June #IWSG: The Art of War or Battle of the Nerves

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

Co-Hosts: Beverly Stowe McClure, Tyrean Martinson, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

After last month's celebratory dance (winning runner-up in RevPit), I changed into camo gear and entered Query Kombat. Out of 400 entries, my new MG mystery was chosen for Michelle Hauck's team! But battling a middle-grade fantasy entry this past week turned brutal. I lost. 

Plot Twist

Drum Roll

Wait for it!

In a Host Save, Michelle snatched my entry from the rubble of lost dreams littered across the battle field. My new story enters the agent round (30 agents, people!!) starting Thursday!! Agents make requests in secret for four days.

*Locates paper bag*

*Passes out*

I'll just be hiding in a cave for the next week. 

Seriously, that is all, folks. After this nail-biting stress, I need a vacation.

P.S. I love naming characters. Titles of books? Not so easy. For my new mystery, I've tossed around three different titles. 

May #IWSG: Time for a Happy Dance

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: It's spring! Does this season inspire you to write more than others, or not?

Co-Hosts:
JQ Rose, C. Lee McKenzie, Raimey Gallant, & E.M.A Timar!

Spring brings out the editor in me. But as writers know, editing is re-writing. So, I guess I am writing! 

TIME FOR A HAPPY DANCE:

I spent the entirety of April editing my NaNo project. After ignoring my family for thirty days, I typed THE END. I finished just in time to enter my new middle-grade mystery into #RevPit. Revise and Resub is an online contest hosted by eleven professional editors who choose winners from about one hundred entrants each. The top winner gets to work with an editor for five weeks. The runner-up gets several critiques on a smaller scale. In a writer's world full of disappointment and rejection, it's nice to get good news!

Drum roll...

My new story staring a kick-butt, twelve-year-old girl solving a crime in Door County, Wisconsin, won RUNNER-UP!!! 

And that's all I can say about my book. The rest is top secret. I'd tell you, but, you know...

I don't usually talk about my submission journey. But I felt like shouting my latest victory to the world. Even small victories and accomplishments can push us to keep writing and moving forward. My shiny, new MG mystery is almost ready to sub to agents. My other middle-grade mystery Link Lakowski and the Dead House remains on sub with agents and a few editors from a different contest. But I am confident it will find its home very soon in the book world.

The submission phase is tedious, depressing, and not for everyone. Get yourself a CP or two. Read Story Genius, The First Five Pages, The Emotions Thesaurus, and EVERYTHING on K.M. Weiland's blog. Do it now. 

Fun Facts: 

I am a native of the great cheese state of Wisconsin--the setting for my new book.
My mystery is filled with more secrets than a teenage girl's diary.
My family didn't disown me this past month.

Anyone else enter #RevPit? Entering any contests this spring or summer? 

April #IWSG: Rainy Days and Zoo Trips

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: 
When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?

Co-Hosts:

Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Renee Scattergood, and Tamara Narayan!

This past month brought tons of rain, a snow day, and the flu. I love rain. Don't even talk to me about the other two incidences. 

I don't have to dig deep these days. The faucet in my writerly brain overfloweth. My CP and I are on a roll. Almost finished with our initial exchange-two-chapters-at-a-time method, I'm anxious to dig deeper. If you fail at digging a tunnel to the heart of your story or you're stuck in the muddy middle, I suggest reading K.M. Weiland's blog posts (talk about a gold mine!) and the book Story Genius by Lisa Cron.

I'm keeping this post short this month due to flu bug crawling its way into our home. I can't wait to hear how you guys dig deep and keep writing strong! 

We did manage a day outing during Easter break. I highly recommend the free St. Louis Zoo. The penguin exhibit and the sea lion tunnel are worth the traffic jams. 

March #IWSG: March Madness (aka editing like crazy) Month

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal / finish a story?

Co-Hosts:

Mary Aalgaard, Bish Denham,Jennifer Hawes, Diane Burton, and Gwen Gardner!

Happy March Madness! 

I'm super excited to co-host today! My CP is a drill sergeant. Just kidding. But she keeps me moving on my WIP. When I finish two chapters and send them to her, I critique hers and get ready to send a few more. We go back and forth until we get through the entire manuscript this way. Then we will exchange the whole manuscript for a final walk-through. Along the way, I take breaks. Sometimes I hang out with this guy Oliver. And, yes, that is a kitty bow tie.

But mostly, after a long week of editing or writing, I take my youngest downtown to get ice cream while I get a coffee drink. Then we snoop around, checking out the local museums and attractions. One place she loves to visit is the Hannibal History Museum. They sponsor the local Steampunk festival each year. In the back room, they have about twenty dioramas. Each one displays a scene from Mark Twain's book Tom Sawyer. It's a frightening experience especially with the lights turned low. And when you press a button, you hear a lady's voice reading from the book. Not creepy at all.  

When I finish editing a manuscript, I clean my entire house. Yay me. How about you? How do you celebrate each step along the way? 

P.S. I apologize to my WordPress friends. In order for my avatar with a link to my blog to show up in your comment feed, do I need to create a Wordpress/Gravatar account? Not sure why it won't show up like on other blogs. Is there any other way to do this without having to get a WordPress account? Any thoughts? 

February #IWSG: Murder, Anyone?

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: What do you love about the genre you write in most often?

Co-Hosts: Stephen Tremp, Pat Garcia,Angela Wooldridge, Victoria Marie Lees, and Madeline Mora-Summonte!

I write mostly upper middle-grade/young adult mysteries and fantasy with 12-14 year old protagonists. 

I have always loved mysteries: murder mysteries, art heists, stolen artifacts. It doesn't matter whether the mysteries are geared for kids or adults or anyone in between. I LOVE all forms of mysteries: books, movies, TV series. 

Any good story/TV show will incorporate a heavy dose of mystery and intrigue. In reading/writing mysteries, I love the set-up, the devious deed, the red-herrings, the suspect list, the plot twists, the motives, the means, the opportunity, and the big reveal. 

My favorite mystery writer for kids is Robin Stevens. Her Muder Most Unladylike series feature kid detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong who solve murders in the English countryside at a boarding school known as Deepdean. They also solved one aboard the Orient Express, and in her most recent novel, they solved a double murder at Cambridge University. 

My favorite fantasy series staring paranormal investigators would be none other than the Lockwood & Co. books by Jonathan Stroud.

What keeps me turning the pages of a good mystery is my personal hunt for the murderer or the art thief or the villain, trying to solve the case before the main character does.

What is your favorite genre and why? 

January #IWSG: Steps to Success

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

Co-Hosts: Tyrean Martinson, The Cynical Sailor, Megan Morgan, Rachna Chhabria, and Jennifer Lane.

I write everyday. Some days I write all the words and other days only a scene or two. With an active family of five, it's challenging to be an author, but I make it a priority. And the kids hand me plot twists left and right and enough dialogue to fill endless novels. So there's that.

As for the publishing side, I would like to state that I have pursued new book deals and an agent with full force this past year. I have a couple of finished manuscripts with publishers and one with several agents. Still waiting on decisions. *Twiddles thumbs, taps fingers on the desk, refreshes email every ten seconds* This process takes time and patience. Oh, did I mention patience? Like an ocean full of tearing-out-your-hair kind of patience??? 

In the meantime, while I wait for bookish news, I write and live life. My two WIPs are shaping up nicely. 

I thought the Midwest dodged a bullet called winter. A week and a half ago I hiked with my family in fifty-degree weather. Yes, we enjoy those temps around here for December. This past week we plunged into wind chills of thirty below. Send summer and a remote car starter. 

Creepy barn from our hike.

One week later. Yay, snow.

I hope everyone had a safe and warm Christmas. And if you tell me you spent your holiday in Hawaii, I will stick up my nose at you. Hope everyone writes all the words this new year and has much success! 

December #IWSG: THE END IS NEAR

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: As you look back on 2017, with all its successes and failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

Co-Hosts: Julie Flanders,Shannon Lawrence, Fundy Blue,and Heather Gardner!

The end is near.
How did this happen? If I could backtrack, I would switch brains with a NY Times Bestselling author. Okay, maybe that's not what IWSG intended by the question of the month. But I write fiction. Can you blame me for dreaming?

My NaNo month ended on a high note. In November, I wrote almost 25k for my new MG mystery, and I started a new MG sci-fi thriller with another 8500 words. In fact, I'm so pumped about my new sci-fi that I'm ditching the other one (for now) and going full force with the newer one.
Did that make sense?
Brain is fuzzy.
Writer's cramp.
Where's my coffee IV?

During Thanksgiving vacation, we stopped at a hotel about an hour from Chicago where I got this crazy idea for a sci-fi novel. Inspiration can literally hit you anywhere at anytime. I don't think I've ever been struck before with such an overwhelming and fun idea for a story!

Good luck with revisions this month. I'm sticking to my rough draft. Hoping to edit after the new year. Merry Christmas!

How about you? What would you do differently this past year? Want to switch places with anyone?