La-Tessa Montgomery

It’s that time again!

Once again, I am taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge.  And once again I got a ton of stuff going on which will make it even more of a challenge for me to “win”.  It’s not going to stop me from trying though.

However, I will not commit to daily or even weekly updates this year.  I honestly have too much going on.  But I will update when and how I can–which means a lot more Twitter NaNo updates that actual blog posts about it  .

Ok, off I go into NaNo land…. It’s 11/4/11 which means I’m already running behind.  I know, I know. Not a good way to start off things,  but I still have faith!  The weekend is upon us and I have plans on churning out some serious word count.

Sometimes the life of a writer can be tough.  It’s hard work dreaming up all these  hot men and women to populate the worlds I create.   No really, it is- LOL.  So, I happened acrossed the 2011 ESPN Body Issue the other day and WHOA!!!

Just WHOA!

Don’t believe me? Ladies & gentlemen, Blake Griffin.

Case closed. (WOW!)

Seriously, all ogling aside,  go check out the 2011 Body Issue.  Stunning  photography and stunning bodies.

Just got back from GRW’s Moonlight & Magnolias conference.  And as usual, it was excellent.  The workshops covered a variety of topics, and the hands on workshops on critiquing–which I had the pleasure of co-moderating– and pitching went very well.  The conference was in Decatur, GA this year and was my first time visiting.   I must say, the area we were in was very charming, had excellent restuarants, bars, and shopping all withing walking distance.

Now, on to the conference highlights:  First up, I really enjoyed the pitch workshop.  The attendees were divided up and paired with a published author for hands on pitch work.  I was lucky enough to get author Mark All, and just let me tell you, he really helped me get my urban fantasy pitch together.  Trust me when I say I needed it.  I’ve been writing, living and breathing Contemporary Romance the last 3 years and had no clue how to best pitch my UF.  Mark stepped in and shed light on it for me.  A big help as I went on to successfully pitch that day and received a submission request.  YAY!! for me and THANKS!!!! to Mark for his help.

Leigh Michaels’ workshop, Things that Stump the Best of Us was super awesome.  One of my weaknesses as a writer is that I tend to focus a lot on back story and character history, as opposed to present story action as I start off my stories.  Leigh reviewed quite a few quick tools to help eliminate this, improve pace, and fix up transitions.  Really good stuff, I can’t wait to implement in my revisions.

Of course, meeting up with friends, making new connections and the Maggie Awards are the crown jewels of M&M for me each year.  Here are a couple a memories from the weekend:  Some of the authors I met:

Author D. Renee Bagby

D. Renee was up for a Maggie for Eris this year in the Paranormal category

Jodi & author Leigh Michaels

Leigh delivered two excellent workshops this year.

Author Shiloh Walker

Got the chance to meet Shiloh at the book signing.  She was being coy

Author Gabi Stevens

Gabi gave a great workshop on themes and how they can be used to strengthen your story.

Now, on to the Maggies, we had a ball:

Me & 3 of my critique partners.  Lovely ladies in blue, black and white

Pam and & I posing with author Jax Cassidy

Chudney mid groove- LOL

No clue what Jodi and I call ourselves doing right here.  None at all

J is feeling the music I tell ya.

Nicki, Trish, and DJ Silver Knight.  He kept us on the dance floor all night long, whether we wanted to be or not!  Good times all around!

Again, another great conference put on by the members of GRW.  I’d be remiss if I left out the highlight of the conference…. I pitched to 2 editors and 1 agent and received submission requests from all 3!!!  WOOT! I’m super excited, even more so because my the editor I pitched my contemp romance to seemed just as excited about my story as I am.  This is important because my contemp happens to fall into a subcategory that makes it a bit hard to place.  But I love the story, so I’m sticking with it.

If you’re an author, published or not, and looking for a conference to attend in 2012, I’d highly recommend Moonlight and Magnolias.  It will be back in Norcross next year which means one thing… The Norcross Train Station for dinner and desert.  Personally, I can’t wait

I managed 216 new words yesterday. Not much but progress is progress, so I’ll take it.   At first I wasn’t going to write anything, despite my plans to do so.  I’ve really been struggling lately with actually putting my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard and working on any of my wips.  Yes, I have a lot going on both professional and personally, but even taking that into consideration, there has been a tangible block to me writing.  And I believe, no I know it’s been more mental than physical.  But I received a  call last night from a friend, who happens to also be a writer, and I was inspired/encouraged sit down and do something after our talk–which oddly enough only focused on writing for like 5 mins of our nearly 2 hr conversation.

So even though I didn’t want too, and even though I needed to go to bed within the next 20 mins,  I pulled out the laptop and tackled a brand new scene in my UF wip.  And with no plan or outline I might add, just a general thought I wrote down while doing my narrative outline last week.  Amazingly, it went well.  I’ve been so busy lately doing other things like workshop and program outlines, critiques, and brainstorming (all things I enjoy doing), that I’d forgotten how good it feels to let loose and just write.  Once I tapped into that special place, the one where the natural words, cadence, ideas and imagery lives,  the words just flowed.  Yeah, it was only 20 mins and yes, it was only 216 words, but I was enough to get me back into the swing of things. I got my mojo back, I got the jones for that feeling back, I got the excitement about my story back, I got the confidence in my words and my abilities back.  Those 216 words are so much bigger than the number seems.

I tell ya, Zen is the plane on which no inner critics exists.  As a writer, I’ve got to learn to tune out my left brain better when I’m tackling right brained activities.  There is a difference in the creative skill set needed to write vs the one needed to revise.  I’ve also got to get back into my daily writing habit, even if it’s just 216 words a day I manage.

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not words.  Trust movement.” ~Alfred Alder

I’ve decided to trust movement.

Image source

This week, I revisited my contemporary romance, Worth Fighting For, as I prep to enter it into a contest. So this week’s muse music post is inspired by my hero and heroine.

I love this song, and it sooo Brian and Paris, fav lines are:

    “You’ve got this look I can’t describe,
     You make me feel like I’m alive,
     When everything else is au fait,
     Without a doubt you’re on my side,”

And let’s not forget:
    “Still I wonder why it is,
     I don’t argue like this,
     With anyone but you,
     We do it all the time,
     Blowing out my mind,”

And if you read any of Worth Fighting For, you know this Brian and Paris all the way-lol.