Tuesday, October 30, 2012

In with the editor 'YAY!!"

       I am sorry that I have not gotten on here lately and you have not had the joy of listening to me ramble, but my computer has been down. I had to send it in to Toshiba to get it repaired. I hate sending my computer off for repairs, I so wish they had a person come to me to fix it or that I could take it to my local repair man. Mostly I hate having to reinstall everything that I use. I have everything that is important to me backed up in several places, so I haven't lost anything, but it is a pain to have to find all the programs and reinstall them. That is if I remember all the programs I am using. I guess if I forgot something it must not have been very important.
      I am now back online and excited to say that The Dark Lady is in rounds with the editor and I should be seeing edits within the week. I am looking forward to getting them. It is so much different from the first time I was waiting for edits. I was nervous and not looking forward to changing anything in my story. Now I get excited to get my edits back, to make my story perfect for my reader.
      I will be announcing my 100 Lucky winners in The Dark Lady Celebration Giveaway in Early 2013, as soon as I have an approved cover and know my release date. Please stop by http://dawnchandler.net/giveaway.html and read the first three chapters and sign up for your chance to be one of the lucky winners.

The Dark Lady

The Dark Lady is a historical romance set in 1100 England during the time of the dark and dangerous knights. It is a turbulent time of upheaval and strife. During this time a young female child is born to a loving and doting father and a jealous, spiteful mother. Angered because her arranged marriage was not to the man she loved and jealous of the way her husband doted over and spoiled their little girl she sought revenge. Stealing away in the middle of the night with the man she loved she took the one year old girl with her. In order to keep the baby hidden she lied to the child and everyone around her. She told everyone the child was a boy, and when Vanessa was old enough to question it she explained to her that her father wanted her dead. That she had been born a girl and her father had wanted to kill her because he had wanted a son. She told Vanessa that she had stolen her away the very night she was born and had hid her for her own protection. She told her daughter that she must pretend to be a boy and never go to her father for if she didn't do as she was told he would find her and kill her. Vanessa become Van very successfully and excelled at the art of sword play and is chosen to go to Grayweist Castle for page training where she fights her way to the top of the group and becomes a squire.
Excerpt from Chapter 2
The beautiful meadow where they had first taken camp was now a ransacked and demolished mess of torn up grass and flowers. Ruts and deep holes from the warriors and their horses made walking on trembling legs difficult for Peter.
      Out in front of all the men, the King’s man blew once again on the horn. All stopped to look at the men standing with the King. Peter allowed his two good friends to sit him on a low boulder, in the warm sun. When all of Peter’s men as well as the men the King had brought were circled around them, the King motioned to Van.
      The King’s face held a serious expression as he addressed the brave boy. “Van Burgess, will you please stand before me.” Van approached the King on shaky legs, head bowed. He appeared nervous and that surprised Peter. Why was this arrogant and self-assured boy so nervous around the King? Why was he so reluctant to be questioned or to be the center of attention? It almost appeared to Peter that the boy was hiding something. Peter took a deep breath deciding that more than likely the boy was just unaccustomed to all the fuss.
      Peter’s head was beginning to ache and he knew it would soon be a blaring headache. He took deep breaths and concentrated on the King and Van and tried to ignore the throb that was becoming insistent. The King never took his eyes from the boy as his loud voice boomed across the torn up field. The bellowing voice tore through Peter’s head like a stampede of sheep. Prodding and gouging as they ripped through the soft tissue of his mind. 
      “All who have gathered here will be witness to great deeds today.” Van jerked his face up to the king’s in surprise, “Van Burgess, for your bravery on the field of battle. For your selfless act to save another, with no regards to your safety or to personal gain. For your personal stand to protect your beliefs in the face of opposition I am here to acknowledge you. Kneel.”
      Van dropped to one knee and bowed his head. Between the black clothes and the deep black hair the boy looked like a small dark boulder. The King pulled a sword from the scabbard at his belt. The shiny metal of the newly forged sword touched each of Van’s shoulders as the King said the words that made him a knight.
      Peter’s pride swelled within him as he listened to the familiar words. Richard cleared his throat beside him and Peter caught sight of the pride and emotion in his face. With a grin Peter watched the King speak the final words of the creed. “Now rise. Rise as Sir Burgess. The Dark Knight.”

 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The trouble my muse causes



      I write on an almost constant basis, which has a tendency to cause a few issues in my life. I have always done it (well ever since 5th grade when my muse bit me). My mom used to say, as I was growing up, that I would space off into my own little world, but I didn't. I would be drug off into the world of my muse, okay to be fair I wasn’t kicking and screaming. No, I went into that world willing and eager.

       Now, when I say I am always writing that does not mean that I am always putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard or however it is that I get a chance to actually get my story out. I write in my head.

      I used to be the cake decorator at Wal-Mart. Now the good thing about that was I have been decorating for over 15 years, so I didn't have to really think about my work. My fingers would do the cakes in the background. My thoughts would be on my characters and I could enjoy the unfolding of their stories. Now of course when I made faces or laughed at what my character would do or say...well, my coworkers had a tendency to look at me funny. **The bad thing is occasionally I wouldn’t hear people talking to me, as long as it wasn’t the boss or a customer I was usually okay.**

      I am a seat of the pants writer which means I don't outline, I do not know the story before I start writing and I don’t know what will happen until it happens. I have to go with the flow of the book, start at the beginning and let it go from there. My favorite thing about that is I get to find out as I go along what happens....which is why when something unexpected happened I would laugh or make a face. So I would let my mind flow and then on breaks or on lunch I would get as many notes down as possible so as not to lose the story later.

      The great thing about being able to allow my muse full rein as I worked is that I now have 38 novels completed and ready for edits. Of course the bad thing is getting them from my head and all those pages of notes, and onto the computer screen so I can start those edits.

      I now have the opportunity to write full time and I officially consider myself a professional author, even though I am still waiting for the money to think of me as one. So I have had the chance, here within the last few years, to put all those stories into the computer. In the last three years I have gotten four novels completed and the other 34 are entered into the computer, with at least 4 or 5 chapters.

      I also have several binders full of notes and 42 other novels that are only started, with at least one or two chapters going. I pull them out and work on them as they call to me. Which book that calls to me is always up for grabs, but one of them, at least if I’m lucky it is only one, is constantly running in my head.

      Now, as I mentioned, there are issues created by my muse’s constant ramblings.

      My memory sucks. My file cabinets are filled with places, people, and events from 71 novels, and some new ones that are trying to start and there isn’t much room for anything else. My attention span is small, I don’t have ADD, I just have so much going on in my head it is hard to focus on that stuff outside my head. I have always spaced off, and don’t hear when people are talking to me sometimes. I don’t mean to and I try to pay attention, but sometimes the muse’s voice is louder than the rest. As long as there is no break in the conversation I am good, but if you give me a few minutes of silence, well I know how to fill the empty space. 

      I take the good with the bad and wouldn’t know what to do if my muse was ever silent. I am lucky that my family is supportive and understanding when it comes to my writing. I try my best not to ignore them when they need my attention, but my kids grew up hearing…. “let me finish this chapter and we will go.” I tried to never make them wait long and was so excited to get my first laptop so I could just take my story with me and the kids didn’t have to wait to go to the park or wherever they wanted to go.  They never complained, probably because they knew they would get extra treats when we went out to make up for having to wait.

      Do you daydream, do you talk to yourself? For me it is the way I function every day, but to be fair, I don’t really talk to myself. I talk to the imaginary people inside my head….see, so I’m still okay.