Last night marked the completion of another milestone.  This one perhaps the 2nd most important one to date (with #1 being the decision to actually begin writing a book).

I am proud to say that as of 9:30-ish pm last night, I completed the draft of my Urban Fantasy novel!!  This is doubly big because this is also my 1st completed draft, AND I finished it in about 5 weeks.

(Yes, I’ve been working on my Contemporary Romance since August 2008 and it’s not done yet. I know, I know. It’s coming, trust me.) 

And before I go on any longer, just let me make it clear that this is my ROUGH DRAFT that I’ve completed. It has a long way to go before it’s decent enough to see the light of day. But rough or not, that puppy’s donzo!

By rough, I mean rough.  There’s no real character development, no internal GMC’s to be seen, no subplots, & no backstory & history integration. Just a pure execution of the story goal, which in this case is the rescue of a mentor. 

I wrote this story with some plotting items in place (mostly wordbuilding pieces & my main characters’ external goals), but largely I flew by the seat of my pants.  And while I’ll probably ended up tossing out half of what I wrote this time around, I did discover quite a few hidden gems along the way. Things I never would have dreamed of including in my plot outline initially.  I discovered a handful of important characters I’d never met before, stumbled across some juicy subplots sure to blow the lid off of a few characters’ minds, and got wind of a couple of  dark secrets just waiting to be uncovered.

Muah haha <–(evil laughter as I rub my hands together)

I can’t wait to dive into this story properly and start creating & weaving threads together. If you read my last post, you’re aware that my main goal these last two week (via the Savvy Author’s scrimmage challenge) was for me to complete a rough draft of this story for use in my upcoming mentorship program with Lori Wilde.  I’m still nervous about this undertaking, but I feel much better now that I have a solid idea to work with.

Artwork: “Celebration” by Keith Mallet

It’s been a whirlwind of activity in the world of writing so far for me in 2010. I’ve written a total of 79,612 words (between 2 wips), placed second overall in my category in Lori Wilde’s “Drive ‘Em Wilde” contest (WOOT WOOT), AND I’ve been accepted into a year long mentorship program with Ms. Wilde.

It’s been exciting (and frantic and hectic-lol) times for me indeed, but I know it is really just beginning. As I type this, I remain about 3 scenes away from my very first completed draft. I am shooting to be done with it by this Saturday, which leaves me a full 2.5 days to knock it all out. Trust me when I say this is a rough draft in the TRUEST sense of the word, but it will be my first completed manuscript.

If I stay on target, I’ll have about a week to fully flush out my main characters (very important), finish the basics of my worldbuilding, and get firm up my overall plot a bit better. Since I am using this story as my project during the mentorship, I really need to have these pieces in place before I spend the next year crafting this story into something I’m proud of that I can shop around.

And outside of the upcoming mentorship program, I have 3 upcoming retreats (one I’m co-chair of and the other I’m speaking at) and 3 workshops on my plate.  YES, 6 events!  I’m crazy, I know… But in my defense, they all sounded like great ideas at the time.    

So I’ve got big, big plans for myself during the next 12 months.  As long as I can get through the next 3, I should be aight.

So, got the final standings of the contest I finaled in yesterday and I got 2nd place overall in my catgory.

WOOT!!!!

Final listings here.  Yes, that is my name in the 2nd place slot for Contempoary. 

Ok, off to enjoy my celebratory bowl of chocolate pudding and to get my butt in the chair and hands on keyboard (BICHOK).  As it was pointed out to me, now I need to get this puppy finished, polished and submitted.

I’m doing the happy dance right now y’all. Just got word this morning that I finaled in the Drive ‘Em Wilde contest sponsored by Savvy Authors.

WOOT!!!!

There were 87 total entrants and I ended up a finalist with the 2nd highest score in my category! I am a bit of a spazz head right now

So now my entry goes to the final judge, Angela James with Carina Press (woot!), for a final judging.  Ms. James will then pick the overall category winner.

The official notification is here. WOOT WOOT!!!

And yes, I did just make up the word Poetress. Don’t hate me for my fierceness.

I don’t consider myself a poetic at all, but I have been known to pen one or two from time to time.  So, I’ve been attending the only symposium at Savvy Authors this week and came across a writing challenge.  It seemed like fun, so I went for it. The challenge was to select a poem, then close your eyes and pick a line.  Whatever line you selected had to be the first line of the new poem you wrote.

So, I dug out one of two poetry books I own (No really, I had to dig through a box to find it)  Erotique Noire/Black Erotic and I chose Discoveries by Gloria Wade-Gayles

**Warning** There is some language in this one, apparently I was feeling all militant when I wrote it.

I kept it covered with
long flowing dresses and skirts,
with scarves and veils

I kept it covered with
your oppressive, sexist bullshit philosophies,
with your lewd and salacious stares
But fuck you!
My sensuality is mine and mine alone to claim
mine alone to explore…

I keep it covered with
my ideas and intuition
with my own dreams and fantasies

Oh, and tattoos
lots and lots of tattoos

*snap snap snap* <–Yes, I snapped for myself

You know, doing this challenge really got the creative juices flowing, so I went into the vault to dig up some of my older stuff.   I only found two pieces. ~blank stare~  (Guess they we’re up to snuff so I didn’t bother keeping them.  Told ya’ I wasn’t a poet-lol.)

Of the two I found, one is forever lost as I cannot remember the darn password I put on it.  Ahh, but the one I did find… Wow, just let me preference this by saying, I was trying to be sexy.

Here goes:

You asked, “Where do you miss me?”
My response, “Everywhere.”

From the top of my head, to the bottom of my feet, and all the places in between.

My ears miss your smooth, moist tongue playing with them
My neck misses your long, soft kisses; you know the ones that make me come undone
My breasts miss the pleasure-and the pain- you bring
My friend misses the way your tongue caresses her, bringing her to climax,
causing her to rain down her satisfaction
She also misses your friend, the muscular one that strokes her the way she
likes to be stroked; bringing her to climax again, and again, and again
My feet miss the pleasure and contentment that you create, your touch brings so much gratification and desire

My legs miss the sensation of feeling drained and weak after a session with you
My fingers miss the attention you pay to them
The insides of my arms miss your kisses
My body misses being wrapped up in your arms….

I feel so safe and secure there

I miss you everywhere

Ok, that’s if for my poetry vault, as it were.  But this was fun, as well as a great way for me to get some free writing out of the way before tackling my wip for the day.

Don’t be shy, post your responses to my poetic attempts.  Better yet, post some of your poems in the comment section below.  Randomly choose a line or poetry, or song lyric, and have at it.