Here’s some armpit hair for those of you who complained this week’s Happy Hunk Day hottie didn’t have any…

Ah, yes. Be careful what you say in The Dungeon…Mistress Heidi may just make you suffer for it.

A FRIDAY FUNNY

FREE BOOK FRIDAY

To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment to today’s post that includes the code FBF—for “Free Book Friday,” of course—to let me know you’re interested in the drawing. (U.S. residents only for the prize, please, but everyone is welcome to chat.)

Winner will be announced during our Happy Sunday post on…well, you know, Sunday.

Winner is responsible for contacting me with her mailing information—i.e. I will not be contacting you—so be sure to check back in or you might not even know you won! :reindeer

(If prize isn’t claimed within 14 days, another name may be drawn or item may be tossed back into the goody bag to be re-used for a future giveaway.)

Last update, I was fighting through the post-op fog & struggling to re-familiarize myself with my current work-in-progress (a Harlequin Desire I’m calling A Baby in the Billionaire’s Boardroom, but I expect that to change) & get back to writing.  And it wasn’t going well. :houhoh

Agent Extraordinaire suggested I go back & not only re-read what I had written already, but re-type it, as well.  So I did that.  And it kinda-sorta worked.  It definitely helped to refresh my memory of the story & characters, so that was good.  But when it came to carrying on with the typing of new words & ideas…  Um, not so much.

No matter how in the flow I thought I was, how ready to jump back in, every time I tried, I drew a total blank.  Very frustrating.

So I started to wonder if what I needed was a change in my normal writing process.  Something to jumpstart me, shake things up.  Usually, I use my beloved AlphaSmart.  In fact, I’ve written every book since (& including) Walker’s Widow on it exclusively; that’s 19 full-length books & 4 novellas.  Wow.

My trusty Alphie Neo wasn’t working for me, though, so I decided to try something different.  What if I tried writing by hand?

Now, normally, I only write synopses by hand.  For some reason, they come out faster & better that way.  My brain seems to function well on the big picture when I’m scribbling with a pencil & paper.  But I’ve never written by hand before because it adds extra steps; instead of typing once on the AlphaSmart, then adding the text to my computer & being done with it, writing by hand means writing, then typing, then adding. :santa

But since nothing else was working, I figured I’d give it a shot & see what happened.

I started slowly, nervously, even.  I wasn’t entirely sure of what I was doing because I’d never done this before.  Even before I got an AlphaSmart, I wrote on a typewriter or the computer; I don’t think I’ve ever written anything substantial by hand.

Something kind of miraculous happened, though.  It worked!  The words started to come & the story started to flow again.  I was even—gasp!—kind of enjoying myself!

Another great thing was that ABCFamily Channel had just run a Harry Potter marathon, & I’d recorded them as a refresher.  (Sure, I’ve got them on DVD, but who can be bothered pulling those out? :cat )  So while I was working to recapture my creativity, I had some great, creative stuff playing in the background to entertain me.  It was almost like magic…or like Professor Snape was standing over me with a menacing look until I started writing again!

I’m still writing this way, too.  Yes, it’s a little slow & I’m still dealing with that extra step of having to type up what I’ve scribbled by hand, but whatever works, right?

“Without that tablet, we’re nothing!”
(Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian)