Things never work out as planned...

You know how I had every intention of getting that story revised yesterday? Well, it didn't work out. It's still not done, but I have a good reason for it. You see, after I finished my galleys and emailed them off, I got a new copy back. And because I'm a freakish double checker, I went through it again!

Yeah, I'm weird. I know. Still, at least I'm now positive that I haven't missed any typos or dashes. Lol. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

But anyway. After I got that out of the way, I had the third edits for OBSCURE waiting for me in my Inbox. I intended to get about halfway through last night, but the hubby worked so late that I just kept going and going. Until I got to the end. They're now done and emailed as well. Can't wait to see the cover for this one. Heck, I can't wait to see every cover. I love getting covers, it's so exciting.

So, I'm now free to work on something else. Let me just go and think about it. Have you checked out this insane challenge? ;) Might have to take part. I need the weekend to think it over.

Go Me

According to Luke


Only a little over 1,000 words today, but then, I did two blog posts and wrote a query letter. Plus, it was mostly sex and that always takes longer than anything else. So I guess I'm excused.

Since hubby will be out of town most of next week, I fully expect to be done with the first draft by Wednesday.

Isn't it funny?

Yeah, life is funny. But I'm not talking about the old ha-ha kinda funny, I'm talking about bizarre funny. You see, I woke up yesterday morning with nothing on my writing plate. Okay, that's not accurate because I've always got something in mind. But what I mean is that there were no edits to get out of the way, or any new NaNo words to be written.

Nope, I had my pick of things to do. So, I decided it would be wise to get the second draft of one of my stories done. You know, get a move on it so I can do the third draft next month and sub it in? So, I got to it. Got as far as 38/75 pages before I checked my emails and found some galleys waiting in my Inbox. LOL.

Anyway, I put aside the revision and got stuck into the galleys. Let's just say that I got them finished about twenty minutes ago. And it feels good. This is for my AA X-mas release. Yeah, I've got a few new releases next month. ;)

So, I think I'll tackle another chapter of the revision and then try to get it finished sometime tonight.

It's been a really strange and hectic kinda week. Anyone else looking forward to the weekend? Man... I really need to get a to-do list ready for December.

Well, Go-ooolly!

According to Luke


Two 2,000+ word days. In a ROW! I never would have dreamed.

And there'd be more where that came from if I didn't have to cook dinner, do homework with the kids, and watch a football game. (Is it weird that I can't decide whether I want Dallas or Green Bay to choke more?)

Well, I Didn't Expect THAT!

Today, I was overcome with a new story idea. One so powerful that I decided I'd better write it down before I "lost" it. A couple of hours later, I've written more than 2,000 words, which must be some kind of record for me.

So for today, the word meters look like this:

Carnally Yours--no change


Going Greek--400 words added yesterday


According to Luke--all written today and still going!


Er, wow!

Major "Duh" Moment

So...I'm backing up all of my documents, figuring out which ones to burn to CD and which ones to keep on the hard drive when I see...AH! A Christmas short story I finished and never submitted (well, I entered it in a contest and it didn't win). It has a "needs revision" note on it....

I reread it...it's short (4500 words) and very sweet. Not my typical genre, but the ending brought tears to my eyes and I felt a little like the writer in Romancing the Stone as she bawls over her own manuscript.

Anyway...what to do with the darn thing? Then, I got a wonderful idea, give it to my readers free for a Christmas gift! I e-mailed Deanna, who agreed AND added the simply terrific idea of putting excerpts and teases at the back!

Unfortunately, to do this...there's been a few "but firsts" to get done with it. I sent it out for critique and got those changes back but haven't input them yet.

Then I realized I'd have to do my own cover for it (thank you hubby and his spare copy of Adobe Photoshop from the old computer we just got rid of) -- but thanks to that, I've wasted sooooo much time surfing pictures and putting together covers, I can see how it gets addicting!

Next, get it all pretty and go see if I can round up a free PDF converter to make it into an e-book.

I want it all done by 1 Dec...and Mojave Moon is going to be longer than I expected (possibly 25-30K!), so it doesn't look like I'll finish it much before the new year. So I won't be submitting to EC this year unless a miracle occurs. Oh well....

Just hit the send button!

That means the second round of edits for my upcoming Cobblestone Press release, OBSCURE, are now done and emailed to my excellent editor. Yay!

I pretty much spent all day on them. On and off. There are always other things to do, right? Like real life stuff, I mean. :)

So, it's 9:19pm here on Wednesday night and the hubby's not home from work yet. What should I do? Wander aimlessly online, do some research, veg out in front of the TV, or pick up a new book to read? Ah... choices, choices.

Anyway, I hope you all -

Fun, Fun, Fun

Deciding not to do the Golden Heart is the best move I ever made. I was so making myself crazy! I picked up both Carnally Yours and Going Greek again instead and I'm much happier.

My new goals are:

• Complete first draft of Carnally Yours by December 15; have it edited and ready to submit before the New Year.
  


• Query Going Greek to agents before Christmas. I'm still waiting for more feedback on the partial, but I think it's solid and ready but for a few possible tweaks here and there.

Here are some word meters. I have no idea exactly where I left off in either of these projects, but this is where they sit now:

Carnally Yours


Going Greek

I am an official winner! ;)

Yeah, check this out:

I scrambled my manuscript, uploaded it and got this funky graphic. Oh, and a certificate too.

So, this is officially my second NaNoWriMo win. Yay.

I actually re-read the last few chapters this afternoon and the final first draft word count is 55,450. Not bad. Gives me some room to move during revision. The novel's also been printed out, and I will put it aside for a month.

Now all I gotta do is take some notes for the sequel! :/

The Bad and the Good

Yep...the whole holiday thing waylaid my writing...I got no words on paper, nope, nada.

This weekend will be a bit of a wash too...what with a soccer party, a baby shower for my friend, and "the kids" being home...

I'm hoping to get at least 100 words written in the hour I've crowbarred into my day for writing...

Hope all of you had a great holiday (for those who celebrate)...and hopefully you got more writing done than I did!

Update: My hour ended up being slightly longer than that...and I was able to get some good words written...still no "nookie" yet...that's the upcoming scene...

Hey!

Okay, how's everyone today?

I've updated my word meter accordingly:

As you can see, I've finished the first draft. Yeah, I got through it yesterday. But you see, everything tumbled out of me in such a crazy rush that I'm sure I've left off a few nitty-gritty bits of detail. But that's fine. I just need to go back and read over the last two chapters. Layer it as I go.

Then, I'll print out the novel and put it aside for a month. I like to get a little distance from it. Lol.

But I won't be doing that today. I'm off to do some more edits.

Barring a Stunning Breakthrough Tomorrow...

I'd say I'll be foregoing the Golden Heart after all.

I had the day off today courtesy of the remnants of a migraine which, believe me, wasn't bad enough to explain why my word count went backwards and I added only three paragraphs worth keeping.

I'm forcing it and it's not working. And there's no way I'm entering something that's not ready just because I paid my $50. I need to go back to writing something I'm enjoying. This isn't it.

Which is a shame because it's my only full-length historical and that market's hot now. But I can't make myself feel the story for the market. It's either there or it's not and right now, it's SO not.

Progress!

I started out the day at a little over 10,000 words and added about a thousand.

Unbridled


Rock on.

Pixels on Paper...

I'm adjusting the anticipated word count up a bit as I just hit what I feel to be 1/3of the way through...and I'm looking forward to the next chapter...my characters are finally going to "get some nookie!" Hopefully they're as excited about it as I am!

Synopsis Conquered

Thanks to crits from Ericka and another CP of mine, the synopsis for Unbridled is complete at 2,185 words and exactly seven pages. I don't see how I can get it any shorter without losing important elements of the internal and external conflict. I've got a couple more people to send it past, but I think it's in good shape.

Now, I just have to write the new scene that rounds out the Golden Heart entry. My goal is to write the first draft today and tomorrow then send the contest entry out for crits on Wednesday. Since I expect the long weekend to be a lost weekend, writing-wise, that'll give my critters five days to read, comment, and return. Then I can polish the heck out of it and put it in the mail to Dallas at the end of next week.

So, go me.

(If only I had the opening line for the next scene. Once I have it, I think the scene will flow like butter. But I gotta have it!)

It's me again!

Okay, I just had to stop because my hand and arm hurt. :/

Here's the updated word meter:



So take a look at this:

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Still, after all of that excitement... the novel's not done. LOL. Here's hoping that tomorrow is the day. ;)

New week, New goals

It's early Monday morning.

Got the third round of edits for VB completed and emailed yesterday afternoon. Yay!

Also added a little bit to the NaNo novel before my daughter woke up:

Hoping to cross the 50k today. I'll post again later.

Outlined...

Well, I probably got well over 2000 words written at the library, but they were by hand and didn't add any words to my story(ies) -- but they were necessary. Since Mojave Moon ended up "backwards" from my original outline, I needed to do some more thinking on my hero's GMC. I got what I needed (yay!).

Then, because my Alphasmart was almost out of juice and I wasn't sitting in my usual corner by the plug-in, I outlined a quickie I'm hoping to submit to Ellora's Cave by 1 Jan. It's tentatively titled Ruby's Tuesday (or Tuesday's Ruby or Ruby in the Sky instead of Diamonds...)...it'll be my first romance with BDSM elements...so I'm hoping for a catchy title to come to me before I have to submit (no pun intended there-- LOL)

So, no new word count thingy....yet...

Update: Got some comments from my CP and started incorporating, so I added a few words...

Done

So I got my Untitled story finished. It finished at 19,365.

I'm checking in.

My last check in was Wednesday, November 14th @ 12:24am, so I'm checking in a little less than 48 hours later.

I started with 13,389 and have 19,365 so that gives me a total of 5976 an average of 2988 per day. And a total of 13,181. WOOT! An average of 2197 per day.

Untitled - COMPLETE


Untitled - EDITS


And my SVEN up to date as of today


I'm thinking of today and tomorrow off and hoping back on the horse tomorrow. *shrugs* We'll see.

Productive, but not with NaNo

Well, I got stuck into the third round of edits for Valentine's Beast. I had to stop because the lappy almost died on me, but I did get halfway through. So that's cool.

Oh, and I finally got my November newsletter done and emailed last night!

Now, I hope you all...

Finished!

With the synopsis, anyway.



Since I cut a little here and there to get it down from 1750 to about 1550 before I reached the end, I reckon I wrote a little over 500 words. Considering everything else I had to do today, not bad!

All by myself today, so...

Here's where I'm at right now:

Not sure how many words I added today, but man... I'm totally into this tale.

And I really, really need to thank this wonderful, most awesome band.

You see, right now I'm in the thick of things. A sequence of bad things are going to get this novel to the end. And although I knew what had to happen, the order in which it should go was starting to feel a little murky. So, this morning after I dropped my daughter off at school, I stuck the headphones into my ears and played their album A Beautiful Lie.

During three of their songs -- From Yesterday, The Story and R-Evolve -- it all just came to me. Honestly, I kid you not.

Their music is my muse for today. And for that, I thank them.

xxx

Today, I...

...wrote a big chunk of the synopsis for Unbridled. And though I didn't quite finish, as I was putting the Cornish hens in the oven, I had a mini-breakthrough and realized how the ending should go now. Woot.

Here's the meter:

Unbridled Synopsis

Plodding along...

Well, the words just flew out of me a few days ago, then plodded out of me yesterday. I got some new words down but not as many as I would have liked. Perhaps today I'll make better progress. I'm still shooting to be done with this story so I can submit it by the end of the month --Here's hoping!

Update: After 1.5 hours of writing time today


So...I made some progress. This is all the "writing" time I have today. The rest of my free time today will be spent critiquing and proofreading. But, tomorrow is Library Day...I should be able to get in a good crunch of writing in the afternoon.

Checking in

Well, the hubby was sorta home today. But I did get some writing done. :)

Here's where I'm at now:



Going well, but I really have to get my notebook out now.

Bad Jackie. Bad!

I didn't work on Unbridled at all today. Instead, I wrote 1,200+ words of my contemporary project. And I'd write more if I didn't have to get dinner on the table and homework done. I'm so loving this story again.

Going Greek

Unstuck (Sort of)

So, QB chatted with me yesterday and helped me solve my plotting dilemma. Thanks, QB! Of course, having got out of that one, I immediately fell into another. Sigh...

Here's a screen shot of the spreadsheet I'm using to try to replot the book:

The color coding identifies the point of view for each scene: pink for the heroine, blue for the hero, yellow for the villain. There is a fourth POV in the book, but I haven't got to that point yet. When I do, her POV will be coded lavendar.

My goal for this week (what's left of it!) is to hammer out the scene goals, motivations, and conflicts, the plot elements handled in each scene, the location of each scene, and then identify the major turning points. I'm not normally a very structured plotter, but because large chunks of this book are written and some of them can probably stay with tweaking, I need to see the whole thing laid out before I can tackle the rewrite. Plus, I need to know how it all fits together to write the synopsis.

So, does this method work? I have no idea. But I guess I'll find out!

Quick Check In

I'm going to toot my own horn. I am proud of myself. I set a goal and I'm seeing it through. WOOT!

So I last checked in on the 12th at 2:32am. A little under 48 hours ago. When I check in last I was at 8365. I didnt set another goal but my ultimate goal was to have this story done by 11/14 and right now I'm at 13,389. 1611 words from finishing! WOOT! WOOT!

I started with 8365 so that gives me a total of 5024. WOOT WOOT! And average of 2512 per day!

And brings my handy dandy SVEN o METER to...




Untitled


I plan on getting this sucker done tomorrow and polish till it shines and sent off by the due date! WOOT! WOOT!

Checking in a little earlier today

Not sure what happened, but I've met my target by 11:30am. The words were just zooming out of me today.

So, here's what it looks like now:



Crossed the 40k mark. Yay.

Now I've got this afternoon to work on the second edits of Valentine's Beast.

Write on! :D

Moving Right Along...

I got NO writing done yesterday, but did get a new refrigerator instead. Our old one was rattling and moaning as if it was possessed. Luckily it held out just long enough...

Today, I threw myself right back into the story and it's moving right along -- lots of mystery -- I'm really enjoying this. And it's fun to do research as to what existed back in 1943 (not only objects but expressions). I have to be careful my "research" doesn't shadow my writing time...