10k to go.

I’m up to 15k on Alpha Female and I fear that I’m stuck again (I’m also talking in Natasha’s voice…by sheer accident…oops).  I wrote 1,001 words today but it was like pulling teeth.  I think it took me 2 to 3 sessions spread over 5 hours.  Ye Gods.  I admit that I’m a bit lost on the transition from before the hunt to beginning the hunt, and I wonder if I even need it at all.  For now, it stays.  I’ll make a ruling once I start revising.

Sooooooo I know basically what happens next.  Luke and Natasha bond some more, discuss her becoming Lupi.  They talk about Meaningful Things, possibly even Natasha’s deceased nashan (husband).  They may get intimate, I’m not sure.  But then I know where to go from there.  It’s just the execution.

I’ve got 10k more to finish this.  I suspect I might go over, but hopefully not by much.

As for other things, I just finished edits on Life as a Moving Target.  It’s been approved by the others, so now I need to figure out formatting and find a cover.  I want to use one of my own pictures for that.  I actually had a concept come to me recently but it would require a really complex image.  Not sure yet if I want to go that way.

On Pirouette: unfortunately I haven’t had much extra time to work on the plotcards.  I’ll try to get some don this week.  I feel like I’m losing touch with it, and that’s not good.

The song stuck in my head today is “Lost in Life” by Sirenia.

10k

I’ve reached 10k on Alpha Female, and things are starting to get complicated for poor Natasha.   I have a hunt coming and some fun magical stuff.

Still on track to finish on time.

I also have an idea for another series set in the Pirouette world.  So stay tuned.

6220 words!

So far, that’s where I’m at on Alpha Female as of today.  I’ve kept to my schedule so far, skipping only one day and I’m actually ahead of myself, so that’s good.  Story-wise, I’m at the first main conflict.  I’m not sure about my pacing, but I’ll worry about that later.

It’s captivating me.  Natasha becoming a werewolf not by her choice is going to really screw with her mind.  And Luke…poor Luke.  He needs her in so many ways.  They will work for their HEA for sure.

On tap this weekend is some Pirouette prework.  I haven’t forgotten!

Alpha Female.

That’s the working title of the novella I’m going to write for possible inclusion in an anthology.  Deadline is Nov 1st.  I think I have enough time to do this, and it’ll give me some practice working on a deadline.

Alpha Female is set in the Pirouette world.  It’s about a Faerie assassin turned werewolf.  The protagonist, Natasha, was a character that showed up in draft 2.  She totally intrigued me, so much that when I took her out, I continued to wonder what she’d be like as a protagonist, and what her story is.  So far, it’s coming along.  I’ve given myself a starting date of August 1st.  Thing is, I’m not sure if I should pants this or not.  Typically first drafts take longer this way and need pruning.  I have just the inciting incident.  Nothing in the way of an actual plot.  Going to try to get something rough figured out, so I at least know what I’m aiming for.  Needs to be simple, as the wordcount limit is 25k.  I’ve given myself a month to write the first draft, and the rest of the time will be for critting and revision/rewrites.  Kind of tight, but we’ll see how it goes.  It’ll be interesting.

In between I’ll be working on Pirouette’s revision.  Can’t let that languish.  Still want to get it out this year.

2009 in review and 2010 goals

This year hasn’t been the best as far as emotional stuff is concerned.  The family drama that started in mid-October is still ongoing, and kind of derailed me a bit.  But, I persevere!

As far as productivity goes, I did very well.  I started and finished Pirouette’s five One-Pass Revision, got it out to critters, and have been rewriting the draft, implementing suggestions, cutting, adding, and hopefully making it better.  I’m almost halfway through the draft.  I hope to be done with it early next year.

It’s taken me longer than anticipated, which is okay, but sort of screwed up my schedule.  But it is really okay, b/c I’ll take however long it takes to make it submission-worthy.  As such, no query letters were sent.  I’ve decided to wait till the draft is done and critted.  The story, while essentially the same, has been morphing in interesting ways.  Hopefully in good ways.

Flamebound is on its way towards being totally revised, using Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel class.  I have high hopes for this.  I want to get Flamebound revised, critted, and submitted somewhere next year.  I can do this.

I planned on participating in Nanowrimo and writing a new novel.  Unfortunately, life had different plans.  Two days in I ended up quitting.  The book was to be Soulfire.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the timing just wasn’t right on this one.

I finished Survivor, which was a HUGE goal.   I hope to rewrite it in the next few years (depending on if I sell something, etc).

I don’t think I broke 100k on new words, but that, too, is okay.  Because I said I’d do some serious editing and finishing unfinished projects, which I accomplished.

I submitted my poetry chapbook, Life as a Moving Target, to a publisher.  Did not bite, but that’s okay.  I might try again next year.

For next year, I have a few more projects besides Pirouette the Third and Flamebound.  I have Unforgiven, which is a personal challenge to myself for various reasons.  I also have MindBound, the next book set in the Flamebound world.  And I’m seriously considering pulling out Darkweaver and starting work on it.  And then there’s Pirouette book 2 (Blood Dance). Ambitious, I know, but want to aim high.

I think the biggest goal for 2010 is to get something submitted somewhere, be it Flamebound, Pirouette the Third, or something else entirely.  I need to start moving forward with my goal of getting published.  I’ve been working like a madwoman, but I need to focus on that more.  So, hopefully I can do something about that next year.

So, to all, Happy New Year (a few days early!) and reach for the stars.

Status update

Just wanted to talk about my progress.  It’s been going pretty well.  I finished the first edit of the Pirouette Rewrite and have made notes.  Cut a few scenes and have a few more that might be on the chopping block.  I’ll have to see.

I’m using Holly Lisle’s One Pass Revision process, a first for me, and I’m a bit nervous.  This is my very first actual revision.  And this story is dear to my heart.  I want to do it justice.

One thing I noticed was that I’d forgotten some of the nuances and scenes.  Which is good, because it means that I had enough time to get enough distance.  They say that you should leave it long enough so it feels new.  And it did.  I’m also blown away by some of it — I automatically assume my first drafts stink (I’m very hard on myself), and this just proves that I don’t suck.  There are always issues, yea, I’m not perfect, but it’s better than I thought.  And that feels good.

Flamebound is back in action and I’m going to finish it either tonight or tomorrow.

Hereafter is on hold at the moment.  I might write it concurrently with the Revision, if the Revision doesn’t devour me whole.

I also made some notes on Blood Dance, Pirouette’s sequel.  It’s going to be good. 

So that’s where I’m at right now.  Things are going wonderfully, and I feel good about next year.

Update and an anniversary.

One year ago, on Easter Sunday, I started this blog.  It has had more than 1000 visitors since then.  🙂 

Granted, Easter was in April last year, but let’s just pretend this is April.  Thank you.  🙂

Update -y

Pirouette is up to 132k and growing.  I’ve entered the final third of the book, and I’m hoping to finish in by May (to coincide with the end of 70 days of Sweat).  I’ve been primarily voice reccing it, but this week, I switched back to typing because my wrist has been fine.  I imagine I’ll have to do more voice than typing overall, but that’s ok.  At least I can produce during my flare-ups.

Been doing alot of thinking about themes.  Because I’d like to try to work them into the next draft.  The original theme was redemption.  It still is.  But I’ve added a few more to that: silencing the ghosts, balance, and tough choices.  Alisia has to deal with all of these at some point in the book.  I want this book to go deeper than just the surface story.  I want it to resonate, man.

Also considering what comes after I finish the draft.  I might take a few weeks off and work on something else, to give myself distance.  That something else will prolly be Survivor, because it’s nearly done and next on my list.  It has been calling to me for about a year now, and I miss it terribly.  It’s one of my strongest stories.

Another book has called to me, too.  So strongly that I saw the opening scene in my head vividly.  It’s Darkweaver.  Wynd, the protagonist, has been pitching a fit in my head.  I keep telling her to wait her turn, but she’s a persistant little wench.  I might at some point write that first scene just to shut her up.

Something that’s been on my mind (if that isn’t enough, LOL) is Pirouette’s sequel, Blood Dance.  I have two potential plots that I’m trying to work out.  One will be the plot, and the other will be held back for a future book.  One involves a very unique type of mating and the other involves doppelgangers and insanity.  I wish I could do both, but the book would be mammoth.  So I gotta figure that out, too, so I can put together an outline.

And finally, I am happy to report that I’m back in the the darkroom.  Last weekend I took the plunge and developed a roll of film.  It was not without trouble, mind you — it’s been about two years — but I’m proud to say that it came out beautifully, and so did the resulting prints.  It’s my goal to get my backlog done before I move in June, as well as try out another type of infrared film.  Infrared film is a special kind of film that makes everything glow, plants turn white, and people’s skin becomes translucent.  It’s really neat, and tough to use/process but it is SO worth it.  My favorite kind, Kodak HIE, has been discontinued, so I found a comparable type: Rollei 400.  And I’m going to buy some and run some tests.  If it works, I’ll continue to use it, and do more shooting. 

It feels good to have my hand in photography again.  I’m also updating my website, putting up new pictures and redesigning the pages.  It’s very outdated.  And, I want to be able to show possible editors of photo mags current stuffs. 

So that’s my grande plan.  Muhaaaaa.

On 70 Days of Sweat, I’m up to 16,640 words.  Not bad for 22 days, eh?  And most were dictated, too.

Happy Easter to everyone. 

Second draft blues.

I just hit 73k today in Pirouette.  Normally, that would be a cause for celebration.

But I just feel so …..meh….about it.  It’s not that it’s not exciting: today’s scene, totally unplanned, involved the dead driving Alisia nuts, as well as someone very important from her past.  She also almost fucked up bigtime, but didn’t.  Yeah.  So that was pretty exciting.

It’s just that I have this horrible perfectionist streak that comes out every so often.  Although I keep telling myself, this is a new draft, you can still screw up a bit, you’re gonna revise, revise, revise the hell out of it, it still doesn’t really help.  I tend to hate most of everything I write at first anyways.  And I just want to go back to the days when I wrote first and thought later.

It could be that I’ve passed the halfway mark and I’m inching towards the big 80k mark, where the middle is supposed to segue into the ending.  But funny, it doesn’t feel that way, mostly because I think the book will end up being closer to 150k that the projected 120k.

120k is on the high side, anyways.  I figured I could wittle it down to 1ook.  But 150k is too long.  And I’m not writing another 400k draft.  So it’s 150k or nothing.

I have also added scenes as I went.  Stuff I didn’t consider when outlining.  I have a sea of questions in my head that needs answering, and will prolly result in more scenes. 

So I’m feeling a little down about this.  Not for any specific reason — just that it’s not done, and it was supposed to be done by the end of the year.  That was me dreaming — my wrist, although tons better, is still a problem.  Lately I’ve been writing every three days.  When before I wrote 1k+ per day.  It’s very hard getting my head around it.  I used to be a machine.  Now I’m a broken-down machine and it’s killing me.

I only hope I can get it done in 2008, b/c the next step is the Agent Hunt. 

Mercy me, as Alisia would say.

I recall my first second draft ever, Eternal Dance.  This thing was a mess and a half.  It was too depressing and I kept changing things.  It got split into two books, and is thus no longer.  But I remember how depressing it was to rake through the draft and hurt it.  But I know that’s what needs to be done.  I need to get each draft to the best level I can possibly get it to.  I can’t get all soft about the drafts.  I keep them, mostly for nostalgic purposes, but that’s all they are.

I also worry about my abilities.  I read all of these published books, and excerpts of others, and I think, wow, that could be me.  Operative words, could be.  I believe I’m aways off from that quality.  My writing partner would prolly disagree, but I totally believe that.  I’ve been working (seriously) at this since 2003.  I’ve gotten loads better but I still have alot of ground to cover.  It’s not over yet.

And still, I believe that I can do this.  I can get published.  Pirouette will rock and maybe it will become a series.  Maybe it’ll sell a ton.  Maybe it will tank.  But it’s been a wild ride so far, and I have, for the most part, enjoyed the journey.

So hopefully this little depression is temporary.  I’m sure I can make it better.  Make the draft better, that is.  I just need to keep working on it.  And keep writing.  That’s the only way it’s gonna get done.  I need to remember that, and focus.

I’m the only one who can tell Alisia and Lucien’s story.  They are like friends, and I can’t let them down, can I?

Revelations.

I’ve been focusing today on the Pirouette edit.  It’s usually a grueling process, because alot of it must go (and that makes me sad), but today I had a few major revelations about Alisia (the protagonist), the series, and a possible future book. 

What I am loving about this edit is that I am constantly finding little things I’d pretty much forgotten; threads that have been dangling, some hidden, some trunicated in favor of something else.  Because the first draft is truly the discovery draft, I use it as a testing ground for ideas.  Here, my muse can play all she wants without any fear of the consequences.  Sometimes she comes up with utter crap; sometimes she hands me something genius.

So, today, while chopping out any references to one of my cut subplots, I discovered another cool thing about Alisia.  A character referred to her as the “warrior of death.”  Utter genius!  Why?  Well, she’s a necromancer, for one thing.  The other is that she’s destined to become part of a very important group that is central to the series.  And they are all warrior vampires.  🙂

Alisia has quite a few titles as the story goes on.  This puts her in jeopardy of becoming something called a “Mary Sue” character which is basically writerspeak for “Little Miss Perfect.”  And that is bad.  Very bad.  So I’m working on giving Alisia a few flaws, one of them that might become fatal.  Well, near fatal, cuz I need her to live through this book so the series can continue.

And the future book idea?  I’m definitely going to shift this cut subplot and make it the main plot of the future book.  I really love how my mind works sometimes. 🙂

The indexing is coming along.  I’m nearly finished with the course, at least the first read-through.  I’ve done second read throughs on about half.  I’m on chapter 8 of 10.  After this I will be indexing a few books on my own, getting the feel of things.  I’m the type of person that needs to actually do something to actually understand it.  Right now, I understand the concepts, but they are more abstract.  But once I dive into it feetfirst, it’ll become more clear.  I’m weird like that.

The beloved and I going to see The Number 23, which I’ve been wanting to see for a long time.  I think it will be really good.

If I could close my eyes forever….

So appropriate.  So fitting.

I found out that my dad has cancer.  It was caught super-early, thanks to his wonderful doc, and he needs surgery, but it’s looking good.  He doesn’t even need chemo.  I’m still in shock, because we all were convinced it was nothing, but damn — life sure throws you curveballs when you least expect it to.

Dad and I are very close, best friends, actually.  I was okay till I actually hugged him, then I cried.  I’m still scared for him.  I’ve seen too many loved ones pass away.  It’s sad.  But his spirits are good, he is going to fight it, and that’s wonderful to hear.  So if there’s anyone out there reading this, please send up some prayers for him.  He is the most wonderful father, a good man, and I can’t lose him.

I just can’t.

So.  Onward.

In other news, the weather here is most surprising.  We’ve gone from snow (yes, you read that right) to near-perfect spring weather in less than a week.  Very strange.  Know that I’m keeping my eye on it.  I’m starting to worry about global warming and all that.  Coincidentally, in the fictional world of Requiem in Blue, earth has become almost completely immersed in water…due to global warming.  Go figure.

I’m completely and utterly jazzed about Ghost.  I sat down at work during a lull intending to make a few notes so I wouldn’t forget anything.  What I ended up with was a rough, very interesting, very twisted outline.  Lord knows it will mutate, even as I write the draft, but the bare bones are there and rattling, trying to get my attention.  It is going to be amazing.  And twisted.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Edited most of Pirouette part 5.  Took me almost all afternoon.  Most of it, unfortunately, it about to meet the chopping block.  One subplot in particular hurts to let go, but it’s just too involved for the Rewrite (of Doom).  There’s no way I can work it in.  It will however be saved for another book altogether or another book in the series.

I also caught a few issues that I’d forgotten…..plot threads and twists that I, in the course of frantic writing and then taking a breather in December, must pick back up and plug in.  And complete.  I really am proud of myself.  I had some good ideas.  😉  Just gotta prune them and make them work.

I’m waiting anxiously for my materials to arrive for my book indexing venture.  I’m taking a correspondence course that will teach me how to make those handy-dandy things at the back of most reference books.  Apparently it is a freelance market, which I didn’t know.  And with my Journalism degree, and love of books and knowledge, I think I would enjoy it.  So more news on that as we go.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that I feel so lucky to be a writer.  It’s times like these that it truly carries me, helps me cope.  I’ve been jazzed just about all day about Ghost and the Rewrite (of Doom).  Imagine that.  It’s awesome to escape into your own little world, for just a short time.    Sometimes I complain about having so many ideas hitting me all at once, but in reality, I love it.  I love every part of this life.  I love that I will get to do this for the rest of my life –whether or not I go pro.  And you’d better believe it, I will be writing until the last breath leaves my body and my hands are still.  Only then will I stop.

But my words will live forever.

Life is truly an interesting thing.  I was depressed when I started, but now I’m uplifted.  Is it the talk of writing and my projects?  Is it that my Dad will most likely come out of this ok?  Or is it just the fact that I’m alive, that spring is on its way?  I’m not sure.  But maybe I should keep my eyes open just  a little longer.