Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

Before I start in on the next blogfest I want to say THANK YOU to all the Tumble 4 Ya participants!  I had way more fun than I should've reading about your 80s crushes and truly appreciate each post. I'll do a retro recap later this week, but for now... Today is the Origins blogfest hosted by D.L. Hammons , Katie Mills , Alex J. Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish in which we explain how it is we got started on this writing thing.  Just like we've all got different writing styles/genres/etc., I'm sure we're all going to have varied Origins stories, so this is going to be interesting. I've always been enthralled by words, and looking back, I see they've played an important role in my personal history, whether writing up quarterly reports in my former life as an investment consultant or drafting a memo for school parents in yet another former life as president of the parent-teacher organization. But creative writing didn't grab me by the throat and refuse...

Today I'd like to direct you to a few authorly places: With the eBook revolution, are signed books going the way of the dinosaur?  No way! says Marcus Clearspring, author of Writing Investigated. He's got an interesting guest post over at Arlee Bird's place about   Electronic book signing .   If you check it out, please be sure to let me know if you think this is something worth trying.  Here is an excellent post by The Fallen Monkey on the top three grammatical errors she sees in manuscripts, complete with a punctuation cheat sheet.  The article is concise, clear, and provides great examples. The Monkey is a  former high school English teacher, current manuscript editor, and all around cool chick. At Thoroughly Smitten, you can read my take on one of the most famous couples in literature:  Fictional Felicity:  Rhett & Scarlett (by far the least authorly post of the four---be warned!) Omnific Publishing has started an " Ask an ...

Today is Lisa Galek's Happy Birthday, Harry blogfest in honor of Harry Potter's birthday.  My contribution is an excerpt from my fanfiction Professor Burbage and the Potions Master . This scene occurs in Harry's 5th year.  I thought it would be fun to give the professors a little love. Excerpt "A New Year" Professor Burbage and the Potions Master Charity returned to her second year as a Hogwarts professor after spending a good portion of her summer holidays in America. While there, she and her parents had visited Salem, Massachusetts, site of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Quite hilarious really, seeing that as far as anyone knew, witches and wizards hadn't appeared in America until the late 1800s. Charity declared that the first staff meeting of each new school year was like a birthday for Hogwarts, and so she returned from her travels with gifts for each of the Hogwarts teachers. She gave them out as they gathered in the moldy staff lounge. “For y...

I've got a guest post today over at the Savvy Authors website in which I dish out ten quick tips for giving your manuscript a final polish before it goes into editing.  Just thought I'd pass on some things I've noted through my editing role that've helped me with my own writing. Arg! I just noticed a problem w/ my post over there.  The strikeouts for my example were eliminated, so it's a little confusing.  I've notified my contact, but until it gets straightened out, this version of points 6-10 will be easier to follow:   For the points below, I’ll use the following excerpt (in which it will become abundantly clear I spent way too many hours reading Archie comics at my grandma’s).   There’s nothing wrong with the excerpt grammatically, but I’m sure you’ll agree it can be improved.   We’ll refine it in stages. Excerpt             Joe wanted to go to the pool. “Hey, Alex, do you want to go to the...

In preparation for the impending release of Omnific Publishing's two Summer Lovin' Anthologies on July 5, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Save the Ta-Tas Foundation , many of us participating in this week's Meet an Author Monday blog hop have breast-cancer related posts. Mine is about all the wonderful products available these days to make life after breast surgery more comfortable and just as active as the survivor wants it to be. I'm extremely (and inexplicably) fortunate that in the minefield of breast cancer, my only close encounter has been through my maternal grandmother.  She had a successful single mastectomy before I was even born, so the only thing I remember about it are the times she'd pass around her breast form at family parties.  You heard me right.  She'd gotten a new, satin, pillow-like thing that she was ever so pleased with because it was soft and not itchy.  Apparently describing it wasn't enough for her, because I cle...

A rockstar would probably be miffed at seeing her name on the marquis just above "Dog Training"...not squeal with glee and demand a photo. A rockstar would probably expect people to show at her gig...not exclaim "Really?!" when told there were fourteen registrations plus walk-ins. A rockstar would probably have rehearsed ahead of time...not relied on the grace of God and the wonderful questions and insights from attendees to keep the presentation flowing. A rockstar would probably have a whole stable of pens ready for merchandise signing...not wait for one of the purchasers to say "You're going to sign this, right?"   And I'm guessing a rockstar doesn't need to grasp on to her own hands during the "show" to keep them from wildly flailing about.  Ah, but a rockstar probably doesn't give out cookies, either, does she?  I do. :)  And today I'm giving them out to fabulous authors Trisha Wolfe and Killian McRae for hel...

We did it!  Ever since blog friend Michael Di Gesu and I discovered our birthdays are only three days apart---and that he's in Chicago and I'm in the western 'burbs---we've been talking about getting together.  And last Friday we made it happen.  Of course we made it happen; we're both stubborn Tauruses (or would that be Tauri?), after all. This is us at the Grand Lux Cafe on Wabash I'm happy to report that Michael is just as lively, open, warm, and wonderful in real life as he is on his blog.  The conversation and laughs flowed easily all through lunch...and about 45 iced teas/Diet Cokes. But that wasn't enough, so after having the waiter snap a photo of us, we wandered over to a Starbucks that had the most AMAZING view of Wacker Drive and continued the conversation.   If you ever get the chance to meet up with someone you've clicked with in the blogosphere, I highly recommend it.  Thanks for the fun, Michael! During A to Z, Michael won a copy ...

Given the plethora of writing-related blog hops, I gather I'm not the only one who enjoys a writing challenge.  I don't often get to join those hops, as I'm still trying to figure out how to keep all the balls I'm attempting to juggle in the air, but I'm very fortunate in that more than one of my balls---okay, can we please switch to oranges or something?  Thanks---as I was saying, more than one of my oranges involves writing. Added to my ever growing list of duties at work is writing about products for my company's website and blog.  This can get dull at times, but being the writing dork that I am, I get huge kick out of wooing the search engines with my words, i.e. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  The challenge lies in packing the entries with key words without looking like I'm doing it.  The most important thing is to have something informative and appealing to potential customers, and that ain't gonna happen if I simply parrot the same words ove...

Hey!  The amazing Jen Daiker has interviewed me at her unedited blog.  It would be tremendously fun to see you over there.  I am doubly honored because Fallen Monkey , a talented writer with an always insightful and inspiring blog, has bestowed upon me the Write Hard award (created by Aaron Polson: see rules here ). Now I get to pass it on to three more writers who I feel live up to the "write hard" spirit (i.e. writers who work at their craft, writers who never give up despite the odds, writers who constantly turn out quality work).  I give this award to:  Jen Daiker at unedited , whose blog is uber-successful for good reason.  I greatly admire her energetic and engaging posts as well as her discipline to post regularly. And all the while she's writing her own promising creative works as well as getting out there and meeting other authors both in the cyber world and at real life book signings. Jennifer DeLucy , author of Seers of Light and W...

One of the best---and most nerve-wracking---things about having a story published is knowing that friends and family members are reading it...and wondering which character is them. The truth is, even though it's fiction, as writers we draw from our reality, so it's only natural that certain physical characteristics, personality traits, and even experiences of those we know will find their way into our stories in some form.  But as I've explained over and over again, even though bits and pieces of reality make it into my stories, they're all split up and scrambled and then melded together in new ways so that none of my characters are wholly based on any one real person.  And...well...now it's confession time. There is one character in Three Daves that was written with one and only one real life person in mind. That'd be Aunt Lou, my MC's Godmother. For the part, I needed someone warm and honest and fun and with that certain je ne sais quoi that draws pe...

Here is my promised interview with Michael Di Gesu , talented interior designer, writer, illustrator, former model, and blogger extraordinaire. Right now he's celebrating the awesome news that his newest novel, The Blinded Gardener , made it through the first round of the American Breakthrough Novel Award! (Here's an excellent description of ABNA at erica & christy's blog). Congratulations, Michael.  I'm sure he's almost as excited about that as he is about winning my Junk in a Box competition. ;) The Interview:    1. When did you start writing, and what made you realize you loved it---was there a single moment or more of a realization over time? I started writing two years ago. With the economic crunch hitting at that time, interior designers were the first to get cut. Clients were not parting with their money. They were scared. I found I had much more time on my hands. Too much time. I had always loved fantasy novels and J.K Rowling and Terry brook...

What I discovered about myself when I got my very first laptop almost 2 years ago, is that I'm a rabbit at heart and prefer to hole into little cubbies. Despite my new ability to venture away from the desktop and out of the confinement of the small office, I've landed in the even smaller butler's pantry as my primary writing space. It's a narrow galley between the kitchen and the dining room w/ a pantry closet on one side and this small counter on the other.  I just couldn't focus in wide open spaces---far too many distractions.  So this is where I go when I need to get 'er done.  And yet, I'm still in the middle of the house and able to keep my mom-dar on. ;) Yes, that's a wine fridge on the right---what's your point?  The beauty is that when company is coming, I can easily whisk away the office supplies (including the pens, etc. in the coffee cups) and *bam* it becomes a beverage oasis.  The guests leave, and *bam* it's back to my "off...

We can say it doesn't, but we all know it does.  So tell me---exactly how big do you like 'em? This'd probably be a good time to tell you that I'm talking about chapter size.  One thing I've learned through writing and editing is that there are often multiple potential chapter breaks.  Sometimes an obvious stopping point screams out, but what to do when that doesn't happen?   Should word count be considered? For example, I've finally gotten back to my WIP and hammered out at least the beginning of a first chapter. I've reached a point where I could end the chapter...or I could keep going.  Either way it'll work just fine from a story perspective. As it stands right now, I'm at 2055 words, roughly 8 pages in print.  That strikes me as rather too short.  Is it?  Or is short a good thing? And do I need to aim for consistent chapter length throughout the story (I typically try to)? Or is content all that matters and I should stop asking these qu...

Welcome to the Harry Potter Blogfest   hosted by Michael at the In Time... blog. My entry is a re-worked scene from my novel-length fanfiction Professor Burbage and the Potions Master .  For me, this blogfest ended up being more an experiment in editing rather than writing---the original scene is 900+ words, but Michael's a very strict professor, and his requirement was 500 words, so I've chopped this baby down to nearly half its original size (525 words). It wasn't nearly as impossible a task as I at first thought it would be---merely a matter of removing unneccessary dialogue tags, paring back on overly detailed physical descriptions, cutting redundant phrasing, and searching out ways to say things more efficiently.  That's all.  What's amazing is that the scene lost absolutely nothing, but is now a smoother, sleeker version of its original self.  Editing rocks.  Thanks for making me challenge myself, Michael. Professor Elson and the Potions Master ...

A continuation of my contribution to the Outside My Box Blog Hop at Tessa's Blurb (You have until Dec 5 to join!) Link to Part One Link to Part Two An Icky Valentine's Day Part Three Danny was hauled off to the principal's office, and ten minutes later they came for Icky.  She stepped into the principal’s office just as he finished saying, “…one more infraction of the rules and there will be serious consequences, Mr. Eldridge.”  He looked up and saw Icky walking in.  “Good afternoon, Miss Karp.  Mr. Eldridge has something he’d like to say to you.”             Danny looked up from his hands, his face was flushed, and mumbled, “I’m sorry that I flattened you on the equipment and invaded your personal space.”             “Ahem,” the principal prodded.             “It won’t happen again,”...