Research: Where Ya Wanna Go?

This week for our How I Write series, my accountability group was asked, “If you could do anything for writing research, what would you do?”

Honestly, this was a no-brainer for me. I’d head over to Suzi Love’s blog and pull up her category of posts for the Best Places to Visit that relate to Regency England and start mapping out an itinerary. Since the question seemed to imply that time and money weren’t obstacles, I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about leaving anywhere off the list.

Oh, and I’d definitely take my camera. So I could go back later and revisit everything. Although I might have to invest in a few more memory cards.

I’ve never been to England, but as you can imagine, would love to go. Getting me to come home might be a problem. Hopefully, I wouldn’t fall through a time portal or anything so melodramatic while I was there, but I’m sure I’d come home with a whole flock of plot bunnies.

Your Turn: So what would you do for research on your creative project?


And if you’d like to read how the rest of my accountability group would like to do in the name of research, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney

Writing Plan: Summer Edition

Writing Plan: Summer Edition -- Photo of someone coming down the pool slide.
Will you make a splash this summer?
This week for our How I Write series, my accountability group’s topic is Summer Writing Plan. We were asked, “What adjustments will you make to get through the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer?”

We have 4 more days of school this year. Our son will be moving up from middle school to high school. It doesn’t seem possible we’ll have two in high school next year. But that also means for the next 9 weeks or so, I’ll have them underfoot for more of the day than I’m currently used to. They LOVE to sleep in. And by that I mean until noon or so. Then they wake up ravening beasts who want fed and entertained (which now usually means driven around to either be dropped off at a friends or to pick up said friends who are likewise transportationally challenged.

Luckily our schedules shouldn’t change too much except to open up more free time for everyone, both over the summer and next school year as I’ll only have 1 drop-off/pick-up time instead of two.

Writing Plan: My Big To Dos

June

  • Add 8,210 words to BHT to bring it up to 90k by July 1 — 328 words/day
  • Halfway point for Jack of Hearts (Stop laughing! it’s only ~2,300 words per day to get to 35k by mid June.)
  • Outline JoH using 9 sentences for structure and fine tuning.
  • Pitch Workshop, online
  • Get business cards reprinted with current info

July

  • Continue working on JoH
  • Attend National RWA Conference in Anaheim toward the end of the month
  • Take lessons learned from pitch class & combine with story bones for sequels to BHT

August

  • Continue working on JoH — need 70-75k by end of Sept
  • Analyze scenes for Revealed, Sweet Temptation and Flower Queen’s Daughter to see where to improve or rewrite

Writing Plan: My Big How Tos

  • Get Up Early and get working by 7am to take advantage of a quiet house
  • Focus on priority goals first: BHT & JoH before everything else
  • Track time spent writing in spreadsheet
  • Take advantage of other writers doing sprints via twitter or chat rooms
  • Limit Facebook Games until after lunch

YOUR TURN:How does summer affect your creative schedule? Does it enhance or impede it?

And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my accountability group answered, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris *
* Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 14

Week 14 of our 365 Photo Challenge. This week marks the 100th photo posted for the year.

As I mentioned, we were on vacation last week for the kids’ Spring Break. We flew across the country to Maryland and stayed near where I grew up. Last year, our daughter and I did the American History tour through her school and this year, our son decided he didn’t want to do that. Our daughter is very interested in history and totally geeks out over the Civil War. And since that’s part of the next section that the boy will be studying in school, it seemed a perfect opportunity given where I grew up to steep them in it for the week.

Sunday, we snuck up on the airport and flew across the country to Baltimore, MD, where our first stop was lunch: for some good ol’ Maryland Crab Cakes.

Monday, we went to Harper’s Ferry, WVa., home of John Brown, the abolitionist’s Fort. This historic town is all of about 15 miles from the house I grew up in. We also stopped off by my old high school on the way. Lots of additions, but much of it is still the same.

Tuesday, we went to the Antietam battlefield in Sharpsburg, MD. It was the scene of the single bloodiest battle in American history with 23,000 troops killed that day. My dad was a Civil War buff and I remember Antietam as the “Land of Obelisks” because of the monuments. Turns out, there aren’t quite as many as I remember. Distance from my mom’s house: 20 miles.

Wednesday, we drove part of the way to Washington, D.C. and then took the metro the rest of the way into the city. We got off late enough we didn’t get to do a bus tour of the city to see all the monuments, but did stop in at the exhibit “The Art of Video Games” at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery. We also made a stop at the Newseum and I managed to see more of it than 2 floors this time as I wasn’t the only chaperone willing to take a bunch of 8th graders out on the observation deck overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. About 50 miles from where I grew up. Can we say all my major school trips went there?

Thursday, we went to Gettysburg, PA and took a guided tour of the battlefield after watching a movie narrated by Morgan Freeman and experiencing the cyclorama. Another 50 miles from my mom’s house. Getting the sense that I grew up in a historically rich area? It’s funny, Gettysburg was always the “Land of Cannons” to me, but they have WAY more monuments than cannon. They’re also doing an impressive job restoring the land to the condition/uses from the time of the battle. This means clearing trees in some areas and planting new ones in others.

Friday, we took the kids down to Chestertown, MD on the Eastern Shore, across the Bay Bridge for what was probably our longest trip of the week: 116 miles. Our destination was Washington College, where my husband and I met 22 years ago. I used to make that drive every week after I graduated and my husband was still in school until I gave up and moved back to the town. I’m not sure if the kids were impressed or not, but we did get to run into a few professors and staff that were still there. Which was a good thing since we won’t be able to make it back for his 20th reunion next month.

Saturday, we pretty much didn’t do anything at all. I dropped the family off at my mom’s and drove about 6 miles to meet another writer at a small coffee shop and spent about 2 hours chatting.

Sunday, we had a lovely Easter Brunch with my mom and then drove back to Baltimore to catch our flight home.

Anyway, that’s just a little bit of the history behind these photographs.

What you see below are links to my flickr set for the photos I’m posting for this challenge. Click on any photo below to go to flickr and then you can navigate through the set with the “Previous” and “Next” arrows at the top.


Sun: Apr 01, 2012

Mon: Apr 02, 2012

Tue: Apr 03, 2012

Wed: Apr 04, 2012

Thu: Apr 05, 2012

Fri: Apr 06, 2012

Sat: Apr 07, 2012

Thursday Thirteen: San Diego Tourism

 

13 Touristy Things To Do
In San Diego

 

Since I’ve got family visiting this week and I know of several people planning to visit the city, I thought I’d toss these up this week. We’re talking about going on the whale/dolphin tour thing tomorrow. DD asked why I didn’t include Disneyland (where we went on Sunday along with the rest of SoCal it seemed) and I told her that was LA/Anaheim, not SD. Ok. so La Jolla, Coronado aren’t in SD proper either and the Wild Animal Park is in Escondido. But they’re CLOSER! =P

1. The San Diego Zoo

2. The Wild Animal Park

3. Old Town

4. Mission San Diego

5. Sea World

6. The Midway

7. Hornblower Whale & Dolphin Cruises

8. The Seal Bus Tours

9. Seaport Village

10. The Seals @ Children’s Beach in La Jolla

11. Cabrillo National Monument

12. San Diego Maritime Museum: Star of India

13. The Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Susan Helene Gottfried 2 Melanie 3 Nicholas
4 Alice Audrey 5 Gwen Mitchell 6 Shelley Munro
7 Cora Zane 8 Lyrical Press 9 Lady Rose
10 On a Limb with Claudia 11 Paige Tyler 12 Heather
13 Kat’s Krackerbox 14 Lynne 15 Diana
16 Mama Bear 17 Savannah Chase 18 Dayle A. Dermatis

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!