A Few Words

Well, it wasn't as good a day as it could have been writing-wise, but I did at least get a few words written. Better a few than none at all, right? And why, you may ask, am I throwing in the towel so early? I have to 'fess up. Monday is the night that Top Gear runs on BBC America and it's quite the best thing on TV so I have a date with the TV set. That and the spouse has bought a particularly nice bottle of wine which we fully intend to demolish in the next hour or so.
Catch you later.

Moving on

I've begun work on Project Tevan again. Not much progress to report to be perfectly honest, but I wrote up two index cards --- to be more accurate I completed a couple of new storyboards entries in Liquid Story Binder, and these scenes are very promising. I'm going to work a lot harder on planning this book. ASF was a "seat of the pants" job. I loved it but I ended up rewriting the entire thing and that was hard. I'm not going to claim the words I did today. Maybe if I get a lot more done tomorrow I will. I need to get back in the saddle, my writing skills have definately suffered from lack of ecercise these last few weeks.

Okay, something strange is happening to me tonight. That's the second time I've type wiring instead of writing. Is my brain trying to tel me something... or am I just tired? Just tired is my guess. Catch you later. Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Reeeejected

And I'm as happy as Larry (Question: Why is Larry supposed to be such a jovial chap? Anyone out there know?). I'm one step closer to getting published, which is great. Now, naturally I'd have been a lot happier if I'd been asked for a partial, but to be perfectly honest I didn't expect anything else. The point is it was a nice, personalized rejection. Now I have to continue to work on the query letter and keep sending it out.

 

Splash!

That's the sound of me jumping in with both feet. Yes, as last, I've done it. I've just sent off my very first query letter ever. Boy, it took some courage, which is pretty darned sad when you consider it. After all, what's the worst that can happen? A rejection, right? And I'm prepared for it. But it's a huge deal for me. It's another of those baby steps that will move me from just wanting to be published to actually getting there... one day. And now I can go to bed and maybe I'll actually sleep. Or not.

Labor Day

Did you have a good holiday weekend? I did. A bit shorter than I intended, as work unexpectedly stole all of Saturday but even though my own projects are behind because of it, I'm happy with the progress I've made. Not, I hasten to add, my writing projects. I've been remodeling our second bathroom. The tear out is done. All the shopping is complete. Well... I expect there'll be some things I've forgotten, but the big-ticket items are all in the garage. I'm not replacing the cabinets, they're a hideous color but in good shape so I'm painting them and all the prep work is done. If things go the way I plan (please don't laugh) I'll get them primed this week and ready for two top coats next Saturday. The spouse is going to install the new light fixtures, the bath, vanity top and faucets. We're having a plumber come in to do the pipe work for the bath though. And I'll tile the back-splash. It should look lovely when it's done.

And what has this to do with writing? Not much, I confess, except that Varda took pity on me on Saturday and started whispering in my ear, telling me all about this lovely scene. I know we're supposed to keep the "candy bar" scenes as a reward for slogging through the scenes that don't want to flow. But I decided to reward myself for the slog of writing that darned query letter for A Shadowed Flame. I love the scene. It's about a quarter done and is great fun to write. I need to get the rest of the story plotted out, but this one's a turning point.

My word count numbers have been abysmal this month. I can't count rewriting the two hundred or so words in the query letter that have been re-cast at least fifty times. Ben, wise man that he is, says it just a business letter. Hmmm. That may be so, Ben, but if it sucks no one's going to even bother to ask for a partial. And yes, I know that the likelihood of even getting that far is remote, but I have to give it my best shot. And so far I'm nowhere near the target. Onward, woman, and stop all this navel gazing. It's getting you nowhere.

Okay, I'm rambling. Enough. If you made it this far, thank you for listening.