Tag: Writing

green tree near green plants

Saturday Work

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Today I paid bills, cut up veggies, and worked on holiday gifts. I wanted to write. I’ve got a lot in my head for this story I’m working on. When I do sneak in some writing time, I just read the last bit I wrote and jump back in.

This afternoon, I went on Facebook to do the Author talk in my group and then chatted with a couple of the authors. I again worked on holiday gifts and wrote a little.

We had supper. Yeah we don’t really lead exciting lives. We ate and then watched Secrets of the Zoo Tampa. Hubby and daughter went to their spaces and I got to write.

Here I am 3000 words later… the book is 26K and I’m excited where my story is at. I like how my characters are moving along and I like how the story is going. Next up – kidnapping.

Once they’ve actually been kidnapped, I have to decide how long they will be held and if they will be tortured or what will happen while they are held. Are they taken off world? If they are, how will my characters escape and get back to where they belong? What sorts of worlds will they land on? So many options… 😀

gray and white short coated cat on brown wooden table top

Energy to Write!

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It’s the weekend! It’s been a long week and the hardest part for me – finding the energy to write. I want to write but my mind shuts down after a long day of work and then family and then having an hour or so to write.

Tonight, my family stuck around later than I expected but I still added about 1600 words to my story. I love where the story is going. I love what’s going on. I can see the next several chapters and I want to just write all day and all night.

My hope is after I pay bills, set up a takeover, and do several tasks on my book to do list, I’ll have the energy and time to work on this story.

Right now, I know what the next chapter will be. I can see the scenes in my head like a movie playing – I just need to write them. Unfortunately it’s almost midnight and my eyes are saying no more. I’m off to bed with the hopes I get more done than I expect.

photo of red panda sleeping on tree branch

I Wrote Some

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Tonight I finished two scenes and started a third. I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. I wrote only 822 words putting me about 21,500 words for the book.

I’m super tired. I woke up late and rushed through my morning routine. I had five meetings today. It’s exhausting. I have all these meetings and then in between I try to do the tasks I need to do but I fall short.

I cut one meeting short today. Basically showed her how to do it and said, okay get that data entered and then we’ll meet early next week to go over the rest of the details. I think I was at my limit for meetings.

The bright spot of my day – someone sent me flowers. A faculty sent me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. It brightened my whole day and lifted my spirits.

Now I’m headed to bed. I hope tomorrow I’m in less pain and less tired so I can work on this story.

white ruled paper

Time for Bed

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

The story is right there but my brain is saying no. It’s been a week of little sleep. Today was an in person day for work so my pain level is up. This all adds up to me calling a halt. I’m trying to write a scene which gives hints to what happens next and also set up who the bad guy might be… but I think that will stretch out until we get to book three.

Between my daughter and husband staying out with me longer and the complete lack of sleep I’ve had this week, I’m done. I know what I want and I know where to go. But I’m just wiped out. Tonight I wrote 1400 words taking me to not quite 21K for total.

Tomorrow is another in person day for work. I have three or four meetings throughout the day. Two I have to take minutes so that’s involved. The other one or two I’m training. It will be a heavy lift day between all the meetings and being at the office but I’ll get through it.

At this point, I’ve got about a third of the book done. I have to finish my security scene. Next up will likely be a sex scene. Then a trip to medical to make sure she’s heeled. Then the kidnapping. I have so many decisions in those scenes. Will they torture her? Him? Will he break or will she? Then the escape. Then readying for battle. Then the climax where he realizes he’s a dick and needs to make up for his stupidity. Maybe another 40K I hope.

Kelp forest, Sanna bay

One Down, Three to Go

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

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.

Friday Night

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It’s been a week! I feel like I’ve been so busy between my day job, prepping for my book release, and family stuff, I’ve had no time to write. Here it is date night and I’m sitting by myself.

I’ve got my posts set up for the takeover tomorrow. I’ve done all but two things on my list and I’ll do those tomorrow and Sunday.

My day job has been busy with unexpected changes and trying to figure out how to do tasks of someone who’s left.

I told my oldest daughter yesterday I felt like I was playing dodgeball and on my side of the line there was me. On the other side 100 people all aiming for me. It was a rough day.

Tonight I had to write. I worked on posts for my book release and other book related tasks. I got through all of them except one. I was trying to be good and work on that task and said – nope.

Instead – I wrote. I started another scene and managed to get it done. Now I’m working on a family scene where they’re discussing the new mate. I’m trying to decide if I’ll make the brothers for her or against. We’ll see… the youngest is definitely for her.

Now I’m off to get some sleep. I hope I can sleep in a bit tomorrow but we’re canning again so probably not.

Ocean waves breaking on rocks on Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada

Check Off My To do List

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

I slept late. My daughter woke me up at 7 asking if I wanted my smoothie and chatting with me. I said no and listened. I did get back to sleep. Somewhere around 9 or 9:30 I got up. This is so odd to me because even when I don’t get a lot of sleep I don’t generally sleep late.

For this time off, I actually did have plans for each day. I had book tasks I wanted to get done. I’ve worked each day on these. Today was setting up my books on Bookbub, Goodreads, Bookfunnel and other places. These are all smaller tasks which don’t take a lot of time but they do take time.

I talked to my arc readers and told them I had six books done and how did they want them. I talked with a friend about books and publishing. I edited a section of my daughter’s paper.

In addition to that I wrote 5400 words in Sacrificed to the Sea Monster. This is an Ava book so lots of sex scenes. I thought initially it would be more sex than plot but the characters have other ideas. Oh there’s sex – in and out of the ocean. However, the characters have hijacked my plans again (thank goodness) and we’ll see what kind of ride they take me on.

I’m hoping I can finish this one soonish and maybe put it out in between my other publications because I don’t have a lot of Ava’s stuff finished. I wouldn’t mind finishing two or three. To be honest, this one and two others pull at me so those are probably my next projects… but you never know. I’ve got two stories in the Reluctant Royals series which are working away in my brain….

Tomorrow is a work day. I have an all day meeting to go to. But when I come home, I’m diving back into my to do list and my writing.

Next?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Last night I didn’t sleep well at all. It made for a rough morning and me feeling tired all day. But I still got all my tasks done I had on my list on Asana. I have a long list for tomorrow but it’s all good.

Since I finished the short story for the anthology, I went looking for something new to work on. I don’t have any Ava books on my schedule for the next year so I went looking for one which might be close enough for me to finish soonish. Sacrificed to the Sea Monster is one I enjoyed writing before I got distracted. So I started reading it and I’ve managed to get 2600 done on it today. It gives me about 11,000 words in the story so far.

I enjoyed rereading what I’d written and still love the concept. I jumped in and started writing. It’s flowing well and I’m enjoying the story. Sex and the ocean – both underwater and above. How can you resist? They have gotten to know each other and are learning to accept each other.

Next is to develop the little safe harbor they have and develop their characters. The plot is necessary – yes even with it being a sex book plot is important. I have a little mythology and a bit of danger I plan to put in. At least as much as I plan.

Tomorrow I’ll be setting up books in Book Bub and Goodreads. I have some books2read links to create as well as a whole list of things to get done. I’m also hoping to have more time to write.

Tonight – I’m calling it good and attempting to get some sleep. My eyes are tired – really my whole body is tired. At least I managed to get some writing in before my brain crashed.

Short Story Progress?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Today I slept late and got up tired. It doesn’t help I was up until 3. It was a lazy ish day. We did breakfast. Vicki and I tried to watch the new Persuasion movie on Netflix. I don’t recommend it. We turned it off after 25 minutes.

We picked a better version of Persuasion and while we watched, I worked on writing stuff. I have this mental list of things I need to work on. Today I was to put my Ava (pen name) books on Bookfunnel so I could participate with more promotions. I got all of them on the site.

After dinner, I was alone and my brain was not on my short story. I did other things and putzed a bit. I settled in to write and got about 1500 words down. I’m up to just under 13K for a total. So I still have 7K of room.

I’m on the final scene. I sat here playing on my phone. I hadn’t any idea on how to start this scene. I played on my phone for a bit. Bash and I have a routine. At some point around 11 pm, he gets up and bugs me to go to the bathroom. He will pace from the living room to the hall. He’ll scamper back and forth. Sometimes he even meows at me. So I went to the bathroom and ran water in the sink for him. I sat there not thinking about anything in particular and then it came to me how to start this climatic scene.

I’m excited to write it but my brain is sluggish and my eyes are tired. I got the beginning of the scene written. I’m taking a break though because my brain just isn’t focused. So I’m headed to bed and hoping I can finish this tomorrow. It’s only the 8th of the month but I’d like to finish this now so I can give myself a break between writing and editing.

I have a list of things on my calendar for the next couple of days but I’m hoping to do both. Hopefully I can get a lot done over the next few days. For now, I think I’ll go to bed and hope to have more inspiration in the morning.

Still Life With Cherries And Peaches

Canning, Freezing, & Writing?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It’s been a busy day. Ken and Vicki went to the farmer’s market. They brought back lots of goodies. Ken took a trip on Tuesday to pick up more blueberries and peaches. Ken also picked the produce out of our garden.

This meant today we spent most of the day working in the kitchen. Ken cut up two watermelons and put the squares on cookie sheets to freeze. Once they were frozen, we put them in bags in the freezer.

He also diced up – with the new Ninja chopper – cucumbers to make dill relish. Last time we combined two steps and got SALTY relish. This time we did it the right way and got yummy dill relish. We also pickled onions, sliced cukes, and zucchini. We finely chopped some onions too to make onion relish.

I cut up the tomatoes and onions to make tomato juice. Vicki put it on the stove while we moved on from pickled things to sweet. By the time the tomatoes went through the sieve we had 3 pints of juice.

My sister and I cut up peaches for prep to be frozen. The trays will come out of the freezer tomorrow and the peach halves will go in freezer bags. We also pitted cherries to throw in the freezer.

Vicki picked up one of my favorite – yellow beets! These got boiled and then we peeled and diced (roughly) them. We got 5 pints of them. Vicki pulled more beets – purple this time – from our garden so we’ll have to prep them for canning too.

This is how we spent our day today. It was long and a lot of work. We experimented with a couple of things. We’ll try and see if we will actually eat or have to go back to the drawing board.

We took a break, watched some tv, and then Vicki and Ken went to bed. I worked on whittling down my email from over 500. I’m under 400 right now and hoping I can get rid of many more over the next week.

I talked to a friend tonight for hours. This was my writing time but I’m okay with it. I wrote before and after we spoke. I did pretty good tonight I added about 2000 words tonight. The way it’s going, I see two more chapters. I’m at about 11, 300 words which means I need to wrap it up in under 8,000 words. This might be possible… maybe.

The more I write the more ideas pop into my head. Tomorrow should be a quieter day for me. I have a few tasks on my list but I should have plenty of writing time – I hope. Maybe I’ll be able to sit down and finish it off. But we’ll see if I get sidetracked.