It's still going great

I never know how long my novels are going to be.  50k words at a minimum is what is "recommended," whatever that means.  In this day and age, it's not as important.  At about 250 words per page, that's 200 pages. I'm nowhere near that in Earthquake, but I've made a huge dent in what I wanted to get done. The plot is rolling on, and we've got a new person's POV in chapter 12. Hmmm, I wonder who it could be? He's chattier than I thought he'd be, that's for sure! There will be more supporting character POV chapters going forward, as well.

I've also gotten the final edits from beta readers for my smutty novella. I finished the covers for that today, as well as finalized my pen name. As soon as I do my own final edits and final read-through, I'll be uploading that. You'll be able to find it if you search for my publisher's name, if you're interested.

I spent some time looking at more images for Earthquake and Rarity, too. Photoshop is... fun? I'm not an artistic person.  Obviously my covers are very basic.  Earthquake is going to tax my limits.  I may have to alter a stock photo for Rarity. It depends on what I end up choosing.  I try not to do too much, since I know that is not where my talents lie.

I spent way too much time on shutterstock today. Or maybe not...

I hope your summers are going great!!

6000 words later...

I'm sitting in my office at the clinic where I work, so I thought I'd post an update. I'm about to hit 6000 words (250 words/page) since I said I was buckling down and writing.  I think it'd be more, but I hit a snag last night and it was painful to get through.  It should edit fine later, and I'm excited to be past it. I've written a thousand words in between patients today, which I think it because we're finally hitting the part in the story where the plot takes off and it reels you in and gets good. I hope.

So I just wanted you to know that while Earthquake will be late coming out, it shouldn't be too late.

I'm sitting down to write right now!

I am behind schedule.  I think writers are almost always behind schedule.

I went out of the country on vacation. Part of our vacation was spent in a lake cottage.  I assumed (ha!) that I'd be able to chill and write.  I got maybe 1000 words out. Everyone wanted to be social, and it's very hard to concentrate and write when people are trying to carry on a conversation with you.  How dare they, right?! I got a bit more done on the way home on our layover.  My 12 hour layover that turned into 16 1/2 hours. After a long day of seeing the historic sights in Philly (what we had planned for such a long layover), I was exhausted. I wrote some variation or other of "Sean is a dick" 3 times in as many paragraphs.  I conceded to my fatigue, and turned off my laptop.

Interesting things that happened:

On our way to our destination, we flew over Kalispell, MT. I got to see exactly where the Montana School is. My husband just shook his head at me. My 7-year-old was not impressed. My 4-year-old was asleep. But I was excited. Glacier National Park is just gorgeous. From the air anyway. I've never been there in real life.

I get to write off a lot of this trip on my taxes.  Part of Book 3 or 4 in The Program will take place in Philadelphia. That was my son's input. He was excited that I was taking his opinion into consideration. He hopes you like his choice when those books are written.

I ate my weight in poutine.  The 7lbs I gained... Well, I know where they came from, and I'm not sad about how they came to be.

I love paddle boards.  So relaxing. Man do they work out your core! All that balancing.  Same with kayaks.  My thighs burned. I think these activities are why I only gained 7lbs.

They make Olympic (and Paralympic) medals at the mint in Canada. They also make Star Wars and Avengers coins there, too. I saw a coil of gold ribbon that was worth like a million dollars.

We rode on a regional train, 2 subways, a bus, a car, someone else's car, the SkyTrain, and 2 airplanes all in one day.

I prefer Cheezies to Cheetos, Smarties to Rockets, and Canadian Smarties are just meh. I love Jujubes. I wish they sold Alexander Keith's in the US; I'll have a Kiltlifter instead though and be usually as happy drinking it.

Fidget spinners were on sale for $3.99 Canadian at GT.  My 7-year-old's mind was blown when we told him that was half what he'd spent on the glow in the dark one he got at home.

Tim Horton's jelly donuts are excellent.  There are lots of Dunkin Donuts in Philly. AZ does not have many donut places at all.

OK, I'll stop.  Thank you for your patience. I'll just get back to writing....