Butt In Chair Report

Hello all!

Well, as I was talking to Dyann on the phone tonight about progress and what we'd written today, it reminded me that a looooong time ago we used to have Butt In Chair reports. And since I am procrastinating going to bed, but don't have enough time to write another chapter, I thought I'd drop in here and provide an update on what I'm working on.

Today I wrote 5 chapters in my WIP Paranormal novella. That translates to roughly 12K words! You see, I'm on a crunch here. I have to have this finished and submitted by June 6, and other mandatory stuff bumped it. So today I sent my children outdoors, even turned a blind eye when they showed up on the porch literally covered head to toe in mud, and did nothing but write.

And I am loving my story. Sadly, I've run out of physical energy to keep the midnight oil burning longer and crank out another chapter. But, my hard effort has paid off, as I am now 68% finished with the book, and that's 20% more accomplished than I had achieved as of yesterday.

Tomorrow, after meeting with my wonderful DreamWeaver partners, I hope to crank out three chapters. Which should leave me finishing the book on Friday sometime, composing the synopsis, and getting it sent off.

Maybe I'll hear back about the first one in the series by then too :)

Till next time,
~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com

Sharing A New Cover

Hi all! Popping in to share a new cover with all of you.

Misunderstanding Mason
(Coming 2011)
Digital novella

Sometimes the most vivid pictures go unseen...

When Kirstin Jones agreed to work with Mason on a free-lance job for a wealthy client, she never thought it would destroy her five-year relationship. But with the client’s keen observance, she began to realize she was nothing more than Mason’s shadow. Fed up with his insensitivities, she moved out – into their next door neighbor’s house. Desperate to stand on her own, she accepts work with the same client once again. Only this time, the project requires Mason’s help. To obtain his aid, she must meet his terms. And what he wants is more than she can afford.

Mason Montgomery is baffled by Kirstin’s claims that he never has time for her. While verbalizing his emotions has never been his strong point, he’s spent five years showing his love. He needs Kirstin more than he wants to admit, and when she up and leaves him, he’ll stop at nothing to get her back… Even if that means working with the client who twisted truths and tore his life apart.

This time Mason's not leaving room for misunderstandings.

~Claire
claireashgrove.com

Claire's Corner Updates

Hey all! It's been way too long since I've been here, but I've been swamped, and swamped, and swamped some more.

I'm popping in today because I have some news -- quite a bit actually!


First: Today is my RELEASE DAY for Waiting For Yes.

Gabrielle Warrenton gave up everything to pursue her dream of a first-class Egyptian Arabian breeding farm. Her future lies in her new stallion’s success. Though she possesses an exceptional eye for horseflesh, she lacks the training knowledge, and Bahadur Mamoon has a date with the nation’s most affluent show in three weeks. Nothing that would present a problem given his previous credentials. Only, the sellers disguised one critical fact—he’s crazy.

Jake Lindsey-Sullivan was once part of an exceptional Arabian training team. Under his mother’s guidance, he developed an instinctual talent, but she was the star, the cornerstone of his life. Until she met a premature death. Grief-stricken and plagued by guilt, Jake abandoned the world of horses. Now an over-the-road truck driver, he evades the memories.

When a snowstorm throws two Arabian professionals into close-quarters, they discover an engulfing passion. But will Mamoon rip open emotional scars, or forever seal them shut?



Waiting For Yes is available through The Wild Rose Press, and by order through bookstores everywhere. It is available in both digital and print formats.

Second -- I'm happy to announce that The Wild Rose Press has contracted my 2011 Christmas novella, A Broken Christmas, a heartwarming story about a broken soldier's Christmas homecoming.

Third -- A few weeks ago, my first romantic suspense novel, Untrustable, sold to Turkey as a thriller. I'm international -- yay! It will be out sometime in the next 18 months in hard cover.

Fourth -- On the heels of the Turkey sale, the same romantic suspense sold to Berkley, for their HEAT Line, as an erotic romantic suspense. This has prompted the creation of a second pen name -- Tori St. Claire

I anticipate some more news to share in the next few weeks too... hum. But as you can see, I've been super busy. Unfortunately, when those deadlines hit, my blogging time must take a backseat.

Keep writing folks! And keep commenting here too!

~Claire

Excitement, Excitement!

well, about four months ago, I swore I was done with contests. I'd entered one with two entries, and out of a total of six judges had one who had anything remotely constructive to say. The rest went hog wild over things like separating dashes with spaces, how many spaces came before/after elipses, and the title of my manuscript. Seriously.

Cathy, fellow Dreamweaver, convinced me to enter one more -- North Texas RWAA's Great Expectations.

So, I polished my newest manuscript, my first romantic suspense, and mailed it off and promptly forgot about it.

Until I got a phone call telling me I'd finaled!

Actually, my mother received the call while I was snowed in on my farm. She phoned me in the middle of my, "Oh my gosh, the tractor cleared 4ft of lane and I need milk!" trip to the grocery store. I recieved the news while browsing hamburger.

Now it's wait and see. The manuscript goes to the final round editor and I am over the top excited about the opportunity. Fingers and toes crossed!

~Claire

www.claireashgrove.com

When Desire and Ability Don't Mesh

I've long been someone who preaches "You just have to make the time to write." Along with, "Write every day."

These last couple of weeks, I'm realizing that I have a burning desire to write, and my writing hours aren't meshing with that desire. My ability to produce, has been blindsided by one thing after another.

Sure, I'm still putting in words daily, and I'm still making sure I devote the effort, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the number of things that are intent on deterring me.

The latest was my living room.

Today while I'm getting things in order and gearing up for what would be a productive night of writing, with the ability to knock out at least half of my remaining words needed to complete a book, a friend of mine walks into my kitchen and says, "There's a puddle in your living room."

Well, my first instinct was, "Damn dog."

Oh no. It couldn't be that simple. My roof is leaking. Which put my mind on roof repairs for the rest of the day. And that means my weekend is now devoted to repairing the roof. Now, I have a pan keeping water off my hardwood floor and praying for everything to freeze solid. Snow, that I was bemoaning and hoping would go away, I want to stick around. Heck, big fat chunks of ice that take years to thaw out would be awesome right now. Anything to stop the plink plink plink background noise and the reminder that I have a headache to deal with that I can't fix immediately.

All of which is making it terribly difficult to focus on conflict resolution and happily ever afters.

Ugh.

But for those of you who are having similiar experiences with confined muses, take heart. If you can manage to drown out the noise, when you can tap into that muse and escape the reality for a little while, it does make the pounding in your head a little easier to deal with. The hammers might start up again the minute you get away from the computer, but as I've learned in the short tidbits of time I've been able to steal since January started -- for a little while, everything is normal and calm when I can craft words.

If I can just figure out how to, say, keep the kids from drowning the cat when I send one to help the other wash his hands... I might be able to eek out a few more words each day.

Laugh!

Happy writing all.

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com

Frustrations

Several weeks ago, perhaps longer, I read a post by Dean Wesley Smith about how authors should not be afraid to mention how long it takes them to write a book, and that the perception that writing a book in a short time is a bad thing is hogwash. He went on to say that prolific writers are the writers of the future. At the time I read that, I had really no idea attitudes or perceptions like this existed.

Oh, could I have not begun to realize how quickly my little delusions would shatter.

I am a prolific writer. I write quickly to boot. (It drives my critique partners nuts sometimes -- right gals?) I have been fighting constraints related to this. Been told to slow down. Been advised to steer away from areas I want to pursue. Been told to not admit how quickly I can put a book together start to finish.

All since I started reading Dean's blog -- maybe he jinxed me. Laugh!

So today, after hitting a final plateau in my frustrations, I bit the bullet and reinvented myself incognito so I can pursue some of my other passions. And you know, it felt liberating to take that jump. To embrace this evidently shady side of my nature and celebrate it by promoting it. I'm still Claire, still writing romance, and that won't change. But I also have an alter-ego, and my alter-ego doesn't write romance at all.

Let's change this, authors, if we can. It's really a shame that an author can't be congratulated for multiple accomplishments under the same identity. We've been branded, we've given control over our careers to others. I read an agent who said once, "Revisions should take at least six months to complete." -- Says who? Doesn't that depend on how quickly the author grasps what's being asked of her, how quickly she can apply that, and how much time to spend with her craft she has?

There's something wrong with the belief that quality is only established within certain parameters of time. Quality is only dependant on how seriously the author applies herself to her craft. I can't buy into any other philosophy. I mean, we're talking sheer math to a degree. If one author has 12 hours in a day to write, and another author has 2 hours to write... yeah... those revisions might take six months for the second, but that time is going to be significantly shorter to the first author.

It's like saying the only way to achieve an "A" in school is to study by one method and one method only. And as authors, people who exercise -- really exercise -- the creative part of our brains, telling us there's only one way to write and only one acceptable approach is simply... unacceptable.

So here's to escaping frustrations, and here's to embracing the red-headed stepchild of my personality :)

~Claire