Slash and burn

After various useful crits, a lulu meeting where I, for the most part, resisted eating anything too evil (and with added bonus appearance of the VT temporarily escaping her Tasmanian Reno Adventure) and many hours at the keyboard, I have a new and hopefully improved version of the first three chapters. Only eighteen more to go. Yeesh.

At least I have a better idea of something like a theme and some ideas for more stuff that's needed. Always helpful.

Other things I've been doing this weekend:

1. Looking at the RWA workshop schedule and drooling. Last year I went easy on the workshops due to being jetlagged and nervous. This year, Keri and I are heading over earlier and I have no GH to be nervous about so I'm hoping to get to a few more. Picking which is always hard though. Too many good things. Thank god they sell the cds.

2. Finally admitting my overflowing bookshelf problem can't wait for the "Mel can afford more bookshelves" solution. So I now have some well stuffed plastic tubs of books looking sad in my spare room. They'll just have to keep looking sad until later this year. I need my money for SF. Hopefully the current fantastic exchange rate hold until July.

3. Re-reading Sunshine. You know you adore a book when you think "hey, I want to re-read Sunshine" then realise you've loaned it to someone and promptly borrow it from the library lol. I do love this book, even if reading about cinnamon rolls is kind of torturous at the moment (hopefully only four more days after today on the crazy diet!!). Robin McKinley is a writing goddess.

4. Trying to put pawpaw ointment on the Orange Cat's nose after someone swiped him good. He just licks it off of course, then tells me he's tough, he likes his scar and you should see the other guy (none of which I believe : ) ).

It does look kind of cute in an owie sort of way.

The sun also rises

One side effect of this whole healthy eating/fixing things that I'm not really loving is that I keep waking up early. Like 6.30-6.45. Those who know me will know this is just not me. And it would be fine if both my brain and my body woke up because then I would be able to do something useful like write with the extra time. But noooo. This little night owl's brain is not awake then, even if the eyes are open. Maybe if I had caffeine to kick it into gear but no caffeine for me (and I'd like it to stay that way apart from the odd tea or coke once I can have it again in the interests of health)

It's not so bad on the week days. Because by the time I get up, eat breakfast so I can take my various pills and potions, read some blogs and the news online while I'm eating, feed the cats, shower and get dressed it's time to go to work anyway.

On the weekends not so much. I wander around in a fog and nothing productive is done. So today I'm doing housework but by the time that's done I'm thinking I'll be ready for a nap (I'm awake but sleepy if that makes sense). So it will still be late morning before my brain is ready to write. Maybe writing in a half clean house will help...

It's the little things

Last week I bought new shoes. Apparently that's what you do when you can't eat anything interesting. All work shoes and I did shop at the outlet mall, so not extravagant. So I've been wearing new shoes all week and am pleased to report they're all very comfy for new shoes. Except today I wore the heels.

Now I'm tall and have a dodgy knee which doesn't really appreciate heels, so while I have in the past usually had a pair of two inch or so heels for work (three inches makes me six foot and my knee particularly cranky so I don't usually bother with those) but for the last year or so, my highest pair has been a cute little one inch kitten heel. And apparently my calves know the difference. Even though the shoes were comfy, my calves are screaming already...I foresee some hot baths and stretching over the weekend. One teeny, tiny inch shouldn't make that much difference. Maybe I'm getting old.

At least it's an excuse to stay seating in my chair and work on my revision all weekend. Apart from lulus on Saturday. Where I will be eating salad while they all eat pancakes. I think that's offically unfair!

Jigsaw

I think I've worked out most of the extra scenes and threads and changes I need for my revision (barring the pending always useful critique comments). Except one. One I think is needed early on but can't quite work out where to put it. Which might mean I'm wrong and it comes later or I might just be a little bit foggy due to a bad night's sleep last night.

All the various naturopathic things have been helping the sleep a bit and the energy has improved a bit, so it was annoying to go backwards. And of course, on the extra tired day, it's guaranteed that the day job will be go, go, go.

So for tonight, I might just ponder Gordon Ramsay and let the subconcious solve my missing scene problem. Then all I have to do is sit down and make it all work on paper. Easy! (Yeah, right.)

Baking

I'm still in the 'thinking hard' about everything stage of my Wolf 2 revision, which isn't very exciting to write about and doesn't really clock up the pages, so here's what else I did today. Made rye soda bread. If you've ever been to Ireland and stayed at a B & B, you've probably been served yummy, thick, dense, chewy, fresh wholemeal soda bread with butter and honey or jam or just butter. I've made the wheat version a few times because it's quick and easy (none of that kneading nonsense and pretty healthy)

Because it doesn't have yeast in it, I was thinking it would be nice as alternative to the rye sourdough I've been eating but given that most traditional soda bread has milk or buttermilk in it, have been hamstrung in my desire to try it out (I think I've mentioned the whole baker's granddaughter/occasionally obsessed with the urge to bake thing before). But after the okay to have natural yoghurt, I found a recipe that uses water and yoghurt intead of buttermilk, and can report that it was quite tasty with my (also homemade) chicken and vegie soup for lunch. I'm sure it would be yum with butter and honey or jam but they're still off the menu so I'll have to wait and see for that one. Might try some with almond butter for dessert tonight.

Soda bread doesn't keep terribly well, though this recipe said it would freeze, so I've cut up chunks and frozen those to have with the soup as I eat it during the week. Now I just need to make sure there will be no more freezer disasters.

And now, off for a walk, which I've been meaning to take since this morning. Feeling very bored with my usual walks so might drive to a nearby park and walk around that instead.

Oh, and the soda bread recipe (and I'm completely blanking on where I found this now but I think it may have been a BBC site?), in case anyone wants to give it a go (this makes two smallish loaves, I'll probably halve the recipe next time and make one just due to the best fresh factor):

450g (1 lb) wholemeal flour (I used rye, you could use wheat or spelt)
2 tspns bicarb soda
300g (1/2 pint) natural yoghurt.
150g (1/4 pint) warm water

Heat over to 200 degrees celsius (400 F) (my oven is fan forced and hot, I used 180). Sift flour into a large bowl. Mix in bicarb soda. Combine water and yoghurt in another bowl and mix well. Pour into flour mix and mix well. Add a little more water if too dry. Turn out onto a floured board and shape into two flattish oval loaves. Slice a cross in the top of each loaf with a knife (or two stripes or something).

Put onto a floured baking tray (I just used baking paper) and cook for 30 mins then turn oven down to 180 (I did 16) and cook for another 20 minutes or so (mine was more like 15). Like most bread, it's done when you tip the loaf over and it sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

It doesn't take much to make a Mel happy

In fact it just seems to take a banana and a little bit of dark chocolate. Both of which taste surprisingly sweet after 2 weeks of no sugar. Modification negotiations were successful. Let's see how the next two weeks go...

Writing tip of the day

There are kitties in some of them...even big big kitties : )

The end is nigh

Tomorrow I return to the naturopath where hopefully we will see the end of the detox diet. In fact, definitely we will see the end of the detox diet because if she says I have to keep doing it, I am putting my foot down and demanding some modifications.

I want to keep eating healthily, apart from a reasonable, sane level of treats. After all I still want to lose some weight etc. But the key to sustainable healthy on the whole eating, is variety. There's a reason that very strict diets don't work. And it's mostly because without variety, you get bored, bored, bored and start to despise all the healthy stuff you're eating and be consumed with an overwhelming desire to see how many Krispy Kremes (or insert sugary, fatty, snack of choice here) you can eat before you explode just because they, to quote lolcats, haz a flavour.

I'm nearing that point. I don't want to turn myself off all the good stuff, so there has to be a relaxing of the rules before I go nuts and buy out Haighs. Two weeks with no caffeine, sugar, wheat, yeast, dairy, fruit, alcohol, anything fermented or potatoes is a long, long, long time. I have distracted myself with writing and work and lots of other things (aka lots of whining) but something's gotta give.

Let's hope I have good news to report tomorrow.

Unfair

It seems to me that when you are on a very restricted diet and at least attempt to be organised and spend the weekend cooking enough dinners and lunches made from stuff you can eat to freeze and get you through the week, that the universe should cut you some slack and not arrange for you to somehow miss the fact that your freezer door is not shut properly thereby turning all your hard work into little dishes of 'come and get your food poisoning here' by the time you get home!!!

Unfair. And cranky making. Bah humbug.

PS I know this is really my fault but still...bah humbug.

Famous last words

So this afternoon I settled down to read some of Wolf 2 and go over my notes from the last pass on structural stuff. Which was fine. Then I did the Sunday afternoon read for a bit and meditate. Of course, the girls being contrary beasts suddenly decided that maybe, just maybe, they could stop sulking about Steamy Weather. I got some scene snippets and some additions to the soundtrack and a collage.

Not sure where this fits in the grand plan but I'm going to go along with it for now and see how far I get and will do some Wolf 2 thinking/revising at the same time. It will be interesting swinging backwards and forwards between two completely different books and genres but I'll see how it goes.

I'm not planning to talk much about SW in case I voodoo myself, even though keeping the metrics worked well for Witch. I liked seeing the stats each day. I find it motivating to record them, like page counts. It's my Virgo side I guess. All statistical and analytical. So I'll keep some stats and report occasionally but probably not as much as Witch. Who knows, I could wake up tomorrow and the girls will retreat into sulking again but let's hope not, I was having great fun with it when it was flowing well.

Retrospective

This meme seems to be going around today (see here, here and here) so I thought I've give it a go...a potted history of Mel's writing career aka the stuff I can remember writing enough of to qualify as a book or intended to be a book rather than a short story. The year is the year I finished the first draft (or started the book if it's unfinished) and everything that's been submitted has probably had at least three drafts...so hopefully I've more than clocked up that million words figure people bandy about.

1981. (I think...Grade Three anyway) My first books. I wrote a series of three or so stories about a family of unicorns with a friend. Taught me the perils of collaboration and secret babies.

1984. Rlent's Journey Very bad derivative fantasy which owed a lot to Anne McCaffrey. Wrote some chapters on and off and then at some point realised that it was derivative. Interesting concept though...

1989. The Fantasy Book (still no real title). I wrote the first four or five chapters of this in my last year of high school and my friends loved it. Cough-teen years later I'm still trying to write the darn thing. Romantic fantasy with slight leanings towards epicness. I love this book and will get it right one day.

1989. My First Romance (no idea if it had a title). Wrote this as a 3k story for an English assignment. A reunion romance between a actress/director who'd had an affair in college when he was a visiting professor. Have at various times played with it since then but not sure I'll ever do anything with it.

2001. The Bride's Bargain. Category romance. Wrote the first three chapters in a burst around 1995 then it sat when work/study took over for a few years, tried again in 1996 and ditto. Sometime in 2001 I realised if I ever wanted to be a writer, I'd better finish a book and finished it. The full got a very form rejection from Silhouette but the bug had bitten. Another reunion romance. Has potential but I'm kind of scared to look at it now lol.

2002. Convincing Callie. Category romance. My first 'gift' book. The hero was a minor character who kept wanting to take over in TBB so I decided to give him a book. Which he then ran with and it just flew out. Won a few competitions but has been rejected by all three offices of HM&B in various guises which is a pity because I love the hero. Got me my first 'please send us something else' rejection from Desire. Ditto from ModX a few years later after revising.

2002. Take A Chance On Me. Category Romance. The book I wrote to submit to Desire as my something else. Another reunion. Got a very encouraging rejection from the editor who wanted to work with me on the next one.

2002. Be My Downfall. Category Romance. Nanowrimo book. The h/h are secondary characters from TAC so it won't get properly revised/submitted unless I ever sell TAC.

2003. Don't Stand So Close To Me. Bombshell/Action Romance. Wrote the partial and sent it off then wrote a few more chapters but didn't want to write the rest unless I got a request (at this point I knew I could write fast when I needed to). It got rejected. Yet to be finished but could be a fun single title. My first experiment with first person. 2003 was also the year of revising many things for submission or comps. I lost both my grandparents that year and the writing was hard.

2004. Getting Wise. Category Romance. The book I was writing for the Desire editor. Who then left the company which threw me for a loop and GW turned into the book from hell, possibly cos it was angsty and I was grieving. I've rewritten it a few times but it eludes me for now. Never submitted. I probably also revised CC and TAC in 04 for comps and to submit elsewhere. I think TAC was my first GH entry that went nowhere.

2004. Be My Downfall. Romance. Nano book. I thought it was category but it's kind of bigger and more complicated than that. To be revised/written properly someday.

2005. Can't Stand The Heat. Category Romance. I'd had the idea of this sometime in 2004. Wrote it very fast in 2005 after an online editor pitch, did okay in comps. I really like this book. Another GH entry that got better scores but didn't do anything. Got me another 'please send more' rejection from ModX and a revised version of the partial is currently at Blaze after pitching it at last year's National.

2005. Me and Mr Jones. Romance. Possibly category but not sure the idea would work for them. Unfinished. Needs re-thinking.

2005. Steamy Weather. Single Title Romance. Another gift book that was flying out until I stupidly took it to critting too early and got stalled at just over 100 pages. I will finish it one day when I figure out how to get the girls to stop sulking and get back into the groove of it. Up until then I'd never had a problem having first drafts critted before the book was finished. Now I rarely show anyone any part of the first draft until it's done, particularly if it's flowing well. So it's the book that changed my process.

2005. The Deadly Pool. Romantic Fantasy set in kind of an alternate England/Scotland/France with a tech level about equivalent to the Regency period and similar society with magic. Not finished and shelved until I have time to do it but I like it.

2006. The Ex-Factor. Category romance. Reunion romance (yes, I like reunion stories). Finalled in the Golden Heart but had already had a revision request by the time it finalled. Revised partial in London.

2006. The Wolf Within. Urban Fantasy. I think I wrote the first bit of this late in 2005 then another forty pages maybe early 2006 when I probably got the rejection on CSTH and wrote TEF. Put it into a 'cold read' session at the RWOz 06 conference with Miriam and she requested the partial. Turned into a gift book when I sat down to finish it and wrote the rest in about six weeks. Finalled in the 07 GH and won/finalled several other comps. Got me my agent and is currently out there doing the rounds.

2007. The Dark Side (sequel to TWW). Urban Fantasy. About to start revising.

2007. Wolf 3. Urban Fantasy. One chapter written but on hold till I revise Wolf 2 for a few things so I can get the ongoing threads right.

2007. For One Night Only. Category romance. Not finished as I started writing it when I hit my tooth pulling/I have too many wips going on/day job project from hell/nothing is flowing period late last year. One to come back to.

2008. Witch 1. Urban Fantasy. First draft done and will be revised after I revise Wolf 2.

2008. Planned - revise Wolf 2, do something romance-y, revise Witch 1, then it's a toss up between Witch 2 or my other urban fantasy idea. All in the lap of the gods and what happens with what I've got out on submission.

And now I know what I've been doing with the last few years of my life...typing. By my count that's ten books (not counting the unicorns!) with at least a complete first draft (and I'd say all but one of those has had 2-3 drafts) and another five or six in various stages of completion. Not too shabby for just under seven years of serious writing. I think I need a lie down : )

Redhead

My ornamental pear being, well, ornamental...

Not a writing day

Given I don't have to write today (though I'll do some critting and probably start re-reading Wolf 2), I snagged this from Alyson. Be tagged if you want to be : )

You're feeling: Better than I have been and happy to have finished my draft.

To your left: my mobile phone, a pile of junk on my desk and my green bookcase.

On your mind: How much longer I have to do this dumb diet, what I'm going to do today and book done mind fuzzies.

Last meal included: Brown rice puffs and oat milk (lucky me!)

You sometimes find it hard to: Exercise, write and keep up the housework. Or you know, get up early in the morning.

The weather: Mild but overcast. Maybe rainy later.

Something you have a collection of: books, DVD's, music and cinema tickets

A smell that cheers you up: roses and clean line dried sheets

A smell that can ruin your mood: cigarettes, vomit

How long since you last shaved: 24 hours.

The current state of your hair: bedhead but newly dyed

The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): My currently overflowing stack of in-trays

Your skill with chopsticks: Moderate

Which section you head for first in a bookstore: romance or SFF

Something you’re craving: a walk and something to eat that has a flavour other than brown rice or lemon juice!

Your general thoughts on the presidential race:
I'm not American but if I was, I'd be a Democrat and I'd probably be leaning in Obama's direction.

How many times have you been hospitalized this year: none

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: a walk along the beach or a park

You’ve always secretly thought you’d be a good: writer; queen *g*; bookstore owner; make-up artist


Something that freaks you out a little: serial killers, cruelty to animals, intolerance and big hairy spiders

Something you’ve eaten too much of lately: Brown rice and corn thins

You have never: done drugs or ridden a motorcycle

You never want to: go blind or lose my marbles

And...scene

Woohoo! It may be the shortest first draft ever but it's now the shortest completed first draft ever and the last bit made me cry so it can't be all bad. Apparently letting the girls sleep on it last night was a good thing. I'm done, done, done and not going to think about the revisions. It gets to sit and stew while I work on another pass at Wolf 2 and possibly some drafting of Wolf 3 and the other UF idea. Though I'm kind of jonesing for some third person stuff too. Maybe it's time to try my bad girl contemp again for a bit. After Wolf 2. That must be done.

I'm pretty pleased that it's come together this fast, shortest or not. At the end of Feb I was at 100 pages and late Jan and half of Feb was spent rewriting the first chapter about six times, so I've done 220 plus in five or six weeks which is good solid writing.

So I declare a yay to be in order, and to quote Joss, "Numfar, do the dance of joy" and "Shiny" : )))

And that's about as celebratory as I can get without chocolate, alcohol or caffeine. Which is just, to quote the VT, wrongtown! Instead, I shall toddle off and buy myself a new iTrip to replace the stolen one tomorrow. I miss my iPod in the car too much!

Anyway, the final progress report for this draft is:

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Twenty one
Intriguing things - Angst angst angst
Annoyances - Short but oh well.
Music - Killers/Moby/Scissor Sisters
Linear/Non-linear - Linear
Location - Alphie in bed and Scrivener at the desk full screen/think
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Naps, Meditation, Chiro. Very very very boring food.
Muse food - Nora and a documentary on heavy metal. You figure that one out.

D'oh

When I wrote the first scene of this book a few years back when I was playing around with first person, I also wrote what I thought were the last few lines. But given what's happened in the last few scenes, I'm not sure they can be. Damn. On the other hand, I think I have a new start for book two. Maybe. And I think I have to kill someone shortly. Double damn. Didn't want to do it. Which is probably a sure sign I should.

In other news, Keri is off to Romantic Times today *jealous*...I am consoling myself with the thought that Gale Harrold doesn't actually live there and that it would be no fun to be at conference without being able to eat chocolate or drink cocktails...

More later...in the meantime, enjoy the pretty ; )

Does not compute

So I've got the end-of-work-week tireds and I've hit a point where I need to do some stitching in a dramatic scene and then move onto several more big dramatic scenes and my brain just can't do it tonight. So I'm taking my writerly bat and ball and going home. Hopefully it will make more sense in the morning than it does right now!

Still, the page count has increased a little and that's the main thing at this point. Now, where's my couch?


Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Two
Intriguing things - Return of the missing
Annoyances - Brain not working
Music - The Killers - Mr Brightside at the desk
Linear/Non-linear - Linear
Location - Scrivener at the desk
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Very very very boring food. Meditation
Muse food - Nora

Down with rice cakes

Man, I'm over this diet already. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring food.
So I'm calling it quits for the night and will take my crankiness out on some dishes and watch House re-runs and hope everything feels better in the morning. At least tomorrow's the last day of the day job week. I might even be able to finish this draft this weekend given I've hit 300 pages.


Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Six
Intriguing things - I'm sure something will seem intriguing when I re-read but crankiness is making it all seem dumb tonight.
Annoyances - it's all dumb
Music - The Killers - Mr Brightside at the desk
Linear/Non-linear - Non (though I'm running out of non to be non with).
Location - Alphie on the train. Scrivener at the desk full screen
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Very very very boring food. Walkies.
Muse food - Nora and House soon.

Get your motors running

Well it's not exactly an inspired charge to the end but it's heading in the right direction. Not bad for a work day. I even alphied on the train. Writing on the train is a sure sign I'm either right into a book or just want it to be done : )

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Twelve
Intriguing things - They put it all together
Annoyances - heroes being mercantile
Music - Whole soundtrack on the iPod and The Killers - Mr Brightside on the headphones at the desk
Linear/Non-linear - Linear.
Location - Alphie on the train. Scrivener at the desk with think and full screen
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Very very boring food. Meditation. Walkies
Muse food - La Nora. The girls want La Nora.

Keep on trucking

Monday is usually my writing day off but I think I only have about four or five more scenes to go for this draft (which will make it offically the shortest first draft ever but what the heck at this stage), so I'm just going to keep writing this week and see if I can get it done. Fixing it comes later. For now I just want the story on paper so I can figure out what the girls were getting at when they came up with this darn idea. So I'll be over here typing if anyone wants me. But not tonight. I'm still detox headachey today and have done about all I can do without risking my brain melting. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be done with the headache thing!

In other news, Melbourne continues its attempts to give us all meterological whiplash. After some cold and frigid winter-is-here-tremble-ye-mortals weather (with added tail end of hurricane gales bonus) all last week, today was warm and sunny. And apparently should get to about 28 by Friday. Just as well I didn't switch to the winter doona as I'd been planning to do last weekend!

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Six
Intriguing things - Risk taker
Annoyances - World issues. How to kill a demon
Music - Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb - headphones at the computer
Linear/Non-linear - Linear.
Location - Scrivener at the desk with think and full screen
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Still very boring food. Meditation. Pilates
Muse food - Gilmore girls

Nearly

Darn. I didn't get the 12 pages I was hoping for. Only eight. Mostly due to the fact that the stonking great 'I'm on detox type diet' headache that I was hoping I'd missed out on after it didn't arrive yesterday, arrived today. Which meant I spent most of the afternoon staring at a computer screen and thinking "my head hurts". But also because I had to stitch some bits I'd written together and that's always a bit slower than just drafting.

Still, I'm almost at 70k. I don't think this draft is going to get anywhere near 90k, which is what both the Wolf books first drafts came too. Probably just over eighty unless something brilliant that I haven't thought of that needs to happen before the end occurs to me in the next few days.

This is much more talking heady than either of those (and I thought Wolf 2 was talking head city) as evidenced by the fact that my actual word count is almost 19k!!!!! behind my page count wordcount. The Wolf books run at about 10k shorter. So I have at least 10k in just basic 'hey there should be some setting and stuff' in here to do. Plus probably another 5-10k of layering. I also think I'm missing a thread somewhere which will hopefully appear in these last 40-60 pages or so and let me know what I've missed. And that will take me up to 100k+ Or else my brilliant critique partners will have to be brilliant once I've done more grunt work filling in the gaps. One of the joys of writing. I tend to like first drafting more than revising, it's fun to just play. But this book is going to be a 'make it pretty in the revision/s' job all the way.

Regardless, it is now McDreamy time and I'm calling it quits for the weekend.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Eight
Intriguing things - Magical interference
Annoyances - The nagging sense of missing something. Grumpy Mr Hero
Music - Mika - Happy ending/Over my shoulder. iPod/Nothing
Linear/Non-linear - Linear.
Location - Alphie on the couch/Scrivener at the desk
Taking care of Mel - Evil herbal potions. Very boring food.
Muse food - Muses on a diet along with me due to headache

What I did on my saturday

1. Swilled evil tasting herbal potions. I have now perfected (and am intending to patent) the evil herbal potion swilling technique as follows:
a) Prepare evil herbal potion in medicine glass. Relocate to bathroom. Have bottle of water on hand. Also mouthwash.
b) Do shot of evil herbal potion while holding nose (note DO NOT LET GO OF NOSE)
c) Chug half a bottle of water while still holding nose (nose holding is KEY)
d) Use mouthwash and rinse mouth well while STILL holding nose.
e) Spit out mouthwash and drink more water. A lot of water.

2. Played around with this because I figured I should finally get around to having a website, having relied on this blog for a while now. And also, you know, the 'if you build it, they will come,' theory of publication lol

3. Watched Ratatouille (cuteness).

4. Made soup because along with evil herbal potion, there is evil diet and really chicken and vegetables and rice cakes is about it. So variety of form is essential.

5. The writing thing. See below.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Ten
Intriguing things - Rising to the occasion
Annoyances - Non linear brain
Music - Mika - Happy ending/Over my shoulder. iPod.
Linear/Non-linear - Non and non and non.
Location - Alphie on the couch. Both couches in fact.
Taking care of Mel - Meditation. Evil herbal potions. Very boring food.
Muse food - Ratatouille. Cooking. Website toying.

Four at a time

Not quite as many as I hoped for today but all my running around this morning took longer than expected, then I had to go grocery shopping to stock up on the limited things that I'm allowed to eat for the next two weeks courtesy of the naturopath (including no caffeine, and no chocolate...doesn't she know I'm at the end of a book?? I keep reminding myself it's short term pain for long term gain but so far I remain unconvinced : ) ). After all of that, the cold reasserted itself and I got the "must lie on couch nows". Still a thousand words is a thousand words. Hopefully I can have two good days tomorrow and Sunday and hit 70k.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Four
Intriguing things - Fire
Annoyances - Not enough writing time today
Music - Jean Michael Jarre - Oxygene
Linear/Non-linear - Linear
Location - Alphie in a cafe and Scrivener at the desk
Taking care of Mel - Massage.
Muse food - Window shopping. Book deliveries.

And again

Man, sorry if this has been a boring week of posts but combining end of book push with cold-induced head fog doesn't make for sparkling repartee.

Today, I decided I'd top off the cold with a flu vacc then spent the afternoon shivering. Feeling better again now, so hopefully I'll just escape with a sore arm tomorrow. I've realised this seems to happen to me every year. Like clockwork, the day or so before I'm due for my flu shot, I get a cold. Weird. Or maybe just a coincidence that this is a busy-ish time of year for the day job and the weather usually starts being schizophrenic and therefore I get run down.

Anyway, today is not exactly a huge page count but given my mental state (plus the fact that my foggy brain decided tonight would be a good night to reconsider the whole I need a website issue and go investigating on the internet and playing with templates and hey presto, instant time sink) I'll take it. Tomorrow I've got a date with the naturopath and a massage and lunch in the city with nice gaps between each so I'll take the alphie and the iPod and write in between if I can find a good place. I'm not big on the whole writing in cafes thing but I'll give it a go. But I also need to get up early to accomplish all that, so it's another early night.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Four
Intriguing things - Cranky Mr Hero
Annoyances - Cranky Mr Hero
Music - Nothing.
Linear/Non-linear - Linear
Location - Alphie on the couch.
Taking care of Mel - Meditation. Flu vacc
Muse food - Playing with web sites and looking at pretty templates.

The daily report

Well I can't entirely blame late night phone calls for my sleepy state. Tossed and turned last night and woke up coughing and spluttering with some sort of cold. Ick.
Just did an experiment with minimising the Scrivener screen and using Think to try and mimic an more alphie experience at the computer (mostly to be able to use the ergonomic keyboard to keep the hands happier). Not quite the same (could only get the screen down to about ten lines rather than four) but it did seem to be a bit faster. One to remember.

Hope no-one got blown away in Melbourne's wild weather today...next time WA has a hurricane, they can keep the tail to themselves, thanks!

Anyway, the result...

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Six
Intriguing things - Confessions
Annoyances - Bugs
Music - Mika Happy Ending/Over My Shoulder. No headphones.
Linear/Non-linear - Linear (or rather back to where I was before last night's leap ahead).
Location - The desk. Scrivener as above
Taking care of Mel - Sleeping.
Muse food - Sneezing? Does sneezing and coughing count? Reading about Morocco. Soon, back to bed.

It must be bedtime

A note to the universe. I would like to get off whatever list I'm on that makes morons ring my phone number in the middle of the night. Then hang up after two rings! Think about the time before dialling, people. One am adrenalin jolts that mean tossing and turning the rest of the night are surplus to current requirements, as are crazy days at the day job.

But I have written something. God knows what I'll think of it in the morning but it's something.

Progress - Witch 1

New pages - Four
Intriguing things - Witchy police
Annoyances - Brain fried
Music - Nothing.
Linear/Non-linear - Non
Location - Alphie on couch.
Taking care of Mel - A hair cut.
Muse food - Muses might get some reading in bed..if I can stay awake