Posting by twitter

There is a romance writer that is posting tweets to "publish" a story. Sounds like something fun for one of my short stories. Will have ot think about that.

Lack of sleep has kept me from being able to write like I want to. Today, the ideas are simmering, which is a marked improvement over yesterday.

If you haven't bought Rebellion on Piza 7, do so and encourage your friends to do do so. Yes this is a shameless attempt at selling my book.! I want to stay home with my baby. I don't mind working, but he needs me. The more I sell the less likely it will be that I have to work full time.

Plus, it will help inspire me to finish Blood Traitors if I get feedback on the characters. I'm at a deciding point - who should go and why and who should stay. I have the mainline for the story throughout the three books pretty much figured. However, I need a couple of Martilians to die, and I need to introduce the mastermind from the home planet. HMMM. Any ideas?

My thriller is being ruthlessly edited by moi. The novel-to-be is going from great to excellent. Mostly from what I'm learning about writing from my lovely blogs on my follow list.

Friday, I will post an excerpt from my thriller, Winds of Fire.

Writer's Block

I'm having a bit of writer's block. Need to print my stories on paper so I can look at them better. It's just not the same on computer screen. It's much harder for me to see mistakes. Plus, I have an easier time finding the flow. All the wonderful ideas I had yesterday have gone with the wind. I couldn't get to the part they needed to happen with enough time to integrate the fabulous new ideas. :( Maybe I'll find them in the re-read.

I'm ready to finish the thriller and my sequel to Rebellion on Piza 7. Blood Traitors will be wonderful as soon as it's finished.

Here's an excerpt from Blood Traitors:

Eagerness and gladness warred with hopelessness and sadness. She couldn’t identify it all. When she tried to delve deeper, the scene shifted. She saw the lights of planets and stars whirling past as if she were in a roller coaster at night. She only had given impressions until she felt Daniel-Jirel’s angry outburst.
“Who would dare! This is The Martilian Royal Ship Marathon. Identify yourself immediately and stand down!” His tone held authority and power but it was lost on whoever was attacking the ship.
He was concentrating on keeping the ship from going into a tail spin from the last blast. The only answer the other ship gave was another blast. This time Savannah saw it on the obsidian screen. He maneuvered the ship and the blast missed.
He again tried to contact the attacking ship. “My readings indicate your ship and crew are from my home world and therefore know the consequences of firing on any royal ship. You will be sentenced to death if you continue as I have clearly identified myself. STAND DOWN!”

Inspiration

I need inspiration for a scene in Winds of Fire, just outside of Chicago. I have an aquaintance that has been there, so maybe I'll ask him for some info. I'm also needing a good scriptwriter program, but that'll have to wait until I can afford some extras that aren't really needed. I have to finish the stories I'm working on and start sending out the queries. Sigh. Maybe I'm avoiding finishing them so I don't have to write query letters? They are the bane of many a writers existence. If you don't do it just right, you may kill your book before you've ever started.

I can't remember if I said this yesterday, but I don't think so. We went to go on our first excursion in our own vehicle, alone, and guess what? Our tire was flat. I could hardly believe it. It was very flat - as in you do not get to drive it to Les Schwaab's or anywhere else. You have to take the tire in, in another vehicle, or drive on your spare, if it's not flat, too!

On Blood Traitors, I need a copy of my book. Ironic, huh? In the move my book got lost/misplaced or something. I tried to order, but my card wouldn't go through. I hate that card. It's a master card, but it only works at selected locations. UGH.

Oh well, back to square one.

Texas

So we arrived safely about midnight of the fifth. Spent yesterday cleaning and trying to assimilate the fact that I'm 2k miles away from family and friends (sans the one I'm living with :) My kids are doing great. Edward said this is the best house he's ever been in. Not looking forward to when he has to live in the house WE can afford. You know, the one with one game station and very limited games, no tv to play the games on, and no play room. Oh well, in the meantime, the boys are loving the time with others around their age.

I've already started taking my paintings around to show and I've seen the scene for the one act I'm writing for blunt force productions. I've also talked to Donna about getting my hands on one of her anatomy books that I need for a bloody scene in my romantic thriller, Winds of Fire, as I have packed my book and put it in storage. I'vealso managed to leave MY book at home so can't look up what I need for Blood Traitors. Tried to use my credit card but it is notorious for not working.

Getting ready to apply for jobs and hopefully that will leave to get out of my friends hair in a relatively short period of time.

wish me luck in getting back to regular writing.

I'm still here :)

I'm still here, dealing with "other" stuff has kept me from doing my full amount of blogging, marketing and networking. Here's a quick update.

I'm particiapating in a 1k word a day contest, and I'm very glad I did! Somedays I can write 4k thousand words no sweat, but because of schedules and all the other life stuff, it's been work to keep up the 1k a day, but it has helped.

The best news? I won the first week with over 8400 words! Woot woot. I've written like five so far tonight, but I have a half an hour left. All kinds of things can happen to my characters within a half an hour (evil laugh)

Hope everyon'es weekend is going well, and please give me any feedback on my book after you have read it! It is my first novel so I'm way open to opinions and suggestions. Also, let me know who your favorite characters are. PS My edits are going well, hopefully by Thursday will have excerpts from Blood Traitors, next in series after Rebellion on Piza 7, on my web page,

My webpages have links to my publisher site to buy the book and my twitter and my kindle. Also, feel free to email me at leona.bushman@gmail.com for questions, insights, and suggestions, or any constructive criticism :)

Muse oh muse

Hope everyone's fourth went well. Today, I went to help with set build (didn't do much) late, after being up all night with baby. Brought work home to do. Haven't written **** today. I'm very tired. Between allergies and baby, I can hardly function. But, I'm going to keep at it!! That's what counts!!!

I look forward to next book signing, and hope all of you have a chance to get my book and pass the word on before next time!!

PS quite by accident, Jhoar has become more important in Blood Traitors than planned! But then Daniel-Jirel kind of worte himself into my story, so I should be getting used to pushy characters, right?

Other Blog

I started another blog. This one is about Down Syndrome. I encourage everyone who has a down syndrome kid or who knows one to read it and to tell others. It's meant to be a positive support for other parents.
It dawned on me as I was writing something else that I needed a blog with my Down Syndrome encouragement to other parents. I hate the negativity tha abounds about being the parent of a kid with special needs.

Please encourage anyone with any special needs child to participate. I want parents to have a place to discuss their hardships and recieve positive help and encouragement, not judgement or fear.

In other news, I'm in two writing contests for the month of July and I've at least 700 more words to go. (My blogs DON'T count LOL) I only wrote 300 as part of editing yesterday because I knew I was starting these contests today and gave myself a break. I hadn't planned on it, but common sense won out, mostly because I took my daughter to the doctor. Her allergies were giving her issues.

My allergies are giving me some issues. But I won't let it stop me now! I'm on a roll. I have to print out blood traitors and make Nathan do the edits he has to do. He's making me crazy. (I know short trip and all that) :) Anyways, I'm excited to be writing so much. I figured out that I wrote over 30k in 7 days before yesterday, once I added up my totals from the last I remembered (I had 12k on two stories. Now, I have almost 30 on one, over 13 on another, I wrote a 11,300 historical novella, and worked on another short I wrote last year. I'm turning it into a long novel. I had apparently missed some in my counting. Although, I know that monday, I did a large portion of these numbers. I think I was off by 2k when I counted, forgetting it was 'same day' writing LOL

Plus all the blogging and commenting for networking and marketing. So it's prbably closer to 50k words for the week. :)

Still no takers on the whip master for my July writing...

okay, I have to get back to drawing board er, rather keyboard. (don't want tempt mtself away!)

yeah I wrote today, HI MOM

Today I've written 4k words (that I kept, more if you count the stuff that walked the plank :) and I'm writing more, baby be good. LOL

Mom, I'm thinking of you with your melted key lmao. That is too funny! I'll let you post a comment to tell everyone what happened, if you want to. I mentioned you left for a little trip for your anniversary. Who knew how very HOT it would get? I'm cracking up here.

My romantic story of 55k has turned into a thriller with romantic overtones (Relationships are always important in my stories, whether lovers or enemies and everything in between. how we interact can make the story). I started this for the Harlequin Blaze line, but its taking on a life of its own. It's called Winds of Fire and it'll be follwed by Streams of Ice. I can write multiple books at once and keep them as straight as writing one, but I've discovered they have to be different genres. I can't write two fantasies at once, for instance. I've taken to starting files to write down ideas and plots and the characters as I see them so I can start one as I finish another. I am working on Blood Traitors as my sci-fi but have another story working itself out in my head. I've put the essential details down in a file though. I think it's a weird quirk to be able to keep stories straight but not if they're the same type.

Rebellion on Piza Seven

I want to thank my MIL (or mother-in-law for those who don't know). She is always supportive of my writing. She (and dad) watched my boys for me while I was at rehearsal for the melodrama I'm in. When we picked them up, she was updating her myspace blog telling everyone where the book signing is! How's that for support. Thanks MOM.

Rumor has it that Borders put it out on shelf yesterday! I've had many requests for this book. Buy it soon, so they have time to replace for book signing. Or, show up for the signing early to be sure and get one!

Many people have asked for my book, and I don't want anyone to miss out! (Of course I don't or I wouldn't have sought publication or even wrote a book LOL)

I'm waiting for an edit for the sequel, Blood Traitors, so I know where I want to go. hmmm. That's not quite right. I'm waiting for the edit to see if its heading where it needs to go. I know what I want. Action, psychic adventure, not-so-alien aliens, and the sense of betrayal the people of Phalo and Onch are going through and how that affects Savannah (or maybe vice-versa? probably both.)

Rebellion on Piza 7

Thank you to everyone who has bought a book! I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again. Especially as a new author, it's exciting to know people have actually picked it up. some of you have told me you have ordered, but my guess is that there's more who've ordered and not said much. Post comments about the book here, after any blog I post. I'd love some feed back. Also, I'm at a cruz. I've changed my mind about a couple of things and the second book is likely to be longer. This one was just over 71k words. The next one will be 80-90k words, easy.

What I'd like from the readers, is ideas about who they want to know more about? Who tickled their fance so to speak, and now you want more information. Background, maybe bigger part in whole, or who did you hate? What did you like best about it?

I'm struggling to keep the next book as exciting or better than the first. As a reader, I know how disappointing it is if the second book flops. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself, but I want the best book, and a new book, not a repeat of the first. You know what I mean?

Blood Traitors is proving to be tricky, but it's setting up for the final book in what has turned into a trilogy. Never fear. The story resolves itself, but you will want to read more. :)

Oh boy

I've spent a lot of time tracking down distributers and trying to get the book for sale in "brick and mortar" stores. I've also spent beaucoup time painting and writing this week. I've led a very full life this week. I've gotten to spend lots of time with my children despite the rest of the things going on. I've written a romance short story which I've submitted to harlequin. I hope it goes :D. i'm working on lots of stories right now.

I read a wide variety of types and styles and I find my mood for writing to be similar. Therefore, I write what I'm in the mood to read. Otherwise I find elements that don't belong in the story I'm working on and just erase it anyway. This way is proving to be much more productive. I have another story about a third completed, that's not the sequel to Rebellion.

I'm rewriting the first four chapters, and putting things in different order for Blood Traitors, so my mind is busy working out the problems. When it figures out what I want to do, I will be working madly to get my ideas into the story before they are lost.

Right now, I'm in the mood for hard hitting romance that may or may not include paranormal elements. My short story included angels and demons. The other romance is military men and women. Blood Traitors is NOT a romance, although their will always be elements in my writitng because when I write, I incorporate people and people are about relationships. Their motivations, what makes them tick, what causes people to make good or bad decisions are what makes a story interesting in my book (ha ha pun intended lol).

In Blood Traitors, I started off too slow with too much explanation. NO NO NO!!! I'm fixing it and including more interesting elements and less explanation in some places and more in others. I want readers to enjoy the book if they haven't read Rebellion on Piza 7, but I DO NOT want those who've read Rebellion to be bored out of their minds on the repeats. Wish me luck in my endeavor!

Thanks!!

Thanks to everyone who has offered congrats and/or bought books already! Anyone who buys direct of the website, I will sign your copy. Just let me know. Those that are family on Knoll/Hanks side, I will be signing at the reunion in July. Best to order it sooner rather than later to make sure it gets here in time :) For those local, Borders has promised me a signing and I will be sure to post it when it happens!! Otherwise, I will find a place and time to sign if you let me know you've purchased a copy. Thanks everyone!!! Here's to the success of Rebellion on Piza 7 and the creation of the sequel, Blood Traitors.