Published

Treischan Strength has been published in the Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms anthology.

violas cont'd

I worked on Violas over lunch today, I'm about a third of the way through the story and the POV (1st) isn't working anymore. I'll move the story into 3rd and edit out the 1st perspective on the edit.

I'm almost done with the 3rd of 7 scenes, so definite progress. There is a lot of (fill-in-the-blank) type notes though, but that may clear up with the pov change.

I'm so excited to be moving again on this story. I'm just not thrilled with the bumpy-stumpy 1st draft sentences... can't wait for the edit. I don't think anyone is looking at this first draft.

As soon as this is done, I'll get back to Carter's crit. I've learned to balance multipe projects, but I can't seem to juggle 1st drafts with other tasks.

violas tonight

Character work tonight, and plotting. I'm putting a lot of time into this, I know, but I want to see what the end result will be or if I am unconsciously procrastinating. Will post update when I have the answer. ;)

slow progress

I think I'm on the right track now with Violas. I need to refocus on the important details and I am using the Think Sideways techniques to do this. After the past few days of sick baby combined with insane working hours, my brain and body are tired, and after today's insane workpace, my hands are very tired. My fingers want to find a cool vat of silky mud and jsut soak. So, I will cut the Viola scenes tomorrow, am salvaging two, but redirecting them, and then I have to write the rest.

Slow, yes, but progress is good.

there's a thought

I've been using the Think Sideways techniques for novel ideas, but why can't I use it on my short stories? I'm going to test it out on Violas, possibly tonight....

posted: 7:47 PM, power loss 8:04 PM -- proof of Murphy's existance in my life

behind the scenes

My brain likes to simmer with things, and I didn't realize until bedtime last night that it was still simmering the ending to Fading Light. I didn't realize this until I was reading a chapter of Think Sideways regarding story endings and then it hit me like one of those cartoon pianos falling from the sky. So I made the changes and updated the story version to my crit group. The prose isn't as fancy as it was before, but the content is positively heart wrenching, which counts for more. Hopefully my gut is correct.

Worked a bit on the POV workshop Valerie Comer is running on FM.

Friends headed over for role playing tonight, so not much more for today.

tiring sundays

Fading Light has been posted for my crit group. I'm eager for some feedback and a little fearful as well. I'm always fearful on crits. Occupational hazzard I guess. :)

A full day with the kids is exhausting, yet I still pushed this evening. Did some science research for Black Violas, tried working on the first draft a bit, but failed at that. Science fiction is difficult for me, not impossible, just very difficult. It requires a lot of effort to understand concepts that do not come naturally to me, but yet I have the need to understand them to represent them properly in the story. I don't always understand the science I read in science fiction either, but I try. And for some reason I love reading it. Figure that one out.

I'm giving my brain some time to adjust to the science and am going to spend the rest of my writing time tonight review Hunter for those changes. I originally decided it would be a rewrite. I need to skim through the manuscript and select which passages will remain.

Fading Light tonight

This story breaks my heart every time I work on it. But I worked through it, and the edit is complete. I'll review for typos in the morning and then send off to my crit group. This is one of my best pieces, and it follows my trend of dark and painful. I guess I just can't write happy. I need more puppies and rainbows...

September Results/ October Goals

September was a good month as I was able to pull myself back into the writing. I don't have a lot of completed work, but there are projects in progress that will continue into October. Family stuff may come up mid-month, but hopefully I can work around that. This is the final quarter of the year -- time to own up to those goals I made in January. At least, as best I can at this point.

September Results

submissions -- 1

acceptance -- 1

joined crit group

crits -- 2

short story edits -- 2 in progress

short story drafts -- 1 in progress

novel reading -- Game of Thrones, Martin (in progress)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

October Goals

fading light edit

fading light to crit group

fading light final edit

fading light submission (dependent upon lvl of edit needed)

viola first draft

hunter edit

crits - 2+

novel reading

fm pov workshop

Progress

Two crits done today (one was a quickie), and brainstormed on Viola. I'm closer to the science answers, the research helped, but I still need to nail it down.