Done

Holy crap, I finished. A month ahead of my schedule.

374 pages. 94k. That's a LOT! : )))

Excuse me, I have snoopy dancing, shopping and possibly some drinking to do.

This is the time when writing is NOT hard!! It's just great.

Almost there

The end is coming into focus. I have sore fingers. More later.

PS Books are LONG.

Breathing space

So the book has continued to talk, there has also been birthday parties (I'm old!), birthday lunches, mid-week dinners with friends, work and general everything taking longer because of the sore thumb. Which is much better now and down to only a bandaid.
There has also been Melbourne playing a little game we like to call "what the hell will the weather be like today (or in the next five minutes)?". One minute it's beautiful and sunny (30 degrees!! in early spring!!), the next it's cold and blustery. Typical spring, yes but everyone is walking around vaguely tired and grumpy as a result.

Anyway, I got to Friday (my day off), full of good plans to write at least 10 pages. But instead my brain declared it was rest day. So I shopped (the new Fashion Targets Breast Cancer t-shirt - the symbol is gold (I don't wear gold but it's a good cause) and some SK-II to try (just a little trial kit). My skin can be quite sensitive so we'll see how it goes...Cate Blanchett has awesome skin though, so lets hope it works (after all, I'm old). Then I watched S5 of Gilmore Girls. The one which Channel 9 (yes, I'm looking at you, Eddie) showed about 7 episodes of earlier this year and then just stopped (because they can, that's why). It was really good. One bit made me cry : ) So um, that was Friday. Yesterday there was ballet and I'm happy to report it was much improved over the last one. And some Gilmore Girls S3 (there has been a purchasing Gilmore Girls DVDs theme to the month). I got some entries ready for some comps and wrote a few pages. I think this book has a theme! Go me.

But today I have to get back to writing. I've got four specific things that have to happen before the end of the book. Just not sure how I get from a to b to c to d. But I can do it. Then comes revising which the brain is already kind of chatting about in a "you need to put in more about x after y way". Hopefully I'll be done with the first draft by the end of the week. Then some folks can read it and see how much work it really needs. My first long book. Almost done. And that's a good feeling.

PS Apparently when you google cat vomit and australia, my blog comes up. That's what I want to be known for lol. But for leigh ann, I replied to your comment but in case any one else is wondering the Cavalier Bremworth carpet cleaner does a pretty good job.

PPS Next month "Wife for a Week" by Kelly Hunter is out. It's great. Funny, witty, romantic. Go read it.

Owie

Okay so all that stuff about doing dumb things with knives your mother told you? You should listen. As the splint on my thumb to keep the gash in that thumb from reopening if my thumb bends will testify. Older but no wiser that's me.
Luckily it is my non space bar thumb so I can still write.
Less luckily it is splinted for a week. And can't get wet. Interesting.
To cut a long story short, there was blood, there was much closeness to fainting (and I'm not the fainting at the sight of blood type).
There was a tetanus shot so I now have a sore arm to go with my sore thumb.
Owie.

Time flies

It's Sunday night again. How did that happen?

Oh yeah, two parties, a crit session, some housework and forty five pages or so of story.

I am knackered, my hands are starting to protest the lots of typing thing and I still didn't get half the stuff I wanted to do this weekend done.

So will have to ease back on the typing pace and treat myself to watching Elizabeth I on ABC. Just what Sunday night ordered!

Cake!

Happy Birthday to the VT!

Long may she reign in sappiness and VT spookiness.

Let there be cake.

If only to distract me from the fact that her being a year older means soon I shall suffer the same fate!

Weekend!

Hooray for the nine day fortnight! I have been sleepy all week and at least the day job is done with.

The writing job continues at a frantic pace. It's very weird to be 200 odd pages into a book and know there's almost that much to go. Normally I'm getting ready to wrap up. But this feels like there's more to go. All good. So no rest really for the wicked but somewhere I will find time for two parties and a lulu meeting. And maybe some purchasing of new bookcases.

Oh and I switched to page count on the word count. More satisfying, less torturous.
Call me shallow.

PS Sharon Lee and Steve Miller ROCK!

Full steam ahead

So the book is going well, I'm averaging ten pages a day which is a lot and fantastic and a pace I hope to continue even though I know it will ease up eventually.

I'm not sure how long this sucker will be but I'm telling myself 90k, page count (mainly to avoid freaking myself out about how long a long book is : ) - I'm used to 60k ). The word meter btw is actual words. Don't know why I'm not doing page count. Just to torture myself probably. Though there's not a huge difference in the two at the moment. Less than usual, so maybe the first person POV makes a difference. Page count wise, I've just passed half-way done thanks to my current roll, long may it continue.

As a result of which, not much other news.

Back to the keyboard.

Vale, Steve

You know, I was never a huge fan of the Crocodile Hunter as a show but Steve Irwin was 100% full-bore, flat out passionate about what he did. About saving our animals and our environment and teaching people to respect the planet. He donated huge sums of money and huge amounts of energy into the thing he believed in. Whether or not you agree with his methods, he was a great example of going for it fearlessly.

People are saying that at least he died doing what he loved, and yes, that's true. But I'm pretty sure that he'd have preferred to die surrounded by the people he loved after another forty or fifty years doing what he loved. And that's the sad thing. So to his family, as to anyone who loses a loved one, my deepest sympathy and to everyone else who respected the man, let's all think about what we can do in some small way to keep his cause alive and save this world for generations of humans and animals to come.

Write-us interruptus

So, I woke up on Saturday with the book shouting in my head. 7.30am. I'm never up at 7.30 am on a Saturday. But when the book is on a roll you don't argue. I'd managed 10 pages the day before, which is a lot for a work day but this felt different. This felt like I could write for hours and the pages would just flow. It felt like I could easily write 30 pages in a day.
It doesn't happen that often. But sometimes it feels like you're just bursting at the seams with story and it's like watching a movie that you just transcribe.
My only problem was, my day was booked. Ballet, going down to Mum and Dad's for Father's Day. Eeek.
So butt in chair and I got another ten pages in a hour and a bit before I had to go out. Reluctantly go out because, I love the ballet, but I didn't want to lose the feeling.
Turns out the ballet wasn't that great. So I could kind of write stuff in my head while sitting in the dark. And today I've managed another six pages so far in between Father's Day and driving back to Melbourne, so I didn't stall the whole thing by not doing what the muse wanting completely. That's happened before, book goes from pouring out to dead stand still. Not pretty. So fingers crossed it will keep flowing for a while, even at a reduced rate but next time, I'm clearing the calendar.
Keep the muse happy, do the work. And take the gift days when they come. Grab 'em with both hands.