Lonely Galaxy Lost in Space

New Story

Well it’s been a busy weekend. We did some canning and freezing. I can’t even remember what all we did but tomato juice, applesauce, and freezing bananas was part of my weekend. I know there was more but my brain is too tired to remember.

We worked in the craft room with organizing it. Six large boxes of yarn finally got put away and organized how I wanted them. I also helped Vicki organize some of her supplies.

Poor little Bash got a lot freaked out when we started moving things around. He got so upset, Vicki had to step into the bathroom with him and snuggle him for a number of minutes. She calmed him down and he was slightly better when they came out.

Today I started a new Ava M story. I’ve had these gorgeous covers – trilogy – and I’ve had this character running through my head for the last few weeks. It finally came together over night. I woke up with the plot for the first book outlined in my head. I also have a rough idea of the second book. The third one is still a blur for me but I am pretty sure I’ll figure it out as I go.

With all we did today, I didn’t think I’d have time to write but I’ve managed to get 4200 words written today. Tomorrow I have a list of tasks but I hope to add to it. I’d love to have rough drafts done on all three of these by end of year but we’ll see how cooperative the characters will be.

This story arc is alien mate scifi romance. I’m excited to write this project.

Editing

Last night I edited the short story for the anthology and got that off my plate. I don’t have to think about that now – well except for promoting the anthology.

Over the weekend the family did a bunch of freezing and canning. Vicki also baked a few things. We canned beets and carrots. We froze watermelon, pineapple, and nectarines.

Tonight I have to read my daughter’s master’s paper and then work on my client’s editing. I’ll enjoy both in different ways.

As for writing, now comes the task of picking my next project. What will it be? I’d like to work on an Ava M book. I’ve looked at some of them I have started and there are two which stand out to me. Avian Allure and the third Sexy Sinivites. Either of them are interesting enough. The question is which will call to me. Which characters will tell me their story?

Now I’ve narrowed it to those two but the reality is, when I go to write, if the story flows. I could read through what I already have written and come to the end and have nothing. The characters are just like – nope, not today.

This week will probably be spent editing and promoting books. I’ll see if I stick to the editing all week. I’m in the mood to write so writing will probably occur.

Heavy black plume of smoke streams southeast from Sendai, Japan

Eighteen Chapters

Last night sucked. I was all geared up to write and my energy just bottomed out. Tonight, tonight has been sooo good. I wrote over 5400 words and finished Sacrificed to the Sea Monster!

Oh the ending is good – I like it a lot. It’s not a cliffhanger but it lets the reader know there’s more coming. I’m really pleased to be done with this one.

The story dropped onto the page like it was meant to. I like my characters and I like the plot. It’s a rough draft and I need to edit the heck out of this thing but I like this one.

It’s done and I’ve sent the rough draft off to my beta readers. I hope they like it. Oh, I’m happy with this one.

I’ve got takeovers to do for the next two days and I’ve got a short story to edit by the 2nd of September. I also have client work. So not a lot of writing for me in the next week. I say that and I’m laughing at myself because I know I’ll go looking for something. I have a couple more Ava books started which need to be finished. The question is – which characters will talk to me the loudest.

Gathman's Cottage

So Close!

All I thought about all day was I wanted to come home and write. I got through my day and got my day job tasks organized. I spent time with the family. Now, I’ve written the next part of the Sea Monster book.

I’ve spent the last hour writing and adding details and thinking more about the story. I find my energy lagging and all I want to do is go to sleep. I know there’s more there. I can feel it but my brain is only doing this… blah blah blah blah…

So I wrote 1200 words tonight. It’s small but it’s progress. I think I’ll take some tylenol and my evening meds and try to sleep.

It isn’t often I get this worn down but day job has been SUPER stressful over the last couple weeks. Today I worked on campus and by the time I left work, my joints were screaming.

Ocean Sand, Bahamas

Two More Chapters

Today was supposed to be a writing day so I could finish my Sea Monster story. That didn’t happen. I spent most of the day working on promotions and organization stuff. Oh and let’s not forget the fun task of working on budget.

So no fun writing for me during my day off. My people hung out with me later than normal so I didn’t get to start writing until later. Now it’s 12:30 (oy) and I’ve just started the second to last chapter of my story.

Tonight, I wrote 4300 words and the whole book hit 50K plus a bit more. I think the last two chapters will be shorter than the others – at least that is my sense of them. I could be very very wrong.

I’m excited and happy with what was written tonight. I may need to expand one section or explain one thing when I start in tomorrow. I’ll reread and decide. For now, it’s good.

Maybe tomorrow night I can finish the story but it depends on how long people stick around. I’m excited to finish this. I cannot wait to hear what my beta readers think of it.

Kelp forest, Sanna bay

One Down, Three to Go

It’s been a bad day for me. I woke up at 3:30 this morning with my joints all screaming. Moving was a matter of balancing the pain in my body. I got cold. It’s not like it’s zero degrees but my blanket was tangled around me rather than covering me.

I attempted to go back to sleep. That didn’t work until like 6:00 and of course I had to get up for work. My day job is busy busy busy right now. Also we’ve had a lot of turn over in people so it means we’re juggling other people’s work as well as our own. I’m sure this will ease soon but for right now, it’s not great at my day job.

To make matters worse, late afternoon I got too hot and a migraine started. My ears are still ringing. I’m hoping this is lack of sleep. But mostly a craptastic day.

Tonight though, I wrote. I had four chapters to write. Well 4,000 words later, I’m down to only 3 chapters to write.

I have tomorrow off and I hope I’ll be able to knock out more chapters but we’ll see. I have appointments to go to in the afternoon.

Three penguins

Another Chapter

Monday at the day job was involved. Answering questions, getting tasks done, and just getting back into the swing of work.

The day went quick enough. All day I kept having flashes of things I wanted to write about in the novel I’m working on. I have so many good ideas. I cannot wait to get them all down.

Now I write off the cuff. I don’t plan out my plots. I let the characters reveal their stories to me. But occasionally, I’ll know what the next few steps are and I’ll jot them down. I did that tonight because as of right now, I see four more chapters. One of the chapters, I’m not sure whether it goes next or if it’s part of the ending… I think it might be the ending.

Tonight I was distracted by so many things. I finally put my phone on do not disturb because of so many notifications. Once I did that, I got down to work and wrote almost 3700 words! It puts me at about 42,300 words.

With four more chapters and if I keep to right around 3500, I’ll have a book about 56K when I’m done. This would be perfect for novel length.

Now I have editing to do but I also have an extra day off this week. I hope to finish the story this week.

If I can, I’ll switch to editing the short story due by Sept 2 and my client work. I need to go back to doing a couple hours of client work. If I were at the beginning of the novel, I’d probably do that but as is I’m writing a chapter a night. I want the flow to keep going so I’ll finish this story and then focus on the editing.

Really if I had a full day to write, I’d probably finish it in a day. I know what each scene will involve in a big picture way. I know who the bad guy is…. I also know how it will play out. I need to figure out details but I can’t wait to see how it plays out.

Whale shark and other fish in the Atlanta Aquarium in Georgia

Back to Work

Today was busy from start to finish. In the morning I mixed up cake mix to make cake donuts. This was something Vicki wanted to try. I’m not sure she even ate more than donut hole sizes but we tried this morning.

I cut up onions and tomatoes to make juice. Ken and Vicki did all the other stuff like putting them through the sieve and into jars.

Vicki picked herbs and I was chopping them but then I asked Ken to as he had the new chopper. It worked faster and easier than I could so I prepped and he finished.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a rough weekend for pain. It started Thursday night and lasted all weekend. I think I overdid things on Thursday so I’m paying for it. Hopefully, the pain level goes down.

After lunch, Vicki and Ken left me alone and I wrote. Yesterday was a stellar day but I didn’t expect today to be as high and it wasn’t. I did manage to get about 3800 words written. I’m up to roughly 39K (almost) in the story.

I think – not that I plot out stories much – I’ll have one more sex scene. Then there will be an emergency of some sort – doing research into what kind will take a bit of time – then a twist and a hint at what might be in the next book (don’t know yet) and then of course the Happily Ever After. Maybe I’ll get done this week… I hope so. I at least know I’m closing in on it.

Andros Island and the Tongue of the Ocean (NASA, International Space Station,11/10/10)

Three Chapters

There’s nothing better than when the words are flowing and I have little to no interruptions. Today I got that blessing.

It was a bad night for me and I woke up with more pain than normal for me. This usually means a rough day.

Vicki started me with two kinds of smoothie which I thoroughly enjoyed. Ken went off to the farmer’s market and Vicki went to visit one of her cousins. I was alone in the house!

I almost always look at the work I need to get done but today, I started writing. I didn’t stop to think of word count or anything other than the story.

Now I’m at the end of three chapters. I’ve added 10,274 words to my story and I’m at about 35K in this story.

Yesterday – I guess since it’s after midnight – one of my books released! I had a release party to attend and other tasks on my list for the day. However, once I started writing, that was it for me. I couldn’t stop. I’m thrilled with the progress and I hope tomorrow I’ll have a good writing day as well.

I’ve got a few chapters to talk about the new role the characters will have but mostly it’s a building of a good life. There may be a twist or two. I’m not sure yet. the only thing I do know – it’s an Ava book so there will be sex.

Newly harvested vegetables

Back to Work

Yesterday I was so tired by the end of the day, I didn’t write one word. We canned pickles – sliced and whole, beets, pickled zuccini and pickled onions. We froze carrots and corn. We also attempted to dry tomatoes which I don’t think worked but we dried onions and that worked. It was a long day on Saturday of food prep and preservation.

At the end of the day, my brain was blank. I don’t think I could have written a sensible word. Instead I picked up one last manuscript and started a read through. I found little things. I had to change a date in there because I realized with the back story I set up, I couldn’t use the date I had.

This morning I woke up and realized the tasks I put on for yesterday couldn’t be done so I rescheduled them. Then I looked at the tasks for today. Neither were urgent so I rescheduled them. Instead, I finished the read through and then after dinner I went back to writing.

I’m super pleased with my progress tonight. I wrote 6100 words. Two chapters worth of writing! I’m also almost to the halfway point of the story. While I’m writing this one, I’m getting ideas on possibly making this into a series. I’ve got two ways I could go with it. So we’ll see.

Tomorrow I’m back to working my day job. It will probably take me all day to catch up on my email. Hopefully I have time and energy to write tomorrow night.