Memo: Chats, markets and BDSM

Hello everyone,

On the weekend:

My editor accepted the last story I submitted to Total-e-bound. Very excited. It's my twelth acceptance. I'll be back with more about it when I have a few more details to share.

Today:

Total-e-bound's March newsletter went out. My chapter of the round robin is part of it. You can read about what Mark and Ryan get up to here.

I'm also about to take part in a chat here. Everyone is welcome. It's on NOW! (Which is why I'm up at crazy o'clock!)

Tuesday:

Writer's evolution - writing for the market.

Thursday:

Oh, get a grip - writing BDSM (anyone guess who's turn it was to pick the topic this week *tries to look innocent and quickly gives up*)

Rest of the week:

I'm debating what to do with my blogs and topics on this, blog, so I'll have to let you know as I make my decisions.

Memo: Interruptions, Explicitness and Anthologies

Hi everyone,


Today:


Night of the Senses is Now On Sale! More about that in a seperate post :)

Secret Service recieved a four star review from Rainbow Reviews. The review was written by Fox, who said:

"...this story is very entertaining and romantic."

You can read the rest of it here.


Tuesday:


I'm on Writer's Evolution blog talking about Interruptions.


Wednesday:


I'm still deciding my word of the week. I'm going for something smaller and more specific this time around. Maybe actually something I can fit into a reasonable post rather than an epic!


Thursday:


I'll be talking about "The new explictness" on the Oh, Get a Grip! blog.


Friday:


Back here for five of something :)

And that's it as far as I know.

What else should I be doing this week?

Writing:

I'd like to finish the fourth Lust bite story, so I'll have the first drafts of all the stories in the mini collection by the end of the month.

Editing:

Ideally I'd like to be able to submit the second Lust bite story by the end of the month too. Not sure if that's possible, so I'll set my aim at the story being as close to submission standard as possible by then.

Have a good week everyone.

Memo: Ideas, Genres and coming soon.

Hi everyone :)

Today...

Gaydar has made it's appearence on TEB's coming soon list. You can see that here.

Tuesday...

I'll be talking about Ideas on Writer's Evolution.

Wednesday...

I'll be back on this blog for Discipline part 2.

Thursday...

It's over to Oh, Get a Grip to talk about my favourite genre.

Friday...

I'm thinking about changing my Friday blog to some sort of thought for the week. Not sure yet. I'll probably work something out by Friday :)

What else.

Writing for the week...

I finished the four short stories I was working on. I'm now working on another Lust Bite. It would be nice to finish the first draft of that this week.

Editing for the week...

The anthology sub I was working on turned into a really good story which was throughly unsuitable for the anthology. So, I'm now editing another story for the anthology. Hoping to sub that this week or early next week, so the aim for this week should probably be to do as much as I can on it.

And that's it.

Don't forget to have a glance at Secret Service if you haven't already.

Monday Memo: release day, cover art, plans and aims

Hi everyone,

Straight into the news for the week -

Yesterday:

New cover art came through for Gaydar. I'll share that in a seperate post :)

Today:

Secret Service is officially released! Yay! More about that in a seperate post too.

Tuesday:

I'm on Writer's Evolution talking about Writer's Insecurity.

Wednesday:

I'm here talking about my word of the week: Discipline.

Thursday:

I'm on Oh, Get a Grip talking about Valentine's Day.

Friday:

No idea what I'll have five of this week. No doubt I'll think of something before Friday :)

As far as I know, that's it for the week - and lots of promo work as well, of course.

I'll let you know if I find out I'm supposed to be somewhere else as well, lol.

Since I actually achieved most of the aims I posted last Monday, I'm going to post some more this week.

Writing:

I'm on my third short story. Two more left to go. I'd like to finish them this week, ready to start something else next week.

Editing:

Sealing the Deal has gone. I'd like to get as much as possible done on my anthology submission this week. It would be nice if it could be submittable by the end of the week, but I'll be happy if it's almost there and it can go off at the start of next week.

And that's it.

Happy Monday everyone.

Don't forget to read the other posts about Secret Service and Gaydar!

Memo: Reviews, Competitions and blogs, oh my!

Lots to tell you about today, so stright into it...

Yesterday:

TEB's February Newsletter came out. It includes a lovely peer review of The Gift by Lisabet Sarai. You can see that here. If you're not already reading it, be sure to check out the round robin. Last month's chapter by Jamie Hill is in the archieves as part of January's Newsletter. This month's chapter is by Jude Mason. Chapter three is by me, and that will be part of the March Newsletter.

TEB also announced a competetion to win a set of the My Secret Valentine seasonal releases that are due to be released next Monday (Including my novella, Secret Service). Click on the photo below to enter - all you have to do is sign up to the news letter.

Today:

Turquoise and Leather, the first story in my Collared series arrived in TEB's Coming soon page. Click on the link if you want to take a look. It was the first story I submitted to TEB, so I'm thrilled the released date is getting closer!

That also means it's only one week until Secret Service will be on sale!

Tuesday:

It's my day on Writer's Evolution - This week we're talking about Writing Avoidance.

Wednesday:

I'm back on this blog, looking at another Word of the Week. This week I'll be talking about Bondage.

Thursday:

From now on, this will be my day on the Oh Get a Grip blog. There are a whole collection of new writers taking it over, so do check it out and get to know everyone. If you leave a comment on any of this weeks posts you'll automatically be entered into out Grand Re-opening prize draw, for a chance to win a $30.00 amazon voucher. This topic of the week this week is Initiation.

Friday:

I'll be back here with a Friday's Five... Haven't pinned down a topic yet, I'm thinking something about book length, since that's where my thoughts regarding writing are lingering at the moment.

And that's all I've got planned as far as I know.

What else do I need to tell you?

It's the start of the month, so I better add some aims.

This time I'm going to try doing aims for the week, and see if that will turn out to be a bit more accurate.

Writing: I'm working on four short stories at the moment. I'd like to get the first drafts of at least two done this week, and maybe make a start on the third.

Editing: Sealing the Deal is undergoing final checks, so I'm turning my attention to my anthology submission. I have a first draft, by the end of the week, I'd like to turn that into a second draft.

And that's it.

Have a good Monday everyone!

Memo: Evolution, Hotspots and Grips

Hi everyone,

Straight in to news for the week.

Monday - Nothing happening for new releases on the TEB website - accept that The Gift fell off the bottom of the list of new releases :,-( lol. Next week Turquoise and Leather should be up there. Yay!

Tuesday - I'll be on the Writer's Evolution blog talking about useful books for writers. Andrea started us off today.

More Tuesday - I'll also be on TEB's Hitting the Hotspot blog talking about Secret Service, which will be out on Feb 9th with TEB, and sharing an excerpt of the story.

Wednesday - The word of the week is Kink. I'll be talking about what the word means in general, how I define it in my books. Part of the post will also be about the idea of the One True Way and why I think it's a load of rubbish.

Thursday - Will be the last Thursday that I'm not doing a post. Week Thursday I'll be taking over Thursdays on the Oh Get a Grip! blog. This week the current writers are saying their good byes - well worth looking in on if you get the chance.

Friday - I'll be back on this blog doing a round up of my month and looking back to the start of the month to see if I managed to do half of what I said I was aiming to do.

Saturday - Since it's the last day of the month, this is when I'm tentatively hoping to send Sealing the Deal off. Not sure if it's going to happen or not at this point. I've not been so good health wise, so it might be my first sub of February rather than my last one of January - especially since it's now a novella rather than the short I was aiming for.

Sunday - Is very much a topic for another month, lol. I can't believe it's so close to February already!

And that's it for the week :)

...

Other news:

Writing Project: I'm on the last chapter of Fair Play. It's progressing quite nicely. It's 14,000 at the moment and I'm aiming to keep this draft under 20,000 words.

Editing Project: I need to extend the story by about 2,000 words to make sure it falls well within the novella length. If my energy holds out, I'll do some of that tonight. Some editing has been done already - a few more goes through and I should be ready to print before too long.

Admin Project: I'm still toying with the idea of setting up a Yahoo group/Newsletter. Not sure if it would be worth it, or if anyone would join in/want to read it. A bit more thinking needed on this topic before I make any decisions...

Have a good Monday everyone :)

Memo: Blogs, Booksellers and Congratulations

Hi everyone,

This week:

Things that have already happened -

I found out that The Gift is for sale through three different on line book sellers, which made me very excited.

Mobipocket books here.
All Romance e-books here.
Books on board here.

(Yep, I do know that they all show exactly the same info, but it's my first book - that means I'm allowed to be a bit geeky about it.)

Also:

Love Romances Cafe results came out. TEB placed 2nd for publishers, so that was excellent. Lots of TEB authors also won and placed in various catagories - so congratulations everyone!

Things that haven't happened yet:

Tuesday - I'll be over on Writer's Evolution. This week we are all talking about the Writer's life. Link in the right hand column.

Wednesday - I'm going to start a series of posts on this blog where I'll be talking about various kinks and what-not. I'll be taking one kink each week and working my way through what everything is and isn't about, along with how the various things show up in my writing.

This week I'm planning to get the ball rolling with the only Wednesday word that doesn't have anything to do with kink - Vanilla.

And that's it - a nice quiet week :)

Other news:

A bit quiet here too. (Note: This isn't a complaint! Come February I've got a string of release dates coming up, I'll be writting on an extra blog every week and I should have a yahoo group up and running, along with a few other projects. I'm enjoying being lazy while I have the chance, lol.)

I'm half way through my first draft of Fair Play.

I'm a third of the way through my first edit of Sealing the Deal.

Everything is ticking over quite nicely.

Have a good Monday everyone

Memo: Behind the curve

Hi everyone,

I know it's a bit late for resolutions.

I'm a bit behind the curve, but this year I'm going to try to use the Monday Memos to tell you about whatever is going on that week. That's the theory.

So, chats, releases, blogs, everything else, should be listed here the Mondy before it happens... or the Monday after it happens if my organisation fails me.

It's a nice easy Monday to break me into the idea. No releases or any big news to share with you about books. I don't have to be too organised today, lol.

But, I do have some exciting news about a new blog. I'm the resident rookie on the Writers Evolution blog. Everyone is introducing themselves this week as the blog gets up and running. My day is Tuesday, so I'll be there tomorrow.

There's another blog I may be writing on once a week starting next month, more about that when I have more details on it.

And from there, on to the next thing that's putting me slightly behind the curve at the moment...

I don't know if other writers have the same problem, but I'm suffering from something of a backlog of stories. Since I'm having my own personal new years admin thing over a week later than the rest of the world, I've been looking at what I did last year and what I want to do this year. That's what I'll be wondering about on my blog this Wednesday. Tune in then for more on that.

This month I'm also planning to set up facebook/myspace/yahoo group/anywhere else I'm supposed to be accounts. Maybe I'll try to set up one a week. We shall see.

Okay, that's it.

*Goes off to try and catch up with that damn curve she's always behind*

Memo: Confused

Hi everyone,

It's that time of year again, when thoughts look back over the last year and forward to the next.

2008 has been a great year for me, especially as far as my writing goes, so I'm feeling very fortunate right now. But I'm also making plans for next year, wondering what I'll do in 2009.

I know which projects I want to work on in January, and I have a fair idea of what will be happening in February, but after that it all gets a bit blurry. A lot depends on how things go for the projects I'm hoping to work on in those first two months. So, I'm at a bit of a loss.

New years resolutions are all well and good but you need a certain amout of foresight to be able to make ones that apply to the whole year, and I just can't see that far ahead right now.

There are lots of things I would like to get done next year, lots of things that I would love to write, or edit or submit. There are challenges I would like to tackle - different series, longer stories, different voices, different sub-genres - but at the same time, I'm really enjoying doing what I'm doing now.

And at the same time as all this, I don't think it's really possible to continue to edit and submit at my current rate forever, which means I should probably think about finding some sort of realistic balance in 2009.

*Rolls eyes at self*

I suppose what this memo is trying to say is simple. My current thoughts on the two years in question are as follows.

2008 - Very lucky.
2009 - Very confused.

Maybe by Wednesday I'll have wondered enough to make more sense. Not making any promises on that score!

*****

Other news:

No editing at the moment. Starting back January 1st.

Writing - 4000 words left on the novella I'm working on at the moment. I'm planning to finish that this month.

I'm also hoping to finish off a little project that is for some inexplicable reason taking me far longer than a novella. I'm writing a chapter for a Round Robin. 2000 words. That's all. I started it on December 5th. Since then I've damn near written three novellas. I still haven't finished the chapter. That's going to be done by the end of the month too.

I also need to update my website, I'm just waiting for a final decision on where In the Heat of the Moment will find it's final home so I can do it all at the same time.

More Memo: Secret Service

Secret Service went live on the Total-e-bound coming soon page. It's now got it's own page and I've got two stories under my name on my author page. If I've done it right, the cover art should link to the right page.

February 9th seems like a long way away right now.

Memo: Paranoia

Memo: When even the astrologists are picking on you, you have every right to be paranoid!

.

This is a copy of my stars that came through in the Newspaper Magazine this weekend.

.

On the one hand, it's great that someone who writes horoscopes seems to think I have talent (at least as much as the millions of other cancerians who read the same newspaper, lol).

.

On the other hand, yes, I do know that I didn't get through the entire list of things I wanted to do to promote The Gift last week. I didn't have a fantastic week health wise and I'd made a pretty huge list of things and places where I wanted to promote my story. I got quite a lot of it done, but I'm still working on finishing it.

.

I don't believe in astrology, but I'll admit that this one guy is freakily accurate when it comes to my own life. It makes me feel like the guy must be following me around and watching me over my shoulder to get it right so often.

.

So, yes, most of last week when on promting The Gift. This week I'm hoping to do more of the same.

.

On which note, the lovely Bronwyn Green has posted an interview with me on TEB author's blog. You can read that here.

.

Also, very excitingly, someone bought The Gift. And if that's not exciting enough, she liked it too. I recieved a lovely e-mail from a Norwegian m/m writer, and she's also posted her opinion on The Gift on her blog here.

.

I also had new cover art for the Night of the Sense BDSM Anthology which will include my m/f vampire story Whispers. I'll post the cover with the blurb in a seperate post.

What else do I have to update you on?

.

Between Tooth and Paw went to contract for inclusion in the Caught in the Middle MFM Anthology in May 2009. My editor is going to send me the edits on them this week.

.

I've done the big edit that In the Heat of the Moment needed. It will need at least another three go throughs before it's ready to submit. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the week. It's a short-ish story, so it's possible.

.

The story I'm writing at the moment - another short M/m one called Sealing the Deal - is at 9,000 words as of last night. That means I have 3,000 left to go on it, so that should be finished on Tuesday or Wednesday. It will hopefully go off to a publisher in January.

.

Did I forget anything? My head's still spinning in so many different directions, I probably did.

.

That's it from me anyway.

.

New cover art to follow in a seperate post.

Memo: December Already!

Note to self: Work out where the hell the first eleven months of the year went.

I have no idea how it can be December already. But it is, and I suppose I have to deal with the fact.

So, re-cap on November.

Sent off the two stories I wanted to send off. Secret Service was accepted. I only sent Between Tooth and Paw off a few days ago so I haven't heard about that yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it.

I finished writing the main project I wanted to write during the month - my Nanowrimo project - 56,000 on A Model Submissive. So, that's good. My other writing project was going to be a short story for an anthology, but, for a varity of reasons, I'm probably not going to sub it for that call - what I've written of it so far will probably be the starting point for one of a new series I'm working on.

And that brings me on to my plans for this month.

December...

I'm hoping to finish two short-ish writing projects that I'm starting from scratch. Each is the first story in two new series I'm working on.

I've also got two extending/re-write projects I'd like to work on - one is the next book in my ongoing series Perfect Timing. The other is the first story in yet another series I'm starting work on.

I'd like to get at least one of these projects - probably the story for the Perfect Timing series - edited and ready to submit to my editor.

As for what I'll actually get done this month - that's anyone's guess!

And, it's offically one week until The Gift is released! Very excited! Lots of exclaimation marks to come over the next seven days!

:)

Happy December everyone

Memo: It's not about writing!

Note to self: You occassionally have to make time for things that aren't writing.



It's recently been brought to my attention that I'm a bit obsessive about writing at the moment - to the extend that I'm not making time to do anything else.

So, this Sunday I decided to do a little bit of work on a project that hasn't seen much action for a long time. The photo is of a blackwork afghan sampler. (Blackwork is called that because it used to be stitched with black thread on a white background, more ecently people have used more colours.)

The geeky bit for anyone who likes sewing - it's a 7x9 square afghan, each design is 5 inchs by 5 inches. The afghan is 18 count, but it's stitched over two threads so the designs are nine stitches to the inch - so it grows quickly. Single thread for the design, tripple for the boarder. All done in simple running, back and holbein stitch.

Each square is a different pattern I designed and each is stictched in a differnt colour. I started it in August 2005, and I've been working on it in fits and starts, but I haven't done anything on it since October 2007.

I've got 15 squares left to stich up. It would be nice to finish it by next August - a whole four years after I started it!

It's pretty impossible to get a good photo of it. I'll have another go at some point, but this is the best I can manage at the moment. Here's a different angle, but it still doesn't really show up the designs.


And that's it.

But since I can't do a whole post without talking about writing:

The news in brief...

The Gift - it's coming out in a fortnight. I might actually get a count down wiggit for that!

Between Tooth and Paw - the big edit is done, a few finer edits left before I can print it out - hopefully the print out will happen on Wednesday.

A Model Submissive - I'm currently on 42,500 words. Haven't done any today, I'm about to go and do that now.

Monday Memo: Decisions, Decisions

Note to self: Make up your damn mind.

I have a decision to make.

Apart from a few that need to be extended a little bit, all the stories in the Perfect Timing series are written. They have to be edited and stuff, but they are written.

I'm hoping to finish my Nano novel by the end of the month, so I've turned my attention what which series I'm going to work on next.

Now, the series can be roughly split into two different types.

There's the ones I like. I like the plots, I like the characters, I want to write them. I'm looking forward to writing them. I run them over in my head and I want to sit down and right them right now. I smile when I think about the characters. I want to write them their happy ever afters.

Then there are the ones that I know, before I even start them, that I'm going to get even more attached to. I'm even more invested in these series than I am in my other series (and I'm pretty damn obsessive about them!). The individual stories are going to be longer, the characters will appear in several stories. There are more complicated plotting and continuity and characterisation issues, they deal with more complicated and more delicate subbjects.

My heart wants to write one of the later series next just becasuse it does... My head says I should pick the safe option and do one of the simpler series. I find I'm learning more and more as I'm writing, each draft I write shows up some of the things I learnt writing other stories in the past.

What if I'm just not ready to write one of the majorly complicated series yet? A little bit more practice, a little bit more polish, before I tackle them couldn't hurt. They would be better if I waited a while before I tackled them.

The stupid thing is, I know I've made the decision. I've made it over and over again, and I always come up with the same answer. I know what I'm going to work on in December. I just can't stop wondering if I'm making the right decision.

...

Other news:

I hit 50k! Technically that's a Nano finished, except only 31700 of that 50k was on actually on my nano, so I still have a way to go on that, but I'm up to date and it's going okay - nothing like I planned it, but still good.

Started editing Tooth and Paw today. Will report more when I'm done more to it and I can see where it's going more clearly.

That's it.

Happy Monday everyone.

Monday Memo: Re-write the damn thing!

Okay, time to get back up to date now.

Note to self: Once you realise something doesn't work, stop fussing about and just re-write the damn thing, you know you'll have to in the end.

Secret Service is finally gone. It was a bit of a bugger - I think I only managed to save about 3000 from my first draft, but the re-writes finally paid off once I stopped trying to fix something that would never work and just wrote most of it again from scratch. I also re-wrote the synopsis - only the first paragraph or two were accurate once I finished the re-write!

It's with my editor now, so I have my fingers crossed for it.

The Stroke of Twelve verdict is in. It didn't make it into the anthology I was originally aiming for (it didn't fit the tone set by the other stories in it), but TEB still liked it and I was offered a contract for it as a stand alone. It's now going to be extended into a novel length story and it's going to slip into my Perfect Timing series in place of Time Out, which is going to form the basis for a whole new series I have planed :)

I'm actually quite pleased. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to have been in the anthology, but I'm also really existed about extending the story and giving it room to grow into something a lot better than it is right now.

A Model Submissive - my nano project is slightly behind schedule. I should have been on 15k last night, I was on 14k. Hoping to catch up a bit tonight.

Okay... I think that's it. All up to date :)

Except one other announcement - there's a chat tonight with Total-e-bound authors on Night Owl Romance. It starts at 8 pm EST and runs to 10 pm EST. In British currancy, I think that translates to 1-3 am tomorrow morning.

I'll certainly be there at the start, and hopefully until quite a way through it.

Drop by if you can.

Monday Memo: Why?

Memo: Why a character does something is just as important as what that character does.

Character motivations have been a big thing for me over the last couple of weeks. I have one character that really can't settle on a good reason why he's doing the things he's doing. His personality keeps flickering around and he just won't get with the plan at all.

I know what he's going to do.

I've written what he's going to do.

But I can't finish the damn story until he admits defeat and just confesses why he's doing these things.

I've come to the conclusion that some things just have to be explained or they can't happen in a story. If a character says he dislikes something - not just isn't in the mood for it, but hates it on a really primal level - the reader needs to know why.

Come to that, the writer needs to know why to.

Alister, as he informs everyone very early on in the story, doesn't approve of kink. Okay - fair enough, not everyone does.

But the problem is, he keeps changing his mind about why he doesn't like it. Doesn't understand it? Thinks he understands it but has it all wrong? A bad experience in the past?

He's gone through every possible reason and some I didn't even know existed until I started writing this story - and I've played along and re-written the story for each new theory he's come up with.

It's a 20k story and I must have written about 50k on it so far.

Yesterday, four days before I want to send the story to my editor, he hit on a new theory.

It sounds plausible. It just might work. He might stick to this theory for more than two minutes.

I'm currently re-writing the last chapter to see how it works out for him this way.

Wish me luck people.

.....

Random bit of other news:

My Nano novel - A Model Submissive is on 4000 words as of last night - that characters in that are cooperating nicely.

Monday Memo: I'm hitting the hotspot today

Hi everyone :)

I'm not going to say much here today because it's my day on Hitting the hotspot - Total-e-bound's authors blog. You can read my post here. It's called The Kinky Code and it's all about acronyms and abbreviations relating to kink.

My first story has also popped up on TEB's coming soon page. It's called The Gift and you can see the blurb here. Really excited about that.

What else?

Between Tooth and Paw - the paranormal menage I'm drafting at the moment - is coming along well. (Even though I managed to someone lose a whole days worth of writing by pressing the wrong button!)

The editing on The Stroke of Twelve is also progressing. Hoping to send that off to my editor around the middle of the week.

And that's it.

Happy Monday everyone.

Memo: My coherant Plan

Monday Memo: There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for.

I shouldn't have told you I have the whole plan for this year worked out last week. It was an accurate statement at the time of print. That lasted about five minutes after I sent off the blog post.

My publication schedule changed a bit last week. Which means the titles I've had accepted for 2009 will come out more slowly. That means I actually have a bit more time before I need to send the next one in my own series off. That is why I've set The Morning After and All Grown Up aside for a little while.

I'm now throwing myself head first into anthology submissions for the next few weeks.

I started one last Thursday and finished the first draft yesterday. It's called Secret Service. It was a lot of fun to write. Even though the main characters insisted on switching their names around half way through the story. Sheridan wanted to be called Alistair and Alistair wanted to be called Sheridan. In the end I had to let them have their way, just to shut them up. It's a male/male BDSM novella.

I'm starting the next one today. It's called The Stroke of Twelve. It's another male/male BDSM. The characters don't have names yet.

What else do I have to tell you?

Okay, I'm sure this isn't going to be even vaguely exciting news for anyone else, but if you look here you will notice that the coming soon section now runs up to December 1st. My first release, The Gift, is due out on December 8th. That means either next week, or the week after if I'm the third title for that particular Monday, I'll have something listed in the coming soon section.

You have no idea how much that makes me grin :)

Off to get some work done now.

Happy monday everyone :)

Monday Memo: Happy Birthday

Memo:.....

Special birthday wishes and lots and lots of love going out to my mother today, on her special day :)

I've actually not got a lot else to report. I've had a very lazy weekend, followed by an almost equally lazy Monday.

I just really haven't got going.

Part of it is that I'm chwps with cold - we all are not the moment.

But, most of it is just... well, not having a lot of get up and go.

You see, I had this theory. I'd send Imperial Topaz off early so I'd have more time to work on All Grown Up. It needs to be extended from a novella into a novel, which means added about 10,000 words. I'm also planning two sub plots, which I'm hoping to weave into the main story. And I have a few new scenes planned.

Since I want to do all that by the end of the month having an extra week at it would have been a very good thing - that's logical, right?

I sent Imperial Topaz off on the 8th. Almost a week ago. All Grown Up is pretty much the same as I left it when I finished the last re-write of it a few months back.

Well, I will cut myself a bit of slack because I did the edits for the various stories that came back from my editor. That took me until Friday.

I also did the whole website re-jigging thing. That was most of yesterday's writing time gone.

But I don't really feel like I've got anything really done. I haven't got my teeth into anything.

I've done a bit of editing on All Grown Up. The first draft of The Morning After is progressing nicely, but not exactly at break neck speed.

I think that's it really. I'm just ticking over.

So, what am I going to do about that?

If I stop writing at 11pm, I have about two and a half hours working time left for today.

I'm going to attack The Morning After and add as many words as is possible to it.

Right. *Goes off to do that*

But not before one last.....

Monday Memo: persistance pays off

Note to self: By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

After having a bit of a struggle getting several plots in a row to behave themselves and turn into something like a readable story, I've started to somehow expect every project I tackle to be something of a swine until I beat it over the head with the keyboard for a long time.

The Morning After was a last minute addition to the Perfect Timing line up. I'll be completly honest, when I started writing the first sentence, I had no idea what the second sentence would be. I had a vague idea that I thought might somehow turn into a novella, but to be honest I wasn't optimistic.

After a couple of thousand words, I thought it was going to be the same as the last few, but I kept typing anyway. Because that's what you have to do sometimes, right? You type through the bad bits and keep repeating to yourself over and over again that whatever problems you can see in your first draft aren't anything that can't be fixed during the re-writes.

I'm now 5,500 words into it *touches wood*. The Morning After is actually shaping up quite nicely. The characters are coming together. A plot has taken shape. It's actually enough material between the characters for it to reach a novel length. And, well... yeah. It's actually going quite well.

On the editing side of things, I've re-jigged my plans a little and I've decided to tackle Imperial Topaz before All Grown Up. There's less that needs doing to Topaz and I think *fingers crossed* that it can go off by the end of the week.

Take care alll.