New Silk beginning, first Tapestry read.

Yes, I had to admit when I went back to look at Silk that the beginning is a little hesitant and superficial. I didn't know my characters then like I do now, so I am thrilled to add a couple extra first chapters--or, at least, they're in the works! Fun to revisit old, early stuff!
Oh, changed a slew of names to avoid upsetting anyone who might be absurdly touchy about ancestors being accused of all sorts of crimes and intrigues! That was hard, but I feel a bit more at ease about it now.
First reading of Tapestry was interrupted with the Silk diversion. The idea for a new chapter was hitting me hard, so I had to go with it, even though I had intended to finish my first review of Tapestry.
Okay, that's the update. Chat later!

Christmas 2010

Another Christmas has come and gone! We spent most of our time up in SC, as my grandaddy is not doing so well--completely lucid and spunky, but dealing with a leukemia-type of condition. He was able to attend the Ard family gathering at his home, though, so that made it sort of special. It's been a while since we attended one of the extended family celebrations, and it was particularly nice--perhaps in part for being back at my grandparents' home. I've never been psyched about alternate locations.

Fiona received her Rebecca American Girl doll and Alex his video camera from Santa (for the movie he's planning). They had a great time with their cousins and, of course, received a slew of presents from us and both sides of the family.

In fact, we celebrated with Michael's family on the 26th, and their very fun newlywed aunt and uncle invited them up to Charleston for the week, so I was surprised to receive a blissful week of quiet, which is going all too fast! I do miss them, though :)

Michael has been a fantastic sport about working and celebrating and keeping a great mood. I have been unwinding a little from writing, and, even though I haven't quite gotten the house back in order, am feeling the urge to get back to editing! Can't wait to complete my book projects, and more editing is top of the agenda!

My Baby Writes, Too!

I'm frankly amazed. My little girl decided to write a book, too--completely on her own accord. She's decided upon an American Girl novel set in the 1920's. I believe the protagonist's name is Violet. Fiona wrote the first couple of paragraphs today, and they are truly cute (sisters heading to school). Anyway, I'm not sure I've ever seen her look more thrilled than when I read them. I did not suggest that my kids write, but I suppose they just catch the enthusiasm! Michael says that they've figured out that writing is an excuse to get out of everything! Ahem, not sure why he thinks that!

Silk Trilogy covers

I just LOVE making these book covers for my novels. It's so, so fun to have a reason to play around with the camera and photo software and feel like it's WORK! So I'm justified in spending my time thus! Anyway, the idea is that these are the online covers, at least for now or until I change them. I'm sure that graphic artists will be hired to make real book covers, but we'll see! I honestly don't even think I have the right dimensions exactly... Oh, I know that they don't look at all like they belong in a trilogy. Hmm...well, they are from different eras with different protagonists, if that's any excuse. The idea is that the Silk title is supposed to reflect a quill pen, whereas that wouldn't be appropriate for Tapestry.

Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel--first draft complete!

Yep, just like a kid in school--word count in, and wham! I'm outta here! Ha! But, honestly, even though it's a bit grueling and hard work (yes, it is!), I love it and am proud of the results. Gotta read back through and change a few things perhaps and maybe add just a bit to wrap up side character stuff, but that first draft is done. Not sure about the subtitle, but throwing it in there for kicks right now.

Goal Met: 50,000 surpassed.

Yay, woohoo? Yes, I am not finished with the story quite yet, but I thought I'd go ahead and report successful completion of the 1-month progress log. What a great program, and I've done it by the skin of my teeth! Okay, kids are out of school in like 4 minutes until next year, so I'm gonna get back to trying to wrap things up. Whew...

Crash Landing!

Ugh! I am in a writer's block! It's just WRONG to sit and type and delete and type. My creativity went on hiatus. No trouble with e-mail and blog and such, but my mind just QUIT on my story. I'm over 49,000 of the requisite 50,000 (though I think it'll take a bit extra to finish it). What will I do?
Michael has threatened to finish it for me, replete with puppies and bunnies and snowmen. That might kick me into gear, actually!
Maybe it's laziness. I'm ready for Christmas and kids and relaxing with family for the holidays.
Okay...I still technically have until Saturday to hit 50,000 words, and I made no promises to 'finish' by then, only to have the 50,000 in. 1000 words in the next 2 days. I'm sure I can, right?
For now, though, I'm going to go and do something else! Will report back in by Sunday or when I've gotten the required word count!

90%

Over 90% there! :)

Over 80% to Goal!

It's getting there...still lots of loose ends, but I've got almost a fifth of the book to wrap it all up. We'll see! Oh, did you hear that the 'Romance' genre is really picking up sales in e-book format? Well, I've always been terrible at guessing genres and never wanted to be a 'romance' writer, but perhaps this fits. Too bad it won't be out in time for Christmas, though hopefully it will be done by then!
Oh, names! Yes, here's the tentative names for Sophia Alexander's Silk trilogy: Silk, Tapestry, & Homespun. Michael came up with the last one, but I'm liking it. Just working titles for now, but fun to think about.

I Pinched Frank

I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed in myself. I introduced a new character 'Frank' to my story--just a small role. I even described him with a moustache (unlike any male character in this book) and dark hair. I thought I had just made him up, and I first was enthused when we went to see The Tourist yesterday (a very fun movie). "Hey! Depp is Frank, with dark hair and a moustache!" What a coincidence, right? No...I'd watched the trailer and read the blurb on the movie just a day or two before. Now, I wouldn't feel so bad if it had been ages ago, but the night before? My brain is Swiss cheese, I swear.
Oh, but it does make me feel a bit more convinced that Rowling probably has no idea how many ideas she pinched from earlier fantasy writers! See, my logic goes that if Rowling does it, then it's FINE! :)

What We Don't Know that We Know!

Wow...I am tickled pink! I have been accessing more info on fashion for the book, and, in doing so, I found that two cities I've already just named in my book for fashion shows are actually the two mentioned in the reference article!

Also, I've employed the term 'couturiere' in this book and wondered if I should throw it and haute couture and such back in book one...but guess what? The terms came into vogue during the dates between the two books, so it was right to not employ the terms in book one.

Another tidbit also comes up that I was more right than I realized, but I won't mention that, as I don't want to be any more of a spoiler than I already am!

Am I guessing or intuiting all this? Maybe I read about it at some point...or saw a movie when I was young? Hard to say, but it's so much fun to see your made-up ideas confirmed with fact-checking!

[Or, maybe I've really read them recently, as I don't really recall most of what I read, consciously at least!]

Family of Authors

Alex brought home his 'book' today. It's about 20 pages of large print with lots of spaces, typed. A strange, kids' horror theme, it needs some editing and maybe a bit of revamping, but I'm impressed that he finished it. He took my sticker chart idea, and I modified the word counts for him, and he had fun assigning himself stickers and letting go of deadlines.

Remembering my own failed attempt at writing at that age, I am quite proud of his completion of the work, if a bit dubious about the content! Pretty strange...but then, it's supposed to be!

Did I ever mention Michael finished his book, too? I did enjoy his quirky laid-back adventure, and I hope he gets published at some point. I think he's sitting back and letting me write at the moment, but he speaks of resuming editing in January.

And, if you've been reading this blog, you know all about mine! Book #2, Gaynelle in the roaring '20s. Not sure how I feel about it right now, but happy that it's getting there.

Nutcracker 2010

Fiona and Maia

I like this haircut on Alex. Looks like Brendan Frazier, don'tcha think?

The Nutcracker, Thanksgiving weekend

A lovely Sugar Plum Fairy attendant

After the show with sis.

Over 3/5 there!

Well, over 3/5 to 50,000 words, anyhow. There is so very much to work in before the end, so we'll see about that. I hit a terribly dry spot, but things are finally flowing a bit again, to my great relief! 3/5 and 65% and all such don't really sound so close to the end, to me, but I'm lovin' the fill in scroll, where it looks like I'm sooooo close to the end already, as I'm already filling in part of block 4 of 5!

Hannukah

It seems we've a new tradition. A couple of years ago, Michael brought home a menorah. As Unitarian Universalists, we honor and respect the customs of all major religions, and so, while hoping we don't offend, we have fun in celebrating outside of our own traditional holidays. It's been 3 years now that we've been celebrating Hannukah...reading children's picture books and making latkes and lighting the menorah. This year, Fiona made up a song, Oh Hannukah, to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree, so I pulled out the real Hannukah Song and we've been learning that, in addition to singing her quite cute version.

We've been sitting around the table, watching the candles burn down, singing Hannukah songs with our bellies full of latkes...and starting to feel almost comfortable with it in this our third year...

Actually, it's only the theoretical, that idea of celebrating other religions' customs. I think this is the only one so far, but we're open to the idea and are finding it quite fun! Fiona's recently read the Rebecca American Girl books (about a young Jewish girl in 1914 New York--one of the books centered on Hannukah) and has asked Santa for an American Girl doll for Christmas, so we'll see if he brings it (and, yes, I'm definitely thinking Rebecca). Talk about mixing up your customs! :)

Re-centering, 50% done

I find that I'm totally off my schedule and don't seem to know where I am, so here I am, trying to get my ship back on course. I feel so much more grounded when I keep up with my sticker chart and word counts and such. I did just glance at the word count and found I'm at 25,661 words now, which is over 50% of the requisite number, though likely less than the final count will be. Alright, recharting: 3239 more words needed to finish today at speed. Hmm-mmm, not gonna happen. However, I did build in a couple extra days for the holiday disruption, which means I'm doing kinda alright.
Today's supposed to be my biggest writing day of the week. Problem is, once I finish a section, I can feel 'done' for the time being. Alright...back to daily goals. Though I'm not completely sure where I was yesterday, I believe I have about 300 words to go to get my 'gold star' today.
Ahhh, motivational cards...maybe that's what I need! And the cards say...take a walk to ponder AND don't ponder, move forward! I took two, as I am a bit behind on them! So, perhaps a walk, and then write anything to move forward. Sounds like a plan!