kai

ah, yes. i write. some times.

It occurs to me that I have neglected to report my writing progress of late. Not that there is much progress to report. Cold-suffering kids, cranky kids, cuddle-wanting kids; evening time brain numbness; the siren-song lure of fantasy novels and my own lack of self-discipline have made the progress slow.

However.

I did finish tinkering with that synopsis.

And I took advantage of D. being home on weekends to disappear into my room to write. I’ve got 6,410 words on Kai’s book (title, please?) to show for it. This is my How to Think Sideways novel and I’ve had success using some of Holly’s tricks to come up with plot goodness. Clustering, character and world worksheets, and the Law of Unintended Consequences have been my friends. My Muse (or subconscious or brain or spleen or whatever part of me that does the creative thing) is keeping about two scenes ahead of me, which is fine. It’s a bit boring to have the whole book charted out ahead of time. I like my unexplored off-the-edge territories and the parts labeled Here Be Dragons. Specifically, I like throwing my characters into those areas and seeing what they can scare up. Heh.

My goal for the month is to get my wordcount for this book up to 12K.

mid-week ramblings

Got over 3K words on the new book. Can I just say that the romance in this story is going to be SO much fun to write?

I still get a warm fuzzy contented feeling when I think back on Saturday. D. took the older kids and went out the entire morning and early afternoon. Left to ourselves, the baby and I played, puttered around, wrote (well, I did that and A. offered moral support), had lunch, rested. It was great (and most of my wordage is from that morning).

I wish I had bought that secondhand piano when I had the chance. Ah well, there will be other pianos.

Can I say that synopses are darn hard to write? Yes? Okay:

Synopses. Are. Darn. Hard. To. Write!

I just reached the how-to-revise portion of How to Think Sideways course. I’m totally psyched! SoR needs major work and if I can fix it in just one more pass-through, I’ll be a happy camper.

Speaking of SoR, I have way too many irons in the fire. Kai’s book to write. SoR to revsie and submit. Several shorts waiting to have something done to (and with) them.

I need a plan.

No, make that A Plan. A Big Plan. With lists, deadlines and spreadsheets!

How’s your week going?

my husband, the enabler

The economy must not be doing so great. I didn’t get a single free calendar in the mail at the end of last year. Not from my alma mater. Nothing from our insurance agent. No calendar love at all.

Since I can’t function without a calendar (I’ve been scheduling everything in my head and if you’ve been around me for any length of time, you’d know that’s a risky risky thing), I asked D. to pick one up.

So, that man comes home last evening with a calendar featuring, in large gorgeous pictures, twelve months of opulent lusicious eye-opening, drool-inducing… CAKES!

With recipes.

As though I’m not enough of a chocoholic and dessert freak. Now I have to cook and clean in my kitchen while heavenly decadence stares me in the face. Creamy cheesecakes with edible flowers. Layered chocolate cakes slathered in yet more chocolate. Blueberry and sour cream treats. Oh my!

You know that I’m going to be baking up those yumm-a-licious desserts. Resistance is futile.

***

On the other hand, enabling is not always a bad thing.

Last night, I worked on more pre-planning for Kai’s book. I have a great MC with a dark past, in search of redemption. I have a love interest. I have some fun physics going on. I have a world in danger.

Except I didn’t quite know what the world was in danger from.

After making a list of all the usual suspects: wild magic, Dark Lords, mysterious plagues, foreign invasions, treachery from within, blah, blah, boring, been there, done that, ho-hum, I asked D. for input. He happily obliged and between the two of us, we managed to create way cool danger based on the special physics of the world. Everytime I brainstorm with D., I end up with these funky worlds. Quartz, for instance, was a flat world in eternal darkness. This one is… well, I’m going to hug the secret close for a bit.

Suffice it to say, I am excited about this story again!