At 10:40 PM Tuesday, August 9, I finished the second novella in the Libby Fox series. I finished almost 10,000 words ahead of where I was supposed to be at this point. I wrote 2800 words tonight, which is a first for me since starting ROW80. That may not be a lot of words for some of you, but it’s a lot for me. My hands hurt, my butt hurts from sitting…but my heart is light. 🙂
I agonized a little over the ending. It’s probably going to make a few readers mad, but it will also make them want to read the final novella if they want to finish the story. (I still think it could be read as a stand alone story.) And I did put at the end to watch for the next novella in December. Yeah, I know it’s not a good idea to mentioned a release date, but unless something really bad happens, I should be able to do it. I wasn’t sure whether or not to end it the way I did, but in the end, I had to do what felt right. I was in Libby’s head so deeply that I had to write what she wanted me to.
So now what do I do? Of course there will be editing, but I also should be able to work on my short story that I started. And I’m also getting Starfane ready for print. But top priority will be editing right now. Wow…I can’t believe I’m done.
I can see the finish line! As of Friday, I was 9163 words ahead of my goal. I took off from writing yesterday to do some power shopping with a friend (I was gone 11 hours!), and it was a much needed break. As of yesterday, then, I was 8663 ahead of my goal. And this is the cool thing. I only have a chapter or two left to go on my novella. Because of the writing pace I’m setting, I’m getting done a lot more quickly than I thought I would. That means I have more time for editing and getting this work out before round four starts. I may even have time to work on my short story.
And that’s another thing I found out about myself. One of my goals for this round was to work on my short story in between times of working on my main project. But I found out that I can’t work on two writing projects at the same time. Not actual writing. I can write one story and edit another. Or I can write one story and format another for print or E. But I just can’t focus on writing two stories at the same time. It’s too distracting, and I feel like it dilutes one or the other.
I may take one more day off from writing before writing those final scenes. I need to let things stew a little and think about what I really want to do. I know there’s going to be a pretty intense love scene (not necessarily a SEX scene) close to the end. I’ve got to figure out how I can end this novella satisfactorily and still leave it open for the final book in the trilogy. We shall see. 🙂
Today I submitted Haunted Lake to CreateSpace for a print version. I’m really nervous, and I think my cover designer, Anya Kelleye, is nervous, too. The cover is going to be iffy. I love it, but sometimes there’s an issue with color on this particular cover. And it looks different on the computer screen than it does when I print it out on our color laser here at work. Also, I hope all the errors in the interior have been fixed. When Anya and I did the print version for Jonathan Eli’s book, The Last Cabbandeum, we were delighted at how it turned out. Her cover was perfect. The interior I did looked great. So, hopefully, we did okay on this one. If not, we can always redo it and order another proof. It costs more to do that, but it has to be right.
After this, I’m going to work on getting Starfane in print. Then, I’m going to do a three novella set in one book with Club Blood, See Me, and Guardian Vampire. I may have said this before, but I joked about calling it “Loving the Dead and the Undead”. :0)
No, my frustration isn’t actually with my ROW80 goals. I’m 7864 words ahead of my goal on my current WIP. And I have Haunted Lake ready for print. All is good on that front.
This is my frustration. I never wanted to write a series. I was doing perfectly fine writing stand alone books. But then some readers emailed me and asked me for a series. So I thought I would try one. I released Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse in June. I’m currently working on the second novella of the Libby Fox series. Here’s the problem…Dark Relic isn’t selling worth a crap. (See, I’m frustrated, because I never use that word in my blog.) Every one of my previous books is outselling it. I thought the whole purpose of making sure you’re constantly putting new material out there is to keep your sales up, and get people to also buy your backlist. But my backlist is what’s selling. No matter what I do, Guardian Vampire continues to be my best seller. What is it about that book that sells? Although, maybe I need to think about something else. Hmmm. Haunted Lake is now keeping up with Guardian Vampire. And that book took seven months to really start selling. So maybe it’s going to take time. I just don’t know. I think Dark Relic has a better cover than Guardian Vampire. Is it the title? Am I just being impatient? Grrrrr.
I’ve been trying my best to get back into exercising and eating right. It’s hard to believe that I actually still have size 6 jeans hanging in my closet. Actually I have 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16…. It’s time to get serious about this. I have a treadmill, Bowflex, Wii, and free weights. I have no excuse. I have a friend who likes to be outdoors and we used to go walking a lot, but I get really bored with just walking, though.
A few weeks ago, my friend and her husband bought bicycles. Then they went on a trip to Virginia to the Virginia Creeper Trail to ride bikes. She had a blast. Although, she did have a couple of bicycle wrecks, LOL. Anyway, she’s been after me to buy a bike so we could ride together. I finally did it Saturday. We went to a sporting goods store and I bought a Diamondback Serene Classic Comfort Bicycle. Yeah, a comfort bike…because it’s all about the seat for me. Anyway, I’m excited to get started. If only it wasn’t so stinkin’ hot right now! Heat indexes close to 100 are not fun. Wish me luck!
As of last night, I was 6522 words ahead of my cumulative goal. I feel like my story is slowing down a bit, but I think it will pick back up.
Also, one of the goals I didn’t state at the beginning is that I’m working to get my novel, Haunted Lake, in print. I’m in the process of proofreading it one last time. I have it printed out in the format in which it will go to CreateSpace, so I’ll be able to see any formatting errors, too. I’m over halfway through that read. And, I’ll have to say, I’m really enjoying reading it. I think it’s still my favorite of all the books I’ve written.
I took a day off from writing yesterday. I didn’t feel well last night and only felt like lying on the couch. I didn’t even play a Big Fish computer game. Anyway, so far, I’m about 6500 words ahead of my goal. That’s 13 days ahead. I still have this horrible fear of running out of steam. But, so far, so good.
G.I.T. progress? I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes while watching Angel on my little DVD player. Hey, it’s a start! I’m in horrible shape, so I have to start small. Thanks to Kait Nolan for sharing her G.I.T progress with us and letting us use the term, too. 🙂
As of last night, I was 5,332 words over my goal of 500 words per day. I should be at 10,000, but am at 15,332. I haven’t written yet today, since I always write in the evenings. I should get even more ahead because I have some ideas for the next scene that will be more than 500 words worth.
I’m a little concerned about in what direction this story is going. There was some violence in the last scene that I didn’t know was going to happen. Some of it was close to being a little “unusual”, and I don’t know where that came from. I haven’t written anything like that since I wrote Starfane. But the story will go where it goes. I usually let my characters do what they want to do. But it’s going way beyond a PG rating at this point, at least in my opinion.
Well, so far so good. I still seem to be on a roll here. I’m 3500 words over my cumulative goal. I don’t know where this is coming from because I’m usually taking days off when I get ahead, so that I end up about right on target. I’ve actually taken three days off since this challenge began and still am way ahead. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I don’t stray. LOL
My husband parked in the garage yesterday, so when I left for work this morning I had to actually go outside. It felt like I was in a rain forest or something. It was hot and muggy already at 7:30. But I got to thinking how pretty it is at my house. I live kind of back in the woods where everything is green. I wonder if all the green is what makes it really muggy at my house. I had never thought about that.
Also, when I got to work this morning, I realized our air conditioner wasn’t working. We are supposed to have highs in the mid 90’s and who knows what the heat index might be. And this is why I love my boss…he told me to go back home and work. So I gathered all of the stuff I needed to work from home and came back here where it’s so much cooler. I love working from home because it involves shorts, t-shirt, and bare feet. 🙂
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