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I'm playing the week by ear. One Thanksgiving dinner down and one to go.
Is anyone traveling?
What's your favorite side dish?
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I've been reading Her Irish Warrior by Michelle Willingham and let me tell you I'm surprised at the amount of emotion I've felt so far. I'm a third of the way through the book. When I put it down last night I was trying to keep myself from sobbing. I don't know if it is because I can relate to the heroine. If I feel for the hero. Or if it is because I have had an emotionally charged week.
Once I finish it I'm going to go back and study it. I think Michelle has mastered the emotional arc and this is her first book.
Are there any books that you've read that just make you an emotional wreck?
I'm sitting here helping my son with interjections. And it brought something to mind. I read something somewhere that said we weren't to use exclamations in the first fifty pages of our manuscript.
Is this true? I mean, what if my very first sentence was, "You killed my dog!"
Wouldn't my character be upset, wouldn't my character show some emotion? I suppose it would depend on whose pov I'm in.
"You killed my dog." The little girl fell to her knees onto the black pavement. Tears trickled down her dirt stained face.
Missy Sanford watched the scene play out in her mind. She hadn't meant to hit the dog. She hadn't even seen it. She closed her eyes reliving the events all the while the child's choking sobs played in the background.
Missy had turned the corner at Sixth and Main. The same route she took every morning on her way to work. She'd said a prayer while passing the homeless shelter and then proceeded down Main, when a little tow-headed girl darted out in from of her car waving her hands.
Or...
"You killed my dog." Tabitha fell to her knees. She stroked her fingers through Maisie's golden fur.
That a girl. Damien thought as he watched his younger sister play out her part. His chest filled with pride when the first teardrop fell to the pavement. A quick glance at the pale faced lady leaning against her open car door, told him their plan was working. They'd at least get a free meal tonight.
Damien pushed his guilt to the side. It wasn't his fault the shelter had turned him and Tabitha away. The man at the door wanted to know where their parents were. Well, if they had known that, they wouldn't be living on the streets would they? His father had left when he was five, at least that was what his mother had said. And Tabitha's father, who knew who her father was. His mother sure as hell didn't.
The last he'd seen their mother was when she walked off with some john. That had been two months ago.
Or...
"You killed my dog." Tabitha's heart thumped against her chest. She hated Damien for making her do this. She didn't dare look at the lady standing by her car.
The tears streaming down her face were real from frustration. Of course, they needed to eat, but why couldn't Damien get a job? Because that would leave you all alone, you dolt.
Tabitha didn't want to be alone. Not again. "Shsss, Maisie, that's a good girl." Her fingers sunk beneath the silky fur.
So why couldn't I have used an interjection? :)
I had gone to bed early, knowing the chances of being woke up before midnight were high. Not that I wanted to get woke up, there's just something in my clock that doesn't allow me to sleep at certain times of the night.
My first thought, "Hey, I can read that book. No, I'll read this book."
My second thought, "Hmmmm...I should work on revisions while the house is quiet."
My third thought, "What if I work on my Nano piece. I'm real behind."
What am I doing? Writing Friday's blog. Why?
Well, for the last several weeks I've been contemplating on whether or not to attend Chicago's Spring Fling. If we have the extra money, would I even go?
Ugly fears kept rearing their heads.
"You've never flown commercial." This is funny, because I grew up around planes. My father has been a pilot my entire life. However, I've never flown on a plane he didn't pilot. The thought of doing so scares me to death.
"You've never traveled by yourself, especially not to a place like Chicago."
"You'll get lost."
No offense to anybody who lives in the Chicago area, but I haven't been able to find a Chicagoan-English Dictionary. My brain has a hard enough time wrapping around my daughter's speech when she's talking fifty mph.
As you can see, I have all these fears. I have even more at the thought of traveling to San Fransisco, I have a feeling I'll need more that a translation dictionary there.
My biggest fear is meeting people. I won't get into all of my fears here, it boils down to insecurities.
So why did I decide to write Friday's blog instead of any of the things on my list?
Janet Reids, The Two Parts of Brave
Will I be a coward or will I step up to the plate and be brave? Only time will tell.
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I am so dang excited! I've been trudging through revisions on Hellion's Haven, and darn it all, I'm not even a third of the way through. But you know what? I can see the end of that third.
I know it sounds crazy. If you have a condition called OCD you understand. I have to break everything down in numbers. If I'm reading a book, by the time I get to the end of the first chapter I know whether or not I'm breaking it down into halves, quarters, or eighths, any lower then that it gets thrown against the wall.
I decided to approach Hellion's Haven the same way. I broke it into thirds. The good news is that I'm a quarter of the way through, but I can't count my success until that third is complete. That's twenty five pages away. I should be finished with the first third by Friday, where I will go into the third or fourth step of the revision process on the first third. :) Are you keeping up? As I go through this step, I'll be making my way through the second third, which should be a lot of easier, since there should be a lot less writing.
Do you have any weird things that help you through revisions, besides your wonderful CP's?
Hi all. Thanks for the well wishes. I'm feeling so much better. I'm beginning to think it may have been a migraine along with some sinus congestion. Alls good.
Besides being busy with the celebrations on FF and RRT, I've been working on Liam's story. I thought I could write it for NaNo, but my internal editor and my muse have had other plans for me. Liam's story is coming along nicely. And my revisions for Hellion's Haven are running a lot smoother than they have since I first started.
I actually feel productive. My goal is to get first revisions complete before Thanksgiving and the second and hopefully final by Christmas. I hope to have Liam's story finished by Christmas and it may be a long shot, but I hope revising won't be as bad with Liam's. I think I've learned a lot from HH.
