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Showing posts from 2011

Happy Holidays To One and All...

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Happy Holidays Everyone.  This is a piece I did a few years ago of a European Father X-mas.  I did it in soft pastel and it hangs on the wall in my Mom's place back in Sacramento.  I was very pleased with how he came out.  I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Wonderful Winter Solstice, a Happy Hanukkah, a magical Kwanzaa, and especially a Happy and Safe New Year's. College is done for now and I hope to post more frequently again once I get back from Stockton after this weekend.  We'll be visiting and staying with family up there for a couple of days.  Then we'll be back home and some friends will be staying with us for New Year's.  Lot's of changes coming up for us in the coming year that I'll tell you about in another post soon.  In the meantime, blessings on you all and enjoy the holiday season all of you. I hope to post again before the year is out.  Take care.

New Post over on my other blog...

Hang in there everyone, I haven't forgotten this blog.  I've just been really short on time due to college.  I have one more full week of classes coming up and then it's FINALS WEEK!!!!  So I have to prepare for those as well.  After all is said and done and I've had a few days to catch my breath I'll be posting here with more tips and insights on writing.  So stay tuned. In the meantime, please check out the other blog where I've posted a sample from my comedy/fantasy novel about the Devil's other son Clausmodeus.  Enjoy... http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/

Posted a section from my 2nd novel

Greetings one and all.  Sorry for the prolonged silence, but college is still swamping me with exams and homework.  I look forward to this semester coming to an end in 6 weeks.  Then maybe I can catch my breath.  In the meantime I wanted to share a link to my other blog.  I've posted a sample from Novel #2 which I've tentatively titled "The Ship".  I hope you'll check in out and enjoy what you see. http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/a-scene-from-my-2nd-novel-the-ship/

New entry on my other blog...

College mid-terms and exams are keeping me swamped.  Hope to do a proper entry about writing soon, please be patient.  In the meantime, please check my other blog for samples from my novel "The Bridge" and updates on the sequels to it. Oh and HAPPY HALLOWEEN all.  Remember to keep writing after you get your haul of candy... I mean Brain Fuel. http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/still-here-still-alive-still-studying/

Just posted another section of my novel "The Bridge"

Survived three major exams this last week.  Got a mid-term coming up in two more weeks and will be starting to study for that one in the next few days.  Hopefully, I can do a proper entry here soon, I hate neglecting everyone.  I've got a lot to say about writing sequels and the difficulties I'm encountering. In the meantime please enjoy this link to another section of my first novel "The Bridge".  Have a great weekend and keep writing everyone. http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/still-more-from-my-novel-the-bridge/

Good news... I posted another sectionn of my novel

College has been keeping me pretty busy so I haven't had as much time to post  anything about writing here.  I hope to do so soon, after this weekend specifically.  I've got 3 tests coming up next week, 2 on Monday and 1on Thursday, plus an on-line exam for the weekend.  Whew! In the meantime I've posted another piece from my horror/sci-fi/mystery novel at my other blog.  Hope you enjoy it gang.   Keep writing. http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/the-bridge-another-section-that-brings-us-full-circle-gang/

Link to Another Scene from my Novel "The Bridge"

Just a quick post here.  I put up the link where you can read another scene from my horror/mystery/sci-fi novel "The Bridge".  I'll be posting here about writing again soon.  I'm using the other blog mostly to post samples of my works, both completed and still in progress.  I hope you get a chance to check them about.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Musings on 1st Drafts and Editing

I have a Writer's Page on  Facebook, where I post whatever progress I made on my writing.  So the other day I looked at several of my recent entries where I talk about how much progress I was making.  I was counting how many words per day I had written and this sounded really good.  But when I went back to the novel itself it felt like I hadn't made a lot of progress after all.  This puzzled me exceedingly so I started to think about it.  As I did so my eyes focused on the novel in progress and I spotted several areas where I needed to fix a problem.  That's when I had a "Light Bulb Moment", I was editing while I was still creating the first draft.  Not a bad thing in and of itself, but I had been doing this almost constantly.  Each day I'd go back to see what I had done when I left off in order to recapture the mood and the moment and I wound up doing bunch of 'repairs' before moving on.  Now don't get me wrong, it's important to make sure t

Quick Note About My Other Blog...

I posted another section of my novel "The Bridge" at my WordPress Blog.  You can check it out by clicking on this link: http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/another-installment-from-my-novel-the-bridge/ Hope you all enjoy it.  I'll be posting a new blog entry here shortly.  Stay tuned.

It's that time of year again...

Tomorrow my summer vacation is officially over.  Not that I've had a lot of vacation time per se.  I was doing intern work at a Center for  Domestic Violence over most of the summer.  I had a couple of weeks to myself, but tomorrow I go back to college.  And what a way to start things.  I have 4 classes tomorrow.  The first one starts at 9:30AM and the last one ends at 9:00PM.  I'll be taking a heavier load this time.  This is so that I can finish my major and get a B. S. in Human Services and several certificates by December.  Great way to end the year and give myself an early X-mas present. But even then it's not over.  Oh no.  I'm already approved for more Pell Grant money for another semester so I'll be taking some evening courses in order to make myself prepped to transfer to a four year college IF I choose to do so.  In the meantime I'll be looking for a regular job.  UNLESS of course I get an agent and my books take off like gangbusters and Hollywood st

Musings on writing and a Rubik's cube...

Any other writers out there feel like when you're trying to do a scene you keep working and reworking it because something just isn't right.  To me it feels like my novel is a Rubik's Cube.  I know all the parts and where I think they should go but they're just not in the right place.  And trying to get them in the proper place is a BI*** and a half sometimes.  Because every so often I do something in one area of the test and it messes up something I had planned for later.  Or I wind up hitting a dead end and have to go back restart the whole section entirely. Now this has happened to me on a number of occasions.  Some people tell me to have an outline ready but that never works for me.  This is usually because my characters start going in other directions by saying or doing things I hadn't originally planned.  Admittedly I let them get away with it but only if what they want to do seems to be working way better than what I originally planned.  But most of the tim

How do you spell Writer's Block? A-A-A-R-R-R-G-G-G-H-H-H!!!

I recently started a second blog with WordPress, not sure how well it's going over so I may keep that for samples of my writing and just day-to-day musings.  I want to keep this one to share my writing experiences with others I think.  So I copied this from my other blog, so in case you didn't see it before here it is.  I hope it helps and I'd love to hear from some of you about how you deal with this problem. Writer’s block :  We’ve all had it at one time or another.  I’ve heard many suggestions on how to deal with it.  Here’s a few of my own: 1-Uncontrollable sobbing in the nearest corner.  This does not necessarily solve the problem, but it gets some of your frustrations and emotions out of the way.  NOTE: Doing this for two or more days straight may signal a bigger problem, men in white coats with big nets come to take to you to a much happier place.  At least they did with me.  You know, I always picture Disneyland a lot bigger and mo

I'm Back Baby... Plus A Section from my novel "The Bridge"

I survived college and finals!  Woo-hoo!  Thanks for everyone's patience in waiting for me to get done.  I plan on being more active here during the summer, before starting the last semester of getting my A. S. in Human Services this fall.  I should have the degree by December.  Come January, hopefully I'll have work or if not I'll be just continuing with some more college.  I've got financial aid already lined up for that semester, no sense letting it go to waste.  Besides, I'm planning on pursuing a second degree in Dance.  I find Dance can help people who find it hard to express themselves, especially if they've suffered trauma or other problems.  And since Human Services is about Counseling, I feel the two will go hand in hand. Anyway, as far as writing goes I'm still waiting to hear back from the agent in New York on my first novel "The Bridge".  In the meantime I've gotten a second and third novel underway.  One takes place directly whe

Blimey College is Keeping Me Busy...

Sorry for the long silence everyone, but this semester has been BUSY!  This past week was my Spring Break.  Tomorrow I go back to class.  Meanwhile here it is the day before I go back and I'm finally getting around to working on my Blog...  See what I mean about a busy semester.  I'm carrying a full load of classes plus doing and Internship at a Women's Center and have very little time to do much of anything most days. Anyway, that's brought you up to speed on why I haven't been posting.  Meanwhile, the manuscript for my Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi novel "The Bridge" was sent to the agent who requested it about 2 weeks after my last entry here.  That was mid-January.  To date I haven't heard back but that's normal.  Agents get query letters and manuscripts all the time.  It takes a while for them to get through the manuscripts they already had waiting when yours comes along.  So what do you do in the meantime?  GET TO WORK ON YOUR NEXT NOVEL!  Trust

Persistence, Beta-Readers, and Keep Writing...

Sorry to have been silent for so long, things had gotten pretty chaotic around here. As you may remember, my laptop suffered a serious infection from which it was not recovering, so I had to wait and get a new one.  This was back in October.  In December I finally got a new one.  But by then, finals and term papers were due at college so that kept me busy.  Then came the holidays, which were wonderful thank you, I hope it was the same for all of you.  During all this I did another two drafts of my Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi novel "The Bridge" in order to get the word count below 100,000.  I believe I mentioned before that for a brand new author, under 100K words is desirable.  Remember you don't have a track record for the agents and publishers to look at, and they don't time to read a new book that is longer than War and Peace.  So I finally completed the 7th draft just after New Year's Day.  (Mind you, my goal had been to finish it by the end of 2010, oh well).  An