Jerk

I have found my favorite word.

I didn't realize how often I use this word in my writing until my friend pointed it while she read my WIP Shadows Keep. I was, at the time, doing final edits on Altercation.

Once she pointed out how often I used "jerk," I paid more attention. And I was shocked at the sight of that four-letter word popping up all over my MS.

Sometimes it grew. I saw people who "jerked" their heads. I saw people "jerking" their bodies. "Jerking" other people.

I even saw people who were just plain "jerks."

There was even one time where it morphed into "jerky." I might even have seen a "jerkily."

After I did a "find and replace", removing most jerks, the word no longer made any sense to me. And I'm still trying to think up a better synonym than "yank."

What's your most abused word??? Is it easy to replace?

Don't forget to tell people about my Christmas sale if you want to win a free book! It's that easy! Details here.

Nano stats: 22,856

Jesus Took the Wheel

Not of our car, but of the car that almost hit us.

We were not where we were supposed to be. It would've been our fault. We were on our way home from Branson, Missouri, and due to more fun from Google Maps, we kept having to change our route.

It was late at night on a curvy country road. Fearing that once again we'd taken a wrong turn, my husband pulled a quick U-turn. Only as we got to the top of the U, we discovered a ditch on the other side of the road that prevented us from finishing out turn. My husband put the car into reverse, but before we could back up far enough, a large truck appeared at the top of the ridge, coming our direction.

At first we were not concerned. I said, "There's a car coming." But he didn't slow down.

In that moment, I knew he was going to slam right into my door. I knew the impact would throw our car into a free spin. "He's going to hit us!" I cried. Somehow, he hadn't seen us, taking up the entire road.

And then he did. At the last moment he swerved, barreling his truck through the ditch in front of us. He emerged unscathed on the other side, and I sat there gasping, unable to believe he hadn't hit us.

Honestly, when I thought he was going to hit us, I thought about the annoyance of dealing with insurance claims, fixing up the car. It wasn't until he was gone that it fully dawned on me what a collision would mean, especially if his grill rammed into my passenger side at 60 mph.

I cannot shake the feeling that we are blessed to be home. We are blessed to be alive. Someone was watching over us. I am so happy that the lives of my sweet little family were spared.

While you're here, enter my Christmas contest for a chance to win Talli's book. Get the details here!

Going Purple

My 3-year-old calls me Purple Mama.

That could be because I love the color purple.

Or it could be because I dressed up all in purple for Halloween, including a purple mask.

Or maybe it's because I dyed my hair purple yesterday.

Oh, yes, the hair's fun. It's kind of a black purple. Note to self: make sure you'll be able to get into the shower after the expected amount of time and not 30 minutes later.

I totally look like a purple-haired Goth girl.

Don't forget, for a chance to win a free book, tell people about my Christmas sale! Information here!

How to Hang up on an Agent

You won't have many opportunities to practice this, so try and get it right the first time.

1) Look at the number. Identify the "New York, New York" area code and assume it's a telemarketer. Ignore the call.

2) Get curious. What telemarketer is in New York? Return the call.

3) Wait. You're expecting an automated recording, after all.

4) Hang up. A real voice answers, and you don't recognize the name. Definitely hang up.

5) Oh, a message! Listen. Verify that you just hung up on a real live New York agent.

6) Freak out. Then send an email apology and hope they still want your manuscript.

Don't forget to tell people about my Christmas sale. Every time you do, you get entered in my Christmas contest!  Check it out here!

Nano stats: 13,794

The Second Draft: Expanding

I always enjoy my second drafts. I'm nano-ing right now, which means first drafting. And I can't wait to revise. While my beginnings are usually rough, by the time I hit page 70, it's flowing. Okay, yes, that means I have a lot of work ahead of me.

But what it really means is that I have a skeleton beginning. That is how I write. My first draft is the bare bones, a slight expansion of the outline. For me, the first draft is the hardest part. Once I have that structure up, I can breathe a sigh of relief. The easy part is the insulation, the brick-laying, the roofing. I can expand. (Don't ask me about accessorizing. Again, not a strong point of mine.)

The second draft can have many purposes. For some people, it's strictly clean up. For some people, they are actually cutting. For me, it's adding. I can safely expect my manuscript to grow between 10-20k in the second and third drafts. I have the tendency to be sparse. To think my reader already understood that, or that I explained something enough. It's only when I read back over it that I go, "Huh? What happened there? We're missing something."

Ah, but I love those moments. When I realize I need a new paragraph. A new page. A new scene.

I just sent over (maybe) the final edits to Altercation, my sequel to Perilous. It is very different from the first book. The first novel took place over a course of six weeks. While it still had moments of being fast-paced, there was also a lot of general day descriptions.

Not this one. This whole novel happens in about two weeks. Which means each moment, each day, each hour must be described. There is something HAPPENING at all times. And since I have two major POVs (and one minor one), I can't spend too much time away from either one.

When I introduced the second POV, I didn't realize it was going to become major. But it has. I now find myself needing to introduce this character more, and in the beginning. I'm not sure how yet. More scenes.

I love it. It's refreshing to watch the novel grow.

Don't forget to enter my Christmas contest and get a chance to win Talli's new book!

Nano wordcount: 10,484

Perilous Christmas Sale

I love how the title of my book makes everything seem dangerous.

But, it's true! I've put Perilous on sale, just for Christmas, for $10.95. That INCLUDES shipping and handling!

You can only get this price through my website, http://tamarahartheiner.com. This is the best deal, and I'm really excited to offer it to you. So if you loved Perilous, now's your chance to buy it for your mom, your sister, your aunt, your daughter. And if you haven't bought if but have been wanting to, you won't get a better price than this!

There's no limit, but I might run out of inventory. So don't put it off. Order yours today!

Spread the word! Share this link via facebook, twitter, or your blog. Every share earns you an entry to win an ebook of Talli Roland's new book, Watching Willow Watts. I'll draw on January 2. Make sure you come back and comment ON THIS POST (even if you don't tweet about it until December or whatever) so I know what you did!

Nano status: Hard at work and loving it. word count: 5141.

Making Halloween Ours

I remember Halloween quite fondly as a child. My mom had two or three boxes of Halloween decorations, and what fun it was to put them out. We had a book of short scary stories, and read one each night of the month of October. Then, of course, Halloween: Digging through the box of costumes, getting them on, running from door to door with out flashlights and mom and dad trailing behind us.

What fun!

Now that I'm a mom with my own young children, we're trying to establish traditions. My oldest, at 5, is fully aware of Halloween. This is the first year that's occurred. My youngest, at 1, won't really know what's going on, but she'll see the candy big brothers are getting, and she'll follow right along.

I don't have a house nicely decorated in Halloween themes. I would like to. So what I've started doing every year is wait until the holiday is over. Then I sneak out and buy decorations at 75% off. What a delight it was to open the Halloween box this year and find new decorations!

We didn't read a scary story a night this year. But for three years, I've taken the kids to a pumpkin patch, and we have carved pumpkins on the Monday before Halloween. This year, we also roasted the seeds, though they didn't turn out that great. Oh well. I have several years to perfect them.

On Monday evening we took the kids Trick-or-Treating. It's slim pickings these days, as it seems most people have forgotten that it's funner to knock on a door than walk around the mall or tap a car trunk. Either that, or they don't realize if the porch light is off, we think it means they don't want trick-or-treaters. But we were out there. Helping the kids get a loot. Then we came home, looked through the candy, and forgot to watch 'scary' movies because we were so tired.

Ah, Halloween! It's so much fun!