THE END!

Yippeee....yahooooo!

At approximately midnight, I typed THE END at the bottom of Mojave Moon. It came in slightly over it's 20K goal (final word count was 21407!)

Now...what do I do??? Oh, that's right, crowbar a couple of sex scenes into my Valentine's tale by 15 December.

And, honestly, can I make that 1 January deadline for the EC submission? I'll have to think hard on that one (pun intended, snicker)

Friday update

I managed to add more to the story yesterday and today. Though I was a little distracted by the TV tonight. :/

Anyway, here's the word meter:

At least I know how it's going to end. I also started the next chapter so I've got a place to go from when I pick this up again on Monday. Maybe during the weekend I can make a small list of the things that need to happen from here until the end. That would be very helpful.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mucho Progress

The breakthrough seems to have battered down the doors. Plus, I now have a looming deadline to make some changes to my V-day story by 20 December. So, I HAVE to get the first draft of Mojave Moon done THIS WEEK!

So...here's my morning meter and I'll update after my afternoon session!



If only my boys would have slept longer, I think I could have finished this novella in one sitting. Things have heated up, gotten exciting, and we're rushing toward the denouement.

16,861 / 20,001 (84.3%)

And my final word count for the day (thanks to a writing challenge last night. (Thanks Jackie!) Three more scenes and I can type THE END on the first draft!

Slowed Down a Little, but Progress is Progress

As the title says, my production slowed a little over the past couple of days. I only got 1,200 words on Tuesday and 900 yesterday. I blame my heroine for this turn of events. She went and did something I didn't expect, leading to a mini black moment/turning point I didn't really anticipate and the need to write a few additional scenes I hadn't originally conceived. I'm pretty sure she made it a better story by doing it, though, so I don't have complaints.

Of course, because her actions added a few scenes and I was already pretty sure I wouldn't be able to wrap this baby up in 12.5K, so I've had to extend the word count projection significantly. Which makes my progress look much less impressive, sadly.

According to Luke


In other news of the ironic sort, Unbridled (the manuscript I have finally and forever decided to consign to the Magical Mulch Pile) finaled in the Launching a STAR contest. No, I won't be tempted to pick it up again, even if it wins.

Much...

This week has been a little meh...

As far as the writing goes.

On Monday, I got the second draft done of that redemption story I wrote at the end of October. So that was pretty exciting. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I've now put it aside and hope to get the final draft done next Monday.

I started a new tale also. This is how the progress meter looks for it:



It's been coming a little slower than I hoped, but the concept just needs a lot of extra thought so that it all makes sense. Anyway, last night I actually got to the first sexy scene between the hero and heroine. So, it looks like things are taking off. ;) Of course, some bad stuff's gonna happen to them now. Can't expect to have everything going their way. Oh, hold on, this was really the first good thing that went their way.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Gotta go write now.

Here's to Long Showers

I've often told people that my muse is most active while I'm in the shower. My friend and fellow author, Tessa Dare, always asks what type of shower gel I use and where she can get it! Well, inspiration struck again today...in the shower, as always.

I've been plodding along with Mojave Moon, the writing has been "there"...it's just not been "THERE!"...Then, halfway through my shower this morning, I had a most wonderous idea. It was a simple switch the bad guy to "X" instead of "Y" ! Yowza! I plotted out the rest of the book this morning and it works. What's even greater is that all the clues I planted about "X" will now serve as a red herring...and the villian has been there all along.

So, I'm feeling a bit brilliant today.

Back to work....

Wow. My last check in was the 16th of November. And I haven't written a word since then. I could panic and berate myself for letting such a long length of time past but I don't my muse will appreciate that. I have 26 days until the year is up. If I write 1500 words a day it will total 39k.

My stories...



With these numbers and diligence I CAN get the last three stories done. Le sigh. It was a nice vacation but it's time to get back to work.

Updating My Progress

Well, I've written a little in the past week...STILL have not gotten my couple into a compromising situation as I had to go back and rewrite/add a scene to "up" my heros conflict (nothing a little arsenic in the beer couldn't fix -- tee hee)

Anway...here's hoping for a little 'afternoon delight' while my boys nap this afternoon!

The Muse Keeps Going Strong!

According to Luke


This is the easiest story to write, ever! I'm sort of in awe of how it just flows out of me.

On the other hand, I'm a little afraid of it. As easy as it's been to write, I'm a little afraid that the hero (who is also the narrator) is hard and unsympathetic. I just wrote a scene between him and his ex-girlfriend and even though I thought I set it up pretty clearly that she's a manipulative bitch, I'm still not sure he comes off well.

Of course, real people aren't perfect, so characters in stories probably shouldn't be, either. Still, if his attitude and actions alienate readers (most of whom, I expect, will be women), that can't be good.

I need a read. Anyone?

I Suck More Than a 2.00 Crack Ho

I haven't written in like TWO WEEKS! And my book was due two days ago! Ok so I wrote a page here and a page there. But it's just sucked ass!

*sigh*

Ok so I think I finally unstuck with the help of a good friend (or three) and I've got to see if I can get four or five pages written tonight because tomorrow I have to hit it hard!

Necessary Evil

I think I'm the only one of the group here NOT writing. Grrrr....

Why? Well, I've been doing the necessary evil portion of an author's life...yep, PROMO. I've been out posting links to my free e-book on my website and announcing a wonderful Christmas contest I'm going to run in conjunction to my book's release on December 20th.

So, I've written lots of words...just not on my manuscript! Sigh...

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.