Tag Archives: WIP

Another one off to the Publisher

Yup, you read that right, I’ve sent off another book to Evernight for consideration for publication. This would be book 4 of the C&M Security series. Amidst some not so minor heart palpitations, and mild hyperventilating I managed to hit the “send” button on the email. And away it went. Good gawd it doesn’t get any easier.

 

Success!

But, it’s off and in their hands now. Which means it’s all a waiting game of thumb twiddling, and inbox stalking. Not that I do that, the thumb twiddling I mean. Too much to try and get out of my head, and into a document after all. As soon as one is done, it’s onto the next in line. In this case it’s book 5 which will start out practically at the end of the story before I very drastically rewind to give the readers all of the details as to how the characters ended up there. It’s a different structure from the other books, but I like that about this series. Mixing up how I go about revealing the bad guy, how I tell the story the characters have to share, and how I end up getting everyone out of whatever mess they have found themselves in.

Though I will admit it occasionally makes my head ache. I’ve found myself in the proverbial corner a couple of times in the four books so far, and had to backtrack to figure out how to get out of said corner, or had to do a bit of rewriting to ensure it all worked out as planned. Not that I really “plan”. I mean, I have an idea of what I’m going to write, have a clue where the story is going, and even know who the bad guy is. But the characters are the ones that really drive the story. They tell me if I need to go left, or right, and what’s coming next. They are also the ones that usually get me stuck in that damned proverbial corner then abandon me to go off and do whatever it is that characters do while their author is pulling out her hair.

I think that’s it, I’m off now to get working on book 5. I can already hear the incessant chatter of that set of characters. Until next time ~ Moira

Need more coffee…

Ugh!

Yup, that pretty much covers my feelings on this day so far. If it’s not one thing it’s another. I swear, my brain is like a narcoleptic hamster on an acid trip that’s stuck clinging to his wheel as it spins madly out of control. Think on that one a while, it’s not a pretty vision. What this all boils down to is a lack of any form of concentration on my WIP. Not a good thing. Need to get this puppy put to bed so I can get rolling on the next one that is already harping on the brain. Thankfully with that deranged hamster in control it’s a pretty low drone of harping, way-way in the distance of my head. For the moment.

It’s when it finally manages to get past the off-his-rocker hamster that I need to truly concern myself with. Don’t need that kind of pressure riding me, from myself no less, to finish my book. Nope, totally not required, needed, nor wanted. With that in mind I intend to caffeinate myself a little more and get to work.

As long as I’m not vibrating too hard of course. It is incredibly difficult to type when your body is vibrating out of control. Though I do find it leads to some funny out takes of what a scene could be with one misplaced word. One word – all it takes to change a scene if it’s the “right” word in a key moment of the scene.

But that’s an entirely different story for maybe another day. Maybe. Right now I’m off to refill the mug, focus with laser guided accuracy on my WIP and get to work! At least that’s the plan. Though I know better than to plan too much, too far along the way. I always end up derailing myself with something… OH! SHINY! As I was saying, best not to get too far ahead. Coffee, writing, all other things of distraction are on the back burner.

Okay… I’m going in. Have a great Sunday folks! ~ Moira

Twists and turns

tumblr_mvjt2oIiZB1r87au9o1_500Hey, it’s Thursday! Which means tomorrow is Friday – thank you, oh thank you! Holy crap has this been a week. It may have been short, but I seriously don’t think it could have been any more mucked up. I am of course referring to my evil “day job”. Really need to win a lotto or find out one of those spam emails about my wealthy relative leaving me everything is real. Sadly, no wealthy relatives that I know of. Some reasonably well off ones, but none like I’d need to ensure I could write full time. *Sighs*

Oh well, onto much happier news. Been working on book four if C&M Security, and I have to say, it’s coming along nicely. I’ve gotten my characters to finally, FINALLY, admit to one another how they actually feel for one another. Little shits have kept dancing around it. While I’m sure it will read great, it’s been a bit of a guessing game for me as the author. I had to wait until the absolute perfect moment so there was a little more build up, and a bit heavier on the tension between them.

Got over that hurdle though so now it’s relatively smooth sailing to the ending. Which I mostly have figured out, though I may need to tweak it a bit here and there as I go. This of course all completely depends on my characters behaving and toeing the line. Yeah, I don’t really see that happening either. They damn well have their own minds about how this book is being written. I’ve had to work myself around a couple of their “additions” already. Good gods who knows what the hell is coming next.

So with that said, I’m off to face my characters and see what they’ve come up with to drive me batty tonight. Have a great one everybody, and remember – tomorrow’s FRIDAY! ~ Moira

Fabulous Friday

There are so many reasons why it’s so much more fabulous than any other Friday of late. First and foremost, it’s obviously Friday which brings the logical and foregone conclusion that a weekend follows promptly, which is true. The added bonuses were:

  • The boss let us go early – big YAY!
  • This led to me getting all my chores done before dinner time
  • It was take-out night, which meant no dishes and very little clean-up (I only do it twice a month so it’s a treat – the rest of the time I cook my meals for the coming week)

Now that I’ve got all that out of the way I get to fully enjoy my three day weekend. Yup, you read that right, we have a long weekend. Thank gawd! I needed one so badly. Plus the creative juices are chugging along so I fully intend to put them to use and get some more of C&M 4 done, if not fully complete the story. Still have a ways to go on it, but with three days I can dedicate most of my waking hours -not including coffee intake, meals, bathroom breaks and the occasional run out of the house to do other things- to getting it a hell of a lot closer to being completed.

Have a great weekend, long or not ~ Moira

A toasty Tuesday

Came home feeling a little wilted around the edges today. Not all of which had to do with the lovely heat we’re currently getting – yay summer! Work was more than a little bleh! today. Some peoples children should never have been set lose on the world at large – at least not without warning labels tattooed across their foreheads in big block letters. Something along the lines of “I’m an idiot, and everything out of my mouth will make you curse the fact you got of bed today” would do nicely. After all, forewarned is forearmed damn it.

Maybe it’s just me and my particular job. Look, I know that not everyone knows what I do about it. Hell, I don’t even know everything about it – but I have people around me with plenty more experience upon which I can draw from. And I do, draw upon their experience, after all – that’s why they are there. Mostly. Sort of. Actually I think they are there to do other work but if I find them standing around looking lost I’m damn well going to use them for all I can get until they run away screaming. But that’s a different issue and we won’t be going there tonight.

Damn, where was I? Oh, right, all melting and getting home. So! I get home, get in my comfy clothing, grab a nice cold drink and then get online to see what’s been happening while I’ve been toiling in the mines during the day. So many good things, including a new blog post from one of my “friends” on Facebook. She is an author, quite well known in certain circles, and she is wise beyond her years. I love her view on things and the fact that she tells it like it is. Best way to recover from a blah day in the salt mines is to read anything she’s written. Now, I shall admit *hangs head in shame* I’ve not actually read any of her books. BUT! She is on my TBR list – a couple of her books actually are sitting there patiently awaiting me to get to them. I swear I will get to them so I can lift my head up proudly once more. But it will have to wait, cause it ain’t happening tonight LOL!

I’m off to do some writing and finish up watching my movie. Hope you all have a great night ~ Moira

Just relaxing

Not sure what all I plan to get up to today. Relaxing is at the top of my “to do” list for sure.

I do plan on doing some writing, C&M 4 is still in the works with the crescendo scene quickly approaching. It’s one of the few books of this series that won’t have an immediate bad guy being shown for the readers to get behind. This bad guy’s totally hidden, and will remain so until… Well, I can’t tell you that because that would just ruin the surprise. Which if the characters play along as they should, should be pretty fucking amazing. Course, they do seem to have a mind of their own, so we’ll have to wait and see if they are willing to continue playing ball or not.

Other than a little bit of shopping for me, my b-day gift to myself, I have no other major plans outside of reading a couple of new books that I have awaiting me in my Kindle. Today though will be pure laziness. Lots of movie watching, lots of chocolate eating and some writing. Beyond that I plan on doing nothing strenuous. Though I think I may need to go and beef up my chocolate supply. Only downside to living alone, you can’t blame anyone else for eating your chocolate stash lol!

Well, that’s it folks. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. From a sunny Calgary, hope you all have a marvellous day ~ Moira

Getting things accomplished

Since being under the weather I hadn’t really gotten a lot done. A couple bursts of energy though definitely came through at the right time.

The first being yesterday to let me get a whack more writing done on C&M book 4. I’d gotten to a point where I feared I might have written myself into the proverbial corner. But, along with that burst of energy came some inspiration and a plot twist to explain everything, as well as keep me from backing into that corner. Got a good 7k words down yesterday before the brain called it quits and ordered me off to bed.

In other news, the first round of edits came in from Evernight. Bad news was I was in no condition to even look at them until today. Great new was that I have the fantastic Laurie Temple for my editor once again. This woman has seen me through both my previous books, keeping me and my characters in line. Couldn’t ask for a better editor.

Got all the edits done with the second wonderful burst of energy, and a lot of coffee to keep it going. Downside to that is I’m now buzzing around on caffeine so I think I’ll do some writing and burn it up while I have it.

Dangerous Secrets, C&M Security book 2 will be out sometime in July I believe. No date yet set but I will announce it as soon as I know when it will be releasing. Until then I am off to write, write, and write some more before I have to face going to work tomorrow.

10527366_284094728443222_7015729994854315924_nOh! Before I forget, just remember there is only a little over one day left to purchase a book from the Evernight and Evernight Teen sites where the book cover price, in full, will be donated to World Vision’s Education for Girls Fund. Any and all books are included in this amazing fundraiser by the Evernight team. But it must be purchased from their sites directly to count toward the grand total.

So have a lovely evening everyone ~ Moira

Summer has arrived

With a vengeance. It’s wonderful really. After a horridly cold winter, and then an indecisive spring, it’s nice to be warm again. It won’t last sadly, but while it does I’m enjoying every second. We’ve even gotten a bit of rain some of the evenings which makes sleeping so wonderfully comfortable. I love when it rains at night, so much more than when it does it the instant I leave work.

I’ve been working on book 4 of C&M Security. No title yet, but I never decide that until the very end, or close to anyway. I’m not one of those people that just knows what the name will be. Sometimes it’ll come to me at an important spot of the story. Usually not though, lol! The writing is going pretty well, it’s a slightly different story from the others. It’s still got trouble in it, it’s still got C&M in it, and it will also be introducing a character that will have a major role in the next book of the series. Haven’t figured where I’m bringing in said character, but I know it will be soon…ish.

Other than that I’ve had a few ideas on a couple other stories I’ve been puttering on. One’s a standalone, the other is a paranormal that I’m still trying to figure out the “rules” of since it’s not of an earthly nature. Trying to figure out how their world works, and all that fun stuff. Then there’s this other potential story that is circling, no clue what it is, but the beginning just keeps circling in my head over, and over, and over, and over again.

On that thought, I’m off to jot this beginning down so maybe I can purge it. Until another day ~ Moira

I’m all giddy!

Just got word, AND signed the contract for book 3 of the C&M Security series. Tentatively titled Dangerous Lines I’m all bouncy and grinning like a goof. Which could be considered a little weird since I live alone, but on the plus side, I live alone so there’s no one here to say anything. I even got the Cover & Blurb thing back to them – I’m like super efficient or something today. At least in terms of my writing lol!

Work on the other hand was barely controlled chaos all day long. For those who haven’t been on my Facebook page and seen where I live, I live in Calgary, Alberta Canada. This is important because it’s the time of year when the city goes crazy for the Calgary Stampede. Basically it all boils down to a ten day period where everyone is a cowboy/girl. This includes business men, house wives and every single, damn tourist that comes to town. Yeah, it’s great it’s such a big thing, people come from all over the world. But, really, could they not accept the Canadian way and be semi-polite while jostling for space on the side walks. There’s room enough for everyone, I swear!

In other news, I’ve been working on C&M 4. Not as dedicatedly as I’d like but, m’eh, I’ll get there. Still looking for the “groove” I need to hit where it just flows… That and I’m still not 100% sure what this one’s about. Working on “feeling” out my characters in this book. Both of which were introduced in book 3 by-the-by. The main male had a bit, but very important role in book 3. The main female was in there a bit more though you really won’t get to see what her role in help book 3’s lead characters was until book 4. Figured it was a good tie in doing it a bit backwards.

Not sure how my editor will feel about it all – hopeful she doesn’t smack my fingers overly hard. LOL! Well, methinks that be it for the night. I have writing and plotting to do, so be good everyone. From a slightly overcast Canadian city hosting “The Biggest Outdoor Show on Earth”, I bid you good evening ~ Moira

Day four of a four day weekend

First off, to all my fellow Canucks…

happy-canada-day-facebook-timeline-covers1

Well, this is the last day of my four day weekend – which is so depressing. I quite enjoy this long weekend stuff, I really like it and I’m damn productive too! But it sadly means that I have to go back to the evil “day job”. After finishing and submitting C&M 3 yesterday, tentatively titled “Dangerous Lines”, I started to work on book 4. Actually got a good start to it, not a lot – it was pretty damn late last night – so I wasn’t expecting to get a lot done.

The foundation is there though I still need to figure out how to take it from the tie in of the start deeper into the story. This one will be a slight shift, a different look into the C&M Security I’ve set-up already. While it’s not a departure by any means, it will be a little different take – I hope. LOL! So hard to tell at this point since I’m waiting on the characters to throw in with their ideas on how this will all go. Yes, I’m one of “those” writers. I have no issue allowing my characters to drive my writing bus. Though I do hang onto the map and at least try to play navigator so we don’t end up doing a swan dive into a gorge.

This book will also be stretching my knowledge a little. I’m by no means an expert in anything I write about. This one may need me to reach out to a few folks that are more knowledgeable than I could ever dream of being. Not sure yet, as it all depends on how the characters pull me along. We shall just have to see.

Anyway, I think that covers everything so far today. I need more coffee and then I have a bunch of projects to get working on. So I’m off, have a great day, especially my fellow Canadians. At least at this end of the country it’s turning out to be a beautiful, sunny day. HAPPY CANADA DAY! ~ Moira