Oh dear...

Has it really been a month since I posted? I think we can consider that resolution a failure. Pin it up next to the ones about losing weight and finding a new job. Actually, now that the weather is finally starting to turn, I may be able to get out and start walking again.

I've been doing a lot of writing lately, but not here (obviously!). My local NaNo writing group has been meeting and we're doing critiques of each others works. We've got a romantic suspense, a slightly futuristic story involving the circus, a ghost thriller and a somewhat dark story with an infant as the main character. Oh, and mine...which, unfortunately, I'm putting aside for a while. As I told the others in the group, the main idea of this story was born out of the clinical depression I suffered a few years ago and because I'm no longer "there," the story has lost its importance to me. I kept trying--heaven knows--and even though I still like the story, I just can't make it work anymore. Part of the problem is I keep changing the plot and if it wants to be written, it can't keep changing. So I'm putting it aside and working on something new.

Because........

Steve Berry, author of The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophesy, The Third Secret, The Templar Legacy, The Alexandria Link, The Venetian Betrayal, and The Charlemagne Pursuit (let's see, one, two, skip-a-few, seven...yep, that's all of them) will be the Keynote Speaker at this year's SCWW conference! I've started reading his books--finished Amber and half-way through Romanov--and he is a pretty awesome author, I must admit. Just the kind of intrigue I like. Now, just because he's going to be there doesn't mean he and I will meet and have a nice long discussion about the authoring process. Yeah, there's a chance we could meet but I'm not pinning my hopes on it. You see, last year, it didn't occur to me to read anything that any of the seminar instructors (all authors or editors, and in one or two cases, agents) had written up until about a month or so before going. I had just enough time to read one book by the woman who did my critique and one chapter of one book by one of the instructors. This year, I'll read as much as I can before the conference starts.

And the something new I'm working on? I want to submit that for an editor's critique this year. I have to wait until more info is posted on the SCWW site so I'll know what I have to submit for an editor's critique. My plan is to have three chapters and a synopsis by June 1, which is when registration opens. I don't have to send it in that soon, but I want to know I'm ready by that date, save for some polishing.

So now you know why I haven't been posting. I've been writing! I swear! Just not here. Though I will try to post here more often...I promise.