I'm about 99% sure I am going to a Conference FINALLY!!

I am very very very excited about this!!! I received an email from my publisher yesterday telling their authors that they will be participating in The Write Stuff, a conference. Of course I checked it out right away. It's in Allentown, PA....just under a 6 hour drive for me...doable. Then I looked at the cost....holy cow it's cheap!!!! Only $120 for non members and it includes all workshops, breakfast, lunch, a welcome reception, etc....I was blown away!! I checked out last year's schedule of events...awesome!!! They haven't announced much about this year's conference, but Kim Lionetti from Bookends will be there! And guess what?? She represents women's fiction and romance!! Conference attendees get a discount on a room at the hotel where it is held...$85 a night.....bargain!! I'm thinking I can do the whole thing for around $350 if my writer friend Sarah gives me the thumbs up and splits gas and hotel with me!!

Anyone else thinking of going to this conference???

That first moment

I remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to write a novel.

I've written my entire life practically, though I never called myself a writer. I kept a diary when I was a kid and teen, religiously....pages upon pages I'd pour my thoughts onto each night...especially in high school with teenage drama at it's peak. I was the reporter for a club in high school too..even won a state award for it. It was thrilling to have my little pieces published in local newspapers...see my name in lights...or newsprint anyway. I even applied to college for Journalism- I passed on it though. But I continued to write in my diary/journal..sometimes I went months without writing...adult life can get so busy.

But the moment I wanted to write a novel..an entire fictional story...that came at a friend's house during game night...before we all had kids. A bunch of early twenty-somethings playing Guestures and drinking. At one point, a couple of my friends broke out into song..an old song- like 60's I think. We laughed and everyone continued on....except me. The wheels in my brain were spinning. What if I took that silly song lyric and applied the situation to a real person in present day...and wrote a story about it. I could do that!!

And so started my infatuation with writing stories and creating my own worlds.

That original story did get shelved..the MC was male and I found it incredibly difficult to write from a male's perspective, especially in 1st person. I will finish it some day though...i still love the concept! I moved on to something a little closer to my heart after that. And like many novelist, my first completed story was based on my own life. I love that story so much...it was so near and dear to me, as crappy as it was!! But I had done it...I had completed an entire novel!!! I felt so accomplished!! It's sitting here in my laptop...waiting for the day I yank it out, dust it off and make it into something fantastic.

What about you??? Where is your first masterpiece?? What inspired you? When did you first know when you wanted to write novels??

How important is word count to you???

I remember way back when I first started writing a novel. It was just this random thought that had sprung into my brain. I ended up setting that story aside and started on something that was closer to my heart...a story that flowed from my finger tips much easier....a story based on my own life and experiences. I finished that story and I was so so proud of myself. At that time I counted it in pages...it was double spaced and over 500 pages. Then I learned that novels are counted by words. I was so new back then and so not familiar with word processing software that I picked a few random pages and counted the words on each page and added them and divided to get an average word count per page.....I was at about 225. I multiplied that by my page count and holy $%^@ I had a lot of words!!!!!!! I finally figured out an easier way to do my word count and my original number was around 135,000.

I worked on that story, I perfected it as much as my green self could and whittled it down to 120,000. I learned that was a reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaly long story compared to most commercial fiction. Most fiction in my genre ranges between 80,000-90,000. I tried to cut out more but realized I couldn't without hacking off major limbs of the story. It takes place over 2 years....it's a long story!!

The story has been shelved for a while now....I was such a newbie back then and once I learned more about the craft of writing, it just wasn't worth it to spend the necessary time on it to get it where it needs to be to submit anywhere. I may go back to it someday though :)

But I learned a lot about word count and story pacing. I don't think I'll ever write a story again that takes place over such a long period of time, unless it skips a chunk of time in the middle.

What are your thoughts on word count?? Do you try to stay within a certain range? Do you just write and where it ends, it ends???

When you edit does your count go up or down??? I've gone both ways in the edit process.....For A Bitch Named Karma, it's official word count was 69,000 (up from the 64,000 when I originally finished writing it) when I submitted it to my publisher...which is short compared to other chick lit/women's fiction novels. (But not a big deal for my publisher because they publish works of all lengths from 5,000 to over 120,000) I'd tried in the past to bump it up but it just didn't work. Once I started my last self edit, per my publishers guidelines, I did manage to bump it up a few thousand by working more on eliminating adverbs and the infamous- show don't tell.

Wow...this post got kinda long!!!

Do you read each and every comment on your blog???

My blog time is limited so I just cannot read every post every day by every blogger that I follow. I can't imagine anyone does unless you spend your entire day just reading and posting on blogs!!

Some of the blogs I read end up with 40, 50, 100 comments. Holy Cow!!! I cannot imagine having that many comments on one of my posts!!! Yikes!! I love reading what people have to say about my posts and it brings me such joy when people tell me how they feel about my thoughts.

But what if someday I do get 50 comments on one blog post??? I'm not sure if I could physically read that many comments every day.

And the blogs that generate that much of a response...do the bloggers even read the comments????

So bloggers out there...do you read every single comment??? Or once they get to a certain point do you stop???

A range of emotions

For me, a story is not complete unless I've laughed, felt butterflies in my stomach and cried at one time or another throughout the story. And this is whether it's my story or someone else's. I love the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the laughter, the pain, the flutters of a first kiss!

I love writing something that brings a huge smile to my face. I love writing a first kiss scene or a sex scene that makes my stomach feel like a million butterflies are swirling around inside. And tears....I've shed tears while writing my stories, both from joy and sorrow.

My only hope is that my stories do this for others. I've gotten feedback form friends who've read my stuff and nothing makes me happier than hearing them tell me they sobbed at the end!! :)

The piece that is nominated for a Pushcart

I was asked what this piece is about.....so I decided to post it for you all to read!!

Enjoy!


Flying in Pink Satin

I fidget with my hair, smoothing an already perfect knot atop my head. I check the pink satin ribbons criss-crossed at my ankles to reassure myself of their stability. Their pink is a bit more faded than the last time my fingers tightened them; their feel is softer too, but their strength is still there. I hope to pull from them what I need. They must do so much more today than simply hold slippers to my feet.

I look around the small waiting room which has begun to fill with others dressed like me, black Lycra with fluttering organza skirts. Their faces are smooth, devoid of crows’ feet and laugh lines. Even their ribbons are youthful, shining a much brighter shade of pink than mine. I look down at my feet once again, dull and dirty satin staring back at me. Does there come a time when it is just too late to reclaim a passion?

When the door opens, I follow into a room of floor to ceiling reflection. There is no hiding. A soft melody trails from the shelf as the instructor begins her lesson. I place my right hand firmly on the wooden bar but my body freezes in place. I will my feet to move like the others, but they won’t concede.


My gaze falls to the floor and I remember. I am taken to a joyous place where these same dull satin shoes soared and my heart did too. A warmth starts in my toes, climbing up my calves, my knees, my thighs. My feet start to find positions they hadn’t in years. They move like the motions were just made yesterday, rather than years ago. First position, second position, demi plie, grande plie, releve and back down again. I feel the warmth begin in my heart.

As our stretches come to an end, we line up. One by one the girls go ahead of me, each taking a few sashays then leaping into the air. I feel the fear and chill creep back into my chest. Simple warm-ups and bends are one thing. Can I reclaim the sensation of flying?

My turn approaches. I look to the instructor, a woman who is a bit seasoned like myself. She smiles at me and nods her head. Maybe she sees something familiar in me. I turn back and the line in front of me has disappeared. My arms form an “L”; the right straight in front, left out to the side. My right foot is behind me in preparation. On one and two, I sashay and on three my left foot crosses in front while my arms cross at my chest. On four my arms burst out from my body as I lift off the ground. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my head held high, my dulled satin shoes no longer appearing that way. The corners of my mouth have turned toward the heavens. I’m flying once again.

I've been nominated!!!!

I am so excited!!!! Here is an email I got today:

Stephanie,

Flash Me Magazine nominated six stories for the Pushcart Prize
from stories we published in 2009. We are pleased to announce
that your story, "Flying in Pink Satin", published January 31,
2009, was one of those six nominations!

The Pushcart Prize - Best of the Small Presses series, published
every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in
America. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short
stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of
our annual collections.

You can learn more at their web site:
http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.htm

Congratulations and good luck!
The staff at Flash Me Magazine
http://www.flashmemagazine.com

Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!