Project Nora Day 1

First I seriously need to find a new catchier title than Project Nora...but for now. Day 1, success. 2 hours devoted to editing Casanova Exposed. Actually it turned into 3 hours and I'm hoping to finish up these revisions today. 60 pages of editing pass is not bad for 2 hours. Tomorrow I'll probably be ready to crack open Alex's story and start writing fresh. Of course, before I can write in it, I will have to read to catch up and since reading isn't writing or editing, it will have to be done before hand.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. It does help to have friends plugging away somewhere at the end of the internet with you. We all got a fair amount accomplished and hopefully it's the beginning of many days to come.

And So It Begins...

So if you follow the romance community at all, you know about Nora Roberts. I'm going to admit something scandalous. Either I haven't read her or I don't remember reading her. Either way, that's not the point of this post. Her work ethics are however.

Nora was first published in 1981 by Silhouette. (My publisher too). That year she released one book, so far we are equal. The following year she published 5 books. Uh....now I'm behind. The woman is a machine when it comes to writing. It's not ideas that hold me back. Trust me I have plenty and the plot bunnies are always having uprisings. It's the BICHOK (Butt in chair hands on kayboard). Frankly, this was difficult for me due to my hip issues (which have hopefully been resolved and we can plow forward like a normal person).

Nora works 8 hours a day every day. Now, she was somewhat more constrained when she was first starting out. She had small children at home and I'm in the same boat, though I'm 4 years behind where she started from so my children are older. To this end, I'm beginning a new journey and fortunately I have friends who are coming along for the ride. Every day we are going to start working at 10 am and work until 12. The only things allowed during this time are editing and writing. No judging contest entries, no critiquing each other's work, no plotting. These two hours are for writing and only writing. Even if that means we spend the two hours staring at the cursor, blinking maddingly at us.

Eventually I'll be broadening my hours when the children are back in school, but this gives me a jumping off point. It's not quite up to Nora standards, but it's a start, which is what I need. Quite a few years, Nora had 10 books published during the year. That would be amazing, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself quite yet. We'll see how this month goes and then the next and then the next.

Tomorrow starts Project Nora!

Writing, not so much

Unfortunately, with the promo of L.A. Cinderella (which hasn't been that much) and the drugs given for my hip surgery, I haven't written much or revised much. I'm feeling the pressure to produce, but the pressure is totally internal as everyone has given me a pass with the hip thing. Turns out I did have damage that was repairable in my hip, which is magnificent news. And with the hip issue hopefully resolved in the next 4-5 months (yes, months) I will once again be able to sit for long periods of time at the computer. Yay!

This week, I'm making the effort to revise poor Casanova and then moving on to Alex's story, since I'm in the frame of mind. If I can plow through Alex, then I can shift back to Fallen (which will be retitled as the umpteenth million book comes out with the same title. When I looked to see if it had been used when I started the concept for this story, it hadn't. *sigh and fume*). No worries though.

I'd like to get the finalized version of Casanova to my editor before the end of the month. I'd like a first draft of Alex and Fallen before Nationals. Both of which should be totally doable. That's 50K for Alex and the remaining 30-40K on Fallen. I don't anticipate that Casanova will take me too many days.

With my recent forced vacations (thought I'd write when we went to England & didn't and pre-surgery jitters and post-surgery meds), I feel comfortable jumping in full steam into these projects come Monday. I think while I lay here in my lovely CPM machine for the next 1-1/2 hour I shall create a plan of attack, which is unlikely that I will follow it, but it helps my brain think it's in better control than it actually is.

Looking for a Free Copy of L.A. Cinderella?

Check out the following interviews where I'm giving away a signed copy of L.A. Cinderella.

http://historicalromancereleases.com/wordpress/

http://www.loribrighton.blogspot.com/

Good luck! Oh, and I'm doing much better since my surgery, just sore and working through the physical therapy part. :)

Boldly Fighting Dragons

It's quiet in the house. I'm up late and everyone else is asleep. In seven hours, I'll be in prep for exploratory surgery on my hip. I've had trouble with it for the past ten years and since no one can seem to fix it, this seems the logical next step. I'm a little anxious. I just finished revisions on a story and need to complete another which is 3/4 of the way done and start on a third. I worry that the pain meds are going to knock me out for days and cause me to be non-productive (I don't care if it's a word or not, that's not the point.)
I'm not worried about the outcome. I'm not worried that they won't find anything. I'm not worried they'll find something. I can't worry about that stuff. It's out of my hands now. Either they will or they won't and either way I'll be in pain for days. Do I hope they'll find something they can fix? Hell, yeah. Am I going to go all-in on this surgery being the cure for pain that has plagued me for ten years? Meh. I'll be happy if it does and not shocked if it doesn't.
So instead of worrying about the results, I'm worried about my writing. Did I mention my debut book just hit the shelves? That RWA National conference is at the end of July? That I want to continue to write and finish these books that are driving me nuts? So I'm awake and wondering if I should spend the night writing. It will probably be more coherent than what I'll be able to put together over the next couple of days. But I have to wake up in 5-1/2 hours. Granted I'll be asleep most of the morning. :)
Outpatient surgery, crutches for a while after, physical therapy starts Tuesday. Maybe this time I'll ride the dragon. See you all on the other side.

Blogging about Contests over at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood

Here I am today. Blogging everywhere but here, it seems. :)

Guest Blogging

Catch me here today :) Sorry if it's a rubbish. I was jetlagged and absorbing the local culture while in England when I wrote it.