Going Underground!

While neglecting my writing during this holiday season, I went on an adventure in Seattle this past week, along with my visiting niece and her boyfriend. Of course, being the paranormal writer that I am, Seattle’s haunted underground sucked us under the city’s streets.

It was all very interesting, but we saw no ghosts, and that was very disappointing. I took lots of digital pictures, which are supposed to be able to pick up spiritual essences, but none showed their presences to me. One showed its smiling face to me, but it was actually my niece behind an old window!

But the ghosts have not lost a believer! They were all probably too shy to make an appearance because it was in the middle of the day and there was a whole tour group there at the same time as I was; too much disbelief energy going on. But Hey! All was not lost! I got a shot of a beautiful Christmas star that is posted here on my site!

I’m always on the hunt! Those from other dimensions continue to populate my stories! And my visit to the Haunted Castle is coming up next month!

And speaking of Manresa Castle, my company visited there on a little self-guided tour of the state and got a picture of one! They got the picture of it in the doorway to a room and it followed them outside where they snapped another picture of it! (Personally, I believe the “ghost” they got a picture of was her boyfriend.) LOL!

You can Believe It, Or Not!! And that is your question of the day! Are you a believer of ghostly phenomena like I am?!



Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TOO!

My RWA chapter, Olympia Romance Writers of America, engaged in our annual holiday luncheon at a local Seafood Restaurant on Saturday the 11th. I’m proud of myself (and you can be too) :) that I did not overeat as I usually do at our luncheons. The Salmon at the place we meet is just TOO GOOD!

Then when I got home from church on Sunday, Santa had arrived EARLY!! I was in a back room and my boyfriend carried in an LCD TV that he said Santa had left out on my porch!!

A cork board for arranging my nano scenes also showed up over last weekend and so now my novel is coming together! (Let me tell you, my nano novel’s scenes were all over the place!) I’m more of a “hands-on” person than a “tech-type” person so doing it with computer software is NOT the option I choose!

But it’s okay that my novel was scattered about! :) That’s the glory of going all out and writing a 50,000 word novel in a month! The writer’s creativity is released and FREE TO FLOW for a month of random writing! Then the next month comes when you get to put it all together in a logical format. LOL! Works for ME!

Among writers there are what’s known as Pansters (those who write by the seat of their pants) and Plotters (those who plot it all out and write a synopsis BEFORE they begin to write); I’ve learned that I’m a Patchworker (those who like to write it randomly and then patch it all back together again) LOL!!

So tell me, has Santa made an early appearance at your home too?!?! And for my writing buddies out there, how does the philosophy of National Novel Writing Month work for you?!

JH

Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

There it is!

My award for winning the 2010 NaNoWriMo has been received and is now in place in the Awards section on my BlogSpot!

Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Nano Done and Won!

I’ve won the nano again this year! I hit the 50,000 word mark at 7:29 on the morning of November 23. It was my self-imposed deadline of getting it written by the time my son arrived home on his leave, between the stations that I wrote about in my last blog, that did it.
The words just flew out as my characters told their story to me! I had originally planned that if I wrote ten pages a day (2500 words) that I would be able to do it without a problem. But as I found the due date approaching and my novel’s story being fed to my fingers while they typed, I found that I was typing 1000 words each time I sat down to write between doing household chores and holiday stuff. I also sat down to write more than two to three times a day, which made for FAR more than the planned 2500 words a day! It was a cinch!
This year’s award will be posted below and on the right, beside last year’s award, as soon as I receive it! YAY for ME!



Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for if we stop to think about it. That you are reading this is a reason to be thankful – you have eyes to see with!
One of my military boys (Air Force) is home from his air base in England to visit.  But he’ll be leaving on December 1st for a new base in Greenland. Greenland!! That’s like in another world!! But he’ll only be there for a year until he comes home to visit again and then he’ll be off to another new air base in Spain. Spain might not really be closer, but it certainly seems a lot closer than Greenland!
But I digress. I wish Everybody a Happy Thanksgiving!


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

A New Library!

A new library is opening here where I live in Washington State! The library that was here when I first moved in was in a newer and more contemporary building, and was a pleasure to visit. I liked it so much that I arranged for the Tacoma, Washington chapter RWA to hold meetings there in one of the library’s nice clean new rooms.
Since then the city has chosen to tear it and the other buildings in the area down to make room for more civic and other city office buildings, and they have replaced the “old” library with a new library! It’s in a very large, very modern building now and has 15,000 square feet, which is 3,000 square feet larger than the original library.
Other than the 80,000 books our new library will have; it will have diverse areas with something for everybody! There is going to be a children’s area, a teen area, cyber bars, and other high tech offerings. Just think of all the research! The building’s Grand Opening will be in February 2011 and I can’t wait to check it out!!


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

More ACCOMPLISHMENT!!

I’ve almost gotten so involved with my nano novel this month that I very nearly neglected to get this written and posted for you!

As I mentioned before, I did BIAM last month with my Modoc story, and I’m cruising right alone on the nano with my magical medieval story this month!

Wish me luck on winning again this year and getting another award to post here!


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

ACCOMPLISHMENT!!

My current work in progress is a work of historical fiction with a romantic element. Its paranormal aspect, which I love to write about, appears in the manuscript as time travel. It only needs to be critiqued, tweaked after that, and then it’s Out The Door looking for a home with some lucky agent and/or publisher! (It is with critiquers as I write this.)
I’m excited!! Finishing a work has got to be one of the most rewarding and thrilling moments of accomplishment in the whole world for Anyone, no matter what they do!
I’m going to be building a trailer for it soon after that. Trailers for each of my wips will follow in order. And of course, they will all be posted here for your enjoyment, to begin with.


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

No Ghosts. . . On Halloween?!?!

I was told last night, by a friend, that a waiter at Manresa Castle told her that the stories about the castle being haunted were made up for marketing purposes. Hmm I guess that means that I’m going to have to go ghost hunting and FIND those ghosts! I mean, they were on TV on the MOST TERRIFYING PLACES IN AMERICA, so they gotta be there somewhere! Don’t they?! LOL!

Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Tis the Season to VOTE!

HEY! I’ve added a new poll to my blog site! It’s a Bill to combat the Counterfeiting and Infringement of online materials! I hope to see some of my manuscripts there one day. VOTE!

Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Scarier Than A Ghost!!

What’s scarier than ghosts?! Missing Data; that’s what! I am working on the final chapters of my work that I plan on submitting ASAP and I was just finishing the very end of one of those chapters and POOF! It was All Gone! That was very exciting in a very scary way if you ask me!

Now, I’m not a techno wizard, and I just received an HP Mini Notebook for my birthday from my bf and it’s always doing stuff that I’m not expecting! But wiping my monitor clean of a WHOLE Chapter is a first!

Luckily for me, my bf, who IS a techno wizard (at least a good deal more than me), was sitting by my side, so he reaped the benefit of my harried few moments of anxiety. LOL! (Now I can laugh about it, but at the time …) Of course, he found it and brought it all back up on screen for me and I was able to finish up and SAVE it! He also put an icon on my machine so I can fix it if that ever happens again!

How about you? Have you ever had anything techno or otherwise happen to you that you thought was scarier than a ghost?!


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Doing the NaNo

Next month (November), I’m going to be doing the NaNo! (No, it’s not a dance.) LOL! Next month is National Novel Writing Month during which writers commit themselves to writing a fifty thousand word novel within the thirty days of the month.

I did it last year and I “won” by completing the first draft of my work in progress. Now I’m polishing it up and getting it ready for submission to an editor. That’s the way it works. You write like crazy for thirty days, giving no regard to the story’s grammatical cohesion, etc. You just write. (The rest can be fixed later.)

I’m working real hard on polishing last year’s novel, and now I’m excited about what next month’s novel will give me to work on! (Of course, I know I’ll win again.) My NaNo award is now posted in my email’s sig tag, but with the award I’ll receive next month, I’m going to start posting them here, in the AWARDS section of this page.


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

Challenges

This is kinda COOL! Today is 10-10-10! (I wonder what is forecast for today?!)

But I digress . ..

This month (October) I’ve decided to do the BIAM challenge. I’ve never done this before but it sounds like an excellent way to get my work in progress finished! Wish me luck!
How about you? Do challenges inspire you to finish projects?


Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality

This Could Not Wait!

We were unable to get one of the haunted rooms at Manresa, but we got one right acrosss the HALL! (and there's still the little girl who wanders the hallway) FUN, FUN, FUN! My bf says we should get one of those ghost hunting things where we can trap one in a box. LOL!

Romance through the mists of time and Love through the dimensions of reality