Memorial Post #ROW80

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, works in progress

Memorial Weekend is here. This is the weekend that most folks kick off their summer cookouts and open their pools for the season, even campgrounds kick into full swing with their campers.

This year I’m glad I’m not one of them. It is a cold Memorial Weekend here in New Hampshire. It is one of the coldest I can remember. Snow even fell last night. I saw it. It even stuck to my mom’s skylights in her bedroom. She made sure to point this out to me last night when I could believe my eyes when we saw the flakes falling from the sky in big globs. It is not like we live in Northern New Hampshire either. We are down on the Massachusetts border.

I was worried about our garden. But Mike reassured me that they would be alright even though we didn’t cover any of the plants.

We didn’t wake up to any snow on the ground, thankfully, like some people did in the western part of the state. But it was cold none the less.

The first thing I did in the morning was look outside at the garden. Everything looked like it was still alive. Thank God… My zucchini has been growing so good.

Cold weather does have its advantages though. Since I don’t like it, it made it much easier to stay inside and write.

ROW80 Update:

I have finally pushed past where the kids catch the kitchen on fire. Everyone made it out alive. I won’t tell you who saved the day. You’ll have to read the book to find out. But I am happy to say I added over 3k words to the file today. That is more than I set out to write.

When Kate posted that we should have a goal of 250 words because of the holiday I figured I could at least do that.

Well, well, well, what do you know? I got to the 250 words and kept right on going. How about that?

I think I surpassed my ninety minute writing spurt too, so now I can go back to gaming for the rest of the day while I try and plot out what will happen when the boys ask the girls to the dance.

Have a Happy Memorial Weekend and stay warm and safe everybody.

Writers’ Group Share

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, writing

Today was my Monadnock Writers’ Group Meeting. I have missed several of the meetings this year along with these posts to go with them. But anyways, here goes… This post is full of great stuff!

Our speaker for this month was Lisa Luedeke. She is a Teen/YA Contemporary Writer like myself. Last August she published her first work, Smashed, with Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books. She was a former English teacher turned Professional Editor/Publisher for literacy imprints at Corwin. Her original dream was to be a writer.

Smashed is a stand-alone novel about addiction, secrets, lies and hope as a Teen Field Hockey star hooks up with a bad boy putting her hockey scholarship on the line. A must read for teens.

I would like to welcome Lisa to our writing world and may others look forward to reading her works as I do.

 

Last week was the NHRWA Chapter meeting in Bow, NH.

Our speaker was none other than Cathryn Parry. She talked to us about how important hooks are to our writing. She was very informative and named a good source book to look up about Hooks. It was Got High Concept by Lori Wilde. I quickly got my Kindle copy and found that she was right. It is full of all that hook information all us writers are looking for. Everything in this book touches on what she talked about during our meeting.

Unfortunately I didn’t take very good notes during this meeting. I was too busy listening to her. But that is okay. This source book took the place of my notes.

 

Future News:

I hear that the NHRWA chapter has successfully book Deb Dixon for a Workshop Weekend in NH next spring. I will keep you all updated. I hear that this event is something I really should be looking forward to. And after taking a quick peek at her site, I kind of can’t wait. They have booked so many great speakers so far this year and if they are getting so excited about this gal then it must be something really great.

 

ROW80 Update:

Last week I found my very first critique partner. Yea J

I added 1k words last weekend to Along Came Neil and so far, as of last night there was another 500 words done. I am now at the Burning down the House scene. I hope to make this scene funny and an ice breaker for the characters, not so much as a tragedy but more of an embarrassment than anything else.

So how are you doing with your writing this week? I would love to hear from you.

And don’t forget to check out the above mentioned books. I think you will really like them.