Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

All Over The Place: Focus by Stacy Duplease of Stories by Stacy

Ever have one of those days where you're all over the place? When you get a lot done, but it's all a little here and a little there. Today is one of those days for me.

When I feel like this mentally, it tends to transcend and infiltrate other parts of my life. That's what it's done with my work today. It's moments like this I realize I need to stop. Rest. Re-focus. Focus on what's most important. I need to re-analyze things and make sure I'm focusing on what matters.

I desire nothing more than a single-minded focus on what is important and on what matters. For me, it's on God, my husband, and my writing. God must be above all else, though.

How about you? What do you need to re-focus and what is your most important focus?

By Stacy Duplease
of Stories by Stacy & Publishing by Stacy

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Writing Conference or Bust

Reminder of Vacations:
I'm going to be out of touch from Wednesday, May 13 to Tuesday, June 2nd and will start to check email and get back into the swing of things on June 3rd. I'm going to the Colorado Christian Writing Conference (CCWC) in Estes Park and then going on a road trip with my husband.

Lists:
Normally, I'm not a list girl. I might send myself email reminders, but I'm not a list girl. There are exceptions, however, to that rule. This is one of them. I am so excited about my two vacations that I don't want to forget anything. Therefore, I'm making lists and checking them not twice, but more like five or six times. (Just added to the list three times while I wrote this paragraph.)

Writing:
I'm excited to be through this conference's preparation time. Thank God for that. It means I can focus less time on editing and more time on writing. I prefer the balanced approach of doing a little of both every day. But, a little more writing. Therefore, hang on tight when I get back. I'll be adding a lot more blogs about my latest projects and so on.

Thank You:
I just wanted to thank you for reading my blogs. Bless you. It means a great deal. I promise to be more focused on writing and life rather than on editing from here on out. No, that isn't true. The next conference is in September. So, September will bring more editing again, but from now until then, stay tuned for the crazy stories of Stacy moving from home state to another city in another state and leaving family, starting our family, and meeting new people.

If I can guarantee one thing about the upcoming blogs, they will make you laugh and shake your head (and maybe roll your eyes). I'm a hoot. I tend to do something or say something that is so, well, Stacy, that you'll see I'm one of a kind.

See. Just in this blog, you're seeing the less frazzled Stacy and are seeing the more laid back one who can freely laugh at herself because I often get myself into situations where there's nothing let to do but laugh.

Genesis' Lack of Patience:
I will keep doing blogs for you to read the story of Genesis every day. It's a book about marriage. Here's my hook for this book:

Hook: Does every marriage have what it takes to go the distance? Aubrey says, "Yes!" The question is: "Do you?"

In our age of divorce at the drop of a hat, I tackle the issue of how to fight for your marriage even in the middle of infidelity, video game addiction, and suicide. It's a rather heavy book, but it inspires you to cherish your marriage and become best friends with your spouse.

Take care.

Stacy Duplease

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Books I'm Writing and Editing

I decided to provide you with another list of my works.

The books I've written, will present at the writing conference next week, and am editing are:
* Cammi's Story (see Spec Lit blog)
* Genesis' Lack of Patience
* Demarcations
* The Murder of Owen Knight
* Tanpres (pending new title) (see Spec Lit blog)

The books I'm currently writing are:
* January's Lasting Legacy (see Mom blog)
* Moments of Sacred Longing
* Zeagar (see Spec Lit blog)
* Whatever is True

The books I will work on soon:
* Ramey's Story (Book 2 after Cammi)
* Book 2 of Genesis
* Book 2 of Murder of Owen
* Book 2 of Tanpres
* Book 2 of Demarcations

Whew!

Starting in June, I will share all of them with you in my blogs--from page one to end of book over a year or so...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

An Updated Schedule and Etc. Etc. Etc.

Happy Tuesday. I hope you're well.

Today, I seem to be scattered and realize I bit off more than I could chew when I promised a synopsis of each of my books for today. I will have that this week (I hope). I'm just not sure when. Also, I want to give several different types of a sentence, a paragraph, and one-page summaries. It will help you get acquainted with my novels, but will also allow me the opportunity to practice giving a pitch to a publisher for the CCWC (Colo. Christian Writers Conference in Estes Park).

I'm going to try to put this out every day in the morning or around noon at the latest. So, please bear with me while I try to get adjusted to my new schedule. I need to edit, read a novel, read some on how to write, write, exercise, do some housecleaning, pack a box or two, snuggle with my beagle, and have time with my husband every day so I'm trying to figure out how to make it work. I'm a morning person and get my best writing and editing done in the morning. Therefore, I promise the blog will be sent out by noon. I will try to send another in the afternoon as a bonus from time to time.

My schedule has already been modified because I'm currently kicking around two new novels in my head as I edit my book, Genesis' Lack of Patience. Also January's Lasting Legacy is about motherhood, so I'm going to combine my thoughts on planning to have a baby with that day's blog.

Here's my shortened and latest version of my blog schedule:

Sunday: Dreaming and Writing Blog Monday: Zeagar???? (Title in progress. Sci-Fi.)Tuesday: Cammi's Story Wednesday: Genesis' Lack of Patience. Thursday: The Murder of Owen KnightFriday: January's Lasting Legacy (Still writing. Started over again on 4/27. Combining thoughts on being a mom-to-be with this blog.)Saturday: Demarcations

*** I'll keep adding to the next three sections over the next couple of weeks:

One-Sentence Summaries:

Zeagar
Five teens are asked by the U.S. government to explore other planets within the Zeagar Galaxy and to write up reports/blogs about their experiences.

Cammi's Story
Cammi and Ramey find themselves in a strange fantastical world called Lethana while they're asked to recover the Lost Volumes.

Genesis Lack of Patience
Aubrey writes a series about marriage and how to fight every day to keep and treasure your spouse even through the impossibly difficult life-circumstances thrown your way.

The Murder of Owen Knight
A writers group finds themselves in a situation where they're being hunted and one of them is murdered.

January's Lasting Legacy
A book about four moms and three dads planning for a baby.

Demarcations
Sara moves to live with her grandmother and start over in a small town and opens a cafe and bookstore where she meets several new friends.


Paragraph Summaries:

Zeagar
Cammi's Story
Genesis Lack of Patience
The Murder of Owen Knight
January's Lasting Legacy
Demarcations

One-Page Summaries:

Zeagar
Cammi's Story
Genesis Lack of Patience
The Murder of Owen Knight
January's Lasting Legacy
Demarcations

January's Lasting Legacy:

I have a confession to make to you about my writing style. I have a bad habit of getting a quarter into the way of a book and starting over when I get stuck or when it doesn't come out the way I imagined. January's Lasting Legacy has had even more do-over's than normal for me. I'll let you know once I know more about it myself. I just started over again last night. I do know this about the plot, however: Four moms-to-be form a social group to support one another through pregnancy. It tells of their experiences, outlooks, and plans. The three men involved with the women will also form their own group. So, it's not just for women readers. It's for the whole family.

Etc. Etc. Etc.:

*** This section will be for the miscellaneous items where I don't want to devote a whole blog to, but still deem important. I realize the name is redundant, three times over, but there is a reason for it. Etc. Etc. Etc. was the one of the first books I ever wrote. It was when I was ten years old. My dad owned a print shop at the time and had an old Itek Typesetter, for those of you who know what that was. For those who don't, it was the precursor for print shops of the personal computer. It was a big clunky thing in which you actually had to program it for every page and give it commands of what you wanted to do. At any rate, that's what I used for this book. I still have it somewhere. In the process of moving, I'll try to find it and will share some of it with you.

*** Book I just finished reading last night:
Cold Ridge by Carla Neggers

*** Book I started reading last night:
Maximum Ride: Book 1: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. It's a fantasy and written for children, but young adults and adults love it. I'll tell you more about it later.

*** Check out the Amazon Kindle 2, a computerized book and library. I'll write more on this later. I love it and never thought I could make the switch from paper books to computerized. Wouldn't have it any other way now. It saves on shelf space and I am a nut about collecting books.

My Schedule for 2009:

*** May 13th-16th, Colorado Christian Writer's Conference
*** On vacation May 17th-June 2nd
*** Packing to move from June 3rd to July 1st
*** Moving from Colorado to Nebraska the first week of July.

Blessings to You,


Stacy D.

*******
You can also find me on twitter at: Storiesbystacy and email me at: Storiesbystacy@gmail.com

While each blog will be a stand-alone, if you're new to this blog, you may want to go back and read the previous posts in order to get the most out of the blog.

Blog Vol. 3