Tag: Defenders

Holiday Busyness

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

I edited and refined two stories to submit to a contest.  I don’t know how either of them will play for the company but they are strong stories even if one is a little controversial.  That’s what I did with my morning yesterday. 

A friend came over and she graded while I worked on editing and crocheted.  I made her a lovely cowl and then worked on editing.  It was a good day, yesterday. 

I work two days this week and have the rest of the week off.  I’m looking forward to the time off even though it will be busier than I normally like to be.  Vicki will be home and I wish Gin and Stephanie could come home but we will video chat with them for the holidays. 

I have five days off but each and every one of them is booked so full, I could wish for a vacation from the holiday.  Hopefully it isn’t too crazy but I have the feeling this is a futile hope.  I have all this stuff to do with Vicki and at the same time I have all this stuff in my head I want to get done. 

I’m looking at getting one book out in January – I’d like to get the fourth Wayfarer book out – Wayfarer Negotiator.  I am working on edits right now which always takes a bit but hopefully shortly after the Christmas holiday, I’ll have time to finish refining it. 

It will be on to the fifth book after that.  It needs the edits on the computer and all the extras.  Hopefully that will happen shortly after I get four done.  However, I have the Defenders third book to work on.  I want to finish that before I dive into more stories.  Once those are done, I’ll dive into my pile of starts or my ideas and see what comes out as interesting. 

Over the five days off, I’m hoping to get my craft room organized so I can have my yarn organized and easily accessible.  I know I want to work on a few smaller projects but I also have three larger projects to do. 

At some point I’ll find a balance amongst all the things I do – I hope.  If I don’t, I guess I’ll continue with the craziness of working like a mad woman on crocheting to get things done and then switching to writing and so on.

Late Night or Early Morning

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

It has been a week of late nights and last night I stayed up writing (and waiting on my computer to shut down) until Ken got up. 

Ironically, he always asks me why I’m still up.  It’s a silly question because mostly I stay up writing.  It could also be that I can’t sleep but lately it’s that I’m writing. 

I’m working on the fifth Wayfarer novel.  The fourth one is done and needs editing but I’ve been really busy with writing the fifth one.  I did some rewrites on Friday to the fourth one.  I sent them off to my test readers and they liked them.  After I was done with the rewrites, I realized I knew the perfect opening for the fifth book.  I wrote it hoping it would get it started and get it out of my head so I could work on other things.

I wrote it and the next scene seemed to follow in its heels.  And the next… and the next… and – well you get the idea.  I now have 42,000 words written and two more scenes to write.  One will be a big scene with lots of smaller scenes leading up to the culminating scene.  The other will be a summing up scene, not quite an epilogue but a scene that says essentially – hey this is where we’re at and maybe hints at what comes next. 

Hopefully when I’m done with the obsession five has become I’ll be able to go to the last Defenders book and finish it.  Unless the sixth Wayfarer takes over my brain, that is entirely possible.  I’m going to try to put my foot down though because I don’t want to have three books to edit in one series. 

Two of my test readers are cranking at me to finish the fifth book.  They apparently want to read it.  Of course they will read it and ask for the sixth book.  It is just a neverending round of demands from them.  They are such slave drivers.

Next…

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Finished the next Wayfarer novel.  It still needs work since it is just the first draft.  I don’t even have a name for it.  I will soon though.  My first test reader finished it last night and she pointed out some flaws.  I will be fixing those as I work through the edits.  I’m sure the other two test readers will come up with other suggestions as well.

I’ve gone back to the Defenders series.  I have one more book to write to finish that story – I think.  I started rereading the last book so I can get back in the groove with the story.  I’m hoping to finish that in the next few weeks. 

My test reader finished the fourth Wayfarer and said where’s the next one so I have to think about the next plot and how I’m going to work in the details and subplots. 

My gout decided to flare last night.  My left foot is unpleasant today.  I’ve changed my regime to hopefully nip it in the butt early.  I’m fairly certain it is stress related so I need to find some zen moments. 

I’m hoping for a calm weekend with lots of time to do writing and crocheting this weekend.  I think it will help to settle things down.  I’ve also been making a point of sleeping more as I seem to be needing that. 

It comes back to finding the balance in everything.  I’m working on it but it is an ongoing struggle.

Hermit Grumbling

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Writing

Finished another student worker gift and am half done with another, as well as discovered I’m more productive listening to an audio book than I am watching tv.  This is probably due to my not having to look up to see what’s going on while I’m listening to a book.

Last night Ken and I went to supper with two of my sisters, a nephew, uncle, mom and brother-in-law.  It was a good supper and a good time with the people.  I thoroughly enjoyed being with the people.

Having said that, when I was getting ready to go all I wanted to do was stay home and keep working on my stuff.  I was grumbly about having to go outside my house and my comfort zone of being a hermit to go out to supper.

Now I do laugh at myself because we did have a good time and a good meal.  It was really nice to spend time with Aimee and Jerry because we don’t get a lot of time with them.  I enjoy their company and can have a good conversation with them.  It was just me being grumbly about going out.

Today the plan is to stay in all day.  Yes I’m going to be a hermit and work on writing and on crocheting.  I want to finish the student worker gift I’m working on and hopefully start the last one.  I have an idea in my head and I want to see if I can make it work out like I see it in my head.

I’ve been entering the Writer’s of the Future contest every quarter.  This quarter I haven’t entered because I didn’t love my choice for entering.  I have taken a lot of criticism on the piece and I’m not sure it is up to par for submitting.  Then last night I had a really good idea for a piece that might work out nicely – going to see if I can crank it out in the word limit they have.

It promises to be a full day with crocheting and writing.  There is so much I want to get done and I know I’ll be lucky to get like half of it done.  On a positive note, I’m now reading Rapture in Death and enjoying it thoroughly.

Not sure what Ken’s plans are for the day but he grumbled something about chores he wanted to get done.  I know he got out the snow blower because they were calling for six inches.  With it being weather, they have of course changed their minds on that.  But the lawn mower is put away and the snow blower is out.  We are switching gears with the season.

Come check out my web site and the books I have available at:  http://eileentroemel.weebly.com/

A Quiet Saturday at Home

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Ken went to his parents this morning, leaving me all alone at home.  I couldn’t be happier.  I have gotten through one manuscript (Defenders of the Land) and gotten it to the pre-production stage.  This is a hundred thousand word manuscript so it is a lot of work to go through.

I also worked on budget, talked to the girls via text and phone, and finished editing the second Wayfarer book.  The last five hours have been productive.

I’m about done with sitting at the computer though.  My legs are hurting and I’ve got an idea I want to get down for the third Wayfarer book.  It is one more scene.  With the other two the scenes just popped into my head and flowed the way I thought they should.  I’ve reached a point in the third one where I know where I’m ending up but feel there should be more in between where I’m at and where I’m going to end up.

While that may sound complicated, it isn’t.  It just means I need to work on other things while the story mulls.  This is why I have one scene in my head and I want to get it down.  I’m pretty sure that scene will lead to other scenes.

I haven’t a clue when Ken will be back but I still have a LONG list of things to work on.  I have two manuscripts sitting here that need to have the edits entered on the computer.  One is the final edits for the manuscript which means I need to get it to the same pre-production stage as the Defenders of the Land.  The third one is a first edit on a brand new story.

A nap is sounding really good but I hate wasting alone time sleeping.  When I’m alone, I don’t have to feel guilty about spending all my time working on writing, or having my music loud.  It is a guilt-free Saturday!

What a Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Pain on Thursday kept me home.  The weather turned cooler which is probably why my pain level went up.  This meant I stayed at work later on Friday to make up some of the hours.

It’s been a good week for writing.  I finished the second Wayfarer manuscript and did edits on two other stories.  This weekend I have five manuscripts on my couch waiting for me to edit them.  I’m hoping to finish the edits on the second Defenders book.  I’m also hoping to publish the first Defenders book in the next few days.

Last night I was grumbling at Vicki because I felt like I was behind schedule on the editing.  I have the five manuscripts which totals nearly a thousand pages.  I wasn’t even done with one.  I had to stop yesterday because I had a headache.  I felt this put me behind.  Vicki reminded me that I was grumbling about a self-imposed deadline and I needed to be more realistic.

She was right.  I worked on one of the longer manuscripts yesterday.  I have about 75 pages left, I think.  I’ll finish it today.  This will be the last edit on the manuscript before I start developing the production pieces I need for it.

I’ll probably pick up the next longest manuscript which will be more intense as it is a first edit.  There aren’t even chapters in this one so it will be a lot of work to go through the first edit.  One thing I decided was that I should go through and search out key words I tend to overuse when I write the rough draft.

Unfortunately, I woke with a headache several times in the night and this morning I still have one.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on business end of writing – updating spreadsheets for income and expenses.  I also submitted some paperwork to start blogging for Pagan Square.  I’ll have to start thinking about what I want my next post on there to be.

Today Ken will watch football.  I will probably work.  I uncovered my crochet basket yesterday and saw a project that has just been sitting there waiting on me.  It isn’t screaming at me but it is tempting.  Perhaps if the editing is too hard on my head today, I’ll watch movies and crochet.

Pain is still a problem but it is daily so I’ll just cope because what else can I do.  A warm blanket and a good manuscript to edit should keep me from being in too much pain.