Castle in the Clouds

Believe it or not I've been writing. A little bit here, a little bit there. Small jumps forward in word count but big leaps in terms of plotting and motivation. I had been researching Ancient Egypt and ran across a few possible discrepencies in my understanding. Big surprise. Do you have any idea how vast "Ancient Egypt" is? It spans three thousand years. It evolved with new gods, new beliefs, new practices, and varying degrees of govermental power. Some of this doesn't matter in the least but some of it does. I've said before the story's setting is based loosely on AE. However, I still want it to retain enough flavor of Ancient Egypt to be easily recognizable. Besides, I'm having a great time with the description! So, anyhow, there were some things I was unware of and they may have had a negative impact on my creativity if not for a few good friends. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the people at Forward Motion? They'r...

Just for fun I thought I'd throw this link out there for those of you with a few extra minutes to spare. It's a long short story I wrote and published on ssworld.com: Wizard's Last Battle

Nothing to report. I haven't added a single word or edited a solitary line.

Well, another weekend has come and gone. Even though I had a nice three-day spread to enjoy, it went by too fast and I'm sad to be back to work so soon. Paychecks are good incentive, though, to get your fanny out of bed and into the shower. After that it's all good--unless it proves to be a true Monday at work. Bleh. So what did I do this weekend? Friday was spent mostly behind the wheel of my van. I had to drop off and pick up the munchkin at school, then I ran into Flint to get my shoes for my brother's wedding, and finally I ran into Walmart for a last minute birthday gift for a late notice birthday party. In between all this we managed to squeeze a nap in for the little guy, clean my house, write a paper for extra credit, and visit with my mom for a good four hours. I didn't get home until nearly 8:30pm. Busy, busy day! On Saturday I stayed mostly around the house. I got some scrapbooking done (very little), did some laundry, went for a power...

I've made some major revisions to Chapter Three. One of my antagonists is now more clearly defined. His motivations and aspirations are on the table, so to speak. He wants my heroine for several reasons and he's willing to destroy her entire family to get her. He's a bad, bad man. ~evil grin~ My heroine is effectively trapped. She's been backed into a corner and cannot see any reasonable way out of the antagonist's effective trap. Poor thing. I almost feel sorry for her. Family ties can be so costly! Total Words: 9709 Current Chapter : 4

Grrr. This thing is being a pain in the ass.

Very little editing done today. Nothing worth mentioning, actually. So why did I mention it? I dunno. Feeling as if I should blog something today.

Very little editing done today.

We're going to take the kids to the movies tonight. Should be fun. They liked the first Scooby Doo movie and I expect they'll like this one as well. If Shrek 2 was in theatres we'd be seeing that instead--I think Shrek is one of the funniest cartoons out there and I hope the second one is just as good. Tomorrow (Saturday) Ken's going fishing and I'm going to be at home with the kids. Probably doing grand and exciting things like laundry and housework. I'm going to try to find the time to write and scrapbook. Sunday...pretty much the same as Saturday. No fabulous plans to leave you drooling. I'm just leading the boring, mundane existance of a wife and mother. Boring? Hardly. Mundane? Well, maybe.

Nothing much today. Did a teeny, tiny, little bit of editing.

No writing tonight. Did some homework but didn't work on the paper due soon. ~sigh~ Can't wait for this semester to be over. I'm going to bed soon. Very tired. Feeling a tad bit depressed and don't know why.

I didn't write much of anything yesterday. Edited a bit. Added a few lines here and there. I did, however, input more data into Newnovelist. It's nice having the little details available in one spot without having to search for them. The interactive elements in this program excite me. If I keep the Newnovelist data open in one window and the WIP in the other I can add details as I go or quickly reference back to information I've mentioned earlier in the story. I have to admit the program isn't as comprehensive as the Powerstructure software I stumbled on a few months ago. The layouts are completely different and some of the elements in Powerstructure I liked aren't available in Newnovelist. But I wasn't willing to pay four as much for Powerstructure. Newnovelist only cost me $60. I can justify spending less than a $100 on something I know I'll use quite often, even if it is only for writing. Hey, I'm a mom and a wife. I've g...

Today ends a four-day weekend. I don't even want to think about going back to work tomorrow. We had a great Easter. The Bunny was good to the boys and the church service didn't seem to go on and on and on. At least, I don't think so. Ken may disagree. :-) This weekend Ken celebrated his birthday. If we had had a cake, there would have been 33 candles on it. But we don't typically have cake unless it's an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Double yum. Over the four day weekend I failed to turn on the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Needless to say, I didn't write a single word. Way too busy. I really wanted to play with my new software, too. It's called "newnovelist" and is going to help me stay organized. It's also designed to help keep the focus when the story wants to follow some intriguing faerie light into the depths of an uncharted forest. We'll see. Well, I need to run. Kids to put to bed,...

Couldn't figure out how to load a picture. Tried linking to another website and that didn't work either. Oh, well. Maybe next time. :-)

This Weekend I spent a lot of money, took the boys to an Easter egg hunt, and still managed to spend quite a bit of time at home this last weekend. Ken and I bought a patio set for our back deck. It's nice and high; I can see over the railing now without any trouble. Can't wait to be able to use it on a daily basis. I can see it now. Ken and I sitting at the table, reading--him the paper, me a magazine--and the kids playing on the swingset. I'm going to have to get a picture. Somehow. The Easter egg hunt went well. The boys each searched with their own age group. They each got some candy and got to meet the Easter Bunny. I'll post that picture tonight. It's too cute. The rest of the weekend was spent at home doing nothing much. Not even laundry. I didn't feel like it. ~evil grin~ Today I started reading "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. I've read his Angels & Demons book and really liked it. This one seems to be...

When the writing is going well you don't jinx it. You don't post snippets or put up chapters for critique. You protect the work, especially if the work is in first draft and unfinished. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I love sharing my stories. It's what drives me to actually print the pages off and force them upon family members or dear friends. It's also what drives me to become published someday. I want to share these characters, their troubles and triumphs with people I don't know and will likely never meet. I've gotten two chatpers completed on ANS. Two good chapters. They're solid introductions of each character's current situation. They introduce several threads of conflict I intend to exploit later in the story. They work. I so want to share these chapters with someone! You see, when I'm feeling pleased with my writing I admit I want to share it but I've learned to resist the temptation. I nee...

Ok. Comments have been added. Have it!!

Oh! And a funny. Laughter is a great start to any morning. I was on my way into work this morning, listening to the radio as always, and the DJs were talking about an overturned truck. They said it had been carrying beer and the driver was giving out free cases. So I called my hubby and told him about it. He was on his way into work and decided to swing by the location to see if he get so lucky. I realized five minutes later today is April Fool's Day. It was a joke! I finally got in touch with him on the Nextel and told him the date. He started laughing. But he went anyway. Just in case.

I've been told I should add a comment option to my blog. I'm going to try to find one that works. My last attempt was a dismal failure. And...let's see....today's writing: I reread the main conflict in Chapter Two. Had to make a few adjustments. I think it reads a bit better now and makes more sense. Davne, the MC, put up a good fight but in the end she realized she was trapped. Her options, the consquences awaiting her decision, and the stakes were all introduced through her POV or dialogue. I'm pleased with the result. I think.