Wow, it's been a while...

It's me. You all remember me, right? ;)

I haven't checked in for a while, but I've been busy doing a bunch of writing stuff. The main thing I just got through is the second draft of the novel I wrote during February this year. As of right now, it's done. The new word count is 86,032.

I printed the whole thing and by the time I was done, ouch! I had lots of stuff to change. The cool thing is that because I put in all the changes as I went, even the type-in is done. Yay. Now, I'm going to put it aside for a week or two before doing the final draft.

Maybe next week I'll write a new short story. I've had an idea inside my head for a few weeks. After the hard work I put in this week, I deserve a reward tale. Lol.

ytd word count: 143,826

March Madness and Spring Fever

The weather is horrible, the kids are home, and the youngest (and whiniest) is sick. Despite that, I've managed to get in a respectable word count over the past couple of days (yay, me!)



After a marathon writing stint Friday night until the wee hours of the morning on Saturday (I know, I'm a slow writer)



I have to keep reminding myself to push forward....especially as I keep wanting to go back and add in layers (you know, the second draft stuff)... so, although I did make some forward progress, much of these new words were added in the first couple of chapters. As a result, I've reassessed my final estimated word count.

A little more written...

There'd be a lot more if I could find the time. Darn it, what are school's thinking when they give children a whole week off for Spring Break! Bleh~

Progress and worry

So, I had a spurt of creativity yesterday and managed to add quite a lot of words, although I'm not completely convinced what I wrote "works." Also, I skipped over a love scene I didn't feel ready to write to get to the black moment, so I'll have to go back and build it in.

According to Matthew


I feel better about finishing by the end of the month now, but I'm not 100% sure I'm going to be happy enough with it to submit it. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess!

A New Week, A New Story

Rosalie's story (a sequel to Postcards from the Dead) has been clamouring to be written for quite some time...and she's decided I need to write her story NOW! And of course, my muse is just chuckling in glee. Luckily, the entire story is in my head, I just have to get it out through my fingers!

If I'm lucky, I can get the first draft finished by the end of the week and then be able to concentrate on what I'm SUPPOSED to be writing!

Phone Calls from the Dead

I need to see it...

According to Matthew


I need to finish by March 31 (preferably sooner so I can actually have someone read it before I submit it).

We now interrupt this post for a moment of panic...

AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog

I did it!

You know, I was starting to think that I wouldn't make my self-imposed deadline for the BIAM, but I did. Just now, about ten minutes ago.

Here's where I ended up:



Pretty cool. I want the word count to end up a little closer to 50k by the time the revision process is done... but for now, I'm good. ;)

ytd word count: 141,928

glitter-graphics.com

Off to a good start

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know, it's Tuesday already. But today is one of my prime writing days as the boys go to preschool. I didn't add as many words as I had hoped, but the meter is moving in the right direction -- and I should be able to write this afternoon as well, so be looking for another update later.

Twilight's Embrace

I knew I was hanging on to those spare Vampire Oracle proposals for a reason! I reworked one of my favorites and submitted it on spec to Tease Dark Tarot. It was accepted for the Temperance card.

But as a result, I have a heck of a lot to write between now and the end of the month -- especially since next week is going to be a struggle to find time to write as it's Spring Break for all my kids. I think I'm going to ask the Easter Bunny for a babysitter at least two days that week.

Haven't popped in for a while...

Hey! I thought it might be a cool idea to post again. :)

This month, I'm taking part in the Cobblestone Main Street BIAM. And so far, this is how my progress is going:



Not bad, I'm pretty happy with the pace I'm writing this story, as well as the story itself. I mean, I've gotten other things done along the way too.

Happy writing!

Just to encourage myself...

According to Matthew


Man, seeing that meter move is a major motivator! Off to add more!

Not writing because...

I'm too busy biting my nails. I might have really, REALLY exciting news soon or a really crushing disappointment to deal with.

Either way, I haven't a creative juice in my body at the moment...

To everyone who IS writing--yay! Keep it up. Woot, woot!

Why I'm NOT a pantster...

I have lots of great ideas, they crowd onto the pages of my story notebook...but I can't just sit down and write.

Case in point is my current WIP...I thought I could just wing it with the premise. Um....well, my heroine is a spunky, sassy, sexy woman who never in a million years would contemplate suicide. Hmmm.... I have another cool idea for what to do with her...but I'll be sitting down with my notebook today and doing a bit of plotting...I need that roadmap to see where I'm going.

Sigh...Back to square one...

I forgot to say...

Last week, one day ahead of my self-imposed deadline, I finished the first draft of my novel.

This is the final word count:



I know, I went over the 80k mark. How cool is that?

And check this out ---> ytd word count: 101,869

Starting Over

This story was conceived as a companion to my WICKED submission Losing It. It too has an older heroine wanting to change her life.

All Meredith really wanted to do was to get away from it all. Literally. On the eve of her 40th birthday, she's decided to commit suicide. However, her dead husband is determined to have some say in the matter. So, Meredith is visited by three hunky mediums her husband hopes will show her that she has a future with the living...whether she wants it or not.

I nearly scrapped this story. I actually plotted out a different story to write for the same title. I opened the file and started reading...and realized I really liked Meredith's voice and the story. So, the day I spent plotting will have to be saved for another day.

Here's the word count...

Sa-weet!

I did it--I wrote an almost 7,000 word story in a little more than two days!

Comrades in Arms


Now, it's off to Loose Id, and we'll see whether it makes it into the Sweet Sixteen or not. I'm nervous but excited. Either way, I think it's a great story and am very pleased with it. And I know now for sure I can write m/m romance, lol.

Taking the rest of the day off from fiction writing to do some "paying" work and write a blog post. Tomorrow, I'd better get back to Matthew. He's pining...

Checking in again

I haven't popped in here for a while. Just been busy writing and doing a thousand other things too. Here's how my progress meter looks at the moment:



Not bad. I'm hoping to get this first draft done by the end of the week. I'll check back in then.

Have a great week! :)

Sick, but wrote anyway...

First, I was afraid I was going to die. Now, I'm afraid I'm not.

Only half-joking there. I felt better most of the day, but the fever came back tonight with a vengeance. As soon as the hubby gets home, I'm for bed!

I did, however, write quite a bit today, as I finally got an idea for the Loose Id March Madness short story contest, and I only have until March 1 to get it written and submitted. Fortunately, it's short!

Comrades in Arms


By the way, I have made some progress on Matthew since I last posted:

According to Matthew


I wil get back on that baby after I finish up CiM tomorrow!

Breathless!

Thursday was a waste, Friday was productive...Saturday was PHENOMENAL! My family spent most of the day out and about without me. Although I missed them, I really felt like I had to write or go nuts. The story was THERE (not the vamp one, I'm still working on it) but a new/old one that I picked up on Friday. This story started out two weeks ago as a WICKED, it stalled, sputtered and died. Then, Thursday night, I started playing with my characters a bit (sounds kinky, huh?), and then began writing/rewriting on Friday. As I wrote, I realized that there isn't enough sex in this to qualify for a WICKED...but I have a tentative Lustbite slot for 16 June with Total E-bound that this might work for...

Working title: Breathless

Word count:



I have two scenes left to write...the continuation of the black moment and the final HEA/sex scene. I'm so close to being done I can almost taste it!

I'm hoping to write the final HEA scene on Monday~



And as of Monday, I'm done! I overshot my estimated word count by a bit...but that's okay, as 8K was just the minimum. Now, it's off to my CPs...

A wasted day...kind of

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. I wasted the entire day reading my anniversary gift.

But, I'm back to work today, with a vengence. My morning writing finished off the scene, bringing my word count to:



I hope to be able to put in an hour this afternoon. I'm going to try two 20-minute writing challenges to see if I can use my time more productively (instead of checking my e-mail 100 times a day)

After the afternoon writing stint:



And I have one more chance today to drive up the words...tonight...so we'll see if I can break 3K today.

And I did it!

Totally Blew at Fast Draft

Yep...the harder I tried, the worse it got. The goal is 20 pages a day...I didn't even get my typical 500 WORDS a day. Bleh... Sick kids, family emergencies, friend emergencies, and a well-deserved girl's lunch out threw me off kilter. But despite my kids being home today from school (yet another emergency, but thank goodness it was the preschool's and not ours), I have managed to get 578 words cranked out. Not much...but it's a start and I finally have my characters. The even better thing about this is that I've got a slot reserved for the story at Total E-bound IF I get it finished by 31 March (I'm hoping to get it done well before then...barring emergencies!)



Instead of starting a whole new thread, I'll update today's word count here (2/20) --
Breathless

Passed 200 pages...

I'm totally exhausted this week. Done a lot - edits, newsletter, filled out a bunch of forms for two new contracts, celebrated a new release, and continued with this first draft.

So, here's the progress meter:



ytd word count: 63,366

Have a great weekend!

Words of Various Sorts

Monday was sort of a lost day, new writing wise, but I did pump out a 1,669-word synopsis for an agent request. (Agent request: squee!)

Today, I did some website updates (but still have to upload the files), and then managed to find time for this:

According to Matthew


Regency Wicked

Hey!

I fell a little behind on the word count yesterday, but caught up today. And maybe I'll squeeze in a little more later. Who knows?

Anyway, this is my progress meter for now:



Hope you all have a lovely writing week!

Untitled but going strong...

I snuck off to the library today and got in a rather good writing stint...

I Guess It Counts--Kinda

Since I last posted, I've only managed to add about 400 words to According to Matthew. Yesterday was mostly eaten up by squeeing with a friend over her offer of representation from an agent (w00t!) and writing a chapter for the Manuscript Mavens' Choose Your Own Adventure round robin. But it was almost 1,500 words, though, so I think it counts toward the weekly grand total, right?

And it was a lot of fun to write. If you've got time, check it out and vote on the plot twist of your choice! (All votes must be recorded by 4pm PST today to count!)

Did You Miss Me?

Well, after I finished Losing It, my WICKED erotica, I started two other ones...but neither one would gel...I'd get about 2-3K written and then it would fizzle. So, I've decided to table both of them and tackle something new.

Well...I have three unused proposals left over from The Vampire Oracle...so I decided to dust one off and start writing. I'm not sure exactly what market I'm targeting for this one...but I guess I'll figure that out once I finish it! I had written 1K already...but had to go back and change the POV of the first scene. So I'm counting those as new words...

I've passed the 100 page mark

The hubby's on his way home and I just finished the chapter I was writing. Phew.

I'm tired now. Goodnight. :)

Le sigh times two

Jackie warned me it would be extremely hard getting back on the horse after a prolonged abscene and like most things, she was right. I'm writing. Slooooowly but surely. I've started on another novella targeted at EC. I'll check in tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be further along.

Workin' It

I decided to table my Wicked for the time being in favor of the next Gospel. I figure with as many Wicked submissions as Cobblestone is likely to be inundated with on the first day, Matthew will see print sooner.

So, I had 2,340 words when I started this afternoon. This is how the meter looks now:

According to Matthew


The plan is to add at least 1,000 words per day, but 2,000 would be even better!