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Posts Tagged ‘goals’

ROW80 Check In 10/9

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 9, 2011| 16 Comments »

Hey there, fellow ROW80ers! How’s everyone doing?

I have nothing really earth shattering to report. For my main goal of an average of 500 words per day, I’m 382 words ahead. I took off on Friday because…well…I wanted to. LOL. That’s one reason I like to stay ahead, so I can have a day off here and there.

On the exercise front? Well, I did ride my bike one evening. My whole body was aching so badly the next morning that I had to take pain medicine. It was clear that riding a bike after not doing it for many years really takes a toll on a body that’s not so young anymore. But I have to keep at it. And I seriously need a bike carrier for my car. Have you ever tried to get a bike back into an HHR? I had the back seats laid down, but it took three of us to get it in. And it took us a long time. It’s funny how my husband got it in there that morning all by himself with no problems….

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ROW80 Round Three Wrap Up

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2011| 24 Comments »

My Round Three goals were:

1. Start and finish the second Libby Fox novella by writing at least 500 words per day.
2. Finish a short story to offer on Smashwords for free.
3. Proofread (again), format, and publish Haunted Lake in print.

Accomplishments:

1. I finished Secrets of the Wolf early by writing much more than 500 words per day. And published it.
2. Massive fail. I LOOKED at the story. But I realized I can’t write two stories at the same time.
3. I published Haunted Lake with CreateSpace in August.

I was mostly pleased with what I accomplished this round. The only thing I regret is how lazy I’ve been since finishing these projects. I know that there was no reason I HAD to do anything else until Round 4. but I should have been doing SOMETHING. Anyway, I can’t wait until Round 4 where I’ll be working on the third and final novella in the Libby Fox series. After that, I think I’m done with series! LOL

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ROW80 Check In 8/7/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 7, 2011| 16 Comments »

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. 🙂

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ROW80 Check In 8/3/11 + Frustration

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 4, 2011| 15 Comments »

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.

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ROW80 Check In 7/31/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 31, 2011| 20 Comments »

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.

How’s everyone else?

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ROW80 Check In 7/27/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 27, 2011| 6 Comments »

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. 🙂

How are the rest of you doing?

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ROW80 Check In 7/24/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 24, 2011| 24 Comments »

Hello, fellow ROW80ers! How is everyone doing?

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.

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ROW80 Check In 7/20 and Other Stuff

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 20, 2011| 21 Comments »

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. 🙂

So how is everyone else doing?

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ROW80 Check In and Book Cover Thoughts

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 17, 2011| 24 Comments »

As of last night, I was 1831 words ahead of my cumulative goal. At one point, I was 2331 words ahead, but I opted for lying on the couch instead of writing due to a sore throat and a migraine. I plan on writing a little more than my word count goal tonight.

On another note…it’s very true that book covers can make a difference in book sales. My cover artist and I recently decided to change the cover on my novel, Starfane. This novel is her favorite and my mom’s favorite (it’s definitely the steamiest). It never has sold as well as I hoped, but when we changed the cover recently, sales definitely picked up. When Anya first started doing my covers, I couldn’t afford to pay her, and she didn’t have a good program to work from. Now I can pay her and she has a good design program. This book is about three men (and the heroine), but it also takes place in a magical world which I think the new cover depicts. What do you think about the difference in the covers? The old one looks very amateurist. (Anya thinks the old cover might lead people to believe it’s a male menage a trois, LOL)

Old cover

New Cover

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ROW80 Check In 7/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 13, 2011| 20 Comments »

As of last night, I was more than 2,000 words over my cumulative goal of 500 words per day. That means I could goof off for four days and not be behind. :0) But I’m not going to do that, I promise. But it does allow me to take a day off here and there in case I need to. I like to get ahead so that I won’t be behind if things happen that are beyond my control.

Also, as I stated in my last post, I put three of my books on All Romance Ebooks website (I hope to get the rest of them on this week). As of last night, I had already sold three copies. If you are thinking about doing this, you might want to check out yesterday’s post to see the mistakes I made so you won’t repeat them. LOL

I have Haunted Lake pretty much formatted the way I want it for print. I just need to change the font on the chapter headings. I found a nice little “cabin on the lake” graphic to put on the title page, so that was cool. Mostly, all I lack now is printing it out to see how it will look and going over it again to make sure there are no errors. And I’m also waiting on my cover designer, Anya Kelleye, to do the cover. She’s really busy with something else right now, but when she gets started, she’s quick. And good. :0)

How are the rest of you doing?

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