Project Book Babe: Support a great cause

Part I - April Marathon Update

So now I realize what other writers are talking about when they say they don’t blog, or Twitter, or Facebook, or MySpace because it just takes too much time away from, ahem, writing.

I’ve bookmarked about 25 blogs that I hit daily. I try to blog here at least three times a week. I check Facebook several times a day, and don’t get me started on email. Last night at eight o'clock, I sat down to write the beginning of my second book – on Day One of the April Marathon. At 8:55 I was still surfing the web.

As a reporter, I often wondered what news writers did before the Internet. How did they research correct spellings and definitions of words (um, an actual hand-held dictionary maybe)? How did they double check the contact information and other details for companies, schools, and nonprofits featured? How did they survive!?

I can tell you one thing of which I’m fairly certain. They probably spent more time doing their jobs.

Okay, let me be honest. I’m not writing this today, April 2. I’m writing it April 1 at 8:56 p.m. That’s right. More procrastination.

After writing a 64,000-word book and working for weeks on editing and revising it, it’s painfully daunting to open an empty, blank, zero-word Microsoft document and essentially start over. But I have to...forcing myself to write.

Stay tuned.

(Time passes).

When my fingers finally started tapping the keys last night, the opening scene of my book, the one I'd been visualizing for weeks poured out of me - 2,000 words in about 80 minutes. Not bad.

April Marathon Word Count, Day One: 2,056


Part II - Coveted books for a great cause

Interested in an autographed copy of Twilight? It might be difficult finding a teenager who answers no to that question, and the organizers of a fund raiser in Arizona probably realize this.

I heard about Project Book Babe Auction on author Ally Carter's blog. I'm a huge fan of Ally's and check her blog often, and I was excited to see that this Saturday she and several of the other authors I have "crushes" on are auctioning off their manuscripts, character naming rights, signed book copies, and their time to raise money for breast cancer patient and Book Babe Faith Hochhalter.

The event includes a live auction as well an eBay auction, for those of us who cannot attend. The online auction is in full swing, so if you have a few minutes, check it out.