Hallelujah!

Speak on, my feline compatriot! It's almost like a vacation - four days off work! Four days off work! Well, the paid work. I am taking up the editing work I laid down and making progress. I worked Friday and today, getting another 38k or so edited.

It feels good. It feels right. I feel like a writer. That's a good thing. I feel the stagnant funk of the winter sloughing away like a snake-skin. I actually rose at a decent hour, took a shower... that didn't get me to the actual work of writing any faster. I had a few hours of internet scrolling and then a very brief nap...but considering I didn't finish my editing until after midnight last night, I did far better today.

I have that one labeled "Benedict C shit eating grin." You're welcome.

Now I have notes to write up for someone. *rubs hands together*

Happy Blogo-Versary to Me!

Three years and I'm still unpublished! Yay, me!

Ok, that is really fishing for backpats and it's just sad. But it is my blog's third birthday. I celebrated by editing almost 20k in two hours! That is a non-sarcastic Yay, Me!!

I have gotten back on the horse. I began the edits on Dreadlight yesteday, after the horrible discovery that I had messed up my manuscript with various backups - the thought of going back in and trying to piece it together at this point was soul-crushing. But it's got to be done, and so I have begun. It's not too bad, but I feel the missing pieces... in my heart places.

I swore last year would be the year. I edited most of the year. I wrote one book. This year, I have edited... most of the year, and finished the book I began last year. I rather foolishly want to commit to Camp NaNoWriMo in July. But I gotta get these novels edited and queried and what have you. I'm very close to the end with Dreadlight.

Let's hope in another year I've at least attempted to get some more rejection... :) What's that thing about insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting different results?

Sunday Wrap Up May 19th 2013

I have no business writing a wrap up post for the week - as I did nothing this week. I am ashamed of myself. I will try to do better. I just don't seem to be able to get back into the novel, after the 23k disaster. Every day I have opened the manuscript. Every day has ended without a word being edited.

I desperately want to do Camp NaNo in July. In order to do that, I have to get at least two books edited. I have a month and about 10 days.

This isn't so much a wrap-up post as a promise to myself to meet my goals....

Turner out.

The Day of Horrible Happenings

I have thought about addressing days of horrible happenings and how they affect my writing. I know, and see, and hear, the adage that one must write, edit, query, synopsis, regardless of what is going on In one‘s life. One must act as if one’s writing is a professional job, even if, and perhaps especially if, one is not yet a paid professional.

Well, poop.

Yesterday, I discovered that my drop box and my Scrivener were beating each other up behind my back and basically, my editing was being undone even as I saved and manually backed up. It’s a long story, so here is a much better article on it if you wants to know what was going on. (Thanks to Janet M. Carter on Twitter for linking me to that.) I don’t know if I can express the overwhelming sense of loss and frustration, the desire to lay down and be feasted upon by my cat. When the time comes, I know she will be too happy to do away with my rigid corpse. My manuscript, which I thought just needed a bit of a polish, is now in a more ragged state than I could ever have imagined. 

Then I took a gander at the old bank account, because my day wasn’t going downhill fast enough. In retrospect, I guess I’m glad I did, because my $2 US Magazine subscription (yeah, whatever, shut up) suddenly became $87 dollars. I don’t spend $87 on shit. Especially not tabloid shit. (I also have an Entertainment Weekly subscription, also for $2 SHUT UP SHUT UP AND STOP JUDGING ME!) Magazine or newspaper subscriptions are never a good idea. I get fucked over. Every. Time. So I called the 800 number my bank called me, squirmed and got indignant and got it reversed. Since I called the same day, it looks like it got stopped before it even got charged – or it looks ok so far. Fingers crossed.

At this point, I was in no shape for picking up the pages and literally beginning again. I had started a second edit, and man, had it been suh - weet. All gone. All 23,000 words I’d edited on Sunday into slices of delicious, quivering wit were just… cold cuts again. I was in no mood for acting like a grown up with a goal. So instead, I put on movies, went fangirling on Tumblr and ate my feelings with a side of ranch dressing.

They were delicious.

Sunday Wrap Up May 12,2013

Greetings, fearless readers. I've left the blog lay fallow for a week. A whole WEEK! I have found a real gap in my story and it pulled me up short. I realized that my character doesn't have a background - or at least doesn't appear to in the story. I think it works without it, but her background is one of pretty intense pain and it's rather integral to the story, considering what is going on. I think it will add another layer. I'm just worried about making it seem like I just peppered this stuff in at the last minute. So I started the edit process over again. At 5 AM this morning. Yeah.

Stats:
Words edited: 37,623
Number of blog posts: 2 - 1 on the book blog, one here
Words on new space opera that really doesn't need to be getting in the way of my other projects: 312
Number of days I edited: 2
Number of days I took a nap: 4
New coffee creamers purchased: 2

And thank you, Lucky for yet another coupon for buying 2 and getting a $1 off. :)

There was another premiere of Star Trek: Into Darkness in New York, and a slew of Benedict Cumberbatch interviews on the tv - thankfully they all found their way to Youtube, as I don't have cable. 

I went ahead and had a Star Trek marathon, as I realized I hadn't seen the movies in forever. I got through all of them... convenient as I was not editing. :( Or reading. :( They were great fun. My favorite is still Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where they have to bring whales back from the past to stop a dastardly probe. And of course, the last one, Star Trek: Nemesis. Even if it breaks my heart a little.

Next week must be better. I've been working on a beta for A WEEK. That is ridiculous. I usually read quite a lot, but all I've been doing is coming home and sleeping...then watching movies. The only reading I've done is at work during my lunch hour. So next week - reading, editing, and getting that manuscript to the betas.

Sunday Wrapup May 5, 2013

I have finished another edit pass of another manuscript. I want to do another quick read/edit before I send it off to the chosen few, but I am one very, very almost satisfied author.

I mean, are we ever done? Are we ever done wondering if our plot is cohesive? If the love story is working? If we have worked hard enough for the rest periods and rested hard enough before the action? 

In a word, no. But for now, I am very, very almost satisfied.

Weekly stats
Edited: 5 of the past 7 days
Words edited: 40,253
Blog posts: 3 - 2 on the writer blog, 1 on the book blog
# of squee-rific ducklings on the pond: 6
Coffee: In-numerable cups
# of Star Trek feels: also In-numerable
New soundtracks: 2

The Star Trek World Premiere was this week. I missed the actual moment, as I was either at work or sleeping... but when I got home, I denied myself the pleasure of endless Benedict Cumberbatch and Zachary Quinto (and let's not forget Karl Eomer Urban) interviews, gifs and images. I edited and wrote a blog post and then I was up way too late doing all of the above. Now please understand: I am a proud Trekkie. It has nothing to do with the men. I grew up on the Trek. I rediscovered the Trek in my 20's when the Next Generation came on the scene and destroyed our hearts and minds with it's science and heart. I think Gene Roddenberry is up there sitting on the right side of Carl Sagan. The fact JJ Abrams was smart enough to hire mens I like to star in it is just a sign of his amazing taste.

I was also saddened to hear that Harper Lee has had to sue her scum-sucking agent for taking advantage of her hearing and sight loss and getting her to sign over (to his very own self) the copyright TO HER ONLY FREAKING BOOK. I say we vote him the very worse person in the world. Right now.

Also, my iPod cannot play "Wild and Untamed Thing" from Rocky Horror Picture Show loud enough.

But, can anything made from mortal hands do so?

What does it need a title for?

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Sunday. Wow. And I've been pretty good on most fronts. I only missed one day of editing, I've done about 28k of edits this week. I'm down to roughly 11k left. I am positive I will get through it this weekend. Then another rough run-through to dot some t's and cross some i's.... wait. Stop that. Reverse it. I even managed to wrangle some poor unsuspecting people to read it. 

I've had two interesting things happen this week. First of all, I cried a couple times reading scenes. This happens occasionally, but I was actually thinking about it this time. I haven't read this book since July of last year, when I edited the holy living demon out of it. Are you some sort of crazy narcissist if you weep tears over the killing of imaginary creatures? Or at the roadblocks you've thrown in lover's paths? OR are you just a very sad individual that has narrowly avoided living in their parent's basement...but who still lives with a cat? I don't know. But I had some waterworks this week. I just hope the betas cry at the right places.

I also have had days where I come gotten to my words-edited-goal for the day and wanted to continue. This has to be a good thing. For the most part, I have resisted, because despite not having read it since July of last year, I have read this thing a whole lot. It is still somewhat familiar. So familiar, I find myself not getting a close enough read and not seeing the clunky-ness of the sentences right in front of my face. I hate coming in the next day, reading over something I've edited already and finding it's still shit.

I am going to try and edit and blog every day this weekend (this being the first, as today is part of my weekend - no work today! Yay!) So you will be hearing from me. Here is to words that aren't shit. :)