Family Achievements

I might not have mentioned this, but I have the best family ever.

They're wonderful; supportive, fun, loving and intelligent. We also sing a lot. Often in public.

There are plenty of us - I have eight cousins, a variety of aunts and uncles, and only relatively recently lost two of my beloved grandparents.

I am truly blessed and fortunate to have grown up with such a crowd.


The only downside, if you can call it that, is that they all are, and always have been, highly successful and brilliant.

Living up to my elder cousins' achievements has always been hard; whether it was exam results, university acceptances, roles in plays, careers, even boyfriends and husbands. It's just lucky that they're all so nice, and that I love them so dearly.

At twenty seven, I'm finally having to deal with living up to my younger cousins' achievements, too.

Which is by way of saying, look out for David Whitley's new Children's Fantasy novel, The Midnight Charter, sold to publishers across the world, and due in stores in early 2009.

For more information on Davey, here's his agent's website: http://www.mvagency.com/davidwhitley.html

Eighteen

I'm at home in Wales this long weekend for my baby brother's eighteenth birthday. He's nine years younger than me, so it's been a long time coming. He's off to university in Warwick this October, and we're all terribly proud of him.

Anyway, so I'm curled up in my Grandparents old armchair by the French windows in my parent's lounge, listening to my family bustle about their day. We've had the traditional boiled eggs for breakfast, and any time now I have to start making a chocolate & coconut birthday cake.

In the brief meantime, I'm going to try and ignore distractions and get some words down.

The Swing of Things

So, I've re-instigated the word counter on the right hand side of the page; I always feel better if I can see myself making progress.

Of course, progress is a little thin on the ground at the moment, but I've written one scene today, and that's better than nothing.

Spent the weekend hunting triffids in the back garden, and causing snail Armageddon. Much fun, but I ache today.

Back to the words...

Playing Tag

Bonnie tagged me, as she is wont to do.

Eight Random Facts About KJ

1. I talk to myself a lot. Not usually when there are other people around, but still.
2. I count my steps whenever I’m walking somewhere.
3. I make my husband watch 80s brat pack movies, even though he hates them. His least favourite so far is St Elmo’s fire, which just happens to be the one that I love best.
4. I call my mother almost every evening, even when neither of us has anything much to say.
5. I’m much more useful in the mornings that the afternoons or evenings. If only I would get out of bed earlier I’d be unstoppable.
6. I recently bought a pink laptop, even though I probably really shouldn’t have.
7. I love local folklore and mysteries. I have many books on the subject and delight in telling people all about them, even though they don’t care. Sometimes I make them visit sites of extreme interest with me, and they wonder why a piece of wood at the side of the road is in any way interesting. Then I tell them, and they still don’t care.
8. I’m never really satisfied with the seasons. My favourite is always which ever it isn’t right now. I always think that Autumn is my favourite, but actually, since it doesn’t have Christmas, my birthday, or pretty flowers, I’m not so sure.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, feel free.

What I'm working on right now

After a few weeks off to mess around with some edits and some submissions and stuff, I'm finally getting back to working on the book I started writing for Michelle's Write On Redux.

I've already got just over 30k, and some reasonable background and character work.

More importantly, I just finished the collage that's been hanging, half done, over my desk for the last few months. I'm hoping that its completion will help spur me on to finish the book itself; certainly it's helped get my head back into the story. You probably can't make out much from the picture, except teapots and jampots, but obviously they're the most important features.... Not really. It's a story about fortune, fable and falling in love. But most of all, it’s about families; what we do for them, to them and because of them.

Recent submissions of my previous Write On Novel have started to get replies - so far all declines, but some very nice, personal ones, and requests to see whatever I write next, which I'm taking as a good sign. It's one of the reasons I want to get this finished, so I can send it out. I really love this story, and have high hopes for it. If it turns out on paper the way it is in my head...

I also have my soundtrack almost finalised. Just a few more tweaks when something jars - sadly I have to actually write the words to notice this. Which means it's time to get back to work!

Mary Elizabeth Reeves

My cousin Mary is getting married this year; we're all traipsing down to London for her hen night next weekend. This is why I'll be spending my six month anniversary having dinner with various relatives, assigned to my house for the weekend, while my husband runs screaming as far away north as he can get.

For the actual do on Saturday, one of Mary's best friends has asked us all to email her a memory or story about Mary, like the first time we met her, that she can put together into a book for the bride-to-be.

I had some problems narrowing down my memories, so at the moment what I plan to send is this:


Mary Elizabeth Reeves

I don’t remember meeting Mary for the first time; she’s simply always been a part of my life.

I do remember the excitement of a visit to Wrexham, back when we still lived in Surrey, because it meant we’d be at HQ on a Sunday, and I’d get to see the cousins. It meant I’d get to play with Mary. When we moved to Wrexham it was even better. I was nine, Mary was eleven, and we got to see each other every single Sunday.

We had endless games we could play at HQ; climbing the walls on the landing (before they were repapered); seeing who could jump off the swing at its highest point; searching for fairies in the fairy ring (although we never found any); weaving designs into the seat of the garden swing with red and orange twine; playing Scooby Doo (although Mary was always Daphne. I had to be Velma); hunting for Narnia behind the wardrobe in the Brown Room, or for the cuckoo clock anywhere else in the house.

There would always be egg sandwiches, or cheesy scrambled eggs, on offer for when we got hungry. And if we were lucky enough to be staying over (top and tail in the Pink Room, whispering secrets until the Spar sign across the road went out), the sweet fairies would come and fill the tin on the dresser with goodies for us.

Then there were the holidays; weeks and weeks of sunshine and swimming in France, or of squalls and seagulls in Porthmadog, where we filled our days with boule runs, Jimbo planes and tuppenny falls. Or cycling round Center Parcs, listening to Bryan Adams and drinking non-alcoholic cocktails named after characters in the Robin Hood stories.

Later, we found ourselves buying the same clothes; a throwback to the days when our mothers dressed us as twins. We’d bump into each other in the Golden Lion (Mary was present the first time I ever kissed my husband), then later in Marks and Spencer in Wimbledon. Living just down the road from each other in London for two years, we met often with Emma in the Weatherspoons to drink Lindemans Bin 65 and eat Chicken Pasta Alfredo with garlic bread.

I live further away now, but we still get together often; she’s always up for a visit to Stevenage if Simon’s making bread and butter pudding. And we’re still there, as often as possible, for family Sunday lunches, usually with our heads together, whispering.

So, no. I don’t remember meeting Mary for the first time; but I think that’s probably the only thing that I don’t remember.

Write On Redux - Day Ten

Another good day yesterday:



Stats for Day Ten:

Day Ten Word Count: 5,131
Day Ten Page Count: 20
Overall Word Count: 30,216
Overall Page Count: 112

Fun scene coming up next!

Write On Redux - Day Nine

Now, this is more like it:



Yes indeedy. That means that the stats for today are:

Day Nine Word Count: 7,005
Day Nine Page Count: 26
Overall Word Count: 25,085
Overall Page Count: 92

Today also brought me to the first major turning point for my heroine, and the first up close and personal scene with the hero.

Such, such fun!

Write On Redux - Days Six, Seven and Eight

Let's just say that it's a good job Michelle gave us that extra week.

Day Nine going better, though.

Write On Redux - Days Four and Five

Sucked.

Variety of reasons, but since this is a no excuses kind of deal, I won't go into them.

Anyway, as Michelle has graciously granted us an extra week, I'm just writing the days off and continuing from here. Although, I'm off to Cambridge in a second to do some shopping, so I'll have to write hard this evening.

Tomorrow is entirely dedicated to writing, and other writing related activities.

Latest numbers:



That's 66 pages, for anyone who's counting.

Write On Redux - Day Three

Late posting again, but still.

Excellent progress on day three - 23 pages / 5705 words

Day four going less well...

Write On Redux - Day Two

I forgot to post this last night - far too tired. It was harder going on Day 2 than Day 1, and I think the page count only came out at 17, but that was a hair over 5000 words, so I'm not going to complain too much.

Went back to sleep after the alarm for the first time in ages this morning. It's now almost seven am, and I'm just getting stuck into Day Three.

This is tough.

Write On Redux - Day One

Not a bad start. It worked out at just under 20 full pages, but the words are there. And the story... oh, the story is flowing like a beautiful thing. It makes me very happy.

Sadly, I have used all my words for the day. See you tomorrow.

Black Cat Hollow

And it’s finished. Ugh.

6,000 words yesterday brought me to the, really quite gruesome, end. I was actually surprised by how gory it got. I’m going to have to consider, in the rewrite, if this might not be better as a YA story.

Anyway, for now I’m forgetting about it, and working on other things instead. Had a lie in this morning, then got up to tidy up an article I need to send out this evening, then came to work.

Tonight, I’ll finish printing out the Making the News first draft for editing on the long, long train ride to Scotland tomorrow, and the even longer trip back on Monday.

Also on the to do list – outlining for the Write-On Redux challenge, starting a week on Monday. I am surprisingly excited about it, even though it will mean getting up even earlier than normal.

Home stretch

I'm into the penultimate chapter now - just another 8000 or so words to go. My main characters are separated in the forest at night, and one of them is just about to get captured by the bad guys... it's fun stuff to write.

The only problem is that I have a very low threshold for frightening things, and I keep spooking myself silly if I write in the house on my own in the evening!

Anyway, whole thing should be done and dusted, in first draft at least, by the end of the week.

Woohoo!

Half Way House

Last night I hit the half way point of my current novel.

I've been working on this story only since January, when the idea first came to me. It was a direct result of a Christmas present that my husband bought me; the dictionary of superstition. It's fab.

Anyway, I've really stepped up the pace this last week - averaging 2,000 to 3,000 words a day - and I'm steaming ahead.

And I was delighted to discover as I hit the midpoint, that the story just got deeper, more understandable, and that things are going to get very messy, very soon for my main characters. On the other hand, they're both going to get some answers, now that they're asking the right questions.

I like this story. It's not quite like anything else I've written, but it's really flowing. I'm working with a fairly vague outline - just a sentence or two for each chapter, and there's only ten chapters - so I'm still discovering new things as I go. If I can keep the output up at the level I've been working at this week, I can get the whole 40k rough first draft finished by next Friday. Which would be great, as I'm taking the train up to Scotland on Friday and plan to use the six hours of peace and quiet to start write in edits on Making the News.

Chances are, though, that I'll be finishing this off once I get back. Which is fine - as long as its done by March 18th. Then I'll ignore it for a fortnight while I write something else!

Write On Redux – This is Hardcore

So, Michelle is leading me in to trouble again this year.

Two weeks, twenty pages a day, one book at the end of it. Absolutely no excuses.

We’ll be partaking of this insanity from March 19th to April 1st, so I’ve got a bit of time to prep. And finish off the current novel in progress. Oh, and continue revising last year’s Write On Novel.

Still, I’m optimistic. I have a plan.

1 Get into training
2 Work out my timescale
3 Find the time
4 Outline
5 Write

I’ve even made a start. I’ve upped the daily word count on my current novel, Black Cat Hollow. It’s a children’s book, so shorter than the average, which helps. I figure that if I’m making 2,000 words a day on this, which I am, then it won’t be such a huge step up to twenty pages a day come March 19th. Hopefully.

The timing actually works very well for me. The two weeks chosen are completely empty in my calendar, for a change. Apart from work and family, I’m clear. And my husband has agreed to entertain himself and do the cooking for a fortnight.

I know what I need to finish before I start the challenge, and I know what I need to do daily to reach that.

20 pages a day is a lot. It’s suggested in Candace Haven's notes on the Fast Draft process that most people take around three, three and a half hours to produce that. So I figured that’s what I needed to find in my day to make this work.

It wasn’t that hard. With my current word count I’m getting back into the habit of getting up early and writing first thing, before I’m even really awake. I find it easier to get into the flow at that time, and even just a little in the morning makes it easier to get the words throughout the rest of the day.

So, that’s one hour.

With my new job, I tend to get home around an hour before my husband. If I sit right down and get to it, which I try to, that’s another sixty minutes. Knock out cooking time, and that’s another half an hour.

Two and half hours – nearly there.

After tea, I tend to have an hour to read, watch telly, or generally lounge around, before I start clearing up and getting ready for the morning. Simon will help out with all that stuff anyway, especially over that fortnight, so there’s another hour there, easy.

Three and a half hours. Add in thirty minutes at lunchtime, or extra time at the weekends, and this suddenly becomes eminently doable. At least, for a two week burst, anyway – I don’t think it’s something you can keep up all the time!

So, that’s steps 1-3 done. Now I just need to get outlining…

Wish me luck!

Words and Curry

All is very busy at the moment. We've got a conference in London next week, running for three days, and generally being difficult. Still, somehow I managed to write 2,500 words today. I know!

I do get annoyed with myself sometimes. I mean, I know how I work. I know that if I write a little every day, then it's much easier to keep momentum, to keep going, and to go over my word goals more often. Conversely, I know that if I leave a story for more than a day, I lose any speed I've built up and tend to languish in 25-words-a-day hell. I know this. Hell, if you've read this blog more than once, you know this.

And yet, time and time again, I don't put the writing first and I lose days, weeks, sometimes months worth of words.

So I've spent a lot of this month pushing back slowly against the drag of the tide, and trying to get the words, any words, down. I finally pushed through today, I think.

The book I'm working on at the moment is another kids novel, about 40k, 10 chapters, fantastic fun. I set my goals very low - 500 words a day - partly because it's nice to exceed expectations, partly because it adds up nicely to finish just before my birthday (27. God.) and partly because I've got a lot on over the next month or two, including revising my Write-On novel.

Still, I have very good feelings about this book. And now I've ploughed through Chapter Two, exciting things are happening. Or will do, if only I remember to write every single day.

In other news, we booked train tickets up to Scotland in early March to visit some friends and their daughter (our Goddaughter). That's six or seven hours each way in which I can read, write and revise. I am very, very excited.

Anyway, off out for curry with friends for tea. Suppose I'd better go make myself look presentable...

Writing On Again

I mentioned to Bonnie that I was reading through my Write-On novel from last year, with an eye to (finally) starting the revisions. She asked me if I still liked it.

It’s funny, but until I actually started the read through, it never occurred to me to wonder if I would. I assumed, if I thought about it at all, that since I would be walking through my own words, since I’d already know everything that was going to happen, that it would be more of an academic exercise than an enjoyable one. It was work, after all.

But I was surprised. There were scenes I don’t remember writing. Characters were much more themselves than I thought they would be. And after six months of not looking at it at all, I really enjoyed reading it.

It’s full of problems, of course. There’s lots of stuff still to fix, but I definitely feel that it’s worth fixing.

So I’m going right back to the beginning, reminding myself why these characters are where they are, what they want, how they’re going to get it, and who is trying to stop them and why.

It’s actually a lot of fun…

Kite Flying

We went down to London at the weekend, to visit some friends who have just moved to Black Heath. It was a wonderful, lazy time, incorporating roast lamb, pub lunches, good wine and kite flying - as you can see (just about) from the photo.

My husband keeps a kite in our car at all times, just in case the perfect kite-flying opportunity should occur, as it did on Sunday. It's a great kite for such a thing - you just toss it up there, and it flies. No fancy string work, no running starts, no hassle. It's like taking a bird for a walk on a lead. And it has a very pretty tail.

I, on the other hand, keep a notebook on standby at all times, in case the perfect idea arises, or I see something interesting, or I want to look busy so that the woman sitting next to me on the train doesn't try to start a conversation. It comes in handy a little more often than the kite.

The only problem, really, is that it's not just one notebook. It's dozens. And many of them have a few pages of scrawled notes, then lots and lots of blank pages. Or shopping lists.

I am currently spring cleaning the study. This includes emptying the filing cabinet of the piles and files of paper that have been dumped in there, randomly, over the last year, and sorting them all out into a coherent system. I'm almost done with the household stuff, but there's still a vast pile of paper on the sofa.

That's right. Writing notes. Reams of them.

Notecards, pads, paper scraps, receipts, notebooks, pages torn from notebooks, pages of diaries, things torn from magazines, photocopies, folders, envelopes (backs of), files, printouts, charts, family trees, and pages and pages of A4.

I have hanging folders. I have square cut folders. I have plastic wallets. I am (normally) very good at organising things.

I will find a way to make sense of the madness.



And then I'll start on the computer files.