Interesting...

**Oops, this was supposed to publish to Killer Passion today. Oh well, I'll post it there, too.**


As a writer I am constantly learning something new. Some days I learn about emotions or human traits, some days I learn a little more about craft. And then there are the days I learn about myself. I had one of those days, a few of them actually, just this past week. I received my edits for NOT WITHOUT RISK and discovered I have a favorite word. What do I mean by this? Simple, there is one word in the English language that I seem to be hung up on—one little word that I use over and over in my writing. It’s not a bad word, until it’s overused.

So I open the email from my editor and I think to myself, Hmmm, I swore I ditched my favorite word years ago. Not so, it seems, I just exchanged it for a new favorite word. This is not good.

Well, it’s good in the way that now I’ve been made aware of this trait and am correcting it. It’s good because as I slave over edits and the removal of this word in my manuscript, I watch NOT WITHOUT RISK become that much better a story for it. And it’s good because I have yet to turn in AFTER MIDNIGHT and so I can go through that manuscript and make corrections before it is turned in to my editor.

So, I’m off to work now, back to the edits. After all, there’s just a little over a month left before you can download NOT WITHOUT RISK. Pick it up from Triskelion Publishing, March 2007.

Sarah Grimm
hot sex and handguns
www.sarahgrimm.com

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Burning the midnight oil

I got the email Friday telling me that my edits for my first book, NOT WITHOUT RISK, are coming this week. Meanwhile, after being sick for a week and a half, I'm behind in my daily word count for AFTER MIDNIGHT and frantically trying to make my deadline. So I’m thinking you all won’t see much of me for a while.

Okay, I know, I’m not a big blogger as it is, but the next few weeks are going to be nasty for me. No more surfing the internet, no more chatting on my friend’s blogs, and no more cyber-flirting darn it. I need to buckle down and write, write, write.

So if you don’t hear from me for a while, you know what I’m up to. And if you happen to be driving past my house in the middle of the night and see my light on, bring me a Diet Coke and a Hostess Golden cupcake, will you? Just make sure you knock softly or you’ll wake up the three ankle-biters.

Talk to you soon.

Sarah

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Ugly Betty's got nothin' on me

Back in the swing of things after five days of being so sick I haven’t gotten off the couch. Well, except for the trip to the Urgent Care center on Sunday, followed by the trip to my doctor’s office on Monday. I have a list as long as my arm of things I need to accomplish. Unfortunately, I can’t really go anywhere. I might feel better, but I’m still pretty scary to look at. Why? Because what’s knocked my out for the past five days is a skin infection on, of all places, my face. Ugly!

I’m not kidding, seriously ugly! Ugly Betty? Puleeze, she’s gorgeous compared to me right now. Even worse than the nasty looking infection is the pain. The pain is unbelievable. The doctor offered me pain meds, but being the type of person who likes to feel in control at all times, I said ‘no thanks’. What was I thinking? Feeling drunk for a few days wouldn’t have been so bad. At least I’d have felt no pain.

Anyway, now that I’m feeling better, it’s back to my WIP. Boy do I have a lot of missed writing days to make up! Anyone have any tricks to get the creative juices flowing? Do antibiotics work, because I’ve got some serious antibiotics going? I wonder if the doc would give me those pain pills. I bet I could write some interesting things while taking those.

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Life is NEVER boring

Something fun we did on a Triskelion loop the other night was list things we've done in life...

Think your life is boring? Let me tell you, life is never boring. Take a minute and think about everything you've done in life. It's fun! Here's what I've come up with so far...

1. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
2. Said “I love you” and meant it
3. Gone skinny dipping
4. Stayed up all night and watched the storm roll in over Lake Michigan
5. Kept a friend for 23 years (and counting)
6. Given birth to two sons (not at the same time)
7. Seen a total eclipse
8. Taken my kids to a drive-in movie
9. Starred in a commercial
10. Kissed on the first date
11. Fallen in love at first sight
12. Married my sexiest fantasy
13. Wrote a book
14. Sang off tune (all the time)
15. Broken a bone
16. Dyed my hair
17. Survived 12 years with stage 4 endometriosis
18. Downhill skied
19. Discovered my first grey hair
20. Spent the first year of my second son’s life in and out of the hospital with him
21. Driven over 100 mph
22. Donated 12” of my hair to Locks of Love
23. Had my slip fall off walking out of a store
24. Had my top fall off in Lake Michigan
25. Cried as the Twin Towers fell
26. Survived a tornado
27. Learned to crochet
28. Made love in a car
29. Gotten the band of a country music star drunk after the show
30. Stayed up all night with a rock band then went to work the next day – only to do it all over again the next night
31. Published a book
32. Took a chemistry test drunk (and passed)
33. Been propositioned by a bartender too handsome for his own good
34. Turned down the bartender and went home to my husband
35. Visited Ground Zero (cried again)
36. Been to a sex shop
37. Took my drunk friend home after she asked a cop if I could ‘see his gun’ – Yes, me, she wanted him to let me see his gun
38. Made an ass of myself in public
39. Panned for gold
40. Walked across the Mackinac Bridge
41. Passed out red condoms as promos at RWA National conference 2006

So what have you done? Come on, you can tell me.

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I finally caught a break…

Wow, this last week has been tough. Every time I sat down to write, I thought to myself, ‘okay, this is it, let’s go’ and then something would happen to keep me from getting anything accomplished. From my husband’s minor car accident (he’s fine), to the emergency trip to the vet for the dog. My son broke his toe at a birthday party and had to call and tell me about it, and my other son came down with an ear infection. But the worst part was that when I did find time to write, it just wouldn’t come.

I tried brain drain, online puzzle games, and my favorite trick, Hostess golden cupcakes. Okay, so that last one isn’t as much about unclogging the mind as it is about pleasing myself, but hey, I tried. Nothing worked. Until last night, when I finally decided to chuck it and write out of order.

To some people this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’ve never been one that could do this. I’m a 'pantser', meaning I don’t plot, chart, or do anything more complicated that jot thoughts into a spiral notebook that goes with me everywhere I travel. For me, I learn the story from the characters as they tell it to me; my fingers typing as quickly as a woman who never had a typing class in her life can type. This usually means that I write a story from beginning to end, in order. Not so last night.

I have to tell you, sitting down and writing the black moment broke me from my slump and things seem to be moving along at a pretty consistent clip now. Getting it on paper (or on computer as the case may be) really helped me to see where my characters were and where they were going. This, in turn, helped me to see just what I needed the reader to see at the point I was at in my WIP. I’m thrilled to say, I’m now back on track.

Are there any tricks you use when you hit a slump in your day job? Diet Coke, cupcakes, an hour in the gym? What are they?

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It was my day to blog at Killer Passion. Check it out.

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