...I had a baby.
That baby is now ten years old. I have been a mother for a decade.
I don't post much about The Son here, other than to point out the bemusing aspects of life as a mom novelist (such as the amount of writing I do in the school parking lot), but I wanted to mark this momentous day by sharing a bit of The Son with you.
The Son is a quadruple Scorpio chaos Muppet, tall and leggy with shoulder-length blond hair, blue-green eyes, and an enormous head. He has some formidable qualities I am trying to channel towards good rather than evil: he's strong-willed, charismatic, creative, not easily intimidated, a class clown, and immune to peer pressure. He's also a budding geek who takes Renaissance sword-fighting lessons and is into video games, books, graphic novels, programming, robotics, Legos, Pokémon, Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, model rockets, and English humor. And he's also a Cub Scout who whittles, collects canned food for the local food bank, and has won the Pinewood Derby.
He is one of the funniest and most loving people I know, and has passionate opinions about just about everything. His favorite color since he was young enough to indicate one has been yellow, but his favorite color to wear is black. He's a cat person. He has a crazy sweet tooth but hates both soda and doughnuts.
Professions he has considered in the last few years: Emperor of the World, film/TV show director, virtual reality video game designer, talk show host, and YouTuber.
He is a Gryffindor and his patronus is a crow.
Happy Birthday, Boy of mine! And happy tenth mothering anniversary to me.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Monday, November 14, 2016
Revision: Step Ten
Step ten is beta readers! I'm sending the MS out today to those who are ready for it.
(To my betas: Apologies in advance for any missing words or other errors I introduced when I did the revisions. I just looked over the first few chapters (where I did the most revising, and ugh.)
Last time around this was terrifying, but now I'm more excited. I have lots of vague thoughts about what maybe needs to be stronger in the book, and I feel like getting beta perspectives is going to bring those thoughts into focus.
It'll be quiet here for a while, as my next two weeks are going to be insanely busy and I'm not planning on doing any writing. See you at the end of the month!
(To my betas: Apologies in advance for any missing words or other errors I introduced when I did the revisions. I just looked over the first few chapters (where I did the most revising, and ugh.)
Last time around this was terrifying, but now I'm more excited. I have lots of vague thoughts about what maybe needs to be stronger in the book, and I feel like getting beta perspectives is going to bring those thoughts into focus.
It'll be quiet here for a while, as my next two weeks are going to be insanely busy and I'm not planning on doing any writing. See you at the end of the month!
Friday, November 11, 2016
Done Again
I finished the revision today! I've decided to not to the reading-aloud part yet. I want to wait until I get feedback from betas and go through another round of revisions before I do that kind of nitpicky line edit.
I do want to spellcheck one last time, though, and then I need to thoroughly read the instructions for compiling a draft in the Scrivener tutorial, because I just kind of skimmed it for this last printout and wound up losing some formatting.
I'm guessing I'll have it ready to send to betas on Monday, or thereabouts.
I do want to spellcheck one last time, though, and then I need to thoroughly read the instructions for compiling a draft in the Scrivener tutorial, because I just kind of skimmed it for this last printout and wound up losing some formatting.
I'm guessing I'll have it ready to send to betas on Monday, or thereabouts.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
New Month, New Goals
Happy November! And happy NaNoWriMo to all of you who are participating. May your words come easy and your plot paths run true.
I am sitting just shy of the halfway mark of the revision, and I've come to the place where I need to add a new scene/chapter. It's not a long scene-- probably not much more than 2,000 words-- but it needs to serve as the fulcrum of the main plot thread. It's also the one place my main character (who is honestly a bit of a goody-two-shoes, particularly compared to Willa from TOB) does something she knows is manipulative and selfish.
I have the scene mostly outlined. It's mostly dialogue, so today I hope to get all that written and then tomorrow fill it in.
As usual, Thanksgiving week is crazy for me since I'm both hosting the meal for our family and enduring the busiest week of my work year. My goal now is to finish the revision and have it ready to send to beta readers by Nov. 18. It's not the end of the world if I don't make it (one of my betas is doing NaNo and won't be able to read it until December anyway), but I am not going to be able to write at all between Nov. 19-27, and I don't want to take 8 days off and then try to re-gain momentum the last few days of the month.
I am sitting just shy of the halfway mark of the revision, and I've come to the place where I need to add a new scene/chapter. It's not a long scene-- probably not much more than 2,000 words-- but it needs to serve as the fulcrum of the main plot thread. It's also the one place my main character (who is honestly a bit of a goody-two-shoes, particularly compared to Willa from TOB) does something she knows is manipulative and selfish.
I have the scene mostly outlined. It's mostly dialogue, so today I hope to get all that written and then tomorrow fill it in.
As usual, Thanksgiving week is crazy for me since I'm both hosting the meal for our family and enduring the busiest week of my work year. My goal now is to finish the revision and have it ready to send to beta readers by Nov. 18. It's not the end of the world if I don't make it (one of my betas is doing NaNo and won't be able to read it until December anyway), but I am not going to be able to write at all between Nov. 19-27, and I don't want to take 8 days off and then try to re-gain momentum the last few days of the month.
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