4 months later....

Yes I am still alive lol

I have been very busy and things have been topsy turvy.

However I have started a new path with my book.

Its rejuvenated and is now a little over 1,800 words. I ripped the first 6 chapters and started a new. It had to be done.

Hope to post again soon :)

Once Upon a Crime...

Hello Everyone!

Just another update. Myself and 8 other mystery, romantic suspense and suspense writers have just launched our new group blog.

Please take a look!

We have plans for things such as TNT Tuesdays, Thursday Thirteen, Forensic Fridays, etc.

We are a great mix on aspiring and published authors.

Hereis the site: http://onceuponacrime.net/

My first Guest Blog!

Today I am happy to announce my first guest blog was posted!

Lee Lofland was generous enough to let me post a little article I wrote.


It just an inside look to a couples cases I worked as a PI.


Check it out here: http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

ThrillerFest 2008

Was the best conference to attend as my first writer's conference.

Everyone was unbelievably nice and willing to share advice and information.

I would higly reccomend the conference and especially the Craft Fest part.

You can find out more information at: www.thrillerwriters.org.

They already have next year's dates posted :)

Check out my friend's new book!!!

A cult of sex faeries start taking men hostage…including Claire’s boyfriend.Book Two of the Curtain Torn SeriesWhen Myrna Terrence’s husband is abducted from her dream by fairies, she asks Claire for help. Claire investigates and discovers other married men of Four Corners have been kidnapped. Men who share enough similarities to suggest the kidnappings may be related.She learns the abductions are the work of The Aeval, a cult of sex faeries whose mission is to ensure women are pleasured by their husbands. Dell decides he and Claire should go under cover—under the covers. By pretending to be a married couple who are having trouble in bed, they hope to lure The Aeval to them.The plan works almost too well. They don’t have to fake the chemistry between them, nor the resulting frustration when they stop themselves from going too far. The Aeval take the bait, and Claire must confront a goddess, the truth, and her fears about Dell in an effort to save his life.But if she succeeds, those same truths may be what sends him out of her life forever.Warning: this title contains the following: hot nekkid men with wings, regular nudity, and prolonged sexual tension followed—finally—by explicit sex. And the faeries who punish husbands for not “pleasing” their wives are entirely fictional (sorry!).Excerpt available...hereAnd you can buy it here"Ms. Hart has created a beautiful, romantic love story set within a magical world that is both whimsical and crystalline pure. The chemistry between her two main characters is spellbinding and ethereal." - Cerri Ellis

Hello :)

Sorry everyone its been awhile.

Things have been hectic in the real world.

On the writing front, I have made a lot of progress. I am currently working towards completing chapter three.

However I have decided to change the crime and the victim(s) at the last minute. So for now I am trying to work through the changes.

I have had chapter 1 critqued with some very positive comments and feedback.

Off to keep on working.

Check out my friend's New Releases

Psyche, by Aislinn KerryAvailable April 22nd from Loose IDAfter months of text messaging, Psyche has fallen in love with a man she's never even met, so when she finally gets the chance to see him face-to-face, she leaps at it. However, their meeting doesn't turn out quite the way she expected. E hides in the dark and refuses to let her turn on the lights. Psyche's startled at first, but willing to overlook a few idiosyncrasies while they get to know each other in person. Their relationship flourishes--until the night Psyche's curiosity gets the better of her. Light reveals that E is Eros, the Greek god of love and desire, and he is furious that she broke her word. She begs for forgiveness, but he won't give it. In breaking her word, she broke his trust. She must seek help from a goddess and brave the dangers of the underworld in order to prove herself and win back the man she loves. Read an excerpt!***All that Glitters, by Aislinn KerryAvailale April 22nd from Samhain PublishingKynan Pritchard has come to Paris to start a new life, one free from the gruesome nightmares--and the accusations of insanity--that have plagued him from childhood. He's used to a hard-luck existence, but when a stranger comes to his aid, he thinks maybe that luck is changing. Aneirin is strong and brave, everything that Kynan wants to be. And Kynan falls for him. Hard.But Kynan's nightmares are about to become reality, and not even Aneirin can protect him from the monster who's stalked him across the continent. The gwrach-y-rhibyn threatens everything--Kynan's life, his sanity, even his love for Aneirin.To defeat her, Kynan will have to risk becoming the very creature he hates. Read an excerpt!

Long time no see....

Hello all,

Sorry for not posting. Its been a little crazy. In March I began working with my Mentors during the Romance Divas annual Mentor program.

Things are really progressing so far. We plotted out a lot of the book. I have gotten backstory stuff for the characters, ways they are aquainted, and other interesting information I can insert later on.

I now have a 500/day wordcount goal. So I will be tracking my progress.

I also started a new day job. I like it so far. Not too bad.

I will be back with more updates.

Thursday Thirteen and book promo!

Thirteen jobs I have had:

1. After School Program worker

2. Dry cleaning clerk

3. Cashier at an office supply store

4. Grocery store Hallmark Cards (set up new product/maintenance/reorder product)

5. Ticket seller at a local Science Museum

6. Cashier at a college bookstore

7. Clerical Support for a collection agency

8. Customer Service for an online horse wagering company

9. Student lol

10. Private Investigator

11. Security Officer

12. Recruiter

13. Bank teller


What kinds of jobs have you had? Any that you loved? Were there any you despised?

Let me know.

Also, we have another Diva, Emily Ryan-Davis with a new release:


She believed the man didn't matter as long as he said yes - until the wrong man vowed to love her beneath....

All the Trees in Pearl
by Emily Ryan-Davis

Available March 21 at Ellora's Cave



Signed and paid for by one brother.

Ethan Carver didn’t order a wife, but he couldn’t turn away from Margaret Redde’s lush mouth and proper manners. Could he keep up his brother’s deception and make her stay?

Set on fire by the other.

She wanted security and didn’t care where it came from - one brother was as good as the other - until Ethan touched her. One night in his arms changed everything. His hot kisses sent her up in flames and taught her desires she didn’t know she possessed.

Read an excerpt today!

SICCO and other good news...

What is SICCO you may ask? It is the name of the new local chapter of Sisters In Crime that myself and a new writing group I have joined are forming. SICCO will stand for Sisters in Crime Columbus Ohio.

I was fortunate to meet the woman who will be our chapter president at my RWA chapter meeting this past weekend. I was very excited to hear that there were other local mystery writers.

They also have a critique group which I feel will be helpful to me as well.

I have also learned that I was accepted into the Mentor program that Romance Divas runs. I cannot tell you how excited I am. All of the mentees are "patiently" waiting to learn about who our mentors are.

Lastly, today I accepted a new position at a Marketing research firm. The job will begin Monday. I will make more per hour than the last job, health benefits and a 401K!

Wish me luck in all these endevours :)

I will be back tommorrow with Thursday Thirteen.

Have a great night!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Your Leprechaun Name Is:

Plucky Whiskeybreath

What's Your Leprechaun Name?

Thursday Thirteen & Book Promotion :)

My 13 Favorite TV Shows

1. Gilmore Girls

2. Grey's Anatomy

3. Soprano's

4. Dexter

5. Ugly Betty

6. Big Brother

7. Medium

8. Popular

9. Oz

10. The Riches

11. Nip/Tuck

12. Rescue Me

13. Kyle XY

Just wanted to do a little bit of book promotion. One of the Divas, Diva Jax has a new release out on March 17th! Here's a little info on it. Go and buy it :)

THE LOTUS BLOSSOM CHRONICLES an anthology with Simone Harlow

Paperback: 250 pages

Publisher: Parker Publishing, LLC; First edition (March 17, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1600430341

ISBN-13: 978-1600430343

In Jax Cassidy'sSIREN’S SEDUCTION ...

Niko Chow craves solitude. Only fate won't leave him in peace. After losing his wife and unborn child in a car crash, he slips into the dark world of alcoholism. His desire to overcome his addiction leads him to a promise made to a dying friend and into the arms of a seductive chanteuse. Donovan Matthews ignites a passion within him he has long denied. The more time he spends with her, the more Niko finds her spitfire determination and generous heart as sensuous and exotic as the Lotus Blossoms that bloom in his garden. Can she end his internal war and help heal his aching soul?

In Simone Harlow's CONCUBINE ...

In the new world order, New Africa bounty hunter Nyssa Farris has only one goal…to get her daughter back from the woman who snatched her out of her arms as a baby. But to do that, she must break her one rule: never hunt a slave. Once a pleasure slave to a king, Nyssa understands how the loss of freedom can scar a person’s soul, and for her daughter she will pay the price.Prince Asad Kuba is a man on the run. Escaped from the wicked queen, he will do anything to stay out of her clutches. He doesn’t expect a beautiful, determined woman to capture him, bed him, and take him back in chains.Two people on a collision course will change nations.

Lisa~

Cabin Fever

Well today I was finally able to venture out. I went to pick up the new RT magazine. Many of my fellow COFW members either had a review or an ad in the magazine. Very cool to see people you know in the magazine :)

I also just found out some awesome news! On May 15, 2008 one of my favorite authors, Elaine Viets will be at the Foul Play mystery bookstore in my city signing autographs! WOO HOO :)

The bookstore is very cool. Based in a victorian style house in uptown Westerville, it has ALL mystery books, too many to count both used and new. They also have cats that hang out in the bookstore. I checked out the place last week and was able to meet Harriet. She was a sweetheart.

Well I am off to figure out this plotting board.

Happy Writing :)

P.S. I got some business cards to take with me to ThrillerFest and give out to people I meet that I want to stay in contact with. I will try to post one soon:)

Snow Snow go away come again another day

As I am typing this we are expecting "The biggest winterstorm Ohio has seen this year"

UGH!

Its spring time, is it too much to ask for a little cooperation from Mother Nature? Next month is my birthday and I am putting my request in NOW, right this minute for a nice sunny springy day! I will expect nothing else lol.

Lucky DH gets to escape this Snow City for Las Vegas :( He sucks lol.

However my mom and I have planned a girls weekend. Watching old movies, making homemade pizza and snuggling up with the fuzzy kids (My mom's dogs). Casablanca, and The Sting just to name a couple.

I also have my responsibilities to my girls in my troop. We are selling GS cookies this weekend.

On the Writing front, I had a quite successul day yesterday. I spent my time challenging over at Romance Divas with some of the new friends I have made over there. All in all I ended up writing over 900 words on a new WIP I started on wednesday.

I am some pages short of my challenge for my PowerDraft challenge, but I hope to finish strong and make my 15 pg goal for the week.

I am also attending my first big scale conference in July. In NYC, the International Thriller Writers are holding ThrillerFest 2008. I am only going for the first two days which is called Craft Fest. I am very excited and nervous!

What has been some of your conference experiences? Like it? Love it? Hate it?

What went right? What went wrong?

I'd love to hear your input :)

Off to make lunch!

Lisa St. James
(Like it? This will be my pen name from here forward)

Thursday Thirteen

Today I am going to post thirteen of my favorite authors, in nor particular order :)

1. Nancy J. Cohen Bad Hair Day Mysteries

2. Elaine Viets Dead End Job Mysteries

3. Nancy Bush Jane Kelly Series

4. LeAnn Sweeney Yellow Rose Mysteries

5. Sarah Strohmeyer

6. Victoria Laurie

7. Joan Hess

8. Joan Hess

9. Julie Kenner

10. Earlene Fowler

11. Gemma Halliday

12. Janet Evanovich

13. Sue Grafton

Who are your favorite authors? Whats on your To Be Read pile?

Have a happy Thursday!

Mrs. P

To challenge or not to challenge...

This week I am participating in my first PowerDraft with COFW. Its eight straight days of writing. BICHOK BABY!

B(ut)
I(n)
C(hair)
H(ands)
O(n)
K(eyboard)

So far 2 pgs and 200 words...a little slow on the upswing, but I will get there.

Have a good one :)

Hump Day

Not much to write today so I will leave with this funny picture :)

Well my ducks are in a row...just not the right order lol

I bravely sent out what little bit of my WIP, I had completed.

Nervously I have been waiting to hear back. Hoping I wouldn't get the following responses:

-OMG! What the hell are you thinking???

-You Suck!!!

-Who told you could be a writer?!?!?!

But thankfully, it was very constructive.

I have the right idea, just a little jumbled up.

After analyzing other's work I feel that I have put too much backstory into it too soon. Instead of peppering it through, BAM!, like Emeril tossing in basil in his newest dish lol.

I am off to read more in "You can write a mystery" by Gillian Roberts.

Night!

My Goals...thus far

Here is what I came up with.


My Short Term Goals for 2008

Write 25k-50k words for Odds & Errands

Plot, Set up characters, nail down synopsis for Cyrano de Bergerac story

Plot, Set up characters, nail down synopsis for Time Travel story

Plot, Set up characters, nail down synopsis for Social Experiment story

Conduct Research for Odds & Errands

Attend as many conferences as possible

Attend as many COFW meetings as possible

Find a Critique Partner(s)


My Long Term Goals for 2008 and Beyond

2008: Finish Odds & Errands. Work on 3 new WIP’s. Learn a lot.

2009: Write Odds & Errands #2. Finish 2 of the WIP’s. Start on 1-2 new works in progress. Enter 1-2 contests.

2010: Finish WIP #3. Work on WIP’s #4 and #5, write 25k words. Enter 2-3 contests. Attend RWA National Conference.

2011:

Career Goals...what the heck are those?

A very good question indeed!

I was carousing the internet this morning before my fateful trip to the local tax office and happened upon a website called www.romancedivas.com.

I found a HUGE wealth of knowledge on there and even learned they have FREE workshops of the month posted in their Forum.

I found a few to start with and printed out the info. The first was about setting career goals. I am working on them now and will post them tommorrow!

Night all

Mrs. P~

So much for keeping on task

Well I got hit hard with the sick bug. And I am still recovering. UGH!

However, I have been working on writing stuff. I decided to start three new WIP's. This way I can go back and forth if I get stuck on Odds & Errands.

They are (in no particular order):

1-A Cyrano de Bergerac type story

2-Time Travel (Always wanted to do one, started one when I was younger)

3-Social Experiment type deal

The other night I woke up THREE different times because I was getting little bits of information for the Cyrano de Bergerac story. A little voice was telling me the name of one of the characters, and part of the plot.

I grabbed a notebook and wrote it all down. In the dark. And suprisingly the next day, I could actually read it LOL.

Well I am off to work more on my WIP's.

Night :)

Slowly but surely

I have spent the day working on a few creativity stirring ideas.

I started an "Idea Pocket". I have gone through several magazines cutting out sayings, photos and other things that would provide some new ideas for future WIP's. I also took some index cards and wrote down a few ideas too.

Soon I will begin a plotting board. I still need to read all the how-to information lol.

Off to find more inspirations!

Mrs. Pigglesworth~

Here I am

Hello everyone in Blogger world,

*waves*

I am finding that this forum is quite the place to share, learn and network with fellow authors.

I also need a seperate place where I can concentrate on my writing and nothing else.

A place where I can be me.

I plan on keeping this blog not only as a way to connect with other authors but also to keep a record of my progress :)

So far here are my stats:

WIP #1 Untitled thus far, Possibly an "Odds and Errands Mystery"
Word Count: Approximately 5300 so far
Word Goal: 90,000

Am I a little intimidated? YES! lol

Currently I am working on studying various plotting methods and deciding which will be best for me. I was "pantsing" it for awhile, but I feel I need more structure.

Off to keep studying,

Mrs. Pigglesworth :)