Weekly Check-In

I kind of failed this week. For the first half I was suffering from the post-con-haze, and then I discovered this game on Google+ called Zombie Lane, and the rest of my week was pretty much shot. Blogs didn’t get done. Writing suffered. Nothing has mattered except killing zombies and improving my defenses. So, all in all, not a lot to talk about this week.

Revising.

I’m trying out a few online critique sites to see how they work and if I get feedback that’s helpful. It’s nerve wracking to think that people I don’t know are reading something that still needs some polish, but it’s me growing and stuff and whatever.

Writing.

I finished a novella I haven’t mentioned I was writing. I’m pleased with it, and it’s on the back burner for now.

What I read.

• Inferno’s Kiss by Monica Burns

So yeah, not a lot done. I’m going to be focusing on reading this week, so I might skip the weekly check in.

 

Weekly Check-In

I’m writing this while still fumbling through the post-con haze. Tomorrow I’ll do a recap of my FenCon experience, but for now I’ll try to be all responsible like and talk about what I’ve accomplished this week, which feels like not a whole lot. Having the FenCon workshops start on Thursday meant that the rest of my week was all about getting things taken care of, like having my hair cut and dyed and grocery shopping and this and that and I’m tired just talking about it! So, this feels like another week that not enough happened.

Blogging.

I was so proud of myself for writing up blogs that would publish while I was at FenCon, and then they didn’t publish. So bummed! My new Salon Sunday blog didn’t go up until last night, so very disappointing!

Revising.

After all of the feedback this weekend, I have a really exciting dose of stuff to add to Decoy. I need a new beginning for the story, or really, I need to write the rest of the beginning. I want to weave in some things I threw in at the end of the last draft. There’s a lot to do but it’s very exciting because I still love this book sooooo much.

What I read.

• My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
• Love’s Portrait by Monica Burns

Weekly Check-In

This was a good week. A welcome change to how things have been going. I found a place to move to. I’m not buying a house, which is a disappointment but in the long run I think that not buying is a wiser choice in the current economy. Plus, I don’t like yard work! I’ll be moving the first week of November, which really stinks but that’s how it goes I guess. I’m really looking forward to the move and redecorating with a new color scheme.

This coming weekend is FenCon! I’m super excited and I kind of forgot about it at times and it snuck up on me. I’m messing with my critiques for the workshop and putting together what I want to go and see during the convention. So from Thursday to Sunday I’ll be very busy and offline.

Blogging.

This week I took on a new blog mem, Salon Sundays. The idea is to discuss something about what you’re currently reading about. This last week I talked about whitewashing covers and how frustrating I think it is. There was some nice discussion and I’m appreciative to everyone who stopped by. Hopefully I’ll get to more blogs in the following weeks. I’m thinking this next week I’ll talk about reading unpublished works.

Critiquing.

I’m all done with my critiques! I think after this workshop I’m not going to sign up for another one that’s not geared for unpublished writers. Maybe it’s arrogant to feel that way but that’s how it is.

Plotting.

I’ve begun plotting out my NaNo project, which is a project for my pen name. Maybe someday I’ll be able to get back to writing stuff as Cid! The NaNo project is going to be an interesting one to do because it’s contemporary romance and deals with post-traumatic and cancer.

Writing.

I’ve managed a few thousand words a day over the last week.It’s been nice to have such steady progress.

Overall it’s been a good writing week. I’m still busy and scatter brained, but things are getting done and I like where I’m headed with my writing.

Reading.

• Loves Portrait by Monica Burns

How has your writing been going?

Weekly Check-In

This was a good week, even if I didn’t write tons and tons.  There were a lot of life things I had to take care of, like, where the heck am I going to live?  I need to move and since the house drama fell through I need to look for a new place and I really don’t want to!  I looked at a bazillion houses and I don’t want to look at anything else!  But, I’ve found a great place that will give me room for an office area and a big living area, so it’s all good!

Blogging.

I’m being a terrible blogger.  I had a series idea that I was going to do, and never wrote it.  I’m thinking about including another blog mem with my weeks blogging.  Any suggestions or thoughts?

Okay, updating this.  I’m going to start blogging on Sundays, doing the Sunday Salon where I discuss or talk about a book I’m reading.

Critiquing.

I’m almost done with my FenCon critiques!  I’m super excited about this.  The workshop submissions have been all over the place.  It’s a good experience critiquing a wide variety of manuscripts.  I’d suggest doing a workshop that involves a lot of critiquing at least once.  It might not be your thing, but it’s a good learning experience.

Revising.

This week I’m starting another revising project.  It’s been written, I’ve gone over it a little but I haven’t really dug into it.  That starts this week.  Thankfully it’s a short project so it won’t take too long, maybe a week or two depending on how long I have to focus on it, and then I’m off to critique partners and stuff.

Writing.

This last week I finished my zombie story!  Decoy is officially done, and a full length novel.  I’m super jazzed about this and I hope everyone else loves it as much as I do.  It’s a heck of a long way from being done-done, but having the rough draft completed is a big step.  I know some things need to be changed and I want to weave in a few things I tossed in at the end.  I’m super hopeful!

What I read.

• Dark Sins by Stephanie Draven
• Cindra’s Bounty Hunter by Paige Tyler

Weekly Check-In

Whoopse, this is going up late.  Like way late.  This has been another crazy week.  Last week was all about getting back into the grove of being at work and stuff.  The vacation was nice, but it has added another layer of stress on my life.  This weekend has opened up to me how stressed out and close to that break down point I am.  From the house drama to my grandmother and family stuff to work place stuff, I’m realizing how over worked and stressed out I am.

So, this coming week I’m going to try to evaluate my life and see what’s working and what’s not.  It’s not like I have too much going on, I have time for everything, but I want a good end of year experience.  These next few months have to be awesome and I want to do everything I can to make sure that’s how it is.

Blogging.

Well as busy as the blogging was over the last week, I’m afraid I haven’t done much for the upcoming week.  I need to fix this, I know.  And especially since today is Monday and I don’t really have anything lined up.  So, I’m going to try to work on that.  Maybe do a few micro shots of Paris.

Critiquing.

I’m going to FenCon at the end of the month.  I’ve been hard at work with the critiques.  My goal has been to do two a day.  I could cram them all into a few days but I feel like that would wear me out, so my methodology has been to do a few at a time.

Critiquing ever feel like a measuring rod to anyone else?  There’s something about reading someone else’s work in progress and wondering how I measure up to it. Am I better? Worse? Is there something I can learn from this?  It’s a different mindset than what reading a published book is because that has been through editors and lots of other professionals.  Anyways, maybe I’m crazy!

Writing.

I’ve missed a few days writing.  There’s been some Other Stuff going on in my life and a few nights I just haven’t been up to it.  Overall I haven’t done a lot of writing, only a few thousand words but I made some significant forward movements.  I’m back to being excited about a project I was afraid was dwindling.  This next week I hope to do lots and lots more!

What I read.

• Honey, I Shrunk the Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy

Okay, so this check in kinda sucked but that’s life right now. I might talk about stress management tricks this week.

Weekly Check-In

So this last week we’ve been poised on the edge of saying our final goodbyes to my grandmother.  Monday they gave her 48 hours to live.  When I started the draft for this check in she’d held on for over 72 and counting.  Part of me wants her to fight and hang on, and another part wishes that she could pass comfortably in her sleep without having to be in a hospice.  Sunday we were told that her kidneys had finally given out and that she had hours or maybe days to live.

All in all, it makes for a week of very little anything.  I haven’t been sleeping or washing dishes or doing laundry or writing or much of anything.  I have been reading more though.  Mostly happy books, with zombies.  I needed some inspiration and a little escape.

Blogging.

I’ve decided I’m going to add a more personal blog mem on Wednesdays called Wordless Wednesdays.  They’ll be photographs of things, pictures of me or whatever I feel like tossing up.  I’ll be limited to only one sentence of text explaining or capturing what’s going on.  I think it’ll be fun, and I’ll have a ton of France pictures to share after the trip.  So there, another weekly blogging thing.  It’s different since I haven’t been doing many blogs with personal content.

Revising.

I’ve done work on this, but not as much as I wish I had.  At this rate I’ll be finishing the book in France, not handing it off for critiques.  It’s a huge disappointment to me because I wanted to be so much farther along than where I am in the process.  Again, I can’t kick myself too hard because a lot of what’s held me back is the time spent going to and from the hospital.  It’s also hard to revise under emotional stress – at least for me.  Maybe getting away to France to write about zombies is a good thing.  The bad thing is that I won’t be taking my big laptop with me, I’ll be on a Netbook.  I’d hoped to only be writing something new but my priorities have to be in the right place.  When I think about everything going on, it’s amazing I’ve even written a few thousand words every few days.

What I read.

• Late Eclipse by Seanan McGuire
• Darker Shade of Dead by Bianca D’Arc
• Smoke on the Water by Bianca D’Arc
• Dead Alert by Bianca D’Arc

Weekly Check-In

So I’m doing kind of a ‘Life Update’ hand in hand with this.  I’ve mentioned my grandmother’s situation on twitter and here.  I’m grateful for all of the support and prayers and candles people have offered up during this time.  It’s been tough juggling work and the hospital visits and still feeling like I had to write.  Sometimes being driven is a bad thing.

My grandmother is off the breathing tube and out of ICU.  She’s been moved to telemetry and she’s stable.  We have some tough choices facing us about her long-term care.  Man shouldn’t have to play God like this, but the choice is in our hands.  I just hope we make the right one.

Family has been in and out of the area since this began.  It’s neat to see some of them, but the constant juggle is a little stressful.  The hospital rules state that only two of us can be back with her at a time.  We regularly break these, and at times we get slapped ont he wrist.  My mom being the person who signs all of the employees paychecks has been helpful to our cause.

So in between all of this I’ve been trying to write and do stuff and be productive.  Some nights it works.

Revising.

This is where my brain is at.  I’m hip deep in revisions and adding new material to a novella that really wants to be a book.  I love the story, I just don’t love that I have to add so much to it.  I was struggling with length.  It was too long for most publishers to consider it a real novella, but not long enough to be a novel.  My end goal is for it to be 70K, which means I still need about 20,000 more words to add.  I’m hoping that the ending I’ve planned out can be fleshed out to meet it.  I like it, and I think it will give the story a fuller arc, I just wish I’d written it like this in the beginning!

What I read.

• Late Eclipse by Seanan McGuire
• Enemy Games by Marcella Burnard

Weekly Check-In

This has been a hard week, made easier by great friends.  I posted earlier this week about my grandmother’s condition.  It hasn’t improved, though neither can we say that it has gotten worse.  At this point we’re waiting for tomorrow, the eighth day point and then we’ll decide some crucial things.  Family has been in and out of the hospital for the last few days, coming in on the weekend and leaving for home last night.  It’s been busy.  It’s not how I expected to spend last week, but that’s how things happen.

Blogging.

I blogged a little this last week, but not much and I don’t have any blogs lined up for this week.  It’s disappointing, but it’s not a priority right now.

Revising.

This week I learned that I cannot edit under duress.  I’ve always been able to write, but I’ve never attempted to edit during a hospital stay.  After bashing my head against the wall trying to do this over the last week, I gave up.  I have an editing class starting this week, and I’ll do what I can do, but right now I don’t know how well that will go.

Plotting.

We talked about my world building for the urban fantasy I want to write at the weekly group.  It was interesting conversation though I’m not sure how helpful it was.  I asked about two items and we talked about all the other nifty fiddly bits, lol.  It was entertaining and I got some good ideas but I don’t know how much of it I’ll be able to use.  We’ll see!

Writing.

I started a new novella project.  Not much to say other than it’s almost 10K in length and entertaining me.  I’ve reached a point in it where I need to do some research for it to really work.  So, I’m pressing pause to read technical instructions on stuff.  Fascinating, huh?

What I read.

• Lust After Death by Daisy Harris

 

Weekly Check-In

I’ve had a pretty good week as far as writing goes, though other than writing things were a little messy.  One day at work the A/C went out so I wound up coming home to work.  It was a hassle and I always feel like I don’t get enough done when I’m at home because inevitably the one thing I need to do stuff is — at the office.  I also had my first doctor’s appointment since forever, like High School forever ago, this last week to help figure out what I could be allergic to.  There was an attempt at drawing blood that resulted in a very dramatic fainting from yours truely.  Not one of my prouder moments, let me tell you.

Despite all of that I’ve been working away steadily on one project.  What with the house drama, France coming up and Everything Else In Life, I’m focusing on one thing right now.  I think that means I’m dropping my contemporary romance project because I simply don’t know what to do with it.  I love the concept but as far as what to do with a zero draft that needs far too much work, I don’t know where to start.

Blogging.

I blogged earlier this week about blog block, because I think I have it.  I’ve exhausted my lists of possible topics, and the series ideas aren’t grabbing my attention.  I have enjoyed the snippets where I talk about documentaries and what you can do with the historical information twisted and applied to fantasy.  That’s been cool because it helps me think through stuff.  Other than that maybe I should give myself permission to not blog, hm?

Revising.

I am so close to being done with this round of edits.  I’m not tackling these in a very smart way.  I’m going through the manuscript mostly tackling awkward phrasing and trying to add description to places.  Once upon a time my descriptions were one of the strongest things about my writing but they’ve slipped.  I’m bummed and I don’t quite know how to solve this issue.  I need to go through and do a description pass and make sure that the setting is there.  But I’ll do that after I finish with the awkward phrasing and expounding on the ending.  The ending was so bad, not that the action was bad, but it was almost a verbal list of actions.

This happened, and then that, then they did this.

Not great.  Not great at all, so I’m fixing that and it’s going well.  I love zombies and this story is great.  It’s also a pen name project so I guess I shouldn’t really talk about it, huh?  Need to figure out a better blogging balance for what I can and can’t talk about where.  Sometimes these things are confusing!

Plotting.

I’m plotting out my urban fantasy still.  I think I’ll be writing it when I come back from Paris, or I might start it while I’m in Paris since editing things while using the borrowed Netbook doesn’t sound like a good idea.  I still need to do research on mythology and sit down to work out the characters and the exact plot.  Right now it’s all in my brain and I haven’t pulled it out of there.  I could possibly do that while I was in Paris.  That’s not a bad idea.  Hmm, I must think over this!

What I read.

• Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
• A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire
• An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
• Lust After Death by Daisy Harris

Weekly Check-In

Holidays mess me up.  It’s Monday and I should have already posted a weekly check in post, like this morning but it’s mid-afternoon and I’m just now starting to do this.  Way to go me!  I think that it has something to do with the listless way I’ve been feeling the last few days.  Earlier this week I finished a manuscript, so whenever I do that things always get a little weird as I take a quick break and figure out where I’m going next.

Mostly I’ve been watching River Monsters and getting caught up on season 6 of Dr Who.  Can you say woah??

This isn’t a very impressive accounting of what I’m up to right now, I know.

Blogging.

I feel like my blogging has been a little lackluster.  It happens, and I’m blogging about stuff but it’s not very impressive and honestly, who cares?  I might do a bit of blogging brainstorm this week to figure out what I should do.  I like blogging about the documentaries I’ve been watching, so maybe I’ll do more of that since I’m watching so many.

Revising.

I have two different revision projects I’m working on this month.  One of them I’m very excited about.  And the other I’m dreading and might very well chunk in a bin and ignore it.  I’m spending my 4th of July weekend getting more familiar with the manuscripts.

Plotting.

I plan on starting serious plotting for another project, but this month my main focus is revisions.

Writing.

I finished a manuscript last week, so I haven’t started anything else.

What I read.

• I’ve been doing some rereading.  Nothing really to talk about.