So, admittedly, I'm not the most tech-savvy girl around. In fact, I imagine there are 12 year-olds out there with better technological knowledge and abilities than I. With that being said, I'm finally coming out of my writer's shell and creating my own website.
I know... I know. Most authors or want-to-be writer's make that a top priority. Mine, evidently, are skewed. But since I finally have a few e-books for sale on Amazon, I figured it was best to market myself- something I find extremely difficult. I mean, I became a writer for a reason. Socially awkward, anyone?
So, to get to the point: My website should be up and running in a day or two... or four. Bear with me, I'll let y'all know just as soon as it's up.
Back to the blog,
PK Dawning
P.S. you can purchase Dead and Buried here: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Buried-Secrets-Jackson-ebook/dp/B00EISXL74/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378505067&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+and+buried+p.k.+dawning
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
90 Day Challenge
It’s so easy to fall behind- not
only as a writer and blogger, but in general. One day fades into the next and
before you know it it’s October 2!!! Sigh… life can become overwhelming. And,
in the end, I suppose you just have to take it one moment at a time.
Several
months ago (yes, as ashamed as I am to admit it) I purchased a copy of 90 Days
to Your Novel by Sarah Domet. As the title would suggest, the book outlines
exactly how to complete a first draft version of your novel in just 90 days.
Sounds pretty incredible, especially since I’ve been agonizing over Voodoo
Dolls for 18 months now. Of course, you have to be dedicated and willing to put
in the required work. In fact, Sarah even includes a “Contract” for the writer
to make with himself promising to work diligently every day for 90 days no
matter what. I haven’t signed my own contract yet, but I will tomorrow. Which
means, I will have a complete first draft of Voodoo Dolls by December 31. How
completely cool would it be to start 2013 with a completed manuscript? I’m
totally up for this challenge!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Here We Go Again... Again
You’ve probably seen the commercial
where the narrator goes through a list of things that seem fun and happy, but
clearly the actor depicted in each scene is anything but. The narrator follows
up by saying, “depression hurts.” Well, it’s true. Depression does hurt and it
makes even moments that should be pleasurable… painful. I know because last
November I was diagnosed with Major Depression.
For those of you who know me, truly
know me, this probably doesn’t come as a surprise. I’ve often been described as
having an unnatural inclination to melancholy. Now, maybe at this point you’re
wondering what the heck this has to do with writing, or- in my case- not
writing. Maybe not, but let’s just assume. Obviously I’m no Edgar Allen Poe. My
depression doesn’t serve to fuel any horribly dark, yet magnificent writing.
Quite the opposite, in fact. For the better part of a year I’ve not written
anything of substantial value. I mean, sure I’ve made some journal entries, and
to be fair I’ve even working on Voodoo Dolls. But… in the end… it’s just not
been a very productive time; however, I aim to change that fact… starting with
this blog!
Yep, I’m jumping back on the
bandwagon. I intend to post twice a week: Mondays and Thursdays, with Mondays
being a general update on my writing progress and Thursdays reserved for the fun
stuff: contests, video blogs… stuff like that. Anyway, I hope you stop back
tomorrow to check out my video post. So, until then… let’s all be sure to take
our Prozac.
PK Dawning
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Dead and Buried Part 5
Paley wasn’t sure where the scream had come from, but she
was certain it wasn’t Brighton. She looked at Brody, searching his shadowy face
for any hint that this was part of his prank. As usual, his face was
unreadable.
“Guys,
I think we should find Brighton and get out of here… fast,” Hannah said,
sounding on the verge of tears. She wrapped her thin arms around her chest, a
useless attempt to ward off a chill.
Paley
felt it too, in the marrow of her bones, and it wasn’t the cold October wind
that brought the goose bumps prickling along her skin. Something was wrong
here. “Yeah,” she said, keeping her eyes on Brody, “I think Hannah’s right.”
Brody
shrugged, casual, unconcerned. “Alright,” he said and started down the
corridor. Paley walked alongside Hannah, who kept her head down, eyes on her shoes.
She looked scared and possibly a little sick. Paley couldn’t figure her in on
the prank. She was probably another unfortunate victim of Brody and Brighton’s
sick joke. Then again…?
“Look,
up there.” Brody swung his flashlight in the direction of what appeared to be a
narrow window about ten feet down the corridor. “That must have been where the
fresh air was coming from.”
And
possibly where Brighton went, Paley thought.
Hannah must have thought the same
thing. “Do you think he could have crawled out of that opening?”
“There’s
nowhere else he could have gone.”
“Except
further down the corridor,” Paley said, staring down the darkened length of the
passage.
“We
would have heard him if he took off that way. His footsteps would have echoed
off the stone.”
“What
about that door?” Hannah asked. For the first time, Paley noticed a heavy
wooden door recessed into the stone wall.
Brody
walked over to the door and shook it. It didn’t budge. “I think it’s barred
from the other side. There’s no way he got out this way.”
“Good
point,” Paley agreed. “So,” she said, turning to Brody, “Out the window?”
He
shrugged with a sigh. “Looks like.”
“If I
ruin these shoes, Vance Brody, I’ll never forgive you for this,” Hannah said,
with a disapproving frown.
“Yes
you will. You always do.” He ushered her toward the window. “Come on. Let’s
find Brighton so we can get the hell out of here.”
“What
about Quinn?”
Brody gave
Paley a long, flat look, his electric blue eyes revealing nothing. “Haven’t
heard from him,” he said, face impassive. “I assume he’s not coming.”
The
alarm that had been swelling in Paley’s chest eased. Now she was more than
certain this was a setup. An elaborate, well plotted setup, but a setup
nonetheless. Fine. She’d play along, make them think she was clueless. But she
would not give them the satisfaction of being hoodwinked… again.
“Oh,”
she said, trying to sound oblivious and sucking at it, “I guess we’d better find
Brighton then so we can leave.” She brushed past Brody and, without another
word, hoisted herself through the window-like opening to land in a high patch
of weeds on the other side.
Brody gave Hannah a boost and Paley
took her hands to help pull her over. She landed gently beside her. She gave
Paley a thin smile. “Should’a worn flats. Looks like we’re in for a long
night.”
“Maybe,”
Paley said with a mirthless smile of her own. She took Hannah by the arm
gingerly and pulled her out of the way just as Brody emerged from the window
and dropped to the ground beside them.
Hannah
didn’t wait for Brody to get on his feet before asking, “Now which way?” She
looked exhausted and more than a little pissed off. Again, Paley wondered if
she was in on Brody’s prank or if, like her, she was going to be made the butt
of his joke. Either way, she was still Brody’s girlfriend and Paley couldn’t
confide in her.
“That
way,” Brody said, pointing down the hill. The ground sloped away from the
building and a wispy fog had set in, clinging to the ground. They inched along
carefully, fighting their way through thick briars and tall weeds. It wasn’t
long before they found a rough, dirt path and followed it deeper into the
darkness. Even without the light of a moon, Paley could see the tall spires of
the high school and knew they were circling around to the other side of the
campus. Good. They weren’t as far away from the parking lot as she thought. Maybe
they could find Brighton quickly and leave.
As they moved further along the
path, the ground fog thickened. “We’re moving closer to the river,” Brody said,
trying to explain away the eerie vapor. Hannah didn’t look convinced and Paley
wasn’t buying it either. She looked up at the blue-black sky, fear sinking in
the pit of her stomach like a cold stone. What if something really had happened
to Brighton?
Hannah,
using her cell phone for light, shone it along the path. Something dark and
glossy caught the light and shone from the corner of a broken headstone. “Is that…
blood?” she asked. Her face paled to a sickly gray as she stared at the red
stain smeared across the crooked headstone.
“It
looks like a hand print.”
Hannah looked
sick. “Oh, God. Brighton! Something terrible has happened to him.”
“Calm
down. Brighton gets nose bleeds,” Brody said matter-of-factly, though he didn’t
sound convinced. “Paley’s right, Han. He’s probably hiding somewhere, waiting
to scare us.”
Paley
resisted the urge to roll her eyes, though she doubted he could see the gesture
in the darkness. This was a total set up. Obviously fake blood, Paley thought.
God, these guys had it all figured out. And, of course, Brody was leading them
right into the cemetery- a part of the church that had been long forgotten.
“This
way,” Brody said, keeping his flashlight beam close to the ground. “There’s a
blood trial.”
“That
must have been one hell of a nose bleed,” Paley said dryly. There was too much
blood for it to come from a nose bleed, she thought, as she followed Brody
deeper into the cemetery. That was, of course, if it was even real blood. Paley
doubted very seriously that it was.
“There’s
too much blood,” Brody whispered, and for the first time since Paley had met
him he sounded scared.
How
very convincing, she thought sarcastically. Man, he was good, but she wasn’t
about to buy it.
“Did y’all
here that?” Hannah asked. “There it is again. Listen.”
Paley
couldn’t hear anything besides the naked tree branches rattling in the wind and
the pounding of her own heart. “I don’t hear it, Hannah.”
“I do,”
she said firmly. “This way!” She took off in a dead sprint and Brody tried to
follow.
“Hannah, slow down. You can’t see
where you’re going,” he called, but she didn’t listen, pushing deeper into the
overgrown cemetery.
“Please, wait!” Paley called.
Hannah
turned to look back at them over her shoulder. “I’m telling you, I think I
heard something. For all we know it could be Brighton.” She turned around a
second too late. Her foot caught one something and she lurched forward. She
lost her balance and fell, disappearing into the cold, gray fog.
“Oh no!”
Paley said, her heart sinking. “Hannah, where are you?” Paley picked her way
through the cemetery carefully, not wanting to suffer the same fate as Hannah.
“Down
here,” she groaned. Paley and Brody rushed toward the sound of Hannah’s voice
and found her at the bottom of a deep hole. No, not a hole, a grave. Hannah was
in a grave!
“Are
you alright?” Brody asked, his voice belying the horrified expression on his
face.
Hannah
tried to push herself up. “Yeah, I think so,” she said as she dusted the dirt from
her clothes. She felt around for her phone, found it, and flipped the light
back on. “Oh, God!” Hannah made a strangled gagging sound then, “Guys, I think
I found Brighton.”
Thursday, October 6, 2011
A Hunting We Will Go
As usual, my characters are being elusive. I’ve been hard at
work on the fifth installment of Dead and Buried for the last four hours. However,
my characters have decided to take me down a dark and unforeseen path. And, of
course, I followed without question. So… the Dead Buried post is coming a
little later than I’d hoped.
Due to
shipping rates, only US residents may enter. Sorry.
1.
A pack of Pall Malls
2.
A Quarter 3. An eight ball
4. A muscle car
5. A flooded passage
6. Hobby Lobby west of the Mississippi
7. A buyer’s warning
8. A raw deal
9. A quicksand nightmare
10. An undeserved pseudonym
11. A good-looking habit
12. A white ass
13. A Kurt Vonnegut quote
14. A farewell to the Phantom
15. Soulful lilies
16. A string of green beads
17. Sights and sounds of the Crescent City
18. A practice misunderstood
19. Silver 3
20. An unoccupied soap box
21. A green and gold ribbon
22. A plastic knife
23. A harried mom
24. A neck bone connected to the head bone
25. A pink azalea
26. A mess of boiled crawfish
27. Three beignets
28. Old Glory
29. A disoriented owl
30. Most haunted place in New Orleans
31. Door number two
P.S. you can ask for clues in the comment
section, but I won’t be giving answers!!!
PK Dawning
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A Step Back
Some of you know. Many of you don’t. I’ve decided to take a
mini break from Voodoo Dolls to do a little more research before finishing the
story. In September, I hit the halfway point, and that’s when I realized the
story wasn’t going exactly the way I’d hoped. It’s not a major dilemma, nothing
to scrap the book over. But I decided it’s best to take a step back to
recollect myself as a writer and reevaluate my story.
That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t posted a blog in
over a week. I just needed a little breather. Now that I’ve had that, I’ll be
back to posting on my regular schedule: Monday and Thursday 6 P.M. PST. I’m
still breaking from the book until I return from my trip home to Alabama. I’m
going to spend the next few weeks just reading, something I haven’t made time
to do in a very long while. Plus, to be honest, I don’t want to be distracted
by the story while I’m visiting with family.
In other Blog news, info on my October blog contest will be coming
Thursday in addition to an extended chapter in Dead and Buried. (Wanna make up
for flaking on y’all last week!) This month’s contest is going to be a little
different, so be sure to check in Thursday for more on how to enter and to
learn about the prizes.
Until then,
PK Dawning
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