Good Karma Tuesday

It's prize time again for one random commenter. This week's winner is:

JULIE S

Congratulations, Julie S! Send me your info and I will send you something fun. (I have a backlog of fun stuff to send out, but I have a trip to the post office planned for this very afternoon, so yay!)

In other news... Regarding Bill & Tessa's questions about the upcoming wedding. It won't be taking place in September after all. I don't have any other info at this time, but when I have something to announce, I'll let you know!

Moving right along to my favorite portion of the show: Karma 'fess up time!

This week I critted, helped plotstorm, yielded when I had the right-of-way in order to allow cars waiting to turn/merge into traffic, and generally practiced being nice.

YOUR TURN: How's your karma? Been behavin' or misbehavin'? Were you a recipient of anyone else's random acts of kindness?

Web Sites, Branding, & a Few Good Books

Over the past few days, I've been lost in books... I read the last two installments in the Harry Potter series (please don't post spoilers in the comments for those who haven't yet read the final story) and I read the first two in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy, which was totally bubbly-making and bogus-missing. I simply can't wait for book 3 (which is out now in hardback)...

A big YAY goes out to my CPs Lacey and Darcy for finishing their revisions. Whoo!

*erica quakes nervously because hers loom ever closer*

Let's talk self-promo for a sec.

As an aspiring (=unpublished) author, my web site target audience was primarily other aspiring authors and (in a perfect world) literary agents. For the former, I included links to my blog and a couple essays on the writing life, and for the latter I included details about the stories I have written, including excerpts and hooks.

Now that I have an agent, I am no longer targeting agents, but rather, publishing houses. (Again, this is perfect world. I'm well aware that I may go to my grave without a single editor ever clicking over to my web site.)

Currently, there are 5 stories highlighted on my web site, not all of which I am shopping. Even though I'd pretty much decided to leave my first two stories under the bed until they mulch, I'd kept them listed on the site because they both had contest wins and I thought that made me look kinda nifty.

Now that a) all my stories have finalled in contests, and b) I'm no longer trying to look nifty for agents, I'm thinking it might be in my best interest to remove all evidence of those earlier stories.

Not just because I'm not currently interested in marketing them, but also because I was testing out genres, so to speak. If a publisher would happen to click over to my web site, I wouldn't want them to think I was some genre-addled writer who couldn't be trusted to keep the second book of a two-book deal in the same time period, much less continuity series. (Wouldn't it be nice to have a two-book deal? *sighs wistfully*)

Although two are contemporary and one is a Regency-set historical, if I axed my first two stories from the site, the remaining three would all be paranormal--a common link with which to brand myself.

Which would also mean (cue rolling of eyes and gnashing of teeth) redesigning my lovely web site, because the current frou-frou theme just doesn't scream "wacky paranormal author".

(I'm not sure what does scream that, but first things first.)

So... I'm thinking this over. Don't be surprised if you see a whole new look one of these days. (Although not for at least a couple of weeks--I've got guests in town and am crazy busy with the day job.)

YOUR TURN: Do you have a web site? If so, do you list every book you've ever written, or do you pick and choose which stories to list? What other information do you provide? Is the look and feel of the site "branded" to the image you'd like to portray as an author, or is that not a concern for you at this point in your career? Who is your target audience?

At Last: Very Interesting News, Unveiled!

Thank you all for waiting so patiently (*cough* Bill *cough*) for the Very Interesting News.

I am pleased mega-thrilled to announce... I now have agent representation! Yay! Squee!!!

Agent Lauren Abramo from the Dystel and Goderich Literary Agency will be representing Trevor & the Tooth Fairy!

I am so ridiculously excited to be working with Lauren! Yay! Squee! Double-squee!!!

Off to the Manuscript Maven blog to tell the tale of how I Rose From The Slush!

To Print Or Not To Print

So, I've been talking about revising Touched since, like, October. Various other things came up (ie, I wrote TATTF and, following that, immediately started on DATD) but if I want that story to shop, at some point I have to give it some attention.

The question (well, a question) is: On screen or off?

The advantage to on-screen editing is that I can make changes right then. Little nitpicky changes that would annoy me too much to note if the manuscript were on paper. Or big changes--if I want to rewrite an entire scene, it's right there in front of me in editable type. I just have to highlight all, click delete, and set my fingers to the keys.

The advantage to off-screen editing is that I'm one step removed from the story. I'm not distracted by red squiggly lines or word choice tweakage or, lets be honest, the allure of email and instant messaging. On-screen, I get too bogged down with trying to fix stuff as I see it which prevents me from reading the story as a story in order to see a big-picture view. When I'm looking at the story on paper, I have no problem with putting a red X through an entire scene or covering every page with sticky notes that say "Move this here" or "Add description there" or "WTF, Erica? Do something with this scene!", etc.

So, as I type this, it's looking to me like I need to do both. (*groan*)

Which do I do first? I hesitate to print out all 400 pages if I'm going to make extensive changes because it seems like a waste of paper/ink/money. But then again, if I don't print it out, I'm afraid I will get so bogged down with tweaking squiggly lines that I won't see the forest for the trees. No sense layering sensory detail into a scene that really needs to be axed completely, right?

YOUR TURN: I beg of you, share your secrets! Do you revise off screen or on? Does it depend? If so, why? Do you read the entire manuscript as a reader first, before you do any major surgery? If so, how do you turn off the internal editor? Or do you even bother?

Revision At-tension

OT: (Can it be off topic if I haven't said anything yet?) At first I was like, oh gee what on Earth will I blog about today? And then I bopped over to the Manuscript Mavens blog where I left a comment on Maven Darcy's post on revision almost the friggin wordcount of her original post. *sigh*

So anyway, what I meant to talk about today was something I read in Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. (One of my pals, who shall remain nameless unless she outs herself, just had her head explode by reading those words. She is not in love with WTBN. She believes too many people take it as the word of God. So, for the record, Donald Maass is not God. Some things he says I really dig, and others I don't. As with any craft books or advice, always do what works for you.)

Okay, now that we're done with the mini public service announcement (what is my issue with interrupting myself today??) we're back to WTBN, Chapter 7, Contemporary Plot Techniques.

When conflict level in a novel is high--that is, when it is immediate, credible, personal, unavoidable and urgent--it makes us slow down and read every word. When it is low, we are tempted to skim. [...] The moment tension slacks off, reader attention slacks off, too. It is as if the derivation of the word is "at-tension".

At-tension. I kinda like that.

He then says (btw, in case you didn't know, he's a successful literary agent) when he reads manuscripts, there are certain scenes that guarantee the writer will bore the reader to tears. These include scenes where a character is driving/walking/flying etc from point A to point B, scenes where a character is relaxing in the shower, scenes where a character is fixing tea/coffee/dinner, etc.

Basically, he says unless the car is careening out of control or hurtling off a cliff, don't think for a second that the reader is paying the remotest attention to paragraph after paragraph of introspection, even if you throw in beautiful prose about the lovely scenery.

My second novel, Witness, was dinged in contests (and rightfully so) for one such scene. The story opened with the heroine en route to the recording studio of an infamous white-boy rapper who was going to get a bullet in his brain moments before she reached the front door step.

(BTW, he's not killed because he's a white-boy rapper, but because he's an ass. Villainess totally justified. *g)

Her stumbling across a dead body is all well and good, but her driving to do so really wasn't. Neither she nor the reader knew she was on her way to becoming a murder witness, which meant there was zero tension (or at-tension) in the scene.

Plus she was alone. Alone often equals boring. As my pal Julie Elizabeth Leto pointed out to me later, there was no reason why her best friend (whose request for an autograph sent the heroine to the rapper's door in the first place) wouldn't also be present.

Duh.

I am pleased to say my writing has improved in leaps and bounds since those days.

However, as I prepare to revise both Touched and Trevor & the Tooth Fairy, I will remind myself to pay special attention to low tension scenes.

I do not want to bore the reader at this stage of the game. Especially if the reader is, say, a potential buyer.

Touched, my third book, has several scenes in which the hero or heroine is alone (actively pursuing a goal, not just sipping tea and ruminating on their lives!) that Maven Lacey suggested I could revise such that the hero and heroine were working on their goals together rather than separately.

Again I say: Duh. Brilliant idea.

In TATTF, my fourth book, the hero and heroine actually do work together a good portion of the time. (See? I learn!) But that doesn't mean I don't have other scenes where, for various reasons, they are alone. I will be paying special attention to make sure those scenes are necessary, and if so, I will strongly consider whether or not the scene would be improved with the presence of an additional character.

(At least I don't have to worry about boring travel scenes, seeing as how Daisy can teleport. *g)

YOUR TURN: Fess up! Any "transportation" scenes in your story where the characters are going from one place to another? Scenes where they sit around thinking about all the GMC in their lives? What is your opinion of all this?

Good Karma Tuesday

This week's random winner is... MARY WITZL. Mary, thanks for commenting on one of my posts! Send me your snail mail addy and I will send you Something Interesting.

I've noticed in my StatCounter that I have the occasional visitor from Spanish-speaking countries. They do not stay long. This might be because my blog is not in Spanish. (I know, move over Sherlock Holmes, right?)

In the interest of spreading good karma, especially since a good chunk of writing information available on the web is in English, I am going to attempt to translate one craft-related post a week into Spanish. (You might notice this also forces me to write at least one craft-related post a week instead of my usual procrastinatory or writer-angst blathering. Ahem.)

Without further ado, yesterday's heroine post below this one. (Albeit in a mini-version... Hopefully I'll have time to translate more later.)

YOUR TURN: You know I'm going to ask, so spill. What have you contributed to good karma lately? Has you or someone you know benefitted from someone else's random act of kindness?

Héroes y Heroínas

Nos dejan hablar de qué hace a heroínas heroicas. En su libro Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds, Michael Hauge ofrece algunas sugerencias en cómo hacer su protagonista gustar a su lector.

Las sugerencias para crear a héroes empathetic son:

1. Cree la compasión
   Es decir, El lector debe estar apesadumbrada para el carácter.


2. Héroe en el peligro
   El "peligro" puede ser de perder su vida o perder su casa o perder su trabajo o perder su novio. Qualquier cosa que puede perder.


3. El héroe agradable
   Una persona justa o divertida o simpática. Alguien que pueda ser una amiga.


4. El héroe gracioso
   No tenemos que tener gusto del carácter como persona o amigo., sino que tenemos que tener gusto del carácter como carácter.


5. El héroe poderoso
   No hay que ser superheroe, pero sí superheroes tienen poder. También pueden ser jefes o reínas o asasinos o brujas.

Pienso que la cosa más importante es que no hay ninguna manera correcta de crear una heroína buena, pero hay varias maneras correctas.

TUS IDEAS: ¿Por qué te gustan las heroínas románticas? ¿Por qué un lector desea ser ella, o sea su mejor amigo? ¿Sabes ejemplos que ilustren las sugerencias arriba? ¿Puedes pensar en otras maneras de crear ese sentido de la identificación del lector con la heroína?

Heroines to Cry For

I'm no doubt butchering the maxim, but it goes something like: Readers want heroes to die for and heroines to cry for.

We've discussed tortured and non-tortured heroes, so now let's talk about what makes heroines heroic.

In Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds, Michael Hauge offers some suggestions on how to make your reader empathize with your protagonist right off the bat. (I know, and you thought it was just a book on pitching, right? Ah-ha moments can come from anywhere!)

The suggestions for creating empathetic heroes are:

1. Create sympathy
   In other words, make the reader feel sorry for the character. Hauge gives the example of us seeing poor Harry Potter living under the stairs thanks to his jerktastic relatives. But we're applying this toward heroines, so... how about Lucy in While You Were Sleeping? The opening shows us how incredibly lonely and unappreciated she is. Or how about Vivian in Pretty Woman? Not exactly living the American Dream, is she. (Please mention other books/movies in the comments where the opening scene serves to create sympathy for the heroine!)


2. Put the hero in jeopardy
   Hauge says "jeopardy" can range from losing your life (Bourne Supremacy) to losing your gym (Dodgeball). Again, we're talking heroines, so how about... Scarlett losing Tara? Kathleen losing her book store in You've Got Mail? Lucy losing her memory in 50 First Dates? Or Andie Anderson losing a bet in How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days?


3. Make the hero likeable
   I agree with Hauge's examples here, too--who couldn't love Will Ferrel's character in Elf, or the cute little clownfish in Finding Nemo?--but we're discussing romantic heroines. So... I'm thinking Julia in The Wedding Singer. She was just so freaking nice. Funny and cute, yes, but above all else, a good sport. Or how about Cher in Clueless? She was so quirky and so unapologetically, well, clueless, I couldn't help but like her.


4. Make the hero funny
   Hauge gives Bad Santa as an example here. I'd imagine someone like House as fitting the bill as well. We don't have to like the character as a person, but we have to like the character as a character. How about Bridget Jones? Neurotic, whiny, self-absorbed... but funny as hell. Or how about Abby in The Truth About Cats & Dogs? Even though I knew her unrelenting sarcasm was a defense mechanism, sometimes I wanted to smack her for getting into her own way--but I couldn't help but like her as a character. Or how about Brooke in the The Break-Up? Not the most mature of women, but totally funny and therefore empathizable. And Mary Catherine Gallagher? OMG.


5. Make the hero powerful
   The Bride in Kill Bill is one of Hauge's examples, and it's a good one. She's strong mentally, physically, emotionally. She does what she has to do. Wonder Woman, Elektra, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marie Antoinette, Catwoman, Charmed, Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Angelina in Mr & Mrs Smith.

I think the main takeaway is that there's no one right way to create reader involvement, but rather, several right ways, to make an intriguing, unique heroine readers can't help but empathize with.

YOUR TURN: Why do we empathize with romance heroines? What makes a reader want to be her, or be her best friend? Do you know any examples that illustrate the suggestions above? Can you think of any other ways to create that sense of reader identification with the heroine?

Yes, Yes, More Fritters

If you pay attention to the recently read books on the sidebar (and I do not for one second suppose that you do, else I wouldn't bother bringing it up *g) you may notice that I have frittered time reading even more books since the last time I frittered time reading books. (You know, like 48 hours before that.)

But that's okay.

Because I may have Very Interesting News to share with you later this week, the results of which will give me something very constructive (and very positive) to do instead of frittering.

I know, I know, it's obnoxious to go all cryptic. I will spill all, as soon as the i's are dotted and all that. Promise. =)

I've Got The Trots For You

While I think of a blog post for today, go check out Jacqueline's Name That Book Contest on her blog.

Read the comments, and the title of this post will make sense.

(Be very scared. *g)

How I Fritter Time

My number one procrastination method of choice the past week or so has been reading. (Sorry, creators of Spider Solitaire. I finally broke free from your thrall.)

I read Immortals: The Calling (Book 1) and Immortals: The Darkening (Book 2), which I got from the Goody Room at the RWA conference. I read Private Arrangements, by Sherry Thomas and Stray, by Rachel Vincent, both of which I got at the book signings at the same conference. And I read Devil in Winter, by Lisa Kleypas (which has been on my TBR forever) and The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, by Julia Quinn (much thanks to Maven Darcy for procuring me a signed copy).

And I even updated my Read in '07 list there on the right. Go me with my mad updating skills.

(You'll notice while I was in Costa Rica, I read Blazes and Desires, which is helping me be a better CP for a friend who is targeting those lines, and a ton of Intrigues and Intimate Moments, for the same reason.)

So.

If you've read any of those six books I named above, (or if you happen to be knowledgeable regarding the Harlequin lines I mentioned,) do lets chat in the comments! Oh, and if there are other books you'd like to recommend--please do so!

Genre Choosing vs Genre Chasing... & a confession

First, the confession: Between Costa Rica and the conference in Dallas, I haven't been writing much.

Me, the person who wakes up every morning and writes third thing! (Not first thing. First is teeth-brushing and second is coffee-brewing. Third is pretty darn close.)

I'm going through a bit of an upheaval in my writer life because I'm uncertain about the future.

Not in that wishy-washy way where people are like, "Oh, gee, what if I never get a request?" or "What if I never get published?" or "What if I go blind from staring at my computer screen 18 hours a day?"

I've got no control over any of that crap. I do have control over myself. Which means, all I can do is write, study craft, write, attend conferences and workshops, write, plotstorm with my crit buddies, write, tackle revision with a positive attitude, write, network my fanny off, write, send a bazillion query letters, and write.

The one constant, as you may have noticed, is WRITE. Which I haven't been doing the past few weeks.

There are many reasons for this, which ranged from "I don't even have a spare hour to sleep, how am I supposed to write?" to the current one: "What will I write ABOUT?"

No, I'm not the sort who needs a muse to whisper plot ideas in my ear before I can move forward. I have absolutely nothing against that--it's just not necessary for me. I have so many ideas, it makes my head bleed.

I have storage containers full of ideas. File folders full of ideas. Word documents full of ideas.

The question is: Are any of them the RIGHT idea?

To be completely honest... I want to write something that could sell.

I don't mean I want to chase the market! For my second book, I shipped off a requested full to Harlequin Intrigue because I stupidly believed targeting category would be "easier".

Wrong. It was harder, in a large part because the sort of story I'd written wasn't the sort of story I wanted to write. And I never want to go down that path again.

I want to write something FUN.

I don't necessarily mean fun in tone, like TATTF and DATD. I mean fun for me as the author. Something I'm excited to plop down in front of the keyboard and write.

When I was a teenager, I wrote horror short stories full of gore and apocalyptic shenanigans. Arguably, not fun for the reader. But fun for me at the time, as the writer. I moved away from that genre (obviously) and have lately been writing romance. (Well, according to my CPs, a couple of my stories are more "with romantic elements" than actual "romances", but whatever. You get me.)

On the other hand, I don't want to write something super fun that has no chance in hell of ever seeing a bookshelf. Some people say, "Write for yourself" as if it doesn't matter whether or not a career comes of it, and maybe it really doesn't matter to them. That's okay. Some things are like that.

I do write for myself, first and foremost. That's number one.

I also sing and play guitar for myself, but I don't expect to be a rock star. I draw for myself, never expecting (or even wanting) to have a wing in the Louvre.

But writing? Writing is something I'd love to have as a career.

Which means I need to be practical. If I wanted to be a rock star, I probably wouldn't focus on my yodeling talents. (Which I usually do in the privacy of my shower.) Even if I luuuurved yodeling, it just isn't the smartest aspect of singing to accentuate when pursuing rockstardom. I might play up my electric guitar skillz instead. Which is ALSO fun.

But I wouldn't run out and learn the drums just because I heard it's "easier" to break in as a drummer. (I didn't hear that, just in case you're here looking for advice on how to be a rock star, I'm just using the example as a metaphor to writing and the difference between choosing a genre and chasing a genre.)

So THAT'S what I want to focus on in the near future. Something fun for me to write, but that has potential to be attractive to an agent, marketable to a publisher, intriguing to a bookseller, and worth $7.95 to the reader.

But what? I dunno.

So, I'm combing through the ol' idea banks, plotstorming with my CPs, and reading widely. I'm not trying to rush things. I plan to start my new project once I finish revising an old project, so there's no particular hurry. I do want to be reasonably certain that the next thing I write has the potential to nudge my career the next step forward, without making it "work" instead of "fun". So I'm taking my time, and giving the question serious thought.

YOUR TURN: How about you? Do you write for fun or as a career? If the latter, do you (or have you done) career planning insofar as it relates to your writing? If so, what sorts of things did you consider and are you on or off the track you'd laid for yourself?

Good Karma Tuesday

Yay for the return of Good Karma Tuesday!

I am pleased to pull a random commenter out of a hat for gift-giving fun. This week's winner is: ALYSSA GOODNIGHT. Congratulations, Alyssa! Please email me your addy and I will send you a treat. =)

Thank you to everyone who wished me a warm welcome home. I appreciate that. To be honest, I'm still a bit wiped from the whirlwind trip, but that didn't stop me from writing today's post over on the Manuscript Mavens blog about analyzing books and spotting upcoming trends. Please stop by and comment!

Also, a quick shout out to Maven Darcy for her act of good karma earlier this week. Yay for being nice! Being nice rocks! =)

YOUR TURN: In case you've forgotten, Good Karma Tuesday is when you get to confess your karma! What have you done for you lately? What have you done for someone else? Are you spreading/receiving random acts of kindness? Spill!

Back Home!

Is it just me, or does it *always* feel like I'm coming back home? =)

I am pleased to announce that I will stay put in sunny Florida for almost two whole months. Yay! No more extended traveling!

By now you've probably figured out how much I love love love to travel. As it turns out, *I've* now figured out that staying home every once in a while is a good thing, too.

Today I'm catching up on client work that suffered while I battled the conference hotel's spotty wifi all last week, but tomorrow I will be back with some post-conference highlights and other fun stuff.

YOUR TURN: How was your weekend? What did you do last week? Do you generally prefer to go away, or to stay home?

Costa Rica: Just For Fun

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: JUST FOR FUN.

Here's me out caving in Venado. I had several pictures taken of me--unfortunately, they all came out super-blurry. This one is the least blurry. Fetching boot-mask-hat look, no?


The photos *I* took of the cave are beauteous, of course. *g


I went ziplining through the rain forest canopy a couple times. Here's me heading off into the tree tops, right-side-up...


And here's me, upside-down. Yep, flew across the cable line that way--you gotta try it! So fun!!! (If you're nervous, no fear: You can zip line by yourself if you go right side up, but local guides accompany you for any tricks that require you to not be able to use your hands as brakes.)


Here's me doing some sort of superman "flying" maneuver on the zip line. No comments from the peanut gallery as to the suggestive nature of the guide's body position in relation to mine.

Costa Rica: Wildlife

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: WILDLIFE.

Here's a crab scaling the wall inside the caverns at Venado caves.


Horses graze in the pasture on Villa Paradise land. I rode a few of them in the countryside and through a neighboring macadamia farm.


Almost missed this guy! Lizards are so *fast*.


Monkey! Costa Rica has several monkey types, but the only ones I ran into this time were the Congo monkeys and the howler monkeys.


More monkeys! Gotta love 'em...


Freaking giant moth.


Humongoid, I tell you!

Costa Rica: Waterworks

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: WATERWORKS.

One weekend, we went to the beach and I got to hang out on Playa Langosta and Playa Tamarindo, kicking back oceanside with a book. *sigh of contentment*


Here's a view of the volcano from across Lake Arenal.


Here's me hiding beneath some foliage at the point where a hot spring runs from the volcano into the icy cold Rio Celeste. What an odd experience to have my feet toasty warm and my back covered in goosebumps!


Here's a waterfall view from a trail I hiked in a national park.


We sat on the rocks at the foot of this volcano and ate a PB&J sack lunch.


Here's a waterfall well off the beaten path along the route to the Libera airport. Icy, icy water, but if you swim to the other side, a tiny hot spring trickles down across a rock big enough to climb up on to relax.


Here's me clowning in front of said waterfall, after having dog-paddled to the hot spring (where I busted open my shin on a rock) and hiked back to the sand the long way (on slippery rocks around the perimeter of the water).

Costa Rica: Homebodies

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: HOMEBODIES.

This is the house I stayed at: Villa Paradise


This is a view from the front--my bedroom window is the one on the top floor, to the left.


One day we had the neighbor kids over for some games. They'd never bobbed for apples before, but they caught on in a flash!


We tied a piñata to a tree and the kids had a blast smacking it with a stick and collecting all the candy.


Here are the neighbor kids in the kiddie pool and heading to the slide for the bigger pool.


We rounded out the day with sack races and whipped cream fights. (One of my friends had to drive to a German bakery an hour away to purchase whipped cream at $5 a can--not a common item here in Costa Rica!)

Costa Rica: Creepy Crawlies

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: CREEPY CRAWLIES.

Just for those of you arachophobes, here is a lovely spider we found crawling up the wall.


Here's a bat-covered ceiling at the Venado caves. See those holes above? They're a few feet deep, and are created by the bats, who apparently secret some kind of oil in their sweat that eats away at the cave's surface while they hang upside-down.


As I was walking back home from the neighbor's farm, I ran into a snake on the path.. I was unsure whether this was a true coral snake or one of its cleverly disguised non-poisonous brethren. I later learned you can identify the more dangerous coral snake by its stripe pattern. If the colors spell RANA (rojo, amarillo, negro, amarillo) you should run away screaming. If not, no worries. As it turns out, this one *does* have the red, yellow, black, yellow pattern, and I maybe shouldn't have followed it down the road, snapping photos in my shorts and flip flops.


Some neighbors found an even bigger prize and brought it over for our viewing pleasure. Here's a lovely boa constrictor, stretched out in the grass.

Costa Rica: Exploring

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

Also running on the MM blog is a Tooth Fairy comment contest--play to win! =)

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: EXPLORING.

This is el Arbol de la Paz (tree of peace) on the route to one of the national parks. It's super-tall, and 22.55 meters in circumference.


Here's me out hiking the afore-mentioned national park. Aren't those boots fetching?


This is a view of the rain forest canopy from La Fortuna. You can see a waterfall in the distance.


Costa Rica is full of single-car bridges like this one, made of wooden planks, which we had to share with a local man as we crossed in opposite directions.


Since it's currently the rainy season in Costa Rica, you can see the storm clouds rolling in on the horizon. (If you squint really hard, you can even see the outline of Nicaragua in the background.)


That body of water behind me is Lago Arenal, the half-empty lake in charge of providing the surrounding area with electricity and drinking water. Boy do we need the rain--especially if the touristy beach towns get their way and pipe their coastal drinking water in from the already-depleted Lake Arenal.

Costa Rica: Dancing

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: DANCING.


I walked to a local school (Escuela Mata de Caña) to watch a performance of the native children performing typical Costa Rican dances.




I admit: I thought they were the cutest things on the planet.




Especially the two really little ones--how adorable are they??




I love local culture stuff like this!

Costa Rica: Good Eats

This week, I am in Dallas, Texas for the National RWA Conference. If you'd like real-time updates on the writing conference, please check out the Manuscript Mavens blog, where all four of us will be posting updates all week, throughout the day, to share our thoughts, impressions, and ah-ha moments with you.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing a few of my Costa Rica photos with you here on this blog. (Link: my Costa Rica Thursday Thirteen post)

Today's Costa Rica photo theme is: GOOD EATS.

As we were driving to a national park, we passed a field where workers tossed pineapples into a truck for juicing. They were nice enough to give us a few for the road!


Note to self: Be more inventive in the kitchen! Here is a mashed potato volcano with sliced red peppers for lava. Cute, no?


My pal D asked me how it was that I gain weight when I go to Costa Rica. Here's one answer: homemade tiramisu! (Other answers include mango cake, macadamia nut pie, caramel ice cream, chocolate fudge brownies, homemade flan, fresh cheesecake... detecting a pattern? *g)


By popular demand, here's a photo of me at the heladería featuring cerveza-flavored ice cream. (The sign I'm holding lists the flavors.) Beer ice cream tastes like... well, beer. And not milk-ish, either--more of a frozen beer snow cone effect. Not bad, not good, just... odd. But as they say, when in Rome... =)

Calling All Conference Attendees!

Who's all going to RWA National next week?

Holla in the comments, and email me your cell if you want to hook up!

Back Home!

...for a few days, anyway. *g (I'll be off to the National RWA writers conference on Tuesday, but I will have Internet access there, so you'll be hearing from me!)

CONTEST WINNERS: If your name is on the upper left hand side under Contest Winners and you haven't sent me your snail mail address, please do so now so I can send you a prize! (If you've already sent me your address, it might not be a bad idea to reply to that email again to me, so I don't miss it)

Regular blogging will commence now that I'm back home, but first, here are:

13 Things I did in Costa Rica

1. Hiked through rain forests and a national park


2. Launched Manuscript Mavens blog


3. Drank from a straw sticking out of a coconut


4. Scaled a rock wall inside a bat cave


5. Hung upside-down on a zip line


6. Ate beer-flavored ice cream


7. Learned to make fried plantains (easy!)


8. Became TARA Contest triple-finalist


9. Made butter from the milk of a neighbors cow


10. Ate PB&J on a rock beneath a waterfall


11. Learned to play canasta


12. Lay in a hot spring where the water flowed into an icy river


13. Watched costumed school children perform typical dances

...and somehow managed to write 25,589 words for DATD!



YOUR TURN: Done anything unusual this year or tried something new for the first time? No matter how big or how small, I want to hear all about it!

Flying Home

No "real" blog post today, as I will spend the entire day traveling back home. For those of you living in the U.S.--happy Independence Day! For everyone else... er... have a nice middle-of-the-week. *g

E

Monday Update

Since I'm the Monday Maven, I've got a post about the 12 Steps of Intimacy over on the Manuscript Mavens blog today. Please drop by and say hi!

And now, on with the updates!

DATD Running Totals:
Number of Scenes: 36.5
Number of Pages: 203
Number of Words: 62,341
Current Status: 62%
Synopsis: Intro & Character Arcs done

Yep, only half a scene more than last week. But I'll be back stateside on Wednesday, which means I should get my writing groove back on fairly soon!



TATTF Current Stats:
Requested Fulls out: 2
Requested Partials out: 2
Unsent Requests: 0


Website/Blog Statistics
* Highest number of unique visitors: 85 (Wednesday)
* Lowest number of unique visitors: 33 (Sunday)
* Most popular keywords to find site:
        - erica
        - erica ridley
        - shannon aviles
        - romance novel writer blog
        - ericaridley.com
        - harlequin spice briefs
        - author erica
        - manuscript mavens blogspot
        - writer blog romance
        - writer erica ridley
        - manuscript mavens
        - erica writes
        - aspiring writers



Goals Achieved Since Last Check-In
* Catch up on critiques
* Be triple-finalist in TARA Contest
* Announce free book giveaway on Manuscript Maven blog (still one left!)
* Write first-ever blog post on the Romantic Inks website
* Write today's Monday Maven blog post on The Twelve Steps of Intimacy

Goals NOT Achieved As Planned
* Write Every Day
* Write > 100 words/day
* Write a complete scene every day
* Make progress with DATD synopsis
* Become fastest-rising world superpower

Goals for this week:
* Continue 100 Day Challenge
* Write every day (ideally a whole scene)

100DC Teammates: 100+ Words per day for 100 days

Alyssa Goodnight	B.E. Sanderson	Bill Clark
Darcy Burke	Ericka Scott	Heather
Heather Harper	KLC	Lenora Bell
Maggie Robinson	Mary	Meryl F
Nikki	Vicki Lane	YOU CAN JOIN, TOO!

YOUR TURN: Make any writing progress this past week? Those of you in the 100DC, are you making your goals? Any luck on the query/pitch/contest circuit? Fess up: have you been writing every single day, without fail?