Wahoo! I’m Finally Getting Some Progress Made!

Business, Just Life, Writing
I've been working on several alternatives to my first book, The Lost Part of Me. I don't plan to scrap it, but I did want to delay it for a while, as the structure was more complicated than I was ready to handle. Things I did, instead: Continued with blogging, both at Right As Usual and Bastion of Liberty. Wrote a couple of short stories, and published them. Worked out the plot of a less complex story, and will start writing early next week. This is both shorter than TLPOM, and a more straightforward framework. Am - in my spare time - working out the plot of a sci-fi novel. I started it, then realized that I needed to plan it out more thoroughly. I'll get it re-booted after I…
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Running on Empty

Just Life, Uncategorized, Writing
Cedar Sanderson writes about this phenomenon on her blog. She finds that she is low-energy in many aspects of her life. That's truly where I am at. Periodically, I find the resources to make a blitz - writing/updating my blogs, working on a short story, blocking out/outlining my next book, making a mad dash through my house and clearing up the worst of the mess. SOME of that is physical. My recent ankle injury had made it difficult to move around, or even sit comfortably for an extended time. Some of that is related to the difficulty I am experiencing with the book revisions. I've just about gotten to the point where I am planning to take a hiatus; to put this book aside until I've written a few other…
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What I’ve Been Doing

Just Life, Uncategorized, Writing
I've been distracted for the last several months - traveling - and, now, fairly regular work as a substitute teacher. It's a good school system, well run, and the work is not too tedious. In some ways, it's better than what I'd been doing. With the need to organize my day more stringently, I find that I am accomplishing more than usual. So, for now, I'll be doing this. Right now, I'm working 3-5 times a week. Next fall, I'd like that reduced toaround 2-3 days a week. My only loss is time with my garden. I'm way behind on planting, weeding, and maintaining. My first short story is on Kindle Select - if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free, until June 20. It's priced at…
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What a GREAT Day!

My Books, Writing
I got right to work today on my writing. When I had finished my day's quota (self-imposed), I was delighted to see that I had reached a percent completed of 21% for Alien8, and 10% for Retiring Without Falling Apart. I've set up a Google Sheet to track my work. It's simple, just 4 columns: Date          Words that Day       Total                Percent Complete I'm big on tracking progress. I think it's hard to keep focused on big projects (which a book is, generally), unless you can see how your efforts are paying off. It's the same with weight loss - those who don't keep track get discouraged. So, along with the numbers being updated, I also added a…
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Getting Ready for the NaNoWriMo Sprint

My Books, NaNoWriMo, Writing
Less that a week to go till the start of NaNoWriMo2017. I'm spending about half my writing time getting the first fourth of the book planned out. I may have to do the rest next week.   I want to have the broad outlines of the new book in place, so I can know the ending point I want to aim for. Yes, I am basically a Planner - at least, I prefer to know the general direction of large projects, and draw up benchmarks for my work, so I can finish at the time and place I want to be. Here is the working cover for the new book - I'm thinking about using my initials - LS - and turning that into a name for my sci-fi books.…
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Welcome to My New Website

Business, My Books, PUblishing, Writing
I'm planning on using this site as a general Author website. That means: Talking about my WIP - Work in Progress - I will occasionally post short excerpts from my novels or nonfiction books. Using it to promote my new books - if I don't tell everyone, how will they know I'm done and the book is out of the gate (to use a horseracing analogy)? Posting about Things I've Learned About Writing, starting with this, that was accepted by the Writing Cooperative on Medium. Links to other sites that I've found helpful - writing, publishing, managing a business (which is what writers do). Look for updates at least once a week, on Thursday morning.
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