#ROW80 Check-in 10/21/15

My beautiful cover for Reaper Girl, created by the awesome and wonderful Dannika Dark. 🙂

I’ve been a bit busy, which is a good thing, and I’ve done some writing, but not as much as I wanted to! Things keep popping up. This week has been the week of the migraine, and I *think* — hope — it’s gone for good. I think we have a storm front coming through or something. And, naturally, the TN pain had to get in on the action, so that’s been hurting quite a lot despite being on an intermediate dose between the lower dosage and the new prescribed dosage. Being that this is all new still, I’m not really sure what’s going on. But today it has been tolerable, so that’s a good thing.

The BIG news is that I have a cover for Reaper Girl, my novella that was published originally in the Under Her Protection anthology. I am going to be giving away a free copy to anyone who signs up for my newsletter. I sat down to work on the cover and showed it (a very rough draft) to some writer friends and I learned that just because I’m a photographer, doesn’t mean I am good at cover design (and Grave Touched doesn’t count. I was just following what the original designer, SM Reine, did with it). I am in the process of learning, and I learned a great deal with that one. Along with lots of great advice, one of the writers took my awful cover and turned it into the beautiful cover on the left. (Her name is Dannika Dark, and she rocks, both with writing and cover design). So that’s my cover. All I need to do is format the novella for Kindle/Nook/etc and I’m there. 🙂 The big challenge will be to make Fireborn match this lovely cover. I want to do it myself. *twitches*

Okay, on to the rundown! Here’s what I have done:

Physical activity: 2 days, approximately 15 minutes each
Test roll: Couldn’t do it this past weekend because silly me, I didn’t check the batteries! They’re like, at least 10 years old, and deader than dead. So my husband bought some from his work. So…this will be happening soonish.
Fieborn: Hit a bit of a snag that had me stumped, and I believe I may (maybe!) be over the hump. 672 new words.
Covenant: Nothing, although ideas are simmering.
Nano/Ever Touched: Going to be outlining at least some of it (at least enough to start me off) this week sometime.

Chocolate consumption: birthday cake! WW Sundaes! Still trying to diet, and that’s been going alright, I guess. Eating out at restaurants is the toughest, especially when the chosen restaurant has little-to-no options for health-conscious or dieting customers. So I haven’t been doing awesome, but I am trying at home as much as possible.

#ROW80 Check-in 8/6/14 – Movin’ and groovin’

First up: “Under Her Protection: Stories of Women to the Rescue,” our new Turtleduck Press anthology, released on August 1st on all platforms. Basically, we turned the “damsel in distress” trope inside out and had the women save the men. Wicked fun to write. All of the stories are awesome. Mine is “Reaper Girl,” which I’ve discussed at great length here. Check it out. Proceeds go to UNICEF, as always.  You can find out more and purchase it here. /shameless plug

Now on to the ROW80 check-in stuffs. Been moving pretty well on Grave Touched. I’m up to 68k. I’ve had to backtrack a few times to incorporate some new stuff I wanted to add.  New ideas, as always! So I’ve been doing that for the past few days. I feel pretty good about how it’s going. The ending will most likely stay pretty much the same. It’s just getting there using a different route.

Stats!

Words rewritten: 3,270 words (total: 17,150 words!!)
Words remaining: 2,850 words
What’s happening: One MC is trying to save her mate.
What’s next: Burial. *sniff*
Eye report: Not too bad.
Back report: The same.
Chocolate consumption since the last check-in (gotta add that because my mom read the last one and thought I meant my chocolate consumption for THAT DAY. No way, Mom!) : WW snacks mostly. We’re on to lemon zucchini bread now, by my request. Maybe I should change it to “Lemon Zucchini Bread Consumption”? 😉 Nah, chocolate is better.

Cover Reveal and Announcement: Under Her Protection and other miscellany

It’s time for another Turtleduck Press anthology, and this time we’ve cooked up something really, really cool.  It’s called “Under Her Protection: Stories of Women to the Rescue” and it twists the damsel in distress trope inside out.  What if the men needed saving, and the women were the ones to do it?  What if romance blossomed between them while on their respective journeys?

In “Guardian,” by KD Sarge, what if the warrior who saves the scholar is not what she seems?

In my story, “Reaper Girl,” what if a grim reaper accidently reaps the soul of a man who’s very much alive?

In Siri Paulson’s “The Raja and the Madman,” what if a maidservant befriends the madman in the tower?

In Kit Campbell’s “Drifting,” what if a newly-graduated woman, looking for purpose in her life, answers the plea of a Faerie kingdom and finds herself at the center of a family legend?

Check it out — it releases August 1st on all platforms.  And, as always, proceeds will be donated to UNICEF, as always.

 
Annnd for what’s new in Erin land, well…I’ve been working like a crazy woman on Grave Touched.  I think this is the toughest book I’ve ever tried to rewrite.  The whole second half needs to be reworked, and I’ve forgotten something really important so I need to backtrack, again.  As for the plot, I’ve decided to go with some new ideas, as the ones in the previous draft weren’t working too well.  But we’ll see.  Maybe I’m wrong.

I’m also enjoying the hell out of the TV shows Dexter and Hannibal.  For those who don’t know, Dexter is a crime show about a guy who works for the police as a blood-splatter analyst (talk about a neat job!) and secretly kills bad people in his spare time.  There’s a very specific reason why he does it, and it gets my writer-brain all atwitter with ideas.  And deep thoughts.  And stuff.  Hannibal is about the backstory of Hannibal Lector, from when he was a psychiatrist assisting the FBI with various murder cases.  And then there’s Will Graham, the poor soul brought on to assist, too, but who falls too far down the rabbit hole.  I LOVE these shows.  It’s been awhile since I’ve been full-blown obsessed with any TV shows, so this is big for me. Weekends are usually my binge-watching times.

Hubby and I have gone camping once so far this summer in our new pop-up camper and it’s been so much fun.  We have another weekend trip planned in August, a week-long trip in September, and possibly another weekend one the weekend of Halloween.  Let the good times roll!

I am starting to get antsy to write other things, as usual, and it’s no surprise.  I have a new direction for Flamebound and a series to develop about empaths and ley lines.  But Grave Touched needs its second half, and I do have a deadline to meet.  Must resist the pull of the shiny.  Must resist…..

So that’s about it for now.  See you on the flip side.