Summer Vacation? What's That?

Hello readers! I’m posting a quick update while I have a chance.

The Romance Studio – Featured Member!

I am now a Featured Member at The Romance Studio! I joined last week, joining the ranks of fellow eXtasy Books authors Taryn Jameson and Maggie Blackbird, who are also Featured Members.

I was even welcomed in their “This Week at TRS” video this week! That was really sweet, and so exciting! Thanks everyone at TRS! ♥

Away to Me

Update: I’m still in the quiet before the storm of red marks shows up in my email inbox from my editor, Trish. If I’m correct, the earliest I’ll hear from her is next weekend, but I’m not expecting anything until August 1^st at the earliest. Once she gets in touch, I’ll be up to my eyeballs in edits and revisions, so don’t expect much other than the visits from Silver Dagger Book Tours showing up here for a week or two. (If you have a book coming out, or want to promote any book of yours – any genre – contact Maia, she’s awesome. Link to Silver Dagger is in my links area!)

Don’t forget, the cover reveal is on August 5, 2019! Be there!

Book 2 of the Tri-Town Series

In the meantime, I’m going crazy working on another book in the Tri-Town series. It’s a rewrite of one I wrote two years ago. It’s not a bad story overall, but it needs work – think deeper POVs, more descriptions of things like people and places, and putting where the scenes happen. OOPS. I gave this one to Maggie, but in an overly edited state. I think I would have gotten higher marks if I had sent her one of the previous drafts. It looked worse than a first draft, that’s how bad it was. Hopefully between the old draft and the new ideas I have rattling around in my old brain, I’ll get this one up to spec in no time. I’d love to have draft one finished ASAP, so I can finish getting it up to House Rules and off to our amazing Acquisitions Editor before the end of the year.

This story will be set in MAHONE BAY, Nova Scotia, which is another one of the three towns here (hence the name “Tri-Town” series) – Bridgewater, Mahone Bay, and Lunenburg. Most of my friends – local and otherwise – voted for Mahone Bay… Even though the original draft was set in Bridgewater. I agree. It’s best to feature a different town in this new one. So I’m changing things over from King Street in Bridgewater to Main Street in Mahone Bay. It’s a tourist town, and home to two of my favorite shops – The Tea Brewery, and Bluestone Magick. (I need to get over there and get updated photos for my website…)

The name has been changed to line up with the rest of the series, and like the other two books, it will fit in with a submission call, like Away to Me had been.

I started the rewrite today and I’m up over 1800 words already. Some of it is copy/paste from an older draft… The dialogue worked great in spots, I won’t chuck out something that works. Same with any descriptions that worked well, or other parts.  

I decided to do this because I’m having problems getting the fictional book shop story off the ground… I’ll work on that after this one is finished… Or I get “For Zia” out of the way (that one’s nagging at me again, I have part of what leads to the ending figured out!).

I’ll figure it out. Thank heavens for my pals at eX/DD… If I ever need to brainstorm, or if I have questions, I can always talk to any of them. It’s awesome being included in such an amazing family. ♥

Hopefully all of you have a fantastic weekend… I leave you with “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer.

Back to work I go!...

An Update with Upcoming Events!

Happy Saturday everyone!

It's been a while since I updated all of you on what's going on in my end of the writing world... Things have been a bit insane here, between real life, helping other authors with promoting their work, and working on my own projects.

Book 2 of my series is on hiatus because I'm deep into revising my novella, "Something About Alexis", and getting it ready for publication. Thanks to a dear friend of mine who also writes for eXtasy Books, I'm getting it cleaned up properly, and proofed perfectly. It's slow going because I have to do a lot of revisions, but it's going to be worth it in the end. I hope to have that done and sent back to her sometime soon, so I can get back to actual writing. I want to finish my first ever series ASAP, and I'm anxious to reveal its title and first book to all of you!

As you've seen, I've started hosting more and more authors on here. I plan to be doing more in the future, so keep an eye out for that. I love helping other authors promote their work, more than I like promoting my own stuff. 

Maggie Blackbird's second book, REDEEMED, will be available for preorder sometime soon... Keep your eyes open for that, it's going to be an amazing read!

STRICKEN

STRICKEN will be 2 years old on March 17... Hard to believe! I am in the process of setting up a celebration for it, but I want the details ironed out before I post anything publicly. Keep watching here, my Facebook Page, Twitter and other spots for forthcoming details! It's going to be a lot of fun!

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend. We're getting upwards of 2 feet of snow between today and Monday, so things will finally look like a winter wonderland here - gag me!

I leave you with "Slither" by Velvet Revolver... Enjoy!

Fair Weather

Happy birthday to my brother in law A, who turns... Well, he's in my age group, and I'd rather not out how old he really is. 

Six years ago today, I was at the casino in Halifax, watching the lead singer of #Creed - and recently, #The Art of Anarchy - Scott Stapp perform his first concert in Nova Scotia. It was one of the most amazing times in my life up to that point, and I had a great time even though I went to the concert alone. Seeing him perform in person is so much better than watching him on video. He is extremely charismatic, and really pulls one into the music, and the lyrics.

I know I've posted this photo before, but I want to share it again... 

One amazing photo of a man with a beautiful voice in my opinion.

Yesterday's weather may not have been fair - we had heavy rain, which I hope means the end of the drought we had over the summer - but we had a blast at my son's school's annual fall bazaar, which is one of the school's biggest fundraisers next to their walk a thon.

Husband was working again so as tradition states, I took Son to it. 

How it works: It's free to attend, but one has to buy tickets to do the activities. It costs so much for a book of tickets, and most of the activities are for kids junior high aged and younger. For example, there was face painting for the younger kids, an obstacle course, a sucker pull, and one of Son's favorites, bowling. Each time a child completed an activity, they got a prize - a piece of candy, a toy, or something age appropriate like pencils for the kids in primary and up. "Adopting" a stuffed animal cost 2 tickets, while a lot of the activities that were set up in the gym cost only 1 ticket. 

Son and I had 8 books of 10 tickets each. Maybe we went too crazy, or I didn't bring a big enough bag into the school, because we were not even halfway through the books and the bag I took in was almost full. 

Son's red sweater and my stuffed dog named Mortimer are on the top, otherwise it's filled with Son's loot, and we were not done yet at that point!!!

Here's a better picture of Mortimer, posing on top of my computer monitor. 

Yes I like a bare bones approach to my computer area, the three files I have on the desktop itself are hidden behind Mortimer's head.

I think Son has enough candy to last him until the holidays. Holy moley, he made out like a bandit, as always. 

After the fair, we went to my mother in law's house for a while. The one cat, Patty (aka Fatty Cakes) always follows me around the house when I'm there, because I have "THE RED DOT" and she loves to chase it (laser pointer). When she's not chasing that, she's looking for me to pet her, and since I can't resist her and she knows it, she gets tons of love from me. 

She did do something naughty....

Yeah, she parked her chubby caboose next to the television while Son was watching a movie. She was also doing her "Ailwien Kitteh" impression, silly girl. I can't resist such a cutie pie!

Speaking of the in law's, no mention of the exact release date of Whom Gods Destroy's upcoming album, "Far Reaches". I'll update all of you when I know. 

The writing is coming along, and I've done something I shouldn't do until after I get Ten, Thirteen and Fourteen finished... I started a new story. It's the rewrite of one I started a few years ago, and I'd like to bring it up to modern times, as well as strip it back to the bare bones. It was another one of the ultra complicated stories I used to write before I learned that simple is best for an unknown like me. I'm really grateful I learned it when I did... I wouldn't have written other stories if I hadn't.

I do have the character profiles started, and I know exactly what I want to use as the ending, down to the last line, which is odd for me. Most of the time, I know it's going to be a "Happy Ever After" or "Happy for Now" ending but not *exactly* how to wrap it up. 

What story it is, and what's going to happen in it is currently between me, my computer and my best friend, who is the only one that knows exactly what's going on with this rewrite - IF I can pull it off.

I hope I can. I want to get back into writing soon. I'm starting to chomp on the monitor in frustration again....... 

I've also been considering things in a draft I finished back in 2014... There is a scene in it that doesn't feel like it belongs in the story. It was influenced by some of my previous works, and doesn't move the story at all, it's just sitting there like a bump on a log. I'm now looking at how I can revise that section, or remove it and work the rest of the story around it. 

My health is slowly improving too. I'm not feeling as icky as I was a month ago, I'm feeling more clear headed and I'm not wearing out as fast as I was this past summer. I think my iron levels are evening out finally, and I will know either way in a few weeks, when I get my ferratin levels checked. I hope I can say good bye to the iron supplements, and replace them with a multivitamin containing extra iron. 

Being anemic stinks, big time.

At least I'm alive and breathing. I remind myself of that every day, because I see so many people dying way too young. 

A pal that I met online passed away last week, and it was a huge blow. He was a kind, big hearted and fun person, and knowing he will no longer be asking me if I found a publisher yet, or laughing at my cat's silly antics (she dive bombed me recently and scared the dickens out of me!) really makes me sad. I'm going to miss seeing him, a lot, and I hope that he's finally at peace on the other side of the veil.

This one's for you Jonathan. Soar with eagles, my friend. 

"Higher Planes" by Whom Gods Destroy, from their 2007 Demo CD.

See y'all next time. Keep rocking, everyone. 

Culling The Fat

Things with Untitled Thirteen are moving slowly. I'm getting a few ideas for it, but not moving a lot in it right now.

But, I am making progress elsewhere.

My best friend is starting to send me her revision suggestions for "Hearts Remembering", and the list is LONG. Four pages worth of stuff for ONE chapter alone, and reminders to take it easy with various things she's noticed I have a terrible habit of repeating. She's also noticed I missed a word here and there, or put the wrong word in - correctly spelled but one or two letters away from the word I was meaning to use.

That's good. I knew it needed work. A lot of work.

Overall, she liked the story. That's good. She likes my style, and has told me what I should be keeping, because it's so power packed with a description that gave her a really cool mental picture of the scene.

I don't care how much Bestie cracks the whip with the editing and revisions... I'm seeing a LOT of what she's saying, even before she brings it up during our chats in Facebook or on the phone (three or four hours minimum - we're on opposite coasts, thank heavens for great long distance plans!). She's worried she's being too picky, but I NEED to hear this kind of stuff, that way I know what *not* to do when I'm writing the next manuscript, and what I should look out for while editing and revising future works.

Something came up in our last couple of phone calls and our talks on the messenger... She read parts of the original version of this manuscript, and could not believe I had sent it out to publishers in *that* condition. It needed sooooooooo much work, yet I was convinced - by *what* is between me, her and my word processor - it was "perfect" as I was going to get it at that time. I know now that had I listened to my gut instead of outside influences, I may have been published by now.

Yes, I could have self published it the way it was after the rejections, BUT if I had done that, my career as an author would have been pretty much over.

One big thing I've learned in the last year and a half or so is that when you self publish, the story, the editing, *EVERYTHING* has to be PERFECT. The story concept has to be perfect, unique and attract the right readers, the editing has to be the epitome of perfection, and so does the writing itself. If any of those things, or pretty much anything else is even the tiniest bit "off", the majority of readers out there - that don't know you and couldn't care less about your feelings - will never buy or read another book of yours ever again, even if you publish the perfect book a week later. You will fall flat on your face and never recover from it.

It's sad, but that's what you get for being so impatient if you're not willing to learn and grow as a writer.

All I'm going to say is that I'm just glad I didn't listen to outside influences when it came to self publishing my stuff.

And yes, for the record, "Hearts Remembering" IS the revamp of what used to be "No Regrets"... I've culled the fat (removed all passive stuff), compressed descriptions, changed things around, and wrote it the ORIGINAL way I had planned to back in 2010 when this story was first conceived. It's not even half as long as the original version was - although I do include references to "before" - and to me, it's sooooooooooo much better. Anyone who has read the original version of it will be able to see huge changes in my style, and everything else in the rewrite.... If it ever comes out that is...

I do have a list of publishers in mind for its submission, but none of them will be seeing it for a while yet. It's far from ready, and I don't think it will go out until spring at the absolute earliest. I want this one to be perfect, from commas being in the correct place, and all of the dots on the Is to the crosses on the Ts.

I think between Bestie, myself and the rest of my beta readers, we can do it.

I also sent Bestie a copy of "Family Portraits", which had been written as a sequel to "No Regrets", before I learned what the market standards *REALLY* are and that bad writing and bad ideas are *not* welcome in the industry, especially in self published works...

I hope Peapod doesn't twitch TOO much. It STINKS.

It is soooooooooooooo rotten that I nicknamed it "The Abomination", and have it now classed as "The Worst Thing VJ Wrote, Even Worse Than Her Earliest Works".

Yeah. NOT going down that route again, and if I ever write a *real* sequel to "Hearts Remembering", it's going to be MY way, with MY ideas and NO influence from those who have no f@cking clue about anything writing wise.......................

I also have a video to share with all of my fellow writers out there. It's about why one needs a lot of writing pals, not just one, and how the real writing friends out there will help you improve as a writer, and a writing pal yourself.

I highly recommend that all writers and authors watch this. It's not only loaded with great information, Ms. Moreci is wonderful and entertaining as well.

And before anyone thinks of describing me as an "asshole writer", keep in mind I am the one who is willing to learn, grow and practice, and try writing new stuff if my old ideas are not to publisher's liking... My ORIGINAL ideas that I wrote completely BY MYSELF... Anyone who really knows me knows I am not a jealous writer and logic dictates had I been jealous for "that reason", I would have done the exact same thing when "No Regrets" was rejected and I was being pushed to self publish it "as is"...... 

Just saying.................

Have a great weekend everyone!

Where Did Summer Go? (And More)

Ten weeks can go by in the wink of an eyelash.

I can't believe summer is over already, and Son is in Grade 5. School started last Thursday, and Son is more than happy to be back amongst his friends and classmates, learning and having fun with everyone.

It's his last year in the elementary end of his school, and it's bittersweet. He's worked so hard to make it this far, and he loves it there... Yet he has to move on and grow, and go on to new adventures in new places.

I'm so proud of him.

This past weekend also saw me finally getting off my "tush" and opening "Hearts Remembering" for the first time in a few weeks. It needed one last full edit before my new team of critique readers got their paws on it.

It went into Critique Draft Mode on Friday, and later that evening, this one's team - two returning members from the Away to Me critique, and three new ones - got a copy of it for their enjoyment. The only one who may do some editing in it for me is my best friend Heather, because she just can't resist it. That said, my editing is improving and she's not seeing a lot of stuff in later drafts now, not like she was a few years ago.

I'm hoping to hear back from them in about a month's time. Once that's done and I make any suggested changes (that will work for this story), I guess it's off to a publisher, once I find one that will take a story like it.... I have a few in mind already.

Hearts Remembering turned out to be my saving grace this past weekend... The entire full edit was done in less than 12 hours, most of it on Friday.

You see, I had to have something to keep me busy. We found out early Friday morning that a close friend of ours (who was also one of Hubby's coworkers) was killed in a car crash about 3 hours before that.

I needed to focus on something other than what happened and all of the questions banging around in my skull. Those questions have been answered, but I'm not going to say what they were publicly. Those who were close to her know the truth, and that's all that matters.

We said goodbye to her yesterday. It was so hard to do that too. She was a sweet person, sunny natured like I am, and a lot of people loved her.

We're really going to miss her.

This one is for you KS. Soar with eagles, my dear friend. Universe Bless. ♥

Song: "Higher Planes" by Whom Gods Destroy

What? Well, I Guess The International Space Station Caught That One!

You ever have one of those times that you did something and didn't realize it until a week or so later?

That happened to me today.

Now before anyone thinks something bad happened, it didn't. What I did was a good thing, and I can hear my best friend (who lives in Washington State, too freaking far away for my taste!) laughing her ass off right now. She's probably thinking "Leave it to you to do that, Valerie!", which is making her laugh even harder. (Love ya H!)

You see, last week, I finished the grand finale in Twelve, and had things set up for an epilogue, but wasn't sure how to proceed. It was bus time anyway, so I let it go and decided to think about it on the days I couldn't write.

I've tried writing the epilogue for this rewrite several times, but haven't been able to get it going. I thought it was because I couldn't quite figure out how to get things set up for a certain thing to be done, or I was too tired. I was getting images for it here and there, but only fleeting ones.

An epilogue for this one isn't happening by the looks of it right now, and I know why.

Last week, I made the decision that Twelve's sequel isn't likely to be written up any time soon, if ever. I've tried coming up with a story for it but other than the romance end of things and that you would see the first couple in it here and there, I still have no bloody clue on how to go about it.

The epilogue of Twelve was supposed to introduce one of the sequel's main characters, and tie up things up very neatly. The decision not to write a sequel to it right now is what told me why an epilogue for it isn't coming to me at all.

So yeah, it looks like I finished Twelve without really knowing it. LOL Duh!

So, what's next, you ask?

I've already dug out Ten's files and started converting them over to Word 2013, and reread some of the parts of that manuscript. Since I'm going back to basics on that one - the original version of it was ultra complicated, just like Twelve's original version - I have to do a rewrite on how things are set up for the mains, like how they meet for the first time, and so forth.

Some things will be kept - like the one sex scene and teasers for example, as well as the build up of sexual tension.

These characters are a little different from Twelve's or those in Away to Me, so it's going to be interesting to see how well I can write them up.

I'm also considering stepping out of my comfort zone for a few things in this one. Not saying what though... And if it doesn't work according to my Beta Team, I'll just go back to something that does work!

Hey, a good part of being a writer is the rewrites, after all! *wink!*

I leave you with stats on what was code named "Twelve"...

TWELVE STATS (Draft One):

Name: "Hearts Remembering"
Length: 114 pages.
Word count: 60,626.
Start date: October 3, 2014.
Finish Date: February 28, 2015.

Winter: GO AWAY!

It's been another one of those months where we seem to be getting clobbered with a major storm every week, sometimes two times or more in a single week. The last month saw at least four snow days for kids in my son's district, as well as days when the buses were going to be late or not going back the dirt roads. Son wasn't too happy about school being canceled on those days but what can you do? It IS winter and my province is in one of the years that we seem to be getting snow over the fence. I guess it's our payback for having such a warm December? Hard to say.

All I know is that I am ultra sick of this, and I'm ready for spring....

View of our road after the most recent major snowstorm last week.

Son has another reason to be ticked when school is canceled on certain days. This year, he's on the grade 4 & 5 basketball team, and it just happens to be that a couple of their practice days were canceled due to schools dismissing early or being canceled due to the weather being so rotten. He loves playing basketball - odd considering neither Hubby nor myself are fans of that sport, we are hockey fans - and when the team coach asked him if he wanted to participate this year, he jumped on it. So far they have only played two games - against the same team from another school - but they have won both of them. Hubby and I were able to make it to the most recent game last week, and we had fun. Son made two legal steals, forced two legal turn arounds, and even scored a two point basket for his team! The team they were facing is a good team too but had a bit of bad luck both times they faced Son's school. Hopefully this teaches all boys on all teams good sportsmanship, and that even if you do lose, you still did a great job and it's an honor to be chosen to be on the team.

Twelve is progressing nicely. I've been writing a lot when schools are open, and I'm slowly starting to see the story finally come together in its correct, original configuration. I had a part to splice in written up, and it was put into the main file two weeks ago. I've made more progress in the main file, and have started another file to splice in as well. It's been slow but steady by times.

As of right now, there are about 48K into the main file, along with another 2K in the file to be spliced in.

That means I'm about halfway to the goal of about 100K. That said, I'm probably about 5/8 finished this story. So it's probably going to be under 100K, which is the limit for most publishers.

As for other projects, I'm still unsure of what's going to nab me next. I'd like to write the sequel to Twelve before that one is sent out, but I'd also like to finish Ten too. I'll just have to see how things go after Twelve's first draft is done, that's all.

Have a great week everyone!

Nor'Easters and More...

Considering what the majority of Canadians have been getting over the last while, getting a rainy nor'easter is nothing, even with a leaky roof and the power holding on by a wing and a prayer. I can't complain, it is NOT snow and that's the main thing.
If the amount of rain we got overnight last night had been snow, we would have been buried under half a meter (50 cm or 20 inches in American) of the white garbage. The ditches along the side of the road were full, as was the yard across the road from us... A lot of rain came down in one heck of a short time. I'm glad it wasn't overly cold and the temperature did not drop until it was close to afternoon bus time. Otherwise, the roads would have been treacherous for the buses.

WRITING NEWS

There is progress to report on Twelve, in the same area I was working on last week. The first draft of that area is almost finished and it looks like it's going to cover an entire chapter. It is choppy in spots but where it's a first draft, that's okay for now. I can fix it later, right? :)

I have also started rewriting the last scene in chapter five, because I was stuck and realized I was doing a huge information dump in that spot. It's better if I have the information scattered throughout the entire manuscript instead of one area, less painful for the readers.

That's if this one ever sees the light of day...

OTHER NEWS

Gang, the "Creed" part of my blog title doesn't just refer to music. Creed is my favorite band of all time, and to me, they represent the best of my favorite bands.

Yes, I have heard the news, and watched most of the statements released by Creed's frontman.

Here's the thing. I'm CANADIAN. Up here, we generally don't pay attention to stuff like this, and any celebrities living and working in our music, film, television, etc industries are generally left alone.

This means I don't believe most of the rumors flying around about any celebrity out there, and I tend to be skeptical even if someone ultra close to the celebrity shares "something". Even someone as honest and frank with his fans like a certain band's frontman has backstabbers hiding amongst the "friends" after all.

I ask, out of respect for him, his family and those who remain loyal to him, that no one posts anything derogatory about him on my personal and my public areas. This includes my personal and author profiles in various spots, my Facebook page, and of course, comments on this blog.

Saying you don't like his music is one thing - that's your opinion after all - but getting on a soap box and calling him everything but a male isn't being polite or civil.

This is my first, last and only public statement on the matter.

I leave you with a photo taken at his November 20, 2010 concert in the Schooner Showroom of Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax, and the official video of his song, "Slow Suicide" off his 2013 album "Proof of Life".

#helpScottStapp

Nasty Weather and a Very Naughty V.J. ....

We had one heck of a rain storm here yesterday. Winds hit over 100 kph (62 mph for those of you who don't speak Canadian) and lots of rain. I really thought the power was going out at some point, same with the satellite TV, but somehow we got lucky and the only thing that wasn't working right was our cordless phone. The battery in that died while I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone, and I called her back on the regular desktop phone so we could continue our conversation, which was very enjoyable for me. She lives a couple of thousands of miles away from me, in a time zone four hours behind mine, and it's so good to hear her voice and talk outside of Facebook and our other common sites once in a while, even if it's not cheap to do it that way. 

It's not raining now, but the wind is still pretty strong. I can see the trees in our neighbor's yard waving like crazy and can feel the house shake from the occasional huge gust. It feels almost like a hurricane, but this storm wasn't organized like a tropical cyclone would be, it was just a regular storm with a lot of wind and rain. I'm just glad it wasn't snow, because we'd be buried if it had been! 

Why was I naughty? 

Well....I did something the other day I said I wouldn't be doing for a bit yet... I kind of opened Book 2 and started revisions on it.

I know, I said I was going to leave it until the new year, but the latter parts of it and all of the editing, compressions, and everything else I knew needed to be done to that particular manuscript was nagging me constantly, at the back of my mind, and I just started to feel like I couldn't move on with a new story and a new idea until things in the most recent manuscript were cleaned up. 

The first few chapters were not so bad. I had edited the first four to death and except for missing commas and needing a few words changed around here and there, I managed to get through that part pretty quickly. Chapter Five needed some compressions, but after thinking it over for a few minutes, I knew what to do and those were dispatched within moments. After that it's pretty much general things again, like the missing commas, and changing a couple of things here and there, and stuff I can easily do when my son and husband are around.

What was really bothering me more than anything was the clean up of the last ten or so chapters and the epilogues. I didn't just write them, I zoomed through them faster than the speed of light it seems, and there is a lot there that needs to be cleaned up, rewritten/revised, 86'ed, added to, and compressed. I didn't edit that area as much as I had the first 2/3 of the story and the perfectionist for my own work in me was really rearing its head the last week, notably on Monday. I finally gave into the urge to open it and start the long process of getting it up to "my" draft two standards on Tuesday and although it's a slow process, it's going okay so far. I'm in Chapter 34 of this particular edit at the moment, and I'll be working on it today, into the weekend and next week. I'm really going over it with a fine toothed comb to be sure everything is kosher and closer to a "final draft", so I have less to do in later drafts.

It's hard to believe I finished its first draft barely four weeks ago, it feels like it's been a lot longer than that. I don't know why, but I'm guessing it's because I have had a new idea pop into my head (Thanks to two good friends who are also fellow authors!) and I've been able to "lay the characters" to rest a little easier this time around, probably because I don't have the idea of a sequel nagging at the back of my head! 

I hope Sandra will be ready to read this one in the new year, because when I deem it's ready for someone else's eyes, she'll be getting a copy for her enjoyment... She read "No Regrets" and liked it, so I hope this one is just as enjoyable for her, and she likes the wild ride the reader will go on with the characters. 

Anyway, I hope all of my fellow Nova Scotians are fine after that nasty weather last night and this morning, and that all of my American family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll be back with another update as things progress, notably when Untitled 9 becomes clearer to me and I'm able to work on it more... Which I hope will be very soon!

Shifting Gears, Part 3: Slashing, Burning and Updating/Modernizing

Day 13 after NR's first draft was finished...
To say I've had urges to work on it is an understatement... There have been days that I literally had to hand the computer over to someone else so I wouldn't get the urge to open NR's second draft and work on it somehow.
I've managed to avoid that though, and NR has been perking for over a week now. I closed Draft 2's file last Monday and haven't looked at it once in the time since then. It's still popping into the mind though and as hard as it is some days NOT to open it and work on it, I've managed to avoid doing so. 
The worst of it is, I just got a new printer/copier/scanner and I have over 2 reams of paper ready and waiting for printing. NOT GOOD when one has the urge to print out a story they just finished to work on it when it's supposed to be fading from the mind a little bit!
What helps is bouncing around ideas for RH's rewrite/overhaul... And actually working on the story. 
Yesterday wasn't the best day I've had writing wise to date but then again, I'm still getting into the groove of RH and out of NR's groove... Things are progressing slowly but surely and maybe with a little more time of letting NR perk and getting more into the minds of the leading couple in RH, I'll start picking up on the ideas and the actual writing part itself. 
RH Version 2.0 has a LOT of changes in it and is very different from the original in so many ways... The characters' professions have changed for one, the leading lady's personality is a little more "brash", the leading man is calmer and wiser than she is, and the family dynamics of both his and her families are different. I'm not revealing just HOW but anyone who read the original version of it will get it when they see Version 2... I'll probably get killed for doing this from some quarters but meh, that's okay. I still think that after the rewrite, RH will be a much better story in the end.
I've also been doing some research into copyrights in Canada and it seems they are different here than in the States... I'm not fully sure on things but I will be doing more research on them and may even visit a few contacts in the federal government, ones left from the time I worked for an office that helped people with barriers to employment find work. I'm hoping they'll be able to clear things up for me a little bit. The Government of Canada's website is pretty good but not all things are completely clear for me in regards to certain things about copyrighting books/stories/novels/poems, etc. and the clearer things are the better. I am NOT taking any chances with RH due to certain circumstances, considering how the original version was written almost 13 years ago and I passed it around to several people after it was done. Same with Untitled #6. Both are saved on my Pentium too and I have NOT touched the files for either on the Pentium in years...
Back to RH's rewrite: Chapter 1 is VERY long compared to the latter chapters of NR... It's over 7000 words and barely covers a day or so, and Chapter 2 starts off with a scene from later in the day of the second half of chapter 1. Yeah, a lot happens in this story, and pretty darn fast by times too. Thankfully, the first scene of chapter 2 was finished RIGHT at the time my bus time alarm went off at 2:20 so that's all good and I'll be starting scene 2 of Chapter 2 tomorrow morning during my "long" writing day this week. I just have to figure out WHAT to put in for scene 2 though... 
For anyone out there who is wondering... Yes, we did get hit with the remnants of Hurricane Sandy, on Halloween (yesterday) and it wasn't pleasant, although we have been through worse storms here. We had a LOT of wind, a lot of rain and it wasn't fun at all. We had lost power around 5:30 yesterday morning and we managed to get one battery operated radio working enough to listen to the news on one of our local radio stations. According to them and NS Power's outage line, the power was supposed to come back on around 7:30 and school was still ON (the school is on a different power grid than our house is on). Hats off to NSP, they got everything back up and running around 6:30, an hour earlier than predicted. 
However, things can still get wonky even with the power back on...
It was just after we had power that I was filling up the kettle for coffee (an hour late!) and out of nowhere, a HUGE flash and BIG BOOM ricocheted through the neighborhood... It was so bad it shook the house and several houses around here. I didn't think anything of it other than a tree or something else had been hit and hoped no one was hurt.
I tried to get online and the modem was FRIED. Thankfully Hubby worked the short 9-3 day shift yesterday and got a new modem for me on the way home. I was going to write anyway so it worked out good, I wasn't fighting with Son to keep quiet while I tried to keep from going crazy while trying to work.
I didn't know it at the time but found out from our neighbor across the road while I was taking my son around trick or treating last night that lightening hit a tree behind their house... It knocked out their pump and their phone line... And I figure that's what fried the modem too. Even with a brand new modem installed into the computer, my dial up is very slow and I'm thinking something is really messed up on the phone line because our neighbor's phone is still OUT at the moment. I'm hoping when the phone company checks the lines here, they clear up our line too so my accelerated dial up acts normally instead of getting me on at half the speed I'm used to having. 
Other than a few trees, the neighbor's phone and pump and my dratted good modem, we didn't really have anything nasty happen here. Things are good compared to other areas... Some places down in the States were VERY hard hit. Most of my friends from the eastern seaboard of the States have checked in one way or another but not all of them and I'm hoping they are safe.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was affected by Hurricane Sandy.
I have a feeling that name will be retired from the hurricane names list after this year. It was a very nasty storm, worse than we experienced here with Hurricane Juan back in 2003 for others out there... Our end of it wasn't too bad, thankfully but the storm had lots a lot of its power by the time it got to Nova Scotia.
On that note I hope everyone out there is safe and well. Have a wonderful Thursday everyone.