This.

Peeping.  And yelling.  And generally making himself or herself very clear on several points.  First, that it is awfully hard to push out of your shell when there’s another egg ON TOP OF YOU!  (had to adjust for picture, but yes, an egg was resting directly on top of the one that hatched)  Second, that it’s very hard to get your hatching legs when the ground keeps rotating under you!  And, third, that it’s very lonely to hatch when all your roomates are a good week away from busting out of their shell!

I have to admit, I left him there a minute longer while I ran and grabbed my hubby and the camera.  If he was strong enough to push out of his egg with another egg pressing down on him, he’d last another minute.

I’ve also decided that this little guy (or girl) isn’t getting sold with the other chicks.  Aside from the fact that he’s adorable (don’t mind me, I always seem to call newly hatched chicks ‘hes’) and has great foot-feathering, which a silkie should have if they can possibly manage it, he has become my new mascot.  In a week which included a fried-out computer plus major chicken losses from both heatstroke AND hail stones the size of golf balls–

–for reals, golf ball-sized, I tell you!  In a week like that, it came as no great surprise that I also got a rejection letter from the very last agent with a full of 13 Demon Days.  An agent who I’d met, and connected with, and who seemed really excited about the book when she requested the full.  In such a week, it’s nice to have a cute and fuzzy reminder that we have to hatch where we find ourselves, even if someone screwed up and left us in the wrong incubator.  After all, it’s not like we can ask for a do-over!

I hope you’re having a great week!

Well, you might want to hold on to your tail!  I think we’re officialy flown past spring and are hurtling toward summer at about, oh, 90 miles an hour!  And that seems the general pace of life, around here.  I’m working on scrubbing up an old manuscript.  It’s a ein]rux suspense novel*.  Since this is always a tryng process, I appreciate Laura’s timely post on the cabinet, and I’m working to strike the right balance between cutting and keeping!

What happened to The Mysterious Chicken Novel, you ask?  Well, it’s still in the works.  I got stuck on chapter five because the plot as I’ve outlined it felt off, and I’m taking my time working out the kinks.  However, I’m pretty good at juggling projects and know I can’t push 3×5 plot cards around forever, so I’m sure you’ll see an update to the word count sometime this year.

In other news, our silkie chicks have survived their first big scare.  They contracted a nasty disease call coccidiosis, and gave us concern for a day or two.  Thankfully they’ve all fully recovered, and have inspired us to rearrange how we run the outside brooders.  Now all the chicks will be up on wire and away from any possible contact with the adults until they’re ‘of age’ and have a little more fiesty immune systems.  We’re grateful that these were super healthy chicks and we didn’t lose any!

Lastly, our younger splash silkies are growing in nicely.  They’re getting so big, I can just barely tell them apart from their older sister.  Here’s Tempest, strutting her stuff and striking a pose.

She gorgeous, but she does live up to her name!  In fact, if you have any freak weather or severe storms–as we are–you might want to offer her some treats because you’ve clearly offended her.

Here’s the 7-7-7 Challenge:
Flip to page 77 or page 7 of your current WIP.
Find line 7.
Post the 7 sentences that follow.
Tag 7 more writers.

So let’s see what I’ve got!

A pair of half-grown chicks came in carrying a wood platter between them.  It was laid down with tea things–a small kettle, an oat cake for each of us, and a fat worm already diced.
Great.  This was going to be a longer talk–otherwise known as a lecture.  Couldn’t Sensei just say ‘Congratulations, Jackson.  You’re the cock of the year and we’re grateful to have you fighting beside us?’
I waited while the chicks left and Sensei poured the tea.  I thought I did pretty good at hiding my impatience, but maybe I was a little too quick in reaching for my share of the worms.
“Always the impatience, Jackson.”  Sensei shook his head.　 “The soothsayers should have named you ‘restless one’.
I didn’t say anything.  What was wrong with being restless?  Hadn’t I just finished the agility and enemy terrain test in record time?

And there you have it!  Seven (or so) sentences from my Mysterious Chicken Novel, and now I’ll bet you feel the overwhelming urge to serve your tea with finely diced worms.

I’m tagging:
Mary Robinette Kowal
Alex Black
Pam Zollman
Ada Brown
Steve Stewart
Kat Otis
Maureen Power

I chose you all for purely selfish reasons–cause I am curious what you’re up to and would love to see a snippet of your WIP.  No worries if you don’t keep up a blog, or can’t participate in full.  Just give me a teaser in the comments and I’ll be satisfied.  Otherwise, I might have to pull out my chicken mind skills and give you a look!

I guess that’s what this chick was thinking when he stuffed himself in the feed bottle.

Don’t worry, I got him out with nothing hurt beyond his pride.  His feet feathers were showing around the bottom, so the other chicks would get curious about these fluffy black bits in their food and give them a tug, making the chick startle and cheep.  Not a dignified position for a chick to find himself in.  On the upside, that’s how we found him!

The truth is I’ve had a pretty good week.  Worked out the design knots for a new coop system we’ve been needing to finish, made our first ever very-own spicey curry chicken–

and hatched an adorable bunch of silkie chicks and guinea keets–

who have sat down to successful peace talks and agreed to stop eating each other’s toes!  Yep, a pretty good week…if you’re not looking at word count:

Which really hasn’t budged.  On the upside, I figured out a few chicken-worthy weapons, such as their super versatile egg grenades!  And, who know?  Maybe I’ll have a hyper-awesome writing-on-Friday-the-thirteenth day, to make up for it?

How was your week?  Got anything worthy of Friday the thirteenth in the works?

I can feel it watching me watch it, see, and I know the stubborn little thing will hold back on boiling til I give it some space.  Honest!

So maybe it’s not such a surprise that as I launch myself into my new middle grade writing project, I find myself reluctant to talk about it.  Cause of the possible jinx, you know?  And even though I’m a reasonably educated person with a nice little framed degree and way too high a sense of skepticism to ever fall for such nonsense as jinxes–I still shy away from talking too much about this particular writing project.

Of course, since superstition isn’t a part of my mental identity, I’ll go all rational and tell myself it’s just that I feel the need for a different approach.  That since this novel is so different from the last–written in first person, much shorter, strong on voice and concept rather than quite so much plot–I just want to give myself room to approach it from a different direction.

And you know?  That sounds good!  So forget all that stuff I said above about my regression into superstition, okay?

What I am going to do is post a weekly word count update, with a nifty little updaterthinger, so you guys can cheer me on and keep me motivated.  Cause it’s so much easier to feel I’d better eck out another couple hundred words when I’ll be reporting them somewhere!  And since the novel’s title isn’t quite decided yet and I’ve gone all secretive writer on you, we’ll call it:

The Mysterious Chicken Novel.

Yep, that means it’s about chickens.  Silkies, to be exact, though I’m pretty sure the actual birds wouldn’t recognize themselves in what I’ve done.

Here’s the word counter, outfitted with my teeny tiny end goal of 25k words cause this is a shorter middle grade.

And here’s a commemorative pic of our new silkie chick, cause you knew I couldn’t resist posting a chick pic!  To me he looks like an Ewok so we’ve named him Wicket.

But yesterday, in the library, the geek in me was offered a tantalizing prize of proportions that went way beyond temptation, and I couldn’t keep in the squee–

I was introduced to NC LIVE.

Do you know what a treasure this is?  With the wave of my library bar code, I can watch all the PBS documentaries I want.  Right now, that’s American history brought to life, broken out by decade or major event and free at my fingertips!  Can you blame me for throwing coolness to the wind?  For babbling my gratitude to the dear reference librarian who brought me enlightenment?  I know that it will take a great deal of effort to regain my lost ground on that slippery slope of all things cool, but I really don’t see how it could be helped.  Besides, maybe the librarian won’t tell–in fact, I’m pretty sure she understands.  How do I know this?  Well…

She’s a librarian, but for just a minute there–she forgot to be quiet.

One of my places is the North Carolina outerbanks, and–I know this is gonna sound crazy–but I like the banks of a hundred years ago even better.  But, since I can’t visit them physically, I’ve decided to do it vicariously through my characters.  The banks of those days were untamed, filled with sun and sea and a hefty dose of danger.  What more could a writer want?

Well, how about a dash of steampunk, an apocolypse, seven girls marked by fate, and a pirate or two?  For those of you who follow this blog, you know what that means–I’m back to work on my Seven Seals books, and loving it!  Right now it’s mostly research.  I’ve picked up a few books on place:

• The Pirates of North Carolina
• The Outer Banks of North Carolina
• Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony
• The Inner Islands
• The Coasts of Carolina

Plus three books on Ocracoke I’ve already read.  I’ve also got a smattering of books to help with the time period and general mood I’m going for:

• Sherlock Holmes
• The Temple and the Lodge
• Secret Societies
• Victorian Days
• Queen Victoria

Plus of course, any steampunk novels I can get my hands on!  Today I picked up Gail Carriger’s Soulless from the library.  I had to put in a hold for it and wait a couple weeks, so I’m excited for my reading feast tonight!  Clearly I’ve got enough books lined up to keep me busy for at least a day or two, but if you have any suggestions of nonfiction, period fiction or steampunk I should pick up, give me a yell in the comments!

Then here, as my gift to you, is a list of my most beloved books on the craft of writing!

The life-alteringly good books:

• Who Dares Wins by Bob Mayer–this was one of those books that really blows the mind wide open.  The Green Beret/Warrior approach to writing really worked for me, and the exercises were great.  This book helped me delve deeper into my psyche, then clean up on the inhibitions lurking there.  What power my writing has must be credited at least in part to the tools taught in this book.
• Character and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card–the first time I read this book I whipped through it, nodded thoughtfully, and passed it on to a writing friend.  The second time I went slowly and highlighted.  The third time my study was guided by Scott while I was in attendance at his literary bootcamp, and believe it or not, I still found unexplored gems.  I’m looking forward to the fourth time.
• Save the Cat by Blake Snyder–I tend to write at a break-neck speed, and my plots reflect that.  I knew I needed to provide some structural support to hold up all that adrenaline, but it wasn’t ’til I read Save the Cat that I could find a structure book that made sense to me.  I imagine this was the kind of how doctors felt when they discovered x-ray machines.  Suddenly, no one had to be cut open when you wanted to look at the skeleton!

The books that plugged in my lightbulb:

• Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton–this one I’m still working through, but it’s already had quite the impact.  Voice tends to be one of the most poorly explained writing subjects, and yet is of utmost importance for a writer to master.  This book does the best of any I’ve found at explaining voice so you feel enlightened after the explanation.
• Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger–I know, I know, you’ve heard (or said) that ‘romance novels are trash.  It doesn’t take skill to write a romance.’  Well, that’s nonsense of course, and every writer will benefit from exploring the trade secrets employed by bestselling romance writers.
• 20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias–back in the yonder years when I first wrote a novel, I had no idea plot was even needed.  You just started off with a story idea, and wandered around til it went somewhere or died, right?  Uhm, no.  At least, not if you have 20 Master Plots on your bookshelf.  For the beginning writer out there still trying to get the story past chapter four or five, this book will feel like a life preserver.
• On Writing by Stephen King–sometimes we need a little nudge, or a cheer, to get us of on the path to bravery.  This book was that nudge for me.  It’s a fascinating look into Stephen King’s life, but most importantly it demonstrates that a writer’s personal demons can be put to work earning the writer’s bread.
• Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell–did I mention I’ve had a bit of a structure problem?  Well, sometimes it takes a second book to get the message across.  Sometimes it takes three!  This was my first book on structure, and can take a large chunk of credit that I ever finished my first novel.

The books that I’m reading now (besides the voice book, mentioned above):

• Description by Monica Wood
• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
• Conflict, Action and Suspense by William Noble
• Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham

You’ll notice that out of these last four, three are books from the Element of Fiction Writing series, as is Character and Viewpoint, mentioned above.  This isn’t a fluke.  If you’re heading to the bookstore to buy yourself or your dear one a writing book and somehow commit the gross oversight of leaving home my list, go with this series and odds are good the book will hit the spot.

After setting aside the books I’ve listed above, I still have seventeen writing books beside me.  Plus more I couldn’t lay my hands on right now.  That’s a lot of books!  I think, come January, I’ll report on on the writing books I’m reading now and also list the books I have on freelancing as a writer.  Just in case any of y’all are broke from buying writing books and looking to earn some cash!

Plus, I’ll always have proof that no matter how bad the kitchen looks, it could always be worse.  Because, you know, I like to keep it positive!

I thought about sharing the pic, but decided to shield your tender eyes–and my dignity.  Besides, the dishes are looking up.  After another round tonight, they’ll look even better.  By the time we leave tomorrow, the kitchen will probably have reached the transcendent state of semi-presentable.  Which is, you should know, my highest aspiration.  I learned a long time ago, back in the way beyond days when my house used to enjoy a state of spotlessness, that I could keep a clean house and be a Super Housekeeper complete with the Super Housekeeper badge and trophy…or I could be a great mom, a busy writer, and happy lady.  And when I really, really just gotta have a badge or spiffy-sized trophy?  I can make one for myself, out of cardboard and crayons, and stack them all in a row.

So, what will I be doing this weekend?  Straightening up, vacuuming, washing dishes, catching up laundry?  Ha!  I’ll be at SCBWI Carolinas writing conference, along with my hubby and kids, and loving every minute of it.  Let those dishes leer–they don’t scare me!

Here’s another clue:

Yep, we got those guinea keets I was debating about–and they’re so cute!  And so sweet!  And so much trouble!  Lol.  We bought twenty from two (mostly) local hobbyists, ranging in age from about a week to a few hours old.  You can see how much variation there is in the bunch, and we’re super excited to see what color they grow up to be.  Guinea fowl genetics can be a bit complicated, but we’ve got a good group of blue, brown, and recessive genes represented in this group.  We’re hoping for a rainbow flock!

I’ve also spent some time like this:

Which is a highly productive way to get lots of reading in, I’ve found.  And in doing so, I discovered the thrilling stories of my fellow Hillsborough writer John Claude Bemis.  Tall tales, magic, coming of age and discovery–what a great read!  The Clockwork Dark is one series that you’ll want to clear your calender and settle in with, so be forewarned!

In writing news, I’m back down to three fulls of 13 Demon Days out with agents, but still feel hopeful as the misses are very close calls.  I’ve also this week discarded a half dozen beginnings to my new YA novel, Siren’s Scream, and tossed around characters ’til they’re dizzy.  I’m feeling really excited about this novel, and the story that’s growing in my mind as I work through the early kinks.  Yay for inspiration and the right doses of perspiration!  Now if only I can harness the flighty energy of my new guinea keets while keeping a steady hand on the creative spark, I’ll be full-steam ahead!