Archive for the 'Seventy Days Of Sweat' Category

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Vacation Haze

Published on August 29, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 3 Comments

Well, this has been a great vacation so far. I’ve had a wonderful time visiting my family (even though we’ve had car problems) and have even got to spend time with some friends who I haven’t seen in a long time.

On the writing front, I finished The Bond That Heals Us! My very wonderful friends Red and Amy are giving it a once over for me, and then I’m going to be sending it off to my editor! I’m very excited that this one turned out as well as it has. It also means that I can go back to my Wizard’s story and finish it up. :D

Poor Sven has been abandoned this week though. Other than adding a few suggestions Red gave me, I haven’t written since I got off the plane. That will change next week when I get home and can actually have some time to myself. The prologue and first chapter of my urban romance are done, but I’m not going to work anymore on it until I get the Wizard’s story finished.

I also have edits for Sweet and Spicy Spells that need to be done this week. I guess I’m busier than I realized LOL!!

I hope you are all well and thank you very much for the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a great day yesterday. :) HUGS to all of you!

So, how have things been for you??

Full Plate

Published on August 17, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 11 Comments

We had one wicked thunder and lightning storm here last night. Woke everyone in my house up and caused at least one child to freak out. So I’m a bit zonked this morning. :)

I managed to add another 1000 words or so to The Bond That Heals Us last night. Found a few rough patches that I’m smoothing over and hopefully it will come across okay. I’ll be sending it out to my readers soon so they’ll let me know if it sucks or not. :D My goal for this weekend is to try and get as much of the revisions done as possible (with any luck all of them). That way I can give it to hubby to read over to check my grammar and I’ll send it out to my buddies (love you girls!!). :)

On top of that, my oldest has a soccer tournament tomorrow morning from 9:00 – 12:00. We’ll all be going to cheer her on. I also have to pack to get ready to go on a business trip next week. Then it will be off for vacation as soon as I get back! I so need this break. I might even take a rest from writing for a week. We’ll have to see.

I also want to go and see the movie Invasion this weekend. It will  depend on if the babysitter can make it or not. Cross your fingers!

So, what are you up to??

Round Two – Write!

Published on August 14, 2007 in Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 9 Comments

And you thought I was done…

I treated myself last night to a writing free evening. My husband (who is very sick today :( ) and I watched a bunch of Stargate: SG1 episodes. I didn’t even feel the urge to get up and write, though I found myself analyzing the stories we were watching and seeing how they pulled elements together (love that show!!). It was the mental break I needed. A nice deep breath before I dive into the world of revisions.

For me, revisions are different from edits for my editor. I still feel there is a lot of the creative process going on here. Now that I know where my story is going (or gone as the case may be), I can go back and add, amplify or change elements that need to get me to that end point. I usually discover some cool things that I didn’t realize were there in the first place.

My goal for this round of writing is to add about 8k to the total word count, to add more sci-fi elements, enhance the setting, and make sure the erotic part of the story is working. That there isn’t too much or too little sex and that the characters change every time they have an encounter.

So Sven isn’t done with me yet.

Plus…I have this new story idea…which is way different from anything else I’ve ever written…and I think I’m going to start it once Heals is done…dark urban romance…I’ll keep you posted.

OMG I’m Done!!!

Published on August 13, 2007 in Seventy Days Of Sweat. 15 Comments

I did it!! I finished the first draft of The Bond That Heals Us today on my lunch hour, coming in at 63,552 words! I’m so exited that I was able to get this far this quickly. Thank you to the Seventy Days of Sweat challenge for motivating me to write my butt off.

Not that I’m done, done. I still have to go back and add at least 7k to the word count, smooth off the rough edges, and tie some of the plot elements together. I’ll be giving myself the next few weeks to do that and I hope to get this off to my editor by the first week of September.

*does the snoopy dance*

Sunday Check-in

Published on August 12, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 5 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend. It’s been beautiful, warm and sunny here in my part of the world. We had a wonderful time at my company picnic yesterday. In fact, I think we all got a bit too much sun. There was food, games, waterslides, and face painting. When we got home, we went for a swim and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I also received my edits for the Ellora’s Cave Quickie, Chasing Phoenix. I got through those today and have them sent off. I’m so excited that story is coming out soon! I’ll let you know as soon as I have a release date.

I did fairly well on the writing front this week considering all that is going on. Not only did I get my edits for Chasing Phoenix, and Sweet and Spicy Spells done, but I managed to write 10,000 words on The Bond That Heals Us. I would have managed more, but there was just so much going on. I hope I only have two chapters left to write and that will bring me to the end of draft one. I plan on finishing it this week come hell or high water. In fact, as soon as I’m done this post I’ll be off to do some writing. My oldest has a friend coming over for a sleep-over so that should help keep them busy while I write.

I realized I hadn’t posted any goals recently, so I’ll make this one official:

  • Goal for the week – finish first draft of The Bond That Heals Us!

So how is your weekend? What do you have planned for this week? 

TGIF…

Published on August 10, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 8 Comments

This has been a bit of a crazy week for me. Both in the writing world and in my “Other” life. A few things came at me in the last few days that I wasn’t expecting and now  I have to make a bit of a big decision. More on that once I have more details…

I took yesterday off from working on The Bond That Heals Us, so I could get my revisions done on Sweet and Spicy Spells. That is now off to our editor and Renee and I just need to sit back and wait for round two. :D

So today I’ll be back working on finishing draft one of Heals. I’m at 54,500 words, so I’m really close to where I want to be. I might even creep over the 60k mark which means I’m ahead of schedule and will make editing a lot easier. I’m now mostly focusing on the externl plot, tying up the mystery side of the story and have to bring Sara and Davin back together as a couple. Then one final love scene and I’m done! After that I’ll have to print it out and do a read through with a pen. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow we are going to my company family picnic at a local amusement park. My girls have been looking forward to this all week and are really excited. I am too to be honest. :) I’ll try and take some pictures and post them.

What do you have planned for the week?

Week is Flying!

Published on August 8, 2007 in Seventy Days Of Sweat, The Bond That Ties Us and Writing. 6 Comments

First off, I’m thrilled to say I was asked by Jacqueline Frank to post on her blog while she’s on vacation. Please stop by and say hello and post a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Bond That Ties Us. Which according to Leah  and Gabriella rocks (thanks so much girls!!).

I managed to get another 2100 words done on The Bond That Heals Us. Home stretch ladies and gentlemen! I had a brainstorm last night on how to solve the mystery that I built in and it’s going to work really well (cross your fingers). So I’m happy dancing my way to The End at this point. Pray I don’t hit any road blocks. If I don’t hit 60,000 with the first draft, it will be okay. I’ll be close enough and I know there is lots I can go back and add, so I should be able to reach 70,000 no problem.

What is everyone up to this wonderful Wednesday?

Tuesday, Tuesday

Published on August 7, 2007 in Seventy Days Of Sweat, TV and Writing. 13 Comments

Which is feeling like a Monday right now. Me and my family had a great long weekend. We didn’t do too much except hang out by the pool, chat and eat, but it was very relaxing. Really, it wasn’t long enough which is because I haven’t had a vacation yet this summer. In two weeks I have to go on a business trip and as soon as I get home I’ll be off for two weeks. I’m so excited it’s sad.

I even managed to get some writing done this weekend. I’m officially sitting at 50,444 words done on The Bond That Heals Us. I’m going into the home stretch now with one two or three chapters left to write. Then revisions. I have to say I’m actually looking forward to going back and rereading this. I know there are some dropped threads that I’ll be able to tie in and beef that word count up even more.

Other than writing, I’ve been re-watching Stargate: SG1. We are almost done season 1 and I’ve forgotten how much I really enjoyed these early shows. We can already see the actors move away from how the characters were portrayed in the Stargate movie and are making them their own. I also find myself paying more attention to the whole Jack and Sam relationship. Man I love those two characters together!

Which got me thinking, which TV/movie/book couple is your favourite to watch/read? Which one can you watch over and over?

Stumbles out of bed…

Published on August 6, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 9 Comments

Good morning! (looks at her clock) Err…good afternoon!!

I’m enjoying my long weekend so far. We had friends over last night and watched 300. *drool* Love that movie.

I even managed to get some writing done yesterday and plan to tackle some more here after I eat. I’m currently sitting at 48,325 words on The Bond That Heals Us. I was sitting here yesterday shaking my head at how much I’ve gotten done since I started with the Sweat writing challenge. My goal for today is to cross the 50k mark and finish plotting out the story. If I plan everything the right way, I *might* be able to finish the first draft this week. But if not, I’ll have it done next week for sure. Then it will be on to revisions and hopefully get it buffed up to around 70k.

Speaking of revision, Renee and I just got our revisions for our EC Halloween story, Sweet and Spicy Spells. So I’ll be working on my half of things this week. I love this story too and I can’t wait for October to come so you can read it. :)

So today I’ll be taking it easy, doing a little writing and maybe take a peek at the edits. How is everyone else doing?

Long Weekend!

Published on August 3, 2007 in Life, Seventy Days Of Sweat and Writing. 12 Comments

I am so excited that I have a long weekend! Not that I plan to do a whole hello of a lot. Saturday I’m going to try and get some writing done, and I have to mow the lawn. Sunday we have company coming over, and Monday I plan to sleep and write. I really need a few days to recharge my batteries, so this will be fantastic.

My husband and I started watching Stargate: SG1 again last night. With season 10 coming out on DVD soon and Atlantis starting up again this fall, we thought it would be fun to see them. Plus, we’ve only watched the episodes once, and that’s just not enough. :) We’ll probably watch a bunch tonight, so I better write my fingers off today at lunch to try and hit my word count goal.

Speaking of writing, I managed to get another 2000 words written yesterday, which has put me at 42,500 words on The Bond That Heals Us. I’m moving into the home stretch for the first draft and am still on track to reach 60,000 words. I need to have one final external event happen and that will carry me through to the end. Then I’ll hit the revisions to try and add the last 10k.

I’m at the point now  in my writing where I really need to go back and read what’s happened so far. See if there are any little threads that I can pick up and develop. I won’t do that now though, or I’ll never get out of revision hell and finish the book. And I know there are a few of you at least who want to read Sara’s story, so I’m hauling butt. :D

What are your plans for the weekend?