Tag Archives: Update

First Letter to the Sexies of the New Year

Dearest Sexies:

Happy New Year!

My hopes for you is that the new year has greeted you kindly! As for me, my latest book in the Mackenzie Dominants Series, Tempting Temptation is due for release January 13th, 2015 on Bookstrand.com. I am very excited about that. Many changes have happened, none that I would bore you with; some good, some sad, all a part of the journey we call life. I’m grateful to see another new year!

I’ve migrated over to Google Plus so if you happen to be that way add me to your circles! I am still on Facebook and Twitter respectively. I have a few self projects in the works but mostly I am allowing the batteries to recharge. Of course I am getting in a little bit of reading here and there and still roleplaying {collaborating with friends} in my online writing group as time permits.

All in all the year 2014 ended and the new one has begun. I wouldn’t take anything for my journey thus far!

Simply,

Mimi

Don’t be a afraid to scrap it!

Dear Sexies:

The problem with telling anyone what you are working on is that when you are ME, and like to change your mind often or are your own worse critic, you are prone to starting over. In this particular case I have scrapped three potential works in progress because, well, I don’t like em! *blinks*

You heard it from Mimi first, I hated what I had already written. Oh and no, I wasn’t a thousand words into it or even ten at this stage, I’m talking close to thirty thousand hard fought words per EACH PROJECT that are now sitting in a file entitled: Meh maybe. Round that to 90,000 words and I had a novel written already. Ah the joys of being Mimi…

I’m not a fast writer so you can equate this as lost man hours. Hours that are very hard to come by, let me toss that tidbit in there for yah. I’m a wife and mother, with one of my children a child that has special needs, so when I get the home front primed so I can sit down and do my thang—to scrap these works is somewhat heart rending.

However it’s not the end of the world. Just maybe the world I was trying to build but hey…

I figured if I don’t love the world I’m trying to write about, or cannot connect to the characters and breathe that breath of life into them that makes others care, then what’s the point?

Three attempts at one theme and getting no place very fast was enough wasted head space, effort and time. Now that those attempts are gone—I never really say gone—I usually recycle and dissect and reanimate characters (hmmm maybe I do need to write a zombie story) well now that I’ve set those attempts to the side, it’s left me with re-planning and rethinking what I want to convey within the theme I have in mind. Is it a series or is it a stand alone book? What type of setting and what can I do without? Do I even want to try this yet again?

To answer that last question, I have a few things to sort out and I am still determined *cue party horns and confetti* to keep working on my premise.

Mackenzie Dominants Three is looking very promising and the words are flowing in that regard so yay me, goal one of two seems to be on track. However it never fails that the minute I update you on my progress well you know what happens, I get stalled. *lips pursed* Still it’s happening, so no shortage of ideas in that world! 😛

Well this check in was just a chat and drop by for now. Sooner or later I’ll have some really good goods for you.

Until next letter,

Simply,

Mimi

Just…wow, can I please get off the merry-go-round?

Dear Sexies:

I’ve spent the last two weeks or so floundering. Ever just have brain overload? Yup that was the situation this chick found herself in. Just like this merry-go-round, I was going in circles. Re reading passages I’d written, changing them, erasing them, hitting back and undo more times than I cared to count. And got nowhere fast.

What is surprising is not the lack of ideas for the stories I want to write, but the lack of execution. Something happens between the images I see in my mind and the translation of said images into words. Took me two weeks to decide that the titles I laid out for a WIP series were all wrong. Now those titles belong to something else. It took me two weeks to sketch out a rough semblance of a scene for book three in my Mackenzie Dominants series. Only to decide, I don’t like it.

I am my own worse critic, and trust me when I say this if Mimi don’t like what she writes, you won’t either. Of course my round the bend experience puts me even further behind my self imposed deadline. I set these deadlines/goals to keep me focused and on track. Then I invariably get off track and so begins my merry-go-round experience(s). Just..wow. The process by which I come up with my work isn’t glamorous or cool. I doubt it will make for any entertaining anecdote to recount at a book convention either. If I can say anything remotely wise, I would have to say it’s by process that we grow, stretch and reach past our limits. We get beyond self and fear and say, “I got this.” And then we just go and do the damn thang.

I would much prefer to keep the angst on the pages of my books; and I use to love merry-go-rounds too. However I hopped off that bitch two days ago. Mimi don’t have time to ride the horsies. She has books that need to be finished!

Until next letter,

Simply Mimi

What am I up to these days? {Letter 2 for the sexies}

Dear Sexies:

Mimi is hard at work. Maybe not everyday but most days. I’ve begun a new series that has me stoked. I’m at 10K plus which is a good clip for me. I’m delving into a genre I love and have always wanted to put my own urban spin on, paranormal romance. Should be interesting to see where this story takes me. I often times do a rough outline and by that I mean I come up with sassy book blurbs and hooks then build the story from there. I have planned tentatively four books (to start) for this series and I have three of the blurbs done. For whatever reason, sexy ones, when I have a good blurb I can weave my tail using the blurb as a prompt. It’s the same with seeing a picture or hearing a song, it jogs the creative flow and I can envision my mental movie sans dialogue which in turn becomes the words I pen for my story. Go figure. I guess different writers have their own style in which they prepare. Mine is all over the damn place so meh…*grins*

And yes I am working on Book 3 of the Mackenzie Dominants series! Fingers crossed I can have both finished by the end of this year!

Meanwhile, I’ve begun to plug away at the reading material I have on my Kindle. I’m making it a priority that I finished the books I have. And no that didn’t stop me from adding two more but I’m a glutton for punishment!

Also, I have added a new segment to my blog: Foodie Files. I love food. Love to smell it, cook it, EAT it…this is just a natural progression basically. But it gives me some fun things to do with my blog that can also be interactive. Food and music are those universal things that bring people together. So do drop by and check out the tab Coffee Talk with Meems and you’ll find the Foodie Files there in.

Until next letter,

Simply,

Mimi

Belated Holiday Wishes and all that’s been going on (update on original post)

Hi there! Happy belated Hanukkah, Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa for all. Been a pretty rough month health wise but I am finally on the mend. I have no complaints really. The kiddies had a wonderful Christmas — we had stuffed cabbage rolls and banana pudding. We do tend to do very non traditional dinners sometimes for holidays just depends on how I’m feeling and what we’re in the mood for. Meh LOL.

I am super excited because Seductively Seduced is due to be released soon (you know how that goes things can get pushed back but still super exciting!!!) Here is a preview of the book cover done by Harris Channing who dare I say it? Yes it’s Meems and I say what I want: SHE HOOKED A SISTAH UP!

So I am super thrilled about this. We have family coming in to visit us for the holidays and it’s just a blessed time for me and my family. So from my family to yours I hope your holidays were filled with joy and the new year brings you all you hope for and more! ~ Mimi T

Balancing Act and Second Guessing just a few of life’s challenges

Hello my old friend. Yes I am addressing my blog. Blogging is therapy. I have quite a few coping mechanisms. Writing is a form of therapy for me, a way to reason out the thoughts that bang around my head on the regular. The fact that I have a gift to be able to weave a tale or two amid the chaotic clutter is a blessing.

Today was my first official day “back on the job”. I pulled out my current work in progress and and re read what I have written, something I do when I’ve been away from the story any length of time. I have to reacquaint myself with my “peeps”.

Life had me in a twist with moving and resettling into our new home, the kids having to change school districts and the husband with his own set of woes. Not to mention I have had a cold now for more than two weeks with no signs of it improving. So writing for anything, pleasure, “work” even the occasional Tweet, had gone by the wayside. The family needed time to adjust to new surroundings. I don’t want to wake up the family pet, Nefertiti and all her quirks right now. Her newest thing is to bark at any noise the resembles doorbells and door knocking. {purses lips} Yeah…

So I’ve had many distractions but purposed to get back down to business. The muse is well, and I can see the finish line. But the problem I am experiencing on this new Author journey relates to seconding guessing my character’s traits. I LOVE the way I wrote her, but her profession and lifestyle are challenging for me. My research hasn’t netted me the answers I am looking for to be confident in how she is portraying the BDSM lifestyle she lives.

I am all for artistic license and let the writer be as creative as their own id. Yet I am loathed to write anything that will ring ‘false’ even within the context of fantasy/fiction. I suppose disclaimers are a good “out”. {wry smile} However I know if I can get the answer to a question or two that my “fog” will lift and I will have that clear direction I am striving for with my “girl”.

I am protective of my character, she means a lot to me. The fact that she exist solely on the fictitious plane does not make her any less real to me. I think I feel responsible for her well being and that anything she says or does that isn’t “right” is not HER fault. {Yes I’m wigging out and may seem a bit strange but that’s how I roll when I write. Get over it…}

I have two options as I see it. The first is to write this story the way I feel like writing it and let the “bodies hit the floor” {love the hook to that song…} OR research it to death looking for an answer that may not ever surface and delay finishing the book. I’m not liking the latter option at all but that part of me that wants to be “right” where my knowledge of a subject is, is in the way of the creative muse I have named “Miss Thang.” Miss thang has said several times, “Hey this is fiction, the world you created. You didn’t claim to be an expert! You are telling a story that happens to include aspects of a lifestyle that technically you know nothing about!”

{Hush Miss Thang…}

Anyone that knows me personally knows I have a penchant to obsess over just about anything…

Until this resolves I will still continue to write the story. Perhaps that light bulb moment will happen in the midst of it all and I will gain back my confidence in my story.

The worse thing that can happen? Is I rip it back down rethink the direction and re write it.

I just hope it doesn’t come to that. {sighs}

Mimi Tulane

Erotic Romance Author