And this also means it's back to writing every day. During the summer it's been hard to keep to a strict schedule because my little one is home and every day is a new adventure for us. An adventure I welcome, because he's not going to be this little forever and I need to cherish these moments now. So, even if I wasn't writing, I've been doing other things that contribute to writing like LIVING.

In July we spent two wonderful weeks in England visiting family. Not only did we escape the horrendously hot and humid New England weather, we were treated to beautiful sunshine in England for almost our entire trip. It was bliss I tell ya!

Now it's September, back to school, back to the books and back to work. So far I have about 20,000 words written on SWINGS AND PENDULUMS. Planning to make that 60K and Finis by the end of the year. I may do NANO again if I need an extra push, but I'm hoping by November I'll be on the downhill slide into Home. We'll see. I'm always so optimistic at the start, aren't I?

Happy September, everyone. Autumn is coming. My favorite time of year!!!!

Today seems like a good day for an update. Why? Because I have some great news to share. My young adult time travel romance WISHING YOU WERE HERE finaled in the RWA Golden Heart contest! This is RWA's "biggie" contest of the year for unpublished writers, so I am delighted my manuscript made the cut.

Today is also a good day for an update because I was just thinking recently that it's been a while since I wrote about my writing progress.

Yes, I finished a new MS back in February, but that doesn't mean it's vacation time. Nope, it means it's time to start the next project. I did give myself a week or so off to just relax, but by March 1 I was ready to dive back in.

My new manuscript is the YA suspense I'd fooled around with for NANO. March has been the "planning" phase. I'm hoping to start into the first draft in April. I'd like to finish that first draft by the end of June. I'm using Todd Stone's "Novelist's Boot  Camp" for inspiration and also reading "How to Write Killer Fiction" by Carolyn Wheat to strengthen my knowledge of mystery and suspense. You can never stop trying to improve your craft as a writer.

So, that's where things stand this month. I probably won't post again until next month when I have something tangible to report on.

Cathy

That's right! I'm finally done.   At approximately 1:30pm today I wrote THE END on the SAINTS AND SINNERS revised manuscript. Hallelujah!

Now I'm going to do a little moderate celebrating, be good to myself for a few days, then start gearing up for my next project, the YA paranormal I've tentatively called SWINGS AND PENDULUMS.

I'll post again when that is underway.

I'm in the final stretch now! I'm on the final polish, doing one last read-through of the entire MS cover to cover. I'm almost halfway through and (crossing my fingers) hope to have it ready to go around the 15th! YAY!!!!!

I'll be so happy when this is DONE!

C.

Yippee! I'm on the tail end of Chapter 26 now. One more chapter to go and then the epilogue, which I'm pretty sure needs very little editing. Keeping my fingers crossed I can wrap this up next week, by the 15th at the latest. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

I realize I haven't posted in a while (holidays and all), but I HAVE been working. I took the week of Christmas and New Year's off, but the other weeks I did my writing like I should.

I'm almost at the end. I'm so excited.   I just finished chapter 23. (I estimate there'll be about 25-26 chapters before I have to go back and do one final polish). So, two weeks maybe? (fingers crossed).

I'll post again when I've completed chapter 24.

C.

ps: Please note that if you leave comments to this blog, they are moderated so you won't see your comment appear right away. Unfortunately damn spammers keep trying to post their stupid URLs for crap, so I can't leave the comments open.    This is what I think of spammers!

Up to chapter 23 now. We're cruisin'!






C.

Well, the end is getting closer. I can't wait.

Here's where we are now. Just finished Chapter 21. Looks like 120,000 words, though, for this pass on the MS is going to be ambitious. So, setting a new goal to try to keep it under 125, 000. In my next pass, I'm sure I'll be able to trim some wordy sections down.

So here's how things stand today:

Revisions are up to:




The end's in sight....

Cathy

Revisions are going great! I think I'm at my favorite part of the book where it's all about to come crashing down and then somehow the characters will make it out okay. LOL!