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9-7-15 Monday Word Count

maple leaf
Winter’s on the way.

Got woken up a bit after 5 Sunday morning and had to drive to the next town over to pick up the kid from his night shift job. We’ve always told him, if he’s too tired to drive, call and we’ll pick him up. So we did. (living in the boonies sucks sometimes) The rest of the day was spent being exhausted while some pretty intense storms kept the house dark and dreary. Tried waking up with a movie, Star Wars, but we kept konking out and then rewinding to the last point we remembered. I’m not sure we ever saw the whole film. After napping off and on all day, we were surprised to actually sleep through the night. I’m working from the living room today. It’s a bit cold at my desk, and this table has a nice view of the golf course.

Last week, or so, I finally got around to having an expert look at a very small scene that I knew was full of all sorts of errors. I figured it would be an easy fix, once I found out what would really happen in that situation.  Boy was I wrong. The changes rippled all through the entire friggin’ book. So, since then, I’d been rewriting and making notes of what still needed to be fixed. (I’m pretty mad at myself because I know better than this. Always check with your expert first.)

walking dogs
Hurrying through mosquito loop.

Then two days ago, I needed to clear my head so I took the dogs for a walk. We didn’t get far before I realized I could easily fix everything with the next scene and nothing after that would have to change. Now, I’m going through and doing some restorations. I’m anxious to finish this and get back to work on the edits of the last couple of chapters.

Once all that’s done, the manuscript still needs to go back to the editor for a last look and then onto the folks checking for formatting and missed errors.  (I keep finding extra spaces at the end of sentences. This is so much easier to see on a printed sheet) Because of this, I’ve updated the approximate release date.

Onto the word count.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New since Thursday –  3389 words
Total Count –  37859 words
Release date: Pre-orders mid October

Goals for next week: keeping up with the edits and then actually writing a post next Sunday. That’s a huge goal. I’ve been terribly lax about keeping track of my week’s work.

Things will be much easier now that the golf season is winding down. I have my last day in the bar cart soon, probably this Saturday. For the rest of September, I’ll still follow Mark over to the bar on his nights and write at a back table. The course closes at the end of the month so it won’t be long until I’ll be able to get into a writing routine for winter.

Hope it’s sunny where you are.

Write on,

Melissa

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8-17-15 Monday Word Count

concerned fosterdog mia at vet
Fosterdog Mia

Company is finally all gone and I don’t expect anymore this season.

Red wine is now my nightly prescription thanks to a high LDL Cholesterol level. It wasn’t horrible. It was 120 and should be under 100. Having that double cheeseburger at 11:30 the night before a fasting blood draw might not have been my best idea ever. I’m not a fan of red wine but my brother-in-law left a few bottles and so far, it’s all been quite good. On the plus side, I don’t wake up feeling dehydrated and tired like I do after a big glass of white wine.

We’ve added planks to our marathon training. My core muscles hate me very much right now. (why couldn’t my husband’s midlife crisis have involved fast cars or loose women?) We have a 10 mile race in a month and we’re looking for our next half marathon. There’s one in New Orleans in Feb that we’re considering. I’d love me a hurricane at Pat O’briens and am ready for nice long visit with a favorite friend who blew that way a couple of years ago.

I’m finally back to multiple hours in front of the computer. Since it had been awhile, I sat down with a copy of the book and read end to end. I like to do this periodically to make sure it’s flowing with plenty of June-ness. Most was. Some parts, not so much. This led to an extra 400 words at the end of ch 2, 1ooo replacement words in ch 11, about 1000 words dropped and then another 1000 new ones scattered here and there.  Or something like that. In the end, my words count did not jump by much.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New since Thursday –  438 words
Total Count – 34470 words
Release date: Pre-orders mid September 

Goals for next week: The complete book printed out and shipped off to my editor. She said she can get it back to me the first week of September. Then it goes out to 4 lovely volunteers that my beta reader Rosie found. They’ll look for any formatting issues. The total word count should be around 40k.

Of course, this is all dependant on me finishing by the 24th. As you can see in the top photo, fosterdog Mia is a bit concerned that I won’t be able to pull it off. I’m gonna pour a really big glass of the red stuff and do my best. See you next week.

Write on,

Melissa

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7-26-15 Sunday Word Count

cookie photo
Best mother-in-law ever. A whole bag. Just for me. Whoo-hoo. Wait. I’m suppposed to share? Riiiight.

On Thursday, I decided to stay at it till I wrote the words, The End. When I was done, I was going to celebrate by making a delicious pizza at the bar and eating it all by myself. 

Well, I didn’t get the pizza, cause the kitchen closed before I could get in there, but hallelujah, praise the saints, and stand to one side while the peasants rejoice; I got the first draft of the last chapters done. (yes chapter 18 is one long paragraph of dialog and action but it will get fixed.)

This happy camper says onto the word count. 

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New since Thursday –  2024 words
Total Count – 34032 words
Release date:  late Summer 2015 

Goals for next week: attacking various parts of chapters 11-18. I don’t plan on doing this in any particular order. I will probably jump from here to there and all around until it’s finished. I’m going to shoot for sending the book to my editor on August 9th. 

The August 9 goal probably means How to Sex Your Snake will have a release date in September because my editor still has to have her way with it.

Cover design update: I’ve been in touch with an excellent artist who said he’d be in touch shortly. Not sure he’ll take the job but I’m hoping. I think his style would work really well with my June Nash series.

And now, I’m exhausted. We were up at 6 for a set of 8x800s at the gym. Run fast for 8 half mile stretches, walk slow for 3 mins in between each. Whatever you run on average is what you’d run for a marathon. We won’t talk about our times. We’re in it for the pics with Disney Characters.  We’re looking at you Tinkerbell half marathon at Disneyland in May.

Have a good week and write on,

Melissa

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Mid Week hoopla

pizza pic
Eat me I’m delicious

I plan to make a replica of this yummy pizza at the bar tonight after I finish a rough of the last two chapters and type, the end.

Then, I’ll pop some antacid, cause I’m gonna eat the whole thing, before I go back and fix what needs fixing in chs 11-16. Or 17. That last chapter might have to be split into two. Hopefully all that doesn’t take more than two weeks.  Rosie, my beta reader has been tapping her foot waiting for the next chapters. She hates when I leave her hanging.

It’s not Sunday, but I’ll end with the word count. When it’s all complete, I figure it will be around 40k.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New since Sunday –  2863 words
Total Count – 32,008 words
Release date:  late Summer 2015

Write on,

Melissa

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7-20-15 Sunday Word Count

golf cart art
Interesting water damage on one of the golf carts.

I know. It’s Monday. Oh well.

No bear sightings since the last post. Things like that make my husband sad while things like that make me breathe a little easier.

287 laps at the gym last night just to get to 13.1 miles for a practice half marathon. Today, I’m still leaning to the left. On to the word count.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New this week –  1435 words
Total Count – 29,145 words
Release date:  late Summer 2015

Goals from last week: A rough draft of 12-14. Well, I didn’t get much done until company of ten days, left. I have most of 12 done, but I realized I needed to do a better job of showing June’s inability to remember names. So, I spent most of my time, going back through and editing. That led to more editing. Blast you editing. You’re a time stealer. Yesterday, I was back on track. I wrote most of the new words while hanging out in the course clubhouse. (if you’re just joining us, I work as a bartender at a golf course owned by a family member) I’ll be hanging out there as much as I can for the next week or so to see if that helps. I’ve never been one to write at home, not that I’ve ever mentioned how home is too quiet and too close to the tv remote and the bounty of netflix and pitifully droned on about how I’m weak. Oh so weak. When I lived in civilization, I wrote at public places. Coffee houses, Denny’s, the library. I could knock off a 22 page script, for my webseries, in an afternoon and my feature in 6 weeks. (If I hadn’t shot it, I could have used the time to write 2 or three more before moving to Key West and being distracted by a whole new set of obstacles) Here there’s not really any place to loose yourself in the writing without someone wanting you to order something or get the hell out. Parking myself at a back table at the clubhouse might work. Yes, I will shut up about this and get over there. In 90 minutes. We really need to try to set in the bones of the closet so I can hang everything back up. I’m getting tired of going into the guest room to work my way through a tangle of clothes wearing hangers tossed on the guestbed. Did I mention we’re redoing our highly disfunctional walk-in closet?

Back to the word count. Some headway was also made on the book cover. Another reason I need to fnish these last chapters and get the book to my editor. My fingers are crossed that I can post a cover in the next couple of weeks.

Goals for next week: Geez. Let’s see. How about 12 done and to the editor and a rough of 13. I won’t aim too high cause, you know, of how weak I am.

Look out for bears and write on,

Melissa

 

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7-2- Sunday Word Count

Two bear sighting since the last post. The bear in the video was a few feet off the road (we were in a car) and he was completely uninterested in us. He fiddled with an anthill, sniffed some grass, wandered along the edge of the road and then finally crossed to the other side. Our other sighting was this morning. We were on an 11 mile run up in 3 lakes and a 450 + pounder ran across the path about 20 casual paces in front of us.  Hubby screamed bear. I had a mini heart attack. This is only my second time crossing paths with a bear while on foot. I hope to never have a third encounter. Yes, I’m a wuss.

Onto the word count.

I finished rewrites to ch 10 and spent the last week on re-edits for ch 11. I’ve been going in circles over just a couple of paragraphs so today, I decided to work on ch 12. And to keep myself from fiddling with anything in 11, I wrote in the color note app on my phone. I got about 800 new words before I uploaded to my computer and knocked off a few hundred more. Then I purged about 600 words. All in all, it was a good day.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New this week – 1514 words
Total Count – 27710 words
Release date:  Summer 2015

I only had one Sunday Word Count post for all of June. Not good. Not good at all. I think for the rest of the book, I’ll knock off the first draft for each chapter on my cell phone and then do the second draft on the computer.  It makes it tougher to edit if I can’t see more than a few hundred words at a time and I need to resist editing until I have that complete first draft for each chapter.  Starting tomorrow, my daughter will be visiting for two weeks, so I need to try to stay on track. I think writing on the cell phone will help. I want this book premiering before summer is over.

Goals for next week: A first draft of chs 12-14 up on the computer.  Now to see if I can follow through.

Yay to the Woman’s football club winning FIFA and write on,

Melissa

 

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Rolling with da Mangos

mikes mango
Better than a thesaurus

For the last couple of weeks,  we’ve been drenched in rain here in the north woods. (This has been the rainiest spring in decades) I blame the weather for my lack of progress.  Cause, you know, I’m certainly not at fault. Due to the rain, neither hubby or I have been able to work on the golf course as much as we normally do.  You’d think that would mean more time at the desk. But, sadly, no. It means more games of hand and foot with the in-laws and binge watching entire seasons on netflix.  (Looking forward to season 2 of Sense8 and in love after the first ep of Star Talk)

Today is the first sunny day in ages and I’ve already gotten a ton done. Well, not really a ton but I fixed a paragraph that was really buggin’ me.

I’d been deep in 12 when I realized I’d gotten off track. I retraced my steps to the last thing that felt right and I found myself at that crappy non June-feeling paragraph in 10. I have until about 9 tonight to work uninterrupted so I’m hoping I can keep rolling through small fixes in 10 and 11 and get back to 12. Mike and his incredible mango are along for the ride.

Until Sunday.

Write on,

Melissa

P.S.

I plan on waiting until I finish the last few chapters before I send anything else to my editor. I’m really close now. Total word count should be between 30 and 40K.

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6-7-15 Sunday Word Count

toilet water gel
Exciting changes at our house – a toilet that auto flushes when you wave your hand over a sensor. Or when you lift the lid. Or when you stand too close. Or when you…

So, I put up last week’s word count on Saturday! Woops. Here’s this week’s count.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New this week – 968 words
Total Count – 26196 words
Release date:  Summer 2015

Goals from last week: chps 12 and 13 to the editor. Well, ch 12 is in chunks and June feels kinda lost in it all. 13 is just notes.  As you can probably tell, I stayed distracted this week. I wrote 30 new pages to my untitled script because I couldn’t get the characters out of my head and got a couple hundred more down on the YA piece.  I need to work solely on Snake for the next two days. Once I have 12 and 13 in the mail to my editor, I’ll go back to the script.  I’m in the barcart Wednesday night, so I’ll work on the YA piece between drinks.

I’ve stayed on my super hero viewing kick,  finishing Netflix’s outstanding Daredevil series, re-watching The Avengers and then sitting through a painful first (and last) viewing of Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer. Wow. Anytime you see superheros dancing you know you’re in for a stinker. (Ironman 2, Spiderman 3(?)  I don’t recall ever seeing any of the x-men dance though I can easily picture Hugh Jackman hoofing it up as Wolverine)  The F4 actors must have been contractually obligated to return. I can’t imagine anyone reading that script and thinking, yeah, when do we start?  Especially the amazing Michael Chiklis. Antman opens next week and I hope I can find someone to go with me. After Ultron, the hubby has vowed to never set foot in another screening for a superhero movie. I completely understand. Ultron was just tiring and even I was tempted to walk out of and I love that gang.

Speaking of that gang, Netflix needs to give Black Widow the Daredevil treatment and I need to walk the dogs.

Write on,

Melissa

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5-30-15 Sunday Word Count

bear near S
It’s blurry but that’s a big old black bear a few miles from my house.

I’m a tad behind in my word count updates. Got distracted by a few things including a call for scripts for my old film producer (she’s quite young actually).  An idea sparked and I wrote 62 pages of a feature last week. For the first time ever, I didn’t use an outline. I just had a basic idea. Got well into the third act (there was some skipping around) and realized I didn’t like one of the main characters. I scrapped about 40 pages and took the story in a new direction turning a one scene character into the other lead. (And that’s why I always use an outline) The story is now blazing ahead and my old (yet quite young) producer is quite happy.  As usual, I don’t expect anything to come of it. Having two scripts dropped by production companies two days apart is what got me into the idea of books instead of scripts. Seemed a better option for me. unfortunately, I’d forgotten how much fun scripts are to write so I have a sad feeling that there will be more.  Maybe I will be able to turn those into books.

I also got to day dreaming while sitting on the 6th hole manning the beer cart and wrote 1800 words for a new series involving genetically altered humans. Not something I expected to ever do. I’m thinking 4 novellas, with each told from a different characters perspective, with each being around 17k words. Probably aimed at the YA audience. So far the characters are drifting that way. We’ll see what happens.

For now, here’s the word count.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New this week – minus 70 words
Total Count – 25,209 words
Release date:  Summer 2015 

Okay, this looks bad. I admit it. BUT…I finished chapter 10 and chapter 11(1,635 words in 11 and about 600 new words for ch 10 just today) and sent both to my editor. I realized I had a folder of notes in with my word count chapters so that explains how I wrote over 2000 new words but lost 70. I’ve made sure that none of my remaining notes are included in the word count, so the tally will go up from here.

My goal for this week: chapts 12 and 13 done and to my editor. I feel like I’m on a roll so I’m going stay at the computer as much as I can. I’ll also be working on my altered human series. That one I’m writing on my cell phone while I man the beer cart on Wednesdays and sunny Saturdays. I hope to have a rough draft of the whole book in about three weeks but we’ll see. I also want to finish that script for my old (but seriously young) producer ASAP.

It looks like it will be a busy week, so I’m back to it.

Write on,

Melissa

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5-10-15 Sunday Word Count

southwest-pretzel-bag
If they really liked me this would be a steak.

After seven weeks at mom’s, I’m finally home. I missed my word count last week after my traveling companion got food poisoning and spent two days in the hospital. Lots of hanging around as they decided whether it was food poisoning or something else.  Thanks to editing, what I did write, ended up counting out to 3 words less than two weeks ago. Even though the count doesn’t show it, I did tighten up chapter 10, rewrote a section in the middle and with just a few more hours I should finish it up. I’m back to writing tomorrow but for now, here’s the word count.

How to Sex Your Snake

Genre – Mystery
New this week – minus 3 words
Total Count – 25,279 words
Release date:  Summer 2015 

Goals this week: Get chapter 10 to my editor and get a rough first draft of 11. All the beats for the rest of the story are done. Sometime during the week I plan on finally watching Snowpiercer before it leaves Netflix. Rushing out to meet everyone for a mother’s day dinner. Happy M day and write on,

Melissa