Friday, July 29, 2011

Just a quick note for those concerned...

The good news is, the pregnancy symptom was almost completely innocuous--I have a yeast infection so that's never fun, but it's a lot better than leaking amniotic fluid which is what I was afraid was going on. Sorry for the TMI for those of you who can do without the details. I am considering creating another blog and linking it somehow to this one to talk about the pregnancy, since the subject seems to keep butting in here. Maybe I'll do that today.

On the writing front, as predicted, my insomnia totally blew yesterday as a writing day. I ended up in the hospital for nearly two hours undergoing the tests to check out my issue, and anyway I was kind of a zombie. Today's a bit better, although I still felt tired when I woke up this morning, despite a good night's sleep.

I'm batting around some ideas for a new, non-Veronica book. I'm not sure if it will go very far, but I may spend a bit of time world-building and see how it looks. My idea is sort of sci-fi/fantasy/space western, so it will require quite a bit of world (or universe, really) building. Which can be fun. I want to get through the revisions I'm working on first.

The baby is kicking. I cannot tell you how distracting it is. I mean, I realize having the baby on the outside will be a good deal more distracting, but still! I love it when he kicks, though. He's starting to do it a lot more strongly. I'm hoping his dad will be able to feel him soon.

Edited to add: the new blog is here. Please have a look! Does anyone know how to edit the picture (of the sonogram) to make it a bit smaller? Do I have to edit the picture itself and then re-upload it?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Establishing a Routine

So of course I shot myself in the foot yesterday by bragging on twitter that I'd finally gotten this elusive writing (and exercising) routine down. I could blame Jeff for staying up until 1am, at which time I woke up to find he wasn't in bed, and have not been able to go back to sleep since (he's snoozing away as I type). But truthfully, I'm up because I'm stressing over what will probably turn out to be a totally innocuous pregnancy symptom. I wish I could just get it checked right now, and then I'd be able to sleep. It's almost 4:30am, there is no way I'll be getting up at 7:30 to go swimming and then writing... unless I never manage to get to sleep at all, then I suppose I'll be up. But I think the first thing I'm going to do once it's a reasonable hour for such things is try to see my doctor. So tomorrow does not look good for the writing routine.

And to be precise I'm not writing so much as revising, and it's taking me a lot longer to do than I expected. Has that ever happened to you? You think you'll get the rest of it done tomorrow--meanwhile, four days later you still have a hundred pages to go? That's where I am. And it's just the first round of revisions. By the way, anyone want to beta this ms? I've gotten one person to do it, which was helpful, but I think I'd like someone else to do a complete read through as well as post it on the WSE forum chapter by chapter.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

After a long hiatus...

Hi everyone! Let me start by saying, THANK YOU for sticking around despite my disappearing act these last couple of months. I've been focused on everything but writing, and since I intend for this blog to mainly address writing, it seemed better to wait until I had something to say about that. Here are some brief news updates, not all of which have to do with writing:

Fun Summer Stuff:
Jeff and I have been having a great time this summer. Among other things, we went to Reno for our anniversay and renewed our vows in the presence of the King. That's right, we got (re)married by Elvis.



We also saw a concert by Chris Isaac, who has now rocketed to the top of my favorite performers list. If you're ever considering seeing him in concert, hesitate no more, just go.

The Pregnancy:
I'm 20 weeks along, doing well! The baby is BOY. I was dreaming of a girl, so I had this moment of adjustment where I had to let her go, but I find that my new dreams of the boy are wonderful, and I'm super excited about him. And, surprisingly, I have discovered that boy clothes are actually cuter. Usually.

The Move/Rental Debacle:
So frustrating. I'm actually not going to go into a lot of detail here, because it still makes me mad. The short version: we're out of the house and the owner is prohibited from pursuing us for anything above the deposit, but she did get to keep that ($2000) as a settlement, and Jeff has since run into her and she admits we did no damage but shows no remorse for having extorted us. Meanwhile we've been living with my inlaws but are now going to try to find our own place.

The eBooks:
Good news there, as I've managed to sell somewhere between 6 and 12 without doing any promo. I even sold two on B&N this month (very first Nook sales). Someone reviewed "Veronica in Paris" and gave it 5 stars, so, awesomeness. And all of this came as a complete surprise as I haven't done more than throw out the occassional tweet, about how I'm not writing, since, like, May.

The Writing:
I've done a little bit of revising, and about 6 weeks ago I wrote something like 3000 words, but it's been, to say the least, patchy. HOWEVER, the time has come to BUCKLE DOWN. The plan is: go to the gym to swim 30+ laps every morning first thing, then at least on the weekdays, off to the internet cafe for two hours of writing. Today was all about getting back into the platform (hence this post). I plan to finish the revisions I've been doing (on the sequel to The River and the Roses) tomorrow. After that, I want to reconnect with my online writing groups (I'm waving at you, Mary, and also at you, Mare, as well as at Will and everyone else on WSE). Sooo... with a little discipline I should be back on the horse soon. :)

How have you been? Has your summer been more productive than mine? Has it been as much fun as mine?