Tag Archives: writing

Apr28

Deadline Dithering? (IDK. I just like alliteration.)

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Deadline Dithering? (IDK. I just like alliteration.)

First, thanks to those who offered their editing opinions in response to my last post. Most significantly, I amended that troublesome sentence to: “One way or another, we would’ve wound up The Crazy Freshmen, aka Space Cadet, me, and Beaker Brain, Isaac.” That takes care of that, yes?

I had combined short paragraphs, as instructed by the editor, but most of you agreed they were better separate. Later, I went back and looked at the combined sentences, and it just didn’t feel right. So, I separated them back a little more.

The comma after “Hopefully” will come over my cold, dead body!!! Okay, fine, maybe not, but what about here: “Hopefully Ben could avoid being named publicly.” I need a comma after that one? Really? I might point out that my blog editor friend didn’t flag either of these on his read… I might point that out, but I won’t because that would be rude.

I have until August 16 to turn in my final draft of Wish YOU Were Here. Shouldn’t be a problem. But do you know what I AM seeing as a problem?

Friggin’ Book 3!

I sent this to HRH, commenting that these were the only appropriate socks to wear while writing. They were a birthday gift from her. Laptop in foreground if you’re struggling to work out that brain teaser.

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Apr21

More editing brouhaha!

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More editing brouhaha!

Book 2, Wish YOU Were Here (Not to be confused with book 1, Wish *I* Was Here), came back with edits for the first 20 pages. Remember when I went through this last time? You writers came out of the woodwork to offer your expertise.

I loved it. So let’s do it again, shall we?

The main thing this editor said was that I had too many one-sentence paragraphs, which weakens the impact when I want those quick grafs to really stand out. I get that. The challenge then was finding which short paragraphs to combine. For instance:

“How much money is it?”

“Seven thousand five hundred and eighty dollars.”

My mouth fell open.

“It’s a start anyway.” He jogged across the parking lot.

I stared after him, dumbfounded.

He gestured for me to follow. “Ana, come on.”

I shook the bewilderment off and joined him. “Keep a look out, will you?” He dropped to his knees and opened another compartment of his bag.

Everything after “How much money is it?” could be combined into one paragraph, really. But should it? I combined a few in the middle. What would you do?

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Mar25

Where my mojo at? And some book stuff.

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Where my mojo at? And some book stuff.

I’ve been back at Jiu-Jitsu for three months but am still discouraged by the slow climb to where I was before my foot broke.

Sometimes I wonder if I should stay home, watch TV, and eat garbage with Hubby instead of go to class.

Sometimes I’m just tired and not feeling it.

Sometimes I go anyway.

Then I find myself smiling and fist bumping the friendly students who greet me and ask how I’m doing.

Class begins and Her Royal Highness and I get the giggles over our inability to properly execute the moves. I’m grateful that, rather than be annoyed, Instructor laughs with us. I consider whether he’d be so amiable if it had been me with someone other than his wife.

I had somehow managed to throw her on her back while flipping myself over on my head rather than over my shoulder. It’s a wonder I didn’t hurt my neck, but since that’s not a lower extremity, it was fine. Later squashing my toe and needing to ice it after class is par for the course, however.

Bruises on upper extremities are still fair game.

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Mar7

“Want me to shoot you?” “Yes, please.”

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“Want me to shoot you?” “Yes, please.”

A title like that can only mean one thing: more weird Jiu-Jitu sh*t. (Sorry.)

A recent class was front attack defenses: guns, knives, and, I guess realistically it would be a baseball bat? Whatever. Rubber guns, knives, and big sticks were tossed in the center of the mat for us to practice with.

HRH and I got turns with the knives and sticks, but the guns were in short supply. When class ended, I lamented not getting much gun defense practice, so HRH, face full of compassion, asked, “Want me to shoot you?”

Naturally, “Yes, please,” was the response because #OnlyInJiuJitsu.

At one point earlier, I was looking at a 45 degree angle, talking to Instructor when HRH tried to overhand stab me with the fake knife. With zero hesitation, I stepped in and forearm blocked without looking.

Instructor said, “Daaaangg. That was instinct!” and walked over to fist bump me.

I didn’t want to tell him that was the first Taekwondo defense you learn as a white belt. I’ve done it a million times and have been teaching it to my son and others at his school as part of an after school TKD program.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to discover it had become instinctual.

And now for something literary!

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Feb1

How is this my life?

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How is this my life?

Another post already?! Yep! A rare “double header” from Ilsa.

I wanted to touch on that other half of my blog’s title for those of you who care more about news from the writing front.

Listening to a draft for my AUDIOBOOK!!!

Let’s just take a moment to let the fact that there will be an audio version of Wish I Was Here in the world, and how cool that is, sink in.

Okay. Now continuing…

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Jan22

Big news! New cover!

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I’ll tell you right now that the moral of this story is it pays to complain advocate for yourself.

I was told ads for my book were running. I had paid for those ads, so I asked the new orders lady I had befriended if she could get a hold of them to send me.

She did. One ad was just a “Quote Card” with my book cover and a reviewer’s blurb. That was fine, I guess.

The other two had good wording, but the AI images of the people looked like children, not 18-year-olds. I felt this was misleading and confusing to the viewer.

I pondered. I waited. Then I acted. I harnessed my newfound friendship with Orders Lady to see if she would advocate on my behalf. This morning she reported that my ads were on the docket for the company’s weekly meeting. They discussed it at length, and it was now in their hands.

I thanked her and let it go for the time being. Then maybe an hour later, I got an email from the publisher himself informing me that they’d run a full audit on my ads, which hadn’t done well [shocker] and the Amazon page. He believed the problem was the cover, so he sent me a new design he’d like to start using immediately.

“Let me know what you think!” he said.

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Jan13

The good, the bad, the writing

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The good, the bad, the writing

I know. I know. Writing’s not as much fun as Jiu-Jitsu, but this is important, not to mention half my blog’s name.

My mom is friends with a librarian in charge of ordering new books, so she sent her a copy of mine for consideration. I believe the woman has been a librarian for decades. Therefore, her feedback, which was great to “uh-oh”, is valuable.

Here’s what she said, the great part:

Wish I Was Here is fantastic! I loved the story and pacing and characters! Love Ilsa’s style! An absolutely thrilling, suspenseful, engaging novel!

I read it in two nights. Loved every vowel, every syllable. My only complaint is it kept me up past my bedtime!

We cannot let this title go unnoticed. Two thumbs up, five stars, and fireworks! I’ve not been this excited about a teen book for quite some time!

Not bad, right? Now the uh-oh part:

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Dec6

If you’ve ever wondered what my voice sounds like…

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If you’ve ever wondered what my voice sounds like…

Wynne and Vicki at Heart of the Matter kindly invited me on their podcast to talk about Wish I Was Here and its long, winding road to publication.

Before we started recording, Vicki told me she was upstairs reading, got to the end of chapter nine, and yelled, “Shut up!”

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Oct5

This is why I’ll never make it as an author

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This is why I’ll never make it as an author

Here’s what happened.

Friday night was the school’s football homecoming game. Usually Hubby takes the kids, and I chill at home alone, blissfully. Ah, introversion. I was also super tired, so a low-key quiet night sounded great.

But, I wrote this book…

Apparently it’s harder to sell books if you don’t talk to people???

The funny, talented, and inspirational Cheryl said she keeps a box of books in her trunk (can do), and then SELLS them to people. (Wait, wut?) She even stops at garage sales and gets the sellers–sellers!–to buy her book!

Cheryl’s book. I bought it without her asking me to. That’s how good she is.

That’s next level salesmanship. I could never.

But, I chugged some caffeine, put a box of books in the trunk of the family van, and the six of us hauled off to the game. I ambitiously put four books in my purse with Hubby saying he could run back to the van if I needed more.

HAHAHAHA!

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Aug11

Teaching girls to kick butt and take names

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Teaching girls to kick butt and take names

This was my third year teaching a girls’ self defense summer camp. I wore a boot for my not-quite-healed broken foot, but I made it work.

The last day was a flurry of fast-paced review, interrupted briefly by what the girls called “story time” for which they gathered around me in a semi-circle.

I’d already given a speech about situational awareness and how their level of alertness should go up as the comfort of their surroundings goes down. (And for goodness sake, don’t be looking at your phone.) This time I gave them real talk about danger from non-strangers and what to do if a relative, family friend, or future coworker makes them uncomfortable.

At the end, one of them said, “That wasn’t a very fun story.” So I added, “Then you grab their head and smash your knee in their face!”

They all shouted, “Yay!”

Not even kidding. It always amuses me how stiff and quiet they are the first few days. By the end,

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