First, I’ll start with my rant. (#2 rant, in case you’re keeping count. )

The Google ads on peoples’ blogs drive me nuts!! Why the hell are they on there? Why would you add Google ads to your site? To make money? Does anyone really click on a Google ad and buy something? I don’t like them. I always feel like I am on a commercial site rather than a personal site when I see those ads on there. I think they are yucky. End rant.

I’m pleased the blog is working out for you all–loading faster and easy to use. On my end, it’s fabulous! I love it.

I’m working on the dreaded synopsis. So far, I thinks it’s going fairly well, but I’m certain my critique partners will tear it apart. That’s why I love them. They catch all the little things I pay no attention to. A big epiphany for me was this:

Kathy Carmichael - “For a romance novel synopsis, I can’t say this strongly enough: the external plot is mentioned only as it affects the emotional arc of either the hero or heroine. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need to mention it. “

And here I was, detailing everything about the plot and secondary characters. Usually, my synopsis confuses the hell out of judges. I had one judge who wrote, “My initial reaction after reading [the entry] is that I can’t wait to read more, yet the synopsis does not compel me to read the book. Part of this may be because your synopsis is only 3 pages long, with numerous named characters and a twisting plot.”

Ouch. Not good. I’m going to be honest here. (Watch out.) I’ve never paid much attention to refining my ability to write the synopsis because I knew my writing would hook the reader in, despite the glaring horribleness of the synopsis. In fact, I’ve even sometimes deliberately left the synopsis out, knowing it would hurt rather than help me. But let’s face it. I have to get over my fear and learn to write the synopsis. They are a necessary evil and I’m not much of a writer if I can’t pull one off.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is–where am I going with my career? What am I doing to achieve my goals?

That’s it. I have one completely finished, fully critiqued ms sitting here because of the stupid “Simultaneous Submission” rule, which I’m about to break, because jees!!! How long am I supposed to freakin’ wait?

I’m not hunting for an agent. Sometimes, I think I should be.

I’m telling you right now, when (no if’s here, I’m working on being more optimistic.) I get published, I’m going to make it a crusade to help talented wannabes get ahead. Probably not through contests, but through simple recommendations to people (read agent and editor) I know. Word of mouth carries a lot of weight. Surely, it would be alright to say, “I know someone, [insert name], who has sent you a ms. I think they’re really good, maybe you will too.” (Of course, I’ll have to truly believe that writer is really good. )

Anyway, back to my contemplating. I think I should be doing more to get somewhere. But I’m not sure what more I could be doing. Perhaps I’m just getting impatient, which I hate.

I’ve wasted the entire morning on the Message Board, which, I am sorry to say, is not what it once was. All of my posts have been erased, which also wiped out the links to those topics from the index.

Techie Alert

MySQL apparently has a bug in it that affects message boards from time to time. Early this morning it affected mine. I woke to discover that my board was down. After hours of posting for tech support and Googling, I found the answer and repaired the corruption of the MyISAM tables. Unfortunately, doing so deleted my user name and all of my posts and topics. Had I created a backup of my forum, I could have restored everything. But I did not create a backup. Good grief, am I kicking myself now.

The forum is not the only message board on my site. I also have a wwwboard like the Avon Ladies, Romance and Friends, At the Back Fence, and the Brava Authors. But I’m not impressed with that style of message board (witness the unbelievable amount of Spam that hits the Avon board daily. Yikes!!) so I don’t provide a link to it anywhere on my site.

For now, I’m keeping my forum and adding “Weekly Site Back-ups” to my To-Do list.

I’m really upset. This sucks. But as I’ve said before, a website is a hell of a lot of work. Is the payoff worth it? Certainly, I think so. But it’s a headache, time-drainer, procrastination tool, and distraction from writing as well.

I’ve spent the last three days tweaking this blog. I enjoy it, really I do, but I have to get back to work on writing. Alison blogged once about how working on websites was a different kind of break, still creative but in a different way. I agree.

This blog is a work in progress. Let me know if you run into any bugs. I’m thinking the blog might be loading slowly. It seems that way to me. Also, do you use the comment preview feature on other blogs? Right now, I don’t have it enabled, but I can add it, if it’s something you like to use. Functionality is paramount to me, hence the switch to WordPress.

Other than that, I am back to work on editing. I am also going to tackle writing my first serious synopsis. I’ve written several of course, but now I’d really like to master the art of making them worth reading! Wish me luck. I’m going to need a lot of it!! I truly suck at writing the synopsis.

Booksquare blogged the other day about historical accuracy in books. I have to say that I agreed with most of what was said, although I have no knowledge of the book being discussed.

In fiction, it is hard to weigh the real world (such as it is) against the fictional world. Things that happen in one sphere may not jibe with the other. This is why we think over-emphasis on historical detail sometimes gets in the way of the story.

I agree with that. In most romances if I get to a big chunk of narrative that describes historical events that have little or nothing to do with the progression of the romance, I just skip right past it. Anyone else do the same? Why or why not?

I know. You’re getting sick of hearing that.

I entered Ellora’s Cave author Tawny Taylor’s Some Like it Hot Writing Contest. She’s selecting one finalist a week, I’m the finalist for Week 2. I didn’t know. Sasha told me just a few minutes ago.

You can read the finalist excerpt here. Be forewarned… It is a very steamy excerpt. Tawny wrote, “Congratulations to this week’s finalist, Sylvia Day, author of A Taste of Sin!
This one’s a scorcher! Whew! Enjoy.”

If you’re linking to my blog use either:

http://www.sylviaday.com/blog
or
http://www.sylviaday.com/blog/index.php

http://www.sylviaday.com/blog/index.html won’t work any longer.

Thank you!! I appreciate your link.

Interested in copy editing? I was, so Lydia Joyce’s recent blog post got me thinking. (And cowering. )