Ericka Scott

Book Review of Son of the Sea by Nancy Holder

Ericka Scott — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:30:47 +0000

I’ve been doing some research lately for a line I’m hoping to write for. As a result, I purchased a handful of Nocturne Bites to snack on over the next few weeks. I thought it would be fun to review them as I went. This week’s offering is Son of the Sea by Nancy Holder. You can read the review over at the Written In Ink blog.

Hope to see you there!

Ericka

Where Oh Where Did the Weekend Go?

Ericka Scott — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:11:55 +0000

Yep, missed blogging on Friday — I was busy reading, writing, and playing around to make a new book trailer. Unfortunately, although I absolutely love it, I won’t be able to use it. I’d designed my own cover for an upcoming book (Wild Ghost Chase, releasing in 2011) but wasn’t able to obtain my publisher’s approval to use my design. I wasn’t really surprised, although I think it’s the best cover I’ve ever put together. The time wasn’t all wasted, for I got to learn how to use a new software (Photo Story 3 for Windows). Originally designed for digital scrapbooking, it works purty good for book trailers too.

The weekend flew by…we did a little of something and a lot of nothing. We did, however, have a time travel glitch. Although I had thought Drama Teen had matured 1.5 years since the “troubling times” of 2008…we had an incident rear it’s ugly head and bring it all back. Same boy, same drama, same broken trust issues. Man, oh, man… Sadly, I can’t say I was any wiser in dealing with it than I was 1.5 years ago.

Just a reminder here…I’m going to be giving up Too True Tuesdays…I just don’t have all that much to share about myself, I guess….

Instead, I’m going to be blogging over at Written In Ink with Misty Wright. She’s an unpublished author who will be blogging on Mondays about her writing journey. Won’t it be great when we can all say “we knew her when?”. As for me, I’ll be doing a Write With Me Wednesdays workshop. Then there will be free-for-all on Fridays — book reviews, guests, and contests. Lots of fun! So, if you don’t find me here, you’ll find me there…or at Myspace, where I’ll re-post all of my blogs.

Here’s to a great week!

Ericka

The Tale of Three Goldfish

Ericka Scott — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:48:17 +0000

No, this isn’t the title of my latest work in progress. LOL. The Fair is in town and we topped off our weekend by riding the rides, eating far too much fair food, and playing a few games. Now, the boys are still young enough that games of skill are beyond them. So, we opted for the game that no matter what you hit or didn’t hit, you still won. Thus, we carried home three slightly seasick goldfish. The boys were concerned that their new pets would starve to death, so my first errand of the week was to pick up food for the fish.

Recently in our neighborhood, a small pet store opened up. Not in a strip mall, but in one of the old houses along the main drag that is zoned for both residence and business. They opened at 11 Monday morning, so I thought I’d save myself a drive into WalMart (20 minutes) and patronize this little shop instead. Oh my.

First of all, the shop was dimly lit and crowded. Not with customers, but with the oddest assortment of men I’ve run into outside a biker bar. I never did figure out which one was the owner… perhaps the young guy who booted up the computer so I could pay for my purchase, or was it the large tattooed hulk who searched the back for a large goldfish bowl? There was also a giant with biceps bigger than my thighs who was conversing with an owl (yes, a real-live whoo-ing one) sitting on a perch and eyeing me with abject curiosity. Probably because I was the only customer it had ever seen come into the store! The owner could have even been the older gentleman sporting a plaid bowler hat and chewing on an unlit cigar looking more like an old-time Vegas pit boss than an animal lover. Your guess is as good as mine. The entire shop had an unused feel to it. Oh, there were aquariums, and a few snakes in glass tanks, even a scorpion in a plastic box similar to what I’ve seen house spiders on animal documentaries. However, for a new shop, it was exceedingly dusty and dark and “different”. I had the distinct impression that if I’d known the password, I would have been invited into a back room to play poker or perhaps bet on a cock fight or two. This shop will definitely go into one of my books, although I will probably never venture back.

I’ve got water prepping for a fish transfer tomorrow…unfortunately, one of the poor things has already died and will have to be replaced. The Husband gave the nameless one a proper burial at sea (whoosh) and Inertia boy is already talking about going with me to the store to get a new fish. The big box store in the big neighboring town.

But enough about the fish, although my WIP does deal with aquatic issues, although I’m hesitant to share any details yet. Just know that I’ve tackled the new plot line for my book and am much happier with where the story is going to go and how it’s going to get to THE END. I have character worksheets to accomplish tomorrow and hope that by Wednesday, I’ll be well on my way to my heroine finding love and adventure in the South Pacific.

What about you? Any tall fish tales to share? I’d love to hear them.

Ericka

The Friday Fandango

Ericka Scott — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:27:35 +0000

No, I’m not especially happy that it’s Friday; although Friday does mean that if the ice cream truck meanders by, we’ll get us some. If…

Driving Teen has been improving her driving performance by leaps and bounds: at starting, stopping, and pretty much all points between. I no longer have to take an antacid prior to and promptly after riding with her. Hurraye!

Inertia Boy has sticky, sticky, sticky fingers. He’s seven years old…yes, he should know its wrong to steal. Operative word there was should. Does he? It’s sometimes hard to tell… Last Friday, he got off the bus clutching money. I don’t allow my kids to take money to school. Where did he get it? S’s friend bought his water bottle. Huh? The little 7 oz disposable water bottle? He insists he had three of them… I sent ONE to school with him. After a round of twenty questions and elusive answers, I gave up, called the teacher (who had fled the school grounds six minutes after school let out, big sigh), left a message, put $ in envelope, and had hubby return it when he dropped off kids on Monday morning. I have yet to learn the story about the money… Then, there’s the mysterious video games that turn up at our house. “Where’d this game come from?” I found it” “Where did you find it? You were over at Z’s. Is it Z’s game ” “I found it (said over and over, more insistently each time it is repeated). For whatever reason, the fact that it was on the floor AT Z’S HOUSE when Inertia Boy “found” it doesn’t equate to the game being Z’s??? Makes me want to scream. Instead, I find myself limiting his visits to other people’s houses AND resorting to searching his pockets when he returns.

Scooter is loving school and enjoys talking to his friends. Unfortunately, his talking is sometimes conducted during class while the teacher is talking. The school gives out a color-code for behavior every day. Green, Yellow, and Red. Needless to say, Scooter has gotten a couple of yellow blocks this week. For talking out of turn. Surprise, surprise.

But what about your writing, you ask. Well, the story was stalled before I left for vacation and I think the battery died…or perhaps the whole engine dropped out. Instead of forcing the story, I’m tossing out the 80 pages I saved (sob) from the old, faded WIP and am starting over at the beginning. But to summarize the words of Richard Anderson (in character as Oscar Goldman on the Six Million Dollar Man) — Gentle Reader, I can rebuild the story. I have the technology. The story will be better than before. Better plotted with stronger characters and and wittier dialogue. A six million dollar story? I can only hope!

Ericka

Too True Tuesday

Ericka Scott — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:21:59 +0000

A long time ago, and it seems like in a lifetime far, far away….I wrote short stories, had a few published and was looking for a “challenge”, something to “push the envelope”, “get me out of my rut”, “start me thinking out of the box” and all those other old tired cliches.

During a Google search for contests, I discovered Avon FanLit. As fate or luck would have it, I discovered it during the “voting” phase… Then, nearly tossed in my cards when I discovered the winning genre was Regency (scratching my head…what in the world is REGENCY Romance?). Well, a bit of research and I found out. Could I dare to write in a genre I’d never read or written in before? Dang tootin’ I could.

It was weeks of madness…writing two chapters, entering them, voting, monitoring votes, cursing the zero bandit, and blessing the 5-star faerie. Amazingly, I placed in the top ten for two of my chapters, giving me hope that there was a successful author lurking inside me after all. The most important part of the journey was meeting a fantastic group of women writers: Jackie Barbosa, Tessa Dare, Beverly Kendall, Sara Lindsey, well, I shouldn’t have started naming them, because now I’m going to end up leaving some out and it isn’t because I don’t know, love, and read them, it’s because I have Momnesia most days and can’t remember things like where I left my grocery list (in the laundry basket) or other important things — like names of my friends and children. Anywhoooo….

Tessa Dare has a fantastic new series out…and I stumbled upon her book trailer this morning. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4DzoNkomQ0

Fragile Friday Update (which is why it’s on Saturday)

Ericka Scott — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:24:29 +0000

Wow…what a awful, horrible, terrible week.

I feel so childish to write that, yet, it sums up everything so well. Monday started off well…all the kiddos jumped out of bed, anxious for the first day of school. They got home at noon, and the bickering started minutes later. By five p.m., the oven roaster of my patience was DONE, DONE, DONE. Stuffed kids into bed late as they went school supply shopping and hoped for a better Tuesday.

Didn’t happen.

Tuesday, Driving Teen woke up with a 101.5 degree fever. Okay, day 2 and she’s already staying home sick. Not a great way to start the school year. Then, the boys got home at noon and Scooter, my easy-going lad, was doing the SpongeBob crying thing…you know, tears spurting everywhere, rolling on the ground, etc. I called The Husband. After I hung up, slightly calmer as he’d promised to come home early to rescue me (or the kids, I’m not sure)…I took temperatures. Scooter, 101.2, and Inertia Boy, normal. Tylenol dispensed, homework tackled, and once The Husband got home, long nap taken by emotionally wrought mom.

Driving Teen’s fever not responding well to medicine at all…in fact, at 6 pm, she spiked out at 103.4. Cold bath and a trip to urgent care. By 9 pm, we had our diagnosis. Strep throat for sure, and a test ordered for Lyme Disease due to a funky looking bug bite on her leg. Okay….got her home at 10′ish, medicated her, and loaded up Scooter for his trip to Urgent Care as I was certain he, too, had strep. I’d only gotten as far as the on-ramp to the freeway when The Husband called. Remember the Lyme disease test? Well, they’d forgotten to draw the blood. Grrr. Turned around, picked up Driving Teen, and drove both kids to Urgent Care.

Scooter’s diagnosis. Strep Throat. Another trip to 24-hour pharmacy to pick up yet another antibiotic, medicine dispensed, and we all crawled into bed at 1 am. I can hardly believe it’s only TUESDAY (well, Wednesday, but wow, what a day)….

Wednesday and Thursday I put on my pseudo-CNA hat…dispensing medicine, fluffing pillows, taking temperatures, refilling drinks, sanitizing all flat surfaces… two more long days, let me tell you. The worst part was when The Husband, in an attempt to be sympathetic, told me “in twenty years, you’re going to miss these days. Try to enjoy the journey.” WTF? Now, I love The Husband. I know that those words were spoken out of love…but boy did they rankle. Enjoy the journey?!? From what planet did that dear man spring?

Friday, all kiddos supposedly healthy, were sent to school. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to write a little – to no avail. Instead, I entered one of my 2009 releases into the Epic Book Awards Contest…mostly so I could say I did something career-oriented this week. Driving Teen has some very weird bug-bitey things going on and we’re anxious to get that Lyme disease test back… she also has some mongo tonsil swelling, which we’re not sure is totally due to the strep throat. Is she allergic to yet another antibiotic? Lord, I hope not!

Today, is Saturday and I’m finally feeling a bit brighter. The sun is starting to peek through all those heavy black clouds. As a reward, my muse visited me this morning….I’ve been a bit stuck as to where to go with the initial hero/heroine first meeting. My writing tends to the serious side…and I’ll freely admit to lovin’-me some plot…however, this next scene is all emotion with a little humor on the side. I’m excited to see how it turns out.

On Monday, I’ll be over at Jeannie Ruesch’s Happy Endings Blog talking about my most recent agent search. I sure hope that posting about it on the “Happy Endings” blog will ensure that the next time around, I, too, have a happy ending to that story.

Till then….may your weekend (and mine) be Strep-free.

Ericka

Did you miss me?

Ericka Scott — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:46:07 +0000

No, I didn’t run away. I simply went on vacation unknowingly encountering event after event that left me without internet connectivity. I have to say that after the first week of withdrawal, I actually began to enjoy the break. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it enough to give it up altogether.

So, I’m back.

My entrance into cyberspace was greeted with a mass of e-mails, most of which weren’t very important. The ones that did need to be dealt with were the rejections from agents for Nevermore (sob) and the acceptance from L&L Dreamspell to publish it (Squee).

I’m also doing the happy dance as the kiddos went back to school today. Driving Teen is a junior this year and the boys are in first grade. According to The Husband, everyone was all smiles (even Driving Teen) and there appeared to be no first day jitters. For my part, the happy dance was tempered a bit by the fact that all this week is minimum days (sigh), but after having spent weeks on end, 24/7 with my offspring, I’m thrilled to have even a hour to myself. I took a walk, listened to a book, showered, and ate breakfast, all without interruptions. Now, if I could only get back into the swing of writing.

Before I left, I struggled to get a previous manuscript edited to the point where I could just pick it up and run with it. Or so I thought. This morning I opened the file, read the last chapter, and thought “Now what?”. Obviously my subconscious and muse were on vacation, too…I don’t think either of them have returned yet. So, I’m on my own with 100 words to write before 11:30 am. I think I can, I think I can….

Monday Madness

Ericka Scott — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:08:03 +0000

Well, it’s 4 minutes until Tuesday, but I’m gonna ignore the clock and post this as Monday’s blog anyway. So there!

Had a great weekend. It was nice having the entire block show up for fireworks on the 4th. It’s times like yesterday when I think about my friend, Ellie. She was the glue that kept the neighborhood together for many years. It’s hard to believe that she’s been gone almost as long as I knew her. When I moved into the house in 1999, she was my first friend in the neighborhood and quickly became one of my best friends. She always had an open door and a shoulder to cry on. She was the first to celebrate successes and “everyone” knew her. Ellie lost her battle with diabetes. Hers wasn’t a sudden death, but instead was a slow insidious fight. She’s the reason I donate time, money, and passion to Brenda Novak’s auction each year. So, wherever you are, Ellie, know that I still think about you and miss you like crazy..

The kids had a topsy-turvy tired weekend, the high point of which was going to see The Last Airbender in 3D. I have to admit, I think it would have been just as good in 2D. Lets just hope I remember that when the next two movies come out.

Anyway…it’s now officially Tuesday and the boys are entering their last week of summer camp. So, I have lots of writing and editing to do. My goal is to salvage the scenes I can from my old manuscript before I take off with the kids to visit grandparents. That way, I can concentrate on only new words…which I can write on my Alphasmart or even long hand (and pay Driving Teen to type the pages in for me when we return from vacation).

Frenzied Friday Funny

Ericka Scott — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:23:46 +0000

Multitasking this morning to get the boys ready for day camp, myself ready for lunch with “the girls” to talk about our books, what we’ve gotten accomplished this week, and the like. And somewhere in today I’ve got to get my 500-1000 words written.

Besides, this week has been basically drama free… can you hear me cheering in the background?

So, here is your Friday funny. Enjoy — oh, and I’ll be looking for one about rejections to post up here soon. Seeing as I’ve been getting a lot of them lately. Sigh.

Too True Tuesday

Ericka Scott — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:17:39 +0000

Rejections suck.

That’s all — you may now return to your regularly scheduled life.