Writing Wednesday: Rain and Progress

Wednesday again. This week has been going pretty well. Getting a lot of rain today. And wind. In fact it broke the umbrella this morning when I was walking back up to the house from getting the kids on the bus. Thought I could fix it easily enough, but the slide piece went all the way up, and it won’t come back down. Waiting until the last minute to go wait for boy’s bus to get here so I won’t have to get to wet.

Now, for my WiPPet snippet. Working on (well, worked since I finished 1st draft – WOOHOO) Let It Begin today,  so I’m sharing 29(1+0+28) sentences from what I wrote this morning.

“You already are what I need.”
“I can’t be,” she said. “You don’t need someone who might have a break down in the middle of the street because she thinks she saw her dead husband. Or who has a flashback to him hitting her because someone touches her shoulder, or she hears a raised voice. That’s not what you need, Patrick.”
“Don’t tell me what I need.” His voice was soft, but there was steel in it, too. “I’ve known what I’ve needed since I was seventeen years old. I tried to need something else when I couldn’t have it, but it’s never changed. If you break down, I’ll help you put the pieces back together. If you flash back, I’ll help pull you back here. If you hear his voice, tell me and I’ll do my best to drown it out.”
She could feel the moisture on her face even though she hadn’t realized she’d started crying. “Patrick-”
He shook his head, though, and took both of her hands. “That’s not why I came here, but you need to know. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough for you back then. I am now. I won’t ever raise my hand to you, or try to diminish who you are. I will never choose a night drinking in the bar to spending time with you. I won’t degrade you, and I’ll never abandon you. I love you, Natalie. I have for thirty-five years, and I will until the day I die. But, I’ll never ask you for more than you’re ready to give. You have to know that.”
She stepped toward him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I want to give you everything, but that frightens me.”
“Then just give me what you can for right now. You don’t have to be frightened.”

And now for my progress so far this week.

• By the Gun – get to 3000 words – 4236/3000 words. Only 1925 of these were new words. The others came from the last attempt at this. Still counting them. And the new words came easier than any of the ones from that previous attempt. Hoping that’s a good sign.
• Some Fools Never Learn – reach 16000 words – 16687/16000 words. These words came quite easily too.
• Let It Begin – finish 1st draft – wrote 2937 words and the end on this today.
• My Way to You – reach 6000 words – tomorrow’s project
• Guarding the Heart – reach 70000 words – Friday’s project
• Chasing the Ghost – revision note cards – I got through chapter 6/27 yesterday. A little behind where I’d like to be, but hoping to catch up this afternoon.
• Just Add Moonlight – Finish revisions & submit – Saturday project
• Read: 2k-5k – at 90%.
• Read: Into the Devil’s Underground, Cutting Edge(Allison Brennan), Foolproof(Jennifer Blackwood), The Heiress Effect(Courtney Milan), & Bringing Home the Bad Boy(Jessica Lemmon) – didn’t get to any of these yet. Still working through my reread of the Living on the Edge series by Roni Loren. Almost done with it. About halfway through Yours All Along then just have Call On Me to read and can start Break Me Down, which came out yesterday.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – haven’t really worked on this at all this week. But it’s still technically in progress

Monday Mumblings: Donating Hats

Yesterday in church, it was announced that they were collecting knit and crochet hats. Someone said they were giving them to the school for kids who need hats. The paper in the bulletin, however, said they’re collecting them to send to a city mission with Thanksgiving boxes. Either way, I knew I had a bunch of hats I’ve made over the last few years. So after we were home, I started going through all my projects. I was right. There are a lot.

In total, I found 62 hats. 

I sorted through them in a couple different ways,  because apparently I’m a dork. First,  I seperated the Knit from crochet hats. There were 37 knit hats. And 25 crochet hats.

3 of the knit hats and 9 of the crochet hats were characters or animals. 16 of the knitted ones and 14 crocheted were winter hats. 23 Knit and 11 crochet were baby hats. Some of these were really small,  so I left them out of what I’ll send in. In the end, I had 43 hats to donate.

Sunday Summary: WeWriWa – “Without Me Around”

Time for another trip with the Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop for anyone who likes to write. I’m still sharing from Into the Sun, and this week’s 10 sentences starts directly(ok, I left out some head shaking) after last week’s.

“Helped you what, become a criminal?”
“It’s not like that. They help people. We want to help you.”
“I don’t need any help. I need my son back.”
I couldn’t help but reach out and run my thumb over a bruise on her jaw, then up over a scab on her cheek and to the dark bruise under her eye. “You need more than that, Mom. What else has he done to you since I left? I thought he’d be easier on you without me around.”

Is she going to let them help? What are they going to do? Stick around; you just might find out. 😉

Saturday we went to a Halloween kids’ festival at a local campground. It was inside and they had a couple different stations for the kids to make crafts or get prizes as well as a few other games set up. It wasn’t really to busy at first,  but there were enough people there to put my nerves on edge(which really doesn’t take all that many people). But the kids got to wear their costumes and they had fun.

I’ve had a pretty good week writing-wise as well. I changed up my calendar for the next two months. I’ll be continuing the way I have been for the last week of October,  but in November & October I’ll be switching to a weekly pattern of bouncing between projects instead of daily. I’ll probably have more on that next week when I do my monthly goals.

• By the Gun -finish outline – got this finished up. Ready to stay writing again this coming week. Also need to see how much I can salvage from the first attempt.
• Let It Begin – reach 29000 words – 30289/29000. Only have 3 more planned scenes to get through. Hoping to finish it this week.
• Some Fools Never Learn – reach 13000 words – 13497/13000 making good progress on this
• Guarding the Heart – reach 67000 words – 67155/67000 – Making good progress here to though another character decided to pop up and had me wondering what his story is. This is only supposed to be a 3 book series, but he may at least get a novella
• My Way To You – reach 3000 words – 3189/3000. Good start on this one so far.
• Stained Blood – finish polishing – got this done on Friday
• Just Add Moonlight – Revise – added over 500 words to this on Saturday.  Need to read through it one more time then submit
• Read: 2k-10k – 85% –
• Read: A Kiss for Midwinter (Courtney Milan), Broken Spell (Fabio Bueno), Fifty First Times(various), Into the Devil’s Underground (Stacy Green), The Summit (Kat Martin), & Slow Heat(Jill Shalvis) – I started to read The Summit but couldn’t get into it. Then, I was going to start Slow Heat, but I realized it is book 2 in the series, and even in a more standalone series, I have this thing about reading in order. So I decided to set that one aside until I read book 1. I have been continuing my read through of Roni Loren’s Loving on the Edge series, though. I’m hoping to have that finished by Tuesday when the next novella comes out. I’m about halfway through the series now.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – Still making slow progress on this. About 2/3 of the way finished with it.

Goals for next week:

• By the Gun – get to 3000 words
• Some Fools Never Learn – reach 16000 words
• Let It Begin – finish 1st draft
• My Way to You – reach 6000 words
• Guarding the Heart – reach 70000 words
• Chasing the Ghost – revision note cards
• Just Add Moonlight – Finish revisions & submit
• Read: 2k-5k
• Read: Into the Devil’s Underground, Cutting Edge(Allison Brennan), Foolproof(Jennifer Blackwood), The Heiress Effect(Courtney Milan), & Bringing Home the Bad Boy(Jessica Lemmon)
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket

 

Writing Wednesday: Making Progress

So, that snow we had on Sunday…it was gone on Monday. I’m sure it won’t be too long before it’s back. But, we got wood pellets delivered on Monday, so we’ll be ready to run our pellet stove once it gets cold again.

Not much else going on this week. The girl failed her hearing test at school on Monday. So, we have to take her in and have a more thorough test done. Other than that, I’ve been focused mostly on writing & some editing this week.

Today, I’ve been working on Some Fools Never Learn. Making some progress on it. Today I have 21 sentences that I wrote this morning. This is the second time Tate and Emilia have run into each other.

But, all he wanted to do was dry her eyes. It was an unfamiliar urge.
“It’s nothing,” she said, trying to wave him off. “Just frustrated with bullshit.”
Her words took him by surprise. Mostly because he hadn’t expected her to swear. Maybe she wasn’t as prim and proper as he’d assumed. He wanted to push and find out what kind of bullshit she was dealing with, but a throat cleared behind them.
He turned and saw the director glaring at them. “You’re late, Mr. Hunter.”
Tate let out a long breath and turned back toward Emilia. “I could really start to hate him,” he muttered.
To his surprise, Emilia smiled at him. “Well, I’m the president of that club. But, feel free to put in an application for membership.”
He chuckled at her words then turned to face the director. There was definitely something about him Tate just didn’t like. He could hear Emilia’s heels clicking on the tile of the floor as she headed down the hallway. He hoped she wasn’t leaving. Only a couple minutes of talking to her just wasn’t enough. Not even close to enough.

Like I said, things are going well so far this week.

• By the Gun -finish outline – got this done. Can start writing this new version next week
• Let It Begin – reach 29000 words – 30289/29000 words. I only have 3 scenes left to write in this one. Should have it finished next week.
• Some Fools Never Learn – reach 13000 words – 13497/13000 words.
• Guarding the Heart – reach 67000 words
• My Way To You – reach 3000 words
• Stained Blood – finish polishing – making progress on this. Should still finish it this week.
• Just Add Moonlight – Revise – weekend project
• Read: 2k-10k – 85% – A little over 70% right now
• Read: A Kiss for Midwinter (Courtney Milan), Broken Spell (Fabio Bueno), Fifty First Times(various), Into the Devil’s Underground (Stacy Green), The Summit (Kat Martin), & Slow Heat(Jill Shalvis) – I finished A Kiss for Midwinter but couldn’t get into Broken Spell. I read most of the stories in Fifty First Times but skipped a few of them. Then, I decided to do a re-read of Roni Loren’s Loving on the Edge series, despite the fact I have plenty still on my TBR list. I may read some of my other books between the ones in the series.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – making slow progress on this still.

Sunday Summary: WeWriWa – “Helped Me”

Time for another visit with the Weekend Writing Warriors. Still sharing from Into the Sun. 10 sentences almost directly after last week’s snippet.

　　　”Where have you been, Trace? You should have been here.”
“I’ve tried to call,” I told her, “you never picked up.”
“If I’d known it was you, I would have. I worried so much about you.”
Her gaze took in the rest of me as she let out a gasp and stepped back. “What have you gotten into, Trace?”
“It’s not what you’re thinking, Mom. I found some people, good people. They helped me.”

So what does she think he’s gotten into?  Is it the truth? And just what is he doing back now? May have some answers for you next week.

This week has gone pretty well, despite a cough that doesn’t seem to want to go away. It hadn’t really gotten in the way of my writing at least. Thursday was a bit of four me, but that was really my own fault. I decided to read through the story that comes before Some Fools Never Learn instead of just concentrating on that one, so it took me longer to meet my goal. Still got there though.

Woke up yesterday morning to snow! It’s still to early for that, right? Apparently not in NW PA. It had mostly melted by lunchtime, though it did continue off and on throughout the afternoon. Hopefully it won’t stick around for too long. I resist getting out my winter coat until after my birthday (which isn’t for another 19 days).

As for this week’s progress:

• Write: 3k each on Let It Begin, Guarding the Heart, and Some Fools Never Learn – I wrote over 10k between these. Making good progress here.
  
• Outline: Bryan & Leo & By the Gun – got outline for Bryan& Leo done & changed title to My Way To You. Also wrote the first 400 words on it. I thought I could just add a prologue to By the Gun and it would help fix the problem, but as I thought more, I think I want telling enough of the story. I now have it set up with the parts,  each told from different character’s pov. Depending on how long they are, these parts may become their own books. I’ll have to see once I get started. This also meant I had to write a couple more back stories.  I got those done and the first 4 chapters of past 1 outlined.
• Revise: Stained Blood – 2nd round revisions.  If time: start polishing – finished 2nd revisions Tuesday and started polishing on Wednesday. Didn’t even look at it Thursday or Friday though. Need to make it a priority this week.
• Just Add Moonlight: Flesh out – I worked on this Saturday morning, added about 200 words. Planning on adding new scene in today.
• Read: 2k – 10k – 60% –
• Read: Just a Little Crush,  Someday Girl, City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare), Showdown at Yellow Butte (Louis L’Amour ), All For You (Jessica Scott), & Behind the Scenes (Dahlia Adler) – loved City of Lost Souls,  though a little heartbroken about how one of the relationships was left. Really hope things get patched up in last book (and is not even the main characters,  but may be my favorite one in the series). I actually think I’ve read Slowdown at Yellow Butte before.  I found it in used book store and didn’t have it on my shelf, but some of it seemed familiar,  so it may be one I got from library a while ago. Loved All For You. I started Behind the Scenes yesterday morning and got more than halfway through it. Really enjoying it.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – slow progress still. I just need to not Knit blankets. They take too long.

Goals for next week:

• By the Gun -finish outline
• Let It Begin – reach 29000 words
• Some Fools Never Learn – reach 13000 words
• Guarding the Heart – reach 67000 words
• My Way To You – reach 3000 words
• Stained Blood – finish polishing
• Just Add Moonlight – Revise
• Read: 2k-10k – 85%
• Read: A Kiss for Midwinter (Courtney Milan), Broken Spell (Fabio Bueno), Fifty First Times(various), Into the Devil’s Underground (Stacy Green), The Summit (Kat Martin), & Slow Heat(Jill Shalvis)
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket

Writing Wednesday:

This week’s been going well so far. Other than the cough I seem to have developed. The girl had it for about 3 weeks, now it looks like it’s my turn.

But, the writing, that has been going well. And I’ll get more into that below. But, first is Wippet Wednesday. Today I have 6 paragraphs(1+0+1+4) from Guarding the Heart. These are the last 6 paragraphs I wrote on this last week. Alex is Casey’s partner, and his wife, Sarah, has gone missing.

She reached out to him. “I need to be here until she’s back. Alex needs you, and I do, too. You can’t watch me at a safe house and be here for him, too. I need to be here. With you.”
His arms wrapped tight around her. “I can’t. I can’t let anything hurt you, Em. I can’t…I couldn’t handle it,” he whispered.
“Once she’s back,” she said, “I’ll do whatever you want, go wherever you say. But, I’ve already lost one friend, I have to be here until she’s found.”
His arms tightened, and he buried his face in her hair. “Okay,” he finally said. “You do what I say, though. Whatever I say. Can you promise me that?”
“Yes, Casey. I’ll listen to you.”
His mouth quirked up at one corner. “Well, princess, that will be a first.”

So, will she actually listen to him? Or will this lead to more trouble? Well…oh, did you actually think I was going to tell you? 😉

• Write: 3k each on Let It Begin, Guarding the Heart, and Some Fools Never Learn – I wrote 3639 words on Let It Begin and 3563 on Guarding the Heart. Some Fools is tomorrow’s project.
• Outline: Bryan & Leo & By the Gun – I finished the outline for Bryan & Leo’s story (now titled My Way to You) and got the first 400 words written on it. By the Gun is Friday’s project.
• Revise: Stained Blood – 2nd round revisions.  If time: start polishing – I finished the revisions yesterday. I’ll be starting the polishing round today.
• Just Add Moonlight: Flesh out – weekend project
• Read: 2k – 10k – 60% – I’m 45% through this.
• Read: Just a Little Crush,  Someday Girl, City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare), Showdown at Yellow Butte (Louis L’Amour ), All For You (Jessica Scott), & Behind the Scenes (Dahlia Adler) – I enjoyed both of the ones I finished (though Just a Little Crush had a side character,  Fallon,  and that was weird to keep reading my name in the book and she’s the main character in the next book in the series). More than halfway through City of Lost Souls. I might even finish it today.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – Still making progress on this.

Sunday Summary: WeWriWa – “Not Home”

 

Welcome to another installment of Weekend Writing Warriors. I have more from Into the Sun for you, which I finally bit the bullet on and submitted Saturday morning. I have 8 sentences today from just a little past last week’s.

She grabbed my arms and pulled me into the house. “Oh, Trace, you’re back,” she said, kissing my face. “I’m so glad you decided to come home. I’ve missed you so much.”
I made myself pull back from her. “I’m not home, Mom. I just had to see you. Talk to you.”

What does he have to say to her? Well it go the way he hopes? Hang around. You might find out.

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag this week. Started out strong with over 3k on Monday. Tuesday’s count was less but still not bad. Wednesday I barely managed 1k and I think I’m going to re-plot and start over on that story because it’s been giving me trouble since I started it. Hoping I can figure out what the problem is with it, otherwise I may end up just scrapping it. Thursday I did some outlining and Friday was another pretty strong day. Overall not a bad week,  just not as productive as I’d like.

Today we took the motorcycleout for probably one of the last rides of the season. It was …a little chilly. Even with chaps, leather jacket, vest, and gloves. But the newseat made it a much more comfortable ride. It also may have helped start to clear up my problem with By the Gun.

• Write 12k words – 11,011 words. Considering the trouble I had with By the Gun on Wednesday, this isn’t too bad. Hoping for more next week.
• Outline Bryan & Leo – didn’t get this quite finished. Got the first chapter summary done. Hoping to finish it this week, maybe even get a few words written on it.
• Stained Blood (forgot to include this originally: Read Through – finished the read through. Not a lot of big changes other than a scene or two I might add in.
• Into the Sun – Submit – Like I said above, I finally bit the bullet on this one yesterday morning. Now, I wait.
• Just Add Moonlight – Read Through & Revision Notes – Hoping to get to this one today.
• Read: 2k-10k – 35% – Got to this. Already putting some of it into practice.
• Read: Bare It All (Lori Foster), Instant Gratification (Jill Shalvis), Inflame (Tessa Teevan), Just a Little Crush (Renita Pizzitola), Someday Girl (Melanie Shawn) – Finished Inflame Thursday night even though I kept telling myself I should go to bed already. 11:30 and I finally did. Because the book was done. Also listened to The Clockwork princess (Cassandra Clare)and Buried(Kendra Elliot). Loved them both.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – Strip 18 – still making slow progress on this.

Goals for next week:

• Write: 3k each on Let It Begin, Guarding the Heart, and Some Fools Never Learn
• Outline: Bryan & Leo & By the Gun
• Revise: Stained Blood – 2nd round revisions.  If time: start polishing
• Just Add Moonlight: Flesh out
• Read: 2k – 10k – 60%
• Read: Just a Little Crush,  Someday Girl, City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare), Showdown at Yellow Butte (Louis L’Amour ), All For You (Jessica Scott), & Behind the Scenes (Dahlia Adler)
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket

 

Flames A-Z: Volunteer Fire Department

When I first started the Flames series with Flames of Redemption,  I created the city of Crystal Glen and its paid fire department. What I’ve always known, though, are volunteer departments.  And earlier this year,  I decided I wanted to write something that focused on them. I want sure exactly how I was going to work this in.  Then,  Nolan (I was working on his story about that time) stayed talking to me about his brothers.  And sister (sorry,  Jess,  didn’t mean to leave you out). It turns out his father, two of his brothers,  and his sister are all firefighters with the town’s volunteer department. His other brother is involved with the department as well, though not as a firefighter.

The volunteer department does show up a few times in Flames of Restoration. I may work them into some of the earlier stories as well. And I’ll be fleshing the department out some more as well. So far,  I think,  besides the Hunter Family,  we only know about the chief. Well, there is one other, too,  but can’t say much about him without spoilers to the first book in this series.

Fred Mertz used to be with Crystal Glen’s paid department. Then he started having some health issues.  It was bad enough that he couldn’t handle the long shifts and other stresses of being a full time firefighter. Instead,  he joined the volunteer department and after a couple years was voted in as fire chief. His daughter is a paramedic with the paid fire department(and her story will be coming at some point, too).

The volunteer department will have quite a variety of people making it up, although I don’t know how many of them will actually make it on the page.

Writing Wednesday: Just Starting

We’re only a couple days into the new ROW80 round, so I won’t claim to be doing well or poorly. Monday actually started out well.  Today I barely managed to write 1k (my goal is 3k a day). I’ve really been struggling with this story and I’m not quite sure why. I’m going to keep with it, at least for a little while longer. I may end up setting it aside though.

Since it’s Wednesday,  that means is time for a snippet from. ..one of my WiPPet for Wippet Wednesday. I’m drafting By the Gun today, even though it is slow going. So, I suppose I should share something from it. Instead I think I’ll share from the one I’m revising, Stained Blood. This is the third(and probably final) in my western series. I’d thought there might be a fourth book, but that character isn’t talking to me, so it might not happen. For today, I have the first 7 paragraphs from Chapter 1. One of the few bits I can share that doesn’t really have any spoilers for the first 2 books.

Deryn Glas looked out the window of the stagecoach as it rattled toward the town. She already knew who else occupied the coach with her. An older man who had sniffed when she’d been helped inside. Beside him sat a woman, probably only a few years older than her, with a little boy who didn’t seem to want to sit still. The woman wouldn’t meet Deryn’s eyes, either, but that was probably just as well.
If they didn’t look at her, they were less likely to remember her later.
Next to her sat another woman, who looked to be just a little younger than herself. The woman had smiled briefly at her. The man with her, who held onto the little girl who seemed to only be a little more than a year old, had seemed friendly, too, but had remained quiet, only whispering to the woman at his side.
She could already see the buildings growing in the distance and could feel her hands sweating inside her gloves. She tried to ignore the rolling in her stomach. Just nerves, she told herself. She knew better, but she kept repeating it until she’d almost convinced herself.
No one here would recognize her. No one would know who she really was or try to make her go back. She would be safe. For at least a little while, she would be safe.
The driver shouted up from the box, and the horses started to slow. Deryn gripped her hands tighter, wishing she knew what she could expect while she was here. She’d been hoping to get to California, but it turned out the little money she’d saved wouldn’t take her that far. Instead, it looked like Lander, Wyoming Territory was going to be the end of her road. At least until she could save up some more money.
She hoped it would be far enough.

Looking at my calendar,  next week I should be sharing from Guarding the Heart again.

Monday when the boy got home from school,  he wanted to put together his Lego helicopter. So we started working on that. Then we couldn’t find the next piece we needed.  I’d seen him playing with it earlier and now it was gone. Finally found it later that evening. So Tuesday we worked on it again from when he got home until lunchtime. And again today, though we couldn’t find one piece. And that was after he lost the whole helicopter this morning. Found it on their bathroom counter finally.  Not sure why he had it in there in the first place.

• Write 12k words – 7103 words. Monday was the best writing day.  Yesterday want bad,  but today it felt like I was fighting for every word.
• Outline Bryan & Leo – planning to work on this tomorrow
• Into the Sun – Submit – haven’t touched this yet
• Just Add Moonlight – Read Through & Revision Notes – or this
• Read: 2k-10k – 35% – about 20% through this
• Read: Bare It All (Lori Foster), Instant Gratification (Jill Shalvis), Inflame (Tessa Teevan), Just a Little Crush (Renita Pizzitola), Someday Girl (Melanie Shawn) – enjoyed Bare It All and Instant Gratification.  Just started Inflame last night.
• Knit: Cuddly Chevron Blanket – Strip 18 – Still making progress on this although it’s slow

Hoping things pick back up for the second half of this week.

Teaser Tuesday: “Had to See”

Another teaser from Stained Snow this week. Still no set release date for this one, though I do still hope to have it out by the end of the year.

Maggie wiped her hands on her apron when hooves pounded in the yard. Her father would never ride like that, not if it wasn’t an emergency. Him and the rest of the hands were still rounding up all their cattle. They’d gotten a later start this year. Winter had held on until its last gasping breath. There hadn’t been much to do before the snow finally melted.
She stood in the doorway and watched the rider gallop into the yard. She didn’t recognize horse or man at first. Then, he slowed, and she ran out into the yard. “Thomas,” she cried.
He jumped down from the saddle in time to wrap an arm around her. Something didn’t feel quite right about him, but she was too happy about seeing him to care much. She wrapped both arms around him, holding him close. “I didn’t think you were coming back yet. What are you doing here?”
He brought his hands up to her face. “I had to see you. I can’t stay long though.”
She took a more careful look at him then. “You look tired, Thomas. What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been on the trail a couple days.”
“You need some rest. Your horse does too.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have time to rest. I wanted to stop and see you before I rode on, though.”