Number Nine

So I blew off yesterday but nine pages by 11:30 this morning. I still feel guilty that it's not more -- when things are really going well I do about 15 to 17 pages a day, but I'm still feeling my way in this book, and I decided not to push too hard. As I get into it a little bit more I'll probably up my output.
And thank God the Olympics are over -- now I can go to sleep before midnight! I'm a sucker for the winter Olympics, and NBC keeps the best stuff for last, and I'm exhausted. But now back to our regularly schedule programming and I can hunker down on work.
Besides, I think I know who the uber-villain is in this book (now alternativing between ICE BLUE and GREEN ICE). Verrry interesting.

BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG

I haven't written since February 13th. That's no way to keep killer deadlines. Yeah, I've got an excuse, was waiting for a new offer (and thankyouverymuch for such a nice one!) so I was too distracted but this won't do.
So I'm working on a Saturday morning, getting ten pages done. It took too damned long -- I kept waffling, procrastinating, trying to work out the maguffin, trying to remember ideas I'd come up with during long drives, but it just kept eluding me. The best thing to do when you can't think of what you want to write is to just sit down and write. And then all the lovely stuff just starts appearing, even if it takes an hour of procrastination.
So ten pages, first chapter of the new book (BLUE ICE or ICE BLUE or GREEN ICE ... I'm coming up with new ideas) and now I can feel human again. I get so cranky when I don't work.

Three times three

So I'm getting a start on the new book (probably BLUE ICE) and lurching along with incredible slowness. Three pages on Friday, three pages on Saturday (which is a triumph because I hardly ever write on the weekends) and another three pages today. I should be ashamed of myself, but I'm scattered and rattled, waiting for a new contract offer plus helping my daughter with her newest cosplay extravanganza (anime costume). At least she's dressing like a very bizarre nun.
Like mother, like daughter.
Now if the offer would just come through I could hunker down and get a whole lot more done. C'mon, Mira!

Halfway there

7 fresh pages plus lots of revisions by 9:30 this morning (I dragged my sorry ass out of bed around eight) and now I've gotten to a stopping point. 65 pages since January 18th, and that's only working a few days a week. I've emailed the chapters to Jenny and Eileen and I now I can turn my attention back to the new Ice book, which (I hope to God my editor and agent don't read this blog) I haven't started yet (beyond vague planning stages).
But I will triumph, and deliver relatively on time, because I am a Goddess.
In the meantime, the Goddess will clean her office and mentally clear her slate/cleanse her palate for the new challenge.

Goddess

Friday, February whatever it was. 20 pages! I haven't done that much for a while. When things are really cooking I'm fast, averaging two pages every fifteen minutes or 8 pages an hour. Combination of fast typing, fast imagination and too much Tab.
For the first time I wrote a chapter out of sequence -- Eileen Dreyer has done her first five chapters and she can't move ahead until she gets my pivotal one. And her first five chapters are fabulous!
So I stopped short of finishing my chapter five and jumped into chapter six for Eileen. I was really hoping to go back and fill in the stuff I jumped over, but 20 pages takes it out of a girl, and I'm exhausted.
Now I get to quilt!

SCORE!!!

9 pages by eleven am. I have redeemed myself for blowing off yesterday. Now I can go quilt.
To page 44. Hero's about to kiss the heroine. Yum.