Monday, April 30, 2012

There it is.

Things were going really well today, which naturally made me suspicious. It's Monday, after all. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And sure enough, I realized I'm coming down with a cold.

Ah, Mondays.

But the editing process went well tonight anyway. I made it halfway through chapter five, and since that's probably the longest chapter in the book, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Back at it tomorrow. Hoping to get chapter six done.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hey, look!

A whole week went by and I didn't really notice. Hm.

Nothing got done this week. Well, not much. I was sick, the playoffs are on, and my garden needed some serious attention. Plus, I picked up and re-read Veronica Roth's Divergent, since the sequel comes out this week.

Hopefully this week will be more productive. I'm feeling better, the playoffs are in round two (meaning less games...) and it's supposed to rain all week, so no gardening.

Happy writing out there!

Monday, April 23, 2012

There are some things money can't buy...

Party with friends and delicious snacks Friday night: $250
Camping Saturday & Sunday, three hours northwest of Calgary, in the mountains: $125
Some baseball and ice cream with friends Sunday afternoon: $5
Drinks in the backyard gazebo afterwards: $35
Watching L.A. take round one against the Canucks Sunday night: Priceless.

Haha... it was great though. The whole weekend was excellent, actually, even if it did leave me exhausted. No time for writing, of course, but should be back at it tomorrow...

And now I'll leave you with a photo I snapped Sunday morning, from our campsite at dawn:


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Trip to the Doc

I made it all the way through to the end of chapter four yesterday, editing my writing and the smaller logic problems. I was hoping to get through chapter five and maybe get started on six tonight, but alas, had no time for writing! My cat needed a trip to the vet this evening instead. He's been scratching his neck all crazy: he's rubbed off all the fur and it has started bleeding. Stupid cat, stop scratching! Anyway, the vet gave us some antibiotics and soap, so hopefully he'll get better soon...

The patient, Steve French:


Monday, April 16, 2012

Monday Math

Okay, I did the math.

If we eliminate Mondays and go with a four-day week and two-day weekend, we get:
243 work days/year (as opposed to a current 260)
61 weekends/year (as opposed to a current 52)

AND NO MONDAYS!!!

I woke up sick at five this morning and got a call from my mom at seven telling me another family member passed away last night. I despise Mondays.

I did manage to finish editing chapter two tonight, but that was all I could manage. My head is pounding. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Friday, April 13, 2012

New Hero: It's Official

Well, the nice thing about snow in April—as opposed to snow in January—is that it all melts the next day. And it has. Looks like spring in Calgary again today.

I finished reviewing the comments from my critique partner through chapter ten tonight, and discovered something: I have a new hero. She's pointed out so many useful little bits of things I hadn't noticed, hadn't really thought about, or wasn't sure about. It's so incredibly helpful!

I think tomorrow I'll go through the text and implement the little changes, the easy fixes, and add to the notes I've already made in regards to the big changes -- the ones that make me nervous. That'll also give me more time to consider those big changes, before I start hacking and slashing.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

White Stuff

Ah, Calgary. We don't get even an inch of snow in January, but come April...

Maybe I'll be snowed in and can't get into work tomorrow? Ha... if only. That excuse used to work when I drove a Civic, but I don't think it'll fly when the boss knows I have the Silverado at my disposal. Oh well.

Made it through three and a half chapters worth of notes from my critique partner tonight, after a lovely Vietnamese dinner in the midst of the snowstorm. She's brought up a lot of good points: some things that have surprised me, some that made me face-palm at my own stupidity, and other things that I already felt uncertain about. I'm hopeful that I'll make it to the end of her notes tomorrow so I can create a kind of road map for revisions over the weekend.

A weekend at the house. I was going to go out camping with Husband, until we realized the spot we were heading to is supposed to get like three feet of snow between tonight and tomorrow. So maybe the next weekend...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Hey, how's it going?

Well, I'm back.

So far, 2012 hasn't gone much like I expected it to. A lot of things have come up—some good, some very bad—and I haven't gotten nearly as much writing done as I'd like. In the early part of the year I wrapped up my first draft of my YA novel, SPEECHLESS and moved back into editing mode for my contemporary fantasy, I HAD TO FALL.

That was the end of February. That was also when tragedy struck my family and everything else ceased to matter for a while—I needed time to grieve. Just when I thought I was starting to recover from the loss, a new problem cropped up and I set aside everything else to help some friends through a tough, emotional situation.

Hopefully, though these the experiences were difficult to endure, I'll have gained something from them that will help me become both a better person, and a more well-rounded writer.

So I've jumped back into the editing process of I HAD TO FALL, working with my critique partner to start revisions. I spent a good part of my evening just importing her comments into Scrivener. Once those ducks were all in a neat little row I dove into chapter one, reviewing her notes and starting a list of issues she'd brought up and how I might address them, along with some of my own ideas and issues that have cropped up in the back of my mind while this project has been on the backburner. All in all, it was another good day. One at a time.

Tomorrow (as long as this cold I seem to be catching doesn't lay me out...) I'll try to make it through the next few chapters of her notes.