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Posts Tagged ‘check in’

ROW80 Check In 1/15/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2012| 16 Comments »

First…if you haven’t checked out my previous post for today, do it! There’s a giveaway! When I scheduled that post, I had forgotten it was the same day as a ROW80 check in day. But I HAD to do it today because, well, it’s my birthday. 🙂

Anyway, back to the subject of this post. I’m a little bit ahead of my cumulative word count. I didn’t do my 30 minutes a day on proofing the print book, but I spent about an hour and a half on it today, so I made up for a few days. I’ve enjoyed this proofing because I had forgotten how much I loved one of the stories in this collection, See Me. It has a little more humor than most of my books. Exercise and housework has been a massive fail. And I have an excuse for this. I got hooked on The Vampire Diaries and was watching several episodes a night on Netflix. That show is addictive. I’m happy to say that I’m caught up now and will only be watching it once a week on TV. I’m watching the original Dark Shadows on Netflix now, but I’m not getting caught up in it, so next week I’ll be taking time to do what I’m supposed to instead of drooling over Damon watching The Vampire Diaries.

Anybody doing better than me on exercise? I hope so!

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ROW80 Check In 1/11/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 11, 2012| 22 Comments »

The first couple of days this week have been okay. I’ve managed to keep ahead on my word count. I’ve written the last two days, although this book is HARD to write (see my previous post). I just have to hang in there and see what happens when I’m finished. It may be good, it may be crap. I exercised Monday, but not last night. I had to help a friend with something and I didn’t get home until late. I had just enough time to write my 500+ words. So that also means I got no housework done, nor did I get any proofing done on my print book. But I have the rest of the week to make up for that. And helping a friend was worth it.

On a very pleasant note…my free story on Smashwords, The Beast in the Mirror, is getting lots of downloads. I got a 5 star review almost immediately after publishing. I now have another 5 star and a 4 star review there. I’m pleased with that because that story is dear to my heart. It’s still .99 on Amazon. I told them it was free on Smashwords, but it may take awhile for them to make it free on Amazon. And people are actually buying it for .99 and haven’t yet complained that it’s a short story. Of course, it states clearly in the description how short it is.

How are the rest of you doing so far this week?

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ROW80 Check In 1/8/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 8, 2012| 20 Comments »

I’m feeling pretty good about my progress this week. I skipped two days of writing this week and still managed to be ahead of my cumulative goal by 781. That’s because I had a really good word count on two of the days I wrote. I was kicking butt on word count yesterday, but then a friend called and needed me. That broke my concentration. But sometimes there are more important things than writing. I’m finding Wednesday to be the hardest day for goals because as soon as I get home from work, I’m already starting the process of getting ready for church. Then it’s 8:30 before I get home and I’m tired.

I didn’t keep my goal of 30 minutes per day on proofing one of my books for print, but I worked on it a lot yesterday, so I probably made up for most of it.

I was 2/3 successful on the exercise front. I exercised two out of the three days I was supposed to, so I need to do better next week.

I did okay on the housekeeping goal, although not great. On some of these things I have to take baby steps until I get back into a good routine.

How did the rest of you do? I’d love to hear!

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ROW80 Check In 1/4/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 4, 2012| 12 Comments »

We’ve only had two days to work on our goals since we posted them, but I’m pretty pleased so far. On Monday, I wrote about 650 words, and last night I wrote over 1,000. Not bad since my goal is 500 per day.

As far as my other goals are concerned, I didn’t do anything on them on Monday, but I knocked all of them out yesterday. One household chore, thirty minutes of exercise, and thirty minutes proofing for a print book.

How about the rest of you? How did you do the past two days?

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Quick ROW80 Check In 11/30/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 30, 2011| 19 Comments »

Just a quick check in since I’m at work and I’m SWAMPED with figuring prices and making spreadsheets.

I finished the third (and last) Libby Fox novella Sunday night. I think the cover is ready. I just need to 1) Edit, 2) Send to beta readers, 3) Think of a title!

Also, I sent my Starfane files to CreateSpace and have ordered a proof copy. Keeping my fingers crossed that it looks ok.

How are the rest of you doing?

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ROW80 Check In 11/27/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 27, 2011| 8 Comments »

Last night I came here into my office to finish the third Libby Fox book. After writing 1193 words, I STILL have another scene left. This is a good thing, though. I was worried about how short it was going to be, but both times I tried to finish it, another scene leading up to the final one made its appearance. So it won’t be quite as short as I feared. After this, I’m done with series. I’m all about the new and shiny thing. I also want to concentrate on novels instead of novellas. More about that in Round One of next year.

Did all of you in the U.S. have a nice Thanksgiving? What did you do? Did any of you outside the U.S. have any kind of holiday? Or at least a good weekend?

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ROW80 Check In 11/23/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 23, 2011| 6 Comments »

Well, I thought I would be finished with my third Libby Fox novella by now. I did add a little over 1100 words to it the other night. I thought I would only have the love scene to go, but I realized I needed a scene to lead up to the love scene. I was really worrying about this novella being about 2000 words shorter than I wanted it to be, but with that extra scene added, I think it’s going to be okay. Plus, I think I need to flesh out some other things in the story. I’m looking forward to these two days off so I can really work on writing stuff!

For those of you that didn’t see my last post on weight loss and are interested in a good calorie counting app for your Droid (don’t know if it’s available for other operating systems), it’s just called Calorie Counter and it’s by FatSecret. It’s had in its database almost every food I’ve looked up. Mostly what it’s lacking is drinks, like the strawberry lemonade at O’Charley’s. But that has to have LOTS of calories anyway, so I opted for unsweetened tea. 🙂

Also, I was complaining the other day that I wasn’t going to be able to cook on Thanksgiving. But we’ve decided to have Thanksgiving on Friday, and both of my boys are coming with their wife/girlfriend. Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! (Yes, I’m from the south.)

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ROW80 Check In 11/20/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 20, 2011| 10 Comments »

I’ve written nothing. I hope to change that tonight. I should actually have the final scene of the last Libby Fox written up tonight, so I should be wrapping up that first draft.

These are the three things I need to do immediately.

1) Finish the Libby Fox novella, do my first edits and proofreading, and get it sent out to beta readers.

2) Upload my files for Starfane to CreateSpace. (I have no idea why I haven’t done that yet!)

3) Upload my free short story to Smashwords and other places that allow free. A little glitch in this project is that a beta reader wanted me to expound on some things in the story. The point to this story was to be short, sweet, and free. But she loved the story and wanted a little more, especially in a couple of areas. Now my question is…do I spend the time to make the changes or not? Really, even though it’s free, the story should be the best it can be, right? So what if I have to wait a little longer to put it out there. If I can make the story better, I should. Hmmm, I think I just made my decision! 🙂

Thanksgiving
I don’t know what I’m going to do this year. My mom decided to take off to Ohio to visit with her brothers. My oldest son is married now and lives a hour away. He has to work Thanksgiving evening, so he won’t be coming over. My brother is going to go to Ohio to pick up Mom, so he won’t be here. My youngest son will be at his girlfriend’s house most of that day. My husband and I have been invited to Atlanta to his brother’s. But I WANTED to cook! 😦 Maybe I can have everyone over after Thanksgiving. But I’m really a little bummed about everyone being gone. I’ve just gotten used to cooking for everyone on Thanksgiving.

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ROW80 Check In 11/16/11 & Grammar

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 16, 2011| 17 Comments »

I haven’t written on my WIP in several days. But this is kind of a planned thing. The reason is that I’m almost finished with the first draft…maybe only one scene left. So I’ve been pondering on how I want to do this last scene. It’s going to be a love scene, and I always want to make those intense. I don’t write as graphically as most romance authors do these days, but I like the intensity and the heat without describing body parts. LOL. I don’t mind reading the works of others with more graphic scenes; I just don’t write that way. If I ever do, I would probably use another pen name. 🙂

One problem I have with this last Libby Fox novella is that it’s shorter than the other two. Really, it may come out about 2,000 words shorter than I want it to. We’ll see if that’s how it ends up after the first edit. I’m not one of those who goes back in and cuts scenes. I’m more likely to add them.

I have a question for everyone. Is there one phrase or word that you say that makes you cringe after you say it? Is it something you would never dream of doing in your writing? I’ve noticed one of my big problems is using the word “less” instead of “fewer”. I grew up in the rural south (still live there) surrounded by people with bad grammar. So from time to time, I cringe at some of the things I say. When my mom is in a restaurant ordering salad, she says “I don’t want no cheese”. That drives me crazy. (Not to mention the fact that there’s something wrong with someone who doesn’t like cheese, LOL.) So ‘fess up. What do you say that makes you cringe?

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ROW80 Check In 11/13/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 13, 2011| 25 Comments »

I’ve been on a business trip in Tampa this weekend (yeah, I know, I was just in Orlando), but I’ve found some time to write. On my current WIP, I managed to get 864 words ahead of goal, even skipping Saturday. That was because of the 1500 word sprint on Friday. For some reason, the words just came. I skipped Saturday because I just wanted to rest on my last day here, especially since we’re leaving at 7:00 this morning! Bleh.

Also, while I was manning a booth at a rose show, I was able to finish the short story I started awhile back. I had done about 650 words and stopped. The story is now about 4900 words. That means I wrote about 4250 words while manning a booth! I’ve never written that many words in one day before, and I did it between customers. This story just starting coming out and it felt good, so I did it. LOL. The tentative name of the story is The Beast in the Mirror. I’m going to offer it for free on Smashwords, and maybe if I start it at .99 on Amazon, I can “tell them about a cheaper price” and they will mark it down to free. Or I could give it away on my website. Which should I do? All of the above? I have it with a beta reader right now, and I’m also going to beg Anya to make the cover art for free. LOL.

Question: Did you or are you going to publish the first book you ever wrote? The reason I ask this is that there’s a thinking in the writing world that your first novel has to be crap and it should be just practice. You should never publish the first novel you write. Well, I broke that rule and published my first novel. I have eight novels/novellas out right now, and an author friend asked me the other day if I didn’t wish I hadn’t published the first thing I wrote. The truth is that my first novel has been my third best seller out of the eight for awhile now. And it has a better rating average than most of my other ones. So what’s the downside of publishing it? I can’t see one. I know this is going to have to be an individual choice for each author. So what are you going to do?

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