Chapter 9 is FINALLY done!

2284 words.

Happy birthday to me! ;)

11:30 Sunday night

I've been sitting here awhile futzing off, but it's time to get to work. Had an incredibly busy - but nice - weekend that included going to DM with Bill and staying in a hotel, visiting my mom and Bill's dad, shopping for new shirts, my 30 year high school reunion, seeing Brave, a whole pile of errands and - maybe - coming up with a name for the kitten.

I'm thinking Trouble. Because she's ornery. ;)

And, oh, my 48th birthday is tomorrow. :)

Anyway, I'm back onto the last scene in chapter 9, where Sean decides to track down the fungus.

Cover me, Dano, I'm going in!

It's the solstice

Chapter 9 is kicking my butt. I've written and ripped more words than I care to admit, and it's screwy. I know what happens, what Sean needs to learn, to *do* but it just keep going splat. It's very aggravating and I can't move the story forward until he does these things, but he doesn't want to and we just keep splatting.

Grr.

Otherwise, things are regular-busy around here. Someone has her very first cold - mostly runny nose and an occasional cough, no fever - and it's making her kinda cranky, poor kid. She really hates having her nose wiped. We're down to 4 cats. Laura had her wisdom teeth out and has been home all week because she doesn't feel good either. Bill's back at the local posty office, mostly sitting around bored, sometimes transferring vehicles between post offices, or delivering rush packages. I've sewn, a little, but nowhere as much as I probably should, considering we're halfway to Christmas. I'm bloated, my legs at least, because of heat - it happens every summer. Sigh. Been trying to budget, to cook more, to clean more, all the while glowering at chapter 9.

I'm about to rip out Sean's second interview on his front steps for the 4th or 5th time. Gak, I hope I can get it to behave - or at least be interesting - this time.

Update:

Chatted w/ a friend at Forward Motion about the scene and totally redid it from scratch. MUCH better now. 684 words so far (probably for the night because it's almost 12:30 and I still have to do dishes, clean the kitchen, and get to bed, sometime yet tonight. ;))

Go Spore!!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Yesterday was a busy one, so many things to just get done. I took the old synopsis for Morgan and reworked it, rewriting a lot, and cut it from eight to six pages while keeping in most of the details and subordinate characters (like Trish and Ranger). Today, I trimmed it further to just under three pages and it contains only Morgan, Nick, Darcy and Libbey. Super streamlined. A few teensy-tweaky line edits and it ought to be ready to go!

So, tonight, I'm back on Spore! Just settling in - it's quarter after 10 - and will re-read chapter nine before I begin nine.

Go Spore!! :)

An update before settling in to work.

It's been a crazy couple of days.

There are two separate but similar agent contacts in progress.

First, Lisa (L.J. Cohen). She loved Spore and sent it to her agent (at The Knight Agency). Her agent didn't rep my kind of stories, but she really liked Spore, so she's sent it on to another agent in the agency. I haven't heard anything since, but I'm quite hopeful.

Second, Catie (C.E. Murphy) contacted her agent (at Donald Maass Literary Agency) about her (Catie) talking to a specific agent there about me because she, too, loved Spore. Her agent said sure! Catie told her all about me, and, today, I sent this agent a query letter via email. I'll probably know next week if she wants to see either, or both, books.

In the letter, I described Spore and Morgan's Run, and said I had synopses for both, because I *thought* I had. But my only synopsis for Morgan was from before I'd written it (aack!) so this weekend I'll be writing that synopsis.

I'm feeling incredibly happy and, dare I say, excited about all this. I've been needing to make a change, been stuck in my happy little rut a long time, and this just feels RIGHT, ya know?

If both agents decline to take me, Catie suggested another agent who handles books like mine, and I still haven't heard back from Juliet (I'm kind of thinking she'll email me Mon or Tues) and I'll follow wherever her nudges lead.

After that, I don't know yet. But it seems like I have quite a lot of options already. Despite the shock of all this on Wednesday, I'm feeling really optimistic.

It's time. Time to move forward, time to get back to work.

It's late Thursday night...

Let's face it, Wednesday was shot. I received my agent's email at 11 am, and it just kinda crumbled apart after that. Today was a day of driving because Laura is job hunting. Why did I drive? Well, Laura got pulled over for speeding a few weeks ago and she thought it was a warning, but it was a ticket, and she didn't pay it (she really thought it was a warning) and now she's not allowed to drive until it's all cleared up. Yippee! More driving for me!!

This afternoon and evening were filled with email updates from a writer friend, and keeping other friends in the loop, so I haven't done anything with Spore. Or anything else.

I'll be back on it tomorrow. I won't be driving all day, anyway. ;)

Writing at Tanya's today

Tanya owns Mrs. T's Merchantile, a quilt shop in Vincent Iowa. I hang out there quite a lot. Today, I'm back in the restaurant, writing.

Well, mostly talking to Tanya, but writing a little.

Today's opening line:  Mindy listened to their tale and examined the pictures on Sean's computer. "It's not possible," she said, staring at the open flower-thing.

Just finished Chapter 8 - I've written about 775 words here at Tanya's.

The last sentence of Chapter 8 is: Mindy took a breath, and responded.

And, really, it's a much more moving sentence than it might seem. ;)

On to Chapter 9!

Sunday off, back to it Monday night

Busy weekend with Bill, lots of running errands and such. I screwed up my shoulders and lower back, probably from sitting on the couch too much working on the book, so went to the chiropractor today. MUCH looser and more comfy now. Yay! Also, I took my prescription antihistamine Sat night before bed (as I mentioned in the previous post) and it kinda knocked me for a loop, like it usually does. I spent all of Sunday and a good hunk of today being foggy and kind of out of it. Since I was so brain-foggy, I didn't write last night, dammit.

I do NOT like feeling dopey, but when the itching gets so bad I can't sleep right for days/weeks I don't know what else to do. It's a perpetual tossup between my allergies and being able to think. What a choice.

Anyway, we had another busy run-around kind of day today, and Laura got home late - she just a few min ago, about 10:45, finally headed upstairs for the night. So I'm settling in to work. Finally. Let's see if I can get Chapter 8 done and get started on 9.

First line of the night - "So, um," she said, fidgeting. "What happened out there? In the cemetery?"

Gak, I can't FOCUS. Only wrote a paragraph or two and I really need to get to bed.

Writing all day at Tanya's tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go smoother.

Chapter eight sucks

Truly it does. It just sits there, un moving. Boring. Dullsville.

Might be ripping out quite a lot tonight, I dunno.

Starting in for the evening, it's 10:58 pm.

11:42 - Changed the deputy's answer to Mare's question right before last night's words began. It's going better. :)

Don't want to publicly post my first line of the night, but the last line is: She smiled, nodding and looking relieved. 


Wow. That's an exciting line. ;)

My antihistamines are really kicking in. I'd better get to bed.

Final word count for the night: 436

See you tomorrow!

Just another day. With nasty smoke!

Life, ya know. Laura forgot to turn off the stove after she made herself some eggs for breakfast, and ended up melting a nylon spatula into a skillet. Nasty stinky stuff. We vacated the house for a few hours to let it air out, and ran a couple of errands. After Bill got home from work, he, Sarah, and I all took a long walk down the bike trail toward the river. Was nice.

That's pretty much it for my day.

I've sat here about 4 hours, and I got nuthin. Going to bed.

Tonight's word count - 74

Finally settling in

Kinda busy day. Went grocery shopping, babysat, and made Loaded Baked Potato Soup from scratch for supper (which took quite a lot more prep time than I expected) then Bill and I went out to get iced teas (I know it's dumb, but McDonalds has the BEST brewed iced tea, I just love it, and, yes, I ALWAYS have it totally sugar free - sugar is gross) but by the time we got back, Bill's wrist was acting up and he was cranky, and I don't like him being cranky, so I spent some cuddle time with him before he had to go to sleep. Then I came downstairs to be door-woman for the pets, etc, sat down at the computer, did my regular 'check email, twitter, etc' maintenance and now, at 10:23, I am FINALLY alone, relaxed, in a quiet house with everyone - and every pet's - needs all handed.

TV's off, Spore's writing mix (mostly Justin Timberlake and some LMFAO) is playing in iTunes, and it's time to get to work.

Partway through the first scene in chapter 8. Did a little clean up, now it's back to new stuff.

Tonight's opening line - They open? Mindy turned, hands fisting against her belly, as someone knocked on the door.

Ending - Todd turned, eyes dark, and he took a step toward Mare. "No. Sean's uncle. Paul Casey. How do you know Mindy Harris escaped, too?"

723 words total for the night.