My Ivory Tower

My name is Karin Huxman and I write romance for New Concepts Publishing. You can find my author page at http://newconceptspublishing.com/karinhuxmanbooks.html. I write a mix of time travel, contemporary, paranormal, and sf/fantasy and love every minute of it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

New Links and Procrastination

I've spent the past couple of weeks adding links from fellow romance authors to the space at the right. I hope you have a chance to visit the pages of some of these awesome authors. You'll also find links to New Concepts Publishing who publish my romance novels, my children's book site, and the home page of my children's book publisher Kittycat Books.

I've been in procrastination mode this past week. Guess I'm dawdling over revising a manuscript. Here's what's going on. I've started writing the first draft of the last book in a three book series. I got to a point where I realized I'd forgotten little details from the two earlier books. So I went back and read the first story, which is a completed manuscript that my agent is shopping around, and started taking notes. You know, hair color, eye color, names, places, and stuff like that. The second book in the series is finished in draft form but instead of taking the time to edit/revise when the first draft was done, I just started in on the third book. Big mistake. I started having trouble with who did what and when, the timing of everything was off. So now I'm reading the second manuscript and doing some revision work at the same time and taking notes, of course. It's kind of tedious work. Okay, necessary because rarely does an author get it completely right on a first draft. And I always learn a lot about my own writing when I revise and edit a manuscript. But I really am itching to get back to the third story. So I'm finding ways to keep from doing the revision.

With that in mind, here's my list for today.

5 ways to procrastinate when you should be writing:

1. Write a blog post. :)
2. Online catalogs are great, I spent way too much time today "shopping" for things I don't need and will never buy.
3. Check my email over and over and over again.
4. Staring out the window. I could say that I'm brainstorming or my right brain is working something out, but mostly I'm just staring out the window.
5. Making a list of all the things I should be accomplishing and are not.

How do you procrastinate? Do you convince yourself it's all part of the creative process or allow a little guilt to seep through. Please write something. Reading it will give me something to do when I should be writing!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April is National Poetry Month ...

Have you read a poem today?

In honor of National Poetry Month I'm inviting anyone who wishes to post a poem in the comments section of this blog. Go ahead, be brave and post one of your own. I'm going to, to start it off. The only thing is, if you post a poem written by someone else please make sure you have persmission to use it or it is already a public domain poem. I'd rather not deal with any copyright issues. And please feel free to comment on poems posted, but be polite. Poets are sensitive souls. Most of all, have fun.

Poetry is meant to illuminate a moment in time, space, or the human spirit. Some are light, some heavier in tone. All have the ability to create an emotional response in the reader, at least that's what poets hope for.

The Pikes Peak region, where I call home, has just inaugurated its very first Poet Laureate, a poet by the name of Aaron Anstett. For information about this program and about this poet, please go to http://www.pikespeakpoetlaureate.org/. There are tabs at the top of the page that will help you navigate around. If you are a teacher, you might want to check out the "For Educators" tab. This is such a new program that the site might seem a bit lite (was that a rhyme?) but I know they'll be adding more to it soon and often.

Okay, now for my poem. I wrote this one shortly after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Many poets felt the need to put their feelings into words as a way to somehow work their way through the horror of the experience. The Gazette, our local newspaper, printed this one. It's probably one of my longer and more emotional published poems.

911
(c) 2001 by Karin Huxman

You can't believe.
It can't be right -
A hoax.
Airplanes do not fly
Into buildings.
Instead of apologizing
Networks rerun footage.
Disbelief morphs into
Creeping horror.
Each rerun,
Each fireball,
Each view of bodies falling,
Concrete shattering,
Steel girders raining down
Like giant toy sculptures
Gone awry -
Becomes a human moment
Juxtaposed against inhuman
Comprehension.
America's throat closes around
The dust clogged air that is
Lower Manhattan.
Lungs labor,
Hearts ache, but still beat
Against the next ... Replay.


If you are a school teacher or have children and want to encourage them to write poetry, please visit my children's book website, http://kdhuxman.wordpress.com. I'd love to see some children's poetry posted.

It's National Poetry Month. Who else wants to play?

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Time Travel Theme Day

The authors at my publisher, New Concepts Publishing, are hosting a Time Travel Theme day this Sunday, April 6, 2008, from noon to 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time. This will be the place to be if you love time travel romance novels. NCP authors, including yours truly, will be hopping in and out all day providing free excertps, conversation, answering questions, you name it. This is a Yahoo group, so a Yahoo! ID is required. To sign up, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/new_concepts_pub/join and I hope to "see" you there.

5 Reasons to Participate in an NCP Author Theme Day:

1. You get to read free excerpts from romance novels in a subgenre you love.

2. You might discover a great new author.

3. Many authors give out prizes, you could be the lucky one!

4. Many of these excerpts are from books that haven't been released yet, you're getting a sneak peak!

5. Make new friends of authors and other readers who enjoy the same kinds of books you do.

New Concepts Publishing (http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/) is a small press that publishes romance and erotic romance in electronic and paperback formats. They've been innovative in bringing the hottest new fiction to fans. I hope you'll check them out.