), but the Giants are the only NFL team I’ve ever loved. It started in high school when my English teacher used to do soda can bets on the Sunday games. I picked the Giants and have stuck with them since. My mother loves to tell the story of the time (in my sophomore year) she took me to NY and spent the whole day showing me the sites…you know, The Empire State Building, Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Tiffany’s…and I, being oh-so-wise, was more impressed driving by Giant Stadium on the way into the … Read more »

Hmm…Jan. 2nd to Jan. 20th. Not quite three weeks. This is a blogging improvement!

First of all, some news. The girls at RWKF have decided to take a blogging break. J’s going back to work full time, Lin’s tackling grad school on top of working full time AND writing for Sahmain, and me? Well, I go with the flow. My RWA chapter duties as the new pres. have taken up way more time than I’d like, and I’m still not back to 100% after being sick over the holidays (still fighting this ear infection. Gah… Read more »

Lexi called me out. I’ve been in hiding. No special reason, just haven’t had a ton to say and life has been busy with the holidays rushing closer at the speed of light. (Anyone else feel that way?!)

First things first…yes, Lexi, I’m still doing the challenge, I just haven’t been posting my updates. After kicking butt the first few weeks, I’ve tapered off. Some days I write 3K words (like last night) and some days I write zilch. This is my pattern though, so I’m not fighting it. So long as I make my goal, all is good. … Read more »

1. Your idea of a clean desk means you can see over the top of the piles.

2. You know exactly where everything is in those piles.

3. You can spend hours leafing through the pages of a dictionary.

4. You can write an eight-page email and feel like you’ve only written a paragraph.

5. You know everything happens for a reason…even if you have to make one up.

6. You can entertain yourself all afternoon creating character descriptions for people whom you observe in an airport, on a bus, at the mall, etc..

7. You often play a mental … Read more »

I’m so close I can taste the sweetness of The End.

Word Count Update – been hitting my 1000 words consistently, though not going over by much. Can’t quite remember when I updated last. Monday? Assuming that, let’s see, my totals for this week so far are:

Tuesday: 1419 words/8 pgs
Wednesday: 1058 words/5 pgs

Four scenes left. Four frickin‘ scenes. I had the whole thing worked out in my head. The two climax scenes, the two resolutions scenes. Done. Finished. Stick a fork in me. And then…

Lying in bed last night I realized there is a … Read more »

School starts back up tomorrow. Woohooo! (Can you tell I’m excited???) Actually, school for the 3rd grader starts tomorrow, my Kindergartner won’t start until next Monday (what’s up with that????? I swear schools in OR start later than everyone else in the frickin’ universe.) But what has me really excited is the fact Gremlin #2 got afternoon K, which means….since Gremlin #3 takes an afternoon nap, I’ll have 2.5 WHOLE hours of peace in my house where I can write and edit without constant interruptions. Man, I won’t know what to do with myself!

Speaking of writing, those of you … Read more »

One –

Writing when the words are not flowing is pure torture. Complete Hell. Like peeling the skin off your bones one agonizing millimeter at a time.

Two –

Forcing yourself to write when the words are not flowing and meeting your 1000-word goal even though you had to open a vein to do so is the best feeling in the world. Almost as good as typing T-h-e E-n-d.

Okay, I lied. More than two…

Three –

I’ve discovered the bathtub is where my muse lives. After the bloodletting I took a hot bath, locked the door and thought. … Read more »

It’s that time of year again! Beaver football kicks off tonight. We’re ditching the kids and going to the game with friends. I’m looking forward to getting away for the evening.

Of course, that means I have to get my 1000 words in before we go.

And that, of course, leads me to my word count update. Yesterday I hurt my back picking up Gremlin #3 and ended up spending most of the day on the couch. Bad for my back. Good for the writing. I wrote 6168 words!!!! It would be better if all those words had gone into … Read more »

My good friend and Intrigue writer, Alice Sharpe, blogged this morning about her writing process at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA Blog. Funny take on how she works her proposals. Go read it. (I discovered I’m not nearly as neurotic as I’d thought. LOL)

And a word count/goal update for yesterday:

Stayed up and finished the scene I wanted to get done. 2381 words, 11 pgs. What goal did you accomplish yesterday?… Read more »

Okay, I’m throwing this out there. Blame Joan for talking me into a mini-writing challenge last night.

I agreed to writing 1000 words a day for 100 days. Which would technically give me a 100,000-word manuscript in roughly 3 1/3 months. Of course, I’m not starting anything new, and I’m not going to try to finish a new book. I am, however, going to work on several different things and spread my 100,000-words out over a variety of projects.

So, between now and the middle of December, I’m going to:

1. Finish DTM. I have 8 scenes to go. … Read more »