Author Christine d’Abo

Good Monday morning! It’s an overcast, chilly day here in NS. But I have a cup of tea beside me and I’m gearing up for another fun filled day. I took this weekend “off” from writing. I read instead. I dug out a couple of novels that I love and haven’t read for a while. I devoured them quickly and am on book three.

After the bit of a downer week I had last week, I’ve made up my mind to be not tired/grumpy/bitchy this week. No more negative posts! Instead I’m going to regroup and refocus. I have several things I want to get done.

This weekend we have our writers retreat. I’m doing a session on Goal, Motivation and Conflict. I have most of it done, but I want to try and punch up my writing exercises a bit more. I should be able to finish it up either tonight or tomorrow. I also need to go out and get some things for the collage we are going to be working on Friday night. I’m not even sure which story I’m going to focus on yet.

I also really need to sit down and take a serious look at Perfect Match. I hate that the first draft is done, but it’s been sitting there stewing. I need to get that puppy cleaned up and sent out. Only then will I be able to focus on a new story idea. I also have two follow-up stories planned to The Bond That Ties Us. I thought I was going to do Sara’s story next (BF of heroine), but I think I’m going to switch it around and do Taber’s (BF of hero). I’ll be working that out this weekend at the retreat.

On a TV note, both 24 and Heroes are on tonight! I can’t wait to see what is going to happen with the future Heroes. I also have to watch 24 from last week to get caught up. Not sure why we didn’t watch it before now.

Hello everyone. I’m happy to say both my daughters survived their adventures yesterday. My youngest had a great time at her Spark camp and my oldest hung out with horses. My husband and I got to enjoy some time together (which felt very strange without the kids) and managed to get some shopping done.

I’m thrilled to say that I’m officially done The Bond That Ties Us! It’s gone off to get it’s release date. As soon as I know I’ll…you’ll know. With that gone, I have time to concentrate on both Perfect Match and my Halloween story. I made a start on Chapter 3 last night, but I think I’m going to scrap it and start over. I didn’t like the tone.

Which brings me to my goals. This week I’m going to write chapter three of the Halloween story. I feel like I’ve been saying this for ages now and want to get moving foward. I love the story and the characters, but it seemed everytime I started to make headway, something else popped up. I also need to put the finishing touches on my presentation for our writers retreat this coming weekend. I’m doing a session on Goal, Motivation, Conflict and plan on using Stargate: Atlantis as my example.

What do you have planned?

PS - I’m trying out this Technorati thing…please pardon the bottom of this post!
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This video was going around the Internet a while ago. You may have seen it, but it was a while for me. I hope it brings a smile to your face.

Happy Saturday!

I’m into the wine. Life is good. Here are some pictures to make you giggle.

Christine says hello!

Apologies to Mr. Denver. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Maybe it’s because it’s Friday, but I feel fan-fricken-tastic this morning. Ever have one of those days when you just get out of bed and feel good?  I had a shower, my hair did what I wanted it to do, my kids were happy, my husband cuddly…just a great morning. I’m glad. I hated feeling crappy all week and taking it out on all of you. So my promise, no more grumpies!

I finished my last round of edits on The Bond That Ties Us last night. This weekend I have to come up with a 150 word blurb and then off it goes. I’m really excited about how the book has turned out. It’s richer than it was when I started the whole editing process, which I believe is the point.

It also means I’ll be able to focus in on the next two stories I have on my plate. Perfect Match is about half way through a serious read through. I think I’m still going to run into problems as I get into it, but so far so good. The Halloween story stalled this week because of my edits, but I’m hoping to get a start on chapter three tonight.

This weekend will be fun. My youngest is going to a Sparks sleepover. She will be gone most of the day and all night. It will be very strange not having her around. My oldest will be gone too. She has a Brownie event at a local ranch. She’ll be in heaven playing with the horses. I know she’ll come home wanting riding lessons. I so can’t afford to have kids LOL!

Sunday we have our local RWA meeting. I’ve very excited because Stella MacLean is going to be previewing her presentation that she’ll be giving at Nationals this year. As I won’t be going to Nationals (see above note re no money) it will be great to see her in action.

What are your plans for the weekend?

I talk a lot about writing on my blog, but as many of you know I have a full time day job. I am a technical/soft skills trainer and an instructional designer. Since I’ve been talking about how tired I’ve been recently, I thought I’d share some of the courses I teach on a regular basis. I’ve also included the class length just for fun.

Here they are in no particular order.

Thirteen Things courses I teach in my day job. 1. Product Introduction. I review all of the products and services my organization sells and supports. 1 hour 2. Professional Writing. Punctuation, spelling, and grammar. The funny thing is I’m a terrible speller myself, but I’m honest with them. 3 hours 3. Introduction to Quality. I talk about our quality assurance program and how it affects the reps. 1 hour 4. Troubleshooting Tools. I show them how to use the software tools to help fix our products. 4 hours 5. Stellar Service. This is a two day customer service course. It’s a fun one to teach because I get to give our candy and stickers! 16 hours 6. Introduction to ISO. We are an ISO organization. I talk about what that means to the new hires and the impact on our organization. If you’re curious about what ISO is, check here. 1 hour 7. Phone system training. We get to play around in a training environment with our phones. They can make calls, transfers, conference calls, etc. Usually a lot of giggles going on. 2 hours 8. Cultural Training. We are an international organization so we talk about the different countries in which we do business and the cultural differences. 2.5 hours 9. Process and Procedures. What they need to know to do their jobs on a daily basis. 3 hours 10. Hands-on Lab. This is a two day lab where they get to play with our devices and they get to break them…and then fix them…we hope. 8 hours 11. Message Flow. Here I talk about how our products work on the network. They need to know the message flow really well so they know where to start with troubleshooting. 3 hours 12. Intranet Training. We have a big monster of an Intranet they need to learn how to use. 3 hours 13. Common Technical Scenarios. Here we talk about a lot of the cases they’ve seen during their job shadowing. I also run them through some common scenarios and have them try to reason them out. 3 hours

I’ve been staring at my computer screen for the past few minutes and really have no idea what to chat about. You’d think I’d just leave it and come back later when I could think of some interesting topic. Nope. I have a schedule! Blogging happens between 8:15 and 8:30 am.

I got my edits (I think my last set) from Bree on The Bond That Ties Us yesterday. I managed to get through a chunk of them last night and will continue to work on them this week. I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have to say going through the editing process with her is making me a better writer. With my current WIPs I see me changing thing earlier on. The next book should go faster with the editing (I hope).

I didn’t watch any TV last night. Law & Order: Criminal Intent was a repeat. I have to wait another week to see a new one, and two weeks before I’ll see Vince again. I’ll stop watching it if he ever leaves. Tonight Criminal Minds is on, but I’m not sure if it’s new or not. I’ll have to check later.

I also am half way through critiquing a story. Amy, I’m slow but I’m getting there! It’s excellent.

I’ve been reading a bit before I go to bed. Not a lot but a chapter or two of whatever book I have on the go. Right now it’s A Summer To Remember by Mary Balogh. I love it so far, especially because it’s the launch of the Slightly series. I think I’m going to go back and re-read thoughts. I love the Duke!

I almost hate to write this, but I’m starting to get tired. Not a “gee I stayed up late to watch Heroes last night have haven’t had a coffee this morning” tired. But more of a “I think I’m burning out” tired. My day job has been keeping me hopping for months now. And while I love what I do, it takes it’s toll on my energy levels. I’m finding this is starting to sap my creative battery and it’s making it hard for me to write new stuff.

I’m working on edits, which while still hard, is easier for me to do than be creative. So I find myself writing very little new stuff on my Halloween story, and the plotting I’ve been planning to do for the follow up for The Bond That Ties Us hasn’t happened. I need a vacation…June…

Speaking of Heroes…Woot! I love what they did with the characters last night. Nathan is becoming a very dark character. I like that! And I love the fact that Mr. Bennet isn’t as nasty as we first thought. The next few episodes should be very interesting. I missed 24 so I could watch Heroes and will have to get caught up tonight with it. Can’t go without seeing Jack.

Rhian started a poetry train the other day. As I haven’t written any poety in about 100000 years, I thought it might be fun to play along. Here is a poem I wrote this morning in about 30 seconds. Be gentle! 

Racing, through the darkened night,
Trying hard to shake this fright,
I cannot stop to catch my breath,
For fear of ever creeping death.

This demon tries to tear my mind,
Apart and over a thousand times,
I’d fall if it weren’t for you,
To save my day and see me through.

If you’d like to play along, post a comment in this thread so we can check it out!

Hello everyone! I’ve been having a wonderful weekend. The weather is finally nice here in my neck of the woods. I’ve even been out pulling weeds out of my garden.

This week on the writing front I worked on edits for The Bond That Ties Us. Bree thinks we only have one or two more rounds of edits left to go, so cross your fingers. I also worked on edits for All Bottled Up and sent that along to her. I should hear in a few months if EC is going to buy that one as well. I also managed to finish writing chapter two of my Halloween story. So far so good. I can’t wait to read Renee’s part of the book to see how it’s meshing.

This week I’m going to work on the edits for Perfect Match and hopefully get that sent along to Bree as well.

So, for the next week this is what I have planned:

• Edits for Perfect Match
• Send Perfect Match to EC for consideration
• Write chapter three of my Halloween story
• MySpace updates / marketing purchases with (limited) budget

On the TV front, Heroes starts up again tomorrow night! I can’t wait to see how they are going to end this season. CSI also has four weeks of new episodes and they are brining back Lady Heather. I can’t wait.

What is everyone else up to?