Indian Summer

Most of the snow we received near the end of Oct has melted except for some shady spots. We're now experiencing a gorgeous Indian summer.

Last weekend, the guys cleaned the yard and yesterday they put the Christmas lights up.

They found this little fella in the driveway about 15 ft from the house. It's funny because in the 10 yrs we've lived here on the farm, we've only found one other salamander and he looked just like this one. We found him in almost the same spot about 5-6 yrs ago.

In fact, that memory was so vivid - I suppose because I'd never seen a live salamander before - that I wrote it into a scene in Emma's Outlaw. Emma awakes in early morning and in her foggy state, she thinks she's looking at 2 black dew drops until she realizes dew isn't black. She flinches at the thought of what's staring her in the face and the salamander skitters away. Somehow it seems symbolic that I'll see one again on the eve of submitting Emma's story.

This pic is for perspective. The shoes belong to my 12 yr old. So really, the salamander isn't that big.

Are there salamanders where you live? What colour? (Emma encounters a gray one.)

Secret Exercise at Prairie Chicks

I'm blogging over at Prairie Chicks Write Romance today about a secret exercise.

Since I've talked about Emma's secret so much, I thought I'd use the exercise to delve into Dan's secret. I was thoroughly surpised then when I discovered something I should have known all along. Now to slip it into my Emma's Outlaw story.

And a-tweaking we will go...

NaNo Day 8 Progress Report

Today is the 9th of November and I've been at NaNoWriMo for a week. I finally took a day off on Sat to attend the the Saskatchewan Romance Writers monthly meeting which was being held in Davidson instead of Saskatoon so I didn't have to drive so far. I left at 9 am and got back home at 9 pm.

Fired up from all the coffee I drank enroute, I started writing at 10 pm Sat night and kept at it until 0430 in the morning, then continued yesterday when I awoke.

So, here's my NaNoWriMo Progress Report up to and including Day 8:

Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw

Goal: Need 65,000 words to finish (90,000 Total)

Nano Words so far: 11,834 (38,624 Total)

Nano Goal: 18% complete (43% Overall)

I seem to be revising more that I imagined. However, I thought it would be passive writing which was a fault of mine when I wrote the first draft, but I'm also adding sensory details and filling out my characters.

I really like the way the book is coming together. And the feedback from the excerpt I posted on Prairie Chicks Write Romance last Wed was a good boost to my morale.

The week coming up is a busy one:

Wed Nov 11:

Inkwell Inspirations - posting about my alter ego Annie Oakley

Thurs Nov 12:

-Prairie Chicks Write Romance - posting about NaNo

-Inkwell Inspirations - hosting Loree Lough, author

Sat Nov 14:

- Prairie Chicks Write Romance - hosting Loree Lough

Emma's Outlaw Excerpt at Prairie Chicks

Even though I'm heavily involved in NaNoWriMo, I still had to prepare a post for today at Prairie Chicks Write Romance. I planned to talk more about Nano but forgot the Chicks are starting a new monthly feature: Writing Exercises. Wheeee!

Janet posted this exercise on Sunday: Choose one of your main characters (male or female) from any of your WIPs and from his/her POV write about one of the most difficult decision he/she had to make.

Since I’m working on Emma’s Outlaw for my Nano project, I used my hero, Dan for this exercise and then I used the word count for Nano.

The excerpt I posted is a defining moment in the book but I haven't given away the ending. For the record, you are free to guess what comes next but I'm not confirming anything.

Okay, I'm off to see if I need to respond to any comments over at Prairie Chicks and then I'm buckling down to Emma's Outlaw. When I left off on Tues, Dan had just come back from town and he brought Emma a surprise . . .

Day 3 NaNoWriMo Progress Report

Here's my Day 3 NaNoWriMo Progress Report:

Project: Revising & Adding to Emma’s Outlaw

Goal: Need 65000 words to finish (90K total)

Today's word count: 2458 quality words

First word: For

Last word: eggs.

Favorite line: It was one thing to be forced to sleep in a room with a strange man even if they were in separate beds but it would be a definite breach of propriety to speak to him.

Total Nano Words: 5837

Nano Goal: 9% done (should be at 10% today)

Treat: Dancing With the Stars Results Show

Overall, it's going good. However, I'm working at a much slower pace revising than I ever did drafting a novel during Nano. Will have to pick up the pace.

Revved up and Rarin' to Go

Am I really here? My internet service hasn't been working all week and did I ever miss it! The tech adivsed us it may go down again however because our modem needs to be updated. Terrific.

Since Thursday was my day to post at Prairie Chicks Write Romance, I went into the local library Wed afternoon and used their computer to submit my post.

It's the last day of October which means National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow. In the coming month, you'll see me refer to it as NaNoWriMo or even NaNo.

I've signed up as a Nano participant at eHarlequin so I'll be reporting my progress there as well as here. Plus, I've been invited to report my progress on Michelle Levigne's blog Living Proof.

So, my Thurs Prairie Chick post was Nanowrimo Tips and it's all those things I've found and used for getting the most writing out of Nanowrimo.

I've spent October working on Emma's Outlaw and it will be my Nano project this year. My goal is to have Emma's Outlaw complete and submissions started to my critique partners by the end of Nov.

My writing cave is still in the converted garage we call the rec centre. After I switch the furnace on in the morning, it only takes 15 mins and the whole room is heated nicely. It's so peaceful out there, with my Wyoming maps pinned to the drywall beside me, and it's fired me up. I've made so much progress on Emma's story and am excited that it's my Nano project this year.

I thought I was over the lung infection which burdened me for the last month but I'm stuffed up with a sore throat again. I bought some licorice herbal tea when Nelson and I went shopping in the city last week so I'll be sipping that today. Licorice is an excellent expectorant. I do not want to get sick again. It's such a waste of time!

In case you're wondering, there has been NO progress on my living room/bathroom wall. *sigh. I don't want to start nagging the contractor because at least we still have the bathtub and toilet which they'd originally wanted to take out. And since the insurance company will have to dish out over $7,000 for our new 'makeover' I'm willing to wait. Oh no, just had a thought...what if they want to come in Nov while I'm doing Nano? Yikes!

Over at Inkwell Inspirations this month we'll be talking about our alter egos or personas. These are females, either real or fictional, which we feel an affinity toward or can really relate. Mine is Annie Oakley and I'll be posting about her in a couple weeks. Check out the Inkwell for the fascinating variety of personas from both the Inkies and guest authors.

And what have you been up to this month?

What a Week!

It's a brilliant sunny, Saturday outside and I'm inside coughing away. Can't even say 6 words without hacking. Of course the little guy doesn't mind 'cause I can't yell at him to clean his room. My cough has come back with a vengeance and I believe it's because of working in the cold on Thursday afternoon.

Seekerville's BIAW ended on Sunday :( and I haven't worked on Emma's story now since Tues. I miss it. I like the accountability that BIAW and Nanowrimo offers.

Here's what I've been doing:

Wed - writing Prairie Chick Writes Romance (PC) blogpost

Thurs:
- blogging at Prairie Chicks (answering comments)
- drafting post for Sat's PC guest blogger
- emailing/scheduling PC guest bloggers for Nov/Dec
- writing Tues 'Travel' blogpost for Inkwell Inspirations

And then at noon on Thurs, the furnace started squealing! What a racket! Hubby was in the house eating lunch so I called him over and he said the motor was shot and he'd try to fix it later. He gave me a small baseboard heater to use. By 4 pm, I realized the little heater wasn't doing it's job and I was just wasting electricity so I moved back into the house.

Friday:

- Susanne won my book giveaway at Prairie Chicks

- Furnace in rec centre still wasn't working so I stayed in the house. I don't like working on the dining room table because there's nowhere to plug in my cord. So, I worked on battery power for a couple hours until it ran out then I did something else while it recharged. I'll be so thankful when the livingroom wall is fixed and I can bring my writing armoire back in the house.

- right after school, the boys and I headed to the city. We dropped off the teen enroute as the youth group had something planned and he was going to sleep over. The little guy and I rushed to the city to get the latest issue of Olympic coins but the bank closed just as we got there. Sob. (The Olympic coins are only distributed through the RBC) But we had a good evening together at the Regina Coin Club mtg.

- hubby texted Friday night that he'd fixed the furnace in the rec centre so I can go back to my cave and work whenever I want. Yay!

Today:

- The little guy just came and told me it's 12c / 54F outside. Wow! Since he's by himself today and quietly playing on the computer, I'm hesitating leaving him alone and going to my cave.

- I'm hosting New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh on Prairie Chicks Write Romance. We're having a lively discussion about whether a person needs a crit partner or can she send her ms straight to the editor. Mary is also giving away a hard cover copy of one of her books. To get in on her draw, go to Prairie Chicks Write Romance and leave a comment.

- I'm trying to get the church blog caught up to date

- I still need to work on Tues' post at the Inkwell

- I'm waiting to see if I'm a finalist in the Finally a Bride contest

- I need to work on Emma's story

- and I want to play Wii with the little guy (Heh)


And that's been my week.

So, what have you been up to?

Win a Book on Prairie Chicks Write Romance Today

What? I haven't blogged for a week? Ah - it's because I've been working on Emma's story.

I've also been sick with a sore throat and hacking cough. For a couple days there it felt like my head would split every time I coughed. Not conducive to quality writing.

Now that it's too cold to work in the sunroom I've had to move my cave into the renovated garage we've christened the rec centre. Here's a photo of my new cave in the back corner behind the furnace (on the right) but it's only temporary until we can get the carpet down. Then I'll move to the other side of the room and set up shop. I shut the furnace off at night and put it back on the next day. Because it's all one big room, it heats up in about 15 mins flat. But that's with the temps hovering around freezing. I suppose it'll take longer as the temp drops.

Since today is Thursday, I'm blogging over at Prairie Chicks Write Romance. My post today is my agent appt in Denver.

And, I'm giving away a free book to anyone who goes over and comments on my Prairie Chick post today. I'm sorry, but for the purpose of this giveaway, you have to actually go and leave a comment over there if you want a shot at winning Anna Meets Her Match by Arlene James.

Seekerville BIAW Starts Today

I've signed on for the Seekerville edition of Book In a Week (BIAW). If you follow my blog, you know I do BIAW every January with the Sask Romance Writers, but this is a new one for me.

I won't be starting a brand new book but using this week to add the 20,000 words I need to Emma's Outlaw.

That means I'll be hunkering down in my writing cave this week. I may put out more blog posts here with my progress, but I won't be appearing on many blogs around the net except for the Seekervile one which is encouraging us on.

And in case you're wondering, yes, it's now too cold to work in the sunroom so I've had to move my cave into the rec centre. We've got the furnace fired up and I've set up an old comuter desk on one side of the room where I've been working the past couple days. I'd love to set it up permanently but the cement is cold under my shoes. We'll be putting the old living room carpet out there but have to wait for the crews to come and take it out of the livingroom first.

No, the wall/renovations aren't finished in the living room/bathroom. Actually, they haven't started yet. We have everything ready to go and the insurance company has picked their company of choice but it's a matter of scheduling now. And whenever they do want to start, we won't be stopping them.

Now, on Emma's story: She's been kidnapped by outlaws and is riding across Wyoming...

Whittling My Report

I've been back from my travels for days now and still trying to get caught up. One of the things I'm working on is my workshop report for the Afictionado ezine for ACFW members. I volunteered to be a reporter for literary agent Natasha Kern's workshop entitled Sin + Virtue = Bestseller.

I took notes of Natasha's workshop with my mini while at the conference. Natasha spoke very fast for an hour plus and I tried to keep up with her. I ended up with about 2200 words. But it was too much. My report has to be 500 words maximum.

So, I whittled it down to 1500 words by taking out all the examples she used. Still not enough.

Then I worked it down some more and am now sitting at 1100 words. Sheesh. I still have to shave 600 words off it!

It wouldn't be so bad except that Natasha has some excellent stuff there. She talked about conflict and heroes and villains in a way that although it surely wasn't new, it was new to me. I'm excited to get back to Emma's Outlaw and breathe new life in my characters...

but first...I...need...to...whittle...another...600...words...off... my...report. Yikes!