Busy July

July is turning out to be a busy writing months for me, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

While I have more free time than normal with summer vacation in full swing, I sighed up for July Novel in A Month group (Nano WriMo). So far things are going well and I’m making great progress on my WIP. I only obligated myself to write 30,000 words and edit 10 chapters of another work, but at the halfway point I’m well into both goals and will be able to finish my current rough draft by the end of the month.

There was also a workshop that caught my eye this week at writing.com. Mystery Writer, M.B. Fields is hosting a Mystery Short Story class. He promises the completion of a publishable short story by the end of the month. How can anyone resist such a promising offer? Now, I’m not planning to dump my Romance roots for Mystery, but it never hurts to diverse ones writing.

Speaking being diverse, another workshop caught my eye for this month. Starting today, I’m participating in a week long Erotica Fantasy challenge. In case you missed it up in the left hand corner, my tag line is ‘The Sweeter Side of Romance’, so why such a change?

I learned from a young age that putting all your eggs in one basket guarantees a hungry tummy. When I showed horses, I only showed in one discipline, but I studied several. The thought of jumping horses, or riding sidesaddle, or even Western didn’t appeal to me, but I learned them because being diverse made me an all around better rider.

Writing is the same way. When the opportunity to branch out and try something new presents itself, take a hold with gusto! If nothing else, you’ll stretch your brain and make a few new friends in the business.

On to something completely different. After six months of trying to make a meeting, I finally made it to the Carolina Romance Writers this month. I don’t think I’ve been so nervous walking into a room of people in years. The workshop was great, about the differences between men and women; did you know blind men lose their sex drive, and women get frisker the older they get?

I learned so much and the opportunity to sit around for a few hours and talk books, and agents, and publishers and covers was priceless. I was impressed with how many people I already knew thanks to facebook and networking. Several of us seem to run in the same writing circles and hit it off. I’ll defiantly be back to that chapter.

The rest of my month will be just as busy planning Hubby’s 40th birthday party and trying to organize this crazy house of mine.

I know I’m not the only insanely busy writer in the blogosphere. What is everyone else up to these days?
Ann