Insecure Writer's Support Group and Ninja News

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The very first posting of the IWSG was September 6, 2011. While I do cull the list now and then for non-participants, the group is now three hundred strong.

First, I’d like to thank Christine Danek, Rusty Webb, L. Diane Wolfe, Robyn Alana Engel, Marta Szemik, Siv Maria, Jamie Gibbs, and Annalisa Crawford- these awesome bloggers have posted every single month for the IWSG. (And if I missed someone, let me know.) Thanks for your dedication, guys!

Second, the list is so big, there is no way I can visit everyone. Those from the middle of the list to the end seem to receive less comments, so if you guys could pop in and visit a couple new bloggers, I would appreciate it!

My post today is a good one! With BuNoWriMo motivating me, I’m making good progress on CassaStorm. It helps that I spent over four months on the outline, adjusting and adding, to the point I told Rusty I needed to stop before the outline became my novel. I’m not the fastest typist, especially as the perfectionist in me ponders every word and line as I write. My pace is about 350 words an hour. Go ahead and laugh – I know some of you can type that in five minutes! It takes me longer, but I am making good progress.

Now this is something that might help other writers. When planning CassaFire, I relied on reviews to tell me where I needed to improve. Some people don’t read reviews, but I like to know what I can do better and what fans want, so I look for common themes. Usually I look at Goodreads and Amazon. Well, since I discovered my books were bouncing around on the Amazon UK bestseller charts, I noticed something else – many of those reviews were different (As in, new to me.) So, if you do look at your reviews for input, be sure to check all sites!

Click on the tabbed page above for a list of all IWSG participants!

Ninja News!

Michelle Gregory at Beautiful Chaos has something special today just for IWSG participants! She is giving away nine paperback and ten eBooks of her novel, Eldala. Thanks, Michelle – that is really awesome!

Several blogger buddies of mine, Helen Ginger, Stephen Tremp, and Mary Montague Sikes, have contributed to a short story anthology from the BBT Café called Corner Café – and it’s available now! Congratulations, guys.

Jennifer Hillier’s Freak comes out soon! And she’s holding a contest – write a story using the word freak. Signed copies of Freak and an Amazon gift card are at stake. That rocks, Jennifer!

And I just purchased the 3D BluRay of John Carter. I’m going to be busy watching movies this weekend!

What are your insecurities today? Do you read your reviews to improve? Ready to take advantage of the cool offers above? Want to come watch John Carter in 3D? We have extra glasses!

Traveling with Monti

Give it up for fellow blogger, Mary Montague Sikes - also known as Monti!

Travels Make Writing More Fun

Years ago, while I was still in college, I crossed the English Channel from Dover, England to the Hook of Holland on an overnight ferry boat. The waters were dark and rough etching an unforgettable memory in my mind.

A few months ago, as I was working on my latest novel, Night Watch, I needed a dramatic and memorable scene to start the story. That’s when I recalled that strange black night on rugged seas that thundered as an old ferry boat churned its way across the channel. I began to think, what if? What if the NPR reporter, focal to my story, is traveling alone on the ferry? What if someone decides to silence her by throwing her off the ship? So my first scene was formed.

This is an example of how my travels always seem to tie into my writing. I use bits and pieces from trip memories to flesh out a story or to add extra intrigue.

A scene from an aquarium in Nassau begins a future book, Night in Paradise. That scene from my memory and from research adds color and interest to the book. The aquarium with its sea creatures becomes another character in the story just as the violent channel waters are a character in Night Watch.

Traveling is fun. Notes taken and photographs created during a trip may eventually provide needed background or focus for a new story. You never know from where your next lead will come.

Night Watch Blurb

Several years ago, my husband and I took an unforgettable trip to Trinidad. Before we left, I envisioned being part of a Bogart and Bacall movie where I might take on the glamorous façade of an old movie star by traveling in a white suit. So I tried it! That suit turned out to be inappropriate attire for the trip we made by small motorboat over a churning sea to reach Gasparee, the offshore island where our resort hotel was located. A network of dark caves with stalactites and stalagmites, located on that island, created lots of “what ifs” for me, especially when I learned of the island’s colonial history and found out the caves were once frequented by pirates who stashed their treasures there. Crossing the gulf and passing ocean-going vessels along the way made me wonder, what if Lily Henri, my heroine in Night Watch, journeyed by small boat over these waters late at night with her life in danger? What if she looked like a woman murdered in the waters of the English Channel and mistaken identity put her in danger? What if she were caught up in a gunrunning mystery and later kidnapped?

Buy Night Watch on Amazon
Visit Mary Montague Sikes at her WEBSITE and BLOG
Watch the trailer for Night Watch at PhotoShow

And Lee at Tossing it Out is reviewing CassaStar today. Yes, I’m nervous!!