Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A where am I report


First of all - my incredible whining,pimping and bawling, led to my Sweet Patootie giving over and buying me some memory (wish the same could be done for my personal hard drive- aka brain). Now my computing life is sweet sweet sweet. Expect more visits and if not a return to every day blogging at least a concerted effort to stay current.

writing update - I spent the WHOLE day writing with Gwen. No govt. work, no rushing off to take care of delicious grandchildren (they had to go to the dentist so I wasn't needed). It was wonderful. And I didn't fool around. I worked on Earth Bound - the second in the Kitty Mac. mysteries. I went to the beginning and I'm going through slowly again, writing up questions and taking out pesky adverbs and silly overused words (anyone want some So's or very's? The main reason I'm doing this is so I can sneak up on where I think I might have gone wrong. And it feels pretty good not to be tussling at the end of the manuscript trying to get it to work and instead just gentling unknotting it. Yay. It also feels good to be back to my original plan. Have one manuscript out trying to find a home and one in the same series with a good start so the package could be attractive. I still want to work on three other manuscripts and will figure out a logical sequence for this. They are: Feckless - my first full length novel - it is finished but needs another full draft done as I didn't know what I was doing when I wrote it.
True - which is more than half done but I'm a bit stuck because of my character moving to southern Alberta and messing with my plan!
And finally The Soujourners - which is barely started and unformed and deeply delicious at one level. This is the one based more or less roughly on a true story of my time in the Pacific Northwest. I think this might be my heartwork. We'll see.
The reason I wrote The Rock Walker was to learn to really write plot. And I think it helped me alot. I think writing the second in this series will also help and it will help me to have two completely finished manuscripts. So my plan is to finish Earth Bound, polish (heavily rewrite!) Feckless, finish True and spend a long loving time with The Sojourners. Got it? I think I do now that I've told you.

chickens update - my gawd, the chickens are happy the snow is gone. They are so industrious - scratching up the hill under the trees - just ecstatic. Just saying...spring is good.

kid update - kids arrived yesterday and it was very nice. I've missed them - didn't even see step-dot for market day as I had workshops and so on. Seems good. They are psyched - after being here for two weeks they are going with their ma to Washington, DC. I'm jealous and excited for them. Tonight Ron has taken step-dot to violin lessons and step-son is at rugby practice and won't be home til 9. It is sort of nice being completely alone in the evening. I almost never am.

Hoagy update - He ran away last week for 24 hours. I couldn't even tell you but now I can. I thought it had been a long time - nearly two years but I checked back and you guessed it - a little over a year. He doesn't seem to realize that he is old. Ah well.

Dream update - I'm looking at writers' retreats in Ireland. Wow. I want to go. Just something to do in March - dream...

So dear readers - that is my quarterly report - how about you? Where are you with projects, dreams, plans, etc...?

2 comments:

Jemi Fraser said...

Oooo - a writer's retreat sounds incredible - and in IRELAND?! Perfection!

I'm currently trying to finish up my WIP. It's so close. Then I'll start the 3rd round of polishing (I cheated & left the ending until the first couple of polishes were done) :)

Jan Morrison said...

oh Jemi - a girl after my own heart. I have no ending yet for Earth Bound. think I know who did it and why but then...