Category Archives: Life

A Christmas of Contrasts, Part the First

This year, Christmas morning took me back to when my children were little – waking up early, tearing into the brightly colored packages, squeals of excitement.

Oh, and the vomit.

Note: The following blog post does NOT contain scenes of a disturbing nature to those with weak stomachs. I promise.

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Crazy Making

I say it every year, but, really, this time I mean it — this has been our busiest Summer ever.

Not only did we have the usual stuff with kids home and hubby working (4) 10 hours days and home on Fri, but also unexpected oral surgery (and the outrageous cost), a yard sale, creating a new website, and then my work schedule changed about every other week, so had to frequently rearrange all the doctor, dentist, and orthodontist appointments I’d carefully set up.

Oh, and in between all this, I finished my novel, sent it out to beta readers, then outlined the second book and started writing.

If I wasn’t so frazzled, I’m sure I’d feel a great sense of accomplishment.

I wish you all a calm, peaceful few weeks. Hopefully, a little of that will head my way, too.

 

Brass Tacks #10

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The busy season is here! Lots of concerts, holidays, doctor appointments, and changing work schedules going on at le Chateau Carmel lately. Not to mention five days recently without the Internet, compliments of Mother Nature and a falling tree branch.

I’m sure you’re probably in the same boat. It’s a challenge to find enough quiet time and mental space to work on creative projects, isn’t it? Well, if nothing else, it’s comforting to know we’re dealing with similar issues.

C’est la vie, right?

While my overall output has decreased recently, my spirits haven’t. Well, not too much, anyway. The difference this time is that I keep coming back, working a little bit each time. I see that gorgeous light at the end of the long-ass tunnel I’ve been in and want to get to the end.

It’s so close now.

After finishing the big, big revision I’ve been working on for months, I realized that working with one word processing file was unwieldy and truly awful. Now was the time to buy Scrivener. After all, people have only been raving about it for years. I wanted it not only for breaking the one huge file down into more manageable chapters and scenes, but also for the compile and format features when I want to publish. After that, I can’t wait to dive into the great stuff available while I’m drafting my next story. (Ideas are already pinging in my skull!)

So, I imported my file into Scrivener. It took me a while to separate the scenes and figure out how to print it. Now, I’m reading through (for the bazillionth time), mainly for grammar, spelling, flow, etc. Along the way, I’ve caught a couple of things I missed, rewriting a paragraph here and there. But, I’m this close to finishing!

And then it’s on to beta readers!!

I can’t tell you how freakin’ happy this makes me. I’ve been working at this writing gig for nine years. Granted, I’ve worked on two major projects in that time, but I’m seriously ready to get my work in front of readers.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me. How about you? What projects are keeping you busy?

 

Brass Tacks #9

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Hmmm. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, I’m back and Happy Friday to you!

Despite my lack of blog posts, I’ve still been working on my WIP steadily. Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  • I finished writing the new climax and ending. Wa-hoo!
  • I did the type-in of my first revision which I had hand-written on the printed pages of my first draft.
  • After a read-through (which was fun, because now it’s starting to take shape!), I wrote a list of things I needed to fix. So, now I’m filling plot holes and seeding the new characters and situations that support the new ending into the rest of the story.

I’ll continue that last one for a little while, though I’m almost done. Then, I’ll switch focus to language. I can’t have everyone sound the same, now can I?

Though my life doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon, I’ll attempt more regular updates. Thanks for reading and thank you for your encouragement!

Brass Tacks #2

Ooo-boy! Has it really only been one week? It seems likes it’s been eons since my last post.

That may be getting a little dramatic, but it’s been a week of change like I haven’t had in a long time. Starting a new job feels like I’m back at school again, making mistakes, and feeling dumb. Maybe not dumb, but definitely like a beginner. But, it shouldn’t take me long to get the hang of it. Like writing, I have to trust the process.

Oh – and all of this is in public. I’ve never been good with that. I’ve really had to shove my introverted side out of the way.

Also, I don’t know about any of you, but when I have something new, exciting, or worrying coming up, I can’t sleep the night before. So, I started out this week tired on top of everything else. It got better by the end of the week and I’ve caught up this weekend, I think. Next week shouldn’t be so bad. Thank God.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that I’ve gotten little done on my writing this week, despite my drastically scaled-back goals.

My writing goals last week and what I accomplished:

1. Write new scenes 36B and 37. Yeah, not really. I worked on scene 36B, but didn’t finish and wasn’t particularly inspired by what I did write.  

2. Write the next Brass Tacks post. Done. Hey, hey, I did finish something!

Goals for the coming week:

1. Keep working on scenes 36B and 37.

2. Write the next Brass Tacks post.

Until next week…