Stormy Winter

Home from work and settling in to write and edit. Snowflakes are just beginning here and there, just a few to get the kiddos excited but not enough to stick on the ground. Probably won't last very long, and I look forward to lots of mini snow people in the neighbors' yards (and mine). Rather than balmy, the temp should be lower for a real feel of winter.

After the nice retreat my local writers group had last month I'm ready to chill and get all the chaos out of my head and into the story. Work has ramped up, the holidays are in full swing, I really have baking fever (the need to bake cookies), plus lots of pages to get edited. Writing first, at least one page per day as I promised myself. :-)

~R

Carrying On

So, less is more, right? Yeah, sometimes it is when you only have limited time to write or get something else important done. It all adds up in the end. Those day of 105, 160, 116, and 114 words all put together create a scene. And the more scenes that appear make a chapter, and chapters turn into completed manuscripts. That's the idea anyway.

NaNoWriMo is coming up in November. If you're not familiar, it's when writerly folks put pen/pencil to paper or fingers to keyboards and create like crazy for 30 days straight toward a goal of 200 pages. It's actually a bit over 6 pages per day if you work it out. Not a problem for most folks who are used to a daily job of turning out pages. Not so much for us folks who work and have extra life obligations. However, a great challenge is to focus and discipline yourself in order to achieve those 200 pages. Taken a little at a time, plus having a plan and outline to guide and work with, it's not as daunting as first thought.

I usually do NaNo and get it done, but last year I fell short. Next month I'm doing it again and hopefully will make that 50k goal. I also have holiday baking to organize and schedule and a bird to tackle right after the big spooky rush of Halloween. And after I finish our costumes and contemplate a couple of calls for submission I think I might attempt.

Let the fun begin!

~R

The Balance of Dharma

It's Sunday night, and I haven't finished everything I wanted to do this weekend. It really doesn't matter, because all the stuff that needs doing and that I'd love to devote a bit of attention to will still be there tomorrow and the next day. Rushing around too much causes headaches I don't need, so I'm going to try and keep on an even course. For the next month I'm going to pick one thing in the house that needs taking care of, one thing for work, one for family (not counting meals), and one thing for me.

This, rather than a dozen items on my daily to-do list, hopefully will keep my body, mind and spirit in balance. And this along with the joy of my family will help me to better write when I have those precious minutes ticking away. And now time for a little peace and quiet.


~R

Where Did Sumemr Go?

Not the usual season. I'm talking about all this #$%^* heat that has pushed away what should've been an enjoyable 2-1/2 months. I know it will end eventually and we'll be off water rationing. I just hope rain comes soon! Exhaustion preempted several 'field trips' this summer though I made it out to a few places before the heat got to me. I'm really thinking positive thoughts for all the local farmers and their crops.

Yesterday I attended a great lecture about publishing given by a local RWA chapter I rejoined after being away since '96. Lots of questions and insightful answers were give by Karen Whiddon, Shayla Black and Sophie Oak. These ladies were knowledgeable and more than willing to give information and direction regarding their take on trad and e-pubbing and self pubbing. I was hoping I'd connect with another writers in the group and be able to talk about the industy and our work. Though it was very obvious there were circles of friends that only wanted to stay within their circles (myself and several others who were new to the group sat off to one sit of the room), the lecture was definitely a benefit to pre-published and published authors alike, and I'm very glad I went.

This month editing has been slow, and I'm contemplating a title change on one story along with some refining of the plot. Reworking two other first drafts and writing one new story will be my goal the rest of this year. Teaching is going well too. I just finished another online 'World Building' workshop and will start another in a week at Savvy Authors ('Feng Shui for Characters') in about a week. Head on over and check it out if you're interested.

So, today is family day and rest time before another busy week begins. And school starts tomorrow for my very excited kiddo! Okay, on to catch up with more reading.

~R

The Long Wait Is Over ... for now

After nearly two months of wilting heat and weeks of triple digits we finally have rain today. I stood in the slowly falling drops for about five minutes early this morning, just soaking up the relief of not having to face another day with winds that burned my face every time I went outside.

Yes, it's raining. Hopefully it'll stay awhile. I'm so doing the happy dance because it's finally RAINING!!!!

~R