Quick Sunday Update

Howdy, fellow ROWers. I hope you all had a more successful week than I did. Sick kids and craziness at work sapped my energy. But I won't waste your time with whining about what went wrong.

The truth is, when I did sit down to write the next part of Flight, I found an issue in my outline that needed working out, and focused some energy there. My word count on my work in progress is just 1,100 for the week, including what I've done so far this morning. Dismal! But on the bright side, plenty of room for improvement in the coming week!

I did fit in a couple thousand more words brainstorming on my "something new." I'm betting my writer friends have strong feelings about letting the muse speak when you're in the middle of writing a book...I just can't help myself. When I set a deadline on one project, my muse tends to wake up and say, "I've been meaning to introduce an idea..." I think it goes back to school, and how I tend to perform well under pressure. So I add to that pressure cooker until I can really feel it, and then somehow the work is more satisfying...? I'm such a kook. Ha!

So writers -- what do you think? Do you torture yourself in a similar fashion? LOL.

Also, I wanted to let you know the ladies at Talk Supe book blog interviewed me about my work, and the interview will post tomorrow. Fun!

Reina Stowe's New Story Twenty Questions and Giveaway

A couple of months ago, I interviewed erotic romance author Reina Stowe about her work in this post. Reina has just released her second story, titled Twenty Questions.

Reina's stories really catch you. Her characters feel real from the first scene, and by the time they get what they need, you're really pulling for them. It's a nice blend of romance and humor, and Reina isn't afraid to tackle characters with baggage -- like the characters in Twenty Questions. I hope you like this short story as much as I did. So, here's Reina's offer!

Twenty Questions by Reina Stowe, author of Open Me, will be free on Amazon January 20th and 21st.  Don't miss the opportunity to download this sweet and sexy story for free!

Trudy and Adrian have sat next to each other at their grief support group for over a year, working through their feelings of loss and trying to heal. But they don’t really know each other, even though they’d like to.
After a couple of drinks at Adrian’s place, they decide to play a game of Twenty “Ask Me Anything” Questions.
It turns out to be the most satisfying game either of them has ever played.

*This is a short story - 10 standard pages.

*WARNING: Twenty Questions is for ADULTS ONLY due to sexually explicit M/F scenes involving fires in some serious need of stoking.

In addition to the free copy of Twenty Questions from Amazon January 20th and 21st, Reina is also giving away a copy of Open Me here on my blog! Comment on this post before midnight (Pacific time) on the 21st, and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Reina's first story, Open Me! Make sure to leave your email address in your comment so Reina can get you your book after the giveaway.

Reina Stowe crafts Happily Ever After's with a little extra oomph! She lives and goes to grad school in Seattle, WA.

Connect with her online:
http://reinastowe.blogspot.com
Twitter: @ReinaStowe

Sunday Update

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend. It's our annual family get-together with one section of the family, so I'm at a vacation house in Sunriver, Oregon with lots of family. Fun times. It's really fun to watch these folks with my kids, since they don't get to see each other very often. I did a lot of writing this week, so I'm happy to say I'm keeping up with goals in that area, and more. Yippee! Since Wednesday I've written 2,600 words on Flight, my paranormal romance in progress. That brings my manuscript to 6,900 words. Since I just started it not quite two weeks ago, I'm very happy with my progress. I also started something completely new and different. One of those "follow the muse" days occurred on Thursday. Afterthe kids were in bed I had a thought, which led to another thought, and I sat down to write. 2,200 words later I put it away. It's the beginning of something, but probably won't be a real story for a couple of years. That's the way my brain works. Stuff has to stew up there FOREVER before I'm ready to write. :) I do apologize for any typos in this post. Writng on my iPad, on shoddy internet. Not awesome. Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Mid-Week Update and New Goal

I'm really happy to have progress to report in the middle of the week! I still didn't write on Monday -- I was under the weather and just not in the mood. LOL. But on Tuesday I wrote 1,800 words, so I've still managed to keep up with my cumulative goal.

I've written the first 4,400 words of this book in the last eight days, and that feels pretty good. I do need to pick up the pace, because I'd like to have the entire novella written by my birthday, February 15th, so I can relax for a few days before I pick up a big -- BIG -- editing project for the last part of Round 1. So I have five weeks to write another 26,000 words or so...that's just less than 750 words per day, or 5,200 per week. That's a lot of words, knowing that there are at least two days a week when it's really hard to fit writing in. But this is a challenge! It isn't supposed to be a cake walk! I'm gonna go for it.

New goal: test mile of 750 words per day, cumulative goal of 5,200 words per week for the next five weeks or until this book is finished. That feels good, and that's when you know it's right! I'm going to have to be strict with myself about not going online until I've gotten words on the page.

How's everyone else doing? Have any of you adjusted your goals yet?

Sunday Update

This was one of those weeks where life throws curveballs. Not anything life-changing, but roadblocks in the way of getting to MY stuff, like writing. I set a goal to write 500 words a day, but I still managed to write just two days this week. However, when I did write I accomplished a lot more than 500 words. 1,000 words on Tuesday, and 1,600 today. So that's 2,600 words -- 900 short of my cumulative 3,500 word goal for the week. I'm okay with that, given how the week went. I still like Kait Nolan's "test mile" challenge, and when I do sit down and write 500 words is pretty easy for me. If I wrote every day -- instead of the three or four days I usually manage -- I'd accomplish so much more! So that's a great challenge for me.

I did worse on my exercise goal. I hit the bike one time this week, instead of the three I'm shooting for. That's one I'll try to get into a rhythm with over these next couple of weeks.

How about the rest of you? Were you able to start the new year off with stellar word counts and awesome willpower? Good luck with the coming week!

Happy New Year! Round of Words Goals

Happy new year, and welcome to another round of A Round of Words in 80 Days! I've enjoyed this challenge the last two rounds I've participated. This community helps me keep striving toward my writing goals, inspires me to press my limits, and encourages me when I falter. I look forward to seeing what new heights all of you reach in your writing endeavors in 2012. :)

Now to my goals for the round:
1) Write Flight, the third Children of the Sidhe novella, by writing at least my test mile of 500 words per day. (Nice challenge, Kait Nolan!)
2) Work on the paper edit of Queen Witch, the book I wrote last round, by editing 10 pages a week starting February 19. Until then, I'm getting some distance from that project.
3) Exercise three days a week for at least 30 minutes, to improve my energy level. :)

That's it, I'm keeping it simple. My husband is looking at grad school, and he's going to need some support so he can be the one at the computer for once.

I wish all my ROWer friends a great start to the new year, and happy writing!