Tag Archives: writing

Status of May’s Goals

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May has been hectic to say the least. I’m not sure I even remember everything but here’s my recollection of how I did.

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

I wrote more than 4 but missed one Friday posting.

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

I updated regularly.

– May Story A Day

Finished with 12 stories, two over my goal. Not every one is a gem but I’ll set them aside and one day I may actually fix them up and publish them.

– Submit Recall to Publisher or Self-Publish

I did finish Recall and on May 27th, self published it. I designed the cover and my hubby gets credit for the photography on the cover. I’m pretty excited because I think it’s the best story I’ve written yet. It can be found for purchase on CreateSpace, Smashwords, and Amazon.com.

– Begin revision of TriPoint

I actually started my revision a couple of months ago but with the April Camp NaNo and the May Story A Day, I let it drop. I’ll pick it back up now and try and get it done in June.

Other stuff not in the plan.

1. Signed up for and completed a Holly Lisle Flash Fiction course. That generated 5 flash fiction stories for May Story a Day.

2. Entered a Holly Lisle short story contest and actually had my story, A Taste of Copper, accepted for her anthology! It will be out sometime in July.

3. Entered a Scribophile contest and was not selected as the winner but I had enough confidence in the story to enter it in the Writers of the World contest for the 3rd quarter. I won’t hear a thing until late September.

4. Today I cleared the wreckage from my computer desk, putting things away and digging out my TriPoint story to continue its revision. Now I’m ready to get serious about finishing that revision and outlining my July Camp NaNo story.  I’ve signed up on a different site, http://julnowrimo.com/ for my July efforts. Several of my Forward Motion friends love the site so I thought I’d try it out for the next book in the TriPoint series.

Here’s hoping your May was productive and your June will be a success!

Flash Fiction Friday – The Last Straw

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I’ve been taking a 3 lesson flash fiction course. It uses a different way to compose the story than I’m used to. Using the lessons, here’s a sample.

The Last Straw

I was just sinking my toes into warm, powdery sand, a cold drink being handed to me by a very fit young man when…”Ann! Are you with us?”

I jerked back to my reality, my boss glaring at me from the end of the conference room table.

“As I was saying,” he moved his glare around the table, “it’s all hands on deck. This proposal isn’t going to write itself. All vacations are hereby cancelled until after the presentations.”

My heart fell and it felt like the room went dark. I’d been planning my South Pacific beach get away for over a year. I already had my plane tickets and hotel reservations for two weeks from now. “But…,” every head in the room snapped around and every eye focused on me.

“Yes, Ann?” He looked at me as though I were an éclair, the fat slob.

“Um, what about the employees who’ve made plans?” I looked around the table for some support but no one was stepping up. “Uh, they’ve bought tickets and stuff,” I finished lamely.

He snorted, “They’ll have to get refunds.” Standing up he continued, “I’ve sent sections of the proposal to each of you. I expect your drafts on my desk in a week.”

I delivered the bad news to my team. Of course they weren’t any happier about it than I was. I felt most sorry for Ben. He was getting married next month and had booked a honeymoon in England, hiking Hadrian’s Wall. It told him we’d see what we could do closer to the date. I thought about my old college friend Mike, who worked in consulting. What a plum job.

We worked all week on our section of the proposal. At my boss’s meeting later, it turned out everything we wrote actually fit into all the other proposal sections. What a stroke of luck! Maybe I could take my vacation after all.

I spent the evenings going to my hotel’s on-line site, imagining myself on that beautiful beach.

Tuesday, I was working some few details, meshing the proposal plan to everyone else’s when  I got a call from Finance. “Hey Gary,” I said into the phone. “Our section of the proposal isn’t over-budget is it?”

“Uh, no, Ann. That’s not why I called.”

I relaxed into my chair. If it wasn’t the proposal, there wasn’t anything else in my department to worry about.

“I don’t know how to say it,” he took a deep breath. “Your bank just failed.”

A week later Ann sat her drink down in the sand next to her, adjusting the sunshade over her head. Speaking into her headset, “Yes, Michael, I’m ready to begin.” Selecting a file from her Ipod, it appeared on the screens of all the other teleconference members. “My section of the proposal is…”

470 words

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

My New Book, Recall, is now Available!

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I’ve been revising, reviewing and designing the cover for this book since January and it’s finally out!

Check it out on: Connie Cockrell’s Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/conniecockrell
Book page to sample or purchase Recall: http://smashwords.com/b/320233

or

on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Recall-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1484886224/ref=sr_1_113?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369679735&sr=1-113&keywords=Recall

If you get it, I’d appreciate a review.

Merry Go Round Blog Tour: Current Projects or Progress

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Current projects, hmmm. It’s spring so I have seedlings in a south facing window, growing and getting ready to be put out in the garden. I still have to rake up the fallen pine cones, not a chore I’m especially fond of so I keep putting it off.

Fitness is another thing. I’m trying to cut more carbs from our diet and exercise more. Sigh. Cutting the carbs isn’t too hard but the exercise thing, well, it’s not going as well as I would like.

Writing, that’s going great guns. May is the month I decided to put out the book I wrote for the August 2012 Camp NaNo. I call it Recall. It’s been edited, beta read and I’m thinking since it seems to fall in the Women’s Fiction genre, it’d make a great beach read. So I’m getting it formatted and the cover done so I can get it indie published by the end of this month.

It’s also May Story a Day Challenge month. I don’t plan on writing a story a day, I’m not that good. But I wrote 6 last year so this year I’ve set myself a goal of 10. They can be any length. I need some Flash Fictions for my blog, the rest I’d like to have longer. Something I can put together in a book and self-publish.

Then there’s this blog, and my personal blog to keep up, editing my November NaNo 2012 story: TriPoint Station: Hard Choices and developing a book cover for that. I’m still up to date on the Two Year Novel course I’m taking with Lazette Gifford. That takes some time every week too. Then there’s my volunteer work (three different organizations), hiking, bunko, oh, and I’m thinking of having a booth at the local Farmer’s Market, selling homemade candy. I’m still getting the details on legal requirements for that.

I know I’m not the only one; you all have busy lives too. What’s your progress this month?

Layers

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I’ve been thinking about layers lately.

I’m learning to use an editing/production software program called GIMP.  It’s a Photoshop type program that I’m using to design a book cover for my upcoming release of Recall.  It uses layers to make a picture. One layer on top of another until the final picture is revealed.

But that’s not what’s captured my attention. The layers I’m envisioning are of people.

We see people, generally, in a certain milieu. For example: if you know someone from work, say he or she is a project manager.  We tend to see that person only in that light. They organize meetings, they gather data on whether the project is proceeding on time, they facilitate meetings among a diverse range of technologically oriented people.  You see, of course, the penultimate project manager.

What you don’t see is the other layers. The person who gardens. A garden large enough to feed his whole family for a year. You don’t see the person who makes soap. She sells it at the local farmer’s market every Saturday. Then there’s the gourmet  chef person who haunts the farmer’s markets and grows her own food to make the most wonderous dinners imaginable.

Sometimes all of those people are one person. I personally know how to do all of those things, and more. But no one asks. Each person in your circle of project managers, soap makers, gardeners think you belong to just one group.

Here’s a hint for my writer (and yes, you others too!) friends. People aren’t one dimensional. They have other interests and hobbies. They have a life outside of the one you know. Take advantage of that! They have knowledge you need. Take a leap and cross that informational divide. You’ll be richer for it.

Planning My Time

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Plans. We all have plans. It might be; go to the store tomorrow and do the monthly grocery shopping. It might be to plan the next family trip to somewhere exotic. There are the plans we make, like the shopping that will definitely happen and those that won’t, like that exotic vacation for just you and the spouse.

I’m a retiree, so you’d think I would have a pretty free calendar. That’s what you’d think if you didn’t know me. I do quite a bit of volunteer work; I like to go out with friends.  Of course I also want to hang with the hubby. There’s exercising, gardening, taking care of the house, you know, all of the nuts and bolts of living.

But I’m also a writer. I have lots of things I want to get done: edit the last draft novel, write short stories, design book (paper and ebook) covers, blog, outline the next novel idea, indie publish said stories or novels, submit other stories/novels to magazines and publishers.  But life interferes. I have to do the other stuff, hang with spouse, garden, shower.

I love doing those other things, so I have to balance them. Tomorrow morning I go hiking, I have to call my mom about lunch time my time zone, I have a volunteer meeting tomorrow evening. Sometime in there I’m going to try and get some writing done.

I’m not doing anything different than all of you are doing. Everyone’s life is a balancing act between what has to be done and what you want to do. I try to make sure there’s time for the spouse and friends. Less time spent on dusting. Sometimes, I even get some writing done.

How do you spend your day?

How’d I do on my April Goals

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I’m a little late with this. I like to post on Monday, but this will do.  So how did I do with my April writing goals?

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

I wrote 6 and scheduled them to release on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.wordpress.com because I needed to keep my head clear for working on the April Camp NaNo. More on this in a minute.

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

Done!

– Finalize Recall if I haven’t already done so

Done. In May I need to format it (for both book and ebook) and design a cover for it.

– Outline more Short Stories

Done. They’re ready for May’s Story A Day.

Other stuff.

1. When I developed this list I didn’t know April would be a NaNo month. So, I drafted the 1st of my TriPoint Space Station series (the 3rd book was done in November 2012). There will be 4 books in this series. I may have some short stories for this station as well that may come out as a book. I have to see how it all goes.

2. I completed the April NaNo, 50,000 words! It was a tough one. I couldn’t get my head into the story.

3. Umm, that’s it. I was mainly focused on NaNo pretty much to the exclusion of everything else.

Let’s see how May turns out!

April’s Camp NaNo

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For those of you who have been following my blog I’ve mentioned National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo or NaNo, before. In April and in July, the organization offers Camp NaNo, just because we’re (writers that is) not crazy enough.

Anyway, I had this idea for a series. Stories about a fictional space station. I’ve been writing what I consider to the the first book of the series this month as part of the Camp NaNo challenge. (Writing 50,000 words in one month.) I’m not happy with my book. It seemed fine enough in outline but it’s not working. Yesterday is the first time in the 20,000 words I’ve written so far that I actually had a writing day that wasn’t a drag.

This is the first time since participating in the NaNo challenge (this is my 4th one!)  that I’ve had such a poor experience. I already know the problem. The book is boring. It’s cerebral, not much action. I’m growing as an author if I can figure that out for myself. So I’m happy in that regard. I’m going to keep writing this book, because I know it can be a compelling story. Yesterday was a good start.  I just have to keep that action and excitement going. Then in a couple of months, go into revisions with a heavy hand to improve the first half.

In the meantime, I just reissued my first book, The Bad Seed. My inexperience was obvious when I put it out. I’ve spent the last two weeks reformatting it so that it now looks more professional. It should be available on Kindle tomorrow. I’ve priced it fairly low, (the ebook) at $2.99. If you buy it, I’d appreciate a review on Amazon.com.

Oh, and happy Tax Day!

Flash Fiction Friday: Alone

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I heard this little news article about a grave discovered under the paving in a city alley. I wondered what that person would have thought about it and how it happened that a grave was just paved over. Here’s what I came up with.

Alone

Baltron Dechant was an angry man. As a mountain man he was never one to talk much anyway but today, he was a malevolent force as he stalked through the fort. He passed through the gate with his horses, one loaded with the supplies he’d need for the winter, the other saddled and ready to ride.

Leading them through the press of Indians, off-duty soldiers and wagons with everything from dry goods to women of loose morals, he tied the horses to the hitching post. He stalked over to the tent where for just a couple of coins, he could get a drink. An acquaintance, another mountain man was there, drinking with some friends. All of the mountain men had been in to sell their furs and pelts and flush with cash, were enjoying the brief respite of company.

Andre called out, “Baltron, my friend! Come have a drink with us.”

The others shouted welcome.

Baltron scowled. “I can buy my own,” and threw the money on the barrelhead. The British purveyor who owned this little concession scooped the coins up and handed Baltron a tin cup with rum in it.  Baltron drank it down, slamming the cup on the barrel.

He stalked back to his horse and mounted, riding away to the hoots of the other mountain men.

Eight months later, Andre was riding through a gap in the mountains. Spring was gone and it was time to take his furs back to the fort to sell. It was getting late in the day and time to camp. While looking for a good site, he noticed a crude shelter built under the pines.

“Ho, the camp!” he shouted.

He listened carefully, straining to hear over the horses stamping and blowing. Dismounting, he led his mount nearer the shelter. He looked around. The shelter was little more than a lean-to of pine boughs slanted against a low hanging branch. There were no horses. He called again, and now, he could hear a small moan from inside the shelter.

He tied his horses off to a nearby tree and came back to the shelter, kneeling down and looking in.  “Baltron, mon dieu! What happened?”

Inside the shelter, Baltron was lying on a bed of boughs, covered with furs. Emaciated, Baltron coughed. “Andre?” he peered into the light coming around Andre in the opening.

Andre crawled in, “Baltron, are you sick?”

“I am, and close to death. Can you build a fire so I can die in comfort?”

Andre rebuilt the shelter so that a fire to be built next to the sick man. He put a kettle of water on the fire and dropped in some jerky to make a broth. As he spooned it up to Baltron he heard the story.

“The Indians, Baltron whispered between sips. Shot me, stole the horses and most of the furs. I made it here but the wound festered. I just wanted to be alone.”

Andre shook his head. “But why Baltron? What happened at the fort?”

“My Cherie, Fleur, wrote and said she was to be married. She could not wait for me. I was angry,” he coughed again, blood coming up in his spittle.

Andre chided, “No woman is worth it, Balton. There are plenty more.”

But Baltron turned his head away. “Not for me. Now, I just want to be left alone.” He turned his head back to Andre.  “Bury me here, mon ami, where I can be alone forever.”

Andre hesitated and Baltron shot his thin hand out and weakly grasped Andre’s arm, “promise me!” his eyes full of pleading.

Reluctantly Andre agreed. Baltron nodded, and Andre covered him again.

Poor Baltron passed away in the night. So Andre buried him in the pass, making a pile of rock his grave marker.

A century later, America was growing, the automobile was king and roads were being built everywhere. A surveyor crew came through and then the bulldozers, Baltron’s grave marker long scattered by frost heave and the movement of animals.

The road went in and the grave was paved over, no one knowing it was there. A ghost is sometimes seen on the road running through the pass, especially in the spring. Late at night drivers slam on their brakes at the sight of a mountain man, hair wild and shaking his fist. Now, he’s never alone.

The End

727 Words

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