I'm plugging along with the new story.  It has great potential and I think I might actually finish it.  I intend to finish it, because I entered the Finish the Damn Book challenge and by Goodness I will finish it if it kills me...

So let me give you a little bit about the book so far:

Right now my main character Ivelisse (Ivy) sees a news report about a woman who was found dead and washed up on Alki Beach.  The picture of the woman on the tv screen looks just like her.  Now, this is confusing of course because Ivy is an only child of parents who are only children, so she knows she has no cousins or siblings that could possibly look so much like her.

When she gets a frantic phone call from her mother apologizing and just basically sounding distraught and upset, she's even more confused.  Her father manages to get her mother off the phone so that he can explain things to Ivy.

Now she is about to find out from her father that she's adopted.  So the dead woman, might actually be related to her.  She looked enough like her to be her twin!

Well this is where I am in the story. And I'm kind of wondering which direction I should go in that will keep the story moving?  Have you got any suggestions?  Please drop me a comment and let me know.  Thank you.

I attended the Greater Seattle RWA conference (ECWC) last weekend (October 9-11) at the Bellevue Hilton and I just have to say it was phenomenal.  And as a first-timer I was welcomed with open arms.  From the workshops, the speakers, the gift baskets, to the goodie bags - I can only say WOW!

I met some really great writers and authors.  Made some great connections with others who are unpublished and working towards publication.  We even formed a group that will meet twice a year to see where everyone is at with their writing - how awesome is that?

I even took up Cherry Adair's challenge to Finish the Damn Book!  Why you ask?  Well because I can always start one, but for some reason I can't seem to finish one.  And Cherry has some really great incentives to push me to complete my MS.

Entries have to be a new manuscript not started before Oct. 1, 2009 and completed in polished format suitable for submission to an agent or editor by midnight Oct 1, 2010 and it has to be a novel length fiction no less than 45,000 words.

Well since leaving the conference I have started a new romantic suspense I'm calling it Out of Hiding, not sure of the title may fool around with it some more to see what pops out of my head, but it's the working title for now.  And here's a sneak peak into what it's about - this is an unedited beginning to my synopsis, so please no critiquing yet ok?

What would you do if you found out that you had a twin? Not only do you have a twin sister you never knew you had but she was brutally murdered and now the killer is after you.

 

Ivy Morgan's world is turned upside down when the morning news reports on the discovery of the body of a local woman found washed up on shore of Alki Beach and the picture she sees on the screen is of her. Imagine her shock when she's told by the people she believed to be her parents that she was adopted in a closed adoption where the identity of the birth parents were sealed and there never was any mention of a twin.

 

Confused and hurt she sets out to find her birth parents, but in the process of trying to track down information about them someone tries to kill her.  When FBI Special Agent Marcus Winston swoops in and saves her life, he tells her that she has to stop digging for information about her parents.

 

Headstrong and stubborn she tells him she won't stop looking, she has to know.  So despite the fact that he's trying to do his job and take down one of the biggest drug operations in Mexico with the help of her father, he develops a strong attraction to Ivy.  But when she discovers that he not only knew she had a twin, he also knows the identity of her biological father, the attraction between them may never come to fruition if she has any control over it.

 

Emilio Fuentes's enemies will stop at nothing to keep him from testifying against them.  In exchange for immunity from prosection he will give the FBI all the information they need to take down the lucrative drug empire he helped build.  But when word gets to him from one of his sources that he established 26 years ago after he gave his twin daughters up for adoption, that the woman found dead on the shore of Alki Beach is his daughter Isabel, he refuses to testify. Not unless the FBI can guarantee the safety of his surviving daughter, Ivelisse (Ivy).

 

Special Agent Marcus Winston has been working the Fuentes case for more than two years and he isn't about to let it all go down the tubes now. His superiors want him to do whatever it takes to keep Fuentes safe and willing to testify against the other drug lords. If he has to track down his estranged daughter to do it then that was what he was going to do.

 

What he didn't expect when he rescues her from an attack is a devastatingly beautiful, yet smart, hard-nosed business woman, who is determined to find answers, even if those answers just might get her killed. How was he going to keep her safe if she kept putting herself in danger? And how was he going to keep her from finding out who her father is and blowing his case wide open.

 

Ivy didn't need arrogant Special Agent Winston's help, she would find the answers she was seeking on her own. She didn't like the way he kept trying to 'handle' her and she didn't like the way her body responded to the way he 'handled' her either. When she finds out he's been keeping the very information she's looking for from her, she's devastated and the feelings she'd been developing towards him are the last thing she wants to deal with after discovering his deceit.

 

So, I'm interested to know what you think of this new MS.  Drop me a comment here on my blog, I'd be happy to hear from you.

I recently discovered that someone I really cared about lied by omission to me for over 8 years.  It really hurts to find out that someone you love doesn't trust you enough to be totally honest with you.  But another lesson learned I guess.  i wouldn't mind hearing from what you would do if you discovered that someone you loved lied or held something back from you and you discovered years later that he/she didn't tell you something really important to your relationship.

Sounds like a theme for a new book...hmmm...I'm sensing a pattern here! 

"It's not you, it's me..."

Chloe has heard those disastrous words for the last time and she's given up on men, or so she thought.

When her friends decide a little intervention is in order, they invite her to a dinner party where she meets Dr. Daniel Turner, who her friends think would be the perfect guy for her, but she decides is the perfect shrink to help her deal with her anger over her recent breakup and try to figure out what her ex-fiance was really trying to say when he uttered, "it's not you, it's me."

She wants to dig deep into her dating past to find out what it is about her that makes men run for the hills.

Daniel came to the dinner party looking forward to meeting someone new. As a psychologist who specializes in helping with relationship issues, he deals with women who are constantly lamenting on what they did wrong, and why the man in their life left them for his twenty-five year old assistant.

He was ready to meet a woman who wasn't looking to him to solve her relationship problems and he thinks he has when he's introduced to Chloe. But as soon as Chloe hears he's a psychologist and what he specializes in she immediately starts in on her recent break-up.

Have you had those five disastrous words spoken to you? I have and like many people who had them uttered to them at the end of a relationship, I was upset, angry, hurt, and more... Spending way too much time on analyzing what went wrong and man-hating to the extreme.

Well of course I'm going to use my experience as the premise for my new manuscript. But I'd like to hear from you to find out what did you do and/or feel when you heard them spoken to you? What did you do afterwards?

Go to my blog at www.michelestaci.blogspot.com and read the beginning of my new manuscript and post a comment to tell me what you think or share your experience with how you dealt with ending a relationship that your partner uttered those words to you. Or maybe you've never heard them but know someone who has, tell me how you may have helped them deal with it. I look forward to hearing from you.

Well the Ladies at Damned Scribbling Women wanted me to share who my hunky hero is. While I'll admit that I liked Kate Diamond's choice of hunky hero, Kresley Cole's Lachlain. He is definitely hunky hero material.

But I have to say my hunky hero is Micah Sloane aka Maverick in Lora Leigh's Maverick. He's hunky, strong, passionate, and a fierce protector. I sure wouldn't mind having him around protecting me from danger. In Lora Leigh's Elite Ops series you meet Micah Sloane and he's initially portrayed as hard, cold, and vengeful. But once you see him interact with Risa Clay, you can't help but want to get up close and personal with him. Because with her he's passionate, warm, and protective.

Micah had a weakness. A small, beautiful, passionate weakness that he feared could become the destruction of his soul.

Dead men don't have a weakness, he reminded himself. He was a dead man, part of the Elite Operational Unit that existed in the dark, deeper than black ops, independent of government interference.

His hand lifted to touch her hair, his jaw tightening at the silken warmth of the thick strands. Nothing, no other woman, had ever felt as warm in his embrace, nor as perfect.

"No one has ever held me like this." Her voice was soft in the twilight, a whisper of awe that had him blinking back a strange moisture from his eyes.

His Risa had never been held in a lover's embrace, and she had been born for a man to protect, to cherish.

"You could have had your pick of lovers," he told her, knowing it was true. "But I won't say I'm sorry to have been the first."

He turned to her, holding her against him as he stared into her upraised face.

The smile that curled at her lips was faintly disbelieving. "I'm not exactly beautiful, Micah."

He frowned at that statement. "This isn't true, Risa. Do you think I'd be perpetually hard for you if you weren't attractive? I can barely walk for the stiff cock torturing me."

Something gleamed in her eyes. An edge of hunger, perhaps the faintest hint of belief that she was indeed beautiful.

"You're odd, though," she stated with a hint of amusement. "Your opinion doesn't count."

"My opinion is the only one that counts."

He was seeking revenge but instead finds love with a woman considered to be plain and sometimes throughout the story called downright ugly. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Maverick sees beauty where no one else does. And that's what makes him my hunky hero!

Well I decided not to get so hung up on my opening after reading a great article written by Yasmine Galenorn.  She helped me get over my anxiety.  Basically she said if you lose your muse, do something else, change your location, or change your medium. 

Well that's what I did last night I had some fun creating a new cover mock-up for my writers' group newsletter.  Even if they never use it, I had a lot of fun working on it.  Doing something creative that gets your mind off not having anything to write was really helpful.  And now I think I will go back to my pile of unfinished first chapters and see if anything jumps out at me and is screaming to be made into a finished book.

Also got some really great advice from Shelli Stevens, who just said write, don't worry about the beginning, you can always go back and edit later!  Thanks to two really great writers I'm gonna give it another try.  Thanks ladies!

GSRWA's Emerald City Opener (ECO) has opened for submissions and I've got performance anxiety. I've been working on getting my first 7 pages of my new manuscript to be contet submission worthy but I just keep falling short of what I want to convey in those first 7 pages. I read and edit it and read over some more and each time I read it, I find that it just doesn't seem to be sounding right to me!

I have about 6 different drafts of the first chapter of my new manuscript I've written over the last 2 weeks and I can't seem to get my flow just right. I know in my head what the first scene should be but I just can't seem to get the emotions to show on paper! Oh what to do, what to do!!! Can anyone out there help?

This will be my very first contest that I will be submitting to since I started writing again last year and I guess more of my anxiety is over whether or not my story is worth reading!

I'm getting even more nervous as the days go by and I have nothing ready to submit and the deadline fast approaching [June 1st]. Will I have it ready in time?

I attended the Romance Extravaganza on Saturday, May 2nd at the Covington Library and had a great time meeting and mingling with some really great authors.  The historical and paranormal romance author panels were really great.  It was really interesting to listen to them talk about their writing and how it shaped them into the authors they are today.  I'm inspired to dream big about my writing and I have Alexis Morgan, Jane Ann Krentz, Stella Cameron, Yasmine Galenorn, Gerri Russell, Deborah Schneider, and Cherry Adair to thank for that inspiration.  You guys are great!

I posted a few pictures of the event in my photo gallery, I hope everyone takes a minute to go check them out.

I was also really excited to attend Cherry Adair's tea party afterwards.  She has a lovely home and is a wonderful inspiration - I want to be just like her when I grow up - Cheers Cherry!!!  Oh and my son thanks you too - he devoured the goodies I brought home! 

Even though I had some serious running around to do today, I'm happy to report that I actually got some writing done.  I even wrote some while at my son's basketball practice, but when I kept getting distracted by what the boys were doing, I put it aside.

When I got home though I made myself a snack of cottage cheese, raisins, and strawberries with an instant latte (hey don't knock 'em until you've tried one) and went to work.  I wrote 3 pages last night and I was able to do 3 more today.  I think I'm on a roll here.

So far I've only introduced my main character and her best friend but thats ok, I haven't really thought too hard about the main character's love interest aside from his name.  But he's waiting in the wings and will be making an appearance soon.

Good news for this weekend:  My son's basketball team won both their games this weekend!  It was so great to see the team pumped up after the games.

Bad news for this weekend:  I spent most of my day on Sunday cleaning and reading, no writing being done !  I know, I know, I'm procrastinating, putting off what I should be doing, but why?  I should be trying to get my characters to come alive, but lately, they've been kinda flat on the page and I can't seem to get anything good out of them.  I'm reading Plot and Structure right now and it's helping quite a bit but I'm still not feeling my story. 

Maybe that's why I've been procrastinating so much, no real feeling for the story I'm writing.  But I hate just abandoning my characters its like I'm leaving them stranded or something and this is probably the 10th story I've started and can't get past the first chapter.  I don't know what I can do.  Another writer friend and co-worker of mine says I should just keep pushing and finish even if I don't like what I'm writing it will unclog the writing block.  I don't know, maybe he's right.

So I'll try again with the story I've been working on and see if I can finish it and then I can be done with it.  Wish me luck!

I had a great time this past weekend watching my son play basketball. He had two games in Lynnwood.  His team won the first game but lost the second game, but man was it an intense game, they lost by only six points so it wasn't a total blow-out as the other team expected.  Which I was very greatful for, because this team has in the past has wiped the floor with us on several occasions, so it was nice to see that they really had to work for their win this time!

Other than that I did some laundry and enjoyed the sun.  Can't say I did any serious writing, but I did finish reading Ecstasy by Jacquelyn Frank on Sunday. 

At first I wasn't really into the story, so I put it down for a few days and when I came back to it on Sunday, I found that I was really enjoying the story, so of course I couldn't put it down until I finished it.  Since I'm a fan of Jacquelyn Frank, I wanted to give the book a chance before I put it on the not going to finish reading this pile and I'm glad I did, it was a great story and I'm looking forward to more in the Shadowdwellers series!

I also read in one day Lara Adrian's Veil of Midnight, another author that I'm a big fan of and this book did not disappoint I'm happy to say.

I just finished paying my bills and I think I broke my bank account. I'm so very broke right now. All the more reason to get my writing off the ground so I can actually see money in my bank account that actually can stay there for more than a day or two before it has to go right back out for bills! Oh well then I better get crackin' on the writing then!

I wish I could say I did some writing this past weekend, considering I had nothing else to do except take my son to the barber and the movies. But alas, I was working on some pictures of my son's basketball team for their team website and my writing took a backseat. I need to get organized and set aside time that is strictly for writing with no interruptions! Yeah right!!! Life has a way of interrupting no matter what I do. But I will persevere!

I just finished posting to my personal blog my interview with my demon warrior prince of the 9th level of hell in the outer plane. Yeah I got a kick out of writing about him. He's taken on some true life attributes for me now and I hope he turns out to be the hero that my female main character (Kat) needs. For the complete interview please check out my personal blog and make some comments, at www.michelestaci.blogspot.com,  I really would like some feedback on this character and how I can make him real to readers when I finally write his story.

I spent my lunch break reading when I should have been writing. When I finally thought about it, my lunch break was over. After work I had to stop at the grocery store, come home and start dinner, feed my son and dog and finally I try to sit down in front of my laptop and what do I do? I'm not writing, I'm blogging, I'm checking out new websites, I'm updating my personal blog page, whew! I could spend all day on my computer and never get any writing done...what is up with that? Technology can be a big distraction I'm finding. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem?