Category Archives: Excuses

January 27, 2012

Fractured

Oops. Haven’t posted here lately. I’ll chock that up to my fractured sense of time. Or, instead, to the many times I’ve thought about blogging, but other shiny things have distracted me. Either way, shame on Pia. So, let’s chat now.

I sent out the punk rocker story for consideration. I still think of it as “the punk rocker story” instead of its title – A Hound’s Love – because I’m not in love with that title. I sent it to Loose Id, so I’m not holding my breath just yet. I had to submit Summer Lust (which became Make You Sweat - Loose Id, August ’11) three times before a contract arrived in my inbox. I think I’ve learned some things since then, so I’m hoping to cut that down a bit. Either way, I used the waiting as an excuse – “I’ll post to the blog when I have an acceptance.” Uh-huh. Yeah.

Onward! Currently, I’m meandering about in my WiP folders. I have a synopsis for a Coming Out call (LI), plus two outlines for A Sexy Mind call (Silver). Both of those calls have deadlines, and in the meantime, instead of working on those, I’m fiddling with the second book in the Personal Demons series (the sequel to Man Whore) which, while overdue, does not have a deadline.

See… lovely sense of time. Yes? Laugh away, I’m used to it.

And now for a few quickies:

Freedom’s Souvenir is approaching a milestone. It’s just under 300 downloads from Smashwords. If you haven’t read it yet, you can get your copy HERE.

The Little Birdie rumor mill says Man Whore should go to audio production soon. I’m not looking forward to listening to the entire thing to approve the recording, but then I read it a gazillion times to get it ready for publication. I may be sick of it, but if you’ve been waiting to hear it, all I can say is… some time this year. Yep. Helpful. I know.

The running is coming back to me, little by little. With running comes the writing. The Muse is optimistic… and teasing… and still a pain in my a—

When the heck did I fall down the rabbit hole?? My Sunday to Slash & Burn is coming up this weekend. Stay tuned as I track down winter.

I’m singing out loud while I work. Perhaps I should write a series of blog posts inspired by random songs playing on my iPod. Interested?

Have a great weekend, dear Readers.

Ciao,
Pia Veleno

Leave a comment | posted in A Hound's Love, Blog, Excuses, Writing

November 30, 2011

Setting Goals

By piaveleno

Today is the last day of November.

Hey, I’m good. Huh? Yep, last day.

And then I reflected on what I’ve done (or rather, what I haven’t done this month) and I can see why I’m amused at even realizing the month is over.

I’ve done nothing.

Nothing.

So, shut the eff up, and do something about it, Pia.

Yep, I heard you. I intend to. I’ve been intending to… right after I stop berating myself for falling for the annual lure into hibernation.

Each year, as the days become shorter, I give in to an apathetic laziness that I can only blame on lack of sunlight and willpower. This year I tried taking extra Vitamin D to combat it, but it hasn’t helped. Much.

Okay, so it has helped my mood, but not my productivity. I could also blame the productivity levels on the healing foot (I’m still not running more than two or three minutes at a time) or my neck (sitting around, instead of running or other exercise is affecting my entire body,) but when it comes down to it, I go through this every fall.

I’m working on that. Really I am.

Last night I moved three manuscripts to my Kindle so I can read through them, refamiliarize myself with the characters and story, and make a list of notes for the next round of edits. I’m setting a goal of having one of them ready to share with my editor by the end of the year. I’m also setting a goal to have a rough synopsis ready to share with her for a fresh story. The latter is sketched out, but needs some concentration to flesh out details that have been rolling around in my head. Lastly, I need to read through the original CRANK posts so I can take notes on ideas for rewriting it in novel format.

That’s right, dear Readers, for those of you who missed the first year of that online story, I fully intend to release CRANK in ebook format some time next year. Never mind if you’re already reading CRANK as it’s released each Sunday, because this ebook will fill in the background and show you how Crandall and Mike got together and got stuck chasing vampires. It’ll be setting it up to be read either before or after the current installments since there are readers on both sides of the spectrum.

Okay, enough goal setting. Now I need to buckle down and attack those goals. Please excuse the return of Placebo lyrics tweets, as Mr. Molko’s is one of the few triggers that can drag my motivation out of the Winter Blahs and back into the wonderful world of Make Believe.

Leave a comment | posted in Crank, Excuses, I am, Writing

November 9, 2011

A Step Back

By piaveleno

I don’t usually write this type of blog post. I usually keep my head down and do my best to mind my own business, but I dreamt of bugs last night. Oh, I know exactly what it means. It means I went to bed thinking about the parasitic nature of social networks.

The carrion birds are still picking flesh off the beaten horse this morning.

I’m not involved in the latest mess, nor do I want to be. I won’t speak on the issue at hand other than to say that I will not take either side because I have no idea how much is true, and how much is conjecture founded on righteous indignation.

I will, however, say this:

This is the internet. No one is real. You see what we want you to see, and you, in turn, portray only parts of yourself through a controlled manner. Some more controlled than others, but it’s still your choice to show what you want to show to the internet community. So yes, sadly, some people make stuff up.

Why am I the only one not surprised and offended?

It’s a waste of my time and energy to let fury rise at these incidents. Anger makes me sick to my stomach, distracts me from my fiction, and gives my chiropractor too much work to do. It’s not healthy.

I’m walking away for a while. I’m going to get some fresh air, and then attack my latest WiP. These things make me happy. Don’t forget to make yourself happy today.

2 comments | posted in Blog, Excuses, human nature

August 26, 2011

Broken

By piaveleno

It’s been an interesting month.

To put it mildly.

I haven’t been writing much at all in August, and I’ve mentioned here and there without really telling the story. The thing is, to take the effort to write a blog post about it would have been wasting precious droplets of creativity. I don’t say that because I don’t take this blog seriously – on the contrary, I love chatting with my dear Readers — but because I wanted to save what little energy I had for the commitments I’d already made.

On July 31st, I broke my foot. Now a foot injury, you’d think – and I did too – would make for MORE time to write. The foot had to be propped up constantly, and I certainly couldn’t walk on it, let alone spend hours a week running nowhere for the sake of being healthy. So, perfect for cuddling up with the laptop and a few cute men, right? Alas, no. Without my running catharsis, my mind shut down too.

A physical injury is never just physical. I was (and still am, at times) mentally exhausted. I’m sleeping a lot, and I still struggle to put in a full forty hours a week at the Job That Pays The Bills. That Job is very challenging, so needless to say, I crash hard after work each day.

I’m coming around now. Little by little. I’m moving more, and while I’m still in pain, still healing, I’m inching my way back to my feet. The Doc has cleared me to use a stationary bike, but made me swear on my FiveFingers to not stand on the pedals, and to use my heels, not my midfoot. Yes, yes, I agreed. Anything to MOVE again. Besides, I love running too much to risk slowing the healing, or worse, reinjuring the foot, by pushing too hard too soon.

With this little bit of physical output, I find my Muse wandering by too. I’m playing around with an idea for a sports themed story, and I put on Crank’s playlist to toy with the next few scenes. I suspect it’ll be another two to three weeks before I’m ready to pick CRANK back up because I need that to be right, and I need to be in full creative mind to write more than blog posts. In the meantime, I’m reading through a couple of other projects and making revision notes. Revisions need a different part of my mind – that part between pure creativity of writing from scratch and the pure technical section that helps with line edits and proofreading.

It’s a start, and it’s not a bad way to ease back into things since this is a manuscript I’ve been avoiding to concentrate on getting Make You Sweat ready to read. Now that Sweat is in the readers’ hands, I should be working on another project. Next week I’ll work on a blog post to update you with those projects, and maybe – just maybe, because my memory (and energy) is still faltering – I’ll run a giveaway for Sweat. I’m not sure how or where yet, but I’m considering a GoodReads location since the M/M Romance Group has been such as wonderful place for me as both a writer and a reader.

Keep your eyes out for a post about it. I’ll announce it here (too) regardless of where the entries are requested.

I think that’s enough rambling for one day. I still have a bit of energy, but I’ll put those towards the revisions. Punk rocker anyone?

Ciao,
Pia Veleno

Leave a comment | posted in Excuses, I am, ramblings, Writing

April 16, 2011

On Not Writing

By piaveleno

There are a few things that I want to blog about, but those topics are darting around in my mind like hummingbirds on a blend of acid, speed, and high quality Jamaican coffee. Another time perhaps, once they’ve settled into coherency.

For now, I’m half-heartedly dragging myself out of the anti-writing funk that I’d been blaming on winter. Shorter days always kill my energy and creativity levels, but the days are now long enough for me to sneak out for runs after work, so I no longer have that excuse. I won’t call it writer’s block, because I don’t believe in that nonsense. I’m simply not focused and not working hard enough on getting that back. I think about it, but as any published writer will tell you, thinking about publishing and getting through all the steps of writing, editing, and revising are two very different beasts.

I still have time, but I suspect I’m going to miss the anthology call for the gay cowboys. I have six weeks, but despite the full synopsis in my head, I’ve managed to type less than 6k words of a 20k story. Yep, that’s how little focus I have.

But wait, I’m not blogging about this for sympathy, and I’m certainly not whining. Much of it comes down to two things.

One, my paying job is in the investments industry and thus tax season is crazy with “expected overtime” and anxious clients demanding to know why we reported what we did on their tax forms. It’s mentally draining, but it pays the bills.

Second, I’ve been dwelling a lot on publishing houses and the way they do things. This is one of those hummingbirds that I want to let free, but I’m not ready to blog about it just yet. With Summer Lust under contract with Loose Id, I’ve already seen some differences between Silver Publishing and Loose Id. Of course, I expected some, especially after what LI expected of me before offering a contract, and it’s not all one-sided either. Hence the need to sort it all out before diving into it further.

With so many bloggers and forums spouting off about e-publishers, and building my own experiences now, I start to dwell on good homes for my stories while I’m trying to write them. It’s very distracting, even though I have a plan. Even though I fully intend to finish the Personal Demons series for Silver and I fully intend to submit a group of contemporary stories to LI. Even though my plan hasn’t changed since I first signed Fallen, I find the entire matter distracting.

Enough excuses. I’m going to go for a run – the first all week after tearing up my calves pushing too hard with a modified stride – and yes, this helps the writing (the writing, not the injury). My mind focuses on stride, breathing, pace, and cars, but underneath all of that, subtle gears twist and grind laying out upcoming scenes and throwing kinks into the works. Not kinky kinks, dear readers, but those awful things that writers like to do to torment their characters. If I have to work this hard to get them to you, then they’re going to work damn hard for their happily ever after.

Ciao,
Pia Veleno

PS ~ Happy, happy birthday to my Dad. He insists he doesn’t celebrate such things, but I still do. Happy birthday Dad! I’m looking forward to our visit on Easter. Remember that framed needlepoint you always had in your office? I used to think they got your birthday wrong. How appropriate that, with your love of numbers, you were born the day after tax day. I love you!

1 comment | posted in Excuses, In Response, Publishing, Writing

January 19, 2011

Bearing Distraction

By piaveleno

I’m going to admit it up front. I’m blogging because I’m not writing fiction. There, I said it. I admitted it. It didn’t help me find my focus.

Darn.

The truth is, as I was writing Man Whore and I realized that there was more to the story than the story itself, I thought having a series of books with established characters would help me focus on writing. Ah, no. As writers are wont to do, I have been as distracted as usual by those shiny, sparkly things called new ideas.

I’ve worked out a compromise with myself on those. I jot down the basic concept and write a brief scene or two to capture the feel of the character’s moods and behavior, and then I stuff it in my Dropbox folder for future reference – you know, those days when I can’t decide what to work on. I’ll tell you that this method has created more stories than I could ever write, but this week, it’s not helping me actually accomplish any writing.

It’s not the shinies distracting me this week. It’s the bear in me. No, not that kind of bear. I mean the kind that hibernate all winter. I haven’t had the energy to exercise, or really do anything besides shuffle through a day at the EDJ and then come home, maybe eat, before staring into space from the discomfort of a worn out sofa.

There are a few tricks left to try. I’m not giving up yet, though I have been tempted to admit defeat and make my writing year March through November. That’s an option, but not the first on the list. So instead, I’m going with superstition. You see, the last couple of times I’ve bellyached about lack of focus on my blog, I’ve ended up writing by the end of the day. It’s as if the infamous Muse wants to make me look bad, or prove me wrong, or…

Yes, my subconscious mind fucks with me. There, I said it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to work on that sequel. C’mon fingers – type!

Ciao,
Pia

http://www.piaveleno.com

Leave a comment | posted in Excuses, I am, Writing

September 29, 2010

Forgetful

By piaveleno

Being the obsessive personality that I am, I had the bright idea to purge old blog posts. But wait, it gets better. It’s not just that I wanted to clean up my blog – because that would’ve been easy – I also got it in my head that I didn’t want to delete everything, but only a few of the oddball posts that didn’t quite fit with what this blog has become for me. What that means, exactly, I’ll figure out when I’m done.

What was I about to say? Oh, yes, I did have a point…

I simply forgot what it was.

Oh, right. I remember. So, anyway, I’m reading through (randomly, I might add) old blog posts during this purging process and I came across one where I promised to follow up with an entry about one-star reviews. I know that never happened, even without checking the rest of the blog. It also reminded me that “Tri-Sexual” was titled such because there had been three intended parts. Part two is halfway done, handwritten in my notebook, and part three is still rolling around in my head begging for release.

I’m sure there are more like that – hints at future blog entries that were never fulfilled. While I can be obsessive about some things (just ask Carrie about my spreadsheets, outlines, and folders of story data. After a shudder and a shot of Jack, she’ll tell you) I can be very, um, chaotic about other things. Good intentions often become trampled by the Muse, and time slips away until, before I know it, that rough draft you sent has been in my inbox for a month and you’re trying your best not to nag me for my feedback.

Which reminds me! I promised a certain someone a little bite of Maximian. Darling Max, my favorite vampire. I wonder how many times I’ll forget that before he simply demands to be written, distracting me from everything else until it’s done. He should. It’s obvious I can’t seem to remember.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Excuses, I am, In Response

May 24, 2010

No Time for Titles

By piaveleno

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” ~Douglas Adams

Here we are, almost month’s end. Where did May go?

I’m feigning shock because I haven’t done a damn thing about this month’s resolution. In fact, I forgot I made one until an hour ago. As you may have guessed, that’s a big, fat FAIL.

It was a long-shot to begin with. Me, Miss Chaotic Nature herself, trying to better plan my time… Laughable!

Alas, I will be punished for it. The WIP I’ve mentioned repeatedly on Twitter, SUMMER LUST, was intended for an antho call next month. (I think mid-June-ish, but I can’t be bothered to look it up at the moment.) It’s not finished. Let me clarify: The first draft isn’t even halfway done.

Yeah, great time management, Pia!

Instead of working on the first deadline, I spent half of my nice, quiet Saturday working on a synopsis for CRANK. While this will be necessary to dive into the second story arc, and it will be necessary to rewrite the blog in novel format, it is not required THIS MONTH. Granted, it’s been on my To-Do list for ages, but still, why must I suddenly dive into that time-sucking project three weeks before a due date? Why do I sabotage myself?

Morgan, another potential novella, is collecting dust. I made a grand decision to pull most of the paranormal aspects out of it and go with a more contemporary feel. That is, after the first draft was completed. Now, in all fairness, the demons didn’t show up until halfway through the first draft, so they’re being pulled because they feel tacked on, but still… FOCUS PIA!

Ugh, you know I hate reading whiny blogs. I’m not going for whiny today, but I do need to hold myself accountable. I have no one and nothing to blame but myself for this month’s wasted time. I will work on this. I can’t afford to dick around with stuff that I won’t be trying to publish, or worse, random website surfing. I need to slap my own wrists and force my Muse to work on what I need her to work on.

Starting now….

I mean, starting in five minutes, so I can post this entry and check the M/M book review site for freebie contests.

Ciao,
Pia

Leave a comment | posted in Excuses, Resolutions, Writing

March 24, 2010

A Rambling Affair

By piaveleno

As we move into the last week of the month, I am reflecting on what little I’ve done in March. It’s been a month of reaching the weekend exhausted from a busy spurt at the office and reaching Monday morning again without knowing where the weekend went.

I’ve gone no where with the WIP. I have a few new pages. Only a few for the entire month. I know where it needs to go, but the words don’t flow. They feel stilted and they don’t ring true to the characters. Part of me wants to push through, write crap, and reach the end. Once the story is down, it can be edited. The other part of me starts to do that and gets annoyed at the vomit on the page.

In this last week of the month, I’m still torn between striving for that goal of having a completed MS for Morgan’s still unnamed project and working forward on CRANK. I do need to get myself ahead next month since I’ll be spending a week in Vegas. Vacation in general makes me forget what day it is and in a city that never sleeps, I doubt I’ll even think about whether or not it’s Wednesday, let alone remember to write a coherent chapter in this ongoing story.

The thing is, CRANK isn’t coming easily either. I’ve been blaming that on the action scenes I’ve been writing. Those have always been my writing bane. While my good friend, Carrie, has taught me a lot about getting through those, they are still, to me, lackluster and boring. Perhaps once this current scene is resolved, I’ll have the energy and desire to dive in and write ahead. That’ll be before Vegas. I promise.

I also promise this entire blog entry is not going to be depressing. Sure, I’m unfocused and frustrated on the writing front, but I’ve been here before and I know it will pass.

As for other things I like to ramble about here, I’m not reading as much as I was last month. It comes down to that time void I’ve been experiencing. I haven’t read my trade journals that give me the required continuing ed credits for my license, so reading for fun rarely passed my mind.

Part of that, too, are the slow-moving books I’m on. Or so they seem. HORNS, by Joe Hill, has a great premise, but the past several chapters have not been clearly moving the story forward. NIGHTFALL by Andrew Wolter has fascinating world and enchanting characters, but because I’ve yet to figure out how to make PDFs display in a legible font on the Kindle, I can only read a few pages at a time. I’m tempted to print it out – all 300+ pages – because I have enjoyed what I read so far even when he killed… well, you’ll have to read to find out who! Then there’s that freebie chick-lit story that caught my attention because the girl made a deal with a male escort. The story is okay but the author’s writing doesn’t keep me in that suspense of disbelief. I want to finish it to see if the plot works out, but I’m not drawn to return to it like I am for Hill and Wolter.

Crap, I’m rambling. I know how many of you will see a long blog entry and click away for something else. This is, after all, a world that demands instant gratification.

Speeding it up.

I’ve been doing much better this month on my quest to live a healthier life. I refuse to say the word DIET. While diet can refer to what you eat on a daily basis, it has come to mean something more along the lines of starving yourself silly just to drop a few pounds before you see that pretentious bitch and once you’ve made her envious, snarfing down a double cheeseburger while promising yourself you won’t put the weight back on.

Eating healthier has become easier since the Hubby started taking part. Sure, before he’d eat the healthy stuff if I cooked it, but he was just as willing to order a pizza, and he did his best to avoid grocery shopping. Now when I’m feeling weak, he vetoes pizza. Plus he goes shopping, helping pick out fresh fruits and veggies and throwing in his vote on which fish or pork or whatever he’d like to eat during the week.

With the Hubby putting in just as much, if not more effort, I have to struggle less. Last night, I threw out the salami. It just wasn’t worth it. I tried egg whites, and for a quickie morning pita; they’re great. I’ll still eat whole eggs when I want that sloppy yellow yolk for my toast, but before work, I don’t have time for that mess anyway. The best part was when I was in the grocery store alone last week, I was not tempted – not even a little bit – by the big end-cap display of my favorite potato chips with a ‘buy one get one free’ sale.

So there you go. I’m not doing well with the blogging lately so I’m happy to have this done. I’ve been staring at my list of half started blog ideas with a sneer. That, too, will pass. Thank you, dear Readers, for sticking it out with me.

Ciao,
Pia

2 comments | posted in Excuses, ramblings, Reading, Writing

February 23, 2010

Mistress Sniffles

By piaveleno

I’m still in that funk.

Given that, why should I blog? I mean do you, dear Reader, really need to know (or care) that I’ve been down and out with the flu since Sunday? Will it change your day to know that I miss running when I’m sick? Do you take inspiration from my rambling efforts to bring you a list of the random novels I’ve read?

Okay, perhaps the last one, just a little bit.

That and most of you seem to enjoy the party stories. I’m not surprised there since many of you that come here also visit CRANK on a regular basis.

Oh yes, there was a party this weekend, but I’d rather bemoan this cold than compose an intelligent blog entry.

If not my sniffling nose, or my ears that want to pop, or the cough that scares the cat, then I could write about the books I’ve read since last I blogged about reading. I have four more waiting in the pile, but due to this flu crap, I’m not thinking straight enough to remember what I wanted to say about them.

Not that I’m going to bother to use that as an excuse. Morgan and Adam have been quiet. I haven’t been able to summon them even in that in between world as I fall asleep, letting my mind wander over various characters and story ideas. Even Crandall has stayed away from that realm.

I’m not pushing it. I have my rules about saying that B word. I’m not blocked. I’m unfocused and sick. When the physical symptoms pass, then I can work on the rest.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading and, now that I’m behind on my book blog entries, I might play around with creating a new boy or two. Sometimes having a fresh personality to explore can make the lazy ones come back to play. I’d hate to force them after all. I’m not that kind of mistress.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Excuses, health, Inspiration, Reading