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Archive for April, 2014

Scheduling My Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 30, 2014| 15 Comments »

I only got 2205 words written this week. But I’m soooo close to the goal I set on my Supernatural (Sam & Dean!) spreadsheet. So close. It said last night I needed to write 2561 words per day to meet my goal. I have only one day left. Today. It’s church night, so I really don’t think I can do it. But I WANT to so badly! What should I do? Could I handle an after church writing marathon???

I think one of the biggest problems I’ve had with writing is I’m not really scheduling my time. Yes, I have an idea in my head about what I want to do but…look, there’s another cool Big Fish Game. And I have a free credit, so I can download it! Um, where was I? Oh yeah. Anyway, I think schedules need to be WRITTEN DOWN. And then adhered to as best one can. It’s especially important that I get my schedule worked out because I have four proofreading jobs from now until the end of July. I’m just glad they didn’t all come in at once. LOL.

So here’s what I’m thinking for May:

Monday-Tuesday: Work on a cozy mystery I’m thinking of writing under a different pen name
Thursday-Saturday: Work on whatever my WIP is under Lauralynn Elliott
Sunday & Wednesday: No writing
Monday-Friday during lunch (and possibly Saturday): Work on my proofreading jobs

What do you think? Does this schedule make sense? Do YOU make schedules for yourself?

And don’t forget…if you need content editing, line editing (proofreading), formatting for ebooks, or all of these, check out The Forge: Affordable Book Finishing

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A Little Teaser from Fire Wizard

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on April 23, 2014| 7 Comments »

I wasn’t sure if it was fair to post an excerpt so soon since the book won’t be out, probably, until the end of June. But I just couldn’t help myself *grins wickedly*

fire

Thirty minutes later, the scanner came to life, a voice shouting out information and orders. Finn pulled on his clothes from the day before and started out the door, pulling his hair into a band to get it out of the way. He jumped into his Jeep and took off down the winding mountain road as fast as he dared. When he got to the fire, he saw there were two houses involved, and it looked like the whole fire department was trying to contain this one.

Since the other fires had been so hot they couldn’t put them out, it looked like the first thing on the firefighters’ agenda was to saturate the surrounding houses and lawns to make sure the fire didn’t spread. Finn watched helplessly as the men and one tiny woman fought to hold the blazes back. He wanted so badly to help, but what could he do? Fire wizards could only take back their own fires. They weren’t able to do a thing about fires started by others.

He rushed to one of the firefighters who was working with a hose, and asked, “Were there any people in the fire?”

“Entire families in both. We couldn’t get them out.”

That’s when he saw her. The woman who was constantly on his mind. She was sitting in the grass sobbing, and her boss was trying to console her, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. He knew what had happened…she had rushed in to try to save the people in the houses and wasn’t able to. Could she possibly be what he was beginning to suspect she was? A female? He shook his head. The council would have known.

Suddenly, she locked eyes with him, and a strange thrill went through his body. Why was she affecting him like this? She jumped up and started toward him, and he quickly disappeared into the shadows, his breath coming fast. He couldn’t let her see him. He knew she suspected him of being an arsonist. Finn knew they had a tendency to stay around and watch the fire they set, and she had seen him at every fire. He should have been more careful.

He was finally able to get to his car and drive off before she found him. From now on, he needed to keep himself hidden from this observant woman. He was hoping there wouldn’t be another opportunity for her to see him, but he knew if the council couldn’t find the rogue wizard soon, there would be another fire. And another. He wouldn’t stop. It was worse than being an arsonist. Fire wizards could get high on starting fires if they weren’t careful. The feeling of power surging through them was addictive, and that’s why they were trained to control themselves and their feelings at an early age. Sometimes, although it was rare, the training didn’t take. Or the control eroded. From what Finn knew of their history, this hadn’t happened in a very long time. He hoped the council could get this taken care of and fast.

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Oops – A Little Late with my Update

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

I totally forgot to post yesterday. There’s not a lot going on anyway. I’m still working on a couple of other things that need to get done. I finished one and am almost finished on another, then one more. I’m not writing as many days as I want to (one day this past week), but I seem to be writing more at each session. I remember back when I could only seem to write about 500 words per day. But I wrote more days. On Friday, I wrote almost 2000 words in one session. So that’s like 4 days worth back in the old days. LOL. I’m hoping to get back to writing 3-4 days a week. Work is slowing down just a bit here at the full time job, so my brain power won’t be as depleted at the end of the day. Our church is doing a food thing for the homeless shelter this week, and I’ve never served at a shelter before, so that’s going to be an experience. That’s going to take up some of my time, but I think this is something that will be well worth it. As important as writing is to me, my spiritual growth is MORE important to me. If I strive to be a better person, I think life will improve in all areas. 🙂

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Falling Behind on Everything!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 17, 2014| 12 Comments »

Yikes! Mostly what I’m falling behind on is visiting blogs. I have a LONG list of emails where I’ve been notified of blog posts. Now I have to make the decision whether or not to try to catch up with all of them, or delete them and start over. I have been able to read and comment on a few here and there, but I’m getting more than I can handle in my email. I’m starting to feel overwhelmed. So if I haven’t commented on your blog in awhile, and I usually do, it’s just a time issue.

I’m falling behind on my current book, too. There are legitimate reasons for this, mostly other things I need to do. But I hope I can dedicate Saturday to my writing AND to some of the other things I need to finish. I will be mad if someone tries to take up my time on Saturday. That day is MINE! I had to go on a work trip this past weekend, so I pretty much will have worked 12 days straight with no time off. I need Saturday. Desperately.

My husband has been out on medical leave since mid-December. He’s feeling great right now, but he’s still not allowed to go back to work. The good thing is, he’s getting really antsy, so the house is staying clean, plus some little projects are also getting done. He’s also done a couple of major things outside. I’ve been a little worried that he’s overdoing it on those things, but he’s a grown man, and I have to trust him to know how he feels. If he can do those things, he can definitely work, but the doctor has the final say on that. When hubby goes back to work, I guess I’ll have to help with the housework again (FlyLady, I’m coming back to you!). I’m going to try not to fall behind on THAT. When housework falls behind, it seems you can never catch up!

So what do you all do when you fall behind? Do you feel overwhelmed? How do you handle it?

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ROW80 Update 4/9/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 9, 2014| 20 Comments »

My Supernatural Spreadsheet says I’m on track to meet my goal for April. 🙂 It tracks your daily word count average and your goals based on what you have entered, and it will tell you how you’re doing. Like after I keyed in my progress for Jan-Mar, it said in each month “This month is over. Better luck next month”. Since I want my spreadsheet to be proud of me, I must meet my April goal. Hey, it’s Sam and Dean, ya know?

I’m still working on Fire Wizard, although I would like to set aside a little time for my cozy mystery. We’ll see how that goes. I’m working on a proofreading job for an author, too, and that’s always fun because I get to READ. I just have to read more carefully and slowly. And make red marks. I’m thinking of changing to purple…. 🙂

I’m also preparing for a trip to Asheville, NC for a work trip. I think I’ll enjoy that one.

Busy, busy. How about the rest of you?

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Goals for 2014 Round 2

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on April 7, 2014| 22 Comments »

Is is REALLY time for Round 2? Seriously? It seems like just yesterday….

Anyway, I’ve tried to find a doable word count goal. I’ve done those in the past, and I’ve done time goals. Daily goals, weekly goals, on and on. It’s so hard to find a good fit. Then I saw these spreadsheets. Word Count Spreadsheets. How can you not love a spreadsheet with Sam and Dean? I have my own word count spreadsheet, but these spreadsheets are full of awesome! And if you’re more into fantasy, check out THESE. It got me thinking about a MONTHLY word count. That way, if I have a bad week, I can still make up for it with a good week. I’m going to give that a shot and try for 15,000 words per month. The spreadsheets have all kinds of bells and whistles, letting you know how you’ve done, what you still need to do, percentages, etc. This website is also where I got my word count meter.

Now on to another thing. I have an idea for a…hmmm, what shall we call it? Cozy mystery? Romantic mystery? There will be a romance and a murder mystery. There will be food involved. And it will be okay, because it’s part of what the shero does, so no one can say I’m talking about food too much. I’m looking at you, Pink Hammer. Bwa ha ha. And this is where I have to decide if I’m going to use Lauralynn or my real name or another pen name. I’ve been seriously thinking about creating a publishing company so I can publish under that imprint for two different names. The only drawback to doing this is that I would need to buy my own ISBN numbers instead of letting Smashwords (for ebooks) and CreateSpace (for print books) assign the ISBN, which would show those two entities as publishers. I would like some opinions and feedback on this. If I understand the process correctly, you have to have one ISBN for print and another for ebooks. But I THINK you can use the same ISBN number for the ebooks at all retailers. You just can’t use the same one for e and for print. Is this correct?

So that’s all for now. I would love to hear your comments!

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