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.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

My (sort of) writing group

I host a writing group at the library where I work on the third Tuesday of each month. It's been a struggle to get folks to come. Sure they say they will when they pick up my flyer and talk to me about how they want to be a writer and wouldn't it be great to have the time to write. However, I'm sitting here in the meeting room...waiting. I've got two, sometimes three, writers who are "regulars". Okay, I knew it would be a stretch this month. December is busy after all, but me, I'd jump at a chance to take sometime for just me. It's a gift at times to just grant myself time to write. But one gal is out of town, she came by and told me last week, the same time she gleefully said she'd finished her very first novel in a month during November's NaNoWriMo. I was so pleased for her. The other regular hasn't missed yet, she truly seems inspired every month.

My boss is waiting to see if this use of my time is going to be worth while. Well, it is to me and at least two other people, just, apparently, not tonight. I'm giving it another 5 minutes, then I'll have to do some real, gulp, work for an hour.

Please, aren't there any writers out there?! I've got some great prompts. Hey...I've even got chocolate. :)

Thursday, December 2, 2010

No NaNoWriMo this year

Well, I gave it a good start. But 10,554 words in I was sick for three days and, to tell the truth, that really short circuited my motivation. Plus I'm still working on my non fiction book and decided that had to be my writing priority.

My NaNo book was a story I'd started writing at Improv. My trashy vamp does not sparkle, she truly enjoys the hunt and her unlife. She's got a sense of humor, too. So I've got a non-sparkly vamp, a vamp going a little crazy, a murder on Cape Cod, and a little romance, too. And yes, I do intend to finish this book. Just not as quickly as I'd hoped.

To everyone who "won" at NaNoWriMo this year, I offer my hearty congratualtions. Look out for me next year!

Monday, November 1, 2010

November is...

National Novel Writing Month, NaNo for those of us in the know. I was really proud of myself for finishing the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel last year. It pushed me to get up at o-dark-thirty for 30 days so I'd have uninterupted time to write. Coffee was my friend. I saw some spectacular sunrises from my office window. My Facebook friends came to dread my early morning posts. And this morning I started this year's novel.

Of course I'm still in the midst of writing my teen non-fiction on the Colorado Coalfield war. But since I NaNo before breakfast and do the non-fiction the rest of the day, there's not much of a conflict. Except for the sleep portion of my life.

So what happened to last year's novel, you ask? It is still sitting unedited and unrevised. Somewhere on my priority list is to get to that book and clean it up and rewrite it. It's my biggest failing as a writer, not enjoying the revision process as much as the initial creative process. But I will get to it, I loved writing that story.

But November is for first drafts. After all, you can't edit what you haven't written. So all you NaNo's out there, get it down. Write it out. Let it loose! And happy writing. :)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Can you...

use the word bounce in a way that does not suggest a ball? Someone...amaze me!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Prompt - a day late...

I should have known that I'd be a day late after a holiday weekend. Today's word/prompt is just plain silly. See what you can do with higgetty-piggetty. Good luck!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Weekly prompts

Anyone interested in a weekly writing prompt? I'll post every Monday. Feel free to post your responses here. If I have enough interest, I'll start a page just for prompts.

Today's prompt: Wings