It’s time for this Phoenix to update her website and by April all the changes will be complete.

So what have I been doing since my last blog?
1. Coaching a girls tennis team. Now that was fun.
2. Rewriting my novel because of a hard drive crash and my not backing up my data like I should have. That was not fun, but I added more to the story this time around, so I count this as editing.
3. Watching Battlestar Galactica. The series finale is next week and as much as I don’t want the program to end, like a great series written, you have to know when to end it. I suppose this means I’ll have more time to write Friday evenings.
4. Okay I’ve been playing tennis. This passion has moved down the list due to injury, my desire to write and pursue publication.

One of the changes to my site will be I will no longer blog. Past blogs will be archived. I’ve thought of something different and more interactive.

So see ya later. Keep writing, enjoy life, and celebrate spring.

They say, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’, well we’re about to say goodbye to 2007 and welcome 2008. Change is good, reluctant or planned, maybe both. So being the Phoenix that I am, I’m lighting a creative fire under my website and evolving a new idea.

Beginning January 2008 my Blog page will be replaced with ‘Phoenix Rising’ a bimonthly highlight in writing and life page. My writing, other authors, and information I come across that might be useful to you will be available. Also this page will be interactive – I hope. If there is a subject, opinion, rant, or disagreement with what I’ve said, you email me at YasminePhoenix@aol.com and I’ll respond. No cooking assistance will be provided; you can email SloaneTaylor for assistance.

Of course you can count on the following topics to be addressed, Battlestar Galactica, tennis, and handbags. I know you’re asking what these three things possibly have to do with writing or life. Glad you asked. Battlestar Galactica is one of the most well written and acted television programs to come along in a long time. The opportunity for writers to view the goals, motivation, and conflict of each character is awesome. Plus the hot pilots, Apollo and Helo don’t hurt.

Tennis is my way of relaxing, reducing stress and it provides much needed interaction after I’ve spent a few days bent over my keyboard attempting to find another word for felt. My tennis team is an awesome group of women.

Handbags, please. A writer carries in their handbag paper and pen to jot down ideas, dialogue or snippets of information for their work in progress, a mirror, and protein bars. It is very important we have the correct bag, not too large, definitely not too small, but always fashionable. And women know one handbag can not possibly meet all of the above criteria, so we have to have several to meet the needs of a particular day. If my hubby asks, this is my story and I’m sticking to it. Feel free to use my reasoning if necessary.

So I hope the rest of 2007 is spent writing, enjoying your family and friends, and remember to celebrate every positive thing you did to improve your writing career and life. No matter if you think its minuscule, it’s still a step in the right direction. Even if you gained ten pounds, relax it could have been fifteen! (Not saying I did)

Yasmine

There are probably other things I learned this summer, but this is the top of the list.

I can’t bake. I’m not talking about a box of prepared cake mix. Oh that I can do with the best of them. I’m talking about baking from scratch, like my mother use to do. At Christmas she would bake German Chocolate cakes, using real coconuts she’d crack open, use the milk and grind the meat. She’d melt chocolate. It took me until I was almost thirty to eat her cake, mainly because I didn’t like coconut. Trust me, I still don’t particularly care for coconut, but I had no problem eating it in her cakes. She also make pineapple cakes from scratch. Those I’d eat heartily, which could explain my fat cells now exploding at my advanced age. No instant, canned fruit. Yeast rolls were also made with real yeast, hot water and the smell of bread rising was yummy.

Now what does baking have to do with writing, Yasmine? Well I’ll tell you. You have to have the basic ingredients for baking. Same with writing. If you’re going to bake a cake, from scratch, you know you’re going to have to work at it. You can’t rush, you have to study what you need and purchase the items because you can’t stop in the middle of mixing and run out to get it. Some ingredients require research, it may not be available at your local grocery store. So you have to figure out where to get it. Same with a story setting. It may be local, or exotic, or another world you’ve created but you’ve got to set the scene. When you decide what type of cake you’re going to bake, you should set all your ingredients out on the counter. Your story has to have a heroine and a hero and they are your main ingredients. They’re the base of your story. Plot is the other ingredients, sugar, salt, flavorings. If you’re using a receipe, it’s been tested before you bake your version, so you can follow the written directions. We read books on how to write a romance, and when we first start out, we do it by the book. The more we write, the more we discover our voice and vary the receipe to suit our strenghts.

Say you’re baking a butter pound cake, of course you may prefer to use a bundt pan, and you may want the cake to have a tart lemon taste. Are you going to use real lemons? Take the time to slice and squeeze them or are you going to take the fast route and use lemon juice and extract? What if your family wants a chocolate pound cake? Are you going to use real chocolate, melt it and add it to your cake? What’s your objective with writing your story or baking your pound cake? To please your family, tempt an agent or publisher, or for your own enjoyment? The more you experiment with your writing and your baking you may find you have a talent for making cakes that are decadent, rich, and ‘can’t enough of it’, i.e. erotica. Or you may have a talent for baking cakes that are delicious, memorable, and made from a receipe that will be handed down from generation to generation, so your name will always be associated with it. Jane Austen, Terry McMillian, Octavia Butler, Josh Whedon.

So my conclusion is, I may be snowbound, like Nora was, and I will continue to use her as an example to keep writing. I may not be able to bake a cake from scratch, although after reading that last paragraph, I make have to try it, but I will keep creating, editing, polishing my work, and meanwhile bake cupcakes and watch Law and Order.

Someone had to take control, bring our focus back and make our deadlines. I voted to give that responsibility to Molly Herwood, but me and myself, dismissed that bright idea. So, we’ve reworked our writing schedule, making it primary, every fracking day for four hours. We have set hours but we discovered our weight was increasing faster than our page count, since we took a sabbatical from tennis for a couple of months. So, we agreed to return to tennis in February and still make sure to get our four hours of writing in. Myself has a list of agents and publishers we’re submitting our query to in February. Of course, I was the last to know. No one wrote it down on our desk calendar. But apparently we will make that deadline.

We also collaborated on submitting a story to Amber Quill. We joined forces made the deadline and will know by March first how we did. Sloane, Beth, and Virginia liked the part I brought to our critique meeting. Trust me, I don’t think they’ll ever look at cucumbers the same.

Sometimes my unedited pages resemble the writing of a deranged housewife. Oh wait a minute, that’s me, or all of us. Never mind. But there are words on those pages, words that are good, terrible, and just plain stupid, but they’re something I can work with. Now that I’ve outed myself to my friends and family as a writer, my ego won’t let me back down. Damned, another personality to deal with, the ego. Let’s try to keep the id out of this, okay.

Okay, so once a week blogging will occur. I’ll be back next Tuesday. Also, this year I’m going to do something new with my favorites page. Last year I interviewed authors, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know when it premiers.

Keep Writing

This is the time of year when we look back at what we’ve accomplished and make plans for next year. I posted my 2006 goals on the wall of my writing room, fulfilled at least three and got one I hadn’t expected. I didn’t get an agent or find a publisher, BUT, I have almost completed the first draft of the first book of a paranormal series and a submission to a black romance anthology (thank you Dyanne Davis) was accepted. I’ve made new writing friends, gained a writing change coach, Molly Herwood, through an online class taught by Margie Lawson and my critique group just keeps getting stronger and stronger. My tennis team is envied by other teams at our club and I value their friendship. They’re invading my home this Saturday for our annual holiday party and I’m thrilled they’re coming over. Party Time!

To prepare for 2007, I’ve started doing the following. I’m cleaning out my writing room, throwing out old papers, giving away old magazines to a school’s recycling bin, brought a Franklin Covey calendar system, purchased paper, ink print cartridges, pens, dusted my desk and bookcases and started developing my list of writing career goals. I’ll add different goals from now until the last week of December, finalize them and post them on my wall.

I’d like for you to share your 2006 and 2007 goals with me and I’ll post your responses here. Then in December, 2007 we’ll come back and see how much success we’ve had and what we’ve learned. Yeah, I mean to keep track.

So, if you’re willing:

1.What was one of your goals for 2006 and did you accomplish it or not? If you didn’t, are you going to move it to 2007 and what are you going to do to achieve it, this time?

For me: my 2006 goal was to finish editing my interracial romance and find a publisher for it. Well that didn’t happen. I discovered I write paranormal with multicultural characters and now that romance is being sliced and diced to be put in a separate fantasy series.

2. What is one of your goals for 2007 and how are you going to go about accomplishing it?

For me: My first goal is to send the first three chapters of my witches paranormal to agents by the end of January. The first draft is almost completed and I’ll spend January editing and getting my critique partners to look it over.

3. What are you doing to prepare to dedicate yourself to your writing career in 2007, now?

For me: Like I said, I’m cleaning my writing space, getting my writing schedule set and most important making myself believe writing is my career, so I can act like it.

Also: I need a name for my writing space. When we moved two years ago, I claimed our living room. Hey, no one every sits in the living room when you have a family room and big screen tv. I’ve decorated it, pictures, lots of books, music, computer, printer, and it’s my space. Any suggestions?

Email me at YasminePhoenix@aol.com., with your goals and suggestions for naming my room.

About four to five months ago, a published author friend, Dyanne Davis, sent me an email telling me to submit a short story for a black romance anthology being put together. Dyanne didn’t have to tell me once, she had to tell me three times before I pulled out a story idea that’s been rambling around in my head for some time. First off, short stories are harder than novels. How do you cram an entire plot, develop characters and have a happy ending in such a short word count? It took me a few days and Sloane Taylor even looked at it, although I don’t know if she remembers doing so. So after a few days of editing it, tighting it, mumbling and grumbling over it, I sent it in. Rejection is such a mother and I didn’t think I’d be accepted. Then Monday, November 20 I receive an email from Kim Louise, a co-editor and contributing author for this anthology, telling me I was going to be included in the collection. My short story, The Red Dress, made it through two review rounds. I stared at my computer screen for at least five minutes – stunned. I’m still stunned and excited.

My story is about a magical red dress available in a consignment shop. The dress calls to women who are experiencing self esteem and romance problems. Once they put the dress on, no matter what their shape or size, they begin to feel beautiful, because the dress conforms to flatter their body. The dress also helps their self esteem. If the woman, while wearing the dress, experiences emotional doubts the dress will constrict, pinch or do whatever it takes to make them dismiss the thought. Once the woman’s issue(s) has been resolved, she is compelled to return the dress to the shop so it can be cleansed and prepped for the next woman. Needless to say, it’s a paranormal and no, I don’t know where such a dress shop is located. However, if I ever come across such a shop, I’m wearing the dress first.

I chose the color red because it is a vibrant color. When you wear red you’ve got to be willing to have your physical flaws for public viewing. We wear black because it’s so forgiving, hiding bumps and lumps. Women have many hangups about their size and shape. Advertising doesn’t help. Add to those woes, women trying to find a soul mate, will sometimes behave in ways detrimental to their our self esteem and well being as a person.

I tried to write the story with a moral for women, and with JGirl in mind. If you truly believe in yourself, set your standards high and don’t let others intimidate you because you don’t wear a size three, you won’t so easily settle for someone who can’t appreciate your inner beauty and you won’t lower your values just to have any man.

I’ll keep you posted. The anthology is going to be published by Parker Publishing, LLC and will be called Soul Love: The Ultimate Collection “Celebrating African-American Romance Fiction”

I, like a lot of people, got hooked on the new Battlestar Galactica series two years ago. It’s great. Hot looking women, strong women and Cylons, human looking ones and the shiny metal ones. The writing is strong, the story lines creative and introspective. Even the original Starbuck, Richard Hatch, from the first Battlestar Galactica has a juicy character.

The new season begins October 6th, and I’ve got a contest going on my website in honor of this program. Details and entry requirements are posted at www.YasminePhoenix.com/contest.

Good Hunting!

Little fixes my a$*$! To me, a little fix is a couple of typos; making sure your headers are correct; having the correct address for the agent you plan on sending your almost perfect book to, or chipping the polish on your pinky and not being able to remember the nail color name.

Truthfully, little fixes are edits. Why can’t we just call them what they are? Little edits. Little edits that can and will make the difference between an agent thinking you really care about your work being polished enough for them to represent you and sell the blasted book, or an agent believing you wouldn’t take the time to correct the ‘little fixes’ and therefore, why should they offer to represent you. First impressions are very important in this writing business and it is your work that speaks for you. You could look like Shrek’s Princess Fiona, but if you write, edit, revise, and fix the ‘little fixes’, the agent won’t care. Well you may not be doing many speaking engagements, but in the Internet World you can promote your book, post a picture of Halle Berry with red hair, pass it off as you, and no one will care. Your book will sell, your readers will love you, your agent will love you, and it’ll all be because you fixed the ‘little fixes.’

My work-writing schedule worked well for a week and a half. I even got a committment from Molly, my change coach partner from a class we took together, to do the same. I think she’s upset with me, because not only do we email each other with what we’re working on for the week, I made her give me specific times for her writing. Misery and success love company, Molly.

Anyway, back to the work schedule, which ends at 3pm, CST. I made one error, I forgot my schedule when I made appointments for things like, dentist, school registration, errands for my husband, JMan, my son ,and JGirl, my daughter. Not good. When I scheduled my dentist appointment, I forgot to ask for a late afternoon one. I did this several times and guess what happened? Yep, I got thrown off schedule, and I’m not a very pleasant person when my schedule is disrrupted. So, one day last week, I had an appointment and blew off the rest of the day. My boss was not pleased. Hey, it was a beautiful day, not too hot. My boss didn’t care. So I gave myself a verbal warning, made a note on my desk calendar to not make any appointments, unless absolutely necessary, during writing working hours.

See, this is the part I’ve been talking about, commitment and accountability. We have to make ourselves accountable to our set goals. When I tell my husband I can’t go to the cleaners until 4pm or 5pm, I add it’s because I’m working. Just because my writing space is the living room, doesn’t mean I’m not working when I’m in here. I no longer play Solitaire on the computer (I have a color version on my Blackberry). I’m working and when my boss sees me at the coffee pot, well she understands. I even take lunch at my desk. Sometimes, I even take a short walk around my block, with my dog. Except for the walk with my dog, this is the same routine I had when I worked at a large financial institution. It’s really no different, and I have a better view than that danged cubicle I worked in. AND, most important for me, I turn off the Internet, checking my email three times during work writing hours. After work, all bets are off.

There were times when I worked overtime and weekends at my city job. Well, that won’t change. Best part is I can get up, brush teeth and shower, and go straight into the office. No getting dressed, driving to the train or downtown, paying thirty dollars for parking, and then back home. Financially speaking, I’ve saved over three hundred dollars by working from home, if I was getting royalties.

This is a career choice, the color of my parachute and we as writers must treat our writing as a job. Plus, I don’t have twelve pairs of shoes in the bottom desk drawer, but we won’t talk about how many are in my closet.

Inspiration for the day: The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. Erica Jong