish the half hour of running/walking, I feel good about myself–physically exhausted, but accomplished.

Even though I have about 18 weeks of running experience now, I’m only on Week 3/Day 3 of the app’s program, and wow, do I struggle. But I don’t mind. I’m not in a race, I’m just trying to get myself to a healthier state of being.

Maybe someday I’ll get to the 5K, maybe not. Maybe when I have to go back to the office, or when winter rears its ugly head, I won’t be running as much. It doesn’t really matter. For now, I enjoy it, so I’ll keep it up as long as I can.

Thanks for reading! Be safe and see you tomorrow 🙂

Writing Prompt, Day 2!

“Pick an object from your room. Now describe it in as much detail as possible.” Not the most original writing prompt. I’ll roll with it though…

My gray hoodie is so thin, that if I hold it up to the light, I can see right through the threads. It’s the perfect summer cover-up for when the air conditioner is just a bit too cool. So light and soft, I can hardly feel it, but it does its job. The zipper is broken, the string is gone, and it’s barely holding itself together. I’m afraid to put it in the dryer because it’s become so delicate. But I love that “ratty hoodie,” as my husband calls it.

I also love it because it reminds me of a nice time. I bought it with my friend, Lana, from L.A. She’d just arrived in New Jersey and we’d taken a tourist-y detour through Hoboken before I’d drive her to her writing conference in Manhattan. We’d stopped by the train station, had some coffee and pastries, and then, when the weather turned bad, we ducked into the little shop on Washington Street. The shop was filled with racks jammed with clothes, and I bought the gray hoodie out of necessity, thinking it would be a one-time wear to keep me dry in the city. Little did I know it would turn into one of my favorite things. It’s just about a year old, and I’m afraid it won’t make it to two, but I’ll love that raggedy piece of cloth until it’s a pile of thread in my hands.

See how you can see the light through it?

Thanks for reading my boring post. Feel free to play along on your own blog or in the comments. See you tomorrow!

Writing Prompt, Day 1! Because why not?

A few years ago I received a thank you gift for helping to organize a writing conference. It’s a jar, with little rolled up papers in it. Each paper has a writing prompt. Here’s a pic…

Cute right? In an effort to make my fingers work and type something… anything… I’m going to grab one of these, unroll it, and force myself to write a few paragraphs about it. In theory, I’d like to do a prompt a day. We’ll see how that works out.

Ready? (The excitement never ends here at WOAW haha).

Well, about ten minutes and one band-aid later (opening that little scroll required some handiwork involving scissors), here’s what I got:

Describe a character using the kind of language you’d normally use to describe food.

Obviously, this a prime romance writer stuff, but I do like to keep things G-rated here. I will, however, take this opportunity to plug my own book, MAPLE SUMMER WALLACE (which is not a romance, by the way). (If you’re so inclined, feel free to join in with the prompt on your own blog, or in the comments below!)

Bite into Maple Summer Wallace, and you’ll be crunching through a hard shell. She’s crisp and tough. But once you get past that shell, you’ll be overwhelmed by the mixture of her flavors. First, you’ll catch a taste of her spiciness. Hot, peppery, and more than a bit salty, Maple will overwhelm your senses, and you’ll wonder, what exactly is she? You won’t know for yourself until you work through those outer layers and reach her inner core, to the mushy sweetness she tries to hide.

Here’s Maple’s back cover blurb, if I’ve piqued your interested:

After learning she has only six months to live, twenty-two-year-old socialite, Maple Summer Wallace, plans to spend her remaining time hanging over a roulette table in Vegas and squandering her family’s fortune. Her plan takes a wrong turn when she finds Veronica, her twenty-year-old housekeeper and daughter of her beloved nanny, Lola, hovering over the dead body of octogenarian Randolph Brentwood, the fifth richest man in the world.

Maple, hardened from her own personal loss, resists involvement until she learns that Veronica is pregnant with Lola’s grandchild, an heir to the Brentwood estate. To make good on an old promise, Maple vows to help Veronica. With the assistance of Michael, a handsome and savvy PI, they journey up and down the East Coast, dodging the authorities, a shady lawyer, a cold-hearted hit man, and the powerful widow, Mrs. Brentwood. As Maple’s bitterness about spending her last days saving Veronica dissipates and her friendship with Michael develops, she realizes that on the way to death, she’s found something she’s never had—life.

And here’s an Amazon link, if you want to read more…

Thanks for reading! I promise I won’t plug my books for every prompt. Take care everyone! ‘Til next time…

Three Things Post

A million years ago, I started to draft this post after lifting the idea from another blogger. Check out Essential Doctor Who, who hopefully doesn’t mind that I’m half a decade behind. I’m not sure anyone is interested in all of this information about me, but this seemed like a fun thing to do and I got to self-reflect a bit. Tagging anyone who wants to play along…

Three things about yourself

  1. I used to dance (ballet, tap, jazz)
  2. I’m 5’7″
  3. I hate shopping for myself.

Three things that scare you

  1. Climate change
  2. Flying
  3. Being alone in a public restroom

Three everyday essentials

  1. Coffee
  2. Water bottle
  3. Wallet, phone, keys…

Three favorite hobbies

  1. Reading
  2. Writing
  3. “Rithmetic” (KIDDING! I hate math). Watching T.V.

Three careers you’re considering/have considered

  1. Dancer on a cruise ship
  2. Author/Anything in publishing
  3. Movie Reviewer

Three books you’ve recently read

  1. Blood and Water, by Briana Morgan
  2. Her Rough Ride, by Heather Van Fleet
  3. Magic Restrained, by Coralie Moss

Three things you’re working on, writing wise

  1. Blogging (Hi!)
  2. Revising, proofing, and posting SNOWED IN
  3. Crafting tweets (come find me @jess_calla)

Three things you want to do before you die

  1. Cruise around the world
  2. Watch a female U.S. President being sworn in on Inauguration Day
  3. See an elephant in the wild

Three Celebrity Idols

  1. The Rock
  2. Beyonce
  3. Eddie Vedder

Three quotes

  1. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde
  2. “The way to know life is to love many things.” – Vincent Van Gogh
  3. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

white and pink flowers beside a canister
Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com

 

 

My 200th Blog Post!

Yeah, yeah so I know I’ve had this blog since January of 2013, and in six-plus years I should probably have more than 200 posts but I have excuses, okay? The two biggest ones are asleep upstairs as I type this.

Excuse 1 and Excuse 2

The third excuse is sitting next to me…

Kiri Dog Posing in her Patriotic wardrobe

Basically, I have 200 excuses for only having 200 blog posts over more than half a decade, but I’ll stop there. In fact, I’m not even sure that this IS my 200th post because behind-the-scenes WordPress looks all fancy these days, and I could be reading the dashboard incorrectly. But in the interest of curing writer’s block and because, hey, at least I’m showing up at the laptop tonight, I’m going to go for it.

My exciting post today is about nothing. Seinfeld did a whole series about nothing so I’m doing a post about nothing. Aren’t you glad you stopped by?

Seriously, though, I googled “200” to see if I could fashion a post of sorts and found the Wikipedia page for 200 (number).

Here are some interesting facts.

Remember Monopoly? $200 for passing Go. I wish a banker would give me $200 for every time I make it around my block, just sayin’.

Have you had bloodwork lately? According to Wikipedia, for a lower risk of heart disease your cholesterol should be under… wait for it… 200! Mine is 154 woop woop! (*drops mic and shows attitude, *pulls herself together and picks up mic, *carries on).

Any NASCAR Cup Series fans? Guess who won 200 races?

I’ll let you think for a second…

…

…

…NASCAR 2006: Sprint Cup Series Elmers Glue On Location Shoot Jan 18

Answer: Richard Petty.

What’s that? You want more facts about the number 200? What about a motorcycle race in Northern Ireland called the North West 200? Or that there’s a 200 value euro note ($221 USD)?

For you math nerds, 200 appears in the “Padovan sequence,” is the “smallest base 10 unprimeable number,” and is a “Harshad number.” Have fun with that if you so wish. Simply typing that sentence gave me an eye twitch.

And now, I have to go amend the Wikipedia page to add that WOAW reached its 200th post on August 22, 2019! Kidding, I won’t do that. But thanks for hanging around with me. Here’s to 200 more!

Publishing, Rejections, and Writing is Weird

Being a writer is a weird thing. Some days, weeks, months, you seem to have it all together and everything is flowing. Words, marketing, tweets, posts. Other times, you open the laptop and stare at it until your head starts to bob because you’re falling asleep.

When things are going great, whoopee! Those are the moments when you’re tempted to quit your day job and write the Great American Novel. You’re motivated and encouraged, and all around a happier person.

But the other times, when you’re kind of feeling depressed and in the dumps, the words don’t seem to make sentences. Your internet history is a dance between Netflix and Amazon Prime, instead of the usual weird novel research inquiries (What is the study of butterflies? How much money do famous YouTubers make? Answers: lepidopterology, and a lot.)

I’ve been wallowing in the world of bingeworthy shows for a couple of months now. Series, movies, comedy specials–you name it, I’ve probably watched it. (Note: How can I go about getting a job at Netflix? I mean, may as well, right? I’m on their site enough. Currently binge-ing Gilmore Girls and Outlander.)

The stuff I’ve watched is great. But when I’m not writing, it affects my entire sense of self. Dramatic? Maybe. Ask any writer and I’m sure they’ll agree.

Then it dawned on me that I have my space here. My safe little corner of the interwebs, where I don’t have to write long novels and figure out plots and commas and sentences. I can just vent (and use words like “just”), and write as horribly as I am capable. You’ll all love me still, right?

But I’ll admit, Blogtropolis, that blog posts aren’t as easy as 1-2-3 either.  I literally have 42 draft blogs that I’ve never posted. Why? Because… I have no idea. I draft them and then convince myself they are boring and don’t post them.

And now look–I’ve written 323 words and haven’t even gotten to the point of this post (loyal WOAW readers know that’s sometimes a problem with me–staying focused).

FOCUSING in three … two …

My point: I’m here to cure my writer’s block. So, hi! Thank you for letting me use you. I may hang around here for a while and reacquaint myself with the WordPress and blogging world. Hope that’s okay.

Onto today’s topic: I’d like to tell you a little about MAPLE SUMMER WALLACE. I don’t pimp my books here on WOAW, and in that regard, I’ll tell you a secret: DON’T BUY THIS BOOK… it’s going to be free in ebook form in a couple of weeks and you can pick it up then. [However, if you are interested, you can check out my author website jessicacalla.com to sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you an email when the freebie sale starts.]

Seriously, I just needed something to write about.maplesummerwallace-calla-ebookweb

I’m proud of each and every book I’ve written– published and unpublished, short or long. But MAPLE SUMMER WALLACE, and her three-year, crooked way of getting out into the world is special to me.

Writing Maple (No spoilers!)

The idea for MSW spurned from a thought about what someone would do if they found out they only had six months to live. Simple concept, right? The idea nagged at me until it was time to seriously consider that there was a story there.

I knew the story would be about a woman, and that it would be a younger woman because as a writer I lean toward that age group (I am branching out to older characters recently). I also figured that she’d have to have money to be able to do anything. A lot (all?) of my books have some connection to NYC, so she’d be from there.

So I had a wealthy city girl, with six months to live. What was she dying from? Didn’t matter. In fact, I never specify in the book. It’s sort of a made up blood disease (yay, fiction!). What she would do with those six months was what really mattered.

I named her Maple after a girl I worked with in college at a five-and-dime store. There’s no way in hell the real Maple would ever remember me, but I remember that she was a local resident in high school, had red hair, and this fun name. She stuck with me. What can I say?

My Maple would be a college senior and a hot blonde. I wanted her to be alone with no support system (they say to torture your characters, so yeah, she has a tragic past). I also kind of wanted her to be an unlikeable bitch. As a writer, I was interested in a character arc of “bad” to “good.” “Unlikeable” to “likeable.” In fact, if you’ve read Maple and think she’s mean in this version, you should have seen my Chapter One about ten drafts ago.

Next, I needed a plot to facilitate Maple’s inner change. My first idea was to have Maple take this epic adventure across the country, driving from coast-to-coast and learning from different people. My problem with that was the time in the car. With six months to live and a crapload of money, why wouldn’t she simply fly? Maybe she was afraid of flying? I tried to work with it, but it wasn’t working at all.

I went back to the basics. Coincidentally, I’d signed up for Steve Alcorn’s Novel Writing Workshop, which I’d bought with a Groupon. Signing up for that felt beneath me (I was a published author after all, la-dee-dah), but I have to say, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my writing life. I took notes on each workshop lesson in a grey Moleskine notebook, and to this day, that notebook is my writing bible. When I’m lost with a story, I go back to my notes and those basics and find my way.

After reviewing my notes for Maple, I did a big facepalm. I couldn’t have a story with a protagonist only. I needed her to be with people, for dialogue, for action. But Maple was a loner. What to do, what to do?

At first, I thought I’d have Maple driving off campus and seeing her one college acquaintance in a bad state. Maybe Maple would pick her up and find out she’d done something criminal, and they’d have a Thelma and Louise-type adventure. But I also wanted the characters to have a rich history.

That’s where the idea for Ronni came about. Anyway, I don’t want to spoil the book, but basically, Ronni and Maple have this adventure, picking up a hot detective along the way (in my mind, Michael is Joe Manganiello, don’t @ me), and there’s a family history, an adventure, and a bit of spirituality, I hope.

Anyhoo… I wrote the book. My mom, who was happy to get her hands on my first non-romance attempt, read it and gave me some suggestions. She wanted Maple to be a stronger, deeper, richer character. She helped me with the villains. She made notes in the margins. I loved the experience of working on the draft with her.

Querying Maple

On March 17, 2016, I wrote a tweet about Maple’s story for #PitMad, a Twitter pitch party for agents to see authors’ pitches and hopefully want to represent their books. My tweet said:

22 yo Maple has 6 mo left to live, a dead body (& guilty housekeeper) in her penthouse, & a hot investigator on her trail. Ugh! 

A wonderful agent asked me to send sample pages based on the tweet. Guess what I sent? A half-drafted email riddled with typos and no attachments! By accident of course. Lesson learned: Don’t put the email address in the “To” field until you are ready to send the damn email. Luckily, because she’s awesome, she understood and wasn’t a jerkwad about the mishap (and I apologized profusely).

The agent loved Maple, and ultimately, I signed with her. She helped me tremendously with revising the book, suggested I soften Maple just a touch, and then she subbed the manuscript to some big houses.

The rejections came rolling in…

I really liked the way this story swept you up and took off running right from page one – the pacing is great. That being said, I confess that I found Maple’s voice a bit off-putting – a little TOO spoiled, and difficult to relate to. For this reason, I must unfortunately pass on pursuing this project…
Thank you so much for sending this to me. This plot is right up my alley, but unfortunately I didn’t connect with the characters the way I’d hoped to.
I have decided to pass on MAPLE SUMMER WALLACE.  In spite of its merits, I just wasn’t won over by the narrative; I’m sorry.
Thank you for sending over MAPLE SUMMER WALLACE for my review and for your patience with my response. I enjoyed how action-packed this manuscript was from the get-go– there was never a dull moment where we were waiting for the next thing to happen, which goes a long way toward keeping a reader engaged. The quick progression of events kept the novel feeling perfectly paced as well, which I really liked. However, I found the lighter, more airy tone of the novel a bit incongruous when paired with the subject matter–in many instances, it seemed like the characters didn’t take their situation seriously, as though they were a bit detached from what was going on around them, so it was difficult for me as a reader to invest in the story when it felt like the characters themselves weren’t! As such, this is going to be a pass.
The writing is fine here, but I worry that it’s a little hard to connect with the story. Right off the bat we’ve got Maple with only six months to live,  [*spoiler removed… *]. Whew!  It almost reads as if the book has been opened up to the middle, without some kind of character development or story history.   I worry that there isn’t enough of a larger hook to position on – it’s hard to tell if it’s women’s fiction, thriller, etc.

[Tangent: Why am I sharing these with you when they may make you NOT want to read the book? I’ll tell you why. Because since Maple has been published (see below), I’ve received wonderful reviews for the story. I’m proud that the story has touched people the way it has, and I’m so glad that I didn’t let these rejections get to me. If you are a writer, and you believe in your book, I hope that you take your rejections with a grain of salt. Every reader is different–some will like your book and some won’t. Editors can enjoy your book but reject it for any number of reasons. It doesn’t mean that the book is bad or that you have no talent. Thank you for attending my TED talk… now back to our regularly-scheduled post.]

Continuing… My agent was ready to do a second round of submissions to different publishers, but then life happened and she switched agencies. She invited Maple and me along, but I decided not to go for various reasons, none that had to do with her or her representation.

This was the end of 2016.

Publishing Maple

Maple lived in my laptop while I worked on other things. In Spring of 2017, the third book of my New Adult series, SHE WANTS IT ALL, released with the small press I’d contracted with to publish the series, and I was busy drafting the fourth and final book of the series.

My mom got sick. I spent a great deal of the summer of 2017 with her. She died in September.

When I was back to writing, I remembered my mom’s help with Maple, and I was angry with myself that I hadn’t published Maple before she died. During the end of 2017, I hired my beloved friend and editor, Erin, to help work on prepping Maple for a summer of 2018 release.

Then, in early 2018, the small press publisher of my New Adult series closed. For reasons, I shelved Maple, and worked on self-publishing the New Adult series, teaching myself about indie publishing, and staying busy with that.

In 2018, besides self-pubbing the NA series, I wrote two short stories that were published in small press anthologies, and then a holiday novella. I also started working on a new NA series, the Mill Street series.

Going into 2019, I thought I could take on the self-publishing world, and remembered that Maple had been edited, and was basically ready to publish. It certainly wasn’t doing anything in my drafts folder and I had no plans to query it to agents again. With a couple of tweaks and a cover, I decided to publish the book myself in April of this year, because why not? The first two books of the Mill Street series followed in June and July.

Reading that exhausts me. I have no idea how I did any of it. Since then, though, I’m not sure what to do about publishing. Honestly, I can’t say self-publishing is the right path for me. I’m just not that good at selling books, a fact which I freely admit. But lately, I can’t seem to write anything either. I started a cozy mystery. I started a stand-alone romance. But I sort of feel like I’ve lost steam.

I don’t know why. Maybe I’ve done all I came to do in the Jessica Calla publishing world. Maybe getting Maple out as a tribute to my mom was the end of it all for me. Maybe it’s time for a change of pace. I’m excited for the few mentoring projects on my agenda for September. I’ve been told that I’m a good critique/reader/mentor for authors. Maybe the skills I’ve gained and knowledge I’ve acquired should be used for that–helping others.

All I know for sure is that, despite the industry rejections, I’m happy that readers seem to love Maple. And I’m so glad that it’s out in the world, and not living in my laptop!

If you’re still awake, I appreciate your efforts to get through this post. Thanks for reading, and for always welcoming me back to the WordPress world!

The Literary Dinner Party Book Tag

The lovely Ginny over at The Discerning Couch Potato (a wonderful review site for those of you interested in romance book reviews) shared this blog post o’fun, and I thought I’d play along!

wine glasses and wine bottles on top of brown wooden table
Photo by Expect Best on Pexels.com

Here’s a list of the characters that I’d invite to my dinner party. Using your literary arsenal of characters, who would you invite to yours?

*Character Who Likes to Cook

Gio- Love By the Slice, by Heather Young Nichols 

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Gio is the sexy pizza guy, working at a pizzeria on Harbor Point, a fun beach town, when he falls for the owner’s granddaughter, Bianca. From the blurb:  “Gio isn’t there for the money. He’s there for the sauce.” Well to that I say, “Come on over, Gio, and bring your hotness and your sauce and bake us some pizza pies for our dinner party!”

*Character Who Has Money to Fund the Party

Parker, Happy Ever After, by Nora Roberts

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Not only would Parker Brown pay for our dinner, she’d probably let us have it in her mansion-turned-wedding-venue compound! I loved the Bride Quartet series by Nora Roberts, and Parker, the extremely professional business person who runs it. When she hooks up with Malcolm, the mechanic with the motorcycle, Parker learns to loosen up and have some fun.

*Character Who Might Cause a Scene

Travis, Beautiful Disaster, by Jamie McGuire

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Whether you love him or hate him, there’s no doubt that Travis is Trouble. He’s more off the rails than on, yet he has a big heart under all those tats. They don’t call him Mad Dog for nothing. He may behave at our dinner party if he’s allowed to smoke, and if nobody is bothering his beloved Abby.

*Character Who is Funny/Amusing

Andie, In a Jam, by Cindy Dorminy

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In a Jam starts off with Andie waking up in the drunk tank after a night of partying. From the blurb: “Andie Carson has to do three things to inherit her grandmother’s lottery winnings—sober up, spend a month running her grandmother’s Georgia coffee shop, and enter homemade jam in the county fair.” When Andie arrives antics ensue, and she falls for the small Southern town as well as the hot cop who helps her navigate the crazy. She’d definitely bring the fun to our dinner party!

*Character Who is Super Social

Ian, The Matchmaker’s Playbook, by Rachel Van Dyken

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If you haven’t read The Matchmaker’s Playbook or watched the movie on Passionflix, please stop reading and go do that! Ian was almost a pro football player, but now runs Wingmen, Inc., a sort-of college campus dating service where he helps the girls get their guys. He’s smart, quick, witty, and easy on the eyes. He’ll be the icebreaker we need at our dinner table. Although Travis might want to kick his ass for something, so we’d have to sit them at opposite ends, haha.

*The Villian

Bael, Above the Flames, by Cassandra Fear

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Bael is a demon with an attitude. Sure he’s scary and weird-looking, but he’s also fierce and a bit douchey, giving him human-like qualities. If you like angel-demon stories, this one is a fun read. From the blurb: “When demons claw their way to Earth, Jasmine is surrounded by hundreds of fire-eyed beasts. Worse, she is captured by a big-shot demon named Bael. He’s a tricky foe with a chip on his shoulder—and the desire to make Jasmine use her powers for evil.” Come to think of it, maybe if we sit him between Ian and Travis, we could prevent a fistfight!

*One Couple (Not Necessarily Romantic, but I’m a romance reader so….)

Drew and Anna, When It Was Us, by Larissa Weatherall

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Sigh… With this crew, I’d definitely want to sit between Drew and Anna. Although, they are super in love after finding each other again when Anna returns to Sage Hill after her divorce. They’d probably be struggling to look around me, into each other’s eyes. Love this epic romance which alternates between past and present and takes the reader on the journey from day one, to the happily ever after. Oh, and maybe they’d bring dessert!

*One Hero/Heroine

Layla, The Prophecy, by Erin Rhew

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Layla may be one of the coolest heroines ever. From the blurb: “Growing up on a small farm in the kingdom of Vanguard, seventeen-year-old Layla Givens lives a deceptively tranquil existence. But her carefully constructed life quickly falls apart when she’s abducted by a religious zealot who proclaims her The Fulfillment of an ancient peace prophecy and whisks her away to marry her greatest enemy.” Layla is strong, smart, and fiery. At our dinner table, she’d keep Bael in line, and tell us stories of her epic adventures.

*Character Who is Underappreciated

Chloe, Restless Hearts, by Heather Van Fleet

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Okay, so we’ll need a high chair for Chloe, since she’s only a baby. But if it weren’t for Chloe, daughter of single dad, hottie, ex-marine Collin, maybe Colly and his friends wouldn’t be as close as they are now. These three ex-marines tag team raising her. She’s a-freakin-dorable, and everyone who meets her falls in love. Maybe her presence would keep everyone at the table on their best behavior, too (although I’m sure Anna and Drew would be swoony over her, Bael may try to set her on fire, and Travis might teach her curse words)!

*Character of Your Own Choosing

Dylan, The Love Square, by me (Jessica Calla) 

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What kind of author would I be if I didn’t try to sneak one of my guys in here? This was the hardest dinner party companion to pick, since I love all my characters. I guess I went with Dylan because he’s sweet and passionate (and easy on the eyes), a movie star (so he’d have good stories), and would balance out the alpha-beta men types at the table. He’d be drawn to Drew and Ian, I think, and offer them a cigar after dinner. (If you’re interested in Ginny’s review of TLS, click here).

Thanks for playing along. If you’re reading this, consider yourself TAGGED and feel free to tell us about your dinner party! Also, check out all of the wonderful books mentioned above, by some of my favorite authors.

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Image from Pexels.com

Have a nice night!

 

Drafts

Me again!

Having been absent from my WordPress site for some time, now that I’m back, the entire interface seems different (Where are the Daily Prompts? Are we not doing that anymore?). Up in the corner, next to my blog name, there’s a little number “41.”

Click on it and come to figure out that 41 means the number of draft posts I have in the can. FORTY-ONE!? Thought I’d delve into that bank of possibilities to see if anything could be revived, and here’s a sample of what I found:

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Call me crazy, but those titles made me think there may be some decent stuff in there. Well, not so much. But a couple were diamonds in the rough so I thought I’d share parts of them.

Here’s a sample of “Looking for Good Female Characters? Stick With Cable!” drafted on February 19, 2014…

Yesterday, I sighed in joy as I sat in the movie theater and watched American Hustle. It took me a second to figure out why.

In my quest to watch the films nominated for Best Picture prior to the Academy Awards, I’d been missing women. So far, I’d seen Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, and Captain Phillips. All boys (mostly). American Hustle featured boys, but also Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence in major roles. Finally. Let’s hear it for the girls!

Today, I talked with a screenwriter friend struggling with a female protagonist in her latest project. We tossed around ideas to give her character depth and purpose. She really wanted to focus on the character before tackling the plot. We decided to think about our favorite female characters in movies and why we liked them.

Interestingly, we couldn’t come up with much in the movie category. We wanted to stay away from the far ends of the spectrum– the sappy love/family-obsessed girl on one side, and the female cop/superhero on the other. There had to be characters that fell somewhere in the middle. Right?

Hmm….

On the television side, though, we had some success. Here’s a sampling of characters we came up with: Gemma Morrow (Katey Sagal, Sons of Anarchy), Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds), Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington, Scandal), and Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell in a television series-turned-movie of the same name). These roles portray smart, determined women, who still exhibit human qualities. Gemma is ruthless, but nobody can question her devotion to her family; Olivia is brilliant, but has a soft spot for the President; Nancy is fearless, but makes questionable choices when it comes to her family and personal life; and what I learned about Veronica (I didn’t watch the television series) is that she’s witty and clever, but still enjoys the company of cute boys.

These four roles signify a diverse range of characters- an aging biker chick, an uber-successful overachieving DC lawyer/PR specialist, a California neighborhood housewife weed dealer, and a high school student moonlighting as a private investigator. But what they all have in common is that they fall in the middle of that spectrum– they are neither all-consumed by love and men and family, nor invincible superheroes. The beauty of their characters is that they linger somewhere in between.

So, hmm, why didn’t I post that? I think it’s a fair assessment for the time it was drafted. I don’t know. I’m guessing I thought it was boring, although reading it now makes me want to hit up Netflix and rewatch some of those shows.

Moving on… One of my favorite drafts in the folder is titled “2016: The Year of the Draft Posts,” which is sort of the post I’m writing right now. It had some nice insights, and I’m guessing it didn’t get posted because I stopped writing mid-list. I also think it’s funny that I had 22 draft posts at that time, and now I’ve jumped into the 40’s. Here’s a snippet:

I have twenty-two draft posts.

Twenty-two? WTF?

I looked through my Drafts and found some decent posts. I couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t have posted them. I think the answer is that I’ve changed. Maybe in a good way, maybe not.

Back when I wrote those drafts, I was still scared to share words, especially words that shared little pieces of me. I thought my posts were boring (they may be), self-centered (they definitely are), and/or not well-written (some aren’t). But in the past year or so of publishing and authoring, I’ve learned a couple of things.

1.  Not everyone is going to like everything I write, and that’s okay. This blog is my corner of the internet world and it’s for me. So yes, it may get a little self-centered sometimes. It’s not professionally edited. I don’t have much advice about the craft of writing or other fancy things that people talk about. But I started this blog without a purpose–the Blogger Without a Cause. I like having the freedom to post whatever I feel like.

You may not like my posts. Those draft posts may be crap, but I shouldn’t be afraid to post them. They are all little nuggets of me.

Since I’ve written my last post, I’ve had some publishing success. My first book came out in January, my second in May, my third releases in November, and my fourth in May 2017. Guess what? They aren’t perfect and they’re out there, in the world, for people to read! Gasp! People seem to like them, but those one-star reviews are tough, especially when they actually make sense. It’s a lot easier to believe the few one-star reviews than the lovely five-star reviews, for me at least. It was rough going, but I’ve learned to celebrate the good reviews and ignore the bad (as much as I can–I’m only human).

2.  I write romance. It’s not meant to be world-changing or literary genius, and that’s okay, too. Romance isn’t for everyone, but to me, it’s an awesome genre. Love makes the world go around and trust me, it’s more entertaining than Moby Dick. If you don’t like it, I get it. I really do. But I yam who I yam and I write what I like to write. Please respect romance!

3.  Nobody cares about my words as much as I do, and that’s okay. I’m sure I’ve scrutinized the posts in my Drafts folder way more harshly than would any potential reader. I have to remember that I am my own worst critic. People will not hate me if I can’t control my comma usage or if I miss a typo. Nor will people love me because I wrote a post, or even a book for that matter. Writing a book is a great accomplishment, whether you become published or not. But you can’t take yourself too seriously. As wonderful as your words are, your book’s success or failure isn’t going to matter to most people in the world.  Same thing with my draft posts.

4.

Re-reading this partial list, it’s still relevant today, and was a good reminder to not take myself too seriously. So thank you, Past Jess, for your insights!

If you haven’t given up on this post about nothing yet, you’ll be glad to know I saved the best for last. From my draft entitled, “Possible Celebrity Sex Dream #2,” drafted March 5, 2017. Now I have your attention again, don’t I (wink wink)?

Readers of WOAW may recall my dream scene involving The Rock and a baguette in my minivan. If not, click HERE for a recap. Sex dream? Maybe. Anyway, I had another one that I thought I’d embarrass myself and tell you about. Does this count as a celebrity sex dream? I don’t know. But welcome to this new series on WOAW… Possible Celebrity Sex Dreams.

Before I get to the dream, here’s what happened in real life leading up to the dream.

  • Well, as you may or may not know, I write romance novels.
  • A cute, young, writer woman I follow on Facebook had been posting about this guy in her work elevator and we (the social media masses) were pressuring her to ask him out. The whole scene was adorable.
  • I’d spent some time stalking my friend Larissa, and saw pics of her kids on horses. Mine took horseback riding also. I thought about that briefly.
  • I’d also been complaining to my friend Nicole about the Obamas gallivanting around on vacation when I felt like the country needed them back in the works.
  • My son had a big science test on weather patterns.

Also, I had a total Seinfeld moment where I woke up in the middle of the night after the dream and made a note on my phone about it. Here’s what I wrote, word for word, typos in original:

Secdeam barack elevator open marriage saga likes horses Nicole and aunt gam rain plane explosion.

Doesn’t seem very sexy does it? But here’s what happened in the dream.

I was in an elevator and I was kissing Barack Obama, who, I’ll add, was a very good kisser. I immediately thought Michelle would kick my ass so I pulled away and said something like “you’re married” and he told me that he and Michelle had an open marriage. Next thing you know we’re outside and there are horses and he tells me that Sasha likes horses. We get into a car and I’m wedged between my friend Nicole, Barack’s aunt, and Barack’s grandmother (Please note: I don’t know if he has any of these relatives). We start driving through a forest and it’s rainy and storming and a plane explodes in front of us.

That’s it.

I’m pretty sure that note that I made, translated into awake-speak, says: Sex dream Barack on elevator, open marriage, Sasha likes horses, Nicole and aunt and grandma for rain plane explosion.

That’s where I left off on that one. Now that I read it, maybe it was more like a “crush dream” than a “possible sex dream.”

Anyway, the moral of the story is: write whatever you want. You don’t have to publish everything, but the act of typing out the words that float around your brain has value in and of itself. There’s a Drafts folder for a reason, friends. May as well use the thing.

Again, thanks for reading, and have a nice night!

 

 

Another year…!

Where does the time go?

 

I started Waiting on a Word four years ago. How did it get to be 2017?  I’m sorry I haven’t been around much because WOAW is still my favorite corner of my cyberworld.

So where have I been? 2016 was a whirlwind. After starting a new day job, I was fortunate to have three books published. I’ve been immersing myself in author life– learning social media, drafting stories, brainstorming ideas, revising, revising, revising, making new friends while trying to keep the old, marketing for a small publisher, securing an agent, reading, reading, reading.

Learning. Always learning.

Writing has become my night job and I love it. So much more than any day job I’ve ever held. It’s difficult, but it’s fun. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s making me stronger. Every time I sit at the computer I’m facing a challenge, whether I’m writing new words, editing old words, figuring out how to start a YouTube channel, helping out a writing friend, or looking up a conference to attend.

If I had a penny for every person who asked me, “How do you do it?” I’d be able to quit the day job. The truth is, I don’t know how I do it. I want to do it, so I do it. I make the time for it and stick with it, even through the hard parts. Even when I’m tired. Even when everyone tells me to binge watch Gilmore Girls instead. Writing is all I want to do, so how I do it isn’t an issue for me. I have to do it.

But man, am I getting old! Late nights, early mornings, giving proper attention to the spouse and children, the day job. I’ll admit that it’s not easy and the blog has taken a hit because of it. Twitter’s 140-characters seems more conducive to my attention span lately.

But know this: I miss my blogging space. Sometimes things happen and it’s too much for a tweet. I think, “Oh, I’ll post that on Facebook.” But then I remember that I hate Facebook and stay off of it as much as possible. “I should write a blog post about that,” I think. Sometimes I do, too. I have TWENTY-EIGHT draft blog posts hiding in the bowels of WOAW. I actually have a draft blog post about all my draft blog posts! I’m just shy to hit “Publish” here lately. I hope I hit it on this post, even though as I’m typing this I know it’s not the most riveting post I’ve ever written.

What is my point? I’m not sure. I’ll offer this in closing: To anyone who happens to read this (should I hit “Publish”), my wish for you is that you try something new in 2017, even if it’s difficult and even if you fail. Life is about taking action. Go do something to spice up your 2017!

Speaking of taking action, I should probably hit “Publish” on this awfully boring post, light the fire under WOAW, and get this blog simmering again.

See you soon!

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