Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Reading #amwriting #Thoughts

 Meander 1 - Reading am nearly finished with the books in the Drkover series by Marian Zimmer Bradley. One of the books was new and one seemed like new since I have no idea when I last read it. I really enjoy this series and reading these fantasy/science fiction books has kept me on with writing my contemporary story/

Meander 2 - Thoughts - Another vaccine. Let's hope this gives more protection and this time of solitude will end soon. On someone else's blog, I saw a picture from the critique group. How I wish we can meet in person soon. Doing the critiques via the internet helps some but often the voices aren't as clear as I would like to hear. Being part of this critique group that was started around 1990 and has changed over the years. I often wonder what has happened to the people who dropped out. A few of them have gone onto writing fame but I fear some of them have stopped writing. Several of them are or have been with my publisher Books We Love.

Meander 3 - Writing - Am well into the first rewrite of Haunted dreams and am making sure of the time line in this draft. What a scrambled mess that was. But slowly it's making sense. I often wonder if this is really a romance. I don't think I'll ever write one that will fit into the Harlequin brand. My stories ahve too much going on beside the romance but that's the way I like to tell stories about people and how love can help them with their day to day living.

My Places

 

https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f

bid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

 http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com

https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/

 

Buy Mark

https://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/

 

 

 

 

Meandering On Monday with Janet Lane Walters #MFRWauthor #BWLPublishing #Poetry #Writing #Critique Group

Meander 1 - Poem - Cat and Mouse -

Smile a subtle grin in Mona Lisa fashion.
What was once the mouse
Has turned around to fight.
The cat is in the corner
And all around the house
There's a gathering of darkness
Of what should never be.
The mouse will tease and play the cat
And then it will escape
To sit in its little hidey hols.
Oh, who is the cat.
It's you.

Meander 2 - Critique Group - We had to cancel our biweekly meeting. Too much of life intruded. Gave me time to think about the group. It's been going on for years. Few of the members are the same but for me. What I've discovered with the present group and also with ones before it that we're sisters and are helping each other. Also like sisters, we don't always agree especially when we critique each other's stories. Then like sisters, we listen if the advice is good. Or we go our own way. Thanks guys for helping me become a better writer.

Meander 3 - Writing _ The story is going along and one day I will come to the end. I needed to send the cover artist a little bit more about the characters as in who pairs with who so she can do the cover. Looking forward to seeing it.

My writing life -- Critique group and me

At our last critique, I read the start of a new book. I felt there was a problem with the start but wasn't sure what it was. After hearing the comments, I thought about what they had said. They were right and wrong. What I'd done was load the beginning with too many people and too many problems they faces. They made some good suggestions for cuts in the opening. What they really did was make me think about the following questions. Did I begin in the right place? Was there too much back story in the first seven pages? What about characters? Had I allowed the reader to get a feeling for the character through whose eyes the scene will unfold?

The answer to some of these questions was a definite yes. Since this is an ensemble story with eight characters sharing the viewpoint, I had to find a way to let the reader be with each character during their part of the narrative. It's not that I began in the wrong place or with the wrong character. Jamming was what I'd done and I'd made the problems so dire that the characters would have to run off in five or more directions and nothing would be accomplished except a mess. Part of this is that I have lived with these characters and the developing situations through three prior books. This is the last one and will complete the cycle.

I've taken the opening apart and pulled what I think should be known in the beginning and reorganized the story. I'll post the new first few paragraphs tomorrow and hopefully those who heard the first will comment on what I've done. If not at next critique group, I'll read it again.