Reworking :(

I've discovered that I really don't have the first clue what it is like to be a student athlete. I now how tremedous respect for student athletes and the sacrifices they make to play. I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to portray a student athlete correctly so I think I may have to make some serious changes to Lori Weaver's character. I'll be re-reading all that I've already written over the next few weeks and making a decision about Lori's character. If any of you have an opinion about that, I would love to hear what you think so feel free to email me. mxtudor08@gmail.com

I am hoping to post new information on my webpage today so be sure to stop by there too. www.metudor.com

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for all the fans who have bought my books and continue to follow my stories. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in whatever form you may be celebrating this time of the year. Peace and love to you all, M.E.

More Rewriting

It's funny, but I swear I've taken out more than I've added to The Circle of Confusion. I've re-written chapter one like four times now. But, I want it to be a really great chapter that captures the reader and makes them want to keep reading. Here's the current first three paragraphs of the story. What do you think?

I watched Carrie Davenport approach the plate pulling her blond ponytail tighter. She tapped the plate with her bat, and then turned to me expectantly, blue eyes blazing. I bent forward, the softball behind my back. Our catcher, Leshana Jackson gave me the signal to go a little high with the pitch. I knew she was right. Carrie had a weakness for the high pitches.

Winding up my pitch, I let the ball go with extra speed. As Leshana and I expected, Carrie swung and missed the high pitch. Carrie glared at me. I guess she thought I’d go easy on her after last night, but she should have known better.

Striking Carrie out ended the last round of games with Murray State. It also marked the first shut out of my college pitching career. Carrie threw down her bat and stomped back to her dug out. Leshana and the rest of my team rushed out to hug me.

NaNoWriMo!

National Novel Writing Month started November 1st and I started working on The Circle of Confusion the sequel to Suddenly again. I had written over 30,000 words of it during the summer NaNoWriMo camp and I am hoping to get another 50,000 done during this month.

I am interviewing a student success advisor at WKU who deals with student athletes. So I'm really excited about that. I plan to start posting tidbits here again as the story starts moving forward so please stop by often. :)

Stalled a Little

After I finished Chapter One, I have been a little stuck because I hadn't really laid out the ground work for Lori's classes and how they work with her friends. So, I'm having to work on that before I can go again. I hope to have that done by this weekend. I definitely have to have all of my ducks in a row before the first of November when I jump back into this story with both feet. I plan to complete at least 50,000 words of this story by the end of November. I will definitely be post word counts and snippets from what I've written.

Until the, I hope you all can be patient with me. There is so much more to this story than I originally planned, funny how that happens. So, I'm going to have to set up some background stuff for myself so I can keep all my people in the story straight, figuratively only. Most everyone is gay. :)

Changes to Chapter One of The Circle of Confusion

Originally, when I started The Circle of Confusion, I wasn't going to put too much information about Lori's family in until later in the story, but I changed my mind about that. I want the readers to know right away what Lori is up against. 

I also want to make it clear that I am not anti-Christian or anything like that. I believe in God and I believe His love is unconditional. Sadly, too many LGBTQ youth face what Lori is going through in this story. And I want to create a story that makes all of you know that It Gets Better.

Okay, so here is a little bit of the changes I made to Chapter One.

 

My father cleared his throat. “Hut hum, Lora, you mother and I are very concerned about these friends you’ve been hanging around with.”

I sat up straight, concerned about the direction this conversation seemed to be headed. “I don’t know why. My friends are good people, good students. They don’t drink or party.”

“Well, um, it has been mentioned that they might by homosexuals,” he said, looking from me to Mom. His hazel eyes were just like mine, more green, than brown and they turned a deeper shade of green when he was upset.

“Really?” I said, looking at Jana. “Where’d you hear that?” I knew Jana hadn’t told them. Jana knew I was gay, and she knew how flipped out our parents would be if they found out.

“Someone from our church knows one of the girls’ mothers. She told your mother that we should be careful letting you hang around with those girls because they will try to convert you,” he said, looking directly at me.

“Convert me? Being homosexual is not like Judaism, Islam, or some other religion. Gay people don’t convert people. Either you’re gay or you’re not.”

The Circle of Confusion News and Tidbits

I've been re-writing a few parts of The Circle of Confusion and making it better, at least I think it's better. I'm also taking notes and gearing up for NaNoWriMo in November when I plan to write another 50,000 words of this novel. Hopefully by then I'll be up to 50,000 and that will make a 100,000. Maybe, I might even finish the first draft. Yeah!

Anyway, here's tidbit from the story:

“We still having pizza at your place tonight?” I asked.

“Yep,” P. J. said. “Especially after you pitched this shutout, we have to celebrate.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you all there in a little while.” I ran over to the dugout and got in line to shake hands and accept congratulations from the girls from Murray. Of course, most of the congratulations came through gritted teeth, but some of the girls were good sports about losing.

Carrie hugged me when she got to me and whispered in my ear. “Next time there will be no fooling around when we’re playing against each other. You’re too much of a distraction.”

I laughed and whispered back “Is that what happened?”

Research and Rewriting

I have to apologize for it taking me so long to post something new here, but I was neck deep in getting Treacherous Souls ready to be released. Now that I'm done with that project, I'm on to the next project with is finishing Judge Not, another short erotic romance that is the sequel to The Wrong Place at the Right Time.

I'm also doing some research and some rewriting of The Circle of Confusion and I will be back to posting tidbits here soon.

End of Camp NaNoWriMo

Well, yesterday was the last day of Camp NaNoWriMo and I only made it to 29,000 words for The Circle of Confusion. But, I've had a lot going on this month. I had 3 grandchildren have birthdays this month and I'm expecting my 6th grandchild any day. Crazy times. Plus, I started researching student athlete lives and realized that I wasn't portraying Lori's life as a student athlete correctly so I'm going to have to go back and change some things.

What I did accomplish last month was getting Treacherous Souls completely edited, to best of my ability anyway. Now I've put it in the hands of my beta readers and I'm working on formatting it for the Kindle. I'm going to test the waters of Kindle Direct Publishing Select. But for my Nook owners and other product users, and my print fans, never fear, I will be publishing it in other formats about 3 months after the Kindle experiment.

I'm not going to publish a tidbit from The Circle of Confusion today because I'm going to go back and make some changes first, but I will be back to posting tidbits next week.

Have a fabulous day and stay tuned for new novel information. :)

The Circle of Confusion is coming along.

 I'm at close to 25,200 words into The Circle of Confusion and its really coming along. Here's a tidbit:

What about you, Brandi?” Jamie asked. “Your mom is pretty religious.”

“And a Baptist no less,” Brandi said with a nod. “But my mom has been through a lot of shit and she knows a lot of other people whose lives are less than perfect so she’s more open minded than Lori’s parents. And, my mother is more concerned with my happiness. Clearly, they are not interested in Lori’s happiness. My mom also believes that our relationships with God are our own. And she believes that God is a loving and forgiving God, not a condemning God.”

“You know,” Kayla said, “I will never understand why these religious fanatics are so against us being happy. Okay, so being gay might be a sin in their eyes, but it’s our sin. It’s our relationship with our God that may be in jeopardy, which of course you all know I don’t believe any of that shit. But, I just don’t get why they are so violently against us making our own decisions about what we will feel God thinks about us being gay. I mean, I understand Lori’s parents wanting to protect her from herself, but she’s a grown woman and ultimately it’s her decision about her relationship with God.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover and I have my own personal relationship with God, who I think is going to love me no matter if I’m gay or not. But my parents are still of the frame of mind that if you are not absolutely perfect you aren’t going to Heaven.”

“But, are they being absolutely perfect by judging other people?” Brandi said.

Posting in the Mist of Chaos

I have all five of my grandchildren, ages 9 thru 3. So it's taken me longer than normal to get this post put up. :) The Circle of Confusion is coming along. I'm up to 17502 words. The story is really coming together. I've already posted a tidbit to my M. E Tudor blog. So here's the next piece:

The next morning I got up extra early. I knew I wouldn’t get out of the house before Dad got up, but I thought I might be able to slip out without having to talk to Mom. I went out of my bedroom to the bathroom and when I came back I noticed a note with picture on it stuck to my door. The picture was of me kissing Carrie outside her hotel the last time she was in town. The note said, “Do not leave this house!”

“Oh shit,” I whispered. I slipped back into my room and packed my duffle bag with clothes, took some of my important personal stuff and put it in my backpack, including all of my text books. Things were going to get really ugly if they knew about me and Carrie. 

I stuck my head out my door and looked around for Mom. It was only five-thirty so she was probably still in bed. Tiptoeing, I went to Janna’s room and slipped inside. I crept up to her bed and gently nudged her. “Janna, wake up.”

“What?” she mumbled.

“Mom and Dad know about me and Carrie being together the last time she was in town.”
Janna rolled over with wide eyes. “Are you serious? Was that what you guys were fighting about last night?”

“No, we were fighting about me not wanting to get married and they want me to quit school.”

“Quit school?” she asked, astonished. “Why?”

“They think it’s what’s causing all these radical thoughts I have. But there was a picture of me kissing Carrie with a note on my door that said for me not to leave the house.”

Janna sat up. “Oh shit!”

New Tidbits!

I'm up to 11, 242 words into The Circle of Confusion and I wanted to give you all a tidbit from the story. I will also be posting a tidbit on my other blog, http://metudor.blogspot.com/ So here is the tidbit for this blog:

“I don’t know where your mother has gotten her information about you having sexual relationships with other girls, but it had better not be true. And you are to stay away from those gay people. Find someone else to help you with your homework. I’m sure there are some very intelligent young ladies at our church who would be glad to help you. And,” he straightened, moved closer to me and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him, “if I find out that you are running around with those girls. If I ever hear that you are having sexual relationships with other girls, you will leave this house forever. Is that clear?” His voice had gotten deeper and angrier as he spoke. He had leaned down so his face was directly in mine.

The Circle of Confusion Coming Along

I'm up to 5865 words and it's only day 3 of camp!

Here's another snippet:

I could feel Jamie glaring at me from behind. For an only child, she was a serious mother hen. She ran roughshod over P. J., Kayla, Brandi and me. Ever since we all hooked up that first semester of school, when we all had the same English 100 class, Jamie has helped each one of us with school. P.J. and she have given us a place to hand out where it’s cool to be a lesbian and we can talk freely about what’s going on in our lives. It’s been really great for me because my parents are so religious and have really been riding me about eventually getting married.