Merry Go Round Blog Tour – Research

Posted on September 18, 2013 by conniejean

Research, investigations, searching. It’s all part and parcel of being a writer. Even if it’s nothing more than going to some baby name sites to pick a character’s name.

I like doing research. It’s fun to learn how something works, or where a thing comes from, or how something was made. History too. It’s fascinating to me to look at the background of a country. I’m working on a novel now that had me look up the history of Demre, Turkey, Vikings and ancient religions. What a hoot!

Of course, I loved going to the library and doing research when I was in school too. There’s something very restful about being in a library. Now of course, I can do my investigating from my computer desk with a cup of tea in hand. And, get more information. We’re no longer limited to what’s on the shelves at our local library. The bad part is the ease of research now means that it’s easy to get distracted by the linked information. I often have to remember what I’m actually looking for and get back on track.

So how do you research?

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly thirty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com! Up next: Jean Schara!

How I did in August and September’s Goals

Posted on September 2, 2013 by conniejean

Goal setting helps me keep on track with my writing. I established monthly goals in January and I try to report back to you all every month, just to keep myself honest. So here’s how it went.

August

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

I did well, all four were done and posted on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.wordpress.com

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

Also completed, though I did miss August’s Merry-Go-Round Blog tour post on the 18th.

– Participate in August Camp NaNo

There was no August Camp NaNo. It was held in July and I did participate and win.

– Begin revising short stories

Did revise two. Dogs and Cats (see below in August’s Other Stuff, and The Reunion, and submitted that to the Southwest Authors contest. I’ll find out late September or October how I did with that.

– Submit TriPoint to publishers or self-publish

I’m still revising it. Changed the station’s (and series!) name to Gulliver Station. The manuscript I’m working on, Hard Choices, (turns out to be the third book in the series) was drafted last November. I had to take time and work out all the science and make drawings of each level of the station. It’s hard being a space station designer. To make it more difficult, all the measurements in the station are in metric. Ugh, math has never been my strong suite. However, now that all of that is finished, the other 3 books will be easier. Two are already drafted and the last one will be drafted in November.

-Other stuff

1. Did a class called Mugging the Muse by Holly Lisle, https://howtothinksideways.com/, and learned a lot about myself and how to write better. If you’re a new writer or an experienced author, check out her courses. Some are even free!

2. Submitted a short story, Dogs and Cats, to the Forward Motion site, http://www.fmwriters.com/zoomfm/, for their 2013 Anthology, Cats Eyes. The story was accepted!

3. My story, Just Add Copper, was submitted to the How To Think Sideways Anthology, The Adventure of Creation, and accepted back in June. The anthology was published in mid-August. Some great short stories in various genre’s by some great authors. http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Creation-Foreword-Sideways-Anthology/dp/3956810007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378051491&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Adventure+of+Creation

September

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue to revise short stories

– Pull together an anthology of scary stories to release late September or early October for Halloween (This means revise all of the scary stories I already have, write more if needed, create a book cover, and format the book on both CreateSpace and Smashwords. Let’s see if I can get that all done!)

– Begin outline for November NaNo

I’ve got a lot to do, so I’d better stop talking about it and get on with it.

Just a reminder, my latest book, Recall, is on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Recall-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1484886224/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375657368&sr=1-2

Flash Fiction Friday: Not a Normal Evening

Posted on August 23, 2013 by conniejean

My son-in-law posted this in raw form on his facebook page. He was kind enough to let me borrow it. I’ve cleaned it up a bit, tightened the wording, and made it exactly 100 words long, yep, a drabble. Enjoy.

Not A Normal Evening

I was talking with my neighbor, Dan, about the price of bottled cat urine in Croatia, when a Wookie burst through the wall of my apartment and demanded all of my post-it notes. Not the small ones either, the regular size ones. Dan began to hyperventilate. He’s never been one to deal well with unexpected alien arrivals. I gave the Wookie the two pads in my possession. He wasn’t very happy, of course, but he left without doing much more damage. I poured Dan a shot of whisky and started calling emergency handymen. That wall wasn’t going to fix itself.

The End

100 Words

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: Communities

Posted on July 18, 2013 by conniejean

Communities are all around us. We live in a set of communities, our family, our neighborhood, our job. These communities define our daily, physical lives. They form the framework for how we move about, how we spend our time, and even how we feel about ourselves.

Other communities are less obvious, a little less physical. There’s the community of books. I joined that community when I was in the third grade. I remember reading everything on the shelves of my classroom library. When I was twelve, I discovered the school library. I read and read and read. That community shaped my thoughts, my ideas about what the world was like outside of my home and immediate family. It allowed me to think that there was more to life than going to work and coming home to the drudgery of kids and housework.

As an adult and a writer, I have the on-line writer communities to help me learn, to socialize in, to commiserate with. I belong to two and they help me in ways that have rocketed me from my initial foray into writing to being confident enough to self-publish and to submit my stories to contests and magazines and even a couple of anthologies.

My first community is the Forward Motion group. I am so glad I followed JA Marlow’s suggestion to visit that site. It’s a goldmine of information and support. The second group is less formally organized, a Facebook group of writers helping each other, giving moral support. Both groups are scattered over the entire planet. Really, how cool is that! And unlike the old days, when writers seldom had other writers to talk to, or when they did, they corresponded by letter, we now have instant access to fellow writers.

I love being able to get on-line when I’m stuck on a grammar issue, and getting an instant answer. It’s wonderful to share a snippet of my current writing and get instant feedback on how the piece reads or sounds.

How about you? What communities are you involved in?

Cover Reveal for The Adventure of Creation, an Anthology

Posted on July 2, 2013 by conniejean

In January 2013, the moderators of Holly’s Forum (that’s us), approached her with the idea of an anthology. With the 5th anniversary of “How to Think Sideways” drawing nearer, it seemed a good idea to match the release date with the anniversary. Holly agreed to the idea and even added a monetary price for the top stories. After a very, very difficult selection process, we settled on thirty-five stories. It’s a pity that we couldn’t take them all. The scores were so close. we had lengthy discussions and finally went five stories over the 30 story limit we had planned.

With the stories selected and in Holly’s hands to pick a winner, we are proudly presenting to you:

The Adventure of Creation

The Think Sideways Anthology #1 presented by Holly Lisle

35 marvelous short stories by gifted new writers

Follow a girl to the Below-World to slay the Sharkshadow, or help a timid girl to overcome the destructive criticism of her art teacher. Witness a solitary drone on Mars or a naive homunculus struggle to become human. Sew with a mother who lost her daughter in a quilt, defeat super-villains in a bank robbery with an unlikely superhero, or join a great mage in the fire.

In thirty-five imaginative stories, emerging authors present the diversity of their creativity. Each author found a different angle for the unifying theme: The Adventure of Creation. Witness the talent nurtured by writing teacher, Holly Lisle. For the 5th anniversary of her first big writing course, How to Think Sideways, this anthology features the best of her talented students in a great variety of genres.

The eBook and print book will be released on the 24th of July. Help us spread the word. If the anthology is successful, we might do another one next year.

I’m one of the lucky 35 so get ready, it’s going to be a fabulous book!

Promotion for my new book, Recall. Free for Limited time!

Posted on July 1, 2013 by conniejean

Running a promotion of my book, Recall, on Smashwords. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320233. Here’s the coupon code for a FREE copy! ND79A (not case-sensitive)

Flash Fiction Friday: A Chapter from Recall

Posted on June 21, 2013 by conniejean

I wrote a new flash fiction for today’s post but made other plans for it. For those of you following this blog, you may need an explanation. I post these stories every Friday for your enjoyment. They are mostly writing exercises for me. I like to fool around with Point of View, or a new genre, for example Westerns or Ghost Stories, in addition to my favorite SciFi.

The problem is, if I post them here, they’re considered published. What’s that mean? It means that if I like a story and want to submit it to a print or e-magazine, it’s already been published. First publishing rights, is the official term. That means, they don’t want the story, won’t pay me anything for it.

Normally, not a problem. But the story I wrote for today is one I feel pretty good about. I want to get paid for writing it. So, no story. I’m having a number of other people critique it so I can polish it up and submit it to a magazine or e-zine.

But I hate leaving you all, who have been so kind as to follow my blog, story-less. Therefore, I’ve found a Chapter of my recently released book, Recall, that’s under 1000 words, to share with you.

If you’re intrigued with the chapter I’m posting, you can find the whole book both print and e-book, on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Recall-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1484886224/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371780926&sr=1-2) or on Smashwords.com (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320233). If you get the book and like it, a review would be nice.

Enjoy!

Chapter Sixteen

Dr. Jim Abernathy was in his office going over monthly budget reports. Ha, Alan’s team is under budget again this month. I don’t know why the other teams can’t do that. He initialed the bottom of the last page and dropped it in his out box. He looked up at a knock on his door.

His secretary Mrs. Townes opened the door. “Mr. Parker to see you sir.”

“Show him in.”

He put down his pen as Dwayne Parker came through the door. Dwayne was an ex-special forces officer. He wasn’t a huge man but if you looked, you could see he moved with cat-like grace and an economy of motion. As Bioline’s Director of Security, he was all business.

“Is there a problem, Dwayne?”

“A small one Dr. Abernathy. The computer security team has noticed a significant number of searches on the company and its records. We get those occasionally as people search the company on the web for employment info, drug information and so on. This particular batch of searches is by a local reporter.”

Abernathy sat back in his chair. “So? Maybe he’s doing research for a story about us.”

Dwayne nodded. “Could be. But he’s got a reputation for taking down companies and politicians who are dirty. Could be he’s writing an expose. He’s searching for dirt, the computer guys can tell by the keywords he’s searching on.”

Dwayne stood in front of Abernathy’s desk at parade rest while Abernathy thought.

“What’s he found so far?”

Dwayne pulled the folder he carried around in front of him and opened it. “He’s searched you, Dr. Briggs, the company financials, and previous problems the company has had with the FDA so far.” He closed the folder and went back to a parade rest position this time with his hands clasped in front of him.

Abernathy picked up his pen and turned it end over end on his desk. “Any other searches?”

Dwayne didn’t have to look again, “Information on Dr. Sparks.”

“Hmm, Dr. Sparks again.” He put his pen down. “Have the computer boys set up a false file on LeanderAll. I’ll send them the data to put in it.”

“Yes sir.”

“Oh, and set up a false file on Dr. Sparks. I’ll have some data for that one too.”

“Yes sir.” Dwayne nearly came to attention, turned and left the office.

Abernathy hit the intercom button for Mrs. Townes.

“Yes, Dr. Abernathy?”

“Get me the electronic files on Dr. Sparks and the files we submitted to the FDA on LeanderAll.”

“Yes sir. Is this urgent?

“Yes, as soon as possible.”

Angela was in her apartment on her computer. Since her job had cut her hours to just three days a week, she had plenty of time to work on her new project. She had the jewelry her mother recovered from Elaine’s apartment sitting next to the monitor. It glittered in the sunlight coming through the window. She couldn’t resist reaching out and letting the pieces run through her fingers, sending sharp flashes of light all over the living room.

She put them down and turned back to her computer screen. She dropped the dating sites and was now signing Elaine up on Escort sites. “She thinks she’s so smart, calling all of those magazines and dating sites and getting her name removed. This is better. She’ll be getting phone calls all day and night.”

“There,” she finished putting in Elaine’s statistics, “now I just need a picture.” She pulled up Photoshop and started modifying an old picture of Elaine she’d pulled out of her scrapbook. She and Elaine were at the beach, one of the few times they got together while they were still in college. Elaine was in a two piece suit, and Angela had caught her looking out over the water. Angela had called her name and snapped the picture just as she turned to face her. The sunlight had been good to her in that picture, she looked beautiful.

She loaded the picture into an electronic file and pulled it into Photoshop. She enhanced Elaine’s breasts, cleaned up the picture and uploaded it onto the Escort site. “There, let her get out of that one.” She laughed as she hit the save button; then went to the next Escort site.

Words: 718

Find more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here:http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour: Writing Characters

Posted on June 18, 2013 by conniejean

Characters.

I think this is one of the hardest things to master as a writer. I want to write a Beowolf, Jack Ryan or Pyanfar Chanur. Instead I get half dimensional talking-heads, mouthing platitudes and engaging in dull conversation. I write characters that make a Mr. Milktoast look like Superman.

I’ve just started reading the Janet Evanovich series about Stephanie Plum. I can’t wait to get to the next book. Stephanie Plum and her supporting cast of characters are real, and I want to find out what trouble they get into next. Shoot, I want to move to New Jersey to meet her.

I want to write great characters like that; real people who my reader can’t get enough of. Characters that can carry my novel from start to finish and aren’t ever, ever boring. I’ve got a long way to go. Sometimes, I actually write a scene where my character’s personality shines through. The character, for just an instant, is real. I can’t wait until I can do that with the same skill as Tom Clancy, C.J. Cherryh or Janet Evanovich.

ConniesRandomThoughts

Thoughts and Activities About My Writing

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