Hello!

It's very late. I should have been in bed hours ago. However, it is Labor of Love at Forward Motion, and I have been enjoying the work, despite having a horrid cold. Or maybe because I have it -- I can't sleep without choking so I might as well sit here and work. I've written over 20,000 words in two days on a new novel Written in the Sand (was The Sand and the Wind). I'm considering moving over to Unfinished Business and making a run for the end of Paid in Blood and Gold instead of going farther on the new one. I keep feeling guilty that I had been doing so well on that novel and then just dropped it for the challenge. LOL. We'll see.

What else is going on? Can anything else be going on when you write that much? I'm sure things happened around me. I didn't notice. I had a lovely note from someone thanking me for the work at Forward Motion, which is always nice.

On the other hand, I had an amusing (and annoying because of the timing) run in with a couple romance writers who couldn't get it through their heads that I wouldn't list their books at Estand not because they were Romance, but because I do not list individual books or authors. It's a site for Electronic Publishers. It was amazing. The odd thing is that they weren't the first Romance writers I've had this problem with, so I think somewhere there is a list with some faulty information. At any rate, if I didn't know so many truly nice Romance writers, in both print and electronic format, I would really start worrying. These people can be downright rude and pissy! Okay, I've had to deal with rude sf and fantasy writers as well, but they aren't quite so persistent. (grin)

But overall, life is good. Forward Motion is running wonderfully. I have some of the most helpful, wonderful moderators in the world. These people really get out there and work. Some of the ones who have been there for a while have been retiring this year, and I fully understand that. It's a lot of work for nothing, and at least with Holly there they had the ability to say they were moderators at a site for a name author. They've been wonderful, and even though some of the moderators have stepped down -- for life reasons, for work reasons, and whatever other reasons -- it has been a very polite move, and they've all stayed at the site and continued in ways that are not quite so demanding.

I love Forward Motion. I couldn't have said that a year ago, when I had just taken over. I had worries about everything I did, and we had troubles with people who stirred things up (whether intentionally or not) right away, so I learned quickly that it's best to just step in, take action, and move on. That's the way the site has gone for this year, and you know... we've more than doubled in size, we continue to grow, and we have far fewer problems than we ever did before. The site is maturing. It's not that I took over, it's that FM reached a stage where the people who know what they want sorted out their priorities, and because they have those set and are working toward them, the people who join in later are pulled into that level as well.

I'm looking at new things to add, new approaches to try. The site grows but it grows in a good direction and toward a goal. And it's great to be part of it.

And I think I should be getting some sleep!

Today starts the Labor of Love and Unfinished Business dares at Forward Motion.

Last night I got horribly ill and spent most of today curled up in bed.

Sigh.

But I'm moving along on The Wind and the Sand. Current count is 4042, which isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be since it's only coming up on 5pm. I don't know how long I'll stay up today, but if I make 5000 words that's not too bad. I think I might do better. Except for being dizzy when I get up, I seem to be feeling better over all. Russ had this flu stuff a few days ago. I should have realized it would hit at the worst time for me!

I might be late with Vision this month. I should probably concentrate on that rather than writing, but it makes my head pound. Maybe later tonight.

Oh! I have a new story available at Double Dragon:



Year of the Fire Rat
$1 or free with the purchase of Aubreyan
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com

Cute Willow

I have about 1/3rd of Vision done. This is really good. It's going together well, and it looks great. The only bad part is that I'm sure I'm missing some articles, and it's driving me mad. I generally keep everything in a special mailbox for Vision, and clear it out as I use it. But... I thought there was more in it this time, and I don't know where the other articles could have gone to.

There are days (weeks, months, years) when this stuff just drives me nuts.

On the good side, I sold a short story to DDP today for the new Dollar Downloads. The title is Year of the Fire Rat, a nice little fantasy tale. The story is grouped with a novel there (in this case Aubreyan, the first of the Dark Staff series) and if a person buys the novel, they get the story free. Or they can opt to buy the short story alone for $1.

I have to come up with four more short stories that the publisher likes for the other novels. I'm editing #2 -- hope to turn it in tomorrow and see what the verdict is. I would like to have them all done before Forward Motion's Labor of Love dare this weekend, but I suspect that I'm not going to quite make it, especially since I still have to take the outline notes from my PDA and get them organized for work.

In the usual writing news, Paid in Gold and Blood is still going quite well. If I didn't have other things to take care of I think I would already be done with it. But I've nothing really to complain about. I'm having fun, and while some things drive me to distraction lately, over all it's looking good.

Pretty Macaw

Well, I've done something that I normally would not do. I let one of my house cats go back outside.

Nazir has been inside for nearly a year. He has been increasingly unhappy when we see him at all. He spends his time at my office window crying, and panics if I even reach to pet him. It's very odd because he is absolutely the opposite of his brother, Wind.

Tonight I just couldn't take it any more. So I opened the window, watched to make sure no one else came around, and he showed up a couple minutes later and stepped out. He headed for a bit of weeds and branches, rolled around in the dirt, and then crawled into the fallen branches. He's now cautiously examinig the yard.

If he comes back to the window and indicates he wants back in, I'll let him. But for the moment, he seems happier. The stray cats outside are a bit startled, but no one argued the point at all.

What else today? We bought a really nice book that has pages and pages of guidelines straight from publishers. Most of them are odd magazines, which is really great since that's the kind of stuff Russ writes for, and his prime magazine is changing hands, so he's starting to look at wider vistas again.

I'm trying to figure out if I can get Paid in Gold and Blood finished before the Labor of Love madness at FM, or if I should just plan on doing Unfinished Business and finish the novel off them. It is only a few days away, and it seems wiser to work on it. I have another outline ready, but it can wait. Yes, I know I've mentioned all this before, but obviously I'm still trying to make up my mind. A lot of it, I suppose, will depend on how the rest of this week goes.

I have been writing over 3000 words a day for a couple months now. It's gotten easy -- at least while I'm working on this novel. I imagine the next one will not be nearly as easy. I'm happy with the work, though. The story has been great. And, in fact, I think I'll get back to it.

Silly Maynard and Wind

I'm still on a good writing streak, and the work on Paid in Gold and Blood is moving along wonderfully. I'm close to 40,000 words and working on an entirely new chapter. If this wasn't a 2YN night, I would believe that I could hit 40,000 without a problem. But I am a bit behind on my class stuff (shame on me!) and I need to work through the section this evening. I've got a small part of it already written, but I need to do more.

And I would really like to work on the pictures from the zoo, too.

Well, if I don't get to work on something, though, I'll be even farther behind! And I'm having fun with the class, so it's not too bad.