Wednesday 7-28-10

I'm feeling a little down in the dumps. Just about every writer I know is in Orlando for the Romance Writers of American National Conference. I usually go - in fact in the last ten years I've only missed two - one in San Francisco in 2008 and this one.

I sooo wish I was there though. It's both an energy boost and a drain - over 2000 writers all talking shop, editors from every major Romance publisher, and literary agents. I always get to visit with my agent as well as my editor and Harlequin puts on an outrageously fun party (with an open bar!)

I feel sooo left out. But I'm a big girl - I'll get over it. Plus I have line edits and a book to write. And the Evil Day Job. From where I haven't had a vacation since LAST years RWA Conference. Sigh.

Today's pic - the Norwegian Sun, from a cruise I took with my husband back in 2006 (also the last time the two of us took a week off from the EDJ!)

Tuesday 7-27-10

I'm writing again. Random stuff, out of sequence. Writing down whatever scenes occur to me. My hero is very strong in this story, but I don't have a good feel for my heroine yet. She's still a shadowy figure, though I know she's a strong woman, courageous and loyal. But I don't know all her secrets yet. I'll discover them as I write this story.

This part of writing is both fun and scary. Sometimes it feels like I'm playing with scenes. Other times I'm wondering if I've lost my mind.

Here's my pic of the day

Monday July 26, 2010

Monday has rolled around yet again, as it does. I didn't write this weekend. I intended to, but errands and family fun got in the way. I did go see an excellent movie - Inception - which always inspires me.

So today, I'm back to writing on the next Romantic Suspense book. While technically it's not a Cordasic Legacy book (more of a stand-alone), I'm on my third start, twenty five pages in. I do this, start over again and again until I'm happy with the direction the book is taking.

And this morning, I realized something about the hero, something that wasn't in the synopsis I sent in for approval. Something huge and dark and absolutely perfect. I'm happily writing it now (or was, until I stopped to do this blog).

When the writing is going well, I'm a happy person.

Here's the random picture of the day. He loves to swim!

Friday 7-23-10

Does anyone read this blog? I used to get stats from my old website blog, telling me how many visits a day. I still get stats, but either it isn't working right, or everyone is staying away (or can't find this) because the last two weeks the stats showed zero visits. That's right. Big Fat 0.

So, could you do me a big favor? Send me an email at KWhiddon1@aol.com with the word BLOG in the subject line. Just to let me know you've visited?

I'd really appreciate that.

Wednesday 7-2-10

I'm going to sin tonight. Planned in advance, as husband told me about it as far back as Sunday. Have spent all week anticipating my sin, even as I lament in advance the effects on my body, if not my soul. Nah. Not the soul part, at least. Maybe on my waistline.

Tonight is burger night. Our every-two-month occurence and one I relish and refuse to give up. I even tried to tell my personal trainer about it, but unfortunately she had my on the treadmill running a quarter mile at 7mph and I couldn't talk. Hell, I could barely breathe.

So anyway, despite the negative results on the scale, I'm going to have a burger. With fries. A nice big, juicy, Chili's burger, like the one pictured below.



This is such an event with my family that my grown daughter is driving over to come have the meal with us. We only get beef burgers every two months, after all. (We sometimes allow ourselves turkey burgers in between, but rarely).

So wish me luck. I'm skipping the gym and going to Chili's!

Tuesday 7-20-10

So I've been slacking - it's been a week since I posted here. Mea culpa, please forgive me. Life gets in the way sometimes.

It's been hot here and I haven't been feeling too chipper. The heat zaps the life right out of me. I went to the doctor yesterday, got some meds, and hopefully will be back to normal soon.

I took this picture of this lovely flower from my backyard. It's a Passion flower.



I am working though. On both my next Silhouette Romantic Suspense and another book, an uncontracted one that I hope develops into something I can sell. Plus the day job is going strong too. And we camp and swim and I'm still working out with my personal trainer, so life is full and good. Despite the heat, I'm happy and I know I can hang in there until fall. Of course here in Texas, it stays hot into October. Sigh.

Better get back to it.

Tuesday, 7-13-10

There's a bunch of stuff I wanted to blog about, so I've got to decide which to go with. Or maybe I'll do a rambling post of numerous things. Let's see. We'll start with...

Working out. Some of you might remember from my old blog, but I've got a personal trainer for the next six months (twice a week). My body isn't too thrilled with this, though my blood pressure is waaay better and I've lost weight. In between the training sessions, I go to the gym and do 30 minutes of cardio. I've been doing elliptical on 12 for one mile, and then treadmill alternating jogging and walking (at 4mp and 5mp with a 2% incline). But my lower back, left leg and knee, are hurting and I sort of think it might be the elliptical. We'll try just doing the treadmill and maybe exercise bike and see how that goes.

Writing - as sometimes happens, while I'm working on a contracted book, I got tons of ideas for non-contracted books. Usually, I just jot them down and file them and go on. This time, I think I'll work on a book on the side. Time permitting, that is. I'll have to do my word count for the SRS first each day, then whatever time I have left over, I can work on the spec book. I'll do three chapters and a synopsis if it works out and see what my agent thinks.

Oh, I got the new book cover for my October release, PROFILE OF SEDUCTION. Here it is.


Nice yes? I think the guy sort of looks like Brad Paisley.