IWSG: Blogging plus L. Diane Wolf's Newest Release In Darkness: The Alien

 

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. IWSG is the brainchild of Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. We are rockin' the neurotic writing world.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, and Pat Garcia!

April 3 question - How long have you been blogging? (Or on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram?) What do you like about it and how has it changed?

I started blogging in 2011. I enjoyed expressing myself, throwing out opinions, experiences, telling visitors about my newest book. I had a good time. Then, covid hit. The pandemic really changed my life. At the same time, my husband started showing signs of dementia. Although neither of us came down with covid, I still haven't gotten over it. Not sure if one event or the other caused my problems or a combination. I lost my energy to write--the blog went by the wayside, except for IWSG. Thank goodness for this group. The support and encouragement has help a lot.

One of the best parts of blogging is welcoming guests, sharing their newest release. Today, I'd like to share our own L. Diane Wolf's newest.

 Souls shrouded in darkness…

Blurb: Abducted from her research station, Liz’s life is flung into chaos. Sold into servanthood for her knowledge of planetary mining to a race called the Stren, she discovers her problems go far deeper. She is to marry her alien master, Krist, after enduring a procedure designed to eradicate her emotions.

Desperate, Liz persuades the Stren to grant her the duration of a short voyage to change his perception of emotions. But how can she convince someone lacking feelings of their value? Is there a means of accessing the emotional side of Krist?

The Alien is the 4th book in the IN DARKNESS series. All books in the series are available on Amazon. 

About the author

L. Diane Wolfe

Senior Editor at Dancing Lemur Press LLC, Speaker, & Author

Known as “Spunk On A Stick,” Wolfe is a member of the National Speakers Association. She conducts seminars on book publishing, promoting, leadership, and goal-setting, and she offers book formatting and author consultation. Wolfe is the senior editor at Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C. and the author of seven books. She travels for media interviews and speaking engagements and maintains numerous websites & blogs, including the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

www.spunkonastick.net

www.dancinglemurpressllc.com

www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com

www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today. 

Monday Morning Musing: 2022 the First 10 Days

 

Good morning! Last Monday, I wrote about my plan to be more active on my blog. I'm doing pretty good with a post here on six out of seven days. 

I also planned to write more on my work-in-progress, The Case of the Wedding Wrecker (An Alex O'Hara PI mystery). I only missed one day so far this year. Since I started at the beginning of the story so I could ground myself, I haven't written that many words. I've tweaked, added descriptions, and deleted the first two chapters. That hurt. I didn't just delete, though. I saved the chapters in my "leftovers" file. It was good stuff, but it felt like it was dragging down the story. I needed to get to the wrecking part sooner.

Like revisions and edits, this is taking a lot longer than writing new. Oh, well. It needs to be done to get me back in the story. What's also helping is that I'm using it for my snippets each weekend with the Weekend Writing Warriors. 

On Fridays, I'll be writing about my favorite things. (Did the Sound of Music just zing through your mind, too?) Last Friday, I wrote about my favorite quote, one from Stephen King. If you know me, you know that scary things and horror are not my thing, so you're probably surprised I'd chose a Stephen King quote. Check it out.

I'm looking at my nutcrackers and Santa figures on top of the bookcases across from where I'm sitting. I hate taking down Christmas decorations. They are such a reminder of the holidays. Our tree is still up, too. I didn't do much decorating this year. My grandkids helped bring up the nutcrackers and Santas from the basement storeroom. I was hoping they would be back to help take them downstairs. 😊  Unfortunately, the boys were sick and the others went back to school and all their after school activities. I can wait a while longer.

Procrastination is my middle name.

Hope you have a great week.

A New Year

First an apology. When I started this blog, I faithfully blogged every Monday--musing about current events, either personal or world-wise. In 2017, I dropped the ball, especially the past few months. As happens with many of us, "life" happened. In a good way. The main reason I haven't blogged is I was having too much fun to write about it. Fun, in the form of family. If you've read my blog, you know about my immediate family (children and grandchildren) finally living close by. This Christmas was chaotic and fun. I loved it.

2017 is gone. 2018 is here. I love that January 1 is the start of a new year, but it's also a chance to begin again. So we didn't keep all the resolutions we made last year. We can start over. I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to in 2017, but . . . Here's the disclaimer. I competed and published two books and wrote two short stories. For me, that was a big deal. I'm proud of that. I didn't expect to accomplish that much. Last year, I was invited to join another group blog (Pandora's Box Gazette--an online magazine) where I have a monthly column on Family Life. Added to Paranormal Romantics (where I blog once a month) and The Roses of Prose (where now I'll be blogging twice a month), and my own Weekend Writing Warrior contributions, I blog between 10-12 times a month. And I enjoy that.

My main job is writing books. While I enjoy blogging, that isn't adding to my stories. So I needed to examine what I want to accomplish in 2018. As I wrote for Insecure Writers Support Group last week, my goal is to finish three books. Two are already started, one new--a total of about 170,000 words. I nearly stopped before I got started. That's a lot of words. So, I broke that down into a more manageable goal, a minimum of 500 words per day (about one page single-spaced). Easy peasy. The harder part was choosing which book to go with first. 

The Spy (4th in my Outer Rim series): I'd already written almost 11k words. 

Unpredictable Nature (a romantic suspense): I wrote this book several years ago, and I finished it. I think. I just can't find all of it. I know that must sound weird. That story was written on two desktop computers ago. Back in those days, I kept copies of my work on 3.5" floppy disks. I'm still looking through those floppies, trying to find that story.

Untitled (4th in the Alex O'Hara PI mystery series): as of Jan. 1, not started but thought about a lot.

It makes sense to finish the book that's closest to being done. Right? Hah! That Alex O'Hara story just won't let me go. So, last week, I started writing. I've already 6700 words. I love when the words flow, as they've been doing for almost a week.

On the right side of this blog, you'll see my progress graphic for each book. Having declared my intentions, you can hold me to it. LOL I won't be offended if you ask about my progress (or lack of).

Have a great week. Come back next Sunday for Weekend Writing Warrior where I post 8-10 sentence snippets from my new release Romance Rekindled.  

If you're interested, here's my blogging schedule:

Each weekend: Weekend Writing Warrior, here

Each Monday: here

1st Wednesday: Insecure Writers Support Group, here

3rd Wednesday: Pandora's Box Gazette

13th of the month: Paranormal Romantics 

16th & 30th of the month: The Roses of Prose