In the Beginning . . .

For any who are interested, I have posted a short, narrative prologue to my current series on my Excepts page.  While set well before the 15th century time-frame of my novels, this is the root from which those stories grew.

Yes, it’s just a taste, and I hope to expand it later, making it a story of its own.  Sadly, I can see no HEA for Merlin and Morgan—yet.  But as Scarlett O’Hara says, “Tomorrow is another day.” 

 Anything can happen.

Come One, Come All!!!

I know I’ve been quiet lately, and I’ll explain later, but for now, I have an announcement:

The Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood’s

2012 Winter Writing Festival

will soon commence!

 

Here’s the info:

 

Craving some serious writing productivity this winter? Need to clean up the mess you left in the second half of your NaNo novel? Want to finally, finally fix that pesky plot hole in your WIP?

 

Great news—it’s almost time for the Second Annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival!

 

Through the bleakest part of winter—January 11, 2012 through the end of February—the Winter Writing Festival will keep your creative fires burning. Unlike NaNoWriMo and other writing challenges that (much as we love them!!) have a one-size-fits-all approach, the Ruby Winter Writing Festival is designed for you.

 

We work with a “point” system, and YOU decide the terms for earning your point each day.

 

Everybody gets one bonus point on January 11, 2012 just for stopping by the Ruby blog (rubyslipperedsisterhood.com) or signing up at rsswwf.com and making a public commitment to take part in the Festival. (Short aside from me:  The page says it’s closed right now, but if you click to register, you can.  AND if you participated last year, you can just log in and update your info.)  Then, for each of the 50 days of the Festival (including January 11), you work to earn an additional point—and you define what it takes to earn that point.

No matter what stage you’re at right now (brainstorming, plotting, free-writing, fast-drafting, slow-drafting, revising, layering, polishing…or any combination of the above) you can make it work for you.

 

Here are some examples of the sorts of things you might define as worth one point (you fill in the variables according to your needs) :

-writing X number of words or pages

-deep revising Y number of pages

-polishing Z number of pages

-freewriting / brainstorming for Q number of minutes/hours

-doing R number of 20-minute writing sprints

-keeping butt in chair and hands on keyboard for S number of hours

 

For instance, one person might commit to earning points according to the following terms:

-writing 500 words per day  OR

-deep revising 10 pages per day OR

-doing a final polish on 25 pages per day

-participating in an hour of writing sprints

Any day that person meets ANY of those goals, she gets a point.

 

If you can’t meet your goal on any particular day, you can double or triple or quadruple your goal on another day to catch up. And if you know ahead of time that you can never work on certain days (say, Saturdays) feel free to add something like “Keep balance in my life by taking Saturday off” to your personal list of ‘ways to earn a point.’ Yes, really, you can get a point for taking a planned day off!! Don’t be shy.

 

This isn’t a competition, it’s a supportive process for MOVING FORWARD WITH OUR WRITING.

 

Check in on the Ruby blog every Wednesday during the Festival to report your progress. If you reach the end of February with at least 50 points, YOU WIN!!

 

Throughout the Festival, the Rubies will  be offering lots of inspiration and support, including frequent public writing sprints in our rsswwf.com Chat Room and the possibility for winning terrific Writing Festival Swag—including writing critiques from Ruby Sisters!

 

Join us January 11 at rubyslipperedsisterhood.com or rsswwf.com to get started! And spread the word on your loops, Facebook, and personal websites! The more the merrier!!

 

I know I’ll be there.  Hope to see you!