Writing Wednesday: Good Start

It’s been a pretty good week for me so far. Getting a good bit of writing done. If things continue this way, I should have Crash and Burn finished this week. The boy’s ear infection from the weekend seems to be clearing up. I’m staying caught up with my reading goal and even getting some of my side goal done. But, I’ll have more of that in a little bit.

First, it’s Wednesday, so it’s WiPPet time again! Crash and Burn is still in my main project slot, at least for this week. This will probably be the last snippet I share from it, though. Unless I am actually still working on it next Wednesday, but I don’t think that happens. of course, this means next up will be Defending the Heart, so you’ll get more snippets of Piers and Xavier. 🙂 But, for now, here’s 8 paragraphs(1+2+5) of Brann and Jaya starting to make up(and he’d brought a pizza for them to share, to put the final exchange here in context):

“You don’t need to apologize for that, Jaya. I’m the one who was in the wrong. I was out of line. You didn’t do anything wrong, and I went off on you. I’m so sorry. I want you to be safe, but it’s not my right to dictate what you do. I was an idiot, and I’m sorry that pushed you away.”
She finally turned to him. “You’re not an idiot, Brann.”
“Not for long anyway,” he said, smiling a little as he remembered Luisa’s words. “But, I was yesterday. I probably will be again where you’re concerned. Does it help if I apologize in advance?”
Jaya laughed and took a step toward him. “I don’t see how it could hurt. But, you do understand I don’t need to be put in some bubble to be kept safe? That I won’t let you do that?”
He couldn’t stop himself now. He had to reach out and touch her. He ran the back of her hand across her cheek. She closed her eyes and seemed to lean into the touch. He couldn’t even describe what that did to him. “I know,” he said softly. “I’ll do my best to keep that in check, but if I think you’re in danger, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to do that.”
“How do you feel about cold pizza?”
Her question took him by surprise since it had nothing to do with what they were discussing. “What does that have to do…”
But, before he could finish his question, her mouth was on his. Oh. “I’m perfectly fine with cold pizza,” he said as she pushed him back until they were in her living room.

I’m not even going to ask what you think happens next, because I think it’s pretty obvious. 😉 Of course, this isn’t the end of their problems. But, I’m getting close to resolving that for them.

Now, as for that progress I’m making this week:

 

• Write: Target of 10000 between all projects – 7139/10000 words. Almost 4500 5500 of that is from Crash and Burn. At this moment, I still have an hour of writing time left on that for today. just finished my writing time on this with a total of 1500 for today.
• Edit: Stained Blood – finish Story Toolkit & outline new scenes – working through this. Up to the romance arc worksheet now.
• Plot: Playing with Fire – Work through Story Toolkit & explore characters with Just Jot It prompts. Outline if I get that far. – still working through this, too. On the final character arc worksheet(I’m doing 3 for this one, usually only have 2). And keeping up with the prompts. So far this week, I have:
  • Compromise
  • Elusive
• Side Projects: Add another 2000 words – 877/2000 words. I made the goal on Midas’ Daughter and got a good bit on Dance with the Devil. Getting intense on that one as I get through the climax. May not finish it this month as I’d hoped but definitely getting close.
• Listen: It Had to Be Them(Tamra Baumann) & Midnight Betrayal(Melinda Leigh) – I finished listening to It Had to Be Them(which I loved) and started Midnight Betrayal(which I’m enjoying).
• Read: Finish Last Seen Leaving(Caleb Roehrig), Burned(Sarah Morgan), Loud is How I Love You(Mercy Brown), Love Ignites(Jaci Burton), Just a Girl(Ellie Cahill), Star Seers(Lindsay Buroker), Lucky Streak(Carly Phillips), All I Want(Jill Shalvis), & Idol(Kristen Callihan) – I finished Last Seen Leaving(absolutely LOVED!), Burned(liked), Loud is How I Love You(really enjoyed), and Love Ignites(enjoyed). I’ll be starting Just a Girl later today.
• Crochet: Giraffe Hat – finished this on Monday
• Loom: Meadow Moss Headband – started this yesterday, though the directions were a little confusing at first. Think I may have gotten the hang of it now.
• A to Z Challenge: Plot – N-Z posts – I got through R plotted yesterday.

Not too much blue but a good bit of green. And hopefully a lot of that will turn blue by the end of the week.

 

Writing Wednesday: Finished

So, first: I finished the first draft of In the Moonlight yesterday! Woohoo! I started it back in May, according to my spreadsheet. Feels almost like I’ve been working on it forever. And I know it’s a mess. I outlined it planning to write it as I usually do, 3rd person dual POV. Yeah, the characters had other ideas. So, that’s part of it. And I just went so far off the outline, I wasn’t sure whether I was coming or going. But, I’m going to let it sit for at least a month then I’ll go through and hopefully pull all the threads together.

Second, I got my hair cut over the weekend. I mentioned that on Sunday, too, but I know not everyone visits then. I’m really liking it, though, in the morning, I usually get this:

Oh, the joys of really short curly hair. But, I was really hating having it get in my face and touching my neck. As I think I mentioned Sunday, I didn’t realize how much I hate long hair until I started getting it cut short again. Now, I feel more like me.

A better picture

And, since it is Wednesday, it’s time for WiPPet Wednesday!! Woohoo. One of my favorite times of the week. Crash and Burn has moved up into my main project slot now, so that’s what I’ll be sharing from for now. I have 10 paragraphs for today(1+1+8). Brann has gone to talk to his sister-in-law, and she has a way of making him see things differently.

He groaned. He’d wanted to avoid just that thing. But, it didn’t seem to matter. After their fight, everyone would know what was going on with him. “It’s being taken care of. I’m not taking the threats lately.”
She gave a slow shake of her head. “I do not just mean the threats, though those are bad. But, you had a smart, strong, beautiful woman standing by you. Why would you send her away?”
He straightened at that. “I did not send her away. I just wanted her to be safe, and she walked away from me because of that.”
Luisa let a long breath and almost looked disappointed. “Brann, you know I love your brother. So very, very much. But, even I want to strangle him sometimes with how overprotective he can be. I did not think you would ever be like him. And from what Caitie said, your girl would not appreciate or tolerate that even half as much as I do.”
He wished she’d stop calling Jaya his. Jaya had made it clear she wasn’t. “I just don’t want her to be hurt. Is that really so wrong?”
“No, but do not be an idiot, Brann, you so rarely are. That is not all you did. You went against what she would want, tried to take a choice from her. And that is wrong.”
“Shit.” He couldn’t hold back the curse this time, and almost felt the disapproval from his sister-in-law as he dropped his head into his hands. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I know you’re right. I just don’t know how to make it better.”
She patted his knee. “You’ll figure it out. Like I said, you are rarely an idiot. And usually not for long.”
He laughed then stopped as a sharp cry rang out from down the hall. Luisa sighed and started to stand, but Brann halted her. “I’ll get her. I was hoping for some time with my youngest niece anyway.”
Luisa smiled at him. “She would be lucky to have a man like you, Brann. I hope she realizes that.”

Will Brann stop being an idiot? Will Jaya realize it? Will they get back together?(Come on, you have to know the answer to that. This is me writing it;) )

Now for my goals progress so far this week:

 

• Write: Shoot for 10000 words – 6173/10000 words so far. I might actually meet this target this week.
• Edit: Stained Blood – finish Story Toolkit & outline new scenes – still working through the Toolkit
• Plot: Playing with Fire – finish Story Toolkit & continue exploring characters with Just Jot It prompts. Outline if I get that far. – still working through the Toolkit for this as well. And I have 2 pieces for Just Jot It so far. Get to see Jeremiah & his feelings for both Corrin & Silas.
  • Impenetrable
  • Complaint
• Side projects – add 2000 words(added new project to the list for possible submission to this year’s WUR) – 1024/2000 so far. That’s just for Midas’ Daughter and Dance with the Devil. I’m planning to start the new project today.
• Listen: Lady Midnight(Cassandra Clare), The Pale Dreamer(Samantha Shannon), & The Professor(Robert Bailey) – I finished Lady Midnight yesterday(loved it) and started The Pale Dreamer. It’s short, so I should finish it today).
• Read: Finish Nothing Like Paris(Amy Jo Cousins), All Summer Long(Susan Mallery), Love, Exes, and Ohs(Violet Duke), Sweet Cinderella(Penny Watson), Under a Painted Sky(Stacey Lee), Lady of the Star Wind(Veronica Scott), Shattered Past(Lindsay Buroker), Last Seen Leaving(Caleb Roehrig), & Burned(Sarah Morgan) – I finished Nothing Like Paris(really enjoyed), All Summer Long(enjoyed), Love, Exes and Ohs(liked), & Sweet Cinderella(liked). And I just started Under a Painted Sky last night. Haven’t gotten very far yet, though.
• Crochet – Giraffe Hat – making progress on this. Would be making more if I didn’t have to keep untangling the yarn as I go.
• Loom – Meadow Moss Headband – will start when I finish the giraffe hat
• A to Z Challenge: Plot – L-Z posts – outlined L & M posts. Hopefully I can stay ahead of stuff and get to a few more of these.

I love seeing all that green. if this keeps up, it’ll be a really good week.

 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: “Novel”

This week’s Stream of Consciousness prompt from the wonderful Linda G Hill is “novel”. This shouldn’t be too hard for a writer to talk about, right? I thought about working it into some fiction, but maybe I’ll do something different. It is National Novel Writing Month, after all. And, yes, I’m participating. I always have since I started back in 2010. I had a 3 year old and 2 month old at the time, didn’t even hear about it until a few days into the month. And I’d hardly been writing anything at that time. I think I felt I couldn’t be a Mom and a writer at the same time. Which, looking back, is a little ridiculous. I actually think I’m a better mom now that I’ve taken writing back(seriously, it’s not pretty when I don’t write for a while). Anyway, that first year I totally failed. I just jumped on a vague idea I had. Since then I’ve always plotted out my ideas.

This year I’m actually working on 5 different projects. Yeah, it’s cheating I suppose, but this seems to be how I work best. When I try to focus on only one at a time, all the other ideas suddenly think its their turn. So instead I’m writing 500 words a day on each. By the end of the month, this should get me at least 55,000 words, since I don’t work on the weekends unless I have to do some catching up. Anyway, this year’s projects are:

Defending the Heart

This is book 3 in my BC Security series. I actually first wrote book 1 for NaNo ’11. Then, I re-plotted and completely rewrote it. I always knew book 3 would be Piers’ story. Then, in book 1 Xavier popped up. I hadn’t been expecting him, or the fact that he and Piers had history and very possibly a future.

Crash and Burn

This is a novella in my Flames series. That series revolves around a fire department. The female main character is a paramedic who works with the department, and the male main character is a previous character’s older brother. This takes place at the same time as Closing Time(which I recently finished), and I wonder if it will ignore my decree of it being a novella as much as that one did.

Not Meant to Be

This is a series I actually started about probably 14 years ago now. The first book was written then at least. I completely rewrote it in 2012 and published it in 2014. I’m getting ready to release book 2 next month. This is book 6, but Toby has popped up in almost every single novel so far(except book 2 I think). It’s about time he got his happy ending 🙂

Stay a Little Longer

This is book 5 in my Kurztown series. I started this as a standalone set in a small town. It was just going to be a simple contemporary romance. A challenge for me because those tend to turn more into romantic suspense for me. I never thought it would be a series. And then Brian says he wants to tell the story of how he and Ashley got together(book 1 was told in 2 timelines, and they got together between those times), then sweet, soft-spoken, scarred Doren said he had a story to tell too, and look at that, now I have a series. Terrall was actually the antagonist in that one(there is bad history between him and Doren). I didn’t think he’d ever get a story, that I wouldn’t want to try to redeem someone who had taken a life by driving drunk. But…Redeem may not even be the right word for what will happen, but he is trying to makes amends. And something he said in Doren’s story will come back to bite him 😉

In the Moonlight

I feel like I’ve been working on this one forever(according to my spreadsheet, I started it at the beginning of May). It’s the only one of these that isn’t part of a series. This actually started as a flash fiction piece several years ago. It’s not even close to what that was, except there’s still a ghost involved. I’m really loving these girls, though.

So, that’s what I’m working on right now.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – In/Out

Today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is to use in/out. One or the other or both somewhere in the post. The only project I haven’t worked on this week is Crash and Burn(previously only referred to as Brann’s story or Brann & Jaya). This comes right after last week’s piece I wrote. I tried continuing that scene yesterday, and couldn’t figure out how to pick it up. I think because that scene was over, and I just didn’t realize it. So, we’ll be switching into Jaya’s POV now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jaya left her hand in Brann’s for a moment longer than necessary for a greeting. But, she didn’t want to let go. Ridiculous. She’d just met the man. She couldn’t really feel anything for him. But, he hadn’t take his eyes from hers yet.

“Care for a dance?” he asked.

She hesitated for a moment. She really wasn’t much of a dancer. She knew exactly what to do when she was in the back of an ambulance, but in almost any other situation, she wasn’t nearly as sure of herself. She couldn’t see the same being said of him. he looked perfectly at ease with himself. What would he say if she started tripping over her own feet out there?

She heard Caitie snicker from behind Brann and wondered what that was about. But, she found herself nodding. He pulled her out to the dance floor and brought one hand to her waist. He didn’t seem to want to release that hand, though. Maybe he felt the same way she did.

“I’ll apologize in advance,” he said.

She was almost too drawn in to that honey-smooth voice to process what he’d said. “Why would you apologize?”

The song changed, another slow, romantic tune at least, and they started to move with it. And only a few beats into the song, she felt a sharp pain in her toes. Brann winced. “That’s why,” he said. “Sorry about my big clumsy feet. I don’t always seem to know where I’m putting them.”

She laughed and put her arms over his shoulders. And here she was sure he’d be so sure of himself. “Then, why did you ask me to dance?”

“Because ever since I saw you earlier, I wanted to spend some time with you. But, I thought you were here with one of the firefighters.” one side of his mouth ticked up at that. “Mark and Caitie set me straight on that one. I figured when you were dancing with that kid, he was who you were with.”

“Austin?” she asked with a laugh. “He’s like my little brother. And anyway, I’d never truly get between him and Jess. No matter how many times she breaks his heart.”

Brann shifted and finally looked away from her. What was that all about. He glanced back at her. “Sorry. I don’t like discussing other peoples’ relationships. It can get sticky.”

He’d looked away again, and she followed his gaze. Over to the bar set up in the corner of the room. “Who’s that?” she asked.

“My baby brother and one of his bartenders. That’s all I’ll say about it.”

She looked up at him again and thought he might look worried. But, she didn’t understand that at all. She thought it might be one of those sticky things he didn’t like to discuss, though.

“You aren’t a firefighter, right?” she asked.

He let out a loud rolling laugh at that. “No,” he said, grinning down at her. “I’m not. Thank goodness for that. I heard I wouldn’t have a chance with you if that was the case.”

But, he wanted one? Beyond more than just this dance? She thought she could go for that.