Fogged Up Fairy Tale

Hello Everyone,

I know I’ve neglected my blog, but I have a good reason. I PUBLISHED MY SECOND NOVEL!

My women’s fiction, chick lit novel, Fogged Up Fairy Tale was published yesterday by Baer Books Press.

 

Book Blurb:

Brand Rye’s life has come to a halt. She’s lost everything—even her memory. After spending time in the hospital, Brand returns home to a husband she doesn’t remember, and a life that has disappeared overnight. Her husband, Easton, provides Brand with bits and pieces of her past while she tries to put it all together.

As Brand learns about her life, she begins to realize that she isn’t the person she hopes to be... or is she?

Alcohol and loss are what brought Easton and Brand together. Once out of rehab, Easton offered Brand a place to stay for a price. With nothing left to lose but her sarcasm, Brand took him up on his offer, which began a whirlwind of adventure, sexual tension and their fairy tale of love.

Is Brand’s second chance too late? Or will she be able to cope with the secrets as they’re revealed?

It is currently available on Createspace and Amazon – Paperback and Kindle.

I hope you enjoy!

Excitement and Publishing,

Bea

Take One!

I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a script for my novel, Net Switch. Since I am working on several projects, this ‘idea’ is on the back burner for the time being. Even so, I’ve seen samples of scripts and movie quotes to get a sense of how a script is laid out. I have no idea how to write a script, nor do I have the software, but I can’t help being intrigued by the formatting and writing. 

Then I ask myself, “What will you do with the script when you’re done?” The answer is, “I have no idea”. Trying to publish a book the traditional route is difficult, but trying to get it made into a movie is close to impossible unless you have connections.  So, do I write to quench my desire to write the script, or is it a waste of time?

Here are two separate scenes from one of my favorite 80’s movies, The Sure Thing.

Professor Taub: [commenting on students' papers] Miss Bradbury. You, on the other hand, you express your ideas very clearly. Except that, your paper is dry, Alison. There's not enough of *you* coming through. Loosen up, Alison. Have some fun! Yes, sleep when you feel like it, not when you think you should. Eat food that is bad for you - at least once in a while. Have conversations with people whose clothes are not color coordinated.

[class laughs]

Professor Taub: Make love in a hammock!

[class hoots, hollers, and high-fives]

Professor Taub: Life is the ultimate experience, and you have to live it to write about it.

[Alison raises her hand]

Professor Taub: Yes, Alison?

Alison Bradbury: What did you say after "hammock?"

Gib: [talks to Alison while she swims] I flunk English, I'm outta here. Kiss college goodbye. I don't know what I'll do. Dad will be pissed off. Mom will be heartbroken. If I play my cards right, I get maybe a six-month grace period and then I gotta get a job, and you know what that means.

[Alison ignores him]

Gib: That's right, they start me at the drive-up window and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers, and then one day my lucky break comes: the french fry guy dies and they offer me the job! But the day I'm supposed to start, some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick 300 just for driving a van back from Mexico! When I get out of jail I'm 36 years old. Living in a flop house. No job. No home. No upward mobility. Very few teeth. And then one day they find me, face down, talking to the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner. And *why*? Because *you* wouldn't help me in English, no! You were too busy to help me! Too busy to help a drowning man!

[he falls into the pool]

This movie is full of humor and the writing is pretty good compared to some other 80’s movies. I’m not a descriptive writer, so I thought I might do all right with a script.

Is there a genre you’ve been interested in attempting? What are your favorite movie scenes?

Scripts and Chances,

Bea

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Hello, my Friends,

As you can see, I haven’t been blogging much due to other pressing matters. I wanted to stop in to let you know that I will be taking time off from my blog for the rest of the summer. This crazy little thing called love will get all my attention—Mein Liebster (my love) will be home in ten days.  

When I do publish my poetry e-book, I will post it on my blog and Facebook to let you all know. I thought I’d have it out on Kindle and Nook by July, but I’m waiting for copyright. My novel is still on for November 2011, and I will post more about it as we get closer to publication.

I wish you all a safe and happy summer. ♥♥

Love,

Bea

I had a Dream

…that the world was at peace—even if it was for a short time. The world breathed easier and it released some tortured souls of blame...provided closure for others. Even though it still existed, we felt a unity knowing evil can be defeated. A unity in knowing that violence swirls around the world—sometimes behind a mask of religion. But in this dream, we smiled at an encouraging future…hope massaged our hearts.

…that our journey back to the U.S. was completed by finding work. The worry of separation didn’t exist, and we began building and saving for our future. We savored our luck, thanked the Lord for our blessings, and vowed to never separate again. In this dream, we found a home, married, and over the years, watched our bodies decline. But in this dream, our spirit remained mesmerized with all the things we learned about each other.

…that I published my novel and it was a success. The days of repeated revisions for my book to grow stronger were worth it. My plot and characters satisfied even the worst critics. I found an inner peace from believing in myself…an understanding that I DO have writing strengths. Through the years, I continued to write poetry, short stories and a few more novels…some for me…some for you. But in this dream, I not only wrote a bestseller, I lived it too.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

I finally did it. I completed my first full revision yesterday and it feels great. It’s like returning to your favorite tavern—realizing how much you missed and enjoyed it. When I first wrote this novel, it was without a thought to fix, promote or possibly publish it. The discipline to write without worrying about editing is what drove the story. I can honestly say it wrote itself. Sometimes I felt like my fingers struggled to keep up with the intertwining characters and plot as I pounded away at the keys trying to make that 30 day deadline of 50,000 words. That was the main goal.

Now after sitting down with my novel again, reintroducing myself to the characters and experiencing the story after a lapse of time, it made me realize the dream could become reality. At times, I even reread lines asking myself, “Did I really write that?”! And then there were sentences I read and asked myself, “Were you drinking when you wrote that?” Overall, I’m proud of the characters and story I created, which isn’t something I normally say when it comes to my writing. I’m critical of the words I link together, along with being critical of other writers. Not so critical of the grammatical errors as I am of the character and plot—texture and flavor of a story.

But I arrived to the point in my novel where I sighed with satisfaction—an unplanned journey that I hope in time many will read—where everybody knows my name.

A Tale of Two Years

To celebrate National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I finally finished my first complete revision of the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2008. It cost me close to 2-years to get my butt going and revise it. For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is it’s a fun approach to writing. You sign up on the website and on November 1, you begin writing your story. The goal is to complete a 50,000-word novel by the end of November 30. During this time, you can post your progress on the site and encourage others while they encourage you.

I participated in 2008 and completed a 50,000-word novel, and the picture to this post is what I won. Most people think you walk away with prize money, but all you really walk away with is the knowledge of knowing you wrote a novel in one month. To some—like me—it’s a satisfying feeling.

So now what? You could ask someone to read it to see what they think, which is what I did. My Love, who at the time was just a friend, asked if he could read it. I shrugged and said ‘sure’. I had no plans to do anything with it until he read it within a few days and said he loved it. I thought, “Come on, it’s a mess”, but he thought it was great. He’s always been my biggest fan. Before I sent it to him, I prepared him for the mess, because wanting to complete 50,000 words in one month when you work full-time means turning off your internal editor. There is no time to clean-up or fix mistakes. NaNoWriMo helped me learn to write under pressure without going back and editing the crap out of everything I wrote. I was on a clear, direct path to finish and nothing was going to get in my way…and it didn’t. Coming into the last week of November, I still had to write 25,000 words to win and I freaked. How am I going to do that? Vacation days. I used vacation days to finish my 2008 NaNoWriMo.

Fast forward two years and here I am, working with an editor to clean it up. It isn’t a free revision—it costs to have someone do a line-by-line, but my Love convinced me it was worth it. After this revision, I will need to find a few proofreaders to go through it again…and then to go through it again until it’s error free…or at least close to it. Aside from this novel, I wrote my first one back in 2003, which is nicely tucked away in my drawer due to my poor writing.

I toast to those who are participating in the 2010 NaNoWriMo, and wish you all the best. It’s a great adventure, so write hard and TURN OFF YOUR INTERNAL EDITOR . Good luck!